SERMON XXIX.

CHRIST THE SAVIOUR OF ALL THAT COME TO HIM.

JOHN vi. 37.

All that the Father giveth Me shall come to Me; and him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out.

THESE are the words of Jesus Christ our Saviour, the only Saviour we have in all the world: without whom it is impossible for any mortal man to be ever saved; but by whom any man upon earth, and we as well as others, may all be saved: saved from our sins, saved from our ghostly enemies, saved from the wrath of God, and received into His love and favour. He is both able and willing to do it for us all. That He is able, we cannot doubt, seeing He is Almighty, He can do what He will, and therefore can as easily save us, as He can destroy us. And that He is willing, we may be confident, seeing He came into the world on purpose to save sinners, such as we are: for this purpose He was born; for this purpose He lived so long upon earth; for this purpose He died, and rose again, and went up to Heaven, that He might be able to save, to the uttermost, all that come unto God by Him; and therefore nothing, be sure, shall be wanting on His part, in order to His saving any of us; and all that He requires on our part too, is only to apply ourselves unto Him for it, which is the least that could possibly be required of us; and yet He Himself hath been graciously pleased, in effect, to tell us, that if we do but that, He will certainly save us; as appears from many places in His Holy Gospel, particularly from the words which I have now read; wherein having first acquainted us

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SERM. with the way by which we may go unto Him for Salvation, He assures us withal, that He will reject none that do so, saying, "All that the Father giveth Me shall come to Me; and him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out."

In which few words is contained the whole mystery and method of our Salvation, unfolded and laid open before us; what is done on God's part, what must be done on ours, and what Christ then doth in order to it. God the Father first gives us to His Son: we being so given, must accordingly go to Him; and when we do that, He is pleased to receive and save us all which is expressed in such terms, that we may read the Divinity of our Saviour in every part of it. For to whom would the Father give us, but to one of the same Divine nature with Himself? Would He give us to a creature? No, surely; for then He would give us away from Himself, and we should be no longer His. Who but God could say, "All that the Father giveth Me shall come to Me?" Hath any creature the hearts of all men in his hand? No, surely; none but God could be certain that any, much less that all would come unto Him. And who also, but God, could say, " Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out, but will give him eternal life," as He Himself explains it afterwards? Can a creature give eternal life, consisting in the enjoyment of the Creator Himself? Can he dispose of that to whom he pleaseth? No, surely; none but God can do that, and therefore none but God could truly say He would; and yet we see our Saviour said it, and thereby shewed forth His eternal power and Godhead, to our unspeakable comfort. Unspeakable comfort indeed! that we have such an Almighty Saviour; and that He Himself hath told us with His own mouth, that He will cast out none that come unto Him.

But these being the words of our only Saviour, concerning the only way of our obtaining Salvation by Him, they deserve to be more particularly considered by all that hope to be saved, as we, I suppose, do. For which purpose we may observe, that here is something asserted, and something promised by Him: that which He asserts is, that "All that the Father giveth Him shall come to Him;" that which He promiseth, is, that "such as come to Him,

He will in no wise cast out." In speaking to which, I shall not presume to alter the method which our Lord was pleased to use in speaking them; but taking the words in the same order wherein they lie, shall endeavour, by His assistance who spake them, to give you the true sense and meaning of all and every one of them; there being never a one but what hath its weight, and ought to be considered by us. The first word, "all," in the original is of the neuter gender, as it is also in the parallel place, John xvii. 2, the better to express the universality of the proposition; as if He had said, all and every thing that the Father giveth Me, whatsoever kind of people they are, Jews or Gentiles, bond or free, all shall come to Me; and not only all of them, but all that is in every one, the whole man, soul and body, as He intimates also in saying, "That He will raise [John 6. 39.] them up at the Last Day;" which must be understood of the body and so all that the Father giveth Him, shall come to Him wholly, entirely, without any exception or

reserve.

