the second Adam namely Christ Grace is derived unto all those that partake of him by spiritual regeneration There are three manner of ways by which Christ may be said to derive Grace to those which are his First By the benefit of his Passion Secondly By the benefit of his Intercession and thirdly by the efficacy of his Operation And this he does only to those which are Believers First By the merit of his Death and suffering Christ having offered himself a sacrifice well-pleasing to God did meritoriously purchase to his Church the favour and grace of God and all such gracious qualifications as were suitable to such persons as should be saved Now those which deny Christ and his Doctrine they have no benefit at all from this purchase Christ has merited Grace for none which do finally stand out against him and refuse to be governed by him The blood of Christ Jesus cleanseth us from all sin 1 Joh. 1.7 Vs ◠who were they namely such as appears by the Context Who walk in the light as he is in the light and maintain fellowship with him c. Secondly By the benefit of his Intercession Christ does continually pray for those which are his that they may have competent Grace bestowed upon them I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not says Christ to Simon Peter Luk. 22.32 Now those who do not by faith receive him they have not benefit neither by these prayers Christ distinguishes his Elect from others expresly in this particular Joh. 17.9 I pray for them I pray not for the world but for them c. Thirdly By the efficacy of his Operation Christ conveys Grace to his servants as an Head imparts life and motion to his Members and this he does by his Spirit not only working Grace in them at first but also strengthening and increasing it where it 's wrought Ephes 4.15 16. That ye may grow up unto him in all things which is the head even Christ from whom the whole body fitly join'd and compacted by that which every joint supplieth according tothe effectual working in the measure of every part maketh increase of the body to the edifying of it self in love There are daily and continually influences of Grace from Christ to Believers whereby he enables them both to the subduing of sin and doing of duty Hence we are said of his fulness to receive all of us grace for grace answerable to grace in him for kinds grace in us And hence is God said to have blest us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Ephes 1.3 4. And this is done by the power of his Spirit working in us It 's called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ Phil. 1.19 Grace it is a fruit of the Spirit and the Spirit it is the Spirit of Christ and so sanctifying those alone which have this Spirit of Christ in them by vertue of their Vnion to him For if any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his Rom. 8.9 We must rightly understand this method and order and connexion which God has set for the conveying of saving Grace unto us We have not Grace from the Spirit immediately but from the Spirit in reference to Christ The Spirit first sanctifies his Humane nature and then sanctifies us so that what we have of the Spirit in the graces of it we have it still derivatively from him As the Ointment which was upon the head of Aaron it ran down to the skirts of his garment so the Grace which is upon the head of Christ it runs down to all his Members and to them alone There are common gifts from God as a Creator and Governour of the World which common persons partake of and such as are out of Christ upon the understanding of natural abilities wit and sagacity c. and upon the will of moral qualifications temperance and sobriety and the like but no sanctifying grace but from Christ no spirit of mortification as to lusts no quickning spirit as to spiritual duties Without me i.e. separated from me ye can do nothing Joh. 15.5 He that hath not Christ he hath not these as not having the spirit of Christ from whence these should come into him Look as there is no beam without a Sun from whence it should irradiate not River or stream without a spring from whence it should flow and take its original so neither is there any Grace without Christ who is the only beginner and finisher of Grace in us He that has not Christ he has not God in the influences of Grace and Sanctification he has not God in him by way of residence and habitation and as taking up abode in his soul Nor he has not God with him by way of assistance and co-operation as enabling him to walk in such ways as are pleasing to God and as are suitable to a Christian conversation And so as to the Point which we now speak of to wit of gracious and sanctifying qualification He has not indeed God at all Secondly As not to the influences of Grace so neither to the influences of comfort no true comfort or peace of Conscience but from God in Christ He is our peace both in the thing it self as also in the discovery an manifestation of it The spirit of comfort it is of his sending and comes from him Comfort divided from Christ it is not comfort but security it is not assurance but fancy it is not Consolation but presumption None can perswade the heart of Gods love and favour to it but he alone that has purchased and obtained Gos love and favour for it and this is Christ alone God hath sent the spirit of his son into eur hearts crying Abba Father And it is his spirit that beareth witness with our spirits that we are the children of God He that hath not Christ and his Spirit he hath not God to comfort him Thirdly As to matter of Salvation not God to save him There 's no salvation out of Christ Act. 4.12 Neither is there salvation in any other For there is none other name under Heaven given among men whereby we must be saved He that hath not the Son he hath not life i.e. eternal life 1 Joh. 5.12 But the wrath of God abides on him Joh. 3.36 Ye will not come unto me that ye might have life as who should say without me 't is not to be had in Joh. 5.40 This which we are now upon it follows from all which went before Forasmuch as out of Christ there 's no knowledg of God no access unto him no interest in him no grace from him It will necessarily ensue that he that has not Christ he has not God in point of salvation Because whosoever are saved they have all these several priviledges as antecendent belonging unto them they know God have acquaintance with him are reconciled unto him justified and sanctified by him And thus we
Translations besides The Hebrew word is Barak which signifies properly to bless and so we find it to be used even here in this present Chapter the 10th verse of it Thou hast blessed the work of his hands Berakta That which I shall speak of this word and passage here before us I shall reduce to two heads either by taking it in it's next and usual and proper and ordinary signification and so read it They have blest God or else by taking it in it's remote and contrary and improper and unusual signification and so read it They have cursed God c. First Take it in it's next proper and usual signification It may be that my sons have sinned and have blessed God in their hearts This at the first hearing seems to be somewhat incongruous Forasmuch as to bless God has no matter of sinfullness in it which yet here is suspected by Job at this time concerning his children in the conjunction of these two words both together But yet for all that if we shall well weigh the words there will be no incongruity notwithstanding and that as I conceive according to a threefold exposition which may be fastned upon them And that thus 1. It may be my sons have sinned and blest God in their hearts That is that they have sinned together with their blessing of God not that they have sinned by blessing but that they have with Blessing or in blessing And this word in their hearts Bilvavam to be referr'd not so much to blessing as to sinning They have sinned in their hearts it is to be feared whiles they have blessed God with their mouthes This meeting of Jobs Children it was a meeting of Joy and Rejoycing and probably also of praise and Thanksgiving wherein they did outwardly bless God and testifie their thankfulness to him for some special mercy received from Him This their Father Job was privy to and acquainted withal now although he did well approve of this performance for the thing it self that God should be blest by them who did deserve all acknowledgement from them yet because he was an holy man very tender of the glory of God and likewise a Godly Parent very fearful of his childrens miscarriages therefore he was somewhat suspicious lest they might offend as to the frame of their hearts and spirits in this service in which respect they might sin inwardly at the very time of their external benedictions and celebrations of Gods goodness to them Thus it will carry a very good sense and meaning with it and afford a very good instruction and observation from it And that is this That Inward failings and Distempers of spirit they do oftentimes accompany outward services and performances of Duty Men may bless God with their lips and yet in the mean time sin against Him in their Hearts This is that which is here implyed and supposed concerning Jobs children according to this Interpretation and is incident to many others besides together with them Thus Isa 29.13 14. This people draw near to me with their mouth and with their lips they do honour me c. but their heart is far from me c. And so Hos 7.14 They have not cryed unto me with their heart c. This is usual and ordinary and it does proceed from that Hypocrisy which by Nature rests in mens Hearts men are careful to have a good outside now and then and to conform to some outward Duties of Religion because they carry some speciousness with them but the Inward frame and Disposition of Spirit is little heeded or regarded by them Therefore we should from hence search and Examine our selves in this particular and be Suspicious and Jealous of our selves likewise as Job was of his sons see whether or no when we have Blest God we have not sinned against him in our Hearts Secondly It may be my Sons have sinned and blessed God in their Hearts It may admit of such an Interpretation as this Though my Sons have blest God in their Hearts and do habitually stand right to Him yet perhaps they may have fallen into some occasional and actual Miscarriage This is that which Job did suspect as that which was incident to his Children And so it is also to any else besides of the servants of God and there are daily instances of it There are Sins of three sorts accordingly as Divines distinguish them First Sins as we call them quotidianae incursionis of daily and frequent Incursion which whilst we remain here in the Flesh are inseparable from us and we shall never be freed from here below There are defects and faylings and infirmities which do more or less adhere and cleave unto us wheresoever we are and whatsoever we are about yea even in our Duties and Holy things themselves now it is not probable that Job by his Childrens sinning meant such a kind of sinning as this is for this had been without a may-be or perhaps he might be sure that they had sinned in this sense and no less could be expected from them Secondly Sins which do in a more special manner wound the Consciences and have a more notorious guilt with them which we call Devoratoria salutis according to the expression of Tertullian or which do drown men in Eternal Perdition according to the expression of St. Paul neither can I think that Job did mean or intend such a sinning as this when he says It may be they have Sinned For this though they were subject unto yet perhaps they were not so likely to fall into neither had he probably any occasion to suspect it Thirdly Sins of a middle Nature betwixt both which yet were neither Sins of Infirmity nor yet Sins of Presumption but rather of non-attendency and Neglect which yet it was very sad and unpleasing to be guilty of Job did fear that his Children might perhaps a little turn aside and slip into somewhat which was uncomely and unlawful for them upon this occasion though he did withall hope that for the main their Hearts were stedfast to God There are some Interpreters which retaining the word Blessing as the word of the Text do mention it either by a single Negation or by a Diminution of it in them By a simple Negation thus They have Sinned and not blessed God in their Hearts including the Negative in the word perhaps By a Diminution thus It may be my Sons have Sinned and little blessed God in their Hearts Each of these do charge Iobs Children as to this Business of their blessing of God either in it self or in the Circumstances of it First Take it Negatively They have sinned and have not blessed God i. e. They have sinned in not blessing of God and so he seems to censure them for their Neglect either of Craving a Blessing upon the Creatures or of giving thanks to God for them And that they did it neither Actually nor yet Habitually neither with their Mouthes nor yet in their Hearts The
affections and hearts off from the principles But Thirdly Especially let us go to Christ himself to hold us in his hand Joh. 15.4 Abide in me and I in you c. We must first labour to find our selves truly ingrafted and incorporated into Christ and then we must draw strength and power from him whereby we may subsist We must continue in Christ himself that so his words may continue the better in us And so ye have both parts of this Speech of Christ brought together The Duty supposed and the Priviledg inferr'd and one following upon the other It is the priviledg of all true Christians to be the Disciples of Christ indeed and that which chiefly gives them right and title to this priviledg is their continuing and abiding in his words If ye continue in my words then are ye my Disciples indeed SERMON XV. JOH 6.37 All that the Father hath given me shall come unto me and him that cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out The World's rejection of Christ and of the Doctrine which is delivered by him it is no disparagement either to Christ himself or to his Doctrine which was delivered but to those rather which reject both Him and it which is that which by way of prevention he does intimate here in this Scripture Our blessed Lord and Saviour had in some Verses going before shewn who and what he was and the Excellencies and Commodities which were in him Now because the Jews might perhaps have objected That for all this he was not generally so embrac'd but there were many still which held off from him For this he tells them That the Truth of God not withstanding has that honour given it which belongs unto it for let others be that which they will be those which are Chosen and Elected of God they are sure to have benefit by it and to make a profitable improvement of it All that the Father hath given me shall come unto me c. IN the Text it self we have two General Parts observable of us First An account of the persons that come to Christ All that the Father hath given me shall come unto me Secondly Christs Entertainment of those that come to him and him that cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out We begin with the first viz. an account of the Comers All that the Father hath given me shall come c. Before we come to handle the main Doctrine which is here exhibited to us there are two Terms in this passage to be opended and explained by us First what is meant by coming to Christ Secondly what is meant by being given to Christ by the Father When we have understood both of these we shall the more easily proceed in the points which slow from them For the first Coming to Christ it hath a various sense in it and may be diversly taken by us but we will reduce it to two Heads First an Outward coming in application of our selves to the means we are then said to come to Christ when we come to the Ordinances of Christ This is that which we often meet withall in Scripture a coming thus Mark 10.14 Suffer little children to come unto me and forbid them not And so in many other places besides in the Gospel There were divers which came to Christ that is they had access to his person and did repair unto him this we cannot do now in the Letter and directly but we may in the Analogy and that is by our attendance upon the external means of Salvation so long as we come to them we do in a sort come to Him He that receiveth you receiveth me Matth. 10.40 And Since ye seek a proof of Christ speaking in me 2 Cor. 13.3 But this is not all the coming which is intended here in this place there is somewhat more in it than so Therefore secondly Coming to Christ is as much as closing with Christ embracing him and believing on him and submitting to him it is a coming not onely of the feet but especially of the heart of the Soul and inward man This is the coming which is here principally aimed at when we so come to Christ as that we do yield up our whole selves to be at his disposing When we come off to him and comply with him and resign our selves to him then we come to him and come to him to purpose and not before And that 's the first term to be explained what 's meant here by coming 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shall come unto me The second is What by Given All that the Father hath given me Now for this we must know that there is a double Gift of us to Christ First In God's Eternal Purpose and Counsel and Decree We are given to Christ when we are design'd and set apart for him That 's the Gift of Election So All that the Father hath given me that is All that he hath separated for me that he hath made choice of as Members of me Secondly We are given to Christ in the drawing of our hearts unto him in our effectual Calling and Vocation when God by his Spirit does perswade us to close with Christ in those terms which he offers to us in the Gospel then he is said to give us to him And this Giving it is mutual and reciprocal Christ he is given to us and we are given to him and so there is a Marriage-knot which is drawn and contracted betwixt us And this now for the meaning of the words what we are to understand by Coming and what by Given Now to come to the main Doctrine it self which is here exhibited to us All that the Father hath given me shall come unto me This it hath a double force or emphasis with it either first of all as an expression of Latitude and Vniversality or secondly as an expression of Confinement and Restriction According to the first sense so there is this in it That whosoever are Elected shall be Converted All that God has given unto Christ that is ordained and set apart for him they shall be converted and brought home unto him According to the second sense so there is this in it That none can come to Christ but those which by God himself are given to him All that the Father hath given me as excluding any other besides from this Condition We begin with the first viz. as it is an expression of some Latitude and Universality Whosoever are Elected shall be Converted Whosoever are appointed to Glory they shall be made partakers of Grace Rom. 11.7 The Election hath obtained it but the rest were blinded And Acts 13.48 As many as were ordained to eternal life believed So 2 Thess 2.13 God hath chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth This must needs be so because the End and the Means they still go both together according to Gods manner of dispensation and the foundation of the Lord is
may likewise join Gods gracious assistance of his servants as to further progress and perseverance in Grace To him that hath shall be given And the more that any abide in Christs Doctrine hitherto the more likely are they to abide in it still because God will never be wanting more or less to gracious endeavours but where he has begun a good work in any of us will there perfect it unto the day of Jesus Christ in Philip. 1.6 But yet all is not limited and confined to this present life there 's a further reach in this expression still which we have not yet spoken unto when 't is said here that he that abides in Christs Doctrine he hath God both Father and Son And that is in reference to eternal glory and that life which is to come hereafter He hath him now by Adoption and Sanctification and hereafter by Salvation and Glorification Thus when the Apostle had spoken of the Grace of God appearing to all men c. he tells us it brings Salvation And when he had spoken of living godly and holy he presently adds Looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of our Lord and Saviour c. Neither is this any way diminished by the word in the present tense He hath God but rather confirmed which does signifie the certainty of it as if it were done already He that abides in the Doctrine of Christ he is as sure of eternal Salvation as if he were saved already Therefore the Apostle Peter has such an expression as this is A partaker of the glory which shall be revealed 1 Pet. 5.1 The glory which shall be and yet a partaker of it already And so the Apostle Paul Ephes 2.6 He hath raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ. This holds good first in the faithfulness of Gods promise he has promised it and therefore it is as good as if it were actually performed And secondly in the preparations to it and anticipations of it in the first-fruits of the spirit that of God which a Believer has already it does bespeak more of him to him which he is thence assured further to injoy He hath both the Father and the Son But why is not the Holy Ghost joyned with them as which he has likewise To this I answer that he is included in the two other persons as he is also in other places of Scripture of the like expression Therefore it is a very good observation of Austins which shall shut up this discourse Cum Spiritus sanctus sit nexus Patris Filii ubicunque ponitur persona Patris persona Filii simul ibi semper intelligitur persona Spiritus sancti Forasmuch as the Holy Ghost is the band uniting Father and Son therefore wheresoever there is mention made of the Person of the Father and of the Person of the Son together there is always to be understood the Person of the Holy Ghost as included And so now I have done also with the second general part of the Text which is the Proposition in the Affirmative expression as qualifying the former He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ he hath both the Father and the son And so much for this Text for this time SERMON XLVI Revel 1.5 And from Jesus Christ who is the faithful witness and the first-begotten of the dead and the Prince of the Kings of the earth unto him that loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood There is nothing more necessary for Christians in the blessings and good things that they partake of than to be fully sensible and apprehensive of the spring and fountain of them and of the conveyance of those blessings to them and this as that which is here done in this Scripture by the Aposile John in his Salutation of the seven Churches of Asia to whom he directs and inscribes this his Book of Revelation more especially He wishes them Grace and Peace and he withal informs them who it is from whom they must expect them and that is not only from God himself considered essentially From him that was and that is and that is to come but from God especially considered Dispensatively and as revealed and made known in Christ whom he adds to the other And from Jesus Christ who is the faithful witness c. IN this present Text before us we have a threefold description of Christ according to his several Offices which he hath undertaken for us First From his Prophetical who is the faithful witness Secondly From his Priestly who is the first-begotten of the dead And thirdly From his Regal who is the Prince of the Kings of the Earth These are the Parts of the Text. We begin with the first of these Parts viz. the Prophetical Office of Christ exprest to us in these words wherein Jesus Christ is said to be the faithful witness There are two words here put together and both of them with their distinct Emphasis as they run in the Original Text it is the witness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and it is the faithful 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Article prefixt to each First It is the witness Christ is a witness and he is a witness with a witness he is a special and singular witness so as there is none else besides that in this particular is like unto him Isa 55.4 Behold I have given him for a witness to the people it is spoken of Christ This he is said to be according to a twofold Explication First By way of Discovery and Revelation And secondly By way of Assurance and Confirmation In each of these respects is Christ a witness First By way of Discovery and Revelation as making known to us the will of his Father Thus in Matth. 11.27 All things are delivered unto me of my Father and no man knoweth the Son but the Father neither knoweth any man the Father but the Son and he to whom the Son will reveal him So Joh. 1.18 No man hath seen God at any time the only begotten Son which is in the bosom of the Father he hath declared him Christ being God's Eternal Wisdom and so always present with the Father By him as one brought up with him Prov. 8.30 He from hence knows the mind of the Father and so is able to discover it to us and make it known which accordingly is done by him In Heb. 2.3 it is said that the Gospel began to be spoken by the Lord himself And in Heb. 1.2 God hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son c. There were two ways wherein Christ did make known unto us the Gospel and the will of his Father The one was directly and mediately in his own person and the other was immediately and ministerially in the mouths and pens of his Servants who were sent and appointed by him First In his own person Isa 61.1 c. The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me
