hath seen me hath seen the Father therefore I conceive the meaning of the place to be thus Ye beleeve in God beleeve also in me That is beleeve in God as he is held out in me the conclusion from thence is this that that faith which is the way of God to remove sinfull troubles from the Spirits of the people of God 2 Cor. 5.19 Ioh. 17.3 2 Cor. 3.18 1. Iohn 5.20 is not a bare beleeving of God but a beleeving in God as he is held out in his Son Christ The Devills beleeve and tremble the truth hath a power and authority in it selfe presented to men to subject their spirits and overturne the reasons of men that they are so carried out to assent to truth that they are made to accknowledge Truth to be Truth So Simon Magus and Iudas c. This faith men may have and go to hell Apo. 18.13 Iam. 19. this faith though it carries men to assent to truth yet it never gives men to live in truth nor gives men power from muth to live answerable to truth but this faith which is beleeved in God held out in his Son Christ is a Gospell faith Such a faith Heb. 11.1 the life of which beleeving in Christ is the very excellency and glory of the Godhead held out by Christ and may bee thus described 1. It is for a soule by the supernaturall comming in of God to enâ—oy a supernaturall light from him by which the soule is made able to see a sufficiencie in him to supplie all its wants carrying with it a consent of will from which description we may draw these corrolies First that the life of beleeving in Christ is not onely of Christ but is really in Christ but is really the excellencie that is in Christ which is the matter or obiect of faith beleeved by all that are possest with Christ but I speak this to shew what a sweet union there is betweene the object and the joy ☞ Second corolarie that power that produceth faith is not the bare discoveries of God in Christ to us But it is by a supernaturall and divine revelation and discoverie of Christ in us I speak this for this cause to shew that truth doth and must take hold of us before it can be truely beleeved by us Thrirdly that soule that truely by faith sees Christ sees such transcendent and matchlesse excellencie in Christ Can. 5.10 to 16. Cant. 2.3 Psa 110.3 that he is so overcome by it that he is by the vertue of it voluntarily carried out to consent and submit to it And this is the cause why soules when once they come to see Christ they see nothing lovely like Christ Secondly that is the cause and reason why soules delight and love to live in those sweet beams of love which sweetly runs forth from God through Christ which is not onely light to them but life in them Iohn 1.4 Gal. 2.20 dear friend for the uses of the conclusions I shall leave to you and so much in answer to this place of Scripture Now the next Scripture being John 14.6 7 8. The words being thus Iesus saith to him I am the way the truth and the life no man commeth to the Father but by mee Philip saith to him Lord shew us the Father and it sufficeth ut First of the sixth verse in which words we may consider an answer to a querie Christ speaking in the fourth verse saying whether I go ye know and the way ye know Thomas answereth in the fifth verse we know not whither thou goest and how can we know the way This seems to be a Paradoxe Christ affirming the thing and yet Thomas denying it Doct. Thence we may observe this conclusion it is one thing to know and another to know that we know The second conclusion is that Christ may know that in us and for as that we do not cannot know in nor for our selves I speak this for these ends First to shew it is a greater thing and a higher priviledge to bee known of Christ then to know Christ Secondly it should teach us to live not upon our knowing but upon our being known of Christ Hos 11.3 He that lives upon his knowing and not upon the thing knowne hee lives upon the Streames but not in the Fountain upon the beams but not in the body such a man may have his discoveries of divine things presented to him but he hath little of the marrow of those divine mercies injoyed in him and now I come to the words themselves I am the way the truth and the life No man comes to the Father but by me In which words you may consider a sweet discoverie of that divine Excellencie and sufficience that is in Christ To speak plainely these words hold out First all that can be said concerning the giving downe of the Divine and sweet Excellencies of God through Christ to us And secondly all that can be said of the sweet bringing up of a soul from the comming in of GOD through Christ to us And this is clearly held forth in these words where he saith I am the way the truth and the life I am the way that God gives down himself to you and reveals all that is in himself for you and I am the way through which you are given up to God and through whch you have sweet records and Communion with God and in which you are made able sweetly to see as in an open glasse the divine unfoldings of Gods bosome secrets I meane the mysterie of his minde so that a soule is minded sweetly with the minde of God from which words thus paraphrased on we may observe these brief conclusions Doct. First Coll. 2.9 2 Cor. 3.18 Col. 2.9 that God doth no way give down himself to us as he is in himself but through Christ whom was for that end ordained by himself he is a sutable light to present such an object If this be so what shall we think of those that have found out other ways to bring down God to the creature under the same consideration before spoken of Not to speak of the dead way of nature nor much of the dark way of the Law but also of some guilded path and wayes of the Gospell which men do by using some expressions of the Gospell do endeavour to make a conjunction of Law and Gospell as one way to bring down God Nay men have an art in these times to turne the very effects produced by God they go about to make them causes to cause an alteration in God My meaning is this that even prayer and fasting which in Gods way I much prise Which if true is alone produced by a power from God the end is to fit and alter us and not God Men now a dayes make these meanes as a way to tye and constraine GOD to alter and to change GOD O monstrous I desire to love the work but abhor the
