appear in three Particulars 1. Our Savior being in highest Honor and favor in the Court of Heaven and of most perfect intelligence touching all the counsels purposes and proceedings of the Father He there speaks good unto God the Father in our behalf dayly sets on going al the passages of Providence in justice and mercy grace and Truth Patience and Bounty as may best answer al the occasions of the Churches in al their conditions as may most concern them And answerably sends an express by the powerful operation of his good Spirit into the Hearts of his people So verse 11. Keep them through thin own name Joh. 16.15 All things that the Father hath are mine therefore said I that he shal take of mine Christ hath liberty to take of all the choicest of the Treasures of Heaven and those he doth and sends them by the spirit unto the Hearts of his people Joh. 14.16 I will pray the Father and he shal give you another Comforter that he may abide with you for ever Thus our Saviour doth us many secret kindnesses which we little consider and sends privy Intimation how things go in Heaven in our behalf 2. He stands betwixt us and our Harms by these his prayers and Intercession and if there by any evil plotted or intended against us or hurt coming to us he foresees it and way-laies it that it may not be to our prejudice in any particular The guilt of new sins daily committed fresh accusations of conscience new pleas which Satan the accuser of the Brethren would dayly commence and put up unto divine justice against us Our Saviour he is our Advocate undertakes our cause pleads for us and prevailes gives in so ful satisfaction unto divine Juctice that neither sin nor world nor Satan can be heard against us These sins have been committed these dishonors done these evils practised saies Satan and the world can witness and their own consciences Yea saies divine Justice Their Advocate hath been here hath plainly and truly related all these they are not new and hath fully answered and satisfied to the utmost that can be exacted Rom. 8.34 Here is the ground of the Apostles Triumph Who is he that condemneth it is Christ that died nay makes Intercession for us So that there is neither condemnation nor accusation that can get any hearing against them for they are al before discovered and answered the Lord Christ hath intelligence of their intendments and disappoints them wholly 3. He intercepts all our prayers and performances which we tender up unto God and perfumes them with the sweet Odors of the incense of his own Intercession and so they find acceptance and make a pleasant savor in the Nostrils of the Almighty As it is with brackish Water which comes from the Sea passing through some precious Gold or Silver Mines it becomes not only sweet and purified but of Soveraign vertue and tast So it is with our services being brackish with many base distempers which cleave to them and us being intercepted by the Intercession of our Saviour and passing through the Rich mines of his Merits and obedience they prove marvailous pleasing and acceptable to the Lord. Rev. 8.3 The prayers of the Saints are offered up upon the Golden Altar of our Saviors precious Merits As an Advocate in the Court if any of his Clients commend their cause to skaâ—ning though they be weak and unskilful yet he can ripen them and being Rectified present them so ordered as that they may find acceptance with the Lord through the influence of this Application of the vertue of his Merits 3 The Reasons are three 1. Because our Savior Christ hath indifferently undertaken the Salvation of al his Children and therefore out of his faithfulness it cannot be but he should indifferently attain the accomplishment of it in the behalf of them This was the Covenant and Agreement betwen God the Father and Christ Those that the Father in his counsel determined he commended them all unto the care of our Savior and gave him the list as it were of their names that he should look that none of them miscarry Our Saviour did freely undertake that charge for al those so committed to his care and therefore for al must discharge that trust alike Joh. 6.37.38 39 40. All that the Father giveth me shal come to me c. For I came down from Heaven not to do mine own wil but the wil of him that sent me And this is the wil of the Father that of al which he hath given me I should lose none And this is his wil that he that seeth and beleeveth should have everlasting life c. And he professeth he was faithful herein Joh. 10.14 15 16. I am the good Shepherd I lay down my life c. And I have other Sheep and they must come And therefore when he hath gathered al his elect and brought in his tally Here am I and the Children thou hast given me He shall then resign up the Kingdom to the Father 2 Because this is common to all alike The whole work of redemption is common to al that must be redeemed But this is one part Exâ—â—tation answerable to his humiliation Rom. 4. and the last The whole sum is every mans It s called the common Salvation Joh. 16 8 10. This is a convincing of the world of righteousness because I go to the Father Els it had not been complete righteousness 3 Because its necessary alike unto al. Rom. 5.10 How much more shall we be saved by his life Heb. 7.25 He lives that he may save perfectly The Application is as necessary as the Redemption There is the vertue of his death and merits to purchase life And then the vertue of his Intercession to apply it to continue and perpetuate the vigour and vertue of it If Christ hath undertaken for all alike If it be common unto all If it be alike needful for all Then it s that which Christ intends to al his Use 1 for Instruction It s impossible for a beleever to perish to loose his Grace to fal away either totally or finally from Christ and so to be deprived in the Issue of eternal life I Reason thus That which our Savior died for prayed for and doth now make Intercession in Heaven for that he can never fail to attain But for the perseverance of the Saints and for their everlasting Salvation he died and he did Pray and doth pray at this day for Therefore he cannot but attain his end and they also their happiness So he professeth and hath left it upon record to establish the Faith of al His in their greatest shocks Joh 11.41 42. Father I thank thee that thou hast heard me And I knew that thou hearest me alwaies c. Christ hath here proclaimed it we may conclude and that undoubtedly that which he knows who could not be deceived we may know it for a truth and that it wil never deceive us Christ
rebellion and Enmity of this wretched Heart that I rejected life it self took up Armes against the Almighty the offer of his mercy and professed I would none of that Grace of his that might pardon that holiness that might purge and purifie this vile Heart none of that life and Power of his that might quicken me nor hear though he counselled never so wisely I would not yield to his convictions nor come in to those earnest intreaties But Christ would take no nay I must be humbled though I resolved to keep my pride I must submit though my heart was bent to oppose The prayer of Christ would preserve me from my sins and bring me to himself though I would have perished Oh the height the length the breadth of his mercy Christ's Prayer FOR BELEEVERS Verse 21. That they all may be one as thou Father art in me and I in thee that they also may be one in us that the world may beleeve that thou hast sent me IN the former verse we had the parties mentioned and described for whom our Savior prayes the several particulars therein expressed we have opened From this 21. verse to the end we have the matter of our Saviors prayer in a most high heavenly and mysterious manner laid forth and presented to our consideration wherein the incomprehensible worth of his love and wisdom seems to contend for precedency and in truth both incomparable in themselves unconceiveable by the shallow scantling of the weak and feeble capacity of the Sons of Men. To pray and purchase that for his faithful ones that they who are by nature and sin enemies against him and opposite unto him may in a proportionable manner as far as their meanness is capable be as near to him as he to his Father a Poor creature durst not have begd so Rich a favor could not expect it and is hardly brought to beleeve it possible As he Is it true indeed that God will dwell in a Tabernacle made with hands behold the Heaven of Heavens is not able to contain him how much less this House this Heart or as he I am not worthy thou shouldest come under my roof Yet our Savior excludes not the meanest imbraceth al in the Arms and Bowels of his compassion That they all may be one even such silly Poor despicable ones may be one in us Nor yet is the work more glorious than the discovery mysterious deep and unsearchable one in us as I in thee and thou in me which we may rather adore than imagine we can conceive The things he prayes for may be referred to these two Heads 1. What concernes their spiritual wellfare here in this life at least in the tast and beginnings of it 2. What may maintain the top and height of their glory in another world in the meeting concurrence and continuance of al that special happiness they shall attain unto Father I will that those which thou hast given me may be where I am q. d. He would not live in Heaven unless he might have his members with him not content to be in glory unless they might be the Spectators of it and sharers that he might be in them and the love of God in them for ever The special things which he begs as that which concerns their eternal wellfare is only this and in truth almost al or more than al is contained in it viz. That they al may be one This is Propounded first Amplified by several circumstances in the 21 22 23. verses 1. By the special nature of this unity or Oneness what is meant and understood namely to be one in them laid out by way of resemblance As the Father is in the Son and the Son in the Father so they should be one in them 2. From the end why Namely the lifting up of the honor of Christ in the Hearts and acknowledgments of the ungodly even by a constraining evidence whether they wil or no their own consciences will yield it and their mouths also confess it at the day of Judgment That Christ was sent from the Bosom of the Father to bring his servants unto himself when he passed by the greatest part of the world as he found them so left them in their sins 3. The means by which they come to attain this so great a priviledg verse 22. I have given them the glory thou gavest unto me that they may be one as we are one 4. The order how this is dispensed how received dispensed from God received by them verse 23. To-wit Christ should be in them the Father in Christ and so they should be made perfect in one And here the end is repeated and inlarged also further That ths world may know that he hath sent his Son for this end and that he hath loved them as he loved him Ye have the several truths set out in their order before you and how woven together this is the Key of this Scripture and willet in some light for the more clear discovery of so mysterious truth The main divine truth to be attended is this The chief Priviledg of the Saints Doct. for which our Savior especially prayes is That they all may be one This is the Sum and pith of the great request of the Lord Jesus which he puts up in the behalf of al beleevers as the choicest legacy he would bequeath unto them and leave with them and lay in for their behalf when he was to leave the world that which he propounds in the first place before all others repeates again and pursues it as the grand Suit of al that did concern their good That they may al be one If once this can be attained nothing can be wanting what ever shall be desired and is truly good The unity of Beleevers is the great priviledg of which they can partake and for which our Savior prayes We are here to inquire 1. Of what kind of unity our Savior and the Text here speaks 2. What that unity is wherein it consists and by what discerned Touching the Answer to the First I must crave leave under favour and correction to step aside from the common Road the usual apprehension of many Interpreters whose Judgment and knowledg I highly prize and reverence and with whom I could desire to concur and easily so should but that Evidences out of the Text to my seeming and shallowness at least are so cleer that they constrain my Judgment to go a little aside I Answer therefore 1. Negatively 2. Affirmatively Negatively The union of love and concord with the faithful as the members of the same Body ought to maintain in their hearts and consciences and in their converse and societies one with another keeping that unity of spiritual agreement in the bond of peace to think the same thing and speak the same thing to be of the same mind and Heart as it was said of them in the Primitive times Act. 1.14 They continued with one accord and
sickness had he but the Physitian by him that could heal It would refresh the Child in Misery and want were the tender mother by that would pity could relieve Our Saviour is al and more than al he can answer al thy desires and he is present and apprehensive of thy grievances In all their afflictions he was afflicted He is in thee he shares in al thy sorrows Why persecutest thou me So David Psal 73.26 My heart and my flesh al inward and outward helps fail but the Lord is the strength of my heart his wisdom was in his mind his subjection in his wil his sweet calms and quiet in his distempered affections that strengthened al. USE 6. Matter of Humiliation to all the Saints who have Christ so neer to them so spiritually so specially present with them and yet they know so little of him are so little acquainted with him As Paul in another case Acts 17.23 touching the Altar set up to the unknown God he answers Whom ye ignorantly worship him I shew unto you for he is not far from you for in him we live and move and have our being So of Christ whom ye ignorantly worship and desire to see and enquire of Christ by Christ As Mary asked of the Lord where the Lord Jesus was O! they go weeping and seeking after a Savior complain they cannot hear of him c. mourn after him He is not far from you nay is in you and works al your works for you Your Consciences have been in terror and perplexity and again quelled Tweetly and calmed it was Christ that did it Your Spirits were sunk down in discouragements and knew not how to recover themselves and yet beyond hope supported it was Christ that did it And therefore as our Saviour complained and checked Philip John 14.9 Have I been so long with you and dost thou not know me Philip Hath Christ so long striven with those rebellious so long comforted quickened in weaknesses strengthened you in wants supplied helped you to cal so often heard so long born with al that baseness and do ye not yet know Jesus Christ Complain of thine own blindness and heedlesness The Lord Jesus was in this place in this heart and I was not aware of him wretch that I am Gen. 28.16 USE 7. Here is matter of Admiration even to force us to stand amazed at the endless compassion of a Savior Why should he pass by so many as good and better than our selves as we came out of the Lyons of Adam yet to knock at our doors cal upon us John 14.22 Lord why wilt thou shew thy self to us and not unto the world Why shed his blood for us send his Spirit to us why pass by so many provocations and pity and pardon us As Solomon Behold the Heaven is not able to contain thee how shal this so poor a Tent So thou of thy heart and is it possible Or as she How comes it that the Mother of my Lord is come unto me It was Moses his Dispute Deut. 4.34 Did ever God assay c. Did ever people hear God c. But they have God dwelling in them USE 8. Of Exhortation 1. To be affected with the presence of so great a Majesty and so affected with his presence as to see our own weakness and worthlesnes When God had Schooled Job out of the Whirl-whind see how he sits down abased Behold I am vile How the Centution esteemed the presence of our Saviour in the daies of his Humiliation Behold I am not worthy thou should'st come under my Roof How we of our Saviours Spiritual presence now in glory to come so neer as to dwel in these wretched hearts of ours 2. Therefore study to give suitable entertainment and welcom to so glorious a Guest set al our abilities on work as Abraham his Servants that we may answer the coming and kindness of the Lord. And that 's in Two things 1 Content him with the provision we make 2 Honor him with attendance that is meet 1 Study his Content Walk in all well-pleasing Col. 1.10 2 Cor. 5.9 Be Ambitious to please As with persons of great quality we enquire of their followers what wil please what Diet they desire we provide it if can be purchased with money So here This in four things 1. Bring truth of Spirit in al our performances Psal 51.6 Thou lovest truth in the inner parts So Hezekiah Remember how I have walked before thee with an upright heart Isa 38.3 God seeks for such who is a God of Truth just and right Deut. 32.4 only the heart of al the Sacrifice 2. Present him with nothing but his own That which he commands not he accepts not Who required these things No man knows what wil please him before he shew his pleasure Matth. 