must be meant of that Glory which he had before the World was and did in the Phrase and according to the meaning of the Scripture lay aside in the daies of his Humiliation and abasement in the form of a Servant and did now assume when he ascended and while now he sits at the right hand of God the Father That Glory which he had before the World was must be a Glory belonging to the God-head But that which our Savior desires and according to his desire obtains in his Ascention and Glorification in Heaven is that which he had before the World and therefore it doth appertain to his God-head 2. As this Glory belongs to him or God so as Man Because this glorious Power is executed by him as Man now ascending and sitting in Heaven So that his Man-hood doth concur as an Instrument working with his God-head in the administration of it John 5.27 The Father judgeth no man but hath given all power to the Son to execute Judgment in as much as he is the Son of Man that is Because the Humane Nature is assumed into personal Union and therein he hath satisfied Divine Justice and so purchased Redemption and so al the power as that being the only way by which this Redemption purchased comes to be applied to the Saints III. Wherein this Glory consists which is thus attributed to the Person of our Savior Answ For the right understanding of this Third Particular wherein the pith and life of the Point lies This is a Rule that must be premised and carefully carried along with us in our thoughts as that which wil guide through the following Explication namely That Glory is here to be attended in the several Branches of it which the Lord Christ did lay aside by voluntary Dispensation out of his own free wil and mutual Agreement with God the Father Glorifie me with the Glory I had with thee That which was laid aside by him that may be taken up again and given to him by the same Agreement And hence all those infinite Excellencies that are in God the absolute might of Soveraignty over the Creature is not properly any part of Glory unto which he was exalted Because this is a property of the Divine Nature and so doth necessarily appertain to every person that hath this Nature as necessarily as to be God This he had of his own and this could not be given to him nor laid aside by him And this was the first signification of glory before mentioned But our Savior by voluntary dispensation did lay aside the right of present-taking Dominion and exercising Dominion over every creature in that Nature he did assume And hence Satan and his instruments he in and by them did not only assault our Savior by their outrages and temptations but by violence of power did out-bid and over-bear him for the present Thus as it were with a violent hand he carried him into the Wilderness and set him upon a Pinacle of the Temple yea not only assaulted but prevailed and had the better for the present brought him to his death and held him captive in the grave by the space of three daies Our Savior by agreement with God the Father laying aside and ceaâ—ing his own right of taking and exercise dominion over Devils and men and creatures but giving way hereunto by agreement with God the Father for the while that the work of our Redemption was to be accomplished Hence are these passages This is your hour and the power of darkness Luk. 22.53 q. d. This is the time when ye have allowance to Tirannize and I wil not exercise dominion over you for he could have crossed and confounded with a word but suffer my self to be foiled for the present and held captive by you This is the power of darkness when I lay aside the exercise and expressing of my power Hence he returned that answer Knowest thou not that I could but ask my Father and he would give me more than twelve Legions of Angels but how then should the Scripture be fulfilled That agreement that was transacted between me and the Father and now recorded in Scripture Math. 26.53 Hence it s said Though he was in the form of God Had the might and soveraignty of God and was equal in that with the Father had it as his own without any robbery or taking that which was not his right Yet he emptied himself Laid aside the Right either of taking or exercising that power TOOK upon himself The meâ—nness of the Nature and relation of a surety and servant and under-went really the condition of a servant and surety and so submitted himself To the Death of the Cross Because it was the lowest service he was to do in the work of our Redemption Thus our Savior laid aside his glory Now the Father gives and he assumes glory to himself 1. In that he freed him from the former Tiranny and power of darkness and exalted him far above al principalities and powers and what there is named in this or another world Beyond al Gunshot not only beyond their power but their assaults yea their presence and sight 2. In that al power and Grace belongs to him in way and right of comunication for the good of his therefore called Head of the Church And this follows the former Mark the Coherence He hath exalted him and given him to be Head 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Head that hath life and motion in it To plot and contrive al for defence Eph. 2.22 For had not the second person suffered and satisfied there had never been way nor right to communicate Grace to his or to improve of set on going the power and providence of God for his And therefore it s his propriety to be Head not the Father nor the spirit Hebr. 10.20 Joh. 5.26 To have life of himself And verse 21. To quicken whom he wil. 3. And immediate dispensation and execution of al power over al creatures for the bringing home of his Elect. Thus the Father judgeth no man but hath committed al to him not that the Father hath not power for the execution of the work for he that gives it hath it in a principal manner but he hath committed the immediate execution thereof unto Christ 1 Cor. 11.3 The Apostle speaks not of the Faithful but of al. For that is the scope These different degrees are to be attended in regard of Subordination and immediate dispensation For Head Implies Excellency and power to move all in Subordination to it Authority to rule al in subjection So it s not excellency but power and authority not at large but in Subordination in the next and immediate dispensation 1. Hence he crosseth and confoundeth al the power and Policy of al the enemies of his Church brings to nought the rage of Devils and Malice of Men and each instrument that is formed Eph. 4. Being ascended up on high he led Captivity Captive Nay makes them al
a Son The Son is not therefore Son because he is God but because he hath a Father for they are both equally one God and have the Deity indifferently agreeing to them both As a man is not therefore a Husband because he is a man for then every man should be a husband but in reference to the Woman he hath married And hence the Father is said to be in the Son and the Son in the Father namely to be one in this mutual respect The Father had an Eye only to the Son in giving his subsistence of a Son The Son again hath an Eye to the Father alone returning the being of his sonship to him And they are prefect in this They wholly give wholly take Thus they are said to be in each other Joh. 14.10 Beleevest thou not that I am in the Father and the Father in me so said again to be one with another and delighting one in another Prov. 8.30 And mutually to glorifie one another Father glorifie thy Son that thy Son may glorifie thee Joh. 17.1 3. The second person in the glorious Trinity so takes our Human Nature into personal Union with him that he is the same person he was no other and it becomes one person with him leanes upon him hath his dependance from him looks alone to him for his subsistence As a Son he assumes our Nature and as a Son with our Nature looks to the Father Therefore said he doth nothing of himself but what he sees the Father do Joh. 5.19 As the Father hath life in himself so he hath given to he Son to have life in himself because the Son of man verse 26.27 4. As the Father is said to beget his Son and give being to him so the Son as thus begotten assumes our Nature be comes the Head of the covenant and gives being of Sonship to his Children and they returne al that being to the Lord Christ and the Father in him Therefore called the eternal Father Isa 9.6 Hebr. 2.1 3. Here am I and the Children thou hast given me called also his seed The manner of which words may thus be conceived The Lord hath purchased the Spirit he is said then to beget when he sends the spirit of Sons inâ—o their Hearts which by the immutable assistance thereof sets their hearts for God holds the bent thereof towards him alone as their Father and principle of life As they receive this being of Sons they returne it wholly to the Father in Christ The whole man in the whol and that with his whol strength fastens upon God in Christ acted wholly by the influence of his spirit and holds the not excellency thereof The Sum of all out of all that hat been said 1. Vnity is the chiefest priviledg for which Christ prayes and beleevers can partake of as their peculiar good in themselves I add that In themselves because there be higher ends than this in the Text To-wit the setting up of God in Christ in the Consciences of the ungodly that they may be forced to confess that God sent his Son to this end That he loved them as he loved Christ There is yet another and higher end That they may behold and wonder and be swallowed up in the admiration of the glory of Christ which the Father hath given him Enquire here how far Christ being in the Saints and his love in them may yet be a higher end than this 2. This Vnity is not the unity of affection between each other so much but the unity of relation to God in Christ That as the Father is in the Son and the Son in the Father by eternal generation Beleevers so ought to be in both by spiritual Adoption 3. In this Spiritual Adoption as there is an influence from God in Christ to bend and settle the frame of the Heart towards him So there is a re-fluence and return by the power and impression left of the same spirit to come again to him Conveyance of help on Gods hand should quicken our dependance to look to him and stay our selves with him there 4. Had Adam stood his posterity out of principles in themselves might have challenged happiness though a covenant performed by a man conveyed by a man unto them by way of natural generation But in the covenant of the Gospel the second Adam the second person taking our Nature by the power of the Deity wrought al for us communicates al to us by the same almighty power inables us to receive what we have from him To be acted in al by him To return all to him The mutable principle in the creature never brought a man to God nor kept him with him But the mutable presence and Spirit of Christ So that there is a priviledg here above that principle of Grace that was in Adam for that was but a creature But here the spirit and so the power of God through Christ that takes our Nature into the neerest union with him even personal which in Adam it attained not in that purchaseth all for us Not a principle in us firstly but the spirit of God in Christ it is by which the bent of our Hearts are held and carried towards him acted by him and so inabled to hold out the vertue power praise and excellency of the spirit in Christ from the Father So that a poor creature is compassed about with nothing but whith the power of God in Christ and becomes one with Father and Son in their mutual relation to them and totall dependance upon them And this is above the innocency and excellency of Adam in Paradise and all that he could attain unto and above all created Grace in Heaven being wholly taken up with God in Christ and loose our selves in God and Christ Eph. 4.13 The acknowledgment of the Son of God It was not the Son of man that did it The Son of God that recovered us held the bent of our hearts to him acted us kept us perfected us crownes us God shal be all in all The Father gives being to the Son returnes all to the Father and that eternal generation and so one The Lord Christ as a son and begotten of the Father gives us the being of Children by Adoption sets us and holds us We take al acted by him return to him As the Father in Christ gives all we receive and to the Father through Christ we return al and so we are one in the Father and the Son I. Reason 1. Because this is the scope of our Saviors coming into the world and the next end I say the next end he intended in the great work of Redemption which he wrought for lost man To bring him into this neer relation of dearest Love of the Father by himself and the work of his spirit and it s that wherein the life and power and pith of the covenant of Grace doth especially consist and appeare and the excellency thereof That peculiar and spiritual intercourse not alone
acknowledgment thereof And to speak once for all 1. What the word the weight of the phrase carries 2. In what regard our Savior is said to be sent 3. Wherein this sending lies 1. The word sending or as the Latin phrase hath it Mission carries ever two things in it 1. The Authority of him that sends in respect of the party that is sent but it is not the authority of dominion and rule so much as that Authority of order or communication of a work from one unto another And in this sence he only can be said to be sent who works from another and works not originally from himself 2. It implies a new act or impression upon the creature whereby it hath it's self in some other frame or disposition than formerly Take it in this breadth and extent you shal find that in scripture the Son and holy Spirit are only said to be sent and it is never attributed to the Father Gal. 4.4 God sent his son Joh. 15.26 But when the Comforter shall come whom I will send unto you from the Father And this cannot be any created Grace or work for the words following determine that full The Spirit of truth which proceedeth from the Father Joh. 14.20 But the Comforter which is the holy Spirit whom the Father will send in my name When-ever then the action with the manner also from such a person are comprehended in this sending It is 〈◊〉 given to or affirmed of the Father because it sigâ—â—â—ie not an act only expressed by a person but an 〈◊〉 from a person in such a manner as that he hath Auâ—â—â—â—â—y in way of order originally to act before another at the least And the other to act from him But because the Father cannot act from the Son and Holy Ghost but both Son and Holy Ghost they do not act only but act in their order and manner from another the Son from the Father and the Holy Ghost from both therefore they are truly said to be sent But if they look at the act only which is expressed upon the creature then this sending is and ought to be given to all the presons As the Incarnation of our Savior is one thing in his sending Therefore those two are joined God sent his Son made of a Woman as made so sent and herein the Holy Ghost had a hand whether we look at the sanctification of the seed in the Womb or the uniting of it to the second person There al the persons work So likewise in the dispensation of the office of our Savior in his whol proceeding the works of the Holy Ghost went along Isa 61. The Spirit of God was upon me he sent me to preach and he preached and performed all those great works by the strength and operation of his spirit 2. In what regard our Savior is said to be sent Not as the second person in the glorious Trinity whereby he is God blessed for ever equal with the Father for so the Apostle professeth Phil. 2.6 Being in the form of God thought it no robbery to be equal with God i.e. Had the glory of the Deity truly appertaining to him and the God-Head dwelling in him and knew his own worth and right therefore willingly submitted himself to that Under-condition not by constraint for he wel understood what his due was But as he was God and man and assumed our Nature and became mediator in our Room and stead So he professeth of himself That his Father is greater than he As he took upon him the forme of a servant became our surety and came in the similitude of sinful flesh yet without sin Joh. 14.28 In his voluntary and free dispensation as he was willing to take our flesh and dwel thereby amongst us so is he inferiour to himself as God and so to his Father And yet take the work it self and the manner of the work as it was explicated before and the phrase of sending implies he is only sent of the Father But look at the work Earely he may be said to be sent by all but that is unusual nay in open phrase never to be found in Scripture because the word comes not in that sense to our view As he becomes to take our Nature so he was sent But as Son by eternal generation he is made fit to take our Nature And therefore it is the assuming of Human Nature is made a propriety a thing peculiar to the second person Insomuch that it is heresie to say the Father was incarnate or the Holy Ghost incarnate What ever appertaines to our Savior as the second person and as the Son of the Father that he had by eternal generation and in a peculiar manner from the Father But as second person he assumes and so is sent and dispenseth the work of our Redemption Therefore so far he is in a peculiar manner sent from the Father and in this sense he is never said to be sent but from the Father in the Verdict of Scripture 2. As he assumes and becomes incarnate so is our Nature taken into personal union with the second person so far is it advanced and hath a priviledg and liberty to use any Attribute so far he sends the spirit even the Holy Ghost from the Father and dispenseth al power from the Father by the spirit for the Good of his And therefore so far he doth al in al as he is sent from the Father in a peculiar manner In a word hence it appears that the work of incarnation as he took our Nature the work of dispensation in sending the spirit appointing al Officers Offices ordinances and accompanying and blessing all for good Issues in a peculiar manner from this his sending from the Father Which the wicked world doth not see will not acknowledg cannot submit unto but they shal one day be forced unto it Hence it is our Savior alwaies professeth he doth al as sent Joh. 5.36 Arms himself by his sending against al. Joh. 10.36 Looks wholly and only at that work for which he was sent Joh. 5.30 And generally all runs upon this string comforts all from his sending As my Father sent me So I send you shews the greatness of their sin that oppose him He that despiseth me despiseth him that sent me 3. Wherein this sending consists look at the work of it Answer in four things 1. He is appointed and set apart to this great imployment and Ambassage Joh. 6.27 For him hath God the Father sealed Jsa 49.5 I have formed thee from the Womb to be my servant to bring Jacob again And verse 6. That thou maist be my Salvation to the end of the Earth He is now in Gods counsel and everlasting decree designed to this so great a work and in his season called out to the execution sent from his Bosom abroad into this world to act the great affaires of Gods everlasting purposes touching the recovery of man 2. The Father committed this so
Saints that can tel how to judg Psal 15. In whose eyes a vile person is despised If thou beest a wicked man a vicious proud stubborn froward person truly thou art a vile person and it a note of him that wil enter into God Tabernacle and dwel in his Holy Hil that he should despise thee as such though thou hadst never so much of al this earthly pomp the world can afford Dross is base though it be kept in the best place of the treasury Copper is yet vile and worthless though it be set upon the highest place of the Cupboard and not only man should so judg but God wil. The froward in spirit is abomination unto the Lord. Nay though thy place and priviledges be never so high and great they indeed may be glorious as having some impression of Gods power and authority painted upon them but yet if thy heart be void of Grace and thy life of Holiness Thou art wholly destitute of any true glory Thy place and the impression of Gods power must be honoured in thee buâ— thy self art despicable and worthless as that King Jehoram that died undefired 2 Chro. 21.20 2. We here see the ready way and the Kings road in which we must walk if we would be truly glorious in the eyes of wise and in the account of our Savior that we may be sure to get such glory as wil go in Heaven Be truly savingly gracious then art thou truly glorious in the account of the Almighty and shalt be received into glory when this life shal not be But they must be grace of the right make and true stamp issuing from the glorious spirit of the Lord. It s not any of those counterfeits of morality civillity which carry a meer shew of Godlyness without the power of it nor yet the Gilt as I may so cal it of those higher Stroaks of Illuminations which appertaines to Apostates of whom the Apostle faith That they tasted of the Heavenly gift and the good word of the Lord and of the powers of the world to come this is hansome gilt and yet the heart base and leud therefore miserable therefore I ad that which followes of the Apostle and ye should ad it also We hope better things of you and those that accompany Salvation not gilt in appearance but true Gold in the substance of it not the â—ast of these but the truth of these somthing better than astonishing terrors than fleshy and groundless inlightenings and raptures better humiliations better evidences better and more real expressions of the power and conquering vertue of the saving work of God The Church is said to be al glorious within Psal 45. The workmanship of God created unto good works Eph. 2. would ye then be glorious servants in the families wherein ye dwel glorious Inhabitants in the Plantations where ye live glorious members of Churches and Congregations and leave your names for a glory and blessing behind you Do not catch at a shadow but get the body and that wil not fade away do not thing to keep the light in the room and shut out the Sun-beames or let the candle be carried away Be truly vertuous and it cannot be but glory wil be thy companion and that in the very consciences of the wicked though their mouthes it may be wil be-ly their Consciences for to maintain their own wayes So it was with David 2 Sam. 6 21.22 When he danced before the Lord Michal conceited he laid open himself unto contempt How glorious was the King this day c. He answers Iâ— was before the Lord that I did it and if this be to be vile I wil be yet more vile and even of these Hand-maids I shal be had in hanor Lively faith is called Precious Faith 2. Pet. 1.6 Hebr. 11.4 By faith Abel offered a more excellent sacrifice than Cain Would ye therefore pray more excellently hear more excellently confer more excellently than al the carnal men in the world get this Precious Faith then ye wil be Precious Christians and have precious comforts 2. How our Savior received this Answ He received this Grace as man not as God or as the second person properly for so he is equal to the Father and hath equal propriety in al the Attributes of the God-Head Besides the Grace here is that which is given to beleevers but so that cannot be He receives it therefore as man and that by gift saith the Text for our Savior acknowledgeth it 1. It is Given by the Grace of personal Union in that it pleased God the Father that the second person his beloved son should take our Nature into personal Union so that though he was a perfect person before that was assumed yet he remained one and the same person after it was assumed there he two Natures but one person still Thus the Apostle disputes and the connection implyes so much Col. 1.15 He is the image of the Invisible God i. e. as second person and so in him all things consist and by him al created and he is the Head of the Body the Church and the Issue of al is For it pleased the Father that in him all fulness should dwel i.e. al the fullness of al Grace is in Christ in that he is Head and so head as that he is also the invisible image of the Father In a word Look what the Human Nature did receive from the Son as a Son and begotten of the Father that it receives by gift also and firstly from the Father because what the Son doth as Son he doth it from the Father But the Human Nature received it as the highest gift that ever was given to be taken into personal union by the Son as the second person begotten of the Father What the Son as the Son begotten of the Father gives to the human Nature that the Father gives firstly But this personal union the Son as from the Father gives Therefore the Father gives it firstly Upon this ground is that Inference also or the Apostle Col. 2.9 10. The Apostle would have them walk in Christ in the power of his Grace and in the direction of his rule and government and he joyns these two together as the reason For in him dwels the fullness of the God-Head Bodily Nor by way of type but truly nor yet by communication of vertue which he doth to and in the Saints nor yet by sacramental relation as he doth accompany his ordinances but the very essence of the God-Head in the second person supports the Human Nature as one person with it This is the Union verse 10. Ye are complete in him who is the Head c. Compleat in al-Grace to inable in al the fulness of wisedom aâ—â— Prophet and rule as a King to guid you in the waies of his Grace He is the Head from the former of al life and motion If the fullness of the God-Head personally then the fulness of al Grace dwels in him 2.
