with the error of the world and so fall from your own stedfastness if you be carried down with the swinge and with the current of the times and of the places where you live do not deceive your selves you are yet of this world I must confess it is a very strong temptation when the stream runs in a wrong course and often shakes the holiest Saints But yet in such a case they that belong to Jesus Christ must consider with themselves that they are of another world and therefore are not much to eye the fashion and the wayes of this They must behave themselves according to the fashion of their own Country They must conclude with holy Joshua 24.15 If it seem evil to other men to serve the Lord if they will forsake God and forsake his worship let them serve whom they will for me as for my own part I am at a point for that I and my house will serve the Lord. And they must say in such a case as David did Away from me ye wicked I am not for your company because I am not for your courses away from me ye wicked I will keep the Commandements of my God If you be now no longer of this world but of the other your language is not of this world but of the other You speake the language of the world and of the Country you belong to You are full of good discourse your heart boyles with good matter as the expression of the Prophet is Psal 45.1 It is like a boyling pot for that is the similitude that is alluded to it is alwayes bubling up and running over and then it speaks of good things as it is added there in that place The heart within boyles and the tongue without speakes and as the boyling Pot runs over with the self same matter which it hath within it so it fares with such an heart It bubleth up with good matter the matter which it hath conceived and meditated touching Christ this is that which is so readily and freely uttered with the tongue My heart is enditing of a good matter I speak of the things which I have made touching the King Such are the hearts and tongues of those that are of the other world their speech is gracious and either tends to glorifie their God or to edifie their Brethren this is the language of their Country What think we then of those whose language is alwayes vain and frivolous it doth not benefit the hearers it ministreth no grace for there is no grace in it or which is worse it is wicked and pernitious Their speech is rotten and corrupt there is no salt to season it and make it wholesom and hence their throat is likened to an open Sepulchre Rom. 3.13 which breathes and steames up nothing else but odious smells and loathsom exhalations or else at best their speeches and discourses are of nothing else but earth and earthly things Talk with them while you will you hear of nothing else but worldly matters from them Of what Country do you think are these men The Apostle John tells you 1 John 4.5 They are of the world and they speak of â—he world Shibboleth never descryed so many Ephraimites as this doth worldly wrerches They are of Galilee they are of this world for their speech bewrayeth them Shall I believe they are Inhabitants of the Celestial Canaan who cannot speak almost without an oath whose tongues are alwayes dipping in that blood which alone can cleanse them from all sin Shall I say that such a man or woman is of heaven whose tongue is set on fire of hell Brethren do not deceive your selves if you cannot spake the language you belong not to that Country If you be now no longer of this world but of the other you have a dear affection to your Contrymen to those that are given up to Christ out of the world as you are If travailers and strangers meet with any of their Country-men in a remote and forreign Land how lovingly do they embrace them what kindness do they shew them how are they knit together in a bond of love Just so it is with those who are of the other world If they light any time on any of that same world which they themselves belong to they are extreamly taken up with joy although they never saw them nor had acquaintance with them in their lives before and presently their hearts and their affections do wonderfully close together And therefore they are gross dissemblers who would be thought to be given up to Christ out of the world and yet their bosom friends and their Companions are all of them of this world These are the men which they converse withall and which they take delight in Nay which is worse then this they hate the men whom Jesus Christ hath called and chosen out of the world They persecute them with the hand and with the tongue and do them all the spight and all the mischief that they can Suppose thou wert in Italy or Spain or any other forreign Land and there shouldst meet an Englishman wouldest thou mock and scoff at him wouldest thou deride and jear at the fashion of his cloaths the manner of his complement his gate and carriage and the like wouldest thou procure him to be taken up imprisoned put to death thy Earthly Country would not own thee if thou shouldst be so unworthy And truly heaven will not own the men who deal thus basely and injuriously with the Inhabitants of that Country Use 3 Are there some certain men whom God the Father gives to Jesus Christ out of the world so that however they were once the worlds now they are of the world no longer You then that find you are given up to Jesus Christ think it not much if you have but ill usage and untoward entertainment in the world Truly my Brethren if you consider whence you are and to what Country you belong there can no other be expected by you if you were of the world the world would love her own but because you are not of the world but Christ hath chosen you out of the world therefore the world hates you And it shall be your wisedom to look out and to provide for such usage If Turks or Spaniards walk along the streets every one will gaze upon them they will wonder at their gate and at their habit and the like Every one will be ready to abuse them and to put them to the worst for they are friendless being in a strange Country And are not you my Brethren of another Country yea of another world are you not men of singularity are not your wayes and fashions diverse from the fashions of this world No marvel then though you be men of wonder as the Prophet speakes though you be pointed at and though you be made spectacles and gazing stocks Though every one presume to injure you and wrong you and deal unworthily and basely with you
chosen you out of the world therefore the world hateth you To open this a little further to you because it is the great thing of the Doctrine and the Text that they that are bestowed on Jesus Christ are given him out of the world and so are of the world no longer I shall make it to appear in a few particulars They that are actually given up to Jesus Christ to be his Members are actually dead with Christ and consequently they are out of this world We use to say of men when they are dead that they are gone they are departed out of this world The same may be affirmed in a sense of those who are dead with Jesus Christ And this is that which the Apostle Paul insinuates Col. 2.20 If ye be dead with Christ saith he as that he takes for granted and supposed why as though living in the world are ye subject to Ordinances He reasons there from the Condition and the state of the Colossians on whom those worldly Ordinances were imposed They were dead in relation to the world they lived not in the world and therefore were not to be burthened in their consciences at least with the inventions and constitutions of the world Law is the rule of life and action so that where there is a cessation of life there is no further obligation of the Law because there is no action in a dead man to be ordered by it Know ye not saith the Apostle to the Romans chap. 7.1 that the Law hath Dominion over a man so long as he liveth So long and no longer for assoon as he is dead he is loosed from the Law as it is added there in that place It were a senseless thing to lay Commandements on the carriages of men and to exact obedience from them after they are dead But ye are dead saith the Apostle dead to the world and therefore these unlawful Ordinances ought not to be imposed upon you by the world They should not burthen you with these things for this is not the Countrey that you live in And in another place the Apostle speaking of himself saith he was crucified to the world Gal. 6.6 14. not only dead but crucified to it and so he was no more of this world They that are actually given up to Jesus Christ to be his members as they are actually dead and so departed out of this world so they are actually living in another world You are dead saith the Apostle Col. 3.3 and what follows you are not so dead that you do not live at all but you do not live here no you live above with God You are dead and your life is hid with Christ in God Their conversation is indeed in heaven as the same Apostle speaks Phil. 3.20 their life is Angel-like they walk with God as Noah did Gen. 6.9 They are with him in the Palace Psal 45.15 Others are abroad in the Town or in the Countrey but these men are in house with him they are without doors but these are within such faithful souls have fellowship with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ as the Apostle speaks 1 Joh. 1.3 They are far from God and far from Jesus Christ by Nature they dwell a great way from him as the Prodigal in a strange Countrey and so have no commerce with him But when they are converted and given up to Christ they are made nigh as the expression is Ephes 2.13 When peace is once effectually preached to those that are afar off they have access by one Spirit to the Father and so they are no longer forreigners and strangers but fellow-Citizens of the Saints and of the houshold of God Indeed my Brethren whatsoever they that are bestowed on Christ do in regard of their natural life yet in regard of their spiritual life they do not live so properly in this world as in the other and therefore in that respect are out of this world as I shall shew you in a few particulars For 1. There is no life but is accompanyed with some relation to those that have the same alliance and descent and Original of life Now true it is that they that are bestowed on Jesus Christ in regard of their natural life have natural parents and kindred and allies in this world But in regard of their spiritual life they have spiritual parents and kindred in another world Their Father that begat them God is of another world Their Mother that conceived and bare them and gave them suck the Church is of another world The new Jerusalem which is above is free which is the Mother of us all Gal. 4.26 Their Brethren and their special friends that are united to them in the nearest bond and tie of grace are of another world So that their chief relations are above in heaven And wheresoever they may sojourn for a Season there they live where their Father and their Mother and their Brethren and their choice Relations are 2. There is no life but is accompanyed with some place of habitation though in some I must acknowledge it may be more unsetled then in others and with some means of sustentation Now it is very true that they that are given up to Christ in regard of their natural life may have an earthly habitation and earthly means of sustentation and so in that respect they may be yet in this world But in regard of their spiritual life their mansion house is in another world as the Apostle tels us 2 Cor. 5.1 They have a building with God a house not made with hands but eternal in heaven The means which they subsist upon by which this life is nourished and maintained are not any earthly things They feed upon the bread which comes from heaven which was prefigured by the Manna with reference to which the Psalmist saith that man did eat Angels food My Father gives you the true bread from heaven saith our Saviour John 6.32 And what is that I am the bread saith he that came down from heaven at ver 41. This bread all they that appertain to Christ do eat by faith and of his blood do they drink and so the life of grace is strengthened in them And for the estate they live upon the main possession it lies not here but in another world In Christ they have obtained an inheritance incorruptible undefiled c. and so in him they sit already in heavenly places 3. There is no life but is accompanyed with some action Now they that are bestowed on Jesus Christ may in regard of their natural life act in and with and for this world They may in many things do as worldly men do they may labour in their callings they may deal in the affairs and trade in the Commodities of this world for the procuring of subsistence here But in regard of their spiritual life their actings are in and for another world Their minds and thoughts do work exceedingly on heaven and heavenly things Their
the world the world would love its own but because ye are not of the world therefore the world hates you And hence it comes to pass that it persues them persecutes them casts them out creates them all the trouble and vexation that it can so that they are not like to have a quiet hour almost in this world Besides the evils and afflictions to which they are exposed by the necessity of nature as man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upwards Job 5.7 distempers and diseases in their bodies loss of their estates and friends and earthly comforts and the like ungodly men come in with their additions The Church of Christ while she is here is ill-seated she grows in an ill place as he himself affirmeth of her 2 Cant. 2. as the Lilly among thorns so is my Love among the daughters She is environed and begirt with them so that she is annoyed and hurt and pierct on every side She cannot stir but one or other of her thorny neighbours hath her by the sleeve She dwels in Mesech while she dwells in this world and hath her habitation in the Tents of Kedar in the midst of wicked men so that she is beleaguered as it were and hem'd about with those that hate her and desire her ruine This is the state and the condition of the Saints while they are here they are continually vexed and troubled So that no marvel though our Saviour tells his own Apostles In the world you shall have tribulation Iohn 16.33 That is your portion as long as you remain here The world hath alwayes been an evil and uncomfortable place to Christs Disciples in this respect that it is a place of sinning Indeed my brethren they are troubled with the sins of other men their righteous souls are vexed with their filthy conversations Rivers of waters run down their eyes because men keep not Gods Law But they are chiefly troubled with their own sins from which they are not to be wholly freed while they remain in this world As long as they continue here they are perpetually in Sathans danger who is the Prince of this world and whose authority and power is confined to this life There will never be an absolute and perfect cure of sin in any of the Saints till this corruption have put on incorruption And hence perhaps the corruptions of our natures are stiled worldly lusts Tit. 2.12 And our members that are upon the earth Col. 3.5 because we cannot possibly be rid of them while we are here upon the earth and while we live in this world The Apostle Paul compares himself and others of the Saints to earthen Vessels 2 Cor. 4.7 And earthen vessels when they were legally defiled could not be made clean again till they were broken all in pieces as you may see Lev. 11.33 So we my brethen are not to be fully cleansed till we be shivered all in pieces We are not to be wholly rescued from the bondage to corruption till death translate is to another world And then he that is dead saith the Apostle is free from sin Rom. 6.7 So that no marvel though the world be a place of such disquiet and discomfort to the Saints For how can they be fully comfortable here while they are alwayes sinning against God He that hath entred into rest indeed hath ceased from his own works as the Apostle speaks Heb. 4.10 Till then he cannot wholly cease from those that are most properly his own works but is in danger of offending God and falling into sin continually and so can have no rest here Nay my beloved no man knows how far the Lord may suffer him to fall in this world Though it be a certain truth that they that are elect can never wholly fall away from God yet they may sin exceedingly to the dishonour of the Lord the scandal of their brethren and the irreparable wounding of their name while they have a day to live And this they are in danger of I mean of falling fearfully so long as they remain here What deadly falls have many of Gods worthies taken in their latter times It is observable that Davids first wayes are commended 2 Chron. 17.3 By which the Holy Ghost insinuates that his last wayes were not answerable to them He speaking of Jehosaphat walked in the first wayes of his Father David Indeed the latter wayes of David were blemished with extremity of sin and scandal The like is also noted of Solomon 1 King 11.9 And Asa 2 Chron. 16.10 And Jehosaphat 2 Chron. 20.35 And how then can the world but but be a doleful and uncomfortable place to Christs Disciples where they are in such hazard How can they but complain as Rebecca sometimes did though in another case If I must still be troubled with my lusts and my corruptions if I must still be over-ruled by them thus what good will continuance in the world do me The world hath alwayes been and is an evil c. in this respect that it is a place of banishment from Jesus Christ from him in whom their very souls delight This makes it sad and grievous to them that they have not Christ with them And this is that at which our Saviour aimeth in my text I am no more in this world but these are in the world There is the dolefulness of their condition that they are to continue here without me Indeed we are debarred of the immediate presence of the Lord while we remain in this world And therefore it is said expresly 2 Cor. 5.6 That whilest we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. And is not this a grievous thing to be kept from the enjoyment of such a one as Christ is Especially to him that knows him and is well acquainted with him and hath tasted of his sweetness can you blame him if he be weary of the world and if it be a trouble to him to continue here if be be willing to be absent from the body that so he may be present with the Lord What holy heart can choose but find a weariness in that place let it be otherwise as pleasant as it will which keeps Christ and him asunder and hinders him from the compleat fruition of his blessed Saviour Who would not gladly leave a place in which as long as he continues Christ and he must be asunder Vse 1 Now is it so my brethren that the world hath alwayes been and is an evil c. Then let it be a Caveat to us not to cast as we are very apt to do on too much joy and comfort here Our manner is when things look a little well and when we have some present quiet and content to promise great and extraodinary matters to our selves To sing a requiem to our souls with the rich man in the Gospel take thine ease eat drink and be merry It s true the men of this world may have some content and quietness and
