Use 2. An invitation to bring in men to Christ. Oh ! who would not choose him to be Lord that, whether we will or no, is our master ? He can hold thee by the chains of an invincible providence, that art not held with the bonds of duty. Oh ! it is better to touch the golden sceptre than to be broken with the iron rod, and to feel the efncacy of his grace than the power of his anger. Christ is resolved creatures shall stoop. The apostle proveth the day of judgment : Rom. xiv. 10, 11, 'We shall all stand before the judgment-seat of Christ : for it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me,' &c. Christ will bring the creatures on their knees ; at the last day all faces shall gather blackness, and the stoutest hearts be appalled. Christ will have the better ; it is better be his subjects than his captives.
Use 3. To magistrates, to own the mediator. You hold your power from Christ, and therefore must exercise it for him: Ps. ii. 10-12, ' Be wise now, therefore, 0 ye kings : be instructed, ye judges of the earth ' (it is their duty chiefly to observe Jesus Christ) ; ' serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little.' Acknowledge Christ your Lord, or else he will blast your counsels ; you shall perish in the midway : when you have carried on your designs a little while, you shall perish ere you are aware : Christ will call you to an account.
Two things Christ is tender of, his servants and his truth. His servants are weak to appearance, but they have a great cham- pion : what is done to them Christ counteth as done to himself : 'Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?' Acts ix. 4, when he raged against the saints : Isa. xlix. 23, ' Kings shall be thy nursing-fathers,
VeR. 2.] SKRMONS UPON JOHN XVJI. 133
and their queens thy nursing-mothers.' Christ hath little ones, that should be nursed and not oppressed.
But chiefly his truth. It is truth maketli saints : John xvii. 17, ' Sanctify them through thy truth ; thy word is truth.' You should own your Lord and master, and not be indifferent to Christ or Satan. To tolerate errors, especially directly against Christ's person, nature, and mediatory offices, is but sorry thankfulness to your great master. He did not give you a commission to countenance rebels against him- self. Whilst you maintain the power and purity of his ordinances, Christ will own you, and bear you out ; but when, for secular ends, men hug his enemies, they are in danger to perish in the midway, in the course of their attempts.
' That he should give eternal life.' — That signifieth the end why Christ received so much power for the elect's sake, that he might be in a capacity to conduct them to glory ; which otherwise could not be, if Christ's power were more limited and restrained. I might —
1. Observe, that Christ's power in the world is exercised for the church's good : Eph. i. 22, ' He is the head over all things to the church.' All dispensations are in the hand of a mediator for the elect's sake, to gain them from among others, to protect them against the assaults of others.
[1.] To gain them : 2 Peter iii. 9, ' He is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.' If the elect were gathered, providence would be soon at an end. God's dispensations are guided by his decrees.
[2] To protect them when they are gained. You must pluck Christ from the throne ere you can pluck a member from his body : John X. 28, ' I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.' By his conduct and government we are secured against all dangers; they may pluck joint from joint, but they cannot pluck the soul from Christ that is once really implanted into him.
2. Observe that eternal life is Christ's gift. It is not the merit of our works, but the fruit of his grace : Rom. vi. 23, ' The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.' It is good to observe how the expression is diversified. Sin and death are suited like work and wages ; but eternal life is a mere donative, not from the merit of the receiver, but the bounty of the giver. Works that need pardon can never deserve glory. Grace in us runneth as water in a muddy channel : the child hath more of the mother. It is true there is a concurrence of works, but not by Avay of causality, but order. God will first justify, then sanctify, then glorify. Justification is the cause and foundation of eternal life, and sanctifica- tion the beginning and introduction of it ; and we have both by Christ. The first is obtained by Christ's blood, the second wrought by his Spirit. See Eph. ii. 8, 9, ' By grace ye are saved, through faith, and that not of yourselves ; it is the gift of God : not of works, lest any man should boast.' The instrument of salvation is faith, which requireth a renouncing of works ; and faith also is of grace. The Papists, to excuse the gross conceit of merit, say our works do not