have a day to live And thus far of the end of the authority of Jesus Christ for which he is invested with it by his Father considered in the lump and in the gross Proceed we now to take it into parts It is in general as you have heard that he may be enabled to dispence to his people that which is for their everlasting welfare and salvation that he may give eternal life to as many as God hath given him Particularly we have here to be considered First the thing it self to be dispenced by vertue of this power and this authority of Jesus Christ and that is life yea life eternal Secondly the manner or the way of dispensation it is to be dispenced as a gift in the nature of a gift in a way of free donation that he should give eternal life Thirdly the objects of this dispensation or the persons to whom this life here mentioned is to be dispenced and that is not to all men but to as many as the Father hath bestowed on Jesus Christ As thou hast given him power over all flesh that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him Begin we with the thing it self to be dispenced by vertue of this power and this authority of Jesus Christ And here let us take notice of the nature of it and of the adjunct of it First of the nature of it it is life Then of the adjunct of it it is life eternal As for the first of these my Brethren you must know that naturally and originally we are all dead men We are all dead born we came into the world my Brethren in a state of death and condemnation And in this sad condition we continue of our selves we are not able to put life into our selves No we can no more raise our selves to the life of grace then a dead man can raise himself to the life of nature And therefore God because he would have such a number quickened as he hath resolved upon hath given power to Jesus Christ to this end and to this purpose that he may give life to those who of themselves are utterly void of it and no way able to attain it And that his mercy may be full he hath appointed him to give them such a life as is uncapable of dissolution The life that Adam in the state of innocency enjoyed the life of righteousness and the life of holiness you know was perishable in it self and so accordingly was left of God His state in this condition was mutable and accordingly he fell from it from a state of grace and life to a state of sin and death But now God hath invested Jesus Christ with power to give his people such a life as shall be durable as shall in this respect transcend the life that Adam had even in the state of innocency it self that he may give eternal life to as many as God hath given him The points to be observed are two First They that are Christs have life from Christ and secondly The life which they have from him is eternal DOCTRINE They that are Christs have life from Christ He giveth life to as many as God hath given him The life which they enjoy they have from him they have it not originally in themselves he is the author and the fountain of it And therefore he is said to be a quickning Spirit 1 Cor. 15.45 because he quickneth and enliveneth all his members And he is called our life very often in the Scripture I am the way the truth and the life saith our Saviour of himself John 14.6 When Christ who is our life saith the Apostle shall appear then shall we appear with him in glory Col. 3.4 When Christ who is our life that is the author the efficient of our life And hence saith the Evangelist he that hath the Son hath life 1 John 5.20 This may serve to prove the point They that are Christs have life from Christ Now to open it a little before we come to application there is a two-fold life which all Christs people have from Christ according to the two-fold death which they are under out of Christ For as there is a two-fold death in sin The death in sin with relation to the raign and dominion of it the death in sin with relation to the guilt and obligation of it to damnation So on the other side there is a two-fold life of grace opposed to these the life of grace inherent and the life of grace imputed The life of holiness and the life of righteousness The life of Sanctification and the life of Justification And both of these they that are Christs receive from him he gives his people both these First Christs people have from him the life of holiness or the life of Sanctification which is opposed to the dominion and the raign of sin before they are revived by him they are under this dominion and so in that respect are dead as the Apostle Paul intimates to the Romans Rom. 6.12 ye are alive to God saith he through Jesus Christ our Lord. And what doth he infer upon it Let not sin raign in your mortal bodies by which he intimates expresly that while sin raigns in any man so that he voluntarily resigns and yields himself up to the rule and the dominion of it as Subjects to their Soveraign and annointed Prince he is not alive to God he is indeed a dead man he hath no life of holiness or grace in him But when the raign of sin is once abolished and dissolved within him so that he doth no longer willingly obey it in the lusts thereof but yieldeth up himself to God then he is alive to God then he lives the life of God the life of holiness and grace And this life he hath from Christ And therefore it is added presently ye are alive to God through Jesus Christ our Lord And of this life it is that the Apostle speaks Gal. 2.20 and makes Christ the Fountain of it I live saith he that is I live the life of grace and yet not I but Christ liveth in me and this life which I live I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved c. Secondly Christs people have from him the life of righteousness or the life of Justification which stands in opposition to the death in sin with relation to the guilt While the guilt of sin remains upon a man so long that person is a dead man so long he is dead in Law as we express it commonly he is bound over to eternal death and condemnation And thus it is with every man while he continues in the state of nature He is condemned to die and so in that respect is dead in the sentence of the Law although the sentence be not executed on him as our Saviour speaks John 3.18 He that believes not is condemned already But when a man is justified absolved and acquitted from the guilt
of all his sins he is no longer dead in Law but as a Malefactor that is pardoned his life is given him as we use to say And therefore it is stiled in Scripture the justification of life because it brings life to the person justified viz. that life that is opposed to condemnation the sentence or the doom of death For of that speaks the Apostle Rom. 5.18 the free gift came upon all to justification of life And this is made the gift of Christ and he is said to be the author and the fountain of this life in that place As by the offence of one that is of Adam judgement came upon all men to condemnation so by the righteousness of one that is of Christ the second Adam the free gift came upon all to justification of life Now is it so my Brethren that they that are Christs have life from Use 1 Christ here then examine in the first place whether you be Christs or no. If you belong to him I mean by real calling and incorporation you have received life from him You hear he hath received power from God the Father to this very end that he may give eternal life to as many as God hath given him And out of question he is not unfaithful in the administration of this power and the discharge of this trust Well then if you be his he hath given you this life he hath quickened you and raised you with himself you are partakers of his resurrection And therefore I beseech you search a little whether it be thus with you or no. It is a thing which may be known in some degree if you be diligent for the Apostle knew that the Ephesians and the Romans were alive that they were quickned from the death of sin And this he did by outward evidence and by the signs of life which he observed in them And we may much more know our own Condition and estate in this respect if we be not very wanting to our selves And therefore prove your selves my brethren whether you have the life of Christ in you and you may do it by these symptoms following First if you have received life from Christ you are strangely altered men some little alteration there may be in some respects and yet a man may scarcely note it or observe it in himself But when so great a change as this shall pass upon him it is impossible almost but he should feel it There be many alterations that may happen to a man in the passage of his life as custom and experience make a change and honour and preferment make a change a great change in some men especially in weak spirits and age and time and place and many other things do make a change But this infusion of the life of Christ into a person that was dead before is the greatest change of all It makes a man a new creature and that in all respects too which is a very great matter Old things are done away all things are become new 2 Cor. 5.17 He hath new thoughts and new affections new pleasures and delights studies desires ends purposes companions and acquaintance So that he is not now the same man that he was before When his old lusts his old temptations his old companions and acquaintance come to call upon him and think to find him as they did in former times he may answer them and say You are deceived for I am altered I am another man another creature I am not in the temper nor of the disposition that I was before Secondly If you have received life from Christ you have within you sharp desires after the food by which this life is nourished and preserved The word of God my brethren is the milk that feeds it which every child of God delights to suck 1 Pet. 2.2 And have you quick and stirring appetites to this milk do you as new born babes desire it do you thirst and long for it do you hunger after it so that you cannot be content without it is it pleasing to your palate delicious to your taste to feed upon it is an evidence of life But if there be no stomack to this kind of food if you be well content without it if you be never hungry if you find no taste at all in the good word of God but say of this as Israel of the Manna once Our souls loaths this light bread there is no weight no substance in it it is a sign you have not yet this light of Christ in you Thirdly If you have received life from Christ you are moved you are acted by the principles of that life Every kind of life my brethren hath principles agreeable to it inclining it to turn to that which suites with it and on the other side to turn from that which is destructive and contrary to it So hath the vegetative life the life of plants so hath the sensitive the life of beasts so hath the reasonable life the life of men and so hath the life of Christ the life of Saints Now this life of Christ my brethren hath principles exceedingly above the principles of any of those other sorts of life And so accordingly they that have this life from Christ do live by higher principles I will not say then those of plants or those of beasts but then those of men too those who are meerly men and no more who are not holy sanctified men Some men there are you know who live like beasts who melt away in sensual and voluptuous pleasures and delights who eat and drink and sleep and lust and satisfie their lusts and there is all And therefore they are said in Scripture to be brutish because the brute part in them over-powers the rational because they live and walk by brutish principles by the principles of beasts They do just as beasts do and many of them worse too as if they were to have the same end that beasts have And some of late have vented such doctrine as if the souls of men did perish with their bodies as the souls of beasts do Others there are who live like men indeed but it is like meer men as the Apostle speaks of the Corinthians 1 Cor. 3.3 Are ye not carnal and walk as men They live at best no higher then the principles of reason carry them and that is but a litt e way They bring them at the very utmost no further then the young man which our Saviour speaks of to be not far from the Kingdom of heaven or not so far as many others are but they can never bring them home But they that have received life from Christ my brethren live by nobler and diviner principles then these are such as are full of light and beauty such as carry on the soul to supernatural and spiritual things for the attaining and enjoying of the highest good They know what it is to live above the principles of beasts above the principles of men
they live by principles of faith of spirituall men which are far more above the principles of reason then the principles of reason are above the principles of sense Fourthly if you have received life from Christ you live to Christ and therefore it is called the life of Christ because as it comes from Christ so on the other side it tends to Christ from whom it comes It causes us to live no longer to our selves but to him that died for us that is to Christ as the Apostle speaks 2 Cor. 5.15 All other men who have not this life in them live to themselves and not to Christ they have no higher end then self in all their actions They make themselves their pleasures or their profits or their honours the scope and center of their motions Yea in the very holy and religious duties they perform they look no further then their own ends And so in the performance of them they are but servants to their own Lusts But now they that have life from Christ they live no longer to themselves no they have nobler aims in all their wayes and while unsanctified men who live the life of nature only do make themselves their end even in their holy and religious duties the Saints who live the life of Christ do make the Lord their end even in their ordinary and their Common actions In every thing his glory is continually in their eye even in their worldly and their secular employments while in these they do not seek their own things but the things that are of Jesus Christ Use 2 Is it so that they that are Christs have life from Christ that the life which they enjoy they have from him if then you find upon examination that you have received this life from Christ the life of righteousness and the life of holiness consider with your selves what thanks you should return to him Ah my beloved what cause have we to magnifie and to admire the grace of Christ that he should give us this life That he should raise us from our graves of sin having loosed the powers of death that we might not beholden of them We think that we can never be sufficiently thankfull to one that hath saved our lives and rescued us out of the jaws of death Now Jesus Christ who is our life hath done this for us we were condemned persons we were dead in Law and he by virtue of the power and the authority with which he is invested by his father hath given us our lives he hath sealed a pardon to us So that now we may walk abroad at large and need not fear that the sentence of the Law the doom of death will be executed on us Ah my beloved what shall we return to Christ how shall we melt our souls into sufficient celebrations of his goodness to us We were dead but are alive we were lost but are found Oh let us say as Hezekiah did The living the living they shall praise thee as we do this day And let us do as the Apostle did Rom. 7.25 who having in the former verse cryed out Oh wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death had presently suggested to his thoughts that Christ had done it and then cries out in a way of gratulation as he had done before in a way of lamentation I thank my God through Jesus Christ our Lord. John 17.2 That he should give eternal life DOCTRINE The life which Jesus Christ bestows upon his people is eternal SO it is stiled in my text you see that he should give eternal life to as many as God hath given him Such is the life which Christ gives it is a Lasting and enduring life a life that is above the power of death that is uncapable of dissolution The life of nature as you know and see my brethren is a perishable life It is obnoxious to decay it may be cut off in the twinkling of an eye and we are gone But now this life of Christ the life of grace is the beginning of the life of glory and therefore is an endless life as the Apostles phrase is Heb. 7.16 And as the seed by which this life is generated in a man is incorruptible seed as you may see 1 Pet. 1.23 even so the life it self which is generated by it is incorruptible too It may be said of every Saint who hath received life from Christ and who is raised by him from the death of sin as it is said of Christ himself Rom. 6.9 Being raised from the dead he dies no more death hath no more dominion over him He hath eternal life abiding in him as our Saviour speaks John 6.54 He doth not say that he shall have it but that he hath it in him even in this present world a Life that is eternal and that is abiding in him So that the point is plain you see The life which Jesus Christ bestows upon his people is eternal To cleer it yet a little further to you my beloved no life can end in death or come to dissolution and destruction but one of these two ways viz. either by some inward principles of frailty in it self or else by some outward force that overcomes it and prevails against it If it be destroyed by death it must be either by a natural or a violent death Now the life of Jesus Christ which he bestows upon his people is utterly uncapable of dissolution either way and consequently is an everlasting life as I shall shew you briefly and in order First the life which Jesus Christ bestows upon his people hath no principles of frailty and dissolution in it self it hath no seeds of mortality in it It comes from Christ not only as the giver of it but also from him as the fountain of it with him is the fountain of Life as the Prophet David speaks Psal 33.9 And the Rivulets and streams are alwayes of the self same nature with the fountain And consequently if the life that is in Christ be lasting and enduring as it is the life that is from Christ is so too If it be not perishable in the spring assuredly it is not perishable in the stream This life of grace my brethren is communicated and derived from Christ the root to us the branches from him the head to us the members and if it fail not in the head and in the root how should it fail in the members and the Branches Indeed my brethren if the life of grace were radically and originally in our selves and from our selves it must have principles of dissolution in it For what that is in us and comes from us can be eternal in its own nature But our life is in Christ and comes from Christ it is hid with Christ in God as the Apostle Paul speaks Col. 3.4 and therefore certainly it is in this respect like him from whom it comes We stand not now upon our own bottoms as Adam did it
As a gift and not a purchase or if a purchase as his purchase not their own It is our Saviours own expression with reference to his people John 10.28 I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand And therefore it is called a Gift and Christ is made the next and the immediate Donor and Dispencer of it Rom. 6.23 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. And the Antithesis between this latter and the former parcell of the verse is very much to be observed as being pertinent to our purpose The wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life As if in other words our Apostle should have said It s true indeed Death is the Consequent of sin and life Eternal is the Consequent of holiness and of obedience But mark it well not upon the same terms Death follows sin as the deserved stipend and the wages of it A man earneth death by sin as a work-man earns his wages by his labour But life Eternal doth not follow holiness in such a way it is not merited by our obedience as death is by our disobedience and therefore this is a gratuity a gift though that be wages The wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life And in another place our last translation speaketh it a free gift Rom. 5.18 The free gift came upon all men all that are Christs members or upon all men universally if you respect the tender of it the free gift came upon all men to justification of life With which accordeth that which goes immediately before they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall ragn in life by one and that is Christ I shall close up the proofs with our Saviours proclamation Apoc. 21.6 I am Alpha and Omega the beginning and the end and I will give to him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely if any be athirst if he have vehement and strong desires he shall have life and he shall have it from the fountain I will bestow it on him and I will do it freely too I will give him of the water of life freely So that the point is plain you see That Jesus Christ doth freely give Eternal life Now that you may the better see the freeness of this gift of his and that it is bestowed upon his people without the least desert of theirs I shall lay it open to you in a few particulars Jesus Christ must needs be free in giving life to his members because on their parts it is first unbought and secondly unsought nay thirdly unthought They do not purchase it or buy it of him nay nor so much as seek it or desire it of him nay nor so much as think of having such a mercy from him And therefore it must needs be absolutely free in all respects it must come from him as a free gift First Jesus Christ must needs be free in giving life to his people because it is by them unbought Life is not their purchase and therefore it is his gift True it is bought by Christ for us but it is not bought of Christ by us For let us seriously consider with our selves What could we give or do to procure this life from Christ We are not able to redeem our natural life which yet is in comparison of no value nor pay a ransom to the Lord for it It is too great a price for us to pay and therefore it must cease for ever as the Psalmist speaks And how much less then are we able to redeem our spiritual life which is infinitely precious when we are under the Condemnatory sentence of the Law when we are dead in trespasses and sin both with relation to the raign and to the guilt when we are subject every moment to be cast into the lake that burns with fire and brimstone which is the second death what can we give now to obtain our pardon we cannot purchase it and therfore certainly we have it freely Indeed Christ buyes a pardon for us because we cannot buy it for our selves He gives his blood and life for us that he may give life to us And therefore he is called our life to shew that he is all in all in that business And when we first receive his quickning grace we are described to be in such a case that there is nothing upon our parts to procure it as you may see Ezek. 16.5 6. Cast out into the open fields to the loathing of our persons polluted in our own blood and weltering in our own gore And then yea then he gives life to us It is repeated twice in that place as a remarkable choice thing that we may take especial notice of it I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood live yea I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood live As if he should have thus expressed himself Observe it well I gave thee life at such a time when there was nothing in thee to deserve it at my hands when one would even have loathed to touch thee or to meedle with thee when thou hadst nothing else but blood and gore to give me then did I breath this life into thee So that you see Christ freely gives this life to his people in this respect that it is by them unbought And as it is by them unbought so it is by them unsought As they do not purchase it and buy it of him so neither do they seek it or desire it of him As they do not pay for it so neither do they pray for it We count a thing is very free if we have it for the asking If it be but ask and have it s a very cheap bargain The life of Christ is yet more free then this comes to to all his members he gives it them before they ask it He is found in this respect of them that seek him not and ask not for him as the Prophet speaks Isa 65.1 It is the disposition of us all by nature we will not come to Christ that we may have life from him as he himself complaineth John 5.40 and therefore he is fain to draw us Did Lazarus when he lay dead and stinking in his grave address himself to Christ beseeching him to raise him up No more do any that are dead in sin No Christ is fain to seek them out to come to the grave himself and there to call them to come forth and to put life into them that they may answer that call he is forced to do all Did the lost sheep seek the Shepherd Did the lost groat seek the Owner When Adam being falen had brought himself into a state of death and condemnation did he seek God or did God seek him Did he call God or did God call him You see the offer was
