did prosper more, taught than now. swer these

when such doctrine was more commonly Discouraged souls about this doctrine, an

1. Can you hear of this giving of some by the Father to the Son, and bless the giver, the Father; and the receiver, the Son; and count all the given a happy remnant? A heart grumbling and replying against this sovereign grace of God, I dare not say is a sure token of one not given, but it is surely a very bad thing. But, on the contrary, it is a hopeful sign of an interest in this great blessing, when a poor creature, in his deepest distress and fears about his own salvation, hath a high value for electing love, and reckons them blessed indeed that are sharers thereof. He admires and adores this design, even when doubtful of his own interest therein.

2. Can you be sure that you were not given to the Son? No, surely. God hath not, will not reveal it. Thy heart is blind and deceitful; do not trust it. Satan knows it not, and is a lyar, especially he pretends to teach thee God's secret purposes. The devil was never on God's counsel; why should you regard his whispers? He is a reprobate, condemned spirit, raging against God, and strives to infuse his own spirit and temper into sinners. Say then, "If I know not "that I was given to the Son, I cannot know, I should not "conclude, none can prove, that I was not given to him."

3. Is Christ as God's gift precious to you? 1 Pet. ii. 6, 7, 8. Then it is sure you were given to Christ. secret, who are given by the Father to the Son;

It is a deep

but it is an

open plain truth, that the Father hath sent the Son to be the Savi

How do you like him; how Say then, "Although I am

our of the world, 1 John iv. 14. do you esteem and love him? "not sure that I was given to Christ, I am sure that Christ is "come as a Saviour, just such a one as I need."

4. Can you give yourselves to Jesus Christ to be saved by him? Then were you given to him, to be redeemed by him. Your faith on him, speaks your election in him. True faith is the faith of God's elect, Tit. i. 1. Why so called, but because all, and only God's elect, get it, and have it; and because election may be known by it; because faith flows from electing love, and should lead the believer up to this love as its ori

ginal and spring? Answer then, thou that knows not that thou wast given to Christ by the Father, dost thou give thyself to Christ? Seest thou no hand in heaven nor earth, to intrust thy soul in, but Christ's? Hast thou so seen him in his skill and good-will to save lost sinners, that thou hast, daily dost, and resolvest still to bring, and lay, and leave thy perishing soul on Jesus Christ, as on him that speaketh in righteousness, mighty to save? Isa. lxiii. 1. Then thou wast given to Jesus Christ. Go on in trusting him, and in living by faith on him; and he will make you know, that he loved you, and gave himself for you, Gal. ii. 20. And if thou knowest that he gave himself for thee in time, conclude, that thou wast given to him by the Father from eternity, and that thou shalt to eternity be with him where he is.

SERMON III.

JOHN xvii. 24.

Father, I will that they also whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world.

PETER gives a good testimony to Jesus Christ, in John vi.

68. Thou hast the words of eternal life. And here these words are eminently. Christ himself is eternal life, 1 John i. 2. And in this text we have him that was and is essential, eternai life, praying for and willing of communicated eternal life to all his people.

The first thing I took up in the matter of Christ's prayer in this verse, was the name and description of them he prays for; they whom thou hast given me. From this part of the verse I named three doctrines.

1. That there was a select company of mankind given by the Fa ther to the Son, to be redeemed and saved. On this I spoke last day.

OBSERV. 2. This company given to Christ, are best known to him. Christ knows them all, particularly, fully, exactly. Christ doth not here pray, as we ought, for the elect, on the general truth revealed in the word, that there is a body of the elect, though we know not who they be; but Christ hath them all now as in his eye and heart particularly. Paul was in his eye, and all that were to believe on him through grace. Why are we commanded to pray for all men, though Christ did not, John xvii. 9, 10.? Because we know not particularly who are the elect, but Christ did.

On this truth I would offer a few things in proof of it, and then apply it. For this doctrine looks like a deep and barren point; yet it is profitable.

