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

In the next place we come to the manner how he kept them, In thy Name; And here name may be taken in all the significations mentioned in the former Verse, But I will not trouble you with that; This may be spoken in a two-fold respect; Either to show what kind of preservation it was, viz. not a corporal or carnal one, (though he was bodily present among them,) but a spiritual one in the name of God; He did not keep them, as the powers of the world keep their Subjects by the outward force of the Sword, but as Paul said of the Ministry, Our weapons are not carnal but spiritual, So was Christs defence, or else it might be spoken by way of humility, for Christ in respect of his office was inferior to the Father; And therefore he speaks of himself in this Chapter as one sent, or an Ambassador from the Father, who is to do all things in his Name, and to follow his will only, in this latter sense we take it principally,

In the next place we come to the manner how he kept them, In thy Name; And here name may be taken in all the significations mentioned in the former Verse, But I will not trouble you with that; This may be spoken in a two-fold respect; Either to shew what kinde of preservation it was, viz. not a corporal or carnal one, (though he was bodily present among them,) but a spirituall one in the name of God; He did not keep them, as the powers of the world keep their Subjects by the outward force of the Sword, but as Paul said of the Ministry, Our weapons are not carnall but spirituall, So was Christs defence, or else it might be spoken by way of humility, for Christ in respect of his office was inferiour to the Father; And therefore he speaks of himself in this Chapter as one sent, or an Embassadour from the Father, who is to doe all things in his Name, and to follow his will only, in this latter sence we take it principally,

Obs. That if the Lord Christ though God, ¹yet in respect of his office and Ministry doth attribute all to God, how much more ought the Ministers of the Gospel who are frail sinful men; Shall Christ say, he kept them by the Fathers power? Shall he say, It's not my Doctrine but the Fathers? Shall he say, I seek not my own glory, but the glory of him that sent me? How much more ought the Officers God hath appointed in the Church take their Auditors off from them, and carry them to God wholly; It is Observable, That Christ did still inform his Disciples and Hearers to look up unto the Father, and the Apostles they laboured to take off believers from applauding of them but to look up to God; Thus Paul