The Fountain of Life Opened Up

The example does not oblige us, as a learned man well observes, to the same individual act, but it obliges us to follow the reason of the example. That is, after Christ's example, we must be ready to perform the humblest offices of love and service to one another. And indeed to this it obliges most forcibly, for it is as if a master, being a proud servant that despises his work, as if it were too mean and base, should come and take it out of his hands. And when he has done it, should say, Doth your Lord and Master think it not beneath him to do it? And is it beneath you? What more detestable, says Bernard, what more unworthy, or what deserves severer punishment, than for a poor man to magnify himself after he hath seen the great and high God so humbled as to become a little child? It is intolerable impudence for a worm to swell with pride after it hath seen majesty emptying itself, seen one so infinitely above us, stooped so far beneath us. Ah, how opposite should pride and haughtiness be to the spirit of a Christian! I am sure nothing is more so to the spirit of Christ. Your Saviour was lowly, meek, self-denying, and of a most condescending spirit. He looked not at his own things, but yours. Philippians 2, verse 4 And does it become you to be proud and selfish? Jerome, in his epistle to Pamecius, a godly young nobleman, advised him to be eyes to the blind, feet to the lame. Yea, saith he, if need be, I would not have you refuse to cut wood and draw water for the saints. And what is this to buffeting and spitting, being crowned with thorns, scourging and dying? Yet Christ underwent all this, and that for the ungodly. Number 3 Did Christ stoop so low as to become a man to save us? Then those that perish under the gospel must perish without excuse. What, would you have Christ do more? No, he hath laid aside the robes of majesty and glory, put on your own garments of flesh, come down from his throne, and brought salvation home to your own doors. Surely the lower Christ stooped to save us, the lower those shall sink under wrath that neglect so great salvation. The Lord Jesus is brought low, but the unbeliever would lay him yet lower. He would tread underfoot the Son of God. Hebrews 10 verse 29 For such, as the apostles there speak, is reserved something worse than dying without mercy. What pleas and excuses others will make at the judgment seat I know not, but one thing is evident, such will be speechless. O poor sinners, your damnation is just if you refuse grace brought home by Jesus Christ himself to your very doors. The Lord grant this may not be thy case. Who readeth these lines? Number four Moreover, hence it follows that none doth or can love like Christ. His love to man is matchless. Its freeness, strength, eternity, and immutability give it a luster beyond all examples. It was a love strong indeed that made him lay aside his glory to be found in fashion as a man for our salvation. We read of Jonathan's love to David which passed the love of women, of Jacob's love to Rachel who for her sake endured the heat of summer and cold of winter, of David's love to Absalom, of the primitive Christian's love who could die one for another. But neither were they called to such self-denial as Christ, nor had he such inducements from the object of his love as they had. His love, like himself, is wonderful. Number five Did the Lord Jesus so deeply abase himself for us? What claims has he on us to exalt and honor him who for our sakes was so abased? It was a good saying of Bernard, By how much the viler he was made for me, by so much the dearer he shall be made to me. And oh, that all to whom Christ is dear would study to exalt and honor him in these four ways, by frequent and delightful speaking of him and for him. When Paul had once mentioned his name, he knows not how to part with it, but repeats it no less than ten times in the compass of ten verses. 1 Corinthians 1 verses 1-10 It was Lambert's motto, None but Christ, None but Christ. It is said of Johannes Marius that after his conversion he was seldom or never observed to mention the name of Jesus, but tears would drop from his eyes, so dear was Christ to him. Mr. Fox never denied any beggar that asked alms in Christ's name or for Jesus' sake. Julius Palmer, when all concluded he was dead, being turned as black as a coal, at last moved his scorched lips and was heard to say, Sweet Jesus, and fell asleep. Plutarch tells us that when Titus Flaminius had freed the poor Grecians from the bondage with which they had been long ground by their oppressors, and the herald was to proclaim in their audience the articles of peace he had concluded for them, they still pressed upon him, not being half of them able to hear, that he was in great danger of losing his life in the press. At last, reading them a second time, when they came to understand distinctly how their case stood, they shouted for joy, crying, A Savior! A Savior! till the very heavens rung with their acclamations. And all that night the poor Grecians, with instruments of song and songs of praise, danced and sung about his tent, extolling him as of God that had