not known nor whom we know deal harshly and discourteously with us in our common occasions of commerce or If those of alliance and acquaintance who are prophane and ungodly if they be fals in their promises or injust or injurious in their carriages towards us They deal like themselves they do but their kind as we say If fals hearted persons deal falsly If loose men shew themselves base to us it s that they do to al yea to their own Souls we expect no other and therefore if we find no better measure it doth not trouble If it had been an Enemy I could have born it saies David but when it comes to that It was thou my familiar Friend we took sweet counsel and went up to the house of the Lord together It was he that lift up himself against me this is more bitter than death It is so with the Lord. If the Ignorant world who knows him not who are strangers from him and the convenant of his Grace If the wicked and prophane who are professed adversaries to his Grace and Kingdom if they dishonor his name transgress his Laws grieve his spirit and cast his Ordinances behind their back It I say the world deal so with the Lord he looks for no other he hates the world he never gave his Son for the world Christ never prayed for the world But that his faithful whom he hath owned imbraced in the Bowels of his tenderest mercies should deal frowardly in his covenant this is killing unkindness Will ye also go away Joh. 6.67 When the Crown of those counterfeit wretches who followed Christ for the Loaves when they missed of their Dinner and sweet morsels they departed presently and came no more at him Our Savior is content to see so free a riddance of them and the place quit of their company But turnes himself to his disciples with that melting expression wil ye also go away q. d. That they are gone I care not it matters not I never knew them nor was known of them but wil ye also go away that would be unsufferable Though Israel play the Harlot yet let not Judah offend And hence it is The Lord is compelled with such unreasonable carriages to make his complaint unto the senseless creatures as those who would give in witness against such miscarriages as professedly cross to the course of things Hearken O Heaven and hear O Earth I have nourished and brought up Children and they have rebelled against me Isa 1.2 And upon this ground it is the Lord makes that so sad an expression when the Sons of God married with the Daughters of men and were carried with the common stream Gen. 6.6 The Text saith It grieved God to the Heart It went to the heart of the Almighty Bears any thing but the Contempt of his love and goodness For it is a sin out of measure sinful Not only that which Nature gainsaies and reason rejects and conscience condemnes and Grace abhorres to the bottomless pit But it is a practise more vile than the worst of sinners wil adventure upon Math. 5.46 If ye love them that love you what reward have ye Do not the Publicans the same Not to return love for love c. It s that which the Publicans the worst and most reffuse wretches in the world do loath For the faithful who have been redeemed by the precious Blood of Jesus comforted by the spirit of Jesus beloved of the Father as the Lord Jesus his only begotten Son for them to be tainted with that sin which the Publicans the worst of men wil give witness against Oh how hamous are such miscarâ—iages and how grievous must they needs be to the God of love I shal Instance in two Evils unto which the Saints are usually too much subject and taken aside withal which are so professedly opposite to this enlarged compassion of the Lord. 1. When the Faithful either question this Love when it is so sure Or 2. Undervalue it and little esteem of it when it is so great as that it exceeds the thoughts and apprehensions of men Both are marvelously distastful and that justly to the Father of Mercies and in truth unsufferable were it not that he makes us acceptable and lovely through his wel-beloved It could not be that he could bear with the abuse of his constant kindness in so gross and unkind manner and yet this is the baseness and wretchedness of our unreasonable hearts He hath loved us with an everlasting Love he never ceaseth loving and we never cease questioning and quarrelling with his kindness we are ever of the jealous and suspicious hand that this favor of the Lord it is but for a fit it wil one day fail and we shal be forsaken utterly If Christ wil cease to be a Son and to be this wel-beloved of his Father with whom he is wel pleased then wil he cease to love thee to accept of thee and to be wel pleased with thee in him The one is impossible the other is incredible and therefore stifle those distempered pangs they are so deeply injurious to the Lord and distastful to his Majesty that he cannot bear them but wil undoubtedly correct Such a way-ward jealous pang ye shal perceive in the Church of the Jews in the day of Discouragement when God cals Heaven and Earth to rejoyce in the Consolation of his People Sing O Heavens and be joyful of Earth break forth into singing O Mountains for God hath comforted his People and will have mercy on his afflicted Isa 49.13 but they were silent in this Quaere and sate down in sullen discouragement verse 14. But Zion said The Lord hath forsaken me and my Lord hath forgotten me Can a Woman forget her sucking Child that she should not have compassion on the fruit of her Womb yea they may but yet will not I forget thee verse 15. and therefore the Lord professeth he takes it unkindly Isa 40.27 Why sayest thou O Jacob and speakest O Israel amp c. This is the dayly talk of al dismayed and gloomy discouraged Spirits it 's al they speak and have in their Meetings Jacob saies and Israel speaks this is common My way in hid from the Lord and my Judgment is passed over of my God Thus ye say but what saies God Why speakest thou c. q. d. I cannot abide those words God cannot brook such groundless suspicions of his Favor which is more sure than the Foundations of the Earth As it is whith men who are real and cordial in their kindness and sincere hearted in the expression of their Love so that they never gave the least appearance of any instability and feebleness in their Promises and Performances as either their engagements or others desires or necessities should require if yet their Friends and intimate Familiars should out of their jealousie either cast out such words in their presence or give it in their expressions to others to understand That however they have ever been
was made of the Rib of Adam So Faith hath its flesh and bones out of the promise and the root of it is in Christ for the first strok of it Use 4. Exhortation Therefore In the want of Faith bring our own Souls bring our Wives and little ones and beseech the Lord that one word may be spoken to them to beleeve and Live The means or instrument whereby Sinners are brought to beleeve was the word That is finished 2 The Parties Faith was set forth from the object of it ME. Beleeve in Christ Saving Faith hath the Lord Jesus for its object Doct. So the text Though not him alone to exclude the other Persons so not them alone to exclude himself Ye beleeve in God beleeve also in me That ye beleeve in the Father is not enough ye must beleeve also in the Son and by like reason in the Holy Ghost Joh. 14.1 This is eternal life faith our Savior to know thee the onely true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent i. e. To beleeve in the Father and Son is that onely means appointed to bring in eternal life The Second thing is The Parties for whom Christ prayers are here set forth by a Comparison of equality and parity I pray not for my Apostles alone who are the main Pillars of the Church now to be sent upon the most weighty imployments that can be committed to the hands of fâ—eâ—le men to publish the Gospel to every creature to plant Churches and to gather mine elect from al the corners of the world notwithstanding al the opposition they shal find from Hel and fierce persecution they shal meet withal from the hands of unreasonable men And therefore since the work lyes first upon their hands and requires present performance and so have need presently to be remembred and to have the first place in my prayer Yet my love and care reacheth proportionably even to al the meanest and feeblest of my servants that shal beleeve in me unto the end of the world though they come in the second rank yet shal they share alike in my prayers For I pray for them as for these That they may know I remembred them before they were and wil not therefore forget them when they shal be here in the conflicting times upon the face of the Earth The Interceding Prayer or Intercession of our Savior doth alike respect al that shal beleeve in his name Doct. I cal it here an Interceding Prayer because herein his Intercession is in a special manner both expressed and accomplished For it is not to be attended as a prayer which he put up as man alone or as the minister of the Circumcision as the Apostle calls him Rom. 15.8 For then it can avail no further then the prayer of a man without sin will do and answerable to that kind of willing Math. 23.37 How often would I have gathered them c. But it s here the special work of Intercession and proceeds from him as God and man Mediator of his elect and faithful and so Intercession in their behalf That being as I told you shortly to offer up himself he sends his prayer as the great high Priest of his Church in power of his Intercession to lie Leidger there in the behalf of his beloved Children that he might provide in Heaven for them before he lest the Earth And this prayer is part of that Intercession he now puts sorth at the right Hand of the Father So that the Sum in short is Christs Intercession was intended for all beleevers alike Hence are al these general and indefinite expressions as carrying an equal Eye unto all without any Special restraint to any particular of what quality or condition soever Heb. 7.25 He is able to save them that came unto God by him i.e. Who beleeve in him seeing he ever liveth to make Intercession for them i. e. For any of them for every one of them that shall beleeve And therefore it was when the high Priest was to go into the Holy of Holies he was to bear the names of the twelve Tribes upon his Breast-plate i.e. The names of all the Saints which should profess the Faith and by Faith beleeve in him And it is the condition of the great work of our Redemption it carries no respect of persons with it provided they be under the condition and terms of the covenant it lies open unto all That which Jude spake of Salvation its true of the whole work of Mediation and Intercession Common Salvation Common Intercesson In Christ Jesus nor Jew nor Gentile Graecian nor Barbarian Bond nor Free Male nor Female So that of Paul Rom. 5. If reconciled by his Death when sinners much more shall we be saved by his life being reconciled If the death of our Saviour could purchase our Reconciliation much more shal his life now interceding in Heaven be able to save us i.e. All for whom he died I shall open here 1 The Nature and manner of this Intercession 2 The works and vertue of it 3 The reasons of the point why it appertaines to all the Saints 1 This Intercession or the manner of our Saviors praying must thus be conceived that he doth present his merits obedience before the Father as fully performed in the behalf of his elect and according to the righteous covenant and agreement past between them doth challenge the communication of al that spiritual good he hath purchased and the Father hath promised to bestow upon them That is the meaning of that expression in ver 24. Father I will that those whom thou hast given me be where I am that they may behâ—ld my Glory It is my good pleasure that they should enjoy that happiness that thou hast given me and given to them in me according as thou hast promised 2. The work of this Intercession is To act all our affayrs with God the Father to further our comfort spiritual wellfare here on Earth until we come to him in Heaven and to shal have an end of al our wants feares and desires that we shall want nothing that is good â—oâ— sear any thing that is evil nor desire any further or more perfect good to be added which is abâ—ent from us but he takes care al shal be fully accomlished As it is with States who have Affayreâ— or great consequences depending in other countries they have their Ambassadors which ly Leidger at Court to take advantages to continue Love and honourable Correspondence betwixt the King and States and to discover all undermining Plots which my breed any distast and so procure no smal dammage to those who do imploy them So it is with our Savior he is gone to Heaven and there remaines a Leidger with God the Father that he may observe and take al such Special advantages for acomplishment of the comforts of his Quest If you ask What be those Spiritual affayres of ours there to be transacted Answ They
a Son The Son is not therefore Son because he is God but because he hath a Father for they are both equally one God and have the Deity indifferently agreeing to them both As a man is not therefore a Husband because he is a man for then every man should be a husband but in reference to the Woman he hath married And hence the Father is said to be in the Son and the Son in the Father namely to be one in this mutual respect The Father had an Eye only to the Son in giving his subsistence of a Son The Son again hath an Eye to the Father alone returning the being of his sonship to him And they are prefect in this They wholly give wholly take Thus they are said to be in each other Joh. 14.10 Beleevest thou not that I am in the Father and the Father in me so said again to be one with another and delighting one in another Prov. 8.30 And mutually to glorifie one another Father glorifie thy Son that thy Son may glorifie thee Joh. 17.1 3. The second person in the glorious Trinity so takes our Human Nature into personal Union with him that he is the same person he was no other and it becomes one person with him leanes upon him hath his dependance from him looks alone to him for his subsistence As a Son he assumes our Nature and as a Son with our Nature looks to the Father Therefore said he doth nothing of himself but what he sees the Father do Joh. 5.19 As the Father hath life in himself so he hath given to he Son to have life in himself because the Son of man verse 26.27 4. As the Father is said to beget his Son and give being to him so the Son as thus begotten assumes our Nature be comes the Head of the covenant and gives being of Sonship to his Children and they returne al that being to the Lord Christ and the Father in him Therefore called the eternal Father Isa 9.6 Hebr. 2.1 3. Here am I and the Children thou hast given me called also his seed The manner of which words may thus be conceived The Lord hath purchased the Spirit he is said then to beget when he sends the spirit of Sons inâ—o their Hearts which by the immutable assistance thereof sets their hearts for God holds the bent thereof towards him alone as their Father and principle of life As they receive this being of Sons they returne it wholly to the Father in Christ The whole man in the whol and that with his whol strength fastens upon God in Christ acted wholly by the influence of his spirit and holds the not excellency thereof The Sum of all out of all that hat been said 1. Vnity is the chiefest priviledg for which Christ prayes and beleevers can partake of as their peculiar good in themselves I add that In themselves because there be higher ends than this in the Text To-wit the setting up of God in Christ in the Consciences of the ungodly that they may be forced to confess that God sent his Son to this end That he loved them as he loved Christ There is yet another and higher end That they may behold and wonder and be swallowed up in the admiration of the glory of Christ which the Father hath given him Enquire here how far Christ being in the Saints and his love in them may yet be a higher end than this 2. This Vnity is not the unity of affection between each other so much but the unity of relation to God in Christ That as the Father is in the Son and the Son in the Father by eternal generation Beleevers so ought to be in both by spiritual Adoption 3. In this Spiritual Adoption as there is an influence from God in Christ to bend and settle the frame of the Heart towards him So there is a re-fluence and return by the power and impression left of the same spirit to come again to him Conveyance of help on Gods hand should quicken our dependance to look to him and stay our selves with him there 4. Had Adam stood his posterity out of principles in themselves might have challenged happiness though a covenant performed by a man conveyed by a man unto them by way of natural generation But in the covenant of the Gospel the second Adam the second person taking our Nature by the power of the Deity wrought al for us communicates al to us by the same almighty power inables us to receive what we have from him To be acted in al by him To return all to him The mutable principle in the creature never brought a man to God nor kept him with him But the mutable presence and Spirit of Christ So that there is a priviledg here above that principle of Grace that was in Adam for that was but a creature But here the spirit and so the power of God through Christ that takes our Nature into the neerest union with him even personal which in Adam it attained not in that purchaseth all for us Not a principle in us firstly but the spirit of God in Christ it is by which the bent of our Hearts are held and carried towards him acted by him and so inabled to hold out the vertue power praise and excellency of the spirit in Christ from the Father So that a poor creature is compassed about with nothing but whith the power of God in Christ and becomes one with Father and Son in their mutual relation to them and totall dependance upon them And this is above the innocency and excellency of Adam in Paradise and all that he could attain unto and above all created Grace in Heaven being wholly taken up with God in Christ and loose our selves in God and Christ Eph. 4.13 The acknowledgment of the Son of God It was not the Son of man that did it The Son of God that recovered us held the bent of our hearts to him acted us kept us perfected us crownes us God shal be all in all The Father gives being to the Son returnes all to the Father and that eternal generation and so one The Lord Christ as a son and begotten of the Father gives us the being of Children by Adoption sets us and holds us We take al acted by him return to him As the Father in Christ gives all we receive and to the Father through Christ we return al and so we are one in the Father and the Son I. Reason 1. Because this is the scope of our Saviors coming into the world and the next end I say the next end he intended in the great work of Redemption which he wrought for lost man To bring him into this neer relation of dearest Love of the Father by himself and the work of his spirit and it s that wherein the life and power and pith of the covenant of Grace doth especially consist and appeare and the excellency thereof That peculiar and spiritual intercourse not alone
will deny Christs prayer I am content he should deny my comfort and support But the one is impossible and the other is incredible It s seasonable even for unbeleeving creatures leaving secret things to Gods counsel when they have no heart to pray not Hope to expect any favor and where ever they cast their Eye they find nothing but cause of discouragement and confusion of face look into the world there is nothing but vanity there to deceive and vex look they into their own hearts and lives there is nothing but Hells of sin and guilt which might overwhelm them Look then to the Prayer of our Savior who prayed for His in their worst condition when they did not beleeve and could not pray for themselves and were as bad as I am even for Paul when he was persecuting and blaspheming even for many of the Jews when they were killing of him and why not for me why may I not Hope the best when I cannot conclude the worst what God wil do he knows not what he may do he hath revealed and I will yet expect Use 3. Exhortation He prayed for this disposition labor thou to attain it He desired it of his Father in Heaven indeavor thou to the utmost of that care and skill thou hast in the use of all means to attain it upon earth The Sum is That the whol strength of the Soul should be wholly carried to God in Christ for all not to any thing in our selves we have or for any thing we can do as Adam might have pleaded I have done I have deserved it but wholly to be quickened and acted by the spirit of God through Christ The Soul should be like the Herb Heliotropium the Nature whereof is such as the philosopher observes It turnes the face of it towards the Sun what way soever it turnes In the morning looks to the East the Sun rising In the evening to the West the Sun setting So it should be with the beleeving sinner the face and Eye of the Soul ever towards God in Christ That which our Souls need and which is able to answer our desires and satisfie our necessities is here alone to be had hither alone we must come from hence for ever look to receive it So Peter disputes Act. 4.12 Job 6. When our Savior would settle their staggering disposition least they should be taken aâ—â—de will ye also go away He answers and yields the argument Whither should we go thou only hast the words of eternal life Here only is that wisedom that may guid here only that mercy that may succor here only is that Grace that may refresh and quicken It s good therefore coming being here So they by experience concluded Jer. 3.29 Surely in vam is Salvation hoped for from the Hills and from the multitude of the Mountaines truly in the Lord our God is the Salvation of Israel And upon the like ground they resolves Hos 14.3 For in thee the Fatherless findeth mercy It s not Els-where to be found Therefore learn we to chide our hearts out unto God in Christ As Jacob his Sons Why stand ye here gazing one upon another go unto Egypt and buy that we may live and not die Gaze not upon the sins weaknesses temptations miseries means ordinances c. get ye to God in Christ that ye may for ever be assured comforted and quickened As its alone here to be had So here we shal never fail to receive what we seek and expect Ps 10.20 Verse 21. That the world may beleeve that thou hast sent me THese last words lay out the main scope of the Prayer of our Savior at which he aimed and which he looked at principally by the grant of that spiritual unity which he craved in the behalf of his disciples And the end is To lift up the prais and honor of that supream and absolute soveraignty of God the Father in sending his own faithfulness and infinite sufficiency in executing and accomplishing the great work of Redemption about which he was sent so that there was nothing failed of all that the Father purposed and he undertook to perform and that the world and worst of men however formerly they rebelled against his authority counsel and command in sending rejected also the person and proceeding of our Savior Christ in coming who was a stumbling to the Jew and foolishness to the Grecians The Head-corner-stone whom the Jews refused whom the Gentiles trampled under their feet against whom both Jews and Gentiles banded themselves So the Apostle Peter observes the Prophecy and concludes by proof and experience and accomplishment of it Act. 4.24 25 26 27. Lord thou art God which hast made Heaven and Earth and the Sea and al that in them is who by the mouth of thy servant David hast said why did the Heathen rage and the people imagine a vain thing The Kings of the Earth stood up and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against his Christ for of a truth against thy holy Child Jesus whom thou hast anointed both Herod and Pontius Pilate with the Gentiles and the people of Israel were gathered together c. Let us break their bonds and cast their cords away I know not the Lord saies Pharaoh We know that God spake unto Moses as for this fellow so contemptuously they spake of Jesus we know not whence he is Joh. 9.29 The Jews had certain questions against Paul saies Festus and of one Jesus Act. 25.19 And the whol rabble cry out Away with him from the earth not him but Barabbas And yet when the prayer of our Savior shal attain his end in the hearts of the Faithful so that they shal be wholly carried to God in Christ by the immutable assistance of his Spirit their hearts kept with him their graces acted upon him themselves quickned by him for ever then al these wil they nil they shal by a constraint be forced to acknowledg their own consciences wil yield it and their mouths confess it at the day of Judgment That Christ was the true Messias sent by the Father and that he hath fully accomplished the great work of salvation for the good of his And God only shal be exalted in that day There be two particulars in the words We shall open all and handle that which is the main 1. Christ is sent by God the Father 2. God will have this beleeved by the ungodly Which will be when the Saints attain this unity here prayd for then Christ will attain this glory To the First That Christ is sent by God the Father for the Redemption of his It needs no further witness to settle it the words are so express We will a little open it that as it is true so it may be plain and evident and so much the rather because our Savior laies so great a weight upon it and bestows the very strength of his prayer in the first place for the attainement of the