because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings to the meek c. And we see it fulfill'd in Luk. 4.18 so Ephes 2.17 He came and preached peace to them that were a far off and to them that were near that no man may think meanly or scornfully of this work of Preaching and publishing of the Gospel it was the work and business and employment even of Christ himself in his own person But secondly He did it also and still does in his servants who were sent and appointed by him Thus 1 Pet. 1.10 11. Of which salvation the Prophets have inquired and searched diligently who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you searching what or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signifie when it testified before-hand the sufferings of Christ c. And so St. Paul in 2 Cor. 13.3 Since ye seek a proof of Christ speaking in me c. It is Christ that speaks to us in his Ministers who have his Spirit given them to this purpose Thus is Christ a witness by way of Discovery and Revelation which is the first Explication Secondly By way of assurance and confirmation not only so far forth as he reveals to us those things which we knew not but also as he does further settle us in these things which we know in part already he is a witness in this respect likewise And that by virtue of his Spirit that dwelleth in us God hath revealed these things to us by his Spirit For the Spirit searcheth all things even the deep things of God And as he reveals them so also he confirms them and gives us a further assurance of them as it is also intimated to us 2 Cor. 2.10 Now there are two things which Christ by his Spirit doth thus witness to all those that are members of him First The Truths and Doctrines of Christianity and Religion it self And secondly Their own spiritual condition and state in Grace as having such truths belonging to them First For the Truths and Doctrines of Religion Christ is a witness in regard of these namely so far forth as he does illustrate them and shine upon them and open our minds and understandings for the conceiving and apprehending of them As it is said of the Disciples in the general in Luk. 24.45 He opened their understandings that they might understand the Scriptures The Spirit of Christ in his children witnesses Divine Truths not only to their heads but to their hearts and gives them a further savour and rellish of those things which they know in part already which is the great difference betwixt them and other men Take common and ordinary persons who have no work of Grace at all in them and they have many times a great deal of knowledg in the Doctrines and Points of Religion so far as belongs to the brain and are able to discourse it may be pretty largely and plausibly of them But now a good Christian indeed he has another kind of knowledg of them He sees spiritual Truths by a spiritual light that which others discourse of he feels and has his heart transformed and changed into the nature of them Thus he knows the Scripture and written Word to be the Word of God not only from the testimony of the Church but from the testimony of the Spirit and as finding in his own soul the workings and impressions of it as Austin sometimes professes it for his own particular This is that accordingly which we should labour to find in our selves as being that which will be of greatest use and benefit to us and most likely to hold out with us It is the best and readiest way to perseverance and continuance and abidance in the truth when it is thus wrought and riveted into us When the Doctrines of Religion are meerly notional and speculative as swiming and floating in the understanding men do more easily let them go and part with them but when Christ by his Spirit does seal them and engrave them upon the heart then they are sure and certain and we shall constantly hold them out even to the end Again for a further explication of this Point as Christ may be said to be a witness of the Truths of Religion by his Spirit so also by his life and his whole conversation Joh. 18.27 For this end says he was I born and for this cause came I into the world that I should bear witness to the truth Christs actions they gave a testimony to his Doctrine and to the truth and reality of it That which was done by him it was a manifestation of that which was said which is indeed the best witness of truth that can be given unto it And it teaches us the same likewise in some kind of conformity unto him We ought thus far to be fellow-helpers to the truth and promoters of it all that may be And so as by doing so by suffering likewise Christ was a witness to the truth also thus and enables all his servants where they are called unto it to be so likewise He is in a sense the first Martyr and all others take it from him that have any ability to be so That 's the first Branch of this witness as to the matter of it as extending to the Truths of Christianity The second is as to Christians own condition and state of Grace Christ is a witness likewise thus as he witnesses by his spirit to their spirits that they are his children Rom. 8.16 Thus 1 Joh. 5.10 He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself that is wrought and imprinted upon his heart by the Spirit of Christ which dwelleth in him and certifies him in this particular and that against all false witnesses and objections to the contrary When Satan or a mans own misgiving heart shall be ready sometimes to accuse him and fly in his face here 's the witness and testimony of Christ himself which will carry all down before it And so again when a man 's own heart acquits him and speaks comfortably to him here 's the witness of Christ also to confirm it and to add strength unto it which is the chiefest of all As Peter sometime to Christ Lord thou knowest all things thou knowest that I love thee Christ is not only a Judg but a Witness and accordingly we may appeal unto him for the clearing and justifying of us upon any occasion as this Disciple here does and he will be ready accordingly to give in witness to us and for us as it is proper unto him my witness is in heaven and my record on high Job 16.19 Yea and to give witness in us too within our own breasts Christ he can speak peace to the Conscience and make it speak peace to it self which no other witness can do besides He can so enlighten and over-power the Conscience as thereby to enable it to give a right judgment of it self which oftentimes
those who are best acquainted with Him and that in a way of special favour and indulgence and respect unto them This is that which we shall meet with in Scripture Thus of David Psal 21.4 He asked life and thou gavest it him even length of dayes for ever and ever Thou hast given him his hearts desire and hast not with-held the request of his lips There 's his hearts desire in regard of the efficacy of the blessing and there 's the request of his lips in regard of the Determination of the Blessing and both were granted to David So in Job 22.27 28. It is said of a Godly man that is carefull to be acquainted with the Almighty that he shall make his prayer and God will hear him He shall decree a thing and it shall be establish'd unto him Decree it that is pitch upon it for the particular thing which he shall desire and this shall be confirm'd unto him The Lord does two things in this business out of favour to his people First he stirs up in their hearts such desires to come from them He puts it into their minds to ask such things of Him and then He comes off to grant them those things which in particular they desire as he did here in this place to Jabez according to that place of the Psalmist in Psal 10.17 Lord thou hast heard the desire of the humble Thou wilt prepare their heart thou wilt cause thine ear to hear Prepare their heart by suggesting such petitions to them and cause thine ear to hear by granting their petitions which doe occasionally come from them This is such a favour and mercy as there 's no man almost of all the servants of God but it is likely has had experience of it some time or other in his own particular and can witness hereunto This sometimes may be discern'd in part aforehand that it will be before it is That God will grant us that which we have requested before He grants it in very deed in the thing it self I say it may be in part foreseen and pre-apprehended according to the frame of spirit which is upon us God's manner of working in us and his beginnings of it and leading us to it in his providence and doings for us already God grants us what we request in the heart preparatory to his granting of it in the performance The best improvement which we may make of this to our selves is accordingly to do in like manner with God if we would have Him to grant us our requests let us do likewise not to deny him his yea because he is so willing to grant them let us be as willing to doe so likewise else we shall deal very unequally and unreasonably with him If wee 'l be on the begging hand we must be on the giving hand to or else all is in vain we must hearken to that which God commands and injoyns unto us as it is in Mic. 6.8 He hath shewed thee O man what is good and what the Lord doth require of thee even to do justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God These and the like are the things that God does require of us and to be practised by us But here by the way it may be pertinently demanded How may it appear unto us when God at any time grants our requests in the very particular thing which he desired that He does it out of favour towards us rather then upon any of those principles and considerations which we mentioned before I answer threefold ye may know it thus First By the disposition of our minds as to the things themselves which we ask and pray for For here our desires are very sober and modest and subordinate still to the good will and pleasure of God referring our selves wholly to his providence and wisdom for us and not absolutely and peremptorily causing and bringing him to ours Secondly By the satisfaction of spirit which we find upon our prayers made and that resting and relying upon Him which we find in our selves As Hannah when she had prayed to God for a son and God intended to give her one her mind was no more solicitous about it but she did in a manner certainly expect it and make account to have it given unto her Thirdly By the efficacy which it has upon us after it is granted and we come to enjoy it That which is granted in love to us has a gracious impression upon us and makes us the better for the granting of it Forasmuch as God loves and delights to perfect and accomplish His works in us and towards us By these and the like discoveries may we clear it whether God grants us those things in love and favour to us yea or no. And thus now I have done with those words in the common and general notion of them as they doe include in them God's manner of dealing in His answer of Prayer at large The second is in their restrained and particular notion as they doe point out to us God's answer of prayer in those particulars which are here mentioned before us and which Jabez beg'd of God to do And this we may take notice of in al the three particulars themselves God granted him that which he requested in inlarging his Coast in lending him His hand in keeping him from evil God granted him subsistance in his Estate God granted him assistance for his work God granted him preservation for his person First Subsistance for his Estate Upon his request he inlarged his Coast God is not altogether deaf to such prayers as are made unto him to such a purpose as this When his children beg their daily bread of him and those things which are necessary for them and convenient for their supportment in this life He is ready to hear them herein and to grant them those things which they ask of him This he does as so many Incouragements of them in his Service and to make them so much the more willing thereunto that he may shew that they do not serve him for nought but that he is ready to give them a very large and plentiful reward and that even here in this Life Therefore let us take courage from hence to go to God upon such suites as these are and to beg them confidently and chearfully at his hands with a Submission and resignation to his wisdom He will not stick to enlarge our Coasts so far forth as may be fitting for us but will give us what we request in this particular Secondly As to Assistance of him in this work God granted him what he requested here also for his hand to be with him This is that which he is wise ready to do with the rest of his Servants Those which beg inablement from God to those Services which he calls them to shall find him ready and willing thereto He will stretch forth his hand unto them and assist them in that which is at any time
of that Chap. Your Heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things There are three or four arguments at once in those words to take us off from anxity and perplexity in this matter First From Gods Relation to us he is our Father and a Father will not be wanting to his Children in providing for them in regard of his great nearness and affection to them Children that have a Father to take care for them they take so much the less care for themselves But then Secondly Our own Necessities we stand in need of all these things A Father though he will provide for his Children yet he will not provide all kind of things for them there are many things which they may as well want as have and he will not trouble himself about them but ye have need of all these things and therefore he will not fail you Thirdly His Cognizance of our Condition that 's another Consideration A Father may be willing enough to provide for his Childrens necessities if he knew that they were in necessity indeed but this perhaps he may not do and sometimes he does not Yea but your Father knows that ye have need of all these things and he knows it before ye ask him to verse 8. of this Chap. Lastly His Ability to supply us that 's signified in the Epithet which is given him your Heavenly Father who is full of Riches and Goodness and Power and has nothing wanting to him and so will not suffer any thing to be wanting to you neither All these taken together shew the unreasonableness of these distracting thoughts which yet we are all for the most part subject unto and that 's in point of Temporal Provision So likewise Secondly in point of preservation and deliverance from any danger which at any time we are subject unto There 's a Multitude of the like thoughts here to which we are infested with all We never think our selves safe even then when we are under the safe-guard of the greatest protection David himself still to keep to the Text was thus distracted especially at that time when he was in danger from Sauls persecutions although he had but newly escaped and had been made partaker of a most eminent experience of Gods goodness to him yet he presently again thinks with himself I shall one day perish by the hands of Saul 1 Sam. 27.1 Look how many dangers we are any of us capable of so many perplexing and solicitous thoughts are we likewise subject and inclinable unto occasionally from those dangers which are upon us And then thirdly As concerning our imployments and ordinary affairs what a Multitude of thoughts here does there daily increase upon us There 's none can have many businesses but they will consequently have many thoughts which those businesses will produce in them especially those whose businesses lye in their thoughts these must needs have thoughts about them if they be sensible and apprehensive of them and consider what they are and that according to the nature of the things themselves and the imployments which they are taken up in such as Davids for his particular were He that had the care of a kingdom and State and Common-wealth lying upon him he could not be without such thoughts and that a Multitude of them too which he was troubled withall Great Places and Offices they are accompanyed with great thoughts as attending upon them Thoughts how to discharge them and to perform the Duty of them and thoughts how to sustain them and how to undergo the miscarriage of them still there will be thoughts on work where there is any work at all to be done if those to whom it doth belong do well consider and advise with themselves whether in the Church or Common-wealth we see how St. Paul was affected as concerning those great businesses which lay upon himself for the Church in 2 Cor. 11.28 29. Besides those things that are without that which commeth upon me daily the care of all the Churches who is weak and I am not weak who is offended and I burn not This blessed vessel of God was even almost crackt and broken with those thoughts with were upon him And it is not otherwise in a proportion with many others besides though they may be free from troublesome thoughts otherwise yet they have enough in regard of their very work and this makes up to us the second Explication of this multitude of thoughts in the Text which the Prophet David was here troubled withall namely thoughts for his own Provision and Preservation and business in the World The Third is Thoughts as concerning the Publick state and condition of the Church and Common-wealth not onely in reference to himself and as a part of his own imployment consider'd as a Publick person but absolutely and simply in itself where himself had nothing to do for the managing of any affairs This is another property and disposition of a good man to be much affected and troubled in this respect when we once come to be Christians we come to have thoughts for more then our selves or such as belong unto us in a civil or natural Relation which call to us to have thoughts also for others namely the Church and people of God we have divers instances hereof of Godly men in Scripture and elsewhere who have had many solicitousthoughts in them in this particular Thus it was with good old Eli ye know how the case was with him It is said of him that he sate upon a seat by the way side watching for his heart trembled for the Ark of God 1 Sam. 4.13 He was very anxious and sollicitous in himself what would become of the Ark which was a Testimony of Gods special presence forasmuch as it was now in danger of being surprized by the Philistims and his Daughter in Law Phinehas's wife when she heard that it was taken indeed she regarded not the Birth of a Son in comparison when she consider'd the sad condition which the Church was now in And so for Nehemiah though himself was well and in a good condition being in favour and honour in the Court of Artaxerxes and no sickness upon him as the King himself took notice of him yet he looked very sad and discontented in regard of the affliction of Gods people and he had a multitude of disquiet thoughts because the City the place of his fathers Sepulchers lay waste and the gates thereof were consumed with sire as himself expresseth it Neh. 2.3 And so again it was likewise with Mordecai when he perceived what was done by Haman in conspiracy against his people the Jews he had no rest nor quiet in his spirit but was full of thoughts and care within himself how to free them from that ruine which was advised upon and consulted against them And he had brought Queen Hester likewise into the same condition and disposition with him Esth 8.6 How can I indure to see the evil that
not some Light ones onely but such as were very Irksome and hard to be born That is Chastening me sore First I say in this Expression we have the Frequency and Reiteration of these Chastenings even again and again This is one thing which God is pleased sometimes to do with his Children when he has Chastened them once to return to it and Chasten them a fresh and to renew his Chastenings to them When Sin is repeated Punishment is repeated likewise and when we return to our Transgressions God himself returns to his Corrections and Chastisements of us as is most requisite and Convenient for us Look as it is with Physitians in regard of the Body when the same Distemper comes again they give the same Physick to remove it and to take it away even so does the great Physitian in reference to the Soul Relapses into Sin will cause Relapses into Sickness or into any other trouble for Sin which it is a ground and occasion of The one follows upon the other in Gods most wise and prudent Dispensations Secondly Here 's the Multitude of Corrections He hath Chastened me in Chastening that is he hath sent one Affliction upon another this is another thing here observable in Gods proceedings towards the Sons of men one Deep calls to another Psal 42.7 Deep calleth unto Deep at the noise of thy water-spouts all thy Waves and thy Billowes are gone over me And so Job in Job 16.14 He breaketh me with breach upon breach he runneth upon me like a Giant Thus did the Lord with that Holy man he had Messenger upon Messenger of Evil tidings which hapned unto Him of the Chaldeans and Sabeans c. Thou renewest thy Witnesses against me and Increasest thine Indignation upon me in Job 10.17 Thirdly Here 's the Greiviousness of the Correction Repition implies Intention and so here he hath Chastened me in Chastening that is He hath Chastened me sore as our own Translation here gives it Thus God oftentimes does likewise he layes heavy Afflictions upon his People Thus the Church complains to God Psal 44.19 Thou hast sore broken us in the place of Dragons and covered us with the shadows of Death And Psal 80.5 Thou feedest them with the Bread of Tears and givest them Tears to drink in great measure Job The arrows of the Almighty were in him Heman His wrath lay hard upon him Paul He was Prest above measure and so of the rest And there 's very good cause for it God sees it to be necessary for us oftentimes to deal thus with us as simply to Chasten us so now and then to Chasten us sore and that especially that Patience may have its perfect work in us and that the Cure may be throughly wrought in us For strong Humours require strong Physick to purge them out Where Corruption is deeply rooted in the Heart there it is not a light or small matter which will serve the turn to work it out No but there must be a great deal of stir and adoe which is to be made with it The Use which we should make of it is therefore from hence to learn to understand the Providences of God in this particular to be satisfied in them and prepared for them we are apt to think our troubles to be such as none were ever before us see here how it is with David Chastened me sore And as I said there is cause for it that God may be clear when he Judges there are some Natures and Dispositions which a small or light Correction will doe no good upon him but they are apt to despise it and therefore God sees it necessary to deal more severely with them and to take a sharper Course to mend them And so I have done with the first General part of the Text which is the Condition it self The Lord hath Chastened me sore c. The Second is the Qualification of this Condition But he hath not given me over to Death which words are to be considered of us two manner of ways First in their Connexion with the words that went before And Secondly In their absolute Consideration as taken alone by themselves First In their Connexion and so I say they are a Qualification of those that went before and they serve to shew unto us the manner of Gods dealings with his people which is to mitigate his Afflictions of them and to Correct them still in measure he Chastens them but does not undoe them Thus 2 Cor. 6.9 As Dying but behold we live As Chastened but not kild And so 2 Cor. 4.8.9 Troubled on every side but not Distressed Perplexed but not in Dispair Persecuted but not forsaken Cast down but not destroyed And 1 Cor. 10.13 God is Faithful who will not suffer you to be tempted above that which ye are able but will with the Temptation find a way to escape that ye may be able to bear it Though he cause Grief yet will he have Compassion according to the Multitude of his Mercies Lam. 3.32 And so here now in this present Scripture Though he Chastens yet he gives not over unto Death The reason of it is this because Gods Ayme and Intent is not Destruction but Reformation which Death doth hinder and prevent the opportunities of unto us Though it is true that even in Death it self God can work much to this purpose as to the Changeing and bettering of the Heart yet for the outward Life and Conversation and the reforming of that this by Death is taken away Secondly As God does thus mitigate his Corrections in Wisdome so also in Mercy because he is a Gracious God and he continues still so to be without alteration Lam. 3.22 It is of the Lords Mercies that we are not Consumed because his Compassions fail not They are new every Morning great is thy Faithfulness And Malach. 3.6 I am the Lord I change not therefore ye Sons of Jacob are not Consumed The Lord is full of very much tenderness in this particular as it is related Concerning the Israelites that though they carried themselves perversely towards him Yet he being full of Compassion forgave them their Iniquities and destroyed them not Yea many a times turned he his Anger away and did not suffer his whole Indignation to arise for he remembred that they were but Flesh a wind that passeth away and cometh not again Psal 78.38 39. And Psal 102.13.14 Like as a Father pittieth his Children so the Lord pittieth them that fear him for he knoweth our frame he remembreth that we are but Dust in Psal 103.13.14 And again Esay 57.16 I will not contend for Ever neither will I be always wrath for the Spirit would fail before me and the Souls which I have made God stands very much upon this to prevent Discouragement in his Servants This should therefore First of all teach us to acknowledg Gods Goodness in this respect and to praise him for it as David Psal 119.75 I know O Lord that thy