delivered them. But surely you have more reason to be exalting the author of your salvation, who at a dearer rate hath freed you from a more dreadful bondage. O ye that have escaped the eternal wrath of God by the humiliation of his Son, extol your great Redeemer, and forever celebrate his praises. Honor him by exercising faith in him for whatsoever lies in the promises yet unaccomplished. In this you see the great and most difficult promise fulfilled, the seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent's head, Genesis 3.15. And seeing that which was most improbable and difficult is fulfilled, even Christ come in the flesh, we think our unbelief should be removed forever, and all other promises more easily believed. It seemed much more improbable and impossible to reason that God should become a man, and stoop to the condition of a creature, than that, being a man, he should perform all the good which his incarnation and death procured. Unbelief usually argues from one of these two grounds. Can God do this? Or will God do it? It is questioning either his power or his will. But after this, let it cease forever to find fault against either. His power to save should never be questioned by any that know what sufferings and infinite burdens he supported in our nature. And surely his willingness to save should never be put in question by any that consider how low he stooped for our sakes. Honor him by drawing nigh to God with delight through the veil of Christ's flesh, Hebrews 10 verse 20. God hath made this flesh of Christ a veil between the brightness of his glory and us. It serves to rebate the unsupportable glory, and also to give admission to it, as the veil did in the temple. Through this body of flesh, which Christ assumed, are all the outlets of grace from God to us, and through it also must be all our returns to God again. It is made the great medium of our communion with God. Honor him also by applying yourselves to him under all temptations, wants, and troubles, of what kind soever, as to one that is tenderly sensible of your case, and most willing and ready to relieve you. O remember, this was one of the inducements that persuaded him to take your nature, that he might be furnished abundantly with tender compassion for you from the sense he should have of your infirmities in his own body. Wherefore, in all things it behooved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. Hebrews 2 verse 17 You know by this argument the Lord pressed the Israelites to be kind to strangers, for sayeth he, you know the heart of a stranger. Exodus 23 verse 9 Christ, by being in our nature, knows experimentally what are our wants, fears, temptations, and distresses, and so is able to have compassion. O let your hearts dwell upon this admirable condescension, till they be filled with it, and your lips say, Thanks be to God for Jesus Christ. Chapter 19 page 223 Christ's Humiliation in His Life And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Philippians 2 verse 8 This scripture was considered in the last discourse, and indeed can never be enough considered. It holds forth the humble state of the Lord Jesus during the time of his abode on earth. We have seen how he was humbled by his incarnation. We are now to consider how he was humbled in his life. Yet expect not that I should give you here an exact history of the life of Christ. The scriptures speak but little of the private part of his life, and it is not my design to dilate upon all the memorable passages that the evangelists, those faithful narrators of the life of Christ, have preserved for us, but only to notice and improve some more observable particulars in his life, wherein especially he was humbled. Roman numeral 1 The Lord Jesus was humbled in his very infancy by his circumcision according to the law. For being of the stock of Israel, he was to undergo the ceremonies and submit to the ordinances belonging to that people, and thereby to put an end to them. For so it became him to fulfill all righteousness. And when eight days were accomplished for the circumcising of the child, his name was called Jesus. Luke 2, 21 Hereby the Son of God was greatly humbled, especially in these two respects. Number 1. In that hereby he obliged himself to keep the whole law, though he was the lawmaker. For I testify again to every man that is circumcised that he is a debtor to do the whole law. Galatians 5 verse 3. The apostle's meaning is, he is a debtor in respect to duty, because he that thinks himself bound to keep one part of the ceremonial law doth thereby bind himself to keep it all, for all the parts are inseparably united. And he that is a debtor in duty to keep the whole law quickly becomes a debtor as to its penalty, not being able to keep any part of it. Christ therefore coming as our surety by his circumcision obliges himself to pay the whole debt of duty by fulfilling all righteousness. And though his obedience to the law was so exact and perfect that he contracted no debt of penalty for any transgression of his own, yet he obliges himself to pay the debt of penalty which he had contracted by suffering all the pains due to transgressors. This was that intolerable guilt that none were able to bear but Christ. Acts 15 verse 10. And it was no small thing in Christ to bind himself to the law as a subject made under it, for he was the lawgiver above all law. And here in the sovereignty of God, one of the choice flowers in the crown of heaven was obscured and veiled by his objection. 