any man pluck them out of my hands Iohn 10.27 28. And this I do this Eternal life I give them by teaching and instructing them and making them to hear my voyce as who should say by working knowledge in them My sheep hear my voyce and by this means I give unto them Eternal life And this Expression in my Text looks much the same way As thou hast given him power ever all flesh that he should give Eternal life to as many as thou hast given him And this is life Eternal to know thee the true God and so on This is the way to give them life Eternal by making them to know thee And this I have begun to do already as he addeth afterwards I have made known thy Name that is thy Nature and thy Attributes to the men which thou hast given me So that this life Eternal here is not or not so much that which is perfect and Consummate in the Heavens as that which is begun in this world and which the Saints are made partakers of while they are here for even here they have Eternal life abiding in them And this this inchoate Eternal life consists especially in saving knowledge This is Eternal life this is it in the beginning to know thee the only true God and Iesus Christ whom thou hast sent So that the Point to be observed is this DOCTRINE That Life Eternal or the life of Grace which is Eternal is begun in holy Knowledge Christ gives Eternal life to us at least in the beginning of it when as the Prophet of his Church he teaches us and causes us to know his Father and himself When he makes known his Fathers Name and his own Name to us he causes us to pass from death to life In him was life saith the Evangelist 1 John 4. and the life was the light of men This Life communicated to the sons of men was the Light of saving knowledge which he made to shine into them He gave them life in that he gave them light and knowledge who were before in darkness and so by Consequence in the shadow of death as the Scripture phrase is And hence saith the Apostle Awake and rise up from the dead and Christ shall give thee Light Eph. 5.14 Indeed as long as we are ignorant and in the dark we are all dead men we know not what the life of God means And therefore the Apostle speaking of the Gentiles saith That they were strangers from the life of God They live the life of men indeed but they were strangers from the life of God the life of Grace by reason of the Ignorance and blindness that was in them Eph. 4 18. The Grace of God is now made manifest by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ saith the Apostle 2 Tim. 1.10 who hath abolished death But how hath he done this by bringing life and Immortality to light as it is added in the next words by bringing life and â—â—â—ortality The latter as I take it is the Explication of the former q. d. by bringing such a Life as is immortal as is above the power of Death as the life of Grace is By bringing this to men by shining on them with the bright and glorious light and lustre of the Gospel I might be very copious here but this may satisfie to clear the Point That life Eternal c. And this appeareth further divers wayes It will appear that life Eternal or the life of Grace which is Eternal is begun in holy knowledge if we consider what it is that is the great Impediment of Life and what it is that holds men and detains men in a state of Death It is apparently their want of knowledge the ignorance and errour that is in them How came sin and with it death into the world but by cozenage and deceit The woman being deceived was in the transgression as the Apostle Paul speaks 1 Tim. 2.14 She fell into it by a meer cheat And how are men continued in this state of sin and death They are corrupt according to deceitful lusts Eph. 4 22. Look as their lusts deceive them more or less so are they more or less corrupt And therefore they that sit in darkness are said to fit in the shadow of death And which way then shall life Eternal be begun in men but by dispelling this darkness by the light of holy Knowledge and by translating men out of the power of darkness as the Expression is Col. 1.14 Out of ignorance and darkness which hath such a power upon them to hold them under sin and death and to keep them still in a condition of estrangement from the life of God as the Apostle Paul insinuates in the cited place Eph. 4.18 If it be ignorance that keeps men from the life of Grace then surely it is holy Knowledge that begins it and that brings men to it It will appear that the life Eternal or the life of Grace which is Eternal is begun in holy Knowledge if you consider who it is that is the principal Efficient of it and the way which he works it The Principal Efficient of this Life is Jesus Christ and therefore he is called our Life very often in the Scripture And he is said to give it in the words which I have finished that he should give Eternal life And which way doth he give it to his people but by working knowledge in them And therefore it is added in my Text This is Eternal life this is the life which he gives to know thee the true God Indeed he gives it to us as a Prophet he purchases and gets it for us I acknowledge as a Priest by his Invaluable satisfaction But he begets and works it in us by his effectual Teaching and instruction as a Prophet And therefore he is said to speak in life to his people Iohn 6.63 The words that I speak unto you they are Life To shew us that he quickens us in a way of Information for to what End doth speaking tend but to make us understand Thou hast the words of eternal life saith Peter to our Saviour Christ Iohn 6.68 That is the words that work life and which way can they work it but by conveying knowledge to the mind of him that hears them So that you see that Jesus Christ is the Efficient Cause of the life of Grace in his people by teaching them by working saving knowledge in them by turning them from darkness to light He gets it for them as a Priest He gives it to them as a King He works it in them as a Prophet It will appear that life Eternal is begun in holy Knowledge Because the Instrumental means of Life is the means of knowledge to Yea it is the means of Life in that it is the means of Knowledge The Instrumental means of Life you know my Brethren is the Gospel And therefore it is called the word of Life Phil. 2.16 holding forth the word of Life that
the world the world would love its own but because ye are not of the world therefore the world hates you And hence it comes to pass that it persues them persecutes them casts them out creates them all the trouble and vexation that it can so that they are not like to have a quiet hour almost in this world Besides the evils and afflictions to which they are exposed by the necessity of nature as man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upwards Job 5.7 distempers and diseases in their bodies loss of their estates and friends and earthly comforts and the like ungodly men come in with their additions The Church of Christ while she is here is ill-seated she grows in an ill place as he himself affirmeth of her 2 Cant. 2. as the Lilly among thorns so is my Love among the daughters She is environed and begirt with them so that she is annoyed and hurt and pierct on every side She cannot stir but one or other of her thorny neighbours hath her by the sleeve She dwels in Mesech while she dwells in this world and hath her habitation in the Tents of Kedar in the midst of wicked men so that she is beleaguered as it were and hem'd about with those that hate her and desire her ruine This is the state and the condition of the Saints while they are here they are continually vexed and troubled So that no marvel though our Saviour tells his own Apostles In the world you shall have tribulation Iohn 16.33 That is your portion as long as you remain here The world hath alwayes been an evil and uncomfortable place to Christs Disciples in this respect that it is a place of sinning Indeed my brethren they are troubled with the sins of other men their righteous souls are vexed with their filthy conversations Rivers of waters run down their eyes because men keep not Gods Law But they are chiefly troubled with their own sins from which they are not to be wholly freed while they remain in this world As long as they continue here they are perpetually in Sathans danger who is the Prince of this world and whose authority and power is confined to this life There will never be an absolute and perfect cure of sin in any of the Saints till this corruption have put on incorruption And hence perhaps the corruptions of our natures are stiled worldly lusts Tit. 2.12 And our members that are upon the earth Col. 3.5 because we cannot possibly be rid of them while we are here upon the earth and while we live in this world The Apostle Paul compares himself and others of the Saints to earthen Vessels 2 Cor. 4.7 And earthen vessels when they were legally defiled could not be made clean again till they were broken all in pieces as you may see Lev. 11.33 So we my brethen are not to be fully cleansed till we be shivered all in pieces We are not to be wholly rescued from the bondage to corruption till death translate is to another world And then he that is dead saith the Apostle is free from sin Rom. 6.7 So that no marvel though the world be a place of such disquiet and discomfort to the Saints For how can they be fully comfortable here while they are alwayes sinning against God He that hath entred into rest indeed hath ceased from his own works as the Apostle speaks Heb. 4.10 Till then he cannot wholly cease from those that are most properly his own works but is in danger of offending God and falling into sin continually and so can have no rest here Nay my beloved no man knows how far the Lord may suffer him to fall in this world Though it be a certain truth that they that are elect can never wholly fall away from God yet they may sin exceedingly to the dishonour of the Lord the scandal of their brethren and the irreparable wounding of their name while they have a day to live And this they are in danger of I mean of falling fearfully so long as they remain here What deadly falls have many of Gods worthies taken in their latter times It is observable that Davids first wayes are commended 2 Chron. 17.3 By which the Holy Ghost insinuates that his last wayes were not answerable to them He speaking of Jehosaphat walked in the first wayes of his Father David Indeed the latter wayes of David were blemished with extremity of sin and scandal The like is also noted of Solomon 1 King 11.9 And Asa 2 Chron. 16.10 And Jehosaphat 2 Chron. 20.35 And how then can the world but but be a doleful and uncomfortable place to Christs Disciples where they are in such hazard How can they but complain as Rebecca sometimes did though in another case If I must still be troubled with my lusts and my corruptions if I must still be over-ruled by them thus what good will continuance in the world do me The world hath alwayes been and is an evil c. in this respect that it is a place of banishment from Jesus Christ from him in whom their very souls delight This makes it sad and grievous to them that they have not Christ with them And this is that at which our Saviour aimeth in my text I am no more in this world but these are in the world There is the dolefulness of their condition that they are to continue here without me Indeed we are debarred of the immediate presence of the Lord while we remain in this world And therefore it is said expresly 2 Cor. 5.6 That whilest we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. And is not this a grievous thing to be kept from the enjoyment of such a one as Christ is Especially to him that knows him and is well acquainted with him and hath tasted of his sweetness can you blame him if he be weary of the world and if it be a trouble to him to continue here if be be willing to be absent from the body that so he may be present with the Lord What holy heart can choose but find a weariness in that place let it be otherwise as pleasant as it will which keeps Christ and him asunder and hinders him from the compleat fruition of his blessed Saviour Who would not gladly leave a place in which as long as he continues Christ and he must be asunder Vse 1 Now is it so my brethren that the world hath alwayes been and is an evil c. Then let it be a Caveat to us not to cast as we are very apt to do on too much joy and comfort here Our manner is when things look a little well and when we have some present quiet and content to promise great and extraodinary matters to our selves To sing a requiem to our souls with the rich man in the Gospel take thine ease eat drink and be merry It s true the men of this world may have some content and quietness and
to lose them for he is always answerable for them to the Father Now in this sense the Father gives men to the Son especially in two respects 1. In the first place he gives men to him by election and this he doth from everlasting He picks out such a certain company of men and bestows them upon Christ in regard of the decree There are a people for thee saith the Father to the Son So many thou shalt have among the Iews and if that be not sufficient thou shalt have as many more as thou wilt ask among the Gentiles Ask of me and I will give thee the Heathen for thine inheritance Psal 2.7 And therefore God is said to choose us in the Son Eph. 1.4 as in our Head and as by designation members of his body He doth not choose us first and then after choose Christ No he chooses Christ first he is his first and chief Elect and then he chooses as in him appoints us to belong to him It were unnatural the feet should first come out of the womb before the head and therefore God observes this method First Christ the Head comes forth out of the womb of his Decree and then the others follow First he electeth Christ to be the head of his Church and then he electeth us to be the members of his body And hence perhaps is that expression of our Saviours to the Father a body hast thou prepared me or fitted me as it is rendred in the Margent Heb. 10.5 viz. in thy Predestination Thou hast not only chosen me to be a Head but in and by the fame decree thou hast prepared a body for me Thou hast culled out a certain company of men whom thou hast preordained to belong to me whom thou hast chosen as it were in me and whom thou hast bestowed upon me to be members of my body 2. And as the Father gives men to the Son by the decree so more expresly by the execution and accomplishment of the decree as he bestows men on our Saviour by election so further yet by actual union and incorporation In the first he assigns them in the second he delivers them when he takes those very men whom he had preordained from everlasting and puts them into Jesus Christ There saith the Father are the members which I appointed for thee from Eternity So that now the Son receives them and hath them in his own possession And he may say to God the Father as the Prophet doth Here am I and the people which thou hast given me Thine they were saith Jesus Christ Joh. 17.6 They have been thine I must acknowledge but now the property is altered they are mine Why which way came you by them might the Father say The Son replies By thy donation by thy own free gift Thine they were and thou hast given them to me as it is added in the next words So then you see my Brethren that and how the Father gives men to the Son Now for the second thing proposed in what respects and how far forth the Son preserves and keeps them safe who are thus bestowed upon him by the Father This will need a little opening because indeed there is some difficulty in it And that you may the better understand it I shall shew you in the first place how far our Saviour doth not keep them who are thus bestowed upon him And in the second place how far he doth 1. He doth not keep them that they do not suffer Though Christ be with his own Disciples in the Ship there may be a storm upon it and a very dangerous one They may be under heavy tryals and afflictions both within them and without them Christ may expose them though they be his own to bitter persecutions in the world yea to the greatest miseries that humane cruelties can devise to inflict And when in the extremity of their distresses they run crying to him as they are about to sink Master save us we perish Christ may seem to be asleep to wink at all this misery of theirs to make as if he knew nothing and as if he did not dream of the intolerable pressures that lye upon his poor people 2. He doth not keep them that they do not sin and that most grievously sometimes with hideous circumstantial aggravations How fearfully have many fallen who have indeed belong'd to Jesus Christ We have very sad examples of it in the Scripture Peter was one of them concerning whom our Saviour tells his Father in my text those whom thou gavest me I kept And indeed he prayed for Peter in a special manner that his faith might never fail that it might not wholly fail so as to be quite lost and utterly extinct in him Yet after this you know he fearfully sinned notwithstanding so as in some respect to deny the Lord that bought him and that in a stupendious way with dreadfull Oaths yea more then so with bitter curses and direfull imprecations too What sin almost may not Christ leave a person to commit whom he hath taken into his tuition 3. But now my brethren in the third place though Christ do not keep them that they do not suffer and though he do not keep them that they do not sin who are bestowed upon him by his Father both by election and incorporation yet he doth keep them that they do not perish All that are so bestowed upon him he keeps so that they are not lost as you have it in my text Those whom thou gavest me I kept saith he and none of them is lost They may suffer grievously their sufferings may deprive them of the life of nature but they cannot deprive them of the life of grace They may be persecuted but they cannot be forsaken totally and finally They may be cast down but they cannot be destroyed as 2 Cor. 4.9 They may be destroyed as men but they can never be destroyed as Saints In this respect they are like Mount Sion that can never be removed The wind may 〈◊〉 drive away the chaff but all the storms of persecution shall never blow away one grain of good wheat So they may sin exceedingly but they can never sin to death Any sin they may commit if you respect the matter of it for of that I speak not of the manner of Commission but that against that Holy Ghost There is a sin to death saith the Apostle 1 John 5.16 to death not in the merit of it only for so is every sin to death if we look to the desert but to death in the event so that eternal death and condemnation is the infallible and unavoidable effect and issue of it And this Christ surely keeps his people from so that they never fall into it He gives his sheep eternal life and they do never perish as himself speaks John 10.28 And though they be not kept in all respects to preservation either from sinning or from suffering yet they are kept unto salvation
