leave the business as it were in medio in suspence they pass to other thoughts and do not fully satisfie themselves in this particular whereas a man should never rest while there is any cloud upon his faith any scruple in his conscience Ah my Beloved will you be slight in such a matter as this is of such infinite concernment whether the God which you have chosen be the right or no How can you but be slight accordingly in all the duties of his service And therefore do not give it over till you be resolved Think with your selves I must determine either on or off either one way or the other And if you be necessitated to resolve our God will carry it from all the rest They that have taken other gods have taken them upon trust they have received them from the custom of the places in which they have been born and bred And most that worship our God take him but in such a way as this is But if you sift the business well you will find cause to stick to him whom you have chosen The more you prove him and examine him the better you will like him And therefore I beseech you do not halt in this business but come to some determination and decision Do as Elijah counsels Israel Be no longer unresolved If Baal be God then follow him but if the Lord be God then follow him Rest not in opinion here but sift it to the full Bring your selves to this disjunction If any other god be true why then there is no other way but I must worship him and serve him But if our God be the right then I must stick close to him If you be at this hand that you will absolutely satisfie your selves before you leave before you give the business over as this you are bound to do you will not leave it any longer in suspence nor suffer any doubtfull thoughts within you unexamined for then they will return again on all occasions you will find that this will strengthen faith exceedingly in this particular Our God will certainly be gainer and have very great advantage by coming on the test with any other Fourthly and lastly set all the Grace and all the strength you have on work in prayer that God himself would satisfie you fully and confirm your faith in this particular That he would leave no doubt within you concerning such a principle as this is which is the very Basis of Religion the foundation that supports the Fabrick of it and beareth up the weight of all the building A man will never come to God by faith or by repentance or obedience unless he first believe that God is Heb. 11.6 And therefore struggle with the Lord about it if faith begin to waver or to fail in any measure say as the Disciples did O Lord encrease our faith Lord strengthen us Lord do not suffer us to shake in this fundamental truth for this doth shake all with it A man may get a common an acquired faith by arguments and reasons and the like it may be brought into a man by custom but that will never satisfie a man compleatly constantly unless he have infused faith and that is the immediate gift of God himself If he will shew himself to any man then he shall see and know and be assured that he is the true God But if he will hide himself he can but only grope after him Use 2 Is it so that our God is the true God and are you satisfied of this do you know him to be so then serve and glorifie him as the true God Let him have that worship and that honour and obedience which the soveraignty of a God calls for If he be not the true God then take your liberty and walk according to your own lusts and according to your own pleasures abridge your selves of nothing to which the byass of your nature carries you take no pains in holy duties hear no more pray no more But if he be indeed the true God and you dare not to deny it then live and walk as if you did believe him to be so Stifle not these principles which you cannot contradict nor lay aside Take heed of doing as the Gentiles did Rom. 1.19 c. they liked not to retain God in their knowledge they had him there but they liked not to retain him because he was a trouble to them fain they would put him out again The apprehension of a God called upon them for some duty and was a curb and a restraint from some evils And therefore they were weary of such thoughts as these and sought to chase them from their meditations To say truth they did not like them and therefore would be rid of them They knew God that they were not able to avoid but yet they glorified him not as God And truly this is just the case of many Christians They do not serve they do not glorifie and worship God according to their knowledge of him They walk not answerably to their principles and to their light in this particular They yield him to be God and yet they do not trust in him they do not live to him they do not love they do not fear him and the like They live without God in the world and they do just as they would do if there were no God at all Now I beseech you my Beloved do but consider the extream danger of such a course as this is It is the ready way to be delivered up to strong delusions and to vile affections as you may see those Gentiles were in the very same case Because when they knew God they glorified him not as God therefore God gave them up to strong delusions in their intellectuall parts that they were vain in their imaginations and their foolish hearts were darkened to vile affections in their sensual part that they committed all uncleanness and burned in their filthy lusts their hearts were like an Oven heated by the Baker they were set on fire of hell And hath it not been thus with many men in our daies they know God in a speculative and discoursive way at least they were convinced that he was the true God but they lived not according to their principles in this respect they abated of their strictness and devotion neglected duties which they had been wont exactly to perform forsook the Ordinances and the Worship of the Lord despised the Word of God glorified him not as God took carnal liberty against their knowledge and against their conscience And now how vain are they become in their imaginations how foolish in their fancies and opinions and conceits How hath God sent on many of them strong delusions to believe lyes that they might all be damned that believe not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness They knew the truth but they had pleasure in unrighteousness They took delight in some unrighteous way or other some secret way of wickedness or
to demonstration Reason the clearest and most evident that can be viz. because there is such entertainment due to it as nothing else can draw us to but this perswasion that it is the Word of God If we conceive it to be nothing but the word of man this apprehension will never raise the heart to such an estimation of it to such an acceptation of it as belongs to it This will never draw the heart to give it greater credence or greater reverence or obedience then appertaineth to the word of man Now this is infinitely short of that which appertaineth to the Word of God And therefore that we may come up to that that we may give the Word such entertainment as it ought to have we must know for certain that it is the Word of God and this I shall exemplifie in many particulars 1. Ye must know for certain that it is the Word of God that we may give it such entertainment as it ought to have in point of reverence The Word of God must be received with holy fear This carriage of the heart is due to that which hath so great and so divine an Author as God is we ought to tremble at the Word of God Isa 66.5 To hearken to it not with an ordinary measure but with a very high degree of fear with such a fear as worketh trembling So did the Prophet Habakkuk as you may see Hab. 3.16 When I heard my belly trembled my lips quivered at the voyce rottenness was in my bones and I trembled in my self And so the holy Prophet David as he professeth of himself Psal 119.10 My heart trembleth for fear of thee and I am afraid of thy judgements that is of thy word as some understand it I fear and tremble at thy word for that hath frequently the name of the Judgements of God as you may see that place for instance Psal 19.8 Shall a Trumpet be blown in the City and the people not be afraid it is the Prophets question Amos 3.6 By the City understand the Church of God by the Trumpet the word of God and by the people the hearers of this word So that it is as if the Prophet should have said Shall the word of God be pronounced and the hearers not fear as who should say that were a strange and an incongruous thing indeed So that you see they that will give the word such entertainment as it ought to have must hear it and receive it with extraordinary fear and reverence Now this they will never do unless they know for certain that it is the Word of God If they be doubtful whether it be so or if they look upon it as the word of man they will be apt to disregard it and to give it no respect at all Nothing but this perswasion that it is the Word of the Almighty and the glorious God himself will raise the heart to such an high degree of fear and reverence as belongs to it No other apprehension of it will prevail to this effect but this alone will surely do it as the Apostle Paul insinuates 1 Cor. 14.24 If there come in an unbeleiver or unlearned person he is convinced he is judged the secrets of his heart are manifested by the word saith the Apostle there And what follows So falling down upon his face he will worship God and say that God is in you of a truth when he perceives that God is in you that you speak from God that that which you deliver is the word of God then he will fear and tremble and fall down and worship God 2. We must know for certain that it is word of God that we may give it such entertainment as it ought to have in point of credit and belief For you must know my Brethren that we owe this special and peculiar honor to the word of God beyond the word of any man to give compleat and absolute assent and credit to it Though it be never so unlikely never so much against appearance and above reason yet when the Lord hath spoken it when we have his word for it we ought to make no doubt or question of it Those truths which own him for the Author of them do not admit of any doubtful disquisition but rather call for absolute belief The very thoughts and cogitations must be captivated to faith when it appears that God hath spoken And therefore it is charged home on Israel as a very great offence that they believed not his word Psal 106.24 And on the other side it is observed to the praise of Nineveh that they believed God that is the word of God his Message sent them by the Prophet Jonah Jonah 3.5 And yet it was a most unlikely one VVhat probability that forty days should put a period to all the happiness and lustre of such a flourishing and famous City However they believed it because it was the word of God You see then what our duty is in this respect to hear the word with absolute belief this is the entertainment which we ought to give it Now this it will not find amongst us unless we be perswaded that it is the word of God the word of man can never challenge this from us for men are lyars as the Prophet David speaks they are deceitful on the ballance Though they give us good words yet when we come to prove them and to try them many times they prove too light Those that we think are best to be believed among them may deceive us so that there is no reason in the world why we should take what they deliver upon trust because they deliver it And therefore we are bid to sift the doctrines and to try the spirits because there be that say The Lord hath said when the Lord hath not spoken But when the word appears to be of God this apprehension and perswasion is enough to silence all objections that in appearance may be made against it This alone will raise the heart to entertain it with that absolute belief wherewith it ought to be received while we remember that the God who is the Author of it is the God of Truth yea he is the Truth it self His saying always is a faithful saying 1 Tim. 1.15 because it is the saying of the faithful God and therefore worthy of all acceptation 3. We must know for certain that it is the word of God that we may give it such entertainment as it ought to have in point of humble resignation and submission to it For this belongeth to the word of God that we quarrel not against it but that we justifie it and submit to it So it is said of Johns hearers Luk. 7.29 30. All the people that heard him justified God yea the very Publicans the worst among them as it is noted there in that place So holy David I esteem all thy Commandements concerning all things to be right Psal 119.128 yea he will have him always to
necessary to a testimony or a witness that it declare the truth and nothing else Or else how shall it be depended and relyed upon and so how shall the Scripture be the Word of Faith as it is called unless it be the Word of Truth How shall this testimony challenge faith from us unless it utter truth to us How shall it be believed if it be not wholly true and therefore truth is frequently ascribed to it as a witness The testimonies of the Lord are sure saith David Psal 19.7 That which they tell hath been and that which they foretell shall surely be accomplished and fulfilled Vse 1 And this by way of use and application may serve for terror in the first place unto those against whom there is any thing foretold in Scripture in a way of Commination for it shall surely be accomplished and fulfilled How should they tremble for fear of God and how should they be afraid of his judgements though only hanging in the threatning How should their hearts dissolve within them when they hear his threatning words denounc't against them How should the Adulterer tremble when he hears that flaming Commination Whoremongers and adulterers God will judge how should the drunkard tremble when he hears those dreadful woes that are denounced to drunkards up and down the Prophets everywhere How should the wretched worldling tremble when he hears that dreadfull threatning that no covetous person hath any inheritance in the Kingdom of Christ and of God How should the lier and the dogg that barks and snarls and snaps at holiness and the unclean wretch tremble when they hear that such shall have their everlasting portion in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone And so for other sinners against whom there are heavy things foretold in Scripture how should they shake and quiver when they read and hear them But alas there are abundance who steel and fortifie their hearts against them who give no credit to the threatnings of the word as if they were but bruta fulmina but empty cracks who when they hear them thundred out against them say with Israel Jer. 5.12 It is not he neither shall evil come upon us nor shall we see sword or famine Oh my beloved do not belye the Lord in this fashion do not delude your own souls Believe it Judgement is towards you as the Expression is Hosea 5.1 although it be not actually upon you The wrath of God commeth it is a comming still and in the end depend upon it it will come home What do you think that if you do such things you shall escape the vengeance of God No be assured that if you persevere without repentance you shall feel it with a witness There is not any thing denounced against you in the Scripture but shall be fulfilled upon you to the utmost And Secondly it serves for sweet and pretious comfort to the Vse 2 Church since all the good that is foretold in Scripture shall surely be accomplished and fulfilled You that are members of the Church look over all the Book of God collect together all the promises contained in it from the beginning of it to the end consider all the choice and pretious mercies that are contained in those promises and satisfie your souls with a certain expectation of them all There is not one of all those promises shall fall unaccomplished to the ground or fail of execution in the Lords time And therefore look on all the good things promised there as sure mercies so they are called the sure mercies of David which shall not fail you when the season comes And when you meet with any thing that specially concerns you in such a case or such a condition that might be a support and comfort to you in affliction and the like Oh give not way to one unbelieving thought do not forsake your own mercies Remember it is the word of the Lord which as the Angel said shall be fulfilled in its season And so for any good thing that is foretold in Scripture to the Church as there are glorious things you know foretold concerning it in after times that God will raise it to an admirable state of glory and felicity which while the world continues shall not be overthrown again Let us not make any question but they shall absolutely and compleatly be accomplished and fulfilled And therefore let us strengthen and confirm our hearts in the assured expectation of it and let us put those promises in suit in our Petitions as Isaiah in the same case Chap. 62.1 And let us stand upon our watch-towers waiting for the execution of them Let us account it our especial happiness that we live under promises that shall surely be accomplished though they should be never fulfilled in our time Let us embrace them as the Fathers did yea though they be afar off Oh let us hugg them and take especial joy and comfort in them And though the Lord should take us hence before he bring them into act and execution yet let us cheer our hearts with the apprehension of the happiness and glory that shall be upon the Church after we are dead and gone And so dye with our arms full of promises and our hearts full of faith and our souls full of comfort Vse 3 To pass on to a third use Since this is so that whatsoever is foretold in Scripture shall surely be accomplished and fulfilled whatsoever is foretold in a way of Commination or in a way of Consolation by way of threatning or by way of promise Let us endeavour to believe both and act our faith upon them Let us work up our hearts to give a firm and full assent to all the threatnings and to all the promises though that which is delivered in the Scripture either way be never so improbable never so much against corrupt reason never so impossible to a humane apprehension Let us depend upon it that the word of God shall be fulfilled to the very utmost Let us imitate the faith of the antient Saints of God as I shall give you some examples of it in reference to both of these both to the threatnings and the promises of Scripture As for the threatnings That which the Lord denounced to Noah that he might publish it to all the world that he would utterly destroy all flesh from off the earth and by a flood of water too was as improbable as any thing almost could be as like to be derided by the wise men of the world Yet Noah being warned of God believed it and so accordingly prepared the Ark as you may see Heb. 11.7 And so that Commination by the Prophet Jonah was almost incredible that Nineveh so flourishing so glorious and so great a City should be destroyed in forty dayes and yet it is observed to the praise of Nineveh that they believed God that is the word of God his threatning message sent them by the Prophet Jonah 3.5 So for the promises of
rigid Ministry must prepare the way for Christ He must be like a Pioner to go before to bring down every high exalted thought to make the Mountains levell with the Vallies The Law must bite and sting men with the curses and the terrors of it and so work inclinations in them to look up to Jesus Christ who is the brazen Serpents Antitype erected in the Gospel And this is all the Law can do it can but fit a man for Jesus Christ and prepare a man for faith which is indeed and properly effected in him by the Gospel This is the royall and triumphant Chariot in which the Son of God comes riding gloriously into the soul and so dwelleth there by faith as the Apostle Paul speaks Eph. 3.17 And hence the Gospel hath the name of faith in Scripture as you may see that place for instance Gal. 1.23 because it worketh faith in the hearts of Gods people Is it the Gospel word that makes believers Then surely they are in Vse 1 an infinitely sad Condition who want the Gospel who want it wilfully as the Jews do and have done many hundred years They have it but they put it from them as the Apostle speaks They receive the Prophets words but they receive not the Apostles words And how then should they believe through their word And there are others in the world who want it necessarily or of necessity and through the just severity and righteous judgement of the Lord upon them Many persons many Nations are in this lamentable case to this day They have no Gospel and so no means at all to work faith in them without which there is no salvation No they are shut up under unbelief as the Apostle speaks Rom. 11.32 God hath concluded them in that condition There they are and there is no coming out the door of wrath is shut upon them whose miserable case in bowels of compassion we have cause to pitty though they pitty not themselves Is it the Gospel word that makes believers then certainly it is no Vse 2 other word that is the means or ground of faith We have a company of men in our times that believe strange things that bottom faith upon a strange foundation Revelations and discoveries of a spirit that hath no commerce at all no agreement with the Gospel let the Apostles word be what it will if they have another word from that which they conceive to be the spirit of God they believe that and not this whereas the spirit that brings men any other Gospel then that which the Apostles taught though he come from heaven it self ought not to be believed but accursed And yet alas how confident have many been in their assent to such discoveries as have been clear against the Gospel and against the Apostles words Ah my beloved this is not revelation but delusion this is not faith but unbelief Our Saviour speaking in my Text of all that should believe from that time in which he prayed to the end of the world describes them to be such as should believe through the Apostles word Not through any other word but that of the Apostles only that which they preached and that which they writ which they have left recorded in the Scripture If any man believe through any other word or any other revelation that accordeth not with this he is none of Christs beleivers none of them which he owns none of them for which he prayes I pray for them that shall believe on me through their word For them and none but them He that believes through any other word you see is out of Christs prayer Vse 3 Is it the Apostles word the Gospels word that makes believers you then that are as yet without faith be hence prevailed withall to hear it and to attend upon it This is that which the creature can do I mean by general influence of common Providence without any supernatural grace and therefore this do you do It is the word of faith as I have shewed you formerly and when the Lord is pleased to concurr with it it worketh faith in those that hear it It s true you are not able to convert your selves or to believe in Jesus Christ but the Apostles word the Gospel is a fit instrument for this purpose Faith comes by hearing and therefore hear that you may believe You that are strangers to the life of faith be you entreated and prevailed withall to put your selves under the powerfull preaching of the Gospel as the Apostle speaks be swift to hear lay hold on every opportunity to be partakers of this holy Ordinance and then perhaps it may in time become a word of faith to you Wait diligently on the doors of Wisdoms house listen attentively to them that teach you Apostolical doctrine and who knows but you may yet believe through their word And thus of Christs description of the persons for whom he here becomes a Suitor to his Father Them which shall believe on me through their word Proceed we to the matter of the prayer which he makes for these persons And there are two main things that he desires in their hehalf First that they may be one next that they may be in one place together The first of these he proposes in the verse that I have read and prosecutes in the succeeding verses 1. He proposes it in the verse that I have read that they may all be one as thou Father art in me and I in thee that they also may be one in us 2. And then he prosecutes this Suit of his with divers arguments and reasons to ver 24. as God permitting we shall see hereafter In the proposal of this Suit of his you may observe that it is both expessed and amplified First it is nakedly expressed in plain terms that they may all be one Secondly then it is amplified by a Similitude in which our Saviour shews how he would have them to be one as thou father art in me and I in thee that they also may be one in us A strange expression if you look upon it with a superficial view That the Disciples of our Saviour may be one in some respects is very easie to imagine But how they should be one as God the Father and the Son are one how they should be in God and Christ as they are in one another is very hard to be conceived Yet this is the expression of our Saviour to his Father in my Text That they may all be one as thou Father art in me and I in thee that they also may be one in us For clearing this beloved you must know that as in Scripture many times is a note of similitude not of equality It intimates the truth and the reality of that wherein likeness stands and not the measure and degree I might give many instances wherein that Particle is so taken See Luke 6.36 Be mercifull as your heavenly Father is mercifull It is impossible for any man
and become the more vitious What bind and curb and limit them tell them that they must not swear and they must not be unclean They will not be restrained and hampered they no they will swear the more and drink the more and be unclean the more They are resolved with the rebellious Jews we will not hear we will not do but we will do as we have done I will fetch wine and we will fill our selves with strong drink and to morrow shall be as this day and much more abundant Well my beloved if any of you be at this hand hear but a few particulars before we part Consider Christ is infinitely tender of his Authority and of his Law He will not easily endure it to be sleighted and infringed He came not to destroy the Law himself no he was far from any such intention in his coming nor will he suffer any other to destroy it neither Heaven and Earth shall pass away before one jot or tittle of his Law shall pass away Mat. 18.5 He had as lief that Heaven and Earth should come to nothing as that his Law should be dissolved And judge you then how great their provocation is who violate and break the precepts of it day by day as Sampson did his green cords as if they had no strength or force at all in them Could they set Heaven and Earth on fire and consume it into ashes they could not anger Christ so much nor vex him as they do by this their cursed violation of his blessed Law And there is extraordinary peril in the wrath of Christ If once he be incensed there is very great hazard and hence saith David Psalm 2. ult Kiss the son least he be angry and you perish Consider that the Law as it hath a commanding power that requireth us to do so it hath a threatning power that obligeth us to suffer in case of disobedience to the Law As it bindeth men to do the things that are commanded in it so in case they do them not and have no interest in Christ by faith it bindeth them to suffer all the things that are denounced in it For every one that doth not every thing that is contained in the Law is exposed to the curse as you may see Gal. 3.10 There 's not a curse contained in the book of God from the beginning of it to the end but such a man lies open to it and if he persevere without repentance he shall be sure to feel it to his pain Well then my brethren you may perhaps out-stand the precept but are you able to out-stand the threatning You may decline the duty but are you able also to avoid the curse Here Christ commands you replie We will not hear we will not do But when he shall pronounce the sentence of the Law upon you in the great and great dreadful day will you replie We will not bear we will not suffer Will you tell him to his face We will not go to hell we will not be condemned by the Law as you have told him here We will not be obedient to the Law Alas it is not all mens scorns and haughty looks it is not all their pride and sturdiness that will prevail at that time No no the haughtiness of men shall be brought low and Christ alone shall be exalted in that day Consider Christ hath ability to back and second his authority All power is given to him all kinds all degrees of power power of authority and power of ability Power of authority alone is but an empty and a despicable thing he that hath it may command and they whom he commandeth if they please may disobey he cannot force them to obedience nor punish them for disobedience The hazzard is not great of disobeying such power But where ability goes with authority there the despising of it must be full of danger Now so it doth in Jesus Christ and therefore he is peremptory Rom. 14.11 As I live saith the Lord that is the Lord Christ as you may see by the coherence every knee shall bow to me willingly or by compulsion If it bend not willingly I will make it bow or break Christ will be King though the earth be never so unsteady and the haters of the Lord shall be subject unto him How shall his haters be his Subjects yes they shall be subject to him either one way or another For though they be not subject to his grace they shall be subject to his power They that will not be ruled by him shall be broken by him We read of some that break his bonds asunder Psal 2 3. but presently he breaks their bonds asunder If they be good at breaking Christ will fall a breaking too He will break them with a rod of Iron and dash them in pieces like a Potters Vessel The authority of Christ as it hath some that stoop to it so it hath others that oppose it And such are they of whom we read Luke 19.19 His Citizens hated him sent a message after him to tell him to his teeth we will not have this man to rule over us They were in haste they could not tarry till he came about again but they must send this sawcy Message after him But see now what becomes of these men and whether it be all as they will ver 27. But these my Enemies that would not have me to rule over them bring them forth and slay them before me Oh think on this you that will not be ruled by Jesus Christ who when his will is manifested to you and when you are acquainted with the Laws and Statutes of his Kingdom regard it not at all but make light of all this Oh be advised to be wise and serve the Lord. Kiss the son he hath authority and therefore do him fealty least he be angry and you perish Is it so that all mankind is under the authority of Jesus Christ they are mistaken then who think that some men are exempt from his authority and from his Legislative power and that they are not bound to the obedience of the Laws he gives I am very apt to think that Infidels heathens who never had the Gospel preached to them who never heard of Jesus Christ are no way bound to the obedience of the Law of faith so that they sin in not believing in the Lord Christ and taking him to be their Saviour whom they have no means to know The Law of faith I mean of justifying faith the Commandment to believe is not a natural but a positive Law and consequently promulgation is absolutely necessary to the obligation of it But the Decalogue the Moral Law the Law of works is written in the heart of man by nature and therefore bindeth all men to obedience Yea but say some believers are exempted from the obligation of it the faithful are not bound to the obedience of the Moral Law It s true I must confess they are not
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
are they that hear the word of God and keep it But not to stay upon the proof in general because the term is for somewhat dark I shall proceed to shew you more particularly and distinctly what it is to keep the word of God which is the main thing in the observation They whom the Father gives to Jesus Christ do keep his word Now this imports and carries in it divers things To keep the word of God is to retain it in the memory not only to receive it but also to retain it there To hold fast what we have received as the expession is Rev. 3.11 Reprobis effluit sermo dei saith Calvin on my Text. The word of God flows away from reprobates and wicked men It is like water shed upon the ground which is gone upon the suddain But it sticks with the Elect it takes deep root there It is observed to the praise of Mary that she kept the sayings of our Saviour all his sayings Luke 2.50 Others lost them but she kept them and therefore she is set in opposition to them They understood not the sayings which he spake to them they knew not what he meant and therefore it was quickly gone with them for what you do not understand you shall be hardly able to remember But Mary kept these sayings in her heart while many others who understood not these discourses of our Saviour let them go They valued them as things of nothing and looked upon them but as loose words and therefore had no mind to keep them She laid them up with extraordinary care as singular and choice things And this is that which the Apostle Paul exhorts us to Heb. 2.1 We ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard that is to the words of God least at any time we should let them slip 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 least we prove like leaking vessels that hold not what is poured into them but leak it out again upon a suddain Lest we forget the word of God That is the first thing then to keep the word of God is to retain it in the memory And those whom he bestows on Christ do thus keep it And as there is a keeping of it in the memory so in the second place there is a keeping of it in the heart As in the memory by retaining so in the heart by believing And of this sort of keeping speaks our Saviour John 8.51 Verily I say unto you if a man keep my saying he shall never see death His saying is the doctrine of the Gospell which is more properly the word of Christ He cannot mean if a man keep my saying if he remember it he shall never see death But if a man keep my saying if he believe it if he keep it in his heart for with the heart a man believeth to salvation then he shall never see death And so the words are parallel with those which he delivers in another place John 11.2 Whosoever believeth in me shall never die That is the second sort of keeping then in the heart by believing There is a keeping of the word of God as in the mind by remembring and in the heart by believing so in the affections by loving They are the Cabinet in which it is laid up and it is very safe there So David kept the word of God very dear in his affections as he professeth very often sometimes he saith that it is sweeter to him then hony or the hony-comb sometimes that is dearer to him then thousands of Gold and Silver That he loves it above Gold yea above fine Gold He loves it not as Silver but as Gold not equall unto Gold but above Gold Not above ordinary base Gold but above fine Gold That place is notable in which he seems to be transported Psal 119.97 O how do I love thy Law It is out of all measure it is so great that I am no way able to express it There is a keeping of the word as in the mind by remembring and in the heart by believing and in the affections by loving so in the life by obeying And in this sence the phrase is usually taken in the Scripture to keep and to obey is all one And so the Lord himself explains it Deut. 13.4 Ye shall walk after the Lord your God and keep his Commandments And what is that you shall obey his voice and serve him as it is added in the next words Now the word of God is kept as I shall shew you very clearly both by active and by passive obedience First it is kept by active obedience to it and Secondly it is kept by passive obedience for it 1. There is a keeping of the word of God by active obedience to it by doing that which it commands and by avoiding that which it forbids This is the common acceptation of the term This sense the Holy Ghost himself the best Interpreter gives of it 1 John 5.22 Whatsoever we ask we receive of him because we keep his Commandments Keep his Commandments how so you have it clearly in the following words And do those things that are pleasing in his sight And thus you must conceive the meaning of the Holy Ghost in the forealledged Scripture Luke 11.28 Blessed are they that hear the word of God and keep it that is that hear it and obey it 2. And as the word of God is kept by obedience active to it so by obedience passive for it And this is clearly intimated in the attestation that he gives the Church of Sardis Apoc. 3.10 thou hast kept the word of my patience that is as thou hast kept my word in general so more particularly thou hast kept those portions of my word and those parcels of my truth which must have patience to the keeping of them A man may keep some part of Gods word without patience as being as being universally received by all opposed by none But then there are some other portions of the Word and Truth of God which if a man maintain and hold and practise he shall surely suffer he shall be persecuted for them A man might have gone clear along with some truth even in the Marian days themselves But if he held and openly professed the truth against the real Presence in the Sacrament and so in many other things he brought himself into extream danger And so in every age there are some passages of holy Scripture and the truths delivered in them that are more opposed then others so that whoever sticks to them shall be sure to meet with trouble and so to exercise his patience And he that keeps these notwithstanding that maintains them and that yeilds obedience to them he keeps the Word of Gods patience And therefore it is noted of the good ground that it receives the Word of God aright and brings forth fruit with patience Luke 8.15 That on the good ground are they which in a good and honest heart
