your damnation and eternal ruine And all the honour that you lose him here he will fetch it out again and have his penny-worths upon you in the world to come There you must lie and burn and there is no deliverance thence till you have paid the utmost farthing Is it so that whosoever will be glorified c. you then my Brethren Vse 2 that have thoughts aspiring to the glory of the world to come and that desire to be partakers of it there you see the course you are to take you must make this your work and business how you may glorifie the Lord here how you may set him up and shew him in his beauty and his lustre to the world And though you can make no addition to him in himself yet let this be your endeavour all your days to bring in some accruments to his honour among men that they may honour him the more by your means that so when you come to die you may bespeak him as our Saviour doth when he was ready to be offered up We have glorified thee on earth and now O Father glorifie us with thy self Now there are two ways especially in which you may bring glory to the Lord either in a way of vocal declaration or in a way of real representation And both these ways you must endeavour to bring glory to him here if you desire to have glory from him hereafter First Glorifie him in a way of vocal declaration let your tongues be the Trumpeters of his glory while you are speaking upon all occasions of things that tend to the advancement of the honour and the praise of God Any thing that you conceive will set him up and raise him in the thoughts of those whom you discourse withal be sure that you insist upon it and enlarge it to the utmost let the name and let the attributes and let the works of God lose nothing by your means Glorifie him as Christ did by manifesting and by making known his name to men by telling what he is and what he doth by setting forth his power and mercy and the like that such as hear may magnifie him and admire him Study God-exalting speeches and expressions and discourses and enure your tongues to them that you may have them ready upon all occasions when there is any opportunity for Gods honour Secondly Glorifie him also in a way of real representation and here let him be glorified in what you are and what you do 1. Let God be glorified in what you are let his glory shine upon you by reflexion according to the Prophets Exhortation Isa 60.1 Arise and shine for thy light is come and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee Be you the monuments of his praise the emblems of his love and of his mercy the standing pillars on which his goodness is engraven to be read and seen of men Do you shew forth the praises or as we find it rendred in the margent the vertues of him that hath called you 1 Pet. 2.9 That every one that looks upon you observes you may see the goodness and the grace and holiness of God in you That they may say if there be so much in the stream what is there in the spring and in the fountain If there be so much in the beam what is there in the Sun of righteousness himself If there be so much vertue in them that are called what is there then in him that hath called them This makes much for Gods praise and so indeed in shewing forth the vertue we shew forth the praise and the glory of him that hath called us He hath made me saith the Church a polished shaft a choice a special and a polished piece of work and said unto me thou art my servant in whom I will be glorified When God makes such curious pieces and hangs them forth in the view of all the world he is glorified in them 2. Let God be glorified as in what you are so in the second place in what you do yea in every thing you do Let this be the utmost aim of all your actions Your acts of nature as eating or drinking or the like let these be done with reference to Gods glory as the Apostle Paul exhorts to eat and drink to the glory of God 1 Cor. 10.31 Your civil actions your trading dealing and commercing in the world your buying selling giving lending your care and labour in your calling let these have the same end You see the rule is universal in the fore-alledged Text whatsoever else you do Your holy and religious duties let those have this aspect and aim that you may glorifie the Lord and not your selves in them That when men see your good works your frequent hearing praying fasting bounty to the poor Saints they may glorifie not you the doers of them but your Father which is in heaven And in a word my Brethren no action is exempt from this direction And hence saith the Apostle 1 Pet. 4.11 If any speak let him speak as the Oracles of God if any man minister let him do it as of the ability which God giveth that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ What then it may be you will interpose and ask Object may a man aim at nothing else but Gods glory may he propound no other end in any thing he undertakes may he have no respect to others to himself this is a hard saying who can hear it The rule as you have heard is universal Answ but that you may the better understand the meaning of it that your conscience may not be entangled you must know that other ends may be propounded in our actions in a way either of subordination or else of opposition to the glory of God A man may aim at nothing else no other end in opposition to his glory all such must of necessity be laid aside But other ends may be intended in subordination to it they may be looked upon as far as they may be subservient to this which ought to be the ultimate the utmost end of all our actions A man in his endeavours and painful labours in his calling may aim at the increase of his Estate Not that he may be lifted up above his brethren not that he may consume it on his Lusts or make it fuell to maintain his pride or his intemperance or the like These may not be his ends because they stand in opposition to the great and utmost end but that God may be honoured while he is not burthensom by his remissness and his negligence but rather hath to give to him that needeth And while he makes provision for his family and those that have dependance on him which he that provideth not for is worse then an Infidel Thus we must make the very duties of our callings pay tribute to the honour of our God who keeps his servants not as poor men do for need but as rich and
Why should we not rejoyce to resign all to him and to be under his authority and jurisdiction as the Prophet counselleth us Zach. 9.9 Rejoyce greatly O daughter of Sion and why so because thy King cometh to thee and he is just Even so say I to you my Brethren God is a very just and righteous God and he desires to be received and entertained by you That you would set your gates open that he may enter and sit upon the Throne in your hearts Say to him now Ride on Lord because of thy righteousness Come in Lord and take command of us We would willingly be ruled by such a just and righteous Prince as thou art Vse 4 Is God a very just and righteous God Where then shall the wicked and ungodly appear What will they do who are unrighteous when the time of judgement comes who have lived in the continued and voluntary breach of all his laws what will they plead why they should not be condemned Me thinks the justice and the uprightness of the Judge should astonish and affright them who have so ill a cause so bad a matter to be heard before him If they whose hearts and lives are full of all unrighteousness be judg'd with just and righteous judgement if they receive according to their works what think you will their portion be Ah my Beloved lay it seriously to heart you that run out with the intemperate you that oppress and grind the poor that are abominable and disobedient and to every good work reprobate how will you hold up your heads when the day of reckoning cometh and all your sins shall be laid open in their colors when God shall bring every work to judgement and every secret thing when he shall rip up all your close abominations and all your secret wickednesses that never any eye saw when the books shall be laid open and all the black bills read when God shall say to the Ministers of vengeance Go give them now according as their works have been Look how much they have sinned and how much wickedness they have committed so much sorrow and torment give them Oh then what wringing of hands what renting of hearts what cries and lamentations will there be able to make a Rock relent and a Flint to fall asunder and yet God will stand out immoveable against them all for he is a righteous God nothing will bend him from the rule of Justice And as this serves for terrour to the wicked so for comfort to the Vse 5 righteous that God is such a just and righteous God But you will say What reason have we to rejoyce in this Quest For if we have but justice from him we are certainly undone for what have we deserved but death and ruine To this I answer If we have justice from him we are well enough Answ and this we shall be sure to have and therefore let us take comfort I speak not now of such a justice as respects the merit of the work for this we are delivered from but I speak of such a justice as respects the truth of his promise by which he hath engaged himself that he will forgive our sins that he will reward our labours that he will punish all our enemies and if he keep his word with us as he is bound to do in justice I hope we are in a very good case His righteousness lies at stake for all those by reason of his Covenant and Engagement to us Indeed before he made the Covenant he was free he might have done according to his own pleasure But having made it he is bound he is held to it and may not vary Now he must forgive our sins or else he is unrighteous as the Apostle John insinuates in 1 Joh. 1.9 He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins Now he must reward our labours or else he is unjust as the Apostle Paul speaks Heb. 6.10 The Lord is not unrighteous to forget our work and labour He doth not say the Lord is not unmerciful but the Lord is not unrighteous Now he must give us everlasting rest and render everlasting trouble to our enemies and that upon the same ground And therefore saith the same Apostle 2 Thes 1.6 It is a righteous thing with him to render tribulation to them that trouble you and to you that are troubled rest with us So that you see the justice and the righteousness of God which is a ground of horrour to the wicked yet it is a ground of comfort to the godly It is very ill for them it is very well for us that God is such a righteous God It is their loss and it is our gain And the cause is manifest for he proceeds with them according unto such a justice as respects the merit of the work and he proceeds with us according unto such a justice as respects the verity and truth of his promise And therefore though ungodly men have cause to fear and tremble at it yet we have reason to rejoyce at it And this is clearly intimated by the Prophet David in the fore-alledged place which indeed is very notable to this purpose Psal 96. ult Let the heavens rejoyce saith he and so on And why so for he shall judge the world with righteousness and the people with his truth Observe it well the world with righteousness the people that stand in opposition to the world his people with his truth The world with such a righteousness as looks upon the merit of their works His own people with such a righteousness as looks upon the truth of his promise His people with his truth Righteousness and truth do kiss each other O let the people of the Lord rejoyce that they shall have righteous judgement that God will do according to his promise and his Covenant with them when the great day of retribution cometh That he will in this respect be just and righteous to forgive them and reward them Let them be glad of this for ever Vse 6 I have but one thing more to add and that shall be a word of humble Admonition to the Deputies and Ministers of God Preached at the Assize Superior and Inferior Magistrates to labour to conform themselves to him in this respect and to be just and righteous as he is They are under him and for him and therefore should endeavour to be like him Honorable and Beloved the Land abounds with wickedness of every kind there is much unrighteous dealing everywhere with God and man This calls for righteous dealing from them that bear the Sword of Justice that these abominations may be purged out and that our breaches may be yet repaired In such a time as this when there are such abuses such blasphemies such prophanations of the day and Ordinances of the Lord such swearing drunkenness uncleanness incest c. as former ages have not equal'd Justice should flow down like water to wash away this filth from us and
what you do for him He will give to every man not according to his knowledge but according to his works To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek glory and honor and immortality saith the Apostle Rom. 2.7 To them who do and do well and continue doing well and patiently continue doing well yea though they suffer evill for well doing the Lord will render eternal life JOHN 17.26 And will declare it AND thus far of the first part of our Saviours resolution to make a further declaration of his Fathers Name in reference to his Apostles and Disciples then about him I have declared unto them thy Name and will declare it further to them to the very same men Proceed we to the Second Member of his Resolution to make a further delaration of his Fathers Name in reference to other men to whom he had not yet at all declared it I have declared unto them thy Name to these Apostles and Disciples now about me and will declare it further yet to other men both in the present and the future ages This act of mine shall be a constant and continued act as long as there are any people in the world I will not cease declaring of thy Name to them And so accordingly the point shall be DOCTRINE That Jesus Christ will be continually making further declarations of his Fathers Name to other Nations and to other persons to the end of the world He will be still declaring it to those that have not heard of it that have not been acquainted with his Fathers name Teaching new scholars still to spell it and to understand it in every Generation while the World endureth And as he is a King for ever as long as there are any further people to be ruled and as he is a Priest for ever as the Psalmist speaks Psal 110.4 as long as there are any further people to be saved and redeemed So he is a Prophet for ever as long as there are any further people to be taught Every age shall have experience of the blessed fruits of the Prophetical Office of Christ in giving some the knowledge of his Fathers Name who till then were strangers to him For clearing of the point I shall a little more distinctly shew you that Jesus Christ will be continually making further Declarations of his Fathers Name In the first place to other Nations And in the second place to other persons to the end of the world Jesus Christ will be continually making further declarations of his Fathers Name to other Nations He had declared it only to the people of the Jews when he put up this supplication to his Father in my Text. Some Proselytes of other Nations there might be among the Jews who were partakers of his publique teaching but certainly he had revealed his Father to no other Nation but the Jews only For his Commission was confined to them as he professed to the Canaanitish woman Matth. 15.24 I am not sent but to the lost Sheep of the house of Israel I am to be my Fathers Messenger to them and none but them immediately in my own person If I go further I exceed my bounds For till the resurrection of our Saviour the partition-wall between the Jews and Gentiles was not broken down And so accordingly he preacht not peace he did not manifest that sweet part of his Fathers Name to those that were afar off neither by himself nor by his Ministers till after that time as the Apostle Paul insinuates Ephes 2.14 15 16 17. And therefore when he sent forth his Apostles Mat. 10.5 his express injunction was Go not into the way of the Gentiles and into any City of the Samaritans enter ye not but go ye rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel Which course or method the Apostles in the first place very carefully observed as you may see Act. 13.15 It was necessary saith Paul and Barnabas to the Jews that the Word of God the Gospel in which the Fathers name is manifested and made known to men should first of all be preached unto you But since that time he hath declared it by his Ministers to other Nations To whom his last Commission was Go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature Mark 16.15 Go ye and teach all Nations Mat. 28.19 And in pursuance of this Commission and command of his even the Apostles while they lived did spread it far and wide The Scripture story seems to hint it to us Mark 16. ult where after the forementioned Mandate of our Saviour it is immediately observed by the Evangelist that they went forth and preached everywhere And the Apostle Paul reporteth that himself alone had filled with the Gospel all the Countrey from Jerusalem even round about unto Illyricum yea that he strived to preach it where Christ was not so much as named Rom. 15.19 20. You may suppose the rest of the Apostles were not idle in their places The stories of the Church give in some Testimonies to it For Stapleton reports of Thomas that he preached to the Indians and Clemens saith there is no Nation either Grecian or Barbarian among whom prayers are not made in the Name of Jesus And so to whom God is not manifested as a Father in his Son Christ But yet we are not to conclude from this an universal Declaration of the Name of God to every people Island Nation in the world in the times of the Apostles For since their dayes Christ hath revealed it to many Countries and to many people And yet at this day there are many Nations that have not heard of God in Christ That Name of his hath not been declared to them But to them he will declare it before the consummation of the world they shall all hear of it The Gospel saith our Saviour shall be preached to all the world and then shall the end come Mat. 24.14 So it behoveth that remission should be preached in his Name and that among all Nations Luk. 24 47. There is a fulness of the Gentiles yet to be brought in by this discovery of the Fathers Name which Christ will certainly accomplish in his own time He hath begun of late to manifest it to the Indians in America and he will certainly go on with that work till all the People Languages and Nations in the world do serve the Lord till the ends of all the world do turn to him and all the Kindreds of the earth do worship before him And till he be Governour in all Nations Psal 22.27 28. You see then Jesus Christ will be continually making further Declarations of his Fathers name to other Nations still it is I have declared it and I will declare it with reference to other Nations And so it is with reference to other persons in those Nations where it is declared already He hath declared it unto some and will declare unto others still in every age to the end of
somewhat higher and above yours but it is not without yours nay to say truth my interest is for yours God is my Father that he may be yours in me Oh my beloved what melting joy and comfort is here for every member of the Lord Christ in regard of this relation I give you but a hint in three particulars First being the sons of God in Christ we may be sure that he will hear us in and by and through Christ He always hears his son Christ and never puts him off with a denial Thou art my son this day c. Ask of me and I will give thee Psal 2.7 and this our Saviour Christ himself professes Iohn â—1 4 and as the Father always hears his son Christ so he doth always hear his Sons in Christ And truly if the first be once admitted the latter follows unavoidably For Christ the eldest Son is intercessor for his brethren in all their regular requests he never faileth to put in with them so that they cannot be denied unless he be denied too Christ and they must either stand or fall together Secondly being Sons of God in Christ we may be confident he will provide for us He hath provided very well for Christ he is not his Son only but he is his Heir too yea he is heir of all without exception Heb. 1.2 And as Christ is the Son and Heir of God so we are sons and heirs of God in Christ there is not a younger brother of us Thou art no more a servant but a son Gal. 4.7 And if a son then an heir of God through Christ If Sons of God through Christ then Heirs of God through Christ too If we be sons then also heirs Rom. 8.17 yea we are heirs of all as Christ is and therefore it is added presently Heirs of God joynt-heirs with Christ Jesus Christ as Mediator is not Heir to any thing but we are joynt-heirs and have a joynt-right with him there is an Inventory of our riches 1 Cor. 3.21 Thirdly being Sons of God we may be confident he will protect us Fathers use to protect their children if they can God can and therefore will As Naomi laid Ruths childe in her bosom Ruth 4.16 so God lays his children Isa 4.11 and that is certainly a safe place And as the Eagle spreads her wings over her young and carries them upon her wings Prov. 32 1â— so God throws his children under the wings of his protection and carries them above the reach of danger This is very sweet comfort be your troubles what they will you have a Father that is able to secure you that is very tender of you that hath set a guard upon you Heb. 1. ult Psal 34.7 John 17.1 Father the hour is come Use 2 IS God the Father of the Lord Christ And consequently Christ the Son of God the Father Why then I say as the Apostle He is the Lord of all Gal. 4.1 He is not a servant in the house but a Son over the house Heb. 3.6 And therefore he must be obeyed and served according to the Psalmists Exhortation Psal 2.11 Serve the Lord. Well then my brethren let us think of this and let us hearken to that Counsel and advice of Christ himself Take my yoke my service on you Brethren let me engage you all this day for this Lord and his service let me perswade you to receive him for the Lord your righteousness Not to call him Lord only but to take him for your Lord and to use him as your Lord and to yield him all that service and obedience which the name calls for Ah my Beloved let us not do in this regard as the greater part of Christians in name and in profession do Let us not wear the badge and cognizance of Jesus Christ and say he is our Lord and Master and the like and in the mean time never do his will nor take any pains at all in his service For this is but to deal with Christ as the perfidious Jews did to put a purple robe upon him and to bow down before him and to call him Hail Master and in the self-same breath to buffet him and spit upon him But as we call him Lord so let us carry and demean our selves towards him as our Lord and Master and let us yield to him that obedience which is due to him And to this end let us consider what engagements lye upon us to draw us and to hold us to the service of this Lord which I shall briefly lay before you as motives to perswade The first is an Engagement of Creation he is the image of the invisible God saith the Apostle Col. 1.15 The first born of every creature that is the Lord of every creature for the first born is Lord of all And why the Lord of every creature You have the reason in the following words For by him were all things created that are in heaven and that are in earth All things were made by him and therefore it is fit that all should serve him Nay my Beloved they were not made by him only but they were made for him too as it is added there in that place all things were created by him and for him By his power and for his use And therefore if we be not useful to him if we do not serve him we cross the very end of our creation The brutish and unreasonable creatures serve him in their kind and measure and therefore David saith that all things serve him But we are bound to serve him much more because in our Creation we received more from him He made us Lords of all his creatures â—â—at we might have no Lord but him He made the whole creation to be serviceable to us that we might be the more engaged and the better able to be serviceable to himself that we might serve him for it all that we might serve him with it all He put all things under us and truly we are bound the more my Brethren to be under him and subject to him he made us men he gave us reason which he gave not to other creatures the greater reason have we to obey him and to improve our parts and gifts in his service Indeed we cannot chose but see that it is all the reason of the world that as we have all from him so we should use all for him The next is an engagement of Redemption which binds us to the service of the Lord. As he is the Lord that made us so he is the Lord that bought us as the Apostles phrase is 2 Pet. 2.1 He purchased us my Brethren us I mean that are his own at a very dear rate and therefore it is just that we should serve him especially since it is evident that this was his intention in his purchase He bought us out of Sins and Satans hands not that we might be absolutely free from all commands but that we might be his servants He gave himself