will preserve those that belong to Jesus Christ either from the act and guilt or hurt of corruption that is in them I shall a little touch upon them in their order In a qualified sence he keeps them from the act of their corruption so that they act it not at all as thus sometimes and in some certain things he keeps them and withholds them from or not at least as other men They also saith the Prophet David speaking of the Saints do no iniquity Psal 119.3 They sin not saith the Apostle 1 John 3.6 neither can they sin Conceive it not so freely and so remorselesly as others For the seed remaineth in them The spirit lusts against the flesh so that they cannot do the evil that they would at least not all the evil that they would Gal. 5.15 God keeps them by this means from much evil which else they would fall into as to instance in particulars He keeps them wholy from the great and unpardonable sin the sin against the Holy Ghost There is a sin to death saith the Apostle 1 John 5.16 to death not in the merit of it only for so is every sin to death if you look to the desert but in the issue and event And this God surely keeps them from that belong to Jesus Christ so that they never fall into it 2. He keeps them usually from the grosser acts of sin which the Apostle calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the defilements and pollutions of the world 2 Pet. 2.20 being the common mire and kennel in which the filthy Swine of this world wallow and which are termed by the Apostle Paul the works of the flesh which are manifest even to the the dimmest eye even to the light of nature it self Chap. 5.19 Such are adultery drunkenness perjury theft and such like Now from these foul and gross corruptions which cross the principles of common life and honesty in which the lewdest and prophanest wallow God usually keeps them that belong to Jesus Christ 3. He keeps them from committing any known sin resolvedly and with full consent of will Indeed there may be a velleity an incompleat and an imperfect will to sin in those that belong to Christ but a compleat and perfect will there cannot be For flesh and spirit being interwoven and commixt in every faculty and consequently in the will the will so farr as it is sanctified and renewed can never give allowance to the act of sin And whereas wicked and ungodly men are totally addicted and universaly devoted to it they act it wholly and with every part and power being nothing else but flesh It is not so with those that are renewed And hence saith Paul it is not I that do it Rom. 7.17 yet in the verse immediately before he said what I would not that do I. So that there is a double I in Paul I spiritual and I carnal I do it and I do it not Not I that am spiritual or in that part wherein I am spiritual but I that am carnal or in that part wherein I am carnal It is not I that do it but the flesh that dwelleth in me And thus God keeps them from the acts of sin Or if he do not alwayes keep them from the acts he alwayes frees them from the guilt of sin and so in that respect he keeps them from the evil of corruption and therefore he assures it to himself as his peculiar I even I am he that blotteth out thy sin It is God that justifies saith the Apostle Rom. 8.33 And with relation to this act of his he is called a deliverer Rom. 11.26 There shall come out of Zion the deliverer and he shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob. For this is my Covenant with them when I shall take away their sin God alwayes keeps them that belong to Jesus Christ from the hurt of the corruption that is in them he turns their very sins against their nature by accident to their advantage if all things then all these things work together for the best to them God doth them good even by their sins and by their falls he makes that to promote and further their salvation which seemeth most directly to hinder it and to oppose it Oh the riches of his mercy Blessings and Ordinances by accident do hurt to wicked men And even sins by accident do good to Gods people Thus we have shewed you that God can and will preserve those that belong to Jesus Christ from the evil of temptation and corruption And as God keeps those that belong to Jesus Christ from the evil of temptation and from the evil of corruption so from the evil of affliction I must confess he doth not keep them so that they are utterly exempt from all affliction They have their share and portion of it many times as well as any other men Many are the afflictions of the righteous saith the Psalmist Psal 34.19 not of the wicked only but the righteous too Yea their afflictions oftentimes are more and greater then the afflictions of the wicked are The Prophet David was too sensible of this so that his spirit fretted at it and he was envious at the foolish as himself confesseth Psal 73.3 when he saw the prosperity of wicked men Their strength is firm saith he there are no bands in their death They are not in trouble like other men nor are they plagued like other men no nor like better men Their eyes stand out with fatness they have more then heart can wish These are the wicked saith the Psalmist they prosper in the world But how fares it with David all this while why verily saith he I have cleansed my heart in vain and washed my bands in innocency for all the day long have I been plagued and chastned every morning And this is that which Christ forewarned his Disciples of that in the world they must have troubles there would be no avoiding of it But yet however God keeps them from the evil of affliction in the sence that I shall open to you in a few particulars 1. Sometimes when he sees it best he keeps them from affliction that it doth not touch them for a considerable time together He environs them with loving kindness round about so that no trouble or calamity can find a way to enter and to seize upon them according to that pretious promise Psal 5. ult For thou Lord wilt bless the righteous with favour wilt thou compass him as with a shield And thus he dealt a while with Job as Satan enviously suggested to the Lord Job 1.10 Hast thou not made a hedge about him and about all that he hath on every side thou hast blessed the work of his hands and his substance is increased in the Land So David though he were a man of many troubles and afflictions yet he had his Halcyon dayes There was a time when God had made his Mountain of prosperity so strong that he was verily perswaded he
Prayer That they may be one here and that they may be in one place hereafter This Nation seems not to be under the dint of the Influence of this Prayer at this time in which the Lord hath suffered such a spirit of Division a spirit that our Saviour never prayed for to possess his own people So that his Body lies a bleeding the members being miserably rent into pieces He bled indeed sufficiently upon the Cross in his Natural Body but there was suddenly a Consummatum est to that When will there be a Consummatum est to this in his Mystical Body When will Christ say It is enough When will the stream of blood that ran there stop this which runs here When will there be an end of these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 these after-afflictions of Christ which now he is sat down at rest on the right hand of the Father persue him thither and will not suffer him to be quiet in his glory It 's true the Body of our Saviour in these Nations bleeds not now by cruel Persecutors hands as it hath done in former Ages blessed be the Lord for ever But which is more unnatural and doleful Bella per Aemathios plusquam Civilia campos Lucaâ— lib. 1. it bleedeth by it self one Member bleedeth by another one member bites and devours another and it seems they will do so until they be devoured together Though Jesus Christ hath made them nigh to God and nigh to one another by his blood as the Apostle shews at large Ephes 2 12 13 14. This Cement woe alas this rich and costly Cement will not hold A trifle a Conjecture a suspicion an opinion a notion raised by Art and phansie will do more to sever then the blood of Christ to soder All the wit and art and skill that God hath given men for better purposes and higher ends is now laid out by some to make or to maintain parties Bern. in Caâ—â— Serm. 33. I will not say as Bernard doth Omnes amici omnes inimici omnes necessarii omnes adversarii omnes domestici nulli pacifici But surely it is much at this rate Now the God of Peace himself give us Peace alwayes and by all means And Jesus Christ the Prince of Peace who doth so often and so importunately beg it of his Father for his people as you may see in this Chapter give us to reap in our dayes the blessed fruits of this Prayer That they that are but one Body according to the first branch of our Saviours Prayer may have but one Heart and one Soul in that Body that there may be no Schism in the Body And they that are to be in one place according to the second Branch may keep in one way to that place that they may not fall out by the way so far at least as to divide to part Companies and part ways that they may neither fail of coming in the end to one place nor lose the benefit and comfort of one anothers Company and sweet Communion in the way thither And in that blessed place I hope ere it be long to meet you And though the Sea divide us each from other for a little time on earth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for an hours space and that in face or sight and not in heart as the Apostle speaks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Thess 2.17 Facie non Corde Ambrosian yet through the red Sea of the blood of Christ leaving all our sins behind us as Israel the Egyptians drowned there and dead upon the shore of this world we shall pass on to the Heavenly Canaan where Jesus Christ our Head is and where he prayes so earnestly that we may be Amen Amen Now in the mean time till we get thither because I find by many warnings that I am like to go before you and prevent you as the Apostles phrase is I put this Book such as it is into your hands And as our Saviour when He was no more in this world as his own expression is being as good as gone already did leave behind him this Divine Prayer as a Memorial of his tender Love to all his people Sic parvis componere magna solemus Virg. Eclog. 1. So if it be not odious to compare things of so vast a disproportion I shall desire to leave behind me who am even going too this my unworthy Exposition of the same Prayer as a Memorial of his dear respects to you who is resolved to live and dye Your most affectionate Brother And humble Servant in and through and for Christ George Newton The Analysis and Context of the Prayer and Chapter pag. 1 2 3. Ver. 1 Doctr. The words of Christ very remarkable p. 4. Reasons In respect of the Author whose they were as being the words of him that was 1. The Fathers Son and wisdom 2. Our great Prophet and Preacher p. 5. Matter what the words were as being 1. Gospel-words 2. Spiritual words of life and Salvation p. 6. Manner how they were spoken viz. with grace authority and power p. 7. 1. Vse Therefore Christs words to be highly valued in his Gospel Messengers p. 8. 2. Doctr. The very gesture and utterance of prayer and such like circumstances to be considered p. 10. Reas 1. Being apt to promote and further spiritual service p. 11. 2. Express and testifie the affections of the heart 1. Vse Condemns the neglect of outward bodily worship p. 12. 2 Direct 1. We are not bound to the same gestures as they of old p. 13. 2. Reverend gestures should be most observed in publike 3. Use such as may further not hinder spiritual service 4. Take heed of hypocritical gestures 2. Vocal prayer when necessary and requisite p. 14. 3. Doctâ— God the Father of Christ and so apprehended by him in prayer Expos Sons by Creation p. 15. Adoption p. 15. 1. Vse Consol Being Sons of God in Christ 1. He will hear us 2. He will provide for us p. 17. 3. He will protect us 2. Vse We must therefore obey him as Lord as being our Lord by 1. Creation 2. Redemption 3. Covenant-obligation p. 19. 3. Vse Wonder at his love that would give his Son 4. Vse Learn we to apprehend God as Father 1. Motive This assurance will advance our Confidence 2. Will increase our importunity with God 3. Will make us hopeful of audience and success 4. Will comfort us against our defects and imperfections in prayer p. 22. 5. Marks of Gods Children 1. They are like him in holiness mercy c. 2. Have the Fathers Spirit Signs of that p. 24. 4. Doctr. God hath his set time of doing and we should know that to be the fittest time p. 28. 1. Vse Condemns those who appoint a time to God for the execution of his works p. 29. 2. Vse Be not hasty with God but wait 1. For he waits for us 2. Is not slack but active 3. The fault is in us 4.
somewhat higher and above yours but it is not without yours nay to say truth my interest is for yours God is my Father that he may be yours in me Oh my beloved what melting joy and comfort is here for every member of the Lord Christ in regard of this relation I give you but a hint in three particulars First being the sons of God in Christ we may be sure that he will hear us in and by and through Christ He always hears his son Christ and never puts him off with a denial Thou art my son this day c. Ask of me and I will give thee Psal 2.7 and this our Saviour Christ himself professes Iohn â—1 4 and as the Father always hears his son Christ so he doth always hear his Sons in Christ And truly if the first be once admitted the latter follows unavoidably For Christ the eldest Son is intercessor for his brethren in all their regular requests he never faileth to put in with them so that they cannot be denied unless he be denied too Christ and they must either stand or fall together Secondly being Sons of God in Christ we may be confident he will provide for us He hath provided very well for Christ he is not his Son only but he is his Heir too yea he is heir of all without exception Heb. 1.2 And as Christ is the Son and Heir of God so we are sons and heirs of God in Christ there is not a younger brother of us Thou art no more a servant but a son Gal. 4.7 And if a son then an heir of God through Christ If Sons of God through Christ then Heirs of God through Christ too If we be sons then also heirs Rom. 8.17 yea we are heirs of all as Christ is and therefore it is added presently Heirs of God joynt-heirs with Christ Jesus Christ as Mediator is not Heir to any thing but we are joynt-heirs and have a joynt-right with him there is an Inventory of our riches 1 Cor. 3.21 Thirdly being Sons of God we may be confident he will protect us Fathers use to protect their children if they can God can and therefore will As Naomi laid Ruths childe in her bosom Ruth 4.16 so God lays his children Isa 4.11 and that is certainly a safe place And as the Eagle spreads her wings over her young and carries them upon her wings Prov. 32 1â— so God throws his children under the wings of his protection and carries them above the reach of danger This is very sweet comfort be your troubles what they will you have a Father that is able to secure you that is very tender of you that hath set a guard upon you Heb. 1. ult Psal 34.7 John 17.1 Father the hour is come Use 2 IS God the Father of the Lord Christ And consequently Christ the Son of God the Father Why then I say as the Apostle He is the Lord of all Gal. 4.1 He is not a servant in the house but a Son over the house Heb. 3.6 And therefore he must be obeyed and served according to the Psalmists Exhortation Psal 2.11 Serve the Lord. Well then my brethren let us think of this and let us hearken to that Counsel and advice of Christ himself Take my yoke my service on you Brethren let me engage you all this day for this Lord and his service let me perswade you to receive him for the Lord your righteousness Not to call him Lord only but to take him for your Lord and to use him as your Lord and to yield him all that service and obedience which the name calls for Ah my Beloved let us not do in this regard as the greater part of Christians in name and in profession do Let us not wear the badge and cognizance of Jesus Christ and say he is our Lord and Master and the like and in the mean time never do his will nor take any pains at all in his service For this is but to deal with Christ as the perfidious Jews did to put a purple robe upon him and to bow down before him and to call him Hail Master and in the self-same breath to buffet him and spit upon him But as we call him Lord so let us carry and demean our selves towards him as our Lord and Master and let us yield to him that obedience which is due to him And to this end let us consider what engagements lye upon us to draw us and to hold us to the service of this Lord which I shall briefly lay before you as motives to perswade The first is an Engagement of Creation he is the image of the invisible God saith the Apostle Col. 1.15 The first born of every creature that is the Lord of every creature for the first born is Lord of all And why the Lord of every creature You have the reason in the following words For by him were all things created that are in heaven and that are in earth All things were made by him and therefore it is fit that all should serve him Nay my Beloved they were not made by him only but they were made for him too as it is added there in that place all things were created by him and for him By his power and for his use And therefore if we be not useful to him if we do not serve him we cross the very end of our creation The brutish and unreasonable creatures serve him in their kind and measure and therefore David saith that all things serve him But we are bound to serve him much more because in our Creation we received more from him He made us Lords of all his creatures â—â—at we might have no Lord but him He made the whole creation to be serviceable to us that we might be the more engaged and the better able to be serviceable to himself that we might serve him for it all that we might serve him with it all He put all things under us and truly we are bound the more my Brethren to be under him and subject to him he made us men he gave us reason which he gave not to other creatures the greater reason have we to obey him and to improve our parts and gifts in his service Indeed we cannot chose but see that it is all the reason of the world that as we have all from him so we should use all for him The next is an engagement of Redemption which binds us to the service of the Lord. As he is the Lord that made us so he is the Lord that bought us as the Apostles phrase is 2 Pet. 2.1 He purchased us my Brethren us I mean that are his own at a very dear rate and therefore it is just that we should serve him especially since it is evident that this was his intention in his purchase He bought us out of Sins and Satans hands not that we might be absolutely free from all commands but that we might be his servants He gave himself
for us saith the Apostle Paul Tit. 2.14 that was the purchase that he made a very dear one you will say He gave himself for us to what end that he might reedeem us from all iniquity from the dominion and power of sin And what now are we masterless And are the reins upon our own necks Now mark what follows presently And purifie us a peculiar people himself a people to himself to serve him and to do his work and to be very earnest in it too and purifie to himself a peculiar people Zealous of good works And so being free from sin we are not left at large my Brethren but we became the servants of Christ Rom. 6 22. This was the End that he intended and propounded to himself in our Redemption he dyed for us that we which live should henceforth live no longer to our selves but to him that dyed for us 2 Cor. 5.15 He hath performed the mercy promised he hath remembred c. he hath saved us from c. Luke 1.74 What that we might from henceforth be our own men and live at liberty and walk according to our own wills Oh no my Brethren but on the other side that we might serve him who hath saved us in holiness and righteousness all the daies of our lives The third is an Engagement of Covenant-obligation we are his Covenant servants and therefore we are bound to serve him if we run away from him we are Covenant-breakers with him Indeed we that are born of those that are in Covenant with him are born his Covenant-servants in a sense For such as the condition of the Parent is Beloved such is the condition of the child as to outward priviledge and as to outward duty too And hence it is perhaps that David saith to God Psalm 116.16 O Lord saith he I am thy servant My servant might the Lord reply Why how so why saith the Psalmist I am the son of thy hand-maid So we whose parents were within the Covenant were born to Christ in some respect for we were born within his family and so to outward view and cognizance belong to his houshold But this is but an outward thing some of us have gone further yet and made a Covenant with the Lord to serve him we were in Covenant all of us with sin by nature and so with death and hell we were at an agreement too But some of us have utterly dissolved that Covenant and entred into Covenant with the Lord Christ We are bound let us obey now we have made this Covenant with him we are the more engaged to serve him and the greater is our sin if we run away from him Use 3 Is God the Father of our Lord Christ The greater is his love to us that he should give Christ for us If he had given but a servant or a friend it had been much that he should part with either of them for an enemy but that he should give us his son his own begotten son to shame to punishment to death for us here is love and here is mercy with a witness The Evangelist me thinks knows not which way to express it and therefore leaves it to the largest heart and the vastest understanding to guess at it John 3.16 God so loved the world So how I cannot tell you it swallows up my apprehensions and expressions And therefore I must leave it to your selves to think of it and reach after it And truly my Beloved did we weigh it well in our advised and deliberate thoughts we should be carried out beyond our selves in an Extasie of wonder What my Beloved that when the Father had but one begotten Son by nature and one that was so well like him the very picture of his Father c. one whom he loved dearly in whom his very soul delighted that he should give him forth out of his bosom for such wretches as we are That he could not spare his Son that he might spare his Enemies behold what love the Father hath declared in this Here is love to be spoken of and to be wondred at in all ages And thus far of the uses of the former member of the point Proceed we now to make some application of the latter Use 1 Is it so my Brethren that as God is the Father of the Lord Christ So Christ did apprehend him as a Father and look upon him as a Father when c. Then let us also apprehend him so and look upon him so who are the sons of God in Christ when we come to God in prayer Let us present our supplications to him under the notion of a Father as Christ did Christ is in this respect our Pattern and Example whom we ought to follow We are required you know to be followers of Christ viz. in all his imitable actions and this is one of those actions We ought to walk as he walked and to pray as he prayed And therefore as his manner was to pray to God himself in this language to come to God as to a Father So he hath taught us also so to pray in the very same language to come to God as to a Father as he did Mat. 6.9 After this manner pray ye Our Father which art in heaven So that we have in this you see the Precept and Example of the Lord Christ his Precept in the cited place and his Example in my Text. And therefore let us learn this lesson of him since he is pleased to teach us both waies both by Precept and Example When we are making our addresses to the Lord in prayer let us endeavour to apply unto our selves the love and father-hood of God in Jesus Christ Let us not satisfie our selves with a general perswasion that he is a gracious Father to all his sons and daughters in the Lord Christ But let us strive for a distinct and a particular assurance that he is our own Father that he is so to us in special and that we are among the number of his children That we may look upon him so and confidently call him so when we are pouring out our prayers to him and so expect the love and mercy of a Father from him And to this very End as the Apostle tells us The Spirit of the Son is sent abroad into our hearts To what End Why to make us cry Abba Father Gal. 4.6 That is to make us pray to God as to a Father while others come to God as to a stranger with whom they have no acquaintance and to whom they have no relation So that you see we have not only the Precept of Christ and the Example of Christ but we have also the Spirit of Christ that we may pray in this manner And therefore in this Faith and confidence the Saints of God have prayed in Scripture So did the Church as you may see Isa 63.16 Doubtless say they thou art our Father though Abraham be ignorant of us and Israel acknowledge us
