A Comment Upon Christs Last Prayer, Title page – To the reader
A COMMENT UPON Chriſt's laſt Prayer In the Seventeenth of JOHN.
Wherein is opened, The Ʋnion Beleevers have with God and Chriſt, and the glorious Priviledges thereof.
Beſides many other Goſpel Truths, there is alſo ſhewed,
1 That the end why the Saints receive all glorious Grace, is, That they may be one, as the Father and Chriſt are one.
2 That God the Father loveth the Faithful, as he loveth Jeſus Chriſt.
3 That our Savior deſireth to have the Faithful in Heaven with himſelf.
4 That the happineſs of our being in Heaven, is to ſee Chriſts Glory.
5 That there is much wanting in the knowledg of Gods Love, in the moſt able Saints.
6 That the Lord Chriſt lends dayly direction, according to the dayly need of his Servants.
7 That it is the deſire, and endeavor of our Savior, that the deareſt of Gods Love, which was beſtowed on himſelf, ſhould be given to his faithful Servants.
8 That our Ʋnion, and Communion with God in Chriſt, is the top of our happineſs in Heaven.
By that Faithful, and known Servant of Chriſt, Mr. THOMAS HOOKER, late Paſtor of the Church at Hartford in New-England; ſomtimes Preacher of the Word at Chelmsford in Eſſex, and Fellow of Emmanuel Colledg in Cambridg.
Printed from the Authors own Papers, written with his own Hand. And atteſted to be ſuch, in an Epiſtle, By Thomas Goodwin, And Philip Nye.
London: Printed by Peter Cole at the ſign of the Printing-Preſs in Cornhil, neer the Royal Exchange. 1656.
MR Hooker On the Seventeenth of John Being his Seventeenth Book, made in New-England.
THE EPISTLE TO THE READER.
THE more eminent Matter of theſe Sermons, is our myſtical Union with God and Chriſt; a Subject but rarely handled by Divines, and then but overly in compariſon to what thoſe other Benefits by Chriſt have been, that yet but flow from this, or do accompany it: So as any ſmal advance of Light into this Myſtery, is highly to be valued, ſpecially from ſo good a Hand, or Heart rather, ſo deeply experienced, and acutely inſighted, as was our Author.
This Head, though it lay in the Road of another Courſe of Miniſtry the Author held, namely, the opening the whol Work of the Application of our Redemption, in all the parts thereof (ſhortly to follow this into publick view, ſo far as he had proceeded in it) whereof this of Ʋnion, was deſigned one (as by his Draught, or Scheme of that Work to be Prefaced to the whol, appears) and accordingly ſhould have been largely treated on, Subject wiſe, apart by it ſelf in its due place and order. Yet whether it was that himſelf, fore-apprehending he might not live ſo long (as he did not) to arrive thereat in that Method (and yet withall conſidering the more ſpecial neceſſity of this Subject to this Age) he therefore did anticipate this miſcellaneous Treatment of it, is not for us to ſay▪ only we may ſurely affirm, that our all-wiſe God (who diſpoſeth of the Gifts, Miniſtrations, and Operations of, and by his faithful Servants) he foreſeeing all, ſecretly guided him to this Precurſory handling of it in this way of Comment upon the ſeven laſt Verſes of Chriſts laſt Prayer; which we may well ſuppoſe to have been intended by himſelf, but as a preliminary Eſſay of that more ample, and ſet Tractate on this Argument, he afterwards intended; becauſe he intermingleth therewith, Obſervations about other high, and glorious Goſpel Truths (whereof this Soyl, of al other Scriptures, muſt be ſuppoſed moſt fertile) as the Text did give occaſion.
And ſurely he was by the ſame Divine hand as ſpecially directed, both, in his Choyce of this Scripture, for his Ground unto this Subject; which being the Concluſion of Chriſts moſt ſolemn laſt Prayer, muſt be ſuppoſed to expreſs the very bottom of his heart, and what lay deepeſt therein, and therfore came forth laſt: As alſo in the Occaſion on which he choſe to preach theſe Sermons which was then, when this Union is deſigned to be ſealed up to Beleevers more conſpicuouſly than in other Ordinances, namely, at the Adminiſtration of the Lords Supper and towards his latter end: conjunct with the Solemnization whereof, even among his Apoſtles, it was that Chriſt did pour forth this Prayer unto his Father before his Death. And indeed he that is spiritual, and reads theſe Explanations, will readily find, and muſt acknowledg, that he was proportionably raiſed and aſſiſted by a Goſpel Spirit, as the Dignity of the Matter, and Solemnity of the Dignity of the Matter, and Solemnity of the Occaſion, meeting in ſuch a Conjunction, did require; it being found in experience, that according to the elevation of the Occaſion, and Sublimity of the Matter diſcourſed of, the Holy Ghoſt raiſeth, and enlargeth the Spirits of an holy man of God, that is experienced in what he ſpeaks.
The true ſtating the Bounds, for kind, or degree of that Union with God, which the Saints are admitted to by God, is of great uſe and neceſſity to this Age; the Fate whereof, is erring either on the right hand, or the left, in the greateſt Points of Religion, and in this Point, more groſsly and wretchedly than in any other, yea, and in the other (as may eaſily be obſerved) upon occaſion, firſt of a miſunderſtanding of this one, and particularly of ſome paſſages and Clauſes in this Prayer of our Lord, which here have paſſed the ſearch and diſcovery of our Author, as [that they may be one as we are one, &c.] which ſome have dared to interpret to be Unity, that is, Union, to be oneneſs in Nature with God himſelf; others to be at leaſt a ſameneſs of Union for kind, with that which the man Jeſus holds with the Natural Son of God; whereof one is a contradiction to the Nature of Creature, and Creator, as Paul hath ſet it, Rom. 1.25. the other to Chriſts being Mediator and Head between God and us, Of whom we ARE in Chriſt Jeſus, who is that one Lord, and we by him; his Union therefore Primary, and Original; ours Secondary, and Derivative. Set but then, and keep the true diſtance between God and his Elect as Creatures, and between Chriſt and thoſe Elect, as whoſe all they are from God, is in and through Chriſt; ſo as that the Creature can never be one in Nature with God, who alone is bleſſed for ever, and that the Saints ſhal never be one Perſon with the Son of God, who is God bleſſed for ever. And whatever Unions or Communions with God, are, or can be ſuppoſed to be next to theſe two, to be ſure the Saints are, and ſhall be partakers thereof; for next to himſelf, and his Son, they are Gods Beloved, and the only beloved of him.
Beſides, what Glory, & ſpiritual quickening our (Author giving the very Life-meaning of our Lord concerning this Union) an holy heart wil ſecretly, and ſuddenly find breaking in upon it, and it ſelf inſpired withal, in the reading: It wil together therewith confound, without ſpeaking a word of ſet Confutation, all ſuch lewd miſtakes, which it is better to let ſleep, and vaniſh into eternal darkneſs, and ſilence, than to make mention of them.
And upon al theſe accounts, we have great boldneſs to commend theſe Sermons to the VVorld, withal aſſuring the Reader, that they are all as they were penned under his own hand: Praying with all earneſtneſs, that the holy Spirit of Chriſt, who dwelt in the Author ſo richly, and bleſſed his preaching of them with ſo much life and power; yea, that filled our Savior Chriſts heart firſt in his praying, and uttering theſe words; and then his beloved Diſciples ſo many yeers after in the penning of them, would graciouſly accompany this quickning and Heavenly Expoſition of them, to the hearts of al ſpiritual ſouls that read this.
June, 14. 1656. Thomas Goodwyn, Philip Nye.