entrance into glory that hour was not far off and that perhaps our Saviour Christ might aim at in my Text. However this is evident that that which he desireth here he prays may be effected and accomplished in his Fathers time And this he makes the ground of his Petition Father the hour is come the time which thou hast fore-appointed to glorifie me in And therefore I beseech thee do it now thou hast a time for this great work of thine and this is the very time the very hour the hour is come Were it not so I would not seek it or desire it of thee but seeing this is thy season now Father glorifie thy son So that the Point suggested here is this DOCTRINE God hath his time to do his Actions in and he should not be desired to do them any other time First He hath his times to do his actions in that is the first thing in the Point He hath his hour a certain set and fixed season for any business that he hath to do he hath a time for works of Justice and you see that place for instance Jer. 51.33 It is time to thresh her saith the Lord of Babylon And so their feet shall slide in due time speaking of ungodly men Deut. 32.35 He hath his time for works of Mercy as it is observed of Joseph Psal 105.18 19. his feet they hurt with fetters he was laid in irons until the time which God had fore-appointed came And as soon as that was come the Lord so ordered things that the King sent and loosed him the Rulers of the people let him go free as it is added there in that place And hence the Lord is said to wait in Scripture that he may be gracious as in that known place Isa 30.18 Now he that waits to do a thing looks for a fit time Thou shalt arise and have mercy upon Sion saith the Psalmist Psal 102.13 For the time to favour her yea the set time is come so that you see God hath his time to do his actions in Now for the second Member of the point He should not be desired to do them any other time This is apparently suggested in this Petition of our Saviours in my Text. Father the hour is come now glorifie thy Son q. d. If thy appointed season were not come I would not seek to have thee glorifie me at this time I would not have thee do it for me now unless this were thy hour But since the constituted hour is come Lord bring thy purpose into act and execution Our Saviour is in this our pattern whom we ought to follow And hence the Saints in their Petitions have left God to his own time and sought for mercies from him in his own season As Daniel when he found by books that is the Book of Jeremy and other Books that the appointed return of the Jews out of the Babylonian thraldom and Captivity was neer at hand he set himself to seek the Lord at that time Dan. 9.3 And David in the fore-alledged Text he prays for mercy to be shewed to Sion But when when the set time was come I would not spend my time in the further confirmation of so clear a truth Let me but add two Reasons God hath his time to do his actions in and he should not be desired to do them any other time For First Let our desires be what they will he will not be prevailed withall to do them any other time Or Secondly if we could prevail with him it were not best that he should do them any other time Let our desires be what they will God will not be prevailed withall to do his works in any other time then that which he hath fore-appointed and decreed so that it were a vain and idle thing to labour to divert him from his own season We that are men are often turned from our purpose we do not that which we resolve to do or else we do not act it then when we resolve to do it because our resolutions alter we are perswaded and convinced that some other season will be better But God for his part is not changeable he is not as man that he should lye nor as the son of man that he should repent Numb 23.19 That he should so repent as man by changing of his mind or varying from his former resolution And this is that the Psalmist beats upon Psal 102. He observes all other things and persons in the world and finds that they are variable and inconstant they are on and off again But as for God he finds it otherwise with him though they be changeable he is not so No saith the Prophet there thou art the same and what doth he infer upon it why therefore all the good and all the mercy that he hath resolved upon with reference to his people he will accomplish in the set time Thou shalt endure O Lord saith he and that for ever And what follows Thou shalt arise and have mercy on Sion for the set time is come God hath his set time to do his actions in and he should not be desired to do them any other time because if we could prevail in such a case it were not best that he should do them any other time He always pitcheth on the fit best and the opportunest seasons for his Works As he hath his times for them so those times are the best times whether they be Works of Justice or of Mercy And hence the season and opportunity in which he doth them both is stiled the due time For Works of Justice their feet shall slide in due time Deut. 32.35 For Works of Mercy in due time you shall reap if you faint not Gal. 6.9 We that are men do usually mistake our time we miss our opportunity Man knoweth not his time saith Solomon Eccles 9.12 and therefore he is snared in an evil time that fals suddenly upon him He knoweth not the good time and therefore he is snared in an evil time that comes upon him suddenly as a snare upon a Bird in which he is entangled and involv'd and so is disappointed of his purpose But it is not so with God he knows his time and fixes on it so as none but he can do it And hence is that Expostulation Jer. 49.19 Who will appoint me the time q.d. whoever doth it will be very much mistaken The time which I appoint is best and none can do it like me and therefore certainly if we were able it were not best to turn him from it nor to prevail with him to do his work in any other time This shall suffice for clearing of the Observation proceed we now to Application And this may serve for Reprehension in the first place to check and Vse 1 censure those who take upon them to appoint God a time for execution of his Works of Mercy or his Works of Justice They do not come to God as our Saviour in
my Text Father the hour is come now glorifie thy Son now shew mercy to thy Church now execute thy wrath upon the persecutors and oppressors of the Church No he must do it presently whether his time be come or no they have not so much patience and humility to wait upon him and leave him to his own time they cannot tarry for him one hour This was the Mistake of Mary she would needs direct our Saviour when to work his Miracles before his hour or time was come John 2.4 And we poor Creatures are so sawcy and so bold sometimes to tell the Lord when he must shew us such a favour when he must give us such a mercy if he delay and if he linger beyond the time that we appoint him we are gone we cannot wait upon him any longer We send for his assistance as it were by Post and prescribe the Lord a day as the Bethulians And so upon the other side we appoint him when to deal against the enemies and persecutors of his people We set him down a time and we order him a season to wreake his vengeance and his wrath upon them But what saith God to me belongeth vengeance and recompence This is a business that belongs to me it appertaineth not to you to meddle with it Their feet shall slide in due time for the day of their calamity is at hand and the things that shall come upon them make haste We are so earnest many times that we would have him strike them presently and tread down all his enemies that rise against him and his cause and people and take an order with them out of hand But God is of another mind he designs another time and we do very ill to go about to turn him from it It is a bold intrusion on the property of God on that which appertaineth and belongeth to him in the fore-alledged text A snatching of the times and seasons out of his hands And it is a high presumption for while we carry matters thus we do at least imply that we are wiser then the Lord that we can choose out fitter seasons for the accomplishment of his designs then he doth which is a Blasphemy to be abhorred and trembled at by every Christian Vse 2 And therefore in the second place my brethren since God hath his time to do his actions in it and should not be desired to do them any other time Let us be hence instructed how to regulate our prayers and desires in this regard Let us subscribe to him for the accomplishment of all his purposes of wrath against the wicked of mercy to his own people And let us freely leave him to his own time If the prefixed and the constituted time be manifest and revealed to us as to our Saviour in my Text then let us pray as he the hour is come If it be hid then let us pray Father when the hour is come do this or that against thy Enemies do this or that for thy people but still let us comply with his time for the performance of any thing that we desire of him And this because in many cases it may seem to linger and we may be apt to faint I shall briefly set before you two or three Considerations to uphold your hearts till your fathers hour comes Consider that the Father waites for the good hour as well as you Do you wait to receive mercy He waites to shew mercy Do you wait that he may be gracious He waiteth that he may be gracious too Isa 30.18 Why are you so impatient then Why should not you be well contentted and pleased to wait as well as he Shall all the waiting be on his side none of yours see if this be good reason Consider that till the Fathers hour of mercy come he is preparing you for mercy and preparing mercy for you He is not slack as men count slackness he hastens such a work of mercy as he seemeth to defer Many times the work is great and there are many wheels that turn in it and they must move about in time too quick a motion would disorder all The Lord hath many things to bring about in such a business and therefore he goes onward with it slowly by degrees and so at length he brings it to perfection He means to make a goodly structure and therefore he is laying the foundation deep and low that he may raise the frame of mercy and salvation which he means to build upon it high and firm that it may never be removed again Let us consider if the hour of mercy linger that the fault is in our selves Alas God labours hard about us but we are knotty peices we will not suddenly be brought to any frame We are not qualified for a cure and extraordinary mercy by and by Oh what a task God hath to humble us to make us sensible of undeservingness to qualifie us so that we may prize the mercy and use the mercy as we ought to do So the while he is moulding us and fitting us he may complain of us as once he did of Israel Will you never be made fit when will it once be We have such strong Corruptions in us that they will not be subdued we have such proud and stubborn hearts that they will not be brought down So that if God be long about us and if he keep us under hand we have cause to thank our selves and the perversness of our own hearts Let us consider that the fathers hour will come in which he will shew us mercy He will arise and have mercy on Sion The needy shall not alwayes be forgotten nor the expectation of the poor fail for ever Psal 9.18 Though he hide himself yet he will be a Saviour notwithstanding And therefore this let us depend and settle on let us keep our hearts to this with the poor afflicted Church Isa 25.9 Loe this is our God we have waited for him and he will save us we will be glad in his salvation You see how confident she is she stands not upon Ifs and Ands. It is not peradventure or it may be or the like but he will save us and we will be glad c. The more the fathers hour lingers the greater mercy it will bring with it the more will it abound with multiplyed overflowing comfort when it comes Gods manner is to measure and proportion comforts to afflictions to cherish and revive his people according to the daies in which he hath afflicted them and according to the times in which their souls have seen sorrow Psal 90.15 That Proclamation is remarkeable Isa 40.1 Comfort c. comfort ye my people It is repeated twice you see And why so The reason is annexed she hath received at the Lords hand double for her sins she hath had double sorrow and therefore now she shall have double comfort And thus far of the rise of that part of our Saviours prayer which concerns himself the
out upon you if Drunkards in their Ale make Songs upon you do you despise the shame as Christ did so you may bring him any glory So we that are the Ministers of Christ let this be our endeavour to advance and set up Christ let us study such a way and follow such a course as will glorifie him most though it redound not to our own honour Let us not make this our aim how we may carry matters so that we may be admired and magnified that we may be accounted eloquent and learned and the like but that the people may be edified and that they may be won to Jesus Christ That way of preaching be it what it will which serveth best to these ends let us endeavour after yea and though it should be prejudicial to our own glory though it should eclipse us What saith the Apostle Paul 2 Cor. 4.5 I preach not my self but the Lord Iesus Christ It is not my intention to set up my self that I may be looked upon that my abilities may be applauded and admired no I regard not though I be concealed though I be hid among the croud so as Jesus Christ appear so as the affections and thoughts of men be set on him so he be represented to the people in his glory I preach not my self but the Lord Iesus Christ and my self your servant for Jesus his sake And so for private Christians let us seriously consider what the Lord expects from us and how intent he is on this business and let us strive to serve him and be instrumental to him in this great design of his Let us make this our work and business how we may glorifie the Lord Christ become what will of our esteem and reputation in the world And this because it is a hard lesson I shall excite you to the learning and the practising of it with a few motives Consider wherefore you were made and placed in the world what to set up your selves and to advance your own honour No but to glorifie the Lord Christ this was the end of your Creation All things were created by him and for him saith the Apostle Col. 1.16 As they were created by him so they were created for him Now a thing may be made either for the need and conveniency or else for the honour and glory of him for whom it is made As great men in their houses have been always wont to have some things for use and others for pomp Now Jesus Christ made nothing in the world for need he needs not us for any thing that we can do for he was absolutely full and perfect and compleat before we had a being in the world or had it not been so undoubtedly he would have made us sooner he would not have remained so long without us So then he made us for his glory that was the end he aimed at in our Creation And therefore it concerneth us to see that we answer this end and that we glorifie the Lord Christ Or if we do not so first our sin is very great we sin against the great the utmost end of our Creation And secondly our danger is very great and we are in extreamest peril of destruction Any thing that is unusefull or unserviceable to the end that it was made is fit for nothing else but ruine We make a fire to warm us and to dress our meat but if it fall a burning of the house we put it out if we be able A hatchet or a knife is made to cut but when it comes to have no edge at all so that it will not do the business that it serveth for we throw it by into a corner and provide another A Potter makes a vessel to keep liquid things but if it have a crack or hole in it so that it will not serve for that purpose he even dashes it in pieces So Jesus Christ hath made us for himself his own glory but if we be unserviceable to this end and if he finde we do not glorifie him but dishonour him and shame him he will break us with a rod of iron and dash us in pieces like a Potters vessel We will not serve his turn nor the end for which he made us and therefore he will cast us away for what shall he do with us If any of us have an instrument that is very usefull to us we will be very chary of it and very carefull that we do not lose it but if it be of no use we reckon it of no value yea many times we break it or we burn it in a passion and there is an end of it So Jesus Christ will deal with us my Brethren if we be serviceable to the end for which he made us he will keep us and preserve us But if we be unusefull to him or if we do not glorifie him he will ruine and destroy us Consider Christ will make you recompence for any honour that you bring to him you shall have it back again and that with profit and advantage If you honour Jesus Christ he will do as much for you he will honour you again it is his Promise and he will be faithfull in it 1 Sam. 2.30 Them that honour me I will honour Men are exceedingly and almost universally deceived in this particular they think the ready way to honour is to set up themselves and to brisle their plumes to strut and swell and swagger in the world to take all wayes that they can think upon to make themselves seem great and honourable in the eyes of others but in the mean time they neglect Christ they take no course at all to advance his glory Alas these men are quite out if they would have true honour their business and their work must be to set up Christ and then he will be sure to set up them again If we take care to honour him he will take care to honour us if we do the one of them we need not doubt to trust him with the other So that you see my Brethren if we would be honoured and esteemed we have no more to do but only this to glorifie the Lord Christ to magnifie him and to make him great and then he is engaged to take care of our esteem and credit in the world But on the other side if we dishonour and despise him let us do what we can to raise our selves and get our selves a name it shall be all to no purpose when all is done he will cast ignominy and contempt upon us as he tells us in the fore-alledged Text They that honour me I will honour and they that despise me shall be lightly set by Consider with your selves how you will gratifie if I might express it so or rather please the Father in glorifying of his Son Christ It is a thing that fathers take delight and pleasure in to see their sons advanced to honour and truly so doth God the Father in reference to Jesus
bound to the obedience of it so as to be justified and saved by this obedience They are not bound to the obedience of it so as the condition of a Covenant of works But they are bound to the obedience of it so as to testifie their faith and love and thankfulness and service to the Lord Christ who hath imposed this Law upon all flesh so that all men yea even believers are under the commanding power of this Law Yea but it will be said by some that Jesus Christ hath made us free Object that he hath purchased liberty for all his members which liberty they are commanded to maintain Gal. 5.1 And this they think and teach to be even from the obligation of the Moral Law True Christ hath made us free indeed but from the servitude of sin Sol. not from the service of himself and from the Law of sin as the Apostle calls it Rom. 7.23 not from his own Law Why should we think that Christ hath shed his blood to free his people from the obligation of his own Law Indeed my Brethren if the Moral Law the Law of love the Law of works were not the Law of Christ as the Apostle calls it Gal. 6.2 I should be easily perswaded to believe his people are exempted from the binding power of it It seemeth reasonable that his members should be freed from any Law but that which he himself gives But the commandment of the Moral Law which is fulfilled in love is his Commandment John 15.12 strengthened with his authority delivered in his hand and name to men and who can think that he should not impose his own Law upon his own people Mark that of the Evangelist Luke 1.74 75. He hath saved us from our enemies and from the hands of all that hate us that we might serve him who hath saved us in holiness to God and in righteousness to man which is indeed the summ and substance of the Moral Law So that the liberty which Christ hath purchased for his people is liberty to keep not liberty to break the Law and that is liberty indeed as David thinks Psal 119.32 I will run the wayes of thy Commadments when thou hast set my heart at liberty To say it in a word my Brethren there is a twofold liberty a twofold freedom the one enjoyed under sin and the other under Christ Under sin we are free to do any thing but good under Christ we are free to do any thing but evil Of the first sort of freedom speaks the Apostle Paul Rom. 6.20 When you were the servants of sin ye were free from righteousness and of the second faith the same Apostle in ver 22. of that Chapter Being the servants of God ye are free from sin Well then our Saviour Christ hath brought us from the former to the latter sort of freedom so that we are at liberty from sin and not at liberty to sin We are at liberty to serve him and obey him and to keep his Law Object But it is objected further out of these words of the Apostle to the believing Romans Rom. 6.19 where he tells them ye are not under the Law but under Grace And if believers are not under it why then how are they subject to the obligation of it Sol. To this I answer that believers are not under it respectively to the coaction of it for they willingly obey it They are not under it respectively to the severe exaction of it for they are delivered from it it comes to them with Evangelical allay and Gospel mitigation They are not under it respectively to the malediction and the condemnation of it for they are not accursed they shall not be condemned by it But they are under the commanding and the binding power the obligation of it notwithstanding because from this they are not neither can they be delivered For if you look upon the substance of the Moral Law it is an everlasting an eternal Law as David calls it Psal 19.7 It sheweth what is good and what is evil in it self and in its nature So that the things that are commanded there are not good because they are commanded but are commanded because they are good And so the things that are forbidden they are not evil because they are forbidden but are forbidden because they are evil And hence this Law is never charged as the Law of the forbidden fruit and as the Ceremonial and Judaical Laws no it is stedfast as the Apostle Paul speaks Heb. 2.2 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the word that was spoken by Angels that is the Moral Law that was delivered by their Ministry is stedfast Indeed this Law the Law of nature was written in the heart of Adam in the state of innocency and Christ intendeth not to blot out any thing that was engraven there but promises to write it out again more fairly for it was much obliterated by the fall in the hearts of his people So runs the tenor of the New Covenant Ier. 31.33 The last Objection that I shall insist upon Object is taken from those words of the Apostle 1 Tim. 1.9 The Law saith the Apostle there is not given to the Righteous And if it be not given to them why then it seems that it belongs not to them any way To this I answer that the Apostles purpose is not that the righteous are not under the command and obligation of the Law for mark it Sol. Adam was exactly righteous and yet it was a Law to him even in the state of innocency it self But this is that which the Apostle means the Law is not given to the righteous so as to force him to obedience so as to be against a righteous man It is not given for his hurt and condemnation He doth not say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lex non est lata but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lex non est posita which intimates an action or a plea against a man So that the Moral Law is not the action or the plea of God against a righteous man to bring him under judgement and to oblige and bind him over to damnation And so it is the same in sense with that which is delivered by the same Apostle in another place speaking of such as are guided by the spirit and express the fruits of it in their lives and conversations Gal. 5.23 He doth not say to such a one but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 against such there is no Law Indeed the Moral Law so far as it is against believers is not imposed but removed by Christ He hath blotted out the hand writing of Ordinances that was against us that was contrary to us and took it out of the way nayling it to his Cross Col. 2.14 even the hand writing of Moral ordinances so far as it is against us and contrary to us Christ hath taken out of the way It is against us in the rigor and in the curse and malediction of it and