the same Nature upon himself for the great work of our Redemption and so he is head 1. It s proper to him to have al Grace firstly in himself in way and right of communication for had he not been the son of man and son of God together the way of Grace and life had been shut up from the sons of Adam Hebr. 10.20 And in this sence it is said That with him is the Wel of life Ps 36.9 And he is said to be a fountain of living Waters to have life in himself Joh. 5.26 And to quicken whom he wil. Joh. 5.21 2. The right and propriety of immediate dispensation is committed to his hand of all Grace and good Of his Grace we receive Grace for Grace Joh. 1.16 And the Holy Spirit takes of his not of his own when he communicates to the Souls of the Saints Joh. 16.14 15. He shal shew you al things He shal glorifie me for he shal receive of mine Al things that the Father hath are mine Therefore said I He shal take of mine and shew it unto you 3. The manner how this spiritual presence is communicated Answ It appeares in the Nature and maaner of it in three things 1. The second person in the glorious Trinity assuming our Nature into mystical and personal union with himself remaining the same person after the union which he was before the union doth therein become surety for the faithful and enter into covenant with God the Father in their room and purchase both Grace and glory in their behalf For had he not taken the Nature of man it had been unpossible he should have communicated unto man any good So the Apostle reasons when he would shew the way how life came to be derived to the seed of Adam and not unto Angels gives this as the ground Hebr. 2.16 For vâ—rely â—e took not on him the Nature of Angels but the Seed of Abraham And therefore these were redeemed life was conveyed unto these the other in their sins and sorrows And being thus fitted for the place of a Surety He did in special manner enter upon termes of agreement in the behalf of those he would do good unto The happiness of those were committed to his care by the Father and undertaken willingly by himself Joh. 6.38 39. This is the will of the Father that those that he hath given me I should lose none but raise them up at the last day And he is as careful to attend their spiritual welfare as may be therefore he concludes of them in their times and answerable to their conditions I have other Sheep and those I must bring Joh. 10.16 And when they are brought I will in no wise cast away nor suffer any to take them away Joh. 6.37 2. Having thus purchased Grace and glory for them he hath now both right and liberty to improve al power in Heaven and Earth to communicate Grace and glory to them Yea the Human Nature of our Savior hath liberty power to let on work any and all the Attributes in the behalf of the poorest beleever in the world yea right to send the good Spirit of the Lord for his spiritual relief Joh. 17.2 Thou hast given him that is Christ power over all flesh that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him And therefore in verse 4. he saith I have finished the work thou gavest me to do q. d. Christ hath nothing to do in this vale of â—eareâ— but search ouâ— and seek up some scattered and wildering Servants of the Lord. Yea liberty to send the spirit upon this imployment Joh. 15.26 When the comforter is come whom I will send you from the Father Yea makes this his main Errand to heaven in his ascension Joh. 16.7 It is expedient c. If I depart I will send him unto you 3. He doth improve this power and the operation of the Spirit to close the Soule with himself and to hold the bent of the heart towards him for ever 1 Cor. 6.17 He that is joyned to the Lord is one Spirit As by his spirit he sanctified our Nature and took it into personal union with himself and gave in subsistence which of it self it had not nor could attain So by the operation of his Spirit he prepares the Soul for himself carries it in the promise to himself and acts it upon himself The Soul moved by the vertue of the Spirit moves to and staies upon the Lord Christ As in the Eccho the Air moved by the voice in such manner returns the same voice by vertue of its own motion Come unto me I come Lord. And not only carries and closeth the Soul with himself but holds it in this holy bent to himself that way Christ-ward Heaven-ward This is like the growing up with Christ being as scions ingrafted into him as the true Vine and so are truly and so called sons as the scions united to the stock may fitly be called the Sons thereof and hence Christ is stiled The eternal Father Isa 9.6 Behold a Son is given and this son is a Father and an eternal Father and begets us as sons unto his Father and will deliver us up unto him at the great day Here am I and the Children which thou hast given me Hebr. 2.13 This is that which Christ calls his abiding in us If I abide in you and you in me Joh. 15.4 The Reason in a word is this He that is the life of the faithful must be in the faithful So is Christ Gal. 2.20 Col. 3.4 When Christ who is our life c. USE 1. CAUTION To al especially the wicked and enemies of the Saints That they do not offend and wrong them or do the least evil to them because they do wrong to the Lord Jesus and he so takes it as to himself Act. 9. Saul why persecutest thou me And the sufferings of the Saints for a good cause are called the sufferings of Christ 2. Cor. 1.5 Thus the Lord sends to Sennacherib Isa 37.28 I know thy going out and thy coming in and thy rage against me It was bent against Hezekiah and the people of Jerusalem but it was against the Lord in them True it is The wicked see not know not consider not this being blinded with Ignorance and Malice and therefore Paul asks the question when Christ speaks Who art thou Lord q. d. I own not thy speech nor understand thy person Our Savior answers I am Jesus whom thou persecutest Yea this wil be for the condemnation of their persons and confusion of their faces at the day of Judgment when the Saints in this sentence shal be honored and they set down for ever abased before their faces Depart ye cursed c. For I was in prison and ye visited me not c. Why When Lord saw we thee c. They were not acquainted with the presence of our Savior He add In that ye did it not to one of these ye
was all the proper possession the Father had and holds from Eternity and this is the meaning of that other Phrase verse 30. I was with him as one brought up with him The Phrase is marvelous sweet and pregnant as one nursed up with him in his Bosom and Bowels from everlasting God the Father is compared to a Guardian of the Lord Jesus whom he keeps under his wing I am not alone the Father is ever with me yea the Father and I am one 2. It 's the Nature of Love to take ful content and complacence in the thing beloved and so the Father doth in his Son after an unspeakable manner takes an infinite fulness of soul-pleasing satisfaction so that before al Creatures were he lacketh nothing and he spent his whol thoughts in gazing upon the through concurrence of al unspeakable excellencies in the Lord Jesus Prov. 8.30 I was dayly his delight It was his constant and continued Exercise the ful imployment of his blessed Majesty to fil himself with the fellowship and familiarity of his Son When the Atheist enquires what God did before the World if the World was not Eternal Answ He was sporting himself with the unconceivable complacency and ravishing contents of his wel-beloved Son the Lord of Glory So that nothing was wanting while he enjoyed him nothing could be added while he possesseth him 3. There is a Love of Benevolence It 's the Nature of Love to study the good of the thing beloved This the Father doth also after an unconceivable manner The study and bent of his infinite Understanding is now to plot for the Honor and to lift up the Glory of his Son far beyond al praises So that more than the Father gave could not be enjoyed no more could be added no more could be desired by our Savior when he would make his request in that behalf Hither the Lord Christ repairs and here he takes up his stand as though no more could be conceived or communicated John 17.5 And now O Father glorifie me with thine own self with the glory I had with thee before the World was q.d. If he was put to his choyce to his desire or God the Father to his free giving he could wish no other nor no more glory but that which he had with him from Eternity 2. So the Father loves the Son as Man also in al the former particulars and in all the several properties of them so far as a finite creature is or can be made capable thereof not only in regard of the compass of its own ability but as far as underpropped and supported by an almighty power I shal point at the former specialties in so many words 1. In regard of union here in the surpassing excellency of the love of the Father appeared that he brought it into so neer a fellowship with himself that it doth not only exceed al the power of the creature to work such a union but even the reach of al reason of men and Angels to comprehend it For not only the Essence of the Deity takes up its dwelling and abode there bodily but it s taken into the very subsistence of the second person and melts into the personality of the second person and hence it is the Grace of union is indeed accounted a Grace of the greatest excellency above al other and in truth it is so not only in regard of the priviledg whereby our Human Nature is advanced one degree above the excellency of the creatures of highest rank for of that the place is meant and that the Apostle intends Hebr. 2.8 That al things are put in subjection to our Human Nature in Christ He took not the seed of Angels but of Abraham When he bringeth his first born into the world worship him al the Angels even as God-man but I say not only in regard of the height or the priviledg this Grace of union is to be attended But in regard of the unmatchable efficacy and Peerlessness of power that exceeds the bounds of my created ability In that the subsistance it hath by this is no other but the subsistence of the second person In that the Angels must sit in a lower forme and aloof off in the porch as it were and administer there by their attendance when our Human Nature is taken into the Chamber of presence the personal union with the Lord and so consequently as thereby Co-partner of divine honor and worship together with the second person None of which can be said of any creature or any created Grace in the hearts of the Saints 2. The Father takes ful satisfaction in the man Christ Jesus He proclaimes it openly Math. 3. last This is my wel beloved Son in whom I am wel pleased He alone it is in whom the Father smells a sweet savor of rest therefore when he cashieres al other sacrifices as such in whom there was no sufficiency our Savior no sooner offers himself but therein the Father quiets himself in fulness of content Hebr. 10.5 6. Burnt offerings and sacrifices thou wouldest not then said I Loe I come in the Volum of thy Book it is written of me I should do thy will 3. Improves the Soveraignty of his power and good pleasure to promote the Son and advance the glory of the man Christ Jesus Joh. 3.35 The Father loveth the Son and hath given all things into his hand Therefore he sends the comforter in his name Joh. 14.26 Nay the Father makes this the maine scope of al his dispensations by Christ puts the Administration of all things into his hand That al may come to him depend upon him and give al glory to him in what they do receive and for what they seek and hence the Father carries al the Trade this way As great Princes when they wil advance their Favourites there come no petitions but by their hands no kindnesses or gifts but by their meanes That al may eye and honor receive al from them and by their means and returne to them Joh. 5.22 25. The Father judgeth no man but hath commited all judgment to the Son that all might honor the Son as they honor the Father REASON Here are al the grounds upon which Love grows and that in more than an ordinary Nature and measure and these are three all which are found in the Lord. 1. Neerness 2. Likeness 3. Suitableness of worth 1. Neerness And that we see to be a forceable argument in Nature to draw men to inlargedness of affections Love begins next home A Countrey Man we affect rather than a Forreiner one of the same Town before a Countrey Man a Kinsman before a Towns Man a Child before him the wife before others a mans self before al wife and Children and Kinsman and Towns Man So it is here The Lord Jesus is most Neer to God the Father and therefore most beloved It s said our Savior came from the Bosom of the Father Joh. 1.18 2. Likeness is the Load-stone of
who had his Being from him and so his working In the daies of his Humiliation he laid aside the Dispensation of Power and suffered the Power of darkness to prevail but now he desires al might be restored to him verse 5. Al these belong to Christ God-man in regard of the Union of our Nature with his Person And this is the Love that is here intended Reas 1. Love of the highest strain and pitch of greatest and choycest Excellency is here intended and understood This is the Standard to al the rest But the Love of God to Christ is the cause of other the Blessings and Benefits that are bestowed John 3.35 The Father loveth the Son and hath given all things into his hands Therefore this Love is a peerless and unmatchable Love al other things which are given to our Savior Grace Glory al Power in Heaven and Earth are but the effects of it Again Joh. 17.24 The glory that our Savior hath given him of the Father it is said to Issue from a higher fountain and to be but a stream of it Namely The Father loved him from the foundation of the World Love is from Eternity the fruits are in time Lastly The whol Tenor of the Prayer and expressions of our Savior in this Chapter gives further evidence and argument to confirm it 2. How is this Love said to be in them When this love of God in Christ sets God on work to wil a like or proportionable good to the Creature I would say thus When God wils to have a Creature neer to him in his Son as his Son to communicate intimately with the Creature through his Christ as his Christ Then this love leaves a being like it self upon the Creature It s then in its vertue and efficacy in the fatithful It was with God put forth upon Christ before the World was and therefore much more before they were But our Saviors Prayer is that this love which was expressed upon him might also be extended unto his made effectual and operative in his It s true the expressions of common love and the communication of ordinary good is of larger extent and issues from God as the Creator of al and he that is the first being and so gives being to al Creatures But special union to be so high unto God and to communicate so intimately with him it s firstly here to be seen and from hence therefore must be derived to all such who shal be so Priviledged as to be made partakers thereof 3. The Means and Order how this is done Answ The means by which God doth convey the efficacy of this love wherewith he loved his Son unto his Saints may be thus conceived As the eternal generation of the Son from the Father was the foundation of his love of the Father to the Son as we have shewed he begat him knew and owned and loved him So the vertue of this eternal generation is the Cause whence this love comes to have a being in the Saints For out of this eternal generation it is that God sends his Son The Son being sent acts under that Authoritative Order and doth answer the purpose of the Father And as Second Adam and as Son and as begotten of the Father he assumes ouâ— Nature into personal union with himself becomes Head of the Covenant and as he was begotten of the Father so he begets Children unto God the Father Therefore he is called the eternal Father and the Father is said to beget Children because Christ doth as sent by God the Father 1 Pet. 1.3 The Father begets us through his resurrection Joh. 13. Born of God And thence they have the Spirit of Sons So in the text The love wherewith thou hast loved them may be in them But how is that And I in them That our Savior adds to intimate how this comes about 4. When is this done Answ When the love of God in Christ set Gods love or set God on work to send Christ begotten of him to beget Children to him And then this love through Christ leaves like impression and operations upon the Soul 1. Brings the Soul into neerest union with God through Christ 2. Most intimately communicates of the special operations of the Spirit of the Father through Christ 1. Brings the finner into neerest union to wit Christ is in the Soul Rom. 8.10 If Christ be in you the Body is dead c. Yea dwelt in the heart Eph. 3.17 And God by and through Christ Rom. 8.9 So Joh. 17.23 I in them and thou in me So 1 Joh. 2.24 Ye shall continue in the Son and in the Father 1 Thess 1.1 The Church which is in God the Father and in our Lord Jesus Christ 2. Leaves like operations the most intimate and special communion of the Spirit of Christ and the Soul So that God doth al through Christ by man he doth nothing of nor from himself Thus Christ is al in al Col. 3.11 And the sinner is wholly now beyond the covenant of works made with Adam and with him in Adam So that as Paul observes I live not but Christ lives in me Gal. 2.20 I work not I but the Grace of God with me 1 Cor. 15.10 And Christ in me Coloss 1. and last Verse When the love of God in Christ sets God on work to send his Son begotten of him to beget Sons unto him so that he brings them to the neerest union God in Christ and Christ he one in them They in Christ and through Christ in God the Father So that the Father in Christ doth al by them they nothing of themselves receives also al from them they take nothing to themselves Then this love of Christ is in them and leaves a like efficacious impression upon them Hence a double Collection 1. We may hence learn how to come to a right apprehension of Gods special love and so to a right explication and understanding of several Scriptures thereby Gods special love is when he purposeth to make the Creature neer to him in his Son as his Son is neer The Father is in his Son Christ in the Faithful and the Father by Christ in them Christ is in the Father the Faithful in Christ and by him in the Father He doth intimately communicate with them through his Christ as with his Christ God by Christ doth al by them they not of themselves He through Christ receives al from them they take nothing to themselves This Love is like the main Hinge upon which the whol Frame of Gods Dispensations turn and many Scriptures seem to be made familiar and somwhat open hereby As this Because I wil make a Creature to me in my Son as my Son therefore I wil Elect him to set out this Love And therefore create and give Grace and because his own Grace cannot bring him so neer as my Son he shal through his default fal and then I wil send my Son and he shal take Humane Nature into Personal