wrath no not so much as by determination and decree Paul need not have said he did it by his absolute and Soveraign power No if it had been so he might have said God did it not all he prepared them not at all ordained them not at all but they prepared themselves to wrath and to destruction But this he could not say for it were quite against the saying of the holy Ghost Iude 4. where he makes mention of some certain men who were before of old ordained to condemnation Not only fitted for it by themselves but preordained to it by another and that is God Yea the Apostle Paul doth clearly and expresly intimate that God appointeth some to wrath in that memorable place to this purpose 1 Thes 5.9 where stirring up the Thessalonians to exemplary holiness of life he quickens them with the consideration of the high preferment which he and they and others had in that which is indeed the richest and the choicest mercy of the Lord For God hath not appointed us to wrath Others he hath but this is our prerogative that God hath not appointed us to wrath as he hath done many others but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ So that the Point is plain you see that God in his Eternal Counsel and Decree hath appointed and designed c. To open this a little to you that so you may the more distinctly understand it you must know that there are two parts or acts of the decree of God in reference to these whom he appointeth to destruction viz. a negative and a positive act The first of these the negative act is nothing else but preterition non-election Passing by and not electing some particular and special men to that beatitude and glory which others are appointed to This is that will of God by which he hath determined not to save them but even to leave them in their lost condition that they may perish everlastingly Now this my brethren is expresly and apparently implyed and included in election For when God chooses some it follows evidently that there are other some remaining on which that act of choosing doth not pass When David went to fight against Goliah he chose him five smooth stones out of the brook Who doth not presently conceive that he refused other some If all be taken it is no election so that election carries in it the first act of reprobation preterition passing by When some are chosen there are other some refused when some are taken there are others left 2. But now there is another act of the decree of God in reference to those whom he appointeth to destruction which we have called a positive act For as God leaves men in the first place in their sins and in their lost condition and doth not choose them to salvation So in the second place he resolveth with himself to condemn them and to destroy them for the sin in which he leaves them and so to glorifie his Justice in them And this is that which some have stiled predamnation damnation in the purpose and decree of God For it is one thing to decree the condemnation of such as are not chosen to salvation and it is another thing actually to condemn them by executing the decree upon them Now of this second act of the decree of God it is that we speak in the conclusion we are handling That God in his Eternal Counsel and Decree hath appointed and designed some certain special persons to destruction But you will ask me Why hath God done so What is the reason of this Act of his What doth induce him to ordain men to destruction First I will shew you what is not the reason And in the next place I will shew you what it is The sins of men are not the reason why God ordains men to destruction they are the cause indeed why he destroyes them but not why he ordaines them to destruction It s true sin is considered in this second act of reprobation which we have stiled predamnation For as the Lord condemns men for their sins in the great and dreadful day so he accordingly decrees from everlasting to condemn them for their sins He doth in time as he decrees from all eternity Just so and no otherwise But mark it my beloved however sin be thought upon in the decree yet it is not the moving cause of the decree but only of the execution of it And as it is not the fore-sight of faith and holiness upon the one side that inclineth God to choose men so on the other side it is not the foresight of infidelity and disobedience that inclines him to reject them and appoint them to damnation Indeed God damns men for their sins yea he decrees to damn men for their sins but yet it is not for their sins that he decrees it Sin is the Cause and is considered as the cause of the accomplishment of the decree but not of the decree it self But if sin be not the reason then why God appoints men to destruction what is the reason then Truly there is no reason out of God no moving or impulsive cause of the decree out of his own bosome His 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the only reason why he appointeth some to wrath and others to salvation the pleasure of his own will He hath mercy on whom he will and whom he will he hardneth as the Apostle speaks Rom. 9.18 And therefore the Apostle in that very Chapter concludeth the decree of God both of election and of reprobation to be absolutely free from any motive or inducement out of God himself because it passed upon the children Iacob and Esau being yet unborn having neither done good or evil as you may see at large Rom. 9.11 12 13. For the children being not yet born that the purpose of God according to election might stand not of works but of him that calleth it was said The elder shall serve the yonger c. As it is written Jacob have I loved that is to choose him and Esau have I hated to reject him And consequently neither election not rejection was of works not of any thing in them seeing it took hold upon them before they had a being in the world Yea but it will be said perhaps though they were yet unborn and though they had done neither good nor evil yet God fore-knew and God foresaw they would be born and that in time they would do good or evil and so accordingly he moulded his decree electing him whom he foresaw would do good rejecting him whom he foresaw would do evil But how then was it not of works if it were of works foreseen of the one side or the other will works foreseen stand better with the freeness of the purpose and decree of God then present works or works in being Not a whit And therefore this is cleerly and apparently the force of the Apostles reason The decree of God is free
that of the Apostle in the same case Rom. 9.20 Nay but O man who art thou that replyest answerest again disputest against God! All the objections that are made almost against the point in hand are against God too against his mercy justice power c. If you have any thing to say for God it is worth the hearkning to otherwise you have your answer Who art thou that disputest against God do but consider who art thou Vse 2 Is it so that God in his Eternal c. How should this make us to admire at the transcendent riches of his grace and love to us whom he hath chosen to salvation Paul makes it an especial aim of God in his Decree of Reprobation To shew the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy Rom. 9.23 And if we weigh it well we shall easily discern that it doth strangely heighten the exceeding love of God Had he ordained all men to salvation even so his mercy had been out of measure great But that he hath ordained any of us to salvation when on the contrary he hath ordained so many millions to destruction whose state in Nature was no worse then ours whose strength in nature was as great as ours to exempt them from damnation whose care to be reconciled was no less then ours till God was pleased in mercy to prevent us how should this sweeten the favour of the Lord to us in this respect and even ravish us with admiration of his free grace The Lord delights to amplifie his love by this He took not Angels but the seed of Abraham Heb. 2.16 Was not Esau Jacobs brother saith the Lord Yet I loved Jacob and I hated Esau Mal. 1.2 3. Whose soul that hath tasted of it can choose but be amazed at it Hath God preferred me before Angels before so many thousands in the world Oh the unsearchable depth of his love to me How doth it pass all knowledge JOHN 17.12 That the Scripture might be fulfilled AND thus of our Saviours general assertion that he had safely and entirely kept all those that were bestowed upon him by his Father While I was with them in the world I kept them in thy Name those thou gavest me I kept and none of them lost And likewise of his particular exception of Judas who here is called the son of perdition None of them is lost but the son of perdition Now in the following words that none might be offended at the loss of Judas or stumble at his ruine and destruction our Saviour Christ goes on to shew that as it was designed and fore-appointed in the eternal Councel and Decree of God so it was fore-told in Scripture It was not only fore-ordained but it was fore-shewed too So that in his destruction there fell out nothing otherwise then as it was expresly and apparently declared before in Scripture The Scripture was not crost and contradicted in it but verified and fulfilled None of them is lost but the son of perdition that the Scripture might be fulfilled But you will ask me what Scripture where did the Word of God foretel the ruine and destruction of this wretched man I answer David prophesied clearly and expresly of it many hundred years before Psal 109.8 Let Satan stand at his right hand When he shall be judged let him be condemned and let his prayer become sin Let his days be few and let another take his office Judas you know was self-condemned and self-executed too and so his days were few by that means And when he had destroyed himself his place and Office of Apostleship was supplyed by another But you will say perhaps Judas is not named by David in the fore-alleadged Psalm And therefore though the prophesie seem to agree to him and his condition yet how are we assured that he is aimed at in particular in that prediction Why my Beloved though the Prophet David do not name him the Apostle Peter doth apply that Scripture to him Act. 1.20 For having said in the fore-going verses This Scripture must have been fulfilled which the Holy Ghost by David spake before concerning Judas He comes at length to this in the alledged verse For it is written in the Book of Psalms Let his habitation be desolate and let no man dwell therein and his Bishoprick or Charge or Office 〈◊〉 another take so that when he was lost and fell from his Apostleship yâ—â— see that Scripture was fulfilled And yet you must not apprehend the loss of Iudas to be caused by that praediction as if the Prophesie concerning him did really contribute any thing by way of active operation and efficiencie to his destruction Though I acknowledge the expression of my Text may seem to look a little that way None of them is lost but the son of perdition And he is lost that the Scripture might be fulfilled But you must know my Brethren that he had been lost though his destruction had never been foretold in Scripture He was not lost the rather because his loss was prophesied but it was prophesied because he was before from all eternity appointed to perdition And being prophesied when the event fell out accordingly it looked as if the prophesie had been the cause of his destruction So that the particle that as a very learned man observes upon the Text Iudas was lost that the Scripture might be fulfilled denoteth not the true but the appearing cause only Yet thus much it suggests withall which shall be our observation DOCTRINE That whatsoever is foretold in Scripture shall surely be accomplished and fulfilled The issue and event shall answer the prediction every way in all respects And therefore it is often noted not in my Text alone but elsewhere frequently that such and such things came to pass that the Scripture might be fulfilled as you may see that place for instance Mat. 2.14 15. Joseph arose and took the child and departed into Egypt That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Prophet saying Out of Egypt have I called my Son And after in the following verse Herod sent forth and slew the children from two years old and under Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by the Prophet saying In Rama was a voyce heard Lamentation and weeping and great mourning Rachel weeping for her children and would not be comforted because they are not And so in many other places the Apostles very carefully observe the punctual and exact accomplishment of the antient Prophesies and speak sometimes in such a manner as if things came to pass for no other cause but this because they were foretold in Scripture and that the Scripture might be fulfilled Whereas indeed they had been done though they had never been foretold because they were fore-determined only they would have us know that whatsoever is foretold shal certainly be done in Gods time It is easier saith our Saviour for Heaven and Earth to pass away then for one title of the Word of God to
prescribes there need to be no difference between them and other men and so there would be no dislike But now they are not neither can they be conformed and fashiond to the world Rom. 12.2 they cannot walk according to the course and custom of the world Ephes 2.2 The world runs out exceedingly into all licentious courses but they run not out with them They walk not as the Gentiles Ephes 4.17 they sleep not as do others 1 Thess 5.5 And this the world cannot abide them for because they are so singular and will not do as they do They that receive the Word of God as they do cross the world so they condemn and shame the world For while they walk exactly by the Rule their holy and unblemisht lives and conversations do make the vitious and licentious courses of ungodly men the more odious and bring the more contempt upon them And as the righteous is the more excellent because he dwelleth by a bad neighbour so on the other side the wicked is the more abominable because he dwelleth by a good neighbour his vile and wicked actions shew the worse because there are so good examples just by Thus we have seen the first reason of the point the wicked world hates Christs Disciples because they entertain the Word of God I have given them thy Word saith Christ c. There is a second also added in the Text It is the manner of the world Reason 2 to hate them that are Christs disciples because they are not of this world but of another Therefore the world is so envenomed and so malitiously bent against them The world hath hated them saith Christ because they are not of the world even as I am not of the world If they were of their own society and of their own Countrey they would love them well enough as Christ himself informeth his Disciples Joh. 15.19 If ye were of the world the world would love his own but because ye are not of the world but I have chosen you out of the world therefore the world hates you Use 1 Is it the manner of the wicked world c. Here then you see one especial reason why Christs Disciples are so vilified and abused in the world They dwell among a company of men that hate them and that to the very death And hence it is my brethren that they do them all the mischief that they can It is a wonder to us many times that all the world almost should be upon the skirts of the small number that belongs to Christ that they should be continually perking at them and raising scandalous reports upon them we know not what to make of it Why what 's the matter think we that they should be so ill-entreated and so unworthily and basely used on all hands Truly nothing else but this the world hates them and all these injuries and wrongs and molestations are the effects of that hatred Use 2 Is it the manner of the wicked c. the greater cause there is of admiration at the power and mercy of the Lord that keeps them and preserves them notwithstanding this hatred Though all the world be bitterly envenomed and enraged against them they cannot have their will upon them no they are safeguarded still as if a little Lamb were kept among a company of Wolves and Lions T is not for want of multitude or malice in the enemies of Christs Disciples that they have yet a being in the world but by the power and goodness of a gratious God upholding them and providing for their safety This is the Lords doing and it is marvelous in our eyes And we shall marvail at it and admire the Lord the more if we consider yet a little more distinctly but these two things 1. The disparity in number between Christs Disciples and them that bear such mortal hatred to them For Christs Disciples they are very few a little flock a small number a petty inconsiderable company of men But they that hate them and desire their ruine are the world a world of wicked and ungodly men So that you see there are enemies enough to eat up Christs people as David said they did in his time They eat up thy people as a man would eat bread to devour them and to bring them all to nothing in a moment And if you do compare them with the multitude that are against them and consider what a deadly and envenomed hatred they bear against them their preservation will appear to be a strange thing the greater and more admirable is the power that keeps them and upholds them in such a posture and condition as this is 2. And as there is a great disparity in number between Christs Disciples and them that bear such hatred to them so in disposition too which magnifies the power that keeps them yet more For Christs Disciples they are frequently compared to Sheep and Lambs poor harmless things that are so far from being able or desirous to offend hurt others that they are no wayes able to defend themselves And they that hate them on the otherside are compared to Dogs and Wolves and Bears and Lions How easie is it for such strong and cruel creatures to make a prey upon the silly Lambs So Christs Disciples are resembled to a Lilly for their tenderness and softness and they that hate them on the other side to Thorns for their injurious and offensive quality Cant. 2.2 They are sharp and rough and boistrous and these alas are sweet and harmless and how shall they subsist among them They are not like to hurt the world but the world is very like to hurt them Thorns you know are apt to prick and rent and scratch and on the other side the Lilly by reason of her tenderness is very lyable to wrong and very capable of such impressions The Greater cause there is of admiration at the power of God by which the Church of Christ is kept in such a dangerous condition and estate as this is Is it the manner of the wicked c. Then surely it concerneth Christs Use 3 Disciples to be very cautious how they walk in the midst of such men If they were among their friends there needed not such curious circumspection For friends will make the best of every thing and construe matters in the mildest and most favourable way But since they are amongst their enemies that hate them it stands them very much upon to look exactly to their words and wayes And that upon a few Considerations For First if there be any thing to be misconstrued they will be sure to make an ill interpretation of it they will mistake your words as David speaks and mistake your actions too and turn them all the wrong way Because they hate you they will lie upon the the catch that they may pick some matter of exception and reproach against you And if there be but any shew or colour for it they will glory out