pressing and inculcating it upon them This as he does in many other Scriptures besides so amongst the rest in this present Text which we have now before us THE Text is nothing else but a Discovery and Intimation to us of that special and singular Delight which God takes in his People which is here considerable of us two manner of wayes First Absolutely and Emphatically and by way of simple Proposition He delights in them Secondly Exclusively or Comparitively and by way of Relative Opposition He delights in none else or so much as he does in those c. Each of these are here exhibited to us We begin with the Former Namely the Truth as it is considerable in its simple Proposition and deliver'd Emphatically The Lord taketh pleasure in them that fear him in those that hope in his mercy Where those words of them that fear him are again considerable under a twofold Notion First As a General Description of the Saints and Servants of God and so they are taken by way of Specification Secondly As a Particular account of Gods Delight and taking pleasure in them and so they are taken by way of Reduplication For the first Take them Specificatively as they are a General Description of God's people which they usually are in Scripture And so the Lord takes pleasure in them God does very much delight in his People That 's the point which we have now before us Thus Psal 149.4 The Lord taketh pleasure in his People he will beautifie the Meek with salvation The Church is call'd Hephzibah which signifies My delight is in her Isa 62.4 And the Prophet there gives the reason of it Because the Lord delighteth in thee Prov. 11.20 They that are of a froward heart are an Abomination to the Lord but such as are upright in the way are his Delight For the better opening of this present Point unto us There are divers things which are here considerable in the People of God as to which the Lord himself may be said to delight and take pleasure in them First He takes pleasure in their Persons and delights in them That which was said more particularly of Daniel in Dan. 8.23 that he was Ish chamoudhim A man of Desires or as we Translate it greatly beloved it may be in a sort applyed to all the Saints and Servants of God they are Persons in special Favour and Acceptance with God and He is very much delighted in them Thus He is so far forth as they Members of his son Jesus Christ and by Faith incorporate into Him Christ he is the First Lovely The Son of Gods Love His Dear Son as he is call'd Col. 1.13 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And all true Believers they are accepted and beloved in Him He hath made us accepted in his Beloved 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eph. 1.6 This is my Beloved son in whom I am well pleased 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pleased not onely with him but in Him With Him for himself and with all his Members in and through Him and for His sake Whiles God looks upon a Believer as clothed with the Righteousness of Christ and made one with him He cannot but take pleasure in Him and so he does Thus Christ expresses it Himself in His Prayer to his Father Joh. 17.26 I have declared thy Name unto them and will declare it that the Love wherewith thou hast Loved me may be in them and I in them The same Love that God bears to Christ Himself he does proportionally bear also to all those that are Members of Christ This is the Difference now betwixt the children of God and other men As for the men of the world and such who are as yet remains in their Natural and Carnal Condition God hath no delight in them at all but their very Persons are odious to Him so considered As they take no pleasure in God so neither does he in them Heb. 10.38 They are said to be an Abomination to Him to be abhorr'd of Him to be such as his soul hates and such expressions as these My soul loathed them and their soul abhored me as he sayes of the evil Shepherds in Zech. 11.8 This is a sad and miserable Condition where ever it happens to be so but now on the other side for those who are his Servants they are very acceptable unto him and takes a great deal of delight in them and that as I said especially from that Relation which they bear to Christ who is his first beloved Behold my servant whom I uphold Mine Elect in whom my soul delighteth It is spoken particularly of Christ Isa 42.1 And the Comfort and Benefit of it does redound to all Believors by Reflection from him And that 's one Explication of God's taking pleasure or delight in his servants to wit first of all in their Persons Secondly As He takes pleasure in their Persons so also He takes pleasure in their Graces and those Heavenly Qualifications which are in them This He does especially as they are so many Reflexions of himself and expressions of his own Image in them The Graces of several Christians they are the work of the Spirit of God in them which are therefore so far forth delightful to God Himself as he is much pleased to observe them in them upon that consideration There are two special Denominations which the Scripture puts upon Christians as we shewed before His Sons and the work of his hands And in reference to either of them does God delight in them for their Graces First As they are his children who are regenerate and born again to himself and so are as it were the Image of Himself as the Son is of the Father Partakers of his Holiness and partakers of the Divine Nature as the Scripture expresses both unto us in Heb. 12.10 and in 2 Pet. 1.4 God delights in them so And then Secondly As they are his workmanship created by Him in Christ Jesus to good works as the Apostle also expresses it Eph. 2.10 He delights in them so far forth likewise Thirdly He takes pleasure in their Prayers and their Applications of themselves unto Him He takes very great Delight in these also Job 42.8 My servant Job shall pray for you for him will I accept Job had Acceptance with God in Prayer which his Friends had not So Cornelius Act. 10.3 Thy Prayers and thine Alms are come up for a Memorial before God Prov. 15.8 The Sacrifice of the wicked are an Abomination to Lord But the Prayer of the upright is his delight Let me see thy Countenance let me hear thy voice for sweet is thy voyce and thy Countenance is comely sayes Chirst to His Spouse Cant. 2.14 Thy voyce that is the voyce of thy Prayers This is as sweet and pleasant Musick which sounds in the ears of God and Christ Fourthly and lastly In the Services of his People He takes pleasure also in them He Delights very much to improve them and to make use
arising from it to them much more then is it so to true Christians in the exercise of the Graces of the Spirit These must have needs a great deal of comfort and so indeed they have which makes their lives full of sweetness in the midst of many outward crosses and difficulties which they here meet withal To instance in some few particulars for the clearing of the Point unto you In Faith The Exercise of that Grace what a great deal of sweetness is there in this whereby a Christian has somewhat to stay and support and hold up himself in the greatest discouragements When all the world is disquieted and knows not which way to turn it self then does a Believer quiet himself in God and his interest in Him He shall not be afraid of evil tydings his heart is fixed trusting in the Lord like a man who is on the top of a Rock that the waves are not able to reach him even so is it with a Christian who is led to the Rock that is higher then himself In the floods of great waters they shall not come nigh unto him Psal 32.6 Yea though he be in the midst of the waters yet he makes a shift to hold up his head As we see it was with David himself in that great affliction at Ziklag 1 Sam. 30.6 He comforted himself in the Lord. He had experience of this himself and accordingly he commends it to others to delight in that Psal 17.4 And so the Prophet Isaiah shews us a view of comfort from hence in the saddest conditions Isa 50.10 Who is among you that feareth the Lord that obeyeth the voice of his servant that walketh in darkness and hath no light let him trust in the name of the Lord and stay upon his God This for the exercise of Faith And so again for the Exercise of Patience which is a principal sprig of faith How much sweetness is there also in this An impatient Person is a burden to himself and the more he struggles with any evil the more he intangles himself with it and findes a greater bitterness in it whereas by a quiet submission to it and patience under the hand of God it becomes so much themore easier Levius sit patientia quicquid corrigere est nefas And so for meekness and love and peace how much sweetness in that A quarrelsom person is a burden as it were to himself he has no quietness in his own breast but is like the raging Sea which casts up mire and dirt but where there 's Love and Unity and Agreement there 's a sweet calmness and tranquillity of mind So for Repentance and Godly sorrow there is a joy which is mingled with it and which flowes from it The more we mourn for sin the more true comfort in our own heart The jolliness of sinners it has sometimes a bitterness with it but the quiet of penitent persons is not without some mixture of a great deal of comfort attending upon it Last of all To add no more in this kind The practise of Mortification in the subduing and restraining of lusts it has a great deal of delightfulness in it also The Delight of sin is nothing to the delight of holy restraint when a man has grappled with any strong Temptation resisted any violent lust denyed himself in a sinful allurement what a contentment does from hence now come in and flow into the heart which another is unsensible off This is the misery of any sin yielded to or any temptation closed withal that besides the guilt which it brings upon the conscience it leaves an unfavoriness upon the spirit it does not onely smart but foul which is very displeasing but now on the otherside the resistance of it is not onely peaceable but pleasant It is a great comfort to him that does it And that 's the second Explication There 's a sweetness in the exercise of Grace in all the several kinds of it Thirdly There 's a great pleasingness likewise in all the Duties and Exercises of Religion whatsoever they be As for instance First in Prayer and a daily and continued ejaculation and communion with God in this performance What a great deal of Solace does a gracious heart find to it self here when upon all occasions it can unbosom it self to God and draw near to him for any thing which it wants and stands in needs of lay open all its complaints and express its desires and send up all its groans It is impossible to express the contentment which the soul findes in such a performance The crying Abba Father and the sweet returns of Gods Spirit upon the heart back again how do they ravish it and lift it up to heaven We know what is recorded of Hannah 1 Sam. 1.18 That when she had prayed she was no more sad but was satisfied and well-contented with her condition David had great peace and comfort in this performance when nothing else could quiet him besides And so Job My friends sayes he spake freely against me but my soul powred forth complaints unto God Prayer is a very comfortable Duty not onely in regard of the effects and consequents and benefits which come by it but also from the very thing it self Not onely in that it is a means to obtain great things from him but likewise that it is a work wherein we injoy communion with him wherein there 's intercourse betwixt God and us As it is betwixt friend and friend the very discourse which they have one with another is pleasing and delightful though the things which they discourse about may be but ordinary affairs Even so betwixt a Christian and God Though the things which sometimes he asks at Gods hands be but common matters as pertaining to the things of this life yet the fellowship and holy Society which the heart hath with God in the Duty is reward enough to him that is exercised and imployed in it Prayer it is a kind of Ascension of the mind to God as it uses commonly to be describ'd and in that regard very delightfull That 's the first Duty the Duty of Prayer Secondly The Reading of the Scriptures There 's a great deal of sweetness likewise in that David speaking of the word of God sayes 't is to him as his appointed food that he rejoyces in it more then in great Riches That Gods Testimonies are his delight and his Counfellors and that the word of God is sweeter to him then the honey or the honey-comb and such like expressions as these We shall read in the Chronicles of the Martyrs what contentment some of them took in Pauls Epistles and if they could get but a leaf or two of the Bible they made account of it as a very great Treasure The sweetness of Prayer is that therein we speak to God and the sweetness of Reading is that therein we have God speaking to us and revealing his mind unto us we have here a satisfaction of us in a double
mouth to receive it an appetite to be carryed to it and a stomach to entertain and digestit Even so the Word of God is not a perfect blessing neither except there be an Ear to hearken to it a spiritual taste to relish it and an heart to receive and digest it and to close and comply with it Now this is that which God does here in this place I say promise to his People when he says Their ears shall hear Not only a simple Partaking of the word Preacht but also an attendance upon it and obedience to it Hearing in the Language of Scripture being put for Obeying without which it is all in vain This was that Hearing which was in Lydia Act. 16.14 whose heart the Lord opened unto the things which were spoken by Paul The Things were spoken by Paul There was the word behind her Aud she attended to those things which were spoken There were her Ears hearing this word and both together made it to be a perfect and compleat blessing to her as it is also to any one else Let us therefore accordingly indeavour to find this made good in ourselves That we be hearers of that word which God does afford and vouchsafe untous And that not only with our outward ears although it were well if some would do that but also moreover with our inward affections and attentions to that which we hear seeing God follows us day after day and time after time with these advantages and opportunities which he offers unto us let not us be so far neglectfull either of him or of our own good as to divert our minds from them Considering what Solomon hath told us to this purppse Prov. 28.9 He that turns away his ear from hearing the Law even his Prayers shall be an abomination And so much of these words in their first Acceptation as they may be taken properly and in the Letter Thine Ears shall hear a word behind thee As relating to the Word of the Ministery and the Continuance of such opportunities as theâ—e are The Second is as they may be taken Metaphorically as relating to the word within us The inward Motions and Suggestions of the Spirit and the Dictates thereof This may be very well meant hereby likewise and as the other is not excluded So perhaps this is principally intended here in this place when it is said Thine ears shall hear a word behind thee speaking Gods Spirit speaking to our Spirit This is such as God does vouchsafe in his Church as well as the other As they have the word sounding in their Ears So they have the Spirit also whispering in their Consciences and stirring and moving in their Hearts Those that live in the Bosom of the Church within the pales and compass of it they have many such advantages and opportunities as these are which are vouchsafed and afforded unto them This as well as the former is very fitly called a word behind thee not only in all these respects which I mentioned in reference thereunto as a word pursuing recalling and provoking All which it is but also which we may moreover here take notice of in these two regards First In regard of the Privacy and Secrecy of it Look as that which is behind us we do not so easily see and discern no more do we many times so readily perceive such motions as these are God speaks once yea twice but man perceives it not as it is in Job 33.14 Hence it is called a secret word Davar laat Job 15.11 Are the Consolations of God small with thee or is there any secret word with thee And a stollen word as it is in the Hebrew Text Davar jegunnav Job 4.12 Now a word was secretly brought unto us and mine ear received a little thereof Whereby are signified the secret whisperings and murmurings of the Spirit of God in us Secondly As it is a word behind us in regard of the Seâ—resie and privateness of it Likewise in regard of the Proximity and Nearness The word is nigh thec as it said in another case It is but looking behind us and we have it It accompanies us and goes along with us as the shaddow with the Body That 's another thing here considerable and that in this expression of being behind Here 's the Constancy of these motions which God follows his People withall without intermission They are never free and exempt from them but they are still about them and stirring them where ever they are and whatever they are doing upon all occasions as I shall shew more anon in the following part and close of the Text. Behold I stand at the door and knock as it is in Revel 3.20 He stands which is a Posture of Perseverance This is a very great Favour as well as the Former It is not only a mercy that God gives us his word without us in the Dispensations of the Ministery but likewise his word without us in the Dispensations of the Ministery But likewise his word within us in the Dispensations of his Spirit And this is that which he annexes and joyns together with that in the promise of it This we find mention made of here in some other places of Scripture likewise These Dictates and Suggestions of the Spirit 1 Joh. 2.20 Ye have an Vnction from the Holy One and ye know all things So again in ver 27. The anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you and teacheth you all things So Joh. 14.26 The Comforter which is the Holy Ghost whom the Father will send in my Name He shall teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance c. Again Joh. 16.13 When the Spirit of Faith is come he will guide you into all truth c. Still there 's mention of these Suggestions of the Spirit The Use which we are to make of it is accordingly to bless God for it that affords these things unto us We see here the happiness of being brought forth within the compass of the Church where such means as these are vouchsafed and we should acknowledge Gods Goodness to us in this particular for though there be the stirrings of Conscience sometimes even in Civil Men in Heathens and such as these are yet these Motions of the Holy Ghost they are more proper and peculiar to the Church where there is the Ministers and Ordinances and Means of Grace in the Dispensation of them And we should not think it a small matter for our selves to enjoy them Next to God's giving of his Son to us is his giving of his Spirit and his continual Application of himself to our Hearts and Consciences But so much for that I have done now with the first General which is the Monitor here signified unto us in these words thine ears shall hear a word behind thee Understood either properly of the Word of the Ministry or metaphorically of the Suggestion of the Spirit I come now to the Second which is the matter
so lost her first strength that she should do her first works that she should return to the acting of those things which she had now remitted and fallen from as that which was the best way to recover her to her former Condition and here especially to the use of the Ordinances Prayer and hearing of the word and receiving of the Sacrament which are the proper means appointed to this purpose Lastly In the renewing of their Faith and in the Exercise of it A Christian gathers new strength and supply of Spiritual Grace by reparing to the true spring and Fountain and Original of it which is the Grace of God in Christ Our strength it lies in Him and therefore by a spirit of Faith must be daily and Continually fetch 't from Him and that upon all occasions And it is our great Comfort and Incouragement that we may have it but for the fetching for so we may in a due and serious Appli of our selves to him we may draw strength from him Nay we shall do as is here signified to us They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength Here 's the priviledg and the Condition of being made partakers of it The Priviledg that 's renewing of our strength The Condition that is waiting upon the Lord. Be followers of them says the Apostle who through Faith and Patience inherit the Promises Heb. 6.12 And again Heb. 10.36 Ye have need of Patience that after ye have done the will of God ye may receive the Promise Even so it is here This promise of strength renewed unto us is not onely to the persons of Beleivers but to them especiall under this Notion and in the erercise of this act of Beleiving We must therefore still remember this that we be such as wait upon the Lord for that 's the Condition by which Expression the spirit of God comes home to the heart of many a weak Christian and satisfies the objections which they may make for some might be ready to say Alas we find no such matter as this is which you now speak off we have little or no strength at all if we have had some it may be heretofore yet we have lost it and know not how to recover it and to get it up again now for such they must be perswaded to wait and to consider whether they have done so or no for this strengthning it belongs to waiting and is promised to those that are careful so to do we must use the means and waite upon God for shewing us the use of them Go to the Ordinances and by Faith fetch power from Christ who alone can make them to be Effectual unto us Psal 27. vers 14. Wait on the Lord be of good Courage and he shall strengthen thine Heart wait I say on the Lord. To satisfie us the more in this particular consider but how it is with us in regard of our Natural Sustenance and the food of our Bodies The strength which comes by it it is not conveyed presently but by leasure when the meat is digested Indeed there is delight and sweetness and pleasantness even in the very first going down of it but the strength of it that comes after it Even so is it likewise here as to these Spiritual things The sweetness of the Ordinances that 's in the very partaking of them and in the time of the useing of them In Praying and Hearing and Communicating and Meditateing c. A Gracious heart it does taste and rellish them even then when 't is about them But the strength which is conveyed by them that 's a Business of leasure and time and therefore we must wait for it and stay Gods time for the giving of it Thou therefore that complainest of Weakness consider whether thou hast waited for strength and waited for it in his own way and in the use of those means which he has ordained and appointed to thee Especially Consider how far Christ Himself has been taken into this Business which is the means of all There are many think to renew their strength and how do they think to to do it Namely by strength of their own their own Vowes and Duties and performances which yet by the way must not be neglected but we must be strong in the Grace of Christ and in the power of his might and Spirit or else all our strength it will be but weakness it self This is that which the Apostle Paul was sensible of as we may see by his practise and the courses which he took to this purpose by his practise for the Ephesians Eph. 3.14.16.17 For this cause I bow my knees unto the father of our Lord Jesus Christ That he would grant you according to the Riches of his Glory to be strengthen'd with might by his spirit in the inner man that Christ may dwell in your Hearts by Faith that ye being rooted and grounded in love may c. So in like manner by his practise for the Colosians Col. 1.11 Strengthened with all might according to his Glorious Power c. And so now I have done done with the First General part of the Text which is the Proposition in General They that wait c. The Second is the Demonstration or Confirmation of this in the Particular that we have in the words following They shall mount up with Eagles wings They shall run c. Wherein we have the strength of a Christian laid forth and amplified to us by a resemblance from a threefold motion First Of Flying Secondly Of Running Thirdly Of Walking Of Flying They shall mount up with Eagles wings Of Running They shall run and not be weary Of Walking They shall walk and not be faint Wee 'l begin first of all with the former and that is the motion of Flight They shall mount up with Eagles wings Here 's mention made of the Wings of the Eagle as we may conceive for two reasons especially First As the Eagle is an Emblem of strength renewed for so it is as we find it in Psal 103.5 Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things so that thy youth is renewed like the Eagles Certain it is that the Eagle is longer-liv'd then many other Birds The Naturalists as Aristotle and Pliny c. Which write the story of living Creatures affirms this of it that it never Dies of old Age but onely of Famine for the upper-Bill being at length over-grown it is thereby hindred from putting meat into it's mouth and so at last comes to Die So the Prophet by this Similitude here signifies that those which wait upon the Lord they shall grow more and more urgent and lively enven to their old Age it self according to that also of the Psalmist Psal 92.12.13.14 The Righteous shall flourish c. They shall bring forth Fruit in their old Age they shall be fat and flourishing So then the Eagle is here pertinently mentioned in reference to this But Secondly The Eagle it soares aloft and flies on