15.9 They worship him in vain when they invent dishes of their own 3. Let the Diet be fresh and new dressed That which is old and stale it is not wholsom much less honorable to set it before a stranger It must be fresh fat and good and new killed Psal 98.1 David speaks of a new Song of Thanksgiving As in the Shew-bread which was dayly set before the Lord it must be set on fresh in the several seasons Levit. 24.8 Exod. 25.30 each Sabboth God gives a new Command It 's an old Command but renewed with fresh colors a new Covenant Jer. 31.31 So we bring new Love Faith and Repentence renew and stirr up a fresh thy Graces 4. Humility and feare Mic. 6.8 Isa 66.2 Men converse with marvailous underness and awfullness before great personages when they are sleight and negligent in the presence of their underlings So must we be awful and feareful when we come into Christs presence to be negligent here is to dishonor and to distast him it is to use him as an underling 2. Honor him with our attencance 1. Attend him with gladness and cheerfullness of heart Joy is a sit Chamberlain to wait comes and goes readily Deut. 28.47 With glad hearts Act. 2.46 Eat their meat together with joyfulness of heart God loves a cheerful look not lowring 2. With a ready watchfulness to listen to the intimation of Gods mind Observe every look take notice of the least beck listen to the lowest speech watch every passage and appearance of the pleasure of the Lord. Luk. 12.35 Stand with your loynes girt and your Lamps burning waiting for his coming Have al trim our Lamps and Vessels Here Lord. See what God would and suit answerably Thou in me We have handled the first degree attending the order of our Savior who looks at them as they appeare to us and therefore so propounds them as they may be most easily apprehended We are now come to the first fountain and original from whence this spiritual priviledg and unity hath his rise dispensed and communicated That is from the In-being of the Father in Christ This is the highest degree further than which we cannot
first part observed in this Prayer The person to whom it s directed Viz. To God as a Righteous Father 2. The Prayer it self The second part comes now into consideration Viz. The Prayer it self where digressing from the order of the particulars as they were laid out in the opening of the text and taking the words as they first come to hand we shal begin with the description of the parties for whom the Prayer was made and therein first that dissimilitude and unlike condition that is between the world and them The World hath not known thee 1. By WORLD is meant the wicked of the world I pray not for the world but for those that thou hast given me out of the world Verse 6.9 1 Joh. 5.19 We know that we are of God and the whole WORLD liveth in wickedness Where these two are put in way of opposition To be of God to be begotten and called of him and to be such As lie in Wickedness they are such as be made up of Worldly Principles take up their abode in wickedness and are brought to bed in it Because the God of this world rules in them 2. Cor. 4.4 Because the Spirit of the world acts them perverted mutability whereby they are under the power of the Creature that carries them along 1 Cor. 2.12 We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit of God Because they take content in the things of the world Mind earthly things Phil. 3.19 Are Children of the World 2. These Wicked persons do not know the Father Know That is they have not a real and right conceiving of the Father as in that Faithfulness and Fatherly affection wherein he communicates himself to his For in that special consideration this knowledg is here to be attended and so restrained He saith not nor yet meaneth that they did not know God or know the Father as God or his Deity for it is directly contrary to the expression and affirmation of the Apostle touching the Gentiles in the general look at them in the lump as they lie in the loynes of lost Adam Rom. 1.18 They know God but did not glorifie God as God nay God is not only manifest to them but in them Verse 19. But look at him as a Father and in regard of that Faithfulness he expresseth towards his and then ye have the meaning of our Savior and the mind of the Spirit of God in the place The wicked and ungodly of the world Doct. they know not the Fatherly Love of God which he in faithfulness dispenseth towards his They know him not as a Righteous Father though they may and happily do know him as a God This our Savior takes as granted and gives it as the reason of al that wretched proceeding of the ungodly against the Saints in al Ages Joh. 16.3 These things they wil do unto you because they have not known the Father nor me Joh. 15.12 These things wil they do unto you for my Names sake because they knew not him that sent me And this is not only true of those Who are of meane place and parts who happily neither had helps to instruct them nor abilities to improve such means of knowledg as might lead them to the understanding of the Father As they spake of the baser sort This People that know not the Law A company of Poor silly deluded sottish Creatures that never had teaching and training up in the knowledg of the Lord But our Savior affirmes it of such who thought their penny good Silver and prided themselves in the profession knowledg of the truth nay Chalenged both interest and acceptance in God as a Father Joh. 8.54 55. If I honor my self my honor is nothing It is my Father that honoreth me of whom ye say that he is your Father And yet ye have not Known him q. d. Though ye lift up your heads and would bear the world in hand that ye are the only people of the Lord stand in such neer relation are so dearly affected to him and so highly esteemed of him that he is your Father when in truth these are but fals Presumptions of your Priviledges and vaunting of your Pride for yet to this day ye have not known him you that are the learned Doctors of the Law you who profess your selves the Guides and Leaders of the people and to be instructers of such who are ignorant and therefore should know the mysteries of Godliness yet ye know not the Father but I know him Object But you wil say however this may be granted confessed to be true of the rude and unlearned multitude which are marvailous sottish in themselves and insufficient to search into the knowledg of the perfections of the Deity Yet that the profound Schollers yea Ministers though wicked and ungodly yet for time Standing studies mervailous eminent Dextrous and famous for their skil in al Tongues and Arts Nay who have Preached both long and much of the Deity and persons of Christ and of the special relation betwixt the Father and Christ should yet be ignorant of them how can this suit with reasonable apprehension Answer four things 1. Though the perfections of the Deity may be apprehended by the dictates of our consciences and the creation of the world yet the discerning of the Trinity of the persons in the unity of the God-Head is beyond the ability of any of the lost Sons of Adam being left unto the search which the light of their own reason wil lead them unto And because as the unity of the God-head doth most appear by the works of creation so the distinction of the persons is best perceived by the works of Redemption Because our natural reason cannot compass it it s not sufficient to conceive this And therefore ye shal observe when ever either question or expression is presented to any of the wisest of the Heathen touching Redemption or resurrection They look at it as a meer delusion and dream and cast it a way with scorn Act. 17.32 When Paul Spake of the resurrection some mocked some wondred and said we wil hear thee again of this matter 2. That God the Father should be the Father of Christ as God-Man and in Faithfulness dispense Fatherly love to any of his It exceeds the reach of al Humane Reason and had it not been revealed in the Scriptures it could never have been apprehended by the improvement of the best abilities of men and Angels 1 Cor. 1.20 When the world in the Wisdom of God knew not God that is by the Wisdom that he had left imprinted on the works of creation and providence they could not know God in Christ nor the way of his dispensation therein It pleased God the foolishness of Preaching to save them that belâ—eve By that which the world cals foolishness For the Cross of Christ is foolishness to the Grecian and a stumbling Block to the Jew 3. Though it doth exceed the reach of
that is the Father appointing and sending The other Viz. The Son coming upon that commission of love and life for the good of his which they knew and in which they rejoyce That Christ who was in the commission to work this and they for whom it was wrought and knew it have an interest in it and take content to injoy it That such persons should Beg for such Priviledges From such a Father whose heart is towards them and their minds and hearts towards him and his Fatherly affection This must of necessity be of great power to prevail with so righteous a Father to hear and grant therefore we must hold it to this point and respect Christ knows him as a righteous Father The Lord Christ hath the knowledg of the Father and his love and Faithfulness in an especial manner Take a place or two which wil give undeniable testimony to this truth Math. 11.25 No man knows the Father but the Son and he to whom the Son wil reveal him Joh. 1.18 No man hath seen the Father at any time but the only begotten Son who was in the Bosom of the Father He saw al his Bosom secrets and was fully acquainted with Gods heart and counsels he hath revealed them unto us And therefore the Apostle issues al here speaking concerning the deep things of God The Spirit searcheth the deep things of God that is of the Father but how come we to rellish either the things of the Father or Spirit who hath known the mind of God Why we have Christs mind and he knows the Fathers mind And our Savior professeth as much touching this expression Joh. 8â—38 Ye speak the things that ye have seen with your Father and I speak the things that I have seen with my Father Here we shal open three things 1. How Christ as Second Person is said to knâ—w the Father 2. How as Man becomes to share in this knowledg 3. The Reason of it To the First For the right apprehending how the Second Person may in a peculiar manner be said to know the Father we must conceive that the knowledg of Christ as Second person may be attended upon a double consideration or ground 1. As it Issues from the understanding of the God-Head For God according to the expression of the Scripture being a Spirit of al other most excellent and therefore reasonable he must have the most excellent faculties and therefore understanding and wil. For what is most eminent that we have allowance from the rule to beleeve that it doth belong to the God-Head and we may so conceive of it From this understanding it is that the God-Head is said to be Omniscient to know al things that are knowable This being an Attribute of the Deity it doth equally belong to al the persons For al the Persons having one and the same God-Head they have equally al the Attributes of the God-Head indifferently equally belonging to them Therefore al are eternal immortal infinâ—e Omnipotent Omniâ—cient and so know al things and â—o know each other in this generall sense and the Father and spirit know the Son and He them by this kind of knowledg But this is too large not here attended For it is not proper to say That the God-Head knows the Father to be Father of it with that speciâ—l reference or that the God-Head should cal the Father my Father I say it is not proper nay it is not true For the Father is not the Father of the God-Head but of the Son If it could cal the Father as Father of it then it should be the Son of the Father then it should be begotten of the Father But the Father begets the Son not the God-Head That which belongs to the God-Head belongs to al the persons as being common then to the Spirit Then the spirit might know and cal the Father the Father of it but that he is not That which belongs to the God-Head belongs to the Father and so the Father might be a Son to himself 2. This knowledg is to be considered according as it attends the manner of the work of the understanding which carries a specialty of respect with it in the act thereof and so it may in a peculiar manner be affirmed of Father and Son and in the several regards appropriated unto either The reason whereof we shal scan anon as it comes in our way when the understanding of the God-Head by knowing it self conceiveth an image of it self makes an impress or engraven character of it self which it ever eyes and owns this manner of knowing belongs to the Father and thence Issues an especial manner of knowing the Father by and in the Son As Joh. 10.15 As the Father knows me I know the Father And that appears in a Three-fold act of the Son 1. The Son takes the Impression of his Image 2. Returnes it 3. Eyes and ownes the Imprinter of it 1. Takes this Impression The Father gives him Sonship and the nature of al relation requires they give being each to other The Father by understanding conceives an Image the Son is the Image conceived As a man is not a Father because he is a man but because he begets a Son A man is not a Son because he is a man but because he is begotten of a Father So the God-Head is not a Father because God-Head but because it conceives an Image of it self The Son is not a Son because God but because he is conceived of another who did conceive This is the meaning of the Apostle The words are marvailous pat and Pithy and carry wieght with them but answer exactly to the thing in Hand Hebr. 1.3 Christ as the second person is called The Ingraven Form or Character of the Fathers Person The word signifies to ingrave and implies an Image of a thing not feigned only in our mind and Imagination nor vanishing and changing as in a representation in a Glass as the form of the face thâ—re But a form or resemblance Ingraven Cut or instamped on Brass or Wood which hath stability permanency with it As Beza in Locum 2. Returns this Impression As the Son takes all from the Father â—o he Returns al to the Father It is the Nature of those things that are relates or in relation to look one towards another and to give being relative one to another That is the meaning of the Apostles other phrase in the place formerly alledged Hebr. 1.3 Christ is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Shine of his glory the word signifies a Light or brightness shining from a Light a shine from a light reflecting or looking back to that reflection of light again And here by the way ye have the rise and reason of these divers manners of understanding in the God-Head and so the diverse subsistences and Personalities Namely because the understanding of the God-Head acting upon it self it becomes to be reflected and turned back upon it self If there be a reflect act