duty you do to him can be accepted 4. You can hope for no pardon of sin 5. Cannot come to God with boldness 124. What meant by the only true God p. 126. viz. the whole Essence of the Godhead 3. Doctr. That the Father Son and Holy Ghost is the only true God p. 128. Reason For he only hath being of himself 2. He is the living God 3. None can do that which he doth 4. He only is Eternal 1. Vse Be stirred up to confirm your faith of this Motives 1. For then the more and better we shall walk with him 2. Serve and obey him p. 130. Direct 1. Give full assent to the Scriptures 2. Know him to be above all other Gods 3. Be resolved not doubtful of this point 4. Pray for faith in this particular p. 133. 2. Vse Obey serve and honour him as the true God p. 134. 3. Vse Let us have no other God but him only p. 135. Serve the Lord and not Idols p. 136. Times p 138. Lusts neither your own nor that of others p. 139. 2. Fear none but him 3. Trust in him alone p. 140. 4. Vse Learn from hence to be at unity among our selves 5. Learn to see our happiness of having chosen him for our God p. 141. 4. Doctr. That Christ is the Apostle or Messenger of God p. 142. Explication 1. Sent from God and from heaven How possible p. 143. 2. Into the world 3. The errand on which he was sent viz. to make peace preach peace 4. Therefore fitly qualified with 1. Authority 2. Ability Fulness of Merit to make peace p. 145. Spirit to preach peace p. 145. 1. Vse Admire the mercy of the sender 2. Of him that would be sent Void of fear and constraint p. 147 2. Be all intreated to receive and entertain him For 1. His errand is your business 2. It 's for your good and advantage 3. The Father expects you should honour his Embassadour and Son 4. He will avenge the refusers of him 5. This Messenger can prevail with God for you p. 149. Direction 1. Receive him so as to hearken to him 2. To believe in him 3. To obey him p. 150. 5. Doct. Whoever wil be glorified with God in heaven must glorifie him first on earth p. 152 Reason It is the everlasting counsel and decree of God Vse 1. Against vain expecters of future glory p. 153. 2. Vse Learn to glorifie God here 1. By a vocal declaration 2. By a real representation in what you 1. are p. 154. 2. do p. 154. Gods glory how to be our aim in all Ver. 4 1. Doctr. That Christ was ordered by his Father in the work he did in this world p. 156. Expl. Christ was so ordered in his works of Satisfaction His obedience Active p. 157. Passive p. 158. Application p. 158. As by the 1. Promulgation of the Word 2. Internal operation of the Spirit p. 159. Reas 1. Christ was the Fathers creature 2. The Fathers servant p. 160. 1. Vse Admire the humble condescension of Christ 2. Learn to be humbled in like manner and to suffer willingly p. 161. 3. Vse Some do the good others the evil which God hath not given them to do p. 162. Danger of neglecting Gods order p. 164. How Christ had finished the work before his Passion p. 165. 2. Doct. Christ did not do his work by halves but went through with it p. 166. Sufferings of Christs body Natural Mystical 1. Vse Who guilty of adding to the works of Christ 2. Let us persevere in our work and finish it Five Motives hereunto p. 169. Ver. 5 What glory Christ prayed for Doct. Christ as Man in some measure partaker of the divine glory 1. By the grace of union 2. By the grace of dispensation from the Father p. 173. 1. Vse Know the advancement of our nature in the Person of Christ 2. Their personal advancement that belong to Christ partly in 1. Fruition 2. Assured expectation 3. This should make us despise the shame of this world 2. So to walk as not to be a shame to Christ p. 174. Ver. 6 How Christ had manifested Gods Name Doct. Christ made an absolute and compleat discovery of his Father to the people 1. By his Personal appearance in the flesh 2. By his Word and Gospel 3. By his Spirit p. 178. 2. Q. Why Christ only makes this discovery R. 1. None but he is able 2. None but he is fit to make this discovery p. 180. 3. Q. Why the discovery he makes is so full and absolute R. 1. As being the faithful Prophet of his Church 2. That the discovery may be effectual 1. Vse The ignorant inexcusable 2. Learn to bless his Name for this discovery 3. Grow up in the knowledge of this Name made known p. 182. 4. Vse Be satisfied with the discovery which Christ hath made search not beyond it Pride Sin Danger vanity thereof p. 184. 5. Vse Walk worthy of this discovery i. e. Despair not under sin or misery p. 185. 2. Doct. Some the Father giveth to Christ out of the world 2. A certain number of them 3. Being once the Lords they are no longer of the world Confirm 1. The actual members of Christ are dead with Christ and of another world as are their kindred and alliance p. 190. 3. Their habitation is spiritual so is their action and traffique 1. Vse Therefore the world storms and rageth at mens being given up to Christ 2. Examin Are we given up to Christ p. 192. Marks 1. They are not conformable to this present world 2. They speak the language of another world p. 193. 3. They dearly affect their Countreymen 3. Vse Think not strange of ill usage in the world p. 194. 4. Vse Regard not the things of this world 5. Follow not a multitude to sin It s safe and honorable to be retired 6. Be not troubled at worldly troubles 3. Doct. All Christs people were first belonging to the Father p. 197. 1. The Father essentially taken 2. All belonged to God 1. By Creation 2. By Election 3. Christs people not so his as not the Fathers 1 Vse Christ will tenderly keep those that are so given him Word of God Inward and Essential p. 202. Outward and Declaratory p. 202. 4. Doct. They whom the Father gives to Christ keep his word p. 203. Christs Word is kept In the memory by retaining In the heart by believing In the affections by loving In the life by obeying with obedience Active Passive Vse Exam. Are we so given up to Christ that we keep his Word p. 205. 2. Vse Direct For helping memory 1. Be intent and fix your mind on the Word 2. Get a good understanding 3. Value the Word 4. Strengthen the memory by meditation repetition conference 5. Set instantly to practice the truth you hear 6. Pray for the Spirit to do his Office 3. Vse of Examination Do we keep Christs word by Faith Some believe none of it 2. Some but part of it
somewhat higher and above yours but it is not without yours nay to say truth my interest is for yours God is my Father that he may be yours in me Oh my beloved what melting joy and comfort is here for every member of the Lord Christ in regard of this relation I give you but a hint in three particulars First being the sons of God in Christ we may be sure that he will hear us in and by and through Christ He always hears his son Christ and never puts him off with a denial Thou art my son this day c. Ask of me and I will give thee Psal 2.7 and this our Saviour Christ himself professes Iohn â—1 4 and as the Father always hears his son Christ so he doth always hear his Sons in Christ And truly if the first be once admitted the latter follows unavoidably For Christ the eldest Son is intercessor for his brethren in all their regular requests he never faileth to put in with them so that they cannot be denied unless he be denied too Christ and they must either stand or fall together Secondly being Sons of God in Christ we may be confident he will provide for us He hath provided very well for Christ he is not his Son only but he is his Heir too yea he is heir of all without exception Heb. 1.2 And as Christ is the Son and Heir of God so we are sons and heirs of God in Christ there is not a younger brother of us Thou art no more a servant but a son Gal. 4.7 And if a son then an heir of God through Christ If Sons of God through Christ then Heirs of God through Christ too If we be sons then also heirs Rom. 8.17 yea we are heirs of all as Christ is and therefore it is added presently Heirs of God joynt-heirs with Christ Jesus Christ as Mediator is not Heir to any thing but we are joynt-heirs and have a joynt-right with him there is an Inventory of our riches 1 Cor. 3.21 Thirdly being Sons of God we may be confident he will protect us Fathers use to protect their children if they can God can and therefore will As Naomi laid Ruths childe in her bosom Ruth 4.16 so God lays his children Isa 4.11 and that is certainly a safe place And as the Eagle spreads her wings over her young and carries them upon her wings Prov. 32 1â— so God throws his children under the wings of his protection and carries them above the reach of danger This is very sweet comfort be your troubles what they will you have a Father that is able to secure you that is very tender of you that hath set a guard upon you Heb. 1. ult Psal 34.7 John 17.1 Father the hour is come Use 2 IS God the Father of the Lord Christ And consequently Christ the Son of God the Father Why then I say as the Apostle He is the Lord of all Gal. 4.1 He is not a servant in the house but a Son over the house Heb. 3.6 And therefore he must be obeyed and served according to the Psalmists Exhortation Psal 2.11 Serve the Lord. Well then my brethren let us think of this and let us hearken to that Counsel and advice of Christ himself Take my yoke my service on you Brethren let me engage you all this day for this Lord and his service let me perswade you to receive him for the Lord your righteousness Not to call him Lord only but to take him for your Lord and to use him as your Lord and to yield him all that service and obedience which the name calls for Ah my Beloved let us not do in this regard as the greater part of Christians in name and in profession do Let us not wear the badge and cognizance of Jesus Christ and say he is our Lord and Master and the like and in the mean time never do his will nor take any pains at all in his service For this is but to deal with Christ as the perfidious Jews did to put a purple robe upon him and to bow down before him and to call him Hail Master and in the self-same breath to buffet him and spit upon him But as we call him Lord so let us carry and demean our selves towards him as our Lord and Master and let us yield to him that obedience which is due to him And to this end let us consider what engagements lye upon us to draw us and to hold us to the service of this Lord which I shall briefly lay before you as motives to perswade The first is an Engagement of Creation he is the image of the invisible God saith the Apostle Col. 1.15 The first born of every creature that is the Lord of every creature for the first born is Lord of all And why the Lord of every creature You have the reason in the following words For by him were all things created that are in heaven and that are in earth All things were made by him and therefore it is fit that all should serve him Nay my Beloved they were not made by him only but they were made for him too as it is added there in that place all things were created by him and for him By his power and for his use And therefore if we be not useful to him if we do not serve him we cross the very end of our creation The brutish and unreasonable creatures serve him in their kind and measure and therefore David saith that all things serve him But we are bound to serve him much more because in our Creation we received more from him He made us Lords of all his creatures â—â—at we might have no Lord but him He made the whole creation to be serviceable to us that we might be the more engaged and the better able to be serviceable to himself that we might serve him for it all that we might serve him with it all He put all things under us and truly we are bound the more my Brethren to be under him and subject to him he made us men he gave us reason which he gave not to other creatures the greater reason have we to obey him and to improve our parts and gifts in his service Indeed we cannot chose but see that it is all the reason of the world that as we have all from him so we should use all for him The next is an engagement of Redemption which binds us to the service of the Lord. As he is the Lord that made us so he is the Lord that bought us as the Apostles phrase is 2 Pet. 2.1 He purchased us my Brethren us I mean that are his own at a very dear rate and therefore it is just that we should serve him especially since it is evident that this was his intention in his purchase He bought us out of Sins and Satans hands not that we might be absolutely free from all commands but that we might be his servants He gave himself
in election though yet they are not given to him by real union and incorporation And if they appertain to Jesus Christ though they be never so untoward and indisposed and averse depend upon it he hath power to give Eternal life to them I say to every one of you my brethren that hath such a wife or such a husband or such a child or such a friend as Christ to Martha when he had told her that he was the resurrection and the life that he could raise up any man though he were dead and make him live Iohn 11.26 Believest thou this It may be you will say as she Alas my Brother or my Father or my Child hath been dead so many dayes so many years he hath laid buried in his grave of sin a long while so that by this time he stinketh Why yet believe that Jesus Christ can raise him up and make him live the life of grace and glory He hath received power to give eternal life to all that are bestowed upon him If they belong to that number be they as dead as it is possible for men to be and as averse from being quickned the power of Jesus Christ shall master them and overcome them and raise them up out of their graves of sin that you shall say with admiration See what Iesus Christ can do upon a poor dead Creature And therefore when you look upon such souls as those and seem to have the question put you that the Prophet had when he saw the dry bones Ezek. 37.3 Can these dead souls live do you give the same answer O Lord God thou knowst If they belong to Iesus Christ he hath power enough to raise them and he will surely do it in his own time Use 2 Is it so that Iesus Christ hath power to give eternal life to all that c. This then should teach us two things First Not to be lifted up upon the contemplation of our high condition and Secondly Not to be cast down upon the contemplation of our low condition in the world You see the men who are to have this life from Christ are not described to be of such a quality of such a station or condition but only to be given to him by the Father So that let them be what they will in all considerations and respects besides if God have given them to Christ they shall assuredly have life from him He hath received power for this End that he should give c. So that it matters not in this respect whether we be high or low rich or poor bond or free we are not any whit the nearer to the life of Christ my brethren for the one nor any whit the further from it for the other Be not lifted up upon the contemplation of your high Condition in the world Admit that you be wealthy admit that you be noble learned honourable and the like admit that you be any way advanced and raised above your brethren you have no cause at all to swell with these prerogatives or to be proud of these things Indeed they have their use and worth and therefore are not utterly to be contemned but yet we must withal consider that be their excellency what it will they are of no avail at all to bring us to the life of grace and glory In that which is the point of highest consequence matter of life and death yea of eternal life and death they will not steed us in the least degree and therefore certainly there is no cause at all why they should be so magnified and admired as they are If outward wealth and pomp or dignity did further us if outward baseness did hinder us in this business how is it that the base things of this world and things that are despised are chosen and that the poor in purse as well as spirit do receive the word of life when yet not many mighty not many noble in the world are called 1 Cor. 1.25 If outward wisdom learning policy did further or weakness or unlearnedness did hinder us in point of having life from Christ how is it that the weak and foolish things are chosen many times and that the Law of God gives understanding to the simple that the unlearned rise and take the kingdom as it were by force that is with earnestness and with affection when yet not many wise not many learned men are called Why are we so exalted upon these outward priviledges and preferments in the world What is it that you stand upon What that which will promote or further you to life Eternal Alas they are of no avail in this respect All these prerogatives with which men swell even till they burst again are such as they may carry with them into Hell Let us not be cast down upon the contemplation of our low condition in the world You that are simple poor and mean that have not any outward thing to glory in no wealth no parts no honour or preferment any way be not dejected and disheartened for as external priviledges and advancements are of no avail to further you so outward means and abasure is of no avail to hinder you from receiving life from Christ He gives it to as many as God hath given him let them be of what condition or estate they will There is no other thing required in this respect but that they be bestowed upon him by the Father And he bestows upon him poor and weak men many times yea most times And therefore be not out of heart for hadst thou all the wealth and honour in the world thou wert not any whit the nearer to this life of Christ nor art thou any whit the further from it by thy low condition That will be no impediment but that he may give thee life the life of grace in this world and the life of glory in the world to come Is it so that Jesus Christ hath no authority to give Eternal life to any but those who are bestowed upon him by his Father They are mistaken then who Use 3 hold that he came into the world to give life to all men He came as you have heard to do his Fathers will and this is his Fathers will that he should give Eternal life to as many as he hath given him and not to a man more This he hath given him authority and power to do further then this his Commission doth not reach So that it is not in the power of Jesus Christ to quicken all and save all it is apparent that he cannot do it Indeed as God he can do all things but those that are impossible Either absolutely being such as are not to be done or else impossible upon condition by reason of a contrary Decree by which he hath confined-himself But as man and Mediator he can do no more then God will have him he can save no more then God hath given him and put into his hands to save And therefore you shall