shouldest be mindfull of him and the Son of man thou shouldest regard him So What is man so base so sinful so vile so miserable As Saul who ever found his enemy and slue him not but who ever found his enemy and sent his Son to him Use 2. Comfort to bear up the fainting hearts of the Saints amidst al the corruptions that annoy temptations that oppose feebleness and difficulties that discourage why yet Christ is sent for the work who is furnished with al sufficiency to do it He hath laid salvation upon one that is mighty Mighty pride mighty distempers to foil thee mighty temptations to assault thee mighty allurements in the world to intangle thee Why here is Salvation upon one that is mighty to save free and deliver thee Hither Paul retires and strengthens himself 2 Tim. 1.12 I know whom I have beleeved when I am not able to resist or vanquish Christ is able and nothing ever miscarried that was committed to his care All power in Heaven and Earth is committed into his had Use 3. Of Direction How to expect all from God How to go to God for all 1. Expect all from God in Christ Eph. 1.3 c. blesseth us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in him Adopts us in him makes us accepted in him God was in Christ reconciling the world 2. Go to God for al in Christ In the performances of al Duties in the use of al Ordinances go to Christ first and then to the Father As its true the Father judgeth no man so he comforts quickens sanctifies no man but hath committed al unto his Son Christ is the Fathers Almner and to him we must repaire if we desire to share in the bounty of the Father He is that Joseph Gen. 41.44 45. If the Son make you free ye shal be free indeed Joh. 8.30 If he comfort ye shal be comforted indeed Therefore do three things 1. Be Dexâ—rous in our apprehensions to see the footsteps of our Savior and be so wel acquainted with his passages that we may perceive his whispers and know him at a turn though we â—ee but his back parts 2. Use no meanes nor entertain any but such as come by his own appointment Because those that come not from him lead not to him Col. 2.10 We stand complete in him Math. 17.5 Hear him and none but him As the Prophet to the King of Judah Go not with the King of Israel for God is not with him So go not out in the use of such means for God is not in them 3. Look at him as sent on purpose for this work Joh. 6.26 This is the work of God that ye beleeve on him whom the Father hath sent This answers all If the Father appoint him who shal gainsay It the Son hath undertaken it how can it fail If al power be in his hand who shal hinder If all the execution be in his hand there wil be no miscarriage We have dispach't the first The second now follows Viz. That God will have this beleeved by the ungodly world And its possible they may when the Saint attain this unity Christ shall attain this glory even from the wicked that they shall acknowledg his call and commission and so execution of this work of our Redemption For the explication hereof we may inquire 1. What it meant by world 2. How they are said to beleeve 3. What do they beleeve in the sending of Christ for which our Savior so praise and at which he so aimes 1. WORLD here not to trouble with any thing Impertinent or superfluous iâ— is put for the WICKED of the world who have their hearts inheritance and happiness here therefore go no higher look of further So ye shall find the word used in this Chap. verse 9. I pray for them I pray not for the world where the opposition gives the true sense explication of the word they are here distinguished and differenced from those that were given to Christ and to whom he hath given his word and hearts to beleeve and to whom he gave eternal life The like ye have 1 Joh. 5.4 We know that we are of God and the whol world lieth in wickedness Where those two are put in opposition to be of God begotten of God called to be Saints out of the world But those that are not begotten of God they are made up as it were of worldly principles and they keep and take up their abode in wickedness they are brought to bed in it And thus wicked men are stiled from three grounds 1. Because the God of this world rules in them 2 Cor. 4.4 i.e. Satan whose abode and habitation is in this visible world for where the Devils are cast there is Hell but hither they are cast into the Air the prince of the Air. Eph. 2.2 He compasseth the Earth to and fro Job 1. And somtimes he hurries into the great deep God hath given him a commission in his Justice to exercise a Soverainty over the wicked and to use all these earthly and worldly things as baits to take them at his will and he never fails With honor he catcheth the ambitious with wealth the câ—veâ—cus And they acknowledg no God but Saâ—an in these carried and taken aside by his temptations and overpowred by his allurements when he wil. 2. They are acted by the Spirit of the world And therefore the Apostle puts these two in opposition 1 Cor. 2.12 We have not received the Spirit of the world but the Spirit of God As the â—ons of God are led by the Spirit of God who works mightily in them that beleeve So wicked men are acted by the Spirit of the world Now that which gives life and being to the world as it is in opposition to God is vanity and emptiness vanity and emptiness perverted inordinate or Exorbitant vanity running wry from the command of God and cross to the fear of God Emptiness and weakness of the creature captivating the Soul under its command and carrying of it according to its will It s the Spirit of the world 1 Joh. 2.16 The lust of the Eves carry all away Thus the Prophet Wine and Women take away the heart Hos 4.11 3. They take contentment in the things of the world and there they take up their stand set up their rest They are called the men of the Earth and lay up their treasures here on Earth Ps 17.14 Mind earthly things Philip. 3.19 Here they are in their Element like fish in the Water and some conceive and not improbably that the Psalmist aimed at some such thing The Heavens are the Lords but the Earth he hath given to the sons of men Psal 115.16 By Earth is meant all these visible things which they who live by sense set up as their Gods serve and worship them The heaven is Gods throne where no unclean thing comes but the Earth these visible things where wicked men have sinned and by their sins
the same Nature upon himself for the great work of our Redemption and so he is head 1. It s proper to him to have al Grace firstly in himself in way and right of communication for had he not been the son of man and son of God together the way of Grace and life had been shut up from the sons of Adam Hebr. 10.20 And in this sence it is said That with him is the Wel of life Ps 36.9 And he is said to be a fountain of living Waters to have life in himself Joh. 5.26 And to quicken whom he wil. Joh. 5.21 2. The right and propriety of immediate dispensation is committed to his hand of all Grace and good Of his Grace we receive Grace for Grace Joh. 1.16 And the Holy Spirit takes of his not of his own when he communicates to the Souls of the Saints Joh. 16.14 15. He shal shew you al things He shal glorifie me for he shal receive of mine Al things that the Father hath are mine Therefore said I He shal take of mine and shew it unto you 3. The manner how this spiritual presence is communicated Answ It appeares in the Nature and maaner of it in three things 1. The second person in the glorious Trinity assuming our Nature into mystical and personal union with himself remaining the same person after the union which he was before the union doth therein become surety for the faithful and enter into covenant with God the Father in their room and purchase both Grace and glory in their behalf For had he not taken the Nature of man it had been unpossible he should have communicated unto man any good So the Apostle reasons when he would shew the way how life came to be derived to the seed of Adam and not unto Angels gives this as the ground Hebr. 2.16 For vâ—rely â—e took not on him the Nature of Angels but the Seed of Abraham And therefore these were redeemed life was conveyed unto these the other in their sins and sorrows And being thus fitted for the place of a Surety He did in special manner enter upon termes of agreement in the behalf of those he would do good unto The happiness of those were committed to his care by the Father and undertaken willingly by himself Joh. 6.38 39. This is the will of the Father that those that he hath given me I should lose none but raise them up at the last day And he is as careful to attend their spiritual welfare as may be therefore he concludes of them in their times and answerable to their conditions I have other Sheep and those I must bring Joh. 10.16 And when they are brought I will in no wise cast away nor suffer any to take them away Joh. 6.37 2. Having thus purchased Grace and glory for them he hath now both right and liberty to improve al power in Heaven and Earth to communicate Grace and glory to them Yea the Human Nature of our Savior hath liberty power to let on work any and all the Attributes in the behalf of the poorest beleever in the world yea right to send the good Spirit of the Lord for his spiritual relief Joh. 17.2 Thou hast given him that is Christ power over all flesh that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him And therefore in verse 4. he saith I have finished the work thou gavest me to do q. d. Christ hath nothing to do in this vale of â—eareâ— but search ouâ— and seek up some scattered and wildering Servants of the Lord. Yea liberty to send the spirit upon this imployment Joh. 15.26 When the comforter is come whom I will send you from the Father Yea makes this his main Errand to heaven in his ascension Joh. 16.7 It is expedient c. If I depart I will send him unto you 3. He doth improve this power and the operation of the Spirit to close the Soule with himself and to hold the bent of the heart towards him for ever 1 Cor. 6.17 He that is joyned to the Lord is one Spirit As by his spirit he sanctified our Nature and took it into personal union with himself and gave in subsistence which of it self it had not nor could attain So by the operation of his Spirit he prepares the Soul for himself carries it in the promise to himself and acts it upon himself The Soul moved by the vertue of the Spirit moves to and staies upon the Lord Christ As in the Eccho the Air moved by the voice in such manner returns the same voice by vertue of its own motion Come unto me I come Lord. And not only carries and closeth the Soul with himself but holds it in this holy bent to himself that way Christ-ward Heaven-ward This is like the growing up with Christ being as scions ingrafted into him as the true Vine and so are truly and so called sons as the scions united to the stock may fitly be called the Sons thereof and hence Christ is stiled The eternal Father Isa 9.6 Behold a Son is given and this son is a Father and an eternal Father and begets us as sons unto his Father and will deliver us up unto him at the great day Here am I and the Children which thou hast given me Hebr. 2.13 This is that which Christ calls his abiding in us If I abide in you and you in me Joh. 15.4 The Reason in a word is this He that is the life of the faithful must be in the faithful So is Christ Gal. 2.20 Col. 3.4 When Christ who is our life c. USE 1. CAUTION To al especially the wicked and enemies of the Saints That they do not offend and wrong them or do the least evil to them because they do wrong to the Lord Jesus and he so takes it as to himself Act. 9. Saul why persecutest thou me And the sufferings of the Saints for a good cause are called the sufferings of Christ 2. Cor. 1.5 Thus the Lord sends to Sennacherib Isa 37.28 I know thy going out and thy coming in and thy rage against me It was bent against Hezekiah and the people of Jerusalem but it was against the Lord in them True it is The wicked see not know not consider not this being blinded with Ignorance and Malice and therefore Paul asks the question when Christ speaks Who art thou Lord q. d. I own not thy speech nor understand thy person Our Savior answers I am Jesus whom thou persecutest Yea this wil be for the condemnation of their persons and confusion of their faces at the day of Judgment when the Saints in this sentence shal be honored and they set down for ever abased before their faces Depart ye cursed c. For I was in prison and ye visited me not c. Why When Lord saw we thee c. They were not acquainted with the presence of our Savior He add In that ye did it not to one of these ye
and carried beyond al the abilities they have yea beyond al the power of al the grace they have That look as when we see a swadling Child left in his Cradle in a lower room come againe we find it laid in the highest loft or Chamber in the house each man easily concludes There was another power than that it had of it self that conveyed it thither So here when the poor and ignorant amongst men come to know and do the things that are spiritual Eph. 2.10 His workmanship They are inlightned and inabled beyond al they had or ever once apprehended or could come into their own thoughts there was a higher power even the presence and assistance of a God the Lord Jesus himself to help Math. 11.25 I thank thee O Father that thou hast revealed these things to babes and adds no man knowes the Father but the Son Therefore the Prophet begs that he might not be left to his spirit Psal 143.10 Teach me the way to thee thy Spirit is Good q. d. My spirit is naught 2. Where the presence of Christ is The soul at the lowest ebb and the greatest under that ever it comes unto it is yet ever panting after a Savior cannot â—est before it come to him Isa 26.8 The desires of our Souls are towards thy name and to the remembrance of thee In the greatest desertion that can befal them the greatest temptation that can assault by the one they are disinabled to do what they would by the other opposed and hindred from attaining that which they do indeavor Yet they set themselves that way Though they see they are like Captives and under the Tiranny of their distempers they find they do not yea may be at such an under and in a forlorne condition that they conclude they are past Hope and expectation never shal be recovered yet their hearts bless them that injoy that happy estate and Oh that they might That as it s said of the ungodly They set themselves in a way that is not good These contrariwise set themselves in the aime and bent of their heart Rom. 7. As the Pilot that hath the Helm in his hand though it may be the wind is too stiff and the stream too strong and al against him that he cannot make way forward nay it may be is turned back again by contrary stormes yet he tacks about and keeps her to that point stil So here when the Lord Christ takes the Helm of the heart of a beleever in his own hand though the wind and tyde of the most violent temptation for the while stop his course yet the bent of the heart is that way My Soul followeth hard after thee Psal 63.8 USE 4. This shews the excellency of the Saints even in the meanest and worst condition above the wicked and ungodly when they are in the greatest ruffe and Soveraignty that they can attain unto in this world The Saints are the Temple of the liveing God 2. Cor. 6.16 Their Souls are the throne where the Lord sits and shews the riches of the glory of his Grace and mercy the habitation where he dwels and takes up his abode the Kingdom where he rules by the power of his Grace the Guidance and Government of his blessed Spirit and the scepter of his word True he exerciseth the Soveraignty of his power and justice upon the wicked on Earth and the damned in Hel as amongst his Enemies and Out-laws whose rebellion he wil revenge and whose ruine he wil work according to the desert of their works But his Children and servants are his loyal and loving subjects amongst whom he sets up the Kingdom and exerciseth the government of his Grace and mercy and they in love and loyalty submit thereunto and advance the same The hearts of his are as I may say the Paradise of Gods pleasure in which he walks and takes his content So the Lord promiseth I will walk among them So the wise man professeth Wisedom delights in the habitable part of the world Prov. 8.31 This is my habitation for ever here I delight to dwel But it is not so with the wicked it s not so with them Those miserable Souls of theirs are the throne where Satan sits that Synagogue where he is worshipped and even where his throne is seated Rev. 2. The habitation and Hel where he abides Math. 12.45 Came and found the House swept and garnished The Kingdom of darkness in which he rules Eph. 2.2 He rules in the hearts of the Children of disobedience There he sports himself and there he finds and takes greatest contentment Because he hath such as will heare and entertain his suggestions and do his wil and lusts and therefore they are said to be Satans and of the Devil yea to be Devils Look therefore what difference there is between Heaven and Hell the Kingdome of light and the Kingdom of darkness the habitation of Devils and the temple of the Lord Such is the excellency of the Saints such is the miserable condition of the ungodly USE 5. Here is matter of marvelous and unspeakable COMFORT to al the Saints to cure us or al Fears and deliver us from al discouragements that ever we shal meet withal in this World The Lord Jesus is a Helper a strong Helper ready to save so the Apostle Phil. 4 infers The Lord is at hand Are Devils at hand to tempt thee are Enemies subtil and mighty at hand to persecute and oppose thee are thy fears and discouragements at hand to over-bear thee The Lord Jesus is at hand neer tâ—ee nay in thee to succor and supply add satisfie 1. Comfort in al thy Spiritual tryals when Satan grows most fel thy corruptions most strong and thy heart begins to fail thee in the apprehension of thine Infirmities as that thou shalt never be able to subdue to overcome nay not to resist Behold 1 John 4.4 be they never so great Greater is he that is in thee than be that is in the world Though thou beest never so weak and thine Enemies nevers so great Christ is greater than al Devils than al distempers than al the power of darkness and malice of the wicked Thou seest and findest a Law in they Members rebelling against the Law of thy Mind and carrying thee captive Behold the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ shal free thee from the Law of Sin Rom 8.3 Here is Law against Law Spirit against Spirit Christ against thy Corruption That Spirit is in Christ and Christ is in thee Therefore our Saviour concludes None shall take them our of my hand neither head of Satan nor hand and power of Sin and Grave John 10.28 2. Comfort against WANTS and Necessities that may surprize and over-bear thee Thy Pressures and Calamities are present they pinch and sit sad The Lord Jesus is present to sweeten thy sorrows with the sense of his Love and to supply al with the fulness of his sufficient Grace It would refreshany in
ascend God the Father in Christ and he in him Christ in them and they in Christ and so in the Father also Hence two Points to discuss 1. The Father is in the Son Or There is a mutual subsistence of the Father in the Son and of the Son in the Father 2. The Subsistence of the Father in the Son in the first rise or Original whence the Saints come to be one with the Son and the Father The first of these we had it propounded by way of comparison to lay forth the manner of that oneness and unity for which our Saviour here praies the Saints might attain unto And we then reserved the ful handling of it unto this place the words in the foregoing Verse are so express as nothing more As thou in me and I in thee And it is not for nothing that our Savior carries the thoughts of his Disciples and keeps them there in the setled continual consideration thereof as if it were the hinge upon which al happiness and comfort doth hang and therefore we should stay in a kind of unmovable attendance thereon When Philip made that great request unto our Lord Jesus as that which would give satisfying content beyond al exception Shew us the Father and it shall suffice John 14.8 Jesus answered verse 9. He that hath seen me hath seen the Father And the Ground and Foundation of al this knowledge and so this saving comfort he renders to be this verse 10. Beleevest thou not that the Father is in me and I in the Father And yet as though al this were not enough he makes them take up their stand in the steady and most serious contemplation and through considering and beleeving this Truth Beleevest thou not c. Heleeve me that the Father is in me and I am in the Farther at least for the Works sake q. d. The weight of al the Work lies here hold the heart upon this hinge keep open this door and the evidence and certainty of al saving Truth and Comfort wil come in yea of al power and spiritual ability to do al good as in the words following 2. A ready and enlarged Communication of al good unto us Whatever ye ask in my Name that will I do Shut up this passage or turn aside from attendance unto this Truth dam up this Fountain we dry up al the stream of Spiritual Power and Comfort that would come into our souls It is then a Foundation-Truth of the deepest search and that which hath a Store-house of Heavenly strength and refreshing laid up in it We shal open the Nature of it in three things 1 The proper Ground from whence this In-being issues and proceeds 2 The ready way by which the Nature of it may righty be apprehended 3 How it may be attended in our Savior as God and Man To the First The proper and peculiar Ground from whence this In-being proceeds may be expressed in two Conclusions thus 1. This In-being of subsistence of the Father in the Son of the Son in the Father is not firstly from the Essence or Deity considered according to it self or in it self as some have conceived As thus Because the Deity or Essence which is in the Father is in the Son therefore the Father also is in the Son for this is neither safe nor sound but a dangerous mistake because by the same reason it may be concluded That the Son is in himself or the Father is in the Father For the same Essence or Deity being but one which is in the Father is in the Son also and then the reason would follow on like manner thus Where the Deity or Essence of the God-head which appertains to the Son is there is the Son But the Deity of the Son is in the Son Therefore the Son is in the Son 2. This In-being each in other though it issues nextly and immediately from the persons yet not as they are in themselves considered without respect to the Essence but as they are subsistences in the same Essence taking that in with them to make up a ful and compleat Ground from whence this mutual subsisting in each other may be inferred as thus 1. Not only because they have the same Essence 2. Not because they are distinct persons alone But because they are distinct persons subsisting in other For this mutual In-being requires both distinction and conjunction They must be two for one cannot be in it self and they must be together with the same Nature or else they cannot be each in other As we see in the Creatures constantly as a Father or Son Buyer and Seller though they be persons in Relation yet because they be in several Natures separate one from another therefore they cannot be said to be each in other Thus for the Ground of this In-being 2. The ready way how to apprehend it is made good in four Particulars 1. The same Essence of the God-head doth equally and indifferently in the whol Nature of it belong to all the Persons in the Deity So that whatsoever is said of one may be affirmed of the other They are al Eternal al Infinite al Omnipotent Omniscient c. because al God As a man may be said to teach himself and so is a Master and Scholler a Master as he teacheth and a Scholler as he is taught Now the whol man is both not a part of him a Scholler a part of him a Teacher but the whol Nature of Man bears up both Relations 2. Hence the Persons in the God-head are distinct truly amongst themselves yet cannot be separated or divided one from another but where-ever the God-head is they are and where-ever one is al are because the whol Essence is in every one and every one with the whol Essence 3. Subsistence of the Persons looks at the Essence yet not as it is Essence barely but as it is with the Relative Properties and so those Relative Properties by their Mutual Respect or Relation give being each to other 2. Subsistence looks at the Essence as Essence and so they attend upon it adjoyn to it and do accompany it as the manner of the thing doth the thing As the Subsistences or Persons look at the Essence as Essence upon which they do attend and are adjoyned so they are with the Essence and one with another As they look at the Essence not as Essence but as with his Relative Properties as the Nature of Relation and al things under Relation requires they are then causes one of another give being each to other and are one in another A word to both 1. As adjoined to the Essence for ye have heard that these Relations are not qualities inherent in the subject but attendants and then I say they are al with the same whol Essence and so one with another So Wisdom the Lord Christ Prov. 8.27 When he prepared the Heavens I was there when he gave to the Son his decree ver 30. I was with him John