A COMMENT UPON Christ's last Prayer In the Seventeenth of JOHN Wherein is opened The Vnion Beleevers have with God and Christ and the glorious Priviledges thereof Besides many other Gospel Truths there is also shewed 1 That the end why the Saints receive all glorious Grace is That they may be one as the Father and Christ are one 2 That God the Father loveth the Faithful as he loveth Jesus Christ 3 That our Savior desireth to have the Faithful in Heaven with himself 4 That the happiness of our being in Heaven is to see Christs Glory 5 That there is much wanting in the knowledg of Gods Love in the most able Saints 6 That the Lord Christ lends dayly direction according to the dayly need of his Servants 7 That it is the desire and endeavor of our Savior that the dearest of Gods Love which was bestowed on himself should be given to his faithful Servants 8 That our Vnion and Communion with God in Christ is the top of our happiness in Heaven By that Faithful and known Servant of Christ Mr. THOMAS HOOKER late Pastor of the Church at Hartford in New-England somtimes Preacher of the Word at Chelmsford in Essex and Fellow of Emmanuel Colledg in Cambridg Printed from the Authors own Papers written with his own Hand And attested to be such in an Epistle By Thomas Goodwin And Philip Nye London Printed by Peter Cole at the sign of the Printing-Press in Cornhil neer the Royal Exchange 1656. M R Hooker On the Seventeenth of John Being his Seventeenth Book made in New-England THE EPISTLE TO THE READER THE more eminent Matter of these Sermons is our mystical Union with God and Christ a Subject but rarely handled by Divines and then but overly in comparison to what those other Benefits by Christ have been that yet but flow from this or do accompany it So as any smal advance of Light into this Mystery is highly to be valued specially from so good a Hand or Heart rather so deeply experienced and acutely insighted as was our Author This Head though it lay in the Road of another Course of Ministry the Author held namely the opening the whol Work of the Application of our Redemption in all the parts thereof shortly to follow this into publick view so far as he had proceeded in it whereof this of Vnion was designed one as by his Draught or Scheme of that Work to be Prefaced to the whol appears and accordingly should have been largely treated on Subject wise apart by it self in its due place and order Yet whether it was that himself fore-apprehending he might not live so long as he did not to arrive thereat in that Method and yet withall considering the more special necessity of this Subject to this Age he therefore did anticipate this miscellaneous Treatment of it is not for us to say only we may surely affirm that our all-wise God who disposeth of the Gifts Ministrations and Operations of and by his faithful Servants he foreseeing all secretly guided him to this Precursory handling of it in this way of Comment upon the seven last Verses of Christs last Prayer which we may well suppose to have been intended by himself but as a preliminary Essay of that more ample and set Tractate on this Argument he afterwards intended because he intermingleth therewith Observations about other high and glorious Gospel Truths whereof this Soyl of al other Scriptures must be supposed most fertile as the Text did give occasion And surely he was by the same Divine hand as specially directed both in his Choyce of this Scripture for his Ground unto this Subject which being the Conclusion of Christs most solemn last Prayer must be supposed to express the very bottom of his heart and what lay deepest therein and therfore came forth last As also in the Occasion on which he chose to preach these Sermons which was then when this Union is designed to be sealed up to Beleevers more conspicuously than in other Ordinances namely at the Administration of the Lords Supper and towards his latter end conjunct with the Solemnization whereof even among his Apostles it was that Christ did pour forth this Prayer unto his Father before his Death And indeed he that is spiritual and reads these Explanations will readily find and must acknowledg that he was proportionably raised and assisted by a Gospel Spirit as the Dignity of the Matter and Solemnity of the Dignity of the Matter and Solemnity of the Occasion meeting in such a Conjunction did require it being found in experience that according to the elevation of the Occasion and Sublimity of the Matter discoursed of the Holy Ghost raiseth and enlargeth the Spirits of an holy man of God that is experienced in what he speaks The true stating the Bounds for kind or degree of that Union with God which the Saints are admitted to by God is of great use and necessity to this Age the Fate whereof is erring either on the right hand or the left in the greatest Points of Religion and in this Point more grossly and wretchedly than in any other yea and in the other as may easily be observed upon occasion first of a misunderstanding of this one and particularly of some passages and Clauses in this Prayer of our Lord which here have passed the search and discovery of our Author as that they may be one as we are one c. which some have dared to interpret to be Unity that is Union to be oneness in Nature with God himself others to be at least a sameness of Union for kind with that which the man Jesus holds with the Natural Son of God whereof one is a contradiction to the Nature of Creature and Creator as Paul hath set it Rom. 1.25 the other to Christs being Mediator and Head between God and us Of whom we ARE in Christ Jesus who is that one Lord and we by him his Union therefore Primary and Original ours Secondary and Derivative Set but then and keep the true distance between God and his Elect as Creatures and between Christ and those Elect as whose all they are from God is in and through Christ so as that the Creature can never be one in Nature with God who alone is blessed for ever and that the Saints shal never be one Person with the Son of God who is God blessed for ever And whatever Unions or Communions with God are or can be supposed to be next to these two to be sure the Saints are and shall be partakers thereof for next to himself and his Son they are Gods Beloved and the only beloved of him Besides what Glory spiritual quickening our Author giving the very Life-meaning of our Lord concerning this Union an holy heart wil secretly and suddenly find breaking in upon it and it self inspired withal in the reading It wil together therewith confound without speaking a word of set Confutation all such lewd mistakes which it is better to let
130 1 The ground whence this In-being proceeds ibid. 2 The ready way to apprehend the Nature of it rightly ib. 3 How it may be attended in our Savior as God and Man ibid. The first expressed in two Conclusions ibid. The second made good in four Particulars Page 131 Three things for Explication of the third Page 134 This manner of existing appears in the Humane Nature in a three-fold regard Viz. Of Vnion Mission Operation ib. The In-being of the Father in the Son is the first rise whence the Vnity of the faithful with the Father and the Son is perfected Page 137 The Doctrine opened ibid. 1 Recal what this oneness is Page 139 2 How it 's perfected ibid. This Imperfection lies in three things Page 140 1 In the unsoundness of our spirit ibid. 2 Crossness to the power of the Spirit Page 141 3 When the soul will joyn anything with Christ Page 142 Use 1. For Comfort Page 143 Use 2. For Exhortation Page 144 Ver. 23. That the world may know that thou hast sent me and loved them as thou lovest me Page 145 The words contain a double end of this Dispensation ib. 1 That the world may know thou lovest me ibid. 2 That thou lovest them as thou lovest me ibid. Three Particulars to open Page 146 The first opened as chiefly intended Page 147 That passage of John 3.35 The Father loveth the Son is 1 Opened 2 The Reasons given 3 The Vses propounded ibid. Christs Love shews it self in three Particulars ibid. Reasons upon which Love grows are three Page 151 1 Neerness 2 Likenest 3 Suitableness of worth ibid. Use 1. Of Reprehension Page 152 Use 2. Of Tryal Page 154 Use 3. Of Exhortation Page 155 DOCT. God the Father loveth the Faithful as he loveth Jesus Christ Page 156 Two things opened Page 158 1 Wherein the love of the Father to the Saints shews it self ibid. 2 That it is like to that wherewith he loved his Son ibid. The first appears by three things ibid. 1 Love of Vnion 2 Complacence 3 Benevolence ibid. Quest oâ— 2 Thes 1.12 Is there any Name higher than the Name of Christ Page 163 Answered by expounding the place ibid. Use 1. Comfort to the Saints because God loves them Page 164 Use 2. Terror to those that hate them ibid. Use 3. They are worthy our Love Page 165 The Father loves the Saints as he loves his Son proved in each particular ibid. I. Instruction The sins of the faithful are more grievous to God than the sins of other persons Page 170 Instance in two Evils unto which the Saints are usually subject Page 172 1 To question Gods love ibid. 2 To undervalue it ibid. Object Though God loves me yet my grounds are weak Page 174 Answ Gods love is above all Graces thou canst desire ib. 2. Instruction Gods love to the Sainrs is unchangeable Page 176 Use Study to answer Gods love in manner and measure Page 178 That the world may know thou hast loved them as thou lovst me Page 180 A double end mentioned by our Savior ibid. The first End ibid. Two things noted from hence Page 181 1 It is lawful to pray often for the same thing ibid. 2 We ought to pray earnestly that the power of our Savior might be expressed Page 182 The Second End Page 183 Two Points in the words ib. Quest 1. How wicked men can be truly said to know the love of God to Beleevers which is a thing so secret that is not oftentimes made known to the Saints themselves Page 185 Answ three-fold ibid. Quest 2. Why do not the world know this in this life Page 188 Answ For a two-fold Reason ibid. Use 1. Of Patience Page 191 Use 2. Of Exhortation Page 192 Verse 24. Father I wil that those whom thou hast given me be with me c. Page 194 Two things especially attended in this Prayer ibid. We may attend four things in this Prayer Page 195 The General Observation It 's the care of our Savior to seek for the welfare of his servants Page 197 Use 1. For Consolation Page 201 Use 2. For Instruction Page 203 Use 3. For Direction Page 204 The particular Scope Page 205 DOCT. All Beleevers are given to Christ by God the Father Page 205 Two Questions for Explication of this Doctrine answered Page 206 Reason 1. ibid. Reason 2. Page 211 Use 1. For Information Page 213 The second Particular Page 214 Three Points observed especially in it ibid. Use 1. Of Instruction Page 221 Use 2. Of Assurance Page 222 Use 3. To make us willing to die Page 323 Use 4. To see the hainousness of rebellion against Christ in Glory Page 324 The words opened in four particulars Page 325 Use 1. Of Terror Page 332 Use 2. For Direction Page 333 Use 3. For Comfort Page 334 The particulars of it 1 It cures all fears Page 335 2 Supplies al wants 3 Rescues from Enemies 4 Removes guilt of sin 5 Strengthens all Graces 6 Quickens all Duties 7 Gives Eternal Life All proved severally Use 4. For Instruction Page 342 The eternal Glory of Christ is a gift of the eternal love of the Father Page 344 Two things opened 1 What is meant by this love Page 345 2 How this love is the cause of Glory ibid. Reason 1 Page 348 Use 1. For Tryal Page 350 Use 2. For Comfort Page 353 Use 3. Of Direction ibid. Doctrine from the Second Particular Our Savior doth desire to have the faithful in Heaven with himself Page 354 Three Reasons Page 356 Use 1. Of Instruction Page 358 Use 2. Of Reprehension Page 359 Use 3. Of spiritual Comfort Page 360 Use 4. Of Exhortation Page 362 1 What hinders Page 363 2 What helps this Vnion Hindrances are three ib. Helps are three Page 364 The third Particular is That they might see his Glory Page 365 DOCT. The happiness of our being in Heaven to see Christs Glory Page 366 Three things to be enquired 1 What this Glory is Page 368 2 What it is to see it ibid. 3 How the sight of this glory brings happiness ibid. For the second Enquiry consider 1 What his beholding implies Page 370 2 The manner how it is done ibid. This manner appears in three things Page 371 To the third Particular a double Reason propounded Page 376 Use 1. Of Instruction Page 379 Use 2. To Examine Page 380 Use 3. Of Direction Page 381 Means are three ibid. Verse 25 26. The Verse contains the close of our Saviors Prayer Page 383. 1 A description of the Person to whom be praies Page 384 2 The Prayer it self wherein are four Particulars ibid. Two Points considerable 1 We must look unto Gods excellency whence we may receive what we pray for Page 388 2 God in faithfulness dispenseth his fatherly Love to us Page 390 Two things opened 1 Wherein Gods faithfulness consists ibid. 2 The reason why be thus dispenseth his love ibid. Use 1. For Instruction Page 392 Use 2. Consolation Page 393 Use
of affection but of divine operation of God upon the soul whereby the soul returns all unto God to do al and to receive all to do all for himself in man and to receive all to himself by man So that God alone doth all in this firstly upon man and then by man If this work was so much in the Eye of our Savior and that intended So chief also in the performance and that accomplished with care no wonder it had the next Room and remembrance in his prayer But so it was this was the main errand of our Savior when he was sent into the world and the very life of the kingdom of Grace and the covenant of Grace as it concerned them So the Lord professeth by the Prophet Esa 49 5 And now saith the Lord that formed me from the Womb to be his servant Our Savior appointed in Gods decree sanctified and overshadowed by the Holy Ghost in the womb and called to this end for this work To bring Jacob back again to him It was that which was plotted by the Head and policy of Satan and brought about by the fal and through the folly of our first parents To break off this unity and Oneness betwixt God and Adam For Satan had found it by woful experience in himself that by sin God would be estranged from him and he also from God neither to find his favour towards him nor the presence of his spirit of Grace to work upon him nor yet would Adam thus departed act for God nor return to him that praise he ought So that God and Adam are not one but at odds It s the meaning of that place Gal. 3.19 20. When the Apostle had shewed the weakness of the Law in the work of Justification and the promise only carried it He makes thig Objection wherefore then served the Law i.e. The giving of the Law Answer It was to discover transgression and therefore it was given by the Hand of a Mediator to-wit Moses who was between God and the people Now in that Moses was a Mediator it shews there was diverse parties differing and disagreeing one from another for a Mediator is not of one not of parties that are at unity and agreement but God is one ever like himself and the same Therefore the cause of difference was not on Gods part but by Reason of trangression which shews man to be other than he was by Nature ful of guilt and sin and that 's the reason God is at odds with him as he is departed from God Now the scope of our Saviors coming is to bring the Soul back again unto God by himself and to make it one with the Father and himself It was beyond the power of any created Grace to bring back a fallen Soul but the God-Head of Christ in the Nature of man assumed must bring the Nature of man to God again And where as it was found by proof in our first parents that the power of created Grace did not nay indeed could not hold the Soul unchangeably to him and so to act by and for him Herein lies the life and incomparable excellency of the covenant of Grace and the fulness of the sufficiency of the quickning power of the second Adam the Lord Jesus not only to procure unto acceptance and approbation with the Father but the lively communication of himself and the assistance of his spirit to keep our hearts and the gracious work thereof to him for ever So that though our Graces might and would fall us in Adam yet the spirit of Jesus upholds and holds us for ever towards him a fountain of living water Though the vertue and work thereof would wanse away and through not-attendance not put forth it self upon the rule and for the work as we see in Adam He attended not unto acted not upon a command but listened to the delusion and suggestion of the enemy Yet the spirit of Christ which dwelleth with us and shall be in us is there not only to keep with us and carry us to Christ but to quicken us by vertue from Christ according to the tenure of the Gospel Joh. 14.17 And this is indeed to be under the powerful impression of the covenant of Grace And this is the meaning of that place I live not but Christ lives in me Gal. 3.20 Christ by Faith brings me to God By his spirit keeps the bent of the heart towards him carryes it to himself acts it upon himself quickens it by influence of vertue the fountain whereof is in himself Adam might have said I live by a power and principle of Grace in which I was created and in which I have pleased God thereby and according to a covenant of works may challenge life and happiness But Paul in the person of al self-denying sinners professeth that I live not Christ hath called me brought me to himself gives me his spirit and keeps the Eye of my Soul upon himself That he may thereby Be all in all to me work all in me and by me It s the meaning also of that Col. 3.3 4. Our life is bid with Christ in God when Christ who is our life shall appeare God is in Christ is in us keeps us to himself and communicates al saving Graces of life here and will quicken and perfect all in the whol man at his resurrection Thus then we see The end of our Saviors coming and the life of the covenant of Grace both these our Savior would further by his prayer But this unity with the Father and the Son is the end of our Saviors coming and the life of the Covenant 2. Reason This work being savingly and effectually made good upon the soul it maks way for the inlarged expression of all the fruits and works of holiness which might further set forth the honor of God the kingdom of Christ our own comforts here and happiness in another world It s the meaning of that Joh. 15.5 He that abideth in me and I in him the same bringeth forth much fruit True it is done by faith but it is somthing other and somthing more than the bare coming to Christ or our Union with him It is the keeping the Eye of the soul and carrying the bent of the Heart upon the engagements of Gods dearest love and the unchangeable work of the spirit of Adoption to be acted by the quickning vertue thereof in Gods time and after Gods manner and answerable to our need and that condition and place we possess in the Body of Christ for so that phrase implieth Joh. 6.56 He that eateth my Flesh and drinketh my Blood that is done by beleeving He abideth in me and I in him That is another and a further work And it intimates a free and a ful intercourse of spiritual communion between God and the soul and a communication of his presence and spiritual influence upon the beleever As it is in the Body natural when the constitution is healthful and the
