the nature of Angels but the seed of Abraham for whom he never suffered and to whom he was never offered They will have something to excuse themselves withall something to plead before the Lord in the great and dreadful day Alâ—s may Devils say there was no possibility of our recovery there was no Mediator between God and us to purchase and obtain our peace there was no pardon tendred to us but you had the eternal Son of God to dye for you for you mankind to shed his blood and to lay down his life for you and yet when all was done and when he came and brought a pardon to you sealed with his blood and besought you to accept of it you even shut him out of doors you would not look upon him nor receive him you baffled him and dodged with him Ah my beloved what heart if it be truly touched can hold from breaking under the sight and sense of such abominable and prodigious wickedness as this is And as the sin is great so in the second place the misery and condemnation will be great also There will be no avoiding of it for how shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation Heb. 2.3 There will be no enduring of it it will be infinitely heavy it will be easier for Turks and Pagans in the day of judgement then for such wretches Alas poor souls that as if their condemnation were not deep enough already the incarnation and the passion and the offer of a Saviour the richest mercies in themselves that ever were bestowed upon the Creature should accidentally encrease it That Christ should die and shed his blood to sink men deeper into hell then if he had not died at all for this is the event and issue of it this is a lamentable thing indeed The second sort of such as stoop not to the authority of Jesus Christ and to his Legislative power are such as violate the Law of Love I mean the Moral Law the decalogue the ten Commandments for that my Brethren is the Law of love And therefore the Apostle tels us that love is the fulfilling of the Law he means apparently the Moral Law Rom. 13.10 and he that loveth another hath fulfilled the Law see the eighth verse of that chapter in which respect our Saviour Christ himself divides the Law into these two Commandments Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and the neighbour as thy self what then it may be you will say Doth Christ by his authority impose the moral Law on men the ten Commandments of the Decalogue The Law of faith is his indeed but is the Law of works his too Yes the Law of works is his for he requireth works as well as faith And the faith which he bestows upon his members works by love And love is his own commandment so he cals it John 15.12 This is my Commandment that ye love one another Indeed he rules his Subjects by the Moral Law that is the precepts and commandments of it are the Statutes of his Kingdom It s true when it was first delivered to Adam in the state of innocency it came to him but in the hand of the Creator only But it comes to us my Brethren in the hands of the Redeemer and of the Mediator Jesus Christ who was typified by Moses at the delivery of the Law the second time upon Mount Sinai Gal. 3.19 And hence the precepts of it are stiled not the bonds of God only but the bonds of Christ too Psal 2.2 Let us break their bonds asunder and cast away their cords from us The Gospel all men yield is Christs he is in a peculiar way the author of the Gospel and therefore it is called the word of Christ Now the Commandments of the Law are all of them revived in the Gospel The whole of what the Law requires is for the manner and measure of obedience exacted also in the Gospel there is no duty which the Law enjoyns but it is taught us in the Gospel The Gospel teacheth to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts and to live soberly and righteously and godlily in this present world Titus 2.12 soberly towards our selves righteously towards our Brethren and piously towards our God And these Particulars apparently involve and comprehend all the Commandments of the Moral Law from the beginning of it to the end There being nothing in the Decalogue the Ten Commandments interdicted or required but may be reduced to one of these three heads So then you see my Brethren not the Law of faith only but the Law of works too is Christs Law or if it be not Christs Law it can be no Law at all The Father judgeth no man but hath committed all Judgement to the Son And consequently he that violates this Law of works resisteth the authority of Jesus Christ and the power with which he is invested by his Father to give Law to all flesh And yet alas how many are there who live in the resolved and the constant breach of all the precepts and commandments of the Law of Christ who in their practice daily break these bonds asunder and cast away these cords from them who are not subject to the Law of Christ nor indeed can they be If it be pressed home upon them to bind them to the good behaviour and to restrain them from their sinful and ungracious courses they are out of all patience If the commands of Christ be laid upon them to hold them fast to duty and obedience and to abridge them of their carnal liberty if they be told they must no take their old courses but they must hear and pray and fast and sanctifie Gods holy day and live strictly they will be very much incensed The Law of Christ is too severe and strict for them it curbeth and abridgeth them too much and therefore they will shake it off from them And as the Lunatick who was restored by our Saviour to his reason brake all the bonds and cords with which they bound him so these unreasonable Creatures deal with Christs Law nothing will hold them to obedience Let him lay what command he will upon them they will surely break it that they may live at liberty and walk according to their own humours Yea sin in such by the Commandment becomes exceeding sinful as the Apostle speaks Rom. 7.13 Not by way of declaration for that is not the purpose and intention of the place but by way of Irritation When the Commandment labours to lay hold on sin to bind him and to chain him up then sin begins to lay about him to struggle for his libertie and so by accident to be the more sinful When we press home the precepts of the Law and urge them hard on wicked men as there are some that yield themselves up to the binding power and to the obligation of it so there are others that stand out against the Law and they are much the worse for it