this In-being of the Father in him See the very ground given Joh. 10.10 The word I speak is not mine but the Father that dwels in me c. Joh. 8.38 For the works sake beleâ—ve that the Father is in me and I in the Father Joh. 5. The Son doth nothing of himself but what he seeth the Father do Issue the whol Thus. What ever the second person and Son of God as such doth that he doth by vertue of his eternal generation from the Father and from his abiding in him But as Son he takes our Nature into personal union with himself and as Son advanceth it to that priviledg and liberty to set al the Attributes on work and to send the Holy Ghost yea sends al Officers and appoints al Offices and blesseth them Therefore by vertue of this his eternal generation from the Father and his abiding in him this Union Mission and Operation of the Human Nature proceeds The second person by this eternal generation from the Father and abiding in him is reflected upon the Father and as the Father hath an Eye only to the son in giving the susibstence of a Son the Son hath an Eye to the Father in returning the subsistence of a son to him they wholly give and take So the Son uniting the Human Nature into one person holds it in reference and dependance with himself upon the Father All is communicated to him as sent and so to the Human Nature All acted by him and so by the Human Nature The In-being or existence of the Father in the Son is the first rise whence the unity of the faithful with the Father and the Son comes to be perfected Hither our Savior ascends and here he staies Leads us to the Well-Head and fountain whence our spiritual wellface and everlasting good Issues And this is the highest of al and higher we cannot go beyond this visible world and al creatures therein even to Heaven and in Heaven above Angels to God and in the God-Head to the first original in the glorious and blessed Trinity and the first act in that origination To this accords that of the Apostle each place adds mutual light unto the other Col. 3.3 We are dead and our life is hid with Christ in God Christ is the Treasurer but the Father is the Author Christ is the keeper but the Father is the first Appointer thereof For so you must understand the Name God not essentially but personally being put in opposition and reference unto Christ our life is hid with Christ but Christ and life and al is in God in the Father Upon this ground it is and to the like purpose that the Apostle carries the hearts of the Corinthians in the work of their calling unto this consideration as that wherein the lowest part of the foundation of our comfort lies 1 Cor. 1.30 But of him are ye in Christ Jesus who of God in made unto us wisedom righteousness Sanctification and Redemption Christ is all even complete Redemption who delivers from the power and presence of al evil and gives all Grace quickens what he gives perfects what he quickens owns what he perfects But he is made this to us not of himself but of the Father for so stil the word and Name of God is to be taken as appears verse 24. Christ is the power of God and the Wisedom of God Christ is made our Redemption and we are made his redeemed ones and the Father makes both he our Redemption and we his redeemed And this is the cause why the Apostle is so inlarged inlaying forâ—h the soveraignty of the Fathers work beyond al the compass either of the being of the creature or the Graces and apprehensions of all Churches Eph. 4.5 6. There is one Lord Jesus one Faith and one Baptisme one God and Father of all who is above all and through all and in you al. Above al even in the highest power that is dispensed in his Church Christ is the Head and Husband the Holy Spirit the comforter God is the Father Through al the operations and administrations that are in the Churches and Graces dispensed He sends his Son to the great work of our Redemption God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself 2 Tim. 1.4 Given us Grace in Christ Jesus before the world was He sends the Spirit in the work of Application Joh. 26. In all the Saints as drawing and conjoining the hearts of the faithful as fellow Brethren unto himself with the Father and one to another in him and for him So one in relation here as wel as in a Savior And from hence lastly it is we meet usually with that phrase which may receive a right explication and true understanding from t he point in hand 1 Then 1.1 To the Church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and in our Lord Jesus And that so al the Churches and al the faithful are in God the Father as the Father of the Churches in the Son as the Head of the Church In the Father who out of the Authority or priority of order not of dominion first appoints our Savior to the word and the work to him In the Lord Jesus as he is appointed by the Mission to work from the Father and by commission sent as man united to the second person to have al Graces first in way and right of communication to the Church The Father he knows the Son there is the Deity and al the excellencies thereof reflecting exemplifying or characterising upon it self where the expressions of the Deity and all the excellency thereof exemplifying from it self that 's to be in the Father that is it is in the vertue of the Father that it is so done The Son again as the Character reflected or exemplified and where this examplification or excellencies returned again is to be seen so far the Soul may be said to be in Christ that is in his vertue not looking so much at the work or thing done for that Issues from all but at the manner of doing and carry that along it wil direst and not deceive Open the Doctrin 1. Recal what this Oneness is 2. How it s Perfected The first I shal not trouble you withal because I have heretofore opened it at large only mention so much as you may keep your Eye or consideration upon it as the White or Mark that you may discern how the following expressions hit it Briefly then This unity as ye have heard is not the Oneness of affection amongst the Saints but the Oneness of relation they have to God in Christ as his Adopted ones One with us nor one with themselves This Oneness of Relation lies here in that our Saviour doth not bring the Souls of the faithful in neerest relations of dearest love as adopted Sons but also into that spiritual intercourse of peculiar and divine operation of God upon the Soul whereby the Soul returnes unto God to do al and to take al.
that we oppose not whatever this Spirit shall express we eye him only and expect only what we need and joyn nothing with him or his excellency then are we perfect in one Abide perfectly in him be acted perfectly by him perfectly advance al the excellencies of God through Christ then are we perfectly one with God the Father in and through Christ As the Apostle 1 Cor. 15. When be shall deliver up his Kingdom that is cease the excecution of any Ordinance or Dispensation in an immediate manner by any Ordinance or any Grace by any Ordinance then the Father shall be all in all instead of al Ordinances Word Sacraments Sabbath Prayers Covenants Promises but the Father wil infinitly let out of himself to our Savior and immediately through our Savior unto the Souls of his USE 1. Comfort This is Ground of strong Support to perswade our hearts no Temptations from without no corruptions from within no oppositions be they never so fel and fierce never so mighty and violent shal ever be able to hinder our Communion with God in Christ and so our everlasting happiness Were the Root of it either in the means we use or abilities we have or in the power of the Creatures on Earth or Angels in Heaven or Grace in our hearts It might indeed either be wonderfully hindered or else utterly lost as in Adam But it issues from a Fountain which is beyond not only Heaven but that which is above Angels there yea the highest Stars even the first Origination of the eternal blessed In-being of the Father in the Son which is without al Creatures nothing can further it above al nothing can hinder it before al nothing can reach it This seems to be Pauls ground Rom. 8. and last Nor things present nor things to come Principalities Powers Life Death Angels c. Why good Angels do not hinder It 's from the Love of God in Christ therefore it 's beyond the reach of al created Power 2. Exhortation See the lowest corner of the Foundation stone of our Eternal happiness and look to it and stay there Look at al means as from Christ The Law as kept in the Ark The Truth as in Jesus dispensed as in the Head of the Second Covenant Eph. 4. 2. Look at Christ as from the Father John 14.24 The words ye hear are not mine but the Fathers that sent me This sending and speaking by Christ is because the Son is in the Father and the Father in the Son Verse 23. That the World may know that thou hast sent me and loved them as thou lovest me HERE we have the last thing in the Verse laid out to wit The several ENDS which the Lord aimed at in the Order and Degrees whereby this Vnity of Relation was brought in Christ was in them the Father in Christ and this In-being of the Father in the Son brings in this perfection of the Unity of the Faithful These last words set forth a Double â—nd of this Dispensation 1. That the World may know that thou hast sent me 2. That thou lovest them as thou lovest me To the first of these we have spoken formerly in verse 21. where it was first mentioned and so first came into consideration to be opened and handled and therfore we shal say no more of that at this time but refer your thoughts unto our former Expressions That which now offers it self to a further and more ful enquiry is thus expressed That thou hast loved them that is That the World may know that thou hast loved them as thou hast loved me We have Three Particulars here to open and then the meaning of the Text and the mind of the Lord wil appear The Father hath loved the Son He loveth the Faithful as he loves the Son the Lord Jesus When the Faithful attain their full perfection of Vnity the World shall know that he loved them as he loved the Lord Christ To the First of these We must know That when we attribute these Perfections either to the God-head or Persons they are not attended in propriety of Speech as though the Godhead or Persons were subject to such passions and affections as are in man signified by such words But they are spoken by way of resemblance and similitude that there be some actions affirmed of the God-head and Persons and put forth by them which men out of the Disposition of Love do put forth Sometimes again Love as it is affirmed to proceed from God 〈◊〉 Christ discovers not only nor so much the act of God properly but the Fruits and Effects which issue and proceed from Gods Love and are expressed upon our Savior Christ and blessings which flow from and are procured by his own Merits Which may be truly called the cause of the things or the fruits of Gods Love not properly the cause of any Act as it issues from the Lord. John 10.17 The Father loveth me because I lay down my life for my Sheep Nothing without God is the cause of any act of Gods Wil or Understanding but the laying down of his life may be the cause of that Glory which the Father had intended and he according to the Fathers intention had purchased Phil. 2. He humbled himself to the Death the death of the Cross wherefore God hath exalted him and hath given him a Name c. Or else the manifestation of the approbation or satisfaction which the Father took in his Death The first of these I conceive to be principally intended in the place and so we shal speak unto it The Lord Jesus is the Object of the Fathers Love His heart was wholly after him his thoughts wholly set upon him not once looked off him taken up wholly with him from al Eternity The infinite and Eternal Favorite of an Infinite and Eternal Father upon whom he spent as I may speak with Revereace his whol affection John 3.35 The Father loveth the Son and hath given all things into his hand We shal 1. Open it 2. Give in the Reason 3. Make the Use The Lord Christ is said and that truly to be the Object of this Fathers Love two waies Partly As the Second Person God with the Father As God-Man taking our Nature upon him 1. The first respect If we look at the Lord Jesus as the Second Person his Eternal Love then issues from his Eternal Generation So himself speaks and confesses verse 24. Thou hast loved me before the Foundation of the World and so termed the only begotten and welbeloved Son And it shews it self as the special operation of the most pâ—â—e and perfect Love doth in three Particulars 1. Love affects Union and where it can it attains it with most strength So it is here after an unconceivable manner the Father is intimately endeared unto his Son that his Eye is never off him himself never from him Therefore it is in Prov. 8.22 the Father is said to possess him in the beginning of his way He
was all the proper possession the Father had and holds from Eternity and this is the meaning of that other Phrase verse 30. I was with him as one brought up with him The Phrase is marvelous sweet and pregnant as one nursed up with him in his Bosom and Bowels from everlasting God the Father is compared to a Guardian of the Lord Jesus whom he keeps under his wing I am not alone the Father is ever with me yea the Father and I am one 2. It 's the Nature of Love to take ful content and complacence in the thing beloved and so the Father doth in his Son after an unspeakable manner takes an infinite fulness of soul-pleasing satisfaction so that before al Creatures were he lacketh nothing and he spent his whol thoughts in gazing upon the through concurrence of al unspeakable excellencies in the Lord Jesus Prov. 8.30 I was dayly his delight It was his constant and continued Exercise the ful imployment of his blessed Majesty to fil himself with the fellowship and familiarity of his Son When the Atheist enquires what God did before the World if the World was not Eternal Answ He was sporting himself with the unconceivable complacency and ravishing contents of his wel-beloved Son the Lord of Glory So that nothing was wanting while he enjoyed him nothing could be added while he possesseth him 3. There is a Love of Benevolence It 's the Nature of Love to study the good of the thing beloved This the Father doth also after an unconceivable manner The study and bent of his infinite Understanding is now to plot for the Honor and to lift up the Glory of his Son far beyond al praises So that more than the Father gave could not be enjoyed no more could be added no more could be desired by our Savior when he would make his request in that behalf Hither the Lord Christ repairs and here he takes up his stand as though no more could be conceived or communicated John 17.5 And now O Father glorifie me with thine own self with the glory I had with thee before the World was q.d. If he was put to his choyce to his desire or God the Father to his free giving he could wish no other nor no more glory but that which he had with him from Eternity 2. So the Father loves the Son as Man also in al the former particulars and in all the several properties of them so far as a finite creature is or can be made capable thereof not only in regard of the compass of its own ability but as far as underpropped and supported by an almighty power I shal point at the former specialties in so many words 1. In regard of union here in the surpassing excellency of the love of the Father appeared that he brought it into so neer a fellowship with himself that it doth not only exceed al the power of the creature to work such a union but even the reach of al reason of men and Angels to comprehend it For not only the Essence of the Deity takes up its dwelling and abode there bodily but it s taken into the very subsistence of the second person and melts into the personality of the second person and hence it is the Grace of union is indeed accounted a Grace of the greatest excellency above al other and in truth it is so not only in regard of the priviledg whereby our Human Nature is advanced one degree above the excellency of the creatures of highest rank for of that the place is meant and that the Apostle intends Hebr. 2.8 That al things are put in subjection to our Human Nature in Christ He took not the seed of Angels but of Abraham When he bringeth his first born into the world worship him al the Angels even as God-man but I say not only in regard of the height or the priviledg this Grace of union is to be attended But in regard of the unmatchable efficacy and Peerlessness of power that exceeds the bounds of my created ability In that the subsistance it hath by this is no other but the subsistence of the second person In that the Angels must sit in a lower forme and aloof off in the porch as it were and administer there by their attendance when our Human Nature is taken into the Chamber of presence the personal union with the Lord and so consequently as thereby Co-partner of divine honor and worship together with the second person None of which can be said of any creature or any created Grace in the hearts of the Saints 2. The Father takes ful satisfaction in the man Christ Jesus He proclaimes it openly Math. 3. last This is my wel beloved Son in whom I am wel pleased He alone it is in whom the Father smells a sweet savor of rest therefore when he cashieres al other sacrifices as such in whom there was no sufficiency our Savior no sooner offers himself but therein the Father quiets himself in fulness of content Hebr. 10.5 6. Burnt offerings and sacrifices thou wouldest not then said I Loe I come in the Volum of thy Book it is written of me I should do thy will 3. Improves the Soveraignty of his power and good pleasure to promote the Son and advance the glory of the man Christ Jesus Joh. 3.35 The Father loveth the Son and hath given all things into his hand Therefore he sends the comforter in his name Joh. 14.26 Nay the Father makes this the maine scope of al his dispensations by Christ puts the Administration of all things into his hand That al may come to him depend upon him and give al glory to him in what they do receive and for what they seek and hence the Father carries al the Trade this way As great Princes when they wil advance their Favourites there come no petitions but by their hands no kindnesses or gifts but by their meanes That al may eye and honor receive al from them and by their means and returne to them Joh. 5.22 25. The Father judgeth no man but hath commited all judgment to the Son that all might honor the Son as they honor the Father REASON Here are al the grounds upon which Love grows and that in more than an ordinary Nature and measure and these are three all which are found in the Lord. 1. Neerness 2. Likeness 3. Suitableness of worth 1. Neerness And that we see to be a forceable argument in Nature to draw men to inlargedness of affections Love begins next home A Countrey Man we affect rather than a Forreiner one of the same Town before a Countrey Man a Kinsman before a Towns Man a Child before him the wife before others a mans self before al wife and Children and Kinsman and Towns Man So it is here The Lord Jesus is most Neer to God the Father and therefore most beloved It s said our Savior came from the Bosom of the Father Joh. 1.18 2. Likeness is the Load-stone of
him as we have heard But the same Spirit by the same power that raised Christ from the dead works it Eph. 1.20 No man comes unless the Father draw John 6.44 He that hath heard and learned of the Father comes verse 45. He it is that begets us again by the Word of Truth Jam. 1.18 2. Adams closing with God in the performance of this Covenant was in this That he did imitate the Lord in the manner of his Work for that was the excellency of his Image to work as God had wrought To do not what God requited only but to wil Gods Wil that is to meet with him and to concur with him in the Act of his Will As the Clock doth with the Sun at the point of such an hour when the Sun goes twelve it strikes twelve or as ye have heard somtimes two Clocks meet and melt into the same stroak at an instant To wil as he love as he delight as he Make my heart one with thee Psal 86.11 Acts 13.22 Col. 4.12 But every Saâ—â— of God that by his Spirit is carried to him he is made one with Christ in an unspeakable manner 1. The Soul is pitched immediately upon the Deity and so the Father Son and Holy Ghost and in the most intimate Union that can be imagined Not as the Branches to the Vine John 15.1 nor as the Members to the Head Eph. 1.22 but yet neerer they are bone of his bone and flâ—sh of his flesh and that is neerer than to be Members to a Head Eph. 5. and 30.32 yea are one Spirit â—ith him 1 Cor. 6.17 and this is beyond the compass of al that sufficiency and excellency God implaâ—ted in Adam The Spirit of the Lord Jesus that caâ—ried the Soul to the Father and Christ closeth the â—oul with the Spirit of the Father and Christ By the Spirit from the Father and Christ we close with the Spirit in Christ and the Father If the Spirit which raised Christ from the dead be in you Rom. 8.11 As by the same Spirit of the Lord 2 Cor. 3.18 Adam had Supernatural Grace but this â—s more than Supernatural for that was not able to incorporate the Soul into Christ The Lord by his Eternal Spirit plucks him from his sin carries him to himself and puâ—s him under the power of the Spirit of the Second Adam As the first Adam by natural Generation turns the Soul from God to Sin puts it under the right and rule of the perverted mutability or disobedience and curse of the first Adam Adam traded out of his own Stock and from those Principles of Grace he had received and the Lord had implanted in his Nature coming into the World gifted and qualified from the bounty goodness and faithfulness of the Lord And therefore it 's said He had wherein to rejoyce had he obeyed and performed the Covenant and wrought for his Life But beleevers are not in their own hands nor at their own finding but kept in the hand of Christ and live meerly and immediately upon dependance have all their Store and Stock in the hand of the Lord Jesus are brought and taken into fellowship with the Father and his Son and thence fetch al that dayly quickening and efficacious influence of the Favor and presence of the Lord to carry them out to al the Duties they do Thus the Apostle Gal. 2.20 I live not but Christ lives in me and that I do now live The Fountain of Life is not firstly in himself Adam might have said I live by the Power and Principle of Grace received and in which I was created and thereby I have pleased God and according to the Covenant of Works may challenge life and happiness But Paul in the Person of al beleeving sinners professeth that I live not Christ hath brought me to himself made me one with himself that he might be al in al to me and work al by me We are dead and our Life is hid with Christ in God Christ is the Keeper of our Life the Father the Author of it So that it is not any Power in Man or Principle of Grace whereby we come firstly to close with God but the Spiritual Union of the Faithful is of a higher or neerer Nature than that it can at the first readily be apprehended namely not by the Power of Man or Principle of Grace for al this is but a Creature never brought the Soul to God or kept it with him But the power of the Deity in Christ by his Spirit hath fitted me for himself and hath carried me to himself made me one Spirit with himself doth al for himself in me that he may receive al to himself from me and I might wholly have such a desire that al that we have may hold out his Excellency in al these his Dispensations and so have nothing of my self do nothing from my self which excludes Works wholly Here the Soul is compassed about with al the Power of Heaven nothing but with the power of God in Christ Whereas Adam who did somting of himself from a Principle he had so he might have taken somthing to himself he had whereof to rejoyce But God in this way and work he doth al from himself by man no man doth it He receives al to himself from Man Man must take nothing 2. Love of complacency that the Father takes content and solaceth himself in the enjoyment of his Faithful whom he hath thus chosen out of the World therfore termed his own Joh. 13.1 A little of our own say we gives to little content and rest to their owner A mans own house he delights to lodg in delights to converse with his own servants or little ones Thus the Lord is said to know the righteous not to know the way of the Vngodly Depart I know you not As a man is said to own such a person so educated As the sensible Creatures can own their Mates and their yong by the sence they scent the Nature of such and own somthing of themselves in them as generated of them So he that hath not the Spirit is none of Christs the Spirit which God the Father sent in Christs Name by that his are owned As somtime a Parent when the Child sent into a far Country and conceived to be lost and dead shall yet return there is some manner of his Speech some Natural guise in his Carriage some cast of his Look whereby the Parent wil own him and know him for his As there was a secret owning and yerning of Bowels in the true Mother to the Child when it could not be determined whose it was So God the Father who hath sent the Spirit of his Son into the hearts of his he cannot but know and acknowledg it and take complacency and contentment in it Rom. 8.27 he is said to know the meaning of his Spirit Hence they are called Gods precious ones Isai 43.4 his Jewels Mal. 3.17 yea Christ professeth he is ravished