my Brethren Do you believe the Word of God Do your hearts say Amen to every particle and tittle of it If God should come and put the question to you concerning those particulars of holy Truths which seem most hard to be believed most difficult to be accomplished as once our Saviour did to Martha when he had said I am the Resurrection and the life he that believeth in me though he were dead yet shall he live And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die Believest thou this Joh. 11.26 Can you return the same answer yea Lord I believe as she did May not the same be charged on abundance of you which God so sharply reprehends in Israel Psal 106.24 They believed not his Word and hearkned not to the voyce of the Lord. Are there not multitudes among us who give no credit to the Word at all who when they hear the truths of God delivered to them do not enquire with Nicodemus only How can these things be but even peremptorily determine they can never be And here because they are of many sorts who do not keep the Word of God in their hearts by believing I will set them in their ranks and proceed with them in order Some there are who question all the Word of God throughout from the beginning of it to the end do not believe one word of it Either they throw it off as false and vain without Consideration in a rash and wilde way or else they soberly resolve the Scripture to be nothing else but the invention and device of Politick and subtile heads to keep fools in awe withal And so they say upon deliberation as David in his haste and in his passion All men are lyars the very Pen-men of the Word of Truth it self The Prophets the Apostles all are lyars As that blasphemous Pope who stiled the Gospel the Fable of Christ These men are flat Atheists what ever their professions be We want not some in these times who are so bold as to declare themselves in this particular and openly to renounce the Word of God And certainly however other men conceal themselves for shame yet there are more of this opinion then we are aware of They do not say with their tongues perhaps but yet with Davids fool they say it in their hearts the Scripture is not Gods Word yea there is no God at all to be Author of the Scripture Others there are who though they do not question all the Scripture yet they do not believe it all they give not absolute belief to every part and parcel of it And since the Word hath in it precepts promises and threatnings and there are some that question one and some another of them we will proceed with them distinctly and in order 1. Some there are who do not give assent to the Divine Authority of all the Precepts of the Word of God Some deny some certain Precepts ' and Commandements by themselves apart The Papists they deny the second Precept Vasques acknowledges that this Commandement interdicts not only the adoring of an Image under the notion of a God but also the adoring of the true God in an Image And further he confesses that they do the very thing that is condemned in this Commandement What then because it will not be obeyed it must be cancelled and repealed and not admitted to have any place among the Moral precepts of the Law of God It was saith he a positive and Ceremonial Law and therefore ceases now in our days And thus they make the Commandement of the Lord of no effect through their tradition Others deny the fourth Commandement and affirm that is also vanished with the Ceremonials that it belongeth not to Christians save only in regard of Moral equity in which respect the Moral and Judicial Laws belong to us also And yet the Lord you see hath placed it in the middle of the Decalogue and hedged it in on every side with other precepts that it might be the safer from the violence of those who seek to raze it out of the Tables But that which these men do by parcels and retail there are another sort who do in gross and as it were by whole sale cast off all the Precepts and Commandements of the Law of God together affirming they are all abolished not only in regard of irritation malediction condemnation but even in regard of obligation And thus with those in Davids time they make void the Law of God These men cannot pray to God as David doth Psal 119.66 Teach me good judgement and knowledge for I have believed thy Commandements And verily if all that are bestowed on Jesus Christ do keep the Word of God in the heart by believing they that renounce it thus seem to be in an ill Condition and they have reason to consider well whether they be given up to Christ or no. Others there are who give no credit or belief to the threatnings of the Word who when they hear them thundered out against them say it is not be with Israel neither shall we see Sword nor Famine Jer 5.12 And are there not a multitude of this opinion For tell me my Beloved when you that know your selves to be unclean livers have heard that dreadful commination Whoremongers and Adulterers God will judge when you that are so glewed to the world that nothing can divide you from it have heard that flaming sentence That no covetous person hath any inheritance in the Kingdom of God when you that wallow in your filthiness you that are lyers swearers drunkards enemies of all goodness have heard that nothing that is filthy or unclean shall come within the new Jerusalem that without shall be lyars and dogs that bark and snarl and snap at holiness that such shall have their portion in the lake c. have you believed these threatnings have you assented to the truth of them Alas my Brethren it is Evident you have not For 1. First If you believe the threatnings you will quake and tremble at them This disposition is observed in the Saints of God in Scripture that as they had believing so they had tender trembling hearts in relation to his threatnings Such a heart had good Josiah his heart was tender when he heard the words that is the threatning words of God his words against Jerusalem 2 King 22.19 not to it to instruct nor for it to comfort but against it to affright Such a heart had holy David Psal 119.12 My flesh trembleth for fear of thee and I am afraid of thy judgements He speaks not of his Judgements actually inflicted for they are felt but of his judgements threatned only and hanging in the Commination for they ate feared I am afraid of thy judgements Of such a temper was the Prophet Hab. 3.16 when I heard my belly trembled my lips quivered at the voyce c. And such a disposition they discovered of whom the Propeht Ezra speaks ch 9. ver 4. they
Scripture and never leave till you know the heart of it And this is that which the Apostle Paul insinuates Col. 3.16 Let the Word of God dwell in you richly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let it dwell let it be a houshold-guest let it rise and sit and walk dine and sup and lodge with you let it be familiar to you Be you as throughly acquainted with it as any man that dwells in your house with whom you have discourse and dealing every hour And truly if you strive not thus to be acquainted with the Word of God you do not love it as you ought to do 3. If you love the VVord of God you will not easily fall out with it when you find the meaning of it and perceive it is against you in something that is naturally dear to you you will not quarrel with it your hearts will not rise up in enmity against it No your dear affections to it will make you quietly and meekly to submit to it Indeed ungodly men cannot endure the VVord of God the Precepts and Commandements of it are like bonds and cords to them they lay restraint upon them they curb them and they hold them in and hence they are enraged against it They endeavour what they can to break the bonds of God asunder they are always contradicting and opposing and gainsaying and raising quarrels and disputes against the Word because they hate it But now the Saints upon the other side are very much in Love with it and hence it is that the Commandements of it are not grievous to them they agree with their spirits they are written in their hearts Or if at any time it cross them they are not angry with the Word but with themselves that their base hearts should not in every thing agree with it Yea when it is a little sharp and bitter though their stomachs rise at first yet in the issue they submit and say as Hezekiah to Isaiah Isa 39.8 Good is the Word of the Lord which thou hast spoken They find a sweet and pleasing savour even in the sowrest passage of the Word There goes a savour with their knowledge of it as the Apostle Pauls expression is 2 Cor. 2.14 Carnal men may know abundance of the Scripture more then a pretious Saint of God but here is the difference they find no savour in their knowledg of it at least no sweet and pleasing savour No it is distastful to them it doth not suit with their palates it doth not fit their humors A Drunkard knows it is a sin to be intemperate to drink himself down to a beast A wanton and lascivious person knows it is a sin to be unclean but this doctrine doth not please him and so it is in other cases whereas the Truth is sweet to those that are in Christ they look upon it as their friend and love it because it joyns with them against their lusts who are their greatest enemies whom they abhorre and whom they hate with a perfect hatred 4. If you love the VVord of God you will hardly part with it you will not let it go from you if you can keep it any way by any means And much less will you go from it I have not departed from thy judgements saith holy David to the Lord Psal 119.102 for thou hast taught me Brethren there are a sort of men who have a kind of knowledge of the Word of God but they have no love to it and hence it is that they are easily withdrawn from it as multitudes have been in these times while they that have it dear in their affections are rooted and established in the present truth as 2 Pet. 1.12 They are not carryed clean away with every new opinion and conceit as others are They cleave unto the Truths of God with full purpose of heart They are setled in their judgements and resolved in their minds This is undoubtedly the Truth of God I know it to be so I find it to be so by sensible experience in my soul and to this I mean to stick even to the loss of goods and life and all I am resolved that I will not relinquish it what ever hazard I may undergo to hold it whatever Sophisters and slie Seducers object against it 5. If you love the Word of God you will be extreamly troubled when it is slighted and abused it will vex you to the heart to see it undervalued and despised You will be ready to reply in such a case The VVord is a good friend of mine one whom I love dearly from whom I have received much comfort And I am no way able to endure it wounds me to the very soul to see it used in this fashion Beloved these are times in which the VVord of God hath suffered much from wicked and ungodly men It hath been strangely scorned and contemned and even trampled under foot It hath been usual in these days of ours for men to speak against those things that are delivered from the VVord contradicting and blaspheming Now my Beloved how have such things as these affected you and wrought upon you what tears have they drawn from you what sorrow have they wrought in you how often have they sent you over-loaden to your closets there to open all to God It is observed by the Holy Ghost that when Jehoiakim had cut the roll in pieces with a pen-knife which Jeremiah brought him from the Lord and burnt it in the fire upon the hearth they that stood by were not afraid neither did they rent their garments nor manifest their sorrrow Jer. 36.23 24. Beloved some of you have seen as high contempt as this offered to the word of God though not in the same kind And truly if you have not rent your hearts at least if you have not been inwardly afflicted in your spirits and done what you are able to the vindication of it you have shewed but little love to Gods word By these things you may try whether you have kept the word of God in your affections by loving it and so have made it to appear that you belong to Jesus Christ by the donation of the Father Now in the last place let me quicken you a little to the love of Gods word That if you love it not already you may come to love it Or if you love it you may go on to love it yet more And to this end I shall desire you to take notice of how great excellency and admirable use it is to you as I shall lay it open in a few particulars 1. Are you yet in your natural estate the word of God is the means to convert you The Law of the Lord is perfect converting the soul Psal 19.7 Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God Sanctifie them saith our Saviour How By thy truth thy word is truth Joh. 17.17 That speech of Paul is apposite and full God hath chosen you to salvation through sanctification
be justified when he speaketh and clear even when he judgeth Psal 51.4 when it is hardest to acquit him and to stoop to him So that you see my Brethren we must justifie the Lord in his reproofs and threatnings how sharp soever they may seem to be As Rehoboam and the Princes did when they were sharply menaced be the Prophet they replyed not they fretted not against him but confessed the Lord is righteous 2 Chron. 12.6 And Hezekiah when Isaiah dealt so roundly with him in the Name of God Good is the word of the Lord which thou hast spoken 2 King 20.19 Yea God requireth this of all his people that they say Amen to every Curse of his and that they set their seal to it as you may see Deut. 27.26 This is the entertainment which we ought to give the word of God in this respect meekly and humbly to submit to it even when it seemeth to be most against us and not so much as once to mutter or repine at it Now this we shall not do unless we look upon it as the word of God Nothing but such an apprehension of it will bring the heart to such a temper and put the spirit into such a frame as this is That which comes to us under the notion of the word of man will never be so yeilded to No the heart will boyl and rage and rise against it But when it hath the stamp of God upon it it stoops the spirit to submission Such entertainment you may see it found in Eli upon this account It is the Lord when Samuel who was then a child declared to him what the Lord resolved to bring upon him and his house saith Eli it becomes me to be humble and sumit to this and not to murmur and repine against it for it is the Lord 1 Sam. 3.18 As Hezekiah Isa 38.15 What shall I say for he hath said it to me And so in every truth that is delivered to us in every precept that is laid upon us in every reprehension that is given us in every Commination that is thundred out against us if we consider with our selves whoever be the messenger it is the Lord that speaketh this it is the word of God and not of man this and only this will make us in all humility to stoop to it 4. We must know for certain that it is the word of God that we may give it such entertainment as it ought to have in point of obedience Herein the word of God is singular it must be absolutely and universally obeyed and that not only with the outward but also with the inward man It doth not only take command upon the members but even the spirit and the conscience must be subject to it And that without delay without question without exception without reservation assoon as that which is delivered to us appears to be the word of God there is no room for disputation or expostulation but obedience All that the Lord Commandeth we must do Exod. 1â— 8 if he command it we must do it This is the entertainment which we ought to give the word of God The word of man can challenge no such honour and respect from us All the commands of men are limited and are to be obeyed so far and but so far as they agree with the commands of God or else at least as they are not repugnant to them And consequently while we look on any word as that which comes from man or as that which is of man we cannot yeild it such obedience as is peculiar to the word of God But when we know once that it is of God when we are certain that he is the Author of it we shall no longer think our selves at liberty to obey or disobey No this perswasion will convince us that it is absolutely necessary to resign our selves to the obedience of this word of his who is such a Law-giver as is able either to save or to destroy and with whom every disobedience receiveth a just recompence of reward JOHN 17.7 Now they have known that all things c. Vse 1 NOw is it so that they that will give the word such entertainment c. We see the reason then my Brethren why the word is so unworthily and slightly entertained by the greater part of men why it hath no greater reverence no greater credit no more submission no more obedience then it meets withall from those that are the ordinary hearers of it Alas how is it disrespected and despise everv where how little credit doth it find with me how do their hearts and spirits rise against it when it meeteth with corruptions and crosses them in their ways and their humors how far are they from yeilding absolute obedience to it in every thing that it requires of them And what 's the cause of all this Truly the main and principal is this that they believe it not to be indeed and truth the word of God When it is read or preached to them either they call the matter into question and are in very great suspense whether it be the word of God or no or else they peremptorily resolve as Israel did It is not he Jer. 5.12 It is not God that speaks to us this is not the word of God and then no wonder though it be neglected and despised by them They hear a man and so accordingly resolve that that which is delivered to them is of man and that it hath no higher Author then the man that speaks to them And some of them will now and then express themselves Preachers may say their pleasure in a pulpit and the like And hence it is my Brethen that their respect and entertainment of it is answerable to their apprehension of it such as belongeth to the word of man and no more They regard it and believe it and obey it just as farre as they themselves please But you will say perhaps if you could hear the Lord himself speak to you Oh how would you fear before him how would you stoop to him how would you yeild obedience to his voyce But who is this that you hear a man such as your selves are whose weaknesses and failings and infirmities are known to you Oh but remember that though you have this treasure in earthen vessels yet it is a treasure still and it is of God still That all the messengers of God in their regular prescripts ought to be instead of God and instead of Christ to you That it is not they that speak but the Holy Ghost himself that speaketh by them Mat. 10.20 And therefore even as he that heareth them heareth God so on the other side he that despiseth them despiseth God himself Luk. 10.16 They were but men that preached to the Thessalonians the Apostle and his fellows so that they might have made the same objection and so have kept themselves from due and reverend entertainment of the word which they delivered But they
1.9 Receiving the end saith he Conceive it the perfection or the reward of your faith even the salvation of your souls Salvation then you see my brethren is the end Christ is the object of our faith Use 1 Is Christ the Object of a true believers faith Then do not satisfie your selves my brethren with a general assent to sacred Revelation neither do you rest in this that you believe the word of God in gross Alas how many men that have been throughly convinced of the truth of all the Scripture are notwithstanding under everlasting Chains and darkness the Devils themselves believe and tremble They believe the word historically you must understand it and because it makes against them the greater their faith is the greater is their fear As therefore you desire to be absolved and acquitted from the guilt of all your sins which else will sink you down into the pit of Hell for ever to be invested with the righteousness of Christ without which you can never have admittance to the marriage of the Lamb nor to those joyes and pleasures at the Lords right hand for evermore lay hold on Jesus Christ and clasp the arms of faith about him Men and brethren to you is this salvation sent and we declare unto you glad tydings preaching through Christ the forgiveness of sins and that by him all that believe are justified from all things from which they could not have been justified by the Law of Moses We offer and exhibit Christ unto you and we beseech you to accept him that you may be saved We stand and cry Ho every one that thirsteth came to this water Now as you tender the salvation of your pretious souls let faith make out to Jesus Christ that comes towards her let her fasten on her object And that you may the better know what I perswade you to I shall shew you very briefly that there are four acts of the soul in reference to Jesus Christ wherein the essence and the being of justifying faith consists Whereof the former two are of the understanding and the two latter of the will I shall but only touch at them 1. Well then the first thing you are to do you must endeavour to know Christ aright distinct explicite knowledge of him in a measure is necessary to the being of this justifying faith And therefore knowledge is sometimes put for faith in Scripture by his knowledge or the knowledge of himself shall my righteous servant justifie many saith the Father of the Son Isa 53.11 And here to be a little more distinct you must know that Christ is a compleat and al-sufficient Saviour to free you from the wrath of God and to bring you to eternal life That he is offered by the Lord to you as well as any other for so the messengers of God have their Commission to make an universal tender of him to all to whom they preach without exception Go preach the Gospel to every creature Mark 16.15 And what is it to preach the Gospel to them but to say as the Angel to the Shepherds Luke 2.10 11. I bring you good tydings of great joy which shall be to all people for unto you is born this day in the City of David a Saviour which is Christ the Lord And as Peter to the Jews Acts 2.39 The promise is to you and to your children yea and to all that are afar off as many as the Lord our God shall call Yea you must know that Christ is offered to you so that you are peremptorily commanded and required to believe in him Come to me saith our Saviour Mat. 11.28 i. e. Believe in me for so himself expounds the phrase as you may see John 6.35 all you that labour and are heavy-laden and I will give you rest This is the first thing requisite to justifying faith of which Christ is the proper Object 2. The second act is the Assent and Credit of the mind to this that Christ is such a one indeed and that God offers him indeed in such a way as hath been said And that in this his gracious offer he intendeth as he saith That Christ and all his merits will be yours if you accept him This you must consent to you must say with the Apostle 1 Tim. 1.15 This is a faithfull saying and in relation to this act it is that faith is called believing John 3.36 and elsewhere often in the Scripture 3. The third act is the yeelding of the Will to this external exhibition of the Son of God this blessed offer of him in the Gospel not only for the certain truth but the incomparable excellency of it when the heart accepteth of it and embraceth it and saith with the Apostle in the fore-alledged Scripture 1 Tim. 1.15 This saying as it is a faithfull one so it is worthy of all acceptation It is a faithfull saying saith the Understanding and therefore I will give assent to it It is a saying worthy of all acceptation saith the will and therefore I will close with it So the faith of the Fathers is described Heb. 11.13 in which all the three acts which we have mentioned are wrapt up together They saw the promises conceive it with the understandings eye they knew them and they understood them They were perswaded of them they gave assent to them and they received them and embraced them for both these terms are there used not the words and surface of them but Christ in them In which respect this act of faith is sometimes called receiving of Christ as see John 1.12 To as many as received him c. So that believing and receiving are all one this is the third act 4. The fourth and last act is a resting a relying and recumbency on Christ for mercy and salvation this is the great act of the soul in faith A roling of it self on Jesus Christ expecting life and happiness no other way and by no other mean but him only And this is that which is so often called believing in the Son of God believing in his name trusting in him as the Apostle Pauls expression is Ephes 1.12 or trusting to him for all the good that we expect or look for These are the four great acts of faith and Christ you see is the immediate and proper object of them all So that you easily perceive what I intend when I perswade you and exhort you to fasten on this object and to believe in Jesus Christ Object But you will say perhaps as that is now a great Objection the Creature is not able to believe it is an impotent and dead thing what can the Creature do And why do you perswade it to believe Sol. True my beloved it can do nothing and you would have it to do nothing by this Rule Keep away the means from it and when will it attain the end It hath no faith it is not able to believe but faith comes by this means by the perswasions and intreaties
you may decieve your own souls The Apostle speaks of some who love the Lord in sincerity Eph. 6.24 by which he intimates that there are some who do not so who love him hypocritically not sincerely whose love to God is like the love of many to their brethren in word and in shew not in deed and in truth and therefore it concerns us to examine whether the love we bear to God be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without dissimulation yea or no as the Apostles phrase is Rom. 12.9 And thus far of the Application of the Point in reference to the first branch of the Explication of it Proceed we to the second Vse 2 Doth God the Father love believers everlastingly even as he loves Christ this then may cheer and comfort up the hearts of all believers who though they have had sweet experience of the love of God to them yet are inclinable to fear that it may be withdrawn again from them And surely there are many such who even waste and pine away themselves in such perplexed thoughts as these are Oh they shall never persevere and continue to the end they shall fall away at last from Gods favour and so they shall be lost for ever Now I beseech you quiet and secure your selves in this particular the Lord that hath begun to love you will persist to love you on to all eternity as he hath loved you from the beginning so he will surely love you to the end As he hath loved you from everlasting so he will love you to everlasting even as he loves Christ When he gives over loving Christ then and not till then my brethren he will give over loving you when he withdraws his heart from Christ the darling of his own bosome he will withdraw his heart from you too Believe it Jesus Christ and you must fare alike in this respect you must be hated or be loved together And therefore do not fear of falling from the love of God though you have many failings many imperfections in you do not doubt that they will cause the Lord to hate you No no the love of God is large enough to cover a multitude of them and none of them shall separate you from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord as the Apostle speaks Rom. 8.39 Observe it well it is a love in Jesus Christ he loveth us in loving Christ as being part of Christ we are involved and wrapt up together with him in the same love so that if our infirmities should separate us from the love of God they must separate Christ with us If God and we part God and Christ must part too Oh think on this my brethren when your fears of losing Gods favour are most prevailing with you and have greatest power upon you This take for all and rest upon it he can no sooner cease to love you then you can cease to love Christ Doth God the Father love believers infinitely even as he loves Christ Vse 3 Oh then what may you not expect from such love as this is A love that hath no bounds no measures What will not God do for you in all conditions and in all cases what will not God give you what will not God forgive you what can you want if God love you in this manner Let your hearts dwell upon the meditation of it especially when you are in trouble When penal miseries are desperate and extream when they are very sore upon you that you know not what to do Think with your selves Is it a likely thing that God will suffer you to perish or miscarry the God that loves you infinitely even as he loves Christ himself Indeed if he did love you only with an ordinary love you had some colour then to doubt that he might be regardless of you But since he loves you so unmeasurably as he doth how can you think that he will stand and see you sink away to ruine and not stretch out his hand to save you Suppose Christ were in your case if it were to be supposed that he were brought to such an exigent as you are how tender would the Father be of him how would his bowels yearn upon him how would he hasten to relieve him What is it thou saith God that are brought to such distress and art thou likely to be ruined and undone what thou my dear and pleasant child my own beloved son Alas I pitty thee I melt upon thee I will help thee presently I will not see thee to continue long in such misery as this is Why my beloved just as God would deal with Christ in such a case even so will he deal with you for he loves you even as he loveth him So when your sins lie heavy on you and you are even afraid that God will never pardon you your provocations are so many and so great you vex him every day and every hour without ceasing you do not give him any breathing time and therefore you are apt to think sometimes his patience will be out at last and you shall pay for all together Indeed my brethren if his love were but as the love of man you had ground enough to fear it For who is able alwayes to forgive injuries without number and without measure But since his love is infinite and there is no end of it it cannot be too narrow and too scant for you What may you not expect from an infinite love Oh my beloved I beseech you do not limit it do not set bounds to it do not think thus far the love of God may cause him to forbear us and forgive us but beyond this it will not go Ah my beloved if you be humble and believing souls it is a bottomless and boundless love to you it will go beyond all that you can think further then you are able to imagine And therefore do not cast away your confidence but roll your selves on this unmeasurable love of God in all cases Your sins are finite that is infinite your sins have limits that hath none Doth God the Father love believers under the same relations as he loves Vse 4 Christ doth he love them as his chosen as his servants as his children This then administers incomparable sweet pretious comfort to all that do in deed and truth believe in Christ The love of God to them is like to that he bears to Christ under all these three relations And this involveth blessed priviledges and carries high things in it as I shall shew you in their order Doth God the Father love believers as his chosen even as he loves Christ Then surely he will never cast them off again as he will never cast off Christ There are some whom God chooses out of a common love to common priviledges and advancements whom in the issue he rejects again he repents that he hath chosen them to such a dignity place and office and so he even casts them off again And
God saith he my heart is fixed I will sing and give praise Psal 57.7 There hath been much talk of late concerning fixing arms but surely this of fixing hearts is the most necessary business 4. That our hearts may be prepared they must be awakened they are naturally dead and dull and sleepy especially at sometimes by means of some corporal or spiritual distemper They cannot watch to prayer one hour and though the spirit is ready yet the flesh is weak And therefore we must quicken them and rouse them up from drowsiness before we set about the duty and while we are in the performance of it we must call upon our hearts as Deborah Judg. 5.12 Awake awake Deborah awake awake utter a song And as David on his Harp Awake Harp so we awake heart I my self will awake early Psal 108.2 You see in brief the Rule of Christ in reference to preparation Now let us see what he prescribes both for the matter the manner and the end of prayer As for the matter of your prayers you must search the promises You are to pray for nothing but only what you have a promise for not what you have a mind to but what you have a promise for It is the business and the work of prayer to put the promises of God in suit not our desires but his promises And therefore we must study promises if we would know how to make prayers or how to judge of prayers after we have made them If they agree not with the promises they are but rash and inconsiderate desires they are the sacrifice of fools as they are called Eccles 5.1 And God will never look after them nor shew respect to them as Elibu teaches us Job 35.13 Surely God will not hear vanity neither will the Almighty regard it As for the manner of our prayers the rule of Christ is very large here and so accordingly directions might be copious both how to form our supplications which we are about to tender and having tendred them how to resolve whether they have been according to the will of Christ or no. I shall but touch upon the principal 1. It is in the will of Christ that we pray without wrath for so is the express direction 1 Tim. 2.8 I will therefore that men may pray every-where lifting up pure hands without wrath We must not come to God with hearts distracted and disturbed with passion but with composed meek and quiet spirits It was the fault of James and John who when a certain Town of the Samaritans repelled Christ and refused to receive him would in a fit of rage and anger have prayed for fire to come down from heaven to consume them Luk. 9.54 And so when the malitious enemies of Christ have done his cause or people any great mischief it may be we are ready in a heat to call for vengeance out of heaven upon them But if we pray in such a manner we may look for such a censure as James and John had in the fore-alleadged Text Ye know not what spirit ye are of You think it may be you are zealous but you are very much mistaken you are cholerick and angry you do know not the temper and disposition of your spirits Brethren we must not go to prayer in a fit of anger and a pang of discontent as it seems Eliah did 1 King 14.4 It is enough Lord take away my life for I am not better then my Fathers And as it seems Job did Job 6.8 Oh that I might have my request and that God would grant me the thing that I long for Even that it would please God to destroy me that he would let loose his hand and cut me off And as it is extreamly probable that Moses did when he conceived his burthen was too heavy for him Numb 11.10 15. For it is said he was displeased and in that angry mood he said to God Wherefore hast thou afflicted me You see he calls the Lord to coram to see how he can answer his proceedings Wherefore c. I am not able to bear all this alone And if thou deal thus with me kill me I pray thee out of the way and do not let me see my wretchedness And thus it is apparent Jonah did who being crost in a punctilio in a point of honour out of a pettish childish humor will go die God must take away his life We must not come to God in such a temper to empty and disgorge our choler and to vent our passions to him No Tempus mansuetudinis est tempus orationis The time of meekness is the time of prayer 2. It is the will of Christ that we pray without doubtings and this is also added in the Text before alledged 1 Tim. 2.8 Pray lifting up pure hands without wrath or doubting He would have us come to God with confidence and strong assurance as it beseemeth those to do who are indeed in Covenant with him You know a houshold servant that is in Covenant with his Master cals confidently for his break-fast and his dinner and his Supper whereas a beggar or a stranger doth not so So he that is in Covenant with the Lord should come with boldness to the Throne of Grace relying formerly on the promises of God as David did I cryed and I hoped in thy Word Psal 119.147 Lord I want faith give it me I want patience let me have it I find my heart is out of order joynt it mend it unite it to thy self It is for those that are without and that are strangers to the Lord that live on nothing else but common providence to come doubtfully to God when their distresses force them to his presence But if those that are his friends and that are in Covenant with him come in such a posture to him he may justly say to such Why what 's the matter that you are so strange and that you are not bold with me as you have wont to be you shall fare neer a whit the better for coming to me after such a manner And verily my Brethren unless we draw nigh to God in faith well grounded on the promises we can have no hopes to speed in our petitions He that would ask any thing of God saith the Apostle James chap. 1.6 7 let him come in faith nothing doubting Otherwise let him not think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord. 3. It is the will of Christ that we pray with much zeal that our Petitions be not formal cold and drowsie prayers but that there be some heat and fervour in them You know the prayers of Gods people are compared to Incense Psal 141.2 And Incense sends up no sweet savour till the fire come to it It is the fervent prayer only that is effectual with the Lord as the Apostle teaches us Jam. 5.16 The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much And hence saith David Hear me O Lord and why so I cry with my
fathers own son But you will say wise fathers have very often weak children But Jesus Christ is so his fathers son that he partaketh with him of his wisdom it is poured out into him in abundance And therefore he is sometimes called the wisdom of the father in the abstract as see 1 Cor. 1.24 Iesus Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God And if he be so very wise you may be sure he spake wise words and wise words are worth the marking In him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge Col. 2.3 And out of question what he bringeth forth is of the treasure that is hid in him 2. But in the next place if you look upon him downwards with Relation to the Church you will see further reason why the words that Jesus spake should be so exactly noted and so carefully observed As he is the fathers wisdom so he is made to us wisdom as the Apostle Paul speaks 1 Cor. 1.30 His father hath appointed him to be the great Prophet of of his Church The great preacher the greater revealer of his truth and will to men and therefore out of question he can speak well and his words are worth the marking You may be sure the father would not send out such a Prophet to the Church as were not worth the listening to No no God hath annointed me to preach faith Christ himself Luke 4.18 not appointed me to preach but annointed me to preach endued me with abilities and gifts for that office God who in former times saith the Apostle spake to the fathers by the Prophets hath in these latter dayes spoken to us by the Son He was designed you see to be the spoksman for the father to the world to tell them what his mind is and to preach the Gospel to them We that are ordinary preachers of the Gospel we that are underlings to Christ in this business must be enabled with some competent ability in this respect or else we are not fit for this work And therefore when our Saviour sent out his disciples he promised to give them wisdom and a mouth that is matter and expression Luke 21.15 wisdom within together with a mouth to utter and to bring forth that wisdom To shew that both of these must go together in a preacher of the Gospel I know there is a latitude to be admitted and allowed in this regard but yet a competent ability to speak so as the people may be edified by it is indisputably required And if the under-ministers of Christ must have such a faculty how great ability then must their Master have Who was designed to be the great Preacher the great Prophet and as the Apostle stiles him the chief Bishop of our Souls And if he had such a transcendent faculty to speak then certainly the words he spake are fit to be commended c. Then secondly if you consider as whose the words were so in the next place what the words were you will allow them to be worthy of our choicest observation What the words were that Jesus spake either for the matter of them or for the efficacy of them let us a little weigh them in their order and we shall see they both help to this business 1. The words of Jesus for the matter of them commonly were Gospel words Such were the words to which my text alludes in the three chapters next before full of nothing else my brethren but Gospel-sweetness Gospel-Promises and Gospel-consolation against approaching troubles and afflictions these were the words that Jesus spake Christ in a sense my brethren was the first and certainly the chiefest preacher of the Gospel this great Salvation at the first began to be spoken by the Lord and was confirmed afterwards by them that heard him Heb. 2.3 And hence the Gospel as you know is called Christs saying John 8.51 The Law was the fathers saying God spake these words The Gospel is the Sons saying This was spoken by the Son And hence saith Christ in the fore-alledged text if a man keep my saying he shall never see Death So that the sayings and the words of Jesus are very fit to be considered For his you see are Gospel-sayings and Gospel sayings are worthy of all acceptation as the Apostle tels you 1 Tim. 1.15 Indeed Law-Sayings are not so readily attended to and entertained You know my brethren on mount Sinai at the giving of the Law there were thunderings and lightnings and terrible voices and the event and issue was the people fled and would not hear they were not able to endure the noise But Gospel-sayings on the other side allure affection and invite attention Upon mount Tabor where our Saviour was transfigured there was a shining Sun a bright cloud a gentle and a pleasing voice and the Disciples said Edificemus Domine Let us build here c. 2. And as the words of Jesus for the matter of them were Gospel-words so for the efficacy of them they were saying words and so in that respect the words that Jesus spake are very fit to be commended c. The words that I speak saith our Saviour to the Jews are spirit and life John 6.63 they are so in their operation and effect they give Spirit and they work life And who would not attend unto and entertain such words as these are His saying if it be received and kept will surely save a man from death yea from eternal death We may depend upon it he binds it with a strong asseveration which he repeats twice for the more Surety Iohn 8.51 Verily verily I say unto you if a man keep my saying he shall never see death Death is not visible the meaning is he shall not be annoyed and hurted by it as you have the like Expression Jer. 5.12 We shall not see sword nor famine And should not such words be commended to the Church and embraced by the Church as save from death and bring eternal life with them The setting down of which upon Record in holy Scripture and leaving them to after-times hath been the life of many souls and will be yet of many more in every age even to the worlds end If you consider in the last place as whose the words were and what the words were that Jesus spake so the manner how he spake them you will see further reason yet why they should be commended c. For this you may depend upon Never man spake like him It is the attestation that is given him John 7.46 Which coming from his enemies the officers that went to take him is of the more validity Never spake man like this man Grace was poured into his lips as the expression is Psalm 45.2 to shew us that the grace there mentioned is a gift of utterance and a faculty of speech whereof the lips are instruments They are the lips that form the words we speak and bring them forth to those that hear them and hence this gift of
