Sermons on John 17

Sermon XVI

By Thomas Manton

Secondly, I come to the compellation of the party to whom His prayer is made, "Holy Father." This compellation is to be observed. Titles of God in scripture are suited to the requests made to him; as "The God of peace give you peace always by all means," (2 Thess. 3:16), So "The God of patience and consolation grant you to be like-minded one towards another," (Rom. 15:5). He prays for brotherly forbearance and sweetness.

In the several paragraphs of this chapter, Christ speaketh to his Father in a different style, according to the nature of the address. It is "Father" (vv. 1 & 5) only; it is "righteous Father," (v. 28), because of the truth and equity which he observeth in his gracious disjunctions; and here it is "holy Father." When he beggeth things suitable to his commutative justice, then it is "righteous Father;" but when he asketh things suitable to his holiness, it is "holy Father." Certainly it is a great relief to faith in prayer to pitch upon such a name and title in God as suiteth with the nature of the request; it begetteth a confidence that he both can and will do us good. When we call a man by his name, he will look about upon us; and when we ask things according to his nature, he will pity us.

But why doth Christ use this title at this time?

I answer—Some take holiness more largely, for the general goodness and perfection of the divine essence; a branch of which is his veracity or truth in keeping promises; and conceive the argument thus: the holy God cannot break his word, nor be stained with any unfaithfulness; therefore unless God should deny himself, he will "keep them through his own name." But I rather think it is specially put for his purity. Christ goeth to his Father as a pure fountain of grace, for sanctification for his disciples. Holiness, it is the object of God's approbation, the effect of his operation; he worketh holiness, and he delighteth in it "Holy Father," that art holy in thy essence, holy in thy influences, holy in thy dispensations, "sanctify them by the truth;" thou that abhorrest all that is evil, workest all that is good, "keep them from the evil." God hateth sin as much as we do, and infinitely more; and therefore it is some hope that he will help us against it

Doctrine. When we deal with God in prayer, especially for grace and sanctification, we must look upon him as a holy Father.

1. I will open the holiness of God. Holiness implieth a freedom from sin and defilement; agioV, from the privative particle and gh, terra in whom there is no earth, no pollution, but all heavenly purity. When God speaketh to us he crieth out, "O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the Lord," (Jer. 22:29). We are earth in our understandings, in our affections, in our practices. But when the seraphims speak to God, they cry, "Holy, holy, holy;" as if it were said, "Without earth, without earth, without earth." Briefly, God's holiness is an attribute by which we understand his essence to be most perfectly just and pure; at the utmost distance from sin and weakness; loving and liking himself above all, and the creatures, as they do more or less partake of his glory. Now God is called," The holy one;" not an holy one, but the holy one: "There is none holy as the Lord," (1 Sam. 2:2). He doth not say, There is none holy but the Lord, but there is none holy as the Lord. Therefore let us see the difference between the holiness of God and the holiness of the creatures. This is an argument fit for a seraphim; it becometh an angel's mouth rather than man's; the angels, that come nearer to God in essence, can best proclaim his holiness. But our ear hath received a little thereof. "None is holy as the Lord;" because God is essentially holy, infinitely holy, and originally holy.