this respect And therefore the Apostle having spoken of his Legislative power before he comes to this judiciary Power James 4.12 There is one Law-giver saith he And what can he but give the Law yes he can execute the Law too and therefore it is added presently Who is able both to save and to destroy to save those that are acquitted by the Law and to destroy those that are condemned by the Law Sometimes he executeth his sentence partly here The works of some men go before to judgement as the Apostle Paul speaks 1 Tim. 5.24 Christ punisheth the wicked and rewards the Godly in this present world but the full retribution of them both he keepeth and reserveth to the day of his appearing when both of them shall have their full reward Behold I come quickly and my reward is with me saith our Saviour He sends not his reward before him he leaves not his reward behind him but brings it with him to dispense it when he comes And then he will discover it to all the world that he hath power over all flesh for he will then dispose eternally of all flesh either in heaven or in hell John 17.2 As thou hast given him power over all Flesh Vse 1 NOw is it so that all mankind is under the authority of Jesus Christ under his Legislative power so as to give Law to them Then first of all they are severely to be censured who submit not to the authority of Jesus Christ who do not yield obedience to the Law he gives them let him lay what commands he will upon them they are at a point for that they will not be obedient to them they break the bonds of Christ in sunder and cast away his cords from them Now the Delinquents here are twofold according to the twofold Law which the authority of Jesus Christ imposeth on his Subjects I say there is a twofold Law which the authority of Jesus Christ imposeth upon men the Law of Faith and the Law of Love We read of both these my Brethren in the Gospel and of both as his Laws And so accordingly there are two sorts of men who stoop not to the Legislative power of Jesus Christ I shall proceed with them in order The first of them are unbelievers they violate the Law of faith and so submit not to the power which God hath given him over all flesh You must know that Jesus Christ requireth all men to believe You believe in God saith he to his Disciples believe also in me John 14.1 And therefore the Apostle tels us of the Law of faith and setteth it in opposition to the Law of works the Moral Law as you may see Rom. 3.27 Now the great thing which this Law of faith requires is the receiving of the Son of God upon the terms that he is offered in the Gospel as you have been often shewed And it requires it on the greatest penalty even everlasting condemnation which is as certain to the unbelievers as if it had already past upon them He that believeth not is condemned already John 3 18. And yet alas how many are there who submit not to this Law of faith who though Christ be proposed and tendred to them in the Gospel though he be even forced and pressed upon them though Christ command them to believe yet they will not be obedient Indeed if he had no authority to impose this Law upon them they had reason to stand out but God hath given him power to do this yea he himself requires the very same thing This is his Commandment that we should believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ 1 Joh. 3.23 so that you see my Brethren this is the Commandment of the Father and this is the Commandment of the Son both joyn in this Law and therefore they are deeply to be censured who are refractory to so great a Law as this And that it may the better work and take upon them I shall shew them first the sin and secondly the danger of their disobedience That it is a sin not to believe in Jesus Christ is evident by that which hath been said because it is the violation of a Law the Law of faith But more then so it is a very great sin It is a sin of no ordinary size no my beloved it is a sinning sin it is abundantly and out of measure sinfull It is a sin indeed to violate the Law of works which the Apostle stileth Moses Law because it was delivered by the hand of Moses But it is a greater sin to violate the Law of faith and that both with relation to the Father and the Son First for the Father it is an horrible indignity to him it is the basest undervaluing and despising of his love that can be he gives his Son out of his bosom to suffer shame and death for poor Creatures and having done it he sends his Messengers to mind men of the danger they are in without Christ and to exhibite and propose him to them as the means the only means of their salvation and as endeavouring to overcome men with his goodness he doth in love and pity beg them and beseech them to accept of it And what is the event of this why my beloved when he hath abased himself so low and stooped so much below himself as to become a suitor to them to receive his Son they carry matters so as if he stood in need of them as if he came to make a motion to them for his own advantage as if he knew not what to do if they should refuse his Son Is not this good usage that when he hath descended so in ways of mercy they should shake him off and tell him in effect that his profered wares stink and that they do not need him nor his Son neither he may go offer him to them that have a mind to him Oh what abuse of love is this Oh what an high indignity what an unsufferable provocation even to incense the Lord so far as to cause him to resolve that he will never stoop so low again that he will never prostitute his Son again to the disdain and the refusal of a company of base unthankful men that he will make them rue the time that ever they contemned this mercy to them Then for the Son my Brethren in the second place it is an high affront to him and so in that respect a great sin It cost him dear to purchase and obtain remission and salvation for a company of lost creatures indeed his dearest life his dearest blood And is it not an horrible indignity to slight and to despise so great salvation to trample under foot the son of God to scorn such rich and precious mercy yet this all unbelievers do if not in their intention yet in the issue and event Truly their sin in this respect is greater then the sin of Devils whose nature Christ hath not assumed he took not on him
the nature of Angels but the seed of Abraham for whom he never suffered and to whom he was never offered They will have something to excuse themselves withall something to plead before the Lord in the great and dreadful day Alâ—s may Devils say there was no possibility of our recovery there was no Mediator between God and us to purchase and obtain our peace there was no pardon tendred to us but you had the eternal Son of God to dye for you for you mankind to shed his blood and to lay down his life for you and yet when all was done and when he came and brought a pardon to you sealed with his blood and besought you to accept of it you even shut him out of doors you would not look upon him nor receive him you baffled him and dodged with him Ah my beloved what heart if it be truly touched can hold from breaking under the sight and sense of such abominable and prodigious wickedness as this is And as the sin is great so in the second place the misery and condemnation will be great also There will be no avoiding of it for how shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation Heb. 2.3 There will be no enduring of it it will be infinitely heavy it will be easier for Turks and Pagans in the day of judgement then for such wretches Alas poor souls that as if their condemnation were not deep enough already the incarnation and the passion and the offer of a Saviour the richest mercies in themselves that ever were bestowed upon the Creature should accidentally encrease it That Christ should die and shed his blood to sink men deeper into hell then if he had not died at all for this is the event and issue of it this is a lamentable thing indeed The second sort of such as stoop not to the authority of Jesus Christ and to his Legislative power are such as violate the Law of Love I mean the Moral Law the decalogue the ten Commandments for that my Brethren is the Law of love And therefore the Apostle tels us that love is the fulfilling of the Law he means apparently the Moral Law Rom. 13.10 and he that loveth another hath fulfilled the Law see the eighth verse of that chapter in which respect our Saviour Christ himself divides the Law into these two Commandments Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and the neighbour as thy self what then it may be you will say Doth Christ by his authority impose the moral Law on men the ten Commandments of the Decalogue The Law of faith is his indeed but is the Law of works his too Yes the Law of works is his for he requireth works as well as faith And the faith which he bestows upon his members works by love And love is his own commandment so he cals it John 15.12 This is my Commandment that ye love one another Indeed he rules his Subjects by the Moral Law that is the precepts and commandments of it are the Statutes of his Kingdom It s true when it was first delivered to Adam in the state of innocency it came to him but in the hand of the Creator only But it comes to us my Brethren in the hands of the Redeemer and of the Mediator Jesus Christ who was typified by Moses at the delivery of the Law the second time upon Mount Sinai Gal. 3.19 And hence the precepts of it are stiled not the bonds of God only but the bonds of Christ too Psal 2.2 Let us break their bonds asunder and cast away their cords from us The Gospel all men yield is Christs he is in a peculiar way the author of the Gospel and therefore it is called the word of Christ Now the Commandments of the Law are all of them revived in the Gospel The whole of what the Law requires is for the manner and measure of obedience exacted also in the Gospel there is no duty which the Law enjoyns but it is taught us in the Gospel The Gospel teacheth to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts and to live soberly and righteously and godlily in this present world Titus 2.12 soberly towards our selves righteously towards our Brethren and piously towards our God And these Particulars apparently involve and comprehend all the Commandments of the Moral Law from the beginning of it to the end There being nothing in the Decalogue the Ten Commandments interdicted or required but may be reduced to one of these three heads So then you see my Brethren not the Law of faith only but the Law of works too is Christs Law or if it be not Christs Law it can be no Law at all The Father judgeth no man but hath committed all Judgement to the Son And consequently he that violates this Law of works resisteth the authority of Jesus Christ and the power with which he is invested by his Father to give Law to all flesh And yet alas how many are there who live in the resolved and the constant breach of all the precepts and commandments of the Law of Christ who in their practice daily break these bonds asunder and cast away these cords from them who are not subject to the Law of Christ nor indeed can they be If it be pressed home upon them to bind them to the good behaviour and to restrain them from their sinful and ungracious courses they are out of all patience If the commands of Christ be laid upon them to hold them fast to duty and obedience and to abridge them of their carnal liberty if they be told they must no take their old courses but they must hear and pray and fast and sanctifie Gods holy day and live strictly they will be very much incensed The Law of Christ is too severe and strict for them it curbeth and abridgeth them too much and therefore they will shake it off from them And as the Lunatick who was restored by our Saviour to his reason brake all the bonds and cords with which they bound him so these unreasonable Creatures deal with Christs Law nothing will hold them to obedience Let him lay what command he will upon them they will surely break it that they may live at liberty and walk according to their own humours Yea sin in such by the Commandment becomes exceeding sinful as the Apostle speaks Rom. 7.13 Not by way of declaration for that is not the purpose and intention of the place but by way of Irritation When the Commandment labours to lay hold on sin to bind him and to chain him up then sin begins to lay about him to struggle for his libertie and so by accident to be the more sinful When we press home the precepts of the Law and urge them hard on wicked men as there are some that yield themselves up to the binding power and to the obligation of it so there are others that stand out against the Law and they are much the worse for it
bound to the obedience of it so as to be justified and saved by this obedience They are not bound to the obedience of it so as the condition of a Covenant of works But they are bound to the obedience of it so as to testifie their faith and love and thankfulness and service to the Lord Christ who hath imposed this Law upon all flesh so that all men yea even believers are under the commanding power of this Law Yea but it will be said by some that Jesus Christ hath made us free Object that he hath purchased liberty for all his members which liberty they are commanded to maintain Gal. 5.1 And this they think and teach to be even from the obligation of the Moral Law True Christ hath made us free indeed but from the servitude of sin Sol. not from the service of himself and from the Law of sin as the Apostle calls it Rom. 7.23 not from his own Law Why should we think that Christ hath shed his blood to free his people from the obligation of his own Law Indeed my Brethren if the Moral Law the Law of love the Law of works were not the Law of Christ as the Apostle calls it Gal. 6.2 I should be easily perswaded to believe his people are exempted from the binding power of it It seemeth reasonable that his members should be freed from any Law but that which he himself gives But the commandment of the Moral Law which is fulfilled in love is his Commandment John 15.12 strengthened with his authority delivered in his hand and name to men and who can think that he should not impose his own Law upon his own people Mark that of the Evangelist Luke 1.74 75. He hath saved us from our enemies and from the hands of all that hate us that we might serve him who hath saved us in holiness to God and in righteousness to man which is indeed the summ and substance of the Moral Law So that the liberty which Christ hath purchased for his people is liberty to keep not liberty to break the Law and that is liberty indeed as David thinks Psal 119.32 I will run the wayes of thy Commadments when thou hast set my heart at liberty To say it in a word my Brethren there is a twofold liberty a twofold freedom the one enjoyed under sin and the other under Christ Under sin we are free to do any thing but good under Christ we are free to do any thing but evil Of the first sort of freedom speaks the Apostle Paul Rom. 6.20 When you were the servants of sin ye were free from righteousness and of the second faith the same Apostle in ver 22. of that Chapter Being the servants of God ye are free from sin Well then our Saviour Christ hath brought us from the former to the latter sort of freedom so that we are at liberty from sin and not at liberty to sin We are at liberty to serve him and obey him and to keep his Law Object But it is objected further out of these words of the Apostle to the believing Romans Rom. 6.19 where he tells them ye are not under the Law but under Grace And if believers are not under it why then how are they subject to the obligation of it Sol. To this I answer that believers are not under it respectively to the coaction of it for they willingly obey it They are not under it respectively to the severe exaction of it for they are delivered from it it comes to them with Evangelical allay and Gospel mitigation They are not under it respectively to the malediction and the condemnation of it for they are not accursed they shall not be condemned by it But they are under the commanding and the binding power the obligation of it notwithstanding because from this they are not neither can they be delivered For if you look upon the substance of the Moral Law it is an everlasting an eternal Law as David calls it Psal 19.7 It sheweth what is good and what is evil in it self and in its nature So that the things that are commanded there are not good because they are commanded but are commanded because they are good And so the things that are forbidden they are not evil because they are forbidden but are forbidden because they are evil And hence this Law is never charged as the Law of the forbidden fruit and as the Ceremonial and Judaical Laws no it is stedfast as the Apostle Paul speaks Heb. 2.2 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the word that was spoken by Angels that is the Moral Law that was delivered by their Ministry is stedfast Indeed this Law the Law of nature was written in the heart of Adam in the state of innocency and Christ intendeth not to blot out any thing that was engraven there but promises to write it out again more fairly for it was much obliterated by the fall in the hearts of his people So runs the tenor of the New Covenant Ier. 31.33 The last Objection that I shall insist upon Object is taken from those words of the Apostle 1 Tim. 1.9 The Law saith the Apostle there is not given to the Righteous And if it be not given to them why then it seems that it belongs not to them any way To this I answer that the Apostles purpose is not that the righteous are not under the command and obligation of the Law for mark it Sol. Adam was exactly righteous and yet it was a Law to him even in the state of innocency it self But this is that which the Apostle means the Law is not given to the righteous so as to force him to obedience so as to be against a righteous man It is not given for his hurt and condemnation He doth not say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lex non est lata but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lex non est posita which intimates an action or a plea against a man So that the Moral Law is not the action or the plea of God against a righteous man to bring him under judgement and to oblige and bind him over to damnation And so it is the same in sense with that which is delivered by the same Apostle in another place speaking of such as are guided by the spirit and express the fruits of it in their lives and conversations Gal. 5.23 He doth not say to such a one but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 against such there is no Law Indeed the Moral Law so far as it is against believers is not imposed but removed by Christ He hath blotted out the hand writing of Ordinances that was against us that was contrary to us and took it out of the way nayling it to his Cross Col. 2.14 even the hand writing of Moral ordinances so far as it is against us and contrary to us Christ hath taken out of the way It is against us in the rigor and in the curse and malediction of it and
ground James 4.12 There is one Law-giver saith he that is able both to save and to destroy And what of that Who art thou that judgest another What authority hast thou to pass sentence on thy brother you are both under the power and the authority of Jesus Christ and therefore let him judge you both and do not you judge one another Why you will say may not one man judge another without any derogation from the authority of Christ yes if he do it by authority from Christ and according to the rules prescribed by Christ So one man may judge another and condemn another too having received power from Christ in the Church and Common-wealth But if one man judge another of himself without any Lawfull power and without any real ground if one man judge another in or about such things as are reserved to the authority of Christ as secret things and the final state of men and such like it is a prejudice to the authority of Christ and to the power which God hath given him over all flesh And yet how usual is it with men to judge and censure one another when they are not called to it when they have no right to do it when they have no sufficient ground for it They will judge the hearts of men they will judge the ends of men which are known to none but God having neither evidence nor warrant for these censures If they be out with any man presently he is an Hypocrite a rotten-hearted wretch and what not if he do any doubtful action they will be sure to construe it the worst way if he do any action clearly good then he hath ill ends in it nothing can scape their hard censures Nay some will pass their doom upon the final state of men which none but Christ himself can judge of Now I beseech you my beloved consider whose authority you violate in this and whose office you assume Remember Christ hath power over all flesh he is the Law-giver who is able both to save and to destroy who knows whom he will save and whom he will destroy let him judge all and do not you judge one another John 17.2 As thou hast given him power over all flesh Vse 5 IS it so that all mankind is under the authority of Jesus Christ Then let them not avenge themselves in any case but let them have recourse to Jesus Christ for right when any wrong or injury is done to them Whoever doth it he is under the authority of Jesus Christ he is within the verge compass of his Jurisdiction his Father hath invested him with a power over all flesh so that let the wrong doer be of what condition or estate or place he will let the wrong be what it will it fals within his cognizance and he can right it if he please and he will right it in his own time Indeed if there were none to seek unto when we are injured and abused if there were none to do us justice there were some colour then why we should avenge our selves If there were none but the servants in a Family if such a thing might be supposed and there were no Common Master over all it could not be avoided but they would brawl among themselves For every one in such a case would look to be his own Judge there being none superior to him and his fellow to decide the quarrell But when they have a Master to complain to who hath power to take an order with any of them that offend it were a great indignity to him and his authority for any of them to correct their fellow-servants Beloved we have all one Master we are all under the power and the authority of Jesus Christ and therefore if our fellow-servants wrong us let us not undertake to right our selves but let us patiently commit our cause to him that judgeth righteously I say as the Apostle Romans 12.19 Dearly beloved avenge not your selves Take heed that you be neither overcome of evil in your passions Romans 12. ult nor render evil for it in your actions 1 Thes 5.15 There are not many sins to which we are so mightily inclined as we are to this nor which we are so hardly able to resist And truly I am much afraid that in the prosecution of the great affairs of this time there is in many too much of the private grudge and self-revenge who make the publique cause a cover for their own malice Now I beseech you my beloved let us not study to avenge our selves on any man but let us lay aside all self-respects If we have been abused and wronged by any let us forgive them and forbear them as the Apostle Paul exhorts Col. 3.13 Forgiving one another and forbearing one another if any man have a quarrel against any There is much in that Text forgiving one another in regard of inward malice and forbearing one another in regard of outward revenge And that not only in conceited and imaginary but in true and real wrongs For so the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rendred quarrell or complaint imports Not a quarrell pickt or raised upon no ground at all but justa conquerendi causa as Zanchius reads it a just occasion of complaint So that when we are injured so as the abuse is evident and clear it is our duty to forgive and to forbear And that who ever offer the abuse to us let him be what he will if any man have a quarrel against any of what condition or degree soever none exempted yet we must forgive still and we must forbear still And this because it hath a world of difficulties in it I shall set on with a few Considerations Consider you entrench on Jesus Christ in self-revenge invade his proper and peculiar right you do that which belongs to him which is a very high presumption And this the Psalmist intimates in his petition Psal 94 1. O God to whom vengeance belongeth O God to whom vengeance belongeth shew thy self he speaks it there exclusively vengeance belongs to him and none but him To none but him originally primitively though he make over power to execute it to his Deputies and Vicegerents who though they cannot do it of themselves and by their own authority yet they may do it as the Ministers of Christ as the Apostle Paul intimates speaking of the Magistrate Rom. 13.4 He is the Minister of God saith he and an avenger A Minister of God and by that means by vertue of his deputation a revenger to execute wrath on him that doth evil So that when our abuses are unsufferable and when they wound the name or the estate so deep that they are not to be born if we go to the Magistrate to right us and avenge us we go to Jesus Christ in him because he hath appointed him and set him up for that purpose But if we avenge our selves we wrest the sword out of the hands of Jesus Christ and