with the cast of the eye of the Spouse Cant. 4.9 That cast of the eye of Faith that looks only to God in Christ takes al from him holds out nothing else 3. Love of Benevolence God wisheth wel unto the Faithful and studies to advance them and their happiness with the advancing of Christ 2 Thes 1.12 That the Name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you and you in him according to the Grace of God and the Lord Jesus Christ Quest Why you wil say Is there any Name higher than the Name of Christ or Glory due to any beyond and after Christ Why is it added That Christ may be glorified and you in him Answ The meaning may thus be conceived The Apostle having prayed in the fore-going verse That God would count them worthy of their Calling worthy of the Glory unto which they were called and so fulfil al the good pleasure of his goodness that is fully bestow al that Spiritual good which is the ful purpose of his good pleasure he intended to them and that he would bring the Work of Faith to perfection by his mighty Power Now the end of al that glory and fulness of al that Spiritual good he praies for and they should partake by vertue of his Prayer is That the Name of Christ that is Christ as he is made known in the Gospel in his Offices and Execution of the great Work of Redemption may be made glorious in you who from the Father hath given al to you you also may be glorified not in your selves but in your reference and oneness with Christ As God was made glorious in receiving al so also in returning al to the Father by him And therefore it 's added According to the Grace of God and our Lord Jesus Christ God the Father through Grace in Christ gives himself and Christ to you so they are glorified in you receiving you also through Grace give up your selves to Christ and through him to God and return al to God in Christ Thus he is said to the admired in them that beleeve So John 3.27 The Father loves the Son and hath given al things into his hands and in Christ also he hath given al unto them for all things are yours and you Christs yea he hath advanced them and set them in Heavenly places with Christ their Bodies made Spiritual which Adams could not be and therefore it 's taken down to be glorified as Christ's is Thou fool unless the Seed fall it riseth not again The Saints die not because of sin for Christ hath freed them from the second Death and so from the first but they die to be like Christ and so to be glorified with him and then both Bodies and Souls to sit at Gods right hand in Heaven It 's a proper Prerogative appertaining to our Savior to ascend and sit and therefore to al from him not from Adam USE 1. Comfort and Contentation to the Saints in the meanest and lowest Condition though the World hate and the Wicked pursue Saran tempt Ungodly undermine they al conspire to cast reproaches upon your Persons and disgrace upon your Religion and shame upon your Faces when they curse God wil bless If they hate and God love you you need not fear you should not care In Love is no lack If thou hast Gods Love thou hast himself art sure to speed when thou seekeft sure to obtain when thou askest So Martha for Lazarus He whom thou lovest is sick he whom thou lovest is troubled is tempted persecuted discouraged What price dost thou put upon thy Health if sick upon Wealth if poor on Life if at the point of dying If thou hadst these for thy succor al was wel Behold Gods loving kindness better than Life it self 2. If God love the Saints what are they who hate them This is a certain evidence of a Son of the Devil 1 John 3.11 He that hates his Brother is a Man-slayer c. Therefore they are worthy our love This second particular I shal further open as follows Viz. That the Farthers love to the Saints is like to that wherewith he loved his Son The Father loves the faithful as he loves Jesus Christ This Love carried to them carries a lively expression or is as a picture wherein the love of the Father to the Son is discovered in fresh colors in an especial manner This love to the faithful however it is impossible it could not was it reasonable or suitable to the wisedom or goodness of the Lord it should equal the love of God to his Son in the measure or largeness of it Because that was infinite unconceivable incomprehensible and therefore there is no equality of measure or greatness which is beyond al measure yet it comes up to it as neer as may be in the proportion and likeness thereof in like resemblance and answerableness thereunto it s not to be found in any creature nor in the whol creation beside As it is in the Parelion It s like the Sun in appearance and resemblance yet in no wise equal either for bigness or greatness or the vertues thereof So it is with this love of God to the Saints it lively resembles not fully equals the love of the Father to the Lord Jesus We shal further follow the several particulars 1. The Father loves us with the like love of union as he did Jesus Christ The Father wholly and alone gives being to Jesus Christ and that thus appears The Father stands in relation to the Son looks only towards him his Eye is ever upon him The Son as he receives so he returnes his being as a Son to the Father As Relations refer each to other only and heâ—ce the Father is said to be in the Son the Son in the Father Verse 22. As I told you before my hand closing and closed are one in another both with the hand The Father looks to the Son in giving The Son to the Father in returning his being They are perfect in this wholly give wholly take Thus they wholly delighted in each other mutually glorified each other Verse 2. Now as God in Christ thus begets and gives being of Sonship So Christ as Son and second person he so assumes for had he assumed as God all had assumed But he assumes person and to say that any person assumes but the Son is Haeresie Therefore its peculiar to the Son and that as Son then as begotten and as such he assumes and becomes the Head of the covenant and so he begets and gives being of Adopted Sons to the faithful sending his Spirit immutably to set their hearts for God and to hold the bent thereof towards him Thus receiving this impression from Christ and so from God the Father through Christ The faithful receiving this impression as from the Father by Christ they return it wholly and perfectly to the Father in and through Christ Namely The whol man under their impression of the begetting Spirit of the
free in the manifestation of their Favor and they have ever found them faithful that they cannot challenge them in the least yet they fear in the issue when it comes to a dead lift they wil leave in the lurch Should such expressions be dayly presented before a man and such unkind expressions be laid in his dish he could not but with indignation cast off such a one Why have I ever failed of my Word ever been wanting in my labor to answer al your desires bestead you in al your needs and have I this for my love and labor that ye look at me as one feeble and faithless Take ye other and chuse ye better Friends I wil have no more to do with you And it is not possible but our groundless needless surmises hard conceits that we harbor and unloving thoughts of the Lords dealing and goodness but it should imbitter Gods heart against a wretched Creature and suffer him to sink in his sorrows and however he cannot out of his Love forsake his yet he cannot in respect to the Honor of his Love and Faithfulness but draw and with-hold the sense of it that the way-ward heart may the better perceive its own wretchedness and unreasonable dealing and learn not to doubt of Gods Love when there is no cause Our groundless surmises of Gods Favor causeth yea compels God to darken our apprehensions and his expressions The Second Evil. The little and mean account we make of the intimation on Gods Love unless it answer our conceits and humors in each particular Unless we may have what we wil and when we wil and as much as we wil unless the Lord take measure of our mind and please us in every Point we cast al his kindness behind our back and the Love of the Almighty is in but little esteem with us when their complaints are many and sad that their temptations grow fierce and their corruptions get head and over-bear their abilities smal and their comforts less But yet the Lord loves you notwithstanding whatever these hindrances be which stand in the way and that is enough to settle and satisfie the heart Obj. True I cannot say but he loves me but if yet my Graces be so weak and my distempers so strong what is that Ans What is that It 's of more worth than al thy Graces thou canst either attain or desire if thou did'st know how to value things according to the worth O! if I had such a measure of Grace the enlargedness of heart and abilities to perform Service in a Spiritual manner as such and such then I might be comforted and might be perswaded the Lord loved me to purpose As though the Child that is now yong and smal should conceive his Father did not carry the strength of Fatherly affection towards him because his Coat was not so long or his Doublet Jerken or Apparrel was not so large as his Elder Brothers when indeed it is not because he wants Love to provide them but he is not able to wear them So it is here Thou art happily but a Babe in Christ not of time and standing in Christianity canst not tel how to wield and exercise such eminency of Abilities for the present Let if suffice he is thy Father and loves thee as he doth the most able and excellent Christian upon Earth Doth not that please your Pallates What would ye have which would please if ye can be pleased I wil say more He loves thee aâ— he doth the Lord Jesus the Son of his Love I hope now ye are contented What! love me so ye wil say poor silly weak ignorant worthless Creature it 's a likely matter indeed Yea thee Hast thou but a grain of Faith but as a grain of Mustard-seed even the least of al others the poorest weakest filliest unworthy Worm be thy place thy parts never so mean he loves thee as his Son Go thy way never quarrel question any more never murmur repine any longer this is enough on Conscience nay it 's too much I could not have thought it I durst not have desired it I could not have beleeved â—t but that thou hast said it that thou should'st love me who loath my self and know my self worthy to be abhorred Therefore rest thy weary heart here in thy weaknesses do not think to bring such measures of Grace to deserve this Love Nay lay hold upon this Love it wil encrease the eminency of al Graces and that in the most glorious manner in thy Soul Eph. 3.18 Paul praies That they might comprehend with all Saints the length breadth depth and height c. and know the Love of God which passeth knowledg that so they may be full of all his fulness View this Love wistly and warm thy heart with it and thou shalt not need to complain of barrenness or emptiness thou shalt be ful of Grace not have a scant measure thou shalt be ful of Wisdom and Meekness Patience Holiness c. Nay ful of the fulness nay of al the fulness of God-like Grace no kind of Grace no Excellency in any kind that suits the Station and Condition thou dost obtain in the Body of Christ but thou shalt be possessed of it How the knowledg of this Love brings in this fulness it 's not now a place to enquire only the Doctrine now delivered wil lead us by the hand to some further Light in this Work While we know that is while we constantly attend to the Dispensation of Gods Love in Christ begetting of us as his adopted ones by his Spirit to himself while we experimentally find this and so know it and leave our hearts under the influence thereof as of him to receive al as from him to do al we shal then be ful Whatever may be lacking to thy Hope Meekness c. repair to this Love and know there is no lack I have the choicest Love of God that either Heaven or Earth affords and that is beyond the excellency of al Grace and the chiefest of al Abilities that either I do want or can desire He loves me therefore let him do what he wil with me take what he wil Love wil supply al give that he wil Love is better than al. Cant. 1.1 His Love is better than Wine As Elkanah comforted Hannah in the want of Children Am not I better to thee than ten Sons 1 Sam. 1.8 2. Instruction We hence infer beyond denyal and conclude beyond al doubt That the Love of God to his is unchangeable As he loves his Son he loves his Saints and adopted ones That did never change this will never fail We are accepted as Christ nothing can prejudice us in Gods Favor or shal be able to condemn us We are advanced as Christ he wisheth al good and works al good for us as for him sets us far above al Principalities and Powers and what is named in this World or the World to come Though we know it not understand it
not if it be named or can be conceived it shal never prevail against our Comforts We are brought neer to him and made one with him as Christ nothing shal be able to separate us from his Favor Christ is in God we in Christ and therefore the power of darkness must pluck us out of his hand nay from his bosom As the Father cannot be without the Son nor Christ perfect without us Satan and Sin must take somthing of Christ his perfection if he take away our Comforts Hither Paul repairs and here he Lands his Heart and Hopes in safety Rom. 8.38 I am perswaded that neither death nor life nor Angels nor Principalities nor things present nor things to come some troubles and dangers are over but it may be there may be more and more sharp to come who knows what may be why come what can come nor height nor depth if any thing in Heaven nor any thing in Hel nor any other Creature shal be able to separate us from the Love of God in Christ The Holy Apostles intent it to settle this conclusion upon the Consciences of the Romans that the happiness of their Condition and the certainty thereof was beyond the reach of al the Hâ—sts in Heaven and Earth and therefore he doth not mention the Adversaries of the Saints and their Salvation but musters and marshals al the created forces within the compass of Heaven and Earth Nay not only what are but what shal be it there were a thousand Worlds to coâ—e and should set themselves to shake the Comforts of the Faithful it could not be But what 's the ground It 's hence Because the Foundation thereof is laid in the Love of God in Christ towards his It was before al these things therefore they come too late they cannot hinder it It was without any respect to them therefore cannot weaken it It was only and wholly in God and from God and therefore cannot alter it The Devils and sin may as wel separate Christ from the Father as they pul the Love of the Father from his own heart and so from Christ as to separate us from it Psal 103.17 Psal 89.33 My loving kindness I will never take from him He may take away our Credits Comforts Priviledges Ordinances yea the work of our Grace our Peace but never take away his loving kindness nor suffer his Faithfulness to fail Heart Hopes Comforts may fail but never this Love Only remember He may take away the sence of it the sweet and rellish of it for a turn and time So with Christ when he loved him so with us while he tenders us So with Christ while our sins lay upon him by imputation so with us while our sins lie upon us without Humiliation So with Christ while his Justice is satisfied so with us until his Righteousness comes to be imputed USE Study therefore to answer Gods Love in our manner and according to our measure He thought nothing too good for us let us account nothing good enough for him Let not the Lord have the leanest of our Love the Female Affection the leavings of any thing here below We had the chief of his Love let us lay out the choycest of our Affections wholly and only upon himself before al Creatures we prize They are nothing yea less than nothing In comparison of the Lord let them be so in our Affections they are nothing let them have nothing of our Love but reserve that only for the Almighty who is only worthy of it The Wife she receives strangers into her House to entertain and lodg them Neighbors to her Conference to counsel them Familiars to her Table to welcome them but her Husband only hath her heart and love So let thy Prudence order these things thy hand use them thy skil and diligence husband them but keep thy Love for God alone yea give away thy Heart from thy self to God to whom thou owest it more than to thy self Let not thy Life be dear unto thee that thou mayest finish thy course lose that to gain him cast away that to content him As Lovers they count it happiness that they may have any thing to pleasure glad we have it for a Friend As the Martyr he was sorry he had but one Life to lose for God Yea love him as Christ loves him and that 's in three things 1. He came not to do his own Will John 6.38 but the Will of his Father Do thou likewise As our Savior in another like case professed the Zeal of Gods House had eaten him up eaten up al his Zeal for his own Honor or Ends. So let the Wil of God and Strength and Authority of it carry our Wils as a mighty Stream doth the weaker Current whatever is cross to us let nothing be cross to him Not my will c. The will of the Lord be done As our Savior The Son doth nothing of himself but what he sees the Father do John 5.19.30 So do thou 2. Our Savior sought not his own Honor but the Glory of him that sent him Let it be in our eye and aim yea the Scope of our Lives to live meerly to lift up his praise John 8.50 To live to God not to our selves or the world or any of those sinful ends 3. Do not think thou canst do enough for him therefore get more Grace and Spiritual Ability that thou mayest improve al thou gettest To finish the work that is commended to thy trust and put into thine hand to discharge John 4.34 I have them for my wel-beloved Cant. That the world may know thou hast loved them as thou lovest me 1. That God loves Christ 2. That he loves beleevers and. That he loves them as he loves Christ We have spoken to al those particulars formerly and because they were al of special consideration and carried choice both comfort and profit with them we â—taied the longer upon them There is one point yet remaining wherein the scope and end of our Saviors prayer is expressed and indeed directly intended in the words There is a double end here mentioned by our Savior why he so earnestly and so importunately pursues the request at the hands of his Father in so many several Circumstances That they might be one as the Father and he was one The means how this comes to be attained and order how dispensed I in them and thou in me The perfection which was aimed at That they might be perfect in one Here lastly we have a double end 1. Touching the honor of our Savior that it might be manifested and magnified even in the hearts and by the mouths of the wicked even the worst of men that wil they nil they they should be forced to see it and forced also to confess it that the Lord Jesus was the Messias of the world appointed by the Father before al worlds foretold by Prophets exhibited and sent in the fulness of time by God the Father and he that
hath accomplished that great work of our redemption and that unto the ful That the ignorant who never knew him the stubborn and rebellious amongst whom he lived and preached yet would not receive him yea the flinty hearted Jews that scorned and despised the meanness of his person and the power of his dispensation Al these at last should be constrained to acknowledg that he is the true and only Messias set a part and sent to that work This is the Son of God saies the Heathen of whom we have heard but never laboured to know him This is the Son of God saies the prophane whom we in his word have opposed and hated in his servants This is the Son of God sent to save us and we have blasphemed his name and flame and crucified his person despised his government saies the Jew See the lively expression of this Rev. 6.13 This I say wil certainly come to pass for our Savior hath prayed for it yea pursued it with re-doubled desires propounded in the 21. Verse repeated in verse 23. And he is alwaies heard in what he begged Hence we have two things 1. It s lawful to begg the same thing several times in the same prayer We have here a pattern before us beyond al compare a practise beyond al exception nay in truth beyond al question or doubt He cannot do but wel who could not erre in what he did where he hath gone before us in his example in things imitable we may without either feare or hazard safely go after him As it was said of his speaking and it s as true of his praying he prayed as never man did And there do not many sentences pass between but ye have the very same petition expressed What our Savior did its lawful for us upon the like occasion and like grounds for us to do to put up the same petition several times the same prayer If we find we have greater need of that we ask than any other or if there be special worth in it or that our hearts grow warmer in the work and increase into the strength of our affection towards the thing we ask For then there is no vain babling or empty repetition but the expressions though the same have new strength of fresh apprehensions and affections put upon them Therefore David again unto the place striks the same string often which made best melody in that musick and song of his Oh that men would therefore praise the Lord for his goodness and declare the wonders he doth for the Children of men 2. We ought to pray most earnestly that the power of our Savior might be expressed that his right appointment to the work of Redemption might be acknowledged by the world It s that which our Savior doubles his desires for the attainement of as that wherein the great weight of the work lay and which he counted worthy such importunate seeking for at the hands of his Father And this carriage should be a Copy and Sampler to conform our prayers unto This is that which God the Father is so Zealous of Hebr. 1. When he brings his first begotten into the world he saies Worship him all ye Angels of God And to this purpose was the eight Psalm penned and is to be understood touching our Savior as having the preheminence above al creatures in Heaven and Earth as Mediator So the Apostle to the Hebrews seems to expound it Hebr. 2.20 Learned Junius judgeth and therefore here the Psalmist dwels and delights to descant on this strain Psal 8.1 O Lord our God how excellent is thy Name in al the world That 's most worthy our desires upon which our Savior spent his This only from the repetition The point it self we spake unto on verse 21. So much of the first end The second End is this Our Savior prayes that they might be perfect in one that so the world also might know that the Father hath loved them as he loved him This is for the honor and excellency of beleevers in the acknowledgment of the world That howsoever while they are wildering here in this vale of teares they become the scorn of the wicked the scrapings of men as the Apostle hath it and the Off-scouring of the world in the misguided apprehension of the wicked of the world who know not how to judg aright of things and persons and therefore account them Out-casts of Heaven and Earth yet our Savior prayes that they may proceed on to that perfection of Oneness with the Father and himself unto which one day they shal attain in Heaven That the world may be constrained to see and say that indeed they are Gods precious ones to whom his Soul is exceedingly indeared in surpassing love even like unto that wherewith he hath loved the Lord Jesus his only Son This our Savior Christ prayes for as a means to this end and therefore it wil undoubtedly attain it There be two points in the worlds 1. The world shal know that the Father hath loved the faithful as he loved Jesus Christ 2. This shall then be known when they come to be perfectly one with the Father and Son in Heaven But we shal handle them both together because they border so neer each upon other and the explication of either wil add to the discovery and so to the confirmation of both Point Then shall the world know that the Father hath loved the Faithful as his Son when they come to be perfected in Oneness with the Father and the Son These two the Apostle joynes together also in his prayer 2. Thess 1.11 12. Wherefore we pray alwaies for you that our God would count you worthy of this calling And fulfil al the good pleasure of his goodness and the work of faith with power That the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you that is the first that Christ may be acknowledged as he that hath been sent for that work and hath done it Secondly That ye might be glorified in him according to the Grace of God at aâ—d â—uâ— Lord Jesus Christ Next under the Advancement of his own Name the Lord provides and the Apostle praies for the Advancement of his Servants ' Matth. 13.41.43 when the Lord shal gather out of his Church whatever doth offend whatever persons that are wicked and whatever things even aâ—oâ—gst the godly that offend Then shal the righteous sâ—ine as the Sun in the Kingdom of my Father They have been here undeâ— hatches cooped up in Duâ—gâ—â—ns there they shal be in their Kingdom and that in the Kingdom of their Father Here they lie among the ports al dinâ—â—ed â—eâ—coâ—ed with the shame and disgrace that hath been cast upon them as the scum of the world and the scorn of Heaven and Earth This is Zion whom to Man regarded There they shal shine and that as the Sun which every man wil see because he cannot look ofâ— the light of it and wil be dazelled with the