do as much as in us lies to dis-invest him of that power which God hath given him over all flesh And with this argument it is that the Apostle Paul disswades them from self-revenge in the fore-alledged Scripture Rom. 12.19 Dearly beloved avenge not your selves and why so because in so doing you enter on the right of Christ for it is written vengeance is mine it is not yours no it is mine and I will repay it either by my self or by my ordinance By self-revenge as you invade the right of Christ so you stay and hinder Christ from taking vengeance for you on your enemies You give not place to his wrath as the Apostle Paul expresseth it in the forecited Scripture Rom. 12.19 He would avenge you and you would not suffer him but you will do it with your own hands He offers to step in and right you and you will not give him the place no you justle him aside by a revengeful righting of your selves And therefore it is just with him to leave you to your selves in this business and truly this among the rest may be the cause why many men lie under such unsufferable wrongs why they are so abused and oppressed without any remedy why Christ forbeareth to avenge them because they will not give him way they will get into the seat they will be medling with his office and authority and therefore he stands by and looks on As therefore we desire that he that hath authority to right us should put to his own hand let us acquit our hearts and hands as much as it is possible of self-revenge I say to every one of you as Solomon Prov. 20.22 Say not I will render evil I will revenge but wait on Christ and he will save you And thirdly as by self-revenge you give no place to Christ so you give place to the Devil you deny the place to Christ and you let the Devil have it And therefore the Apostle Paul having disswaded us from wrath which tendeth to revenge Let not the Sun go down upon your wrath adds this immediately in the succeeding words neither give place to the Devil Eph. 4.27 And is not this a fearful thing to justle Iesus Christ aside that we may let the Devil in to make room for such a guest as Satan is and that by putting Jesus Christ by For it is Satan my beloved that makes such work in mens hearts and stirs them up to such unwarrantable practices as these are Lastly By taking vengeance on our Brethren we do exceedingly provoke Christ to take vengeance upon us We take vengeance upon others and all that we gain is this we cause the Lord to take vengeance on our selves we do not only hinder him from executing wrath for us but we provoke him to execute his wrath upon us Because that Edom hath dealt against the house of Judah saith the Lord by taking vengeance what follows I will take vengeance upon Edom Ezech. 25.12 If Christ come in and find his family together by the ears he will be in a rage too and he will take an order with them altogether Manasseh against Ephraim and Ephraim against Manasseh and they together against Judah And what is the event of these contentions why the Lord is against them all For all this his anger is not turned away but his hand is stretched out still Isa 9.21 He deals with us my Brethren as we deal with others with the froward saith the Psalmist thou wilt shew thy self froward Psal 18.25 If we be unjustly froward to our Brethren he will be justly froward toward us If we lay on upon our brethren he will lay on upon us Let these considerations keep us from revenge And because it is a very hard thing to forbear especially when opportunities are put into our hands For if a man find his Enemy at an advantage will he let him go free 1 Sam. 24.20 I shall give you two directons which will be very helpful to you to cause you to abstain from self-revenge First you must put away those carnal Lusts and in the next place you must put away those carnal reasons which incline you to revenge You must put away those carnal lusts which incline you to revenge you must subdue and mortifie them to the utmost of your power These are the true real causes of it they are within and not without you Whereas there is strife among you saith the Apostle Paul to the Corinthians are you not carnal 1 Cor. 3.3 Is it not very manifest that there is much corruption much flesh in you It may be you may think it to be otherwise but mark what the Apostle saith Jam. 4.1 From whence come wars and fightings among you whence is it that it is but a word and a blow an injury and a revenge whence is it why hence it is will some men say I am so troubled and molested I am so wronged and abused that I cannot suffer it No no saith the Apostle thou art very much deceived it is thy pride self-love envy passion that are the true and real causes why thou canst not hold thy hands from whence come wars and fightings among you even from your lusts If there were no wars within there would be no wars without If these corruptions and unruly lusts within were throughly mortified and subdued these outward provocations would never cause such hot contentions as they do You must put away those carnal reasonings that incline you and provoke you to revenge For these if you will give them entertainment will set your hearts on fire of hell And therefore you must do as Abraham did when there was like to be some difference between him and his Nephew Lot It s probable he was assaulted with such thoughts as these What wilt thou yield and stoop to him it is his duty to submit to thee shall Lot thy Nephew have his choice of all the Land and thou his aged Unkle be content to take the boyes leavings But Abraham hearkens not to such suggestions So Moses when he was contemned vilified and set at nought no doubt he had his passions in him though he were a meek man and they were apt enough to work and stir and secretly to egg him on to this or the like purpose What wilt thou suffer such a gross abuse shall they go smooth away with such a bold affront and base indignity as this is No let them know that they have mis-behaved themselves towards their betters But Moses patiently allays and stils such thoughts as these and meekly puts up all without distemper I might exemplifie in David when he was abused by Shimei who was his Subject and that in such a base unworthy and unsufferable way no doubt he had his inward risings and he had one at hand that was an end to take revenge for him and yet he calms all we hear no more but this Let him curse c. So when our thoughts begin to work apace
you and beseech you to accept him Yea more then so he works upon you by some kind of operation of his Spirit and you resist the Holy Ghost He waits upon you many dayes yea many years even till his head be full of dew and his locks wet with the drops of the night he exercizeth much long-suffering to you he is patient not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance All this he doth and doth this look as if it were his aim to damn you as if he sought your ruine and destruction It 's true indeed you are by accident in the worse case for Christ you will have one day cause to wish if you continue in your unbelief that Christ had never been Incarnate that you had never heard of him But I beseech you whose fault is all this is it Christs or is it yours you had been damned if Christ had never come and when he came he came to you as well as others And he came not to destroy you he came not to condemn the world alas that was not his intention but that the world by him might be saved And therefore I beseech you do not thinks amiss of Christ in this business If he should condemn you yet do not you condemn him as if your condemnation were the thing he looked for If you will perish think not the worse of Jesus Christ but justifie him and applaud his mercy when you are sinking into hell Give testimony to the truth and say he hath done much to save me but he hath done nothing to damn me He came into the world to save sinners that was indeed the end of his coming but I by my rebellion and my obstinacy and my unbelief have made him do that which he came not for even to destroy me It was not Jesus Christ no it was my own perversness and incredulity that hath undone me and everlastingly and brought me to this place of torment Use 5 Is it so that the authority c. is chiefly for the good c. Then certainly they shall be saved they may rely and rest upon it as an unquestionable thing Christ hath received his power and his authority for this end his Father hath bestowed it on him for this end that he may give eternal life to as many as God hath given him and certainly they will not both be disappointed of their main intention They will not be crossed in that which is their great design It s true the carrying on and the accomplishment of the work of our salvation is a very hard business it meets with many difficulties and with many oppositions But Christ you see is absolutely and compleatly furnished to go through with it and to save us to the utmost If he were only vested with authority and power over the flesh which he intends to save it would fall short in this business For there is other flesh that would resist and hinder their salvation There is flesh within them and there is flesh without them that would oppose this great work The people of the Lord Christ have all of them much flesh and much corruption in them And there is much flesh without them a multitude of wicked and ungodly men And both of these this flesh within them and this flesh without them are mighty obstacles and great impediments to the great end propounded in my text the giving of eternal life to them The flesh without them I mean the world and worldly men will seek to terrifie them or allure them or perswade them from the waies of God and will deceive if it were possible the very Elect. The flesh within them will close with that which is without on all occasions and labour to withdraw them from the living God So that as I have said if Christ were only vested with authority and power over the flesh which he intends to save it would fall short in this business But God you see hath given him power over all â—â—esh that he may give eternal life to as many as he hath given him Not only power over the flesh to which he means to give eternal life but power over all flesh that he may give eternal life to them That other flesh may not resist and hinder him in this business And therefore let us chear and comfort up our hearts in sweet assurance of salvation as many of us as belong to Christ We are discouraged now and then perhaps when we perceive how strong the flesh within us is how mighty and how violent and how prevailing our corruptions are We are afraid the wicked world the flesh without us will overcome us in the end either by honours and preferments or else by threats and persecutions and so will hazard our salvation But here 's our never failing comfort Christ hath power over all flesh that he may give us eternal life He hath power over the flesh within us he can subdue and master our corruptions when he pleases he can pluck down those strong holds He hath power over the flesh without us he can overcome the world yea he hath overcome the world And therefore let us be of good chear let us be confident we shall have eternal life at last for God hath given him full power to this end and to this purpose that he may give it and that none may hinder it Is it so that the authority of Jesus Christ with c. is chiefly c. Use 6 Oh how much are we bound to God and Christ to God the Father that he hath given to God the Son that he hath taken this authority for this End That both of them have been so careful that the authority of Christ might be sufficient to go through with the business and all this for our sakes Oh what are we that God and Christ should have such dear respect unto us that they should honour us so far that our salvation should be the end of the authority of Jesus Christ It is but fit that we should be for him that all that we are or have should be for Christ But that all that Jesus Christ as Man and Mediator hath should be for us that all his power and his authority over the world should be for us that we and our eternal happiness should be the end as it is made in this place and Jesus Christ and his authority in this respect should be but a means to this end this is a mercy and an honour which we cannot reach to see the bottom of it any way And that we should have the preferment here that the authority which Christ hath over all flesh should not be for them but us that he may give to us eternal life who are a little remnant of worthless inconsiderable men That Christ should have so great authority for such a little petty company this is mercy with a witness Let us sit down and wonder at it and be thankful for it while we
only cannot be said of any other And therefore that of Calvin as it seems to me gives the clearest satisfaction Saith he Our Saviour in the Gospel especially in this of John speaking as man and not as God under the name of Father intimates and comprehends the whole God-head and so he doth in this place So then his Father here is not God personally taken for the first person of the God-head only but God Essentially taken for the whole Essence of the God-head as involving all the persons and so he is apparently the only true God To make this Exposition evident I shall clear these two things and it will be worth our labour because it opens many other places of the Gospel First that our Saviour in my text as well as many other places speaks as man and not as God And then that by the name of Father he intends the whole God-head of which himself as God is one person As for the first of these that our Saviour in my Text as well as many other places speaks as man and not as God is very plain For he speaks as sent of God thee the only true God and Iesus Christ whom thou hast sent Now though Christ who is God as well as man be sent yet he is sent most properly as man for so and only so he is inferiour he is the Servant and the Messenger of God Besides he speaks in prayer in my Text and prayer is a part of worship And God doth not worship God So that he speaks as man and not as God Now speaking so my Brethren by the name of Father he means not the first person only but the whole God-head Father glorifie thy Son as thou hast given him power over all flesh c. And this is Life Eternal to know thee him whom he calls Father to be the only true God Nor let this seem strange to you for Christ as man is Gods Son Not God the Fathers Son alone but the Son of the whole God-head Indeed as God he is the Son of the first person only but as man he is the Son of all the persons As man he is a creature and he is not God the Fathers creature only for the works of the Trinity without are undivided And therefore Christ is made the Son of God in the same way that Adam is Luke 3.33 He was the Son of Joseph who was the Son of Eli and so on who was the Son of Adam who was the Son of God Now Adam you will grant was not the son of God the Father only but he was the son of God essentially taken the son of the whole God-head and consequently so was Seth and so was Enoch and so along and so was Ioseph and so was Christ And if Christ were the Son of God in that sense I mean of all the three persons then he might fittly call him Father in that same Notion Why you will say then upon this account Jesus Christ as he is God is his own Father as he is man No my Beloved this is not that which I affirm I do not say that Jesus Christ the second person in the God-head is the Father of his man-hood But the God-head whereof Jesus Christ himself makes one person is really the Father of the same Christ as he is man And so he calls him in the first verse of this Chapter and him he means in the words that I am handling thee the only true God And so there is no difficulty in the sense q. d. Thou God who art my Father as I am man meaning thereby the whole God-head subsisting in the three persons art the only true God And thus I have explained and cleared the words as well as I am able The observation lies before you DOCTRINE That God the Father Son and Holy Ghost is true God and the only true God there is no other true God but he only That our God is the true God is plentifully taught in Scripture Reason will carry us to a God but such an one as is unknown who he is we cannot tell And so it did the great Philosophers at Athens which was an Universitie who therefore had an Altar with this Inscription To the unknown God as you may see Acts 17.23 But Scripture carries us to this God who is indeed the true God he is not so in shew and in pretence alone but he is so in deed and truth And this is that which he affirmeth of himself and confirmeth many waies in that memorable place Isa 45.20 c. And therefore the Evangelist doth set the finger of an hand against him as it were to point him out in this respect 1 John 5.20 We know saith he that the Son of God is come and he hath given us understanding that we may know him that is true true in himself and in his nature and true in his discovery and revelation of himself and we are in him that is true this is the true God q.d. Take notice of him and observe him well this is the true God And as he is the true God so in the second place he is the only true God There are other false gods there is no other true God but him only I am God saith the Lord Isa 45.22 and there is no God else besides me a just God and a Saviour there is none beside me It is repeated twice for the better confirmation And therefore Jeremy in this respect sets him in opposition to all other gods Ier. 10.8 9. They are altogether brutish saith the Prophet the stock is a vain doctrine Silver spread into plates and Gold from Ophir blew and purple is their cloathing they are the work of cunning men but the Lord is the true God The Prophet speaks it there exclusively he is and none but he they are not he is The Holy Ghost affirms of Idols universally without exception that they are nothing in the world 1 Cor. 8.4 nothing of that Idolaters conceit they are not Numina indeed And therefore it is added in that place there is no other God but one And howsoever they are often called Gods in Scripture yet this is spoken according to the apprehensions and conceits of sottish men because they think them to be so and therefore this their God-head is recalled again in other places and they are stiled false gods and as a false man is no man so a false god is no god I speak not of a false man in his words and in his actions for such an one may be a man but of a false man in his nature Even as a painted man hath not the nature of a man and so by consequence is no man So Idols painted or engraven gods have nothing of the true and living God in them and so by consequence are no gods as the Apostle shews Gal. 4 8. Howbeit when ye knew not God ye did service unto them who by nature are no gods And hence an Idol is
other and now they are delivered and believe lyes It is a lie and a delusion but it is a strong delusion so that you cannot stir them from it Do what you can and bring what arguments you will it is in vain the deceit is strong upon them And some are also given up to vile affections and to those burning lusts which the Apostle speaks of in the cited places This is the formidable judgement of the Lord on those who know God and do not walk according to their knowledge And therefore as we own the true God let us serve and let us worship him as such a one let us live and act for him let us be taken up with him let us make this our work to please him let us in every thing so carry and demean our selves as they should do who have the Lord for their God JOHN 17.3 Thee the only true God IS it so that God the Father Son c. is the only true God Then Use 3 let us have no other God but him only Let us be able confidently to challenge any man in the words of holy David Whom have we in heaven but him and whom have we in earth but him Is there any in the world whom we set up to our selves as a God but him only Let us be alwaies mindfull of the first and great Commandment of the Law of God which is indeed the very basis and foundation of the rest Thou shalt have no other God before me Thou shalt have a God and thou shalt have me for thy God and thou shalt have none but me for thy God And that which is annexed is very much to be observed If thou hast any God besides me it will be before me If we could go behind his back and take another god there were the less iniquity and there were the more safety it were not such a hainous thing it were not such a dangerous thing But to go and take another god before his face as if a wife should go and take another Lover and commit uncleanness with him even before her husbands face what an horrid impudence what an unsufferable provocation What saith the Lord as once Ahasuerus in the case of Haman will he commit adultery before my face for so idolatry is spiritual adultery will he do it in my presence and while I am looking on Ah desperate wretch nay then I see there is no hope of him take him away and carry him to execution And therefore let us be extreamly cautious that we have no other God but him alone who is the only true God But you will ask me now perhaps what I intend when I exhort you to have no other God but him only Truly my Brethren it involveth many things but I shall draw them to a few heads When I perswade you to have the Lord and none but him for your God my meaning is that you should serve him and none but him that you should fear him and none but him that you should trust in him and none but him Then since he is the only true God serve him and none but him Serve the Lord so as to serve no other with him So is his own express injunction Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve Matth. 4.10 And here to be a little more distinct serve the Lord and not Idols serve the Lord and not Times serve the Lord and not Lusts First serve the Lord and not Idols they are all false gods he is the only true God and therefore see you serve him and not them It is a sin the Scripture very much disswades from and makes the worst of all corruptions and most abominable to the Lord. And therefore this is often called the sin in Scripture by way of eminence above the rest because it is a sin of the most infamous and odious rank And Jeroboams drawing Israel to the worship of the calves is frequently set forth by this expression he made Israel to sin He made them to commit the sinning sin the sin which is abundantly and out of measure sinfull And God himself disswading from it speaketh of it as that on which his very heart did rise which he abhorred to name on which he could not think without extremity of detestation O do not that abominable thing which I hate Jer. 44.4 And otherwise indeed it cannot be For it is the choosing of another god that is the Holy Ghosts expression of it saith he they chose new gods Judges 5.8 by which they made it to appear that they were weary of the old as if they had discovered some iniquity in God as he expostulateth with the Jews upon the like occasion Jer. 2.5 as if the Lord were found upon experience to be such a god or were not worth the keeping any longer This is a thing from which the very heathen are abhorrent and averse the Nations will not change their gods Jer. 2.11 though they be but false gods and consequently no gods as it is added there in that place Oh what an odious thing is this that the Church should change hers who hath the true and everlasting Lord of heaven and earth for her God They will not change their false gods for the true and shall we change the true God for a false Oh what an horrible indignity is this what an unsufferable provocation And therefore God is exceedingly incensed at this iniquity it is a sin that kindles anger great anger yea the heat of great anger Deut. 24.44 What means the heat of this great anger And in the following verses it is shewed to be because they went and served other gods Indeed Idolatry stirs up the jealousie of God and therefore this is added as the reason of the prohibition of it because he is a jealous God And even as jealousie in man is as the wise man notes the rage of man so jealousie in God my Brethren is the rage of God To see his Wife the Church forsake him and run a whoring after Idols is such a thing as blows and kindles up the flames of his hottest indignation In what a fearfull rage was God on this occasion behold and tremble at it Exod. 32.9 when Moses hung about him and besought him for the people he flung him off Let me alone saith God that so my anger may wax hot against them and that I may consume them in a moment And if you search the Scripture you shall find that God hath executed and inflicted the heaviest of his plagues and judgements on those that have been guilty of this sin Look on the monuments of his severest and most direfull vengeance and you shall find that as the wrath of God hath been revealed from heaven against all unrighteousness of men so especially against this hideous sin And as a man transported with a jealous spirit is apt to take unmercifull revenge in which respect the wise man saith He will not spare in the