trusting too much to Earthly Contentments Psal 30.6.7 I said in my prosperity I shal never be moved Lord by thy favor thou hast made my mountain to stand strong Thou did'st hide thy Face and I was troubled When we turne our Eyes and hearts to the world God turns away his gracious respect he expressed towards us He wil make his presence welcome or he wil withdraw Math. 23.38 Ye shal see me no more til ye shal say blessed is he that cometh in the Name of the Lord. And therefore our Savior settles himself in this Math. 11.25 I thank thee O Father because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent If any man love the world the love of the Father is not in him 1 Joh. 2.16 2. Beware of Resistance of the Truth when it is made known If ye wil not have his word to direct you ye shal not have the knowledg of his Mercy that may support and refresh you When the spirit of truth comes to lead us into al truth then it shal take of Christs and shew to us Joh. 16. and Joh. 17.8 I have given them thy word and they have Received it and they have known that thou hast sent me This receiving wil let in this knowing Revel 3.20 If any wil open I will come and Sup with him 1 Joh. 2.24 If the word that ye have heard abide in you ye also shal continue in the Son and in the Father so Verse 27. 3. Take heed of Sleighting and making little account of any of the Commandements of the Lord Presume not to neglect the least or tamper with any sinful distemper or give way to infirmities or passions So Jonah 2.8 He that trusteth in Lying vanities for saketh his own Mercy That is the mind of the context Joh. 14.23 If any man love me be wil keep my words and my Father wil love him and we wil come unto him and make our abode with him And Verse 21. I will manifest my self to him that is keep him in his purity keep him in his power as we keep liquors that they loose none of their life they drink lively and quick as when new put up 3. Collection The Faithful should increase in the knowledg and right apprehension of this Name of Gods Fatherly mercy and it is their own fault if they do it not for els they might For where can there be any cause of none Proficiency found but in our selves Christ hath undertaken the work and who more able than he who is the Wisdom of the Father and came out of his Bosom and therefore is able to make known those Bosom secrets of Gods Fatherly Love which never did see Sun and reveal them Yea he is as willing as able and ready to communicate these unknown depths of Gods indeared affections Yea you that are faithful you have experience of his sufficiency this way you have a pawn in your hand a real proof of what he hath done when you were at the worst not only unskilful but uncapable of his knowledg Yea he hath made you know the things belonging to your Peace when ye never sought after nor inquired for him And he is the same that ever he was and professeth he wil make it known there is no fault nor want in Christ But you are wanting to him and your selves and play the Trevants in this are laze and heedless to learn that which is so carefully so constantly taught you If a Scholler had the choicest and ablest man for his parts most diligent in his place to be his â—â—acher yet if he came not on in his learning but stood at a stay every man would conclude there is no want of sufficiency or Faithfulness in the Master he might have grown and many have come on under him but the cause and fault is in his own heedlessness Object But alas my person is mean my infirmities so many my parts so Poor I am a very Dullard heavy headed long before I can attain a little but am never likely to come to any great matter Answ There is no one excepted not one excluded that is faithful He hath given thee knowledg he can as wel add to what he hath given and he wil do it Thy weakness cannnot hinder his Faithfulness who hath promised Yea he is ready and professeth his willingness that he wil make thee know Nay he is unweariable to teach notwithstanding al thy unteachableness to learn He hath given thee a mind to know and he wil increase that knowledg and make him dayly more known that thou mayest dayly increase Isa 48.17 I am the Lord thy God which teacheth thee to profit which leadeth thee by the way that thou shouldest go And Chap. 42.16 I wil lead the Blind by a way that they knew not c. This I wil do unto them and not forsake them 4. Collection We here see the Reason why after many Prayers made many pains improved by diligence and endeavor of the dear Servants of the Lord that men might see and savingly and experimentally know the precious Name of Fatherly Mercy yet after al many are at so great a loss and know so little find almost nothing of the sweetnesâ— which is to be had out of this Name that Christ wil make known and would make known to them Truly we do not go to the right door and we receive not the dole Christ is the way to lead us to the Father and we miss the way and so attain not to our end Christ is said to be the Light Isa 49.6 He is given as a Light unto the Gentiles In him was the Promise of Life and that is the Light of men to lead them by the hand to the Love of God the Father and the Faithful Performance of the Covenant And we follow not that Light but we compass our selves about with our own Sparks and follow the light of our own Fire the carnal conceivings and contrivements of our own Carnal Reason and stay not upon the Name of God and therfore it is we lie down in Sorrow Isa 50.11 Christ bids us learn of him Matth. 11.29 Buy of him Rev. 3.18 And we learn of our own Delusions and Discouragements we learn of the wrong Master go to the wrong Shop buy of our own Abilities make Tradings of our own We should not look to our own Grace but to Christ first to quicken our Grace 5. Collection Here is matter of Abasment of heart and holy fear in both which we ought to walk before the Lord. 1. Ground of Abasement Not to boast of any measure of enlightening or Assurance which at any time we do partake of as though by any sufficiency of ours or improvement of any Ability of our own we had attained thereunto There is never a spark of this Fire but it is from Heaven not one Beam of holy Light but it comes from this Sun The entrance continuance perfection al is from him he is the Author and
words of our Saviors Prayer with which he issues and closes al and that is the Aim and desire of our Savior for which he praies and for the obtaining of which he hath and he wil declare the Fathers Name unto the Faithful Viz. That the Love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them and I in them For the understanding of which words we shal open these four Things 1. How the Father loves Christ 2. How that Love is said to be in them that is the Faithful 3. The Means and Order know this is done 4. When we shall know this To the First 1. This Love is that which in an especial manner is appropriated unto our Savior It 's a peculiar Legacy and Inheritance which appertains to him as a Son And therefore look at it as we must do in this place as circumstantiated in the special Respects and Considerations as proceeding from the Father as the Father and terminated and bounded upon him as a Son It 's peculiarized and impropriated to him and to him alone That however it may be said and that truly in a true sense of al the glorious Persons in the blessed Trinity that they love each other yet this Love as it is dyed in the heart of the Father hath as it were the Tincture of that Relation out of which in an especial manner it ariseth and is resolved and rests in and upon the Son So it is given to him and in that respect and is of the like Nature with some other Acts which are so attributed As the Father sends the Son the Son is sent only by the Father 2. This Love is founded firstly in that Eternal Generation whereby the Son was begotten of the Father before al Worlds For therein is the root of those Relative Properties and so that Personal distinction that appears betwixt the Father and the Son and consequently of al those proper respects that appertain to each and be attributed to them in a distinct manner 3. Hence there ariseth a special knowledg betwixt the Father and the Son which answers the Specialty of their Relation For that is a Consequent which follows from things that undergo relative Respects they give special intimation each of other because they give relative being each to other And therefore our Savior when he checked Philip for his ignorance because he knew not the Father Have I been so long time with you and knowest thou not me he that hath seen me hath seen the Father John 14.9 Relatives give Being each to other and therefore give Knowledg each of other Matth. 11.27 No man knoweth the Son but the Father and no man knows the Father but the Son As we see it in the Sensitive Creatures so in al Generations there is an especial owning each of other as the yong owns the Dam the Dam the yong by smel or bleating He that hath his mind rectified by a Truth he wil own that Truth that did rectifie him The Son is the shine of the Fathers Wisdom Heb. 1.3 A Light sprung from a Light John 10.15 4. The Father begets his Son he owns him when he is begotten the shine and engraven Form of his own personal Excellency Lastly He loves whom he thus owns The heart of the Father is wholly taken up with him his thoughts wholly set upon him his Soul is wholly satisfied in him an Infinite and Eternal Favorite of an Infinite and Eternal Father so that he cannot look off him ravished with his beauties and with an infinite fulness of Soul-pleasing satisfaction takes contentment in him This Love look we at the next effects of it discovers it self in these two things which are to be attended in this place In Vnion that is most neer Communion that is most intimate and inward Love laies out it self in these two especially wherein the heart-blood and vital Spirits of Love express themselves 1. The neerness of Vnion Therefore our Savior presseth this with so much instancy and holds the thoughts of Philip upon this Consideration Beleevest thou not that the Father is in me and I am in the Father q. d. It 's strange thou should'st fal short of this and therefore verse 11. he sets home this Truth as the main Corner Stone of a Christians Comfort Beleeve me I am assured of what I speak and it concerns thee deeply to receive what I say as the lowest Foundation of thy Faith I am in the Father and the Father in me or else beleeve me for the very Works sake These Works would never have been done could never be accomplished nor your Comfort maintained therein unless this In-being taken together with the manner of it as Son and Father be proper to them And therefore it is that the Father is said to dwell in the Son a Phrase not attributed to the Holy Spirit in the Sense and manner of Apprehension nay they are said to be one viz. in point of this Relative Union John 10.30 For having said verse 28. None shall pluck his Sheep out of his hand he adds Because the Father who gave them him is greater than all and he and his Father are one and therefore if they cannot pluck them out of his Fathers hand they cannot out of his Nay this is made the ground of the great accomplishment of al the great works he did John 10.37 38. If I do not the works of the Father beleeve me not But if I do though ye beleeve not me beleeve the Works that ye may know and beleeve that the Father is in me and I in him And therefore they are alwaies conjoyned in the Work by our Savior My Father worketh hitherto and I work John 5.17 therefore he is said to come out of his bosom and to lie in the Bosom of his Love And this is true in regard of Christ God-man in regard of that Hypostatical Union the Humane Nature hath with the Second Person and subsistence it hath in him 2. The intimateness of Communion This Love layeth open it self in most inward and intimate Communion of the Father and Son each with other as we have formerly observed from Prov. 8.30 I was with him c. and was his delight a word compounded of two to behold and to retain So to eye and gaze upon another with ravishment and so pleasingly to apply our selves to that other as to hold and keep him with us for ever They have mutual intercourse in al their Operations The Son works nothing but what he sees the Father work Speaks nothing but what he hears the Father speak doth nothing but what the Fathers Wil is They mutually glorifie one another and that is their aim in al they do John 17.1 Father glorifie thy Son that thy Son may glorifie thee ver 4 5. I have glorified thee on Earth glorifie thou me with thine own self with the Glory which I had with thee before the World was He hath then the Soveraign Dispensation of al Works from the Father
Chapter 4.32 The multitude of them which beleeâ—ed were of one mind and one Heart This unity of amity of love and mutual and spiritual aâ—cord is not the chief aim and intendment of the Text nor yet the purpose of the prayer of our Savior Though indeed it may be collected and inferred from this and to my apprehension the very letter doth look another way and speaks aloud touching another thing For so 1. The words immediately following are marvailous plain and express That they may be one in us True it is they should be and those that have the same spirit of love as the same soul in many members they wil be of one and the same affection each to other but that Christ now prayes for which presupposeth this and is indeed the foundation thereof is Namely that they be one in us and then they wil be at unity one with another Yea the very manner of speech laid down by way of comparison and resemblance seems to be added as a further clearing and interpretation of that which went before That which was propounded there in the general here comes more fully to be explicated As though our Savior had said when I pray that al beleevers may be one my meaning may thus be conceived and my intendment rightly understood by this resemblance As I am in the Father and the Father in me the scope of my prayer is that they should be one in us after their manner Again when our Savior sets down the order how he would have this unity attained and preserved the speaks ful verse 23. I in them and thou in me and so they shal be made perfect into one q. d. If they all be in me as I am in thee then are they in unity and thou being in me and I in them then are they perfected in this unity As they are one in me and so in thee by spiritual dependance to receive al So I am one in them and thou in me by spiritual influence and we communicate al unto them 2. The Second reason is out of verse 22. Where the Glory which Christ hath received and given to his servants is made a means to obtain this unity The glory which thou hast given to me I gave to them that they may be one as we Whence it follows by undeniable evidence This unity is one Stayr and degree beyond the glory it self which the Saints receive For it s a rule-case in reason the end is more excellent and of greater worth and goodness than the means appointed for the end Unity of affection among the Saints is part of that glory or an ingredient which makes up the glory of the Saints but this unity is the end of that glory and so more excellent therefore somthing beyond that or any ingredient in it 2. I answer affirmatively in a word The unity here meant is the unity of that spiritual relation which they have to Christ and in him to God the Father not the unity of affection or charity which they have one to another and one between another That which is more excellent than this unity of affection as being the end unto that is ordained unto that as the end that must be somthing beyond it so this unity is That which is