great a work unto his care and trust and laid it upon him as his charge which by mutual consent and convenant he willingly undertook Joh. 6.39 This is my Fathers will that hath sent me that of all which he hath given me I should lose none but should raise it up at the last day And therefore adds verse 40. He that beleeves in me Shall have everlasting life and I will raise him up at the last day Yea he gives up his account of his work John 17.12 Those that thou hast given me I have kept and lost none And therefore compares himself to the good Shepherd that layes down his self for his Sheep Joh. 10. 3. Gives him ful commission for the accomplishment of this work unto the ful even as he is the Son of man hath given right and liberty to the humane Nature of ours now received into personal union to use and improve any of the Attributes of the Deity for the further benefit of the Saints the good of his Church and the furtherance of those spiritual ends which may best â—et forwards the glory of God and the everlasting wellfare of his people This so wonderful a union doth advantage the Humane Nature to so high a priviledg to use al the excellencies of the Deity at al times answerable to al necessities to fetch supply suitable to the wants desires comforts of the Saints This is the meaning of those places Math. 28.18 All power is given to me in Heaven and in Earth To have al power it to be Omnipotent for more than all cannot be conceived noâ— possessed more than that God hath not and that because it is an in-communicable Attribute he cannot communicate but the meaning is though it be not omnipotent yet it hath liberty to set that on work for the benefit and best good of Gods servants Hence what the Father doth the son is said to do also Joh. 5.26 As the Father hath life in himself so hath he given to the son to have life in himself Verse 19. What ever things he doth those the son doth likewise for as the Father raiseth up the dead even so he Joh. 17.2 Thou hast given him power over all Flesh to give unto them eternal life He that must rescue them from Hel and sin and death and from divine Justice he must have power over al That the power in Heaven may not prejudice and frustrate the work in Hel hinder it on earth oppose it 4. The Father leaves the immediate dispensation of al the work unto him to act it according to his own pleasure For so our Savior As the Father raiseth and quickeneth so the son quickeneth whom he will Joh. 5.21 And adds verse 22. For the Father judgeth no man but hath committed al judgment to the son Not that the Father hath not power for the execution of the work For he that gives it hath it in a principal and soveraign manner But he hath committed the immediate execution thereof unto the Lord Jesus and so of the whol work of our Redemption Joh. 5.27 That as Pharaoh said concerning Joseph when he appointed him next unto himself in the kingdom of Egipt Gen. 41.40,44 I am Pharaoh and without thee shall no man lift up his hand or foot no man shal do any thing which way so ever he turn himself c. Only I am Pharaoh So the Father to Christ he delegates the execution of al in Heaven and Earth unto him only he is greater This is the meaning of that place 1 Cor. 11.3 I would have you know that the Head of every man is Christ the head of the Woman is the man and the head of Christ is God Whence know 1. That the Apostle speaks not only of faithful men and Women but of al men and Women according to their sex For the scope is to shew that Women should be subject not only gracious but al. And this he shews from the feebleness and underness of their Nature and sex 2. That these different degrees of excellency are only to be attended in regard of subordination in order one to another and immediate dispensation from one to another for that Head implies not only excellency and dignity in the general but power to move al in subord nation to it authority to rule all in subjection 〈…〉 So that it is not excellency but power and 〈…〉 and that not at large for so Angels are the 〈◊〉 of men but as they be in subordination and not 〈◊〉 â—â—ch as be far removed but such as have the next 〈◊〉 dispensation in way of providence â—eâ—ch â—ver other For otherwise Christ is head not ofâ—â—â— but of Woman and Angels also so God himself is But the Apostles meaning and intent was to shew the orderly and next dispensation in the several degrees the immediate influence and dispensation of power and authority for the ruling of the femal sex is in a way of providence and appointment from man the immediate dispensation of power to man is from Christ to Christ from God the Father who hath sent him And thus Christ is and doth to al only distinguishing the manner and end of his dispensation To the wicked in way of Justice for their ruine and destruction To the godly in way of mercy for their spiritual good That 's the meaning of that All is yours c. And hence the Apostle 1 Cor. 15.24 28. Christ is said when he hath conquered al enemies the last is death damned all the wicked and delivered up is Children into the hands of his Father he then is said To deliver up his Kingdom to the Father i.e. Only in regard of this outward dispensation For then God the Father shal in and through Christ communicate himself to all his Saints Use 1. We have here matter of wonderment at the Rich and unconceiveable compassion of the Father to miserable undone man who should be careful to provide for his good who is so negligent to provide for his own Spares nothing â—o purchase his Salvation who hath done what he can to destroy himself Had he sent the meanest of his creatures to succour us his servants to visit us his Angels to administer to us it had been more than we could have expected But to send his Son out of his own Bosom yea out of his own Bowels to work out our Redemption to make known the way of life and and to make it good unto our Souls Nature would not do this reason cannot reach this mercy the heart would not dare to beg this Sit we down in the everlasting admiration of his mercy As Elizabeth and Mary when he came to visit her Luk. 1.43 Whence comes it that the mother of my Lord should come to me So thou As David when he attended the dealing of the Lord towards lost man who had made himself the most vile and forlorn of al his creatures looks upon his own baseness and Gods kindness Lord what is man that thou
It s given by way of Covenant Psal 45.7 Loving al righteousness as to fulfil it Hating al iniquity as to suffer for it and to remove it Act. 2.34 Being exaked at the right hand of the Father and having received the promise of the spirit he hath shed it abroad It behoved Christ to suffer al these things and so to enter into his glory The Human Nature of our Savior having now attained al that fulness of glorious Grace hat is compatible to any creature Hence 1. Our Savior hath received Al most glorious Grace in a most Eminent Manner Grace is first in his Human Nature For since the fal and that Adam through his just desert hath deprived him of the Grace that God had given him in Innocency Had not our Savior taken our Nature into union with himself that in it he might suffer and satisfie and purchase Gods Favor and spirit to bring us again It had not been possible that ever any grace should have been imparted to us He is the Head of his Church Eph. 1 22. The Root or Stock unto the Scions and Branches Joh. 15.1 The fountain of living Water al means and men and ordinances are but conduits which give no more than they do receive As the Moon from the Sun as the looking Glass reflects the light hath no light 2. Cor. 4.6 To give the light of the glory of God in the face of Christ 2. He hath it OUT OF MEASURE not only because he hath the spirit of Grace dwelling in him with the God-Head and all the fulness of the God-Head But also He hath al Graces in al the Kinds of them and all the degrees As there is no weakness attending any Grace which ought to be removed there is not any Scantness that any more can be added nothing but wisedom no folly or ignorance to blemish it and there is so much that Human Nature is capable of no more no further increase can be expected In the Body of Christ and amongst al Christians each man hath his measure and proportion suitable to his place and answerable to the condition he doth possess in the Body As in the Body natural The finger is not so big as the hand nor that as the Arm ' nor that as the Back or Thighs but each holds his place and proportion and so his perfection in his kind So in the Body mystical one excels in patience and Meekness though truly Zealous another excels in Zeal and courage though meek and humble in his measure also Some are hands and some are fingers and feet in this mystical Body and all the while the proportion of their Graces answer their places It s comly But it s otherwise with our Savior He is Zealous and meek and patient and nothing can be added to the measure fulness and perfection of these Eph. 4.13 Vnto the measure of the stature c. 3. Without ALTERATION or possibility of loosing weakening or decaying in the power of any Grace This was incident as we find by woful experience to the state and perfection of Adam in innocency He came compleatly furnished with all abilities which might answer his condition and the obtaining of his end His understanding and knowledg clear and yet became first to be darkned then deluded and then lost and taken away from him His will holy and fitted to choose and to injoy the chiefest good but immediately unsetled and perverted and corruption defaceth the whol man But it is beyond al possibility that the least decaying in any of these glorious Graces should betide him because our Human Nature is not vertually only as to Adam but the Essence by the person comes to be knit in personal Union with it and so sustaines it in that unchangeable condition For if our savior should be changed the infinite power of the Spirit of the God-Head might be over-come and put to the worse which is impossible It was an argument to them for their safety that they should overcome the world because greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world Therefore much more in our Savior essentially when in us vertually The Prince of this world comes saies our Savior and finds nothing in me Finds no sin that he can provoke so taketh an advantage nor finds he weakness or mutability of any Grace that he is beyond all Hope to shake 4. It is in him by POWERFVL and Efficacious communication i. e. He hath so Grace in himself that he can convey Grace to others and work it also in them So it is not with any man He may exercise and put forth the act of Grace upon another but to convey of his own Grace to another to make him wise by anothers wisedom this cannot be Joh. 1.16 Of his fulness we all receive Likewise Eph. 1.23 The Church is said to be the fulness of him that filleth all in all Paul studies this That Christ may be formed in them Gal. 4.19 USE 1. Of Examination We may hence discover whether our Graces be counterfeit or of the right kind such as a man may be content to appear before Chirst withal such as will go in Heaven with us All Graces are firstly in him as the treasurer of all Graces therefore ours must be from him if they favor any thing of Christ or we expect any acceptation for them So Paul 2 Cor. 13.3 Since ye seek a proof of Christ speaking So we should seek a proof of Christ humbling of Christ making us patient and meek and Zealous For there be counterfeits of al these which carry a great shew and appearence to those that have no skil in mettalls and carry not the Touch-stone of discerning about them Ask therefore this whence come thy Graces If they be of the right make they came from the right mint or quarry So Paul issues it Cor. 13.5 Prove and examine your selves whether ye be in the Faith or no. And how is that done know ye not that Christ is in you unless ye be reprobates al is drossy otherwise Splendida peccata Prove that and the other wil be apparent As we say of China Mettal If it be right it s only there found and must from thence be fetched There is counterfeit and false that is meerly imitated So it is If saving Christian Grace they must be from a Savior and a Christ Thus Paul intimates and points out apparently by way of distinction Phil. 1.2 Saints in Christ Jesus Nay of himself professeth that he lived not USE 2. Of Comfort to al the Saints If they be empty here is fullness of Grace to satisfy If scant here is grace out of measure to content and supply them If poor here is treasury of wisdom and knowledg and though they may decay this wil recover and strengthen and establish to perfection USE 3. For DIRECTION How to get this glorious grace Go to him who hath it As Peter in a like kind Whither should I go but unto
that may disturb our setled and established state of happiness They who share in the Truth of all kinds of Graces in the Perfections of al kinds in the Immutability of al those perfections They partake of the like glorious Grace with our Savior This last indeed is the end and perfection of Grace It was given to Adam and he should have used it that he might have been immutable in the use of it But missing it he lost his Grace and fel short of glory Now that which the first Adam should have done and failed the second Adam hath done and so hath obtained it 2. They receive this by Gift He it is in whom al Grace as a fountain is setled To whom the immediate dispensation and communication of it is committed by God and from his free gift they must receive it For look we at the Saints as they ly in the Loynes of Adam 1. They have forfeited this glory put away this Grace from them and by reason of their rebellion have justly deserved the Lord should depart away 〈◊〉 withdraw the presence of his Grace which he formerly furnished them withal Rom. 3.23 We have sinnâ—â— and are deprived of his Glory Yea they take shame and confusion as their due and portion Dan. 9.7 O Lord to us belongeth shame and confusion of face as it appeareth this day Yea they ly down in shame Jer. 3.25 2. They have nothing of worth that may purchase it they can do nothing that can deserve it For when they have done all they can they are not only unprofitable servants Luk. 17.10 Psal 143.2 But that is not al should the Lord reckon with them for what is done who could abide they are so far from having hope to receive glory from God as that they might justly expect a Curse at his hand and he could not but in Justice send it 3. And lastly such is the baseness of the hearts of men and the crosseness of their corrupt Natures to his glorious Grace that as they wil hot so in truth they cannot receive it No man can receive any thing unless it be given from above Joh. 3.27 Joh. 14.17 The world cannot receive the spirit because they have not seen him nor known him Object But our Savior hath entered into covenant with God the Father to become the Shepheard of his Sheep to undertake the charge and care of his Elect to bring them to Grace and so to glory Joh. 17.2 To as many as are given to Christ he should give eternal life to them Joh. 6.37 All that the Father giveth to me shall come and I wil lose none If therefore a debt and agreement unto which our Savior is bound how is it then a gift which is in his liberty to deny Answ True It s that which Justice and righteousness cal for that haveing tyed hmself by promise ingaged his faithfulness and truth To seek and to save to â—â—ing other of his sheep and to bless c. He cannot fail â—â—â—â—g his faithfulness and deny himself and not 〈◊〉 â—nd the honor of his own word But let it be demanded why the Lord did Engage himself to undertake the work of our Salvation It wil appear that there is nothing but free Grace breathing in al the work he freely undertook it out of his free good wil performed it and out of his free Grace applies it So that there is nothing but free Grace and the free gift of Grace in what Christ hath wrought for us or wrought in us You have both the particulars opened we will give you the Reasons of both together REASONS 1. Taken from the proportion between the first and second Adam the Type and the Truth As the first Adam conveyed his sin and wrath by a covenant of works the second must convey holiness and life by a covenant of Grace and the free gift thereof The first Adam begat a Son in his own image wholly defiled and defaced with original corruption and so made him Heir apparent to the curse and condemnation thereby The second Adam must instamp the image of holiness upon his without which none shal see life Hebr. 12.14 Thus the Apostle disputes 1 Cor. 15.49 As we have born the image of the Earthy the first so we shal bear the image of the Heavenly 2. For this end the human Nature of our Savior hath received and is become the first subject of al Grace that from thence it might be derived unto the Nature of his Children For this end in our Nature he hath performed what ever divine Justice hath required purchased and provided a way and means for the communication of al Grace to his Therefore undoubtedly he wil give it and they receive it Otherwise he should miss his end and they their good 1. For this end he hath received al Grace For had not the second person by the power of the Deity brought our Nature to God and assumed it into personal union with himself so that the fulness of the God-Head might dwel Bodily in it and so the fulness of al Grace communicated thereunto It had not been possible that ever the Sons of Adam who are become enemies to God and the work of his Grace should have been made partakers thereof being wholly cross thereunto Col. 2.10 Ye are complete in Christ because in him dwelleth all the fulness of the God-Head Bodily Ye need no other King to rule nor Prophet to teach nor Priest to sanctifie Yea for this end in our Nature he hath purchased al provided a way to convey al Grace For had he not died and by death satisfied the Law ' the strength of sin had never been subdued nor could our corruptions be mortified Had he not by his resurrection triumphed over the power of Grave and Satan and al sinful weaknesses we had never had our hearts raised and quickned to Newness of life But when he died we by his death dy to sin and sin died when he rose we by his resurrection must rise to Newness of life For this end these were performed and this must also be attained Rom. 6.8 Therefore it is that this gift of Grace is committed to him and the dispensation and immediate communication belongs to him Therefore the Spirit is said to take of Christs Joh. 16.14 He shall receive of mine and shall shew it unto you There is no killing vertue quickening vertue could be applied or received but only through his death first in him thereby then in us 3. He that gives the faithful the Spirit of Grace and glory must needs also give them all glorious Grace But our Savior doth so This is the reason the Apostle alledgeth 2 Cor. 3.18 As by the spirit of the Lord. Rom. 8.2 The Law of the Spirit of life hath freed us from the Law of sin As it is in the Scion knit unto the stock It is partaker of the same sap with the stock So here They are said to be implanted into the similitude