with Christ hereafter but by suffering with him here and by suffering willingly as he did For if you do it of necessity and of constraint as the Apostle tells us in another case you have your reward But if you suffer willingly as he did then you shall reign as he doth And though you be not worthy yet you shall be counted worthy of the Kingdom for which you suffer as the Apostle Paul speaks 2 Thes 1.5 Vse 2 Is it so that Jesus Christ was ordered by his Father as in his work of Satisfaction so in his work of Application Did he apply the merit and the vertue of his satisfaction to none but those to whom the Father ordered him Let no man then find fault with Christ that no more are saved by him and that no more are made partakers of the benefit and profit of his passion Alas my Brethren Jesus Christ as Mediator is not to choose to whom he will apply the satisfaction which himself hath made no he must follow the direction and order of his Father in this business The work which his Father giveth him to do that he must do and no other If he bid him save a man and apply his merits to him he must do it If he bid him pass him by he must leave him in his sins to perish and be damned for ever I am come down from heaven saith our Saviour not to do my own will but the will of him that sent me And this is the Fathers will that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing Joh. 6.39 I am precisely ordered to see that not a man of them perish As for the rest they may they must be lost for me it is not in my power to help them All that the Father gives him he can keep and save further then this his Commission doth not reach No doubt the will of Jesus Christ as he was Man would have carryed him to save those whom his Father had appointed to destruction But he must stoop in this to the will of him that sent him There is no question if he had been free in this regard he would have pitched upon his own Countreymen his own Allyes his own Kindred before others But the Evangelist observes he came to his own among them he began his Ministry but he did no good there his own received him not And therefore you shall find it in his story that as man he was extreamly troubled at the unbelief and hardness of the peoples hearts He wept over Jerusalem with many tears Why you will say what needed this he might have wrought upon them and converted them and saved them No my Beloved he could not do it he had no order for it from his Father This belonged not to the work which he had given him to do And yet as Man he pittied and lamented their condition as we should do in such a case he being in all things like unto us sin only excepted And certainly this pity over lost Creatures was no sin Now this me thinks should overcome and melt the hearts of Reprobates themselves to Jesus Christ and make them to relent towards him Alas he pitties you and mourns over you his very bowels yern towards you he delights not in your ruine and destruction No he hath such a tender heart though yours be hard that it is troublesome and grievous to him But why then doth he not relieve and help us you will say Why he hath no order for it His Father hath appointed him to whom and whom alone he shall apply the merits of his passion and you perhaps are none of that number So that it is not any of the business that he came into the world about to save you The work of your salvation is not given him to do and if it be not given him he cannot do it so that the fault is not in Jesus Christ if any of you perish and be lost for ever Neither is there any reason why you should be exasperated and incensed against him Is it so that Jesus Christ was ordered by his Father in the work c. Vse 1 And why then should not we be ordered by him too in all the work we do in this world Shall Jesus Christ be in subjection to the Father more then we Shall he be ordered by him more then we Shall he be at the Fathers pleasure and command in every thing and we be free What an unreasonable and incongruous thing were this Nay my Beloved should we not in imitation of our blessed Saviour stoop to God as he did and do the work which he hath given us to do and so walk as we have Christ for an Example But alas how do the greater number of us swerve from this pattern Either we do the good or else we do the evill which God hath not given us to do I shall speak a word to either First some do the good which God hath not given them to do the work is good but it is not their work It is given other men but yet it is not given them to do The work that Vzziah did was for the matter of it very good The incense which he meant to offer was such as was prescribed in the Law the place in which he meant to offer was the Temple the Altar upon which he meant to offer was consecrated to the Lord the God to whom he went to offer was the true God But he was not a person qualified and fit to offer he was not called to that service This good work was not given him to do And therefore God was very angry with him and he was stricken with a foul disease The like we see exemplified in Saul the error was not in the Sacrifice he offered nor in the object of his offering the person unto whom he offered but only in the person that did offer The work was good but it was not his work he had no order for the doing of it and therefore he was utterly ejected from the Kingdom 1 Sam. 13.13 There are some works that belong to some callings as proper and peculiar to them Some works that are peculiar to the Magistrate or else the Magistrate hath no distinct calling Some works that are peculiar to the Minister or else the Minister hath no distinct calling For that is no distinct calling that hath not some distinct work Some works there are which God hath given to the Magistrate as a Magistrate to do Some works there are which God hath given to the Minister as a Minister to do and these works they that are not called to them may not do Or if they do when they have ended them they cannot say to God as Christ doth I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do Secondly as some do the good which God hath not given them to do so some others do the evill which God hath given none to do They do that usually which God
commandeth not at all neither comes it into his heart They look not what the Lord hath ordered them to do Their eyes are not upon him for direction any way but what they have themselves a mind to do that they are imployed in They are a rule unto themselves and walk according to their own counsels They follow the way of their own hearts and the sight of their own eyes They are not guided by the will of God but by the will of man and the will of the flesh as it is called 1 Joh. 13. which stands in opposition to the will of God God may order what he will and they will do what they please For tell me my Beloved when you swear and when you are unclean and when you run out to all excess of riot when you prophane the Sabbaths and the Ordinances of the Lord when you do things that are apparently and grosly evill which admit of no excuse Are these the works which God hath given you to do Can you look him in the face and tell him so When you lie and when you cozen and deceive do you these things by his order No my Beloved no such matter This is the will of God even your sanctification that as he who hath called you is holy so you should be holy in all manner of conversation And therefore while you wallow in your lusts while you defile your selves with every sin you do not follow Gods order you do not walk by his rule but are a rule unto your selves I wish that such would seriously consider but these two things First It is the fearfullest and the extreamest judgement that God can bring on any man in this life to give him so far over to himself to neglect his order the direction he is pleased to give him and to walk according to his own counsel who when he permits men as he did the Gentiles Act. 10.16 to wallow in their own ways the ways which of themselves they choose and follow This is a formidable thing indeed And therefore he is wont to execute this in the close of all as the heaviest of his judgements as having nothing left but this to shew the fierceness of his wrath and fury on a person or a people When he hath proved and tryed men every way and nothing will prevail with them this is the last the parting blow he gives them over to themselves and so he leaves them And this is certainly the worst that the Almighty God can do to them Secondly If you will not be ordered by the Lord in one way you shall be ordered by him in another If you will not be ordered by the precept you shall be ordered by the threatning If you will not do his will his will shall certainly be done upon you If you submit not here to his commanding will you shall be forced to submit to his condemning will hereafter Here you say you will not hear you will not do the Lord commands you this and that but you resist and stand it out and you will not be obedient But tell me Brethren are you able to out-stand the curse and vengeance of the Lord in the last and dreadful day when he shall be revealed from Heaven with his mighty Angels And when the Lord shall order you to go to Hell and say Depart you cursed into everlasting fire will you be able to resist and to disobey that order Will you be able to controle him and hinder him from executing the sentence of the Law upon you No no you break the bonds and cords of God here but then the Lord will bind you fast enough in everlasting chains of darkness break and rent them if you can The haughtiness of men shall be brought low and God alone shall be exalted in that day And therefore I beseech you my Beloved eye the Lord in all your ways and see what work it is that he giveth you to do Be sure he give it you before you do it And this indeed is to be men after Gods own heart when you do Gods will I have found David saith the Lord Psal 89.20 called Act. 13.22 A man after my own heart who will do all my wills And if you thus do God will own you in the latter day and liberally reward you too After you have done the will of God you shall receive the promise that is the happiness and mercy promised Heb. 10.36 In doing of your own will or the wills of other men perhaps you may attain some transitory riches pleasures honors poor fleeting things which in the end will perish with you But if you do the will of God this will perpetuate and Eternize you and make you to endure for evermore 1 Joh. 2.17 The world passeth away and the lusts thereof but he that doth the will of God abideth for ever JOHN 17.4 I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do AND thus far of the first Particular considered in the words what it was that Christ did the work which God had given him to do The Second follows now in order to be handled viz. The manner how he did it he did it absolutely and compleatly I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I have made an end of it Now a work is ended then when it is so dispatched that there is no remainder of it to be done When there is nothing left of it imperfect and unfinished So that there can be nothing added to it any way to make it more accomplished and compleat And this is that which Jesus Christ affirmeth of himself in relation to the work that was committed to him of his Father saith he I have gone through with it I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do or I have brought it to a full end But had he so compleated it and ended it indeed when he put up this supplication to his Father Was there no remainder of it to be done Why the great work of all was yet behind the offering of himself upon the Cross as an oblation and Sacrifice to God the Father He had not yet laid down his life for his people Yet this he was designed to do his Father had appointed him to tread the Wine-press of his wrath and to become an offering for sin In which respect the holy Ghost affirmeth of him that it behoved Christ to suffer There was a necesse in it because it was the Fathers pleasure that it should be so it was the work that he had given him to do and how then saith our Saviour here before his passion and before his suffering I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do To this Interpreters give various answers according to their various apprehensions of our Saviours meaning in the words Some think he speaks by way of prophesie and so makes mention of that which was indeed to come as if it had been past
by halves c. they are severely to be censured then who come in with their additions to the works of Christ and go about to botch it up with their supplies As if he had not done what he professes to his Father in my Text but had left his work imperfect So that it needed any thing which they can either do or suffer to finish it and make it perfect And here the Papists are not only faulty who make up the work of Christ and fill it out with the invented superfluities of the sufferings of their Martyrs and the merits of their Saints As if he had not done enough himself to make us perfect to satisfie the justice of his Father for us But even many of the Saints themselves sometimes though they believe that Jesus Christ hath finished the work of their Redemption and that it needs no Supplement in any kind much less that any thing that they can do can make the least addition to it yet are insensibly betrayed they know not how into a kind of joyning of their duties with him in the work of their Redemption and Salvation For this they do in some degree while they expect to be accepted with the Lord and to be justified and saved the rather for their works and duties And therefore when they seriously consider with themselves how they shall have their sins forgiven them how they shall be admitted into Gods favour they are not satisfied to look upon the work that Christ hath done to make him all in all in this business but they must also cast an eye on that which they themselves have done And when they think upon their own enlargements their deep humiliations their earnest and incessant labours in the service of the Lord they do they know not how put then in with Jesus Christ as joynt Saviours Much hath been said of late against duty so much that it hath been more slighted and neglected then it ought to be That which I speak is not against the doing of it but against the mixing of it with the work of Jesus Christ The setting of our posts by his posts and our works by his works Ah my Beloved let us be extreamly shie of this let us not so dishonour Jesus Christ as if he had not done enough to justifie us and to gain acceptance for us But since he hath finished the work himself and done it perfectly Oh let us trust him perfectly for Redemption and Salvation let us relie on what he hath done and resolve with the Apostle that we are compleat in him Col. 2.10 so that we stand in need of no addition When we are thinking how we shall be satisfied sanctified justified in this world and saved in the world to come Though we have lived like Angels and done religious duties as if we were in Heaven already let us bid all this stand by and cry out with the holy Martyr in the flames None but Christ none but Christ Is it so that Jesus Christ did not do his works by halves c. Then Vse 2 let not us my Brethren do our works by halves neither but let us finish them as Christ did If we be entred on the work and service of the Lord as many of us are O let us not give over and desist again Let not our righteousness be like the morning cloud and early dew If we have taken pains in holy Duties and have gone onward in them many years in Hearing in Prayer and in Fasting and the like let us be diligent and constant still let us hold on our way as Job saith The upright man doth Let us not give over all again as some have done in these times Let us not be weary of well doing No as we have begun to work and as we have wrought hitherto so let us work still till we have finished all the work that God hath given us to do and let our last work be more then our first And to this end I beseech you carefully to weigh these few things First If we finish not our work and if we do not end well it argues that we were not right and sound in the beginning They that are planted in the house of God saith David shall flourish in the Courts of our God they shall bring forth more fruit in their age Psalm 92.13 14. And hence it is observed by the Holy Ghost of the best of Gods servants that they never shewed such Zeal and Faithfulness and Diligence in the work of the Lord as when they drew near their end and when they saw their time was ready to expire As Jacob Moses Joshuah David Peter shewed more care of Gods Church and more zeal for Gods Glory towards their end then they had ever done before Yea Our Saviour Christ himself was never so much in prayer so painfull and affectionate in comforting and in instructing his Disciples as he was when he was ready to be offered up He wrought the works of him that sent him while it was day as his own expression is While the day of life lasted John 9.4 And therefore so let us too His unwearied diligence is very notable Luke 21.37 38. In the day time he was teaching in the Temple and at night he went into the Mount of Olives where he retired himself to prayer And all the people came early to him in the morning in the Temple for to hear him If you finish not your work and if you go not through with your business you dishonour God There is no way to glorifie him but by perseverance as our Saviour Christ insinuates in my Text saith he to God the Father I have glorified thee upon the earth How so might God reply Why I have finished the work that thou gavest me to do I have not entred on it only and carried it along awhile but I have brought it to perfection God is never glorified but by finishing his Works To begin and then fall back is to put God and Christ to shame Thirdly If you finish not your work as you dishonour God and Christ so you shame your selves too This man began to build but was not able to make an end Nothing makes a man so base and despicable in the eyes of God and gracious men as to have been religious zealous earnest hot in the beginning and to become an Enemy a Worldling a lazie idle Drone in the conclusion The salt that hath lost its savour is good for nothing saith our Saviour but to be cast out with contempt and to be trodden under feet of all men Mat. 5.13 You lose all that you have wrought and all that you have done already if you finish not your work All your obedience both active and passive is utterly lost Your active obedience is as it were forgotten with God unless you continue Ezek. 18.24 So is your passive if you fail in Perseverance Your sufferings are in vain as the Apostle speaks to the Galatians Gal. 3.4
gavest me out of the world Thine they were and thou gavest them to me 2. All the people of the Lord Christ were first of all belonging to his Father as his chosen Not only as his Creatures but as his Elect too And thus he hath a neerer interest in those whom he bestows on Jesus Christ then he hath in any other All the world are his indeed but then there are some certain people whom he chooses for himself in a peculiar and a special way As he that is the Owner of a goodly Wood all the Trees are his indeed but yet there is a Tree or two or more which he chooses to himself and which he marks out to himself and for his own particular and private use So the earth is the Lords and all the people that are in it but yet there are some certain men whom he hath set a part from everlasting to be his to be the Vessells of his own House the Servants of his own Family As it is said of Jacob Psal 135.4 The Lord hath chosen Jacob to himself and Israel for his peculiar treasure And therefore when he gives these up to Christ and makes them actually his no marvail though he answer him as in my text thine they were and thou hast given them to me And here indeed the gift of God is most to be observed He doth not give our Saviour all that are his by Creation all the wicked he gives him but some of them and therefore he is said to give them out of the world But he gives him all that are his by Election he doth not keep one man from him God hath a special interest in them above the rest they are his own peculiar treasure as you heard but now and every one of them he gives to Christ Jesus Christ hath all his treasure take his trash who will Now for the third particular how far the Father parteth with the right he hath in those whom he bestows on Jesus Christ A man would think by the expression of our Saviour in my text that he parted with it wholly That he makes over all the interest he hath in those whom he bestows on Jesus Christ That when he gives them up to him he utterly devests himself of all his former interest so that he hath no longer any right at all in them Thine they were saith Jesus Christ why then it seems they are not now thine they were but now they are no longer thine for thou hast given them to me But certainly we must not understand it in such an absolute and rigid sense but with some grains of mitigation For when the Father hath actually given men to Jesus Christ to be his members they do not cease to be his Creatures they do not cease to be his chosen and therefore in a sence my brethren they are his still And this our Saviour Christ acknowledgeth expresly but a little after at ver 9 10. I pray not for the world but for them which thou hast given me and mine are thine Observe it well he saith not to the Father mine were thine before thou gavest them to me but mine are thine notwithstanding thou hast given them to me So that the Father doth so bestow his people on the Son that after the donation Christ and he do share together and have a joint and mixed interest and right in those people and however they that appertain to Christ are stiled his peculiar people Tit. 2.14 which is a term that intimates not a right in common but an unmixed and undivided right you must not understand it in opposition to the Father but to themselves and to the world and to the Devil They are his peculiar so that though they were once their own now they are their own no longer Though they were once the worlds now they are the worlds no longer Though they were once the Devils now they are his no longer But they are not his peculiar so that they are no more the Fathers No God and Christ do alwayes share as I have said and as he himself confesseth in the fore-alledged verse All mine are thine and thine are mine And in this sense you must conceive the Expression in my text Thine they were They were once wholly and entirely thine now they are not so thine for thou hast given them to me and therefore I must strike in for a share with thee Once they were thine only now it is so no longer for they are thine and mine too There is one thing yet behind That seeing all do first belong to God the Father why he doth not keep them to himself but makes them over to his Son Christ And the reason is apparent because if he should keep them to himself as things are ordered he must lose them And therefore gives them up to Christ that he may save them First Those that belong to God are his created ones or as his Creatures if he should keep them still in that Condition and should not give them up to Jesus Christ there were no other way but they must perish All that the Creator made by Adams fall have brought themselves into a lost condition His work is wholly spoyled and marr'd by sin that is come in upon it and hath defaced it and destroyed it so that unless there be a reparation all mankind is cast away and lost for ever This reparation is the work of Jesus Christ it is his business to repair the ruines of decayed mankind and to restore them to that beauty and felicity from which they are declined and departed by the fall If God the Father give him any broken piece to be amended and recovered by him he doth his work upon him and he saves him to the utmost But if the Father keep him to himself as a created one if he leave him in the condition of a Creature and do not make him over to his Son that he may be a redeeemed one that he may be recovered and restored by him he even remaineth in that miserable and undone estate wherein the whole race of mankind is involved by the fall And therefore when the Father looks on the Creation and sees his work is wholly spoiled he considers with himself I will not leave it all in this condition no some of it shall be repaired again and that shall be my Sons business And so accordingly he picks out such and such a soul and brings it to the Lord Christ There take that soul and set it right again I give it thee to this end that thou maist repair it and restore it to all the happiness which it hath lost by Adams fall Secondly they that belong to God as his Elected ones or as his Chosen if he should keep them still in that Condition and should not give them up to Jesus Christ this cannot be but if this should be supposed there were no other way but they must perish for it is not enough to the