rest to all his people to stoop to this authority of his and to yield obedience to it If it were managed to their hurt and disadvantage they had reason to avoid it and to decline submission to it to the utmost of their power Who would be under such authority as aims at nothing else but the undoing of the Subject But since the end of the authority of Jesus Christ is the good of his people they have great reason to submit to it Ah my beloved how should this sweeten the authority of Christ and make it amiable and desirable and pleasing to his Subjects How should the Children of Zion be joyful in their King as the Prophet David speaks Psal 109.2 how should the members of the Church triumph and be exceeding glad that they are so well provided that they have Jesus Christ to be their Soveraign that they have such a Governour as he who manages his whole authority for their profit and advantage This is a joyful thing indeed The Lord reigneth saith the Psalmist Psal 97.1 and what doth he inferr upon it Let the Earth rejoyce let the multitudes of the Isles be glad of it And truly we that are the people of the Lord of this Isle as well as other Isles and quarters of the world have reason to be glad of this that Christ rules and that we are his Subjects We are afraid continually of new storms and new troubles but here is our comfort in the midst of all this that the rains of government are in the hands of Jesus Christ who is a King for our sake who is invested by his Father with authority yea with supreme authority such as none can overtop for our good and for our safety We may apply the Prophets speech Isa 33.20 Look upon Zion the City of our solemnities thine eyes shall see Jerusalem a quiet habitation a tabernacle that shall not be taken down not one of the stakes thereof shall ever be removed neither shall any of the cords thereof be broken But the glorious Lord will be to us a place of broad rivers And why so For the Lord is our Judge the Lord is our Law-giver the Lord is our King and he will save us So that however we be rent and torn with sad divisions however we be shaken with continual fears yet when we look to Jesus and consider Is not he out Law-giver and is not he our Judge is not the supreme authority in his hand we may conclude that he will save us that he will do us good and that because he hath received his power and his authority for this End John 17.2 That he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him Use 2 IS it so that the authority of Jesus Christ with which c. chiefly for the good c. Then let the Ministers of Jesus Christ be hence directed and advised how to use the power which they have received from Christ As God hath sent the Son so Jesus Christ hath sent his Ministers and his Embassadors It is his own expression to his own Apostles John 20.21 As my Father hath sent me so I send you And as God hath given power to Jesus Christ whom he hath sent so Jesus Christ hath given power to his Embassadors whom he hath sent And therefore it is added presently in the fore-alledged Scripture whosesoever sins ye remit they be remitted and whosesoever sins ye retain they are retained You must conceive it either in the preaching of the word or else in the administration of the censures of the Church And this is that which the Apostle cals the power which Christ hath given him 2 Cor. 13.10 Now all that have this power from Jesus Christ are here directed how to manage it and what use to make of it It is apparent they must use it to the very same end to which Christ doth use his For even as Christ hath his Commission from the Father so they have their commission from Christ And even as Christ hath his authority from the Father so they have their authority from Christ And therefore even as the authority of Christ is managed chiefly for the good and the salvation of his people so must they manage theirs too for the very same end they must not aim at the destruction or the hardning of the people they must not preach the Gospel to them for such purposes as these though this by accident be the effect sometimes No they must make this their business how they may save themselves and them that hear them how they may bring about the conversion and salvation of the people how they may draw in souls to Iesus Christ and make proselytes for heaven this ought to be the great thing which they aim at It is true they must be sons of thunder now and then as well as sons of consolation They must preach the Law sometimes as well as the sweet comforts of the Gospel They must threaten men sometimes with wrath and hell and eternal condemnation But then they must do it so as wishing that these things might might not come upon them but rather that they might avoid them They must threaten them with wrath that they may fly from the wrath to come and they must threaten them with hell that they may escape the damnation of hell They must preach the Law to them with Gospel-purposes and Evangelical intentions They must send out the avenger of blood to dog them at the heels that they may fly to the city of refuge They must use sharpness now and then it cannot be avoided But it must be for the same end which the Apostle speaks of in the fore-alledged place 2 Cor. 13.10 where he mindeth the Corinthians that in case he must use sharpness according to the power the Lord hath given him he hath authority from Christ to do it but mark in the succeeding words to what end to edification and not to destruction According to the power the Lord hath given me to edification and not to destruction And therefore it is very notable that when our Saviour Christ had said to his Disciples All power is given to me both in heaven and in earth and having put a part of this authoâ—ity and power of his on his Apostles he doth not bid them to go out and preach damnation to the people but go and preach the Gospel to them and baptize them that they way be saved And the Apostle speaking of the execution of this power in the administration of the censures of the Church saith he would give a foul offender up to Satan for no other end then this even for his good and his salvation 1 Cor. 5.3 4. I have already judged saith he concerning him that hath so done this deed with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ to deliver him to Satan for the destruction of the flesh the carnal part that the spirit might be saved in the day of the Lord. So that
God in him and hence our Saviour said to Philip when he entreated him to shew him the Father he that hath seen me hath seen the Father also If we would know God vve must seek to know Christ and vve shall know God in him And therefore let us set our selves to this business to know God and Iesus Christ whom he hath sent yea to know God in Jesus Christ and to this I shall perswade vvith some Motives First till you know God in Jesus Christ you can have no assurance of any blessing from God either spiritual or temporal that any thing comes to you in a Covenant-way for all the Promises of God are made in Christ They are the Promises of God indeed as they are called 2 Cor. 1.20 but they are made in Jesus Christ they are in him Yea and in him Amen as it is added there in that place So that if you know God and not Christ you know him not as making any promise to you You may know him as a threatner this he doth with reference to Christ but you can never know him as a Promiser at least not as a Promiser to you in special You have no Promise of the Lord for any thing no Promise of the Lord will reach to you to profit you as long as you know not Christ the means of Conveyance Look over all the book of God consider all the precious Promises contained in it from the beginning of it to the End and this resolve if you know not God you have no right to in any one of them nor shall you ever if you so continue be a whit the better from them God hath made Jesus Christ his Steward he hath put all things into his hand as vve may see Mat. 11.27 All things are delivered unto me of my Father saith our Saviour so that they come not to us but through him they go all through his hands God hath made him heir of all things as the Apostle speaks Heb. 1.2 So that you see my Brethren all is his and Consequently we can have nothing but from and by and through him Till you know God in Jesus Christ the Blessings which you have from God you have them not in love and mercy So that indeed you can find no true and kindly relish in them For this is that vvhich sweetens all the Blessings of the Lord when a man can say as Iacob of his Children Gen. 33.5 These are the Children which God hath graciously given thy servant As David being rescued out of danger The Lord delivered me saith he because he delighted in me 2 Sam. 22.20 Then are his Blessings and Deliverances sweet indeed vvhen we can relish love in them vvhen vve can look upon them as the fruits of mercy Alas vve know God poureth out his Blessings abundantly on many men not in love but in displeasure He gave them their desire saith the Psalmist of the Jews that perished in the Wilderness but while the meat was in their mouthes the wrath of God went out against them and slew the fattest of them Psalm 78.31 they had the Blessing but they had it with a curse The Lord did curse their blessings to them and so he doth to all that know him not in Jesus Christ who is his first Beloved and in whom he loves others Christ is the only Way of Intercourse between God and our souls He is the Way from God to us He is the Channel and the Pipe in which the stream of Gods love runs down to us So that there is not one drop of Love from God to any soul but it is conveyed and carried to it in and by and through Christ Out of Christ we have no Love and consequently nothing in Love Till you know God in Jesus Christ as he gives nothing in Love to you so he takes nothing in Love from you Do what you will or what you can he is never pleased vvith you He accepts of no Duties no service you perform to him This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased Matth. 3.17 Observe it well for it is very notable He doth not say with whom I am well pleased but in whom I am well pleased In whom I am well pleased with all with vvhom I am well pleased with all that are in him and with no man out of him If you know God in Christ you may know him as a God vvell pleased vvith you otherwise you cannot He hath made us accepted in the Beloved saith the Apostle Eph. 1.6 First Christ is the Beloved of the Father and then vve are beloved and accepted in him Till you know God in Jesus Christ you know him not as one that pardons and forgives you but as one that charges all your sins upon you In him we have Redemption through his blood saith the Apostle even the forgiveness of our sins Eph. 1.7 We have not pardon but in him Him hath the Lord set forth as a propitiation through faith in his blood saith the Apostle Rom. 3.25 God hath made him the Mercy-seat the seat of Mercy from vvhich Mercy is dispensed And whereas formerly the Mercy-seat under the Law vvas placed within the Vail and so vvas hidden both from the people and the Priests the High-Priest only had access to it and that but once a year neither The Lord hath now set forth this Mercy-seat to the view of all men that all may have access to it And as the High-Priest came not to the Mercy-seat without blood Levit. 16.14 even so may no man hope to have mercy from the Lord in the forgiveness of his sins but through the blood of Jesus Christ if he know not God in him he can expect no pardoning mercies from him Till you know God in Jesus Christ you cannot come to God with any boldness or with any confidence No man cometh to the Father but by me saith Jesus Christ John 14.6 He must make our way to God In him saith the Apostle we have boldness and access with confidence Ephes 3.12 so that we can hold up our heads with courage and lift up our faces to him as the expression is Job 22.26 But if we know not Jesus Christ how can we be but flat and faint in our approaches to the throne of Grace It is in his name that we must desire the blessings that we seek for at the hands of God and whatsoever we ask the Father in his name he will give it us John 16.23 It is in his name that we must return the praise for blessings that we have received giving thanks to God the Father by him Col. 3.17 If we draw blessings down from God we must do it through Christ If we send praises up to God we must do it through Christ If we have no acquaintance with the Lord Christ how shall we come to God with prayers how shall we come to God with praises with what heart or encouragement shall we draw nigh to God either to
Father if you have eyes to see the worth of it And that you may the better know your happiness in this regard I shall lay it open to you in a few particulars Your happiness is great that you have Christ to be your Intercessor in this respect that he is so near to God and that he hath such interest in God An interest of near union for he is one with God the Father an interest of dear affection he is his Son his Son that is extreamly like him his Son that never did offend him in whom his very soul delights so that he can deny him nothing it is but ask and have ask of me and I will give thee And is it not a priviledge to have such as he to speak for us One that can do so much with God that hath his ear and heart too One that can surely carry any business for us in the Court of Heaven for his Father hears him always Joh. 11.4 and never puts him off with a denyal An Advocate that is not favoured may speak much and plead hard and yet he may prevail but little But Jesus Christ is sure to speed in any suit in any business that he undertakes Oh the blessedness of those who are within the compass of this glorious priviledge and who have such a powerful Advocate as Christ is Your happiness is very great that you have Christ to be your Intercessor in this respect that he is near to you As he is near to God so he is near to you also and so by consequence he is the fitter to be an Advocate to God for you It is a very great advantage to us that he that is to plead our case with God the Father is our near kinsman He is Immanuel God with us God one of us who took not on him Angels but the seed of Abraham who is of our own flesh and blood and bone and therefore he will certainly be tender of us and compassionate towards us And therefore the Apostle Paul observes that we are very happy in a High Priest He being such a one as cannot but be touched with our infirmities as being of the self same nature with us and having had himself experience of them for he was in all things like unto us sin only excepted and therefore cannot but be very much affected with our sorrows and our sufferings and very sensible when he is pleading for us to the Father Our happiness is great c. in this respect that he is not like to dye and so to leave the business that he undertakes imperfect It is the case of other Advocates sometimes they drop away in the middle of a business they follow it and plead it very well a while but dye before they finish it before they bring it to a Judgement and then the Clyent knows not what to do nor to whom to have recourse for no man understands his business he must go back again to the beginning There is no fear of this in Jesus Christ our Advocate and Intercessor we may depend upon it he will go through with our business he will not leave it till he have brought it to perfection He will save us to the utmost as the Apostle Paul speaks Heb. 7.25 and why so because he ever lives to make intercession for us as it is added there in that place So you see our happiness is great it is a blessed priviledge that we have Christ to be our Intercessor and it may yeeld us singular encouragement and pretious comfort divers ways As 1. It may encourage us and comfort us in our addresses to the Majesty of God Now we may go with boldness to the Throne of grace having so good a friend with God as Christ is If we were to goe alone and of our selves if we had none to make our way for us it could not choose but be a great disheartning to us But when we seriously consider that our Advocate is there our friend is there who will be ready upon all occasions to second us to put in a good word for us to help out us in any business this is a ground of choice comfort 2. It may support us in the sense of our many imperfections However our petitions are put up in much infirmity and fear and weakness yet if they be according to the will of God we may remember still that they are seconded by Christ in heaven That he puts in on our behalf and demands the same things that he excuses what is wanting in our prayers and supplies it in his own We are flat but he is quick we are dull but he is lively we are short but he is full 3. It may assure us of success in our Petitions since we have Christ to intercede for us We might stand begging long enough our selves and never speed But if we be among the number of those for whom our Saviour undertakes to plead if he will put in but a word for us all is ended presently and we have a gratious answer out of hand God may deny us while we are speaking for our selves but if Christ speak for us he can never be denyed his Father always lets him have his own asking 4. This may keep us from despair and sinking under the weight of all our sins If we sin we have an Advocate to plead for us to answer all the accusations of the Law and of the Conscience It is his Office to interpose between his Father and his people to plead the causes of our souls before him And this we may take special comfort in that be our matters never so soul never so inexcuseable as considered in themselves his very undertaking of them clears all and sets us right even at the bar of Gods justice True their iniquities are black and heynous saith our Advocate but are they greater then my merits are if so let them be condemned if not let them be absolved If all that I have done and suffered will acquit them let them be acquitted What cause have we to cheer our hearts and bless our God that we have such an Advocate as Christ is And thus far of our Saviours Declaration Proceed we now to the Considerations that induce him to become a Suitor for them to his Father Whereof the first is taken from the relation which they had not to himself alone but to his Father I pray for them I pray not for the world but for them which thou hast given me for they are thine and all mine are thine So that the words indeed contain a reason of congruity why our Saviour should commend the case of his Disciples and Apostles in his Petitions to his Father because as they were his so they were his Fathers too and it concerned him to take care of those that were his own that appertained and belonged to him As if our Saviour should have said If they are mine and not thine I had no such great inducement or no