utterance which the Psalmist calls a Grace is said there to be poured into the Lips of Jesus Christ There was a stream of holy eloquence continually flowing there which sometimes even drowned them that heard him He spake with power and authority his words had the command of mens affections so that he carried them where he pleased Indeed he carried them beyond themselves in wonder and astonishment to hear him speak sometimes as he did Mar. 1.22 They were astonished at his doctrine not only at the matter of it though that were admirable too but at the manner of delivery For he taught them as one that had authority and not as the Scribes And Luke informs us that all men bare him witness and gave testimony to him he was so famous and renowned for this gift of his and wondred at the gracious words that proceeded out of his mouth Luke 4.22 You heard but now that grace was poured into his lips and here you see that grace was poured out of his lips God poured it in and he as freely poured it out so as the people wondred at the gracious words that proceeded out of his mouth Such were the words that Jesus spake and such words you will say are very fit for choicest observation and attention The gift of eloquence my brethren calls for audience especially such heavenly and Holy eloquence as Christs is And thus much shall suffice for Confirmation c. Now is it so my Brethren that the words that Jesus spake are very fit to be commended c. Vse Then let them be received with choicest observation by his Church and People Let them not undervalue any of the words that Jesus spake but let them entertain them with a very high esteem There have been some of late who have slighted those words who have been bold to call them inckie divinity a dead letter and the like And yet our Saviour Christ himself tells us The words that I speak are Spirit and Life Iohn 6.63 Oh my beloved I beseech you let every one of us be far from giving way to any mean account or slight thoughts of any words that Christ spake Let us keep up our observation our estimation our admiration of them to the very highest It 's true my Brethren we should carefully attend and duly mark all Scripture words For all the Scripture is given by inspiration of God 1 Tim. 3.16 And all the Scripture is profitable for our selves for Doctrine for Correction for Instruction to make the man of God perfect as it is added there in that place But the words that Jesus spake are the choicest part of Scripture and therefore must have choicest observation Never man and what if I should say never inspired man spake like to him they came not fully home to his measure They had the spirit indeed and so had he but he received not the Spirit by measure as they did He was annointed with that oyl above his fellows though not without them yet above them as the chief Prophet and they the under-Prophets of the Church And therefore when we read or hear or meet with any words that Christ spake let us take special notice of them let us fix and dwell upon them and let them rest and dwell in us Let the words of Christ dwell in us Richly let us have an eye to mark them an ear to hear them and a heart to keep them as Mary had of whom it is observed that she kept all his sayings in her heart How carefully did the Apostle keep that which our Saviour spake though it be no where mentioned in the Gospel and wishes other men to do so too Acts 20.35 Remember the words of the Lord Jesus how he said It is more blessed to give then to receive and so he mindeth the Corinthians in a special manner of that which Christ himself spake with his own voice not by the Ministry of others 1 Cor. 7.10 To the married I command and yet not I but the Lord not I as an Inspired Apostle but the Lord with his own mouth when he was conversant upon the earth as if the words that dropped immediately from his lips did challenge singular regard And such regard my brethren let them have from us when we meet with his prayers his sermons his sayings let us set Asterisks in the Margent and the finger of a hand to point them out to special observation Let us write under them as the Evangelist doth in my Text These words spake Jesus Its true my brethren we have not the happiness as some have had in former times to wait upon the Lips of Jesus Christ nor to hear the graciâ— words that dropt thence yet we may hear him in a sense at this Dayâ—â—e may hear him in his word and in his Gospel and there may be Partaâ— of these streams of holy Eloquence which flowed from his mouth and 〈◊〉 may hear him in his faithful Ministers concerning whom the Lord himâ—â—â—f hath said He that heareth them hears me And out of question that Injunction of the father yet takes hold upon us This is my besâ—ed Son hear him Hear him in his writing and hear him in his Messenâ—ers although you cannot hear him in his own person And therefore I beseech you let us hear him and let us hear him so as to be obedient to him Let us remember what a dreadfull curse there is gone forth against the men that will not hear this Prophet which will assuredly take hold upon them Acts 3.23 Every Soul that will not hear that Prophet shall be destroyed from among the people It was a dangerous thing you hear to refuse to hear Moses He that despised Moses Law was to die without mercy But it is much more dangerous to refuse to hear Christ there is a sorer punishment for such as it is added there Heb. 10.28 It went very hard with those who reâ—used the word that was spoken by Angels that is the Law that was delivered by the Ministry of Angels But if we refuse the word that was spoken by Christ that is the Gospel and do it finally there is but one way with us we are gone without recovery For if the word spoken by Angels was stedfast for the execution of it and every transgression and disobedience c. How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation which was spoken by the Lord And therefore I beseech you let us hear this great Prophet if we hear him not we die and that without mercy too But if we hear him and obey him we shall live and that for ever The words that he speaks are spirit and life and if we keep his sayings we shall never see Death John 17.1 And lift up his eyes to heaven and said AND thus of the transition to our Saviours Supplication These words spake Iesus The manner of presenting it to God the Father or if you will the carriage of our Saviour in it comes now in
appellation ever and anon on all occasions so that the point to be observed is this DOCTRINE God is the Father of the Lord Christ and so he apprehended him and looked upon him when he was making his Petitions to him The point you see hath two branches First God is the Father of the Lord Christ then Christ did look upon him as a Father and apprehend him as a Father when he was making his Petition to him God is the Father of the Lord Christ I shall not waste away my time to prove it it is so clearly and expresly taught in Scripture every where you shall observe them often owning one another under the relation of a Father and a Son Sometimes the Father owns our Saviour for his Son and this he doth by an immediate attestation out of heaven it self Mat. 3.17 Lo a voice from heaven saying This is my beloved Son Me thinks he seems to point him out to special observation This is he Sometimes our Saviour on the other side acknowledges and owns the Father and this is very usual upon all occasions But how is God the Father of the Lord Christ or in what sense doth he call him Father here no otherwise then we do this will need a little opening To clear it to you in a word or two you must consider that God the Father hath two sorts of sons either he hath sons made or else he hath sons begotten He hath sons made and that both by Creation and Adoption First he is said to be a Father by Creation and thus he hath a kind of universal Fatherhood to all the Creatures And therefore the Apostle stiles him the Father of all Eph. 4.6 He is in this regard the Father of our bodies and the Father of our Spirits The Father of our bodies mediatly and virtually Created in the loins of Adam The Father of our Spirits immediatly and actually infused by himself with this distinction only that there are men who under him are the Fathers of our Flesh but he himself alone is the Father of our Spirits as the Apostle lays it down Heb. 12.9 And in this sense he is the Father of the Angels who were immediately framed and created by his own Almighty hand and therefore are called the sons of God Job 1.6 This Fatherhood of God as I have said is universal and all the Creatures have a share in it so that even all of them may call him Father too as well as we and use the Prophets words Mal. 2.10 Have we not all one Father hath not one God created us And thus our Saviour as a Creature hath an interest in the Fatherhood of God And here he hath an Interest above others though not an interest without others For he is the first-born of every Creature as the Apostle Paul speaks Col. 1.15 And as this Father hath his Sons made by creation so he hath Sons made by Adoption by which a remnant of Mankinde are set apart out of the free and undeserved Grace of God to be the children and the heirs of God And here I see not why our Saviour Christ as Man should not come in for one of the Adopted Sons of God for one I mean above the rest though not for one among the rest so that he hath his Priviledge in this regard as the Apostle intimates Eph. 1.5 God hath predestinated us to the adoption of Children by Iesus Christ Perhaps the meaning may be this first he hath adopted Christ as man and as a creature and then he hath adopted us by him as part of Jesus Christ and as Members of his body And as this Father hath his Sons made both by creation and adoption so he hath his sons begotten and his sons born for both of these expressions we shall finde in Scripture He hath begotten us saith the Apostle Peter 1 Pet. 1.3 Of his own will begat he us Jam. 1.18 And whosoever loves him that begat loves him that is begotten 1 John 5.1 And thus our Saviour also is begotten of the Father and here he hath his priviledge and his preheminence as well as in the rest For he is the first-begotten of the Father Heb. 1.6 when he bringeth in the first begotten into the world herein he is above Men yea he is above Angels For unto which of the Angels said he at any time Thou art my Son this day c. And when he bringeth in c he saith And let all the Angels c. It s true that even we that are his Children are begotten as Christ is he is begotten from eternity but we in time He is begotten so that he partaketh of his substance and of his very essence that begets him We are indeed partakers of the Divine nature but not by communication of the Essence of God but by participation of the properties of God He is begotten of the Father personally taken whereas none of us are so It s true we are the Sons of God begotten by an Act without but we are not the Sons of God the Father taken as distinct from both the other persons of the God-head begotten by an act within as Christ is He is begotten by a proper and peculiar act of God the Father in an unspeakable communication of the Essence of the God-head from the Father to the Son which we are better able to admire then to express for as the Prophet saith who can declare his generation And this for clearing of the former member of the point God is the Father of the Lord Christ Now for the second that Christ did look upon him as a Father and apprehend him as a Father when he was making his Petitions to him You see it evidently and demonstratively in my Text. This is the appellation that he gives him in this prayer all along as I have noted to you heretofore It s true that God is frequently in Scripture stiled the God of Christ as see the place c. Psal 45.7 God even thy God and Christ doth sometimes call him his God as Iohn 20.17 I ascend to my God but to the best of my remembrance he never calls him so in prayer He comes not to him by the name of his God but by the name of his Father that is the sweet and precious name that he delights to call him by when he is pouring out his prayers to him I shall add no more for proof the point is plain God is the father of the Lord Christ and so he apprehended him c. Is God the Father of the Lord Christ this then may serve for sweet Use 1 and precious consolation to the Saints and to those that are in Christ For if God be Christs Father then he is their Father too And this our Saviour Christ himself acknowledges to his Disciples for their comfort I ascend to my Father and your Father My Father but so that he is yours too first mine and then yours My interest indeed in this respect is
somewhat higher and above yours but it is not without yours nay to say truth my interest is for yours God is my Father that he may be yours in me Oh my beloved what melting joy and comfort is here for every member of the Lord Christ in regard of this relation I give you but a hint in three particulars First being the sons of God in Christ we may be sure that he will hear us in and by and through Christ He always hears his son Christ and never puts him off with a denial Thou art my son this day c. Ask of me and I will give thee Psal 2.7 and this our Saviour Christ himself professes Iohn â—1 4 and as the Father always hears his son Christ so he doth always hear his Sons in Christ And truly if the first be once admitted the latter follows unavoidably For Christ the eldest Son is intercessor for his brethren in all their regular requests he never faileth to put in with them so that they cannot be denied unless he be denied too Christ and they must either stand or fall together Secondly being Sons of God in Christ we may be confident he will provide for us He hath provided very well for Christ he is not his Son only but he is his Heir too yea he is heir of all without exception Heb. 1.2 And as Christ is the Son and Heir of God so we are sons and heirs of God in Christ there is not a younger brother of us Thou art no more a servant but a son Gal. 4.7 And if a son then an heir of God through Christ If Sons of God through Christ then Heirs of God through Christ too If we be sons then also heirs Rom. 8.17 yea we are heirs of all as Christ is and therefore it is added presently Heirs of God joynt-heirs with Christ Jesus Christ as Mediator is not Heir to any thing but we are joynt-heirs and have a joynt-right with him there is an Inventory of our riches 1 Cor. 3.21 Thirdly being Sons of God we may be confident he will protect us Fathers use to protect their children if they can God can and therefore will As Naomi laid Ruths childe in her bosom Ruth 4.16 so God lays his children Isa 4.11 and that is certainly a safe place And as the Eagle spreads her wings over her young and carries them upon her wings Prov. 32 1â— so God throws his children under the wings of his protection and carries them above the reach of danger This is very sweet comfort be your troubles what they will you have a Father that is able to secure you that is very tender of you that hath set a guard upon you Heb. 1. ult Psal 34.7 John 17.1 Father the hour is come Use 2 IS God the Father of the Lord Christ And consequently Christ the Son of God the Father Why then I say as the Apostle He is the Lord of all Gal. 4.1 He is not a servant in the house but a Son over the house Heb. 3.6 And therefore he must be obeyed and served according to the Psalmists Exhortation Psal 2.11 Serve the Lord. Well then my brethren let us think of this and let us hearken to that Counsel and advice of Christ himself Take my yoke my service on you Brethren let me engage you all this day for this Lord and his service let me perswade you to receive him for the Lord your righteousness Not to call him Lord only but to take him for your Lord and to use him as your Lord and to yield him all that service and obedience which the name calls for Ah my Beloved let us not do in this regard as the greater part of Christians in name and in profession do Let us not wear the badge and cognizance of Jesus Christ and say he is our Lord and Master and the like and in the mean time never do his will nor take any pains at all in his service For this is but to deal with Christ as the perfidious Jews did to put a purple robe upon him and to bow down before him and to call him Hail Master and in the self-same breath to buffet him and spit upon him But as we call him Lord so let us carry and demean our selves towards him as our Lord and Master and let us yield to him that obedience which is due to him And to this end let us consider what engagements lye upon us to draw us and to hold us to the service of this Lord which I shall briefly lay before you as motives to perswade The first is an Engagement of Creation he is the image of the invisible God saith the Apostle Col. 1.15 The first born of every creature that is the Lord of every creature for the first born is Lord of all And why the Lord of every creature You have the reason in the following words For by him were all things created that are in heaven and that are in earth All things were made by him and therefore it is fit that all should serve him Nay my Beloved they were not made by him only but they were made for him too as it is added there in that place all things were created by him and for him By his power and for his use And therefore if we be not useful to him if we do not serve him we cross the very end of our creation The brutish and unreasonable creatures serve him in their kind and measure and therefore David saith that all things serve him But we are bound to serve him much more because in our Creation we received more from him He made us Lords of all his creatures â—â—at we might have no Lord but him He made the whole creation to be serviceable to us that we might be the more engaged and the better able to be serviceable to himself that we might serve him for it all that we might serve him with it all He put all things under us and truly we are bound the more my Brethren to be under him and subject to him he made us men he gave us reason which he gave not to other creatures the greater reason have we to obey him and to improve our parts and gifts in his service Indeed we cannot chose but see that it is all the reason of the world that as we have all from him so we should use all for him The next is an engagement of Redemption which binds us to the service of the Lord. As he is the Lord that made us so he is the Lord that bought us as the Apostles phrase is 2 Pet. 2.1 He purchased us my Brethren us I mean that are his own at a very dear rate and therefore it is just that we should serve him especially since it is evident that this was his intention in his purchase He bought us out of Sins and Satans hands not that we might be absolutely free from all commands but that we might be his servants He gave himself
very great hazard He doth what lies in him to cross the Lord in that which he is most intent upon on which his heart is wonderfully set Great men cannot endure you know to be crossed in their wills or hindered of their purposes and how think you will the great God endure to be affronted and opposed and crossed in such a thing as this is From all Eternity he hath determined with himself to glorifie his Son Christ he hath had it in his heart from everlasting he hath resolved he shall be honoured and that not by men alone but by the very Angels too those eminent and glorious Creatures It is the Fathers pleasure that it shall be so as the Apostle tells us Heb. 1.6 When he bringeth in his first begotten into the world he saith and let all the Angels of God worship him Not serve him and obey him only but worship him with divine and with religious adoration which is the heigth and top of honour with the same honour that belongeth to the Father as Christ himself expresseth it Iohn 5.23 And if he must have honour such transcendent honour from the very Angels must he not have it from inferiour creatures who are far below Angels Yes Gods expects it that at the name that is the power and authority of Jesus every knee should bow not of things in heaven only but of things in earth too that is not of Angels only but of men So that you see the father looks for this at our hands he looks we should do honour to his Son He saith as in the Parable They will reverence my Son Though they have slighted and abused other messengers that I have sent among them yet they will surely reverence my Son It is impossible they should be so unworthy to contemn my own Son And what then do we think of those who dishonour and contemn him notwithstanding will the father who hath sent him to this End that he might be honoured take this well at their hands to be thus crossed in such a great design of his by wretched men To see his own begotten Son despised and scorned whom he hath done so much to honour Why you will say what need you be so earnest upon this particular Who doth dishonour Jesus Christ Who doth despise him or contemn him do we not all acknowledge him to be our Lord and Saviour and the like yes we do all acknowledge him in words indeed we call him Lord. But many of us buffet him and spit upon him in the very same breath There are abundance of us my beloved who in name are Christians who do exceedingly dishonour Jesus Christ whatever their pretences and protestations be and I will shew you briefly who they are All unbelievers do dishonour Christ exceedingly in this respect that they do not close with him That when he is proposed and offered to them in the Gospel they do not take him and receive him on the terms that he is offered but put him off with a denial This is a great dishonour to the Lord Christ It is no less then an implicite scorning and despising of him As if he were so poor a gift that he were not worth the taking Ah my beloved do but think upon it that after Christ hath undergone so much as he hath done for our salvation and after comes a begging to our own doors beseeching us that we will entertain him and receive him and accept of him and that not for his own advantage or profit that accrews to him but meerly for our own good That he should stoop so low even by entreaties to impose himself upon us and we should be inexorable to him and basely thrust him quite away from us and refuse to meddle with him Oh what a horrible indignity is this to Jesus Christ What an unspeakable debasing of him Yet thus all unbelievers use him All I mean where Christ is preached And that may be applied to them which the Evangelist affirmeth of the Jews Iohn 1.11 He came unto his own his own friends his own Kindred his own acquaintance his own nation yea people of his own Country But though they were his own they would not own him nor embrace him He came unto his own and his own received him not And so he comes to these men and that with obsecrations and entreaties too and they clap the door against him and shamefully gâ—ve him the repulse They tell him in effect that he may go to those that need him and look after him or care for him For their parts they will none of him then which there cannot be a viler or more ignominions usage in the world They that despise and slight the blood of Christ they dishonour Christ himself His blood you cannot chuse but think is dear to him and the contemptuous usage of it reflects with high disparagement upon him But you will say who de pises Christs blood are any so unworthy and so base among us yes there are some such among us who use the blood of Christ as if they did account it an unholy thing as if it were but common blood the blood of any ordinary creature which they might freely undervalue at their pleasure And so in doing this they tread underfoot the son of God as the Apostle speaks Heb. 10.29 they throw him down and tread him under foot as if he were but dust or dung or some such base unworthy thing which is the horriblest contempt that can be They tread under foot the Son of God while they account his blood an unholy thing But who accounts it so you will demand Why they that use it so do in effect account it so and truly there are multitudes of such among us When ordinary blood is shed as the blood of any beasts you know we make no reckoning of it we look not after it we spend not any thought upon it it is shed and there 's an end And verily my brethren there are many who make no more of the blood of Christ himself then if it were but common blood then if an Ox or any other beast were slain and so account it an unholy thing They never think upon it unless it be to swear by it they never meditate upon the end for which he shed it or the use which they ought to make of it He shed his blood for us saith the Apostle that we should live no longer to our selves but to him that died for us And yet how many are there who live wholly to themselves notwithstanding all this who seek themselves their own ends their own things and not the things of Jesus Christ He loved his Church and gave himself for it that he might sanctifie and cleanse it Eph. 5.25 that he might wash it in his own blood Apoc. 1.5 And yet what multitudes are here among us who are not cleansed or washed to this day but tumble in the Kennel still wherein the swine of this world wallow
rest to all his people to stoop to this authority of his and to yield obedience to it If it were managed to their hurt and disadvantage they had reason to avoid it and to decline submission to it to the utmost of their power Who would be under such authority as aims at nothing else but the undoing of the Subject But since the end of the authority of Jesus Christ is the good of his people they have great reason to submit to it Ah my beloved how should this sweeten the authority of Christ and make it amiable and desirable and pleasing to his Subjects How should the Children of Zion be joyful in their King as the Prophet David speaks Psal 109.2 how should the members of the Church triumph and be exceeding glad that they are so well provided that they have Jesus Christ to be their Soveraign that they have such a Governour as he who manages his whole authority for their profit and advantage This is a joyful thing indeed The Lord reigneth saith the Psalmist Psal 97.1 and what doth he inferr upon it Let the Earth rejoyce let the multitudes of the Isles be glad of it And truly we that are the people of the Lord of this Isle as well as other Isles and quarters of the world have reason to be glad of this that Christ rules and that we are his Subjects We are afraid continually of new storms and new troubles but here is our comfort in the midst of all this that the rains of government are in the hands of Jesus Christ who is a King for our sake who is invested by his Father with authority yea with supreme authority such as none can overtop for our good and for our safety We may apply the Prophets speech Isa 33.20 Look upon Zion the City of our solemnities thine eyes shall see Jerusalem a quiet habitation a tabernacle that shall not be taken down not one of the stakes thereof shall ever be removed neither shall any of the cords thereof be broken But the glorious Lord will be to us a place of broad rivers And why so For the Lord is our Judge the Lord is our Law-giver the Lord is our King and he will save us So that however we be rent and torn with sad divisions however we be shaken with continual fears yet when we look to Jesus and consider Is not he out Law-giver and is not he our Judge is not the supreme authority in his hand we may conclude that he will save us that he will do us good and that because he hath received his power and his authority for this End John 17.2 That he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him Use 2 IS it so that the authority of Jesus Christ with which c. chiefly for the good c. Then let the Ministers of Jesus Christ be hence directed and advised how to use the power which they have received from Christ As God hath sent the Son so Jesus Christ hath sent his Ministers and his Embassadors It is his own expression to his own Apostles John 20.21 As my Father hath sent me so I send you And as God hath given power to Jesus Christ whom he hath sent so Jesus Christ hath given power to his Embassadors whom he hath sent And therefore it is added presently in the fore-alledged Scripture whosesoever sins ye remit they be remitted and whosesoever sins ye retain they are retained You must conceive it either in the preaching of the word or else in the administration of the censures of the Church And this is that which the Apostle cals the power which Christ hath given him 2 Cor. 13.10 Now all that have this power from Jesus Christ are here directed how to manage it and what use to make of it It is apparent they must use it to the very same end to which Christ doth use his For even as Christ hath his Commission from the Father so they have their commission from Christ And even as Christ hath his authority from the Father so they have their authority from Christ And therefore even as the authority of Christ is managed chiefly for the good and the salvation of his people so must they manage theirs too for the very same end they must not aim at the destruction or the hardning of the people they must not preach the Gospel to them for such purposes as these though this by accident be the effect sometimes No they must make this their business how they may save themselves and them that hear them how they may bring about the conversion and salvation of the people how they may draw in souls to Iesus Christ and make proselytes for heaven this ought to be the great thing which they aim at It is true they must be sons of thunder now and then as well as sons of consolation They must preach the Law sometimes as well as the sweet comforts of the Gospel They must threaten men sometimes with wrath and hell and eternal condemnation But then they must do it so as wishing that these things might might not come upon them but rather that they might avoid them They must threaten them with wrath that they may fly from the wrath to come and they must threaten them with hell that they may escape the damnation of hell They must preach the Law to them with Gospel-purposes and Evangelical intentions They must send out the avenger of blood to dog them at the heels that they may fly to the city of refuge They must use sharpness now and then it cannot be avoided But it must be for the same end which the Apostle speaks of in the fore-alledged place 2 Cor. 13.10 where he mindeth the Corinthians that in case he must use sharpness according to the power the Lord hath given him he hath authority from Christ to do it but mark in the succeeding words to what end to edification and not to destruction According to the power the Lord hath given me to edification and not to destruction And therefore it is very notable that when our Saviour Christ had said to his Disciples All power is given to me both in heaven and in earth and having put a part of this authoâ—ity and power of his on his Apostles he doth not bid them to go out and preach damnation to the people but go and preach the Gospel to them and baptize them that they way be saved And the Apostle speaking of the execution of this power in the administration of the censures of the Church saith he would give a foul offender up to Satan for no other end then this even for his good and his salvation 1 Cor. 5.3 4. I have already judged saith he concerning him that hath so done this deed with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ to deliver him to Satan for the destruction of the flesh the carnal part that the spirit might be saved in the day of the Lord. So that
As a gift and not a purchase or if a purchase as his purchase not their own It is our Saviours own expression with reference to his people John 10.28 I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand And therefore it is called a Gift and Christ is made the next and the immediate Donor and Dispencer of it Rom. 6.23 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. And the Antithesis between this latter and the former parcell of the verse is very much to be observed as being pertinent to our purpose The wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life As if in other words our Apostle should have said It s true indeed Death is the Consequent of sin and life Eternal is the Consequent of holiness and of obedience But mark it well not upon the same terms Death follows sin as the deserved stipend and the wages of it A man earneth death by sin as a work-man earns his wages by his labour But life Eternal doth not follow holiness in such a way it is not merited by our obedience as death is by our disobedience and therefore this is a gratuity a gift though that be wages The wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life And in another place our last translation speaketh it a free gift Rom. 5.18 The free gift came upon all men all that are Christs members or upon all men universally if you respect the tender of it the free gift came upon all men to justification of life With which accordeth that which goes immediately before they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall ragn in life by one and that is Christ I shall close up the proofs with our Saviours proclamation Apoc. 21.6 I am Alpha and Omega the beginning and the end and I will give to him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely if any be athirst if he have vehement and strong desires he shall have life and he shall have it from the fountain I will bestow it on him and I will do it freely too I will give him of the water of life freely So that the point is plain you see That Jesus Christ doth freely give Eternal life Now that you may the better see the freeness of this gift of his and that it is bestowed upon his people without the least desert of theirs I shall lay it open to you in a few particulars Jesus Christ must needs be free in giving life to his members because on their parts it is first unbought and secondly unsought nay thirdly unthought They do not purchase it or buy it of him nay nor so much as seek it or desire it of him nay nor so much as think of having such a mercy from him And therefore it must needs be absolutely free in all respects it must come from him as a free gift First Jesus Christ must needs be free in giving life to his people because it is by them unbought Life is not their purchase and therefore it is his gift True it is bought by Christ for us but it is not bought of Christ by us For let us seriously consider with our selves What could we give or do to procure this life from Christ We are not able to redeem our natural life which yet is in comparison of no value nor pay a ransom to the Lord for it It is too great a price for us to pay and therefore it must cease for ever as the Psalmist speaks And how much less then are we able to redeem our spiritual life which is infinitely precious when we are under the Condemnatory sentence of the Law when we are dead in trespasses and sin both with relation to the raign and to the guilt when we are subject every moment to be cast into the lake that burns with fire and brimstone which is the second death what can we give now to obtain our pardon we cannot purchase it and therfore certainly we have it freely Indeed Christ buyes a pardon for us because we cannot buy it for our selves He gives his blood and life for us that he may give life to us And therefore he is called our life to shew that he is all in all in that business And when we first receive his quickning grace we are described to be in such a case that there is nothing upon our parts to procure it as you may see Ezek. 16.5 6. Cast out into the open fields to the loathing of our persons polluted in our own blood and weltering in our own gore And then yea then he gives life to us It is repeated twice in that place as a remarkable choice thing that we may take especial notice of it I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood live yea I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood live As if he should have thus expressed himself Observe it well I gave thee life at such a time when there was nothing in thee to deserve it at my hands when one would even have loathed to touch thee or to meedle with thee when thou hadst nothing else but blood and gore to give me then did I breath this life into thee So that you see Christ freely gives this life to his people in this respect that it is by them unbought And as it is by them unbought so it is by them unsought As they do not purchase it and buy it of him so neither do they seek it or desire it of him As they do not pay for it so neither do they pray for it We count a thing is very free if we have it for the asking If it be but ask and have it s a very cheap bargain The life of Christ is yet more free then this comes to to all his members he gives it them before they ask it He is found in this respect of them that seek him not and ask not for him as the Prophet speaks Isa 65.1 It is the disposition of us all by nature we will not come to Christ that we may have life from him as he himself complaineth John 5.40 and therefore he is fain to draw us Did Lazarus when he lay dead and stinking in his grave address himself to Christ beseeching him to raise him up No more do any that are dead in sin No Christ is fain to seek them out to come to the grave himself and there to call them to come forth and to put life into them that they may answer that call he is forced to do all Did the lost sheep seek the Shepherd Did the lost groat seek the Owner When Adam being falen had brought himself into a state of death and condemnation did he seek God or did God seek him Did he call God or did God call him You see the offer was
vve had in him and which way comes he to be ours again but by a new a second Covenant which he makes the former being broken and dissolved I entered into Covenant with thee and thou becamest mine saith the Lord to his people Ezech. 16.8 And is not Christ the Foundation of the Covenant Is it not made with him in Christ Is not the condition of the Covenant Faith in Christ Mark what the Apostle saith Gal. 3.16 The Covenant was not made to seeds as many but to seed as one that is to Christ in aggregato comprizing all his members with him It was not made immediately to us no it was made immediately to Christ our Head and in and through him to us his members So that the Lord is not in Covenant with us he is not ours vve have no Title to him but in Christ And hence the Interest of Christ in God is made the rise and ground of ours I ascend to my God and your God saith Jesus Christ to his Disciples John 20.17 First mine and then yours God is our Master but in Christ He is his first and chief servant and we are his servants in him God is our Father but in Christ he is his first begotten Son and we are his sons in him So that if we know Christ there is a possibility that vve may know the Lord as our God But if we know not Christ at all how can we know God in him We may know him as a God as Adam did between the fall and the renewing of the Covenant but such a one as we shall flie from and as we can by no means close withall because we look upon him now as none of ours as one in whom vve have no Interest at all And certainly Eternal life cannot consist in such a Knowledge of the Lord as this is Fourthly Knowledge of God is not enough to life Eternal unless we Reason 4 know Christ too because unless we know Christ as we know God without Interest so we know him without Faith I mean without saving faith if vve know God without Christ we may believe in God vvithout Christ vve may believe in him as he is Omnipotent and All-mighty and Eternal and the like But such a faith as this will never justifie us in the present Life nor save us in the life to come Even Turks and Jews and Arrians boast of faith in God you know and yet because they appehend not Jesus Christ they catch at nothing but a shadow and miserably lose their own souls He that denies and so by consequence believes not in the Son can never have the Father as you may see 1 John 2.28 But he that hath the Son hath the Father also Well then if we will so believe in God as to come to life Eternal vve must believe in him through Christ Such trust have we through Christ in God saith the Apostle 2 Cor. 3.4 And this we cannot do unless vve know not God only but Jesus Christ whom he hath sent For distinct explicite Knowledge is absolutely necessary to the being of Faith and perfect Ignorance in any point whatever it be destroyes all faith in that particular And hence is the Apostles question How shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard and consequently whom they have not known So that if we know not Christ we cannot believe in him vve cannot believe in God with a justifying faith And he that believes not is condemned already such a person is in a state of death and condemnation But if we know both God and Christ too and so as to believe in God through Christ Eternal life consists in this Knowledge This is life Eternal to know the only true God c. Vse 1 Now is it so my Brethren that the Knowledge which is life Eternal in which Eternal life consisteth is the Knowledge both of God and Christ too Then in the first place we may here behold the dangerous estate of Heathen Nations who know not Jesus Christ nor can they any vvay in the condition they are in attain to this Knowledge How should they come to life Eternal if this be life Eternal to know the only true God and Iesus Christ whom he hath sent It s true that even they have means to know God as the Apostle shews and proves Rom. 1.19 20. That which may be known conceive it that which may be naturally known of God is manifest in them that is the Heathen for God hath even shewed it to them For the Invisible things of him from the Creation of the world are cleerly seen being understood by the things which he hath made even his eternal power and God-head So that there is an Image and Resemblance of him stamped upon the Creatures there are apparent Characters and foot-steps and Impressions of the God-head of his Power and of his Wisdom set upon the things that he hath made which may be looked upon by every eye How doth his Glory shine and glister in the Rare and admirable structure of the World the glorious frame of Heaven and Earth And hence it is that David saith the Heavens declare the glory of God and the Firmament sheweth his handy-work Psalm 19.1 Indeed he tells us afterwards the Law of the Lord is perfect the Word of God and that alone is a perfect a compleat and perfect help to bring us to the knowledge of God but yet there is some declaration of him in the Creatures the Heavens declare the glory of God And the means the Heathens have the creatures Catechize them and instruct them in the Knowledge of God as Job shews Iob 12.7 Ask now the beasts and they shall teach thee the fowls of the heavens and they shall tell thee or speak to the earth and it shall teach thee and the fishes of the Sea shall declare to thee who knoweth not in all these that the hand of the Lord hath wrought this and therefore the Apostle tells us that even they the heathen know God as you may see Rom. 1.21 But now they have no means to know Christ and this is life Eternal to know both both God and Christ too So that in this respect they are cut off from life Eternal which is a very sad case This Knowledge is not written in the Creature-book and they have not the Scripture-book and how then should they come to it It s true that God is written in the Creature-book as I shewed you even now but not a word of Christ there Not a word I mean as Man and Mediator of the Church as he is Christ whom God hath sent He did not make the World as man and so by Consequence as Man he is not represented in the Book of the Creation God is written in the heart but not a word of Christ there The Law is written in the heart by nature but there are no Impressions of the Gospel which is the Word of Christ as the Apostles phrase is