way Objest Surely this fasting you speak of is not so as you say but must needs be true fasting and praying and that for this cause because We have so many answers after one fasting and praying of our desires in them Answ To which I answer if it be so blesse God and I desire to do the same But if you judge of the truth of fasting and prayer by an answer after it and not by a right performing of it then what difference is there I pray you betwixt the Fast of David and the Fast of Ahab But I say no more of this thing Doct. The second conclusion from this first thing is this Ioh. 6 44. that no soul does or can give himself up to God till he enjoys power from the sweet giving downe of GOD to him through his Sonne Christ There may as well be reflections of the beames of a Sunne without a Sunne as returnes to God without the enjoyment of God then things act really to its proper end when they act not only from but in their own Element But what it is to love from the strength of love and to act living acts to a living end from the distilling of a living power I leave you to judge whom I hope lives in those sweet streams Whose spirit is fild by living under the drops of that divine fountain Doct. The third conclusion that we see nothing truly in God nor have no reall communion with God but that which we see and injoy in Christ as the way And so much of this first thing I am the way He saith also I am the Truth Christ may be said to be truth these waves First in that he is the cause declaring truth Secondly he is the object or matter declared by truth for all the Prophets writ of him for all the Prophesies and promises pointed at him Thirdly he is not only so truth but he is truth essentially For God was the Word and the Word was God He faith he is also life that hereby he may appear to be as he is all in all There is but three things essentiall in a mans way First a way to walk in Secondly a light of truth to discover the way Thirdly a power to carry us on in the way or else you must lye still So by this you may see that Christ is all in all to a Christian soul For we are by Christ in Christ carried out to Christ he being the way to God and the truth that discovers God and also the life that carries you on according to the truth discovered to God in that way Doct. And therefore the conclusions from all this 1 Cro 1.30 1 Cro. 3.22 is this That Christ is all in all to a christian soul he is all in them all to them all for them The use of this should teach us First to see all in him Secondly to look for all from him Thirdly to teach us to give all to him Now for the next words wherein Christ saith No man commeth to the Father but but by me This is but an explication of the former words and the same conclusion does naturally arise from it which was this That we see nothing truly in God nor have no reall communion with God but that which we see and enjoy in Christ as the way and I shall say no more of this conclusion nor of this verse Now I shall speak a word or two of the eight verse where Philip said Shew us the Father and it sufficeth us In which words in generall is discovered these two things First a manifestation of a great desire in these words Shew us the Father Secondly the reasons or grounds of this desire First he is a Father Secondly the knowledge of him is a satisfying good in these words and it sufficeth us In the desire consider first the party desiring with the speciall occasion producing that desire which was the sweet manifestations of God by Christ how he was to be understood as held out in Christ The person desiring was a soul possessed with God from whence observe this conclusion That the discoveries of God by Christ Doctr. Cant 5.4 5,16 do abundantly inlarge and take up the heart and desires of that soule that is really possessed with God as he gives forth himselfe through Christ Every-thing loves to live in its owne light God is the light of a soul possessed with himself Secondly every thing loves and in love is most inlarged to its owne center but the foul which is possessed with God is by him really centred in him Thirdly nothing stirs up a thing or inlarges the desire of a thing so much as that which is the onely sutable good to the thing but that soul that is possessed with God and the life of the joy in the soul really flowes from God nothing is so sutable good to that joy as the unfolding of God himself Fourthly men are carried out most sweetly and swiftly to that they apprehend most lovely But that soul that understands the unfolding of God from being really possessed with God sees nothing so lovely as God himself as he is held out in his sonne Christ I say no more of this conclusion Secondly in the desire you may observe the matter desired shewes the thing desired was to see God hence observe this conclusion Doct. That the manifestations of God in the way of the Gospell Iohn 4.10 Iohn 4.41 is a very desirable thing and they that know it will desire after it From the termes of the conclusion you may observe this That the sight of God is an object worth viewing Secondly the Gospell is the onely way to see God in the objects of love Thirdly that no soul can truly desire God in the way of the Gospell till he by him has a knowledge of him Fourthly that soul that ever had a reall knowledge of God can be satisfied by seeing nothing but God And so much of that conclusion Thirdly we are to consider not onely the thing desired but the extent of the desire Shew us Philip did not onely desire it for himselfe but for others as well as himselfe Thence observe this conclusion Doct. That those desires that run forth to God and really flow from God are not desires limited within a mans own breast but extends it self for the good of others as for it self That life which is given out to us and produces desires in us doth really produce a self-dividing power in us That is the cause why Christians are so free in their desires for others and in their discoveries to others what is discovered in them Streams that flow from the fountain as their center need not have secondarie causes to carry them to their center again for they naturally run into it being really one with it So it is with Christians they stand hot in need to have something put in their mouthes in a secondary way Mich. 3.5 Like those Priests in Micah