are bound to watch for as those for whom they are to give up an account when the day of reckoning comes And this appeareth evidently by the Apostles protestation to the Elders of Ephesus Act. 20.26 I take you to record this day that I am pure from the blood of all men How so For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the Counsel of God not some but all his Counsel They that hide any are not pure from blood no not from the blood of souls which is a formidable thing The blood of bodies hath a voyce and cryes aloud for wrath and vengeance upon them that shed it The blood of souls speaks worse things and cryeth louder then that of Abel 2. If they suppress c. they do in the desert deprive themselves of any share in the mercy of the Lord. It is a dreadful sentence against such which God himself doth not seem to speak so much as to thunder out against them Apoc. 22.19 If any man shall take away saith he from the words of this book Well if he do what then the Lord shall take away his part out of the Book of life and out of the holy City and from the things that are written in this Book If there be any happiness to be enjoyed in Heaven and in the new Jerusalem which is above if there be any mercy mentioned in the Book of God in all the pretious promises from the beginning of it to the end if there be any priviledge to have a part in the blessed Book of life the man that takes away one word out of the Book of God that so doth and so continues is utterly cut off from all these He that is able to diminish blessings and to bring them down so low that nothing of them shall remain will recompense them who diminish his word and pay them home in the same kind wherein they sin 3. If they suppress c. they expose themselves to ignominy and contempt with men They think perhaps to gratifie and please and to be loved and honoured and esteemed by this means viz. by hiding and concealing that which they imagine will not rellish with the people But God will meet with such in this preposterous way of theirs and cross them so that this shall make them despicable in the eyes of all men I have made you saith the Lord to the unfaithful Priests of Israel contemptible and base before all the people And why so because you have not kept my ways but have been partial in the Law Some of it you have delivered and some of it you have concealed according as your hearers and the times would bear you have dealt partially with it And thus you thought perhaps to get your selves esteem and love among the people But it is fallen out quite contrary clean against your expectation For all men look upon you now as self-seekers men-pleasers and time-servers and so you are become contemptible and base by this means And if you look on those at this day who are partial in the Law and who apply it only against one side who reprove and threaten none but those that are not of their own party you shall find them of no great esteem among the people 4. If they suppress c. as they expose themselves to shame so to wrong from men too They lay themselves by their unfaithfulness the more open to abuses and injuries and molestations from the people Whereas if they be faithful they are under Gods protection I have made thee saith the Lord encouraging the Prophet a defenced City and an Iron pillar and brazen walls against the whole Land against the Princes thereof against the Preists thereof and against the whole land and they shall fight against thee but they shall not prevail and what of this Therefore gird up thy loins and speak unto them all that I command thee Jer. 1.17 with-hold not any thing for fear that I would have thee to deliver be bold and confident in my protection Be not dismaid at their faces least I confound thee before them The Lord hath always taken special care of them who have been trusty in the delivery of his message And hence the Prophet David having said he suffered no man to do them wrong but reproved even Kings for their sakes discovers in the words immediately annexed who they were that had this special interest in Gods protection Touch not mine anointed and do my Prophets no harm Psal 105.15 And that Prophetical Petition of Moses in behalf of Levi is notable to this purpose Deut. 33.11 Strike through the loyns of them that rise against him and of them that hate him that they rise no more Now if you ask me how it comes to pass that notwithstanding th assurances in the Name of God himself ungodly men have risen and prâ—vailed against the faithful Messengers of Jesus Christ sometimes to their utter extirpation To this I answer in a word It was not that the Lord was careless of their peace and welfare but it was because they had dispatched the work which God had given them to do they had finished their testimony as the expression is Apoc. 11.7 Or else because the Lord fore-saw he should receive more honour by their suffering then their peace Phil. 1.12 And thus far of our Saviours faithfulness in the delivering of his Message from his Father to his people The issue and event of this fidelity of his comes now in order to be handled and that as I have shewed in two respects First with relation to the Message which he brought they have received them saith he that is the words that I delivered to them in thy Name Secondly then with relation to himself the Messenger they have known surely that I came from thee and have believed that thou didst send me So that here is their good reception of the Message and their good perswasion of the Messenger delivered in such plain expressions that they will need no Explication The only seeming difficulty lies in this how Christ as Man and Mediator may be said to have come out from God since in that Nature he was never with him in regard of his immediate presence in the heavens Truly my Brethren he came not from him locally but he came from him Ministerially he came not from him in respect of place but he came from him in respect of mission because he came of his Message and of his Errand and so our Saviour Christ explains himself by an Exegesis in the succeeding parcel of the verse They have known surely that I came out from thee that is they have believed that thou didst send me Now both of these particulars importing the good carriage and behaviour of the Apostles and Disciples of our Saviour both with relation to his message and to himself the Messenger may be considered two ways Either in a joynt dependance of both of them on that which goes before Or else in a
as they did in the Parable we have born thy name and we have been called Christians and have been accounted thine and wilt thou not acknowledge us and own us now And Christ shall answer them depart from me I know you not go get you over on the other side among the Goats I tell you you are none of mine Ah my beloved this will be a cooling and a killing word indeed Is it so that Jesus Christ is glorified in all those that belong to him Vse 2 Both in their grace and holiness in this world and in their glory in the world to come This then should be a motive and inducement to us to strive and labour after both these both after grace in this world and glory in the world to come both to be holy here and happy hereafter 1. This should quicken us and stirr us up to labour after holiness and grace that Jesus Christ may be glorified in us If grace were only advantagious to our selves and honorable to our selves as to be really and truly gracious is indeed the greatest honour in the world there were no such reason then why we should labour to attain it and abound with it For then you know we could have no higher aim then only to set up a poor Creature But seeing Jesus Christ is honoured in the grace and holiness and the obedience of his people Oh how should this enflame us with restless and unsatisfied desires of these things How should we covet and covet earnestly the best gifts and labour that we may excell in inward grace and outward obedience that we may set up Jesus Christ the more and that his honour may be the more advanced by us When we are seeking to the Lord for holiness and grace that he would give it out to us and give it more abundantly how should we press and quicken our petitions with this prevailing argument that Jesus Christ will be advanced by it and his glory more enlarged Lord give us more faith love hope patience zeal power against corruption strength to new obedience that Christ may have the more glory We seek not these things to promote our own esteem and reputation and that we may be some body among the Saints but that Christ Jesus may be all in all It is thy great design to glorifie thy Son Christ and this is the ready way to accomplish the design on which thy very heart is set if thou give us more holiness and more grace he will have more glory Thou wilt not honour us so much but Jesus Christ thine own beloved Son will be glorified in us And therefore we beseech thee set thy Treasure open to us and give us out a large share In such a manner the Apostle deals with God in his petitions in that memorable place to this purpose 2 Thes 1.11 12. We pray continually for you saith the Apostle there that God would count you worthy of this calling and fulfill all the good pleasure of his goodness and the work of faith with power That he would carry on that work of grace upon your souls till he hath brought it to perfection And why so to what end That the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you not that you may be honoured but that Christ may be glorified in you 2. And as this should stirr us up to labour after grace in this world so after glory in the world to come Since Christ is glorified as in the grace so much more in the glory of his people For glory is compleat grace and therefore Christ is glorified in that to admiration as we have shewed you formerly in explication of the point The Apostle speaks of some who seek glory Rom. 2.7 he means the glory of the other world as it is very evident by that which is joyned with it glory and honour and immortality and Eternal life And truly it is not unlawfull for every one of us to seek glory I mean our own eternal glory in the heavens because while we seek that we seek the glory of Christ in it It s that which troubles many of the Saints they think that they are scarce upright because they have so great an eye upon their own glory They doubt their own sincerity meerly upon this ground Indeed my brethren if your own glory and salvation went single and alone it were a greater cause of scruple But since the glory of the Lord Christ is comprehended and involved in it why should you not desire and seek it as subservient to the great and high end And therefore I beseech you my beloved under this notion have respect to it and draw encouragement and sweetness from it amidst the many heavy labours and bitter sufferings of this present life Look up man to the glory that is set before thee press hard towards it be diligent and patient in the expectation of it strive and labour to obtain it while thou considerest with thy self that when thou art glorified Christ will be glorified in thee And so in aiming at thy own glory do thou intend and seek the glory of Christ And this is that which thou maist do yea this is that which thou must do And therefore go on cheerfully embrace the promise that is yet afar of reach at the Crown of glory that is hung out to tempt thee and to toll thee on And let this animate thee most of all that when thou hast attained it Christ will be glorified and admired in thee He whom thy very soul loveth will have one monument the more of his own praise and glory unto all eternity And thus far of the first Consideration that induced our Saviour to become a Suitor for his Apostles and Disciples to his Father viz. the neer relation which they had to his Father and himself by means of which it came to pass that he was glorified in them The second follows now in order to be handled viz. the sad condition they were likely to be in by reason of the near approach of his departure from them to the Father and leaving them behind in an unquiet and malitious world And now I am no more in the world but these are in the world and I come to thee A dolefull and heart-killing word you must conceive it was to his Apostles and Disciples and now I am no more in the world They who left all for him must needs be very much dejected to be left by him And to be left alone in such a wilderness in such a troublesome unpleasing and a vexatious place as the world hath alwayes been to Christs Disciples As long as he was with them he was a very great support encouragement and comfort to them in all conditions and in all cases And therefore now he is about to leave them he thinks it necessary to commend them to the especial care and mercy and protection of his Father There are two things suggested in this dying Song this last
the world the world would love its own but because ye are not of the world therefore the world hates you And hence it comes to pass that it persues them persecutes them casts them out creates them all the trouble and vexation that it can so that they are not like to have a quiet hour almost in this world Besides the evils and afflictions to which they are exposed by the necessity of nature as man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upwards Job 5.7 distempers and diseases in their bodies loss of their estates and friends and earthly comforts and the like ungodly men come in with their additions The Church of Christ while she is here is ill-seated she grows in an ill place as he himself affirmeth of her 2 Cant. 2. as the Lilly among thorns so is my Love among the daughters She is environed and begirt with them so that she is annoyed and hurt and pierct on every side She cannot stir but one or other of her thorny neighbours hath her by the sleeve She dwels in Mesech while she dwells in this world and hath her habitation in the Tents of Kedar in the midst of wicked men so that she is beleaguered as it were and hem'd about with those that hate her and desire her ruine This is the state and the condition of the Saints while they are here they are continually vexed and troubled So that no marvel though our Saviour tells his own Apostles In the world you shall have tribulation Iohn 16.33 That is your portion as long as you remain here The world hath alwayes been an evil and uncomfortable place to Christs Disciples in this respect that it is a place of sinning Indeed my brethren they are troubled with the sins of other men their righteous souls are vexed with their filthy conversations Rivers of waters run down their eyes because men keep not Gods Law But they are chiefly troubled with their own sins from which they are not to be wholly freed while they remain in this world As long as they continue here they are perpetually in Sathans danger who is the Prince of this world and whose authority and power is confined to this life There will never be an absolute and perfect cure of sin in any of the Saints till this corruption have put on incorruption And hence perhaps the corruptions of our natures are stiled worldly lusts Tit. 2.12 And our members that are upon the earth Col. 3.5 because we cannot possibly be rid of them while we are here upon the earth and while we live in this world The Apostle Paul compares himself and others of the Saints to earthen Vessels 2 Cor. 4.7 And earthen vessels when they were legally defiled could not be made clean again till they were broken all in pieces as you may see Lev. 11.33 So we my brethen are not to be fully cleansed till we be shivered all in pieces We are not to be wholly rescued from the bondage to corruption till death translate is to another world And then he that is dead saith the Apostle is free from sin Rom. 6.7 So that no marvel though the world be a place of such disquiet and discomfort to the Saints For how can they be fully comfortable here while they are alwayes sinning against God He that hath entred into rest indeed hath ceased from his own works as the Apostle speaks Heb. 4.10 Till then he cannot wholly cease from those that are most properly his own works but is in danger of offending God and falling into sin continually and so can have no rest here Nay my beloved no man knows how far the Lord may suffer him to fall in this world Though it be a certain truth that they that are elect can never wholly fall away from God yet they may sin exceedingly to the dishonour of the Lord the scandal of their brethren and the irreparable wounding of their name while they have a day to live And this they are in danger of I mean of falling fearfully so long as they remain here What deadly falls have many of Gods worthies taken in their latter times It is observable that Davids first wayes are commended 2 Chron. 17.3 By which the Holy Ghost insinuates that his last wayes were not answerable to them He speaking of Jehosaphat walked in the first wayes of his Father David Indeed the latter wayes of David were blemished with extremity of sin and scandal The like is also noted of Solomon 1 King 11.9 And Asa 2 Chron. 16.10 And Jehosaphat 2 Chron. 20.35 And how then can the world but but be a doleful and uncomfortable place to Christs Disciples where they are in such hazard How can they but complain as Rebecca sometimes did though in another case If I must still be troubled with my lusts and my corruptions if I must still be over-ruled by them thus what good will continuance in the world do me The world hath alwayes been and is an evil c. in this respect that it is a place of banishment from Jesus Christ from him in whom their very souls delight This makes it sad and grievous to them that they have not Christ with them And this is that at which our Saviour aimeth in my text I am no more in this world but these are in the world There is the dolefulness of their condition that they are to continue here without me Indeed we are debarred of the immediate presence of the Lord while we remain in this world And therefore it is said expresly 2 Cor. 5.6 That whilest we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. And is not this a grievous thing to be kept from the enjoyment of such a one as Christ is Especially to him that knows him and is well acquainted with him and hath tasted of his sweetness can you blame him if he be weary of the world and if it be a trouble to him to continue here if be be willing to be absent from the body that so he may be present with the Lord What holy heart can choose but find a weariness in that place let it be otherwise as pleasant as it will which keeps Christ and him asunder and hinders him from the compleat fruition of his blessed Saviour Who would not gladly leave a place in which as long as he continues Christ and he must be asunder Vse 1 Now is it so my brethren that the world hath alwayes been and is an evil c. Then let it be a Caveat to us not to cast as we are very apt to do on too much joy and comfort here Our manner is when things look a little well and when we have some present quiet and content to promise great and extraodinary matters to our selves To sing a requiem to our souls with the rich man in the Gospel take thine ease eat drink and be merry It s true the men of this world may have some content and quietness and