sometimes called a lye in Scripture as Ier. 10.11 his molten image is falshood or a lye because it hath not that divinity which it pretendeth to which it is supposed to have by those that worship and adore it And because it doth not yield that succour which it seems to promise You know what God affirmeth of the Idols of the Jews that they are no gods Ier. 5.7 My people have forsaken me and sworn by them that are no gods An oath is taken there by a Synecdoche for all the parts of holy worship as it is often in the holy Scripture so that the sense and meaning is q. d. My people have forsaken me the true God and worshipped them that are no gods So that the point is plain you see our God is the true God and the only true God Now the Scripture proves it further yet by Reason and Uses and Arguments in this present case it will not be unprofitable if I hint them briefly to you It appears that our God is the only true God because he and he only Reason 1 hath his being of himself He was before all things when there was nothing in the world besides him and consequently could not have his being of another Before the mountains were brought forth before the earth or world was made from everlasting to everlasting he is God Psal 90.2 he is the Lord the first and the last Isa 41.1 whereas the heathen gods are new and have their being of another and so indeed are no gods You know how David reasons They are not gods saith he and why so they are the works of mens hands Psalm 115.4 And Hosea to the same purpose Hos 8.6 The workman made it therefore it is not God Indeed it is so far from being God that it is scarce a creature it is nothing in the world Or if it be a creature it is of their own making The workman made it therefore it is not God It appears that our God is the only true God because he only is the Reason 2 living God It is the Prophets argument Ier. 10.10 The Lord is the true God But how doth this appear Why he is the living God as it is added in the next words Other gods are dead gods they have tongues and cannot speak they have feet but cannot walk And hence is the Apostles Exhortation to turn from such dead vanities as these unto the living God Reason 3 It appears that our God is the only true God as by his being and his life so by his operations and effects As it appears by what he is so it appears by what he doth Among the gods there is none like thee saith David Psalm 86.8 how doth he prove this neither are there any works like thy works And therefore the true God upbraids the heathen gods in this respect Isa 41.24 Behold you are of nothing and your work of nothing that is you are not able to do any thing you can do neither good nor evil as it is said in that place Not to speak of the creation of the heaven and the earth which is attributed to God in opposition to all other gods What can the gods of heathen or of professed Christians who make their honour or their wealth their gods what can they do to save a man in the time of his distress Riches deliver not in the day of death So that as the Prophet saith to the Idolaters of his time Isa 45.20 Ye pray unto a God that cannot save So we may say to these Idolaters of our times ye trust in gods that cannot save no this is proper to the true God There is no God besides me saith the Lord a just God and a Saviour and therefore addeth presently Look unto me and be you saved for I am God and there is none else Reason 4 It appears that our God is the only true God by the duration of his being as he is the first so he is the last Isa 41.4 he holds out when all fail For other gods they perish Ier. 10.11 Idols perish riches perish honours friends all perish but God endures to all eternity As he is from everlasting so he is to everlasting Psal 90.2 All other things are subject to decay and dissolution but he abides for evermore They do all perish saith the Psalmist Psalm 102.26 but thou shalt endure for ever They all wax old c. but thou art the same c. Use 1 Now is it so that our God is the true God Then let this serve in the first place to quicken us and stir us up to strengthen and confirm our faith in this particular and to endeavour to believe more fully and distinctly that our God is God indeed and verily the best among us have need of confirmation here for we are very apt to waver and to have doubtful thoughts about it And they that are most free from these have yet defects and imperfections in their faith of this as well as other parts of truth They have not yet attained to such a pitch but they must be adding to it and endeavour to get on to further measures and degrees And therefore let it be our labour and endeavour to encrease our faith in this particular and to grow up by full assurance of this fundamental truth that our God is the true God And to this I shall perswade and stir you up with some motives The more undoubtedly and firmly we believe that our God is the true God the more we will look to him the more we will walk with him and consequently we will converse the less among the creatures For hence it is because we have some doubts and haesitations in our faith of this particular that we have so great an eye upon the creature in our wayes that we approve our selves to men and seek the approbation and applause of men that we are afraid of men afraid of Creatures but are not afraid of God Whence is it my beloved but because we are not absolutely satisfied at all times that our God is indeed the true God but have thoughts arising in us or cast into us tending at least towards some scruple in this business and have not alwayes arguments at hand to put the matter out of all question and to suppress such thoughts as these as soon as they begin to stir in us Who art thou that thou shouldst be afraid of a man that shall dye and of the son of man that shall be made as grass And forgettest the Lord thy maker that hath stretched out the Heavens and laid the foundations of the earth Esa 51.12 13. By which the Prophet intimates that we should never be transported so with sinful fears of men and creatures as we are but that the great Creator is set by either he is not in our thoughts or which is worse he is not in our faith And when we come to this my Brethren to have some scruples in our selves whether there
be a God at all or if there be whether ours which we have chosen be the right and true God it is impossible but we should so far as those doubts prevail upon us go out from him and apply our selves to those things which are obvious to the sence which we see and know to be The more undoubtedly and firmly we believe that our God is the true God the more perfectly and fully we shall serve him and obey him the more we shall trust in him the more we shall seek to him the more we shall strive to please him according to the strengthening or weakening of our faith in this particular will be the measure of our service and obedience to him of our reliance and dependence on him For even as if a man believe there is no God at all he will not serve him he will not roll himself upon him whom he thinketh not to be So if he believe it weakly and with many haesitations that there is a God or that the God which he hath chosen is the true God he will fear him and he will trust him very weakly and remisly He will be on and off and up and down according to the ebbings and the flowings of his faith But if we have a strong and an unshaken confidence that our God is God indeed then we will set our selves to serve him fully and without halting Then we will trust him perfectly we will apply our selves to please him in all our ways and all our actions But you will ask me then how shall we do to put this matter out of all question that our God is the true God and what means shall we use to satisfie our selves and to confirm our faith in this particular because it is a Point of such concernment and hath such influence in our lives I shall give you some Directions First Endeavour to the utmost of your power to give compleat and full assent and credit to the Scripture admit not any doubt in that particular One main thing that the Scripture doth is to give testimony to the God whom we worship and if we can but say that this witness is true there is an end of this business So far as we believe the Scripture we cannot but believe without any haesitation that our God is the true God If we be satisfied of the one we cannot possibly have any scruple of the other And therefore we should spend our thoughts upon such meditations as will settle us in this We should consider with our selves the strange Consent of Scripture-writers living in so many Ages the strange accomplishment of Scripture-Prophesies the strange effect of Scripture-admonitions exhortations threatnings Though it be carried in a low and easie stile how it commands us and prevaileth more upon us then all the Eloquence of men and Angels could ever do were it united altogether Especially we should observe we that are God's I mean for to such I now speak what admirable operation it hath had upon our own hearts how it hath pierced in and made a separation between our very joynts and marrow how it hath even told us all that ever we have done how it hath cast us down with sorrow unconceivable and then raised us up again with joy unspeakable and glorious how it hath altered and changed us and turned us clear about and made us to renounce our profits pleasures and delights our wills our reasons and desires yea to deny our selves that we might walk by this Rule Such things as these methinks should mightily confirm us in the truth of this that the Scripture is the very Word of God And then this cannot chuse but follow out of all dispute that our God is the true God Secondly Examine all pretenders to the Godhead and see if any of them have so good a Plea so good a Title to the Deity as the God whom we worship This I suppose is out of question with you that there is a God this is apparent by the current and the joynt-consent of men in all times and in all places For this is not a thing that hath been taught by this or that sect or held by this or that people But all sects how much soever they have differed in all other things have held this and all Nations how wide soever each from other in place or manners have taught this But now the thing we are upon is who this God is whether ours or any other And truly my Beloved if this be once admitted that there is a God our God will carry it from any other that hath laid any claim to it As for the Idols of the Heathen stocks and stones I know you will not think it worthy your consideration whether any of them were the true God And for the gods which the Barbarians worshipped the Sun the Moon the very beasts themselves of every sort they are no great pretenders neither we need no more then ordinary reason to convince us that these can be no Gods For to say truth they are below men The Romane gods are more considerable then the other and yet they were but men as Jupiter and Saturn and the like Yea to say truth they were vile and wicked men addicted to the grossest vices and such as led most prophane and lewd lives Yea they were mortal men and therefore certainly they were not Gods And hence their very Worshippers would shew you in one place a Temple and in another place a Sepulchre erected to the same God which is a most apparent Contradiction And truly if a man consider who have pretended to the Godhead besides our God and what poor things they were it will exceedingly establish and confirm him in this business You cannot think that if there be a God as that is granted of all hands he is concealed from the world till this time And truly for the other gods that have been worshipped if you will but examine them you will apparently discover them to have deluded and deceived the world so that you may exceedingly confirm your faith in this respect by an induction of particulars This god and that god cannot be the true God and so along in all the rest And therefore our God is undoubtedly the true God And you shall find the Lord to have such poor Competitors that you will certainly cry out at last as being fully satisfied The Lord is God the Lord is God Be sure to sift this business to the full when you set your selves about it and not to leave it undetermined in your own thoughts Never give over till you be resolved and till you be established in the present truth It is the fault of many men yea I believe of many good men that when some thoughts of Atheism are cast in and when they have some doubts arising in their hearts whether the Lord be God or no as this the very best may have they do not altogether scatter them before they leave them but
other and now they are delivered and believe lyes It is a lie and a delusion but it is a strong delusion so that you cannot stir them from it Do what you can and bring what arguments you will it is in vain the deceit is strong upon them And some are also given up to vile affections and to those burning lusts which the Apostle speaks of in the cited places This is the formidable judgement of the Lord on those who know God and do not walk according to their knowledge And therefore as we own the true God let us serve and let us worship him as such a one let us live and act for him let us be taken up with him let us make this our work to please him let us in every thing so carry and demean our selves as they should do who have the Lord for their God JOHN 17.3 Thee the only true God IS it so that God the Father Son c. is the only true God Then Use 3 let us have no other God but him only Let us be able confidently to challenge any man in the words of holy David Whom have we in heaven but him and whom have we in earth but him Is there any in the world whom we set up to our selves as a God but him only Let us be alwaies mindfull of the first and great Commandment of the Law of God which is indeed the very basis and foundation of the rest Thou shalt have no other God before me Thou shalt have a God and thou shalt have me for thy God and thou shalt have none but me for thy God And that which is annexed is very much to be observed If thou hast any God besides me it will be before me If we could go behind his back and take another god there were the less iniquity and there were the more safety it were not such a hainous thing it were not such a dangerous thing But to go and take another god before his face as if a wife should go and take another Lover and commit uncleanness with him even before her husbands face what an horrid impudence what an unsufferable provocation What saith the Lord as once Ahasuerus in the case of Haman will he commit adultery before my face for so idolatry is spiritual adultery will he do it in my presence and while I am looking on Ah desperate wretch nay then I see there is no hope of him take him away and carry him to execution And therefore let us be extreamly cautious that we have no other God but him alone who is the only true God But you will ask me now perhaps what I intend when I exhort you to have no other God but him only Truly my Brethren it involveth many things but I shall draw them to a few heads When I perswade you to have the Lord and none but him for your God my meaning is that you should serve him and none but him that you should fear him and none but him that you should trust in him and none but him Then since he is the only true God serve him and none but him Serve the Lord so as to serve no other with him So is his own express injunction Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve Matth. 4.10 And here to be a little more distinct serve the Lord and not Idols serve the Lord and not Times serve the Lord and not Lusts First serve the Lord and not Idols they are all false gods he is the only true God and therefore see you serve him and not them It is a sin the Scripture very much disswades from and makes the worst of all corruptions and most abominable to the Lord. And therefore this is often called the sin in Scripture by way of eminence above the rest because it is a sin of the most infamous and odious rank And Jeroboams drawing Israel to the worship of the calves is frequently set forth by this expression he made Israel to sin He made them to commit the sinning sin the sin which is abundantly and out of measure sinfull And God himself disswading from it speaketh of it as that on which his very heart did rise which he abhorred to name on which he could not think without extremity of detestation O do not that abominable thing which I hate Jer. 44.4 And otherwise indeed it cannot be For it is the choosing of another god that is the Holy Ghosts expression of it saith he they chose new gods Judges 5.8 by which they made it to appear that they were weary of the old as if they had discovered some iniquity in God as he expostulateth with the Jews upon the like occasion Jer. 2.5 as if the Lord were found upon experience to be such a god or were not worth the keeping any longer This is a thing from which the very heathen are abhorrent and averse the Nations will not change their gods Jer. 2.11 though they be but false gods and consequently no gods as it is added there in that place Oh what an odious thing is this that the Church should change hers who hath the true and everlasting Lord of heaven and earth for her God They will not change their false gods for the true and shall we change the true God for a false Oh what an horrible indignity is this what an unsufferable provocation And therefore God is exceedingly incensed at this iniquity it is a sin that kindles anger great anger yea the heat of great anger Deut. 24.44 What means the heat of this great anger And in the following verses it is shewed to be because they went and served other gods Indeed Idolatry stirs up the jealousie of God and therefore this is added as the reason of the prohibition of it because he is a jealous God And even as jealousie in man is as the wise man notes the rage of man so jealousie in God my Brethren is the rage of God To see his Wife the Church forsake him and run a whoring after Idols is such a thing as blows and kindles up the flames of his hottest indignation In what a fearfull rage was God on this occasion behold and tremble at it Exod. 32.9 when Moses hung about him and besought him for the people he flung him off Let me alone saith God that so my anger may wax hot against them and that I may consume them in a moment And if you search the Scripture you shall find that God hath executed and inflicted the heaviest of his plagues and judgements on those that have been guilty of this sin Look on the monuments of his severest and most direfull vengeance and you shall find that as the wrath of God hath been revealed from heaven against all unrighteousness of men so especially against this hideous sin And as a man transported with a jealous spirit is apt to take unmercifull revenge in which respect the wise man saith He will not spare in the
day of vengeance Prov. 6.34 even so the Lord when he is stirred to jealousie on this occasion is wont to measure out to such offendors an excess and overplus of wrath and vengeance as you may see a sad example of it in the Jews And therefore I shut up this Exhortation as John doth his Epistle Little children keep your selves from Idols Amen Serve the Lord and not Idols But you will say perhaps what needs this For who among us is inclinable to this sin Or which of us doth serve Idols To this I answer That there is not in man a stronger inclination to any sin then that of Idolatry as I could shew you very plentifully and very clearly from the Scripture And as for actual Idolatry you must know my Brethren that there is a gross and open and there is a more subtile and secret Idolatry The gross and open is the worshipping of heathen images and heathen gods or else of Popish Crucifixes and the like from this perhaps you may acquit your selves But now besides there is an inward and secret Idolatry and this is very rife and common in the world yea in the bosom of the Church it self Professed Christians many of them who have but one God in their mouthes have yet an hundred in their hearts For you must know my Brethren that this inward Idol-worship is not committed only by conceiving an Idol or a creature under the notion of God which was the errour of the heathen who thought that Jupiter and Mars were gods But also by ascribing that to any creature which is peculiar to the Lord. In doing so we deifie the creature and set it up in Gods stead and this is very usual among those that would be taken to be Christians some make Idols of themselves either their belly is their God as the Apostle speaks in his time whose end is destruction whose God is their belly Phil. 3.19 they take more care to please their appetites and fill their bellies then to please God Or else they make their policy and wit their God while they rely and rest upon it to bring their enterprizes and designs to pass and so accordingly attribute the effecting of them to their own skill and to their own ability These are the men that sacrifice to their own net and burn incense to their own dragg as the Prophet speaks Hab. 1.16 Others make Idols of their fellow Creatures while they lay out that fear and love and confidence upon them which belongs to God only In this respect the covetous and worldly wretch is stiled an Idolater Eph. 5.5 because he loves his riches more then God and trusteth in his riches more then God And the Apostle James speaking of such as love the world calls them adulterers and adulteresses Jam. 4.4 because they commit this inward Idolatry which is spiritual adultery with the things of this life The like may be affirmed of the ambitious man who loves his honours more then God and of the voluptuous man who loves his pleasures more then God So that you see my Brethren there is need of this advice even to professed Christians to serve the Lord and not Idols 2. Serve the Lord and not the times 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are words not very much unlike neither in the writing of them nor in the pronunciation of them there is but a letter odds And hence it is that some have put the latter for the former in that place of the Apostle Rom. 12.11 And in stead of reading it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 serving the Lord they read it by an easie change 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 serving the time And so we find it in some Greek Copies And truly there are many in these dayes of ours who seem to like extreamly well of this change who would have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 put for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 still and who would rather serve the time then serve the Lord. These are the men who fashion and apply themselves continually to the present garb and to the present state of things Like weather Cocks they turn with every blast like Ships they set their sails to every wind Brethren this is an odious thing to mould our selves especially in points of Conscience and matters of Religion to the times Indeed it is observed of the men of Issachar that they were wise to understand the times and to know what Israel ought to do 1 Chron. 12.31 And so I must acknowledge it is wisdom so to observe the times to know our duty what it is and to perform it in the proper season But to observe them so to serve them is a very great evil We must not serve the times but serve the Lord. 3. Serve the Lord and not Lusts neither your own Lusts nor the Lusts of others First serve the Lord and not your own Lusts if he be the only true God he must be served and not them And yet how many are there who are slaves and vassals to their own Corruptions who are not subject and obedient to the will of God but to that which the Evangelist calls the will of the flesh 1 John 13. They are a rule unto themselves and walk according to their own counsels That which they have a will and a desire to do to which they are carried and swayed by their own inclinations and sensual affections they freely follow and pursue but for the will of God they neither care to know it nor obey it I wish that such would seriously consider what a fearfull thing it is for God to leave men to their own wills He never doth it but in extremity of wrath and vengeance When he will take severe revenge indeed then he picks out this judgement My people would not hearken to my voice saith God and Israel would none of me What must become of Israel now think you you may behold it in the following verse So I gave them up to their own lusts to walk according to their own counsels And certainly unless the Lord should send men quick to hell a heavier Judgement cannot come upon them Secondly serve the Lord and not the Lusts of other men that is the basest and unworthiest service in the world when men are not only subject to the regular and just commands of their superiours for so they are in duty bound to be but they are subject to their wicked humours They are not only serviceable and obedient to their lawfull wills but they are Bawds and Pandars to their Lusts They will do any thing rather then they shall be offended and displeased They will serve them in their sins and serve them in their base and wicked humours though conscience grumble and recoyl they will comply with them in every thing they will humour and applaud them and admire them for advantage as the Apostle Paul speaks They are resolved to please them whether God be pleased or no. Let such remember that God
could not be the least addition to him any way The meaning is that he had manifested and declared him to be glorious that he had shewed him in his glory to the world And this is that which he expresses clearly in the following verse saith he I have made known thy name to the men which thou hast given me And this he tels him he had done on earth It was done in heaven before the glory of the Lord was fully and immediately manifested there And now saith Christ it is done in earth too I have glorified thee on earth And hereupon he looks his Father should glorifie him with himself in heaven as it is added in the following words So that the point to be observed is this DOCTRINE Who ever will be glorified with God in heaven must glorifie him first on Earth Our Saviour Christ himself you see can have it on no other terms And therefore he desires it only upon this account saith he to God the Father I have glorified thee on Earth and now O Father glorifie me with thy self in heaven According to his first desire in his beginning of his prayer Father glorifie thy Son q. d. I should not look for any glory from thee unless I had brought glory to thee I should be far from any expectation that thou shouldst glorifie me with thy self in heaven unless I were assured in my self that I had glorified thee here upon the earth But seeing I have done the former I pray thee Father do the latter since I have glorified thee let me be glorified by thee And as it was with Christ the Head so it must be in some degree with all the Members No glory to be had in heaven till they have glorified God on earth It s true they merit not the glory they receive from God by that which they bring to God as Christ did but yet the one is not to be attained without the other They that bring God no glory in the present world shall have no glory from him in the world to come The Lord indeed will render glory to every man that worketh good and so glorifieth him as the Apostle shews Rom. 2.10 But unto them that are contentious and do not obey the truth but obey unrighteousness and so dishonour God in their lives and conversations he will render nothing else but shame and ignominy and confusion They shall be raised to everlasting contempt Dan. 12.2 and be made spectacles of shame to men and Angels Reas 1 And the ground is evident because so is the everlasting Counsel and Decree of God which is not to be altered or reversed Those whom he chuses for himself whom he predestinateth to be glorified with him in the world to come those he predestinateth also to bring glory to him in this present world As he predestinateth such to the inheritance above who is abundantly and out of measure glorious so he predestinates them also that they should be to the praise of his glory as the Apostle shews you Eph. 1.11 12. That he may manifest the riches of his glory in the vessels of mercy which he had afore prepared unto glory so that you see as he prepares them unto glory as he appoints them to be glorified themselves so he prepares them and appoints them to bring glory to himself Rom. 9.23 To shew forth the praises of him that hath called them to his Kingdom and glory 1 Pet. 2.9 Thy people shall be all righteous saith the Lord of his Church Isa 60.21 The branch of my planting the work of my hands that I may be glorified Not only that they may be glorified but that I may be glorified too And if this be the purpose and decree of God will he not see it executed and fulfilled in all respects as well with reference to his glory as with reference to theirs shall his Counsel be accomplished in the one and not in the other do you imagine that the Lord will be put off in such a fashion that he will be disappointed of his end and of his purpose in such a business as this is No no assuredly if he predestinate men that they may be to the praise of his glory as well as that they may be glorified by him to his praise and to his glory they shall be And if they be not so at all it is apparent they are not predestinated by him and consequently they shall have no glory from him Now is it so my Brethren that whoever will be glorified with God Vse 1 in heaven must glorifie him first on earth This then may serve to shew the vanity of their conceit and apprehension who look for glory in the world to come and yet they bring the Lord no glory here It is the miserable folly and delusion of the greater part of men there is not one of us almost but thinks that God will glorifie him with himself hereafter He is an extraordinary man that doth not feed himself with this fancy And yet those very persons many of them who are strong in this opinion take no care to honour God in any of their ways nor to bring him any glory why my beloved how can you think now to be glorified with him Jesus Christ his own Son the darling of his own bosom could not have glory with him upon these terms He did not once so much as look for it Had he not glorified his Father here in this world he would not have expected that he should have glorified him with himself in heaven ye see he seeks it and desires it only upon this account And what now do you think to speed better with the Father then Jesus Christ his own Son do you imagine that you shall have glory from him though you bring no glory to him when Christ himself did not could not obtain it upon such terms as these are do you look in this regard to be preferred before Christ to have the better of God himself Ah my beloved do not gull your souls with this delusion I beseech you think upon it you who by your lewd and vitious conversations dishonour God continually you who lie in wickedness and wallow in uncleanness whose lives are full of nothing but prophaneness who are conscious to your selves that God hath not a whit of glory brought him by you unless ungodliness and sin will do it To whom a man may truly say as the Apostle doth to some Rom. 2.24 The name of God is blasphemed by your means do you expect that God should glorifie you with himself in heaven when you have done nothing else but dishonoured him on earth believe it he will be so far from this that seeing he hath not been glorified by you he will be glorified upon you He made you for his glory and glory he will have either one way or another he will not lose a farthing by you And if he be not glorified by your holy conversation he will be glorified in
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
did endure And so it will do any of us in the like case This is the victory that overcometh the world even our Faith 1 Joh. 5.4 And therefore when we are so quickly overcome and brought to choose sin rather then affliction it is a sign we want faith By this you see there are too many who do not keep the Word of God in their hearts by believing Now I beseech you my Beloved as you would have this assurance that you are of the number of those that belong to Christ by the donation of the Father keep his words if you observe your Faith to waver or to fail in any point abase and judge your selves for it And that you may the better know how far to judge and how far to acquit your selves in this particular I shall give you some Cautions 1. You are not bound to credit every thing that is presented to you under the name and title of the Word of God To give a suddain and inconsiderate assent to all that the best Minister delivers to you because he teaches it and you are well perswaded of the man You may nay more then so you ought to try before you trust in this case Prove every thing saith the Apostle 1 Thes 5.21 and then hold fast that which is good It is observed of the Bereans that they were not so servilly addicted and engaged to any Teachers how excellent soever their endowments were as to receive upon their credit any thing that they delivered No their manner was to search the Scriptures whether things were so Act. 17.11 And yet it is notable that they are said to have received the Word of God with all readiness of mind for all this The Lord requires no greater readiness of mind then this in entertaining or believing any thing that is delivered in his Name that is to take it upon some trial 2. It is no sign of infidelity to move some questions with an aym at satisfaction concerning things delivered either in or from the Word If it be done with holy reverence and with an humble and sincere desire of satisfaction and instruction it is a very good course So did the blessed Virgin make a question concerning what the Angel had delivered to her Luke 1.34 A question not of opposition but of inquisition How shall these things be This way of making doubts and questions it seems was used in the Jewish Church and Christ approved it by his Example Luk. 2.46 47. So it is said of the Apostle Paul that he reasoned with the Jews out of the Scriptures Act. 17.2 And if such reasonings were more in use not reasonings against the Word but out of the Word there would assuredly be more faith then there is at this day 3. Nay though it be a sign of weakness it is no sign of utter infidelity to have some doubtful thoughts arising in our hearts concerning the most clear and pregnant Truths that are revealed in the Word of God David had such thoughts as these and yet he was a good man though this indeed were no part of his goodness Psal 89.19 37 38. There you have first the Lords assurance that he will establish David and protect him And at last he comes to swear that he will not lye to David his Throne shall endure for ever c. And yet observe how David faileth in the very next words but thou hast cast off and abhorred thou hast made void the Covenant of thy servant This was his great infirmity and yet you see it was not incompatible with grace It may befall a Saint to have such unbelieving thoughts as these provided that he pray against them strive against them and be humbled for them As David was when he had motions to distrust the Providence of God to question this great truth of God as Psal 73. this did so trouble him that at vers 21. he saith his very heart was grieved and he was pricked in his reins because he was so foolish and so ignorant And while it is thus with us we need not thereupon to doubt our interest in Jesus Christ But if we entertain such thoughts as these and bid them welcome when they come c. if we never pray nor strive against our unbelief nor grow up into any certainty in matters of Religion If we resolvedly reject the Word of God either in part or in the whole this is a very sad case If I speak the truth saith Christ why do you not believe me Joh. 8.46 And mark what follows presently ye therefore hear me not that is believe me not because ye are not of my sheep as I said unto you So that it is a formidable thing you see not to believe the Word of Christ It shews that men are none of Christs And therefore let us give assent to the whole Word of God the precepts promises and threatnings that Christ may own us that he may say concerning us to God the Father Thine they were and thou gavest them to me And thus we have dispatched the first and second branch of the discovery Proceed we to the third Have you kept the Word of God in your affections by loving it it is somewhat to remember it it is more to give assent and credit to it but it is most of all to love and delight in it And yet unless you reach to this you can have no assurance that you belong to Jesus Christ and that you are bestowed upon him by the Father The very Devils know the Word of God and think upon it and believe it too they are convinced of the truth of it and yet they are so far from loving it or taking any pleasure in it that they tremble at it They perceive it is against them they look upon it as an Enemy that speaks sad things to them and so they are afraid of it They fear it with a slavish fear and slavish fear casteth out love To say the truth the more they credit it the less they love it and the more they tremble at it And so it is in some degree with wicked and ungodly men They give assent to the letter of the Scripture they believe it to be true but they have no affection to it because it is no friend to them and their courses It crosses them in every thing they have a mind to and therefore they are at enmity with it and their hearts rise up against it they receive the knowledge and in some sort the belief but they do not receive the love of the Truth But you my Brethren must go further yet if you will clear your interest in Jesus Christ you must go beyond Devils yea you must go beyond the best of carnal and unsanctified men you must not satisfie your selves with this that you know the Word of God that you have it in your mindes that you are able to discourse of it that you believe it to be true in all particulars But more then so your