inconstancy nor God will not have us to be peremptory there where we are meetly dependant We are but tenants at will and so we must carry our selves to this great and mighty Landlord of Heaven and Earth This the Apostle James enforces and sets on upon us in Jam. 4.13 14. Go to now ye that say to day or to morrow we will go into such a City and continue there a year and buy and sell and get gain whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow For what is your life it's even a vapour that appeareth for a little time and then vanisheth away For that ye ought to say if the Lord will we shall live and do this or that Thus in every particular we must be dependant still upon the Lord the preserver of our lives And thus as it must be in our lives so also in every thing else friends husbands wives children and the like The more men make account of them the less hold they have of them and they are then taken away when they are most of all expected to remain God loves to discover to us what vain creatures we are and how our whole subsistence is in him This is the Second Proposition The Third has some affinity with it and that 's this Thirdly The life of man lies open to innumerable hazards they shall take away thy soul we in our translation read it passively Thy soul shall be required of thee but in the Greek it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is impersonable and also indefinite to signify to us how many things are able to do it They cannot be numbred and therefore they cannot be named They that 's indeed All there 's nothing whatsoever but is here at God's command Where then are those which boast in their youth and their health and their strength and their vigorous constitution as if nothing could mar them but a disease or old age Alas there are an hundred thousand things besides They shall take away thy soul If men could covenant with sickness yet they cannot covenant with chance and casualty and unexpected accidents there are more of these than diseases This should teach us therefore to be always in readiness and preparation seeing eternity depends upon our lives and our lives are so full of hazard how should we then be careful to look to our selves A Christian with the Apostle Paul should dye daily and look upon every day as that which might be his last for ought himself knew And for this purpose be often in converse and communion with God that so that which is so obvious when it comes may not be tedious not a strange and uncouth thing It will be no such difficult matter for that man to go to God at his last day who converses with God every day Seeing life lies open to so many evils and dangers it should teach us to be more in preparation and disposition for our departure Further we may here see what a little distance there is betwixt wicked men and hell They use to put away from them the evil day and to think it a great way off and far from them but ye see they are neer it as they are subject to so many casualties This should frighten men out of their natural condition and perswade them to make their calling and election sure who would be uncertain of his salvation so long as he is uncertain of his life who would not labour to find himself to be a Christian who considers himself to be one Oh the madness and folly of men in this particular methinks we should not sleep quietly nor eat nor walk about the streets whiles they remain in their unregenerate estate because that wheresoever they go or whatsoever they set themselves about they go not only in danger of their lives but likewise in danger of their souls they are not only exposed to death but exposed to damnation if they should dye in that condition Again we here see how much we are bound to the providence and goodness of God towards us and what cause we have to be thankful that seeing so many things might take us away yet so few things do Oh! we little think what an eye waits over us and rescues us from many evils which we were subject and liable to in our infancy and in our childhood when we were unable to help our selves how God protected us and kept us and gone along with us and how have we cause to bless and praise his name for it This is the Third Proposition Fourthly Ungodly men their souls are taken from them by force It shall be required of thee that is it shall be drawn by compulsion The children of God although they have the reluctancies of nature which others have yet they sweetly resign their souls into the hands of the Lord as our Blessed Saviour for a pattern Father into thy hands I commend my spirit And the Apostle Peter to this purpose in 1 Pet. 4.19 Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to him in well-doing as unto a faithful Creator This is the excellency of the Saints that they can commit their souls to God and deposite them with him as a man does any thing of value and esteem with some special and some faithful friend Thus the Apostle Paul in 2 Tim. 1 12. I know whom I have believed and am perswaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day Thus I say 't is with believers and the children of God but for the wicked their souls are forced from them they are pull'd and haled out of the world whether they will or no. Not as if any one were to hasten his own death himself we mean not so but wicked and ungodly men God in a manner turns them out of doors and bids them be gone His own children when they perceive their lives once out they give up their lease themselves upon his intimation without any more ado But men of the world they stand out till they have a writ of Ejection They shall take thy soul from thee For this we have a notable place in Job 27.19 c. The rich man shall lye down but he shall not be gathered he openeth his eyes and he is not Terrors take hold on him as waters and a tempest stealeth him away in the night The East-wind carrieth him away and he departeth and as a stone hurleth him out of his place And this is the Third General The threatning and menacing tidings This night thy soul shall be required of thee The last General Head is the expostulatory inference Then whose shall those things be which thou hast provided Which words contain in them a double signification First a note of resolution and Secondly a note of ambiguity whose shall these be That is first of all they shall not be thine that 's once take that for granted
in this particular They have not all obeyed the Gospel for Isaias saith Who hath believed our report Rom. 10.16 This is the greater ground and argument of thankfulness to those who do believe indeed and may put all upon the serious search and examination of themselves Seeing Faith is not common to all let us be sure that it does belong at least to us and that our selves have a share in it for our particular It is that which many presume upon and take for granted but it concerns us to be upon certain terms in a point of so great importance and consequence as that is how we should find our selves in the number of those Believers That 's the first thing the Emphasis of Restriction The second is the Emphasis of Enlargement Many and not a Few and so it shews us the multitude of Converts which were made by Christs Sermon This is that which God is pleased sometimes in his wisdom and goodness to dispose that many shall be brought home unto him We have it often signified unto us in Joh. 2.23 Joh. 4.39 Joh. 7.31 Joh. 10.42 Joh. 12.42 and many more which might be added The Acts of the Apostles are full of the number of people which were brought to the knowledge and faith of Christ There was cause for it in the first layings of the Church especially for the founding and making of it and the spreading of Christs truth through the world and therefore it pleased God so to order it As also for the better encouragement of one another that Christians might not think themselves solitary and lest alone from the paucity of them therefore would God have many to be converted But this will admit of a further Illustration if we shall consider not onely the Number but the Quality of these persons here converted and the disposition which was remarkable in them For many pliable and tractable and ingenuous and good natur'd persons such as these to yield to Christs Doctrine might not seem to be so strange a business but these people here in this Chapter they were of another temper obstinate and captious and quarrelsome and malicious persons and yet for all this wrought upon by him We see here there 's no standing out against the Word and Spirit of Christ when he is pleased to put forth himself The most obstinate and refractory that are shall be brought in unto him Who would ever have thought that such a stubborn barbarous fellow as the Jaylor should have been a Disciple of Christ and yet you see how it proved to be with him Acts 16.33 and so it has been with divers others besides These Jews here in the Text they were full of opposition and contradiction nay they were set on purpose to quarrel with his Doctrine and they never exprest more spite and malice than they did here in this Chapter all along through the course of it and yet for all that there were many of them taken with Christs Doctrine which he preached unto them What 's the use which we may make hereof to our selves It comes briefly to this First from hence to take men off from too much confidence and applauding of themselves in their sinful courses and hardning of themselves against the Ministery There are many which are so setled in their wickedness as that they seem with themselves to scorn and to despise all admonitions and to be Armour of proof against the Word of God What they afraid of a Preacher and thought to be such as should yield to the Ministery of a weak man like themselves They scorn it and disdain to think of it Well but let them not be too self-confident for all that they know not how it may be with them if ever God awaken their Consciences and set his word effectually upon their hearts they will be then as those converted Jews who before some of them were full of perversness Secondly Here is still encouragement to Ministers to hearten them and quicken them in their work that they be not dejected and cast down in themselves for there 's none too stiff for the Grace and Spirit of Christ As it is Ezek. 2.6 Son of man though they be briers and thorns and a rebellious house yet be not afraid thou salt speak my word unto them God has his number even among such as these yea and a great number too Many believed on him even of perverse and obstinate Jews which were prejudiced against him But farther to take in all with us we may look upon these persons here converted not onely as the persons whom Christ directed his speech unto especially but also such as came in and were Auditors and Hearers by the by many of these believed on him And so there 's another Point in it which is this That occasional Hearers are sometimes wrought upon in the Ministerial Dispensations There were many of these persons which little thought of Conversion when they came hither to this present Assembly and Discourse of Christ which came onely out of novelty and curiosity and affectation to hear what was said Now many of these were caught at the Sermon This is not to justifie such kind of comings as those are but to shew Gods Wisdom and Providence in the ordering and disposing of them that those who many times come to Church for nothing less than to get good by the Word but rather to see such a face or such a fashion yet now and then before they are aware have their Consciences touch'd and strucken by it It is that which is greatly taken notice of by many persons even now at this day amongst Believers We have divers who when they see the Church open come into it to see onely what is done and run from one Church-door to another and gaze about them and stay for a while but sometimes it pleases God to meet with them by some word which is spoken here unto them He is found of them that sought him not and manifest to them that asked not after him Isa 45.1 So much for that And so I have done with the first part of the Text viz. the Success of Christs Ministery Many c. The second is the Occasion or Season of this Success As he spake these words I call it the Occasion and Season both because indeed there is both in it and both observable of us But we may draw it out into three branches There are three things here observable of us First the determination of the Performance and that was Preaching Discoursing or Arguing As he spake Secondly the determination of the Doctrine those words in particular which then came from him As he spake those words Thirdly the determination of the Time and Instant of it As he spake in the very moment of speaking First Here 's the determination of the Performance As he spake for the Honour of Preaching The Miracles of Christ did no good upon them they had seen his mighty works and not a whit the
besides If Heaven were a meer Fancy if Glory were no more but an Imagination it the state and condition of Believers hereafter were but an empty dream if there were not such glorious Mansions provided for us as are sometimes hinted to us certainly we should have been acquainted with it from Christ himself If it were not so I would have told you That 's the second General viz. The Rational Illustration The third and last is the Additional Encouragement in those words I go to prepare a place for you This is a very comfortable passage and such as deserves very much to be regarded and taken notie of by us as giving us an account of Christs departure and removal to Heaven now at this time it was for the god and benefit of his Church that he might promote their intererest and do that which was most expedient for them We see here where Christs chiefest thoughts were when he was now leaving the world they were not so much upon Himself as upon his poor Disciples how to comfort and encourage them and how to cast and provide for them that it might be well with them however it went with him They were loth now to part with him and were much troubled at the thoughts of it and now he satisfies them and pacifies them with this That he went away for their sakes He did not go away first to take away the place from them and to prevent them by going before no but to take up the place for them and to make room for them against they came themselves There were three special acts of Christ whereby he might be said to prepare a place in Heaven for Believers by his Death by his Ascension and by his Intercession First by his Death he prepared for them by that so far forth as the merit of that did reach and extend hereunto Christ by suffering of death and therein satisfying the Justice of God did obtain unto all his Members a right unto everlisting Life and Glory Thus 1 Pet. 3.18 it is said that Christ hath once suffered for sins the just for the unjust that he might bring us to God being put to death in the flesh but quickned by the spirit Bring us to God how is that namely by reconciling us and re-joyning us to him again and so giving us an entrance into his glory according to that in Heb. 2.20 It became him for whom are all things and by whom are all things in bringing many sons unto glory to make the Captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings And so likewise in Heb. 9.11 12 15. Christ being become an high Priest of good things to come not by the bloud of goats and calves but by his own blood he entred in once into the holy place having obtain'd eternal redemption for us And for this cause is he the Mediator of the new testament that by means of death for the redemption of the transgressions under the first testament they that are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance that is the eternal inheritance which was promised From these and the like places it is clear that Christ by his death did prepare Heaven for his people But if this be so it may be demanded What one may think of the Fathers that lived under the Old Testament and before he coming of Christ into the World If Christ by dying did prepare Heaven for Believers in what place were they who left the World before the death of Christ The Papists in answer hereunto tell us that they were in Limbo a place distinct from Heaven and in the confines of Hell which they have intended and devis'd for them But there 's no need at all for such a Device or Imagination as this is We say that they were even then in Heaven and that also by vertue of the Merit and Efficacy of the death of Christ which is of an infinite and eternal extent and reaching both forward and backward Forward to the salvation of all Believers that came after it backward to the salvation of all Believers that went before it Hence is Christ sometimes said in Scripture to be a Lamb slain from the foundation of the world not as to actual accomplishment which was perform'd in the fulness of time but as to virtual efficacy and extent as reflecting upon all Ages and Generations indefinitely and redounding to the special good and benefit of them as many as believed in them This is that which hath prepared a place in Heaven for all Believers under Both Testaments even the Death and Bloud of Christ According to that again of the Apostle Heb. 10.19 20. Having therefore brethren boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus by a true and living way which he hath consecrated for us that is to say through the veil of his flesh and having an high Priest over the house of God let us draw near c. This serves so much the more to magnifie and advance the great love and kindness of Christ unto us that was pleased to take such a course as this was for us that he might procure and promote our happiness that was willing himself to die that we might live and to be crowned with a Crown of Thorns that we might be crowned with a Crown of Glory He went to prepare a place for us Went that is went unto the Cross And went that is went into the Grave he prepared it by his death and sufferings and the Virtue and Merit thereof That was the first way of his Preparation Scondly By his Resurrection and Ascension He prepared Heaven for us by going into Heaven before us After going to his Cross so also by going to his Grave When he had overcome the sharpness of death when he had by himself purged our sins he sate down on the right hand of the Majesty on high Heb. 1.3 he did open the Kingdom of Heaven to all Believers Opened it by himself entring into it There was the opening of Heaven Christs Personal taking possession of it And it was the opening of it for us also who are said upon that account to be our selves already entred into it namely in Him who is our Head and hath entred into it afore us and in our behalf according to that of the Apostle in Ephes 2.6 He bath raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ This was that whereby our Saviour desired at this time to satisfie the minds of his Disciples as concerning his departure and present going away from them that it was in order to their greater good He left Earth that so he might go to Heaven and he went to Heaven that so they might come to Heaven after him and come to Heaven by him as he signifies in the verse immediately following And if I go and prepare a place for you I will come again and receive you unto my self that where I am there ye may be also
our Nature is so highly advanced as to be taken into union with the Nature of God himself for so it is whiles it is taken into conjunction with the Son of God Our Nature is hereby ennobled and raised to a very high pitch even in this respect above the Nature of the blessed and glorious Angels themselves which has no such conjunction Secondly as to the intimacy of affection it is a most sweet and comfortable point as any else is besides and none like it that Christ is thus dear to his Father for by this means we are so likewise from our union and relation to him Christ being in the bosom of the Father and we being in the bosom of Christ therefore that affection which the Father bears to Christ he does proportionably bear to us also for Christs sake and in respect to him And thus we have it expresly in Joh. 17.26 That the love wherewith thou lovest me may be in them and I in them What a wonderful sweet point I say is this especially if it be throughly digested and we should improve it and make use of it upon all occasions and set it in opposition against all doubtings and suspitions to the contrary When Satan would go about to perswade us to question the love of God towards us and our own misgiving hearts are ready also to joyn with him in this particular let us have recourse to this present Argument and Consideration which we have here now before us of the love of God to Christ and think that whiles he loves him he cannot hate us who by Faith are united to him and who have Him also given to us Because he looks upon us so far forth as one indeed with Him And we should be content with that love likewise which God afforded to Christ and not think he does not love us if he deals but with us as he did with Him afore us by suffering us to fall into sad and afflicted conditions as he sometimes did with Him God did not put Christ out of his bosom when he suffered him to be tempted to be persecuted to be reproached and shamefully used no nor then when he seem'd himself in a manner to desert him no more does he do so with any others that are Members of him he does not forbear to love them notwithstanding these his dealings with them If the Adopted Sons of God be no worse dealt with than was once His Natural they will have no cause to complain of the want of Gods love unto them at all but to satisfie themselves with it because when he dealt worst of all with him he bare an intimate affection to him And so as for the Certainty and Constancy and Perpetuity of the love of God towards us it holds likewise here that as Gods love to his Son is eternal as lying in his bosome so it is eternal likewise towards those who are his Members as in whom he loves them and as neither can separate or remove Gods love from the one so neither can it do it from the other who has respect unto it the Superstructure being answerable to the Foundation Thirdly From the nearness of Christs presence we may raise matter of comfort from hence also as that therefore we have one still at hand to stand by us upon all occasions we need not be afraid of any evil which may surprize us unawares or Adversary which may take advantage against us for He is near that justifies us as it is Isa 50.7 What ever accusations may be brought to God against us he is in his bosom to take them off Lastly From the Communication of Secrets we have great comfort here likewise that therefore there can be no secret kept or concealed from us which is fitting for us our selves to know The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him Psal 25.14 and his secret is with the righteous Prov. 3.31 To you it is given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven c. Matth. 13.11 and Eye hath not seen nor ear hath not heard neither hath it entred into the heart of man to conceive the things which God hath prepared for them that love him But God hath revealed these things to us by his Spirit for the Spirit searcheth all things 1 Cor. 2.9 10. And again Matth. 11.27 No man knoweth the Son but the Father neither knoweth any man the Father but the Son and he to whom the Son will reveal him And He has hid these things from the wise and prudent and revealed them unto babes But so much may suffice to have spoken of the first Branch in this second General to wit the Person mentioned and that according to his two-fold description First from his Relation the onely begotten Son And secondly from his Residence In the bosom of the Father The second is the Action attributed to this Person and that is in these words He hath declared him Which words may again be taken two manner of ways and so at this time looked upon by us First by way of simple Proposition And secondly by way of emphatical Appropriation The Son hath declared the Father and it is he upon the point alone that hath declared him First To look upon this clause in its simple and absolute Proposition where we have signified to us That Christ the onely begotten Son and that is in the bosom of the Father hath indeed declared him According to the common form and regularity of Speech the words should have been set thus No man hath seen God at any time but the Son he hath seen him But the Evangelist chooses rather to say declared him as being a word of greater comprehension and expressing both the perfection and Sufficiency of Christ himself as also the extent of it to us for our benefit and advantage There are three things at once which are included in this expression He hath dclared him First it is a word of Knowledge Secondly it is a word of Communication And thirdly a word of Perspicuity First He hath declared him it is a word of Knowledge which is implied and involved in it If Christ had not known the Father himself he could not have revealed him to others but whiles he declares him he does first of all discern him Christ being in the bosom of the Father and so intimate with him and to him he does fully and perfectly know him and understand him yea so indeed as none in a manner does know him but he as we have it in the place before cited In Christ are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge in Col. 2.3 Those Mysteries which are said by the Apostle to be hid in God they are not hid from Christ but he has a distinct knowledge of them yea he has the knowledge of God himself in the full extent and infiniteness of his Essence Secondly He hath declared him it is a word of Communication As he hath known him so he hath made him
