Exposition of John 17, Title page – Dedication
AN EXPOSITION WITH NOTES, Unfolded and Applyed On JOHN 17th.
Delivered in Sermons Preached Weekly on the LORDS-DAY, to the Congregation in TAVNTON MAGDALENE.
By GEORGE NEWTON Miniſter of the Goſpel there.
LONDON, Printed by R. W. for Edward Brewster, and are to be ſold at the Crane in Pauls-Church-yard, 1660.
To the Honorable Colonel JOHN GORGES, Governour of the City of London-Derry, and the Caſtle of Cullmore in IRELAND, My duly honoured and dearly beloved Brother.
SIR,
NOW you have wreſted the following Lectures out of my hands, I do but fairly leave them there, whence I cannot recover them. So that this which I prefix, is not ſo properly a Dedication as an Abdication. I muſt confeſs I never knew you guilty of Extortion but in this Act.
I loath their Cunning, who by debaſing and diſabling, ſecretly deſign to raiſe the price of their own labours: And do it this way,foreign; foreign (as the Oratour ſpeaks, though ſomewhat in another caſe) with much more Artifice, then profeſſed Huckſters do. But verily theſe Sermons (being preached, by ſuch an one as I do really account and know my ſelf to be, in my conſtant weekly courſe upon the Lords Day, and indeed a great part of them twice a day, when I had no Aſſiſtant with me, having beſides the Wedneſdays Lecture on my weak ſhoulders, and many other Miniſterial Employments, not without frequent Avocations and diverſions, which in ſo great a place are unavoidable) will be adjudged by diſcerning men unfit to have appeared to the world, in ſuch a way as this is. And herein I ſhall heartily agree with them.
Now ſeeing you alone are faulty here, I Dedicate the Book and Blame to you: And, if the Sword of wounding tongues be bent at me, as being troubled with the Epidemical diſtemper of the Times, an itch of being ſeen in publick; you ought in juſtice to ſtep in between, and ſay as Niſus in the Poet, Virg. lib. 9. Aeneid…s.Me, me, adſum qui feci: in me convertite ferrum. And, I am confident you will be my Compurgatour in this, that no Opinion of any thing in theſe poor labours worthy of the Preſs hath had any Influence on this Publication.
There is beſides an apparent diſadvantage, which I am very ſenſible of,Mr. A…th. B…rges. viz. That in this Tract I follow One of ſo great Accompliſhments: who being next the Light, and of a far more perfect Stature then my ſelf, muſt needs caſt back a ſhadow on me: Unleſs I be ſo far behind him, that his ſhadow will not reach me. But if it do, I ſhall (as Ionah in another caſe) reſt very quietly in that ſhadow.
The Subject handled is a choice and precious One, as any in the Book of God without Exception. This Prayer being as it were a little piece, that dropt off from the heart of Jeſus Chriſt (as once Eliahs Mantle from his body) as he was taking leave of his Apoſtles and the World together. When He was even going forth to ſuffer, He (Swan-like) ſung this dying Song, and poured out this precious Prayer, being about to pour forth his very blood and life with it. And this he did not for his Apoſtles only then about him, but for us alſo: even for us, who ſhould in after-times believe through their words. A man would think our bleſſed Saviour, when He had ſuch a Task to undergo, and ſuch a buſineſs to diſpatch, ſhould have been wholly taken up with the preapprehenſion of his inſtant Death and Paſsion: That this ſhould have detained or diverted Him from other thoughts; eſpecially from taking care of ſuch poor Worms as we are. But that when he was drawing neer to ſuch a Conflict with the Wrath of God, and the Indignities and Wrongs of men, He ſhould have us in his heart: That our dear Friend, who loved us and gave Himſelf for us, ſhould think of us, and pray for us, and ſpeak of us to God the Father with ſo high affection when his own Soul was heavy to the very Death: Such a Prayer made by ſuch a Mediatour, at ſuch a time as that was, muſt needs be worthy of the choiceſt and exacteſt Obſervation of the Church in every Age to the end of the world.
Some Antiquaries tell us of the Diptyches, Lindan. Annot. in Liturg. S. Petri. pag. 39.much in uſe in the Primitive Church: Which were two leaves or tables bound together, on the one of which was a Commemoration of divers famous and renowned Worthies departed in the Faith of Chriſt; and on the other a Commemoration of the like Perſonages yet alive. Much Honoured Sir,Joſeph. Vicecom. Obfervat. Eccleſiae. Dae Miſſae Apparatu. Tom. 4. lib. 7. cap. 17. I ſhall preſent you here with a new ſort of Diptyches, the Tables more exactly anſwering one another. The one containing a Commemoration of a dying Chriſt, and ſhewing how He pray'd on Earth: In which you may alſo ſee what is contained in the other Table; and how he prays for us in Heaven, who ever liveth to make Interceſſion for us. So that if you deſire at any time to know, how Chriſt perſues the buſineſs, and pleads the cauſes of his poor Church at the right hand of his Father, you ſhall do well to have recourſe to this Chapter, which may be very fitly called a Counterpart of our Saviours Interceſsion.