properly bounded by the words of the text and intendment of the place upon Christ and the Father in him That unity is not the unity of affection but of relation But this unity by the express testimony of the truth and Text is bounded upon the Father in Christ That they may be one in us therefore the unity here intended is that of relation not of affection We have now gained the first what kind of unity this is We are now to inquire wherein this consists or how it may be discerned The explication of this wil be the interpretation of the words of the Text which follow which are applied as far as yet I can conceive by the most sad consideration unto this very purpose now in hand For when our Savior had prayed That they might be one That they might aright understand it and so the exceeding love of Christ who did not seek nor so obtain for he is ever heard in what he asks any mean or ordinary blessing or common courtesie for them for their present comfort and refreshing But the choicest mercy a blessing of incomparable worth and surpassing excellency That I say they might understand this and receive sutable comfort for it He addes by way of explication what he meaneth with as much plainness as such a spiritual mystery which touched the very inward Heart-Blood of our happiness could be discovered q. d. If you ask what I mean by this unity and whereby it may de discerned I answer by this familiar comparison As I am in the Father and he in me so I wish they may be one in us So that here we must unfold 1. How the Son is one in the Father he one in him 2. Then conceive after what manner the Saints and beleevers must be one in them for this Christ hath prayed this he hath obtained this shall undoubtedly be received Both which I cannot tel how more nakedly to lay open than to express in several short propositions or conclusions 1. The ground of this resemblance taken from the manner of the Sons being in the Father is not to be attended nor ought to be considered in regard of the God Head or essence of the Deity but in regard of their subsistence as they be distinct persons in this their dispensation Therefore the word is in the plural One in us as shewing the number of the persons besides they are put by way of particular distinction each to other the Father in the Son the Son in the Father not so much as mentioning nor yet taking the God-Head into the comparison is common to them both indifferently as I am in thee not in the God-Head thou in me not as both in the God-Head for that was to be one in a third not in themselves 2. Their being each in other issues out of the mutual respect they have each unto the other The Father wholly and alone gives his being and sonship unto Christ The Son as he receives so he returnes his being to the Father as relates or things in relation look each to other alone receive and give consistence one to another and depend each upon other in that behalf and so to be in the other mutually their very constitution and being rising from this concurrence mutual holding each upon the other and â—o may be truly said to be in each other As buying is in refeâ—â—nce ever to selling Giving ever in reference to taking so that one cannot be without the other give being each to other and so may be said to be in each other So the Father as such looks only to the Son the Son looks only to the Father He is not a Father because God but because he hath
acknowledgment thereof And to speak once for all 1. What the word the weight of the phrase carries 2. In what regard our Savior is said to be sent 3. Wherein this sending lies 1. The word sending or as the Latin phrase hath it Mission carries ever two things in it 1. The Authority of him that sends in respect of the party that is sent but it is not the authority of dominion and rule so much as that Authority of order or communication of a work from one unto another And in this sence he only can be said to be sent who works from another and works not originally from himself 2. It implies a new act or impression upon the creature whereby it hath it's self in some other frame or disposition than formerly Take it in this breadth and extent you shal find that in scripture the Son and holy Spirit are only said to be sent and it is never attributed to the Father Gal. 4.4 God sent his son Joh. 15.26 But when the Comforter shall come whom I will send unto you from the Father And this cannot be any created Grace or work for the words following determine that full The Spirit of truth which proceedeth from the Father Joh. 14.20 But the Comforter which is the holy Spirit whom the Father will send in my name When-ever then the action with the manner also from such a person are comprehended in this sending It is 〈◊〉 given to or affirmed of the Father because it sigâ—â—â—ie not an act only expressed by a person but an 〈◊〉 from a person in such a manner as that he hath Auâ—â—â—â—â—y in way of order originally to act before another at the least And the other to act from him But because the Father cannot act from the Son and Holy Ghost but both Son and Holy Ghost they do not act only but act in their order and manner from another the Son from the Father and the Holy Ghost from both therefore they are truly said to be sent But if they look at the act only which is expressed upon the creature then this sending is and ought to be given to all the presons As the Incarnation of our Savior is one thing in his sending Therefore those two are joined God sent his Son made of a Woman as made so sent and herein the Holy Ghost had a hand whether we look at the sanctification of the seed in the Womb or the uniting of it to the second person There al the persons work So likewise in the dispensation of the office of our Savior in his whol proceeding the works of the Holy Ghost went along Isa 61. The Spirit of God was upon me he sent me to preach and he preached and performed all those great works by the strength and operation of his spirit 2. In what regard our Savior is said to be sent Not as the second person in the glorious Trinity whereby he is God blessed for ever equal with the Father for so the Apostle professeth Phil. 2.6 Being in the form of God thought it no robbery to be equal with God i.e. Had the glory of the Deity truly appertaining to him and the God-Head dwelling in him and knew his own worth and right therefore willingly submitted himself to that Under-condition not by constraint for he wel understood what his due was But as he was God and man and assumed our Nature and became mediator in our Room and stead So he professeth of himself That his Father is greater than he As he took upon him the forme of a servant became our surety and came in the similitude of sinful flesh yet without sin Joh. 14.28 In his voluntary and free dispensation as he was willing to take our flesh and dwel thereby amongst us so is he inferiour to himself as God and so to his Father And yet take the work it self and the manner of the work as it was explicated before and the phrase of sending implies he is only sent of the Father But look at the work Earely he may be said to be sent by all but that is unusual nay in open phrase never to be found in Scripture because the word comes not in that sense to our view As he becomes to take our Nature so he was sent But as Son by eternal generation he is made fit to take our Nature And therefore it is the assuming of Human Nature is made a propriety a thing peculiar to the second person Insomuch that it is heresie to say the Father was incarnate or the Holy Ghost incarnate What ever appertaines to our Savior as the second person and as the Son of the Father that he had by eternal generation and in a peculiar manner from the Father But as second person he assumes and so is sent and dispenseth the work of our Redemption Therefore so far he is in a peculiar manner sent from the Father and in this sense he is never said to be sent but from the Father in the Verdict of Scripture 2. As he assumes and becomes incarnate so is our Nature taken into personal union with the second person so far is it advanced and hath a priviledg and liberty to use any Attribute so far he sends the spirit even the Holy Ghost from the Father and dispenseth al power from the Father by the spirit for the Good of his And therefore so far he doth al in al as he is sent from the Father in a peculiar manner In a word hence it appears that the work of incarnation as he took our Nature the work of dispensation in sending the spirit appointing al Officers Offices ordinances and accompanying and blessing all for good Issues in a peculiar manner from this his sending from the Father Which the wicked world doth not see will not acknowledg cannot submit unto but they shal one day be forced unto it Hence it is our Savior alwaies professeth he doth al as sent Joh. 5.36 Arms himself by his sending against al. Joh. 10.36 Looks wholly and only at that work for which he was sent Joh. 5.30 And generally all runs upon this string comforts all from his sending As my Father sent me So I send you shews the greatness of their sin that oppose him He that despiseth me despiseth him that sent me 3. Wherein this sending consists look at the work of it Answer in four things 1. He is appointed and set apart to this great imployment and Ambassage Joh. 6.27 For him hath God the Father sealed Jsa 49.5 I have formed thee from the Womb to be my servant to bring Jacob again And verse 6. That thou maist be my Salvation to the end of the Earth He is now in Gods counsel and everlasting decree designed to this so great a work and in his season called out to the execution sent from his Bosom abroad into this world to act the great affaires of Gods everlasting purposes touching the recovery of man 2. The Father committed this so
our Savior by it leaves the like impression of Graces upon our Souls while by faith we keep our Hearts under the stroke thereof 3. Faith acts each faculty to disgest and improve that power from Christ received for his particular use according to its particular end As the Veines deliver up the Blood to each part as that special portion and provision which is allowed in the course of Nature for its relief and so each part taking the Blood it doth appropriate it to its own Nature Bone makes Bone of it Sinews make Sinews c. So Faith like those Veins conveys the efficacy of the Blood and merits of Christ to all the faculties to answer al their necessities 4. We must wait Gods leasure and stay his time for the bestowing of his favors Beggers must not be Chusers And nothing more free than gift And therefore he that will challenge it at his time and according to his wil makes it a Debt and not a Gift That they may be one as we are one Here is the third thing that was especially intended in the verse 1. We heard that Christ had all glorious Grace given him 2. That he gives all that glorious Grace unto his Saints Here lastly we have the END AND AIME of our Savior in this his bounty in giving and the benefit of the faithful in receiving Viz. That they may be one in the Father and the Son Hence The end why the Saints receive all glorious Grace from our Savior Christ is this Doct. that they may be one as the Father and Son are one with themselves This is a truth not included or that which may by way of consequence be collected or probably inferred out of the text But that which is clearely intended as the chief scope of our Savior yea fully and plainly expressed in the words beyond all exception or disputation and that which carries such evidence out of the phrase of speech that unless a man wil cast away the rule and dictate of right reason he can in no wise reject or refuse Ask but the Question why did our Savior Christ receive all glorious Grace into his Human Nature from God the Father The Answer is He received it by way of gift that he might give it to others out of his faithfulness He was their Treasurer But ascend one stair higher if yet further we may stirr What was the end of our Saviors giving of this Grace The Answer is ful and fair from the letter of the text for this is another reason that can be fastened upon the manner of the speech It was for this end it s that which our Savior aimed at in a peculiar manner That they may be one as the Father and Son are This is the Crown of that glory which the Saints shal attain in the ful perfection thereof in Heaven yea the diamond of that Crown the Pinnacle and highest point of perfection there to be expected in regard of their own particulars as that which each man hath in his Eye The Heaven of Heaven and one step higher than the highest Star of glorious Grace For we know the end is better than the meanes and adds beauty to the meanes Els there would be a flaw and blemish in glory and some defect Eph. 4.13 When all the Churches are perfected and the Saints gathered and come to the fulness of the Stature of Christ and have attained the unity of the faith The highest strain of their happiness is to acknowledg the Son of God q. d. There is nothing to do in Heaven but only that That 's the top of glory and one step higher than al the happiness of al that glorious Grace they shal injoy there to perfection To give in witness through al Eternity that al the good they have received it was in Christ as the fountain all that was done by al means it was done by him So the Apostle gives in the Reason of Gods dispensation It pleased the Father that in him all fulness should dwel That in all things he might have the Preheminence Tha Sacraments were ful of comfort and the word and Sermons ful of wisedom consciences ful of peace that passeth understanding but it was because the fulness of Christ overflowed in these filled these otherwise had he withdrawn himself the word had been a clasped Book and a killing letter and 〈◊〉 heart an empty Vessel So the Soul in glory acknowledg no means nor orders nor offices further than he appoints them nor was there any power in them or vertue communicated thereby further than the Lord was pleased to work by them The power was Christ that strengthened The life and vertue Christ that quickened The success was Christs only who was pleated to breath upon and bless I take it to be the meaning of that place very difficult and the expression very spiritual and of a high strain 2 Thess 1.12 That the Name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you and you in him according to the Grace of God and the Lord Jesus Christ Why you would say Is there any Name higher than the Name of Christ or glory due to any beyond or after Christ why is it added that Christ should be glorified and you in him For Answer open the words a little as we pass for the present we shall speak more fully and largely when we shall come to them again that which may suffice for the while is this The Apostle having prayed in the foregoing verse That God would count them worthy of their calling i. e. Worthy of the glory Vnto which they were called and so fulfil al the good pleasure of his goodness i.e. fully bestow al that spiritual good which in the ful purpose of his good pleasure he intended to them and that he would bring the work of Faith to perfection by his mighty power Now the end of al that glory and fulness of al that spiritual good he prayes for for them and they should partake of according to his prayer The end of all is that the Name of Christ Christ as he is made known in his word and Offices and the execution of the great work of Redemption may be made glorious in you He from the Father giving al to you You also may be glorified not in your selves but in your reference and Oneness towards Christ in receiving and returning al to the Father by him And therefore those words are added according to the Grace of God and our Lord Jesus Christ you so in him as through him in God God through Grace in Christ gives himself and Christ to you you also through Grace give up your selves to Christ and through him to God For the opening do three things 1. Recal what this oneness is 2. How this oneness and glorious Grace differ each from other or may be rightly discerned in their several considerations 3. The Reasons of the point upon what grounds it may rightly be gathered and concluded to