known The knowledge of God by Christ is not onely in Christ himself but from him imported to us for our information There is neither envy in Christ nor neglect nor affectation of reservedness in this particular but free and open dealing with a great deal of alacrity indeed His declaration is not answerable and proportionable to his apprehension we may not imagine so for that is incongruous Christ does not declare so much of the Father as he knows because we are incapable of it but so much as is fitting for us and that we can receive he does discover He declares God himself and all such Truthes as lead us to further fellowship and communion with him Thirdly He hath declared him it is a word of Perspicuity He hath not onely barely and simply propounded him in a dark and obscure manner but he hath explicated him and revealed him unto us This is emphatically signified in the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is an expression of manifestation and does imply a bringing of things to light which before were more hard and difficult to be understood And as the Criticks and Grammarians observe of it it is properly applied to Divine and Excellent matters whereas 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 does more properly belong and appertain to things vulgar and obvious This is that which Christ hath done for us as Philip sometime desired of him he hath shewn to us the Father he hath cleared to us the great Mysteries of our Salvation which were unknown unto us or which before were propounded but in a dark and enigmatical manner and with much obscurity This is the great excellency of the New Testament above the Old and of the time of the Gospel above the Law that the Vail is now taken away and we have things more clearly revealed unto us than were to them in former days There is the light of the knowledge of God now shining out unto us Christ hath cleared both the things themselves as also our minds and understandings for the conception of them and exhibited these things in reality which Moses gave an hint of but in Types and Legal adumbrations The consideration of this point makes much for our heed and attention to such things as these are and closing with them See that ye refuse not him that speaketh as it is Heb. 12.23 seeing Christ declares them let not us turn away from them we ought to give the more earnest heed unto them lest at any time we let them slip else we shall not escape if we neglect so great salvation as it is again Heb. 2.3 There is nothing which we can here plead by way of excuse and tergiversation but all the Arguments that may be to engage us Here is the knowledge of our Teacher himself here is his willingness to impart his knowledge to us and also his skill and ability for it that we may be partakers of it And so much may be spoken of this passage in its first notion to wit in its simple Proposition The second is in its Emphatical Appropriation He hath declared him that is upon the matter He alone This word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Text it is not demonstrative onely but restrictive This declaring of the Father it is restrained and appropriated to the Son as more peculiarly belonging unto him to be done by him He has declared him that is he onely has declared him Therefore it is that he is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Word not onely upon the account of his Nature or Person but upon the account of his Office he is called so upon the account of the former in regard of His Eternal Generation because as Speech is the birth of the mind so is the Son of the Father And he is called so upon account of the latter in regard of His Ministerial Dispensation because as a man remembers the meaning of his heart by the words of his mouth so God revealeth his Word by his Son He is the Interpreter of the will of his Father and the Prophet and Teacher of his Church And both of the Titles whereby Christ is here in the Text described unto us do seem especially to qualifie him for this purpose Therefore he is fittest to declare God because he is His onely-begotten Son and therefore also he is fittest to declare him because he is in the bosom of the Father Thus Heb. 1.1 2. God c. hath now spoken to us by his Son That which is our business at this time is to consider how far forth this Action is here appropriated to Christ which we may take according to this ensuing explication First it is He Primarily and by His own Authority that does declare him others have been used as Instruments but they have done it by delegation from Him who has instituted them and appointed them hereunto they have done it by his appointment and they have done it by his ennablement who has directed them and assisted them in it The Son of God first made known to his Apostles all those things that he heard of his Father as we have it in Joh. 15.15 All things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you And the same Son sent his Spirit to instruct them and to bring all those things to their remembrance which he had formerly taught them as we have it also in Joh. 14.26 And so Acts 1.7 8. Ye shall have power after that the holy Ghost is come upon you and ye shall be witnesses unto me c. So is Christ Primarily though it be others Ministerially that do declare him Christ does it in his own Name but the Apostles and other Ministers in the Name of Christ Secondly It is he Perfectly and Infallibly Others unless such as were immediately inspired by him they were subject to human error and infirmity and they have now and then somewhat of themselves mixt in their declarations but Christ does it without all exception and so as there is no doubt or scruple or question at all to be made of it he does it so exactly Thirdly It is he that declares it effectually and with the best success He declares the Father and perswades our hearts to the receiving of him shews us the Truth and leads us and perswades us into it inlightens our understandings and inclines our wills opens our eyes and over-powers our consciences reveals God not onely to us but reveals him in us As God does likewise his Son according to the phrase which is there used to this purpose in Gal. 2.16 Thus we see how it is He and he alone that declares the Father unto us The sum of all may be drawn up to these Heads First from hence to take notice how much we are beholding to Christ We have heard of late of many singular benefits and advantages which we have by him let us now take in this to the rest in that by him we come to have a further
in me as he also there intimates unto him There is no person in whom we have so clear a representation of the Father as we have in Christ And so we come to know him by him alone as being alone his image But Secondly As by way of representation so also by way of explication There is none who can acquaint us with the Father but he alone as to matter of discovery and narration It is he in the place before cited that is said to have declared him And he hath in these last days spoken to us by his Son his Son precisely Heb. 1.2 Thus we come to him by him alone in matter of acquaintance Secondly Take it as to acceptance He that comes to God he must also have this As he must know him so he must be welcome to him And this also he is only by 〈◊〉 It is he that gives us favour in his eyes and makes us fit to have converse with him And thus by him only do we come to God as to matter of Conversion and Reconciliation Take us out of Christ and God and we are at absolute desiance there 's no coming near him Secondly It holds good also as to matter of Prayer and Invocation No man cometh unto the Father but by him that is as to the putting up of any suits or petitions to him He is the Great Master of Requests who alone offers up our Prayers to his Father and presents them at the Throne of Grace And so the Scripture again hints unto us Thus Eph. 2.18 Speaking of Jew and Gentile Through him we both have an access by one Spirit unto the Father that is by the Spirit of Prayer and Supplication which is made and presented in his name And again Eph. 3.12 By whom we have holdness and access with confidence by the Faith of him By the Faith of him that is by Faith founded in him and his intercession for us So Heb. 4.14 16. Seeing we have a Great High-Priest c. Let us go boldly to the Throne of Grace c. And Heb. 10.22 Having an High-Priest over the house of God let us draw near with a true heart c. Joh. 16.23 Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name he will give it unto you Whatsoever Prayers are made to God otherwise than in this mediation they are frustrate and to no purpose Thirdly As to matter of Happiness and Salvation No man c. that is No man cometh to Heaven but only by me Whosoever makes account to be saved he must be saved by Christ or else he will never be saved at all There is not Salvation in any other For there is none other name under Heaven given among men whereby we must be saved as it is in Acts 4.12 Whiles it is said here only by Christ this is exclusive of every thing which may otherwise seem effectual to this purpose as First of all our own free will and the improvement of the abilities of nature It is not this which will bring us to the Father A man may do all that lies in the power of nature to attain to and yet if he be destitute of Christ will fall short of Salvation let him set his reason never so much on work in such a way as that is There 's nothing less than Faith will do it and this Faith pitch'd upon Christ Secondly Not the fairness of a civil life and moral conversation it is not that which will do it neither Civility it is a very comely ornament and such as makes men amiable in the eyes of men but it is no further acceptable to God nor available as to eternal Salvation than as it flows from the Spirit of Christ when we do common and ordinary actions out of spiritual principles Invenies homines bene viventes sed non Christianos says St. Austin You shall find some men living well but yet not Christians Bene currunt sed in via non currunt They run well but they do not run in the way Thirdly Not external priviledges as belonging to the Church of God The relation to such and such Parents and Godly Progenitors The enjoyment of the means of Grace and outward Ordinances To be Baptized and to receive the Communion and to be in fellowship with such and such Believers Take these things abstractly from Christ and they will never bring a man to God nor interest him in eternal Salvation A man may perish and go to Hell and be damn'd for all these There is nothing but an interest in Christ and with reference to him and dependance upon him which can ever make us capable of an heavenly condition The consideration of this Point may be thus far useful to us First to set us right in our judgments in this particular that we do not err and mistake in a Point of so great importance as this is Take heed of promising Salvation to any otherwise than by Christ whiles Christ himself here tells us that there 's no coming at all to the Father but by him It is a sad and serious intimation that of St. Austin's which can never enough be mentioned nor thought of as having some ground for it Qui cuiquam promittit salutem sine Christo nescio utrum ipse salutem habere possit in Christo He that promises to any man Salvation without Christ I question whether he himself may have Salvation by Christ And truly it is a dangerous business to admit and receive such opinions as these are not only as to the prejudice of others but also of a man's self who is accountable as for what he says so for what he thinks Secondly Seeing there is no coming unto God but only by Christ Oh be sure then to get into Christ as soon as may be and endeavour it all we can Let us never think we are sure of the one till we are sure of the other that we are sure of the Father till we are first sure of the Son For it is evident we are not Men may talk what they please of God and have high notions and speculations about him and as they think convince others of him But he that is a meer Deist is the next door to an Atheist And he that will have any other God than God in Christ he shall have no God at all At least it will be better for him in some sense that he had none for he shall have him but only to terrify and to torment him and to drive him away from him Deus absolutus as Luther sometime call'd it To look upon God absolutely in his own nature and without a Mediator it is the most terrible sight in the world and fullest of distraction and disquietness As no man can come to Christ except the Father draw him so no man can come to the Father except Christ bring him When it is said here by Christ No man cometh unto the Father but by me We must take it in its full latitude
Mothers or Nurses do sometimes with their children who whiles they perceive them to be loth and unwilling to let them go from them they do usually still and quiet them by perswading them that they 'll come to them again that so the hope and expectation of their return may pacifie them and satisfie them in their departure Even so does Christ here with his Disciples when he was taking his leave of them he puts in this with it I will come unto you Nay to make it so much the more emphatical and that it might work the more effectually upon them in the Original Text it is not onely in the Future but in the Present not onely in the Future I will come but in the Present I do come unto you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that 's the word in the Greek which is of a present condition before he was as yet gone from them he makes mention to them of his coming again that so he might the better perswade them and work upon them Now in that he uses this argument to them we may learn this from it That there is nothing which will satisfie a Christian in Christs absence but onely his return again to him Thus it was here with Christ to his Apostles He does not say I will not leave you comfortless for I will leave you rich or I will leave you great or I will leave you honourable and the like it was none of these outward accommodations which could satisfie in the absence of Christ no but this I will come again to you If Christ would give them any thing and not give them Himself it would not suffice or content them Whom have I in heaven but thee and there is none on earth which I desire besides thee Psal 72.26 None but Christ none but Christ as that holy Martyr at the Stake And another He is come he is come And the reason of it is this Because the Plaister must be as broad as the Sore and the Remedy must be as large as the Disease and the Comfort must be answerable to the Grief What was that which troubled these Disciples and made them at the present thus comfortless it was this that Chirst would go from them That therefore which must refresh them it must be this that Christ would come to them there 's none can supply the want of Christ but Christ himself And as there is nothing can do it indeed and in the thing it self so there is nothing neither can do it as to the sense and apprehension of a Christian he himself will not be satisfied with any thing else for his own particular As Luther spake once to God when he enjoyed some temporal refreshment from him Lord says he I will not be put off with these comforts if thou thinkest to give me these for my portion I will not be satisfied or contented with them Even so does a Believer say to Christ in such cases as these are Lord give me thy self or it will not suffice me Spiritual comforts may much uphold in temporal losses but Temporal comforts will not satissie in Spiritual deprivations So much for these words in the scope of them Now secondly to come to them more directly in themselves for the matter and substance of them I will come unto you this is that which Christ promises to his Disciples and with them also to all other Christians We may take it three manner of ways There is a three-fold coming of Christ whereby he does supply to Believers his temporary going away from them First The coming of his Resurrection I will not leave you comfortless but I will come unto you that is though for a time I shall leave the world yet within a while after I shall rise again from the dead This was such a coming as was proper onely to the Believers and to those that lived in those times to have the immediate comfort of it Though he rise to all others in the efficacy of his Resurrection yet he rose onely to the Apostles and to a certain number of other persons to converse with him after his Resurrection To whom he shewed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs being seen of them fourty days and speaking of the things pertaining to the Kingdom of God Acts 1.8 And this he did he came to them when they were comfortless and full of grief that they were deprived of so gracious a Master he came to them and comforted them in his Resurrection The Resurrection of Christ it was such a coming as did much comfort the Disciples and did in a manner drie up those tears which they had shed for his former departure But secondly that was not all nor that chiefly which is here intended in this Text wherein he tells them that he will return again to them I will come unto you it is not meant onely of the coming of his Resurrection but more especially of the coming of his Spirit the coming of the Holy Ghost which was also the Spirit of Christ and by him sent from the Father It was the coming of Christ himself when the one came the other came in him and so is conceived to do and interpreted This is the chief and proper meaning of this expression Now Christ is said to come in his Spirit according to a three-fold empartment and dispensation of it especially First in the Gifts of it Secondly in the Graces of it And thirdly in the Comforts First in the Gifts of it I mean the common Gifts of it These which we call for distinctions sake Gratiae gratis datae The gifts and abilities of the Ministery These were such as our Blessed Saviour upon his departure did in a large and plentiful manner effuse and pour forth upon his Church Wherefore he saith When he ascended up on high he led captivity captive and gave gifts unto men Ephes 4 8. This was that which was performed on the day of Pentecost when the Holy Ghost came upon them in the shape of cloven and fiery tongues and they were all filled with it Acts 2.2 This was a piece of satisfaction to them for the withdrawing of his own Person they had not Himself now to instruct them but they had his Spirit to do it for them and thereby to enable them also for the teaching and instructing of others This is further considerable under a two-fold Amplification First in the variety of these gifts And secondly in the Succession In the variety and several kinds and in the succession of several persons First for the various distribution to consider it in that That Christ does sort and dispose of his gifts so as he does that one shall have an excellency in one kind and another shall have excellency in another that to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit as the Apostle speaks 1 Cor. 12.8 One has a gift of Judgment another has a gift
of Vtterance a third has a gift of Interpretation one is better in the Applicatory part another is better at the Expository This diversity and variety of gifts wherein all are excellent and it is very hard to say which is best it comes from the Spirit of Christ as the same Apostle also tells us in the same Chapter All these worketh one and the self-same spirit dividing to every man severally as he pleaseth 2 Cor. 12.11 Secondly As for the various Distribution so likewise for the Succession As these gifts in several persons so likewise in Ages and Periods of Time and Generation one after another It is very considerable this That Christ does so order it in his Providence that his Church shall still one way or other be furnished and provided for in the world the Prophets in their Age the Apostles in theirs succeeding Ministers in theirs and that in each of these in the withdrawing of one there hath still been the substitution of another for the preservation and upholding of the work Elijah translated but Elisha left behind him Jeremy imprisoned but Baruch inlarged Paul in bonds but Timothy at liberty John the Baptist removed but Christ continued Christ himself departed but his Spirit coming in his room I will not leave you comfortless but I will thus come unto you The Use of all this to our selves is with thankfulness to acknowledge the love and goodness of Christ in this particular and to improve it to our best advantage not to carp or cark or quarrel with the gifts of our Ministers or to compare them or set them one against another as we are apt to do but rather to bless God for them in the various ordering and distribution of them and to partake of that good from them which God affords us for the good of our Souls which is to walk answerably to Christs dealing with us in this particular And that 's the first conveyance of Christ's Spirit to wit In the distribution of the gifts of it The second is in the Distribution of Graces Christ comes by his Spirit in them not onely in his gifts of Edification but in his gifts of Sanctification Faith and Love and Patience and Humility and the like We find that after Christs Ascension there was a greater measure and abundance of these Religion was now more Spiritualiz'd and Christians themselves were now raised to a more heavenly and spiritual frame of Soul than before they had been As the Word of God grew and multipi'd so likewise the Improvements of it and the Graces of those who had the priviledge of being partakers of it It is said of the Romans that their faith was spoken of throughout the world Rom. 1.8 Of the Corinthians that they were enriched in all graces 1 Cor. 1.4 5 c. The Apostle commends the Colossians for their faith in Christ and love to all the Saints in Col. 1.4 c. Thirdly In the distribution of Comforts Thus did Christ come by his Spirit especially not onely as he was a qualifying Spirit furnishing them with all Gifts not onely as he was a sanctifying Spirit induing them with Graces but also as he was a comforting Spirit filling their hearts with joy And thus he did This is that which is principally stood upon here in this Scripture as we may see in the Connexions of it thus in verse 16 17. I will pray the Father and he shall give you another comforter that he may abide with you for ever even the Spirit of truth c. The sadness of Christs departure it was scattered by the presence of the Comforter which was interpretatively his own presence with them Thus in all these respects did Christ himself come to them by his Spirit in its Gifts and Graces and Comforts Now to improve this still so much the more and that it might be a full Argument to them for the pacifying of them I will not leave you comfortless I will come unto you we may take this in further with it that it is considerable under a two-fold Emphasis the one Discretive and the other Consequential The Discretive Emphasis is this Ye have no cause to be very sad or uncomfortable for though I go from you yet I will come unto you The Consequential Emphasis is this Ye have no cause to be sad or uncomfortable for because I go from you therefore I will come unto you my coming to you is both the consequent of my departure and following upon it And again my coming to you is also the effect or result of my departure and flowing from it First Take it in the Discretive Emphasis Though I go away yet I will come There was good reason why they should be satisfied from that that he was not quite and utterly lost or gone irrecoverably but cum animo revertenti with a full purpose of coming again or if not of coming in his Person yet of coming in that which was better at least for them and that was of coming in his Spirit which he here intends and which we have spoken to all this while His going had no cause to disquiet them whiles it had his coming following upon it to them Secondly Take it in the Consequential Emphasis Because I go away therefore I will come This was that which was here also considerable as it follows afterwards Christs going in his Person was the cause at least sine qua non of his coming in his Spirit if he had not gone that way he had not come this Thus we have it in Joh. 16.6 7. Because I have said these things to you namely of my going from you therefore sorrow hath filled your hearts Nevertheless I tell you the iruth it is expedient for you that I go away for if I go not away the Comforter will not come unto you But if I depart I will send him unto you That is if I do not go I shall not come but if I do go I then shall And that 's the second Explication of his coming the coming of him in his Spirit To this last of all we may add a Third with which I conclude and that is his coming in Glory at the last day This is very frequently and emphatically call'd in Scripture the coming of Christ and it is that which may very much pacifie and satisfie Believers in his present absence and keep them from being sad and comfortless that he will come thus This is that which he makes mention of in the three first Verses of this Chapter and wherewith he does labour to comfort them Let not your heart be troubled c. I go to prepare a place for you And if I go to prepare a place for you I will come again and receive you unto my self that where I am there ye may be also This is in other words call'd his Appearing and Revelation and such like phrases as these This in the meditation of it is very comfortable to all true Saints and Members