he did so he had his reasons in his own breast and in his own bosom Only this is probable that he did it that he might be an Example and a president to us that we might learn of him to do as he did That when we are approaching to the Throne of Grace we might be very much possessed with deep and serious contemplations of the holiness of God I shall adde no more for proof but hasten to the Application Now is it so that even as God is holy in himself so Jesus Christ came Vse 1 to him as a holy God and looked c. Then let us learn of Jesus Christ how to behave our selves when we are making our addresses to the Majesty of God and pouring out prayers to him We are exhorted very often in the Scripture to be followers of Christ and so to walk and act as we have him for an Example In all his imitable ways and actions his practice ought to be a rule to us And therefore let us labour to conform our selves to Jesus Christ in this particular when we are drawing nigh to God in prayer let our thoughts be taken up with meditations of his holiness let them work much upon this attribute of his Indeed the Saints of the Old Testament when they set God upon his Throne and clothe him with his Majesty and glory as they use to do in the beginnings of their prayers do seem to take more notice of other attributes of God of his power of his dreadfulness his righteousness his faithfulness his truth his mercy then his holiness But under the New Testament you know God hath been served worshipped in a more spiritual way and here we have the High Priest of our profession Jesus Christ the most unparalleld and matchless pattern teaching us by his example to exercise our thoughts upon the holiness of God when we are making our approaches to him And therefore when at any time we set our selves to pray let us endevour to affect our selves and to be taken up with deep considerations of this attribute of his Let our most working apprehensions fix upon his holiness and make a deep impression of it in our hearts that we may carry it along throughout from the beginning of our supplications to the end It will be singularly useful to us as I shall shew you in a few particulars 1. It will help exceedingly to frame our hearts to put them into such a posture as the Lord delights in It 's true the meditation of other of the attributes of God hath its work upon our spirits when we are drawing nigh unto him But this me thinks hath somewhat proper and peculiar to it self further and beyond the rest It 's true the apprehension of the Mercy of the Lord will make us to have comfortable cheerful hearts the apprehension of his truth and faithfulness will make us to have bold couragious hearts the apprehension of his power and greatness will make us to have trembling and awful hearts But now the apprehension of his holiness will make us to have holy hearts that so we may be like him whom we are making our addresses to And holiness alone comprises all that hath been said and much more our cheerfulness our confidence our reverence in prayer are all but parts of holiness A holy frame of heart involves and comprehendeth in it all this and more besides then we are able to express Indeed what ever God takes pleasure in as to the temper of his people when they are pouring out their prayers to him is all contained under holiness Let them come with holy hearts and all is well and this they shall the better do if they consider with what an infinitely holy God they have to do Oh this will raise the heart if it be duly weighed to such a sweet and pretious frame that it will be no longer earthly it will be fit to have Communion with the holy God And therefore David presses the Consideration of this attribute of God in those whom he exhorts to worship him by way of preparation to that great business Psal 99.9 Exalt the Lord our God and worship at his holy hill for the Lord our God is holy 2. The meditation of the holiness of God will quicken us and stir us up as far as it is possible to cleanse our selves from every sin when we are making our approaches to him For sin my Brethren is against his holiness yea in directest opposition And therefore it is known by the name of filthiness and uncleanness in the Scripture Not only whoredom and adultery and fornication and sins of that kind are unclean as they are called uncleanness in the abstract but sin is generally so as you may see that place for instance 2 Cor. 7.1 And hence it is my Brethren that it is so odious to the Lord there being nothing in the world so contrary and so opposite to him and to his Nature as sin is No man in the world hates any thing no mans heart abhors and loaths and rises against any thing as the Lords against sin By reason of his pureness and his holiness he cannot brook it Hab. 1.13 he is not able to endure it He seems me thinks to shut his eyes and to cry out to his people Oh do not this abominable thing which I hate And therefore when men will not hold but commit it the infinitely holy God is vexed and troubled out of all measure so he is represented in the Scripture Isa 63.10 They rebelled against him saith the Prophet and they vexed his holy Spirit Because he was so holy he was vext the more at sin which was so filthy And truly my Beloved if we did seriously consider the holiness of God when we are about to pray we would not dare to bring this filthy thing into his presence which is so contrary to this attribute of his and consequently is so odious and detestable to him At least we would endeavour to the utmost of our power to cleanse our selves from all the filthiness of flesh and spirit to wash our hands and hearts in Innocency with holy David and so to compass Gods Atar to offer up the Incense of our prayers to him Oh we would shake and quiver every joint to think of coming to the Holy God in the midst of our pollutions unpurged and unhumbled for We would consider with our selves What will the Lord say to me when he sees me in his presence so defiled How will he look on such a filthy and abominable wretch as I am how is it possible but he should hide his eyes from me when he perceives the hands that I spread forth before him are so full of gore and blood how can he choose but loath me and abhor me Do I expect to find favour in his eyes and come before him with that which he so abhors as if I meant to vex him and provoke him And therefore if we ever look to speed
shall live so long on earth till he be full of days even as the stomack that is full of meat till he desire to live no longer till nature be spun out to the uttermost extent and after I will shew him my salvation I will bring him to the place where he shall live for evermore And hence it is because continuance here is properly and in it self a blessing as on the other side the contrary thereto the rooting out of the land of the living is properly and in it self a curse that holyest Saints have deprecated taking hence They have been so far from praying that God would take them out of the world that they have rather prayed against it Lord take me not away in the midst of my days Psal 102.24 How did they plead sometimes for their indangered lives as a prisoner at the bar and when the Lord was pleased to leave them in the world a little longer they were exceedingly affected and enlarged to thankfulness As Hezekiah was you know who penned a Psalm of praise on this occasion and this was the burthen of it The living the living they shall praise thee as I do this day Object But you will interpose and say perhaps Some of the choicest Saints of God have prayed expresly to be taken hence and therefore it should seem to be the proper subject matter of Petition Answ 1. To this I answer such as prayed aright did not make their removal hence by death the proper subject matter of their prayers They did not seek it simply and abstractly by and for it self but in relation to some other thing which they could not have without it It 's true indeed that the Apostle Paul desired to be dissolved and to be with Christ he could not be with Christ he knew unless he were dissolved first and therefore that he might injoy him he was contented to be dissolved for that end Or otherwise he would have been far enough from desiring dissolution And therefore in another place he speaks clearly We would not be unclothed saith he viz. of life and of the body 2 Cor. 5.4 that is not properly the thing that we desire But we would be clothed upon with immortality in heaven If it might be possible we would be clothed upon with that without the putting off of this Indeed he saith before in the Name of all the Saints We that are in this Tabernacle do groan being burthened But yet it was not life considered in it self that was their burthen but with its evil adjuncts and associates which do continually cleave to it and which cannot be severed from it in this world So that if you take life you must take that which comes with it In this respect indeed it is a burthen to the holyest Saints because it is accompanyed with such a burthen of corruption as makes them groan and faint under it But if it be considered simply and abstractly in it self it is not a burthen from which the Saints do groan to be delivered no it is a blessing rather of which they groan to be deprived 2. Most of the Saints who have desired God to take them hence have failed and sinned in those desires of theirs It was their weakness and infirmity they did it out of fear and despondency of Spirit out of passion and impatience And thus it seems Eliah did when he fled from Jezabel 1 King 19.4 And thus it is extreamly probable that Moses did Num. 11.10 15. For it is said he was displeased and in that angry fit he said to God Wherefore hast thou afflicted me If thou deal thus with me kill me I pray thee out of hand and do not let me see my wretchedness And thus it is apparent Jonas did who being crost in a punctilio in a point of honor out of a pettish foolish childish humour will go die forsooth God must take away his life These imperfections of the Saints are left upon record in Scripture not as marks to be aimed at but as rocks to be declined Vse Now to proceed to make some Application of the point My Brethren is it so that removal out of this world is not the proper subject matter of Petition Then let not any of us make it so when we are putting up our supplications and requests to God When we consider how the world hates us how it pours contempt upon us how it follows us with troubles persecutions and afflictions so that we see but little hope that we should ever live contentedly and quietly and freely here it may be we are weary of it and ever ready to desire the Lord that he would remove us from it To wish with Israel in a pang of discontent Numb 11.1 Would God we were dead And with Eliah It is enough Lord take away our lives 1 King 14.4 It 's that which many of us are too apt to do when we are over-loaden with the cares and troubles of this world to reach after deliverance and redress and ease by this means And therefore when we find our hearts are running out in such a way as this is let us call them in again let us correct our selves and say as our Saviour in my Text O Lord we pray not that thou wouldst take us out of the world we are far from such impatience we are content to wait thy leisure to tarry till thy time come And here to keep you from such extravagancies and irregular desires I shall present you with a few things It is a special mercy of the Lord to give us life and to continue us in this world though in a comfortless and sad condition David was in a sorry case afflicted persecuted and oppressed when he put up that prayer to the Lord Deal bountifully with thy servant or be beneficial to thy servant that I may live and keep thy Word Psal 119.17 He counted it a benefit to live how troublesome soever his condition were It 's that which even Nature teaches us to reach after Skin for skin and all that a man hath will he give for his life And yet a life with nothing else some will count worth nothing You know my Brethren all that God himself did promise to some very gratious men in times of common trouble and calamity was only this they should have their lives for a prey and that was all for great things were not to be looked for Jer. 39.38 and 45.5 And yet that was a great mercy If we be not taken hence perhaps we may enjoy the mercy to out-live troubles It is mercy to live in them but it is greater mercy to live beyond them and this if we be quiet and content and patient for ought we know may be our portion And this was that which David promised to himself when he was almost over-come and over-whelmed with his afflictions and distresses I shall not die but live saith he and declare the works of the Lord Psal 118.17 Me thinks he gathers up
should never be removed And there are many promises of special preservation from dangers and distresses made to those who have an interest in God and Christ I might heap up a multitude of such but there is one Psalm of David that seems to be a short Compendium and abridgement of them all viz. Psal 91. He shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler and from the noisome Pestilence He shall cover thee with his feathers his truth shall be thy shield and buckler thou shalt not be afraid for the terrour by night nor for the arrow that flyeth by day nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness nor the destruction that wasteth at noon-day A thousand shall fall at thy side and ten thousand on thy right hand but it shall not come nigh thee Only with thine eyes shalt thou behold it Thou shalt see it seize on others but for thy own part thou shalt be exempt from it There shall no evil befall thee neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling For he shall give his Angels charge over thee to keep thee Now these and such like promises the Lord makes good to his even in the very letter of them when in the infiniteness of his love and wisdom he sees it most expedient for them 2. Or if God do not keep them from affliction that it doth not touch them he keeps them that it doth not stay too long with them The rod of trouble though it strike them yet it doth not rest upon them It is on and off again in due time It s true God often suffers those who belong to Jesus Christ to be brought into affliction but then he doth not leave them there his manner is to bring them out again To deliver them from evil according to that passage in the Lords prayer And therefore he is stiled the deliverer of his people and the God of their salvation He that is our God is the God of salvation and to the Lord God belong the issues from death not from inferiour dangers only but from death it self And hence salvation is ascribed to him as his peculiar It is of the Lord sath Jonah Chap. 2.9 Salvation belongeth to the Lord saith David Psal 3.8 and his blessing upon his people It is his work to save us from distresses and afflictions the secondary means are subordinate to him they move but as he acts them And this is very usual with him if he prevent not the afflictions of his people that they do not come upon them yet he delivers them at length from those afflictions assoon as they have done their work in them yea let them be as many as they will Psal 34.19 Many are the afflictions of the righteous but the Lord delivereth them out of all 3. Or if God do not keep them who belong to Jesus Christ from the evil of affliction by way of preservation or deliverance from it he keeps them many times by way of preservation and delivery in it So that though it seize upon them it is no pain or trouble to them And thus he kept the three Confessors he did not save them from the furnace but he saved them in the furnace Dan. 3.27 The fire had no power upon their bodies nor was a hair of their head singed neither were their Coats changed nor the smell of fire did pass upon them According to that pretious promise Isa 43.2 when thou passest through the waters I will be with thee and through the rivers they shall not overwhelm thee when thou walkest through the fire thou shalt not be burned neither shall the flame kindle upon thee Or if not thus he qualifies his people so with inward peace and comfort and assurance that they feel not what they feel They are so ravished and transported to an extasie of holy joy that they are in a sort insensible even of the greatest torment that humane cruelty can devise to inflict Unto the righteous saith the Psalmist ariseth light in darkness glorious comfort even in the midst of greatest troubles Psal 112.4 Thy light shall rise in obscurity saith God Isa 58.10 And thy darkness shall be as the noon-day Such light did there arise to some of the blessed Martyrs when it was darkest with them in regard of outward comforts so that they sung in the prisons in the irons in the flames they were not able to contain themselves by reason of the sodain flash of joy that came breaking in upon them which made them to forget the miseries and torments which they suffered yea though the fire did kindle on them and consume them into ashes yet many of them warbled out melodious accents in the flames professed that they were amidst the fire as in a bed of down and spices where they felt nothing else but admirable joy and comfort These men you see did more then conquer they did triumph in the very midst of their unparalleld and matchless sufferings so that they might have taken up that comfortable speech of the Apostle Rom. 8.37 In all these things we are more then Conquerors And what were those things see at the 35. verse In tribulation and distress and persecution and famine and nakedness and peril and sword then which there are no greater outward evils in the world In all these things we are more then Conquerors through him that loved us 4. Or if God do not keep his people from the smart at least he keeps them from the hurt of their afflictions The world indeed may persecute them and that to the very death they may take away their names their estates their lives from them but though they kill them they can never hurt them God keeps them from the evil of all this from the evil in the world as you have it in my Text what ever comes upon them they are no losers in the main but gainers rather All things are for their sakes saith the Apostle 2 Cor. 4.15 for their profit and advantage Yea though the outward man perish by reason of the length or violence of the affliction the inward man is renewed day by day Their afflictions work out for them a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory They may suffer grievously their sufferings may deprive them of the life of nature but they cannot deprive them of the life of grace or glory They may be persecuted but they cannot be forsaken totally and finally they may be cast down but they cannot be destroyed 2 Cor. 4.9 They may be destroyd as men but they can never be destroyd as Saints In this respect they are like Mount Sion that can never be removed The rain descended saith our Saviour and the floods came and the wind blew and beat upon the house and it fell not for it was founded upon a rock Mat. 7.25 q.d. Nothing can hurt or overthrow him that is built on Jesus Christ he shall stand fast for evermore Nay to go a little further God doth not only
keep them that belong to Jesus Christ from the hurt of their afflictions but more then so he doth them much good by them that they may say as David doth when all is ended It is good for me that I have been afflicted I give you but a taste of this and I have done with Explication 1. Sometimes he awakens them by their afflictions they are sleepy and secure and God jogges and startles them and rouzes them by this means When men are bound in fetters saith Elihu and held fast in the cords of their afflictions so that they are not able to unlooose themselves and get away what then why then he sheweth them their works and their transgressions that they have exceeded in q.d. At such a time his manner is to represent their sins to them with all their circumstantial aggravations See an example of it in the Lords own people Gen. 42.21 when Josephs Brethren saw themselves taken for spies in Egypt and so in present danger of their lives the sin they had committed many years ago came as fresh into their minds and lay as heavy on their Consciences as if it had been newly done I know that troubles and distresses and the approach of death it self hath not always this effect on all men the Lord hath poured on some the spirit of slumber but usually they have on Gods people 2. Sometimes God abates their pride by their afflictions There is not any sin that makes a man more odious to the Lord then pride doth or is a greater bar to his salvation All that are proud in heart are an abomination to him Prov. 16.5 neither is there are any man but hath some reliques of this leaven in him which puffeth up his heart and makes him swell beyond measure Yea the choicest of the Saints have mighty inclinations to it especially if all things go on their side As it is said of Hezekiah when he was put into a prosperous estate his heart was lifted up 2 Chron. 32.25 and therefore God exposes them to sharp afflictions that he may hide the pride of man as the expression is Joh 33.17 that he may lessen and abate and wear it out till it be not to be seen 3. Sometimes God draws his people nearer to himself by their afflictions In their affliction they will seek me early saith the Lord of his people Hos 5.15 It seems they had been wofully regardless of the Lord in former times of happiness and peace and comfort but saith the Lord In their affliction they will hasten to me they will be eager after me and never rest till they have found me And this you shall observe to be the disposition of the sons men yea of the best and holyest of them they look not after God so much at any time as when they are in greatest exigencies and distresses And as the sails though they be some addition to the burthen of the ship yet they help it on the faster to the Haven So crosses and afflictions though they be a burthen to us yet they hasten us to God and draw us on the faster to the port of happiness And therefore God relating divers judgements which he was resolved to bring upon his own people by which he meant to strip them naked of all outward comforts at length concludes that this should be the issue of it Isa 17.7 At that day shall they look unto their Maker and their eyes shall have respect unto the Holy One of Israel It is a miserable thing yet so it is as long as we have any thing on earth to rest upon we enquire not after God With Noahs Dove if we can find a twig to pitch upon we are regardless of the Ark and therefore God by heavy crosses and afflictions strips us of these outward helps and strikes away the earthly things by which we stand and when we know not what to do when we are driven out of all our holes then our eyes are upon God when we look on every hand and refuge fails us every way and no man careth for our souls then we address our selves to God and say to him Thou art our refuge Psal 142.4 It seems that David though he were a holy man was very apt while he was furnished with these outward favors to rely too much upon them so far as to neglect the Lord. But when the Lord by crosses and afflictions took them from him or made him see the vanity and insufficiency of them then he cryed out And now Lord what wait I for my hope is in thee now I have tryed how fickle and how vain the creature is now I perceive by sensible experience that no help is in it Now Lord what wait I for c. And thus I think I have sufficiently cleared the point God can and will preserve c. To add a word or two for Application Vse This serves to let us see the admirable and transcendent happiness of all that have an interest in Jesus Christ in this respect that they are safe from all evil God will withhold no good from them as the Prophet David speaks and then upon the other side he will keep all evil from them as you have it in my Text. Beloved we are here in an uncomfortable place a wicked world in which we are exposed as considered in our selves to all evil We are exempt from no temptation No not the blackest and the bloodlest to the very worst of sins We are secure from no affliction no not the sharpest and the most extream If there be any worse then other which we conceive would be most bitter and intolerable to us it is going in the world and it may seise on us as well as others Yea we are always bearing with us in our bosoms that which is infinitely worse then both the other viz. the evil of corruption so that we seem to be in a very sad condition But yet this comfort waits upon us still the Lord will surely keep us absolutely free from the evil of them all The worst of them may do us good but it shall never do us hurt as long as there is any vertue in our Saviours Intercession as long as he hath any interest in God the Father And therefore when we look upon the world and see it marching out against us with bloody persecutions and afflictions when we look upon the Devil and see him ready to assault us with his fiery darts and fierce tentations when we look inward to our own hearts and see such swarms of hellish lusts and base corruptions there and are ready to cry out in the anguish of our souls Oh miserable men that we are who shall deliver us let us look up to Jesus Christ and think upon his powerful Intercession with the Father that he hath prayed him to preserve and keep us from all the evil in the world and so let us be quiet and secure Let us say as David once Though I walk in