hearts must be carryed out in dear affection to it If this be wanting all the rest is worth nothing You may perish notwithstanding as pesons that are out of Christ and be damned in hell for ever unless you come to love the Word of God as you may see in that remarkable Example 2 Thes 2.10 They received not the love of the Truth saith the Apostle there and what follows that they might be saved No salvation unless the Word the Truth of God be kept in the affections by the loving it And therefore it is added presently for this cause God shall send them strong delusions that they might all be damned Oh then as you desire to have this sweet assurance in your souls that you belong to Jesus Christ and that you shall be saved by him examine whether you have kept the Word of God in this respect or no whether you have it dear in your affections And that you may the better try your selves in this regard I shall give you some discoveries If you love the Word of God you will desire on all occasions to converse with it Desire of union and communion is alwaies an effect and evidence of true affection You shall observe it in the Prophet David who was unparalleled in this respect for infinite affection to the Word of God It is a wonder to consider how his heart was set upon it And hence it was that when he was kept off from the enjoyment of the Word he had such vehement and enflamed desires to be partaker of it He panted and he gasped after it even as the Hart panteth after the water-brooks Oh when shall I appear before God Psal 42.2 when shall I be partaker of his Word and of his Ordinances once again when will it once be So in another place My soul longeth yea even fainteth for the Courts of the Lord where Ordinances were dispensed My heart and my flesh cryes out for the living God Psal 84.2 So that he envies the very Sparrows and the Swallows who were freer then himself to be near that place Yea his longing was so great that he was even heart-broken with it Psal 119.20 My soul breaketh for the longing that it hath to thy judgements at all times And have you such affections and such anhelations in you Let us examine it a little in these two particulars 1. Do you hear the Word of God as often as you may not only now and then when you have nothing else to do and when you have no other business to withdraw you but constantly on all occasions do you attend upon it as your main and chief business do you for the love you bear it neglect and set aside and under-value other things this is the Wisemans admonition Prov. 23.23 Buy the Truth and sell it not Sell it not for a little profit in the field or in the shop but rather buy it and redeem it with your loss of outward things Do you conceive that David of whose high affections you have heard would neglect any opportunity for being made partaker of the Word of God Oh how did he bewail the want of it How would he have struggled for it How eagerly would he have taken it with any outward disadvantage And this is that which Christ commendeth Mary for not for a work of supererogation as doing more then she was bound to do but for a regular account and estimation of the Word setting aside her houshold business that she might be partaker of it Luk. 10.42 Not only they that will not hear the Word of God at all but they that hear it seldom that suffer every worldly business to withdraw them from it will be found not to have loved it and esteemed it as they ought to do How shall we escape saith Paul Heb. 2.3 if we neglect so geeat salvation 2. Do you exercise your selves as in the hearing so in the reading and in the meditation of it Do you converse with the Word of God in private Doth it dwell with you in your houses as the Apostles phrase is Col. 3.16 For this you must know my Brethren that though you should be ordinary hearers of the best Ministry beneath Heaven yet you must not rest in that but you must exercise your selves in reading of the Word of God in private It was the Lords Commandement to the King himself that though he might plead want of leisure more then many others and though he had the ordinary help of the Levites Priests and Prophets more then others as David had both Gad and Nathan yet he must have his Bible still and must be constant in the reading of it as you may see Deut. 47.49 And it was that which cheered and supported Job in his affliction Job 23.12 that he could say uprightly in the presence of the Lord I have esteemed the Word of his mouth more then my necessary and appointed food More duly then he kept his meals he tyed himself to read and meditate in Gods-Word Among the Jews under Antiochus it was made capital for any man to have the Book of God by him And in Queen Maries days you know the danger was not less and then how did they prize a little piece of Holy Writ how did they value a few Chapters of the Bible If a poor a man could get a leaf or two how safely would he keep them in his bosom next his heart as the most pretious things he had How would he wear them out with reading in them God hath dealt more gratiously with us there is now no danger to have a Bible and therefore if we be not constant in the reading and the meditation of it we shew not such affection to it as we ought to do That is the first thing then if you love the Word of God you will desire on all occasions to converse with it both in publique and in private 2. If you love the Word of God you will endeavour to be inwardly acquainted with it we converse with many men with whom we are not intimate And so there are abundance that hear and read the Word of God and yet know little of the meaning of it But if you love it as you ought to do you will not satisfie your selves with this that you read so many Chapters in a day that you attend on every Sermon that is preached unless you find that you do in a measure understand the mind of God and the mind of Jesus Christ in those things If I affect a man exceedingly I shall endeavour what I can to get within him as we use to say not to know his face and to hear his words only but to be inwardly acquainted with his disposition and the purpose of his heart And so if you affect the Word you will strive to get into the bosom of it You will not be contented with a formal superficial knowledge of the letter of it but you will dive into the very bowels of the
the rest out of your practice and obedience No you must keep it all throughout without restraint or limitation if you will make it to appear that you belong to Jesus Christ Thou hast given them to me saith our Saviour in my Text and they have kept thy Word Observe it well he saith not They have kept some portion of thy Word or They have kept it in some certain things they have obeyed some rules and some directions of it but they have kept thy Word you must conceive it all thy Word without any reservation They have not willingly allowed themselves in any disobedience to the least iota of it And thus it is with those that are bestowed on Jesus Christ they are obedient to the Word in all things and so they make it to appear that they are men of proof indeed that they are tried Christians as the Apostle shews 2 Cor. 2.9 To this end did I write to you that I might have the proof of you and whether you would be obedient in all things They can say as David doth Psal 119.104 Through thy precepts I get understanding therefore every false way I utterly abhorre Assoon as I get so much understanding from thy Word and from thy Law to know that such a way is false and leads not to the happiness and comfort which it seems to promise I do not follow it and keep it as I did before no I decline it and abhorre it yea I abhorre it utterly I never touch more with it let it be what it will never so sweet so pleasing so delightful so accustomed to me Through thy Law I get understanding therefore every false way I utterly abhorre And is it so with you my Brethren Turn in upon your selves a little and consider how farre you are acquainted with the Word and Will of God how far the Lord hath shewed what is good and what he requires of you so that you are convinced of it and then examine whether you fall short in nothing whether you come fully up to the obedience and the practice of it whether you keep the Word entirely so that you do not fail in any thing advisedly and customarily of which your understandings are informed and which you know to be a duty Tell me Beloved is there no such thing is the Conscience quiet now doth it lay nothing to your charge no neglect of any thing you should have done doth it not tell you that in this and that particular you know the rule and yet you have not walked accordingly In such or such a thing you have gone quite and clean against it Brethren if your hearts accuse you God is greater then your hearts and knoweth all things Go home and judge your selves for it Commune with your hearts and say Herein I see I have been faulty I have not kept the Word of God my practice hath not been in every point according to the Rule no I have failed in this and that and the other thing But now I am resolved in good earnest by the grace of Jesus Christ to take another course as far as it is possible I will not swerve a whit nor vary in my conversation from the Word of God This I acknowledge I have done which I know well enough I ought not to have done This I confess I have neglected which I know I should have done but now it shall be so no more My aim shall be to keep the Word as far as humane weakness and infirmity will suffer wholly and entirely Thus you must do if you will make it to appear that Christ hath any share in you As you must keep the Word wholly so you must keep it cordially too As you must obey it all so you must obey it all with all the heart Your obedience to the Word must flow from principles of heartiness and love withâ—n and not from base respects and ends without And this is that which the Apostle testifies of the Romans Rom. 6.17 Ye have obeyed from the heart saith he the form of Doctrine that hath been delivered to you or whereto you were delivered as it is rendred in the margent you have obeyed it and you have obeyed it from the heart so that your obedience was voluntary free delightful you found complacencie and pleasure in it you needed nothing else to carry and incline you to it but the inward motion disposition and affection of the heart You had enough within you to quicken you and stir you up to the obedience of the Word of God And thus it is with those that are bestowed on Jesus Christ they obey it heartily while others do it meerly out of self-ends All their motives and inducements to the obedience which they yeild are from without either they are drawn by force or they are hired or they are frighted to it Their hearts meerly of themselves do nothing with them in the business Jehu was large enough in his obedience to the command and will of God as to the matter of the things he did with reference to Ahabs house To say the truth he did all every thing that God would have him But he failed in this particular he did nothing heartily nothing out of love to God but all for his own ends and therefore all he did was worth nothing See what an ample attestation he received from God himself 2 King 10.13 Thou hast executed that which was right in my eyes and hast done to the house of Ahab according to all that was in my heart He had not omitted any particular and yet because it was not cordially done for God but meerly for himself that he might bring about his own designs he met with a revenge instead of a reward as you may see Hos 1.4 How far doth Artaxerxes go Ezra 7.23 Whatsoever is commanded by the God of heaven let it be diligently done You see to what a pass this Heathen Prince is brought he will do any thing for God any thing that he requires let it be what it will he will obey But what is that which moves him to it is it a principle of love to God doth he do it heartily No it proceeds from noting else but fear of wrath and vengeance as it is apparent in the latter member of the verse for why should there be wrath upon the Realm of the King and of his Sons Now I beseech you try your selves in this particular you obey the Word of God yea and it may be you are large in your obedience as to the matter of the thing required But do you as it is observed of the Romans obey it from the heart or from some other principle if there is nothing else to move you would your hearts carry you to this obedience Have you that within you still that would hold you in from sin and stir you up to duty if there were no inducement from without Can you say as David doth Psal 10 8. Lord I delight to do
thy will for thy Law is in my heart Lord we delight to pray read hear perform religious duties it is our meat and drink to do thy will for thy Law is in our hearts It is not written in our understandings only but in our hearts and our affections and this is that which makes obedience to it pleasing and delightful to us So that if you might be free from the injunctions and directions of the Word with the servant in the Law you would not value such a libertie You would not swear and be unclean and run out into all excess of ryot if you might because your spirits have by grace an inward contrariety and antipathy against it you would not cease to pray and hear and perform religious duties if you might because your spirits have an inward sweet complacencie in these things If you thus keep the Word it is a sign that you are Christs Disciples As you must keep the Word wholly and keep it cordially so you must keep it constantly you must keep it to the end as the Prophet David speaks Psal 119.33 You must hold on in keeping it you must persist in your obedience to it even to your lives end that Christ may say at last concerning you when you depart out of this world and appear before his Father Thou hast given them to me and they have kept thy word And indeed to obey it for a time and then to throw it off again is not to keep it but to lose it Alas how many such are there among us in these latter times who for a while were very diligent and Instant in the study of the Scriptures seem'd to be very cautious and exact to frame their lives in every thing according to the word of God so that they would not vary from it in the least particular Or if they found themselves at any time in any thing to swerve from the direction of the Rule they would judge themselves for it But now the Word the rule it self is laid aside as an unnecessary and a useless thing as if it were not worthy the keeping any longer there is no care at all to walk by it when there are gross and horrid deviations from it they are not looked upon as matter of Humiliation or Contrition in the least degree I wish that such would seriously consider with themselves how Christ shall own them in the latter day how he shall plead before his Father for them that they have kept his word Now my Beloved lay these things to heart and never rest till you have gotten this Character of those that are bestowed on Jesus Christ by the donation of the Father Never satisfie your selves till you keep the Word of God in your lives by obeying it till you keep it wholly and till you keep it cordially and till you keep it constantly And then there is a blessing poured out upon you by the mouth of Christ himself Blessed are they that hear the word of God and keep it that is that do not hear it only but obey it And to the same effect speaks the Apostle James Jam. 1.23 If as you look into the Law the word of God and understand it so you continue in it and are doers of the work not forgetful hearers of it but doers of the work you shall be blessed in the deed And that you may attain this blessedness that follows those that are obedient to the word I shall give you some direction 1. You must seek to God to teach you though you may learn to know it as that a Castaway may do yet you can never learn to keep it any other way you shall never keep the word in the obedience of your lives unless God and Christ teach you David was very sensible of this and therefore poured out his prayer to the Lord Psal 119.33 Teach me O Lord the way of thy statutes and I will keep it to the end When thou thy self hast taught me once and not before I shall walk accordingly I shall be obedient to it It is not in the power of any in the world to teach a man to frame his life in every thing according to the word unless God himself do it But if he undertake it once if he be pleased to be our Teacher all is well And this is that which the Apostle Paul insinuates Ephes 4.20 and in the following verse ye have not so learned Christ saith he viz. to say and to profess that you are Christians and yet to live prophanely and licentiously and lewdly still If so be that you have heard him and been taught by him as the truth is in Jesus Why what doth he intend what is it to be taught by him he tells us in the following verse That you put off touching the former conversation the old man and be renewed in the spirit of your mind and put on the new man It is such a kind of teaching whereby we are transferred and brought to the obedience of it And therefore if you do indeed desire to have your lives conformed to the rule and Word of God seek to Christ himself to teach you 2. Be sure to set your selves to the obedience of it out of hand Procrastinations and delays will dash all It is observed of the Colossians that they obeyed the Word from the day they heard of it Col. 1.6 So you my Brethren do you grow practical from this day It may be you are now convinced of many things you think of this and that in which your practice is not answerable to the rule you have secret inward motions and it may be resolutions to amend all as David had I have said that I would keep thy Word saith he to God Psal 119.57 strike now while it is hot do as the same holy Prophet did I made haste and delayed not saith he to keep thy precepts Psal 119.60 Assoon as I resolved I made haste and set about it If you have holy resolutions wrought to practice any duty which you have hitherto neglected up and be doing presently do not permit such resolutions to grow cold and die within you least you never have them more I am perswaded there are many souls in hell who have purposed in many things to bring their practice to the Word to abandon such a sin and to set on such a duty they were resolved upon the thing but they could not do it yet and so the Lord hath cut them off and their delays have proved their ruine 2. If you will keep the Word of God in your lives by obeying it you must find out and mortifie the lusts that hinder you in this business or if you do not so you may resolve on this and that but surely it will come to nothing and therefore if you have within you any holy purposes of coming nearer to the Rule of leaving such a sin or setting upon such a duty think now what lust or what corruption there is
in you that will be like to make this blessed resolution frustrated in you and set the edge of your Petitions of your humiliation against this for if you do not this you do nothing Many men have been very well resolved to walk according to the Word in many things but when they come to act their resolutions there is some lust or other that prevails against them and this they do not mortifie and so are able to do nothing Well then my Brethren you have purposes perhaps to keep the Word of God in such and such particulars You are extreamly sensible that you have failed but now it shall be so no more I but there is some lust or other a lust of pride or covetousness or uncleanness which if it be not mortified will blast all strike that and kill that and then you may with comfort hope that you shall approve your selves such as are given up to Christ in that you keep his Word And thus we have at length dispatched the Character of those who are bestowed on Jesus Christ by the donation of the Father they are such as keep his Word that is the Word of God the Father So saith our Saviour here of his Apostles and Disciples they have kept thy Word Now in the following verses he proceeds to shew how they were brought to keep the Word of God and by what means it came to pass that they receive it and believed it and embraced it and obeyed it Why saith our Saviour they did it upon this account because they were perswaded and convinced that it was the very word which I received of my Father to deliver They knew for certain that it was not any thing which I as man devised and invented of my self but it was the very message which my Father put into my mouth and therefore they gave heed to it Now they have known that all things whatsoever thou hast given me are of thee for I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me and they have received them and have known surely that I came out from thee Now this if you observe it well is both expressed and amplified First it is nakedly expressed Now they have known that all things whatsoever thou hast given me are of thee Then it is amplyfied in the succeeding verse For I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me and they have received them c. And here our Saviour doth these two things First he declares his own fidelity in the delivery of his message from his Father to his people for I have given to them the words which thou gavest me those very words and no others And then he shews the issue and event of this faithfulness of his in his Apostles and Disciples and that especially in two respects First with relation to the message which he brought they have received them saith he that is the words which I delivered to them in thy Name Secondly then with relation to himself the Messenger they have known surely that I came from thee and they have believed that thou didst send me Let us at this time make a little entrance on this discovery of our Saviour as it is nakedly expressed Now they have known that all things whatsoever thou hast given me are of thee These words as I have hinted formerly my Brethren are annexed to those immediately before which we have even now dispatched to shew the means and way by which our Saviours hearers came to keep the Word which he delivered to them from his Father Why saith our Saviour this was a great inducement to it because they were perswaded that it was of thee that it was thy word indeed and not my own If I had spoken to them in my own Name or brought my own word to them they would never have received it But this was that which made them keep thy word because they knew that it was thine Now they have known that all things whatsoever thou hast given me you must conceive it to deliver or declare to my Disciples or as it is explained in the following verse all the words which thou hast given me are of thee So that the point apparently suggested here is plainly thus DOCTRINE They that will give the Word such entertainment as it ought to have must know for certain that it is the word of God Had not our Saviours hearers been convinced of this had they conceived and apprehended that it came from him meerly as he was a man they would never have believed it or embraced it and obeyed it as they did But this was that which made them keep it in the sense that hath been said because they knew that that which Christ delivered to them was the Word of God And to this end it is that Christ is so exactly cautious to perswade his hearers still that the message which he brings them is not of or from himself but from his Father My doctrine is not mine saith he but his that sent me Joh. 7.16 He that speaketh of himself he seeks his own glory but he that seeks his glory that hath sent him the same is true and no unrighteousness is in him And in the following Chapter at the 28. verse As my Father hath taught me so I speak Even as the Father said to me so I speak Joh. 12.50 The words that I speak unto you I speak not of my self Joh. 14.10 And this he beats so much upon to gain the better credit and respect and entertainment to his Message By which he intimates that he could look for no acceptance or regard among them if that which he delivered to them were not Gods Word It is observable in Nicodemus that this was that which made him come to Christ to hear him and be taught by him because he was perswaded that he was a Teacher come from God as his own expression is John 3.2 that he had somewhat to deliver to him from the Lord. Had it not been for this perswasion he had never waited on him And this was that which wrought upon the Thessalonians and brought them to a meet receiving of the Word because they looked upon it as the Word of God himself So the Apostle testifies of them 1 Thes 2.13 when ye received the Word which ye heard of us saith he ye received it not as the word of man but as it is in truth the Word of God If you had apprehended it to be the word of man and not of God you would not have regarded it and entertained it as you did But this was that which drew your hearts to such an high account and estimation of it because you were perswaded that it was in truth the Word of God not in appearance only and in the apprehensions and conceits of men but really in deed and truth the Word of God So that the point is plain you see They that will give c. And there is such reason for it as amounts
20.35 Remember the words of the Lord Jesus how he said It is more blessed to give then to receive And so he mindeth the Corinthians of that whith Christ himself spake To the marryed I command and yet not I but the Lord 1 Cor. 7.10 As intimating that the words which dropped from his lips did challenge singular regard from them And such regard my Brethren let them have from us when we meet with his Prayers his Sermons his Sayings let us hear this Prophet and hear him so to be obedient to him It was a dangerous thing you know to refuse to hear Moses he that despised Moses Law was to die without mercy But it is much more dangerous to refuse to hear Christ There is a sorer punishment for such Heb 10.28 It went very hard with those who refused the word that was spoken by Angels But if we refuse the word that was spoken by Christ and do it finally there is but one way with us we are gone without recovery For if the word spoken by Angels was stedfast for the execution of it and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompence of reward How shall we escape if we neglect so great Salvation which was spoken by the Lord If we hear him not we die and that without mercy too But if we hear him and obey him we shall live and that for ever The words that he spake are spirit and life And if a man keep his sayings he shall never see death 2. This should teach us in the second place to trust him since he is such a faithful Messenger that he varies not a word we may well rely upon him and believe him to the utmost His words are all heavenly all of God he hath given us those words that are given him of the Father all those and none but those and why then should we not depend upon them for our direction for our Consolation and trust him perfectly in all cases 3. To try other Prophets by this Prophet other Messengers by this Messenger and so accordingly to embrace them or reject them Other men that come from God really or in pretence may speak more or speak less then he hath put into their mouths Christ hath said neither more nor less and therefore let us always try their Messages by his Message if they agree with his let us embrace them but if they disagree let us reject them JOHN 17.8 I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me ANd thus far of the General Application Proceed we now a little more particularly and distinctly to apply the divers branches of the point in order Vse 1 Hath Christ himself approved himself a faithful Messenger from his Father to his people in this respect that he hath added nothing to his Message That he hath not delivered so much as a word more Then surely not a word of his must be neglected by us nor slightly passed over without the most exact examination All the words of Jesus Christ have weight in them and therefore they must all be weighed by them that handle them or read or hear them Every word that he delivered comes from heaven it is given him of his Father as you have it in my Text. And do you think his Father would give down from heaven so much as one vain word to be delivered by him to his Church and people And if there be not one superfluous word in his Message then certainly there is not one to be unadvisedly and lightly passed over by us And therefore let it be our care to pry into and study every word of Jesus Christ which he hath left upon record in Scripture to sift it and to scan it to the very utmost to seek to God by earnest prayer to open and unfold it to us that nothing in it as far as it is possible may scape us unobserved And truly my Beloved this deserves the more to be considered by us because we know not what we lose sometimes by our neglect in this particular by slight and careless handling reading or hearing of the words of Christ Oh the inestimable hidden worth that is wrapt up sometimes in one of his expressions and we take no notice of it Either we are ignorant of the Original the Language and the Tongue in which he speaks and so cannot or else we are negligent and idle and remiss and so do not dive in it It is not to be imagined what a world of light and information in deep and mysterious things of sweet direction of precious Consolation we lose by this means And therefore when we labour to expound the Scripture when we read or when we hear it let us not look upon a sentence or a verse in gross and so indeavour to find out the general intent and drift and meaning of it but let us scan and study every word Were there any loose expressions as there are in other writings that carry nothing of solidity and weight in them we might very well omit them and not spend our thoughts upon them But there is not a word to spare in that which Jesus Christ delivers from his Father to his people nothing but what is necessary to express some matter of importance and concernment to us and therefore let us value it and fist it well that we may know the mind of God and the mind of Christ in it Hath Christ approved himself a faithful Messenger from his Father to Vse 2 his people in this respect that he hath taken nothing from his message Then let us seek no further for direction in matters that concern salvation but let us satisfie our selves with that which Christ hath brought us from his Father Indeed if he were any way defective there were some colourable reason then why we should labour to supply him as the Papists do with their Traditions and unwritten Verities and so botch up as well as we are able that which he hath left unperfect But since he hath delivered to us all that his Father put into his mouth and hath not kept a word back Oh let us rest in the discovery he hath made as that which of it self is able to make us wise unto Salvation Let us beware of itching after novelties and hearkning after new and strange discoveries such as Christ hath never made as many do in these days Oh let not any of us who have heard and learned Christ turn away from wholesome doctrine and be turned after fables as the Apostle Paul speaks Let us not leave the Living Fountain and go to broken Cisterns that will hold no water But let us stick to Jesus Christ and satisfie our selves with that which he hath taught us in the Scripture as comprehending in it all that is necessary to salvation But here to clear my self a little that I may not be mistaken I acknowledge that many necessary things are not expresly delivered to us by our Saviour from his Father and
are bound to watch for as those for whom they are to give up an account when the day of reckoning comes And this appeareth evidently by the Apostles protestation to the Elders of Ephesus Act. 20.26 I take you to record this day that I am pure from the blood of all men How so For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the Counsel of God not some but all his Counsel They that hide any are not pure from blood no not from the blood of souls which is a formidable thing The blood of bodies hath a voyce and cryes aloud for wrath and vengeance upon them that shed it The blood of souls speaks worse things and cryeth louder then that of Abel 2. If they suppress c. they do in the desert deprive themselves of any share in the mercy of the Lord. It is a dreadful sentence against such which God himself doth not seem to speak so much as to thunder out against them Apoc. 22.19 If any man shall take away saith he from the words of this book Well if he do what then the Lord shall take away his part out of the Book of life and out of the holy City and from the things that are written in this Book If there be any happiness to be enjoyed in Heaven and in the new Jerusalem which is above if there be any mercy mentioned in the Book of God in all the pretious promises from the beginning of it to the end if there be any priviledge to have a part in the blessed Book of life the man that takes away one word out of the Book of God that so doth and so continues is utterly cut off from all these He that is able to diminish blessings and to bring them down so low that nothing of them shall remain will recompense them who diminish his word and pay them home in the same kind wherein they sin 3. If they suppress c. they expose themselves to ignominy and contempt with men They think perhaps to gratifie and please and to be loved and honoured and esteemed by this means viz. by hiding and concealing that which they imagine will not rellish with the people But God will meet with such in this preposterous way of theirs and cross them so that this shall make them despicable in the eyes of all men I have made you saith the Lord to the unfaithful Priests of Israel contemptible and base before all the people And why so because you have not kept my ways but have been partial in the Law Some of it you have delivered and some of it you have concealed according as your hearers and the times would bear you have dealt partially with it And thus you thought perhaps to get your selves esteem and love among the people But it is fallen out quite contrary clean against your expectation For all men look upon you now as self-seekers men-pleasers and time-servers and so you are become contemptible and base by this means And if you look on those at this day who are partial in the Law and who apply it only against one side who reprove and threaten none but those that are not of their own party you shall find them of no great esteem among the people 4. If they suppress c. as they expose themselves to shame so to wrong from men too They lay themselves by their unfaithfulness the more open to abuses and injuries and molestations from the people Whereas if they be faithful they are under Gods protection I have made thee saith the Lord encouraging the Prophet a defenced City and an Iron pillar and brazen walls against the whole Land against the Princes thereof against the Preists thereof and against the whole land and they shall fight against thee but they shall not prevail and what of this Therefore gird up thy loins and speak unto them all that I command thee Jer. 1.17 with-hold not any thing for fear that I would have thee to deliver be bold and confident in my protection Be not dismaid at their faces least I confound thee before them The Lord hath always taken special care of them who have been trusty in the delivery of his message And hence the Prophet David having said he suffered no man to do them wrong but reproved even Kings for their sakes discovers in the words immediately annexed who they were that had this special interest in Gods protection Touch not mine anointed and do my Prophets no harm Psal 105.15 And that Prophetical Petition of Moses in behalf of Levi is notable to this purpose Deut. 33.11 Strike through the loyns of them that rise against him and of them that hate him that they rise no more Now if you ask me how it comes to pass that notwithstanding th assurances in the Name of God himself ungodly men have risen and prâ—vailed against the faithful Messengers of Jesus Christ sometimes to their utter extirpation To this I answer in a word It was not that the Lord was careless of their peace and welfare but it was because they had dispatched the work which God had given them to do they had finished their testimony as the expression is Apoc. 11.7 Or else because the Lord fore-saw he should receive more honour by their suffering then their peace Phil. 1.12 And thus far of our Saviours faithfulness in the delivering of his Message from his Father to his people The issue and event of this fidelity of his comes now in order to be handled and that as I have shewed in two respects First with relation to the Message which he brought they have received them saith he that is the words that I delivered to them in thy Name Secondly then with relation to himself the Messenger they have known surely that I came from thee and have believed that thou didst send me So that here is their good reception of the Message and their good perswasion of the Messenger delivered in such plain expressions that they will need no Explication The only seeming difficulty lies in this how Christ as Man and Mediator may be said to have come out from God since in that Nature he was never with him in regard of his immediate presence in the heavens Truly my Brethren he came not from him locally but he came from him Ministerially he came not from him in respect of place but he came from him in respect of mission because he came of his Message and of his Errand and so our Saviour Christ explains himself by an Exegesis in the succeeding parcel of the verse They have known surely that I came out from thee that is they have believed that thou didst send me Now both of these particulars importing the good carriage and behaviour of the Apostles and Disciples of our Saviour both with relation to his message and to himself the Messenger may be considered two ways Either in a joynt dependance of both of them on that which goes before Or else in a
to be they may be one even as the Father and the Son are one Holy Father keep them through thy own Name that they may be one as we are So that the Observation clearly intimated here is this DOCTRINE It is a matter of wondrous difficulty and of high Concernment for Christs Disciples to be at neerest unity among themselves Both these particulars I take it are apparently suggested in the words First that it is a point of wondrous difficulty Then that it is a point of high concernment that all that are bestowed on Jesus Christ should as far as men may be be one as God and Christ are one I shall clear them in order from the Text and other Scriptures It is a matter of wondrous difficulty even for Christs Disciples to be at neerest unity among themselves Our Saviour saw it to be very hard for them in all things to agree together and therefore he desires it may be brought about by the Almighty power of God himself Holy Father keep them through thy own Name that they may be one as we are He prays his Father to set his own Almighty power about it to effect it by which he intimateth that it is no easie matter It is observable how the Apostle struggles for it 2 Thess 3.16 The God of peace himself give you peace always by all means So that there is no possibility of having peace unless God himself bestow it unless he bow the heavens and come down and work it in the hearts of his people It is beyond the power of any creature to keep the Saints themselves in unity and peace unless God himself do it And so the Apostle having well considered the wondrous difficulty of it turns himself to God Now the God of peace himself give it q. d. I see no other means will do it and therefore I beseech thee Lord thou who art the God of peace do thou thy self make unity among thy people That phrase of the Apostle is notable to this purpose Eph. 4.3 Endeavouring to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The word there used imports the doing of a thing with much intention with inward care and outward diligence and labour and endeavour to the very utmost The setting of ones self about a business strenuously and with all his might which would not need if it were an easie matter Endeavouring to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace So that you see it is a matter of wondrous difficulty for Christs Disciples to be at neerest unity among themselves But you will ask me how it should be so A man would think it should be no hard matter for Christs Disciples to be all one for them who are so closely and so neerly joyned so many wayes and by so many tyes who are all one body one spirit who have all one Head one God one Lord one faith one hope one baptism to be at unity among themselves Indeed it is a task almost insuperable to have peace with all the world To say the truth it is impossible as the Apostle Paul insinuates in his exhortation Rom. 12.18 If it be possible as much as lies in you live peaceably with all men But to live peaceably with Saints and fellow members for such to be at unity among themselves what difficulty should there be in this How cometh it to pass that this is such a hard matter That the almighty power of God himself is called down from heaven about it Why my beloved there be many things even in the Saints and Christs Disciples that make the matter difficult And I shall draw them all that I shall mention to these two heads There are some things in which they are too much alike and there are other things in which they differ overmuch and both of them do make it wonderfully hard even for the Saints to be at unity among themselves There are some things in which they are too much alike to agree among themselves They are all the holiest of them too carnal they have too much corruption in them easily to close together And this is that the Apostle Paul observes in the Corinthians 1 Epist 3.3 Whereas there is among you strife and envy and division are you not carnal Is it not very manifest that there is much corruption and much flesh in you And is not this the cause of these dissentions It may be you are apt to think it to be otherwise but mark what the Apostle saith James 4.1 From whence come wars and fightings among you Whence do they come Why hence they come will some men say I am so troubled and molested I am so grosly injured and abused that I cannot live in peace Never was any man so basely used so vilely dealt withall as I have been and that by those that are accounted honest men And hence it is that I cannot be at rest No no saith the Apostle thou art much deceived I had as lief thou hadst said nothing It is the wickedness and the corruption that is in thee that is the true and real cause of all this From hence come wars and fightings among you even from your lusts that warr in your members And I will shew you what those lusts are which make it so extremely hard even for the Saints to be at unity among themselves 1. They are too proud The wise man tels us this hath a stroke in all quarrels Prov. 13.10 And if in all then in the quarrels of the Saints too And truly my beloved were it not for this there would not be such endless and implacable contentions about matters civil as there are sometimes between those that are Christs Disciples It is their pride that neither side will stoop or bow both are high and both are stiff and so there can no possible accommodation or accord be made between them And were it not for pride there would not be such endless and implacable contentions about matters doctrinal This is the true and real cause why men will not indure to be gainsaid and crost in their opinion but presently they fret and fume and fall into an everlasting strife about words whereof cometh envy railing evil surmisings and perverse disputings as the Apostle shewes 1 Tim. 6.4 5. Now would you have the character of such a person as carryes matters in this fashion saith the Apostle he is proud knowing nothing He thinks himself a very knowing man but this is nothing but his pride And hence it comes to pass that men are so unalterable in their fancies and conceipts that having once asserted them and owned them they will not lay them down again no though they be convinced for their honours sake Remarkable and exemplary is the resolution and humility of Job in such a case Job 6.24 Teach me and I will hold my peace and make me know wherein I have erred In which ingenuous disposition did those who differ