thou Simon Bar-jona for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee but my Father which is in Heaven Flesh and blood is no revealer of Christ nor of the Mysteries which belong unto him And so 1 Cor. 2.14 The natural man receives not the things of the spirit for they are foolishness unto him neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned And so in the place before cited 1 Cor. 2.8 Which none of the Princes of the world knew The Princes of the world who are they these are not as I conceive only those which are properly so call'd earthly Kings and Potentates and the like for but few of them had an hand in the actual crucifying of Christ but by the Princes of the world we are to understand rather the great Rabbies and Doctors of the world which were as it were Princes for learning and humane knowledg which did Dominari in Scholis The Scribes and Pharisees the Philosophers and Naturalists and the like these were Principes seculi hujus and which notwithstanding were wholly ignorant of Christ So that we see how men may much abound in worldly wisdom and yet fall short of Evangelical knowledg First Because this Mystery of the Gospel it is a thing which is meerly dependant upon the will and counsel of God himself that which has its sole ground work and foundation in the wisdom of God that cannot be discovered or discerned by the meer wit and wisdom of man now thus it is with the Doctrine of the Gospel and the way to Salvation by Christ it is a thing purely dependant upon Gods Wisdom and Decree for the accomplishment and revelation of it Hence it is said in Scripture to be the Wisdom of God in a mystery and the hidden Wisdom which God had before the world ordained to our glory 1 Cor. 2.7 Again it is said to be hid in God Eph. 3.9 that is in the secret of his own purpose and eternal counsel This makes it to be such as is beyond the reach not only of the wisest men in the world but likewise without particular revelation of the Angels themselves Secondly As it is hid in God so it is also hid by God and that of purpose oftentimes from those which are otherwise the wisest men in the world thus we have it in that acknowledgment of our Saviours Mat. 11.25 I thank thee O Father Lord of Heaven and Earth that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and hast revealed them unto babes Even so O Father because it seemed good in thy sight God does think fitting sometimes in his infinite and unsearchable wisdom to conceal and hide from the great ones and Rabbies of the world those things as concerning Religion which yet he discovers to mean persons And so if we will we may apply the phrase in the Text in another sense than as yet we have taken it In the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God namely by taking this Wisdom of God Oeconomicè as well as Objectivè God did so order it dispense it in his Providence and unsearchable Wisdom that the world by all their wisdom should not attain to the right knowledg of him Thirdly The world by the strength of natural wisdom is not able to know God in Christ in regard of the disproportion betwixt the faculty and the object the knowledg of Christ being of a far different and contrary nature and condition hereunto We know that no faculty can act beyond its own sphere nor reach an object which is above it self As bodily eyes cannot see spiritual substances no more can wit and natural sagacity be able to reach the knowledg of God in Christ which is an object transcendent unto it The improvement of this Point to our selves is not as some would make it to be from hence to cast a reproach and disparagement upon Wit and Parts and humane learning simply considered it is not in the sense of the times at least of many foolish people in them to cry down Schools and Colledges and Universities and such places of Learning and Education as these are nor to diminish or take off from those which are eminent in such kind of perfections humane wisdom and wit and skill in Philosophy and sagacity they are singular gifts and endowments which proceed from God himself and God does highly honour those persons whom he does bestow them upon for which reason we are to honour them also and whosoever speaks against them they speak evil of the things which they know not as the Apostle speaks It may be requisite for us therefore to consider the right sense and meaning of these things that we may not mistake There 's a threefold disparagement especially if so be I may call it a disparagement which we do justly and most deservedly cast upon humane learning and the wisdom of the world First Comparative and Exclusive we do disparage it and diminish from it so Humane learning if we compare it with Divine and worldly wisdom with the wisdom from above here it is as good as nothing a very poor and mean business For a man to know all kind of things in the world and in the mean time to be ignorant of Christ and those things which concern his soul this knowledg will in effect profit him nothing and he is but a very Ignoramus There 's no comparison to be made betwixt them we see how the Apostle himself sets it when he speaks to this point Phil. 3.8 I count all things says he but dung and dross for the excellency of the knowledg of Christ Jesus my Lord c. Saint Paul was a very learned man and that in the Mysteries of humane learning a great and deep Scholar yet when he compared his knowledg here with the knowledg of Christ and the Gospel here he set it at a very low rate and so indeed it was to be set and is so still to be by all others whatsoever Thus far now we disparage humane wisdom as we do dross by setting it below Gold not absolutely but only by comparison And that 's the first Explication Secondly We do disparage Humane wisdom Vt fundamentum superbiae carnalis confidentiae as a ground or argument of pride and boasting and carnal confidence wit and learning and parts and the wisdom of the world they are very noble and excellent qualifications but yet they are such as none have cause to be proud of or lifted up with whosoever they are There 's no man who has any of these things in the greatest measure that can be who has any reason to swell in himself for the enjoyment of them If he considers either how he comes by them which is only by gift or if he considers how easily he may lose them and may have them taken away from him or if he considers how they are such gifts as may be bestowed even upon enemies and wicked men these are enough to
sin yea even such things also which others are not much affected withal secret sins which no other eye beholds smaller sins if there be any sin small as there are comparatively A good Christian is affected with these and ashamed of these not only commissions of evil but omissions of good and not only simple omissions but defects and miscarriages in performances failings in the measure and failings in the manner and failings in the end look as accurate work men they are ashamed of smaller faults in their work while bunglers make nothing of great ones so likewise accurate Christians they are ashamed of smaller infirmities in them whiles Hypocrites and Formalists and Atheists are not ashamed of the greatest that are And that may be the first Explication now that is since their conversion and regeneration and coming home to god Te are ashamed now Secondly Now that is since the commission of your sins and the intermission of the Temptations from you Now ye are c. There are many persons which when they are in the heat of their lusts and when temptations sets strong upon them they have then no shame at all for sin because they have no sense or feeling of it but their minds are wholly taken up in the prosecution and following of it who yet afterwards when the sin is over and past they recover themselves and then there 's nothing left them but shame as a recompence to them for the carnality of it We should therefore still learn and endeavour to have the same apprehension of sin in us before-hand as we are likely to have afterwards and never be perswaded by any means to the doing of any thing which we think we shall be ashamed of when we have done it rather let our watchfulness before a temptation prevent our repentance after it and think with our selves however we may be affected in our selves for the present yet there will a time come for remorse Quid mali fieri potest says Prosper unde nec erubescant illi quos ipsa flagitia sua delectat What evil can there be done which even those which are delighted in it are not for all that ashamed of it Thirdly Now since the experience of Gods Goodness and the sense and apprehension of his special love and favour towards us Te are ashamed now The Romans they were now become Christians and had tasted of Gods free love in Christ and besides had divers of them partaked of many outward comforts and refreshments from him Now certainly these could do not other than melt them in the Consideration of their sins and shame them for them There 's no such breaking and moving argument as this if we have any bowels or ingenuity at all in us And therefore the Apostle beats upon this in another place Rom. 12.1 I beseech you by the mercies of God It Gods mercies will not work upon us what will surely this is more than all the rest And as for the quickning of us to duty so likewise for the restraining us from sin and the affecting and afflicting of us for it What to sin against so good a God so gracious a Father so holy a Spirit so merciful a Redeemer c. What a great shame is this If God had never done any thing for us yet we might be ashamed to sin against him for that Goodness which is in himself abstractly considered but when we shall further over and above consider his Goodness to us for our particulars and notwithstanding the offending of him How should this affect us with grief and provoke us to shame in good earnest Shall God do so much for us and shall we do so much against him Especially if we shall consider further that this sinning of ours hath been at any time with any of these mercies which he has bestowed upon us there 's a fearful aggravation with a witness as these Romans here had done making the members of their bodies members of iniquity and uncleanness What a fearful and shameful thing is this when men shall use their health and their strength and their parts and their wealth to no better purpose than to provoke God by them May not this justly fill them with shame and confusion of face They that will not be ashamed now in the sense and consideration of this when and what is it indeed that they will be ever ashamed of I beseech ye let us improve this argument to the utmost advantage of it and drive it home as much as we can And not only as to temporal mercies but especially and moreover to spiritual Let these affect us with shame for sin as the Apostle here urges it in this Chapter Those which are dead unto sin and alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord He stands much upon this as a means to prevail with them and so it should upon us Methinks it is a shame for them in the world to do any thing below their rank and place and condition in it Shall such a man as I do thus and thus And why should they not do so as to Heaven and the things of Grace and Sin We should think our selves too good for the doing of any thing which is sinful and take an holy state upon our selves in this particular And when we discern and perceive that we have done so that we have done any thing which is unfitting we should be confounded and ashamed in our selves upon this respect and consideration as no question but these Romans here were they were now ashamed that is now upon the experience of Gods Goodness and sense of his special love unto them And that 's the third Explication which may be fastened upon this expression about the time The Consideration of all together which hath been said in this present point may be thus far useful to us First From the shame of condition that follows upon the Commission of sin we have here another Argument against it which is the scope of the Apostle in this place Remember as it brings no fruit with it so that instead of it it brings shame and reproach and disgrace it is no honour at all to commit it If ever we would stand upon our honour and do all we can to the avoiding of shame let us then be sure to take heed of sin which is the most disgraceful thing that can be disgraces us with God and disgraces us with Angels and disgraces us with men and disgraces us even with our selves and our own private consciences in particular so much shame and ignominy there is in it This same sin it was that which brought shame first of all into the world and it has continued it ever since upon all those which have been the followers of it This for the shame of Condition Again secondly For the shame of affection In that these Romans are said here to have been ashamed of their former courses that is to have been affected with shame for them we learn
and Points of Religion especially such as do more concern Christ himself And not only to be acquainted with them but also changed into them which is a further thing here considerable of us to make up to us this forming of Christ so as all the several Doctrines of Christianity they may have a work upon our Hearts and Affections answerable and suitable to the nature of the Doctrines themselves Thus Rom. 6.17 Ye have obeyed from the heart that form of Doctrine which was delivered unto you In the Greek it is into which ye were delivered 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This was the commendation of the Romans that as the Evangelical Doctrine was delivered to them so they also were delivered to it that is changed and transformed into the nature and condition of it and closing and complying with it This is the duty of all others besides We should not only hear the word to hear it and notionally to discourse of it but we should hear it that we may obey it and practically conform our selves unto it That 's the first Explication of this forming of Christ in us as it does relate to the Doctrine of Christ The second is as it does relate to the Spirit of Christ Till Christ be formed in you that is till ye are made conformable to Christ having the same mind and spirit in you which was first in him This is another thing which the Scripture urges upon us and makes mention of to us as Rom. 8.29 For whom he did foreknow he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son Christians they must be conformed to Christ and made like unto him this is to have him formed in them Now this conformity it is of two sorts as the Scripture exhibits it First A conformity of disposition and secondly Of conversation First Of Disposition That we be like affected as he was Let the same mind be in you which was in Christ Jesus Phil. 2.5 So 1 Cor. 2. ult We have the word of Christ Christ he is to have an influence upon the framing and fashioning of our spirits And that again in two Particulars First In a conformity to his Death and secondly in a conformity to his Resurrection In a conformity to his Death so we have it in Phil. 3.10 That I may know him and the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable to his death How are we made conformable to his Death when as namely his Death proves effectual to the killing of sin in us and the mortifying of corrupt affections in our hearts Thus also Rom. 6.6 Knowing this that our old man is crucified with him that the body of sin might be destroyed that henceforth we should not serve sin for he that is dead is freed from sin Then for the conformity to his Resurrection that is when we do partake of a quickening power from Christ to enliven us in all holy performances Thus Rom. 6.4 5. Therefore we are buried with him by Baptism into death that like as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father even so we also should walk in newness of life For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death we shall be also in the likeness of his Resurrection So much of the first conformity to Christ viz. the conformity of Disposition The 2d is the conformity of conversation to others when as we walk as Christ also walked 1 Joh. 2.6 And Christ is formed in our course that is made conspicuous to others from our carriage and behaviour What the carriage and behaviour of Christ was we have at large laid down to us in the Gospel which is the History of his whole Life declaring how he still went about doing good where ever he came how full he was of meekness and sweetness and gentleness and compassion and yet with it an holy zeal also against sin and sinful persons Now what 's the result of all to us as we should improve it but that accordingly in our several opportunities we should conform unto it that as he became like to us so we also should be made like unto him If we would know how this may be done by us I know no better way for it than by looking upon Christ as he is there represented unto us We know what a force there is in sight to work upon the imagination as in cattel when they conceived upon the beholding of the party coloured rods and had lambs suitable thereunto But there 's a stronger power in the eye of faith beholding Christ as he is propounded in the Gospel to change us and to make us like unto him Therefore says the Apostle elsewhere We all beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord are changed into the same image from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord 2 Cor. 3.18 The sight of Christ in the Gospel is transforming and has a power to change and assimilate those that exercise it suitably unto it This is the forming of Christ in us in reference to his Spirit which is that that is chiefly here intended in this Text. Now the Use and Improvement which we are to make of all this to our selves is to labour to find that this be so indeed with us that is that Christ be truly formed in us that we partake of his blessed Image upon us and his living Spirit in us are one with him and incorporated into him as considering that nothing less will serve our turn this is absolutely necessary for us as to all purposes and conditions whatsoever without this we can do nothing which is spiritual or in a spiritual manner we cannot please God or be accepted of him at another day He will no further own us than as he sees Christ instampt upon us Therefore let us look to this above any thing else let us not rest our selves in a bare outward profession and form of Religion which has no life nor power at all in it but let us endeavour that the life of Jesus may be manifested in us and his Spirit wrought into us or else there 's nothing in Religion will do us any good We may talk and discourse of Christs Birth and Death and Resurrection and such great Mysteries as these but alas they will be all nothing to us unless we for our particulars have a share and interest in his Person What is it for Christ to be born into the world except he be born in us to be conceived and formed and fashioned in the womb of his mother except he be also formed and fashioned in our hearts and we our selves made conformable to him as we have hitherto shewn This is that which we should principally look to Not as if there were no other forming of him but only this as some would go about to perswade us but this is chiefly to be minded by us ut quod in Christo factum est per naturam in nobis
and non-attendency in them There 's a spirit of Atheism which does possess the hearts of every man whereby they think it not a business worth the while to take any view of their own lives but as they do not much care to know what it is which is to be done by them so in like manner they do not care neither to know whether they have done it or not As it was said of Gallio they care for none of these things Secondly This want of self-tryal it does proceed in a great measure from presumption and self-applause The most men that are in the world they take it for granted that their state is good for Heaven and that that which is done by them is no other than that which it should be and therefore it is that they do not prove their own works There 's no man goes about to try there where he is sufficiently satisfied and perswaded Now this is that which most men are in regard of themselves through that presumption and self-love and self-flattery which is in their hearts c. Thirdly This forbearance of inquiry and examination of mens own works and ways it does proceed oftentimes from guilt and consciousness and self-suspicion Bankrupts or men of uncertain and suspicious estates they do not love to cast up their accounts for fear they should find that in them which would be irksome and displeasing to them and so it is with men of defiled consciences they are afraid to examine them for fear they should be troublesome to them and perplex them and grate upon them Therefore they are willingly ignorant both of what is to be done by them as also of what is done otherwise than it should be lest their consciences should either restrain them or else disquiet them Now for our selves we should be all effectually perswaded to put in practise this present Exhortation of the Apostles here before us Let every man prove his own work there being danger in being ignorant of it and because ignorance especially affected does not excuse but rather aggravate the guilt of those persons that are subject to it This tryal and discovery it is made by divers and sundry ways and means First By the Word and the Will of God as it is laid down in holy Scripture To the Law to the Testimony c. Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path c. Psal 119.105 Secondly By the Principles of Godliness and the scope and drift of Religion and the work of the new creature in us Thus Gal. 6.16 when in the verse before he had made mention of the new creature he presently adds As many as walk according to this rule peace be upon them c. Thirdly The Principles of Christian prudence and discretion There 's a regard to be had also to them wisdom dwells with providence Prov. 8. 12. And so Grace which is true spiritual wisdom it is to be accompanied with Christian discretion David he was a man after God's own heart but yet withal he had this Testimony given him by him that had experience of it and had cause to know it that he behaved himself wisely in all his ways and the Lord was with him 1 Sam. 18. 14. He that handleth a matter wisely shall find good and whoso trusteth in the Lord happy is he says Solomon Prov. 16.20 Fourthly We may also prove our works sometimes by the frame and temper and disposition of our own hearts and the Spirit of God moving in us We may know what we do or have done by what we are and the intercourse which passes betwixt God and our own Souls These who are intimate friends they know when they have displeased one another by the mutual carriage and behaviour of each other your Fathers countenance is not towards me as at other times says Jacob of Laban And so here when men shall find themselves at any time dead-hearted and averse to that which is good a listlesness and indisposition upon them and the Spirit of God absenting and withdrawing of himself from them it is much to be suspected that all has not been right with them in some preparatory and antecedent carriage but when 't is otherwise there 's some hope of them even as David reasons of himself Psal 66.28 29. If I regard iniquity in my heart the Lord will not hear my prayer but verily God hath heard me c. On the other side when he had sinned against God we knew how it was with him he wanted the light of Gods countenance the joy of his salvation the freedom of his spirit c. as we may see in Psal 52 c. And instead of these was exercised and afflicted with the broken bones c. We know in matters of health how a man that is observant of himself he knows that he has disordered himself some way or other not only by reflecting upon the occasion of the distemper it self but also by considering it in the effects and concomitants of it when he takes not his rest as formerly has not his usual stomach to his meat nor does his work as he was wont to do he hence concludes that all is not right with him in regard of his body and outward man which is known by those symptoms of it even so is it also with a Christian in this particular in regard of his soul he does not only prove his works by considering them in their own nature but also by looking upon them in the reflexions and consequents of them and those effects which they have had upon his spirit which in case of any eminent miscarriage if he well observe it will not be so as heretofore And so much may suffice to have spoken of this act of proving in the first acception of it as it may taken by way of Tryal and Discovery and Exploration Let every man prove his own work that is let every man examine what he does or not does whether it be good or bad and such as will be warranted and justified at another day when all mens actions shall come to tryal But secondly It may be further taken by way of allowance or approbation Let him prove that is let him approve Thus the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is here used in this present Text is oftentimes taken in other places of Scripture as 2 Cor. 16.3 Whomsoever ye shall approve by your letters 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So 2 Cor. 13.5 Prove your own selves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. And so here now in this Text before us Let every man prove his own work 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as when in our ordinary course of speech we say to prove a will we mean to approve it Now this not excluding the former seems to be the more proper and genuine meaning of the place in order to that which follows And then shall he have rejoycing c. Every one that trys his work has not from