not thou art our Father It is repeated twice you see and bound with an asseveration too to shew the strength and certainty of their assurance And in the same perswasion we find them praying in the following Chapter in Vers 8. But now Oh Lord thou art our Father we are the clay and thou the Potter we are the work of thy hands And in the same assurance also let us pray when we are making our addresses to the throne of grace let us apply our selves to God as to a Father The benefit and profit of it will be very great as I shall represent it to you in a few particulars which you may look upon as Motives to perswade This assurance will make us bold and confident in our approaches to the throne of grace it will make us come to God full of holy resolutions whereas if we be destitute of this perswasion when we are drawing nigh to God and know not whether we may call him father yea or no we shall be fearful to approach his presence we shall make but faint prayers And therefore the Apostle tells us that by faith in Christ in whom alone God is a Father to his children that is by this assurance that he is so to us in special we have boldness we have access with confidence to God Eph. 3.11 And this was that which heartened up the Prodigal and filled his languishing and fainting heart with resolution I will arise said he and go to my Father he had been long debating it should seem and ruminating on the business in his wavering thoughts His late miscarriages no question were a great disheartening to him so that he knew not what to do But at last he comes to this I will arise and go to my Father he is my Father and I am his own Son and there is pitty and compassion in a Father to a Son at least to a returning Son though an unworthy one as I have been And therefore let my faults and my discouragements be what they will I will arise and go to him And truly while we apprehend the Lord to be a Judge and not a Father or if a Father not to us but other men we find but small encouragement to come to him But when we look upon him as a Father yea as our Father in the Lord Christ this makes us come with boldness to him This causes us to delight in the Almighty and not to look divertedly but to lift up our face to God as Job speaks As this assurance will make us bold and confident so it will make us earnest and importunate with God It will enable us to pray and not to faint When we consider we are dealing with a Father we shall hang about him when he seems to throw us off we shall tug and wrestle with him we shall take no denyal from him Oh Lord thou art our Father we pray thee hear us pitty us relieve us for we are thine own children A man is never earnest and importunate with one of whose affections he hath no perswasion and they that have not this assurance present but cold and spiritless petitions and requests to God But they that look upon him as a Father as one that hath so near relation and such dear affection to them as one whose bowels of compassion yern towards them in their miseries and wants they will keep no silence they will give him no rest till he have answered them in mercy till he have given them the desire of their hearts This assurance will make us hopefull of audience and success with God Can a woman forget her child and not have compassion on the Son of her womb saith the Prophet Isa 99.65 Can she deny him when he begs and hangs about her It is possible she may there may be such a mother in the world but God is no such Father No he hath infinitely more compassion on his children Oh what a matchless and unconquerable ground of hope is here to those that have this sweet assurance that God is their Father What man is there who if his son asketh bread saith Christ will give him a stone or if he ask a fish will give him a Serpent though the poor child perhaps cannot distinguish the one from the other If ye then being evil know how to give good things unto your children how much more will your heavenly Father give good things to them that ask him And lastly this assurance will hold us up with matchless comfort respectively to the defects and imperfections of our prayers Suppose your little tender child should come to any of you that are Fathers with a lisping stammering tongue moaning for something that he longs to have would you look angrily upon him would you chide and rate him off and send the harmless infant crying from your presence Consult with your own hearts and bowels could you do it and is not God as pittiful to his as you are to your children Alas he is as tenderly affected to them that he sees not their defects so as to slight them and reject them or their weak endeavours for them No as a Father pitties his Children so the Lord pittieth them that fear him Psal 103.13 They are without blame before him in love Ephes 1.4 Though they have many failings yet he doth not blame them so great is his love to them when they look upon their prayers and find this fault and that fault as truly they have cause enough the comfort is that God finds no fault he saith that it is well done And thus he dealt with holy David as himself observeth Psalm 77.2 3. He was in such distress that he was troubled to remember God his very heart was overwhelmed within him a poor prayer you may think that any man could make in such a case as that was And yet that very prayer found acceptance with the Lord as he shews in that place I cried unto the Lord saith he in the first ver of that Psalm and mark what follows he gave ear to me And thus when we do bungle at his service the Lord is apt to take it in good part if we do but what we can and that because he is our Father which if it be considered cannot choose but be a very great encouragement and comfort to us But you will interpose and say perhaps here is encouragement indeed and pretious comfort if we can come to God in prayer with this assurance that he is our Father but how shall we attain to this assurance What are the evidences that we may relye upon in this particular which if we find them in our selves we may be confident to speak to God as to a father we may be bold to cry Abba Father to him I shall lay down a few and make them as distinguishing and clear as I am able to help you in this great business If God be your Father and you be his children you are very much like him