2. By his circumcision he was represented to the world, not only as a subject, but as a sinner. For though he was pure and holy, yet this ordinance passing upon him seemed to imply as if corruption had indeed been in him, which must be cut off by mortification. For this was the mystery principally intended by circumcision. It served to admonish Abraham and his seed of the guiltiness, uncleanness, and corruption of their hearts and nature. So Jeremiah 4 verse 4. Hence the rebellious and unmortified are called stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart. Acts 7 verse 51. And as it served to convince of natural uncleanness, so it signified and sealed the putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, as the apostle expresses it. Colossians 2 verse 11. Roman numeral 2. Christ was humbled by persecution, and that in the very morning of his life he was banished almost as soon as born. Flee into Egypt, said the angel to Joseph, and be thou there till I bring thee word, for Herod will seek the young and child to destroy him. Matthew 2 13. Ungrateful Herod, was this entertainment for a savior? What, raise a country against him, as if a destroyer rather than a savior had landed upon the coast? But herein Herod fulfilled the scriptures while venting his own rage, for so it was foretold. Jeremiah 31 verse 15. And this early persecution was not obscurely hinted in the title of the 22nd psalm, a psalm which looks rather like a history of the new than a prophecy of the Old Testament. Roman numeral 3. Our Lord Jesus Christ was yet more humbled in his life by that poverty and outward meanness which all along attended his condition. He lived poor and low all his days. So speaks the apostle, though he was rich, yet for our sakes he became poor. 2 Corinthians 8 verse 9. So poor that he was never owner of a house to dwell in, but lived all his days in other men's houses, or lay in the open air. His outward condition was more neglected and destitute than that of the birds of the air, or the beasts of the earth. So he told the scribe who professed such readiness to follow him, The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests, but the son of man hath not where to lay his head. Matthew 8 verse 20. Sometimes he feeds upon barley bread and broiled fish, and sometimes he was hungry and had nothing to eat. Mark 11 verse 12. He came not to be ministered unto, but to minister. Matthew 20 verse 28. Not to amass earthly treasures, but to bestow heavenly ones. His great and heavenly soul neglected and despised those things which too many of his followers too much admire and prosecute. He spent not a careful thought about those things that engrossed thousands and ten thousands of our thoughts. Indeed, he came to be humbled, and to teach men by his example the vanity of this world, and for contempt upon its ensnaring glory, and therefore went before us in a chosen and voluntary poverty. Roman numeral 4. Our Lord Jesus was yet further humbled in his life by the horrid temptations wherewith Satan assaulted him, than which nothing could be more grievous to his holy heart. The evangelist gives us an account of this. Luke 4 verses 1 through 13. In which context you find how the bold and envious spirit meets the captain of our salvation in the field, comes up with him in the wilderness when he was solitary, keeps him fasting forty days and forty nights, and assaults him with a very plausible temptation at first, and afterwards with a variety, trying several weapons upon him. When he had made a thrust at him with the first weapon, in which he especially trusted, commands that these stones be made bread, and saw how Christ put it by, he changes his position, and assaults him with temptations to blasphemy, even to fall down and worship the devil. But when he saw he could fasten nothing on him, that he was as pure fountain water in a crystal vial, which however much shaken and agitated produces no dregs or sediment, but remains pure still. I say seeing this, he makes a politic retreat, quits the field for a season, yet leaves it with a resolution to return to him again. Thus was our blessed Lord Jesus humbled by the temptations of Satan, and what can you imagine more burdensome to him that was brought up from eternity with God, delighting in the Holy Father, than to be now shut into a wilderness with the devil, there to be tempted so many days, and have his ears filled, though not defiled, with horrid blasphemy. How great a humiliation must this be to him who was truly God, to see a slave of his house, setting upon himself the Lord, his jailer coming to take him prisoners if he can, a base apostate spirit, daring to attempt such things as these upon him. Surely this was a deep abasement to the Son of God. Roman numeral 5 Our blessed Lord Jesus was