And truly, for my own part, I muſt freely and ingenuouſly profeſs, that I had never known ſo much of Chriſt and of his tender Care and Love of poor ſinners, had I not ſtudyed theſe Emanations and Effluxes of his precious Soul, had I not ſeen his Breaſt open in this Chapter, and the Names of the twelve Tribes tranſcribed out of the Breaſt-plate of the Typical into the heart of the Typified High Prieſt.Fox Act. & Mon. ad Annum 1558. And as the Queen of England ſometimes ſaid, That if they opened her when ſhe was dead, they ſhould find Calais written on her heart: So when I had the happineſs to open Chriſt in this Prayer, (though with a moſt unskilful hand) I found the Church engraven deeply on his Heart, and ſaw ſuch things as cannot be uttered. The Lord give you and me to know more of that Love which paſſeth knowledge, and to return more Love to Him, who pray'd for us, and dyed for us. We may eaſily exceed in loving other things and perſons. We may love more then we are loved, we may love more then we ſhould love. But here our hearts may take their full ſwing, there is no fear of over-loving Jeſus Chriſt. For as Bernard ſweetly ſpeaks of our Love to God,Bern. De diligendo Deo. Modus Deum diligendi eſt ſine modo diligere: The ſame may I as truly ſay of our Love to Chriſt; The meaſure of loving Chriſt, is to love him out of meaſure: So hath he loved us,☞. and ſo ſhould we love him.
There are eſpecially two great Boons which Jeſus Chriſt begs of his Father for Believers in this Prayer: That they may be one here, and that they may be in one place hereafter. This Nation ſeems not to be under the dint of the Influence of this Prayer at this time, in which the Lord hath ſuffered ſuch a ſpirit of Diviſion (a ſpirit that our Saviour never prayed for) to poſſeſs his own people: So that his Body lies a bleeding, the members being miſerably rent into pieces. He bled indeed ſufficiently upon the Croſs in his Natural Body, but there was ſuddenly a Conſummatum eſt to that. When will there be a Conſummatum eſt to this, in his Myſtical Body? When will Chriſt ſay, It is enough? When will the ſtream of blood that ran there, ſtop this which runs here? When will there be an end of theſe foreign, theſe after-afflictions of Chriſt, which now he is ſat down at reſt on the right hand of the Father, perſue him thither, and will not ſuffer him to be quiet in his glory?
It's true, the Body of our Saviour in theſe Nations, bleeds not now by cruel Perſecutors hands, as it hath done in former Ages, bleſſed be the Lord for ever. But, which is more unnatural and doleful,Bella per Aemathios pluſquam Civilia campos. Luca…. lib. 1. it bleedeth by it ſelf: one Member bleedeth by another; one member bites and devours another, and it ſeems they will do ſo, until they be devoured together. Though Jeſus Chriſt hath made them nigh to God, and nigh to one another, by his blood, as the Apoſtle ſhews at large, Epheſ. 2 12, 13, 14. This Cement (woe alas!) this rich and coſtly Cement will not hold. A trifle, a Conjecture, a ſuſpicion, an opinion, a notion raiſed by Art and phanſie will do more to ſever, then the blood of Chriſt to ſoder. All the wit, and art, and skill, that God hath given men for better purpoſes and higher ends, is now laid out by ſome to make or to maintain parties.Bern. in Ca…. Serm. 33. I will not ſay as Bernard doth, Omnes amici, & omnes inimici; omnes neceſsarii, & omnes adverſarii; omnes domeſtici, & nulli pacifici. But ſurely it is much at this rate.
Now the God of Peace himſelf give us Peace alwayes, and by all means. And Jeſus Chriſt the Prince of Peace, who doth ſo often and ſo importunately beg it of his Father for his people, as you may ſee in this Chapter, give us to reap, in our dayes, the bleſſed fruits of this Prayer: That they that are but one Body (according to the firſt branch of our Saviours Prayer) may have but one Heart and one Soul in that Body, that there may be no Schiſm in the Body. And they that are to be in one place (according to the ſecond Branch) may keep in one way to that place, that they may not fall out by the way, ſo far at leaſt as to divide, to part Companies, and part ways; that they may neither fail of coming in the end to one place; nor loſe the benefit and comfort of one anothers Company and ſweet Communion in the way thither.
And in that bleſſed place I hope ere it be long to meet you. And though the Sea divide us each from other for a little time on earth, foreign for an hours ſpace, and that in face or ſight, and not in heart, as the Apoſtle ſpeaks:foreign. 1 Theſſ. 2.17. Facie non Corde. Ambroſian. yet through the red Sea of the blood of Chriſt, leaving all our ſins behind us (as Iſrael the Egyptians) drowned there, and dead upon the ſhore of this world, we ſhall paſs on to the Heavenly Canaan, where Jeſus Chriſt our Head is, and where he prayes ſo earneſtly that we may be. Amen, Amen.
Now in the mean time till we get thither, becauſe I find by many warnings, that I am like to go before you and prevent you, as the Apoſtles phraſe is, I put this Book, ſuch as it is, into your hands. And as our Saviour, when He was no more in this world, as his own expreſsion is, being as good as gone already, did leave behind him this Divine Prayer, as a Memorial of his tender Love to all his people:Sic parvis componere magna ſolemus. Virg. Eclog. 1. So (if it be not odious to compare things of ſo vaſt a diſproportion) I ſhall deſire to leave behind me (who am even going too) this my unworthy Expoſition of the ſame Prayer, as a Memorial of his dear reſpects to you, who is reſolved to live and dye
Your moſt affectionate Brother And humble Servant, in, and through, and for Chriſt, George Newton.