under the Soveraignty and Authority thereof it was utterly impossible as being against the Principles of Reason and the Nature of Grace and the Covenant of Truth which the Lord hath left in his Word This ye shal find most plain in the very express words of our Savior when he discovers this Work John 17.6 I have manifested thy Name to the Men which thou gavest me out of the World He gets them out of the hand of the World from the lust of the eyes and lusts of the Flesh and the Pride of Life 1 John 2.16 For that is al which is in the World and from al these whether the vanity of the Creature with which our Eye and Sences are taken from without or the sensual filth and dunghil steams of noysom distempers which arise of our own Concupiscence or whether it be Pride and overweening Self-confidence which ariseth and issues out of al. this is al that is in the World and from al these the Father gains the Souls of those men he gives unto his Son For they had given away themselves unto these Lusts of the World and that must be repealed before this could be tendred afresh And here again by the way ye may observe That this Giving cannot be the Act of Electing for that is an eminent Act and remains in Gods Breast and Bosom and goes not out This is called a Transient Act is an Act which passeth upon the Creature That is without respect and consideration of Mans being much less the being of Sin as ye have fully heard But this supposeth a man in the World that is under the power of the Vanity thereof if he must be given out of the World 2. God the Father doth actually deliver up the Soul into the hand of Jesus commends it to his keeping to rule him in the Kingdom of Grace while here he remains in this World and to bring him to Glory hereafter He gives the Soul and our Savior takes it and undertakes for it as his Charge according to the terms of the Covenant and Agreement made between the Father and him The Expression of Calvin is pat and pleasant God the Father causeth the Soul to pass into the Care and Custody of the Lord Jesus leaves him in the power and possession of his Son Jesus as the Second Adam the Head of the Covenant of Grace that he may see him redeemed As the First Adam neglected the Covenant and destroyed himself and his Posterity There was a Parly and Consultation held between the Father and the Lord Jesus touching the Salvation of his Elect and the Agreement fully transacted and passed But now it comes to be put into Execution and he gives them into the hand of Christ The Soul comes into Christs presence and Christ comes to speech with it Behold the party I wil have redeemed and the Lord takes him as his Charge and provides for him both to bring him to himself and so to Life and Salvation which he hath purchased and possesseth and can communicate The Soul as yet consents not nor hath the powerful impression of Gods Grace come home to the heart God gives the Soul the Soul doth not yet give up it self but God giving to Christ as his charge put and passing under his care He undertakes to get the good wil of the Soul and to bring it to himself and through himself to Life and Glory 3. When the Father hath thus delivered the Soul unto the care of Christ he then gives Christ to the Soul reveals the Lord Jesus as the Surety and Savior that hath covenanted with the Father and hath purchased al from the Father for him so that there is nothing that can stand betwixt Mercy and him This Christ and Mercy so provided and intended for his good is now rendered and given to him Behold thy Savior who is the Head of the Covenant of Grace who hath purchased and procured by the Fathers Appointment al good for thee and can and wil communicate al good to thee This leaves a mighty impression of the sweet of the good upon the Soul Thus God tendring Christ and through him mercy as he that hath covenanted with the Father and undertaken for the soul commended to his care by the Father This tender of a Christ and of Mercy in him makes the Soul take it this offering of Christ as one to whom he was before given to save works the heart to receive Christ and that is beleeving which is thus wrought as ye see by the giving of the Soul to Christ Because Christ gave himself and Mercy to the Soul therefore the Soul comes to him But because the Soul was given to Christ and his care he gave himself and mercy to it Therefore the Soul was given to Christ therefore it comes and beleeves If God the Father had not given the Soul to Christ he ad never taken care of him never given himself to them they never received him nor good from him Hence Beleeving is said to be Receiving and receiving we know as a Co-relative is the cause of giving REASON 2. 1. Because they are the Fathers own and therefore he hath most right and reason to dispose of them and to give them away as he sees sit when it wil be most seasonable to procure the good and comfort therof This is the ground our Savior goes upon Thine they were and thou gavest c. Each man hath most to do with that which is his proper right Now the Father had set his heart upon them before the World and appointed them to be Vessels of Mercy in his everlasting purpose and therefore it 's but equal that he should order al things for the accomplishment of the Counsel of his own Will and the performance of his Soveraign good Pleasure without controul John 6. I came not to do mine own will but the will of him that sent me and this is the will of him that sent me That I should lose none that he hath given me It 's sit that God should do his own Will whose Will is the absolute First-Cause of all things that are done 2. As Gods own Right so their own proper and peculiar good is hereby especially if not only procured For had not God the Father given them to his Son he would not nay I may truly say he never could have given Grace and Mercy or Good to them in a righteous way preserving the Right and Honor of his Justice and so the Glory of himself For had not Christ taken the care and charge of us the Justice of God would never have suffered him to have shewed us Mercy we should never have been fitted nor enabled to receive Mercy For we having wronged his Justice and provoked his Anger by reason of our Transgressions his Justice would have stood offended and his Displeasure incensed against us by reason thereof Nay he did give a Commission to our sins under the hand of Divine Justice to take vengeance
be with the Head the Body where the Life is our Life is in Christ the Wife where the Husband is As Thomas said Let us go and die with him much more let us die to raign with him If Christ be in Heaven why are we on Earth Saies Paul I desire to be dissolved to be uncloathed to put off these rags that I may put on the Robes of Immortality We have been too long with the world our sins c. let us long to be with him USE 4. See the Hainousness of their sin and heavy plague which appertains to such as rebel against this Christ now in Glory We have done with the first Part of the Point we are now to enquire the meaning of the other Vâ—z That Christ hath unconceivable Glory given him of the Father This is taken for granted and presupposed That they may behold the Glory which thou hast given me therefore he hath Glory and it 's given of the Father And of this now we are to enquire with Modesty and Godly fear as being a search and inquisition far exceeding the meanness of such poor Anâ—s as we be creeping here upon ouâ— Molehils sitting here upon our dunghils compassed about with the Mud-wals of Mortality Misery and Corruption An enquiry suitable for such as are come to the highest form the souls of the blessed now ascended and the glorious Angels who are before the Lord and see his Face They may search into the surpassing excellency of his Glory which is far removed out of our sight who sit here upon the Face of the Earth at so far a distance from thence It shal beseem us then to be wise unto Sobriety not to peep into Gods Secrets Yet because that which is writ is writ for our learning it 's not only in our Liberty but our Duty and matter of necessity to look after such things and to learn them with what pains and endeavor we may We shal then open the Sense of the Words 1. What is meant by Glory in the General 2. In what respect it 's attributed to Christ as God or Man or both 3. Wherein that peculiar Glory consists which is thus attributed to him 4. How it 's said to be given him of the Father I. What is meant by Glory in the General Answ It commonly and usually implies three things in Scripture 1. The world and excellency that is in any thing whereby it obtains Superiority and Eminency above other of meaner quality and condition Thus the Apostle cals the Graces given to us in Adam Our Glory Rom. 3.23 We have all sinned and are deprived of the Glory of God 2 Cor. 3.18 We are transformed from one degree of Glory unto another that is of glorious Grace Thus we cal a man of special Spiritual Abilities a glorious Christian an eminent Christian So in verse 22. foregoing The Glory thou gavest me I have given to them So it is said Joh. 1.14 We beheld the Glory of Christ what that is he ads and explicates full of Grace and Truth 2. The Expressions or putting forth of such Abilities in the most eminent and choice Operations thereof because in such Actions the lustre and beauty of all such excellencies shines forth and discovers it self These are termed the Glory of any thing Thus Acts 22.11 The shine of the Light that compassed Paul is called The Glory of the Light The lustre and majesty which appeared upon Moses Face when he came from the Mount is called The Glory of his Countenance 2 Cor. 3.7 And that beauty of the Light of the Sun whereby it out-bids the rest of the other Stars is called The Glory of the Sun I Cor. 15.41 And when our Savior raised Lazarus from the dead the expression of that power he cals The Glory of God John 11.40 Said I not unto thee if thou would'st beleeve thou should'st see the Glory of God that is the glorious expression of Gods Power and it 's the best and only explication of that place 2 Thes 1.9 They shall be destroyed from the glory of his power The infinite and utmost expression of Gods power shal put forth it self in the destruction of the ungodly 3. The acknowledgment of all these Excellencies and of al the expressions thereof in al the eminencies that are discovered therein This is Glory And thus we are said to give glory to God or Man in such acknowledgments which are suitable and agreeable in some measure to the worth of the things My Son give Glory to God The Second Sense is most properly intended in this place The first is not altogether excluded but in part only considered II. In what respect is Glory attributed to Christ as God or Man or both Answ It is given to the Person of the Son both as God and Man now sitting at the right hand of God the Father 1. As God That Glory which no meer Creature is capable of that must appertain to him that is more than a Creature and in that respect But of this Glory no meer Creature is capable For it 's such a glorious power which he possesseth and which is here understood whereby he subdues al things even death unto himself Phil. 3. last 2. This also is evident by the Question which our Savior Christ makes and the Argument he brings for the evidencing and evincing this Sense that indeed he was God as wel as man and that this Glory of his exaltation did in that behalf belong to him Matth. 22.42 43. He asked the Pharisees What think ye of Christ the Messias whose Son is he They say unto him the Son of David that is they looked at him as meer man Against which he thus reasons How then doth David in spirit call him Lord In Spirit that is by the dictate and direction of the Holy Ghost as Mark 12.36 The Lord that is God said unto my Lord that is unto my Seed which is my Lord Sit thou on my right hand until I make thine Enemies thy Footstool Now if his Son how is he his Lord If Davids Seed be Davids Lord then Davids Seed is more than meer Man For if he had been meer Man the Child is inferior and subject to the Father is not Lord over the Father as it 's said He was subject to his Parents But Davids Seed is Davids Lord and therefore more than meer Man As Christ is Davids Lord so is he exalted for it 's so affirmed so attributed to him He said to my Lord sit at my right hand But as God he is Davids Lord therefore as God he is exalted 3. It 's plain also by that Prayer and Expression of our Savior John 17.5 Father Glorifie me thy self with that Glory which I had with thee before the World was Now that must needs be the Glory which did appertain unto him as God For his Humane Nature was not before the World and therefore did not nor could not partake of any Glory And hence it is undeniable it
of Wrath and expectation when thou shalt be arraigned and condemned by the righteous Sentence of Gods revenging Justice Satan accuseth Conscience gives in witness against thee and the Justice of God passeth Sentence Look up to this Glory that Christ stands possessed of now in Heaven and al these Accusations will vanish immediately nor wil once appear to plead against a beleeving sinner Upon this ground Paul flings out the Gantlet against al Adversaries and there is not an Action that can pass nay not so much as a motion made against him that can find audience in Court Rom. 8.33 34. Who shall lay any thing to the Charge of Gods Chosen it's God that justifies nay it 's Christ that hath died nay rather risen again nay sits at the right hand of God Justice cannot condemn Christ hath satisfied and is freed and now is at Gods right hand and is at the better hand with Justice triumphs there Devils cannot cavil they are silenced Conscience accuse that is answered nay those dayly failings which might seem to interrupt the Terms of Agreement betwixt God and the Soul and make new Controversies These are taken up and intercepted by the Lord Jesus Nay the main Pith of this Glory was as ye have read before That the immediate execution of Gods whol Counsel towards the Sons of Men is by his means comes through his hands And if there be any thing against his Members his Spouse he wil be sure to stop that proceeding So Paul disputes Rom. 5.9 If reconciled by his Death how much more shall we be saved by his Life 5. By this all Graces shall be strengthened and made glorious answerable and in some measure proportionable to the Glory that Christ hath possessed The Father gives glorious Power and Grace to him and he dispenseth glorious Grace and Power to us This is the ground of the Inference The Spirit was not sent because Christ was not ascended That the larger measure of the Spirit in the more spiritual and efficacious operations thereof was not yet given because he was not yet in the Throne of Glory and invested with the fulness of that power which then he should re-assume and challenge to himself And this Peter renders to be the reason of those extraordinary Gifts that were given and admirable Works that were done by the Apostles When al the People wondered and stood amazed to hear each man speak in his own language the magnificent things of God the holy Apostle Peter carries them hither as to the first root and rise of al those miraculous Dispensations Acts 2.34 36. That Christ whom ye have crucified God hath raised and made him both Lord and Christ and having received the Promise of the Spirit having as man received the Spirit without measure as much as Nature was capable of and as God possessed and recovered the same Glory which he had with the Father before al Worlds He now sheds abroad this which ye now see and hear Great Princes reserve the greatest Gifts and Entertainment unto the daies of greatest Solemnity as Coronation or Conquest The day of Christs Ascention and sitting and so possession of Glory is the day of his Coronation and Conquest returns into his own Country and there triumphs and then gives Gifts enlargeth himself in the Graces of his Spirit Eph. 1.20 22 23. when Christ was set in Heavenly places and advanced to his Glory It was that he might be Head of his Church and might fill all in all By this he comes to be Head and hath all Graces By this he comes to communicate himself not in sparing manner but fully and freely he fils all in all 6. By this thou mayest be enlarged in all Services not only receive more Graces but exercise what thou hast received in a more active and excellent manner than ever otherwise thou should'st or could'st have attained unto The Glory of our Savior over-shadowing thee wil make thee pray gloriously lead a glorious life and perform glorious Duties Thus our Savior disputes John 14.22 Verily verily I say unto you he that beleeveth in me shall do the Works that I do that is in regard of the Doctrine he then delivered or Works he then wrought Nay greater works than these shall he do Why Because I go to my Father He goes to possess al Glory in al the fulness of the Execution of al power and dispensation thereof And therefore having more dispenseth more vertually by the power of his sitting at the right hand of God than he did when he was bodily present in the daies of his Humiliation Peter by the vertue of his death and that glorious power which Christ possessed in Heaven he converted at once three thousand which our Savior never did while he preached Christ healed the Sick and cured Diseases of such as came to him but Peter such as he sent his Hand-kerchief unto Nay our Savior ads Whatever ye ask in my Name in the Name of Christ now in Glory as he is gone to his Father If ye ask any thing never so miraculous hard improbable impossible to Flesh and Blood he wil bring it about And upon this Tenure it is that promise is made to the Church of Thyatira That she shall rule the Nations with a rod of Iron Rev. 2.26 27. A poor handful of People the mighty and invincible power of a multitude of Nations See the Reason it is As I have received from my Father This power of this glorious Dispensation is such as he hath received in a more ful and eminent manner he wil so also communicate it And therefore our Savior professeth it is expedient that he should go away for if he go not he wil not send the Comforter but if he do he wil send him and then he shal lead you into all truth John 16.7.13 The last resolution rests there Al is Christs that the Father hath and he shal take of Christs and give to them 7. By this thou maiest be sure thou canst not miss of Eternal Life This was the end why Christ receives God the Father gives this Glory that he may give it unto the Faithful John 17. Thou hast given me power over all Creatures that I may give unto them Eternal Life Christ cannot miss of his End nor thou of Glory And if al power can bring to Eternal Life thou canst not but enjoy it Christ must fail of his intent if thou fail of thy happiness and therefore you shal find our Savior so solicitous to settle the hearts of his Disciples in this and himself so unweariable to accomplish it John 14.2 3. Let not your hearts be troubled c. They were and al the Saints find a hard shock here they are troubled what wil become of them at last and how shal they once arrive at the Haven the storms so strong the waves so fierce oppositions from without so great corruptions from within so out-ragious Why our Savior saies Be not troubled I go to