yet more humbled in his life than all this, and that by his own sympathy with others, under all the burdens that made him groan. For he, much more than Paul could say, Who is afflicted, and I burn not? He lived all his time, as it were, in a hospital among the sick and wounded, and so tender was his heart, that every groan for sin, or under the effects of sin, pierced him, so that it was truly said, Himself bear our sickness, and took our infirmities. Matthew 8, verses 16 and 17 This was spoken upon the occasion of some poor creatures that were possessed by the devil, being brought to him to be dispossessed. It is said that when he saw Mary weeping and the Jews also weeping which came with her, he groaned in the spirit and was troubled. John 11, 33 And Jesus wept. Verse 35 Yea, his heart flowed with pity for them that had not one drop of themselves. Witness his tears wept over Jerusalem. Matthew 19, verses 41 and 42 He foresaw the misery that was coming, though they neither foresaw nor feared it. O how it pierced him to think of the calamities hanging over that great city! Yea, he mourned for them that mourned not for their own sins. Therefore it is said, He was grieved for the hardness of their hearts. Mark 3, verse 5 So that the commendation of a good physician, that he doth, as it were, die with every patient, was most applicable to our tenderhearted physician. This was one of those things that made him a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. For the more holy anyone is, the more he is grieved and afflicted by the sin of others. And the more tender any man is, the more he is pierced with beholding the miseries that lie upon others. Certainly there was never any heart more holy or more sensible, tender and compassionate than Christ. Roman numeral 6 That which yet helped to humble him lower was the ungrateful and most base and unworthy reception given him. He was not received or treated like a savior, but as the vilest of men. One would think that when he came from heaven to give his life a ransom for many, Matthew 20.28 When he was not sent to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved, John 3.15 When he came to destroy the works of the devil, 1 John 3.8, to open the prison doors and proclaim liberty to the captives, Isaiah 61.1 I say, when such a Savior arrived, oh, with what acclamations of joy and demonstrations of thankfulness should he have been received! One would have thought they should even kiss the ground he trod upon, but instead of this he was hated. John 15.18 He was despised by them. Matthew 13.55 So reproached that he became the reproach of men. Psalm 22.6 Accused of working his miracles by the power of the devil. Matthew 12.24 He was trod upon as a worm. Psalm 22.6 They buffeted him. Matthew 26.67 Smote him on the head. Matthew 27.30 Arrayed him as a fool. Verses 28 and 29 Spat in his face. Verse 30 One of his own followers sold him, another forswore him, and all forsook him in his greatest troubles. All this was a great abasement to the Son of God, who was not thus treated for a day, or in one place, but all his days, and in all places. He endured the contradiction of sinners against himself. In these particulars, I have pointed out to you something of the humble life Christ lived in the world. Inference number 1 From Christ's humiliation in submitting to be circumcised, and thereby obliging himself to fulfill the whole law, it follows that justice itself may set its hand and seal to the acquittance and discharge of believers. Christ hereby obliged himself to pay the utmost demand of the law, to bear that yoke of obedience that never any before him could bear. And, as his circumcision obliged him to keep the whole law, so he was most precise and punctual in the observance of it. So exact that the sharp eye of divine justice cannot espy the least flaw in it, but acknowledges full payment and stands ready to give the believer a full acquittance. That God may be just, and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus. Romans 3.26 Had not Christ been under this obligation, we had never been discharged. Had not his obedience been entire, complete, and perfect, our justification could not have been so. He that has a precious treasure will be loath to adventure it in a leaky vessel. Woe to the holiest man on earth, if the safety of his precious soul were to be adventured on the ground of the best duty that ever he performed. But Christ's obedience and righteousness is firm and sound, a foundation on which we may safely adventure all. Number 2 From the early flight of Christ into Egypt we infer that the greatest innocency and piety cannot exempt from persecution and injury. Whom are innocent than Christ, and whom are persecuted? The world is the world still. I have given them thy word, and the world hath hated them. John 17.14 The adversary lies in wait as a thief for them that carry this treasure. They who are empty of it may sing before him. He never stops them. But persecution follows piety, as the shadow does the body. All that will live godly in Christ Jesus must suffer persecution. 