apprehended by us looks not at things as they are but as they appeare to us and may most familiarly and easily be conceived by us and so to lead us by the hand as it were to that fountain and first rise of all and so to the highest step and staire in Heaven which will point at eternity The Father is in Christ Christ in the faithful and so they come to be perfect in one We shal follow the method of our Savior and look at the words as they lie in the Text handle the several peeces that the frame of the whole may more throughly be searched into and more fully appear with what plainness may be in the Issue For there be some depths in some passages of the verse which are fitter to be admired than comprehended and exceed the reach and discovery of the most Judicious Jnterpreter that I can look into and indeed seem to be reserved for another world when the fruition of the good here mentioned will prove the best interpretation We will study to be wise unto sobriety I in them Christ is by his Spiritual Presence in a special manner in the Faithful This was signified to the Church of the Jews in the wilderness when the Arke the Type of the presence of our Savior incamped in the midst of all the tribes of Israel to watch over them when they rested Was a Pillar of cloud and fire to go before them for special guidance when they arose and marched in their travel and this Moses prized so highly That unless he went with them he would not go into Canaan the land of promise The presence of Christ is better than the Land of promise Exod. 33.15 If thy presence go not with me carry us not up hence Therefore our Savior is said to dwel between the Cherubims and there to give his Oracles his Answer to his people Isa 37.16 Psal 132.14 The Lord professeth This is my resting place here will I dwel for ever Therefore the faithful are said to receive Christ As ye have received Christ so walk in him Christ is said to be in them 2. Cor. 13.5 Know ye not that Christ is in you unless ye be reprobates To dwel in them Eph. 3.17 To live in them Gal. 2.20 Yea they live not but Christ only Open here three things 1. In what respect Christ is said to be in his 2. What kind of presence this is 3. After what manner communicated And here the grounds and the Reasons of the point wil be laid 1. In what respect Christ is said to be in his Answ If we look at our Savior meerly and only as the second Person in the glorious Trinity God blessed for ever not attending or considering his Human Nature as he filleth Heaven and Earth with his presence he then would have filled the hearts of the Sons of men in that manner being present with them as he is every where by his Omnipresence But the gracious spiritual expression of his presence had never been communicated to Adams posterity There was so great a distance such and so strong opposition betwixt the corrupt and polluted nature of man and the purity of the holy nature of the blessed God that there was no possibility that ever there should be any agreement and communion while man continued in that corrupt condition Can two walk together except they be agreed Am. 3.3 Much less dwel together Yea the Lord professeth Psal 5 4. Wickedness shal not dwel with him much less he in it When his pure eyes cannot endure to behold iniquity with any approbatioÌ„ he shal be thought to take up his abode there No. What communâ—oâ— between light and darkness Christ and Belial that is there is none there can be none Therefore we must look at Christ as God-man as he had taken our nature into union with him and so in and by it had made way for the communication of himself to his By the nature of man he communicates his spiritual presence to the Sons of men By this life is provided for the world of Gods elect By this they come to be made partakers of it John 6.51 I am the liveing bread which came down from Heaven If any man eat this bread he shal live for ever But the question might have been what is that bread he answers The bread I wil give is my flesh which I wil give for the life of the world Because his humane nature is that mean whereby life was purchased and the conduit by which it was conveyed to lost man And therefore he adds Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man ye have no life And vers 56. He that eateth my flesh drinketh my blood dwelleth in me and I in him So that there is no communion with Christ no sharing in his spiritual presence and special vertue but by his flesh Christ God and Man is our spiritual good otherwise he is not nay cannot be digested for the spiritual refreshing of the faithful soul 2. What kind of presence this is Answer In the words of the doctrine it is a spiritual presence not carnal or corporal in so much that the Apostle if he had known Christ after the flesh yet he knowes him no more after that manner 2. Cor. 5.16 For the flesh profits nothing sayes our Savior the words I speak are spirit and life John 6.63 Certain it is the bodily presence of our Savior is not here attended according to the conceit of the Capernaites and the Papists at this day as though it were possible for the very flesh of our Savior to be in al places or in many places according to the administrations of the ordinances which signify or represent the same Nor yet can the very flesh of our Savior in it self considered be truly availeable to purchase any spiritual good or communicate any spiritual vertue Yet this is certain and for ever to be observed that the humane nature taken with the deity and in vertue of the deity puts forth a power in the expression of his spritual presence whereof more anon And the Lord Christ is thus spiritually present in his Church as a head may be truly said to be really and rventually in the body For this is the office of our Savior and that in a proper and peculiar manner He is said to be the Head of his Church neither the Father nor the Holy Ghost The Father is the Father of the Church and Holy Spirit the ComforteÌ„r of the Church but Christ hath this impropriate in him that He is the Head Eph. 4.15 Grow up in â—o him in al things which is the head even Christ And Chap. 5.23 He is the head of the Church and the Savior of the body Because this appertaines to him not as God onely for then al the persons had partaked thereof as common but as the second person in the Trinity sent of the Father working next in order from him and as so sent and workking terminating
1.1 The Word with God that is the Father and it was God that is had the Essence of the Deity 2. As the Subsistences look at the Essence with his Relative Properties so in Relation each Person gives being each to another and is one in another John 14.9 The Father dwels in Christ That cannot in any propriety of speech be said of the Essence that the Persons dwel in the God-head because they are Relations and therefore no impression in the subject So hence our Savior is said to be in the bosom and come from the Bosom of the Father Hence he is said Joh. 10.15 As the Father knowes me even so I know the Father Which Issues from this relation For its that which appertaines to the Nature of Relates because they are mutual causes one of another the knowledge of the one is the knowledg of the other And this also seems to be the meaning of that Joh. 10.30 I and my Father are one The Jews they conceived he blasphemed because he made himself God Verse 33. Our Savior defends himself thus Say ye of him whom the Father hath sent that he blasphemeth because I said I am the Son of God verse 36. And so the Argument may well stand that they are one in relation and so one in another for having said that none shall pluck his sheep out of his hand he gives this relation because the Father who hath given them him is greater than al and none can pluck them out of his hand If none can puck them out of my Fathers hand then not out of mine If my Father and I be one then it follows but we are one One in this reference and relation one to another and so in this action of sending and being sent both as one attend the accomplishment of this work We here want examples to Illustrate because the creature cannot afford in propreity of speech one essence to relation yet a little to help take that which is familiar As my hand is closing and closed These two as they look to the hand are with it and with one another As they look to the hand closing And so closed closing and closed are causes each of other and one in another So in the deity these properties of knowing and being known like closing and being closed with it self as they look at the essence or God-Head they are with it and one with another 4. This subsisting each in other is not an Individual relative porperty but a notional respect which attend al the relations of the persons in common therefore cannot make any distinct personality But appertaines to al and is and may be affirmed of al as relatives giving being each to other they abide each in other As the Scripture phrase the Father dwels in the Son Three Things for Explication Viz. How this may be attended in our Savior as God and man for so he seems to speak of himself in this place in the several passages For so he is in the faithful so he received glory and gave glory verse 22. So he was sent verse 18. In such mysteries that we may be wise unto sobriety and yet not slorthful neither too curious to search more than we need nor yet too careless to neglect what God reveales we shal study to walk in a safe path and therefore I briefly answer generally particularly Generally This In-being or subsistence in the Father belongs firstly to the Son as second person and to the human Nature so far as the relation of Sonship leaves some impression and so alteration thereupon according to the Nature and condition thereof So that the second person in the Trinity is no other nor acts no otherwise than he did in himself But this manner of existing or acting appears in the Human Nature and leaves new impressions in a special manner and the Father also in and by him and that in a three-fold regard Viz. Of Vnion Mission Operation The Father his act in the son and the son from the Father discover new impressions here and all of them in a special manner follow these relations 1. The second person takes the Human Nature into Personal UNION with himself so that there are not two Sons but one son and therefore as the son is in the Father the Human Nature by the son may be said so to be being one person with him For as the Father gives being to the Son and the son receiving returnes his being unto the Father So the Human Nature hath a total dependance upon the Son and reference to him and in him to the Father And therefore as to be reflected is the property of the second person or looking back to the Father or returning his subsistence So our Nature in Christ looks to Christ having a total dependance upon Christ and being one person with him looks as the second person wholly to the Father And whether the return of the Saints in God and of al things in them be not firstly from hence inquire it wil do you no harm 2. In regard of MISSION The son in regard of this relation is said to be sent that is a communication of work in order from one to another so as the second person works from the Father he originally from himself The second person takes the Human Nature into this order of Mission So that al Grace is bestowed upon it and it is sent upon commission in the Mission of the second person to which it is now united to dispense all Grace according to the will of the Father Joh. 16.15 All that the Father hath is mine Thus he becomes the Head of the Church For the second person in the Trinity sent of the Father works next in order from him As so sent and working terminates the Human Nature upon himself for the great work of Redemption And so its proper to him bringing our Human Nature under the commission offending to have al Grace firstly in way of right of communication He being thus sent and having the commission of al Grace he is head of the Church neither the Father nor the Holy Spirit in propriety of speech Thus said to give him authority to Judg because he is the son of man Joh. 5.27 That is because he is taken into personal union and so under that commission as sent from the Fathers as the second person was Thus usually he shews authority Joh. 14.20 The word which you hear is not mine but the Fathers which sent me And verse 26. The Father sends the comforter in the name of Christ therefore the commission was first his 3. In regard of OPERATION For the second person in vertue of that his relation he not only hath commission from another but works from another and so executes the wil of the Father And thus lastly the second person takes the Human Nature into this dispensation to work al from the Father and that the second person doth by vertue of this relation and so of
this In-being of the Father in him See the very ground given Joh. 10.10 The word I speak is not mine but the Father that dwels in me c. Joh. 8.38 For the works sake beleâ—ve that the Father is in me and I in the Father Joh. 5. The Son doth nothing of himself but what he seeth the Father do Issue the whol Thus. What ever the second person and Son of God as such doth that he doth by vertue of his eternal generation from the Father and from his abiding in him But as Son he takes our Nature into personal union with himself and as Son advanceth it to that priviledg and liberty to set al the Attributes on work and to send the Holy Ghost yea sends al Officers and appoints al Offices and blesseth them Therefore by vertue of this his eternal generation from the Father and his abiding in him this Union Mission and Operation of the Human Nature proceeds The second person by this eternal generation from the Father and abiding in him is reflected upon the Father and as the Father hath an Eye only to the son in giving the susibstence of a Son the Son hath an Eye to the Father in returning the subsistence of a son to him they wholly give and take So the Son uniting the Human Nature into one person holds it in reference and dependance with himself upon the Father All is communicated to him as sent and so to the Human Nature All acted by him and so by the Human Nature The In-being or existence of the Father in the Son is the first rise whence the unity of the faithful with the Father and the Son comes to be perfected Hither our Savior ascends and here he staies Leads us to the Well-Head and fountain whence our spiritual wellface and everlasting good Issues And this is the highest of al and higher we cannot go beyond this visible world and al creatures therein even to Heaven and in Heaven above Angels to God and in the God-Head to the first original in the glorious and blessed Trinity and the first act in that origination To this accords that of the Apostle each place adds mutual light unto the other Col. 3.3 We are dead and our life is hid with Christ in God Christ is the Treasurer but the Father is the Author Christ is the keeper but the Father is the first Appointer thereof For so you must understand the Name God not essentially but personally being put in opposition and reference unto Christ our life is hid with Christ but Christ and life and al is in God in the Father Upon this ground it is and to the like purpose that the Apostle carries the hearts of the Corinthians in the work of their calling unto this consideration as that wherein the lowest part of the foundation of our comfort lies 1 Cor. 1.30 But of him are ye in Christ Jesus who of God in made unto us wisedom righteousness Sanctification and Redemption Christ is all even complete Redemption who delivers from the power and presence of al evil and gives all Grace quickens what he gives perfects what he quickens owns what he perfects But he is made this to us not of himself but of the Father for so stil the word and Name of God is to be taken as appears verse 24. Christ is the power of God and the Wisedom of God Christ is made our Redemption and we are made his redeemed ones and the Father makes both he our Redemption and we his redeemed And this is the cause why the Apostle is so inlarged inlaying forâ—h the soveraignty of the Fathers work beyond al the compass either of the being of the creature or the Graces and apprehensions of all Churches Eph. 4.5 6. There is one Lord Jesus one Faith and one Baptisme one God and Father of all who is above all and through all and in you al. Above al even in the highest power that is dispensed in his Church Christ is the Head and Husband the Holy Spirit the comforter God is the Father Through al the operations and administrations that are in the Churches and Graces dispensed He sends his Son to the great work of our Redemption God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself 2 Tim. 1.4 Given us Grace in Christ Jesus before the world was He sends the Spirit in the work of Application Joh. 26. In all the Saints as drawing and conjoining the hearts of the faithful as fellow Brethren unto himself with the Father and one to another in him and for him So one in relation here as wel as in a Savior And from hence lastly it is we meet usually with that phrase which may receive a right explication and true understanding from t he point in hand 1 Then 1.1 To the Church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and in our Lord Jesus And that so al the Churches and al the faithful are in God the Father as the Father of the Churches in the Son as the Head of the Church In the Father who out of the Authority or priority of order not of dominion first appoints our Savior to the word and the work to him In the Lord Jesus as he is appointed by the Mission to work from the Father and by commission sent as man united to the second person to have al Graces first in way and right of communication to the Church The Father he knows the Son there is the Deity and al the excellencies thereof reflecting exemplifying or characterising upon it self where the expressions of the Deity and all the excellency thereof exemplifying from it self that 's to be in the Father that is it is in the vertue of the Father that it is so done The Son again as the Character reflected or exemplified and where this examplification or excellencies returned again is to be seen so far the Soul may be said to be in Christ that is in his vertue not looking so much at the work or thing done for that Issues from all but at the manner of doing and carry that along it wil direst and not deceive Open the Doctrin 1. Recal what this Oneness is 2. How it s Perfected The first I shal not trouble you withal because I have heretofore opened it at large only mention so much as you may keep your Eye or consideration upon it as the White or Mark that you may discern how the following expressions hit it Briefly then This unity as ye have heard is not the Oneness of affection amongst the Saints but the Oneness of relation they have to God in Christ as his Adopted ones One with us nor one with themselves This Oneness of Relation lies here in that our Saviour doth not bring the Souls of the faithful in neerest relations of dearest love as adopted Sons but also into that spiritual intercourse of peculiar and divine operation of God upon the Soul whereby the Soul returnes unto God to do al and to take al.