complain as Rebecca sometimes did when she had parlies in her womb and when the twins were struggling there If it be so with me why am I thus Is it so that our God is the only true God Then let us see our happiness Use 5 in this regard that we have chosen him for our God and that we have not taken any other The most part of the world my Brethren are mistaken in their god they serve them who by nature are no gods as Gal. 4.8 And what mistake is like this Oh what an happiness is this that we have not been left to this errour Now therefore let us say as David Psalm 34.2 My soul shall make her boast in the Lord. Let us boast of our God and let us glory over other men in this regard that while they have false gods we have the only true God for our God So that we are not to be equalled for a God by any people in the world besides which is indeed the highest priviledge that any creature is capable of It is no sin to vaunt and pride our selves in this prerogative to make comparisons with others as the Psalmist doth Psalm 113.5 Who is like the Lord our God there are other gods abroad but what god is like ours who can compare with us in this regard who can shew us such a God as we have If we be miserable and unhappy as we apprehend in other things Oh let our happiness in this which is transcendent and incomparable quiet all and make us still We have the greatest happiness imaginable and attainable in that we have such a God Happy are the people that are in such a case saith David that have outward peace and plenty But infinitely happy are they who have the Lord for their God And thus far of the Attribute of God the firmer object of the knowledge wherein Eternal life consists the only true God The Attribute of Jesus Christ the second object of it mentioned here comes now in order to be handled sent of God This is the Eternal life to know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent The word in the Original importeth such an one as is dispatched upon the errand of another upon the business that another sends him in The theame from which it comes is that from which Apostle comes So that as the Apostles were to Christ so was Christ to God the Father Jesus Christ was Gods Apostle as the twelve were his Apostles God the Father sent him even as he sent them And this is that which he expresses clearly to them when he reneweth their Commission immediately upon his resurrection Joh. 20.21 As my Father hath sent me so send I you By this you may a little guess at the intention of the phrase I shall open it more fully when I come to Explication In the mean time the point is this DOCTRINE That Jesus Christ is Gods Apostle he is a Messenger sent forth from God So is his own expression of himself to his Father in my Text This is Eternal Life to know thee the only true God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent or whom thou hast made thy Apostle And therefore it is usuall with him when he hath occasion to make mention of his Father to call him nothing else but him that sent him He that receiveth me saith Christ receiveth him that sent me and you know who that is Luke 9.48 so to his own Apostles and Disciples It is my meat and drink to do the will of him that sent me or that hath made me his Apostle And having done his will and business in the world and dispatched the errand he employed him in I go my way saith he to him that sent me John 16.5 And God upon the other side speaking of Jesus Christ uses to call him Him whom he hath sent his Angel and his Messenger you may see that place for instance Mal. 3.1 there are two Messengers in that text the first is John the Baptist the Messenger of Christ Behold I send my Messenger that shall prepare my way before me the next is Christ himself the Messenger of God The Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly come even the Messenger of the Covenant whom ye delight in I might load you with quotations but I shall add no more for confirmation of the point that Jesus Christ is Gods Apostle he is a Messenger c. Indeed it needs not proof so much as Explication Now that you may the better understand the drift and the intention of it there are some Queries to be answered First whence it is that Jesus Christ is sent the terminus a quo of this mission Then in the next place whether he is sent the terminus ad quem Thirdly what errand and what business he is sent about Fourthly how he is qualified for the delivery of this errand and the dispatch of this business As for the first of these the terminus a quo whence it is that Christ is sent To this I answer he is sent from the bosom of the Father as that is the expression John 1.18 he comes out of the Ivory Palace Psalm 45.8 In plainer terms my Brethren he is sent from heaven and therefore he is called the Lord from heaven 1 Cor. 15.47 Not the Lord in heaven only but the Lord from heaven too and that not only with relation to his second but also to his first coming No man hath ascended up to heaven saith our Saviour Christ himself John 3.13 but he that came down from heaven And who is that even the Son of man who is in heaven So then when he was incarnate he came down from heaven in a sense for of this our Saviour speaks in that place And to this speech of Christ it is that the Apostle Paul alludeth when speaking of our Saviour Christs Ascention Eph. 4.8 he addeth presently by way of Explication Now that he ascended what is it but that he also first descended into the lower parts of the earth He that descended is the same also that ascended far above all heavens that he might fill all things So then descend he did at first from heaven as after he ascended up again to heaven But you will ask me How could Christ be sent from heaven Object and how could he descend from heaven It could not be with relation to his manhood for so when he came down he had never been in heaven his body had not been there A man would think it could not be with relation to his Godhead for that is everywhere it filleth heaven and earth as the Prophets phrase is The infiniteness and immensity of the divinity admits not motion it cannot stir from place to place because it is in all places and so there is no other place into which it may remove Well then the Essence of the Godhead is immovable neither is that the meaning when the Scripture saith that
could not be the least addition to him any way The meaning is that he had manifested and declared him to be glorious that he had shewed him in his glory to the world And this is that which he expresses clearly in the following verse saith he I have made known thy name to the men which thou hast given me And this he tels him he had done on earth It was done in heaven before the glory of the Lord was fully and immediately manifested there And now saith Christ it is done in earth too I have glorified thee on earth And hereupon he looks his Father should glorifie him with himself in heaven as it is added in the following words So that the point to be observed is this DOCTRINE Who ever will be glorified with God in heaven must glorifie him first on Earth Our Saviour Christ himself you see can have it on no other terms And therefore he desires it only upon this account saith he to God the Father I have glorified thee on Earth and now O Father glorifie me with thy self in heaven According to his first desire in his beginning of his prayer Father glorifie thy Son q. d. I should not look for any glory from thee unless I had brought glory to thee I should be far from any expectation that thou shouldst glorifie me with thy self in heaven unless I were assured in my self that I had glorified thee here upon the earth But seeing I have done the former I pray thee Father do the latter since I have glorified thee let me be glorified by thee And as it was with Christ the Head so it must be in some degree with all the Members No glory to be had in heaven till they have glorified God on earth It s true they merit not the glory they receive from God by that which they bring to God as Christ did but yet the one is not to be attained without the other They that bring God no glory in the present world shall have no glory from him in the world to come The Lord indeed will render glory to every man that worketh good and so glorifieth him as the Apostle shews Rom. 2.10 But unto them that are contentious and do not obey the truth but obey unrighteousness and so dishonour God in their lives and conversations he will render nothing else but shame and ignominy and confusion They shall be raised to everlasting contempt Dan. 12.2 and be made spectacles of shame to men and Angels Reas 1 And the ground is evident because so is the everlasting Counsel and Decree of God which is not to be altered or reversed Those whom he chuses for himself whom he predestinateth to be glorified with him in the world to come those he predestinateth also to bring glory to him in this present world As he predestinateth such to the inheritance above who is abundantly and out of measure glorious so he predestinates them also that they should be to the praise of his glory as the Apostle shews you Eph. 1.11 12. That he may manifest the riches of his glory in the vessels of mercy which he had afore prepared unto glory so that you see as he prepares them unto glory as he appoints them to be glorified themselves so he prepares them and appoints them to bring glory to himself Rom. 9.23 To shew forth the praises of him that hath called them to his Kingdom and glory 1 Pet. 2.9 Thy people shall be all righteous saith the Lord of his Church Isa 60.21 The branch of my planting the work of my hands that I may be glorified Not only that they may be glorified but that I may be glorified too And if this be the purpose and decree of God will he not see it executed and fulfilled in all respects as well with reference to his glory as with reference to theirs shall his Counsel be accomplished in the one and not in the other do you imagine that the Lord will be put off in such a fashion that he will be disappointed of his end and of his purpose in such a business as this is No no assuredly if he predestinate men that they may be to the praise of his glory as well as that they may be glorified by him to his praise and to his glory they shall be And if they be not so at all it is apparent they are not predestinated by him and consequently they shall have no glory from him Now is it so my Brethren that whoever will be glorified with God Vse 1 in heaven must glorifie him first on earth This then may serve to shew the vanity of their conceit and apprehension who look for glory in the world to come and yet they bring the Lord no glory here It is the miserable folly and delusion of the greater part of men there is not one of us almost but thinks that God will glorifie him with himself hereafter He is an extraordinary man that doth not feed himself with this fancy And yet those very persons many of them who are strong in this opinion take no care to honour God in any of their ways nor to bring him any glory why my beloved how can you think now to be glorified with him Jesus Christ his own Son the darling of his own bosom could not have glory with him upon these terms He did not once so much as look for it Had he not glorified his Father here in this world he would not have expected that he should have glorified him with himself in heaven ye see he seeks it and desires it only upon this account And what now do you think to speed better with the Father then Jesus Christ his own Son do you imagine that you shall have glory from him though you bring no glory to him when Christ himself did not could not obtain it upon such terms as these are do you look in this regard to be preferred before Christ to have the better of God himself Ah my beloved do not gull your souls with this delusion I beseech you think upon it you who by your lewd and vitious conversations dishonour God continually you who lie in wickedness and wallow in uncleanness whose lives are full of nothing but prophaneness who are conscious to your selves that God hath not a whit of glory brought him by you unless ungodliness and sin will do it To whom a man may truly say as the Apostle doth to some Rom. 2.24 The name of God is blasphemed by your means do you expect that God should glorifie you with himself in heaven when you have done nothing else but dishonoured him on earth believe it he will be so far from this that seeing he hath not been glorified by you he will be glorified upon you He made you for his glory and glory he will have either one way or another he will not lose a farthing by you And if he be not glorified by your holy conversation he will be glorified in
were bestowed upon him So that they were severed separated from the world they were no longer of the wicked unbelieving world but of another party that were divided and distinguished from the world In the world they were indeed but they were not of the world And these are evidently they of whom our Saviour speaks in this place The men whom thou gavest me out of the world Now to those he here affirmeth that he had manifested and made known his Fathers Name And you must understand it to be spoken by our Saviour here exclusively I have manifested thy Name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world that is to them and none others Why did not Christ make known his Fathers name to all without distinction Did he not Preach to all Did he not open and unfold his Fathers love and mercy and the like to all the multitude that came to hear him He did indeed as to the outward Promulgation but not as to the inward and effectual revelation He did not manifest it by his Spirit savingly to all No my Beloved this was the Priviledge but of a few and in particular of those who were bestowed upon him by his Father to be Members of his body So saith our Saviour to his Father here I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world To them and not to others or else at least to them so as I have not done to others They have a Priviledge in this respect which others are not made partakers of I have made it known to them effectually and savingly and not to others You see the meaning of the words the Points to be observed are two First There are some certain men whom God the Father gives to Iesus Christ out of the world Secondly that Iesus Christ doth make his Father known effectually and savingly to them and none besides them At this time of the first DOCTRINE There are some certain men whom God the Father gives to Jesus Christ out of the World In prosecution of this Observation I shall distinctly evidence and clear these four things First There are some men whom God the Father giveth to Jesus Christ Secondly There are a certain number of them Thirdly They are of the World before the Father gives them to the Son And Fourthly After they are given up to Jesus Christ they are of the world no longer All these particulars are wrapt up in the Observation and the Text as I shall shew you briefly and in order First There are some men whom God the Father gives to Jesus Christ So he himself describes the persons to whom he manifests his Fathers name not by their inward disposition not by their outward action or condition but by the Act of God upon them or concerning them his giving them to Jesus Christ They are the men saith he whom thou gavest me So that some have this priviledge you see above the rest of lost mankinde that God the Father gives them to his Son Christ and gives them to him in a special manner as I shewed you even now not to be his Servants only but to be his Members too He bestows them upon Christ to be his own peculiar people I will not stay on this because it hath been largely handled heretofore Secondly Now for the second thing there are a certain number of