rule and so very unsuitable and disagreeable to a Christian who is here limited and circumscribed in the Text by a rule set unto him This is that which is excluded which yet I will not now inlarge upon as not altogether so pertinent to be handled but rather leave it to your own Meditation The second is that which is included and so making up the kinds and parts of this rule untous And here again there are three things especially First The rule of Goodness A Christian he then walks by rule when he does that which is warrantable Secondly The rule of Charity A Christian he then walks by rule when he does that which consists with that love which is due to brethren Thirdly The rule of interest and propriety and calling A Christian then walks by rule when he does that which is proper and belongs to him to be done by him All these might be very well prosecuted but they will perhaps fall in more pertinently to be discourst of in the following head and therfore for brevities-sake I will pass them by here So much of the first thing here considerable as the condition of a Christians walk in point of regularity and that is circumscription He is not left at liberty and at large to rove up and down where he list but is kept within bounds and to his Rules The second is the comeliness and order of it in the Verbs 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which as I said is to walk in a due and decent manner And indeed this is as requisite and convenient as the other when a man does not only keep his bounds but observes his paces and measures and gait and carriage in walking This is what the Scripture sometimes calls in another place a walking uprightly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gal. 2.14 And in another a walking exactly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eph. 5.15 See then that ye walk circumspectly or exactly not as fools but as wise A Christian must have acare of this and has so so far as he is a Christian he may be added as a fifth to Solomons four things which are comely in going Prov. 30 29. This is call'd a walking in wisdom in another place Col. 4.5 Walk in wisdom towards c. This is to walk with care and caution in regard of the manifold dangers and extremities which we are subject unto As Nazianzene speaks particularly of Ministers that they should be herein like those which dance upon ropes or which climb a Mast 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for whom it is not safe to incline too much either one way or other but to keep themselves in an even state and posture of body Thus should it be also with all Christians in their several places which makes up to us the second particular considerable in this first General to wit the condition of a Christians walk and that is regularity he must walk and he must walk by rule The third which is the main of all and which therefore I have made haste unto as most peculiar and considerable in the Text is the Determination of the rule which a Christian must walk by and that is this rule 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And here now the question will be what this is and what the Apostle means by it Interpreters are at difference about it but I shall not trouble you with the variety of their conceits neither do I think it necessary We need not go far as I apprehend to find out the sense of it if we cast but our eyes back upon the verse immediately preceeding the 15th of this Chapter where we find it thus In Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything nor uncircumcision but a new creature or a new creation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So then this is the rule which he here speaks of Regeneration and the work of Grace in the heart As many as walk by this peace be upon them c. There 's the Gospel in the word of it and there 's the Gospel in the work of it each of these are a rule to Christians The former he had spoken of in the foregoing part of the Epistle The latter he here now speaks of in this pace in the new creature which he here commends to this purpose Now this for the clearing of it to us may admit of a double Explication and be taken two manner of ways Either first in the notion of a byass or secondly in the notion of a mark According to the first sense so it is to walk by this rule as having this moving and acting in us ratione principii and so it does simply denote Christians as Christians as many as walk by this rule of the new creature i. e. as many as have true and saving grace acting and working in them as the whole by which they are moved According to the second sense so it is to walk according to this rule as our own Translators render it as having this directing of us Ratione metae vel termini and so it denotes Christians walking in the power of Christianity and suitably to those gracious Principles which are really and indeed in them either of which may be understood by us First Take it as a Byass or Principle 't is rule so And here we have commended to us all such persons as have the work of the new creature wrought in them and are indeed acted by true and saving grace which do that which they do in Religion out of the Principles of Regeneration and the inclination of a sanctified heart than which nothing less will suffice or serve their turns This is that which every one is to regard and look after in himself It is not so much what any one does as what principle acts him in doing it and what is the spring of such actions in him This if it be not a new nature and an heart subdued and subjected to Christ it is nothing worth As many as are led by the Spirit of God and those alone they are the Sons of God Rom. 8.14 This is that the Scripture still stands upon Matth. 7.16 c. Men gather not grapes of thorns or figs of thistles a corrupt tree cannot bring forth good fruit c. Quid est arbor mala voluntas mala says Anstin What 's an evil tree in this place An evil will and an evil heart if that be naught all 's naught with it And this evil heart is an heart not sanctified and indued with grace an heart of unbelief as we find it also called in Heb. 3.12 This is that evil tree whence no good fruit does come Therefore I say let us look to this that we may find it in ourselves there are many which rest themselves contented with the Principles of common ingenuity and morality and civility the strength of wit and natural parts and think they are safe enough here though they go no further But alas this will no do it must be the new creature as the
out in Christ which it does in so full a manner as that he that sees the one he sees the other And so Christ himself tell us Joh. 14.8 9. When Philip said unto him Lord shew us the Father and it sufficeth us Jesus saith unto him Have I been so long with you and yet hast thou not known me He that hath seen me hath seen the Father and how sayest thou then Shew us the father And again ver 11. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father in me In Christ who is God-man we have a full true sight and knowledg of God and no-where else So that those who deny the Doctrine of Christ they have not God First in point of Knowledg Secondly They have not God neither in point of Worship God out of Christ is an Idol as to any true adoration of him or religious service exhibited to him This is true both in regard of the object of worship as also in regard of the medium In regard of the Person worshipped as likewise in regard of the conveyance of this our worship to him For the Person worshipped it is still God in Christ from whom abstracted and divided we cannot apprehend or conceive of him in our prayers Forasmuch as in Christ all the fulness of the Godhead dwells as the Apostle speaks in Col. 2.9 therefore out of Christ there is nothing of God to be found and so consequently nothing of God to be worshipped Those that worship God out of Christ they worship they know not what as our Saviour speaks to the Woman of Samaria in Joh. 4.22 Thus it holds in regard of the Object and the Person that is worshipped It holds also in regard of the Medium and the conveyance ofthis worship to him as there 's no worshipping of God neither but in Christ so there 's no worshipping of God but by Christ in whom our worshipping and service of him is alone transmitted to him He is that Jacobs Ladder which touches Heaven Earth and whereby we ascend from Earth to Heaven No man cometh to the Father but by Him He is the way and the truth and the life Joh. 14.6 As none comes to Christ except the Father draw him so none comes to the Father except Christ bring him It is he that makes our way for us even a new and living way which he hath consecrated to this purpose as the Apostle speaks Heb. 10.20 Through him we have an access by one spirit unto the Father both Jew and Gentiles Ephes 2.18 And in him we have boldness and access and confidence through the faith of him Ephes 3.12 By him who is our high-Priest we go boldly to the Throne of Grace c. Heb. 4.16 If we pray it is in his name or else to little purpose Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name he will give it you Joh. 10.23 If we give thanks it is still by him Heb. 13.15 By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually giving thanks to his name And Col. 3.17 Whatsoever ye do in word or deed do all in the name of the Lord Jesus giving thanks to God and the Father by him So that take away Christ now and we take away all approach to God and adoration and service of him who is the only Angel that with incense offers up the Prayers of all the Saints upon the golden Altar Revel 3.8 They that have not him they have not God in point of worship neither as to the object nor medium Thirdly They have not God in point of Interest they have not that relation to God as is desirable for them They have God indeed in the common relation of a Creator and so even the Devils themselves have him but they have him not as a Father or Friend or beloved they have not God as a God in Covenant which is the right having of him indeed this being alone founded in Christ This is the misery of all those which are out of him and walk in opposition to his Doctrine that they are deprived of his sweet and comfortable relation God out of Christ is a stranger there 's no acquaintance with him and God out of Christ is an enemy there 's no standing before him But in him there is peace and agreement Col. 1.21 You that were sometimes alienated and enemies in your minds by wicked works he hath reconciled in the body of his flesh Him hath God the Father sealed Joh. 6.27 And him hath God set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood Rom. 3.25 He hath made us accepted in the beloved and him alone Ephes 1.6 He is the true mercy seat in whom we have intercourse with God the Father Those that think to come to God upon the terms of nature and common providence they will have little comfort in such approaches for God considered out of Christ he is a consuming fire and our nature is now through sin become odious to him as it is in it self There 's no coming now unto him without expecting to be devoured by him But it is Christ who assuming our nature and in that nature satisfying Gods justice who hath made our nature now amiable to him in those persons who by faith apprehend him and are united to him and in them alone We are not now acceptable to God so much as bearing the image of the first Adam but rather as bearing the image of the second by whom the image of God himself is now renewedand repaired again in us and we in a manner partaking of his likeness which is usually the ground of love and delight in several persons one to another Therefore those that have not Christ in this sense they have not God They have not God to own them nor they have not God to justifie them nor they have not God to adopt them nor to accept them and take them as his thus they have him not They are at an absolute distance from God and have no comfortable relation to him nor interest in him Lastly They have not God i.e. they have him not in point of influence this follows from the other forasmuch as all benefitfrom God proceeds from interest in him Therefore those who are strangers to Christ and his Doctrine as they have no interest in God so neither to speak of have they influence from him And that according to all these kind of influences which are to be desired and those benefits which are of the greatest concernment As first Of Grace and Holiness they have not God to sanctifie them and to communicate his holy Spirit unto them God is the God of all Grace but it is God in Christ he is the channel and conduit-pipe and conveyance of the grace of God unto us in all the several kinds and particulars of it wherein it is communicated Look as by the first Adam sin is derived unto all those who partake of him by carnal generation so by
that hath one hath both he that hath not Christ he hath not God he that hath Christ he hath Christ and God too both the Father and the Son For this which is now before us it is an account given us of him that abides in Christs Doctrine that is as we have already explain'd it which is a general and thorow-paced Christian both as to matter of judgment and practice such an one hath both the Father and the Son Whiles it is said here of him that he hath them this having may admit of a threefold Interpretation First Hath them in him by way of abode and habitation Secondly Hath them with him by way of society and communion Thirdly Hath them for him by way of assistance and approbation First By way of abode and habitation He hath them in him Every true and sound Christian which keeps close to the Faith of Christ hath God in all the three persons of the Blessed Trinity besides in him Whiles we abide in God's Doctrine God himself abides in us and takes up his habitation in our souls Hence it is that we meet with such expressions as these in Scripture 1 Joh. 3.24 He that keepeth his Commandments dwelleth in God and God in him In Ephes 3.17 That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith And Ephes 2.22 In whom you also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit And 1 Joh. 4.11 Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God God dwelleth in him and he in God And Joh. 14.23 We will come unto him and make our abode with him This is a very high Honour which God is pleased to cast upon such poor creatures as we are that he whom the Heaven of Heavens cannot contain yet should dwell in such narrow rows as our hearts and yet this is that which he does Christians they are the Temples of the Holy Ghost and they have the Spirit of God dwelling in them He honours them with his gracious Presence What a blessed priviledg is this and how does it serve to comfort them in all other inconveniences of dwelling and abode whatsoever Those who are desolate and solitary and remote and wandring up and down which have no certain dwelling-place as it is said of the Apostles or if they have yet alone and deserted and have no company coming near unto them yet that they have God Himself to dwell with them and in them what a comfortable advantage is this and how much to be prized by them How should those which are true Believers live indeed in the power and efficacy of this present Truth which we have now before us and make the most of it that possibly they can that they have God in them by way of residence and habitation Secondly They have also God with them by way of society and communion A man may reside sometimes in such a place but be in it in the nature of a stranger vouchsafe his Presence but not his Converse This now is not fully so comfortable yea but now further God vouchsafes to his Children this priviledg added to the other the priviledg of communion added to the priviledg of commemoration Thus in Joh. 14.23 If any man love me he will keep my words and my Father will love him and we will come unto him and make our abode with him Well but that 's not all it is said in ver 21. He that loveth me shall be loved of my Father and I will love him and will manifest my self unto him Manifest my self unto him How is that that is in all sweet and gracious intercourse of communion with him according to that of Christ again in Rev. 3.20 Behold I stand at the door and knock if any man hear my voice and open unto me I will come in to him and sup with him and he with me There are two things at once in this Scripture First I will come in to him there 's the priviledg of habitation And secondly I will sup with him there 's the priviledg of communion And this as it is exprest mutual and reciprocal I with him delighting in mine own graces which I have bestowed upon him and he with me refresht with my comforts which he receives from me So 1 Joh. 1.3 That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you that ye also may have fellowship with us and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ And again in ver 6 7. If we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness we lye and do not the truth But if we walk in the light as he is in the light we have fellowship one with another That is God with us and we with him there is a sweet and comfortable communion which passes betwixt God and all Believers they cleaving to him by an act of Faith and he imbracing them by an act of Love they by a Sprit of adoption crying to him and he by a Spirit of assurance owning of them There is not so express a fellowship of one friend with another which like Iron sharpening Iron do refresh each others countenances as there is of a gracious heart with God in that communion which it enjoys with him in its Christian course Thirdly He hath God also for him by way of assistance and approbation He that abides in the Doctrine of Christ and owns that he has God answerably standing for him and taking his part he has God to own him and has God to side with him and he has God to assist him and to defend him against all those that are opposite and contrary to him He has God not only as an inhabitant and companion but also as an abettor This is another great matter of consolation to a true believer and to one who is stedfast to Religion and the Principles of it when he may seem to stand alone and by himself and to have few or none to comply with him he shall then have the Father and Son and Holy Ghost too a Trinity of persons to stand by him and for him and this threefold cord is not easily broken whiles we stand for God we shall have God standing for us and upholding us against all that shall oppose us and go about to diminish from us The Lord is on my side says David I will not fear what man can do unto me The Lord taketh my part with them that help me therefore shall I see my desire upon them that hate me Psal 118.6 7. Now if God be for us who can be against us as the Apostle very well reasons Rom. 8.31 A Christian considered in himself is a very weak and feeble creature Oh but he has an Almighty God to take in with him to defend him and to stand on his side against all assailants whether of me or devils Fear not Paul for I am with thee and none shall set upon thee to hurt the c. Under this head we
Thus 1 Pet. 2.5 Ye are an holy Priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ Every good Christian he hath great interest in Heaven and can very much prevail with God through Christ in his approaches to the Throne of Grace And we have frequent instances and examples of it both in Scripture and in daily experience Secondly As to the keeping of themselves from the pollutions and defilements of the world The Priests they were prohibited the touching of those things which were unclean and so are Christians careful to keep themselves unspotted of the world Thirdly As to the teaching and instructing of others in the Communion of Saints The Priests lips should preserve knowledg Mal. 2.7 And so should every Christian also in his way and within his compass Parents and Masters of Families should be thus far Priests in them as with Abraham to teach their children and their housholds after them Gen. 18.19 c. Fourthly As to the offering up of themselves to God they must be Priests in this respect also The Priests they were used and imployed in the killing of beasts so should Christians be in slaying of their lusts and unruly affections And then the High-Priest especially he entered into the Sanctum Sanctorum so should every Christian have his heart always towards the Holy of Holies c. Lastly The Priests they still blest the people so would the mouths of Christians do others with whom they converse 1 Pet. 3.9 not railing but contrarily blessing c. The sum of all comes to this namely to raise the esteem and opinion of Gods people in the world and from hence to set an high price and valuation upon them The world it commonly looks upon the Saints and Servants of God as a base and contemptible generation but see here what names and titles the Spirit of God in Scripture puts upon them namely of Kings and Priests which have the greatest Dignity and Excellency in them of any other whatsoever These they are so to God and the Father howsoever they be to any other that is not only to his service but likewise to his Approbation The Father is here named as the first in order and fountain of the Godhead though the whole Trinity be included and intended in it So much for that And then there is this Use also of it in the close of the verse To him be Glory for ever and ever c. And so I have done also with the third and last Description of Christ in the execution of his Offices And hath made us Kings and Priests to God and his Father Now to him be Glory and Dominion for ever and ever Amen SERMON XLVIII Revel 22.17 And the Spirit and the Bride say Come This Text which I have now read unto you is a further improvement of that Scripture which was handled by us the last day and does contain somewhat in it as additional and accumulative thereunto For there we had propounded to us but only the hope and expectation of Christians as those which looked for the Lord Jesus Christ to come from Heaven out of that place of the Apostle Paul to the Philippians Chap. 3. ver 20. And here we have exhibited to us their desire and earnest importunity so that he comes not before he is welcome and he is not more certainly expected than he is gladly and joyfully entertained For the Spirit and the Bride say Come That is the Church by the secret suggestion and instigation of the Holy Ghost towards her does invite him and call for him and hasten him towards his second Appearing This is the scope and drift of the Text. IN the Text it self there are two General Parts considerable First The Persons mentioned Secondly The action which is attributed unto these Persons The Persons mentioned they are the Spirit and the Bride The action which is attributed to these Persons that is a calling after Christ they say to him Come We begin with the former viz. the Persons mentioned The Spirit and the Bride By the Spirit we are here to understand the Holy Ghost the Spirit of God which is called the Spirit by way of Excellency the third Person in the blessed Trinity And by the Bride we are to understand either the Church of God in general or every faithful and believing soul which is a member of Christ in particular These are the Persons here that speak And we must take them in a mutual reference and connexion of one with another The Spirit speaks in the Bride and the Bride speaks from and by the Spirit And so they both speak together and have the same action ascribed unto them First Here 's mention made of the Spirit and that as considerable of us under a twofold notion First Of his Presence and secondly of his Influence Of his Presence as join'd with the Bride of his Influence as assistant unto her and helping and enabling of her First Here 's the Spirits presence the Spirit and the Bride they are joined both together to signifie and intimate unto us that special residence which the Holy Ghost hath in all true Believers where-ever there is the Bride there 's the Spirit that is where-ever there is any true Christian there 's the Holy Ghost abiding in him And so the Scripture sets it in sundry places of it as 1 Cor. 3.16 Know ye not that ye are the Temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you And so Chap. 6. v. 19. Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you So again Ephes 2.22 In whom ye also are built together for an habitation of God through the Spirit The Spirit of God resides both in the whole Church at large as also in every particular Believer as the soul is in the whole Body and also in every particular member Therefore we may accordingly know whether we are espoused to Christ or no upon this account and consideration If any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his Rom. 8.9 Because where ever there is the Spouse there 's the Spirit It holds both as a discovery of Churches and as a discovery of Persons As a discovery of Churches to distinguish the true from the false and as a discovery of persons to distinguish the sound from the Hypocritical Again as it is distinguishing so it is also comforting It is a great satisfaction to the Church in the present withdrawing and absentation of Christ from her that his Spirit is yet with her that he does not leave her altogether destitute in an orphan-like or fatherless condition as himself hath sometime exprest it Joh. 14.18 but that he does provide for the supply of her I will pray the Father and he shall give you another Comforter that he may abide with you for ever even the Spirit of Truth whom the world cannot receive as it is also there in that Chapter And again Chap. 16.