ascend God the Father in Christ and he in him Christ in them and they in Christ and so in the Father also Hence two Points to discuss 1. The Father is in the Son Or There is a mutual subsistence of the Father in the Son and of the Son in the Father 2. The Subsistence of the Father in the Son in the first rise or Original whence the Saints come to be one with the Son and the Father The first of these we had it propounded by way of comparison to lay forth the manner of that oneness and unity for which our Saviour here praies the Saints might attain unto And we then reserved the ful handling of it unto this place the words in the foregoing Verse are so express as nothing more As thou in me and I in thee And it is not for nothing that our Savior carries the thoughts of his Disciples and keeps them there in the setled continual consideration thereof as if it were the hinge upon which al happiness and comfort doth hang and therefore we should stay in a kind of unmovable attendance thereon When Philip made that great request unto our Lord Jesus as that which would give satisfying content beyond al exception Shew us the Father and it shall suffice John 14.8 Jesus answered verse 9. He that hath seen me hath seen the Father And the Ground and Foundation of al this knowledge and so this saving comfort he renders to be this verse 10. Beleevest thou not that the Father is in me and I in the Father And yet as though al this were not enough he makes them take up their stand in the steady and most serious contemplation and through considering and beleeving this Truth Beleevest thou not c. Heleeve me that the Father is in me and I am in the Farther at least for the Works sake q. d. The weight of al the Work lies here hold the heart upon this hinge keep open this door and the evidence and certainty of al saving Truth and Comfort wil come in yea of al power and spiritual ability to do al good as in the words following 2. A ready and enlarged Communication of al good unto us Whatever ye ask in my Name that will I do Shut up this passage or turn aside from attendance unto this Truth dam up this Fountain we dry up al the stream of Spiritual Power and Comfort that would come into our souls It is then a Foundation-Truth of the deepest search and that which hath a Store-house of Heavenly strength and refreshing laid up in it We shal open the Nature of it in three things 1 The proper Ground from whence this In-being issues and proceeds 2 The ready way by which the Nature of it may righty be apprehended 3 How it may be attended in our Savior as God and Man To the First The proper and peculiar Ground from whence this In-being proceeds may be expressed in two Conclusions thus 1. This In-being of subsistence of the Father in the Son of the Son in the Father is not firstly from the Essence or Deity considered according to it self or in it self as some have conceived As thus Because the Deity or Essence which is in the Father is in the Son therefore the Father also is in the Son for this is neither safe nor sound but a dangerous mistake because by the same reason it may be concluded That the Son is in himself or the Father is in the Father For the same Essence or Deity being but one which is in the Father is in the Son also and then the reason would follow on like manner thus Where the Deity or Essence of the God-head which appertains to the Son is there is the Son But the Deity of the Son is in the Son Therefore the Son is in the Son 2. This In-being each in other though it issues nextly and immediately from the persons yet not as they are in themselves considered without respect to the Essence but as they are subsistences in the same Essence taking that in with them to make up a ful and compleat Ground from whence this mutual subsisting in each other may be inferred as thus 1. Not only because they have the same Essence 2. Not because they are distinct persons alone But because they are distinct persons subsisting in other For this mutual In-being requires both distinction and conjunction They must be two for one cannot be in it self and they must be together with the same Nature or else they cannot be each in other As we see in the Creatures constantly as a Father or Son Buyer and Seller though they be persons in Relation yet because they be in several Natures separate one from another therefore they cannot be said to be each in other Thus for the Ground of this In-being 2. The ready way how to apprehend it is made good in four Particulars 1. The same Essence of the God-head doth equally and indifferently in the whol Nature of it belong to all the Persons in the Deity So that whatsoever is said of one may be affirmed of the other They are al Eternal al Infinite al Omnipotent Omniscient c. because al God As a man may be said to teach himself and so is a Master and Scholler a Master as he teacheth and a Scholler as he is taught Now the whol man is both not a part of him a Scholler a part of him a Teacher but the whol Nature of Man bears up both Relations 2. Hence the Persons in the God-head are distinct truly amongst themselves yet cannot be separated or divided one from another but where-ever the God-head is they are and where-ever one is al are because the whol Essence is in every one and every one with the whol Essence 3. Subsistence of the Persons looks at the Essence yet not as it is Essence barely but as it is with the Relative Properties and so those Relative Properties by their Mutual Respect or Relation give being each to other 2. Subsistence looks at the Essence as Essence and so they attend upon it adjoyn to it and do accompany it as the manner of the thing doth the thing As the Subsistences or Persons look at the Essence as Essence upon which they do attend and are adjoyned so they are with the Essence and one with another As they look at the Essence not as Essence but as with his Relative Properties as the Nature of Relation and al things under Relation requires they are then causes one of another give being each to other and are one in another A word to both 1. As adjoined to the Essence for ye have heard that these Relations are not qualities inherent in the subject but attendants and then I say they are al with the same whol Essence and so one with another So Wisdom the Lord Christ Prov. 8.27 When he prepared the Heavens I was there when he gave to the Son his decree ver 30. I was with him John
him as we have heard But the same Spirit by the same power that raised Christ from the dead works it Eph. 1.20 No man comes unless the Father draw John 6.44 He that hath heard and learned of the Father comes verse 45. He it is that begets us again by the Word of Truth Jam. 1.18 2. Adams closing with God in the performance of this Covenant was in this That he did imitate the Lord in the manner of his Work for that was the excellency of his Image to work as God had wrought To do not what God requited only but to wil Gods Wil that is to meet with him and to concur with him in the Act of his Will As the Clock doth with the Sun at the point of such an hour when the Sun goes twelve it strikes twelve or as ye have heard somtimes two Clocks meet and melt into the same stroak at an instant To wil as he love as he delight as he Make my heart one with thee Psal 86.11 Acts 13.22 Col. 4.12 But every Saâ—â— of God that by his Spirit is carried to him he is made one with Christ in an unspeakable manner 1. The Soul is pitched immediately upon the Deity and so the Father Son and Holy Ghost and in the most intimate Union that can be imagined Not as the Branches to the Vine John 15.1 nor as the Members to the Head Eph. 1.22 but yet neerer they are bone of his bone and flâ—sh of his flesh and that is neerer than to be Members to a Head Eph. 5. and 30.32 yea are one Spirit â—ith him 1 Cor. 6.17 and this is beyond the compass of al that sufficiency and excellency God implaâ—ted in Adam The Spirit of the Lord Jesus that caâ—ried the Soul to the Father and Christ closeth the â—oul with the Spirit of the Father and Christ By the Spirit from the Father and Christ we close with the Spirit in Christ and the Father If the Spirit which raised Christ from the dead be in you Rom. 8.11 As by the same Spirit of the Lord 2 Cor. 3.18 Adam had Supernatural Grace but this â—s more than Supernatural for that was not able to incorporate the Soul into Christ The Lord by his Eternal Spirit plucks him from his sin carries him to himself and puâ—s him under the power of the Spirit of the Second Adam As the first Adam by natural Generation turns the Soul from God to Sin puts it under the right and rule of the perverted mutability or disobedience and curse of the first Adam Adam traded out of his own Stock and from those Principles of Grace he had received and the Lord had implanted in his Nature coming into the World gifted and qualified from the bounty goodness and faithfulness of the Lord And therefore it 's said He had wherein to rejoyce had he obeyed and performed the Covenant and wrought for his Life But beleevers are not in their own hands nor at their own finding but kept in the hand of Christ and live meerly and immediately upon dependance have all their Store and Stock in the hand of the Lord Jesus are brought and taken into fellowship with the Father and his Son and thence fetch al that dayly quickening and efficacious influence of the Favor and presence of the Lord to carry them out to al the Duties they do Thus the Apostle Gal. 2.20 I live not but Christ lives in me and that I do now live The Fountain of Life is not firstly in himself Adam might have said I live by the Power and Principle of Grace received and in which I was created and thereby I have pleased God and according to the Covenant of Works may challenge life and happiness But Paul in the Person of al beleeving sinners professeth that I live not Christ hath brought me to himself made me one with himself that he might be al in al to me and work al by me We are dead and our Life is hid with Christ in God Christ is the Keeper of our Life the Father the Author of it So that it is not any Power in Man or Principle of Grace whereby we come firstly to close with God but the Spiritual Union of the Faithful is of a higher or neerer Nature than that it can at the first readily be apprehended namely not by the Power of Man or Principle of Grace for al this is but a Creature never brought the Soul to God or kept it with him But the power of the Deity in Christ by his Spirit hath fitted me for himself and hath carried me to himself made me one Spirit with himself doth al for himself in me that he may receive al to himself from me and I might wholly have such a desire that al that we have may hold out his Excellency in al these his Dispensations and so have nothing of my self do nothing from my self which excludes Works wholly Here the Soul is compassed about with al the Power of Heaven nothing but with the power of God in Christ Whereas Adam who did somting of himself from a Principle he had so he might have taken somthing to himself he had whereof to rejoyce But God in this way and work he doth al from himself by man no man doth it He receives al to himself from Man Man must take nothing 2. Love of complacency that the Father takes content and solaceth himself in the enjoyment of his Faithful whom he hath thus chosen out of the World therfore termed his own Joh. 13.1 A little of our own say we gives to little content and rest to their owner A mans own house he delights to lodg in delights to converse with his own servants or little ones Thus the Lord is said to know the righteous not to know the way of the Vngodly Depart I know you not As a man is said to own such a person so educated As the sensible Creatures can own their Mates and their yong by the sence they scent the Nature of such and own somthing of themselves in them as generated of them So he that hath not the Spirit is none of Christs the Spirit which God the Father sent in Christs Name by that his are owned As somtime a Parent when the Child sent into a far Country and conceived to be lost and dead shall yet return there is some manner of his Speech some Natural guise in his Carriage some cast of his Look whereby the Parent wil own him and know him for his As there was a secret owning and yerning of Bowels in the true Mother to the Child when it could not be determined whose it was So God the Father who hath sent the Spirit of his Son into the hearts of his he cannot but know and acknowledg it and take complacency and contentment in it Rom. 8.27 he is said to know the meaning of his Spirit Hence they are called Gods precious ones Isai 43.4 his Jewels Mal. 3.17 yea Christ professeth he is ravished
not known nor whom we know deal harshly and discourteously with us in our common occasions of commerce or If those of alliance and acquaintance who are prophane and ungodly if they be fals in their promises or injust or injurious in their carriages towards us They deal like themselves they do but their kind as we say If fals hearted persons deal falsly If loose men shew themselves base to us it s that they do to al yea to their own Souls we expect no other and therefore if we find no better measure it doth not trouble If it had been an Enemy I could have born it saies David but when it comes to that It was thou my familiar Friend we took sweet counsel and went up to the house of the Lord together It was he that lift up himself against me this is more bitter than death It is so with the Lord. If the Ignorant world who knows him not who are strangers from him and the convenant of his Grace If the wicked and prophane who are professed adversaries to his Grace and Kingdom if they dishonor his name transgress his Laws grieve his spirit and cast his Ordinances behind their back It I say the world deal so with the Lord he looks for no other he hates the world he never gave his Son for the world Christ never prayed for the world But that his faithful whom he hath owned imbraced in the Bowels of his tenderest mercies should deal frowardly in his covenant this is killing unkindness Will ye also go away Joh. 6.67 When the Crown of those counterfeit wretches who followed Christ for the Loaves when they missed of their Dinner and sweet morsels they departed presently and came no more at him Our Savior is content to see so free a riddance of them and the place quit of their company But turnes himself to his disciples with that melting expression wil ye also go away q. d. That they are gone I care not it matters not I never knew them nor was known of them but wil ye also go away that would be unsufferable Though Israel play the Harlot yet let not Judah offend And hence it is The Lord is compelled with such unreasonable carriages to make his complaint unto the senseless creatures as those who would give in witness against such miscarriages as professedly cross to the course of things Hearken O Heaven and hear O Earth I have nourished and brought up Children and they have rebelled against me Isa 1.2 And upon this ground it is the Lord makes that so sad an expression when the Sons of God married with the Daughters of men and were carried with the common stream Gen. 6.6 The Text saith It grieved God to the Heart It went to the heart of the Almighty Bears any thing but the Contempt of his love and goodness For it is a sin out of measure sinful Not only that which Nature gainsaies and reason rejects and conscience condemnes and Grace abhorres to the bottomless pit But it is a practise more vile than the worst of sinners wil adventure upon Math. 5.46 If ye love them that love you what reward have ye Do not the Publicans the same Not to return love for love c. It s that which the Publicans the worst and most reffuse wretches in the world do loath For the faithful who have been redeemed by the precious Blood of Jesus comforted