whom unlesse you put something in their mouthes will bite Or like some whom when they hear that there is an opportunity to preach Christ to creatures they presently demand what they shall have from the creature And if they can have more from the one then from the other their desires is taken off from the least to the most though there is most need where there is lest it is to be feared that it is not the need of the man but the love of the meanes and mony that carries him It is not so with soules possessed with Christ whose desires run out for others as well as for it self in a self-denying way they cannot chuse but breathe forth to others what Christ breaths forth in them So much of that conclusion Fourthly consider the object of their dsires or the person of whom they desire which was Jesus Christ in these words Lord shew us The conclusion from thence is this Doct. That it is the sole work of Jesus Christ Mat. 12.27 to reveale God the Father to the sons of men Hee alone was designed of God the Father for that end Secondly none can truly and fully discover God but those who truly and fully know God but no man truly and fully knowes God in the first sence but the Lord Christ Ergo none can make known God the Father to the sonns of men but Christ Besides if you consider what the true knowledge of God the Father is through the teaching of the Sonne the very nature of that description will confirme this doctrine First we will show you what this knowledge is not First not a naturall light of seeing God wherein reason in apprehending doth so comprehend that reason is the proper judge of what is apprehended Nor secondly do we intend a legall knowledge which light flowes from the Law wherein the soul is made able to see God as a God over him but hot as a God for him unlesse they be for him Nor thirdly we do not intend a gospel knowledge in a notionary way by that I mean mens running out to fetch in notions of the truth and are not fetcht in by the power of the truth and so they rather carry notions of truth then the power of truth carries them And that is the cause why some walke loosely in the profession of the gospell which is a matter of great grief But men do exceeding ill in laying these scandals upon the truth and not distinguish professors from possessors of truth But to give you a description of the true knowledge of God through Christ we may describe it thus It is a supernaturall light set up in the soule by God the life of which light hath his residence in God the actings of which light is all together for God From whence you may observe these corolies The first is this that all means Mat 11.27 nay the perfection of all things below God cannot bring a naturall man spiritually to understand God for it is produced by a supernaturall light set up in the soul from that word set up in the soul you may observe this corolie That that soul that really understands truth from being possessed with truth Iohn 3.29.30 phil 4.8 nothing in that soul is exalted above truth Then from this word Psa 21.13 set up in soul by God from whence you may observe this corolie It is alone the power of God that exalts truth And from this expression the life of which light hath his residence in God observe this corolie That soul that truly knowes God from the commings in of God that light is really maintained by a life that is in God Col 3.3 Cant. 4.16 Then from this word the actings of which light is altogether for God thence observe this corolie That all true light that flowes from God doth sweely carry out a soul Ioh. 1.2 4 5. Gal. 1.16 in every act to live to God the light of knowing is the life of conforming and so much of that conclusion The next thing is the matter desired Shew us thy Father Whence observe this conclusion Doct. To see God as a father Esa 63.16 is that which is very desirable that is the way that God presents himselfe through Christ to the sonnes of men to draw forth love in them to himselfe It is the very tenor of the gospel thus to present God and thus to see GOD. It is a relation that upohlds and indeers more then any it remove feares and confirmes faith we are not to present this relation in the gospell to be begotten by obedience but to beget obedience but no more of this conclusion The last thing is the reason and it sufficeth us Where you may not onely see the reason it sufficeth but the extent of it it sufficeth us Thence observe these two conclusions Doct. First it is a satisfying good to a soul possessed with GOD Psal 4.6 7. Ps 17.15 to see GOD such a soule as he lives and so sees so also he lives by seeing and so far as he sees GOD so far he re-really enioyes what he sees and in the inioyment can see nothing like it And as Iacobs sheep who was made to conceive by a sight of the speckled rods in the Troffes where they drank so Beleevers who are 〈…〉 forth to drink of these still waters which are to refresh the City of God and in them see the beautie and sweetnesse of God and immedeiatly conceive and bring forth fruit sutable to God It is reported that the Dove is made fruitfull by kissing but I am sure that Beleevers who are called Doves By Christ by the lest kisse of the mouth of Christ are made presently to returne reflections of love to Christ My beloved is mine and I am his No more of this conclusion And from these words not onely satisfie but saisfie us you may see As before the desire of Philip that others as well as himselfe might see God so in this place you may see his faith and knowledge in this word It will satisfie us Thence obserue this conclusion Doct. That those that are acquainted with the effects of the truth in themselves can also judge what satisfaction other enjoy from truth as well as themselves that live in the same truth with themselves But I shall speak no more of this conclusion nor of this verse The next Scripture is in the 21 of the Revelation and the latter end of the ninth verse Come hither and I will shew thee the bride the Lambes wife The Revelation holds forth two things First a discoverie of Christ Secondly a discoverie of Antichrist First of Christ and that in these things in the sweet excellencie of himselfe Secondly the neer onenesse the Saints have with himselfe Thirdly Reve. 1.13 14 15 16. 5.12 9.7 12.9 13.1 2. 13 4 5 6 7 8 and 18.2 the great victorie and priviledges the Saints have by Christ Secondly the discoverie