2 Timothy 3.12 Whosoever resolves to live holily must never expect to live quietly. All that will live godly will exhibit holiness in their lives, which convinces and disturbs the consciences of the ungodly. It is this enrages, for there is an enmity and antipathy between them, and this enmity runs in the blood, and it is transmitted with it from generation to generation. As then, he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the spirit, even so it is now. Galatians 4.29 Mark So it was, and so it is still. Cain's club is still carried up and down, crimsoned with the blood of Abel, said Balthasar. But thus it must be, to conform us unto Christ. And oh, that your spirit, as well as your condition, may better harmonize with Christ. He suffered meekly, quietly, and self-denyingly. Be ye like him. Let it not be said of you, as it is of the hypocrite, whose lusts are only hid, but not mortified by his duties, that he is like a flint, which seems cold, but if you strike him, he is all fiery. To do well, and suffer ill, is Christlike. 3. Such as are full of grace and holiness, may be destitute of earthly comforts. What an overflowing fullness of grace was there in Christ, and yet how low did his outward comfort sometimes fall. And as it fared with him, so did it with many others now in glory, while they were on their way. Even to this present hour we both hunger and thirst, and are naked and buffeted, and have no certain dwelling place. 1 Corinthians 4.11 Their souls were richly clothed with robes of righteousness, their bodies naked and meanly clad. Their souls fed on hidden manna, their bodies were hungry. Let us be content, saith Luther, with our hard fare, for do we not feast with angels upon the bread of life? Remember when once, pinch hard, that these fix no mark of God's hatred upon you. He hath dealt no worse with you, than he did with his own son. Nay, which of you is not better accommodated than Christ was? If you be hungry or thirsty, you have some refreshments, you have beds to lie on. The Son of Man had not where to lay his head. And remember you are going to a plentiful country, where all your wants will be supplied. Poor in the world, rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom, which God hath promised. James 2.5 The meanness of your present will add to the luster of your future condition. Number 4 Those in whom Satan has no interest, may have most trouble from him in this world. The prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me. John 14.30 Where he knows he cannot be a conqueror, he will not seek to be a troubler. This bold and daring spirit ventured to assault Christ himself. For doubtless he was filled with envy at the sight of him, and would do what he could, though to no purpose, to obstruct his blessed design. And it was the wisdom and love of Christ to admit him to come as near him as might be, and pry all his darts upon him, that by this experience he might himself be filled with pity to succor them that are tempted. And as he set on Christ, so much more will he attack us, and but too oft comes off a conqueror. Sometimes he shoots the fiery darts of blasphemous thoughts, and divers rules are prescribed in this case to relieve poor distressed ones. But the best rule, doubtless, is that of the apostle. Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. Ephesians 6.16 Ask your faith, my friends, upon your tempted Saviour, who pass through temptations before you, and particularly exercise faith on three things in Christ's temptations. Believingly consider how great variety of temptations were tried upon Christ, and of what a horrid blasphemous nature that was, fall down and worship me. Also, that Christ came off perfect conqueror in the day of his trial, beat Satan out of the field. And more, believe that the benefits of those his victories and conquests are for you, and that for your sakes he permitted the tempter to come so near him. Hebrews 2.18 If ye say, True, Christ was tempted as well as I, but there is a vast difference between his temptations and mine, where the prince of this world came, and found nothing in him. John 14.30 He was not internally defiled, though externally assaulted, but I am defiled by temptations, as well as troubled. To this I answer, True, it is so, and must be so. For had Christ been internally defiled, he had not been a fit mediator for you, nor could you have had any benefit, either by his temptations or sufferings. But he being tempted, and yet still escaping the defilement of sin, has not only satisfied for the sins you commit when tempted, but also got an experimental sense of the misery of your condition, which is in him, though now in glory, as a spring of pity and tender compassion to you. Remember, poor tempted Christians, the God of peace shall shortly tread Satan under thy feet. Romans 16.20 Thou shalt set thy foot on the neck of that enemy. Meanwhile, till thou be out of his reach, let me advise thee to go to Jesus Christ, and open the matter to him. Tell him how that base spirit falls upon thee, yea, sets upon thee, even in his presence. Intrigue him to rebuke and command him off. Beg him to consider thy case, and say, Lord, dost thou remember how thine