spirit That place of the Apostle Paul is cleer and full to this purpose Ephes 3.16 where he desireth God in the behalf of that people That he would grant them to be strengthened with all might in the inner man How so Why by his spirit as you may see in that place And thus you see both that and how they that belong to Jesus Christ are kept by the almighty power of God in them They that belong to Jesus Christ are also kept by the almighty power of God for them For even as God is strong in them so he is also strong for them And as he makes them strong so he shews himself strong in their behalf as the Expression is 2 Chron. 16 9. The eyes of the Lord run to and fro through the whole earth to shew himself strong in the behalf of those whose hearts are perfect with him And thus they are preserved and kept not only by the power of God strengthing and fortifying them within but also by the power of God protecting them and helping them without And therefore it is said the name of the Lord that is the power of the Lord is a strong Tower the righteous runneth to it and is safe Prov. 18.10 Now security of any person that runneth to a Tower for shelter consists not in his own strength but in the strength of the Tower he runs to A strong Tower will protect a weak man if he can get within it he is safe And such a stong Tower is the name the power of God for the safeguard of his people And thus you see he keeps us through his own name his own power according to our Saviours prayer in my text in a way of protection by giving outward help and succour when we are in great danger And this outward help he gives us two wayes First sometimes immediately by his own power he helpeth us himself by his own almighty arm without the use of second causes and then his arm is made bare He brings in succour to his people as he made the world of nothing and therefore he is said in Scripture to create it as you may see that place for instance Isa 65.18 Be ye glad and rejoice for ever in that which I create for behold I create Jerusalem a rejoycing and her people a joy And thus he kept his people in the fire and in the water and in the wilderness where there were no means at all of preservation he did it meerly by his own name Secondly Sometimes he helps and keeps his people mediately by his power communicated for that end to second causes He raises instruments of their delivery and makes them able to relieve his people as he did the Judges often And as it is observed of David when God was pleased to use him for the help of Israel in a time of great distress he furnished him with power sufficient to go through with the business which he had designed him to And therefore saith the Lord of that instrument of his Psal 89.19 20. I have laid help upon one that is mighty I have exalted one chosen out of the people I have found David my servant with my holy oil have I annointed him Mighty he is to help indeed but it is because I have made him so because I have laid help upon him And so he stirs up some continually to favour and relieve his people he makes the earth sometimes to help the woman men that have nothing else but earth in them but still the power by which they help them is from him Their power is his power and therefore when his people are preserved and kept by them they are kept by his name as you have it in my text and his name must have the glory This shall suffice for explication of the point they that belong to Jesus Christ are kept by the almighty power of God himself And there is pregnant reason for it For first of all no other power but his will keep them and his is every way sufficient And secondly his power is mightily engaged to keep them Reason 1 They that belong to Jesus Christ are kept c. because no other power but his will keep them Kept they must be and none but this alone will do it Alas the adversaries power that is against them is abundantly too strong for any power that can appear for them but that of the almighty God himself The power of all the world and all the strong temptations that are in it of pleasure profit honour which is bent against the Saints you will conceive to be a great matter Yet this is nothing in comparison this is the least part of their danger What think you of the power of all the lusts and the corruptions that are in them that are continually raging warring Who is able of himself to overpower and master these What think you of the power of Satan and his black confederates the power of darkness as it is stiled in the Scripture All the united strength of hell it self nothing but the power of heaven is able to out wrestle this and they that will struggle with it had need be strengthned by that glorious power And hence our Saviour places the security of his Disciples in this That they are kept by him that is greater then all John 10.29 That is of greater strength as I have shewed so that none can pluck them out of his hand Reason 2 They that belong to Jesus Christ are kept c. because as no other power can keep them so this is mightily engaged to be for them And that especially two wayes by the Sons prayer and the Fathers promise 1. By the Sons prayer and that must not be denyed For this we need to go no further then my text Holy Father keep them through thy own name It was one of the last requests he made when he was taking leave of this world and therefore certainly it was successfull Simon Simon saith our Saviour Satan hath desired to winnow thee as wheat But how is Peter kept now Why by our Saviours intercession I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not 2. By the Fathers promise he hath engaged himself by promise to his people many times that his power shall be for them The Covenant is a Constellation and a heap of promises and he is a God in Covenant with them So that as he himself is theirs so all his attributes are theirs too His mercy to forgive them his justice to avenge them his power to keep them The Romans were in league with many people and if those people were in danger they were obliged in point of honour to defend them And so they did with as much diligence and care as they did their own City Even thus it is between the Lord and his people he is in League and Covenant with them and he hath undertaken their protection And therefore if they be in any streight he is bound