thy waies and do likewife it s a mercy that he wil accept of our love and suffer us to love him 1. None more worthy than our Savior One of then thousand altogether pleasantnesses Wouldest thou love thy peace love Christ that procures it lovest thou thy Soul and salvation love Christ that purchased it 2. None deserves our love more whom wil ye love if ye love not Jusus ye wil love the world and it wil deceive you Ye wil love you friends and they wil forsake you Ye wil love your own conceits and those wil delude and ruin you No Christ hath bought our love dearly and us also He loved us more than Heaven He emptied himself of his glory He loved us more than his own life loved us more than the sense and feeling of his Fathers love which is better than life it self Therefore he that hath bought our love and us so dearly we should dearly love him Let our minds love him who hath inlightened them our hearts who hath comforted them our consciences because they have been pacified and refreshed by him 3. We cannot lay out our love better to better advantage and improvement for our own spiritual wellfare Joh. 14.21 If any man wil love me he shal be loved of my Father and my Father and I will come to him and Sup with him and manifest our selves to him Is there no drooping and distressed Spirit when thou breathest after the assurance of Gods love Oh but one smile of his countenance when thou sittest in darkness and in a disconsolate condition what wouldest thou now give to gain evidence of Gods favor that he should make known himself unto thy Soul and say unto thee I am thy Salvation Oh thou sayest part with any thing do any thing Why Love jesus Christ lay out thy affection upon him and its certain thou shal attain what thou desirest Prov. 4. Love Wisdom and she will keep thee exalt her and she will preserve thee she will bring thee to honor if thou wil embrace her Thus we have finished the first point of the three observed from the last end of our Savior's prayer Viz. The Father loved the Lord Jesus We are now to inquire of the second proposition that is plainly expressed and taken for granted as the main thing that is intended here by our Savior The point then is in the express words of the Text Viz. God the Father loveth the Faithful as he loveth Jesus Christ He loves the Saints as he doth our Savior he loveth his adopted Sons as he doth his natural Son the members as the Head I confess judicious Calvin â—asts another Construction upon the word and therefore interprets the Particle which carries a similitude with it causally thus That thou lovest them because thou lovest me But since this Translation which we read carries the proper signification of the Word with it and since that which he intends is not denied but included in it I therefore chuse rather to follow the Native and Natural signification of the word when there is no constraining Argument to the contrary nor any inconvenience doth accrew thereby to the Context and Scope of the place Only attend this that ye may not mistake the mind of our Savior nor the meaning It is but AS for the quality and likeness of this Love not so much as that it should be equal for the quantity and greatness of that Love which was extended to our Savior and to his Saints and Children For that were to derogate from the Wisdom and Goodness of the Father from the Honor and Excellency of our Savior and to lift up both the Persons and Priviledges of the Faithful more than were meet and due It sufficeth nay it 's unmatchable and incomparable Mercy and unconceivable goodness of the Lord that poor sinful Dust and Ashes may so far be advanced that they may be like to Christ which they deserve not though to be equal to him is unreasonable to expect as impossible to attain it The like Phrase we have again repeated in the last verse of this Chapter with which our Savior ends his Prayer leaving that as the last farewel in which such spiritual god things and those glorious Priviledges that ever were promised or could be expected or received were summed up even the marrow of al those loving kindnesses the Lord lets out unto his People the tast and rellish whereof if it were kept upon the Soul it would keep a satisfing and ravishing content upon the heart of a Christian in al Conditions yea carries him beyond al the fulness of Comforts that al created Nature can afford whether in Earth or Heaven being somthing above Heaven it self and al the beauties of all created Excellencies which the place can afford We shal open Two things 1. Wherein the Love of the Father to the Saints shews it self 2. That it is like to that wherewith he loved his Son 1. To discern wherein this Love appears we shal follow it in these Particulars by which Love is in a special manner made known as before Love of Vnion Complacence Benevolence Love Desires Union to the thing Rests contented with it Desires the good of the thing beloved 1. God loves his Saints with a Love of Vnion that 's thus conceived God the Father brings the Faithful into a neerer Vnion with himself and Christ than any Creature by any ability or excellency received by Creation could ever be capable of or could ever attain unto And this wil appear if we compare the surpassing excellency of this Union and the intimate neerness which every Beleever hath with God in the Covenant of Grace with that which Adam could attain unto by the Covenant of Works Had Adam stood and attained the utmost perfection it was possible for him to be made partaker of by the improvement of the Spiritual Stock of Grace bestowed upon him The utmost of al his happiness had been confined within this compass 1. A man by the Principle of Grate was fâ—â— to close with God and perform the Covenant made betwixt God and him But since the Fall of our first Parents and departure from God it was impossible for any Creature or any created Grace to bring back the soul to God therefore the God-head of Christ dwelling in the Nature of Man assumed bodily must bring the Nature of Man again unto God Man out of the mutability of his Grace departed from God but neither man nor Grace but the infinite Power of the God-head must bring man to God again and keep him with him So that the Second Person in the Glorious Trinity taking our Nature upon him did not only purchase by the power of the Deity all for us but by the same power enables us to receive the Work of his Spirit by which he carries us unto himself and the Father So that it is not any created Principle of Grace or gracious habit which either fits us for Christ or carries us to
Sail by his compass Be good Husbands and wisely careful to lay in provision for every condition The wise man sends the Sluggard to the Pismire Go to the Pismire thou Sluggard learn her waies and be wise she prepares in summer before the Winter when there wil neither be means nor meat to be got nor season to get it Be we so careful In peace provide for war in prosperity for want in health for Sickness This was Jobs care When his Paths were Buttered and his Breasts ran ful of Milk he then Feared and expected Lay in reversion of Prayers for Children as in that Fundamental Prayer of Solomon he provides for every occasion If thy people shal be carried Captive and in the Enemies Land if Pestilence c. Then what Prayer is made by thy people c. So lay thou in reversion of prayers for such times and streits Thus we have done with the general scope of the verse we come now to the particulars observed therein And 1. To the Parties described 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Those whom thou hast given me Observe from hence this point Viz All beleevers are given unto Christ by God the Father Doct. Our Savior presents the persons of the Saints both here and often yea constantly and almost continually in the foregoing part of this Chapter to God the Father under this notion and consideration rather than any other As GIVEN by the Father As that which hath the most perswading and prevailing power with the Father readily to hear and willingly to grant any Prayer or petition that should be made in their behalfs and freely and aboundantly to give and bless al means that shal be desired for their good and welfare For which end and purpose God gave them to Christ he also prayes for them and both Father and Son stand ingaged to provide for their everlasting happiness As though our Savior should have said It is not the condition of thine enemies I now present before thee nor the cause of Strangers righteous Father that I desire to recommend to thy Majesty but it is for Thine own whom thou hast Given and over whose Good thou hast Given me Charge For them and for their good it is that I pray and therefore I cannot but speed for both For the Explication of the Doctrine two Questions are to be considered and the meaning of that Phrase opened and then the Truth wil be evident 1. What this giving is 2. How God the Father is said to give To the First I answer three Things All which being distinctly attended wil open the Nature of this Work and make it easie to the Understanding of the meanest 1. Giving the Soul to Christ is not properly the Act of Election though several Interpreters of savory Judgment do so think and speak but I suppose their meaning must be further extended or else their words wil not be able to abide an exact examination by the Rule of Truth But it is a Consequent which follows it an effect which certainly and infallibly flows therefrom and of this the expressions of Scripture wil give in evident proof REASON It 's usually joyned with Election and made distinct therefrom John 17.6 Thine they were and thou gavest them me Verse 9. I pray not for the World but for them that thou hast given me for they are thine Where the former of these Phrases and Expressions imply Election the other a disâ—inct and differing thing therefrom They are God the Fathers by Election made Christs by Gift and Donation Yea the one is used by out Savior as a Reason and Ground of the other I have prayed for those that thou hast given me for they are thine properly so termed Beside the very Nature of the Phrase and the manner of the Speech wil not easily bear such a converting being harsh to the ear and hardly suitable to sense to be elected to Christ as we say to be given to Christ which if giving were electing properly might truly be so expressed which neither the Nature of the thing nor the Construction of the words wil easily admit 2. This Giving is not the Act of Beleeving by which the Soul is carried by the Power of God â—nto Christ but the Scripâ—ure is pregnant and the Dispute undeniable John 6.37 All that the Father hath given me come unto me and those that come unto me I will in no wise cast away Coming we know is Beleeving John 6.35 I am the Bread of Eternal Life he that cometh to me shall never hunger If it be demanded what is that Coming He answers in the words immediately following He that beleeveth in me shall never thirst Coming then being Beleeving our Savior making this Giving of God the Father to go before it without which the Soul wil never come or beleeve it cannot be it 3. This Giving is the Work of the Father upon the Soul in Vocation which goes before the Infusion of Faith makes way for the working of Faith by Christ and receiving it from him and which being there the soul never fails to beleeve and come for that is the force of our Saviors Dispute John 6.36 where he gives the reason why many did not beleeve Ye also have seen me and belâ—eve not What might be the cause thereof since their Abilities were as great and their Excellencies as many which they might have improved to that purpose before many other Our Savior sets down the immediate root and rise of this distinction and separation Those that the Father hath given me those will come shall beleeveâ— where that is not coming wil not be The manner of this Dispensation we shal speak to in the next Question and that is How in God the Father said to give us to Christ Quest 2. as intimating somthing peculiar herein and appropriated to himself The Lord Christ is to be considered as God-Man assuming our Nature Answ when by voluntary Dispensation he put himself into the place oâ— Mediator becomes our Surety undertakes the great Work of our Redemption and so as himself peaks is less than the Father John 14.28 The Father is greater than I. And therfore in the transacting of this great Work by mutual agreement may truly be said to have us given to him not to give us to himself And this the Father doth on this manner 1. The Father being the Party properly and directly offended le ts in his heavy displeasure into the heart of the sinner and forceth him to feel the bitterness of his sin in that unsufferable and unâ—voidable manner that takes off and eats out al the former seeming sweetness the soul hath found therein and by the almighty and unresistable power of his blessed Spirit divorceth him from the embracings of those base Lusts and plucks him by his almighty hand from under the power of those prevailing distempers that have taken place that so the soul may be for another which while it was wedded to its former Corruptions and
and distinctly open the particulars therein some whereof desire and deserve special consideration and explication Namely What is that glory that Christ hath and how it is said to be given him To begin the with the first Branch The Lord Jesus is gone to Heaven This was Shadowed out by his Transfiguration Math. 17.2 3. When Moses and Elias came down to see this preparative of his departure to give tidings of it Of the passage of our Savior the Apostles give in undeniable evidence as such wherein they could not be deceived nor deceive For it was not done when they were heedlesly looking about them and so might easily be mistaken but while they looked stedfastly wishly considerately towards Heaven even while they were gazing upon our Savior he was taken up into Heaven Act. 1.9 10. And Stephen in the time of his greatest extremity being the first Martir who laid down his Blood for his sake he saw him there arrived Act. 7.55 Being ful of the Holy Ghost looked up stedfastly into Heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God And Chap. 3.21 Whom the Heavens shal contain until the restitution of al things And it s made the upshot of the Mistery of godliness 1 Tim. 3. and last Christ manifested in the flesh preached in the world received into glory And from hence the Saints expect him and they shal see him descending with a mighty shout with the voice of the Arch-angel and with the 〈◊〉 of God 1 Thess 4.6 The Lord shal come in most glorious and magnificent state these shal be dreadful notice given of his approach yea every Eye shal see him yea such who have pierced him with their sins Reas 1. Taken from the excellency of his Divine Nature which must be suited with a place and throne answerable to the dignity and soveraignty thereof For however it pleased the Lord out of his infinite love to step out of the Chair of Estate to visite this inferior world to be included in the Womb of a Virgin and to take his progress into these lowermost parts of the Earth yet it carried no proportion in point of honor that he should take up his abode there but to reâ—â—rn again to the Royal Palace of state Heaven is my throne and the Earth is my footstool In reason he may stoop to his footstool and tread upon it but to stay there and to make it the chief place and habitation where his heavenly majesty should dwel It suited not the excellency of his Divine Nature This is that which the Apostle intimates to be the ground of the difference between the advancment of the posterity of the second Adam above the first The Faithful shal be raised and Translated from Earth to Heaven whereas ad Adam stood in Paradise he and his posterity had injoyed an earthly paradise that is God there only and the reason is rendred from the point in hand 2 Cor. 15.45 The first man was a living Soul able to beget one like himself by a natural course of generation But the second Adam was a quickning Spirit able to give life to the dead and so raise up them from the Grave and to make them spiritual Bodies which was beyond the power of Adam Again The first man is of the Earth earthy His covenant and his countenance such But the second is the Lord from Heaven And thence he infers As is the heavenly such are they that are heavenly Especially in the main point of resurrection whereof now he disputes And as in resurrection so in ascension That which first belongs to the Lord Jesus as the Head of the covenant that belongs to al through him and only by him But our ascending and sitting is the prerogative Royal of our Savior therefore it never did nor should have belonged to any but through and by him It s true our Savior consists of two Natures Divine and Human but because the humanity is the meaner and more inferiour therefore that must follow the Deity and be where it is And we also whose Nature our Savior took and whose places and persons he sustained we must follow our Nature and our Nature the God Head that hath his proper place in Heaven And therefore the Human Nature with that and all those who are the members of that Head must be there where the Head is And hence our Savior professeth for the comfort of his disciples That he went before to prepare a place for them Joh. 14.4 In my Fathers House there be many mansions I go to prepare a place for them He as God-man the Head of the Covenant goes to Heaven and the wil bring al his to Heaven by vertue thereof he makes way for them thither Room and entertainment there Heaven is the Lords the place of the God-Head our Nature assumed follows that and we our Nature Reas 2. Taken from the Quality of his Office and the Manner of the dispensation and execution thereof He is sent as an Ambassador from the Father to transact the work of Redemption And to bring Jacob back again And therefore in reason he must return and give an account unto God the Father how the great Affaires of Redemption prosper under his hand Thus he speaks usually Joh. 13.3 Jesus Knowing that is considering this That the Father had given al things into his hands and that he came from God and was to go to God he forthwith addresseth himself to make way for his death wherein the great weight of the work lay q. d. He had received his commission from the Father and he must give account to the Father again And upon this he intimates his departure Joh. 7.33 Yet a little while am I with you and then I go to him that sent me He that is sent of an errand and service he must return an account of the success and how things prosper under his hand and by his indeavor Els there should be a failing in the faithful discharge of his Office and that is the reason the Lord Jesus is so punctual in each particular Loe here am I and the Children that thou hast given me And of those that thou hast given me I have not lost one It s also the manner of great commanders when they go upon great exploits and special service though they conquer other people possess the places and countries where they pervail yet they return into their native and natural Country there to be honored amongst their own and to have their greatness Admired amongst them as Feared amongst the Adversaries So it was with our Savior Eph. 4.8 c. His death was his conquering his resurrection his triumph by his ascension he returned into his own Countrey and his sitting at the right hand of God the Father is there crowned with the fulness of all glory that is compatible to the condition of a created Nature 3. The efficacy of the Priviledg as that which so much concernes the