them there are some certain men whom God the Father gives to Christ They are thus many not a person more or less The number of them is exactly known to God and Christ he knows how many of them there be to a man And hence our Saviour speaks of them in such a way as being able to distinguish them from all the world besides I have manifested thy name unto the men whom thou gavest me out of the world And so he tels us that he knows his sheep that are given him of his Father as his own expression is John 10.27 29. And yet he calls his sheep by name ver 3. and in the 9th verse of this very Chapter I pray for them saith he I pray not for the world but for them whom thou hast given me So that our Saviour Christ distinguishes you see he knows who are his own by free donation of his Father and for them he prays He knows who are not given him and for them he prays not There are a certain number of them known to Christ Thirdly now this selected Company are of the world before the Father gives them to the Son I do not mean before he gives them by Election but before he gives them to him by actual union and incorporation And therefore they are said expresly to be given to Jesus Christ out of the World so that the World is always beforehand with Jesus Christ in this regard The World hath the possession of them first and afterwards they come to appertain to Jesus Christ In the first place they are the worlds as all unsanctifyed and unregenerated persons are and then at length they come to be the Lords Fourthly and then when they are once the Lords they are no longer of the world which is the last thing in the point They are given Jesus Christ out of the world and consequently when he hath them once they are not of it they are no longer men of this World As for the rest that are not actually bestowed on Christ they are Inhabitants Indwellers of the earth as they are often stiled in the Revelation they are the men of this World as the Prophet David calls them who have their portion in this present life Psal 17.14 They are not of the Father as the Apostle speaks but of the World 1 John 2.16 They are of the world therefore speak they of the world and the world heareth them John 4.5 But they that are delivered up to Jesus Christ and become his Members they are of the World no longer And this the Saints in Scripture have confessed that they were Strangers Pilgrims Sojourners in this World and therefore looked for and made towards their own Country Hebr. 11.6 I am a stranger on the earth saith David Psal 119.196 not in his place of banishment alone with the Philistims but in the Land of Canaan too yea in his house yea in his bed yea any where upon the earth he was a Stranger he counted not himself at home in any place but heaven only To say the truth the world lays no claim at all to those that belong to Christ and therefore this will need no great proof It doth not own them or acknowledge them for hers but rather casts them out and persecutes them and doth them all the spight and mischief that it can And this evinceth manifestly that they are not the Worlds as Christ himself informeth his Disciples upon the very same ground Joh. 15.19 If ye were of the world the world would love his own but because you are not of the world but I have
for us saith the Apostle Heb. 9.24 Not for all without exception but for us whom he hath taken into his special and peculiar love and care who are comparatively but a small number So that the point is plain you see Christ is an Intercessor to his Father c. Reason And the reason is apparent because he is a Priest for none but them only and Intercession is a part of his Priesthood There are two branches as you may know my Brethren of the Priesthood of our Saviour Sacrifice and Intercession and they are both of them for his people He offers Sacrifice for none but them and so accordingly he intercedes for none but them neither for both the branches of his Priesthood of necessity must go together He is a Mediator for and only for his own people he makes peace for none but them And even as he is not a Mediator of redemption for the world so he is not a Mediator of Intercession for it neither Indeed my Brethren all that he is or doth as he is Man and Mediator is for his people Why was the Son of God incarnate but for them why did he take our Nature on him but for them why was he made a Mediator but for them He is a King to rule them a Prophet to instruct them a Priest to sacrifice and intercede for them He had never been a King as he is a Man he had never been a Prophet he had never been a Priest but for the sake of his people And hence it follows very clearly that whatsoever he doth in the administrations of these Offices of his he doth it next to his own glory for his Churches good He carries it throughout in reference to them and so accordingly the Execution of his Priestly Office in both the parts and branches of it is for them He is an Intercessor to his Father for none but for c. Is Christ an Intercessor c. this may serve to satisfie us in the point Vse 1 which some have vented in these latter times that Christ is the Redeemer of the whole world and that he dyed for all men universally without restraint or limitation What think you my Beloved is it a likely thing that Christ should dye for those for whom he will not pray That he should offer up himself a Sacrifice for those for whom he will not intercede That he should spend his blood for those for whom he will not spend his breath That he should give his life for those for whom he will not give his word will he do that which is abundantly the greater for them and then refuse to do the less You see he saith expresly in my Text I pray not for the world And might he not have said as well I dye not for the world and if our Saviours intercession now in heaven be not vocal as it is usually resolved but a real presentation of the merits of his death and the vertue of his passion to his Father That as the blood of Martyrs cries for vengeance to be executed upon those that shed it so on the other side the blood of Jesus Christ the Mediator cries for mercy to be shewed to them for whom he shed it It claims it out of right and justice in the behalf of those for whom he dyed Why then it follows that if he dyed for all he cannot choose but intercede for all too Or if he should be silent his blood would cry for mercy for them to whom it was intended and designed and consequently if he pray not for the world he dyed not for the world neither Is Christ an Intercessor c. Here then you see the sad condition of Vse 2 those who are without the pale that are not only in the world but of the world Christ never intercedes for them let their cause be what it will let their necessity be what it will Christ even leaves them to themselves and never interposes for them to his Father There you may cry and howl your selves when you are in any straight you may stand beging for your selves and all in vain for Jesus Christ will not speak a word for you nor any such as you are Beloved I beseech you think upon it there come in heavy things against you every day at the bar of Gods Justice Sin cryes and the Law cryes all the Commandements which you break continually come in with open mouth against you and importune Gods Justice for wrath and vengeance to be executed on you They cry How long Lord and sin cryes How long Lord and Christ who is the only Mediator to avert wrath and make peace he sitteth still and saith nothing Oh my Beloved what should hinder now but that the black decree for execution should go forth against you when there is none to interpose and stand between you and the wrath of God! when these complaints and cryes of all the sins that you have done of all the Oathes that you have sworn of all the lyes that you have made c. come in against you in the Court of heaven and the Father puts the question to the Son the only advocate in that Court What have you any thing to say for this man why judgement should not pass against him will you undertake for him and Christ shall answer no I have not a word to say for him I intercede not for the world Let Justice have its course against him let it be executed on him to the utmost I pray for my own people and I desire they may be spared as in right they ought to be for I have satisfied for them But for the rest I even leave them to the vengeance and the wrath they have deserved I will not hinder it or stop it in the least degree Let Justice pay them home in full weight and full measure Look how much they have sinned and how much wickedness they have committed so much torment and so much sorrow let it give them Oh what a flood of horrour and confusion think you will be poured out upon you when once the day of vengeance and of visitation comes when God comes forth against you as an Enemy with nothing else but war and death and blood and mine and destruction in his looks and there is none to pacifie and appease him none to speak a word for you but Christ the only Mediator leaves you to the utmost of his fury Oh consider this c. Vse 3 Is Christ an Intercessor to his Father for none c. here then you may behold the matchless happiness of those who belong to Jesus Christ In this respect they have a priviledge above the world that they have him to intercede for them to be their Advocate and to present their Supplications and requests to God Brethren I know not how you value it or what account you make of it but I assure you it is a rich Prerogative that you have such an Intercessor with the
grace consider with your selves Now Jesus Christ draws nigh to me he that is above in heaven and with relation to his bodily and fleshly presence is no more in this world is in another way coming into my soul And therefore do not shut the doors against him but bid him very welcome when he comes when he offers more knowledge faith love hope patience let not these offers be refused Remember when you take in these you take in Christ with them in the presence of his Spirit So much as you enjoy of these so much you enjoy of Christ and therefore seek and value every saving grace the more and be the readier to receive and entertain it because it brings Christ with it Is it so that Jesus Christ as he is man is gone away c. Then let us Vse 3 also go away out of the world to him that we may be where he is I say as Christ to his Disciples in another case Arise let us go hence Jesus Christ is gone you hear and why then do we stay behind him why do we tarry here when Christ is gone It 's true we cannot go to him in the body but yet as Christ though he be absent from us in the body yet he is present with us by his Spirit so we upon the other side though we be absent from him in the body let us be present with him in the Spirit and as he comes from heaven to us by his Spirit though his body stay there so let us go from earth to heaven to our Saviour in our spirits though our bodies stay here But you will ask me How may this be done or how may we be present with our Saviour in our Spirits I Answer 1. We may be present with him in the thoughts and meditations of the Spirit These are the proper actings of the soul the inner man and if our thoughts be much upon him we are in this respect much with him And therefore I beseech you my Beloved let us feed our selves continually with sweet and pretious thoughts of Jesus Christ though we be here below and must continue so till Christ be pleased to take us to himself yet let our minds ascend to heaven and let our thoughts and meditations be where Christ is Oh let us think upon him in the day and in the night upon our beds when we are still and have nothing to distract us then let our hearts be filled with sweet soliloquies with ravishing and transporting thoughts of Christ that we may speak to him as David did Psal 104.34 How pretious are the thoughts of thee O Lord How great is the sum of them It passes my Arithmetique to cast them up 2. Let us be present with our Saviour in the affections of the Spirit let our spirits cleave to him though we be absent from him in the body Where Jesus Christ our treasure is there let our hearts be also That as Elisha said to Gehazi once Went not my heart with thee when at that very time he was sitting in his house and Gehazi was abroad 2 King 5.26 So we may say to Jesus Christ though in another way However we be absent from thee in the body yet is not our heart with thee as the Apostle to the Thessalonians We Brethren being taken from you in presence not in heart 1 Thes 2.17 so we to Jesus Christ Oh Lord though we be separated from thee in our bodies we are not separated from thee in our hearts They are continually with thee nor shall they be divided from thee 3. Let us be present with our Saviour in the desires and anhelations of the Spirit let them be always mounting up where he is he is gone and in the mean time till he come again to us let us long to go to him Oh let us build no Tabernacles on the Tabor of this world since our Saviour is not here But let us look upon our selves as banished men as the Apostle did knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord 2 Cor. 5.6 and so let us groan earnestly to get to Christ as he did Let us be always breathing gasping fainting after Jesus Christ and putting out our heads to see when he will come and receive us to himself that where he is there may we be also And thus far of the first particular suggested in the words the departure of our Saviour out of this lower world to the immediate presence of his Father And now I am no more in the world but I come to thee The second follows now in order to be handled and that is his Disciples stay behind him But these are in the world and are where they are like to be and where they are to tarry and remain when I am gone The world in which our Saviour Christs Apostles and Disciples were and were to stay must be conceived to be the very same which Christ himself was now about to leave and from which he was ready to depart viz. this lower world beneath heaven that from which he was to go in that were his Disciples and Apostles to remain And now I am no more in the world but these are in the world the self same world in which I am to be no more But why is this alleadged by our Saviour to his Father here that the Apostles and Disciples were to stay in this world apparently to shew what cause he had to mention them in his Petitions and to commend them to the special care and mercy and protection of his Father As in the words that are immediately annexed Holy Father keep them through thy own Name q. d. I am even now about to leave them and to leave them in the world and thou knowest what a place the world is how troublesome unpleasing and vexatious it hath continually been to my Disciples and therefore I beseech thee Father keep them have a special eye upon them who are to stay behind me in such a place as this is So that the point apparently suggested here is this DOCTRINE The world hath alwayes been and is an evil and uncomfortable place to Christs Disciples It is a sad and doleful place to live in and hence our Saviour seeemeth to bewail the case of his Apostles and Disciples in my Text These are in the world saith he as if he should have added and that is but an ill place Now that I may the better clear it and evince it to you I shall shew in what respects the world is such an evil and uncomfortable place to Christs Disciples It is in this respect an evil and uncomfortable place to Christs Disciples that it is a place of suffering In which they are continually to be exposed to many tryals and to many troubles Though they be in the world yet they are not of the world and therefore they are hated by the world as Jesus Christ himself informeth his Disciples John 15.19 If ye were of
