[2.] Is not God in Christ willing to show mercy to penitent believers ? or to manifest himself to them as their God and reconciled Father ? Did not his love and grace find out the remedy before we were born ? And when we had lived wit^hout God in the world, he sought after us when we went astray ; he thought on us when we did not think on him, and tendered grace to us when we had no mind and heart to it : Isa. Ixv, 1 , ' I am sought of them that asked not for me ; I am found of them that sought me not.'
[3.] Hast thou not visibly entered into the bond of the holy oath, and consented to the covenant, seriously at least, if thou canst not say sincerely ? Or dost thou resolve to continue in sin rather than accept of the happiness offered or the terms required ? Then thou hast no part in Christ indeed. But if thou darest not refuse his covenant, but cheerfully submittest to it, then God is thy God : Zech. xiii. 9, ' I will say, It is my people ; and they shall say, The Lord is my God.' If thou consentest that Christ shall be tliy Lord and Saviour, thou art a part of the renewed estate whereof Christ is the head.
[4.] If thou wantest a sense of his love, because of thy manifold failings, it is unreasonable to think that all will end in wrath, which was begun in so much love. If he expressed love to thee in thy unconverted estate, and hath brought thee into God's family, will he destroy thee, and turn thee out again upon every actual unkindness ? The Lord doth gently question with Jonah in his fret : ' Dost thou well to be angry ? ' Jonah iv. 9. When the disciples fell asleep in the night of Christ's agony, he doth not say, Ye are none of mine, because
VeR. 23.] SERMONS UPON JOHN XVII. 87
ye could not watcli with me one hour ; but rather excuseth it : Mat. xxvi. 41, ' The Spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.' This great love of God overcometh all the unkindness of his children.
2. What may evidence they are concerned in this love.
[1,] There is some change wrought in you ; thou art now no despiser of God and his holy ways ; the heart of thy sensuality, pride, and worldliness is broken, though too much of it still remaineth in thee. Now it is good to be in the way to a further progress ; and we begin with mortification : 2 Cor. v. 17, ' If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature : old things are passed away, behold, all things are become new.' Every change for the better is either the new creature or a preparation to it.
[2.] The gift of the sanctifying Spirit is more prized by thee than all the riches and honours in the world. Now without holiness we cannot esteem holiness, and practically prefer it about other things. God loveth Christ as he bore his image ; so he loveth us as we are sealed by the mark of the Spirit : Ps. cvi. 4, ' Eemember me, 0 Lord, with the favour that thou bearest unto thy people : 0 visit me with thy salvation ;' and Ps. cxix. 132, ' Look thou upon me, and be merciful unto me, as thou usest to do unto those that love thy name.'
[3.] Thou lovest and preferrest Christ's people, and that for their holiness, and therefore seekest to discountenance all sorts of wicked- ness : Ps. XV. 4, * In whose eyes a vile person is contemned ; but he honoureth them that fear the Lord.' He laboureth to discountenance all sorts of wickedness, and desireth to bring goodness and godliness into a creditable esteem and reputation, and payeth a hearty honour and respect to those that excel therein : so Ps. xvi. 3, ' But to the saints that are in the earth, and to the excellent, in whom is all my delight.* He doth value them, and esteem them, above the greatest men in the world, because they are so loved, prized, and set apart by God.
[4.] You labour more and more to be such, whom God loveth as he loved Christ. Jesus Christ was the express image of his person ; we strive to be such in the world as Christ was, 1 John iv. 17, hating what God hateth, and loving what God loveth ; then we make it our business to walk as he walked, 1 John ii. 6, doing his will, seeking his glory. God loved Christ for that spirit of obedience that was in him, who shrunk not in the hardest duties, but, whatever it cost him, was faithful in his work.
Observe, thirdly, that God would have the world know so much, and be convinced of this great love which he beareth to the saints : ' That the world may knov/ that thou hast loved them,' &c.
1. The necessity of the world's knowledge.
[1.] Because the workl is blinded with ignorance and prejudice against the children of God ; they cannot, or rather will not see : 1 Cor. ii. 14, ' But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God : for they are foolishness unto him ; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.' They will not see, because they have a mind to hate.