the ordinary means by which he sanctifieth his people in a way of inchoation O then let Ministers be here intreated and prevailed withall as they desire the Reformation and Conversion of their people the working of unfeigned faith and grace in them to be diligent and instant in preaching the Word and Gospel unto them if they would have them turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God Let them lay out themselves in indefatigable pains this way Let them be instant as the Apostle Paul exhorteth Timothy in season and out of season and spare no labour to accomplish such a blessed end as this is Object But some may say perhaps That they have preached long and laboured hard and yet they see no issue no success of all their labours Their people are not turned to the Lord no grace appeareth in their lives and conversations so that they are exceedingly discouraged and disheartned in the work of God Sol. To this I shall reply in two or three particulars and I shall be brief in them for I am very sensible that other things will be more suitable to this Assembly First the fruit of their endeavours who faithfully dispense the Word of God is not always manifest Eliah thought he had been left alone and yet even then there were seven thousand men that had not bowed the knee to Baal Among the Rulers there were some who were indeed converted and believed in Christ and yet because they were but novices and newly entred they were fearful to acknowledge and confess him Grace is not always wrought with observation as our Saviour sheweth Mat. 13.13 It is compared to Seed in Scripture which after it is sowen lies hid and covered in the earth a while and is not seen And therefore faithful Teachers should not be disheartned because they cannot see the fruit of their indeavours it may be they have sowen the seed that may spring up and flourish in another age And they have laid the good foundation under ground and out of sight on which another faithful Minister may build and raise a very goodly frame And herein is that saying sometimes verified to use our Saviours own word Joh. 4.37 One soweth and another reapeth The Prophets laboured and the Apostles entred on their labours and so it is at this day Though their labour be in vain respectively to their desired issue and success the conversion of their people they ought not to desist from it No they must work the work of God they must continue preaching still though no fruit at all should follow Thou shalt speak my words unto them saith the Lord unto EZekiel chap. 2.7 whether they will hear or whether they will forbear for they are a rebellious house And the Apostles exhortation is very apposite to this purpose 2 Tim. 4.4 They shall turn away their ears from the truth and shall be turned unto fables What now must Timothy desist from preaching any more unto them No saith the Apostle watch thou in all things endure affliction make full proof of thy Ministry Be diligent perform thy duty and leave the success to God Waiting if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledgement of the Truth and that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the Devil by whom they are led Captive at his will If they continue in their ministerial labours though no apparent good be done by it they want not great encouragement They are to God a sweet savour in Christ not in them that are saved only but in them that perish too 2 Cor. 2 15. Though they spend their strength in vain with reference to the conversion of the people yet their judgement is with the Lord and their work is with their God that is the recompence and reward of it Isa 49.4 And they have their recompence secundum laborem non secundum proventum as Bernard speaks according to their labour and not according to the issue and success But in the last place my Beloved if after all their tiring pains and tedious expectation God should be pleased so to bless their labours to make them happy instruments of bringing in his chosen to him their comfort would be very great in this world their recompence exceeding glorious in the world to come For they that are not only wise themselves but also are the instruments of making others wise too shall have a great deal of glory they shall shine as the stars in the Kingdom of God for ever and ever And as the Ministers are hence encouraged to preach the Word so in Vse 2 the second place the people may be perswaded hence to hear it attend upon it If you be yet without the Covenant and have not any saving grace in you this is the ready way to have it wrought in your souls It is the Word by which God sanctifieth in a way of inchoation and if the Lord be pleased to concurr with it you may be sanctified by this means you are not able to convert your selves My Brethren you are not able to renew and sanctifie your selves but the blessed Word of God if he be pleased to add vertue to it may operate and bring about these great effects The Law that is the Word of God converts the soul the Truth that is the Word of truth so is the Gospel called in opposition to the types and shadows of the Law renews and sanctifies the heart according to our Saviour Christs Petition to his Father here in the behalf of his Disciples Sanctifie them with thy Truth thy Word is truth And therefore you that are strangers to the life of grace be you intreated and prevailed withal to put your selves under the powerful preaching of the Word and Gospel of the Lord Jesus O wait upon the doors of Wisedoms house be swift to hear attend upon the Word of God lay hold on every opportunity to be partakers of this holy Ordinance and then perhaps it may in time become a word of grace unto you you may be sanctified by this Truth Vse 3 Is it so That the Word of God is the ordinary means by which he sanctifieth his people in a further measure by which he works not only the beginnings but also the increase of grace which is the second member of the point We see then what the reason is why many Christians do not grow make no increase at all in holiness and grace nay rather in a declining and abating hand there may be many causes of it and this is not the least of the decay of many men because they do not wait upon the powerful preaching of the Word of God which is the means to make them prosper and to thrive in grace You may take notice of too many such who while they constantly attended on the means were zealous lively active fruitful Christians their gifts were always on the growing hand But since they have remitted of their diligence in this
opinion But you will interpose and ask me then What are not private Christians to imploy their gifts for the common benefit Yes to the very utmost my Beloved As every man hath received the gift so let him minister the same one to the other as good stewards of the manifold graces of God 1 Pet. 4.16 Their gift they have received to profit withal and that not themselves alone but others also But still within their own sphere within compass of their own calling They may and ought as they are able to teach c. as the Apostle speaks Col. 2.12 in a way of conference and this lies as a duty on them all in some degree For this is no Evangelical counsel but an Evangelical precept it is not permitted only but required But none of them may take upon him to be the publick Teacher of the whole without a due Vocation and Ordination thereunto How shall they preach except they be sent saith the Apostle Rom. 11.15 How shall they do it lawfully He doth not say except they be gifted but except they be sent Qualification is not enough without mission he must not go forth of himself but must be sent forth by Christ Is it so That the Apostles and Ministers of Christ are sent by him Vse 2 This then may serve to let us see how far the power and the authority of Ministers extends in binding and in loosing and in proclaming either war or peace They do it but as servants in a ministerial way and by a delegated power and in the execution of it they must exactly keep them by the rule and the directions which they have received from him that sent them They may not act according to their own discretion and as it seemeth good to them but must proceed in every thing according to the orders and instructions of their Master Or if they swerve a jot from these they stray beyond the bounds of their Commission and their authority is void So that the power of Ministers in this regard is Ministerial and declarative Yet this I add because they do it by Commission from the Lord and as Messengers of Christ it comes from them by reason of his Ordinance with more assurance to the Conscience then from any private person Vse 3 Is it so that the Apostles c. This then may serve to mind them what their duty is and I shall give it you in two words 1. They must do his work and deliver his message the errand which he sends them in They must not bring their own devices to the people their own fancies and conceits the issue of their own brains the froth of their own spirits as many do in these times No they must speak the words of Christ and speak them fully and compleatly They must fulfill the word of God as the Apostle speaks Col. 1.25 They must without respect or fear deliver all their Masters message to any man to whom he sends them how great soever he may be They must not out of base and servile dread of any suppress or mince their errand in the least degree or deal so mannerly with men that they become unfaithfull to the Lord Christ No they must seriously consider that though themselves be mean and despicable persons yet they are Ministers and Messengers of Christ himself who is higher then the highest among men And therefore as the Noble Roman said non ita memor sum dignitatis vestrae ut obliviscar me esse consulem So they must say when they are dealing with the great ones of the world I am not mindfull of dignity so far as to forget that I am the Embassador and Messenger of Jesus Christ They must be bold and resolute with this assurance that he that sendeth them will bear them out according to his many pretious promises which he hath made for their encouragement to faithfulness in his service 2. And as they must deliver Christs errand and not their own so for Christs ends and not their own they must not seek their own profit or their own honour but the honour of their Master As Christ who was the Fathers messenger glorified not himself as the Apostle speaks but him that sent him Heb. 5.5 so they that are the messengers of Christ must not glorifie themselves but Christ that sent them They must act for him and wooe for him and win the souls of men to him Their work must be to set him up and to advance him that he may appear They must with John the Baptist be contented to decrease to wither in their reputation and esteem so Christ may be in the increasing hand They must not endeavour to take such a course in the work of the Ministry that they may seem witty and learned and eloquent that men may admire them and applaud their abilities but that they may admire Christ that the thoughts and affections of men may be carried to him They must not preach themselves but the Lord Jesus Christ as the Apostle did 2 Cor. 4 5. Vse 4 Is it so that Apostles Ministers c. Then let the Church be here directed and advised to prove those that pretend they are the Ministers of Jesus Christ whether they be sent by Christ or no. The Church of Ephesus is much commended for her care and diligence in this regard Apoc. 2.2 I know thy works saith Christ there and thy labour and thy patience and how thou canst not bear them which are evil c. And thou hast tried them who say they are Apostles and are not and hast found them lyers They said they were the Messengers of Christ and that they were sent by Christ for that 's the meaning of the word Apostle but indeed they were not The Church did not give them credit till she tried them and so discovered them to be impostors and deceivers And truly there are many such in these times who say they come from Jesus Christ when indeed he never sent them They are Messengers of Satan and not of Christ and therefore it concerns the Church to prove them well who come with these pretences and to sift them to the bottome that they may know not the speech of these men only but the power as the Apostle speaks 1 Cor. 4 19. And here you are not only to consider whether they have obtained the election and ordination of the Church or no for many reach to this who are never sent by Christ But there are other things to be observed I shall lay them down in order They that are sent by Jesus Christ are furnished with competent ability at least for the delivery of their message You must not think that Christ will send by the hand of a fool No if there be a Messenger of Christ he is one of a thousand for gifts and abilities In the time of the Law when he raised up Prophets what spirit what power what understanding was there in them And is his hand shortned
Brethren they have not gone beyond their line they have not strayed beyond the bounds of their Commission Christ doth not send his Ministers as you have heard particularly or restrictively to any Countrey or to any Nation but their Commission leaves them free to all the world Even the Commission not of Apostles only but of the ordinary Ministers of Christ as I have shewed before in Explication of the point so that they are within their compass still though they be among the Indians even at the other end of all the Earth And it is to be very much observed that Christ hath given abundant testimony to this glorious work of theirs in the incredible success of their endeavours there so that poor naked souls come continually to Jesus Christ stoop to the Government and Scepter of his Kingdom desire to be acquainted with his will to be instructed in the way of his worship to have their children brought up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord And in a word they shame us who have so long enjoyed the Gospel that we are even weary of it and begin to put it from us and so to judge our selves unworthy of eternal life The Lord in mercy grant it go not from us to the Indians who prize it more are more eager after it and more fruitful under it according to their light then multitudes of us professed Christians are Now I beseech you my Beloved cast an eye upon them travail thither in your thoughts and meditations there you shall see some Ministers of Jesus Christ once our fellow-Labourers spending themselves undergoing difficulties without number or measure to convert souls and gather Churches among blind Heathens There you shall see the Gospel blossoming the Church enlarging her Tent and stretching forth the Curtains of her habitation the Doves flocking to the windows of the Ark the Church of Christ the fulness of the Gentiles now beginning to come in and in a word that great work going on which is incomparably the most remarkable that Christ hath yet to do in this world What shall we do now my Beloved and how shall we behave our selves under such a dispensation shall we as many have done heretofore and it may be yet do condemn the Instruments as if they went beyond themselves in this business Shall we mock at these beginnings of the building of the Temple shall we despise the day of small things shall we as Gallio care for none of these matters Truly the least that we can do is to comply with Jesus Christ in this design of his for which he sends his Ministers into the world and to promote this glorious work to the utmost of our power It is in the hands of those for whom as you have heard it is too heavy so that they cannot mannage it they are not able to go through with it They seem to call over to us as the man of Macedonia Come to America and help us Oh let not such a work miscarry and fail of being driven on for want of any help that we can yield to it a work that is so purely Christian as this is But which way can we help it on it may be you will say to me Truly my Brethren if no other way we may promote and help it on at least without purses and our prayers This we may do at this distance I shall speak a word to either 1. We may promote it with our prayers This was the course the Prophet took as you may see Isa 62.1 In the precedent chapter he is very large and eloquent on this business shewing the future glory of the Church by the addition of the fulness of the Gentiles in all Countries and in all Nations And having done with the description of it in two whole Chapters me thinks he is an end to hasten the fruition of it For Zions sake I will not hold my peace saith he and for Jerusalems I will not rest So we my Brethren having heard of the beginning of this great work in America let us do as Isaiah did let us be always crying to the Lord let him be hard beset on all hands let him not have a quiet hour The Lord hath set his Watchmen on the walls of his Jerusalem to this purpose Isa 62.6 that they may watch such opportunities as these are And least he should forget this great work when it is upon the wheel he hath appointed some remembrancers to mind him of it and therefore let us be continually minding God of this business beseeching him to go on with this work till he hath brought it to perfection till the whole fulness of the Gentiles be come in till Christ inherit all Nations Let us remember that we have a little sister in America and that now is the day of speaking for her for now her case and business is in agitation and therefore now let us be earnest with the Lord let us pray and pray hard let us not be cold or dead in such a suit as this is We may promote it with our purses and estates And this is that especially we have in hand at this time There are very many things in that great business now on foot that need pecuniary helps as hath been said The charge that lies on these that are the agents in it is exceeding great and indeed too heavy for them and therefore we me thinks that share not in the difficulties and the labours that other of our Brethren undergo among the Indians should be content to share a little in the costs for who would willingly sit wholly out in such a blessed work as this is Alas my Brethren how much idle mony do we spend a hundred ways that might be saved for such a purpose And truly I believe we never had occasion to lay mony out to a better end then this Now we may help in a qualified sense to purchase souls with money to further the accomplishment of the Gospel promises with money we may make temporal and earthly things serve spiritual and heavenly ends And therefore I beseech you my Beloved enlarge your bounty more then ordinary in such a choise and extraordinary work as this is Let love to Christ and to his Church compassion to those blind Americans draw out your very hearts to them that those poor Indian souls whose Conversion and Salvation you may further by this means may bless you Thus make you friends of the unrighteous Mammon that you may render up a good account when the day of reckoning comes Is it so That Jesus Christ sends forth his Ministers into the world and Vse 2 that as I have said to gather Churches and erect his Kingdom over all the world Then let this raise our hearts my Brethren in reference to this work which is indeed the greatest and the most eximious that Christ hath yet to do in this world Oh let our hearts be lifted up towards it and that especially three ways in
faith in expectation in Petition I shall speak to them in order Let our hearts be lifted up in faith with reference to this work Let them be raised to a full and firm belief that it shall surely be accomplished in the Lords own time Christ hath sent forth his Ministers about it and brought it on a great way and therefore let us rest upon it that he will surely finish it in his season It may be you may look upon it as a thing almost impossible that all the Nations of the world should turn to Christ and receive him for their King But if you will cast back your eye on the beginnings of this glorious work you cannot but acknowledge that it was as hard to bring it on to what it hath attained already in the world as to perform that which remaineth to be done All that which we expect is not so hard as that which Christ hath done already If you had seen him here upon the Earth and his fishermen about him you would not have imagined that so many Nations would ever have been brought in to him as there are at this day When he sent out a company of poor despised men to preach the Gospel and to draw men in to him by telling them they must deny themselves and they must take up their Cross and suffer persecution for his sake they must forsake all leave all and follow him you would have thought this had been an unlikely way to do very great matters And yet by such improbable unlikely means as these hath Christ been entertained in many Nations and many Countreyes and multitudes of people have been brought to stoop to him And therefore seeing he hath done so much already and that in such a strange way as you would never have believed if you had not seen it done you may the better cast your selves upon him with this assurance that he will overcome the difficulties that are yet behind that he that hath begun the work and prospered it so far as he hath done will finish it untill he hath brought in the fulness of the Gentiles to his Church and Kingdom from one end of the earth unto the other Object But you will ask me now perhaps What would you have us to believe that all the people of the world shall accept of Jesus Christ and receive him for their King and be the Subjects of his Kingdom Why then it seems there should be no tares no Goats no wicked when that time comes Sol. No my beloved this is not the thing at which I aim And therefore you may not be mistaken you must remember that distinction of the Kingdom of Christ Iesus into the Kingdom of power and the Kingdom of grace The first of these indeed is universal and doth already reach to all places and to all persons Though all be not the subjects of the grace of Christ yet all are subject to the power of Christ And hence the Psalmist tells us that his Kingdom rules over all Psal 103.19 And that he is the King of all the earth Psal 47.7 he is King of all the places in the earth yea and of all the persons in the earth either one way or the other Either he is a gracious King to rule them or a powerfull King to break them And thus his Kingdom doth already reach to all Countreys and to all people But now my brethren for the second Kingdom which we have called the Kingdom of grace that is also in a sence to stretch and to extend it self to all places and to all people I shall clear it very briefly 1. It is to stretch and to extend it self to all places and to all Countreyes The Church of Jesus Christ is to be Catholick in this respect and so by consequence his Kingdom too it is to be erected and set up in all Nations And hence the Holy Ghost affirmeth that all the people Languages and Nations in the world shall serve him And the Apostle tells us that in the business of sanctification or setting up the Kingdom of Christ Jesus in the hearts of men there is neither Greek nor Jew neither Scythian nor Barbarian but Christ is all in all That is the Jew is not preferred before the Greek and neither of them is preferred before the Scythian and Barbarian but all of them are one to Christ and Christ is one to all of them and he will have a Church and Kingdom as well among the Scythians and Barbarians as among the Jews themselves 2. And as this Kingdom is to stretch and extend it self to all places and to all Countreyes so it is also to extend it self to all people That is to all degrees and sorts of people though not to all of those sorts And as there is no Nation so there is no condition or estate or rank of men excluded from the grace of Jesus Christ nor barred from being subjects of his gratious Kingdom here and of his glorious Kingdom hereafter Let our hearts be lifted up in expectation of this glorious work Since Christ hath sent forth his instruments about it to gather Churches and to erect his Kingdom over all the world and since the work hath prospered very far and now is going on amain among the Indians let us not lye still and idle as if we knew not what is a doing in the world Now Christs work is in his hand let our eyes be in our heads and let it raise up extraordinary expectations in us The Prophet having had a glymps of this most excellent and glorious work in contemplation when it was not yet begun is on tip-toe presently Isa 62.1 And so let us especially now we behold it in the execution let us lift up our heads and look let us get up on our watch-towers where we may have more advantage to see if by any means we can discover more of it and let our spirits be continually reaching after the fufilling of it as being full of hope about it Let our hearts be lifted up in supplication for the accomplishment of this work Not that we can change the Lord by any means or antedate his Counsels and Decrees but yet if we would have such glorious works to come to execution it is extreamly necessary for us to do that on which the execution of them is suspended in the Scripture I will build the ruined and I will plant the desolate and desert places saith the Lord Ezek. 36.37 I will build the ruined Nation of the Jews which was a Church in former times and I will plant the desolate and desert places of the Gentiles I the Lord have spoken it and I will do it But yet on this condition that I will be enquired of by my people The Lord will surely come my brethren in his own appointed season and gather Churches and erect his Kingdom over all the world But in the mean time he will have his people pray Thy Kingdome come he will have
