1. By the scope and aim of your lives and actions. Do you labour for another world ? 2 Cor. iv. 18, ' While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen : for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal,' /x^ (tkottovvtwv r]fioiv. What is your heart set upon, and what do you make your scope and aim ? A child of God prayeth. professeth, in order to eternity. A man shall know his general scope by what satisfieth him. Are you contented with the world, to have your names written in earth, to have your whole portion in this life, for other things you will give God a discharge ? Luther would not give God an acquittance, valde i^rotestatus sum me nolle sic a Deo satiari, Grace must have eternity, for it would fain answer God's love ; it would live for ever, for ever to praise God and serve God. All the world will not satisfy it without this eternal enjoyment of God.
2. Have you an eternal principle ? Is there a life begun that cannot be quenched ? Is the immortal seed conveyed into your hearts ? 1 Peter i. 23, ' Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incor- ruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.' Then certainly thou art loved from eternity, for thou hast a pledge of it. First or last there is a work wrought in their souls, that can never be undone and disannulled, something that is of an everlasting nature. And therefore what seeds of eternity hath God planted in your hearts ? Common graces and moral virtues, these are of no long continuance ; the soul must have an abiding work, an immortal work.
3. You may know it by this : you will be much in trial, whether this be wrought in you or no, whether there be such an eternal prin- ciple conveyed into your hearts. Morality is puffed up, never suspects itself, and common grace puts us into good moods, now and then gives some tastes and flashes : Heb. vi. 4, 5, ' They were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come.' Morality doth not labour to see that all is sure and safe, and common grace only gives us some taste and flashes ; but a child of God is looking after the unction that will abide, the seed that reraaineth ; and is careful to see that there is grace, and to be increasing in grace, and is always examining whether it be real.
VOL. XI. H
114 SERMONS UPON JOHN XVII. [SeR. XLIII.
SEEMON XLIII.
0 Tigliteous Father, the world hath not hnoion thee : hut I have knoivn thee, and these have known that thou hast sent me. — John XVII. 25.
Our Lord had laid down the object of his prayers and the matter of them, and now he comes to the reasons, though in such affectionate addresses to God we should not be anxious in stating the method. Some conceive this a doxology ; as Mat. xi. 25, 26, ' I thank thee, 0 Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes. Even so. Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight.' He had fully dis- charged his office as a prophet, and therefore giveth thanks. But I rather look upon it as a part of the supplication. He had made his will and testament, and now allegeth the equity of it. Here —
1. A compellation, ' 0 righteous Father.'
2. The qualification of the disciples for that glory which he sought for them, saving knowledge. Which is illustrated —
[1.] By its opposite, the affected and obstinate ignorance of the world, ' The world hath not known thee.'
[2.] By its efficient and exemplary cause, ' But I have known thee.'
First, A compellation, ' Eighteous Father.' In which there is an irgument secretly couched, for always titles of God are suited to the matter in hand. It is brought to show the reason why the world is excluded the participation of heavenly glory, and the equity in be- stowing it upon the elect. He had before called him ' Holy Father,' now ' Eighteous Father.'
God is just and righteous two manner of ways — in a legal and in an evangelical sense. In a legal sense, his justice is rewarding men according to the merit of their actions. Thus he dealeth with the reprobate lost world. In the evangelical sense, God's righteousness doth not regard the merit of their actions, but the state of the person ; and judgeth them rather according to what they have received than what they have done. And so God dealeth with the elect and repro- bate ; the one are rewarded according to their works, the other according to their state, evidenced by their works ; to both God is just. So that I might —
Observe, first, that in the condemnation of the world, God is just, though they remain in blindness. »