and fullest communication of himself that may be and hence as he came out of his bosom and left his glory so also he must bring him unto glory that he may again lie in the bosom of his love This our Savior intimates Joh. 13.3 Knowing that the Father gave al things into his hand and that he came from God and went to God he came from the Father for the accomplishment of the great Work of Redemption and he furnished him with the supply of al power and al provision al things in Heaven and Earth to attend him until he come again to him and when he is come into Heaven as he put the greatest glory upon him so he advanceth him to the neerest familiarity with himself By his right hand he hath exalted him Act. 2.33 And set him at his right hand Verse 34. That he might make him ful of joy with his countenance that the Eye smiling countenance of the Father might ever be upon him and fulness of the perfection of joy in him for ever If glory carry with it the greatest perfection that can attend our Savior and neerest union unto the Father then the love of the Father wil provide it But glory includes both greatest perfection in regard of Christ and neerest union unto the Father Therefore the love of the Father wil provide for it USE 1. Trial. We may hereby try what mettal our love is made of whether it come from the God of Love carry his likeness and superscription that we may be sure that he will own it at the great day and we both now and then may find the undoubted comfort of it unto our Souls we shal know the nature of it by the efficacy and work of it As it is in prime cordial quintessences if they be made of lively ingredients they do not only warm the Mouth and heat the Stomach a little but they search into al the Veins clear al the passages Purg al the Humors and cleanse the Blood that the Body is recovered to a lively and healthful constitution But if it warm a little overly and work no further we conclude it It s not the right it hath not the right work So with thy love if it be like the love of God it wil have the like work It aimes ever at the glorious good of the thing or person beloved staies not in these lower and inferior things but in and by these looks at those which be higher and of a more heavenly excellency Take then a Survey of the several operations of thy love according to the several occasions with which it meets and therein it s exercised What doth it work in the family where thou livest in the place and amongst thy neighbours with whom thou dwellest with thy Brethren who are linked to thee and thou to them in the fellowship of the Faith Nay what doth it do for thine own Soul if there be any power and efficacy it will then appear In thy family thou castest up and down how to compass the things of this life and art marvailous busie to contrive al earthly conveniences to thine own content Thou seekest what to Eat to Drink what to put on and obtainest what thou seekest and thy love looks no further Surely its worldly love and that in the lowest degree Thou wilt do as much for the beasts of the field and Heards of Cattel as for thy servants Children family Thou dealest courteously with those who shew Kindness to thy self yieldest repect to mens places honorest their persons carriest thy self honestly and inoffensively towards al. This love is no great excellency do not the Publicans and sinners the same Nay it may be thou dost incourage men in a good course and strengthenest their hearts and hands in the profession or the Gospel labourest for some knowledg of the truth and ablities to holy services that thou maiest carry out thy profession with applause and approbation of such with whom thou dost converse Lookest after ability to please eares rather than for humility and abasedness of heart to please God and here thou art at thy furthest desirest to be no other and do no more And it s the Pitch thou wouldest have others to aim at This is but the love of Formalists and moralists Thou never hast the love of God shed abroad in thy heart nor yet the true love for the good of thine own Soul to this day If thy love had been from God it would not have ceased until it had brought thee and others unto Heaven and glory and God Noâ— that it is in our power to do this but its certain if the Love of God be in us it wil make us look at this and be easeless to endeavor after this So Paul travels till Christ be formed not til they had got a form of Godliness until Morality or Civility was formed in them but Christ glorious Grace Power Peace This is God-like Christ-like Love 2. TRYAL Whether our Love to the Lord Christ be God-like Love it 's then certain God wil own it Christ accept it and we may find comfort in it If it bear the Image of the Love of the Father it wil imitate God loved the Son and gave al things to the Son Do likewise give thy self yield and resign thy soul and al things unto Christ Thy Mind let him teach thee Heart let him rule thee Affections let him order thee Rom. 12.1 1 Cor. 6. last He out of his Love exalted him far above all Principalities and Powers and whatever is named Do thou set up the Lord in thy Soul far above al profits pleasures thy dearest lusts thy darling delights al powers and principalities the principality of thine own wil mights and dominions mighty and domineering distempers above every name the name of thine own Parts and Gifts the name of thy Glory and Credit and that which is named in another World even thy safety and Salvation He gave him Glory made him Lord and King Acts 2.36 Do thou likewise Let him Lord it over thy Lusts thy Pride thy haughty and high thoughts and bring every thing into obedience Rev. 4.10 Cast down the Crown of al thy Excellencies whatever is most honored admired loved lay it at his foot Honor him with al thy substance As he in the Gospel if he need let it go USE 2. For COMFORT to the Saints whom are beloved of the Father through Christ Where he loves his love wil work alike He is not the weaker for the working nor hath the less for his giving He loveth thee as Christ therefore he wil glorifie thee as he hath done to him Get Love and gain al Love carries al with it If he love thee if dead he wil quicken if weak he wil strengthen if damned he wil save though stubborn he wil draw thee With an everlasting Love I have loved thee and therefore I have drawn thee USE 3. Of Direction How we may gain the Gift of Glory from the
hand of God 1. Set his Love on work and that wil set his Grace Power and Spirit on work to be enlarged in al the glorious operations thereof Go go to this 2 Thes 3 5. The Lord direct your hearts into the Love of God This wil give God no rest This made him send his Son and set his Counsel on work to contrive al for thy good By this thou maiest plead and wilt certainly prevail John 16. I will not say I wil ask the Father for the Father himself loveth you q. d. though I shal speak a good word yet there is that which wil do it and that it may be more effectually That Love sent me set me on work therefore I need not set that on work As David to Jonathan 1 Sam. 20.8 Thou shalt deal kindly for thou hast brought thy Servant into Covenant with God When Boas his heart was towards Ruth Naomi tels her Ruth 3. last He will never rest until he bath done the thing 2. Keep we our selves in this Love John 15.10 If we keep his Commandements we shal abide in his Love John 14.21 23. Jude 20. And thus we have done with this last Clause which we said we were inforced to take into consideration before we would come to the main Point wherein the pith of our Saviors Prayer appears which was the Second Particular observed in the Verse and are now to enquire into it The thing which our Savior praies here so earnestly for The 2d Partic. That they might be where he is And thence we have this Point namely Our Savior doth affectionately desire to have the presence of the Faithful in Heaven with himself Doct. I say he affectionately desires and that appears in his expression I WILL Which implies Three Things in this place as thus used That it is thing which suits the heart of the Lord Christ and which he chuseth as a thing that is wel pleasing to him This is as he would have it 2. That he presents the efficacy of his Merits and Obedience before God the Father and by vertue of the Covenant and Agreement betwixt him and the Father transacted touching his Elect and Chosen whose Redemption and Recovery he hath undertaken and he challengeth and claimeth at the hands of the Father the enjoyment of Heaven and Happiness which he hath purchased for his Servants the Faithful and his enjoyment of them and their presence 3. He earnestly requests and praies unto the Father for the accomplishment and performance of this The first and last of these Particulars ye have fully declared by the same word as used upon the like occasion When our Savior was to enter into his Agony in the Garden a little before he was betrayed he prayed more earnestly saies the Text If it be possible let this Cup pass and in the close ends and issues al with this subjection Not as I will but as thou wilt Marth 26.39 that is according to the Rules of Nature and Reason I would chuse and do desire mine own preservation as man yet as Mediator having undertaken the Redemption of mine I submit my Wil and Prayers to thy good pleasure and purpose And for the Second Particular it 's thus also plain Because his Prayer is one part of his Priestly Office and of that Intercession which he makes for his redeemed ones and that appears amongst other things in this As he purchased so in a righteous way he may obtain the performance of al that good from the Father in the behalf of his That they may be with them and happy in them for ever Isa 53.11 He shal see the travel of his Soul he shal see the fruit of his dying and praying the bringing of his unto God the Father into Heaven and their blessedness there And this our Savior doth not as man only but as God-man the Mediator of his Elect as he voluntarily submitted to the place of a Surety and became a Servant for our sakes and so less than the Father John 14.30 The Father is greater than I. Look as his Complaint so his Prayer may be conceived as issuing and proceeding from the same ground But when he complains My God my God why hast thou forsaken me he was not forsaken of God by the withdrawing of the sence and sweetness of his Favor as man only but as Surety therefore as Mediator and therefore so he prayed and so was heard then and now also heard and accepted of God the Father And this affectionate desire of our Savior appears in this That as he cannot take content in Heaven unless he have his Faithful with him So he wil not rest in Heaven but wil come again to fetch them to him John 14.3 I will come again and take you to my self He hath betrothed his Bride and Spouse here and he wil come as somtimes Princes and States come from their own Places and Kingdoms with the great retinue of his Courtiers and attendance of glorious Angels thousands shal go before him and thousand thousands administring to him at the Solemnization of the day of Marriage and he shal say as in Psal â—0 Gather my Saints to me those that have made a Covenant with me by Sacrifice We shal al be taken up with him into the Clouds and he shal carry his Bride with Triumph into his own Country and Kingdom into Heaven and there we shal be ever with him REASON 1. Hereby the Scope and End of the great Work of Restitution of lost man is in part and in an especial part thereof attained This is the end of the Death and offering of our Savior Heb 9.7 8. But into the Second went the High-Priest alone once every Yeer not without Blood the Holy Ghost thus signifying That the way into the Holy of Holies that is into Heaven was not yet made manifest while the first Tabernacle was standing but verse 11. Christ being come an High Priest of good things to come not by the blood of Goats but by his own Blood he entred once into the Holy Place that is Heaven having obtained eternal Redemption for us So that we have boldness to enter into the Holiest of the Blood of Jesus by a new and living way which he hath consecrated for us through the Vail that is his Flesh This is the Scope of his Resurrection and Ascention John 14.3 In my Fathers House there be many Mansions I go to prepare a place for you that is He ascended into Heaven that by vertue of his Ascention we also might arise and ascend and sit in Heavenly places with him For Ascention doth firstly appertain to our Savior and from him as our Head it is communicated to us as his Members Had not the Second Adam ascended for ought I can see no Son of Adam had ever come into Heaven When the last Enemy which is Death is vanquished and that he hath brought al the Elect home and presented them to God the Father Here am I and
everlasting Mercy and Fatherly Faithfulness in Christ These are deep things and as no man knows what is in man but the Spirit of man so no man knows the things of God but the Spirit of God And it 's the Answer to that Question 1 Cor. 2. and last Who hath known the mind of the Lord q. d. None can pry into the Ark of his Privy Counsel which hath been from everlasting and therefore he ads We have the mind of Christ He that hath Christs mind may know Gods mind for he is Privy to it Luke 10.21 I thank thee O Father Lord of Heaven and Earth that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and hast revealed them unto Babes even so O Father because it seemed good in thy sight no man knows who the Father is but the Son and he to whom the Son will reveal him It must be from the Revelation of Christ that any come to the right knowledg of the Father John 1.18 No man hath seen God at any time but the only begotten Son who came out of the Bosom of the Father he hath revealed him that is those Bosom Affections of his Fatherly Love 2. Our Apprehensions and Conceivings of God hold proportion with his Dispensations of himself to us There must be ever some print of some operation and impression of his Excellencies or Relation left upon us before any thing can be discerned For he dwells in the Light that no Creature can attain unto and to pry into his Secrets which he hath reserved in his own Bosom as indeed we should not Secret things belong to the Lord but things revealed to us so in truth we cannot reach them they are far beyond the scantling of our shallow Conceits Now the expressions which God leaves of his Fatherly Love and Faithfulness are sound no where but in the hearts of his whom he cals unto himself Them he takes into the Bosom of his Love To them he communicates these Bosom Secrets the Foot-steps whereof are to be found no where upon Earth but in the Souls of the Faithful Therefore they only can see the Print of them they only come to know them The great Characters of Gods Power Wisdom and Bounty are left instamped and engraven upon each Creature and therefore they may be seen of al and read of al and so known But that he should set his heart upon any lost Son of Adam an his Christ and draw him into special intimate and spiritual Communion with himself through his Son this is only to be found recorded in the Consciences whom he hath called out of the World These are the unknown yernings of the Bowels of a Father which can be owned by none but such who are his own Rev. 2. He gives a new Name which no man knows but he that hath it unknown Benevolence and unknown Complacency of a Fathers Bowels USE 1. Of Instruction 1. Therefore it is not safe to lean to the Counsel or be led by the Opinion of Carnal men touching the doubts we have or difficulties we find concerning the Love of God unto our souls and his Faithfulness in the performance of his gracious Promises Alas they know nothing of those things how shal they be able to make us know them They understood nothing themselves and how shal they reach others Is any so weak and silly that he would go to a blind man to make him judg of Colors or a deaf man of Sounds or he that never knew the way to be a Guide to lead him the way unless he were resolved to miss his way and end also True indeed they may somtimes speak things by hear-say but to speak things from grounded Knowledg and Experience they cannot because they have none 2. Hence it 's plain That the meanest Saint and most ignorant doth yet know more of Gods Fatherly Love and is better acquainted with the Faithful Performance of his Promises than the most learned and profound Doctors of the World Because they know the Father and are privy to his Secrets and have his Bosom Counsels communicated to them by the Lord Christ which are Riddles and Wonders and Mysteries to the whol World and to the Princes thereof USE 2. Of Terror It discovers the dreadful Estate and miserable Condition of al wicked men the Children and Darlings of the World who take content in it and give content to it The World it is likely may lay you in her Bosom for the World wil love her own but ye be far enough from the Love of the Father as ye be far from the knowledg of him Hence a Sea of Misery breaks in upon thee able to over-whelm thy Soul irrecoverably If it can be once said Thou knowest not the Father there is enough said to sink thy heart in everlasting discouragement In this Estate thou canst expect no good for thon canst receive no good from the hand of the Lord though he be the Father of Mercies and God of al Consolation There is none for thee not one Blessing nor Comfort For if God communicate any thing of himself unto the Sons of Men it is by his Spirit whose Office it is To lead them into all Truth John 16.13 and to seal them up in the Truth unto the day of Redemption Eph. 4. Al that is the Fathers is Christs and the Spirit takes of Christs and so of the Fathers and gives it unto such for whom it is appointed John 16.15 But it 's the depth of thy Misery thou canst not receive the Spirit 1. Thou canst receive nothing of the Father though it were given thee John 14.17 I will send the Comforter whom the World cannot receive because it doth not see nor know him This is thy Condition right Thou canst not see nor know the Spirit and consequently nor the Father therefore not receive him and therefore receive no good The Spirit wil not take the Mercy of a Father to pardon thee the Love of the Father to support the Peace of the Father to quicken Grace of a Father to purge and sanctifie thy corrupt heart The holy Spirit would take of Christs and so of the Fathers and give to thee But thou art a worldly wicked wretch and thou canst not receive the Spirit nor Christ nor Mercy nor Love if thou had'st them laid before thee 2. And as thou canst receive no good from the Father so thou canst perform no good Duty to him that may find acceptance with him or a blessing from him Thou knowest not the Father therefore thou canst not love him nor fear nor honor nor obey him That which the Eye sees not the Mind knows not the Heart affects not fears not prizeth not at al nor performs the least Duty to him because thou fallest short in thy Apprehensions wholly of him Nay mark what I say Thou did'st never pray to this Father of Christ and of al compassion in him If I wil pray with my Tongue I wil pray with my
familiarity yet if their hearts can take contentment and suite and soder secretly with thee Certainly they sent and savor somthing like themselves or els they would never love it Joh. 15.19 The world loves her own And if it love thee assuredly it owns thee as one of hers really however thy profession carries another appearance to men to whom thou canst conform and with whom thou canst comply Why say your companions such a one a Puritan Tush he may and can comply with his godly Brethren for to please them but he is a good fellow If time place and company fit him But a man sound at heart at core they cannot indure his company nay not abide his Name As with the Stomach that is chollerick we can judg the good of the Physick by the working of the Stomach if it can receive and digest it that it stirr not we conclude it s not right Rhubarb but a Dock-root it stirs not the humor especially when the Body is so fit to be wrought upon 2. Consider how thy heart can secretly suit with worldly ones He is known by his companion that cannot be known by his own course and practise in private Because like wil to like Birds of a Feather wil flock and fly together As here in New-England The color of some Birds is very strange by reason of the Climate hearts and colds and that causes some wholly to differ from other Yet if we see them flock and mate commonly together we conclude it is a Starling not a Black-Bird she keeps with such though her color and Feathers be other yet her Nature and kind is the same 1 Joh. 4.5 They are of the world and the world hears them When a man can hug and harbor a varlet a scummy wretch that is not fit to sit among the Dogs of a mans Table and a wise holy-hearted man would take the windy side its certain such a one is a worldly wretch Away from me ye wicked Psal 6.8 The wicked is an abomination to the Righteous Prov. 29.27 3. Observe whence the root and rise of thy disposition or thy actions come Canst thou say as Christ I do nothing but what I see the Father do The words I speak they are not mine Canst thou say so The words I speak the works I do they are not mine but Christs O Righteous Father the world hath not known thee but I have known thee c. THis verse being a further discovery and description of the parties for whom our Savior Christ prayed in the foregoing 24. Verse That they might be with him and see and so injoy his glory in Heaven Each part of the description carries a secret kind of constraining force to set home the former conclusion and provoke the Lord to the grant of his Prayer and that Priviledg unto the Faithful that they might see the glory of Christ 1. The world knows not the Father nor yet the Son and therefore they have as no Title to it so no ability to Fathom it nor hearts to take delight therein or to promote the praise thereof 2. Our Savior he knows the Father the depth of that Fatherly affection of his and that unconceivable glory which he hath and wil also communicate to him And his Saints also know that he was sent by the Father on that Ambassage of life and for the accomplishment of that great work of Salvation by which as the highest pitch of glory might be possessed by himself so also purchased for them And therefore as he is worthy to obtain this of the Father so they also fit to injoy it and to advance the glory of the Father and him in it 3. That he hath manifested and wil manifest yet further the name of that Fatherly love the glory of that Grace and mercy and saving Redemption by him provided and al to this end that Christ might be in them And Gods love manifested in them and by them sharing and injoying the glory that Christ should possess and that they should be spectators and admirers of for ever If now the world neither knew the Father nor therefore could love or honor him nor his Son It was not fit they should be with Christ or see the glory of Christ given him out of his Fathers love But if Christ knew the Father and his Fatherly love and that he was sent on purpose upon this Ambassage and being sent for this did and doth indeavor this and that for this end that Christ and that Fatherly love might be in them and the Saints know al this Then he is sit to ask and obtain this mercy they fit to receive it and they shal glorifie God herein and he attain his glory while he is pleased thus to grant the Prayer of our Savior and to glorifie him and them We have opened and finished that part of the descripon of the parties which was laid down by way of dissimilitude both as the world are considered in themselves in regard of the ignorance they have of God and as by way of dissimilitude they stand in reference comparison and consideration with our Savior and his disciples We are now come to inquire the other parts of the description of the partyes for whom the Prayer is made whose worth and excellency is see forth by their effects 1. I know thee 2. These also know that thou hast sent me And here with we shal take in the second general to wit the person who doth pray intimated in the words where we have two points 1. From these words I know thee The Lord Christ hath the knowledg of the Father in a peculiar manner Doct. I say the knowledg of the Father for that is constantly to be carried along with us in our consideration and to be kept in our Eye that we may keep to the scope of the place and aime of our Savior in his Prayer and expression For he looks at him as we have shewed as a righteous Father such a one as doth dispense his Fatherly affection in Faithfulness unto his And therefore those of the world upon whom his Fatherly affection was never set nor were they within the compass of the Covenant of his Grace had no interest therein to whom his Faithfulness and truth was never ingaged and therefore they could challenge nothing nor yet was he â—ound to accomplish any thing for their spiritual and eternal good And therefore if our Savior had prayed for them that they should have been in Heaven and have seen his glory he had prayed for that which the Father was not bound to grant in Faithfulness nor were they fit to injoy For they know not that Fatherly love and affection of his which moved him to give Christ that glory nor could they be affected with it nor receive the good of it But He who knew the Father he Prayes for this Favor And he Prayes for them also who have known both the Father and him in their conjoint purpose The one