1. For proof of this, that the elect are known to Jesus Christ. Let us see what he himself speaks of it, John x. Once in that parable, ver. 3. He calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth them out. You will never believe, till Christ call you by name. Again, in the doctrine taught by him on the parable, ver. 14. I am the good Shepherd, (O how well doth it become Christ to commend himself! You will never love him, till Christ himself commend himself to you), and know my sheep. And ver. 27. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. Ver. 28. And I give unto them eternal life. Well doth Christ know to whom he gives eternal life. Woe to them to whom he will say, I never knew you, Matt. vii. 23. Little better is that word in John x. 26. But ye believe not; because ye are not of my sheep, as 1 said unto you. Christ knew who were his sheep, and who not; who were gathered into his fold, and who were yet straying as lost sheep on the mountains: verse 16. And other sheep I have, whick are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice. The grounds of this truth are,

1st, Christ, as God, knoweth all things, and therefore knows who are given to him. It is a pity, that when the Godhead of the Son shines so very brightly in the New Testament, any should doubt and deny it. And it is pity also, that the deniers of this rock of the church of Christ should not renounce the name of Christians; or that any true Christian should af

ford this honourable name to such apostates. Peter, when asked by his Master about his love to him, John xxi. 17. answers by a humble appeal to his all-knowing. He that knows all things, must know who were given him by the Father.

2dly, The Son of God was a party concerned in this transaction. As the Father was the giver of the elect, the Son was the receiver of them. Will any say, that the Father knew not whom he gave, when his foreknowledge is so expressly told in Rom. viii. 29.? It is equally absurd to say, that the Son knew not whom he received. And as the Father's giving was of particular, distinct, and distinguished persons; so was the Son's receiving of such persons. Hence our Lord says of them in his prayer, ver. 9, 10. I pray for them; I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me, for they are thine. And all mine are thine, and thine are mine, and I am glorified in them. This transaction betwixt the Father and Son, was a business, as of high sovereignty about mankind, and of infinite love to the given, so was it passed in infinite wisdom. The manifold wisdom of God is in this eternal purpose which he purchased in Christ Jesus our Lord, Eph. iii. 9, 10, 11. It is a high reflection on all the glory of God in this transaction, to say, that the Father knew not particularly whom he gave to the Son, or that the Son knew not who were given to him.

3dly, Christ's knowing who were given to him, is the ground of his undertaking and dispatching the work of redemption, This work he undertook in love; this love is still acted on persons, Gal. ii. 20. Rev. i. 5. These persons must be known to Christ, if so beloved by him.

4thly, It is this knowledge in Christ that is the ground of Christ's patience and pains on the elect. If any will say, that Christ, in dying, designed no more for Peter than for Judas, (God forgive them, and open their eyes); I hope they will not say, but Christ did more for Peter than for Judas, The visible difference that is betwixt Christ's way of dealing with men, flows from his knowing of them that are given to him. There are some that Christ deals with in and by the gospel; and, upon their first refusal, he leaves them, and

Christ and they never meet till the last day: others, he waits long upon, and yet he leaves them at last. But there are some that Christ deals with; and though they refuse him again and again, yet he will never leave them, till he hath gained their hearts, and saved them. Paul thought that he was the rafest instance of this, 1 Tim. i. 16. Howbeit, for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first (in me the chief sinner) Jesus Christ might shew forth all long-suffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting. Yet we may say, that there are some in heaven, and some on earth, that have been as great patterns as Paul; though they were not so filled with the Holy Ghost as he; nor Christ's grace in calling them set so on a candlestick for all ages, as it was in his case. It may be Paul never heard Christ preach, nor saw his face, though he was brought up at Jerusalem in Christ's time, Acts xxii. 3. and xxvi. 4. It is like he heard no more of him, but by the common report, and by the slanders of the Pharisees, Christ's constant enemies. It was but blind zeal of the law that locked him up in unbelief, and made him hate Christ's name and people. But how many have been since Paul, that have lived long under the light of the gospel, whom the Lord hath striven long with, and they have as long striven against him, whom yet he hath subdued at last? Blessed be his name; and may such instances be multiplied to his praise. This way is taken by Christ with some, according to his charge from his Father, John vi. 39. And this is the Father's will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me, I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day.

5thly, This knowing of them who are given to him, is the ground of the confidence of Christ as Mediator, as to the suc cess of his work ;. both of his work of redemption of them by his blood, and of the work of his Spirit, in applying it to the souls and consciences of the redeemed. So he proclaims it, John vi. 37. All that the Father giveth me, shall come to me. "I am sure, would he say, of every one of them, sooner or "later." As long as there is one given, not yet come to Christ, there is one yet to believe on him. Christ might