v. 7. If I depart I will send him unto you The Holy Ghost is the Proxy of Christ that serves to bear his Bride company in the absence of Christ himself from her And he does carefully perform this office of respect unto her It was he that made her next to God Here 's the Spirit and the Bride both together And that 's the first particular in which he is here considerable of us to wit in the notion of his Presence or Personal Concomitancy The second is in the notion of Influence or operative concomitancy As it is the Spirit join'd with the Bride so it is the Spirit that is assistant unto her and what she does she does by his helping and enabling of her This is another thing here considerable of us it is the Spirit and Bride that say Come that is which make this particular request for the hastening of Christ second appearance And so there is this in general observable from it That the prayers of Gods people they are the workings of the Holy Ghost himself in them The voice of the Spouse it is all one with the voice of the Spirit they are not two voices but one and accordingly they are here in the Text join'd in one and put in a copulative expression It it not said the Spirit says come by himself and the Bride says come by her self No but the Spirit and the Bride say come both together as having the speech or action of the one transfer'd to the other We are the subjects of those actions which God himself works in us Certum est nos velle sed Deus facit ut velimus Certum est nos facere sed Deus facit ut faciamus says Austin We will but God makes us to will we do but God makes us to do And so we pray but the Spirit enables us to do so the spirit helps our infirmities Therefore we read of praying in the spirit Ephes 6.18 and of praying in the Holy Ghost Jude 20. And of the spirit of Adoption whereby we cry Abba Father in Rom. 8.15 and Heb. 4.6 c. this is called the intercession of the spirit In Rom. 8.26 27. The spirit helpeth our infirmities for we know not what to pray for as we ought but the spirit it self maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered And he that searcheth the heart knoweth what is the mind of the spirit because he maketh intercession for the Saints according to the will of God c. There are two things which the Holy Ghost does for us to this purpose the one is the suggesting of the matter of our petitions by teaching us what to ask and to beg of God in prayer And the other the stirring up of holy desires and affections in us and giving us an holy boldness and confidence at the Throne of Grace and perswading us of our acceptance with God in the name of Christ He makes intercession for us by making intercession in us and helping us to make intercession The Consideration of this Point makes much for the comfort of Believers in regard of the success of their Prayers Therefore they are sure to be granted at one time or other because they are the workings and operations of the Holy Ghost himself in them whereby they are also distinguish't from the Petitions of other persons As for natural and carnal men they may sometimes cry to God out of the Dictates and suggestions of Nature or out of the Principles of custom and formality but the Holy Ghost has little influence upon them in such Applications and accordingly they cannot expect so confidently to be heard in them or to find any such benefit by them but the Prayers of the faithful being wrought in them by the Holy Ghost that does prompt them and put them upon them and help them and assist them in them they are therefore sure accordingly to have an efficacy and successfulness with them because God will be sure to hear the voice of his own Spirit and it is not so much they that speak as his Spirit that speaketh in them Where Christians pray as they should do and observe the right rules of Prayer which the Scripture does prescribe unto them their Prayers shall be followed with a blessing and good effect of them This is the confidence says the Apostle that we have in him that if we ask any thing according to his will he heareth us and if we know that he heareth us whatsoever we ask we know that we have the petitions that we have desired of him in 1 Joh. 5.14 15. From hence also we learn to take heed of slighting such things as these are and of diminishing from them we should not think them to be of no value and to little purpose as some are ready to do But to set a price and valuation upon them there is more in the hearty prayer of the poorest and meanest Christian in the Church than the world is commonly aware of as being such as has very great Prevalence with God himself to whom it is tender'd But so much of the first of those persons which is here mentioned in the Text and that is the spirit considered both under the notion of his Presence as joyned with the Bride as also under the notion of his influence as being assistant unto her The second person is the Bride her self as she is here exprest and exhibited unto us By this title as I said we are to understand either the whole Church of Christ in General or every distinct Believer and Member of Christ in particular And according to either Consideration or Application of it it hath a twofold notion with it either of Eminency or of Diminution This word Bride as it lies before us in the Text is both a word of Excellency and a word of Extenuation It is a word of Excellency as it stands in opposition to Adultery and strange affection It is the Bride not the Whore It is a word of Extenuation as it stands in a distinction from Matrimony and compleat marriage It is the Bride not the Wife First I say The Church is here call'd the Bride as it is a title of Excellency and stands in opposition to adultery and strange affection It is the Bride not the Whore The false Church is an Harlot and a filthy and unclean adulteress it is the Whore of Babylon as she is called here in this Book of the Revelation the Mother of fornication c. And such an one as she is she never cares for the coming of Christ but rather desires he should stay away still and is glad of his staying as an Harlot is for the absence of her Husband The good man is not at home he is gone a long journey as she there expresses it Prov. 7.19 But the Bride which is the true Church as chaste and pure Virgin she longs for the coming of her beloved and calls after him as it is here declared
tremble and quake at this coming and at the thoughts of it as malefactors at the coming of the Judg They desire that Christ would not come and where he gives any symptoms of it they cry out with the unclean spirit in the Gospel What have we to do with thee thou Son of God art thou come to torment us before our time A guilty and defiled conscience it abhors the coming of Christ and withdraws from it if it were possible it would altogether shun it and never have it to come to pass and when it does come it is matter of the greatest terror and astonishment to it that can be Therefore it is said of such persons at such a time That they shall hide themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains and shall say unto the mountains and rocks Fall upon us and hide us from the face of him that sitteth upon the throne and from the wrath of the lamb for the great day of his wrath is come and who shall be able to stand Rev. 6.15 16 17. The ungodly shall not stand in judgment Psal 1.5 Not stand that is not stand upright but fall down before it and accordingly shall do all they can to avoid it Whereas on the other side the Children of God shall be well-pleased with it and hearty and couragious in it and very freely and cheerfully entertain it When he shall appear they shall have confidence and not be ashamed before him at his coming 1 Joh. 2.28 Indeed there are some cases and circumstances and times wherein the Spouse of Christ her self may not be always in such a present frame and disposition of spirit as to utter this speech here before us and to say Come even in this sense which we now speak of even the servants of God themselves may at least for such a particular season have an indisposedness upon them hereunto As namely when they have not finished their work or got their businesses ready about them but yet they have always a general and habitual preparation for it in them As a steward that is for the main faithful yet he may not always have his accounts made up and in that regard may not yet wish for the Audit And a Spouse that has a good affection for her Beloved yet may not presently have all her Ornaments upon her and in that Consideration may sometimes wish for the delay of his coming This is tha which is here chiefly considerable that God's Children they do still labour to frame themselves to an entertainment of Christ at his coming And that 's the first notion of this Expression as it may be taken for a word of simple acceptance or entertainment Come that is thou mayst come if thou so pleasest and shalt be welcom to me The second is as it may be taken as a word of desire or invitation Come that is I pray come it is my earnest suit and request that thou would'st come And here now we have a further inlargement and improvement of Grace in a Christian which is not only to be content with Christs coming and submitting unto it but also to be desirous of it and longing after it This is the temper and disposition of a good and of a gracious heart to pant and breathe and thirst for the second coming of Christ and not to be satisfied in it self till it does come The Spirit and the Bride say Come that is they say it importunately and earnestly with a great deal of affection This desire whereof we now speak it is laid and founded in sundry Considerations which do make for it As first in reference to the world it self in the present frame and constitution of it The world is at present in that condition as that the coming of Christ if very desirable in that regard And there are two particulars especially which do make up this unto us First In point of sin and wickedness And secondly in point of misery and affliction Both these two taken together do cast a disparagement upon the world and do therefore make Christians to desire the destruction of it First As it is a wicked and sinful world The world taken at the best was never over-good since it first began to be bad even presently upon the Creation of it Sin made an entrance upon it and got possession of it and not long after the whole earth had soon corrupted it self as the Scripture tells us but now as it 's grown any thing older and of longer standing so its sinfulness is so much the more improved and it grows worse every day than other The very times themselves we live in are a sufficient demonstration of it to us and we find it so by sad experience as being such wherein iniquity abounds more than ever and wicked men grow worse and worse as the Apostle speaks In these latter days and times of the world more especially as the spirit has foretold it there are the greatest incursions of wickedness of any other and that in all the kinds and degrees of it Now this is that which makes a gracious heart so to long for this second coming of Christ that so thereby he may put a period to these days of sin that God may be no longer dishonoured his Name may be no longer blasphemed his Laws may be no longer transgressed his Ordinances may be no longer despised his Spirit may be no longer grieved A good Christian has such an enmity and antipathy against sin as that he cannot but be very desirous of that which is destructive of it as the coming of Christ is not his first only but his second For this end will the Son of God be manifest that he may destroy the works of the Devil And for this end also do the Children of God so much desire the manifestation of him that so by this means sin may be destroyed and have a period and end put unto it And that both in others and also in themselves The Children of God they are both scandalized and offended at others abominations and likewise they are burdened and overprest with their own corruption and in each respect do desire that Christ would come for the remedying of either that their righteous souls with Lot's may be no longer vexed with the Conversation of the wicked and that themselves also with Paul may be delivered from the body of death that is the body of sin as we shall hear more anon in the following Explication But secondly As there is the world in the sinfulness and wickedness of it so there is the world also in the misery and afflictiveness of it which does make for this desire in them also that exceeding vanity which is upon the creature and those manifold calamities which do attend upon humane Life This is another thing here considerable in the world which does put the Church upon this Prayer for Christs coming that as God has promised he may wipe away all tears from
By me that is by my Blood and by me that is by my Spirit by my Blood in taking away of the guilt of sin And by my Spirit in subduing the power of it Jesus Christ came by both himself and we by both as consider'd in him must come to God and so to eternal life and Salvation As no man can come c. Therefore let us thus look up to him and in this way and method which he has set expect Salvation from him It is both unthankfulness and peevishness in us when it is otherwise with us when-as because there 's no other way to be saved but onely this therefore we 'll choose to be damn'd rather than to lay hold on this When if we may not be saved our own way we will not be saved by God's which is that which he hath here laid forth and exhibited to us So much for that I have done with the Second General Part which is the Additional Amplification And so with the whole Text it self now before us I am the Way and the Truth and the Life No man cometh unto the Father but by me SERMON XXII JOH 14.18 I will not leave you comfortless or Fatherless I will or do come unto you There is nothing which is pleasing in the enjoyment but it is as sad and uncomfortable in the loss and deprivation Those things which we are willing to keep we are loth to part with and lament when they are taken away from us Yea not onely in the actual deprivement but likewise as well in the fears and apprehensions and expectations aforehand This was the case at this present with the Apostles and Disciples of Christ they were now made sensible of his likeliness to remove from them which was very grievous and irksome to them in the very thoughts and reflections upon it And here now in this present Chapter does he endeavour to satisfie them about it and more particularly here in this Verse of it which I have now at this time read unto you by answering them That for his part he would not leave them altogether destitute but would comfortably provide for them to their best contentment and satisfaction I will not leave you comfortless I will come unto you c. IN the Text it self there are two General Parts considerable First the Condition of the Disciples upon supposition of Christs removal from them and that was sad and comfortless Secondly the care of Christ for them in reference to such a condition and that was not to leave them but to come unto them We begin with the former viz. the Disciples condition upon supposition of Christ removal and that is here exprest to be sad or comfortless Christ foresaw that his departure from them would put them into a very uncomfortable condition and so indeed it would and had cause to do I will not leave you comfortless therefore if I should leave you you would be comfortless that 's implied in it Those that are deprived of Christ are deprived of comfort c. I will not leave you comfortless but I will come Therefore you are likely to be comfortless unless I come Those that are without the Spirit of Christ they are in a sad and comfortless condition no true comfort indeed but from the holy Ghost c. The word which is here translated Comfortless is in the Original Text Fatherless or Orphans as we have it in the margent because such persons as those commonly are so Children that are deprived of their Parents their condition is commonly sad if we look upon it simply in it self And therefore it is a very fit expression to set forth any spiritual deprivation which is taken from such a resemblance And thus was this now here in the Text of the Disciples in their deprival of Christ they were like so many poor helpless desolate and fatherless children de prived of their natural parents Look what sadness or sorrow ye would conceive in such as these the same was now likewise incident to the Disciples in this condition which was now coming upon them and likely to befall them And that especially in these following considerations First as deprived of his Doctrine and those heavenly Truths which dropt from him whiles he was resident and abiding amongst them Our blessed Lord and Saviour whiles he was conversant here upon earth with his Disciples and other men he was very full of his Divine Instructions and for his Apostles especially he did declare many mysteries to them Now therefore was it sad for them to become destitute of him as a Teacher To want the benefit and advantage of such a Master and Instructer as this was must needs very much affect them especially according to the nature and quality of the things themselves wherein they were instructed which was concerning the eternal welfare and happiness and salvation of their Souls We know how apt sometimes we are to prize it to have one to teach us but some common Art or Trade or Mystery and Profession in the world we count it a priviledge to enjoy it and an inconvenience to be deprived of it and how much more then must it needs be so here as to this Mystery of Religion and Christianity the mysteries of the kingdom of Heaven which our blessed Saviour made known to his Disciples To you it is given says he to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven but to others it is not given Matth. 13.11 He spake to the multitude in parables Whiles he spake to his Disciples more plainly Secondly As by Christs removal from them they were deprived of his Doctrine so of his Counsel which he was useful in to them They needed not onely information in regard of their judgment but also direction in regard of their practise which is that also as much as the former for which Children stand in need of their Parents and which Fatherless Children are restrained of This was another thing wherein our Saviours departure was so irksome to them they were now by this means likely to be to seek in many things in which he was wont to advise them As oyntment rejoyceth the heart so doth the sweetness of a mans friend by hearty counsel says Solomon Prov. 27.9 And so no question but the counsel of our blessed Saviour did those who were about him and partakers of it It was a great comfort and refreshment to them in their doubts and scruples and troubles and the afflictions which they were subject unto to have such an one as he was to settle them and consequently the deprival of it must needs make them very sad and comfortless Thirdly The loss of his Example and the benefit which came by that likewise That was another very great evil and inconvenience to them As long as our blessed Saviour was amongst them and conversing with them he taught them not onely by his Doctrine but by his Conversation he gave them an example that they should follow his steps