and keep us one among our selves All other means that we can use will be of no avail at all unless the Lord himself strike in and interpose in this business He is the donor and dispenser of this rare and pretious blessing and therefore he is called the God of peace It is a name that he delighteth in and therefore it is often used and he is stiled the God of peace not only because he is formally so if this expression be allowable for Primum bonum summae Trinitatis est indivisio but because he is effectively so because he is the Author of peace as the Apostle speaks 1 Cor. 14.33 For God is not the Author of confusion but of peace And he makes wars to cease saith David Psal 46.11 he breaks the bow and cuts the spear asunder And therefore the Apostle begs this peace of God in such a manner as if it were to be obtained no where else and our Saviour of his Father in my Text Holy Father keep them through thy own Name that they may be one as we are Well then my Brethren let us go to him for this blessing let us not only strive for peace in the use of other means which have been formerly proposed but let us pray for peace so especially for the peace of Jerusalem Oh let us pray and pray hard for Church peace for peace among Christs Disciples among Gods own people for there he uses to bestow it My peace I leave with you saith our Saviour and God will give his people the blessing of peace Oh let us beg him now in these divided distracted times to give this blessing to his own people that though Jerusalem be not at unity neither can be at unity with those that are without yet she may be at unity with those that are within that she may be at unity within her self and to this end let us desire especially two things 1. That God himself would govern all his own people that he would rule them and command them so that they may not break the peace By nature we are all of us inclined to divisions destruction and unhappiness is in our ways and the way of peace we have not known And if the Lord himself should not appease those raging and tempestuous waves that are so apt to rise and swell if he should not extinguish and put out the fire that is so apt to kindle in the hearts of men yea of the best men the world would flame with nothing else but discords and dissentions And therefore let us earnestly beseech the Lord to do the work which none but he alone is able to perform To rule and over-rule the hearts at least of his own people and by his Kingly power to master and keep down those raging passions that are so apt to rise and swell to the disturbance of the Churches peace when his houshold are together by the ears when they are in a tumult and combustion let us entreat him to come in among them and he will quickly make them still as Lambs all will be husht and quiet presently It is his own most gratious promise and therefore we may urge it with the greater confidence that he will make the Wolf and Lamb to dwell together c. That he will quiet the tempestuous hearts of men and make them tame So that how furious and how fierce soever they were formerly by nature yet they shall be so meek and gentle now that they shall yeild to any admonition or perswasion yea a little child shall lead them Isa 11.6 How weak soever he may seem to be he shall prevail and over-rule them 2. That God himself would teach all his own people and the effect of this would be a strange agreement and a sweet accord among them even beyond imagination One cause why they that are professed and are it may be real Saints agree no better and why there are such breaches and such rents among them is because they are not all of them at least in all things taught of God Some of them in some particulars at least are taught of men and not of God and other some are taught of God And they that are taught of men will not agree with them that are taught of God and they that are taught of God cannot agree with them that are taught of men and so they are continually wrangling and contending and contradicting one another they can never fadge together But now when God shall come to teach them all in every thing then they shall think and speak the same things then they shall quarrel and contest no more but they shall all of them agree and live in unity and love together And therefore let us earnestly beseech the Lord to do this to leave his children now no longer out at School but speedily to fetch them home and to teach them all himself That being all of one School under one chief Master and some Ushers under him they may be all taught one way and so may all agree together We have the promise of the Lord for this too Isa 54.13 Oh let us urge it hard upon him in such times as these are All thy children shall be taught of God and mark what follows presently great shall be the peace of thy children Here is a time for such a promise to be put in suit and therefore let us press it home let us take no nay Let the Lord have no rest till he teach all his own children and then he will have a great School and we shall have great peace JOHN 17.12 While I was with them in the world I kept them in thy Name THE words now read are part of the Lords Prayer not of the Lords Prayer which he taught us but as I shewed in the beginning of the Lords Prayer which he made for us Not that which he propounded to us as our pattern but that which he presented for us as our priviledge at least for his Apostles and Disciples and in them for us also In which have been considered two things The matter of it and the reasons of it The things which Christ desires in the behalf of his Apostles and Disciples And then the arguments with which he presseth and enforceth his desire The matter of it or the thing which he desireth in the behalf of his Apostles and Disciples is preservation Holy Father keep them through thy own Name which we have fully ended and dispatched And now we are arrived at the reasons of the prayer the arguments with which our Saviour presseth and enforceth this desire of his Whereof the first is taken from his own effectual preservation of them during the time that he had been among them and therefore he would have his Father keep them now because he himself had kept them very safe till now While I was with them in the world saith he I kept them and none of them is lost but the son of perdition And now
and not of works it is not caused by any thing that man doth For it took hold of Iacob and of Esau being yet unborn before they had done either good or evil or were considered doing good or evil as a motive or inducement to prevail with God to choose the one or to refuse the other So then you see the reason of the point Some certain men God appointeth to perdition Why because he will because it is his pleasure so to do Object But you will say perhaps This is very hard measure that God should preordain men to destruction upon this account because he will Sol. And is it not as hard measure that the Creator should not be allowed to have his will upon his creature If you could make a thing of nothing you would look to have the free disposal of it at your own pleasure Nay my beloved to use the instance the Apostle gives the Potter looks to have the free disposal of his clay and of the self same Lump to make one Vessel to an honourable another to a sordid use Or if he please as soon as he hath finished them to dash the one to shivers and to save the other If any ask a reason of him it is enough for him to say that he doth this because he will because it is his pleasure so to do He made it and he may destroy it And yet he gives but form to what he makes he works on matter made before by God But God creates a thing of nothing he gives it form and matter too and why may not he dispose it as he will Why should not his authority and power be yielded and allowed to be as great upon the creature which he makes of nothing as the Potters on the clay which he could never make And yet what ever Gods decree concerning any man may be which he reserveth in his own breast and bosome he never damneth or destroyes a man till he deserve it The Potter breaks a vessell it may be for no fault at all but to satisfie his fancy or to manifest his power and to shew what he can do But God the great Creator of the world doth never so with any creature if he dash any man to pieces it is because he hath deserved it very justly by his sins If he condemn him there is a meritorious cause And he may truly say to such a person Thy destruction is of thy self But in the second place it will be said perhaps by some Object If this be so that God in his Eternal Counsel and Decree hath apointed and disigned some certain special persons to destruction it is in vain for such to hear and pray and use the means of attaining to salvation They were as good to fit still and do nothing for all will be to no purpose If they be reprobated they must be destroyed the Counsell of the Lord must stand If they be reprobated But who are reprobated can they tell Sol. Hast thou known the mind of the Lord Art thou assured that thou art reprobated and appointed to destruction If so indeed there were some colour for thee to neglect the means of attainment to salvation But know my brethren that it is impossible for any man to be infallibly assured of his reprobation without immediate revelation as perhaps Saul was It s true he may be sure of his election never of his reprobation The Scripture urges and perswades men to assure the one never to assure the other It giveth marks and evidences of the one it gives no evidences of the other Indeed the sin against the Holy Ghost where it is found follows after of reprobation but who is able to determine whether he be guilty of this sin against the Holy Ghost or no As for my own part I am confident that God hath ordered matters so that no man shall be able to determine that he is rejected by him And that to this intent that all men may be held in diligent attendance on the means of reconciliation and attonement with him not knowing what the issue and event may be And what then wilt thou take that to be certain which is very doubtfull and on so weak a ground as this neglect and slight the means which may for ought thou knowest be powerfull to the salvation of thy pretious soul for ever Wilt thou conclude thou art rejected and do as if this resolution were infallible when yet it is apparently a most uncertain thing of which thou canst not be assured When the decree concerning reprobation is a secret and a doubtfull thing and the command requiring thee to make thy calling and election sure is a plain and certain thing wilt thou neglect the precept and command that lies before thee and walk by the decree that is obscure and hidden from thee Shouldst thou not rather reason in the case in hand as Merchants and Adventurers in worldly things are wont to do Perhaps the Lord may have a blessing yet in store for me Once I am sure he hath required me to use the means and therefore though there be some hazard in it I will not be behind in my endeavour at his command I will let down the net Even so perhaps the Lord may have appointed me to life and glory once I am sure he hath commanded me to use the means of attaining to salvation And therefore though I know not what the issue and event may be I will attend upon them be carefull in the use and practice of them to the utmost of my power I know if I neglect them I must perish if I use them I may live eternally And therefore I will rather give all diligence to make my calling and election sure then thus adventure my immortal soul upon such hazzard and uncertainty as this And who can tell but that the Lord may yet be gracious that my soul may live Vse 1 Is it so that God in his eternal Counsel and Decree hath appointed and designed c. hence then it follows that all men are not chosen to salvation And consequently they are very much deceived who hold and teach that God in his Decree hath not perfectly precisely pitched on any special individual men appointing them to life and glory But that he hath elected all upon condition that they repent believe and persevere in holiness and grace unto the end And on the other side that he rejecteth no man absolutely from salvation but as their own expression is suspenso manet animo si forte resipiscant The Lord suspendeth his determination expecting their repentance that they may be saved A Doctrine evidently crossing with the truth which we have plentifully proved and confirmed from the Scripture that there is a particular and special reprobation and therefore cannot be an universal election Now that you may not be misled in this particular or drawn to think that God hath chosen all men to salvation on condition leaving it
wholly to themselves and to their own free wils either to ratifie it or infringe it so making his decree like a Noveriut universi If men believe not persevere not then the election must be void Otherwise if they believe and continue to the end it must remain in full power strength and vertue I say that this corrupt opinion which is so confidently vented now adayes may not take with any of you I shall lay down some arguments against it and answer others that are brought for it This universal and conditional election overthrows the end of God all which he aims in all his Counsels and Decrees and in all his dispensations viz. the glory of his free grace This was that which the Lord had in his eye when he appointed men to glory even that he might make known the riches of his own glory on those which he prepared to glory as you have it Rom. 9.22 Now how shall he attain this end by choosing all men to Salvation if they will themselves how is the glory of his mercy magnified and advanced where is the freeness of his grace more to one man then another since he doth alike for all electeth all alike to glory and salvation prepareth heaven no more for one man then another so that if any man be saved he may thank himself he may glory in himself and not in God And therefore it is very notable that the Apostle making this the end of the decree of God viz. the glory of his grace withall discovers that he electeth men to life not according to their wills as they will either choose it or refuse it but according to his own Eph. 1.5 6. Having predestinated us by Jesus Christ to the praise of the glory of his grace How so according to the pleasure of his will To shew that he works freely in the business without impulsion or provocation from external causes And so he must if he will atttain his end If it be to the glory of his grace it must be according to the pleasure of his will So afterwards ver 11 12. We are predestinated that we should be to the glory of his grace And to this end we are predestinated according to his purpose who worketh all things after the Counsel of his own will If he will glorifie his grace in this business we must be saved according to his will and pleasure and not according to our own His will must have the first and greatest stroke in this mercy This universal and conditional election as it overthrows Gods end Vse 2 so it hinders our duty It cannot choose but wonderfully cool and dead our hearts in rendring thankfulness to God when we consider with our selves that he hath done no more for us in this business of election and salvation then he hath for all the world Our Saviour Christ endeavouring to quicken his Disciples to thanskgiving shews them the priviledge and the preferment which they had in the mercy of the Lord Mat. 11.25 and 13.16 17. And the same course the Prophet David takes with Israel Psal 147.19 20. He shewed his word to Jacob his statutes and his judgements to Israel He dealt not so with other Nations and therefore you are specially engaged to praise the Lord. And certainly that soul shall find it self most quickned and enlarged to the praises of the Lord that sees his special and peculiar favour to it self which millions are rejected from Oh will the soul consider with it self in such a case Why hath God pitched on me neglecting others whence was it that he took me into his decree what did he see in me more then in those whom he laid by why he did choose me In our elections who are men beloved there is something still that carries and inclines us to a choice Some fitness in the object of it some relation to our selves some motive or inducement that prevails upon us But now my brethren we are all alike to God in the act of his election we lay together in the same corrupted Mass all weltring in the same blood and tumbling in the same gore and when he came to choose a little number in comparison of those he left Oh what a mercy was it that he should pitch on thee and me which if he had not done we had been lost for ever Truly my brethren did we sit down and weigh it well in our advised and deliberate thoughts it would transport and carry us beyond our selves It would make us to break out with the Apostle Eph. 1.3 4. Blessed be God who hath chosen us us who deserved no more then others who were no fitter for his choice then others And yet us when he hath rejected others Oh blessed be the Lord for this mercy But now my brethren none of this if all be chosen to salvation with this condition that they will accept it they may have it if they will The damned reprobate in hell by this account hath as much reason to be thankfull as the triumphant Saint in heaven Why may this wretched Catiffe say God did as much for me as him only indeed I did not so much for my self And may the glorified Saint in heaven say The Lord hath done as much for those in hell as ever he hath done for me He hath elected them as well as me and he hath assisted them as much as me for he is to all alike only they have not used their own free-wills as well as I have done and this is the only cause that they are damned and I am saved And therefore I wil ever thank my self and not God At least I have no greater cause to think him then the damned have If there be any difference between them and me it is not God that made it but my self God did for them and me alike And that they are not in the same condition with me the only reason is because we did not for ourselves alike And therefore they are every way as much obliged and bound to God as I am Vse 3 This universal and conditional election doth in some respect set up man above God God for his own part chooseth all men to salvation he would have all men to be saved How comes it then to pass whence is it that they are not saved Because they will not themselves God will and they will not who carries it in this business Their will takes place and not Gods The will of God you see by this opinion is ordered and disposed by the will of man He chooseth all men on condition but his final resolution and absolute determination is suspended upon the operation of the will of man He is at liberty to make it good or make it void at his pleasure If he will be saved he may if not he must be damned though God for his part have ordained him to salvation What is this but to make God in some respect an underling to man to make the will of
fail Luk. 16.17 that is to miss of execution and accomplishment Fail it may in the Letter and Paper of it but not in the fulfilling of it No saith our Saviour Heaven and Earth shall pass away but my Word shall not pass away Mat. 24 35. Heaven and Earth are more inconstant and variable then my Word is and therefore the Apostle Peter speaking of the Prophesies of Scripture saith that they are sure 2 Pet. 1.19 We have saith he a more sure Word of Prophesie whereunto ye do weâ—â—â—hat ye take heed Not as if the Prophets words or writings were in thâ—â—selves more sure then the Apostles but to the Jews they were more sure For they received the Prophets words and writings but they rejected the Apostles Well sure the writings and predictions of the Prophets are you see we may rest safely upon them and conclude That whatsoever is foretold c. And it must needs be so my Brethren For The Author of the Prophesies is unchangeable and true and consesequently whatsoever he foretels or any Messenger of his from him must surely be accomplished and fulfilled 1. The Author of the Prophesies as well as other parts of Scripture is unchangeable He is the Lord that changeth not Mal. 3.6 He is yesterday to day the same for ever Heb. 13.8 And therefore what be saith must come to pass men say sometimes that they will do a thing to day which yet they alter and revoke again to morrow But if God say a thing to day he will stand to it firm to morrow he will not change his resolution He is not as man that he should lye and as the son of man that he should repent But he hath seemed to repent Object and to change his resolution in many things foretold in Scripture For instance he foretold by Jonah that Nineveh should be destroyed at the end of forty days Jonah 3.4 yet when they were expired he did not as he had foretold so that he altered in appearance yea it is said expressly that he repented of his Commination so that he brought it not to execution God repented of the evil which he had said that he would do unto them and he did it not Jonah 3.10 For clearing this Sol. you may remember that universal rule which God lays down for the better understanding of all Prophetical Praedictions in a way of Commination Jer. 18.7 The sum is this that they have all of them annexed to them or implyed at least if not an exprest condition And so had this against the Ninivites Yet forty days and Niniveh shall be destroyed conceive it if they be not humbled that was the reserved condition But they were humbled repented though they were preserved God did not otherwise then he determined and yet indeed he is said to have repented because he did so that he seemed to repent For as a man if he have threatned that thus and thus he is resolved to do and after do not so if he have power is said to change his mind and to repent of what he said Even so the Lord when he had threatned Niniveh and had concealed the condition because he spared it afterwards and did not just according the letter of the Commination is said to have repented because he seemed to do that which in a man would have discovered change and alteration of his resolution And even as anger is ascribed to the Lord Non per affectum sed per effectum as the Schoolmen say The passion or affection of it is not properly attributed to God but the effect and fruit is Vengeance is mine and I will repay it Even so repentance is not in the nature of the Lord but the effect and issue of it is usually ascribed to him The recalling or undoing of a thing which as far as we could judge by his words or by his works or our deserts or any other evidence that was before us seemed unto us to have been his intent and purpose to have done 2. And as the Author of the Prophesies as well as other parts of Scripture is unchangeable so he is true Yea He is the God of Truth as the Prophet David stiles him Psal 31.5 And therefore that which he foretells must be accomplished and fulfilled Observe it well my Brethren the Prophet doth not say He is the true God in himself and in his nature but he is the God of Truth in his discoveries and in his revelation of himself to men All that comes from him is truth He is the faithful and the true witness Apoc. 3.14 Not only true and faithful as a God but true and faithful as a witness In all the testimonies that he gives of himself or of his Son or of his works already done or intended to be done there is nothing else but truth He cannot be the Author of a falsehood it is impossible as the Apostle tells you Heb. 6.18 It is impossible that he should lye He can assoon deny himself put off his Deity cease to be God as father an untruth and therefore that which he foretels must be accomplished in his season And as the Author of the Prophesies is unchangeable and true so the Word of God it self of which the Prophesies are part is so also The Word of God is unchangeable and true even as God himself is and therefore all the Prophesies and the Praedictions of it must be accomplished and fulfilled 1. The Word of God is an unchangeable an unalterable Word when he hath said a thing and said it absolutely that must stand there is no revocation of it in the sense that he hath said it Thy Word O Lord saith holy David is setled in heaven Psal 119.89 It is an Established thing never to be removed again And therefore it is said to be setled in heaven There are great changes here below continually but there is none above in heaven and there the Word of God is setled above the reach of any alteration All flesh is grass saith the Apostle 1 Pet. 1.24 all the glory of man as the flower of grass the grass withereth and the flower thereof fadeth away but the Word of the Lord endureth for ever 2. And as it is unchangeable so it is true yea it is the Word of Truth It is an Epithite that is imposed upon it often Thy Word is true from the beginning saith the Psalmist to the Lord Psal 119.160 And so it shall be to the end And therefore it is added presently The judgements of the Lord endure for ever not in their being only but their truth You know the Scripture is often called a testimony or a witness Either it is a testimony that the Father gives us of the Son or that the Son gives us of the Father either it is a witness to us of things that have been done or else which is a little stronger it is a witness to us of things that shall be done Now this is a condition absolutely
Scripture how improbable soever the Saints of old have closed with them What an unlikely promise was it that was made to Abraham that he should have a Son when he was full a hundred years of age and a seed that should be as innumerable as the stars of heaven and that by Sarah too a withered and a barren woman What strong objections might they both have brought against it And yet they did not argue but believed that it should be just as the Lord had spoken as the Apostle speaks of Abraham Rom. 4.20 21. He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief but was strong in faith giving glory to God Yea and of Sarah too though she were somewhat doubtfull and incredulous in the beginning yet even of her he saith She iudged him faithfull that had promised That great and Master promise of the resurrection of the body from the dust is far above the principles of nature and philosophy and therefore the Philosophers at Athens laughed at it Yet Job believed this seeming Paradox as he professes Job 19.26 I know saith he he uses such a word you see as intimates a full perswasion I am confident of this that though after mys kin worms destroy this body yet in my flesh I shall see God And so let us my brethren whatsoever is foretold in Scripture let us stedfastly believe that it shall surely be accomplished and fulfilled And thus of the first argument or reason with which our Saviour presseth and enforceth his petition to his Father in behalf of his Apostles and Disciples that he himself would undertake the keeping of them Holy Father keep them through thy own name Which hath been taken as you may remember from his own effectual preservation of them during the time that he had been amongst them And therefore he would have his Father keep them now because he himself had kept them and kept them very safe till now While I was with them in the world I kept them Before our Saviour adds a second reason to enforce this supplication and request of his he interposes a discovery of the end why he presents it and why he is so earnest in it Saith he I put up this Petition to thee while I am resident in this world I do it in the hearing of my Apostles and Disciples that they might have their comfort much encreased by this means And now I come to thee and these things I speak in the world that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves So that the words you see are the account our Saviour gives his Father of the Petition which he makes for his Apostles and Disciples or rather of the circumstances of the making of it Why he makes it in the world why he did not defer the making of it till he came to heaven and sate down at the right hand of his Father there to be an everlasting Intercessor for his people but rather chose to make it here before he went in the presence and the ears of his Apostles and Disciples while they were by and hearkning to him These things saith he I speak in the world that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves And here we have two things to be examined and resolved What our Saviour means by his joy which he would have fulfilled in his Apostles and Disciples why he calls it His joy and not theirs That they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves not their own joy fulfilled but my joy fulfilled in them And How this joy should be fulfilled by his presenting this Petition for them to his Father in their hearing before he left this world which way this circumstance should tend so much and be so available to the accomplishment of that joy As for the first of these our Saviour calls the joy which he would have to be fulfilled in his Disciples his ioy Not that he was the subject of it or that it was inherent in himself But either First because he was the object of it that they might have my ioy that is to say the joy which they take in me fulfilled in themselves Or Secondly as Calvin thinks because he was the author of it That they might have my ioy the joy which they have from me fulfilled in themselves But how should this presenting this Petition for them to his Father in their hearing how should this circumstance conduce so much to the fulfilling of the joy within them Truly my brethren it might be very helpfull to it many wayes Either as it manifested Christs affection to them and his care of them in which they could not but exceedingly rejoyce What he would do in their behalf when he was come to heaven was not so clearly known to them But this he did before he went in their hearing he earnestly besought his Father to take special care of them to keep them through his own name they heard it with their own ears how earnest and importunate he was which could not choose but be an extraordinary comfort to them that Jesus Christ should have such dear and singular regard to them Or else it might fulfill their joy as it assured them of their special preservation after Christ was gone from them There is no question to be made they were in many doubts and fears when he was about to leave them And had he gone without discovering any care of their safety their sorrows would have been increased If he had only prayed in secret for them to his Father and desired him to keep them this would have added to their safety but what would this have added to their joy But when they heard him being ready to depart to yield them up in such a serious solemn manner to his Father and to make this his last request to him while he was here in this world that he would keep them this could not but assure them that they should be kept and so fill them full of joy And hence our Saviour having put up that Petition for them Holy Father keep them through thy own name And that because while I was with them in the world I kept them Adds this immediately and now come I to thee and these things speak I in the world before I come I speak them here among them that my Discples being ear-witnesses to my importunate and earnest intercession for them may have the joy either which they take in me or which they receive from me the more abundantly fulfilled in themselves The words thus opened yield us out three Observations First Christ is the Author and Original of the joy of his people Secondly Jesus Christ would have his people to be full of holy joy Thirdly Their perfect knowledge of his intercession for them is one special means to fill them full of this joy DOCTRINE Christ is the Author and Original of the joy of his people If they have any true and real joy it comes from him they have it from the Lord
of Salvation so of Consolation and therefore it is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 good news or as the Angel tells the Shepherds Luk. 2.10 good tidings of great joy In which respect it is very notable that when our Saviour was about to preach the Gospel he was anointed with the Spirit which is called the Oyl of gladness The Spirit of the Lord is upon me saith our Saviour because he hath anointed me Isa 61.1 And what follows why then he preaches good tidings to the meek he binds up the broken-hearted proclaimeth liberty to Captives and opening of the prison doors to those that are bound there which is very joyful tidings He comforts those that are in sorrow appoints to those that mourn in Sion not to those that mourn abroad but to those that mourn in Sion in the Church beauty for ashes the Oyl of joy for mourning and the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness So that you see my Brethren it is all joy and all comfort By which it is apparent that our Saviours special aim and drift in publishing the Gospel is that the people might be full of joy And therefore it is much to be observed that when our Saviour entred on his Ministry assoon as he had been baptized and tempted he preached his very first Sermon upon this comfortable Gospel Text Luk. 4.17 to shew what was to be the main intent and drift of his ministry Christ gives his people pretious promises and seals them with his own blood that they might be full of joy Indeed this is the great end my Beloved both of the promise and of the confirmation of it It 's true if Christ had been reserved if he had kept his purpose and intention in his breast and in his bosom if he had made his people no promise the execution of his merciful designs had not been less sure and certain in it self but it had been less sure to us we had not had the less benefit but we had had the less comfort For he would surely have fulfilled his own intentions to his people though he had never been obliged by promise to perform them So when the promises were made there is no doubt they would have been observed and kept though they had never been confirmed yet Christ hath ratified them with his own blood as the Apostle shews us Heb. 9.16 Not with the blood of Bulls and Goats but with his own most pretious blood And why hath he done this why doubtless that there might be nothing wanting to his peoples comfort The promise is not made a whit more certain by our Saviours sealing of it with his blood but we are made the more certain The promise is not made a whit the more sure but we are the more assured and so we have the more comfort What do we think of God that he who is the God of Truth would not have kept his promises that he would have broken with us had they not been thus confirmed No certainly my Brethren he would have been firm and constant but we might have been assaulted with continual doubts and fears we should not have attained to such unshaken and such sweet assurance And therefore Christ hath set his seal to all the promises he hath sealed them with his blood to this end that we might have strong consolation as the Apostles phrase is Heb. 6.18 He hath shed his blood you see that our comfort might not be weak but strong comfort that our joy might not be imcompleat but full joy Christ gives his people glorious Ordinances that they might be full of joy For Ordinances are not for our profit only but they are for our comfort too Oh how was David taken with them How did they fill his heart with joy when he was banished from them for a time how did he melt to think upon the overflowing Consolations he had sometimes found in them How did his heart pant and gasp after them Oh with what self-consuming wishes did he long to be restored to them One thing have I desired of the Lord saith he Psal 27.4 No question he desired many things but one thing he desired above the rest that he might dwell in the house of the Lord all the dayes of his life to behold the beauty of the Lord and to enquire in his Temple where publick Ordinances were dispensed Which shews the infinite delight he took in them I might distinctly shew how special Ordinances serve for the comfort of the Lords people I will bring them to my Mountain saith the Lord and make them joyfull in my house of prayer Isa 56.7 So for the word Jer. 15.16 Thy word was to me saith the Prophet there the joy and the rejoycing of my heart With joy shall ye draw water saith the Lord out of the wells of salvation Isa 12.3 Some understand the Ordinances by the wells in that place You see particularly then what the end of Christ is in giveing Ordinances to his people and what use they serve for Not only to help onward their Salvation but their Consolation too By which it is apparent that even in these dispensations he hath a great aspect upon their comfort Christ gives his people cleer discoveries and revelations of himself that they might be full of joy you may observe how they were overjoyed to whom he shewed himself after his resurrection from the dead they were not able to contain themselves And so when Christ reveals himself to any soul at this day when he comes in and shews himself to it it is sometimes almost transported to an extasie of joy Especially when he hath hid himself awhile then such discoveries of himself are out of measure sweet and pretious When this Sun of righteousness hath been overcast awhile so that the Saints have walked in darkness dayes and years without a glimps of this reviving light Oh with what inward ravishment doth it break forth upon the soul again The wife while she enjoyes the constant presence of her loving husband it may be thinks not much upon it she is not much affected with it But if he have been long away so that she hath not heard for many years neither where her husband is nor when he means to come again and after all her fruitless expectations of him hath resolved with her self that out of question she shall never see him more and then at last when she is wholly our of hopes in strikes her husband on a suddain at the door she is not able to contain her self for joy his presence is incomparably sweet and pleasing to her Even so when poor distressed souls have waited long for Christ and thought that they should never see him more with comfort and then at length he comes and shewes himself to them his gratious presence is extremely pretious He makes them full of joy with his countenance as the expression is Acts 2.28 Christ sends the Comforter to his people that they might be full