by the spirit of Jesus beloved of the Father as the Lord Jesus his only begotten Son for them to be tainted with that sin which the Publicans the worst of men wil give witness against Oh how hamous are such miscarâ—iages and how grievous must they needs be to the God of love I shal Instance in two Evils unto which the Saints are usually too much subject and taken aside withal which are so professedly opposite to this enlarged compassion of the Lord. 1. When the Faithful either question this Love when it is so sure Or 2. Undervalue it and little esteem of it when it is so great as that it exceeds the thoughts and apprehensions of men Both are marvelously distastful and that justly to the Father of Mercies and in truth unsufferable were it not that he makes us acceptable and lovely through his wel-beloved It could not be that he could bear with the abuse of his constant kindness in so gross and unkind manner and yet this is the baseness and wretchedness of our unreasonable hearts He hath loved us with an everlasting Love he never ceaseth loving and we never cease questioning and quarrelling with his kindness we are ever of the jealous and suspicious hand that this favor of the Lord it is but for a fit it wil one day fail and we shal be forsaken utterly If Christ wil cease to be a Son and to be this wel-beloved of his Father with whom he is wel pleased then wil he cease to love thee to accept of thee and to be wel pleased with thee in him The one is impossible the other is incredible and therefore stifle those distempered pangs they are so deeply injurious to the Lord and distastful to his Majesty that he cannot bear them but wil undoubtedly correct Such a way-ward jealous pang ye shal perceive in the Church of the Jews in the day of Discouragement when God cals Heaven and Earth to rejoyce in the Consolation of his People Sing O Heavens and be joyful of Earth break forth into singing O Mountains for God hath comforted his People and will have mercy on his afflicted Isa 49.13 but they were silent in this Quaere and sate down in sullen discouragement verse 14. But Zion said The Lord hath forsaken me and my Lord hath forgotten me Can a Woman forget her sucking Child that she should not have compassion on the fruit of her Womb yea they may but yet will not I forget thee verse 15. and therefore the Lord professeth he takes it unkindly Isa 40.27 Why sayest thou O Jacob and speakest O Israel amp c. This is the dayly talk of al dismayed and gloomy discouraged Spirits it 's al they speak and have in their Meetings Jacob saies and Israel speaks this is common My way in hid from the Lord and my Judgment is passed over of my God Thus ye say but what saies God Why speakest thou c. q. d. I cannot abide those words God cannot brook such groundless suspicions of his Favor which is more sure than the Foundations of the Earth As it is whith men who are real and cordial in their kindness and sincere hearted in the expression of their Love so that they never gave the least appearance of any instability and feebleness in their Promises and Performances as either their engagements or others desires or necessities should require if yet their Friends and intimate Familiars should out of their jealousie either cast out such words in their presence or give it in their expressions to others to understand That however they have ever been
he wil drop in in this or that Ordinance and how liâ—tle do we see of hinâ—â— yet that 's al we seek and that 's al the good we can receive to do us good But them â—hrist in the glorious sufficiency of the fulness of his Grace shal shine in a-main upon the mind in the ful beauty of it Al Comfort and Peace and Grace of al kinds shal like a mighty stream take up the whol man Here by re-tale as persons who are poor buy and bring in their Provisions Then by whol-sale Here the Light of the Sun shining in a crevis and day-hole leaves yet the place dark but then the Lord Christ shal arise as the Sun of Righteousness and fil as that the whol Heaven so this the whol heart So Christ shines in the Counsels Comrorts c. of the Ministry of the Word and makes us see the Day-star arising but stil there be shadows But then he wil arise in our hearts and al these shadows shal fly away I shall know as I am known 3. Most effectually and powerfully 1 John 3.2 It 's the Inference the Apostle makes and the reason he brings to force this Consequence and that infallibly We shal be like him How comes that We shall see him as be is For as the Spirit of Christ by his Special presence in the Soul and work upon it is the only Author of al Grace and Holiness which we do here or shal hereafter possess 2 Cor. 3.18 We are transformed into one degree of glorious Grace from another by the same Spirit So the Spirit of God useth first to enlighten our minds aâ— the first means whereby he comes to make way for himself into the heart and to communicate al that glorious Grace to those upon whom he is pleased to bestow it And hence our Savior when he would difference his Servants from the wicked in the World to whom he never intends any saving good nor do they partake thereof he gives this as a ground John 14.17 The Father will send his Spirit of Truth whom the World cannot receive because it seeth him not neither knoweth him but ye know him No Spirit no Grace But the World hath no Spirit because they cannot receive him and that because they do not see not know But they see therefore receive and therefore have the Spirit and therefore have Grace and therefore the Apostle concludes 1 John 3.6 Whoever sinneth hath not seen him nor known him True it is possible the wicked may have a glimmering of the Truth and hear tel of a Christ by the common bruit of the World as they read such things writ But this is a false Light the Star-light of some common apprehensions of Reason Arguments which are presented to us in Speech and Discourse But the Apostle ads Eph. 4.20 If ye have heard and learned Christ and been taught by him as the Truth is in Jesus Ye have heard of the Truth and Christ as then are in words which report him as Arguments and Reasons which discourse and dispute about him but the Truth as it is in Jesus as it issues from a Jesus from a Savior and from that saving enlightening over-powring work when it 's set on by the hand of a Jesus not by Man Education or Disputation then it wil make men to put off the old man and be renewed in the spirit of their minds This the eyeing of Jesus in a right manner in this Life wil do But when we come to see Christ as he is in his Glory all those impediments which either stopped or lessened the work of the Spirit from conveying that fulness of Grace which otherwise it would and by which we might have been perfectly like him are then taken away Now the impediments which stop the current and passage of the Spirit are either in regard of the means whereby he is dispensed or in regard of our hearts wherein he is received 1. For the means they are either narrow as Conduits from the Fountain or Creeks from the Sea of smal power and convey little help in spiritual supply as Word and Sacraments Or else the Instruments are weak and cracked and so stop the stream and corrupt and sinful and therefore though not utterly hinder the work of the Spirit yet wrong and defile it much But then the Lord Christ wil do his work by himself when his Spirit shal have ful scope the narrowness of means shal not streighten him the weakness of instruments hinder him to express the ful power of his Grace in ful perfection but God shall now be all in all 1 Cor. 15.28 1. Whatever Word and Sacraments and Prayer could or did convey whatever the Power of Ordinance the Ministry of the Word the Counsel of Saints endeavored to work in you he wil be instead of al and do more than al. Ye prayed for a Christ did ye not Ye heard for a Christ received for a Christ conferred humbled to come more neer a Christ to enjoy more of him do more for him Alas that Christ ye desired to hear some Tidings of ye shal see him not in weakness of Ordinances Ministry of his Servants c. ye shal see him as he is in the highest strain of Eminency of al Grace acting to its utmost for your good that which they all could not do They did convey but imperfect power against sin peace and comfort to your Conscience but now ye shal find al power perfectly and constantly gloriously conveyed from this Glory of Christ 2. There shal be no impediment to hinder or streighten the Spirit from conveying no impediment on our part no hindrance in our Souls because they shal readily receive the ful impression of Grace The set frame and face of the Soul being alone for Christ and towards him The whol imployment of the whol man being nothing else but to attend upon Christ and to submit to him to be carried by the presence power and influence of his Spirit alone Look as it is with In-mates under a Roof the one is constrained to confine himself to heap up and tumble his Houshold-stuff together because he hath not room to set it forth but when al are outed and he hath ful scope in his House and Family he may order al in their ful beauty So here paâ—â—ly our Corruptions partly the World and Earthly occasions keep house with Christ thoughts of Christ and the Family â—are for the Promises and for Provision also pains and labor to settle our Spiritual the like contrivements to suit our temporal Condition and al takes up if not take off and carriâ—â— our minds and thoughts our hearts our care so that Christ and the works of his Grace are crowded into corners and narrows But then the House wil be free the heart quit of al these and Christ wil have ful scope Hence the Apostle 1. Thes 4.17 We shall ever be with him We are now pestered with unwelcome guests which we cannot send going
not failing in the least nor falling short in the performance of whatever was promised Lam. 3.23 Great is thy Faithfulness which provides new mercies every morning every moment answering to new occasions therfore it 's said Psal 36.5 Thy Faithfulness reacheth unto the Clouds and therfore it is noted that there failed nothing of al those words that God had spoken 3. There must be as a certain so an immutable continuance of his Fatherly care through our dayly course without any interruption for he hath undertaken to see us safely arrived he hath engaged himself he wil not neglect it and nothing can hinder it unless it can out-bid his Power or over-reach his Wisdom or out-bid his Mercy for al stand bound Psal 89.33 I will not suffer my Faithfulness to fail and 119.90 Thy Faithfulness endures through all Generations Therefore Gen. 28.15 he would not leave him until he had fulfilled al his Goodness II. The Reason 1. Because hereby the Glory of the Riches of his Mercy and Grace comes to be manifested yea magnified When every thing else failed and was at a loss God out of his Faithfulness he undertakes he recovers he preserves his in the waies of Life and it 's out of Faithfulness that he gives any continues and maintains what he gives succeeds and gives a Blessing to al means and out of Faithfulness over-works al pressures and hindrances from good Thou out of Faithfulness hast corrected me Psal 119.75 So that al is Grace Grace and nothing but Grace Faithfulness hath an influence into al our waies walks up and down the World with us Psal 89.24 My Faithfulness and Mercy shall be ever with him yea verse 2. he wil build up one Mercy upon another until he bring us to Heaven and there his Faithfulness shal be established Therefore the whol Gospel is called a Promise q.d. that is the Cabinet that keeps al those precious Jewels of Grace and Glory 2. Hereby also the Salvation and safety of the Saints is made sure and established for ever Rom. 4.16 It was therefore of Grace that it might be sure to all the Seed When Adam had undertaken for al his to bring them to Life by his doing and working we see that he and his Grace and Abilities and Performances came to nothing he was unfaithful in the Trust But God hath engaged himself and his Word is gone out of his Mouth that he wil not fail David Psal 89.35 Hence comes to be a sure Covenant sure Mercies sure Peace Comfort c. Surely persevere and shal undoubtedly be saved USE 1. Instruction Out of Gods Fatherly Love look for Afflictions Miseries Changes and Necessities to attend us in our dayly Course because this is one part of Gods Faithfulness and according to that he dispenseth his Fatherly Love Psal 119.75 I know thy Judgments are right and thou out of very Faithfulness hast afflicted me out of Faithfulness hast disparaged me hast brought me to great extremities afflicted me in the world that thou mightest not condemn me with the world The Psalmist accounts he cannot in a surfet but Diet in rankness of Blood but bleed in strength of distempers but purge It s part of his Faithfulness to be true to his rule and that 's health He hath promised ye shal have Houses and lands with persecution would ye not have him Faithful He hath promised he wil do you good and then he must lead you in the wilderness and prove you that he may do it Deut. 8.4 5. He hath promised the world shal not be your bane and he wil deliver you from this present evil world And therefore if he pluck away if he keep you to a spare Diet it s his Faithfulness Hebr. 12.9 We have had the Fathers of our Bodies and they have corrected us how much more ought we to be subject to the Father of our Spirits that we may live It s your life that God intends and his Faithfulness USE 2. Strong and invincible CONSOLATION and that is the main use The truth which as a mighty stream issues from al the faithful performances of the Lord. Hebr. 6. That by two Immutables we might have strong consolation When al failes Eyes and heart and Hopes yet God wil not suffer his faithfulness to fail This is a bottom to bear our hearts a rock that is higher than we and higher than al misery When thy friends prove false and play fast and loose It was thou my familiar friend c. When they cast thee off as Paul at my first answer no man stood by me al men forsook me c. But God stood by me when they leave thee Gods faithfulness and mercy wil never leave thee Psal 89.24 When thy flesh and thy heart fails the Lord wil be the strength of thy heart and thy portion for ever Ps 73.26 In temptation when the strength fails thee and Satan hath got the Wind and Hil and Sun upon thee faithfulness gives â—hee strength 1 Cor. 10.12 13. No temptation c. When thy Grace grows feeble and thou growest behind hand little good thou dost with al and little good receivest wantst life and power faithfulness wil quicken this and perfect al. 1 Cor. 1.9 Nay when thy faith fails thou hast dealt falsly in his covenant broken thy vows thy promises been unfaithful under the means and mercy and hast denied him faultered in thy profession as Peter I know not the man I know not the rule the reproof yet he is faithful he cannot deny himself Here thou wilt and thou must smart for it he wil bring thee by Hell but yet he wil recover thee Psal 89.28 Though thou leave and forsake him yet he wil not leave thee but of his faithfulness be mindful and not forsake thee Mark how Nehemiah recovers himself upon this board Neh. 9. Thou art a God that keepest covenant and mercy they rebelled against thee many times and did evil before thee but thou in thy manifold mercies forsookest them not And many times didst deliver them for thou art a gracious and merciful God upon this shelf of the boat he stil swims out USE 3. A word of Reproof It shews the hainousness of the sin of unbeleef in the Saints departing from God Who have had a God faithful to them and yet they not place their faith in him hath God ever failed did ye ever seek ever humble your selves ever trust in him in vain why have ye done thus how unkindly how unreasonably have ye dealt with him Ask your Fathers and they wil tel you ask your own hearts and they can testifie hath he spoken and not performed nay hath he not been better than his word even aboundant in goodness and truth So Samuel 1. Sam. 12.7 So God pleads Jer. 2.5 What Iniquity have your Fathers sound in me That they are gone far from me c. Be astonished at this ye Heavens and be horribly confounded saith the Lord. Verse 12 13. Thus we have done with the
