[3.] The necessity of this inward light ; without it the word will not W'ork. Many hear outwardly that are never the better : John vi. 44, * No man can come to me except the Father which hath sent me draw him.' There must be an inward light, an inward operation on the soul, or the word is without effect ; the heart must be opened as well as tlie scriptures. As all the multitude that thronged on Christ did not touch him as the diseased woman did, .who touched the hem of his garment : ' Wlio touched me ? ' saith Christ, ' knowing that virtue had gone out of him,' Mark v. 30. Many may come to an ordinance, but virtue passeth out to few. The outward minister can but speak to the ear ; it is Christ works grace in the heart: unless the Holy Ghost come down, and open the mouths of preachers to speak, and the hearts of people to hear, all is to no purpose.
Use. Well, then, every time you come to the opening of the scrip- tures, look for this inward light to shine into your hearts, that you may have a saving knowledge of God in Christ. Eemember you come to bear that doctrine which Christ hath brought down from the bosom of
YeR. 6.] SERMONS UPON JOHN XVII. 203
the Father, and he must bring it into your bosoms. There are two sorts of hearers : —
1. Some are careless, that come hither, but scarce hear the minister; their bodies are in the sanctuary, but their spirits are in the corners of the earth. Their coming is made fruitless by the wandering of their hearts ; they have experience of the power of Satan, not of Christ. The devil presenteth to their fancy such objects as carry their spirits from God and his work: Ezek. xxxiii. 31, ' They come unto thee as the people Cometh, and they sit before thee as my people, and they hear thy words, but they will not do .them; for with their mouth they show much love, but their heart goeth after their covetousness.' Carcases without a spirit are but carrion ; clothes stuffed with straw, that were a mocking ; so is a body present at hearing the word without a soul. What is the difference between an absent body and a wandering spirit? God knocketh at the heart, but there is none within to hear him.
2. Some hear the minister, but do not wait for the illumination of Christ, which sometimes God grants to us in the hearing of the word : Acts xi. 15, ' As I began to speak, the Holy Ghost fell on them ; ' this is to draw us to attention : Acts xvi. 14, ' Whose heart the Lord opened, that she attended to those things that were spoken by Paul.' When God disposeth us to hear his word attentively, he approacheth to us in mercy.
SEKMON VIII.
I have manifested thy name unto the mew which thou gavest me out of the ivorld : ihiiie they were, and thou gavest them me, and they have kept thy loord. — John XVII. 6.
The next argument is what the Father had done in and about be- lievers ; he disposed them into the hands of Christ : ' Thine they were, and thou gavest them me.' Where is — (1.) His interest in be- lievers ; (2.) His act about believers.
First, His interest in believers : ' Thine they were.' How is this to be understood ? Divers have framed divers senses ; thine by creation, thine by election, thine by sanctification. The Father being first in order of the persons, all original works are proper to him ; so creation is ascribed to him ; so the Lord saith, Ezek. xviii. 4, ' All souls are mine,' all created by him. But this sense is not so proper to this place, because those for whom Christ prayed not might plead this interest ; so Satan is God's, the wicked and all creatures are God's. By- election ; thine by free election, mine by special donation : 1 Peter ii. 9, ' Ye are a chosen generation, a peculiar people.' The first and highest act of grace is ascribed to him ; they are his chosen and pecu- liar ones. These were eternally his, and by the continuation of the same purpose of grace they are always his. This is proper to this place ; only sanctification may be included, which is, as it were, an actual election. As by original election the heirs of salvation are dis- tinguished from others in God's purpose and counsel, so by actual
204 SERMONS UPON JOHN XVII, [SeR. VIII.
election they are visibly distinguished and set apart from others ; so ' Thine they were/ by an excitement of thy Spirit and grace stirred up to follow me, and chose me in this special way of service. Sanctifica- tion is also ascribed to the Father : John vi. 44, ' No man can come unto me except the Father that hath sent me draw him;' and Jude 1, ' To them that are sanctified by God the Father.' The first effect of saving grace is ascribed to him, as the first rise of grace is from his love. I prefer the middle sense, and do only take in the latter as the effect : ' Thine they were ; ' they were chosen by the purposes of thy grace, and called, which is the effect of that grace passing upon their hearts.