Ver.io. the 17th Chapter of St. J OH N. lto9 O Lord, neither remember ',signify for ever : behold, fee, we befeech thee, vim art all thy People. When we come to God, though we cannot plead Merit, yet we may plead Interell : As bad as we are, yet we are thine ; our Enemies have ufed us at pleafure, yet thou haft been pleated to enter into Covenant with us ; Lord, wilt thou not call one glance and eye of Favour upon thine own Children ? Oh it is fweet, when we can come into the prefence of God with this Confidence ! Ephef s: 19. Now therefore ye are no more Strangers and Foreigners, bet Fellow - Citizens with the Saints,end of the Houfhold of God; as fottie of his own Houlhold, and fo fue put our Allowance. A Stranger is one that cometh, and his Ocèafions being ferved, returneth to his own Home : A Fo- reigner, is one that dwelleth in a place, but is not priviledged with the Immunities and Franchifes which the Natives enjoy. But now we are Denizens, free of God's Houle; have the liberty, not only of Servants, but of Children ; therefore we may urge it in Prayer. All the difficulty will be, to get the Intereft evidenced. It is not Confidence, but Impudence, when fame Men lay to God, we are thine; a wicked Man flandereth him, when he faith, Our Father. The great Evidence, is Confecration; Did you ever give up your whole felves to God ? Do you walk as his, as having nothing of your own, at your own dilpofal ? Didil thou ever make this Surrender ? When there are Faltions, to which hand do you cleave ? Do you fay, I am God's, I am Chrifl's ? God doth, as it were, fay, Who is on my fide ? Who ? SERMON XIII. JOHN XVII. io. And all mine are thine, and thine are mine ; and I am glorified in them. WE have, in the former Verfe, the firft folemn offer of Chri(t's Intercef ion or Mediation between God and Man ; and there- in he doth profeffedly refufe to pray far the World : His Rea - fon was, he would pray for none bue.thofe that were dear to his Father, and to himfelf: Now of the Elea he might fay, They are not only mine, bet thine : They are given him by the Father, not by way of Alienation, but Oppignoration ; the Father loft no Right by his Grant and Donation. The Gift of the Father to Chrift, differeth from all the Gifts of Men. When Men give, they alter the property of the thing given, or cer- tainly are not fo careful about it. When you give your Son to be a Servant, or an Apprentice to another ; or when a Scholar is put out to School, you leifen your Care towards him : Or, to inflance in a Relation lets mercenary and fervile; when you give your Daughters in Marriage, you think there is a Child bellowed, your Fatherly Title and Propriety is not abolifhed, but your Care is leffened. But now though God hath put Believers into Chrifl's Hands, yet he hath not put himfelf out of Poflèffion, but hath ftill referved his own Right and Care : for the Eftablifhment of the Creatures Comfort, Chrift is taken in with himfelf. Chrift hath a Title proper to his diffinl and perfonal Operation to involve him in the Care : Chrift path a Title by Purchafe and Redemption : and the Father hath a Title proper to his Perfonal Ope- ration by Elelion : I pray for them which thou haft given me, for they are thine. The joynt Poffeffion and Care of the Father, together with Chrift, is proved by a general Affèrtion, built on that perfèl Communion that was between them, Allmine are thine, And thine art mine, &C. The Sentence is applicable to Things and Perlons. r. To Things: Tác ,uà lam ox gat, its, .on irtar, the Original will bear it: So the Fathers generally underftood it of the concreated and infinite Riches of the God- head,
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