everlasting Mercy and Fatherly Faithfulness in Christ These are deep things and as no man knows what is in man but the Spirit of man so no man knows the things of God but the Spirit of God And it 's the Answer to that Question 1 Cor. 2. and last Who hath known the mind of the Lord q. d. None can pry into the Ark of his Privy Counsel which hath been from everlasting and therefore he ads We have the mind of Christ He that hath Christs mind may know Gods mind for he is Privy to it Luke 10.21 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 no man knows who the Father is but the Son and he to whom the Son will reveal him It must be from the Revelation of Christ that any come to the right knowledg of the Father John 1.18 No man hath seen God at any time but the only begotten Son who came out of the Bosom of the Father he hath revealed him that is those Bosom Affections of his Fatherly Love 2. Our Apprehensions and Conceivings of God hold proportion with his Dispensations of himself to us There must be ever some print of some operation and impression of his Excellencies or Relation left upon us before any thing can be discerned For he dwells in the Light that no Creature can attain unto and to pry into his Secrets which he hath reserved in his own Bosom as indeed we should not Secret things belong to the Lord but things revealed to us so in truth we cannot reach them they are far beyond the scantling of our shallow Conceits Now the expressions which God leaves of his Fatherly Love and Faithfulness are sound no where but in the hearts of his whom he cals unto himself Them he takes into the Bosom of his Love To them he communicates these Bosom Secrets the Foot-steps whereof are to be found no where upon Earth but in the Souls of the Faithful Therefore they only can see the Print of them they only come to know them The great Characters of Gods Power Wisdom and Bounty are left instamped and engraven upon each Creature and therefore they may be seen of al and read of al and so known But that he should set his heart upon any lost Son of Adam an his Christ and draw him into special intimate and spiritual Communion with himself through his Son this is only to be found recorded in the Consciences whom he hath called out of the World These are the unknown yernings of the Bowels of a Father which can be owned by none but such who are his own Rev. 2. He gives a new Name which no man knows but he that hath it unknown Benevolence and unknown Complacency of a Fathers Bowels USE 1. Of Instruction 1. Therefore it is not safe to lean to the Counsel or be led by the Opinion of Carnal men touching the doubts we have or difficulties we find concerning the Love of God unto our souls and his Faithfulness in the performance of his gracious Promises Alas they know nothing of those things how shal they be able to make us know them They understood nothing themselves and how shal they reach others Is any so weak and silly that he would go to a blind man to make him judg of Colors or a deaf man of Sounds or he that never knew the way to be a Guide to lead him the way unless he were resolved to miss his way and end also True indeed they may somtimes speak things by hear-say but to speak things from grounded Knowledg and Experience they cannot because they have none 2. Hence it 's plain That the meanest Saint and most ignorant doth yet know more of Gods Fatherly Love and is better acquainted with the Faithful Performance of his Promises than the most learned and profound Doctors of the World Because they know the Father and are privy to his Secrets and have his Bosom Counsels communicated to them by the Lord Christ which are Riddles and Wonders and Mysteries to the whol World and to the Princes thereof USE 2. Of Terror It discovers the dreadful Estate and miserable Condition of al wicked men the Children and Darlings of the World who take content in it and give content to it The World it is likely may lay you in her Bosom for the World wil love her own but ye be far enough from the Love of the Father as ye be far from the knowledg of him Hence a Sea of Misery breaks in upon thee able to over-whelm thy Soul irrecoverably If it can be once said Thou knowest not the Father there is enough said to sink thy heart in everlasting discouragement In this Estate thou canst expect no good for thon canst receive no good from the hand of the Lord though he be the Father of Mercies and God of al Consolation There is none for thee not one Blessing nor Comfort For if God communicate any thing of himself unto the Sons of Men it is by his Spirit whose Office it is To lead them into all Truth John 16.13 and to seal them up in the Truth unto the day of Redemption Eph. 4. Al that is the Fathers is Christs and the Spirit takes of Christs and so of the Fathers and gives it unto such for whom it is appointed John 16.15 But it 's the depth of thy Misery thou canst not receive the Spirit 1. Thou canst receive nothing of the Father though it were given thee John 14.17 I will send the Comforter whom the World cannot receive because it doth not see nor know him This is thy Condition right Thou canst not see nor know the Spirit and consequently nor the Father therefore not receive him and therefore receive no good The Spirit wil not take the Mercy of a Father to pardon thee the Love of the Father to support the Peace of the Father to quicken Grace of a Father to purge and sanctifie thy corrupt heart The holy Spirit would take of Christs and so of the Fathers and give to thee But thou art a worldly wicked wretch and thou canst not receive the Spirit nor Christ nor Mercy nor Love if thou had'st them laid before thee 2. And as thou canst receive no good from the Father so thou canst perform no good Duty to him that may find acceptance with him or a blessing from him Thou knowest not the Father therefore thou canst not love him nor fear nor honor nor obey him That which the Eye sees not the Mind knows not the Heart affects not fears not prizeth not at al nor performs the least Duty to him because thou fallest short in thy Apprehensions wholly of him Nay mark what I say Thou did'st never pray to this Father of Christ and of al compassion in him If I wil pray with my Tongue I wil pray with my
is our Father Jesus saith unto them If ye were Abrahams Children ye would do Abrahams works but ye seek to kill me and this did not Abraham But ye do the deeds of their Father They could not conceive what he meant And therefore stil reply We are not born of Fornication we have one Father even God Our Savior again returnes an undeniable evidence If ye were of God ye would love me for I came from God nor came I of my self but God sent me But because al these were Riddles he speaks out and shews them the Root of their wretchedness Verse 44. Ye are of your Father the Devil and the lusts of your Father ye wil do He was a murderer and abode not in the truth and what he saies of one he saies of al sins in the like case When he speaks a lie he speaks of his own for he is the Father of lies As God is the first cause of truth and goodness and from his fulness al the beams and streams of truth are derived to any who share therein So Satan is the first cause of falshood and wickedness and therefore called The Wicked one And from him al wickedness is derived And hence ungodly men are called The Seed of the Serpent Gen. 3.15 They are said to be of that Wicked one 1 Joh. 3.11 Cain was of that Wicked one Put in way of opposition To be born of God This I take to be the meaning of those Phrases and texts which hence receive their explication as belonging I conceive properly to this place Joh. 8.23 When our Savior would shew the distance and great disagreement between himself and the wretched and ungodly Jews he speaks Ye are from beneath I am from above Ye are of this world I am not of this world Joh. 17.14 I have given them thy word and the world hath hated them because they are not of this world even as I am not of this world Here we have the Wel-head of hatred because they are not of the world And we see that this agrees to Christ as to them and to them by means of Christ that as he speaks els where Joh. 8.28 He can do nothing but what he sees his Father do Joh. 14.10 The words that I speak I speak not of my self but the Father that dwelleth in me As the first person dwels in the second he is thus from the Father and works from the Father So his Saints and faithful are of and from the Father by him Whereas the wicked They are of the world That is their dispositions which are corrupt they issue firstly from Saâ—an who cast's in his Seed of rebellion into their hearts according to which they are framed And upon this ground he is called the God of the world As he is firstly evil and cannot but be evil and al evil is from him that is in the world For by his wickedness al the world and wicked comes to be tainted and by the leaven of his wickedness defiled Their minds so far as erronious are made up of his delusions Their hearts as they are stuborne and ungodly are made up of his rebellions 2. Consider the next immediate cause by which they are acted this also wil evidence the strength and distance of their opposition and that in the greatest extremity And this you shal find most pregnantly 1 Cor. 2.12 Now we have received not the spirit of the world but the Spirit which is of God that we might know the things that are graciously given us of God So that there is a spirit of the world which blinds mens minds and minds which the light of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ cannot shine upon them nor the power of any savory truth or good come neer them or work upon them but they stop the passage against al do most desperately and resolutely oppose al. And that is perverted mutability set on or set a going by the provoking and cursing power of the Law the malignity of Satan having leave and somtime command from God to wind up the wickedness of mens spirits to the highest strain of the activity of evil When God said who wil go and deceive Ahab Satan answers I wil. The Lord asks how I wil saies he Be a lying Spirit in the mouth of the fals Prophets q. d. It was in his power if God would give leave to act their minds and Tongues as one man to speak and perswade unto deceiptful waies which would undoubtedly bring to ruin And this is the meaning of those two Phrases Eph. 2.2 Men are said to walk according to the course of the world one Spirit and guise in them al. If it be asked what that is he adds According to the Prince of the Air the Spirit that now worketh c. When the Prince of the Air by his impulsions and suggestions draws out the distempers of the ungodly to the utmost activity And this is noted in the next words They fulfilled the wils of the Flesh and of the mind what a corrupt heart and Vain Head would carry a man unto He must needs go whom the Devil drives This is called the wil of the Gentiles that is what men left to the corruption of their Natures would wil. Contrarily The Holy Ghost takes ful possession of our Savior and from Christ dwels in the hearts of his Saints by which they are strengthened Eph. 3.16 Strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man So that there is 1. The inner man which is Grace 2. Strengthened in this 3. By the might of his Spirit So led by the Spirit Rom. 8.15 yea not only strengthen and lead but mightily and actively works in his when they are quickened to work the Works of God Col. 1. last I strove but it is according to the working of Christ and that is mightily therefore Stephen said They could not resist the Spirit by which he spake Acts 6. As the Prince of Darkness by his Impulsions draws out the Activity of Corruption in the strength of it So the Prince of Light and Grace the Lord Christ is greater than he that is in the World and carries the Faithful by an invincible Power 3. Look at them in the main ends at which they aim in al their Operations and Proceedings Our Savior came not to do his own wil or seek his own but to do the wil and seek the Glory of the Father Therefore the Scope of his whol Work it is to break the Head of the Serpent Gen. 3.15 To destroy the works of the Devil 1 John 3.8 To deliver from the present evil world Gal. 1.4 And al the Saints are of the same Heart follow his Colors and Command When the Devil and the World the Prince of this World and the Children of this World they set themselves in al their Contrivements plottings practices to destroy the Glory of God the Kingdom of God and Christ and set up the Kingdom of darkness and
familiarity yet if their hearts can take contentment and suite and soder secretly with thee Certainly they sent and savor somthing like themselves or els they would never love it Joh. 15.19 The world loves her own And if it love thee assuredly it owns thee as one of hers really however thy profession carries another appearance to men to whom thou canst conform and with whom thou canst comply Why say your companions such a one a Puritan Tush he may and can comply with his godly Brethren for to please them but he is a good fellow If time place and company fit him But a man sound at heart at core they cannot indure his company nay not abide his Name As with the Stomach that is chollerick we can judg the good of the Physick by the working of the Stomach if it can receive and digest it that it stirr not we conclude it s not right Rhubarb but a Dock-root it stirs not the humor especially when the Body is so fit to be wrought upon 2. Consider how thy heart can secretly suit with worldly ones He is known by his companion that cannot be known by his own course and practise in private Because like wil to like Birds of a Feather wil flock and fly together As here in New-England The color of some Birds is very strange by reason of the Climate hearts and colds and that causes some wholly to differ from other Yet if we see them flock and mate commonly together we conclude it is a Starling not a Black-Bird she keeps with such though her color and Feathers be other yet her Nature and kind is the same 1 Joh. 4.5 They are of the world and the world hears them When a man can hug and harbor a varlet a scummy wretch that is not fit to sit among the Dogs of a mans Table and a wise holy-hearted man would take the windy side its certain such a one is a worldly wretch Away from me ye wicked Psal 6.8 The wicked is an abomination to the Righteous Prov. 29.27 3. Observe whence the root and rise of thy disposition or thy actions come Canst thou say as Christ I do nothing but what I see the Father do The words I speak they are not mine Canst thou say so The words I speak the works I do they are not mine but Christs O Righteous Father the world hath not known thee but I have known thee c. THis verse being a further discovery and description of the parties for whom our Savior Christ prayed in the foregoing 24. Verse That they might be with him and see and so injoy his glory in Heaven Each part of the description carries a secret kind of constraining force to set home the former conclusion and provoke the Lord to the grant of his Prayer and that Priviledg unto the Faithful that they might see the glory of Christ 1. The world knows not the Father nor yet the Son and therefore they have as no Title to it so no ability to Fathom it nor hearts to take delight therein or to promote the praise thereof 2. Our Savior he knows the Father the depth of that Fatherly affection of his and that unconceivable glory which he hath and wil also communicate to him And his Saints also know that he was sent by the Father on that Ambassage of life and for the accomplishment of that great work of Salvation by which as the highest pitch of glory might be possessed by himself so also purchased for them And therefore as he is worthy to obtain