2. It will be your comfort. It is a sweet comfort in all conditions to remember the similitude of condition between Christ and us : ' Shall the disciple be above the lord?' What more honourable tlian to carry the cross after Jesus Christ? Christ hath worn this garment: Col. i. 24, ' "Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh.' Christ was exposed to the envy of Satan and his agents. Art thou better than Christ? He suffereth with us, because we should suffer with him : Mat. XXV. 45, ' Verily I say unto you, inasnnich as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me ;' Acts ix. 4, ' Saul, Saul, why })ersecutest thou me?' Man and wife, if they love one another, had rather live together in the meanest estate than in the greatest glory and abundance asunder. Christ and a christian are fellow-sufferers; we are conformed to his sufferings, and he hath a feeling of ours.
3. It will be for our profit. The issue will be glorious ; we must first suffer, then enter into glory ; winter is before the S2)ring : Rom. viii. 17, ' If so be that we suffer with him, that we maybe also glorified together ;' 2 Cor. iv. 10, ' Always bearing about in my body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest
VeR. 17.] SERMONS UPON JOHN XVII. 411
in our mortal flesh;' 2 Tim. ii. 11, 12, 'It is a faithful saying', for if we be dead with him, we shall also live with him: if we suffer, we shall also reign with him.' If we would be like Christ in glory, we must be like him in suffering.
Use. Meditate on this. God had but one Son, he came into the world without sin, but he could not get out without a cross. Art thou poor ? so was Christ. Hast thou enemies ? so had he. Art thou dis- dained ? Christ went this way to glor}', and so must thou. He was charged maliciously, blackened with slanders, accused falsely, &c., the like usage you must expect.
Secondly, With respect to God. How solicitous is Christ about those who are not of the world! Compare ver. 14 with this. His Father's choice must be made good ; his own deligiit is in those that are like him. Christ loveth himself, and his own reflection in the saints. Christ is at perfect antipathy with the world ; and a christian loveth what lie loves and hateth what he hates. If you have the world's hatred against you, remember you have Christ's prayers.
SERMON XXVI.
Sanctifij them tJirougli thy truth : thy loord is truth. — John XVII. 17.
Here is -Christ's second request for his disciples. Where —
1. The request itself, sanctify them.
2. The manner how it is to be accomplished, through thy truth.
3. The reason why it is to be so accomplished, thy luord is truth. The main points are the influence of truth upon sanctification, and
that the word is the public record and register of this truth.
Now I shall make some entrance upon the verse.
First, The request; and here — (1.) What he prayeth for ; (2.) To whom ; (3.) For whom.
First, What he prayeth for, sanctification.
1. Observe, Our chief aim in prayer for ourselves and others should be to be sanctified. Christ pi-ayeth for sanctification.
[1.] What it is to be sanctified. To sanctify is — (1.) To consecrate or set apart for some holy use ; (2.) To cleanse or purify ; (3.) To adorn with gifts of grace.
Some prefer the first acceptation, and apply it particularly to the apostolical calling. ' Sanctify them,' that is, separate them, and set them apart for the work of an apostle. So Christ was sanctified, that is, set apart for the work of redemption. But it is not sanctity them f(yr thy truth, but in or hy thy truth, Iv rf] u\r)6eLa ; and therefore this scripture hath a more general respect and signification. However, in the Afork of holiness, all the senses may be taken in ; for whoever are sanctified are set apart, cleansed, and adorned with grace.
(1.) Set apart by God and by themselves. By God, both in time and before time. Before time they are set apart by God's decree, to be a lioly seed to himself in and by Christ ; separated from the
412 SERMONS UPON JOHN XVII. [SeK. XXVL
perishing world, to be vevssels of liononr, as the reprobate are called vessels of wrath and dishonour; set apart by God's election, chosen to be holy : Eph. i. 4, ' According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy, and without blame before him in love.' But then in time they are regenerated, and so actually set apart. Sanctification is an actual election. By election they are distinguished from others in God himself, so by re- generation and sanctihcation they are distinguished from others in themselves, separated and set apart from the perishing world, to act for God, to seek the things that may make for his glory : James i. 18, ' Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first-fruits of his creatures.' The first-fruits were the Lord's portion. Or else by the consent of their own vows: Bom. xii. 1, * I beseech you that you present yourselves a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, that is your reasonable service.' They have de- dicated and devoted themselves to God. God calleth for it when he saith, ' My son, give me thy heart.' God will have his own right established by the creatures' consent ; it is a necessary fruit of grace.