them hasten him and fetch him by their prayers that he may say unto them as the Angel did to Daniel Dan. 10.12 From the first day that thou didst set thy self to understand thy words were heard and I am come for thy words And here to quicken you a little I shall present you with a few Considerations 1. The Lord expects you should be very earnest and importunate with him this business He hearkens after supplications and looks that men should ply him hard Thus saith the Lord the holy one of Israel and his maker Isa 45.11 Ask of me things to come concerning my Sons command you me q. d. There are great things to come that I am doing for my Church what is the reason that ye are so stil and that I hear of no Petitions from you touching these things You are alwayes plying me for present things but I delight to hear you pleading with me for those glorious things to come which I will surely do for my people Come put in your Petitions and requests concerning them and I will stoop so low to be commanded by your prayers Ask of me things to come concerning my Sons and concerning the work of my hands command ye me 2. Consider in the second place to quicken you in prayer that this is such a business as is worth your earnestness assure your selves you cannot lay out too much heat and zeal upon it When once the Lord hath gathered in a people to him over all the world the Church shall have perfection of beauty It is a very high expression but you shall see it is applied to Sion Psal 50.2 And it is meant apparently my bretren of the Gospel Sion of the Gospel Church for in the following parcell of the Psalm the Lord rejecteth Jewish worship Indeed the Churches happiness shall be so great in those dayes that it is called heaven very often in the Scripture And so the Saints who are to be the Members of that Church are said to dwell in heaven Apoc. 13.6 Indeed my brethren it shall be heaven upon earth 3. Consider that the bringing in of people over all the world to Christ will be an extraordinary honour to him the enlargement of his Kingdom is the enlargement of his glory It adds exceedingly you know my brethren to the Luster of a Kingdom when it hath many people under it and when the territories of it are amplified and enlarged It s no such glory my beloved to be the King but of a little City or a little Island or of a small and inconsiderable company of men But to be the King of many Nations and of many Kingdoms to have a multitude of people in subjection this is a glorious thing indeed In this respect the Empire of Christ Jesus in the latter times shall be unparalleld when once the Jews come in and bring the fulness of the Gentiles with them And therefore out of love to Jesus Christ and regard to his glory we should be intent upon it 4. Consider that the bringing in of people over all the world to Jesus Christ will be very beneficial and advantagious to our selves Perhaps we do not apprehend it to be so this Countrey is come in already to the profession of the Gospel we are come in already and what need we care so much for other Nations and for other people We are well enough our selves and why should we look after others Yes my beloved we have reason to look after others for till all others that belong to Christ of all the Nations of the world be gathered in we are not in so good a case as we shall be afterwards We are in Christ perhaps and that is well for us indeed but others of his people by election of many other Countreyes are as yet without and we without them cannot be made perfect as the Apostle shews Heb. 11. ult We without them are members in a sence of an imperfect body We without them have but imperfect grace nay though we were in heaven already we could have but imperfect glory Till all that appertain to Christ be gathered in of all Nations so long as there is but a man without there can be no day of judgement and so no full reward no complement of our beatitude And therefore we have reason to help on this glorious work to the utmost of our power because till it be accomplished it cannot be so well with us as it will be afterwards we without them cannot be made perfect Is it so that Iesus Christ sends forth his Ministers to gather Churches and to erect his Kingdom over all the world Here then is matter of rejoycing and thanksgiving for us the once rejected and neglected people of the Gentiles There was a time my brethren when we were set without the verge the reach of mercy When the poor Gentiles liv'd and we too liv'd without God without Christ without a promise without Gospel when Christ did never send to them to invite them to come in and when he had no Scepter but in Jewry no subjects in a manner but among that people Alas my brethren Christ was a King in those dayes to break the Gentiles by his power but he was not a King to rule them by his grace But now my brethren in these Gospel dayes there is no such respect of persons with him as the Apostle shews Acts 10.34 In every Nation and in every people he hath or shall have some to serve him and to be accepted with him And therefore whereas formerly he sent his messengers to none but to V se 3 the people of the Jewish Nation and gave them an express Injunction Goe not into the way of the Gentiles In which respect it was that Peter was scrupulous to preach the Gospel to Cornelius Now he sends forth his Ministers to all the world to all Nations now he enlargeth their Commission Go preach the Gospel to every Creature So that we Gentiles are included in it All Countreys People Callings Nations are alike to Christ in this respect the publication of the Gospel and the tender of Salvation belongeth to them all alike and if they entertain it and embrace it whether they be Jews or Gentiles whether they be Males or Females whether they be bond or free they shall have salvation by him How great a cause have we my brethren that are Gentiles of rejoycing and thanksgiving that Jesus Christ should send to us that the word is come to us as it is to all the world that we should have the Gospel published and revealed to us That we who formerly were utterly shut out from the enjoyment of the means of our salvation should have as full and free a title to them now as the very Iews themselves Nay that we should have the preferment of the Jew in that by the abundant blessing of the Lord upon the means the Churches of the Gentiles which were wholly desolate and barren heretofore should be more
thus he dealt you know with Saul and Judas But he chose Christ out of a special and peculiar love never to be reversed again And just so he chose us in and by and through Christ out of the very same love and with the very same intentions in reference to revocation that he chose Christ And what will God cast away his people whom he hath foreknown from everlasting whom he hath chosen in his Son Christ before the foundation of the world was laid as the Apostle speaks Eph. 1.4 No no his choice of us is as unalterable as his choice of Christ himself And when he casts away Christ then and not till then my brethren will he cast away us Doth God the Father love believers as his servants even as he loves Christ Then surely he will deal with us in this regard much as he dealt with Christ as I shall shew you in a few particulars 1. He will uphold us as he did uphold Christ A Master will uphold his servant in any business or employment that he setteth him about Especially a servant that he loves So did God uphold Christ and he seems to glory in it and to call us to observe it Isa 42.1 Behold my Servant whom I uphold I am resolved to bear him out meddle with him he that dare Indeed when the appointed time was come he gave him up to suffer what he had designed him to But in the interim he bore him out so that no projects no attempts could take against him they could not seize upon him they could not hurt him saith the Gospel story because his hour was not yet come Even so will God uphold us untill our hour be come too For we are servants whom he loves even as he loved Christ And as he is a loving so he is an al-sufficient and almighty Master as he said to Abraham when he took him to be a Covenant-servant to him Gen. 17.1 And therefore he will be not only a reward but a shield to his servants a shield and an exceeding great reward as his own expression is Gen. 15.1 A reward for their salvation and a shield for their protection 2. God will assist us in his service as he did assist Christ Christ had a piece of work you know in hand that was very difficult so that he sweat and that not ordinary sweat but drops of blood trickling down upon the earth Yea more then so he fainted while he was about it But God his Master that employed him took a special care of him and sent an Angel down from heaven of purpose to comfort him and strengthen him Luke 22.43 And when as man he feared how he should hold out and how he should go through with the business as to any self sufficiency as a Creature and so wept and cried to God he had a very sweet return as you may see Heb. 5.7 When in the dayes of his flesh he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears to him that was able to save him he was heard in that he feared Just so doth God support us in the work he calls us to for we are servants whom he loves even as he loved Christ If he perceive the service that we have in hand to be too difficult and hard for us then in comes God and puts his own hand to the work What canst thou not go through with it Come let me help thee saith the Lord. It is observed of the Levites that God helped them 1 Chron. 15.26 And the Apostle tells us that the spirit helpeth our infirmities Rom. 8.26 he stands against us and bears up the burthen with us So that the weakest servants of the Lord need not fear the hardest service or the heaviest burthen when he hath such a one to help him and when those everlasting arms are underneath him as the Prophet speaks Deut. 33.27 What said the Lord to Paul when he was hard bestead and when he was about to faint My grace is sufficient for thee And this made Paul to say I can do all things through Christ that strengthneth me Phil. 4.13 3. Out of this love God will reward us for the service that he enables us to do as he did reward Christ As soon as he had done his work he had his wages down upon the nail for he was heard in that prayer John 15.4 I have glorified thee upon earth I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do and now Oh Father glorifie me with thy self And so as soon as we have ended and dispatched the business that God hath put into our hands we shall receive our own reward according to our own labour Having had the fruit to holiness we shall receive the end eternal life If we be faithfull to the death we shall receive the Crown of life Apoc. 2.10 If we continue in the Vineyard to the Evening we shall have our penny If we hold out to the period of our lives when we shall come to dye we may conclude with God as Christ doth in the forealledged place We have glorified thee on earth we have finished the work which thou gavest us to do and now O Father glorifie us with thy self and we may sing our dying Song with the Apostle 1 Tim. 4.7 We have fought a good fight we have finished our Course henceforth there is laid up for us a Crown of righteousness which God the righteous Judge will give us Doth God the Father love believers as his Children even as he loves Christ doth he affect them under that relation too and that as he doth Christ Then surely he will shew him self a loving Father to them as he doth to Christ and that especially in two respects 1. He will hear them as he doth hear Christ You know it is but ask and have with Christ Thou art my Son saith God the Father to our Saviour Psa 2.6 this day I have begotten thee And what follows Ask of me and I will give thee And this is that which Christ himself acknowledges John 11.42 Father I thank thee because thou hast heard me Yea so he might in that particular and yet he might deny him in another But mark what followes presently and I know thou hearest me alwayes Thou art my Father and I am thy Son and hence it is that thou art so inclinable to hear me to let me have my own asking Even so will God hear us in every thing that we desire according to his will for we are Children also whom he loves even as he loves Christ And therefore as it was but ask and have with Christ just so it is with us too Ask and it shall be given you Mat. 7.7 And that because he is our loving Father as he is Christs Our heavenly Father will undoubtedly give good things to them that ask him 2. He will provide for us as he doth for Christ You know he hath provided well for Christ He is not his Son
us up as far as it is possible to cleanse our selves from sin when we are making our approaches to him For sin my Brethren is against the righteousness of God yea in directest opposition And therefore it is set out by the name of unrighteousness in Scripture Not only all injustice is unrighteousness but sin is generally so The wrath of God saith the Apostle is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men Rom. 1.18 against every kind of sin especially that violates the second Table And so all unrighteousness is sin saith the Evangelist 1 Joh. 5.17 And I may say as well all sin is unrighteousness And hence it is my Brethren that it is so infinitely odious to the righteous God And truly did we seriously consider this my Brethren when we come to pray before him we should be deeply humbled for it and ashamed of it we should strive exceedingly to quit and rid our selves of it which is so contrary to this attribute of his and consequently is so detestable to him Oh we would shake and quiver every joynt to think of coming to the righteous God in our unrighteousness unhumbled for and unreformed We would consider with our selves What will the Lord say to me when he sees me in his presence How will he look on such a wicked and unrighteous wretch as I am how is it possible but he should hide his eyes from me how can he choose but hate me and abhor me Do I expect to find favour in his eyes and come before him with that which he so abhors as if I meant to vex him and provoke him And therefore if we ever look to speed with God in prayer let us consider what a righteous God he is and let us labour to cleanse our selves from our unrighteousness that is as far as it is possible from every sin and he will receive us as his own expression is 2 Cor. 6.17 or otherwise he will not 2. The meditation of the righteousness of God will strengthen and confirm our faith in all the pretious promises of God when we are pouring out our prayers to him Because indeed his righteousness and justice lies at stake for the performance of his promises by reason of his Covenant and Engagement to us It is true before he made the Covenant he was free he might have done according to his own pleasure But having made it he is bound he is held to it and may not vary Now he must forgive our sins ours that believe or else he is unrighteous as the Apostle John insinuates 1 Joh. 1.19 He is faithful and just to forgive our sins Now he must reward our labour or else he is unrighteous as the Apostle speaks Heb. 6.10 The Lord is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour He doth not say the Lord is not unmerciful but the Lord is not unrighteous Now he must give us everlasting rest and render everlasting trouble to our enemies or else he is unrighteous And therefore saith the same Apostle 2 Thess 1.6 It is a righteous thing with God to render tribulation to them that trouble you and to you who are troubled rest with us And therefore when we pray for the pardon of our sins the acceptance of our labours or any other good thing comprehended in the Covenant from the beginning of it to the end Let us fix our serious thoughts not only on the mercy but also on the justice and the righteousness of God and we shall find it will exceedingly confirm our wavering faith while we consider that his righteousness is bound for the performance of his promises and that as sure as God is righteous he will with-hold no good thing from us JOHN 17.25 The world hath not known thee OUR Saviour having ended the petitionary part is at length come to the conclusion of his prayer In which he shews the Father reason why he should be heard in all that he hath been a Suitor for in the behalf of true believers viz Because himself and they were inwardly acquainted with him whereas all the world besides were strangers to him as I have noted heretofore In this conclusion of our Saviours prayer have been considered two things To whom he speaks and What he speaks First To whom he speaks and this you see my brethren is to God whom he stileth Righteous Father Secondly then in the next place What he speaks and here is something that he speaks against the world and something that he speaks for himself and true believers 1. Here is something that he speaks against the world the world hath not known thee 2. Then here is something that he speaks for himself and true believers but I have known thee and these have known that thou hast sent me To whom our Saviour speaks as he is set forth by his title and his attribute hath been considered heretofore The thing which we have now in hand is what he speaks and more particularly what he speaks against the world Oh Righteous Father the world hath not known thee We have observed heretofore out of the ninth verse of this Chapter that he speaks not for the world No it is utterly excluded from having any share at all in our Saviours intercession let their case be what it will let their necessities be what they will Christ even leaves them to themselves and never interposes for them to the Father Nay which is worse he speaks against them He speaks against the world as you hear him in my text You see he cannot end his prayer but he must have a parting blow at them Oh righteous Father the world hath not known thee to kindle and exasperate his wrath against them It hath not known thee with a knowledge of affection they have not known thee so as to love thee and obey thee They are strangers yea they are enemies to thee Let justice have its course against them let it be executed on them to the utmost This I have glanced at only from the general that Christ speaks against the world Proceed we more particularly to consider what he speaks against the world Oh Righteous Father the world hath not known thee And here I shall unfold the terms and come to a more special observation Two things we have to be enquired and resolved 1. Whom our Saviour means by world 2. What he intendeth when he affirmeth of the world that it doth not know God As for the first of these The world imports not here the frame and frabrique of the world as it doth sometimes in Scripture but the people of the world And yet not all the people of the world neither for Jesus Christ immediately excepts himself and true believers The world hath not known thee but I have known thee and these have known thee The world you see is set in opposition here to Christ and his Disciples So that our Saviour by the world intends all the people in the world besides himself and
true believers Now of all these he saith expresly that they know not God You must not understand it absolutely that they know him not at all in no respect and under no consideration The very Heathen know him in a sense and in a measure There is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 somewhat to be known of God by the works of the creation and by the things that he hath made Rom. 1.19 even by the book of Creatures which the Heathens have and study And therefore it is charged upon them afterwards at ver 21. that when they knew God they glorified him not as God They did not glorifie him according to their knowledge of him And if the Heathen who have but the Book of Creatures know the Lord a little Professed Christians who have the Book of Scriptures know him more I say professed Christians who have no interest at all in Christ no truth of saving grace in them even these may go far in a notional speculative discoursive knowledge of the Lord beyond many sound believers and yet these are of the world So that our Saviour means not absolutely when he saith to his Father here The world hath not known thee q. d. they have not known thee at all But they have not known thee so in such a manner and with such a kind of knowledge as I and true believers do Oh Righteous Father the world hath not known thee but I have known thee and these have known that thou hast sent me and I have declared unto them thy name all that is necessary to be known of thee You see the meaning of the words The world here is opposed to Jesus Christ and true believers So that it is not mundus mundus but mundus immundus as Austin calls it It is the unbelieving and unsanctified world saith our Saviour knows not God He means not that they know him not at all but they know him not aright How and in what respects they know him not a right I shall open by and by In the mean time the Point is this DOCTRINE That unbelievers and unsanctified persons know not God at least they know him not in such a manner and with such a knowledge as they ought to do This is the usual Character of such in Scripture This is the Character of unbelieving Heathens they are the Gentiles that know not God 1 Thes 4.5 This is the Character of unbelieving Christians they know not God and obey not the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ 1 Thes 1.8 So that all unbelieving and unsanctified persons whether they be Heathens or professed Christians are ignorant of God yea though they discourse of him and that excellently too and pretend acquaintance with him as those whom the Apostle mentions Tit. 1.16 They profess they know God but in works they deny him Yea though they cry to God as Israel did my God we know thee while they cast off the thing that is good Hosea 8.2 3. yet they know not God indeed Their knowledge of him is not right and sound and consequently is not worthy of the name of knowledge as I shall evidently clear it to you in a few particulars Unbelievers c. know not God in such a manner and with such a kind of knowledge as they ought to do in that they know him not with an affective knowledge so as to love him and delight in him Knowledge in Scripture doth connote affection and that which carries not the heart and the affections with it deserveth not the name of knowledge And therefore men are frequently affirmed in Scripture not to know that which they do not like and love The Ox knows his owner c. but Israel knows not me saith God Isa 1.3 Why certainly they knew him if any people under Heaven knew him with a discursive and a speculative knowledge I but they knew him not with an affective knowledge Their knowledge of him drew not out their hearts to him and therefore in the Lords interpretation and construction it was no knowledge For he saith of them expresly Israel hath not known me In that they know him not with an effective knowledge so as to serve him and obey him with such a knowledge as brings forth practice and obedience That which is separate from this is no knowledge In which respect it is that the Apostle stiles it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 2.20 A form of knowledge There is the shew but not the truth When Christ is said in Scripture to have known no sin we cannot understand it to be meant of intellectual knowledge for then he could not have discoursed of it so that he knew no sin in Paul is he did no sin in Peter They that knew God Rom. 1.18 because they did not live accordingly and glorified him not as God are therefore said not to have kept him and retained him in their knowledge ver 28. God made his wayes and statutes known to Israel he dealt not so with any Nation And yet even of them he saith It is a people that do err in their hearts and they have not known my wayes Psal 95.10 Brethren there is an error in the heart as well as in the brain and a kind of ignorance arising from the will as well as from the understanding and this takes off the name of knowledge from that which is but speculation only And therefore sinners are universally termed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ignorant erring persons Heb. 5.2 And that alone is by the Holy Ghost thought worthy of the name of knowledge that sinketh from the brain into the heart and so appeareth in the life setting all on work for God In which respect it is the Covenant of the Lord with his people that he will put his Law into their inward parts and write it in their hearts Not in their minds and understandings only the seat and principle of speculation but in their hearts the principle of action So that they shall not only have it in their minds to know it but in their hearts to practice it and to obey it This only this is right knowledge A good understanding have all they that do his Commandments Psal 119.10 They only understand and know the Lord effectually and savingly that obey the will of God Hereby we know we know him as we ought to do if we keep his Commandments Others may have understanding only these have good understanding For this God sets the finger of a hand against Josiah to point him out to special observation Jer. 22.16 He judged the cause of the poor and needy was not this to know me saith the Lord. q. d. This was knowledge to the purpose this was true and real knowledge of the Lord indeed which made him strict and carefull in the performance of his duty In that that they know him not in Christ and to know God out of Christ is all one as not to know him as I have shewed at large out of the third verse