we thrive apace in knowledge then we grow to perfectness then the Church of Christ goes up But till the stones be joined close together there will be no edifying that is in English no building It is of great concernment to the entertainment of Christ Jesus in the world that his Disciples be at nearest c. If they be alwayes wrangling and contending others will not come among them No they will stand off from them and from the Master which they serve if he be owned and followed by none but by a company of quarrelsome contentious people And hence is that Petition of our Saviour in behalf of his Apostles and Disciples at ver 23. of this Chapter In my text he prayes the Father that they may be one even as the Father and himself were one And in the cited verse he renews the same petition that they may all be one as thou Father art in me and I in thee that they may be one in us And why so That the world may believe that thou hast sent me q. d. If my disciples be not one among themselves if they be rent asunder by a spirit of division the world will not believe that I came forth from thee who art the God of love and peace that thou hast sent me down into the world to be a Mediator and a Peace-maker to make up all the breaches and the differences between thee and thy people They will look strangely upon me and I shall never bring them to believe that I am come on such an errand as this is And therefore I beseech thee Father that I may be entertained under the Notion of a Mediator that the world may believe that thou hast sent me on this business do thou take care that my Disciples may be at unity among themselves It is of great concernment to the happiness of Christs Disciples that they be at neerest c. Among the eight beatitudes the third in order falleth to the meek and peaceable Mat. 5.5 And if the meek and peaceable be blessed then certainly the fierce and furious are accursed It is a pretty observation of Ludolphus out of Bede on that place Heaven is promised to the pure blessed are the pure in spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven Earth is promised to the meek Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth So there remaineth nothing else but hell for the contentious and impure spirit Ah my beloved would we avoid the curse and would we be partakers of the blessing would we have heaven and earth to be our portion Let us be pure and peaceable let us make and keep peace and so the blessing of the God of peace will be upon us And therefore David having broken out into a passionate and pithy commendation of the unity of brethren behold how good and pleasant a thing it is for brethren to dwell together in unity it is like pretious oyntment c. Psal 133.2 he shuts up all with this conclusion There the Lord commanded the blessing and life for evermore There where brethren live in unity and love there the Lord commands blessing it cannot choose but come upon them for the Lord himself commands it And this blessing it is life and this life it is eternal There the Lord commanded the blessing and life for evevermore Vse 1 Now to proceed to application Is it so my brethren that it is a matter of wondrous difficulty and of great concernment for Christs Disciples to be at neerest unity among themselves Then let this quicken us and stirr us up who would be taken to be Christs Disciples to labour after this oneness and to endeavour to the utmost of our power to get and keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace You hear it is a matter of great concernment and therefore it is worth the striving for It is a matter of wondrous difficulty and therefore is not to be had without striving Now I beseech you my beloved let us set our selves to this business There was never greater need them now when God hath suffered such a spirit of division to possess his own people And when the members of the body mysticall of Christ are of so many minds and draw so many wayes and have sometimes such vehement and hot contentions and disputes among themselves So that the Church had never greater reason to cry out as Rebecca sometimes did when she had parties in her womb If it be so why am I thus and therefore we had need to put some spirit into this perswasion and you had need to put some spirit into your endeavours and if the Lord will put his spirit of unity and peace into us it may subdue and overcome the spirit of division which reigns too much abroad in these times But you will ask me How may we attain this and what are we to do that we may come to be at neerest unity among our selves Though it be very difficult as you have heard it may be compassed notwithstanding by the blessing of the Lord upon the use of these directions You must endeavour to the utmost of your power to mortifie those lusts and those corruptions that incline you to dissentions I shewed you formerly in explication of the point that the cause of our divisions is within and not without us They do not come so much from outward provocations as inward corruptions If there were no lusts within there would be no wars without as the Apostle James insinuates And verily if our corruptions as pride and passion and self-love were throughly mortified within those outward provocations would never cause such wofull rents and such implacable contentions as they do And therefore let us set our selves effectually and throughly to subdue these lusts of ours though they be naturally as dear and near as the members of our bodies let us persue them to the very death as the Apostle Paul advises Col. 3.5 Mortifie therefore your members which are upon the earth Let nothing satisfie us till we have the life of them Let us not wound them only but destroy them that ought to be the Christians aim as the Apostle shews Rom. 6.6 that the body of sin may be destroyed Our lusts seek our life either they must dye or we And they seek Gods life Omne peccatum est Deicidium And they have sought Christs life and brought him to a shamefull and accursed death And therefore let us seek their lives too and never satisfie our selves till we have the blood of them Let it be far from any of us to nourish or to cherish our corruptions to favour them or to deal kindly with them any way No let us dash this Babylonish brood against the stones let us shew them no mercy And when they are once destroyed our differences and debates will end with them As we must mortifie our carnal lusts so we must chase away out of our hearts our carnal reasonings that foment
of joy when he promised him you know to his Apostles and Disciples they were full of sorrow and he did this as an antidote against it Come be not troubled saith our Saviour I will send you another Comforter that shall abide with you for ever John 14.16 I have been a Comforter to you I confess but seeing I am ready to depart from you I will not leave you comfortless no I will send you another Comforter one that shall comfort you as much as I have done and one that shall stick to you too and shall not leave you as I am about to do but shall abide with you for ever So that you see one special end of Christ in sending down the Holy Ghost into the hearts of his people is to comfort them and cheer them to be to them not only a spirit of Sanctification but a spirit of Consolation and so discovers that he hath a great regard to the joy of his people Christ gives deliverance to his people that they may be full of joy He hath divers other ends why he becomes a Saviour to them in the day of their distress but this is not the least of all that he may put new joy into their hearts and a new Song into their mouths When he appears to the salvation of his people in doing so he appeareth to their joy as you may see Isa 66.5 That is the End and Drift of his Appearance Christ hath purchased Heaven for his people that they might be full of ioy For Heaven as it is a place of the heigth of holiness so it is a place of the heigth of happiness Here indeed we are in Bochim in a place of weeping we go through a vale of tears and digg up Wells but they are of salt water the rain also fills the pools But when we are arrived at Heaven we shall weep no more but all our tears shall be wiped from our eyes We shall not have a wrinkle in our faces nor a tear upon our cheeks nor a sad thought upon our hearts but all shall be smooth and clear and sweet and that for ever Then we shall be full of joy Christs joy shall be fulfilled in us yea we shall have the fulness of joy Psalm 16. ult Indeed full joy importeth nothing but enough to fill us so much as we are capable of as is commensurate to our capacity as we are able to receive But on the other side the fulness of joy importeth all the measures and degrees of it So that there can be nothing added to it there is nothing wanting to it to make it absolute in all respects It is not to be raised higher any way And this hath Christ prepared and purchased for us By these things it is evident that Jesus Christ would have his people to be full of holy joy But wherefore will he have it to be so Why would he have his people to be full of holy joy Out of self-respect he would have it to be so because by reason of the Reason 1 neerness of his union with his people he hath a kind of share in their comfort As his joy is their joy according to his own expression in my text that they may have my ioy fulfilled in themselves So upon the other side their joy is his joy And as there is a social glory of the head and of the members as the School-expression is as Christ is glorified in the glory of his people 2 Thes 1.12 so there is a social joy of the head and of the members Christ rejoyceth in the joy of his people The Comfort of the members redoundeth also to the Comfort of the head As Christ delights in the prosperity so in the joy of his people When they are joyfull he rejoyceth over them with joy and joyeth over them with singing as his own expression is Zeph. 3.17 Reason 2 Christ would have his people to be full of holy joy to recompence them for their sorrow They are described to be such as mourn Mat. 5.4 That uses to be first with them they use to begin there But then they do not use to end there And therefore it is added presently for they shall be comforted Blessed are they that mourn for they shall be comforted And Christ would have their comfort to be answerable to their sorrow That as his sufferings have abounded in them their consolation also may abound by him as the Apostle speaks 2 Cor. 1.5 Indeed they go forth weeping bearing pretious seed as you may see Psal 126.6 They sow in showry weather in a weeping time In such a time did David sow the seed of true repentance for his sin he wept so much that he made his bed to swimm and watered his Couch with his tears In such a time did Peter sow the same see in a time of bitter weeping Mat. 26. ult But then the harvest makes them ample recompence for all the dark and sad and showry weather in the sowing time They come again with joy and they bring their sheaves with them They scatter it by grains but they gather it by sheaves they have twenty thirty forty yea an hundred fold for one So that if any now should ask me You say that Christ would have his people to rejoyce but what would he not have them mourn too Yes he would have them mourn but in order to rejoycing Sorrow is an unperfect passion and is not for it self but for some higher use as all the rest of the declining passions or affections are As hatred is for love and fear for confidence so sorrow also is for joy unto which it is subservient As lancing is not for it self but for ease and remedy and as a potion is not properly for sickness though it cause it for a season but for health so sorrow is for joy and joy is the end of sorrow in the Saints And Christ intends it to be so You shall be sorrowfull saith Christ to his Disciples but your sorrow shall be turned into Joy John 16.20 He gives to them that mourn in Zion beauty for ashes the oil of gladness for mourning and the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness Isa 61.3 The ransom'd of the Lord go out lamenting but they return to Zion with Songs and everlasting Joy upon their heads Isa 35. ult Reason 3 Christ would have his people to be full of holy joy that they may be large in duty Sorrow is a kind of straightning the heart a sad heart is a straigthned heart it is shut up it cannot pray it cannot praise it can do nothing with enlargement And therefore the Apostle calleth mourning 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a contraction of the heart 2 Cor. 2.4 And I appeal for this to those whose spirits are opprest with sadness and dejection whether it do not make them indisposed to duty unfit to hear unfit to pray and in a word unfit for any part of Christs service But holy joy upon the
themselves with others more loose and vitious then themselves they rejoyce in another and not in themselves they think themselves are very good because others are more evil And even as Jerusalem justified Sodom Ezek. 16.5 so drunkards and adulterers justifie them and are occasion of their joy Others there are who finding that they have obtained a good opinion and repute with others and that they are approved by men of judgement and of conscience too are comforted in this exceedingly and here is the foundation of their Joy Oh such a godly man or such a Minister approves of them and is familiar to them and hence it comes to pass that when they once begin to lose the good opinion and conceit of men they are like persons stracken in the head their joy is blasted and their comfort gone because the ground and matter of it was without and not within O then let us endeavour my Beloved to have our comfort in our selves and if it have a spring and fountain in the heart it will not fail there will be a sufficient supply of joy and comfort there though men neglect us and cast away their good opinion of us Whereas if it proceed from that which is without us it will be like a standing Pool that is not nourished with the Spring but with a sodain fall of rain assoon as heat of Summer comes away it dryeth and is seen no more And now my Brethren having proved your joy and found it to be right the joy of Christ which he would have to be fulfilled in you preserve it as your lives and see that neither sin nor Satan steal away this jewel from you and to this end you must especially beware of sinning against Conscience which is the subject and the seat of joy As long as you do well to Conscience Conscience will say well to you but if you wound your Conscience with the guilt of sin Conscience will wound you with the horror and the sting of sin and if by sinning against light you waste your Conscience in regard of grace Conscience will waste you in regard of peace and comfort yea it may set you on the rack of such affrightments as no tongue is sufficient to express What was the cause that David cryed so often in his bones and in his heart that they were broken that it was melted in the midst of his bowels but because he sinned so grosly against the light of his own understanding and the convictions of his own conscience But if in sincerity you have your conversation in the world this will be your rejoycing And if you walk according to the rule peace shall be upon you as upon the Israel of God This joy of Christ shall be fulfilled in you and your joy shall none take from you And thus we have dispatched the first and second Observation Christ is the Author and Original of the joy of his people Jesus Christ would have his people to be full of holy joy DOCTRINE 3. Their clear and perfect knowledge of his intercession for them is one especial means to fill them full of this joy It is the means our Saviour uses in my text and certainly it is available to this end That he might cheer the hearts of his Disciples and replenish them with comfort he lets them hear him pleading for them to his Father He doth it in their presence and while they are listning to him as being very well assured that this will make their joy abound and overflow the banks And this is the account he gives his Father of the business having been very earnest with him to keep them through his own name as he himself had done as long as he had been among them and urged many things in their behalf These things saith he I speak in the world before I come away to thee I speak them here among these men for whom I am a Suitor to thee in the ears of my Apostles and Disciples who are by and listen to me that being witnesses themselves to my importunate and earnest intercession for them they may by this means have my joy fulfilled in themselves True you will say this was an extraordinary comfort to them for the present but what was this to them after Christ was gone from them Or what it this to us in these times Yes my beloved it was much to them even after Christs departure for the fulfilling of their joy For when he was ascended into heaven they could on all occasions reflect upon the prayer that they heard him make in their behalf while he was conversant upon the earth when they were in any fear or any danger when they were even ready to be overcome with grief and sorrow they could consider with themselves We perfectly remember that while our Master was among us we heard him earnestly beseech his Father for us that he would keep us and that he would Comfort us and that he would Sanctifie us and that he would save us as all those things and many more you shall observe along the Current of his prayer here and we shall surely find the fruit of it in such a time as this is Yea we have reason to believe that what he did for us in a way of intercession while he was here upon the earth he doth the same in heaven to this day and will do till we follow him to that place And why then should we not be cheerfull in the midst of these troubles And this our Saviour cleerly aims at in the words These things speak I in the world while I am yet among them that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves That hearing what I do now while I am here they might a little guess what I am like to do hereafter when I am once sate down at the right hand of my Father to be an everlasting Intercessor or for them and therefore might be full of comfort yea though I am departing from them while they consider with themselves If he do so much now surely when he comes to heaven he will do much more And as for us who live in these times it is a means to fill us full of comfort too Christs speaking these things in the world and so giving us a taste of his future intercession For hence it comes to pass that this prayer of our Saviour being uttered in the ears of his Apostles it is pend accordingly and left upon record in Scripture And so we have a specimen a form a modell of our Saviours intercession for his people which he hath left behind him for us to look upon on all occasions and to gather comfort from What he doth in heaven for us we are not able fully and exactly to discover But this he did on earth before he went he did it openly and there is a memorial of it for ever in the Church And by this we may conjecture what he doth in heaven for his people at this day and
will do to the worlds end For certainly he is not less regardfull of them now in Heaven which is the most proper place of acting the second part of his Mediatorship which consists in intercession then he was upon the earth So that whatever our Condition be how sad or sorrowfull soever if we would know our Saviours intercession what it is for us in heaven we may survey this counterpane thereof on earth which is recorded for this very end That we may have an exemplar and a pattern of it continually lying by us in the Scripture to have recourse unto and to fetch overflowing comforts from in all cases Now to cleer this a little further to you I shall proceed to shew you in a few particulars that the perfect knowledge of our Saviours intercession is one especial means to fill his people full of holy joy It is a means to comfort them exceedingly in reference to all the oppositions of their enemies whether without them or within them Do you not think it was a comfort to the Host of Israel when they had got a Champion to stand up for them against the daring insolencies of Goliah who had so long defied the armies of the living God It made them even shout for joy And so it is a comfort to the poor soul when he hath been long contending with the world which sets upon him mightily with all its blandishments and its allurements on the one side and with its threats and persecutions on the other side and with the Devil who furiously assaults him with his fiery darts and his violent temptations and with his own corruptions and his lusts that warr against the soul as the Apostle speaks And when he is about to faint and sink away he considers with himself Why though I have all these against me yet I have Jesus Christ for me and he is pleading-hard on my behalf that I may not have the worst in these Encounters but that I may be more then a Conqueror I seem to hear him saying to me These enemies of thine have desired to winnow thee and to destroy thee but I have prayed for thee that thy faith may not fail Thy courage and thy strength may fail a little but thy faith shall never fail When Christ was here upon the earth he earnestly besought his Father for me that he would keep me through his own name and what he did on earth I know he doth in heaven much more and he cannot be denyed So that I am as safe as the Almighty power of God can make me Oh what a matchless comfort and encouragement is this The poor perplexed soul but now was tossing on the boystrous waters of violent temptations and of raging passions and of furious lusts and even ready to be cast away But now as David speaks the soul is glad because it is at rest and it is brought to the desired haven Ah my beloved when a man who is mightily assaulted by corruptions and temptations and persecutions and afflictions and when the stones and buffets are about his soul can look up as Stephen did Acts 7.56 and see the heavens opened and the Son of man standing at the right hand of God this cannot choose but fill him full of comfort Nay sayes the soul If thou art there pleading for me to the Father and standing up in my defence I know it is impossible that I should perish or miscarry The knowledge of our Saviours Intercession for his people is a means to comfort them in reference to all the accusations that are laid against us at the barr of Gods justice The Law comes in with a black bill against us layes very heavy things to our charge and taxes us with many grievous violations of it which we are no way able to deny Sathan for his part is the grand accuser of the brethren and he objecteth heynous things against us and layes it on with full load And then our consciences perhaps accuse us as fast as any of the other two They are not able to gainsay the allegations either of Sathan or the Law but are forced to acknowledge that all the curses that are written in the Book of God are very justly due to us What shall we do or how shall we keep up our hearts from sinking into utter desperation in such a case as this is As for our parts we have nothing to alledge in or of or from our selves why the sentence of the Law should not be pronounced against us But this is that which fills us full of Comfort that Jesus Christ hath enough to say for us and that he sits in heaven for this very end to make intercession for us when any thing comes in against us there to appear in our behalf and to plead our cause If any man sin we have an Advocate with the Father saith the Apostle 1 John 2.2 and he is the propitiation for our sins We have such an Advocate as is a propitiation So that when Sathan and when sin accuses and makes a dreadfull noise against us he can wipe all off again with one word Saith he This person hath offended I confess but what of that There is a full propitiation made it is well known that I have done it and what hath any one to say to this man If he have out-sinned my satisfaction even let him be condemned But if not let him be acquitted or what do I sit here for How can this choose but ravish and transport the soul into an Extasie of joy and make it to triumph with the Apostle Rom. 8.33 Who can lay anything to my charge who is he that condemneth Let me but see the man that durst to do it So that no marvail though our Saviour Christ be called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the forecited place which signifieth both a Comforter and Advocate To shew that Jesus Christ doth comfort us exceedingly by undertaking for us as an Advocate and pleading for us with the Father The knowledge of our Saviours Intercession for his people is a means to comfort them in reference to the many weaknesses and imperfections of our own prayers Oh how are we dejected and cast down sometimes when we are dull and flat and cold and speechless in our addresses to the Majesty of God When we are so deserted and our hearts are so shut up that as Hezekiah once we cannot speak in prayer but only chatter like a Swallow Isa 38.14 when we know not what to say nor what to plead we are so barren when we are destitute of matter and expression this puts us many times into a very sad condition and overwhelms our hearts with sorrow As David once complained in such a case Psal 77.3 I remembred God saith he I was troubled I complained and my spirit was overwhelmed But now my brethren is it not a matter of exceeding comfort to consider that we have an Intercessor to help us out with all this That he puts in