wholly to themselves and to their own free wils either to ratifie it or infringe it so making his decree like a Noveriut universi If men believe not persevere not then the election must be void Otherwise if they believe and continue to the end it must remain in full power strength and vertue I say that this corrupt opinion which is so confidently vented now adayes may not take with any of you I shall lay down some arguments against it and answer others that are brought for it This universal and conditional election overthrows the end of God all which he aims in all his Counsels and Decrees and in all his dispensations viz. the glory of his free grace This was that which the Lord had in his eye when he appointed men to glory even that he might make known the riches of his own glory on those which he prepared to glory as you have it Rom. 9.22 Now how shall he attain this end by choosing all men to Salvation if they will themselves how is the glory of his mercy magnified and advanced where is the freeness of his grace more to one man then another since he doth alike for all electeth all alike to glory and salvation prepareth heaven no more for one man then another so that if any man be saved he may thank himself he may glory in himself and not in God And therefore it is very notable that the Apostle making this the end of the decree of God viz. the glory of his grace withall discovers that he electeth men to life not according to their wills as they will either choose it or refuse it but according to his own Eph. 1.5 6. Having predestinated us by Jesus Christ to the praise of the glory of his grace How so according to the pleasure of his will To shew that he works freely in the business without impulsion or provocation from external causes And so he must if he will atttain his end If it be to the glory of his grace it must be according to the pleasure of his will So afterwards ver 11 12. We are predestinated that we should be to the glory of his grace And to this end we are predestinated according to his purpose who worketh all things after the Counsel of his own will If he will glorifie his grace in this business we must be saved according to his will and pleasure and not according to our own His will must have the first and greatest stroke in this mercy This universal and conditional election as it overthrows Gods end Vse 2 so it hinders our duty It cannot choose but wonderfully cool and dead our hearts in rendring thankfulness to God when we consider with our selves that he hath done no more for us in this business of election and salvation then he hath for all the world Our Saviour Christ endeavouring to quicken his Disciples to thanskgiving shews them the priviledge and the preferment which they had in the mercy of the Lord Mat. 11.25 and 13.16 17. And the same course the Prophet David takes with Israel Psal 147.19 20. He shewed his word to Jacob his statutes and his judgements to Israel He dealt not so with other Nations and therefore you are specially engaged to praise the Lord. And certainly that soul shall find it self most quickned and enlarged to the praises of the Lord that sees his special and peculiar favour to it self which millions are rejected from Oh will the soul consider with it self in such a case Why hath God pitched on me neglecting others whence was it that he took me into his decree what did he see in me more then in those whom he laid by why he did choose me In our elections who are men beloved there is something still that carries and inclines us to a choice Some fitness in the object of it some relation to our selves some motive or inducement that prevails upon us But now my brethren we are all alike to God in the act of his election we lay together in the same corrupted Mass all weltring in the same blood and tumbling in the same gore and when he came to choose a little number in comparison of those he left Oh what a mercy was it that he should pitch on thee and me which if he had not done we had been lost for ever Truly my brethren did we sit down and weigh it well in our advised and deliberate thoughts it would transport and carry us beyond our selves It would make us to break out with the Apostle Eph. 1.3 4. Blessed be God who hath chosen us us who deserved no more then others who were no fitter for his choice then others And yet us when he hath rejected others Oh blessed be the Lord for this mercy But now my brethren none of this if all be chosen to salvation with this condition that they will accept it they may have it if they will The damned reprobate in hell by this account hath as much reason to be thankfull as the triumphant Saint in heaven Why may this wretched Catiffe say God did as much for me as him only indeed I did not so much for my self And may the glorified Saint in heaven say The Lord hath done as much for those in hell as ever he hath done for me He hath elected them as well as me and he hath assisted them as much as me for he is to all alike only they have not used their own free-wills as well as I have done and this is the only cause that they are damned and I am saved And therefore I wil ever thank my self and not God At least I have no greater cause to think him then the damned have If there be any difference between them and me it is not God that made it but my self God did for them and me alike And that they are not in the same condition with me the only reason is because we did not for ourselves alike And therefore they are every way as much obliged and bound to God as I am Vse 3 This universal and conditional election doth in some respect set up man above God God for his own part chooseth all men to salvation he would have all men to be saved How comes it then to pass whence is it that they are not saved Because they will not themselves God will and they will not who carries it in this business Their will takes place and not Gods The will of God you see by this opinion is ordered and disposed by the will of man He chooseth all men on condition but his final resolution and absolute determination is suspended upon the operation of the will of man He is at liberty to make it good or make it void at his pleasure If he will be saved he may if not he must be damned though God for his part have ordained him to salvation What is this but to make God in some respect an underling to man to make the will of
Scripture how improbable soever the Saints of old have closed with them What an unlikely promise was it that was made to Abraham that he should have a Son when he was full a hundred years of age and a seed that should be as innumerable as the stars of heaven and that by Sarah too a withered and a barren woman What strong objections might they both have brought against it And yet they did not argue but believed that it should be just as the Lord had spoken as the Apostle speaks of Abraham Rom. 4.20 21. He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief but was strong in faith giving glory to God Yea and of Sarah too though she were somewhat doubtfull and incredulous in the beginning yet even of her he saith She iudged him faithfull that had promised That great and Master promise of the resurrection of the body from the dust is far above the principles of nature and philosophy and therefore the Philosophers at Athens laughed at it Yet Job believed this seeming Paradox as he professes Job 19.26 I know saith he he uses such a word you see as intimates a full perswasion I am confident of this that though after mys kin worms destroy this body yet in my flesh I shall see God And so let us my brethren whatsoever is foretold in Scripture let us stedfastly believe that it shall surely be accomplished and fulfilled And thus of the first argument or reason with which our Saviour presseth and enforceth his petition to his Father in behalf of his Apostles and Disciples that he himself would undertake the keeping of them Holy Father keep them through thy own name Which hath been taken as you may remember from his own effectual preservation of them during the time that he had been amongst them And therefore he would have his Father keep them now because he himself had kept them and kept them very safe till now While I was with them in the world I kept them Before our Saviour adds a second reason to enforce this supplication and request of his he interposes a discovery of the end why he presents it and why he is so earnest in it Saith he I put up this Petition to thee while I am resident in this world I do it in the hearing of my Apostles and Disciples that they might have their comfort much encreased by this means And now I come to thee and these things I speak in the world that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves So that the words you see are the account our Saviour gives his Father of the Petition which he makes for his Apostles and Disciples or rather of the circumstances of the making of it Why he makes it in the world why he did not defer the making of it till he came to heaven and sate down at the right hand of his Father there to be an everlasting Intercessor for his people but rather chose to make it here before he went in the presence and the ears of his Apostles and Disciples while they were by and hearkning to him These things saith he I speak in the world that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves And here we have two things to be examined and resolved What our Saviour means by his joy which he would have fulfilled in his Apostles and Disciples why he calls it His joy and not theirs That they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves not their own joy fulfilled but my joy fulfilled in them And How this joy should be fulfilled by his presenting this Petition for them to his Father in their hearing before he left this world which way this circumstance should tend so much and be so available to the accomplishment of that joy As for the first of these our Saviour calls the joy which he would have to be fulfilled in his Disciples his ioy Not that he was the subject of it or that it was inherent in himself But either First because he was the object of it that they might have my ioy that is to say the joy which they take in me fulfilled in themselves Or Secondly as Calvin thinks because he was the author of it That they might have my ioy the joy which they have from me fulfilled in themselves But how should this presenting this Petition for them to his Father in their hearing how should this circumstance conduce so much to the fulfilling of the joy within them Truly my brethren it might be very helpfull to it many wayes Either as it manifested Christs affection to them and his care of them in which they could not but exceedingly rejoyce What he would do in their behalf when he was come to heaven was not so clearly known to them But this he did before he went in their hearing he earnestly besought his Father to take special care of them to keep them through his own name they heard it with their own ears how earnest and importunate he was which could not choose but be an extraordinary comfort to them that Jesus Christ should have such dear and singular regard to them Or else it might fulfill their joy as it assured them of their special preservation after Christ was gone from them There is no question to be made they were in many doubts and fears when he was about to leave them And had he gone without discovering any care of their safety their sorrows would have been increased If he had only prayed in secret for them to his Father and desired him to keep them this would have added to their safety but what would this have added to their joy But when they heard him being ready to depart to yield them up in such a serious solemn manner to his Father and to make this his last request to him while he was here in this world that he would keep them this could not but assure them that they should be kept and so fill them full of joy And hence our Saviour having put up that Petition for them Holy Father keep them through thy own name And that because while I was with them in the world I kept them Adds this immediately and now come I to thee and these things speak I in the world before I come I speak them here among them that my Discples being ear-witnesses to my importunate and earnest intercession for them may have the joy either which they take in me or which they receive from me the more abundantly fulfilled in themselves The words thus opened yield us out three Observations First Christ is the Author and Original of the joy of his people Secondly Jesus Christ would have his people to be full of holy joy Thirdly Their perfect knowledge of his intercession for them is one special means to fill them full of this joy DOCTRINE Christ is the Author and Original of the joy of his people If they have any true and real joy it comes from him they have it from the Lord
of measure as you may see Michal for an instance when David danced before the Ark. And therefore David calls them his observers Psal 5.8 for so the Hebrew word imports and so you find it in the Margine And if they once get any matter by the end Oh with what Joy and exultation will they vent it Aha say they our eyes hath seen it our ear hath heard it And therefore we have need of wisdom yea the wisdom of an Angel to know how to demean our selves before such persons as these are Seconly And as by reason of their hatred of you they will be very busie and inquisitive to catch at any thing against you So if they find it in the least degree they will be sure to make the most of it They will be very carefull that it shall not lose a Jot by their means And therefore we have reason to be very wary of doing any thing that may be capable of misconstruction yea though we know it to be Lawfull And to avoid the appearance of evil That so these enemies of ours who watch and hope to take us tripping may be ashamed as the Apostle speaks Titus 2.8 as being disappointed of that which they expected and desired For shame you know is the fruit of disappointment that they may be ashamed having no evil thing to say of you If they can mis-interpret any thing you say or do they will not only wound your names with it but the name of God himself and the credit of religion So that it is not a sufficient Plea to say that we are very well perswaded that we have done no evil and therefore if they make an ill construction of it the fault is theirs and we must bear it we cannot help it we must endure their scandals and reproaches No my beloved this is not enough it ought to be our care as much as lyes in us to prevent those ill Constructions and to take away occasion from those that long and seek for it For these reproaches do not rest in us If we alone did bear them if they did reach no further then our persons it were well But God and his Religion and his Gospel are miserably wounded through our sides by this occasion and therefore we must see that we do nothing as far as it is possible from whence these enemies of ours may take advantage to wound such pretious things as these are And as they will take occasion if there be any colour for it to dishonour Gods name so to undo and damn their own souls If they find weaknesses and flaws â—n those who are Christs Disciples this sets them off the further from religion If they see them to fall short or take them tripping any way in any thing that falls within their compass to discover this strangely hardens them against profession I am perswaded there are many souls in hell who have been kept aloof from Christ and from Religion by the incircumspect and careless walking of those who have either been really or have been taken to be Christs Disciples And therefore let it be our care that while we go to heaven with our friends no enemies of ours may go to hell by our means Use 4 Is it the manner of the wicked c. Then let it not seem strange to Christs Disciples if they be hated in the world if they be wronged and injured and abused on all hands Let them not look upon it as a thing to be admired and wondred at if they be very coursely used and very ill intreated here If they be alwayes troubled and distressed if they be alwayes followed and persued with spightfull molestations and vexations let them not think much of it but let them look upon it as an ordinary thing and let them seriously consider that they could expect no other living in such a place and with such company as they do Only to stay them and support them in such a troublesome condition let them take notice of a few things 1. God and Jesus Christ love you and love you very dearly though the world hate you And whether do you think the love of God will do you most good or the hatred of the world will do you most hurt I beseech you my beloved set the one in opposition to the other and when you are disquieted at any time to think how you are hated and maligned and abused in the world consider on the other side how you are beloved of God how dear are you to Jesus Christ who loved you and gave himself for you And if you weigh the matter well you will find infinitely greater cause to cheer your hearts with his love then to deject them with the worlds hatred 2. Jesus Christ himself was in the same condition with you when he lived in the world You fare no worse then he did And this is that which he himself propounds to his Apostles and Disciples to the very same end John 15.18 If the world hate you saith Christ you know that it hated me before it hated you Are you hated in the world let not that seem strange to you you know your selves it hated me before you or else it hated me who am before you It hated me 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It hated me prius or it hated me priorem for it may be both wayes rendred It hated me before you in regard of time or me who am before you in regard of Dignity as Calvin very well observes upon the place And should not this Consideration quiet us and make us patient we are hated in the world why so was Jesus Christ himself Why should we look to be exempted from that to which our blessed Saviour was exposed yea he was hated in the first place and we are hated after him and in reference to him Though he were absolutely holy harmless separate from sinners he was hated notwithstanding Alas my brethren how unholy how faulty how injurious many times are we to others And then what wonder is it that they take offence at us Though Christ were far above us every way though he were our Lord and Master he was exceedingly maligned in the world And why should we expect in this regard to be above him to fare better then he did No let it be sufficient for us that we are no worse no nor so ill intreat-as our Lord and Master was 3. The hatred of the world is no impediment at all no barr no hindrance to your blessedness Indeed it fits you rather and qualifies you for it as Jesus Christ himself insinuates in his Sermon on the Mount Mat. 5.12 Blessed are ye when men revile you and persecute you and say all evil of you falsly And the Apostle Peter to the same effect 1 Pet. 4.14 saith he If you be reproached for the name of Christ happy are you So that malignity and injury and evil usage from the world are no way inconsistent with our happiness neither with our