own heart was once grieved, though not defiled by his assaults? I have grief and guilt together upon me. O Lord, I expect pity and help from thee. Thou knowest the heart of a stranger, the heart of a poor and tempted one. This will give wonderful release in this case. O try it. Number 5 Was Christ yet more humbled by his own sympathy with others in their distresses? Hence we learn that a compassionate spirit towards such as labor under burdens of sin or affliction is Christlike and truly excellent. This was the spirit of Christ. O be like him. Put on, as the elect of God, vows of mercy. Colossians 3.12 Weep with them that weep, and rejoice with them that rejoice. Romans 12.15 It was Cain that said, Am I my brother's keeper? Blessed Paul was of a contrary temper, who is weak, and I am not weak. Who is offended, and I burn not. 2 Corinthians 11.29 Three things promote sympathy in Christians. One is the Lord's pity for them. He doth, as it were, suffer with them. In all their afflictions he was afflicted. Isaiah 63.9 Another is the relation we sustain to God's afflicted people. They are members with us in one body, and the members should have the same care of one another. 1 Corinthians 12.25 The last is, we know not how soon we ourselves may need from others what others now need from us. Restore him with the spirit of meekness, considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted. Galatians 6.1 6. Did the world add to the humiliation of Christ by their base and vile usage of him? Learn hence, that the judgment which the world gives of persons and their worth is little to be regarded. Surely it dispenses its smiles and honors very preposterously and unduly. The saints are styled persons of whom the world is not worthy. Hebrews 11.38 That is, it does not deserve to have such choice spirits as these are left in it, since it knows not how to use or treat them. It was the complaint of Salvian about eleven hundred years ago. If any of the nobility do but begin to turn to God, presently he loses the honor of nobility. O, and how little honor is Christ among so-called Christian people, when religion shall make a man ignoble! So that many are compelled to be evil, lest they should be esteemed vile. And indeed, if the world gives us any help to discover the true worth and excellency of man, it is for the most part by the rule of contraries. Where it fixes its marks of hatred, we may usually find that which deserves our respect and love. It should therefore trouble us the less to be under the slight and disrespect of a blind world. I could be even proud of it, saith Luther, that I see I have an ill name from the world. And Jerome blessed God that counted him worthy to be hated of the world. Labor to stand right in the judgment of God, and trouble not thyself for the righteous of men. Number seven. From the whole of Christ's humiliation in his life, learn to pass through all the troubles of your life with a contented, composed spirit, as Christ your forerunner did. He was persecuted and bore it meekly, poor and never murmured, tempted and never yielded to the temptation, reviled and never reviled again. When ye therefore pass through any of these trials, look to Jesus and consider him. See how he that passed through these things before you conducted himself in like circumstances. Yea, not only beat the way by his pattern and example for you, but hath in every one of those conditions left a blessing behind him for them that follow his steps. Thanks be to God for Jesus Christ. Chapter 20, page 234 Christ's Humiliation unto Death His First Preparative Act. And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one as we are. John 17, verse 11 We now come to the last and lowest step of Christ's humiliation, his submitting to death, even the death of the cross. Out of this death springs the life of our souls. In the blood of Christ the believer sees multitudes of inestimable blessings. By this crimson fountain I resolve to sit down, and concerning the death of Christ I shall take distinctly into consideration the preparations made for it, the nature and quality of it, the deportment and conduct of Jesus when dying, the funeral solemnities with which he was buried, and lastly the blessed designs and glorious ends of his death. The preparatives for his death were six, three on his own part, and three more by his enemies. The preparations made by himself for it were the solemn recommendation of his friends to his Father, the institution of a commemorative sign to perpetuate and refresh the memory of his death in the hearts of his people till he come again, and his pouring out of his soul to God by prayer in the garden, which was the posture he chose to be found in when they should apprehend him. This scripture contains the first preparative of Christ for death, whereby he sets his house in order, prays for his people, and blesses them before he dies. The love of Christ was ever tender and strong to his people, but the greatest manifestation of it was at parting, especially in the singular supports and grounds of comfort left with them in his last heavenly sermon, chapters 14, 15, and 16, and in pouring out his soul most affectionately to the Father for them in the heavenly prayer, chapter 17. In this prayer he gives them a specimen of his glorious intercession work, which he was then going to perform in heaven for them. Here his heart overflowed, for he was now leaving them and going to the Father. The last words of a dying man are valued. How much more of a dying Savior! I shall not launch out into the ocean of precious matter contained in this chapter, but take immediately into consideration the words of the text, wherein I find a weighty petition strongly followed and set home with many mighty arguments. 