286 SERMONS UPON JOHN XVII. [SeR. XV.
[3.] To convince the world by their example, their strictness, patience, fortitude. They are in the world, but not of the world. If a christian were not a member of the world, he would never be the wonder of the world. They have flesh and blood as others have, and have not divested themselves of the affections and interests of nature ; the same bodies, the same interests ; yet they can deny all, and upon the con- venient reasons of religion abhor the pleasures and dear contentments of this life, and become weaned, mortified, strict, holy ; and this raiseth the world's wonder : 1 Peter iv. 4, ' They think it strange that you run not with them to all excess of riot, speaking evil of you.' They are so bewitched with these things that they wonder how any can resist the temptation. Godly men are to walk up and down the world as God's witnesses : ' Ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord,' Isa. xliii. 11. They testify that there is a reality in religion, and how it worketh, b}^ the strictness and mortification of their lives. They are to be examples to the world : 2 Cor. iii. 3, ' Ye are the epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the spirit of the living God, not in tables of stone, but in fleshly tables of the heart.' By your lives God writeth his mind to the world ; you are a living rule, a walking Bible.
[4.] To fit them for glory. We do not commence per saltum. Vessels of honour must be seasoned : Col. i. 12, ' Who hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light.' What should an unmortified man do in heaven ? Heaven would be a prison to him, the company of God and the communion of saints a burden. We do not come into God's presence hot and reeking from our lusts ; we are first set in the garden of the church before we are transplanted to the upper paradise ; they grow a while in the land of grace, that they may take kindly with the soil.
(1.) Partly to weaken our desires to the world. The stones were to be hewed and squared before they were to be set in the temple ; there was no noise of axe or hammer heard there. So during our worldly state we are humbled with many afflictions, that we may be weaned by degrees from the world and worldly objects : Gal. vi. 14, ' God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified to me, and I unto the world.' The world doth not suit with the saints, as children are weaned from the teat by worm- wood : when men are pleased in the world they forget their country. We stir liquors and syrups that are over the fire, that they may not stick and burn to. As Esther, when she was chosen for Ahasuerus's bride, was ' to accomplish the months of her purification ' before she was presented to him, Esther ii. 12 ; so some days are to be spent in our purifying and sanctifying before we are presented to God.
(2.) Partly to make us long for glory. Our worldly estate is cum- bersome ; here are sins and afliictions, that we may long for a better estate : Ps. cxx. 5, ' Woe is me that I sojourn in Mesech, that I dwell in the tents of Kedar ! ' As the Israelites' task was doubled, that they might long for Canaan and cry out for the land of rest. The incon- veniences of our jiilgrimage make the everlasting estate more sweet ; troubles without us, diseases upon us, and sins within us, and all to make us long for home. Notwithstanding all the hard usage and entertainment in the world, how difficultly are we weaned !
VeR. 11.] SERMONS UPON JOHN XVII. 287
3. Christ's apprehensiveness of this clanger. You shall see it is a circumstance often mentioned : a little before his death, at his death, now in heaven.
[1.] A little before his death. We have two instances — one when he was about to wash his disciples' feet and institute the supper: John xiii. 1, ' Jesus having loved his own that were in the world, he loved them unto the end.' Christ was then thinking that he should shortly depart ; his thoughts were not on his own glory so much as our danger. If Christ would have thought of his own, he might have thought of the angels and glorified saints. Cyril and Chrysostom observe that he did not think of angels and glorified saints, but of his own in the world, those that were left to the miseries and temptations of an evil and unquiet world. No question it was sweet to Christ to think of the glorified saints and angels ; but they were safe, and now was a time to show pity rather than delight. The other instance wo have in his prayers in this place, from the 11th to the 17th verse. I might mention many passages in his sermons. Christ, when he was about to leave us, he had the affection of a father to his children, or of a dying husband to his wife ; he was careful of our estate after his departure.