that is the Father appointing and sending The other Viz. The Son coming upon that commission of love and life for the good of his which they knew and in which they rejoyce That Christ who was in the commission to work this and they for whom it was wrought and knew it have an interest in it and take content to injoy it That such persons should Beg for such Priviledges From such a Father whose heart is towards them and their minds and hearts towards him and his Fatherly affection This must of necessity be of great power to prevail with so righteous a Father to hear and grant therefore we must hold it to this point and respect Christ knows him as a righteous Father The Lord Christ hath the knowledg of the Father and his love and Faithfulness in an especial manner Take a place or two which wil give undeniable testimony to this truth Math. 11.25 No man knows the Father but the Son and he to whom the Son wil reveal him Joh. 1.18 No man hath seen the Father at any time but the only begotten Son who was in the Bosom of the Father He saw al his Bosom secrets and was fully acquainted with Gods heart and counsels he hath revealed them unto us And therefore the Apostle issues al here speaking concerning the deep things of God The Spirit searcheth the deep things of God that is of the Father but how come we to rellish either the things of the Father or Spirit who hath known the mind of God Why we have Christs mind and he knows the Fathers mind And our Savior professeth as much touching this expression Joh. 8â—38 Ye speak the things that ye have seen with your Father and I speak the things that I have seen with my Father Here we shal open three things 1. How Christ as Second Person is said to knâ—w the Father 2. How as Man becomes to share in this knowledg 3. The Reason of it To the First For the right apprehending how the Second Person may in a peculiar manner be said to know the Father we must conceive that the knowledg of Christ as Second person may be attended upon a double consideration or ground 1. As it Issues from the understanding of the God-Head For God according to the expression of the Scripture being a Spirit of al other most excellent and therefore reasonable he must have the most excellent faculties and therefore understanding and wil. For what is most eminent that we have allowance from the rule to beleeve that it doth belong to the God-Head and we may so conceive of it From this understanding it is that the God-Head is said to be Omniscient to know al things that are knowable This being an Attribute of the Deity it doth equally belong to al the persons For al the Persons having one and the same God-Head they have equally al the Attributes of the God-Head indifferently equally belonging to them Therefore al are eternal immortal infinâ—e Omnipotent Omniâ—cient and so know al things and â—o know each other in this generall sense and the Father and spirit know the Son and He them by this kind of knowledg But this is too large not here attended For it is not proper to say That the God-Head knows the Father to be Father of it with that speciâ—l reference or that the God-Head should cal the Father my Father I say it is not proper nay it is not true For the Father is not the Father of the God-Head but of the Son If it could cal the Father as Father of it then it should be the Son of the Father then it should be begotten of the Father But the Father begets the Son not the God-Head That which belongs to the God-Head belongs to al the persons as being common then to the Spirit Then the spirit might know and cal the Father the Father of it but that he is not That which belongs to the God-Head belongs to the Father and so the Father might be a Son to himself 2. This knowledg is to be considered according as it attends the manner of the work of the understanding which carries a specialty of respect with it in the act thereof and so it may in a peculiar manner be affirmed of Father and Son and in the several regards appropriated unto either The reason whereof we shal scan anon as it comes in our way when the understanding of the God-Head by knowing it self conceiveth an image of it self makes an impress or engraven character of it self which it ever eyes and owns this manner of knowing belongs to the Father and thence Issues an especial manner of knowing the Father by and in the Son As Joh. 10.15 As the Father knows me I know the Father And that appears in a Three-fold act of the Son 1. The Son takes the Impression of his Image 2. Returnes it 3. Eyes and ownes the Imprinter of it 1. Takes this Impression The Father gives him Sonship and the nature of al relation requires they give being each to other The Father by understanding conceives an Image the Son is the Image conceived As a man is not a Father because he is a man but because he begets a Son A man is not a Son because he is a man but because he is begotten of a Father So the God-Head is not a Father because God-Head but because it conceives an Image of it self The Son is not a Son because God but because he is conceived of another who did conceive This is the meaning of the Apostle The words are marvailous pat and Pithy and carry wieght with them but answer exactly to the thing in Hand Hebr. 1.3 Christ as the second person is called The Ingraven Form or Character of the Fathers Person The word signifies to ingrave and implies an Image of a thing not feigned only in our mind and Imagination nor vanishing and changing as in a representation in a Glass as the form of the face thâ—re But a form or resemblance Ingraven Cut or instamped on Brass or Wood which hath stability permanency with it As Beza in Locum 2. Returns this Impression As the Son takes all from the Father â—o he Returns al to the Father It is the Nature of those things that are relates or in relation to look one towards another and to give being relative one to another That is the meaning of the Apostles other phrase in the place formerly alledged Hebr. 1.3 Christ is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Shine of his glory the word signifies a Light or brightness shining from a Light a shine from a light reflecting or looking back to that reflection of light again And here by the way ye have the rise and reason of these divers manners of understanding in the God-Head and so the diverse subsistences and Personalities Namely because the understanding of the God-Head acting upon it self it becomes to be reflected and turned back upon it self If there be a reflect act
in the Deity upon it self then there must be divers manners of being in the Deity But there is such a reflecting therefore For the right understanding of this ye must conceive the Understanding of the God-head being pure act and infinite it must have a proportionable and therefore an infinite Object therefore understand himself conceive an Image of himself this Image of himself must be conceived and look back upon himself or his own conceiving again Now that the shine of this Impression must return again upon it self and look back to the impression is thus made plain by setting a dis-similitude by it When the operative active Wisdom of God fals upon nothing purposing to make a VVorld it breaks through that nothing and brings forth an effect a Creature out of it stinted with bounds of being and time it 's both finite and temporary hath a beginning of time and may have an end But this Understanding falling upon the God-head which is absolutely first and infinite it cannot break through make an effect or give this the Being of a Creature being infinite and first-being The Act of Gods Wisdom fals upon that as his Object and returns again upon it self and so doth conceive and hath an Image of it self conceived an engraven Character from this Impression returned by resemblance upon the Impression As take a beam of the Sun meet with the Glass it finds way by reason of the perspicuity of the body to pass through it But let it fal upon a firm and solid body pierce and pass it cannot and therefore it fals upon the body and returns upon it self from the body the falling is the reflecting of it and by returning it comes to be reflected Here note The Light is one thing but the reflecting and returned or to be reflected upon it self is another These answer each the other stir up the act each of other no reflecting no returning no returning no reflecting They give being to and maintain being each in other mark that The reflecting and being reflected is not the cause of the Light but each of other So here The Wisdom of the God-head is like the Light reflecting upon it self there is a like Image of it self returned again and conceived This being conceived as it had al from the Father so it eyes and answers al in the Father conceiving A man may understand a Truth but when by understanding he darts it upon his mind to enlighten and so teach and rectifie The mind receives and stands rectified and enlightened The Understanding is one thing but the darting by Understanding rectifying and enlightening the mind returning and standing rectified these are divers manners really distinct and directly answering each the other in a peculiar manner Thus our Savior is said to manifest the Name of the Father not his Name as God but as Father As I said before The Light is not the cause of the reflecting or returning but one of these is the cause of the other reflecting is the cause of returning and returning is the cause of reflecting So the Understanding is not the cause of Teaching for that may be where no teaching is but Teaching rectifying the Knowledg is the cause why Knowledg comes to be rectified So that Phrase No man knows the Son but he to whom the Father will reveal him and no man knows the Father but he to whom the Son will reveal him No man knows what the rectifying of the Knowledg is but he who hath his Knowledg rectified And this is to be attended according to the Second Person in the Deity for it 's true both waies as wel of the Father who was never incarnate as of the Son who was 3. Eyes and owns the Impression and the Imprinter of it in an especial manner John 14.9 He that hath seen me hath seen the Father also Not he that saw him with his Bodily Eyes or saw only the external and visible bodily presence of our Savior but he that saw him as a Son he would own the Father also as expressing the lively resemblance of his Father It answers so fully in al things As we see in Sensitive Creatures the yong can own the Dam by the scent smel or bleating There is somthing of their own there He that hath his Mind rectified by a Truth wil own the rectifying or teaching while he lives John 10.15 The Father knows me and I know the Father 2. How this belongs to our Savior as Man as well as the Second Person For so he looks at himself and in that respect and consideration we must understand his Expression here Answ This Knowledg belongs firstly to the Son as Second Person but to the Humane Nature so far as the Relation of Son-ship leaves some impression according to the Nature and Condition thereof So that the Second Person in the Trinity is no other nor acts any otherwise than he did in himself But this manner of acting in the knowledg of the Father appears in the Humane Nature and leave◠new impressions in an especial manner and the Father also in and by him And that is done in regard of that Union that the Humane Nature hath to the Second Person For as we know the Second Person takes the Humane Nature into personal Union with him so that there is not two Sons but one Son and the Lord Christ remains the same Person after the Union that he was before And therefore being one and the same Person with the Son he may be said to know the Father as the Son in his manner and measure For as the Father gives being to the Son and the Son receives al from the Father so the Humane Nature hath a total dependance upon the Son he only incarnate and so a sole reference with that respect to him and so in him to the Father So that it is said to be one and the same Person one and the same Son with the Son 2. As to be reflected is said to be the property of the Second Person looking back and returning his subsistence to the Father So our Nature having a total dependance upon Christ in the Union and being one Person with him looks as the Second Person wholly to the Father He brings back Jacob. Nay it eyes and owns through the Son al those Fatherly Impressions and Affections which are in the Father and wherein he intimately unbosoms himself to his Son That is the value of the word Prov. 8.30 as we have observed before 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as much as intueri retinere 3. The Reason is taken from that Relation which is between the Father and the Son The Nature whereof is to give total Being only one to another to maintain that Being only one in another and therefore there is a manner of making known each of other in special appropriate to them That which gives a perfect discovery of the thing that makes way for perfect knowing But relates alone give perfect Being No man can
wil a little make some search with Sobriety so far as may help us to understand the place in hand Thus our Savior makes it the Head Corner Stone of our Confidence This is Eternal Life to know thee that is the Father to be only God not he only to be God but to be the only God there is but one only Deity and he hath that only God-head and what beside and whom thou hast sent Jesus Christ Know him as a Christ annointed and fitted and as a Jesus a Savior who hath performed the work and that he is sent for that very End and Errand and for that purpose from God the Father For had our Savior done it if he had not been sent the Soul would have been at a loss whether he had ever satisfied or should ever be accepted But when our Faith can reach this That the Father who is the only God hath sent him he wil then assist and accept and we should go no further seek no other we then â—it down and are at rest John 12.44 We shall therefore make way for the Discovery of the Nature of this Sending by the Propositions following 1. This Sending taken in a ful Sense is not an Act of the Deity or Divine Nature properly but of the Person or Persons in the Deity who nextly and immediately dispenseth it Reas That which is an Act of the Deity or God-head belongs indifferently and equally to al the Persons in that al are equally God and have the Essence of the Deity and al the Essential Attributes equally attributed to them al. As al are Eternal Omnipotent all Create Decree c. But to send much less to send the Lord Christ doth not belong to al the Persons The Spirit is never said to send in the Phrase of Scripture nor is the Father ever said to be sent And this shal be further cleared and proved in the Conclusions that follow and by the Nature of Mission as it 's set forth to us in the Word 2. This Sending hath a double Reference 1. To the Person that is sent 2. To the thing about which he is sent namely When the Person sent leaves a new act or impression upon the Creature so that the Creature is said to be otherwise than it was and to have somthing which formerly it had not and the Person is sent on purpose to leave such operations and impressions God sent his Son made of a Woman sent him to take our Nature here the second person takes our Nature into personal union with him Sanctifies it unites it supports it Though Christ be the same yet here be new impressions which appear in the Creature which formerly did not I wil send the Comforter and be shal teach you and lead you into al truth Here be new and diverse expressions of the work of the Spirit appearing which formerly did not Joh. 16.10.11 The second respect implies ever the first the sending to a work implies a person that must be and is sent to that end though then these may be distinguished in our reason and consideration yet in the Nature of the thing the one is included in the other 3. Sending when it respects a Person properly It ever implies in the Nature of the thing The Authority of him that sends in respect of the party that is sent I say Authority but not of rule or Dominion so much as Authority of Order Communication of work from one to another and in this sense which is a proper and true sense he only can be said to be sent who works from another whether it be in way of Origination or firstness of Order to be first beginner or setter in of a work before al other or whether it be in regard of operative or active production when several persons may as one Joint principle put forth a work for the producing They are not one in order before another but both meet as one principle and producer or bringer forth of the other And therefore hence it is plain and undeniably Evident which ye must especially observe that in this breadth and extent of sending which the Scripture speaks to The Son and the Spirit are only said to be sent and it is never and indeed it can never be affirmed of the Father If sending imply Authority of Order and communication of work from another then there is none can send the Father because there is none in Order before him nor can he be sent because he works of himself and from himself nor from another therefore cannot be sent from another Hence again it follows The Spirit may be sent from the Father and the Son and the Father and the Son may sent because the Spirit the Holy Ghost works in Order from both and there is Authority of Order and communication from both Gal. 4.6 God hath sent forth the Spirit of the Son That is the Father as appears by the distinction of Son in the words Joh. 15.26 When the Comforter is come whom I wil send unto you from the Father Joh. 14.26 When the Comforter is come whom the Father wil send in my Name Hence Christ can only be said to be sent of the Father not of the Holy Ghost I speak now of this internal sending which is attended only in regard of the Person not of the thing about which he is sent the Reason and ground is the same Sending implies the Authority of Order and Communication of work from one to another but the Son works only from the Father therefore can be said only to be sent from the Father Hence are there so many expressions and confessions of our Savior in this kind almost in every verse when he would settle his commission Joh. 5.30 I seek not mine own Wil but the Wil of my Father which sent me And verse 36. I have greater witness than that of John for the works which the Father hath given me to finish they bear witness of me that the Father hath sent me 4. Propos This sending of our Savior is the first of al others and makes way for al other sending or spiritual good things that are sent unto us from God Have this have al make sure of this make sure of al maintaine this maintain a certain intercourse and Communication of al good things unto our Souls from the Lord. This is the first out filet of God everlasting love and goodness 1 Joh 4.9 God so loved us that he sent his only begotten Son c. There is no expectation of the Spirit there is mo possibility of having no in truth of the sending of the Spirit but only by this way and upon this ground Joh. 16.7 It behooves that I go away for unless I go the Spirit wil not come unto you but if I go I wil send him No coming of the spirit unless he had first come Unless he go to Heaven no sending of the Spirit from Heaven As it is true for the measure in regard
of his ascension so it is true for the reality of the thing in regard of his Mission from the Father For the spirit must be sent from the Father and the Son And therefore it presumes his sending And Hence it is when he is come being sent of the Father He shal teach you al things and shal bring to mind what ever I have said to you And that which Christ speaks he hath from the Father not from the Spirit Joh. 14.10 The words he speaks not of himself And Verse 24. The words which ye hear are not mine but the Fathers which sent me He hath the message from him Joh. 12.49 I have not speken of my self but the Father which sent me gave me a command what I shal say and what I should speak Nay our Savior doth not take of the Spirit but the Spirit hears from him speaks from him Joh. 16.13 Howbeit when the Spirit of truth is come he wil guid you into al truth For he shal not speak of himself but whatever he shal hear that shal he speak He shal take of mine and shew it unto you Verse 15. Christ doth not go to take of the graces from the Spirit but the Spirit because Christ is sent to be the Head of the Church to have al Grace and to be the Fountain to communicate al Grace therefore the Spirit takes of his Not takes of the Father because the Father hath given al to him but takes of his who hath his commission from the Father and is sent out his work of purpose The sending of al Officers is hence As my Father sent me I send you And this is the order and Method of Gods Communication He that receives you receives me and he that receives me receives him that sent me Yea the sending of Gospel and al ordinances Joh. 17.8 For I have given unto them the words thou gavest me and they have received them and have known and beleeved that thou didst send me Yea the ground of al those glorious works he hath accomplished in his own Person and wil perform for his and against his enemies for their good is hence Joh. 9.4 I must do the works of him that sent me while it is day And 5.36 The works which the Father hath given me to do bear witness that the Father hath sent me And when he had fulfilled al he then returnes to his Father 5. As sending evidenceth an Authority in him that sends So to be sent implies that he that is sent takes this Authoritative Order stands ingaged to answer it thus given and taken And is fully to act under the will of him from whom he must work And thus it is with the Lord Christ as second person in the glorious Trinity being sent by God the Father to work as from him For as the manner of their being so is the manner of their working the Son from the Father and therefore works from the Father he is ready to entertain this Order of working and ingageth himself to answer the Order and wil of the Father and stands fitted to have the Nature of man united to him that he may go upon the operation of that work of the Father according to the Order of the Father given him and al this in a peculiar manner appropriate to the Son What ever belongs to the Second Person and none els that he hath as a Son received from the Father But to act by Authoritative order form the Father alone belongs to the Second Person and none els Therefore this as a Son he hath received from the Father Therefore as he must act from him alone so he is bound to answer that Order of his Therefore works nothing but what he sees his Father work speaks nothing but what he hears his Father say Therefore does nothing but what the Father wil. Therefore to be fitted when his wil is to take the Nature of man into Personal union that he may go upon the execution of his wil. I say receive it into personal union Because this belongs to no other Person not Father nor Holy Ghost but himself For its Haeresie to say the Father is incarnate or the Holy Ghost is incarnate How ever therefore he did not receive the Human Nature but in time Yet he was fitted for this work by this sending and eternal mission of his before al time this makes way for that work of Redemption The Human Nature hath a new manner of subsistence and alteration according to its being but there is no alteration in the Second Person As Gods power is the same before the things were made though they cannot be supported but when they are made Again when the Human Nature is united this union we know is in reason reall me non cogitante If the proper being of the union issued only from the Human Nature then there should be no difference in regard of the persons but they should share a like in it But that is false and Heretical For neither Father nor Holy Ghost are incarnate Nor is the Human Nature taken into personal union or becomes one person with the Father on Holy Ghost Therefore there is somthing of this union issues from the Second Person in an especial manner and that is to receive it into personal union for which he was fitted from eternity by his mission but takes it up in the fulness of time when he was sent by the Father thereunto Some such thing I have thought might be intimated in those Scriptures Joh. 8.42 and 17.8 and 13.2 He came out proceeded from God When he was to enter upon the Execution of the work and make the Human Nature feele that support Leaning and being terminated in the subsistence of the Second Person and went abroad in the execution of the work and therefore now he returnes to God again Lastly this sending in regard of the work upon the Creature This conclusion may give some light as much as shal serve our purpose The Lord Christ as God and man hath some things proper to himself 1. In the manner of the work and Priviledg where with he stands possessed he is the head of his Church and hath the immediate dispensation of al power committed to him for the good of it and these are peculiar He is the Head of his Church None but he Al power is committed to him and to none but him But in regard of the work there is a common concurrence of al the Persons with him II. For what he is sent 1. To bring Jacob again Isa 49.5 Those I must bring Joh. 10.16 All that he hath given me come to me Joh. 6.37 And Verse 39. God gives them to him And Chap. 17.8 And he gives them his word and they know that he is sent 2. To keep them when they are brought Joh. 6.38 I came to do the wil of my Father And Verse 39. This is his wil that I should lose nothing And Therefore prayes for them that the