Election doth Nor yet is this meaning so fully suitable to the sense of the place and force of the Argument For glory was given and doth appertain to our Savior not as man alone but as the Second person in the glorious Trinity as we opened and gave in undeniable evidence thereof in the former Doctrine As our Savior was the subject of this glory which was given so is he the subject of that love which gives it But that Election properly so termed should be attributed to Christ as the second person I do not remember that any Scripture evidenceth Therefore in the. Third and last place I do conceive that this love is attributed to the Father in a personal regard and for the manner of it it doth in a proper and peculiar sort appertain to him and Issues from that inward and intimate relation that is betwixt the Father and the Son The Father gives al to the Son as Son The Son returnes al to the Father as Father Nor a Father because God but because he hath a Son Not Son Because God But because he hath a Father And hence it is they are said to have an In-being each in other Beleevest thou that the Father is in me and I in the Father Joh. 14.8 9. Thou in me and I in thee that they may be one as we are one And for that reason it is the Father is said To dwel in Christ the second person Joh. 14.10 And that cannot in any propriety of speech be said of the Essence because that the person dwels not in the Essence For relations make no impression in the subject Hence it is the Lord Jesus becomes the object of his Father love his heart wholly affects his thoughts are wholly set upon him taken up with him An infinite and eternal Favorite of an infinite and eternal Father Called the express Character of his Fathers person Hebr. 1.3 No such likeness No such Love So that he cannot once look off from him Enamoured with him and with an infinite fulness of Soul-pleasing satisfaction takes contentment in him Hence our Savior professeth Prov. 8.30 I was dayly his Delight The Original word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a compound of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 intueri 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 retinere so to eye blande applicaâ—e fe alteri ut inclusum retineamus in solidum So to Eye and pleasingly to apply our selves to another as to hold keep that other with us for ever So the Father doth gaze upon the infinite beauty of his own image in his Son bestows his affection wholly upon him and holds him to himself for ever The Father and the Son being subsistences of the same Essence they are one with another in regard of the Essence unto which they be adjoined and one in another in regard of the personal relation that is betwen them they are the delight one of another and glorifie each other continually The issue then is In that the Father eyes affects delights in his Son as the brightness of his Glory the express image of his person as his only begotten bearing his similitude and likeness in an unconceivable and unmatchable resemblance This love in this manner is proper to the Father the fountain and first cause of that glory the Lord Jesus had with the Father before the world was and the first cause whence that glory comes to be restored after he had emptied himself of his glory and suffered the shameful death of the Cross Father glorifie me with thy self with the same glory that I had with thee before the world was And hence it is our Savior is said to be in the bosom and to come from his bosom He lay in the bosom of his love and from thence was sent to reveal those bosom secrets of the riches of his free love and Grace which Els had never seen Sun This is the love wherewith the Father loved the Son before the world and this love is the cause why he gave him that glory And that appears by a double Reason REAS. I. Love laies out it self for the behoof and benefit of the thing beloved as much as may be for the furtherance of the good of it to the utmost of that perfection its able to contrive and the other able to receive saies not in wishes but is active and working not desires only in a kind of complementing formality but really procures what may be most useful for the advancement of the thing beloved Let us not love in word and Tongue only 1. Joh. 3.18 But in Deed. The love of the Father being of greatest excellency even of unconceivable vertue efficacy our Savior being of unmatchable likeness to draw out the love of the Father and incomparable worth to deserve it it could not be but so great love should give the greatest good to one of greatest desert and therefore must give him that incomprehensible glory which might be the amazement of the hearts of men and Angels through al eternity Behold here is the incomprehensible glory of the ever blessed Son given out of the unconceivable love of the Father of glory Hence the Evangelist Joh. 3.35 The Father loveth the Son and hath given all things into his hand In love there is no lack and its bountiful and studies the advancement of the thing beloved So Jonathan to David I know thou shalt be King in Israel and I shal be second to thee He loved him as his own Soul and could have given that to him and therefore did not grudg him the Kingdom And however it cannot stand with the glory of the Father that his Son should be above him yet he provides for eminency of honor answerable to his excellency He hath so provided carried al things by the counsel of his own wil and course of his providence to bring in al praise to this Christ He hath given power to him even power to have life and to quicken whom he wil and to judg al. Joh. 5.20 to 23. That al might honor the Son and they honor the Father 2. Love is of a cementing Nature desires union and neerness with the thing beloved is not pleased nor satisfied but with the presence of that which it doth affect seeks the fellowship society and company of that in a special manner It s the guise of the Spouse that is sick of Love when she went to seek her Savior Cant. 3. I found him whom my Soul loved I held him and would not let him go So Ruth to Naomi when she perswaded her to depart and go into her own Countrey Intreat me not to leave thee where thou goest I wil go where thou livest I wil live and where thou diest there wil I be Buried Ruth 1.16 17. Now the love of the Father being of infinite purity and perfection must needs have like proportionable operation and therefore must not only affect the presence of his Son but must provide for the injoyment of it in the neerest
in the Deity upon it self then there must be divers manners of being in the Deity But there is such a reflecting therefore For the right understanding of this ye must conceive the Understanding of the God-head being pure act and infinite it must have a proportionable and therefore an infinite Object therefore understand himself conceive an Image of himself this Image of himself must be conceived and look back upon himself or his own conceiving again Now that the shine of this Impression must return again upon it self and look back to the impression is thus made plain by setting a dis-similitude by it When the operative active Wisdom of God fals upon nothing purposing to make a VVorld it breaks through that nothing and brings forth an effect a Creature out of it stinted with bounds of being and time it 's both finite and temporary hath a beginning of time and may have an end But this Understanding falling upon the God-head which is absolutely first and infinite it cannot break through make an effect or give this the Being of a Creature being infinite and first-being The Act of Gods Wisdom fals upon that as his Object and returns again upon it self and so doth conceive and hath an Image of it self conceived an engraven Character from this Impression returned by resemblance upon the Impression As take a beam of the Sun meet with the Glass it finds way by reason of the perspicuity of the body to pass through it But let it fal upon a firm and solid body pierce and pass it cannot and therefore it fals upon the body and returns upon it self from the body the falling is the reflecting of it and by returning it comes to be reflected Here note The Light is one thing but the reflecting and returned or to be reflected upon it self is another These answer each the other stir up the act each of other no reflecting no returning no returning no reflecting They give being to and maintain being each in other mark that The reflecting and being reflected is not the cause of the Light but each of other So here The Wisdom of the God-head is like the Light reflecting upon it self there is a like Image of it self returned again and conceived This being conceived as it had al from the Father so it eyes and answers al in the Father conceiving A man may understand a Truth but when by understanding he darts it upon his mind to enlighten and so teach and rectifie The mind receives and stands rectified and enlightened The Understanding is one thing but the darting by Understanding rectifying and enlightening the mind returning and standing rectified these are divers manners really distinct and directly answering each the other in a peculiar manner Thus our Savior is said to manifest the Name of the Father not his Name as God but as Father As I said before The Light is not the cause of the reflecting or returning but one of these is the cause of the other reflecting is the cause of returning and returning is the cause of reflecting So the Understanding is not the cause of Teaching for that may be where no teaching is but Teaching rectifying the Knowledg is the cause why Knowledg comes to be rectified So that Phrase No man knows the Son but he to whom the Father will reveal him and no man knows the Father but he to whom the Son will reveal him No man knows what the rectifying of the Knowledg is but he who hath his Knowledg rectified And this is to be attended according to the Second Person in the Deity for it 's true both waies as wel of the Father who was never incarnate as of the Son who was 3. Eyes and owns the Impression and the Imprinter of it in an especial manner John 14.9 He that hath seen me hath seen the Father also Not he that saw him with his Bodily Eyes or saw only the external and visible bodily presence of our Savior but he that saw him as a Son he would own the Father also as expressing the lively resemblance of his Father It answers so fully in al things As we see in Sensitive Creatures the yong can own the Dam by the scent smel or bleating There is somthing of their own there He that hath his Mind rectified by a Truth wil own the rectifying or teaching while he lives John 10.15 The Father knows me and I know the Father 2. How this belongs to our Savior as Man as well as the Second Person For so he looks at himself and in that respect and consideration we must understand his Expression here Answ This Knowledg belongs firstly to the Son as Second Person but to the Humane Nature so far as the Relation of Son-ship leaves some impression according to the Nature and Condition thereof So that the Second Person in the Trinity is no other nor acts any otherwise than he did in himself But this manner of acting in the knowledg of the Father appears in the Humane Nature and leave◠new impressions in an especial manner and the Father also in and by him And that is done in regard of that Union that the Humane Nature hath to the Second Person For as we know the Second Person takes the Humane Nature into personal Union with him so that there is not two Sons but one Son and the Lord Christ remains the same Person after the Union that he was before And therefore being one and the same Person with the Son he may be said to know the Father as the Son in his manner and measure For as the Father gives being to the Son and the Son receives al from the Father so the Humane Nature hath a total dependance upon the Son he only incarnate and so a sole reference with that respect to him and so in him to the Father So that it is said to be one and the same Person one and the same Son with the Son 2. As to be reflected is said to be the property of the Second Person looking back and returning his subsistence to the Father So our Nature having a total dependance upon Christ in the Union and being one Person with him looks as the Second Person wholly to the Father He brings back Jacob. Nay it eyes and owns through the Son al those Fatherly Impressions and Affections which are in the Father and wherein he intimately unbosoms himself to his Son That is the value of the word Prov. 8.30 as we have observed before 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as much as intueri retinere 3. The Reason is taken from that Relation which is between the Father and the Son The Nature whereof is to give total Being only one to another to maintain that Being only one in another and therefore there is a manner of making known each of other in special appropriate to them That which gives a perfect discovery of the thing that makes way for perfect knowing But relates alone give perfect Being No man can
wil a little make some search with Sobriety so far as may help us to understand the place in hand Thus our Savior makes it the Head Corner Stone of our Confidence This is Eternal Life to know thee that is the Father to be only God not he only to be God but to be the only God there is but one only Deity and he hath that only God-head and what beside and whom thou hast sent Jesus Christ Know him as a Christ annointed and fitted and as a Jesus a Savior who hath performed the work and that he is sent for that very End and Errand and for that purpose from God the Father For had our Savior done it if he had not been sent the Soul would have been at a loss whether he had ever satisfied or should ever be accepted But when our Faith can reach this That the Father who is the only God hath sent him he wil then assist and accept and we should go no further seek no other we then â—it down and are at rest John 12.44 We shall therefore make way for the Discovery of the Nature of this Sending by the Propositions following 1. This Sending taken in a ful Sense is not an Act of the Deity or Divine Nature properly but of the Person or Persons in the Deity who nextly and immediately dispenseth it Reas That which is an Act of the Deity or God-head belongs indifferently and equally to al the Persons in that al are equally God and have the Essence of the Deity and al the Essential Attributes equally attributed to them al. As al are Eternal Omnipotent all Create Decree c. But to send much less to send the Lord Christ doth not belong to al the Persons The Spirit is never said to send in the Phrase of Scripture nor is the Father ever said to be sent And this shal be further cleared and proved in the Conclusions that follow and by the Nature of Mission as it 's set forth to us in the Word 2. This Sending hath a double Reference 1. To the Person that is sent 2. To the thing about which he is sent namely When the Person sent leaves a new act or impression upon the Creature so that the Creature is said to be otherwise than it was and to have somthing which formerly it had not and the Person is sent on purpose to leave such operations and impressions God sent his Son made of a Woman sent him to take our Nature here the second person takes our Nature into personal union with him Sanctifies it unites it supports it Though Christ be the same yet here be new impressions which appear in the Creature which formerly did not I wil send the Comforter and be shal teach you and lead you into al truth Here be new and diverse expressions of the work of the Spirit appearing which formerly did not Joh. 16.10.11 The second respect implies ever the first the sending to a work implies a person that must be and is sent to that end though then these may be distinguished in our reason and consideration yet in the Nature of the thing the one is included in the other 3. Sending when it respects a Person properly It ever implies in the Nature of the thing The Authority of him that sends in respect of the party that is sent I say Authority but not of rule or Dominion so much as Authority of Order Communication of work from one to another and in this sense which is a proper and true sense he only can be said to be sent who works from another whether it be in way of Origination or firstness of Order to be first beginner or setter in of a work before al other or whether it be in regard of operative or active production when several persons may as one Joint principle put forth a work for the producing They are not one in order before another but both meet as one principle and producer or bringer forth of the other And therefore hence it is plain and undeniably Evident which ye must especially observe that in this breadth and extent of sending which the Scripture speaks to The Son and the Spirit are only said to be sent and it is never and indeed it can never be affirmed of the Father If sending imply Authority of Order and communication of work from another then there is none can send the Father because there is none in Order before him nor can he be sent because he works of himself and from himself nor from another therefore cannot be sent from another Hence again it follows The Spirit may be sent from the Father and the Son and the Father and the Son may sent because the Spirit the Holy Ghost works in Order from both and there is Authority of Order and communication from both Gal. 4.6 God hath sent forth the Spirit of the Son That is the Father as appears by the distinction of Son in the words Joh. 15.26 When the Comforter is come whom I wil send unto you from the Father Joh. 14.26 When the Comforter is come whom the Father wil send in my Name Hence Christ can only be said to be sent of the Father not of the Holy Ghost I speak now of this internal sending which is attended only in regard of the Person not of the thing about which he is sent the Reason and ground is the same Sending implies the Authority of Order and Communication of work from one to another but the Son works only from the Father therefore can be said only to be sent from the Father Hence are there so many expressions and confessions of our Savior in this kind almost in every verse when he would settle his commission Joh. 5.30 I seek not mine own Wil but the Wil of my Father which sent me And verse 36. I have greater witness than that of John for the works which the Father hath given me to finish they bear witness of me that the Father hath sent me 4. Propos This sending of our Savior is the first of al others and makes way for al other sending or spiritual good things that are sent unto us from God Have this have al make sure of this make sure of al maintaine this maintain a certain intercourse and Communication of al good things unto our Souls from the Lord. This is the first out filet of God everlasting love and goodness 1 Joh 4.9 God so loved us that he sent his only begotten Son c. There is no expectation of the Spirit there is mo possibility of having no in truth of the sending of the Spirit but only by this way and upon this ground Joh. 16.7 It behooves that I go away for unless I go the Spirit wil not come unto you but if I go I wil send him No coming of the spirit unless he had first come Unless he go to Heaven no sending of the Spirit from Heaven As it is true for the measure in regard