shall live so long on earth till he be full of days even as the stomack that is full of meat till he desire to live no longer till nature be spun out to the uttermost extent and after I will shew him my salvation I will bring him to the place where he shall live for evermore And hence it is because continuance here is properly and in it self a blessing as on the other side the contrary thereto the rooting out of the land of the living is properly and in it self a curse that holyest Saints have deprecated taking hence They have been so far from praying that God would take them out of the world that they have rather prayed against it Lord take me not away in the midst of my days Psal 102.24 How did they plead sometimes for their indangered lives as a prisoner at the bar and when the Lord was pleased to leave them in the world a little longer they were exceedingly affected and enlarged to thankfulness As Hezekiah was you know who penned a Psalm of praise on this occasion and this was the burthen of it The living the living they shall praise thee as I do this day Object But you will interpose and say perhaps Some of the choicest Saints of God have prayed expresly to be taken hence and therefore it should seem to be the proper subject matter of Petition Answ 1. To this I answer such as prayed aright did not make their removal hence by death the proper subject matter of their prayers They did not seek it simply and abstractly by and for it self but in relation to some other thing which they could not have without it It 's true indeed that the Apostle Paul desired to be dissolved and to be with Christ he could not be with Christ he knew unless he were dissolved first and therefore that he might injoy him he was contented to be dissolved for that end Or otherwise he would have been far enough from desiring dissolution And therefore in another place he speaks clearly We would not be unclothed saith he viz. of life and of the body 2 Cor. 5.4 that is not properly the thing that we desire But we would be clothed upon with immortality in heaven If it might be possible we would be clothed upon with that without the putting off of this Indeed he saith before in the Name of all the Saints We that are in this Tabernacle do groan being burthened But yet it was not life considered in it self that was their burthen but with its evil adjuncts and associates which do continually cleave to it and which cannot be severed from it in this world So that if you take life you must take that which comes with it In this respect indeed it is a burthen to the holyest Saints because it is accompanyed with such a burthen of corruption as makes them groan and faint under it But if it be considered simply and abstractly in it self it is not a burthen from which the Saints do groan to be delivered no it is a blessing rather of which they groan to be deprived 2. Most of the Saints who have desired God to take them hence have failed and sinned in those desires of theirs It was their weakness and infirmity they did it out of fear and despondency of Spirit out of passion and impatience And thus it seems Eliah did when he fled from Jezabel 1 King 19.4 And thus it is extreamly probable that Moses did Num. 11.10 15. For it is said he was displeased and in that angry fit he said to God Wherefore hast thou afflicted me If thou deal thus with me kill me I pray thee out of hand and do not let me see my wretchedness And thus it is apparent Jonas did who being crost in a punctilio in a point of honor out of a pettish foolish childish humour will go die forsooth God must take away his life These imperfections of the Saints are left upon record in Scripture not as marks to be aimed at but as rocks to be declined Vse Now to proceed to make some Application of the point My Brethren is it so that removal out of this world is not the proper subject matter of Petition Then let not any of us make it so when we are putting up our supplications and requests to God When we consider how the world hates us how it pours contempt upon us how it follows us with troubles persecutions and afflictions so that we see but little hope that we should ever live contentedly and quietly and freely here it may be we are weary of it and ever ready to desire the Lord that he would remove us from it To wish with Israel in a pang of discontent Numb 11.1 Would God we were dead And with Eliah It is enough Lord take away our lives 1 King 14.4 It 's that which many of us are too apt to do when we are over-loaden with the cares and troubles of this world to reach after deliverance and redress and ease by this means And therefore when we find our hearts are running out in such a way as this is let us call them in again let us correct our selves and say as our Saviour in my Text O Lord we pray not that thou wouldst take us out of the world we are far from such impatience we are content to wait thy leisure to tarry till thy time come And here to keep you from such extravagancies and irregular desires I shall present you with a few things It is a special mercy of the Lord to give us life and to continue us in this world though in a comfortless and sad condition David was in a sorry case afflicted persecuted and oppressed when he put up that prayer to the Lord Deal bountifully with thy servant or be beneficial to thy servant that I may live and keep thy Word Psal 119.17 He counted it a benefit to live how troublesome soever his condition were It 's that which even Nature teaches us to reach after Skin for skin and all that a man hath will he give for his life And yet a life with nothing else some will count worth nothing You know my Brethren all that God himself did promise to some very gratious men in times of common trouble and calamity was only this they should have their lives for a prey and that was all for great things were not to be looked for Jer. 39.38 and 45.5 And yet that was a great mercy If we be not taken hence perhaps we may enjoy the mercy to out-live troubles It is mercy to live in them but it is greater mercy to live beyond them and this if we be quiet and content and patient for ought we know may be our portion And this was that which David promised to himself when he was almost over-come and over-whelmed with his afflictions and distresses I shall not die but live saith he and declare the works of the Lord Psal 118.17 Me thinks he gathers up
keep them that belong to Jesus Christ from the hurt of their afflictions but more then so he doth them much good by them that they may say as David doth when all is ended It is good for me that I have been afflicted I give you but a taste of this and I have done with Explication 1. Sometimes he awakens them by their afflictions they are sleepy and secure and God jogges and startles them and rouzes them by this means When men are bound in fetters saith Elihu and held fast in the cords of their afflictions so that they are not able to unlooose themselves and get away what then why then he sheweth them their works and their transgressions that they have exceeded in q.d. At such a time his manner is to represent their sins to them with all their circumstantial aggravations See an example of it in the Lords own people Gen. 42.21 when Josephs Brethren saw themselves taken for spies in Egypt and so in present danger of their lives the sin they had committed many years ago came as fresh into their minds and lay as heavy on their Consciences as if it had been newly done I know that troubles and distresses and the approach of death it self hath not always this effect on all men the Lord hath poured on some the spirit of slumber but usually they have on Gods people 2. Sometimes God abates their pride by their afflictions There is not any sin that makes a man more odious to the Lord then pride doth or is a greater bar to his salvation All that are proud in heart are an abomination to him Prov. 16.5 neither is there are any man but hath some reliques of this leaven in him which puffeth up his heart and makes him swell beyond measure Yea the choicest of the Saints have mighty inclinations to it especially if all things go on their side As it is said of Hezekiah when he was put into a prosperous estate his heart was lifted up 2 Chron. 32.25 and therefore God exposes them to sharp afflictions that he may hide the pride of man as the expression is Joh 33.17 that he may lessen and abate and wear it out till it be not to be seen 3. Sometimes God draws his people nearer to himself by their afflictions In their affliction they will seek me early saith the Lord of his people Hos 5.15 It seems they had been wofully regardless of the Lord in former times of happiness and peace and comfort but saith the Lord In their affliction they will hasten to me they will be eager after me and never rest till they have found me And this you shall observe to be the disposition of the sons men yea of the best and holyest of them they look not after God so much at any time as when they are in greatest exigencies and distresses And as the sails though they be some addition to the burthen of the ship yet they help it on the faster to the Haven So crosses and afflictions though they be a burthen to us yet they hasten us to God and draw us on the faster to the port of happiness And therefore God relating divers judgements which he was resolved to bring upon his own people by which he meant to strip them naked of all outward comforts at length concludes that this should be the issue of it Isa 17.7 At that day shall they look unto their Maker and their eyes shall have respect unto the Holy One of Israel It is a miserable thing yet so it is as long as we have any thing on earth to rest upon we enquire not after God With Noahs Dove if we can find a twig to pitch upon we are regardless of the Ark and therefore God by heavy crosses and afflictions strips us of these outward helps and strikes away the earthly things by which we stand and when we know not what to do when we are driven out of all our holes then our eyes are upon God when we look on every hand and refuge fails us every way and no man careth for our souls then we address our selves to God and say to him Thou art our refuge Psal 142.4 It seems that David though he were a holy man was very apt while he was furnished with these outward favors to rely too much upon them so far as to neglect the Lord. But when the Lord by crosses and afflictions took them from him or made him see the vanity and insufficiency of them then he cryed out And now Lord what wait I for my hope is in thee now I have tryed how fickle and how vain the creature is now I perceive by sensible experience that no help is in it Now Lord what wait I for c. And thus I think I have sufficiently cleared the point God can and will preserve c. To add a word or two for Application Vse This serves to let us see the admirable and transcendent happiness of all that have an interest in Jesus Christ in this respect that they are safe from all evil God will withhold no good from them as the Prophet David speaks and then upon the other side he will keep all evil from them as you have it in my Text. Beloved we are here in an uncomfortable place a wicked world in which we are exposed as considered in our selves to all evil We are exempt from no temptation No not the blackest and the bloodlest to the very worst of sins We are secure from no affliction no not the sharpest and the most extream If there be any worse then other which we conceive would be most bitter and intolerable to us it is going in the world and it may seise on us as well as others Yea we are always bearing with us in our bosoms that which is infinitely worse then both the other viz. the evil of corruption so that we seem to be in a very sad condition But yet this comfort waits upon us still the Lord will surely keep us absolutely free from the evil of them all The worst of them may do us good but it shall never do us hurt as long as there is any vertue in our Saviours Intercession as long as he hath any interest in God the Father And therefore when we look upon the world and see it marching out against us with bloody persecutions and afflictions when we look upon the Devil and see him ready to assault us with his fiery darts and fierce tentations when we look inward to our own hearts and see such swarms of hellish lusts and base corruptions there and are ready to cry out in the anguish of our souls Oh miserable men that we are who shall deliver us let us look up to Jesus Christ and think upon his powerful Intercession with the Father that he hath prayed him to preserve and keep us from all the evil in the world and so let us be quiet and secure Let us say as David once Though I walk in
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
respect they are sensibly decayed and they are nothing like the men that they were in former times Fall into discourse with them alas their wonted faculty is gone either you shall find them dead and stupid as it were not having any savory word to say in any matter that concerns Religion or else they talk is so far of so barren so unprofitable that it administers no grace no benefit at all to them that hear it Follow them into their houses and there you shall observe that many holy exercises and religious houshold duties which had been formerly set up and constantly performed perhaps for divers years together are either utterly neglected or else discharged in such a cold and formal manner that there is no life in them Enquire of other men who knew them in their first beginning and they will tell you all is gone their wonted heat and zeal and forwardness is come to nothing and in them the Proverb is verifyed The Dog is turned to his own vomit and the Sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire Vse 4 Is it so That the word of God is the ordinary means by which he sanctifieth his people not only in a way of inchoation but also in a way of augmentation Here then we see what we must do if we desire to thrive in holiness to make a daily progress and increase in grace We must attend upon the preaching of the Gospel And truly there is little hope that we should ever grow as Christians without the use of this means The tree that spreads and flourisheth and brings forth much fruit is said by David to be planted by the water side Psal 1.3 Even so the thriving and the growing Christian must be planted by the means he must be near the Word of God those waters of the Sanctuary as the Prophet calls them That saving Doctrine must drop down upon him as the rain it must distil upon him as the dew and as the smaller rain upon the herbs and as the showrs upon the grass as Moses speaks Deut. 32.2 or else he will be like in time to wither and decay and come to nothing Vse 5 Is it so That the Word of God is the ordinary means by which he sanctifieth his people not only in a way of inchoation but also in a way of augmentation Then certainly those men are in an ill condition who though they constantly enjoy the preaching of the Gospel yet do not thrive nor grow by it they hear it Sabbath after Sabbath yea and perhaps repeat it with their families and yet are not a jot the better for it any way Look at what point they were for knowledge practice and obedience many years ago at the very same they stay they are the very same men there is no alteration on them they have not gained any ground on their corruptions they are not grown a jot more constant and fervent in religious duties then in former times What is the reason that the Gospel produceth not its genuine effect in these men and that it bringeth forth no augmentation no increase of inward grace or outward obedience the fault is not in the inefficacy of the Gospel simply considered in it self but in the hardness and deadness of their hearts and as we use to say of ground that is manured and drest and watered much if it yieldeth no increase that it is very barren ground just so we may conclude of these men And certainly their case is fearful if they so continue as the Apostle shews us in the same Similitude Heb. 6.7 The earth that drinketh in the rain that cometh oft upon it and bringth forth herbs meet for them by whom it is dressed receiveth blessing from God But on the other side that which bringeth bryers and thorns is rejected and nigh unto cursing whose end is to be burned And therefore I beseech you my Beloved as increase and growth in grace is one effect in Gods Word so let it bring forth this effect in you and that it may so do I shall prescribe you some directions Remove those impediments that hinder growth and profiting by the Word of God and they are principally such as follow 1. The first is pride and loftiness of heart and spirit for when a man is puft up with a self opinion of his own sufficiency and thinks he knows as much as all the Preachers in the world can tell him how can he profit by the Gospel He is so full that when the water of the Word is poured upon him either it runneth over and is spilt upon the ground or else returneth back upon the face of him that poured it If therefore you desire to thrive by it come to hear it my Beloved with teachable and humble spirits the Lord will teach the humble his ways 2. Infidelity or unbelief for if we give no credit to the Word of God if we believe not the report of the Word of God his arm will never be revealed to us we shall not benefit nor profit by it And therefore this is yielded as the reason why the Jews were not a whit the better for the Word Heb. 4.2 The Word did not profit them not being mixed with faith in them that heard it 3. The third impediment is strong passion for as obstructions in the stomach hinder growth by bodily and outward food so vehement and head-strong passions do keep us from receiving growth and nourishment and augmentation by the Word of God You shall observe it commonly that men that have such furious and unbridled passions in them that will not be subdued by reason nor by Scripture do seldom profit by the preaching of the Gospel no it must be received with meekness if we mean to grow by it Jam. 1.12 And therefore the Apostle yields it as the reason why the Corinthians could not bear strong meat substantial solid truths their stomachs were not able to digest them they were so cloid with these obstructions 1 Cor. 3.2 4. Prejudice against the gifts or person of the Teacher this will exceedingly abate the power and hinder the success and profit of his teaching If once the heart be prepossest with jealousies and sinister thoughts and disaffection to the Minister there is but little hope of any benefit that such a man will reap by his labours These are the lets which we must labour to remove if we desire to thrive and grow by hearing of the Word of God If we desire to grow and to increase by it we must not hear it only but labour to digest it too A man shall never thrive and prosper by the meat he eats if he digest it not unless there be concoction and assimilation of it to the substance of the person that is nourished Let such a person feed as plentifully as he will there will be no augmentation So let us hear as much and as often as we will if we do not digest the Word of God the
bread of life by serious meditation by application of it to our own particular estate there will be no increase of grace by it Lastly Let us seek to God by earnest prayer that he would bless his Word to us that sucking this sincere milk we may grow thereby Paul may plant and Apollo may water but the success if any be must be from God as the Apostle shews 1 Cor. 3.6 and therefore must seek it at his hands Before we go to hear him speaking to us in his Word let him hear us speaking to him in our prayers that he would sanctifie his holy Ordinance and make it by his blessing to become a means of our increase in holiness and grace until we come to be compleat in Christ Jesus Seeing the Word is but an Instrument in his hand let us pray that he would mannage it and weild it and make it powerful and successful Let us renew our Saviours supplication in the Text every time we go to hear Lord sanctifie us with thy truth thy truth alone and of it self will never do it unless thou sanctifie us by it and therefore Lord do thou appear in this business Sanctifie us with thy truth thy Word is truth JOHN 17.17 Thy Word is truth OUR Saviour as he is a Mediator of Redemption to his people so of Intercession too He finished the former as his own expression is and he began the latter while he was here in this world The Chapter is a model of it wherein he gives his Apostles and Disciples a fore-taste from which they might a little guess what he was like to do more fully for them when he was ascended and sate down at the right hand of his Father to be an everlasting Advocate and Intercessor for his Church and people And here there are two things especially which he desires in their behalf to which at least all the rest may be reduced Preservation and Sanctification He enters on the latter in the verse now read and so did we the last occasion And here we have as I have shewed you the Supplication and the Explication The Supplication Sanctifie them with thy truth The Explication what is meant by truth the Word of God Thy Word is truth The last Lords-day I dispatched the Supplication so that the Explication comes to be insisted on at this time Thy Word is truth It seems to be an answer to the self same question which Pilate sometimes put to Christ himself but would not tarry for a resolution What is truth So sanctifie them saith our Saviour with thy truth But what is truth you have the answer in the following clause Thy Word is truth There is the Word God and there is the word of God The one is Christ the Son of God for he is called the Word in Scripture and he is the Word God as you may see that place for instance 1 Joh. 1. In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God The other is the will of God revealed and manifested in the Scripture And it is called the word of God because as the words of men discover what their mind is which else you were not able to imagine so the Word of God the Scripture discovers to us what the mind of God is so far as it is necessary to salvation Now this Word saith our Saviour here is truth Thy Word is truth It is not only true but truth it self and so indeed is all the Scripture the Law and Gospel both of them are all truth conformable in all respects to the Idaea of them in the mind of God But yet the Gospel is the Truth by way of Excellencie above the rest of holy Scripture Not that the Law or any other part of the Old Testament is not so true as Gospel is for there are no degrees in truth as truth Words are either true alike or some are true and others false But the Old Testament and legal truths are not be compared in some respects to the New Testament and Gospel truths These have the odds and the advantage of the other And therefore this I mean the Gospel is principally called the Truth in the language of the Scripture as I shall shew you more at large hereafter And this at least is chiefly aimed at by our Saviour when he saith thy Word is truth for of that truth he speaks apparently which is the instrumental means by which God sanctifies his people And that is not legal truth God doth not sanctifie men by the preaching of the Law save only in a way of preparation and predisposition The Gospel only works the truth and the reality of holiness and grace as I have shewed abundantly out of the former member of the Text. And therefore it is Gospel truth that is especially intended here which is the only proper instrument of sanctification Sanctifie them with thy truth thy Word is truth So then the Observation lies before us DOCTRINE The word of God of God especially the Gospel is the Truth In prosecution of the Point I have two things to cleer to you before I come to application First That the word of God is all truth there is no falsehood or deceit in it and I shall be brief on that Then that the Gospel is the truth by way of excellence and in a specialty above the rest of Holy Scripture I do not say the Gospel is more true then other things contained in the book of God but it is truth of more concernment and of more use as I shall make it evidently and distinctly to appear to you As for the first of these the word of God is all truth so it is stiled in the letter of my text without restraint or limitation Thy word is truth Whether it be the word of History the things that are historically represented to us in the Scripture or the word of precept or the word of promise or the word of threatning all is truth If you look to the intention of the Author of the word God hath delivered nothing in it with a purpose to deceive Or if you look to the matter of the word the things themselves that are delivered in the Scripture they are indeed as they are there expressed The sayings of the Lord are true sayings Apoc. 19.9 whether they be the sayings of the Father or the sayings of the Son For God the Father hath his saying God spake these words in the preface to the Law And God the Son hath his saying Verily I say unto you if a man keep my saying he shall never see death John 8.51 And both of these the sayings of the one and of the other the sayings of the Father the Law of works the sayings of the Son the Law of faith are absolutely and exactly true there is no falshood or deceit in them They are the true sayings of God And they must needs be true because they are the sayings of God Thy word is
truth saith our Saviour in my text It is thine and therefore truth For he that is the author of it he is the God of truth as the Prophet David stiles him Psal 31.5 Observe it well he doth not say he is the true God in himself and in his nature but he is the God of truth in his discoveries and revelations of himself to men All that comes from him is truth He is the faithfull and the true witness Apoc. 3.14 Not only true and faithfull as a God but true and faithfull as a witness And his word is his witness not his ordinary saying only but his witness to confirm us and assure us of that which is delivered to us to work and strengthen faith in us And therefore it is called the Testimony or the witness of the Lord I think no less then twenty times in Scripture Now for the second branch the Gospell is the truth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and in a specialty above the rest of holy Scripture Thy word is truth saith our Saviour in my Text that is thy sanctifying word which is the Gospell Sanctifie them with thy truth thy word is truth The Law as far as I am able to remember is nowhere called distinctly by it self the word of truth but the Gospel commonly not in my Text alone but elswhere often Indeed the Psalmist prayes to God Take not thy word of truth away out of my mouth but he intends the promises for which he hoped as you may see in that place Psalm 119.43 And all the promises you know are Gospel they are in Christ yea and in Christ Amen But on the other side the Law is mentioned as in some respect contradistinct to truth The Law was given by Moses but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ 1 John 17. And yet you must not apprehend the Gospel to be truer then the Law or any parts of Scripture If it be truer they are absolutely false But it delivers truth of greater excellency then the rest of Scripture doth as will appear if you consider either the subject matter of it or the Revelation of it or the Confirmation of it or the Operation of it Gospel truth excelleth for the matter of it Christ is the subject matter of the Gospel and therefore it is called the word of Christ Col. 3.16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly not of Christ the Author only but of Christ the subject matter and herein it surpasses and transcends not all other Books only that handle other arguments but even all other parts and parcels of the Book of God it self For Christ is the most pretious and delicious matter He is the richest and the sweetest subject in the world 1. Christ the Subject of the Gospel is the most rich and pretious subject He is the wealth and treasure of the faithfull soul there is in him an endless Myne and infinite Mass of inestimable riches And therefore the Apostle having spoken of the riches of the glory of the Gospel adds in the words immediately anexed which riches is Christ in you Col. 1.27 In him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge Col. 2.3 A treasure is much but treasures are more But when all the treasures that are in the world shall be gathered together and laid in a heap there must needs be vast and riches And this transported the Apostle Paul and swallowed up his thoughts and words as unable to conceive it or express it yea even ravished him beyond himself that he was entrusted to preach the unsearchable riches of Christ Ephes 3.8 He found no end no bottome of them he could not reach the heigth and depth and length and breadth of those treasures they had such immense and endless dimensions 2. Christ the subject of the Gospel is the sweetest and most delicious subject in the world It was the only thing that weakned the delight that Austin took in reading of a certain work of Cicero's because he could not find the name of Christ in it That is a pleasant name indeed to every true believing soul and wheresoever that is found or whatsoever writing hath that high and holy person for the subject of it whom to know is life eternal should be read with full delight and high pleasure And therefore that which treats of Jesus Christ is stiled Gospel good news and good tydings yea good tydings of great joy It tells us of a Jesus a Saviour a deliverer out of bondage to sin and Sathan and damnation out of the most sad and miserable thraldom in the world and this is infinitely sweet Oh with what melting self-consuming wishes and desires doth the poor distressed Captive long to hear of a Redeemer how welcome is this news to him and such a one is Jesus Christ to us and therefore it is sweet to hear of him And as the Gospel tells us of deliverance out of bondage so of admission to such incomparable priviledges here to such unutterable happiness hereafter as cannot choose but melt the heart with ravishing delight that hath assurance of a share in them As Gospel truth excelleth for the subject matter of it Jesus Christ so for the manner of the revelation of it The trurh in the Old Testament was covered with a Vail not of Types and Shaddows only but of dark expressions too so that it was obscure and hid But now it is unvailed as it were and therefore the Apostle tells us that we behold it now with open face 2 Cor. 3.18 There is nothing now to hide it The truth of the Old Testament is likened to the glimmering twilight in the dawning of the day or to the faint and dimmer twinkling of a star But Gospel truth is likened to the shining of the Sun at noon-day And therefore we that live under Gospel-revelation are called the Children of the light and of the day 1 Thes 5.5 And the Apostle tells us that now the grace of God which brings salvation hath appeared Tit. 2.11 It is a Metaphor in which the Gospel is resembled to a glorious Light that having been obscured and masked awhile even as the Sun when it is overcast and mufled with a dark and gloomy cloud at length shines forth with admirable brightness and shewes it self with darling splendor to the world Though it were hid from ages and from generations yet it is now made manifest unto the Saints Col. 1.26 Gospel truth excelleth for the confirmation of it It is better ratified then other truth Truth may not be believed you know it may not gain assent from those that hear it for want of solid and substantial confirmation But Gospel truth hath this preheminency that it is now established to the very utmost by the death of Christ himself He hath sealed it with his blood and therefore we have reason to believe it Indeed the truth of the Old Testament was ratified and confirmed yea it was confirmed in blood But this was but the
blood of Bulls and Goats But now it is confirmed by the blood of Christ himself which is a better and a more effectual confirmation And this is that which the Apostle shews at large Heb. 9.16 and in the following verses So that the blood which ratified the Old Testament was but the shaddow and the Type of that which ratifies the new and therefore this hath the advantage of the other I must confess that the Old Testament was ratified by the death of Jesus Christ in destination for so he was the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world But this is ratified by the death of Christ in actual execution which is if not in it self to us at least a cleerer and a better confirmation Gospel truth excelleth for the operation of it it hath effects transcendently beyond all other truth that ever was revealed to the world I shall name but two only suggested in those two great Gospel Epithites the word of grace the word of life 1. Gospel truth works grace Not common grace and common sorrow and humiliation and repentance as the Law doth but saving grace And therefore it is called the word of grace Acts 20.32 It is so exclusively it worketh grace alone without the help and the assistance of the Law in that business Something the Law may do towards us indeed but it doth nothing in the work of grace Of his own will begat he us saith the Apostle by the word of truth that is the Gospel James 1.18 That only that is properly and strictly sanctifying truth Sanctifie them with thy truth 2. Gospel truth infuseth life and that no other truth can do The Law indeed can kill but it cannot make alive It is the Ministry of death and condemnation The Gospel only is the Ministry of life and of Salvation And therefore this exceeds the other and surpasseth it in glory as the Apostle shews at large 2 Cor. 3.6 7 c. In this respect we find the Gospel called the word of life 1 John 1.1 because it is the word that worketh life It is the quickning word that raises men from death to life to the life of grace in this world and to the life of glory in the world to come And thus I think we have sufficiently cleered the point the word of God especially the Gospel is the truth Proceed we now to make some application of it according to the divers branches of the point in order I shall but touch upon the first because I would no be prevented in the second Is it so my brethren that the word of God is all truth then certainly Vse 1 it ought all to be believed This truth on Gods part calls for faith on ours For what is faith but the belief of truth as the Apostle Paul defines it 2 Thes 2.13 He hath chosen us to Salvation through Sanctification of the spirit and belief of the truth So that if the word be truth it ought to be believed by us And this our Saviour Christ insinuates in his expostulation with the Jews John 8.46 If I say truth why do you not believe me Though that which is delivered in the word of God be never so improbable never so much above corrupt reason never so impossible to a humane apprehension yet it admitteth not of doubtfull Disputation and Expostulation but rather calls for absolute belief And therefore they are deeply to be censured who give no credit to the word of truth further then their private spirits close with it who do not answer Gods truth with their faith They read it and they hear it preached but they yield no assent to it No they oppose it and dispute against it they are meer Scepticks in religion There are a multitude of such in these times They consent not to wholesome words even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the Doctrine which is according to godliness as the Apostle Paul speaks 1 Tim. 6.3 4. Whereas they that have ever felt the saving power of Gods word have their thoughts captivated to it and will say as the Apostle we can do nothing we can speak nothing against the truth 2 Cor. 13.8 These men upon the other side when they hear the truth of God delivered to them speak against it contradicting and blaspheming as the stubborn Jews did Acts 13.45 They do not only ask with Mary how shall this be A question not of opposition but of inquisition Luke 1.34 But even peremptorily determine they can never be And thus they belye the Lord like those of whom the Prophet speaks Jer. 5.12 This in a word for application of the former member of the point We shall now apply the latter Vse 2 Is it so that the word of God especially the Gospel is the truth Is Gospel truth excelling truth Then let us give it the preferment before any other truth both in our inquisition and our acceptation Let us dive into it most and let us value and prize it most First Let us give it the due preferment in our inquisition let us dive into it most and labour more to be acquainted with it then with any other truth Let us read those books let us hear those Preachers and let us nourish those studies which help us most to this knowledge let us make this our main endeavour to be seen in Gospel truth let us undervalue and neglect all other knowledge incomparison of this It is the dangerous mistake of the greater part of men who had rather be acquainted with the matters of the world and to be skild in secular and humane learning then in the doctrine of the Gospel How do abundance plod to dive into the secrets and depths of nature and set their wits upon the tenter-hooks to search into the mysteries of Arts and Trades how do they beat and work their brains to get abundance of experience and skill in worldly dealings and employments but take no pains at all in hearing reading meditation to dive into the mysteries of Jesus Christ Tell me my beloved have you ever among all your earnest strivings after insight either into humane knowledge or into matters of the world been half so studious and industrious to search into this Gospel truth to be acquainted with Christ Jesus who is the subject of the Gospel to know that he was born and lived and dyed for you to know him and the virtue of his resurrection not by speculation only but experience raising you up to newness of life to know that he loved you and gave himself for you Alas the hearts of a great many of you cannot choose but tell you that you have hardly ever spent a serious thought on this And the very best among us cannot choose but say that we have been too slight and careless in our enquiries into this knowledge Ah my beloved had we the spirit of the Apostle Paul or of those blessed Angels who desire to peep and pry into the Gospel truth as you may
over all the world It is not bounded or confined to any Countrey or to any Nation but it is to stretch and to extend it self to all places and to all people And hence the Kingdom of the Lord Christ is likened to a stone that swells into a Mountain and in the end replenishes the world as Dan. 2.35 The stone that smote the Image became a great Mountain and filled the whole earth A very fit resemblance of our Saviours Kingdom First it is a little stone it lyes within a little compass it is confined within very narrow limits but yet at length it grows into a Mountain yea a great Mountain it stretches and extends out it self exceedingly and in the end replenishes the whole earth The beginnings are but small a little stone a man may put it in his pocket but the stone becomes a Mountain and the Mountain fills the world And this is that which the same Daniel in his vision did foresee as if it had been done already Dan. 7.14 And there was given him saith he dominion and glory and a Kingdom speaking of the Lord Christ And what Kingdom shall he have See in the following words he shall have such a Kingdom that all the people Languages and Nations in the world shall serve him There is a Prophecy to this purpose Psal 22.27 28. All the ends of the world shall turn to the Lord and all the kinreds of the Nations shall worship before him For the Kingdom is the Lords and he is the Governour among all Nations with which accordeth that Psal 72.8 He shall have Dominion from Sea to Sea and from the River unto the ends of the Earth and yet again Psal 86.9 All Nations whom thou hast made and you know there is no Nation which he hath not made shall come and worship before thee O Lord and shall glorifie thy Name This is the meaning of that famous Proclamation of our King himself Mal. 1.11 From the rising of the Sun unto the going down of the same my Name shall be great among the Gentiles and in every place incense shall be offered to me and a pure offering for my Name shall be great among the Heathen saith the Lord of Hosts And when all these predictions shall be brought to execution then shall that which was represented in a Vision unto John be really accomplished Apoc. 7.9 I beheld saith he and loe a great multitude which no man could number of all Nations and kinreds and people and tongues stood before the Throne and before the Lamb cloathed with white Robes and Palms in their hands and then shall that triumphant voyce take place Apoc. 11.15 The Kingdoms of the world are become the Kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ and he shall reign for ever and ever Now how shall this be brought to pass my Brethren but by the preaching of the Gospel over all the world which by our Saviour Christ himself is called the Gospel of the Kingdom Mat. 24.14 because his Kingdom is erected by it and that is the first reason why Christ sends forth his Ministers to preach the Gospel over all the world that so his Kingdom may be erected by it over all the world This Gospel of the Kingdom saith our Saviour in the fore-alledged place that is this Gospel by which my Kingdom is set up and propagated and enlarged shall be preached in all the world to all Nations and then shall the end come When this is done this Gospel preached and this Kingdom thereby propagated unto all the world then saith our Saviour and not till then shall the end come 2. And as the Kingdom of our Saviour is to be erected so Churches in the second place are to be planted over all the world And that is another reason why Christ sends forth his Ministers to preach the Gospel over all the world for Gospel preaching serves as to erect the one so to collect and plant the other The Church indeed was antiently shut up among the Jews but now it is let out to all Nations so that neither Jew nor Grecian neither Scythian nor Barbarian is excluded from the Church Thou hast redeemed us by thy blood say the Elders to our Saviour Apoc. 5.9 not out of one but out of every Kindred Nation Tongue and People This enlargement of the Church is clearly taught us in the Prophesie of Hosea 2.23 which may serve instead of all And I will sow her to me in the earth saith God there which is a Metaphorical or borrowed speech by which the Lord fore-shews the great extension of the Church in these latter Gospel days For as the Husbandman that means to have his Corn increased and multiplyed first sows it in the ground that so it may take root and spring and bear him many grains for one so God affirming he will sow his Church insinuates he will make it do as corn when it is sowen to grow and multiply exceedingly So that from a very small it shall encrease to a great number And hence he saith not I will sow her in the land of Canaan only but in the earth at large without restraint or limitation In former times he made his breach in Iewry only his field the Church was but a little corner of the world but here the Lord fore-shews that he will multiply her so that she shall be dispersed over all the earth And I will sow her to me in the earth And for this reason Jesus Christ sends forth his Seedesmen into all the Earth that they may sow the Church in all Countries This shall suffice for clearing of the point And is it so that Jesus Christ doth not send his Ministers particularly Vse 1 or restrictively c. This then may serve my Brethren in the first place at least to justifie the practice of those Ministers of Christ who for the propagating of the Church of Christ and elarging of his Kingdom have done as the Apostle Paul professed he had strived to do Rom. 15.20 saith he I have strived to preach the Gospel not where Christ was named least I should build upon another mans foundation but as it is written To whom he was not spoken of they shall see and they that have not heard shall understand Preached when a Collection was made for propagation of the Gospel in New-England You heard even now of many zealous Instruments of Christ who have had the same design viz to preach the Gospel in America where Christ was never named till within these few years To lay the first stone of the Foundation of Religion there to gather Churches and to erect the Kingdom of the Lord Christ among the poor blind Indians in the remotest quarter of the world That so the Fathers promise may at length be made good to Jesus Christ Psal 2.8 Ask of me and I will give thee the Heathen for thine Inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession And verily in this my
