CXLV expository sermons upon the whole 17th chapter of the Gospel according to St.…

5. Christs departure from the Father is not an eternal departure; He is not so gone as to leave us for ever, but he will come again and take us to the Father also, Joh. 14.3. I will come again and receive you to my self, that you may be where I am: This is the utmost happiness that a believer can desire, If it be such joy for the child to be with his Father, a wife with her Husband, how transcendent is this mercy to be with Christ; Therefore in this Chapter our Saviour prayeth for it, that his Disciples be where he is; Now this being where Christ is, doth comprehend the communication of all glory and blessedness, which Christ bestoweth on his people, and that without any intermission; Here in this life we have many clouds to intercept the Sun-beams with the Church through our unbelief and slothfulness, we have lost our beloved, so that many times the soul is straitened and crieth out, where is he whom my Soul loveth; But then and there we have a perpetual communion with him, and if so be the enjoying of him by faith fill the soul with so much joy, what will the immediate fruition of him do? Thus you see that we are in a jejune speculative manner, to say Christ by his death went to the Father, but to be affectionately possessed with it, as being the treasury of all consolation.

5. Christs departure from the Father is not an eternal departure; He is not so gone as to leave us for ever, but he will come again and take us to the Father also, Ioh. 14.3. I will come again and receive you to my self, that you may be where I am: This is the utmost happinesse that a beleever can desire, If it be such joy for the childe to be with his Father, a wife with her Husband, how transcendent is this mercy to be with Christ; Therefore in this Chapter our Saviour praieth for it, that his Disciples be where he is; Now this being where Christ is, doth comprehend the communication of all glory and blessednesse, which Christ bestoweth on his people, and that without any intermission; Here in this life we have many clouds to intercept the Sun-beams with the Church through our unbelief and slothfulnesse, we have lost our beloved, so that many times the soul is straitned and crieth out, where is he whom my Soul loveth; But then and there we have a perpetual communion with him, and if so be the enjoying of him by faith fill the soul with so much joy, what will the immediate fruition of him do? Thus you see that we are in a jejune speculative manner, to say Christ by his death went to the Father, but to be affectionately possessed with it, as being the treasury of all consolation.