this of the Father so they also fit to injoy it and to advance the glory of the Father and him in it 3. That he hath manifested and wil manifest yet further the name of that Fatherly love the glory of that Grace and mercy and saving Redemption by him provided and al to this end that Christ might be in them And Gods love manifested in them and by them sharing and injoying the glory that Christ should possess and that they should be spectators and admirers of for ever If now the world neither knew the Father nor therefore could love or honor him nor his Son It was not fit they should be with Christ or see the glory of Christ given him out of his Fathers love But if Christ knew the Father and his Fatherly love and that he was sent on purpose upon this Ambassage and being sent for this did and doth indeavor this and that for this end that Christ and that Fatherly love might be in them and the Saints know al this Then he is sit to ask and obtain this mercy they fit to receive it and they shal glorifie God herein and he attain his glory while he is pleased thus to grant the Prayer of our Savior and to glorifie him and them We have opened and finished that part of the descripon of the parties which was laid down by way of dissimilitude both as the world are considered in themselves in regard of the ignorance they have of God and as by way of dissimilitude they stand in reference comparison and consideration with our Savior and his disciples We are now come to inquire the other parts of the description of the partyes for whom the Prayer is made whose worth and excellency is see forth by their effects 1. I know thee 2. These also know that thou hast sent me And here with we shal take in the second general to wit the person who doth pray intimated in the words where we have two points 1. From these words I know thee The Lord Christ hath the knowledg of the Father in a peculiar manner Doct. I say the knowledg of the Father for that is constantly to be carried along with us in our consideration and to be kept in our Eye that we may keep to the scope of the place and aime of our Savior in his Prayer and expression For he looks at him as we have shewed as a righteous Father such a one as doth dispense his Fatherly affection in Faithfulness unto his And therefore those of the world upon whom his Fatherly affection was never set nor were they within the compass of the Covenant of his Grace had no interest therein to whom his Faithfulness and truth was never ingaged and therefore they could challenge nothing nor yet was he â—ound to accomplish any thing for their spiritual and eternal good And therefore if our Savior had prayed for them that they should have been in Heaven and have seen his glory he had prayed for that which the Father was not bound to grant in Faithfulness nor were they fit to injoy For they know not that Fatherly love and affection of his which moved him to give Christ that glory nor could they be affected with it nor receive the good of it But He who knew the Father he Prayes for this Favor And he Prayes for them also who have known both the Father and him in their conjoint purpose The one
in the Deity upon it self then there must be divers manners of being in the Deity But there is such a reflecting therefore For the right understanding of this ye must conceive the Understanding of the God-head being pure act and infinite it must have a proportionable and therefore an infinite Object therefore understand himself conceive an Image of himself this Image of himself must be conceived and look back upon himself or his own conceiving again Now that the shine of this Impression must return again upon it self and look back to the impression is thus made plain by setting a dis-similitude by it When the operative active Wisdom of God fals upon nothing purposing to make a VVorld it breaks through that nothing and brings forth an effect a Creature out of it stinted with bounds of being and time it 's both finite and temporary hath a beginning of time and may have an end But this Understanding falling upon the God-head which is absolutely first and infinite it cannot break through make an effect or give this the Being of a Creature being infinite and first-being The Act of Gods Wisdom fals upon that as his Object and returns again upon it self and so doth conceive and hath an Image of it self conceived an engraven Character from this Impression returned by resemblance upon the Impression As take a beam of the Sun meet with the Glass it finds way by reason of the perspicuity of the body to pass through it But let it fal upon a firm and solid body pierce and pass it cannot and therefore it fals upon the body and returns upon it self from the body the falling is the reflecting of it and by returning it comes to be reflected Here note The Light is one thing but the reflecting and returned or to be reflected upon it self is another These answer each the other stir up the act each of other no reflecting no returning no returning no reflecting They give being to and maintain being each in other mark that The reflecting and being reflected is not the cause of the Light but each of other So here The Wisdom of the God-head is like the Light reflecting upon it self there is a like Image of it self returned again and conceived This being conceived as it had al from the Father so it eyes and answers al in the Father conceiving A man may understand a Truth but when by understanding he darts it upon his mind to enlighten and so teach and rectifie The mind receives and stands rectified and enlightened The Understanding is one thing but the darting by Understanding rectifying and enlightening the mind returning and standing rectified these are divers manners really distinct and directly answering each the other in a peculiar manner Thus our Savior is said to manifest the Name of the Father not his Name as God but as Father As I said before The Light is not the cause of the reflecting or returning but one of these is the cause of the other reflecting is the cause of returning and returning is the cause of reflecting So the Understanding is not the cause of Teaching for that may be where no teaching is but Teaching rectifying the Knowledg is the cause why Knowledg comes to be rectified So that Phrase No man knows the Son but he to whom the Father will reveal him and no man knows the Father but he to whom the Son will reveal him No man knows what the rectifying of the Knowledg is but he who hath his Knowledg rectified And this is to be attended according to the Second Person in the Deity for it 's true both waies as wel of the Father who was never incarnate as of the Son who was 3. Eyes and owns the Impression and the Imprinter of it in an especial manner John 14.9 He that hath seen me hath seen the Father also Not he that saw him with his Bodily Eyes or saw only the external and visible bodily presence of our Savior but he that saw him as a Son he would own the Father also as expressing the lively resemblance of his Father It answers so fully in al things As we see in Sensitive Creatures the yong can own the Dam by the scent smel or bleating There is somthing of their own there He that hath his Mind rectified by a Truth wil own the rectifying or teaching while he lives John 10.15 The Father knows me and I know the Father 2. How this belongs to our Savior as Man as well as the Second Person For so he looks at himself and in that respect and consideration we must understand his Expression here Answ This Knowledg belongs firstly to the Son as Second Person but to the Humane Nature so far as the Relation of Son-ship leaves some impression according to the Nature and Condition thereof So that the Second Person in the Trinity is no other nor acts any otherwise than he did in himself But this manner of acting in the knowledg of the Father appears in the Humane Nature and leave◠new impressions in an especial manner and the Father also in and by him And that is done in regard of that Union that the Humane Nature hath to the Second Person For as we know the Second Person takes the Humane Nature into personal Union with him so that there is not two Sons but one Son and the Lord Christ remains the same Person after the Union that he was before And therefore being one and the same Person with the Son he may be said to know the Father as the Son in his manner and measure For as the Father gives being to the Son and the Son receives al from the Father so the Humane Nature hath a total dependance upon the Son he only incarnate and so a sole reference with that respect to him and so in him to the Father So that it is said to be one and the same Person one and the same Son with the Son 2. As to be reflected is said to be the property of the Second Person looking back and returning his subsistence to the Father So our Nature having a total dependance upon Christ in the Union and being one Person with him looks as the Second Person wholly to the Father He brings back Jacob. Nay it eyes and owns through the Son al those Fatherly Impressions and Affections which are in the Father and wherein he intimately unbosoms himself to his Son That is the value of the word Prov. 8.30 as we have observed before 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as much as intueri retinere 3. The Reason is taken from that Relation which is between the Father and the Son The Nature whereof is to give total Being only one to another to maintain that Being only one in another and therefore there is a manner of making known each of other in special appropriate to them That which gives a perfect discovery of the thing that makes way for perfect knowing But relates alone give perfect Being No man can
of his ascension so it is true for the reality of the thing in regard of his Mission from the Father For the spirit must be sent from the Father and the Son And therefore it presumes his sending And Hence it is when he is come being sent of the Father He shal teach you al things and shal bring to mind what ever I have said to you And that which Christ speaks he hath from the Father not from the Spirit Joh. 14.10 The words he speaks not of himself And Verse 24. The words which ye hear are not mine but the Fathers which sent me He hath the message from him Joh. 12.49 I have not speken of my self but the Father which sent me gave me a command what I shal say and what I should speak Nay our Savior doth not take of the Spirit but the Spirit hears from him speaks from him Joh. 16.13 Howbeit when the Spirit of truth is come he wil guid you into al truth For he shal not speak of himself but whatever he shal hear that shal he speak He shal take of mine and shew it unto you Verse 15. Christ doth not go to take of the graces from the Spirit but the Spirit because Christ is sent to be the Head of the Church to have al Grace and to be the Fountain to communicate al Grace therefore the Spirit takes of his Not takes of the Father because the Father hath given al to him but takes of his who hath his commission from the Father and is sent out his work of purpose The sending of al Officers is hence As my Father sent me I send you And this is the order and Method of Gods Communication He that receives you receives me and he that receives me receives him that sent me Yea the sending of Gospel and al ordinances Joh. 17.8 For I have given unto them the words thou gavest me and they have received them and have known and beleeved that thou didst send me Yea the ground of al those glorious works he hath accomplished in his own Person and wil perform for his and against his enemies for their good is hence Joh. 9.4 I must do the works of him that sent me while it is day And 5.36 The works which the Father hath given me to do bear witness that the Father hath sent me And when he had fulfilled al he then returnes to his Father 5. As sending evidenceth an Authority in him that sends So to be sent implies that he that is sent takes this Authoritative Order stands ingaged to answer it thus given and taken And is fully to act under the will of him from whom he must work And thus it is with the Lord Christ as second person in the glorious Trinity being sent by God the Father to work as from him For as the manner of their being so is the manner of their working the Son from the Father and therefore works from the Father he is ready to entertain this Order of working and ingageth himself to answer the Order and wil of the Father and stands fitted to have the Nature of man united to him that he may go upon the operation of that work of the Father according to the Order of the Father given him and al this in a peculiar manner appropriate to the Son What ever belongs to the Second Person and none els that he hath as a Son received from the Father But to act by Authoritative order form the Father alone belongs to the Second Person and none els Therefore this as a Son he hath received from the Father Therefore as he must act from him alone so he is bound to answer that Order of his Therefore works nothing but what he sees his Father work speaks nothing but what he hears his Father say Therefore does nothing but what the Father wil. Therefore to be fitted when his wil is to take the Nature of man into Personal union that he may go upon the execution of his wil. I say receive it into personal union Because this belongs to no other Person not Father nor Holy Ghost but himself For its Haeresie to say the Father is incarnate or the Holy Ghost is incarnate How ever therefore he did not receive the Human Nature but in time Yet he was fitted for this work by this sending and eternal mission of his before al time this makes way for that work of Redemption The Human Nature hath a new manner of subsistence and alteration according to its being but there is no alteration in the Second Person As Gods power is the same before the things were made though they cannot be supported but when they are made Again when the Human Nature is united this union we know is in reason reall me non cogitante If the proper being of the union issued only from the Human Nature then there should be no difference in regard of the persons but they should share a like in it But that is false and Heretical For neither Father nor Holy Ghost are incarnate Nor is the Human Nature taken into personal union or becomes one person with the Father on Holy Ghost Therefore there is somthing of this union issues from the Second Person in an especial manner and that is to receive it into personal union for which he was fitted from eternity by his mission but takes it up in the fulness of time when he was sent by the Father thereunto Some such thing I have thought might be intimated in those Scriptures Joh. 8.42 and 17.8 and 13.2 He came out proceeded from God When he was to enter upon the Execution of the work and make the Human Nature feele that support Leaning and being terminated in the subsistence of the Second Person and went abroad in the execution of the work and therefore now he returnes to God again Lastly this sending in regard of the work upon the Creature This conclusion may give some light as much as shal serve our purpose The Lord Christ as God and man hath some things proper to himself 1. In the manner of the work and Priviledg where with he stands possessed he is the head of his Church and hath the immediate dispensation of al power committed to him for the good of it and these are peculiar He is the Head of his Church None but he Al power is committed to him and to none but him But in regard of the work there is a common concurrence of al the Persons with him II. For what he is sent 1. To bring Jacob again Isa 49.5 Those I must bring Joh. 10.16 All that he hath given me come to me Joh. 6.37 And Verse 39. God gives them to him And Chap. 17.8 And he gives them his word and they know that he is sent 2. To keep them when they are brought Joh. 6.38 I came to do the wil of my Father And Verse 39. This is his wil that I should lose nothing And Therefore prayes for them that the