by the Gospel as they that cast behind their backs the precepts of the Gospel and will not walk accordingly in their lives and conversations It is a dreadful sentence to this purpose able to break the hearts of wicked men and to shake their joynts in pieces 2 Thess 1.8 The Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty Angels in flaming fire rendring vengeance to them that know not God and obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ Indeed as Gospel truth is most excellent so disobedience to this Gospel truth is most dangerous we know what a fearful doom and dreadful sentence the Apostle thunders out against it Heb. 10.26 If we sin wilfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth the Gospel truth there remaineth no more sacrifice for sin From which perversly wrested though Novatus did extract that desperate Heresie of his denying hope of pardon unto those who after they were once baptized relapsed into sin Yet those uncomfortable inferences being laid aside this is most evidently taught us in that Scripture viz. That where the mind hath been enlightned once with Gospel truth it tends exceedingly to the increase and aggravation of those sins that are committed after and against it And therefore upon these considerations labour to walk worthy of so glorious a Gospel and so great a Salvation JOHN 17.18 As thou sent me into the world c. AND thus far of our Saviours Prayer in the behalf of his Apostles and Disciples for Sanctification Sanctifie them with thy truth thy word is truth Proceed we to the arguments and reasons with which he urgeth and enforceth this Petition request of his And they are two Whereof the first is taken from the business and employment that he is setting them about viz. the very same in some respect at least which he himself hath hitherto sustained and undergone by the appointment of the Father As thou hast sent me into the world so I have sent them into the world I am now about to send them it is as good as done already For yet they had not their Commission to preach the Gospel to all the world to every creature And therefore thou hadst need to sanctifie them saith our Saviour to his Father by a more full discovery of thy truth to them that so they may be fitted and enabled for such a service as this is It is extreamly necessary that they should be qualified with all the gifts and graces of the Spirit to the very utmost being to go upon the very self same errand and business on which thou hast imployed me Sanctifie them saith our Saviour Why might the Father answer why so Cause enough saith Jesus Christ for as thou hast sent me into the world even so have I also sent them into the world There are two things to be considered in the words There is something positive and there is in the second place something comparative 1. There is something positive in these words which Christ affirmeth positively of himself and his Apostles That which he affirmeth positively of himself is that his Father hath sent him into the world That which he affirmeth positively of his Apostles and Disciples is That he is sending them into the world There is something Comparative in which our Saviour Christ compares his Fathers sending him with his own sending his Apostles As thou hast sent me into the world even so have I also sent them into the world I shall but touch on that which Christ affirmeth positively of himself and that as you have heard is that his Father hath sent him down into the world He would not suffer him to stay in heaven but sent him forth upon some weighty and important business so that the point to be observed is this DOCTRINE That Jesus Christ was sent into the world by the appointment and command of God the Father The word in the Original importeth an authoritative sending which is accordingly submitted to and yield to by the person that is sent 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith our Saviour to the Father Thou hast sent me into the world so sent that I accordingly am come into the world I have stoopt to thy mission But this hath for the substance of it been handled on the third verse and therefore I shall wave the further prosecution of it here and pass on to the following words JOHN 17.18 Even so have I also sent them into the world AND thus of that which Jesus Christ hath affirmed of himself in relation to his Father Thou hast sent me into the world Proceed we now to that which he affirms of his Apostles and in them of his succeeding Ministers in relation to himself I also have sent them into the world And here we have to be considered three things First the author of the Mission I I stands for Jesus I have sent Secondly the term or local object of the Mission the world without restraint or limitation all the world I have sent them into the world Not into Judea only but into the world Thirdly the comparison between our Saviours mission of his Apostles and Embassadors and his Fathers mission of himself suggested in the word also I also have sent them into the world as thou sent me into the world even so have I also sent them c. As the parts so the Observations are three First the Apostles and Ministers of Jesus Christ are sent by him they are of Christs own sending Secondly Christ doth not send them particularly or restrictively to any Countrey or to any Nation But their Commission leaves them free to all the world Thirdly Jesus Christ sends his Apostles and his Ministers even as his Father sent him There is a great similitude between Gods sending Christ into the world and Christs sending his Apostles and Ministers into the world I shall handle these distinctly as God shall give ability and opportunity Beginning with the first DOCTRINE The Apostles and the Ministers of Jesus Christ are sent by him they are of Christs own sending For the Apostles they have their very name from sending The word in the Original importeth such a one as is dispatched upon the errand of another upon the business that another sends him in And Christ is often said to send them There are two memorable missions of them mentioned in the Gospel story The first a little after he had called them Mat. 10.1 c. When he had called his twelve Disciples and they were his twelve Apostles as they are stiled ver 2. he gave them power against unclean spirits And these twelve he sent forth ver 1. and after at ver 16. Behold I send you forth saith he as sheep among Wolves The second memorable mission of them was a little after he was risen from the dead and was even ready to ascend Joh. 20.21 Even as my Father sent me so send I you And this is that which the Apostle Paul acknowledges that he was
fruitfull and have more encrease of children then she that sometimes had an husband Oh let us magnifie the grace of Iesus Christ let us adore the infiniteness of his mercy that he hath cast us on these happy times wherein he takes such care of poor Gentiles wherein he sends to them and wherein he looks after them as if they were some rich purchase Ah my beloved did we follow this mercy as far as we could reach it in our thoughts we should at length finding no end or bottom in it cry out with the Apostle Oh the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and goodness of Christ c. JOHN 17.18 Even so have I also sent them into the world DOCTRINE 3. There is a great similitude between the Fathers sending Christ into the world and Christs sending his Apostles and Ministers into the world THis is apparently suggested here in the particle as and the particle also As thou hast sent me into the world even so have I also sent them into the world My sending them is much like thy sending me So he compares them each with other in another place almost in the same words Iohn 20.21 As my Father hath sent me so send I you The thing is plain enough that so it was in some respects But wherein and in what respects this likeness stood will need to be explained with much Caution Because as there was great likeness between the Fathers sending Christ and Christs sending his Apostles and Ministers into the world so there was a great unlikeness too As the similitude was great so certainly the dissimilitude was great too And therefore while I shew the likness I will shew you the unlikeness both of them at one veiw That you may see the one the better for the other As God the Father sent the Son with authority and power so Jesus Christ sends his Apostles and Ministers with authority and power too as God gives him power so he gives them power And therefore having said to his Apostles All power is given to me both in heaven and in earth Mat. 28.18 he adds immediately in the very next words Go ye therefore and teach all Nations and baptize them q. d. because I have received such ample power my self therefore I give you this Commission by which I put a part of this authority and power on you Go forth and exercise it over all the world And this is that which the Apostle calls the power which Christ hath given him 2 Cor. 13.10 To intimate that he received his power and his authority by way of delegation from the Lord Christ as Christ received his power and his authority as he is man and Mediator by way of delegation from the Father and as the Father gives the Son a Key of power as you may see in that remarkable place Isa 22.22 The Key of the house of David will I lay upon his shoulder that is upon the shoulder of Eliakim who was in that respect a figure and a Type of Christ and he shall open and none shall shut and he shall shut and none shall open so Christ gives Keyes of power to his Apostles and his Ministers as you may see exemplified in Peter Mat. 16.19 I will give thee saith Christ the Keyes of the Kingdom of heaven and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven viz. either in the preaching of the word or in the regular administration of the censures of the Church Here is a great Similitude you see between the power with which the Father sendeth Christ and the power with which Christ sendeth his Apostles and his Ministers into the world As Christ hath power to shut and open from the Father so have they from Jesus Christ as Christ hath power to bind and loose from God the Father so have they from Jesus Christ As Christ hath power to remit sins and to retain them from the Father so have they from Christ and therefore having said to his Apostles As my Father hath sent me so send I you he adds immediately in the next verse save one Whosesoever sins ye remit they are remitted and whosesoever sins ye retain they are retained But yet as the similitude is great in this respect so is the dissimilitude The power which Jesus Christ received from God the Father is an universal power All power is given to me saith our Saviour both in heaven and in earth Mat. 28.19 And in another place he minds his Father That he had given him power over all flesh Joh. 17.2 But now that power which the Apostles and the Ministers of Christ received from him is more particular and more confined Jesus Christ hath all power all sorts and all degrees of power they have but some power some sorts and some measures The power which Jesus Christ receives from God the Father is a Kingly power he sets him up as King upon his holy hill of Sion and so accordingly he crowns him The power which they receive from Christ is but a Ministerial power Christ hath a Legislative power to make laws while they have but a Legis-narrative or Declaratory power to publish laws Christ doth jus dare and they do but jus dicere Christ binds and looses shuts and opens remitteth and retaineth sins authoritatively as a Soveraign Lord they do it but declaratively as his Ministers and servants There is a great similitude between the Fathers sending Christ c. in regard of qualification as Christ receives an unction from the Father to his Office so they received an unction from the Son to their Office as Christ is qualified with the Spirit so are they Let us compare them each with other and we shall see it very clear The Prophet speaking in the Person of our Saviour saith The Spirit of the Lord is upon me he hath anointed me to preach Isa 61.1 And so accordingly when he first began to preach he took this very Text to preach upon as you may see Luk. 4.18 Behold my servant saith the Lord whom I uphold Isa 42.1 and mine Elect in whom my soul delighteth I have put my Spirit upon him and that to qualifie him for his Office as is apparent in the following words for it is added presently That he shall bring forth judgement to the Gentiles A bruised reed shall he not break c. And this is that which is suggested in the Prophesie Isa 11.2 The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him and it shall rest upon him in those graces and endowments that fit him for the places to which he is designed And hence it is immediately annexed The Spirit of wisdom and of understanding the Spirit of counsel and of might the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. So then you see the Father as he sends Christ so he endues him with the Spirit to fit him for the business that he sends him
the Godhead For the first person of the Godhead though it be the Father of our Saviour Christ as God yet it is not so properly the Father of our Saviour Christ as man And our Saviour Christ speaks as man in this place And therefore Father here is essentially taken for the whole Godhead subsisting in the three persons And even as we by Father mean the Godhead when we pray our Father which art in heaven So doth our Saviour Christ too As man he is in this respect like us as the Apostle tells us he is in all things like unto us sin only excepted Now the attribute he gives the Godhead which he denotes by Father here is righteous Righteous Father But wherefore doth he mention this rather then any attribute of God on this occasion Why might he not have said as well Almighty or Eternal or Mercifull or Gratious Father The special reason why he chooses this expression as far as I conceive cannot be cleerly and undoubtedly resolved Judicious Calvin thinks he doth it in opposition to the unrighteousness of men So to comfort true believers that however they were like to meet with nothing but injustice and unrighteousness in the world yet he was now committing them into the hands and keeping of a righteous God Others guess at other reasons Once this is clear and manifest that he picks out this attribute of God among the rest and whereas many others lay before him he fixes upon this only He comes to God in prayer by the name of righteous Father The thing is evident though the particular Consideration that induced him to it be unknown So that the Points to be observed here are two First God is a just and righteous God in himself and in all his dispensations Secondly That Jesus Christ came to him as a righteous God when he was pouring out his prayers to him or making his Petition to him DOCTRINE God is a very just and righteous God None knew him better then our Saviour and he calls him Righteous Father So doth the Holy Ghost in Scripture very often The Prophet David stileth him The Righteous God Psal 7.9 And Jeremiah The Lord that judgeth righteously Jer. 11.10 Indeed he doth not judge after the sight of his eyes nor reprove after the hearing of his ears that is he is not deceived with the external shew of things with which the eyes of men are often taken He is not misled and carried with reports to deal unjustly in the least degree No with righteousness he doth judge the poor who many times are over-born in lower Courts by those that are too strong and mighty for them and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth Though they be meek though they be not clamorous and troublesome and though they do not wring out justice from him as the poor widdow in the Gospel did from the unrighteous Judge by unweariedness earnestness and tyring importunity yet they shall have it easily and readily he will dispense it to them freely of his own accord And this is that which holy David so applauds him for and he will have it spoken to his praise among the Heathen Psal 96.10 Say among the Heathen The Lord reigneth and he shall judge the people righteously Let the Heavens rejoyce and let the Earth be glad before the Lord for he cometh for he cometh to judge the Earth He shall judge the world with Righteousness and his people with his Truth So that you see the point is clear That God is a very just and righteous God And you will be the better satisfied in it if you consider but these three things First the largeness of his Jurisdiction and Dominion His Government is universal and extends to all the world and therefore he must needs be righteous He is the judge of all the earth And what said Abraham Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right Gen. 18.25 The Supream and Soveraign Judge before whose dread Tribunal all the World must stand and at whose Bar they must be tryed for that which most concerns them too their precious souls from whose determination no man can appeal with any hope of being righted in a higher Court seeing there is none above it Is God unrighteous I say as the Apostle Rom. 3.5 How then shall he judge the world Indeed inferiour Governours may be unrighteous and corrupt and yet this universal frame continue and subsist because they are perpetually subject to the Soveraign Judge who standeth in the Congregation of the Mighty and is a Judge among the Gods as David speaks Psal 82.1 But if the universal Judge should be unjust whom none can over-top nor call to an account what could be lookt for but confusion Another ground of the righteousness of God is the immensity and infiniteness of his presence As he is Governour and Judge of all the world so he is in all the world The largeness of his presence is answerable to the largeness of his Jurisdiction and Dominion and this contributes very much to the uprightness and the justice of his Government Inferiour Magistrates although perhaps they have no mind to be unjust yet they are often times misled by sinister information They are not present everywhere they see not every thing themselves and therefore are necessitated to proceed secundum allegata probata And many times it comes to pass that things which are untrue are testified and proved before them and so they do injustum though not injustè by means of which the Innocent is injured and oppressed See an example of it in Mephibosheth who by the false suggestions of his wicked servant Ziba was outed of his goods and his possessions 2 Sam. 16.4 Had David known that good Mephibosheth had still remained loyal to him had he not been abused by a forged information how far would he have been from doing such apparent wrong as he did in that sentence But he relyed on Testimony for the truth of that which by reason of remoteness could not fall within the compass of his own notice and so was led into that gross mistake which you have heard Now there can no such Errors happen in the Government of God because himself is present every where and therefore cannot be misguided by finister information He taketh nothing upon trust upon suggestion as all our Governours on earth do No my beloved he sees all with his own eyes he hears all with his own ears nothing is said or done but in his presence His eyes in every place behold the evil and the good saith Solomon Prov. 15.3 whether it be good or evil whether it be near or far off it is within his own veiw his eyes behold it he need not to depend upon a witness for the proof of it So that in this respect he is not subject to such injustice in his government as other Kings and Rulers are Thirdly God must needs be righteous in his Administrations because he is