never close with him So that you see my brethren it exceedingly concerns the honour of our Saviour Jesus Christ and of the Gospel that they that appertain to him avoid dissentions with their brethren for they reflect with very great disparagement on him and it And therefore the Apostle is so sharp with the Corinthians because they shewed their malice and had their suits and controvesies each with other before unbelievers 1 Cor. 6.1 By which it seems they set them off the further both from Christ and from the Gospel This shall suffice for the cleering of the Observation proceed we to the application Now is it so my brethren that the unity of Christs Disciples is one Use 1 especial means to cause the world to have the better thoughts c. Here then we see the reason my beloved why Jesus Christ and religion and the Gospel are so despised and undervalued and neglected why they are so ill thought of in these times As certainly Christ and the Gospel had never less esteem and credit in the world then they have in these dayes And this is one great cause of it there is so little unity among Christians Nothing but disputes and quarrels and contests among them everywhere whither we look upon the Teachers or the Professors of Jesus Christ and of the Gospel If we look upon the Teachers how strangely do they differ each from other everywhere how do they cross and thwart with one another as if there were many Christs and many Faiths and many Gospels and more wayes then one to heaven In the Apostles times it was Paul and Silvanus and Timotheus they did harmoniously agree together But now Paul is of one mind and one way and Timotheus of a second and Silvanus of a third So that the people are distracted and in the end regard neither They that are yet without and to seek of their religion know not what to pitch upon but are the more estranged from Jesus Christ and from the Gospel If the Trumpet give an uncertain sound now here and now there now this way and now that how shall the confused people gather themselves into a body and come to be at one among themselves If this Pulpit sound with one thing another with that which is directly contrary to it a third with that which contradicts both where think you then shall poor unstable souls settle how is it possible but they that have not sences exercised to discern should be carried up and down and really adhere to nothing as it is at this day And thus our Gospel is exposed to contempt our Religion undervalued and Jesus Christ himself is slighted and despised 2. If we look on the professors of Jesus Christ and of the Gospel how are they rent asunder into factions Oh what a spirit of division is there up and down among them such as never was abroad till these times They are of so many minds and draw so many wayes and have such vehement and such hot contentions and disputes among themselves that they are no way to be pacified and appeased unless the God of peace himself appear and above all that we can think All that time and pains and heat and zeal and strength which was wont to be bestowed in private duties in prayer and examination and humiliation c. and to be set a work about their own hearts in mortifying and subduing the corruptions and the lusts that are there is now laid out in making and upholding parties and in maintaining controversies and disputes in doating about frothy frivolous and vain questions that tend to strife and variance and not one whit to edification And this is that which alienates and keeps off those that are without from closing with religion This takes away the beauty and the lustre of it that may invite them and allure them to it When carnal men see nothing else but rents and breaches among professors of religion the glory of it is extreamly darkned in their eyes and it is sure a stone of stumbling to them and such a rock of scandal and offence as they cannot get over When we shew all our weakness in our passion and in our violent and hot contentions before the watchfull eyes of scornfull enemies when we uncover our selves in the sight of the wicked as a fool uncovers himself they disdain us in their hearts and with us our profession too Nay if this be their Religion and profession to brawl to wrangle and to quarrell thus I am even at a point saith the prophane and graceless heart I will have none of it It is a choice and curious observation of the Holy Ghost if you observe it upon the difference that fell out between the servants of Abraham and the servants of Lot that at the very time when the contention grew the Canaanite and Perezite was in the Land Gen. 13.7 There was a strife between the Herdsmen of Abrahams Cattle and the Herdsmen of Lots Cattle and the Canaanite and Perezite dwelled then in the Land Their strife was much the more vile and the more disadvantagious to religion because it was before them Use 2 And therefore in the second place my brethren since the unity of Christs Disciples is one especial means to cause c. Let this prevail exceedingly with every one of us who are or would be taken to be Christs Disciples to strive and labour after this oneness There have been many Arguments and Reasons used heretofore often to stir us up to this endeavour but none like this that Jesus Christ will be the more respected and the better thought of in the world by this means Now for the honour of Christ Jesus leave your wrangling and contending and agree among your selves Do not so carry and demean your selves as to perswade the world that he was never sent of God He suffred shame and ignominy and contempt for you Oh do not cause him now to suffer ignominy and contempt from you You have seen the sad effects of breaches and divisions many wayes and this way among the rest in these times How much our blessed Saviour and the Gospel suffers by the hot contentions of those who call themselves Saints Ah my beloved if you have any love to Jesus Christ any regard at all to his esteem and credit in the world if you would have him in account and reputation make up your breaches and differences deny your selves for his sake See how he beggs his Father for it in my Text Let them be one saith he as thou c. that the world may believe c. that they that are without may not be so ill perswaded of me as they are And if Christ be so earnest for it if he begg for it of his Father with so much affection will you slight it and look upon it as a small matter Oh labour to help onward that which he is so intent upon that so without hypocrisie you may say Amen to this Prayer And