1. We have here Christ's petition or request in behalf of his people, not only those who were with him at the time, but all others that then did or afterwards should believe on him. And the sum of what he here requests for them is that his Father would keep them through his name. Keeping implies danger, and there is a double danger contemplated in this request, danger of sin and danger of ruin and destruction. To both these the people of God are liable in this world. The means of their preservation from both is the name, that is, the power of God. This name of the Lord is that strong power to which the righteous run and are safe. Proverbs 18 verse 10 Alas, it is not your own strength or wisdom that keeps you, but ye are kept by the mighty power of God. This protecting power of God does not, however, exclude our care and diligence, but implies it. Therefore it is added, ye are kept by the mighty power of God through faith unto salvation. 1 Peter 1 verse 5 God keeps his people, and yet they are to keep themselves in the love of God. Jude 21 To keep their hearts with all diligence. Proverbs 4 verse 23 This is the sum of the petition. 2 The arguments with which he urges and presses this request are drawn partly from his own condition. I am no more in the world. I am going to die. Within a very few hours I shall be separated from them. Partly from their condition. But these are in the world. I must leave them in the midst of danger. And partly from the joint interest his father and himself had in them. Keep those that thou hast given me with several other most prevalent pleas, which in their proper places shall be produced and displayed to illustrate and confirm this precious truth. The fatherly care and tender love of our Lord Jesus Christ was eminently displayed in the prayer he poured out for his people at his parting with them. It pertained to the priest and father of the family to bless the rest, especially when he was to be separated from them by death. This was a right in Israel. When good Jacob was grown old, and the time had come that he should be gathered to his fathers, he blessed Joseph, Ephraim, and Vanessa, saying, God, before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac did walk, the God which fed me all my life long unto this day, the angel which redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads. Genesis 48, verses 15 and 16. This was a prophetical and patriarchal blessing, not that Jacob could bless as God blesses. He could speak the words of blessing, but he knew the effect. The real blessing itself depended upon God. He could, as the mouth of God pronounced blessings, but could not confer them. Thus he blessed his children, as his father Isaac had also blessed him before he died. Genesis 28, verse 3. And all these blessings were delivered in the form of a prayer. Now when Jesus Christ comes to die, he also blesses his children, and therein shows how dear and tender love he has for them. Having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them to the end. John 13, verse 1. The last act of Christ in this world was an act of blessing. Luke 24, verses 50 and 51. We will consider the mercies Christ requested of the Father for them, the arguments he used, why he thus pleaded for them when he was to die, and how all this gives full evidence of Christ's tender care and love to his people. Roman numeral 1. What were those mercies and special favors which Christ begged for his people when he was to die? Number 1. The mercy of preservation both from sin and danger. Keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me. Which is explained, I pray not that thou shouldst take them out of the world, but that thou shouldst keep them from the evil. John 17, verse 15. We and ours, and the saints that are gone, in their respective generations, have reaped the fruit of this prayer. How else comes it to pass that our souls are preserved amidst such a world of temptations, and these assisted by our own corruptions? How else is it that our persons are not ruined and destroyed amidst such multitudes of potent and malicious enemies that are set on fire of hell? This Reformation audio track is a production of Stillwater's Revival Books. SWRB makes thousands of classic Reformation resources available free and for sale in audio, video, and printed formats. Our many free resources, as well as our complete mail-order catalog containing thousands of classic and contemporary Puritan and Reformed books, tapes, and videos at great discounts, is on the web at www.swrb.com.