Why should we not rejoyce to resign all to him and to be under his authority and jurisdiction as the Prophet counselleth us Zach. 9.9 Rejoyce greatly O daughter of Sion and why so because thy King cometh to thee and he is just Even so say I to you my Brethren God is a very just and righteous God and he desires to be received and entertained by you That you would set your gates open that he may enter and sit upon the Throne in your hearts Say to him now Ride on Lord because of thy righteousness Come in Lord and take command of us We would willingly be ruled by such a just and righteous Prince as thou art Vse 4 Is God a very just and righteous God Where then shall the wicked and ungodly appear What will they do who are unrighteous when the time of judgement comes who have lived in the continued and voluntary breach of all his laws what will they plead why they should not be condemned Me thinks the justice and the uprightness of the Judge should astonish and affright them who have so ill a cause so bad a matter to be heard before him If they whose hearts and lives are full of all unrighteousness be judg'd with just and righteous judgement if they receive according to their works what think you will their portion be Ah my Beloved lay it seriously to heart you that run out with the intemperate you that oppress and grind the poor that are abominable and disobedient and to every good work reprobate how will you hold up your heads when the day of reckoning cometh and all your sins shall be laid open in their colors when God shall bring every work to judgement and every secret thing when he shall rip up all your close abominations and all your secret wickednesses that never any eye saw when the books shall be laid open and all the black bills read when God shall say to the Ministers of vengeance Go give them now according as their works have been Look how much they have sinned and how much wickedness they have committed so much sorrow and torment give them Oh then what wringing of hands what renting of hearts what cries and lamentations will there be able to make a Rock relent and a Flint to fall asunder and yet God will stand out immoveable against them all for he is a righteous God nothing will bend him from the rule of Justice And as this serves for terrour to the wicked so for comfort to the Vse 5 righteous that God is such a just and righteous God But you will say What reason have we to rejoyce in this Quest For if we have but justice from him we are certainly undone for what have we deserved but death and ruine To this I answer If we have justice from him we are well enough Answ and this we shall be sure to have and therefore let us take comfort I speak not now of such a justice as respects the merit of the work for this we are delivered from but I speak of such a justice as respects the truth of his promise by which he hath engaged himself that he will forgive our sins that he will reward our labours that he will punish all our enemies and if he keep his word with us as he is bound to do in justice I hope we are in a very good case His righteousness lies at stake for all those by reason of his Covenant and Engagement to us Indeed before he made the Covenant he was free he might have done according to his own pleasure But having made it he is bound he is held to it and may not vary Now he must forgive our sins or else he is unrighteous as the Apostle John insinuates in 1 Joh. 1.9 He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins Now he must reward our labours or else he is unjust as the Apostle Paul speaks Heb. 6.10 The Lord is not unrighteous to forget our work and labour He doth not say the Lord is not unmerciful but the Lord is not unrighteous Now he must give us everlasting rest and render everlasting trouble to our enemies and that upon the same ground And therefore saith the same Apostle 2 Thes 1.6 It is a righteous thing with him to render tribulation to them that trouble you and to you that are troubled rest with us So that you see the justice and the righteousness of God which is a ground of horrour to the wicked yet it is a ground of comfort to the godly It is very ill for them it is very well for us that God is such a righteous God It is their loss and it is our gain And the cause is manifest for he proceeds with them according unto such a justice as respects the merit of the work and he proceeds with us according unto such a justice as respects the verity and truth of his promise And therefore though ungodly men have cause to fear and tremble at it yet we have reason to rejoyce at it And this is clearly intimated by the Prophet David in the fore-alledged place which indeed is very notable to this purpose Psal 96. ult Let the heavens rejoyce saith he and so on And why so for he shall judge the world with righteousness and the people with his truth Observe it well the world with righteousness the people that stand in opposition to the world his people with his truth The world with such a righteousness as looks upon the merit of their works His own people with such a righteousness as looks upon the truth of his promise His people with his truth Righteousness and truth do kiss each other O let the people of the Lord rejoyce that they shall have righteous judgement that God will do according to his promise and his Covenant with them when the great day of retribution cometh That he will in this respect be just and righteous to forgive them and reward them Let them be glad of this for ever Vse 6 I have but one thing more to add and that shall be a word of humble Admonition to the Deputies and Ministers of God Preached at the Assize Superior and Inferior Magistrates to labour to conform themselves to him in this respect and to be just and righteous as he is They are under him and for him and therefore should endeavour to be like him Honorable and Beloved the Land abounds with wickedness of every kind there is much unrighteous dealing everywhere with God and man This calls for righteous dealing from them that bear the Sword of Justice that these abominations may be purged out and that our breaches may be yet repaired In such a time as this when there are such abuses such blasphemies such prophanations of the day and Ordinances of the Lord such swearing drunkenness uncleanness incest c. as former ages have not equal'd Justice should flow down like water to wash away this filth from us and
us up as far as it is possible to cleanse our selves from sin when we are making our approaches to him For sin my Brethren is against the righteousness of God yea in directest opposition And therefore it is set out by the name of unrighteousness in Scripture Not only all injustice is unrighteousness but sin is generally so The wrath of God saith the Apostle is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men Rom. 1.18 against every kind of sin especially that violates the second Table And so all unrighteousness is sin saith the Evangelist 1 Joh. 5.17 And I may say as well all sin is unrighteousness And hence it is my Brethren that it is so infinitely odious to the righteous God And truly did we seriously consider this my Brethren when we come to pray before him we should be deeply humbled for it and ashamed of it we should strive exceedingly to quit and rid our selves of it which is so contrary to this attribute of his and consequently is so detestable to him Oh we would shake and quiver every joynt to think of coming to the righteous God in our unrighteousness unhumbled for and unreformed We would consider with our selves What will the Lord say to me when he sees me in his presence How will he look on such a wicked and unrighteous wretch as I am how is it possible but he should hide his eyes from me how can he choose but hate me and abhor me Do I expect to find favour in his eyes and come before him with that which he so abhors as if I meant to vex him and provoke him And therefore if we ever look to speed with God in prayer let us consider what a righteous God he is and let us labour to cleanse our selves from our unrighteousness that is as far as it is possible from every sin and he will receive us as his own expression is 2 Cor. 6.17 or otherwise he will not 2. The meditation of the righteousness of God will strengthen and confirm our faith in all the pretious promises of God when we are pouring out our prayers to him Because indeed his righteousness and justice lies at stake for the performance of his promises by reason of his Covenant and Engagement to us It is true before he made the Covenant he was free he might have done according to his own pleasure But having made it he is bound he is held to it and may not vary Now he must forgive our sins ours that believe or else he is unrighteous as the Apostle John insinuates 1 Joh. 1.19 He is faithful and just to forgive our sins Now he must reward our labour or else he is unrighteous as the Apostle speaks Heb. 6.10 The Lord is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour He doth not say the Lord is not unmerciful but the Lord is not unrighteous Now he must give us everlasting rest and render everlasting trouble to our enemies or else he is unrighteous And therefore saith the same Apostle 2 Thess 1.6 It is a righteous thing with God to render tribulation to them that trouble you and to you who are troubled rest with us And therefore when we pray for the pardon of our sins the acceptance of our labours or any other good thing comprehended in the Covenant from the beginning of it to the end Let us fix our serious thoughts not only on the mercy but also on the justice and the righteousness of God and we shall find it will exceedingly confirm our wavering faith while we consider that his righteousness is bound for the performance of his promises and that as sure as God is righteous he will with-hold no good thing from us JOHN 17.25 The world hath not known thee OUR Saviour having ended the petitionary part is at length come to the conclusion of his prayer In which he shews the Father reason why he should be heard in all that he hath been a Suitor for in the behalf of true believers viz Because himself and they were inwardly acquainted with him whereas all the world besides were strangers to him as I have noted heretofore In this conclusion of our Saviours prayer have been considered two things To whom he speaks and What he speaks First To whom he speaks and this you see my brethren is to God whom he stileth Righteous Father Secondly then in the next place What he speaks and here is something that he speaks against the world and something that he speaks for himself and true believers 1. Here is something that he speaks against the world the world hath not known thee 2. Then here is something that he speaks for himself and true believers but I have known thee and these have known that thou hast sent me To whom our Saviour speaks as he is set forth by his title and his attribute hath been considered heretofore The thing which we have now in hand is what he speaks and more particularly what he speaks against the world Oh Righteous Father the world hath not known thee We have observed heretofore out of the ninth verse of this Chapter that he speaks not for the world No it is utterly excluded from having any share at all in our Saviours intercession let their case be what it will let their necessities be what they will Christ even leaves them to themselves and never interposes for them to the Father Nay which is worse he speaks against them He speaks against the world as you hear him in my text You see he cannot end his prayer but he must have a parting blow at them Oh righteous Father the world hath not known thee to kindle and exasperate his wrath against them It hath not known thee with a knowledge of affection they have not known thee so as to love thee and obey thee They are strangers yea they are enemies to thee Let justice have its course against them let it be executed on them to the utmost This I have glanced at only from the general that Christ speaks against the world Proceed we more particularly to consider what he speaks against the world Oh Righteous Father the world hath not known thee And here I shall unfold the terms and come to a more special observation Two things we have to be enquired and resolved 1. Whom our Saviour means by world 2. What he intendeth when he affirmeth of the world that it doth not know God As for the first of these The world imports not here the frame and frabrique of the world as it doth sometimes in Scripture but the people of the world And yet not all the people of the world neither for Jesus Christ immediately excepts himself and true believers The world hath not known thee but I have known thee and these have known thee The world you see is set in opposition here to Christ and his Disciples So that our Saviour by the world intends all the people in the world besides himself and
true believers Now of all these he saith expresly that they know not God You must not understand it absolutely that they know him not at all in no respect and under no consideration The very Heathen know him in a sense and in a measure There is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 somewhat to be known of God by the works of the creation and by the things that he hath made Rom. 1.19 even by the book of Creatures which the Heathens have and study And therefore it is charged upon them afterwards at ver 21. that when they knew God they glorified him not as God They did not glorifie him according to their knowledge of him And if the Heathen who have but the Book of Creatures know the Lord a little Professed Christians who have the Book of Scriptures know him more I say professed Christians who have no interest at all in Christ no truth of saving grace in them even these may go far in a notional speculative discoursive knowledge of the Lord beyond many sound believers and yet these are of the world So that our Saviour means not absolutely when he saith to his Father here The world hath not known thee q. d. they have not known thee at all But they have not known thee so in such a manner and with such a kind of knowledge as I and true believers do Oh Righteous Father the world hath not known thee but I have known thee and these have known that thou hast sent me and I have declared unto them thy name all that is necessary to be known of thee You see the meaning of the words The world here is opposed to Jesus Christ and true believers So that it is not mundus mundus but mundus immundus as Austin calls it It is the unbelieving and unsanctified world saith our Saviour knows not God He means not that they know him not at all but they know him not aright How and in what respects they know him not a right I shall open by and by In the mean time the Point is this DOCTRINE That unbelievers and unsanctified persons know not God at least they know him not in such a manner and with such a knowledge as they ought to do This is the usual Character of such in Scripture This is the Character of unbelieving Heathens they are the Gentiles that know not God 1 Thes 4.5 This is the Character of unbelieving Christians they know not God and obey not the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ 1 Thes 1.8 So that all unbelieving and unsanctified persons whether they be Heathens or professed Christians are ignorant of God yea though they discourse of him and that excellently too and pretend acquaintance with him as those whom the Apostle mentions Tit. 1.16 They profess they know God but in works they deny him Yea though they cry to God as Israel did my God we know thee while they cast off the thing that is good Hosea 8.2 3. yet they know not God indeed Their knowledge of him is not right and sound and consequently is not worthy of the name of knowledge as I shall evidently clear it to you in a few particulars Unbelievers c. know not God in such a manner and with such a kind of knowledge as they ought to do in that they know him not with an affective knowledge so as to love him and delight in him Knowledge in Scripture doth connote affection and that which carries not the heart and the affections with it deserveth not the name of knowledge And therefore men are frequently affirmed in Scripture not to know that which they do not like and love The Ox knows his owner c. but Israel knows not me saith God Isa 1.3 Why certainly they knew him if any people under Heaven knew him with a discursive and a speculative knowledge I but they knew him not with an affective knowledge Their knowledge of him drew not out their hearts to him and therefore in the Lords interpretation and construction it was no knowledge For he saith of them expresly Israel hath not known me In that they know him not with an effective knowledge so as to serve him and obey him with such a knowledge as brings forth practice and obedience That which is separate from this is no knowledge In which respect it is that the Apostle stiles it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 2.20 A form of knowledge There is the shew but not the truth When Christ is said in Scripture to have known no sin we cannot understand it to be meant of intellectual knowledge for then he could not have discoursed of it so that he knew no sin in Paul is he did no sin in Peter They that knew God Rom. 1.18 because they did not live accordingly and glorified him not as God are therefore said not to have kept him and retained him in their knowledge ver 28. God made his wayes and statutes known to Israel he dealt not so with any Nation And yet even of them he saith It is a people that do err in their hearts and they have not known my wayes Psal 95.10 Brethren there is an error in the heart as well as in the brain and a kind of ignorance arising from the will as well as from the understanding and this takes off the name of knowledge from that which is but speculation only And therefore sinners are universally termed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ignorant erring persons Heb. 5.2 And that alone is by the Holy Ghost thought worthy of the name of knowledge that sinketh from the brain into the heart and so appeareth in the life setting all on work for God In which respect it is the Covenant of the Lord with his people that he will put his Law into their inward parts and write it in their hearts Not in their minds and understandings only the seat and principle of speculation but in their hearts the principle of action So that they shall not only have it in their minds to know it but in their hearts to practice it and to obey it This only this is right knowledge A good understanding have all they that do his Commandments Psal 119.10 They only understand and know the Lord effectually and savingly that obey the will of God Hereby we know we know him as we ought to do if we keep his Commandments Others may have understanding only these have good understanding For this God sets the finger of a hand against Josiah to point him out to special observation Jer. 22.16 He judged the cause of the poor and needy was not this to know me saith the Lord. q. d. This was knowledge to the purpose this was true and real knowledge of the Lord indeed which made him strict and carefull in the performance of his duty In that that they know him not in Christ and to know God out of Christ is all one as not to know him as I have shewed at large out of the third verse
an image and a pattern of that holiness which is originally and compleatly in the Lord who hath in this respect all beauty in him Yea it is called the glory of the Lord Rom. 3.23 All have sinned and are deprived of the glory of God which shined in us in the state of innocency Indeed my brethren he hath in him the Sum and the perfection of beauty He hath all in him that doth win and raise nothing that cools or deadens the affection all things to invite nothing to avert love Others there are my brethren who have some things beautiful and comely to invite and draw love but other things uncomely and unbeautiful to keep it off Something or other there is in them that is odd unpleasing and so a bar and hindrance to affection Brethren it is not so with God he is all beautiful and all alluring altogether lovely Others are so in some respects but he is so in all respects He is altogether lovely the allurement of all hearts And the desire of all Nations Hag. 2.7 So he is always in the merit although he be not always so in the event Object But if God be so beautiful what is the reason that men do not love him Answ Because his name in this respect is not made known to them All men are naturally blind you know and blind men cannot judge of beauty until their eyes be anointed with the Eye-salve Apoc. 3.18 to make them see such beauty as this is The beauty of holiness is a spiritual beauty and that is not discerned by a natural Eye There must be a spiritual eye to see and to discern a spiritual beauty And when you have such eyes as these to see the beauty of the Lord your hearts will be enamoured on him you will be in the case the Church was you will be sick of love and say Lord turn away thine eyes for they have overcome us We cannot bear the dazling rayes of such beauty as thine is The goodness of the Lord is a part of his name and goodness being manifested and discovered is a means to draw love Now herein God excels my brethren he is good beyond pattern and beyond measure He is essentially good good without goodness as Austin speaks because indeed he is goodness it self The creatures be good but not goodness Their nature is good but goodness is not their nature But now the nature and substance of God is goodness it self so that he is essentially good and then he is also causally good as Psal 119.68 Thou art good and dost good Thou art good in thy self and thou dost good to the creature so that the earth is full of thy goodness He is eminently good so that whatsoever goodness is to be found among the creatures is eminently and transcendently in God himself Now goodness is the object of love and consequently the allective of affection If we have cause to fear God for his goodness as Hos 3. ult then surely we have much more cause to love him especially since he is not only good in himself but good to us If this part of his name be manifested and made known to us we cannot choose but love him and delight in him That phrase of the Apostle Paul is notable and may be very well applyed to our purpose Rom. 5.7 For scarcely for a righteous man will one die but for a good man one would even dare to die Uprightness draws not love as goodness doth One man will hardly love another so much for his uprightness as to die for him but for his goodness manifested to himself on all occasions continually doing good to him he may come to love him so as even to lay down his life for him And even for this cause we shall love God and love him out of all measure so as even to die for him if this part of his name be fully manifested and made known to us The mercy of the Lord is a part of his name and this if it be manifested to us will beget love in us You know the Lord is said in Scripture to be merciful yea to be rich in mercy and that not only because the mercy that he hath is pretious but because there is abundance of this pretious mercy in him For both of these concur to riches there must be something that is pretious and there must be much of it and so it is with God in this case He hath a mass of mercy in him a bottomless and endless treasure such as the wants of all the world are never able to draw dry And as a rich man though he spend exceedingly yet because he hath a treasure the e is no failing no deficiency of his store so God though he communicate his mercy freely to the sons of men yet he cannot be exhausted no there is more behind still it is an infinite a bottomless an endless mercy A mercy that endures for ever Now this rich mercy God lays out as many other ways so chiefly in the pardon of our sins and hence we read of mercies and forgivenesses in God as Dan. 9.9 Mercies as the cause and fountain Forgivenesses as the effect and stream And both you see my brethren in the plural number to shew the over-flowing mercy of the Lord. Indeed my brethren there is mercy in all pardons but in the pardon and remission of the sins of Gods people there is admirable mercy And hence the Prophet wondred at it not knowing what to think or to say of it Who is a God like thee that pardoneth iniquity c. Mic. 7.18 The Prophet is transported and carryed out beyond himself in admiration And mark it well He doth not say There is no man like thee but there is no God like thee Indeed it goes beyond the mercy of any but the true living God to do this In which respect is that expression Hos 11.9 I will not execute the fierceness of my wrath for I am God and not man that speech of the Apostle Paul is full Ephes 1.7 We have remission of our sins according to the riches of his grace Now if this part of Gods name be made known to us it cannot choose but work love in us We love them who forgive us common debts especially if they be great we think that we can never do enough for them or manifest respect enough to them But we have cause to love him more who forgives us such debts as these are which if they should be rigorously exacted of us we were not able to discharge them but must be laid up under everlasting chains Oh my beloved how can this choose but draw out our affection to the Lord The woman in the Gospel had much forgiven her and what was the effect and issue of it Why she loved much Her love was answerable to her pardon Much was forgiven her and she loved much She was a great sinner and she had a large pardon and so accordingly she