VeR. 10.] SERMONS TTPON JOH-ST XVH. 2G7
receive honour, and glory, and power ; for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.' They do not slight their glorious work. All the glory they have is God's mere bounty ; they hold it by grace, and magnify it by grace. So Eev. v. 8, ' The four beasts and four-and-twenty elders fell down before the lamb, having every one of them harps, and golden vials full of odours, which are the prayers of the saints.' There is the employment of the church militant and triumphant. Harps, which are instruments of praise, belong to souls already glorified ; as vials full of odours belong to be- lievers on earth. The earth is the true place of prayer, as in heaven we shall be employed in eternal thanksgivings. All the church is yielding homage to Christ; it is the study of saints: Eph. i. 16, 'I cease not to give thanks for you.' It was Paul's constant practice, he breathed nothing but Christ : 1 Cor. ii, 2, ' I determined to know nothing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.' Our thoughts of Christ should be sweet to us ; we should have ravishing apprehensions of him from day to day, ravishing thy heart with the excellency of Christ.
Use 3. Is consolation to them that desire to glorify Christ. It is a singular prop in your prayers, in every address you have an interest in Father and Son : ' They are mine,' saith the Lord ; I loved them with an everlasting love. ' They are mine,' saith Christ ; I redeemed them with an everlasting redemption. And will not God provide for his own, and Christ for his own? Can he that hath the Father and Son miscarry and doubt of audience 1 You have the Father, who is the original fountain of blessing ; and you have Christ, who is the golden pipe and conveyance. But especially in your last address, when you lie on your deathbed ; you know Christ's own plea, John xvii. 4, 5, ' Father, I have glorified thee upon earth, I have finished the work that thou hast given me to do. And now, Father, glorify thou me with thyself, with the glory that I had w^ith thee before the world was.' It is a sweet evidence. What doth God look for from the creature but glory ?
Object. 1. But you will say, I cannot glorify Christ in my addresses to God, and cannot come with an assurance becoming his purchase. I answer —
1. When we cannot apply, let us disclaim : Lord ! we come not in our own names, our own worth and desert, which is none at all ; we come in the merits of Christ ; we know ' there is no other name under heaven ;' Hosea xiv. 3, 'In thee the fatherless findeth mercy ;' that is, every person that wanteth a guide, relief, and support. Though we cannot say, Father, yet we can say, we are fatherless, we have none to help us.
2. If we cannot speak of the love that he beareth to us for Christ's sake, yet let us plead the love that he beareth to him. Christ's name is very dear and precious in heaven, being God's beloved Son : Lord, for the love that thou bearest to Christ. We are his clients, though we cannot say we are his members. Though I cannot say, Thou art mine, yet I may say, He is thine, a mediator of thy setting up. God might have refused us, if Christ had not letters-patents from heaven, and his commission under the broad seal of God : John vi. 27:
268 SERMONS UPCX JOHN XVII. [SeR. XIII.
' Him hath God the Father sealed.' Lord, he is thy own authorised mediator. Moses was refused, that interposed of his own accord, Exod. xxxii. 32, 33. I have nothing to bring thee but a mediator of thine own. It is a prevailing argument.
Object. 2. Alas ! there is little that I do for God ; my station is private : those in the magistracy and ministry, that are in an eminent sphere of activity, they may glorify Christ, they do his work upon earth ; but v.'hat do I do ? I answer —
1. God will be glorified by every man in his way and place: John xvii. 4, ' Father, I have glorified thee upon earth, I have finished the work that thou hast given me to do.' We must not speak of our rank, Christ is glorified by thy diligence and faithfulness in thy private place, a man-servant, or a maid-servant : 1 Cor. vii. 22, ' He that is called in the Lord, being a servant, is the Lord's free man ;' being redeemed from the thraldom of Satan, and servitude of sin, he doth glorify Christ : Titus ii. 9, 10, 'Exhort servants to be obedient unto their own masters, and to please them well in all things, not answering again, not purloining, but showing all good fidelity, that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things.' Godly servants, Avhat an ornament are they to the gospel ! By the first inlets of religion into a family, it is made beautiful and lovely in the eyes of carnal men, who esteem the doctrine by the life and practice of the professors of it. Servants in those days were bought and sold like beasts. The Lord doth not esteem men by the places they hold, but by their carriage in them.