should never be removed And there are many promises of special preservation from dangers and distresses made to those who have an interest in God and Christ I might heap up a multitude of such but there is one Psalm of David that seems to be a short Compendium and abridgement of them all viz. Psal 91. He shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler and from the noisome Pestilence He shall cover thee with his feathers his truth shall be thy shield and buckler thou shalt not be afraid for the terrour by night nor for the arrow that flyeth by day nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness nor the destruction that wasteth at noon-day A thousand shall fall at thy side and ten thousand on thy right hand but it shall not come nigh thee Only with thine eyes shalt thou behold it Thou shalt see it seize on others but for thy own part thou shalt be exempt from it There shall no evil befall thee neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling For he shall give his Angels charge over thee to keep thee Now these and such like promises the Lord makes good to his even in the very letter of them when in the infiniteness of his love and wisdom he sees it most expedient for them 2. Or if God do not keep them from affliction that it doth not touch them he keeps them that it doth not stay too long with them The rod of trouble though it strike them yet it doth not rest upon them It is on and off again in due time It s true God often suffers those who belong to Jesus Christ to be brought into affliction but then he doth not leave them there his manner is to bring them out again To deliver them from evil according to that passage in the Lords prayer And therefore he is stiled the deliverer of his people and the God of their salvation He that is our God is the God of salvation and to the Lord God belong the issues from death not from inferiour dangers only but from death it self And hence salvation is ascribed to him as his peculiar It is of the Lord sath Jonah Chap. 2.9 Salvation belongeth to the Lord saith David Psal 3.8 and his blessing upon his people It is his work to save us from distresses and afflictions the secondary means are subordinate to him they move but as he acts them And this is very usual with him if he prevent not the afflictions of his people that they do not come upon them yet he delivers them at length from those afflictions assoon as they have done their work in them yea let them be as many as they will Psal 34.19 Many are the afflictions of the righteous but the Lord delivereth them out of all 3. Or if God do not keep them who belong to Jesus Christ from the evil of affliction by way of preservation or deliverance from it he keeps them many times by way of preservation and delivery in it So that though it seize upon them it is no pain or trouble to them And thus he kept the three Confessors he did not save them from the furnace but he saved them in the furnace Dan. 3.27 The fire had no power upon their bodies nor was a hair of their head singed neither were their Coats changed nor the smell of fire did pass upon them According to that pretious promise Isa 43.2 when thou passest through the waters I will be with thee and through the rivers they shall not overwhelm thee when thou walkest through the fire thou shalt not be burned neither shall the flame kindle upon thee Or if not thus he qualifies his people so with inward peace and comfort and assurance that they feel not what they feel They are so ravished and transported to an extasie of holy joy that they are in a sort insensible even of the greatest torment that humane cruelty can devise to inflict Unto the righteous saith the Psalmist ariseth light in darkness glorious comfort even in the midst of greatest troubles Psal 112.4 Thy light shall rise in obscurity saith God Isa 58.10 And thy darkness shall be as the noon-day Such light did there arise to some of the blessed Martyrs when it was darkest with them in regard of outward comforts so that they sung in the prisons in the irons in the flames they were not able to contain themselves by reason of the sodain flash of joy that came breaking in upon them which made them to forget the miseries and torments which they suffered yea though the fire did kindle on them and consume them into ashes yet many of them warbled out melodious accents in the flames professed that they were amidst the fire as in a bed of down and spices where they felt nothing else but admirable joy and comfort These men you see did more then conquer they did triumph in the very midst of their unparalleld and matchless sufferings so that they might have taken up that comfortable speech of the Apostle Rom. 8.37 In all these things we are more then Conquerors And what were those things see at the 35. verse In tribulation and distress and persecution and famine and nakedness and peril and sword then which there are no greater outward evils in the world In all these things we are more then Conquerors through him that loved us 4. Or if God do not keep his people from the smart at least he keeps them from the hurt of their afflictions The world indeed may persecute them and that to the very death they may take away their names their estates their lives from them but though they kill them they can never hurt them God keeps them from the evil of all this from the evil in the world as you have it in my Text what ever comes upon them they are no losers in the main but gainers rather All things are for their sakes saith the Apostle 2 Cor. 4.15 for their profit and advantage Yea though the outward man perish by reason of the length or violence of the affliction the inward man is renewed day by day Their afflictions work out for them a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory They may suffer grievously their sufferings may deprive them of the life of nature but they cannot deprive them of the life of grace or glory They may be persecuted but they cannot be forsaken totally and finally they may be cast down but they cannot be destroyed 2 Cor. 4.9 They may be destroyd as men but they can never be destroyd as Saints In this respect they are like Mount Sion that can never be removed The rain descended saith our Saviour and the floods came and the wind blew and beat upon the house and it fell not for it was founded upon a rock Mat. 7.25 q.d. Nothing can hurt or overthrow him that is built on Jesus Christ he shall stand fast for evermore Nay to go a little further God doth not only
his first coming No man hath ascended up to heaven saith our Saviour Christ himself Joh. 3.13 but he that came down from heaven So that when he was incarnate he came down from heaven in a sense for of this our Saviour speaks in that place And to this speech of Christ it is that the Apostle Paul alludeth when speaking of our Saviour Christs ascension Ephes 4.8 he addeth presently by way of Explication Now that he ascended what is it but that he also first descended into the lower parts of the earth So then descend he did at first from heaven as after he ascended up again to heaven And because he came from heaven he is more properly of heaven then of earth as the Apostle Paul insinuates very clearly when he calls him the Lord from heaven heavenly 1 Cor. 15.47 48. Because from heaven therefore heavenly not of this world but of another 2. Jesus Christ when he was here in this world yet he was not of this world but of another because he lived in another Here he breathed but there he lived he did not live the life of this world but the life of heaven and that not in expectation as we do but in fruition He lived the life of perfect righteousness and perfect holiness the life of Angels yea a life above Angels while he was here in this world That life which is to be attained by us nowhere but in heaven only Christ lived here in this world and this perhaps was partly aimed at by our Saviour in that speech of his Joh. 3.13 No man hath ascended up to heaven but he that came down from heaven even the Son of man which is in heaven He was then come down from heaven he was then upon the earth when he spake these words And yet he addeth he was then in heaven too even the Son of man which is in heaven And he was then in heaven not only as the Son of God but as the Son of man too Virtually he was there though he were not locally His life did relish infinitely more of heaven then of earth And therefore it is very notable that he disclaimed all medling with these earthly things he would not once so much as touch with them neither as a Judge or a divider as himself professeth Luk. 12.14 nor as possessor neither It 's true he was a King as he implicitely acknowledges to Pilate and he had a kind of Kingdom while he was here in this world but it was not of this world My Kingdom is not of this world saith Christ himself Joh. 18.36 And therefore he did nor erect it outwardly with any outward policy and splendour among men but he did only set it up in the hearts of a few despised people to whom he said My Kingdom is within you Luk. 17.21 And so in every thing my Brethren he avoided such a conversation as might intimate him to be one of this world 3. Jesus Christ when he was here in this world yet he was not of this world but of another because indeed he was but going to another world From another world he came as you have heard before and to another world he was about to go Only he tarried here a little about some weighty and important business which his Father sent him down into this lower world to do and as soon as that was ended he returned to heaven again So that you see brethren he conversed here but as a Messenger from God the Father whose errand he came down upon and to whom he was to go assoon as he had finished what he came for And therefore he avoided any kind of setlement in this world any way of making this his fixed habitation as he told the Scribe that was about to follow him Mat. 8.20 The Foxes have holes and the Birds of the air have nests but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head Yea he professed that he was not in the world while he was here because indeed he was not to continue here he was shortly to depart he was as good as gone already as in this Chapter I am handling ver 11. And now I am no more in the world but I come to thâ—e And this for cleering of the former member of the point that Christ himself is not of this world but of another Now for the second branch that Christs Disciples are in this respect like Christ himself this lies before you in the letter of the text They are not of the world even as I am not of the world And this our Saviour often minds them of as you may see that place for instance to name no more at this time John 15.19 Ye are not of the world saith he but I have chosen you out of the world Indeed as Christ is so they are in this world as the Apostle speaks 1 John 4.7 So in this world that they are not of the world And that in all the three respects wherein we have clearly shewed you that Christ is not of this world but of another 1. Christs Disciples came from another world and so in that respect they are not of the world as Christ is not of the world I say they came originally from another world although not as they are men yet as they are Saints and Christians So they are from above of God they are his off-spring as Paul said to the Athenians God is their Father for they are begotten of him 1 John 5.18 And God is their Mother too for they are born of him 1 Iohn 3.9 So that you see they are no less then a divine and heavenly generation And they are members of the New Jerusalem which John saw coming down from heaven Apoc. 21.2 They are only for a while let down from heaven in a sheet as the creatures were to Peter in a vision and so taken up again 2. As Christs Disciples came from another world so they live in another world and so in that respect they are not of the world as Christ is not of the world Their Conversation is in heaven as the Apostle speaks Phil. 3.20 With the woman Apoc. 12. they tread the Moon this variable and unconstant world under their feet Trample with a disdainfull and a holy scorn upon earth and earthly things Honors are too ignoble to command them riches too poor to buy them pleasures too fleeting to allure them Sometimes they are transported as it were rapt and taken up into heaven in sweet Soliloquies and in holy contemplations ravished beyond themselves with cleer and comfortable apprehensions of their Fathers love Indeed they get above the world they soare higher then the earth their treasure is in heaven and there are their hearts also Their life is Angel-like they live with men indeed but walk with God as Moses speaks of Enoch They have their eyes on him as Moses they see him who is invisible and they are taken up with him in all their wayes and
he knows their lying doing and rising up takes notice of their very thoughts observes them how they go to bed and how they rise whether they think of him whether they call on him or no They are so near him that he cannot choose but mark them For others that belong not to him that are without God and without Christ in the world he looks not so much after them But for those that are within him they cannot but be under his immediate care and special eye He searcheth out their wayes he doth not superficially observe them only but he searcheth deep into them he sees their very grounds and ends so that they cannot fail in any thing no not so much as in a circumstance but he spies them And this me thinks should make us very circumspect in all our wayes and infinitely cautious that we sin not That of the Prophet is remarkable Jer. 8 19. Is not the Lord in Sion is not her King in her why then have they provoked him to anger And I may say upon the other side Is not Sion in the Lord are not true believers in him in the Father and the Son why then have they provoked him to anger They that are far away from God perhaps may be the bolder to offend because they may conceive with those in Job that he is shut up in the Clouds and that he cannot see them at a distance or if he do he cannot reach them But they that are in God me thinks should be very circumspect They should consider with themselves that it concerns them to be wary how they walk and what they do because he is at hand to spy their faults and to observe their provocations 3. And as the sins of those that are in God cannot choose but be observed by reason of their nearness to him so neither can they choose but be corrected and chastised The Lord will take a course with them if they miscarry and if they misbehave themselves sooner and quicker then he will with other men And it concerns him so to do in point of honour for their iniquities reflect with more disparagement upon him then the sins of others do who are further from him It would be much for God to suffer sin by him but do you think that God will suffer sin in him That he will let it nestle there without controul as if he liked it and as if he took delight in it Would not this be a very great dishonour to him that God should not reform those that are in him Assuredly my brethren if God will be sanctified in them that are nigh him he will be sanctified in them that are in him either one way or the other in their holy Conversation or in their visible Correction as he was in Davids case that those that are without may not blaspheme as if he suffred sin and approved it well enough in those that are near to him No they shall know that he mislikes it most of all in them If he see many aliens to him doing any wickedness he may bear with them long perhaps for it concerns him not so much to deal against them But if he spy one of his own among them one of them that is in him he will single such a one and cull him out from all the rest and say You are in me and in my Son you are united to me in the neerest bonds and what will you do as these vile abominable wretches do Come I must order you though I let the rest alone I must not suffer you in such courses Use 4 If true believers be in God in the Father and the Son Then let them be enheartned hence to use their interest in God on all occasions in all the streights and exigencies of the Church of God You have the priviledges and the advantage to be more then nigh him to be in him so that undoubtedly you may have audience with him when you please and you may very much prevail with him And therefore see that you improve the opportunity and the advantage that is put into your hands by being Gods remembrancers in all cases If he seem to forget his Church at any time to be asleep while she is sinking do you come to him when you are with him in his privie Chamber and speak a good word for her Mind him of her sad condition and beseech him earnestly to think upon her and relieve her They that are abroad my brethren cannot do it They cannot have access to God they have no interest in God at all But you my brethren are not only in with him but you are in him so that you have his ear and heart you can prevail exceedingly with God and therefore see you be not wanting to promote the Churches cause with him As it is said of Jacob you have power with God and therefore you must seek him more in streights in difficulties and in hard cases because you can do more with God then others can Brethren there are some streights upon us at this time we are involved in difficulties more then every eye sees I speak as unto wise men judge ye what I say And therefore you that are in God that are more prevalent with him then others are be sure that you plead hard before him night and day in such a time as this is The businesses that are in agitation now are of a very great concernment and therefore see that you improve all the respect and interest you have in God about them Use 5 If true believers be in God you then that are without God be advised how you wrong them and how you be vexatious to them Take heed you do not injure and molest them for your lives And that upon a double ground For 1. Being in God they will have opportunity on all occasions to complain against you Be wary how you wrong these little ones For though they be of little reckoning and reputation in the world and though they be of little power to make defence or right themselves when they are injured they are so near to God that they are in him and they will readily tell him of it You that are men of earthly might do not oppress them by your power least they cry and God hear And he will very quickly hear them being in him You may abuse and injure others with infinitely less danger for they are far from God they are a great way of and so may cry yea cry aloud and not be heard But they that are in God are certainly within hearing And therefore be advised how you meddle with them and make them cry so close to God least the Lord hear and it displease him 2. Being in God he will certainly redress them when they make complaint to him It cannot be but he must be extreamly tender of those who are so near to him What do you think that the Almighty God will suffer men to be abused in him