of his ascension so it is true for the reality of the thing in regard of his Mission from the Father For the spirit must be sent from the Father and the Son And therefore it presumes his sending And Hence it is when he is come being sent of the Father He shal teach you al things and shal bring to mind what ever I have said to you And that which Christ speaks he hath from the Father not from the Spirit Joh. 14.10 The words he speaks not of himself And Verse 24. The words which ye hear are not mine but the Fathers which sent me He hath the message from him Joh. 12.49 I have not speken of my self but the Father which sent me gave me a command what I shal say and what I should speak Nay our Savior doth not take of the Spirit but the Spirit hears from him speaks from him Joh. 16.13 Howbeit when the Spirit of truth is come he wil guid you into al truth For he shal not speak of himself but whatever he shal hear that shal he speak He shal take of mine and shew it unto you Verse 15. Christ doth not go to take of the graces from the Spirit but the Spirit because Christ is sent to be the Head of the Church to have al Grace and to be the Fountain to communicate al Grace therefore the Spirit takes of his Not takes of the Father because the Father hath given al to him but takes of his who hath his commission from the Father and is sent out his work of purpose The sending of al Officers is hence As my Father sent me I send you And this is the order and Method of Gods Communication He that receives you receives me and he that receives me receives him that sent me Yea the sending of Gospel and al ordinances Joh. 17.8 For I have given unto them the words thou gavest me and they have received them and have known and beleeved that thou didst send me Yea the ground of al those glorious works he hath accomplished in his own Person and wil perform for his and against his enemies for their good is hence Joh. 9.4 I must do the works of him that sent me while it is day And 5.36 The works which the Father hath given me to do bear witness that the Father hath sent me And when he had fulfilled al he then returnes to his Father 5. As sending evidenceth an Authority in him that sends So to be sent implies that he that is sent takes this Authoritative Order stands ingaged to answer it thus given and taken And is fully to act under the will of him from whom he must work And thus it is with the Lord Christ as second person in the glorious Trinity being sent by God the Father to work as from him For as the manner of their being so is the manner of their working the Son from the Father and therefore works from the Father he is ready to entertain this Order of working and ingageth himself to answer the Order and wil of the Father and stands fitted to have the Nature of man united to him that he may go upon the operation of that work of the Father according to the Order of the Father given him and al this in a peculiar manner appropriate to the Son What ever belongs to the Second Person and none els that he hath as a Son received from the Father But to act by Authoritative order form the Father alone belongs to the Second Person and none els Therefore this as a Son he hath received from the Father Therefore as he must act from him alone so he is bound to answer that Order of his Therefore works nothing but what he sees his Father work speaks nothing but what he hears his Father say Therefore does nothing but what the Father wil. Therefore to be fitted when his wil is to take the Nature of man into Personal union that he may go upon the execution of his wil. I say receive it into personal union Because this belongs to no other Person not Father nor Holy Ghost but himself For its Haeresie to say the Father is incarnate or the Holy Ghost is incarnate How ever therefore he did not receive the Human Nature but in time Yet he was fitted for this work by this sending and eternal mission of his before al time this makes way for that work of Redemption The Human Nature hath a new manner of subsistence and alteration according to its being but there is no alteration in the Second Person As Gods power is the same before the things were made though they cannot be supported but when they are made Again when the Human Nature is united this union we know is in reason reall me non cogitante If the proper being of the union issued only from the Human Nature then there should be no difference in regard of the persons but they should share a like in it But that is false and Heretical For neither Father nor Holy Ghost are incarnate Nor is the Human Nature taken into personal union or becomes one person with the Father on Holy Ghost Therefore there is somthing of this union issues from the Second Person in an especial manner and that is to receive it into personal union for which he was fitted from eternity by his mission but takes it up in the fulness of time when he was sent by the Father thereunto Some such thing I have thought might be intimated in those Scriptures Joh. 8.42 and 17.8 and 13.2 He came out proceeded from God When he was to enter upon the Execution of the work and make the Human Nature feele that support Leaning and being terminated in the subsistence of the Second Person and went abroad in the execution of the work and therefore now he returnes to God again Lastly this sending in regard of the work upon the Creature This conclusion may give some light as much as shal serve our purpose The Lord Christ as God and man hath some things proper to himself 1. In the manner of the work and Priviledg where with he stands possessed he is the head of his Church and hath the immediate dispensation of al power committed to him for the good of it and these are peculiar He is the Head of his Church None but he Al power is committed to him and to none but him But in regard of the work there is a common concurrence of al the Persons with him II. For what he is sent 1. To bring Jacob again Isa 49.5 Those I must bring Joh. 10.16 All that he hath given me come to me Joh. 6.37 And Verse 39. God gives them to him And Chap. 17.8 And he gives them his word and they know that he is sent 2. To keep them when they are brought Joh. 6.38 I came to do the wil of my Father And Verse 39. This is his wil that I should lose nothing And Therefore prayes for them that the
Breath and Being poor Diet of these perishing things here below of Profits Pleasures Honors and Applause Nay he cannot satisfie himself how he may give the choycest satisfying content to them And therefore he looks out not what Provision Earth or Heaven can afford but what the Bosom and Breast and Heart-blood Affection of God the Father can afford That Love wherewith thou hast loved me the first of al the greatest of al let out some of that Righteous Father unto the fainting Souls of my Faithful Ones This Holy Paul praies for as for the most precious Favor that could be obtained as that indeed wherein the rest issue begs it upon his Knees Eph. 3.14 I bow my Knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ that ye may be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inward man that Christ may dwel in your hearts by Faith that ye may be rooted and grounded in Love The end of al is That ye may be able to comprehend with all Saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height and to know the Love of Christ which passeth knowledg verse 19. The Height exceeds al Excellency al Apprehensions al Admiration The Length exceeds the limits of al Time from everlasting to everlasting The Breadth exceeds the Bounds of al Being none have received the impressions of such Love It is the Happiness of the Supreamest of the Angles to have but the Reflection and to come within the Shadow of this Love Their Work and Happiness is to attend upon those that God hath taken so neer unto Christ and himself in Christ As great Personages maintain their Gentlemen honorably to attend upon their Heir They keep them at Cambridg or some such like place because they will have their Son and Heir there They are ministring Spirits sent out for the good of those that shal inherit Salvation No Creature hath this nor indeed is capable of this Love but Man As I might demonstrate to you by the Course of Gods Dispensation The Depth being al the most inward intimate and enlarged working of al Creatures let al the Affections of al Creatures be put together let there be a Confluence and concurrence of al Fatherly Motherly Brotherly Friendly Natural Spiritual Affections put together This draws deeper than them al. David expressed Jonathans Love it was beyond the Love of Women which are most ardent and most vehement That was but as one Creature might love another but this is such a Love as God loves himself and his Son withal And to procure this Love the heart of our Savior was so strongly carried that he left Heaven and his Glory yea lost his Life yea was content to lose Gods Love that is the sence and sweetness thereof which was better than Life it self that we might enjoy it For he became a Curse that we might be blessed Gal. 3.13 He was willing to be forsaken My God my God why hast thou forsaken me that so we might be received and kept for ever safe in the Bosom of his Love Matth. 27.46 And hither Christ would bring and here leave us never to depart from hence And therefore he doth content himself that this Love was appointed provided prepared tendred to the Saints nay enfeoffed and bestowed upon them but that it might be with them and remain in them for ever Be in you that is That it might take up its Residence and abode in them for ever REASON 1. Love we know is an Affection of Vnion and by this the neerest Union betwixt Christ and his Saints is procured They are brought to lie both in the Arms of the Father nay to lodg in his Bowels and Bosom together And therefore as hath been mentioned before there is that proper Relation that peculiar Disposition to be found in the Second Person towards our Nature and the Saints by that means which is not to be found in the Father or in the Holy Ghost As the Second Person he is the Head of his Church which can be said of none of the Persons it 's an Heresie to maintain it This Union of our Nature is not only an impression in the Soul as a work upon the Creature For then it had been common to al the Persons For al the Operations which are created Expressions are indivisae undivided what one doth that al do This Union therefore being a real Union me non cogitante though no man in the World had a thought or apprehension of it therefore beside the impression that is left upon the Creature there is somwhat a peculiar operation issuing from the Second Person which belongs to him alone and by which it is he is said to be united and none else And therefore there is a peculiar kind of propriety and relation which the Second Person hath in this Union wherein he suits with our Nature which is not to be found in any of the other and that he must have as Second Person because it 's his Prayer Hence we are called Flesh of his Flesh and Bone of his Bone Neerer than Flesh and Bone as neer as one part of the Bone to the other one part of the Flesh to the other So our Savior John 6.57 As the living Father hath life in himself so I live by the Father and he that eateth my Flesh shall live in me Al the whol Aim of our Saviors Prayer is 1. To bring his Saints as nigh as may â—e I will that those that thou hast given me may be where I am that is not enough 2. That they may see my Glory nor yet that But 3. That they may gaze upon it Nay yet further not they only in Glory but 4. I in them and we both in the Cabinet as nigh to God as may be and as nigh one to another as can be in him 2. The greatest good together with the greatest safety of the Saints is provided for This shews the indeared Affection of the Love of Christ for Love ever desires the greatest good to the thing beloved So he praies 2 Thes 3.5 The Lord direct your hearts into the Love of God and the expectation of Christ So also he perswades Jude 21. Keep your selves in the Love of God If they be once here they are beyond either evil or danger they need fear nothing Nothing can separate from the Love of God in Christ Nothing ye can want John 16.26 27. I say not that I will pray the Father for you I need not that for the Father himself loveth you His Love sent me and set me on work his Love is the highest Fountain the first mover and therefore it wil set me on work If once God love his as his Christ nothing can alter or hinder If the same Love the same Happiness with Christ This Love hath al works al is before al over-rules al. 3. By this the Glory of the Father and Christ is most advanced This Love is the Treasury and Magazine of al that incomparable and
Union with him In that to purchase al Grace and have right to communicate al Grace and in his time to bring them to God and implant them in himself and bestow al Grace and Glory upon them That when they have Grace and Glory upon them they may acknowledg whence they had it Cling about that God and in Christ that gave it admire his Love to them and cleave wholly in Love to his Son whence he came to love them Hence those places receive Explication Whom he knew he elected it 's such a knowledg that brings in Election and therefore not common to Reprobation Rom. 8.29 30. Therefore it 's a knowledg with Affection such as would own and take neer to himself So Paul to the Ephes 2.4 God who is rich in Mercy according to his great Love c. God who is rich in his pitying and compassionating Mercy according to his great Love whereby he would take us to himself make us next Neighbor to his Christ and neer as his Christ Hence therefore God expressed his pity and Compassion towards us in recovering of us out of our distress God so loved the World c. John 3.16 2. The transcendent Happiness which the Faithful attain through the Covenant of Grace above that of Adam A man covenanted for men and might have purchased happiness for them and communicated that to them by Natural Generation But here man lost can of himself do nothing for himself but God and the power of a God doth al that for us which we cannot do for our selves This is the Nature of our Glory But God in Christ wil be so neer to us as to be in us and give al that we may be so neer to him as to be in the Son and the Father and so return al. This is the Diamond in the Crown But that the Love of the Father to his Son should set his Love on work to bring us to the like Union and Communion This is the beauty and brightness of the top of the Diamond of the Crown of Glory The Words thus opened and explicated we have hence these three Points of Doctrine 1. It is the Desire and Endeavor of our Savivior That the dearest of Gods Love which was bestowed on himself should also be given to his Faithful Servants 2. Our Union and Communion with God in Christ is the top of our Happiness in Heaven 3. Our Saviors manifestation of the Name of the Father is the means and his scope to bring in the Being of this Love of God unto us This last ariseth from the Coherence of these Words with those which went before and we do but name it and refer the Reader to what we have formerly at large laid down touching the same where we have declared both what the Name of the Father is what is the Manifestation of it and what our Saviors Work is therein and how and why he hath and doth manifest it The Two former we shal speak somthing unto whereof the first with which we shal begin was thus laid down It is the Desire and Endeavor of our Savior Doct. 1. That the dearest of Gods Love which was bestowed on himself should also be given to his Faithful Servants You see how our Savior is not content to put them off with the least pittance the meanest provision but he would have them have the best the choycest rarities If there were any Dainties better than other he would carve out them to his People as the Love wherewith thou hast loved me Christ was the only begotten the First-born of God and had the First-born Affections of God bestowed upon him and he is not satisfied unless that First-born Affection of the Father be imparted to them in their proportion If there be one bit better than another some special Rarity that comes unexpected and that from far it 's the fashion of tender-hearted Friends I would this Carving were but in such a ones hand though it cost me more than I would speak it 's the choycest Provision that ever I tasted So our Savior when his heart is ravished with the relish of the unconceivable Complacency and Soul-pleasing Satisfaction he cannot make a meal of it but he minds and remembers the Father of his tender Lambs and poor feeble Servants O that my Members and Faithful might have a share of this Love but a little relish of it though it cost me more than wil be imagined Thou lovest them as Creatures thou gavest them their Being and thou preservest it He preserves both Man and Beast Thou pitiest them as Sinners thou hast appointed a means for their relief and thou hast revealed it Thou providest for them as Christians thou hast sent the means blessed be thy Name and hast dispensed al those glorious Helps of Life and Grace And this is a high Favor for thou hast not dealt so with any Nation though thou dealest wel withal neither have the Heathen knowledg of thy waies Thou tenderest them as thy Saints appointed to Eternal Life with Grace as given unto Adam and he as a man had he kept the Covenant for himself and his and so a man by keeping of Covenant had brought man to Eternal Life But blessed Father thou hast not only communicated thy Grace but thy self unto me thou hast loved me before the World and I have enjoyed the neerest Union Thou in me and I in thee not as an infinite God who hast created al things sustainest what thou hast created governest guidest al things to their ends and in their ends for which they were created But as a Father I was with thee as thine everlasting delight and lay in thy Bosom O! this Love this endeared and intimate Love of a Father let my feeble poor Servants have some of that some relish of that As thou art in me and I in thee so they may be in me and in thee also O! let them have but a relish of this Love I have enough that they may be for ever refreshed everlastingly setled and established When the Spirits of Friends are most indeared to those that they would entertain with greatest content they are not satisfied to take what is next at hand or content themselves with ordinary or common Provision with course or mean Fare but they send far and neer spare no cost nor care nor pains nor expences but the best Rarities fetched from the remotest places purchased at dearest Rates preserved in the most especial manner and that on purpose to give such Persons wel-come to whom they are indeared as unto their own Souls and would lay out their heart for their hearts content It is so with our Savior That the Saints may know his endeared Affection to them and what Provision he hath laid in for their wel-come in Heaven he leaves this as his last farewel upon their Souls He tels them he doth not purpose to set before them ordinary Fare common Courtesies which he vouchsafes to al as Life