"All that the Father;" that is, God the Father, whom Christ usually called the Father, and His Father, as well He might upon many accounts, especially these two: first, because He is the Eternal Son of God, begotten of Him so,

as none but He ever was, who is therefore called, "The ch. 3. 16, 18. Only-begotten Son of God," "The Only-begotten of the ch. 1. 14. Father," and absolutely, "The Only-begotten Son," and, ver. 18. "The First-begotten." The Father having from all eternity Heb. 1. 6. begotten Him, by communicating His own unbegotten essence to Him; as the Son Himself, who best knew how He was begotten, acquaints us, saying, "As the Father John 5. 26. hath life in Himself, so hath He given to the Son to have life in Himself." For, to have life in Himself, being an essential property, and so the very essence of God Himself, the Father, by giving that to Him, gave Him His own essence, and so begot Him of the same essence or nature with Himself; insomuch that the Son could truly say, "I and the Father are One," "vouev, we are unum, 'one Thing,' ch. 10. 30. one Being, one Essence, one Jehovah. But yet He speaks Deut. 6. 4. of Himself and the Father, as two distinct persons, "I and the Father are;" and He names Himself first, because,

XXIX.

SERM. speaking here of His Divine essence, which is the same in both, it is no matter which is named first: there being no such thing in that respect, as first and last between Them; for They are both one and the same Eternal God; and therefore when He saith in my text, "All that the Father giveth Me," He doth not speak of the Father under this notion, as He was begotten of Him, so as to be the same God with Him; for as such, nothing could be given to Him, all things being originally His.

But Christ might truly call God His Father, not only as He Himself is God also, begotten of Him, but likewise as He is God and man in one person: for that personal union being effected by the power of the Highest coming upon the Blessed Virgin, and by the Holy Ghost overshadowing her; Luke 1. 35. "therefore," said the Angel to her, " that Holy Thing which shall be born of thee, shall be called the Son of God." He doth not say, that Holy God, or that holy man, but rò äyıov, 'that holy thing,' consisting both of the Divine and human nature, united together in one person, shall be called, or shall be the Son of God; and therefore shall be so, because it shall be conceived in her, and made such an holy thing by the immediate power of God, and so by God Himself, who therefore is truly His Father in this respect also, even as He is Emanuel, sάvegwmos, God and man in one person, and as such the Mediator between God and men: in which respect, He is capable of receiving whatsoever is given Him of the Father, and therefore saith, "All that the Father giveth Me."

All that the Father giveth, that He giveth; He acknowledgeth all that He hath as Mediator also, to be of the James 1.17. Father's gift: as His Apostle likewise saith, "Every good

gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of Lights." Much more this, the greatest gift that ever was, or can be given to the sons of men; whereby God first gave His Son to be their Saviour, and then gives them to Him, to be saved by Him: for, as the John 3. 16. Son Himself saith, “God so loved the world, that He gave His Only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." Here is the fountain from whence all the gifts of God to mankind come;

they all come originally from His love to them, as made in His own image. It was from this that God gave His Son, His Only-begotten Son; He gave Him to be made flesh, to take upon Him the form of a servant, to be made in the likeness of men, and so to become their Saviour. And as He thus gave His Son to us, so He gives us unto His Son, to His Eternal, His Only-begotten Son, of the same nature with Himself; He gives us to Him, as He is now become the Son of Man too, of the same nature with us; who therefore as such, saith, "All that the Father giveth Me."

But how doth the Father give them? This our blessed Saviour foresaw would be mistaken by men of corrupt minds; and therefore to prevent that, He was graciously pleased to explain it Himself, at the same time, saying, "No man can come to Me, except the Father which hath ver. 44. sent Me, draw him." He gives them therefore by drawing them to His Son: He draws them not with force and violence, not haling them along like stocks, or stones, or beasts that have no understanding; but He draws them as men, as they are reasonable and free agents, and therefore not against their wills, but with them, according to the promise He made to His Son, "Thy people shall be willing in the Ps. 110. 3. day of Thy power." He orders it so in His providence, and by the influences of His grace and Holy Spirit concurring with it, that they are as willing to go to Christ as He would have them; and He gives them to Him so, as that they give themselves too, with the whole bent and inclination of their wills.

That this is the way of God's drawing men, is plain from His own words, as plain as words can make it: Let us hear

them, that we may doubt no longer of it; "I drew them," Hos. 11. 4. saith he, "with cords of a man, with bands of love; and I was to them as they that take off the yoke on their jaws, and I laid meat unto them." What care doth Almighty God here take, that we may rightly understand how He, by His grace, inclines and determines our will, so, as that we also will what He would have us! Every expression hath its weight, and therefore ought to be duly weighed by us. First, saith He, "I drew them with the cords of a man;" of Adam, man in general, such cords are as fit and proper to