thus he dealt you know with Saul and Judas But he chose Christ out of a special and peculiar love never to be reversed again And just so he chose us in and by and through Christ out of the very same love and with the very same intentions in reference to revocation that he chose Christ And what will God cast away his people whom he hath foreknown from everlasting whom he hath chosen in his Son Christ before the foundation of the world was laid as the Apostle speaks Eph. 1.4 No no his choice of us is as unalterable as his choice of Christ himself And when he casts away Christ then and not till then my brethren will he cast away us Doth God the Father love believers as his servants even as he loves Christ Then surely he will deal with us in this regard much as he dealt with Christ as I shall shew you in a few particulars 1. He will uphold us as he did uphold Christ A Master will uphold his servant in any business or employment that he setteth him about Especially a servant that he loves So did God uphold Christ and he seems to glory in it and to call us to observe it Isa 42.1 Behold my Servant whom I uphold I am resolved to bear him out meddle with him he that dare Indeed when the appointed time was come he gave him up to suffer what he had designed him to But in the interim he bore him out so that no projects no attempts could take against him they could not seize upon him they could not hurt him saith the Gospel story because his hour was not yet come Even so will God uphold us untill our hour be come too For we are servants whom he loves even as he loved Christ And as he is a loving so he is an al-sufficient and almighty Master as he said to Abraham when he took him to be a Covenant-servant to him Gen. 17.1 And therefore he will be not only a reward but a shield to his servants a shield and an exceeding great reward as his own expression is Gen. 15.1 A reward for their salvation and a shield for their protection 2. God will assist us in his service as he did assist Christ Christ had a piece of work you know in hand that was very difficult so that he sweat and that not ordinary sweat but drops of blood trickling down upon the earth Yea more then so he fainted while he was about it But God his Master that employed him took a special care of him and sent an Angel down from heaven of purpose to comfort him and strengthen him Luke 22.43 And when as man he feared how he should hold out and how he should go through with the business as to any self sufficiency as a Creature and so wept and cried to God he had a very sweet return as you may see Heb. 5.7 When in the dayes of his flesh he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears to him that was able to save him he was heard in that he feared Just so doth God support us in the work he calls us to for we are servants whom he loves even as he loved Christ If he perceive the service that we have in hand to be too difficult and hard for us then in comes God and puts his own hand to the work What canst thou not go through with it Come let me help thee saith the Lord. It is observed of the Levites that God helped them 1 Chron. 15.26 And the Apostle tells us that the spirit helpeth our infirmities Rom. 8.26 he stands against us and bears up the burthen with us So that the weakest servants of the Lord need not fear the hardest service or the heaviest burthen when he hath such a one to help him and when those everlasting arms are underneath him as the Prophet speaks Deut. 33.27 What said the Lord to Paul when he was hard bestead and when he was about to faint My grace is sufficient for thee And this made Paul to say I can do all things through Christ that strengthneth me Phil. 4.13 3. Out of this love God will reward us for the service that he enables us to do as he did reward Christ As soon as he had done his work he had his wages down upon the nail for he was heard in that prayer John 15.4 I have glorified thee upon earth I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do and now Oh Father glorifie me with thy self And so as soon as we have ended and dispatched the business that God hath put into our hands we shall receive our own reward according to our own labour Having had the fruit to holiness we shall receive the end eternal life If we be faithfull to the death we shall receive the Crown of life Apoc. 2.10 If we continue in the Vineyard to the Evening we shall have our penny If we hold out to the period of our lives when we shall come to dye we may conclude with God as Christ doth in the forealledged place We have glorified thee on earth we have finished the work which thou gavest us to do and now O Father glorifie us with thy self and we may sing our dying Song with the Apostle 1 Tim. 4.7 We have fought a good fight we have finished our Course henceforth there is laid up for us a Crown of righteousness which God the righteous Judge will give us Doth God the Father love believers as his Children even as he loves Christ doth he affect them under that relation too and that as he doth Christ Then surely he will shew him self a loving Father to them as he doth to Christ and that especially in two respects 1. He will hear them as he doth hear Christ You know it is but ask and have with Christ Thou art my Son saith God the Father to our Saviour Psa 2.6 this day I have begotten thee And what follows Ask of me and I will give thee And this is that which Christ himself acknowledges John 11.42 Father I thank thee because thou hast heard me Yea so he might in that particular and yet he might deny him in another But mark what followes presently and I know thou hearest me alwayes Thou art my Father and I am thy Son and hence it is that thou art so inclinable to hear me to let me have my own asking Even so will God hear us in every thing that we desire according to his will for we are Children also whom he loves even as he loves Christ And therefore as it was but ask and have with Christ just so it is with us too Ask and it shall be given you Mat. 7.7 And that because he is our loving Father as he is Christs Our heavenly Father will undoubtedly give good things to them that ask him 2. He will provide for us as he doth for Christ You know he hath provided well for Christ He is not his Son
the Godhead For the first person of the Godhead though it be the Father of our Saviour Christ as God yet it is not so properly the Father of our Saviour Christ as man And our Saviour Christ speaks as man in this place And therefore Father here is essentially taken for the whole Godhead subsisting in the three persons And even as we by Father mean the Godhead when we pray our Father which art in heaven So doth our Saviour Christ too As man he is in this respect like us as the Apostle tells us he is in all things like unto us sin only excepted Now the attribute he gives the Godhead which he denotes by Father here is righteous Righteous Father But wherefore doth he mention this rather then any attribute of God on this occasion Why might he not have said as well Almighty or Eternal or Mercifull or Gratious Father The special reason why he chooses this expression as far as I conceive cannot be cleerly and undoubtedly resolved Judicious Calvin thinks he doth it in opposition to the unrighteousness of men So to comfort true believers that however they were like to meet with nothing but injustice and unrighteousness in the world yet he was now committing them into the hands and keeping of a righteous God Others guess at other reasons Once this is clear and manifest that he picks out this attribute of God among the rest and whereas many others lay before him he fixes upon this only He comes to God in prayer by the name of righteous Father The thing is evident though the particular Consideration that induced him to it be unknown So that the Points to be observed here are two First God is a just and righteous God in himself and in all his dispensations Secondly That Jesus Christ came to him as a righteous God when he was pouring out his prayers to him or making his Petition to him DOCTRINE God is a very just and righteous God None knew him better then our Saviour and he calls him Righteous Father So doth the Holy Ghost in Scripture very often The Prophet David stileth him The Righteous God Psal 7.9 And Jeremiah The Lord that judgeth righteously Jer. 11.10 Indeed he doth not judge after the sight of his eyes nor reprove after the hearing of his ears that is he is not deceived with the external shew of things with which the eyes of men are often taken He is not misled and carried with reports to deal unjustly in the least degree No with righteousness he doth judge the poor who many times are over-born in lower Courts by those that are too strong and mighty for them and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth Though they be meek though they be not clamorous and troublesome and though they do not wring out justice from him as the poor widdow in the Gospel did from the unrighteous Judge by unweariedness earnestness and tyring importunity yet they shall have it easily and readily he will dispense it to them freely of his own accord And this is that which holy David so applauds him for and he will have it spoken to his praise among the Heathen Psal 96.10 Say among the Heathen The Lord reigneth and he shall judge the people righteously Let the Heavens rejoyce and let the Earth be glad before the Lord for he cometh for he cometh to judge the Earth He shall judge the world with Righteousness and his people with his Truth So that you see the point is clear That God is a very just and righteous God And you will be the better satisfied in it if you consider but these three things First the largeness of his Jurisdiction and Dominion His Government is universal and extends to all the world and therefore he must needs be righteous He is the judge of all the earth And what said Abraham Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right Gen. 18.25 The Supream and Soveraign Judge before whose dread Tribunal all the World must stand and at whose Bar they must be tryed for that which most concerns them too their precious souls from whose determination no man can appeal with any hope of being righted in a higher Court seeing there is none above it Is God unrighteous I say as the Apostle Rom. 3.5 How then shall he judge the world Indeed inferiour Governours may be unrighteous and corrupt and yet this universal frame continue and subsist because they are perpetually subject to the Soveraign Judge who standeth in the Congregation of the Mighty and is a Judge among the Gods as David speaks Psal 82.1 But if the universal Judge should be unjust whom none can over-top nor call to an account what could be lookt for but confusion Another ground of the righteousness of God is the immensity and infiniteness of his presence As he is Governour and Judge of all the world so he is in all the world The largeness of his presence is answerable to the largeness of his Jurisdiction and Dominion and this contributes very much to the uprightness and the justice of his Government Inferiour Magistrates although perhaps they have no mind to be unjust yet they are often times misled by sinister information They are not present everywhere they see not every thing themselves and therefore are necessitated to proceed secundum allegata probata And many times it comes to pass that things which are untrue are testified and proved before them and so they do injustum though not injustè by means of which the Innocent is injured and oppressed See an example of it in Mephibosheth who by the false suggestions of his wicked servant Ziba was outed of his goods and his possessions 2 Sam. 16.4 Had David known that good Mephibosheth had still remained loyal to him had he not been abused by a forged information how far would he have been from doing such apparent wrong as he did in that sentence But he relyed on Testimony for the truth of that which by reason of remoteness could not fall within the compass of his own notice and so was led into that gross mistake which you have heard Now there can no such Errors happen in the Government of God because himself is present every where and therefore cannot be misguided by finister information He taketh nothing upon trust upon suggestion as all our Governours on earth do No my beloved he sees all with his own eyes he hears all with his own ears nothing is said or done but in his presence His eyes in every place behold the evil and the good saith Solomon Prov. 15.3 whether it be good or evil whether it be near or far off it is within his own veiw his eyes behold it he need not to depend upon a witness for the proof of it So that in this respect he is not subject to such injustice in his government as other Kings and Rulers are Thirdly God must needs be righteous in his Administrations because he is
the world There will be some elect continually to be brought in by this means Some to be added to the Church some to be joyned to the body mystical untill the dispensation of the fullness of time which the Apostle mentions Eph. 1.10 when all things shall be gathered into one which are in heaven and which are on earth So that you see my brethren Jesus Christ will be continually making further declarations of his Fathers Name to other Nations and to other persons But how will he make these further declarations Brethren he will not do it in his own person or by his own immediate voyce But he will do it other wayes 1. By his written word and Ministers in all ages for that which they declare in his name and by authority from him Jesus Christ himself declares To this end Christ hath set some in the Church some Ministers of all sorts as the Apostle tells us 1 Cor. 12.28 And that is out of all dispute in the universal Church which is not limited to any Countrey or to any age That so there might be continually some in all Churches and in all ages to publish what is to be manifested of his Father And hence said Christ to his Apostles Mat. 28.20 Lo I am with you to the end of the world They were not to continue for their own parts by many hundred years so long And therefore it must also stretch to those who were to follow them in the office and the work of Gospel preaching till it be published universally to all Nations in the outward promulgation and in the inward and effectual revelation to all persons to whom it is appointed so to be revealed Which was not done you know by the Apostles it was but begun by them and must be carrried on till it be finished by other Ministers to the end of the world And therefore when our Saviour Christ ascended and consequently could no longer teach his Church immediately in his own person he gave gifts unto men such gifts as he never gave before And he gave some Apostles Prophets Evangelists Some temporary some perpetual for the perfecting of the Saints for the work of the Ministry How long Till we all come all that are chosen whether Jews or Gentiles in the unity of the Faith unto a perfect man So that the Ministry shall be continued till all be gathered into Christ that shall be gathered and that is till the end of the world 2. Christ makes these further declarations of his Fathers name in every age by his spirit As he declares it outwardly to other persons by his word so he declares it inwardly to other persons by his spirit to his elect in every age to the end of the world And therefore when our Saviour Christ withdrew his corporal and fleshly presence he sent his spirit down to teach his people to lead them into all truth And by that spirit he declares his Fathers name and will do to the worlds end And he assured his Apostles in the place even now alledged Mat. 28.20 when he was even about to leave them as to his fleshly presence with them Lo I am with you alwayes viz. by my spirit to the end of the world That is with you and such as you are with you and your Successors still in every age as long as the world endureth Go ye therefore and teach all Nations and my spirit shall be with you So that what you teach all without he shall teach my elect within powerfully and with success till the last man be gathered in And then shall the end come Is it so that Jesus Christ will be continually making further declarations of his Fathers name to other Nations and to other persons to the end of the world Vse Then let us seriously consider what our dutie is in reference to this work which will be beautifull and glorious beyond all comparison and what Christ expects of us If he will do as he hath said let us examine what we are to do and what duty lyeth upon us relating to it in the mean time And here I shall propound a few things 1. Let us give him so much credit as to believe what he hath spoken And though it seem improbable that Christ should manifest his Fathers name to all Nations That all the Countreyes in the world should come to know him and to be acquainted with him yet seeing Christ hath undertaken it and bound himself by faithfull promise to his Father that as he hath declared his name already so he will be continually making further declarations of it to other persons and to other Nations let us say Amen to it As Mary sometimes when she had staggerd at the difficulty of the Promise at length recovered out of that fit of unbelief and set the seal of faith to it Be it according to thy word 2. Let our hearts be full of hope in reference to this business Since Christ hath undertaken it let us expect the execution of it Our Saviours words my brethren are a promise to the Father what he will do in after times for his people Saith he I will declare thy name to them And therefore as it is our duty to believe the promise so to expect the good things promised To be continually in a waiting frame looking and harkning after the accomplishment of this eximious work of his spying if we can see the day break and the Fathers name shine forth to other Nations who never had a glimsp of it by any Gospel Revelation till in the end from the rising of the Sun unto the going down of the same his name be great among the Gentiles according to that Prophesie relating to these latter times and ages of the world Mal. 1.11 3. Let us strive with Christ in prayer that he would make good the word that he hath spoken to the Father before so many witnesses Oh my beloved when ye look on many Heathen Nations that yet are overwhelmed in ignorance and Egyptian darkness that yet know nothing of the Fathers name when you look on many Christians in profession that yet are even in as bad a case as they some of which it may be have relation to your selves go to Jesus Christ and say O Lord thou hast professed that thou wilt declare thy Fathers name to other persons and to other Nations to the end of the world Lord there are such Nations there are such persons who yet are strangers to the Father who know no more of God in Christ then the very beasts that perish O be intreated to declare thy Fathers name to them Lord manifest the Father to them that they may know him to salvation 4. Let our hearts be full of joy while we are looking forward to the accomplishment of this work O let it chear our spirits under all the sinking damps and deep discouragements that are upon them in relation to the Church to think in what a blessed state and glorious