Brethren they have not gone beyond their line they have not strayed beyond the bounds of their Commission Christ doth not send his Ministers as you have heard particularly or restrictively to any Countrey or to any Nation but their Commission leaves them free to all the world Even the Commission not of Apostles only but of the ordinary Ministers of Christ as I have shewed before in Explication of the point so that they are within their compass still though they be among the Indians even at the other end of all the Earth And it is to be very much observed that Christ hath given abundant testimony to this glorious work of theirs in the incredible success of their endeavours there so that poor naked souls come continually to Jesus Christ stoop to the Government and Scepter of his Kingdom desire to be acquainted with his will to be instructed in the way of his worship to have their children brought up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord And in a word they shame us who have so long enjoyed the Gospel that we are even weary of it and begin to put it from us and so to judge our selves unworthy of eternal life The Lord in mercy grant it go not from us to the Indians who prize it more are more eager after it and more fruitful under it according to their light then multitudes of us professed Christians are Now I beseech you my Beloved cast an eye upon them travail thither in your thoughts and meditations there you shall see some Ministers of Jesus Christ once our fellow-Labourers spending themselves undergoing difficulties without number or measure to convert souls and gather Churches among blind Heathens There you shall see the Gospel blossoming the Church enlarging her Tent and stretching forth the Curtains of her habitation the Doves flocking to the windows of the Ark the Church of Christ the fulness of the Gentiles now beginning to come in and in a word that great work going on which is incomparably the most remarkable that Christ hath yet to do in this world What shall we do now my Beloved and how shall we behave our selves under such a dispensation shall we as many have done heretofore and it may be yet do condemn the Instruments as if they went beyond themselves in this business Shall we mock at these beginnings of the building of the Temple shall we despise the day of small things shall we as Gallio care for none of these matters Truly the least that we can do is to comply with Jesus Christ in this design of his for which he sends his Ministers into the world and to promote this glorious work to the utmost of our power It is in the hands of those for whom as you have heard it is too heavy so that they cannot mannage it they are not able to go through with it They seem to call over to us as the man of Macedonia Come to America and help us Oh let not such a work miscarry and fail of being driven on for want of any help that we can yield to it a work that is so purely Christian as this is But which way can we help it on it may be you will say to me Truly my Brethren if no other way we may promote and help it on at least without purses and our prayers This we may do at this distance I shall speak a word to either 1. We may promote it with our prayers This was the course the Prophet took as you may see Isa 62.1 In the precedent chapter he is very large and eloquent on this business shewing the future glory of the Church by the addition of the fulness of the Gentiles in all Countries and in all Nations And having done with the description of it in two whole Chapters me thinks he is an end to hasten the fruition of it For Zions sake I will not hold my peace saith he and for Jerusalems I will not rest So we my Brethren having heard of the beginning of this great work in America let us do as Isaiah did let us be always crying to the Lord let him be hard beset on all hands let him not have a quiet hour The Lord hath set his Watchmen on the walls of his Jerusalem to this purpose Isa 62.6 that they may watch such opportunities as these are And least he should forget this great work when it is upon the wheel he hath appointed some remembrancers to mind him of it and therefore let us be continually minding God of this business beseeching him to go on with this work till he hath brought it to perfection till the whole fulness of the Gentiles be come in till Christ inherit all Nations Let us remember that we have a little sister in America and that now is the day of speaking for her for now her case and business is in agitation and therefore now let us be earnest with the Lord let us pray and pray hard let us not be cold or dead in such a suit as this is We may promote it with our purses and estates And this is that especially we have in hand at this time There are very many things in that great business now on foot that need pecuniary helps as hath been said The charge that lies on these that are the agents in it is exceeding great and indeed too heavy for them and therefore we me thinks that share not in the difficulties and the labours that other of our Brethren undergo among the Indians should be content to share a little in the costs for who would willingly sit wholly out in such a blessed work as this is Alas my Brethren how much idle mony do we spend a hundred ways that might be saved for such a purpose And truly I believe we never had occasion to lay mony out to a better end then this Now we may help in a qualified sense to purchase souls with money to further the accomplishment of the Gospel promises with money we may make temporal and earthly things serve spiritual and heavenly ends And therefore I beseech you my Beloved enlarge your bounty more then ordinary in such a choise and extraordinary work as this is Let love to Christ and to his Church compassion to those blind Americans draw out your very hearts to them that those poor Indian souls whose Conversion and Salvation you may further by this means may bless you Thus make you friends of the unrighteous Mammon that you may render up a good account when the day of reckoning comes Is it so That Jesus Christ sends forth his Ministers into the world and Vse 2 that as I have said to gather Churches and erect his Kingdom over all the world Then let this raise our hearts my Brethren in reference to this work which is indeed the greatest and the most eximious that Christ hath yet to do in this world Oh let our hearts be lifted up towards it and that especially three ways in
fruitfull and have more encrease of children then she that sometimes had an husband Oh let us magnifie the grace of Iesus Christ let us adore the infiniteness of his mercy that he hath cast us on these happy times wherein he takes such care of poor Gentiles wherein he sends to them and wherein he looks after them as if they were some rich purchase Ah my beloved did we follow this mercy as far as we could reach it in our thoughts we should at length finding no end or bottom in it cry out with the Apostle Oh the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and goodness of Christ c. JOHN 17.18 Even so have I also sent them into the world DOCTRINE 3. There is a great similitude between the Fathers sending Christ into the world and Christs sending his Apostles and Ministers into the world THis is apparently suggested here in the particle as and the particle also As thou hast sent me into the world even so have I also sent them into the world My sending them is much like thy sending me So he compares them each with other in another place almost in the same words Iohn 20.21 As my Father hath sent me so send I you The thing is plain enough that so it was in some respects But wherein and in what respects this likeness stood will need to be explained with much Caution Because as there was great likeness between the Fathers sending Christ and Christs sending his Apostles and Ministers into the world so there was a great unlikeness too As the similitude was great so certainly the dissimilitude was great too And therefore while I shew the likness I will shew you the unlikeness both of them at one veiw That you may see the one the better for the other As God the Father sent the Son with authority and power so Jesus Christ sends his Apostles and Ministers with authority and power too as God gives him power so he gives them power And therefore having said to his Apostles All power is given to me both in heaven and in earth Mat. 28.18 he adds immediately in the very next words Go ye therefore and teach all Nations and baptize them q. d. because I have received such ample power my self therefore I give you this Commission by which I put a part of this authority and power on you Go forth and exercise it over all the world And this is that which the Apostle calls the power which Christ hath given him 2 Cor. 13.10 To intimate that he received his power and his authority by way of delegation from the Lord Christ as Christ received his power and his authority as he is man and Mediator by way of delegation from the Father and as the Father gives the Son a Key of power as you may see in that remarkable place Isa 22.22 The Key of the house of David will I lay upon his shoulder that is upon the shoulder of Eliakim who was in that respect a figure and a Type of Christ and he shall open and none shall shut and he shall shut and none shall open so Christ gives Keyes of power to his Apostles and his Ministers as you may see exemplified in Peter Mat. 16.19 I will give thee saith Christ the Keyes of the Kingdom of heaven and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven viz. either in the preaching of the word or in the regular administration of the censures of the Church Here is a great Similitude you see between the power with which the Father sendeth Christ and the power with which Christ sendeth his Apostles and his Ministers into the world As Christ hath power to shut and open from the Father so have they from Jesus Christ as Christ hath power to bind and loose from God the Father so have they from Jesus Christ As Christ hath power to remit sins and to retain them from the Father so have they from Christ and therefore having said to his Apostles As my Father hath sent me so send I you he adds immediately in the next verse save one Whosesoever sins ye remit they are remitted and whosesoever sins ye retain they are retained But yet as the similitude is great in this respect so is the dissimilitude The power which Jesus Christ received from God the Father is an universal power All power is given to me saith our Saviour both in heaven and in earth Mat. 28.19 And in another place he minds his Father That he had given him power over all flesh Joh. 17.2 But now that power which the Apostles and the Ministers of Christ received from him is more particular and more confined Jesus Christ hath all power all sorts and all degrees of power they have but some power some sorts and some measures The power which Jesus Christ receives from God the Father is a Kingly power he sets him up as King upon his holy hill of Sion and so accordingly he crowns him The power which they receive from Christ is but a Ministerial power Christ hath a Legislative power to make laws while they have but a Legis-narrative or Declaratory power to publish laws Christ doth jus dare and they do but jus dicere Christ binds and looses shuts and opens remitteth and retaineth sins authoritatively as a Soveraign Lord they do it but declaratively as his Ministers and servants There is a great similitude between the Fathers sending Christ c. in regard of qualification as Christ receives an unction from the Father to his Office so they received an unction from the Son to their Office as Christ is qualified with the Spirit so are they Let us compare them each with other and we shall see it very clear The Prophet speaking in the Person of our Saviour saith The Spirit of the Lord is upon me he hath anointed me to preach Isa 61.1 And so accordingly when he first began to preach he took this very Text to preach upon as you may see Luk. 4.18 Behold my servant saith the Lord whom I uphold Isa 42.1 and mine Elect in whom my soul delighteth I have put my Spirit upon him and that to qualifie him for his Office as is apparent in the following words for it is added presently That he shall bring forth judgement to the Gentiles A bruised reed shall he not break c. And this is that which is suggested in the Prophesie Isa 11.2 The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him and it shall rest upon him in those graces and endowments that fit him for the places to which he is designed And hence it is immediately annexed The Spirit of wisdom and of understanding the Spirit of counsel and of might the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. So then you see the Father as he sends Christ so he endues him with the Spirit to fit him for the business that he sends him
too In that the Father sends the Son to save his people by his merit and his Spirit The Son sends his Ministers to save them by the application of his merit and his Spirit to them in the preaching of the Gospel The Father sends the Son to save them by dying for them the Son sends his Ministers to save them by preaching to them and so by crucifying Christ again before their eyes as Gal. 3.1 The Father sends his Son to save his people meritoriously and by way of effectual operation The Son sends his Ministers to save them Ministerially and by way of vocal Declaration so that Christ only is the proper Saviour and Ministers at most are but the Instrumental Saviours of his people Vse 1 Now is it so my Brethren That there is a great similitude between the Fathers sending c. Here then my Brethren is a perfect pattern for all the Minsters of Jesus Christ they must look on him that sent them and see what power he was endued withal what errand he was sent on and for what ends and so act accordingly As God invested him with power and sent him into the world to preach the Gospel and to save his people So Jesus Christ hath invested them with power to do the same thing for the same end So that they must not aim at the destruction and the hardning of the people No they must make this their business how they may bring about their conversion and salvation It 's true they must be sons of Thunder now and then as well as sons of Consolation they must preach the Law sometimes as well as the sweet comforts of the Gospel they must threaten men sometimes with wrath and hell and eternal condemnation But then they must not do it so as wishing that these things might come upon them but rather that they might avoid them They must threaten them with wrath that they may flee from the wrath to come and threaten with hell that they may escape the damnation of hell they must preach the Law with Gospel purposes and Evangelical intentions they must send out the avenger of blood to dog them at the heels that they may fly to the City of refuge They must use sharpness now and then it cannot be avoided But it must be for the same end that the Apostle speaks of 2 Cor. 13.10 where having minded the Corinthians that in case he must use sharpness according to the power the Lord had given him he had authority from Christ to do it but mark in the succeeding words to what end for edification and not for destruction according to the power the Lord hath given me for edification and not for destruction And therefore it is very notable that when our Saviour Christ had said to his Disciples All power is given to me both in heaven and in earth and having put a part of that power and authority of his on his Apostles having sent them as his Father sent him he doth not say to them as God doth to the Prophet Jer. 1.10 I have set you over the Nations and over the Kingdoms to root out and to destroy but I have sent you to the Nations to teach them and to baptize them that they may be saved He doth not make them rooters but planters he doth not bid them to go out and preach damnation to the people in the first place but go and preach the Gospel to them that they may be saved And the Apostle speaking of the execution of this Commission and authority in the Administration of the censures of the Church saith he would give a foul offendor up to Satan for no other end but this even for his good and his salvation 1 Cor. 5.34 I have already judged saith he concerning him that hath so done this deed with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ to deliver him to Satan for the destruction of the flesh the carnal part that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord So that when we threaten judgement when we retain the sins of men when we give them up to Satan either in preaching or in Church-censure our aim is that their corruption may be mortified and that their spirits may be saved by this means And all the Ministers of Christ ought to have this continually in their eye how they may reach this great end they must remember that Jesus Christ hath sent them as God the Father sent him and that was not to condemn the world but that the world by him might be saved And thus of the First Argument with which our Saviour presseth and enforceth his Petition to his Father in behalf of his Apostles for Sanctification which hath been taken from the business and imployment that he is setting them about viz the very same in some respect which he himself hath hitherto sustained and undergone by the appointment of the Father Sanctifie them with thy Truth thy Word is Truth Why might the Father answer why so Cause enough saith Jesus Christ for as thou hast sent me into the world even so have I also sent them into the world and therefore thou hadst need to sanctifie them that so they may be fitted and enabled for such a service as this is JOHN 17.19 And for their sakes I sanctifie my self that they also might be sanctified through the truth PRoceed we to the Second Argument with which he backs the same Petition and it is taken from the end for which he sanctified himself And for their sakes I sanctifie my self that they also might be sanctified through the truth q. d. It was the very end at which I aimed in sanctifying of my self that they might be sanctified it was my scope and drift in that business and therefore I beseech thee Father let me not be disappointed of my purpose let not this great design of mine be frustrated but do thou sanctifie them with the truth because I sanctified my self for their sakes with this intent that they might also be sanctified through the truth Two things we have apparently presented to us in the words what our Saviour did and why he did it First what our Saviour did He sanctified himself Secondly then why he did it and this is in the first place generally exprest that it was for their sakes for his Apostles and Disciples sakes that he sanctified himself And then it is particularly and expresly specified in what regard it was for their sakes that they might also be sanctified through the truth The difficulty of the text lies especially in this how Christ is said to sanctifie himself and what he means by that expression for their sakes I sanctifie my self To sanctifie is properly to make holy now a person or a thing is made holy especially two wayes viz. by qualification when holiness and grace is put into it when a man is made partaker of the saving gifts and graces of the holy spirit then he is said in Scripture to
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
ought not to condemn and censure him again If he chide us we ought not to chide him again But if he love us we may we must love him again Yea he expecteth that we should return him love for love for he loves to be beloved Is it the will of Jesus Christ that true believers should be one in God Vse in the Father and the Son by sweet agreement and consent Then I beseech you my Beloved comply with Jesus Christ in this particular As God and Jesus Christ agree in every thing so do you agree with them Bring your mind to the mind of God and to the will of God that you may be of one mind and one will Have you no judgement of your own as different from Gods but judge of things as God doth Let his wisdom be your wisdom his reason your reason and his determination your determination Have you no wills of your own my Brethren but let the will of God be your will let it rule and order you Let your will be so melted and resolved into the will of God that as far as it is possible God and you may have but one will That he may never cross you and you may never cross him Consent to him in every thing if he say any thing true Lord if he do any thing good Lord Yea though it be against you in your ends and in your natural desires yet say as Hezekiah to the Prophet when he received a heavy threatning Good is the word of the Lord which he hath spoken Take heed there be no difference between God and you in any thing let not him say one thing and you another will one thing and you another But say you as God says and will you as God wills that so you may be swallowed up in God and that you may be one in him And to this end I propound three things 1. If God and you agree not every way in all respects you are out and not he And therefore it is best in all things to conform your minds and wills to his His mind and his will is always right and yours if they dissent are always crooked and oblique and therefore it is best to bring your mindes and wills to his and not to think to bring his to your own The Malon when he tries the wall that he hath builded by his rule and findes them not to suit together he doth not go and cut the rule and bring it to the wall but he goes and mends the wall till he have brought it to the rule So if your minds and wills do not agree with God's the fault is not in his but yours and therefore you must bend your minds and wills till you have brought them straight like his and not endeavour to make his crooked like your own 2. If God and you agree not every way as you are irregular so you are undutiful You are his servants and you are his creatures and therefore ought in all things to be ruled by him The Masters will must be the servants will in lawful things and therefore in the Civil Law the servant is accounted in the Master and not as a distinct person And much more the Creators will must be the creatures will He gives it being both the beginning and continuance of it and he that gives being may give Law to regulate the motions and the operations of the being that he gives and may not be contested with in any particular 3. If we agree not all in God our agreement and accord among our selves is worth nothing So far it is to be approved as it doth unite in God Then it is good and right indeed when as the Father and the Son agree together so we agree with both of them in the very same things If we be of one mind and heart in things wherein the Father and the Son are not of one mind with us it were better we did differ then unite for we unite not in a right center But if as we be one among our selves so we be one in the Father and the Son this is indeed a blessed union If Brethren so dwell together in unity that all of them do dwell together in this one God this is a happy and a heavenly conjunction And therefore I beseech you my Beloved let us look to this that as we all agree so we all agree in God and Jesus Christ Let us examin still whether our consent in any thing do meet and unite with theirs Let us see what their mind and will is and let us all accord in that together For though we be not one against another if God be against us all it is a very sad case The Apostle John makes mention of love in the truth 2 Joh. 15. Love in error is not to be accounted of but to be avoided rather but love in truth is very pretious consent in error is not to be rejoyced in but consent in truth my Brethren is a comfortable thing For this is consent in God who is so often called Truth in Scripture And if we so agree and so consent we may depend upon it we have Gods agreement and consent with us and therefore let this be our great care that Jesus Christ may have his will in this business according to his prayer in my Text That they may be one as thou Father art in me and I in thee that they also may be one in us JOHN 17.21 That the world may believe that thou hast sent me VVE are upon the matter of our Saviours Prayer for them who should believe in him by his Apostles word And there are two main things as I have noted formerly that he desires in their behalf First that they might be all one Then that they might be all in one place The first of these requests of his he propounds and prosecutes propounds it in the verse which we have even now insisted on That they all may be one c. And then he prosecutes it with divers arguments and reasons in this and the succeeding verses Whereof the first is taken from the furtherance that this neer unity of theirs would be to the acceptance of our Saviour in the world That the world may believe that thou hast sent me That they may all be one as c. Why so That the world may believe c. For Explication of the terms the difficulty lies especially in this viz. what sort of people our Saviour Christ intendeth by the world here For to say truth the world is taken divers ways I think more differently then any other phrase almost in Scripture Sometimes we find it used for elect and sanctified and sometimes for reprobate and unsanctified persons Sometimes we find it taken for believers and sometimes for unbelievers as I could give you instances of both these And when for unbelievers sometimes for those who believe not for the present but shall believe in after times sometimes for those who
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
us up as far as it is possible to cleanse our selves from sin when we are making our approaches to him For sin my Brethren is against the righteousness of God yea in directest opposition And therefore it is set out by the name of unrighteousness in Scripture Not only all injustice is unrighteousness but sin is generally so The wrath of God saith the Apostle is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men Rom. 1.18 against every kind of sin especially that violates the second Table And so all unrighteousness is sin saith the Evangelist 1 Joh. 5.17 And I may say as well all sin is unrighteousness And hence it is my Brethren that it is so infinitely odious to the righteous God And truly did we seriously consider this my Brethren when we come to pray before him we should be deeply humbled for it and ashamed of it we should strive exceedingly to quit and rid our selves of it which is so contrary to this attribute of his and consequently is so detestable to him Oh we would shake and quiver every joynt to think of coming to the righteous God in our unrighteousness unhumbled for and unreformed We would consider with our selves What will the Lord say to me when he sees me in his presence How will he look on such a wicked and unrighteous wretch as I am how is it possible but he should hide his eyes from me how can he choose but hate me and abhor me Do I expect to find favour in his eyes and come before him with that which he so abhors as if I meant to vex him and provoke him And therefore if we ever look to speed with God in prayer let us consider what a righteous God he is and let us labour to cleanse our selves from our unrighteousness that is as far as it is possible from every sin and he will receive us as his own expression is 2 Cor. 6.17 or otherwise he will not 2. The meditation of the righteousness of God will strengthen and confirm our faith in all the pretious promises of God when we are pouring out our prayers to him Because indeed his righteousness and justice lies at stake for the performance of his promises by reason of his Covenant and Engagement to us It is true before he made the Covenant he was free he might have done according to his own pleasure But having made it he is bound he is held to it and may not vary Now he must forgive our sins ours that believe or else he is unrighteous as the Apostle John insinuates 1 Joh. 1.19 He is faithful and just to forgive our sins Now he must reward our labour or else he is unrighteous as the Apostle speaks Heb. 6.10 The Lord is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour He doth not say the Lord is not unmerciful but the Lord is not unrighteous Now he must give us everlasting rest and render everlasting trouble to our enemies or else he is unrighteous And therefore saith the same Apostle 2 Thess 1.6 It is a righteous thing with God to render tribulation to them that trouble you and to you who are troubled rest with us And therefore when we pray for the pardon of our sins the acceptance of our labours or any other good thing comprehended in the Covenant from the beginning of it to the end Let us fix our serious thoughts not only on the mercy but also on the justice and the righteousness of God and we shall find it will exceedingly confirm our wavering faith while we consider that his righteousness is bound for the performance of his promises and that as sure as God is righteous he will with-hold no good thing from us JOHN 17.25 The world hath not known thee OUR Saviour having ended the petitionary part is at length come to the conclusion of his prayer In which he shews the Father reason why he should be heard in all that he hath been a Suitor for in the behalf of true believers viz Because himself and they were inwardly acquainted with him whereas all the world besides were strangers to him as I have noted heretofore In this conclusion of our Saviours prayer have been considered two things To whom he speaks and What he speaks First To whom he speaks and this you see my brethren is to God whom he stileth Righteous Father Secondly then in the next place What he speaks and here is something that he speaks against the world and something that he speaks for himself and true believers 1. Here is something that he speaks against the world the world hath not known thee 2. Then here is something that he speaks for himself and true believers but I have known thee and these have known that thou hast sent me To whom our Saviour speaks as he is set forth by his title and his attribute hath been considered heretofore The thing which we have now in hand is what he speaks and more particularly what he speaks against the world Oh Righteous Father the world hath not known thee We have observed heretofore out of the ninth verse of this Chapter that he speaks not for the world No it is utterly excluded from having any share at all in our Saviours intercession let their case be what it will let their necessities be what they will Christ even leaves them to themselves and never interposes for them to the Father Nay which is worse he speaks against them He speaks against the world as you hear him in my text You see he cannot end his prayer but he must have a parting blow at them Oh righteous Father the world hath not known thee to kindle and exasperate his wrath against them It hath not known thee with a knowledge of affection they have not known thee so as to love thee and obey thee They are strangers yea they are enemies to thee Let justice have its course against them let it be executed on them to the utmost This I have glanced at only from the general that Christ speaks against the world Proceed we more particularly to consider what he speaks against the world Oh Righteous Father the world hath not known thee And here I shall unfold the terms and come to a more special observation Two things we have to be enquired and resolved 1. Whom our Saviour means by world 2. What he intendeth when he affirmeth of the world that it doth not know God As for the first of these The world imports not here the frame and frabrique of the world as it doth sometimes in Scripture but the people of the world And yet not all the people of the world neither for Jesus Christ immediately excepts himself and true believers The world hath not known thee but I have known thee and these have known thee The world you see is set in opposition here to Christ and his Disciples So that our Saviour by the world intends all the people in the world besides himself and
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
condition the Lord notwithstanding will be mercifull to them But as you tender the salvation of your pretious souls I beseech you to observe that Gods own word is peremptory and express for this that none that know not God shall have any share in the mercy of God or in the glory of the world to come Oh continue thy loving kindness to them that know thee to them and none but them saith David Psal 36.10 It is a people of no understanding saith the Prophet of the Jews Isa 27.11 And what follows Therefore he that made them will have no mercy upon them It is the common apprehension of vulgar and ignorant people that he that made them will save them too No saith the Prophet if they be ignorant of God he that made them will not have mercy upon them They have not known my wayes saith God unto whom I sware in my wrath that they should never enter into my rest But you will ask me then Quest By what means shall we come to know God Truly there is but one way of coming to the knowledge of him Answ and that way is Jesus Christ No man hath seen God at any time 1 John 18. What then is he not to be seen or known at all by any means Yes though he be not to be seen or known immediately in himself yet mediately in and by the Son he may be known For he hath manifested and revealed him to us No man hath seen God at any time the only begotten Son that came out of the bosome of the Father he hath declared him Indeed it was the business for which our Saviour came into this lower world to bring God down to us that we might be acquainted with him And if ever you see or know God you must have light from Jesus Christ I am the light saith he John 8.12 He that follows me shall have the light of life And therefore if you would have this light follow Jesus Christ for it How you must follow him so as to fetch this light from him I have directed you before on the third verse of this Chapter Is it so that unbelievers and unsanctified persons know not God Vse 2 What cause have true believers then to admire and adore the special mercy of the Lord to them that they should be acquainted with him That he should give them the preferment in such a blessed and glorious priviledge as this is That now they can say to God as our Saviour in my text Oh Righteous Father the world hath not known thee but we have known thee O Lord whence is this to us how is it Lord that thou dost manifest thy self to us and not unto the world as the Disciples said John 14.22 How comes this to pass Lord Truly this is free-grace and free-mercy mercy to be admired and wondred at Oh let our souls and all that is within us bless the Lord Let us take up our Saviours words Father we thank thee that thou hast hid thy self from a world of wise and prudent men and hast revealed thy self to such babes as we are We bless thy name for this mercy And truly we have cause to bless him for this knowledge is our life keep it for it is thy life saith Solomon Prov. 4.13 and life is a pretious thing If we had still remained in the condition that the world is in we had never known God we must have died to all eternity we had been punished with eternal perdition we could never have enjoyed him who is the God of our life But now we know him so as to love him we shall be sure to live with him and that for ever Nay this is life yea life eternal in regard of the beginning such a life as is above the power of death and dissolution as our Saviour Christ assures us John 17.3 This is life eternal to know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent JOHN 17.25 But I have known thee and these have known c. AND thus of what our Saviour speaks against the world Oh Righteous Father the world hath not known thee Proceed we to know what he speaks for himself and true believers But I have known thee and these have known that thou hast sent me There is no difficulty in the terms requiring any tedious explication I have known thee saith our Saviour to the Father though the world be strangers to thee yet I am very well acquainted with thee I know thee inwardly And my Disciples here have known that thou hast sent me They have been throughly perswaded that I am a messenger sent forth from thee to manifest thy nature and thy will to them which I have done accordingly I have declared to them thy name So they have known thee by my means So that the special thing to be observed here my brethren is the order in which the knowledge of the Father is dispensed First Christ the Mediator knows him he is acquainted with him in the first place I know thee saith our Saviour here And then Believers are acquainted with him by the means of Christ And these have known that thou hast sent me and I have declared unto them thy name The Observation then is this DOCTRINE That Jesus Christ and he alone knows God immediately and others know him by the means of Christ All saving knowledge of the Father comes out by Jesus Christ to his people Christ knows him first and then we know him in the second place by him No man hath seen God at any time John 1.18 What then is he not to be seen or known at all by any means Yes though he be not to be seen or known by us immediately in himself yet mediately in and by the Son he may be known for he hath manifested and revealed him to us No man hath seen God at any time The only begotten Son which is in the bosome of the Father he hath declared him Indeed it was the business for which our Saviour came into this lower world to bring God down to us that we might be acquainted with him Ye neither know me nor my Father saith our Saviour to the Jews John 8.19 If ye had known me ye should have known my Father also q. d. I would have brought you to the knowledge of my Father And as the Book in Apoc. 5.9 had still remained a sealed Book unless the Lamb had opened it so God had still remained a concealed God he had never been discovered and manifested to us in a saving way unless the Son himself had done it So that the Point is plain you see That Jesus Christ and he alone knows God immediately and others know him by the means of Christ And therefore in the first place this may serve for information to let Vse 1 us see that no man can be saved by his own innate knowledge nor by the light that is naturally in him let him use it how he will or how
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