the Lord Jesus the Son of his Love blessed for ever and that to such as they are so unworthy and vile in themselves so loathsom and abominable by reason of the Number and Nature of their Hellish Iniquities That it seems so cross to the compass of al Reason that they cannot but cavil at it as a thing absurd and unreasonable to beleeve and their distrustful and guilty hearts cannot but reject it as a thing impossible Yea the Disciples themselves when the hardness of the work was resembled by a comparison from our Savior they cried out Who then can be saved To make known and make good this Ambassage to the Soul God must make known his Almighty Power to the sinner which he only that feels is forced to confess others cannot conceive So Paul to the Ephesians Chap. 1.17 c. praies for a Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation another Spirit and common Understanding cannot come neer such things That they might know the excessive exceeding great Activity of the might Power of God in bringing a sinner home to himself verse 19. and therefore the Convert 1 Cor. 14.24 when he hath but a glimpse hereof in the search of the Secrets of his own heart he fals down and confesseth God is in you of a Truth It 's the Wisdom Power Soveraignty of a God It 's beyond al created Power ever to discover such things to work so upon the Soul 2. As the Power that settles the Message so the Light that discovers the Beauties and Excellencies that are therein utterly beyond apprehension expectation admiration Peter professeth that the very Angels of Heaven pry into these Secrets delight to lie down and look wishly into them because they lie so low and deep beyond their discerning 1 Pet. 1.11 yea the Apostle Paul concludes the Eye never saw the Ear never heard nay it never entred into the heart of man to conceive thâ—se things 1 Cor. 2.9 Nothing can be seen by proof and observation nothing heard by report from others no such thing can be anvilled and contrived by the conceitings of al the Understanding of men and yet they are such things which God hath revealed by his Spirit in the Gospel Hence the Phrase 1 Pet. 2.9 God hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous Light Every thing is a Mystery a marvel in the work of Grace when once we have an Eye to see We marvel at our own wretchedness and baseness we marvel at Gods Patience to bear with such worthless and sinful ones as we be our Peace is marvelous such as passeâ—h al understanding joy marvelous unspeakable and glorious And the ungodly meddle not in any of these things being indeed unknown to them There is hid Manna Revel 2. Secret and unconceivable refreshings â—ound in Câ—rist a white Stone and a new Name which no man knows but he that hath it and therefore he judgeth all things saith the Apostle he that is Spiritual and is judged of no man And Lastly For the setling of the heart It lets in such an overbearing both Power and Sweetness of the good thus known that it carries the heart along with it and settles and keeps the heart to it And therefore it ever hath Faith accompanying it They that know thy name wil trust in thee Psal 9 10. Hadst thou known who it is that said unto thee give me to drink thou wouldst have asked of him and he would have given thee living Water Joh. 4.10 Therefore she should have asked in Faith By this we know that we do know We have the science of knowledge that we have the truth and soundness of Faith And somtimes yea frequently in the phrase of Scripture it is put for faith Joh. 17.3 This is Eternal life to know thee that is to beleeve in thee 2. The means how this knowledge comes to settle the faithful Answ It is by the means which God in the course of his Providence appointment hath ordained for that end that is his good word in the Scriptures recorded by his Ministery delivered to them It is true there is a spirit of Wisdom and revelation that is put forth in this dispensation but it s as true that this Spirit goes along with this word and works in this word as seems good to the good pleasure and wil of Christ The place is more precious than Pearls and worthy to be retained in the table of our hearts for ever Joh. 17.7 8. Now they to wit the Apostles Have known that all things whatever thou hast given me are of thee Whence comes that Answer verse 8. I have given to them the words which thou givest me and they have received them and have known surely that I came out from thee and they have beleeved that thou didst send me Loe The words that God the Father gave Christ the words of he Gospel Evâ—ngelium that good tidings he gave the Apostles And they received them and by them they knew that Christ came from God and beleeved he was sent of that message Quest Is this the condition of all the Saints Answ For the reality and substance of what hath been said it appertains to al though there be much difference in the manner and measure how these discoveries come to be dispensed Object But we see by experience many of Gods own are Ignorant here Answ There is a discovery of these in a manner and measure to al for al have that spiritual light all have notice of that Ambassage of peace of love and of life brought them in and by Christ and by that overbearing power and light those good things of Christ in the Gospel are discovered so convictingly and set on so efficaciously that the heart is kept to them By such a knowledg they come to be apprehended and receive But there is a reflect act when our understanding views and looks over the work of the mind and heart so that we know that we do know and know that we do receive This the Saints may and do want many times for some while We have this dispatcht the four Particulars and so cleared our way to the understanding of the Doctrine proposed which was The Saints have a special knowledg that the Lord Christ is sent of God the Father for the work of their Salvation We shal now proceed to the Reasons and Uses in few words The Reason of the point is double 1. From the Office of our Savior Reas 1. and the Aim and scope he hath in the execution of the work thereof He comes not to do his own wil nor to seek his own glory but to do the wil and seek the glory of him that sent him Therefore he must dispense al as from him draw al Eyes and hearts towards him For the Nature of an Ambassage doth of necessity imply and require this It makes al to look to the person who sends the Ambassage whose power and pleasure is there firstly attended and leads al by the hand
cannot conceive them so they do not for the most part attend them because they are beyond their reach So it is with our Spiritual Child-hood The things of God and Grace which are most easie and openly familiar we are most exercised and taken up withal but the great Mysteries of Godliness the unsearchable Riches of Mercy and the deep things of God we are not able upon the sudden to search into Our Savior gives this Reason to his Disciples I have many things to say but ye cannot yet receive them A Child that is in the lower Form happily entring into his Latin he is not able to carry away his Lecture of Greek not to touch difficult things of Phylosophy but his Principles and Abilities must have time to ripen before he be set up into so high a Form So here 2. Is taken from the freeness of Gods Dispensation in whose pleasure it is to give when and what he wil and after what manner And hence he doles his Grace answerable to the growth he hath appointed each man to come unto and in what time Eph. 4.13 Till we all come in the Vnity of the Faith to a perfect man to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ Some are of a larger Stature and grow more speedily than others some are of a less and stand at a stay for a season until the Lord by the effectual working of the Spirit make them to grow and so they encrease with the encreasings of God Col. 2.19 USE 1. Of Instruction Hence see the Reason of those mis-apprehensions that the dear and faithful Servants of the Lord have of the Fatherly Mercy and faithfulness of God towards them They want much knowledg of this incomprehensible sweetness and goodness of Gods Nature and that is the Reason they missjudg and mistake so much and make such unkind Constructions and maintain such groundless surmizes of his Fatherly kindness He that is jealous and fearful of the Love and Favor of another who is of tried Truth and Sincerity al men wil easily and readily give him the Reason because he knows him not So here It 's because we know noâ— God These misconceivings of God may be referred to two Heads 1. When they are under pressures and necessities and miseries march in upon them the Lord seems like an angry Father to withdraw himself They presently sit down discouraged and conclude as they Isa 49.14 Sion hath said The Lord hath forsaken me my God hath forgotten me The Lord answers from the consideration of those Fatherly Compassions which rest in his Bowels Can a Woman forget her Child that she should not have compossion on the Son of her Womb these may yet I wil not Psal 89.8 Who is like to thee or to thy Faithfulness round about thee it's round about him per omnes circuitus But I have dealt carelesly yea unkindly and faithlesly with him and grieved the eyes of his Glory by dayly provocations True thou hast first broken with him and thou mayest see and know thy falsnels but thou dost not know his Faithfulness and Fartherly mercy Psal 89.33 Nevertheless my loving kindness I will not take away from him nor suffer my Faithfulness to fail Though he may deserve it and I may justly do it yet I wil not suffer c. Thou knowest thine own falsnels and wretchedness who keepest not touch with God but failest yet my Faithfulness and my Mercy I wil keep with him verse 24. And my Covenant shal stand fast verse 28. Thou knowest not the heart of a Heavenly Father and therefore thou so misjudgest 2. They conceive their Sins so many and so hainous that it 's beyond the compass and bounds of his Fatherly Compassions to remit and pardon Thou dost not know what these Bowels of a Father are and therefore thou dost not judg aright what he can and wil do When Ephraim bemoaned his sin God yerneth towards him and bemoaneth him though he doth not hear God yet God hears him Jer. 31.18 I have heard Ephraim bemoaning himself thus Thou hast chastised me and I was chastised See how gods Bowels turn within him verse 19. My Bowels are turned within me I wil surely have mercy upon him Mercy is mourning over thy Soul when thou art mourning for thy sin True could I repent but I have been smitten and yet walked after the way wardness of my heart so that I dare not look upon my sin and I cannot look to Heaven because of my guilt I know not how I can be pardoned Because thou dost not know the Name of this Father and this Mercy see and consider what it can do that thou canst not conceive Isa 57. I was angry and smote him and he went away verse 17. I have seen him and his waies and wil heal him I wil lead him also and restore Comforts unto him and to his mourners q. d. I have seen him and his waies though he can neither see me nor himself though he hath wounded himself I wil heal him I wil make him mourn and others with him and comfort both Obj. But I cannot think it Ans This Mercy can do what thou canst not think Isa 55.8 9. My thoughts are not your thoughts c. for as the Heavens are higher than the Earth so are my waies higher than your waies and my thoughts than your thoughts And thou wilt find it relieving when thou dost least look for it True I have found him somtimes in desperate streights relieving me when I was linking and past hope my head under water when al his billows were running over then comforting and supporting me This is but a Lightening before my Death he wil leave me at last it 's but a Reprieval before some more heavy Plague and Condemnation God hath a Secret purpose to hasten my ruine even by his Bounty which I have had and abused I shal one day perish by the hand of Saul 1 Sam. 27.1 Thou hast these hard thoughts of God because thou dost not know the heart of a Father and his never-failing Faithfulness Thou hast been many yeers preserved why perish one day He doth thee no harm why should'st thou think he intends thee any He hath said I wil not leave thee nor forsake thee Heb. 13.5 USE 2. Of Direction Be willing to hear and willing to follow the Direction of such who are Gods Favorites and acquainted with this Name of his and that by plentiful Experience There was never yet a blind man known but was willing to be guided never man ignorant of his way that was not phrenitick but was willing to be directed where he was in doubt The Rules are Two 1. The Counsel thou art not able to gainsay with Reason know Thou oughtest in Reason and according to Rule to submit unto it I do not think it I cannot beleeve it I much suspect and fear Away with such Dreams these are al but pangs of way wardness It is made a Point of Religion
when it fils the mind as the Waters cover the Sea Habb 2.14 we may sail here in dayly search and when we know yet there is somthing stil beyond our knowledg as Eph. 3.19 That we know the Love of Christ that passeth knowledg This Name of Gods Fatherly Mercy is like that Book Rev. 5.1 2. So many Leaves and so thick written that we cannot turn over the Pages much less able to come to the ful knowing and conceiving of it So it is here The Name of Gods Mercy and Faithfulness it s writ so thick in al the waies and works of God in al the ordinances Nay in al the dispensations of God and his operations from election to our glorification affords so many ful vollums and so many fresh editions That we are stil new to seek unless the Lord Christ be pleased further to make known these unto us As the thing to be known is darke and difficult So we are shallow in our apprehensions As our Savior complained of his own brought up under his own Wing Luk. 24.25 O Fools and slow of Heart to know these depth's of Gods Grace and Mercy Our understandings like narrow mounh'd Vessels can take in little and that in a long time though never so much be discovered and laid before us And Therefore our Savior is constrained to deal with us as Masters with their Schollers which are dul and heavy of apprehension ever pointing at the word and putting the Fescue to the Letter Line upon Line and precept after precept here a little and there a little as the Prophet Isa 28.10 So it is with such Babe-like feeble ones as we be though we have Daily help yet we have daily need of new help to be continued to us As little ones they must be taken up dressed and tended daily because they are helpless in themselves But that which is the maine of al. The very Terms of the Covenant and the Office of our Savior and the condition of the State of Grace calls for this For al the Treasures of Wisdom and knowledg are hid in Christ and he keeps the Keyes in his own hand and Bosom and gives out our pittance and allowance what he sees fit We need our dayly direction and instruction in the things of Grace and eternal life more than our dayly Bread The Body needs the constant direction of the Eye and advise of the head for every thing it doth and that every moment It s thus in the natural it s the same in the spiritual and mistical Body So the Apostle 2 Cor. 3.5 Of our selves as of our selves we are not sufficient to think a good thought but our sufficiency is of God Without me ye can do nothing Joh. 15.4 5. He hath taught you in the morning he must teach you at Noone and at Night also He hath cleared up our doubts he must help us in the next again or els we shal be to seek as much as ever He must Water us every moment Adam hath the staff and stock in his own hand and he lost al and himself and his too Therefore now the Lord Jesus keeps the stock in his own care in his own hand gives us such allowance as he sees fit suitable for our good As Fathers when they see their Sons to lavish out their Patrimony and grow licencious they keep the revenewes and state in their own hands only allow them some yearly pension or annuity for their relief So here our Savior makes us live not of our yearly but our daily yea hourly annuities That Grace that helped thee the last month the last week the last day the last morning how to see God how to close with him and depend upon him and gain assurance from him wil not serve thee for the next occasion happily Either the work is more difficult the way more dark thine own indisposition makes thee more unfit thy temptations do more oppose thy corruptions grow more active and violent or thy unskilfulness forgetfulness bring thee to a loss that thou shalt not be able to see the way So that as Christ hath made known so he must make known for the present and so for the future The beggar when he hath got his almes one day he lives of that and spends it and he must have a new almes as a new day he is as fresh to seek and as free to beg as ever Christ is Gods Almner and we are his beggars So Paul He hath delivered doth deliver wil deliver Hath made known doth make known wil make known As the Moon every new Month nay every hour and minute must receive new light from the Sun So here Psal 36.9 In thy light we shal see light 2. Collection It s easie with Christ to darken the evidence of Gods love and mercy to the Soul and to cloud al our knowledg we have even in the clearest day to put us to a loss that we may be to seek for our assurance and knowledg of Gods Fatherly goodness when we think we are most sure of it Though he hath made known the name of the Father formerly unless he stil make it known for future unless he stil renew the knowledg we have we shal not be able to know what he have known So Elihu professeth Job 34.29 When he giveth quietness who then can cause trouble and when he hideth his Face who then can behold him whether it be done against a nation or against a man only q. d. It s not for want of skil that men do not compass this knowledg for their numbers or abilities never so many even a whole nation God can darken them al. And therefore it s said 1 King 10.3 When the Queen of Sheba came to try Solomon with some questions he told her al nothing was hid So that God can hide even the glimmering Starr-light of the knowledg of Human things from men Much more easie is it to conceive how this may be done in these high Heavenly hidden mysteries when its hard to know them when they are made known to us How impossible if the Lord wil with-hold them from us al our dexterity and Wisdom wil do nothing if Christ wil not direct Therefore the Church complained Lam. 3.44 That God had covered himself with a cloud that their Prayers could not come at him When God sent darkness into Egypt it was not al the Fires and Candles that could give any light but they sate three daies and three nights and stirred not out of their places Exod. 10.23 If the Sun of Righteousness wil with-hold or withdraw his beams it wil be dark night with us in our doubtings and dismayings notwithstanding al the Learning yea the experiences also we have had Yea Mercy and Grace may be present with us and yet not be perceived Philip saw the Father and yet knew not what he saw Beware here of three things which the Scripture mentions as the main Cause why 1. Take heed of Carnal Confidence and
great a work unto his care and trust and laid it upon him as his charge which by mutual consent and convenant he willingly undertook Joh. 6.39 This is my Fathers will that hath sent me that of all which he hath given me I should lose none but should raise it up at the last day And therefore adds verse 40. He that beleeves in me Shall have everlasting life and I will raise him up at the last day Yea he gives up his account of his work John 17.12 Those that thou hast given me I have kept and lost none And therefore compares himself to the good Shepherd that layes down his self for his Sheep Joh. 10. 3. Gives him ful commission for the accomplishment of this work unto the ful even as he is the Son of man hath given right and liberty to the humane Nature of ours now received into personal union to use and improve any of the Attributes of the Deity for the further benefit of the Saints the good of his Church and the furtherance of those spiritual ends which may best â—et forwards the glory of God and the everlasting wellfare of his people This so wonderful a union doth advantage the Humane Nature to so high a priviledg to use al the excellencies of the Deity at al times answerable to al necessities to fetch supply suitable to the wants desires comforts of the Saints This is the meaning of those places Math. 28.18 All power is given to me in Heaven and in Earth To have al power it to be Omnipotent for more than all cannot be conceived noâ— possessed more than that God hath not and that because it is an in-communicable Attribute he cannot communicate but the meaning is though it be not omnipotent yet it hath liberty to set that on work for the benefit and best good of Gods servants Hence what the Father doth the son is said to do also Joh. 5.26 As the Father hath life in himself so hath he given to the son to have life in himself Verse 19. What ever things he doth those the son doth likewise for as the Father raiseth up the dead even so he Joh. 17.2 Thou hast given him power over all Flesh to give unto them eternal life He that must rescue them from Hel and sin and death and from divine Justice he must have power over al That the power in Heaven may not prejudice and frustrate the work in Hel hinder it on earth oppose it 4. The Father leaves the immediate dispensation of al the work unto him to act it according to his own pleasure For so our Savior As the Father raiseth and quickeneth so the son quickeneth whom he will Joh. 5.21 And adds verse 22. For the Father judgeth no man but hath committed al judgment to the son Not that the Father hath not power for the execution of the work For he that gives it hath it in a principal and soveraign manner But he hath committed the immediate execution thereof unto the Lord Jesus and so of the whol work of our Redemption Joh. 5.27 That as Pharaoh said concerning Joseph when he appointed him next unto himself in the kingdom of Egipt Gen. 41.40,44 I am Pharaoh and without thee shall no man lift up his hand or foot no man shal do any thing which way so ever he turn himself c. Only I am Pharaoh So the Father to Christ he delegates the execution of al in Heaven and Earth unto him only he is greater This is the meaning of that place 1 Cor. 11.3 I would have you know that the Head of every man is Christ the head of the Woman is the man and the head of Christ is God Whence know 1. That the Apostle speaks not only of faithful men and Women but of al men and Women according to their sex For the scope is to shew that Women should be subject not only gracious but al. And this he shews from the feebleness and underness of their Nature and sex 2. That these different degrees of excellency are only to be attended in regard of subordination in order one to another and immediate dispensation from one to another for that Head implies not only excellency and dignity in the general but power to move al in subord nation to it authority to rule all in subjection 〈…〉 So that it is not excellency but power and 〈…〉 and that not at large for so Angels are the 〈◊〉 of men but as they be in subordination and not 〈◊〉 â—â—ch as be far removed but such as have the next 〈◊〉 dispensation in way of providence â—eâ—ch â—ver other For otherwise Christ is head not ofâ—â—â— but of Woman and Angels also so God himself is But the Apostles meaning and intent was to shew the orderly and next dispensation in the several degrees the immediate influence and dispensation of power and authority for the ruling of the femal sex is in a way of providence and appointment from man the immediate dispensation of power to man is from Christ to Christ from God the Father who hath sent him And thus Christ is and doth to al only distinguishing the manner and end of his dispensation To the wicked in way of Justice for their ruine and destruction To the godly in way of mercy for their spiritual good That 's the meaning of that All is yours c. And hence the Apostle 1 Cor. 15.24 28. Christ is said when he hath conquered al enemies the last is death damned all the wicked and delivered up is Children into the hands of his Father he then is said To deliver up his Kingdom to the Father i.e. Only in regard of this outward dispensation For then God the Father shal in and through Christ communicate himself to all his Saints Use 1. We have here matter of wonderment at the Rich and unconceiveable compassion of the Father to miserable undone man who should be careful to provide for his good who is so negligent to provide for his own Spares nothing â—o purchase his Salvation who hath done what he can to destroy himself Had he sent the meanest of his creatures to succour us his servants to visit us his Angels to administer to us it had been more than we could have expected But to send his Son out of his own Bosom yea out of his own Bowels to work out our Redemption to make known the way of life and and to make it good unto our Souls Nature would not do this reason cannot reach this mercy the heart would not dare to beg this Sit we down in the everlasting admiration of his mercy As Elizabeth and Mary when he came to visit her Luk. 1.43 Whence comes it that the mother of my Lord should come to me So thou As David when he attended the dealing of the Lord towards lost man who had made himself the most vile and forlorn of al his creatures looks upon his own baseness and Gods kindness Lord what is man that thou