Use 1. Comfort to believers.
1. Concerning the safety of their eternal estate. Christ bargained for thee by name. That the Father and the Son should pitch upon such a forlorn and wretched piece of the creation as thou art, and they should talk together of thy heaven, i Son, this is one for whom thou nnist die ! That thy name should be in the eternal register, written with the Lamb's blood in his own book of life. I must have a care of him. Ay ! you will say, this were an excellent comfort, if I were sure I were one of them that is given to Christ. I answer — If he hath given Christ to you, he hath given you to Christ. God maketh an offer in the gospel. Are you willing to receive him for Lord and Saviour ? Then you put it out of question : ' To as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the children of God.' You are fellow-heirs with Christ. Christ is given to you in time.
2. In your particular straits Christ hath a care of you. Do you think he will break his engagement ? Christ hath plighted his truth 10 God the Father. Our groundless jealousies question the truth ol" Christ's word and solemn agreement. When we say, The Lord hath forgotten nie, this is in effect to say, Christ is not faithful in his charge. The prophet chideth them : Isa. xl. 27, ' Why sayest thou, 0 Jacob, and speakest, O Israel, My way is hid from the Lord, and ray judgment is passed over from my God?' God doth not take notice of my case : such mistrust is a lie against the care of Christ.
Use 2. To press us, especially humble sinners, you that walk in
' Qii. " thee in heaven "? — Ed.
VeR. 3.] SERMONS UPON JOHN XVII. 139
darkness, to come under these sweet hopes. God hath Laid souls to pled<:fe in the hand of Christ. Why should we be scrupulous ? All the Father's acts are ratified in time by believers. He ordaineth, we consent ; he chooseth Christ for lord and king : ' They shall appoint themselves one head,' Hosea i. 11; So he hath given souls to Christ, so should you.
1. Commit your souls to him by faith ; this answereth to Christ's receiving the elect by way of charge : 1 Peter iv. 19, ' Let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to him in well-doing, as unto a faithful creator.' A man ventureth upon duty, and trusteth God with his soul: Ps. xxxi. 5, 'Into thy hands do I commit my spirit.' Paul knew Christ was an able and trusty friend : 2 Tim. i. 12, ' I know whom I have believed, and I am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed to him against that day.' Committing the soul to God is a notion often used in the matter of faith, and doth most formally express the nature of trust and adherence. He is willing to receive your souls, and he is able to make good the trust. Therefore, in all times of distress and danger, when all things are dark to us, upon the warrant of the gospel, let us commit the soul to Christ, to be kept to salvation ; refer your- selves to his care for pardon, defence, support, and glory.
2. Consecrate yourselves to Christ. Committing noteth trust ; con- secrating, obedience. You commit yourselves to his care, you resign and yield up yourselves to his discipline. Committing answereth the charge, but consecration the grant : Kom. xii. 1, ' I beseech you, there- fore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.' By full consent a manembarketh with Christ, and is resolved no longer to be at his own keeping and disposal : Ps. cxix. 94, ' I am thine, save me, for I have sought thy prece[)ts.' I am thine ; Lord, I would not be my own, unless I be thine. As those who being denied protection by the Koraans, offered up themselves and their whole estate to them. Si nostra tueri non vuliis, at vestra defendetis ; quicquid passuri sumiis, dedititii vestri patianfur, &c.
SERMON IIL
And tins is life eternal, that they mifjht hioio thee the onhj true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. — John XVII. 3.
Here our Lord declareth the way, means, and order how he would give eternal life to the elect ; and so it is added as an amplification of the former argument. The words must be expounded by a metonymy. Such kind of predications are frequent in scripture : John iii. 19, ' This is the condemnation,' &c. ; that is, the cause of it. Sometimes it signifies the outward means : John xii. 50, ' His commandment is life everlasting ;' that is, his word is the most assured means of it. Sometimes the principal cause : ' Jesus Christ is the true God and eternal life,' 1 John v. 20 ; that is, the author of it.
140 SERMONS UPON JOHN XVII. [SeR. III.
' This is life eternal.' — Some understand these words formally, as if they were a description of eternal life, which consisteth in a sight of God. But I suppose it rather layeth down the way and means, and showeth rather what is the beginning and original of eternal life, than the formality and essence of it. It is not in this eternal life consisteth, but by this means it is gotten and obtained.