[1.] He is essentially holy. God is not only holy, but holiness itself, goodness itself; it is his very essence. The creatures, when they are holy, they are holy according to the law; the holiness of angels or men is a conformity to the law of their creation; as we say he is holy whose heart and life doth exactly agree with God's law. But God's will is his rule, his essence is his law, and therefore all his actions are necessarily holy. The divine essence and being, as it is the beginning of all beings, so it is the rule of all moral perfections. All created holiness is but a resemblance of God's, either a conformity to God's nature, or a conformity to God's will. Habitual holiness is a conformity to God's nature, actual holiness is a conformity to God's will; his will is the rule, his nature is the pattern. But now God is a rule to himself; there are no eternal reasons of good and evil beyond God. Things are not first holy, and then God doeth them; but God doeth them, and therefore they are holy; he himself is his own rule. Anyone may err that hath not the rule of righteousness in himself; God's act is his rule, therefore he cannot sin. The hand of the artificer faileth often in cutting, because his hand is not the rule by which he worketh; there is a rule or line without him; sometimes he striketh right, sometimes wrong. If the hand of a man were the rule, it were impossible he should work amiss. There is a rule prescribed to angels and men; their will is one thing, their rule another, for no creature is holy by its own essence. This notion is of practical use; there is holiness in all that cometh from God; when he afflicteth us, and our friends, or suffereth us to be unjustly afflicted by men; when he spareth our enemies, multiplieth our sorrows, his act is his rule; God's will is the supreme reason of all things. Again, holiness in us is an accessary quality, a superadded gift; our essence may remain when holiness is gone. Now holiness in God is not a quality, but his essence. The angelical essence continueth when holiness is lost, as in the devils. So the man remaineth when the saint is fled; but in God, his essence and his holiness are the same. This is of practical use to humble the creature. Sin is contrary to the very nature of God; it is not only contrary to our interests, but to God's nature. A man hateth that exceedingly which is contrary to his nature. Now in our corrupt natures there is a direct contrariety to the nature of God. Actual sins are but a blow and away. Original sin is a standing contrariety; there is a settled enmity between God and us. Similitude is the ground of likeness; the aversation of a man from a trade, and other antipathies are but a faint resemblance of this.

[2.] God is infinitely holy, super-purissimus. The faithful in this life are holy, but imperfectly; but "God is light, and in him is no darkness at all." (1 John 1:5). Of all creatures, light is the most pure and defecate; therefore it is put to resemble God's holiness. Our lift; is a checker-work of light and darkness. Adam, in his innocency, though he had no corruption, yet was mutably holy; he might commit evil; though he were not peccator, a sinner, yet he was peccabilis, one that might sin. But God is at the greatest distance and elongation from sin and weakness: "God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any one," (Jam. 1:13). Once more, the blessed spirits and angels, though they are perfectly holy in their kind, yet finitely and derivatively; they do not love God as much as he might be loved. God loveth himself as much as he can be loved; there is as much purity in his love as there is perfection in his essence. The creatures' holiness is limited; we cannot love God so much as he is to be loved. God loveth the lowest saint with a higher love than the highest angel can love God. The good angels, though they have been God's constant menial servants, without the least spot or taint of sin in nature or life; and though they be confirmed in their happy estate, either by the merit of Christ, or their many years' experience and communion with God, yet there is folly in them in comparison of God, because of that essential mutability that is in any creature: "He chargeth his angels with folly," (Job 4:18). It is spoken of good angels, who are opposed to dwellers in houses of clay. It were too easy a charge for the apostate spirits, to charge them with folly; the angelical nature, though it be pure, yet because it is mutable, hath some kind of folly in it, it was once liable to rash attempts against the dignity and empire of God. Briefly, the holiness of God cannot be lessened nor increased, being always infinitely perfect. The regenerate creature must still be increasing to further degrees, till it come to the measure of the stature in Christ; the blessed spirits, though separated from all defilement, yet infinitely come short of that glorious holiness which agreeth to the nature of God, and God is still raising it higher and higher in the saints on earth. Their holiness riseth and groweth like Ezekiel's waters; but God is always equal in holiness, because in infiniteness there are no degrees.

[3.] God is originally holy. God is the fountain, the overflowing, the overflowing fountain of holiness. Ours is but a stream, a derivation, a ray of the father of lights; as little children, we can defile ourselves; but we should still lie in our filth if God did not cleanse us. The creature can no more make itself holy than it can make itself to be. God is the original both of natural and moral perfection: "I am the Lord which sanctify you," (Lev. 20:8). He is summum bonum, the chiefest good, as well as the first cause. Quod vivamus, deorum munus est; quod bene vivamus, nostrum, [That we live, we owe to the gods; that we live well, we owe it to ourselves]; a wicked speech of Seneca! It is by the influence of God that we are holy. Grace is called "a participation of the divine nature," (2 Pet. 1:4). It is a weak ray of the father of lights, who is in Christ the fountain cause. The saints that have communion with God have some faint lustre, which should make us careful to maintain holiness; it is a work of God.

2. Why must we thus look upon him in prayer?

[1.] It is the way to beget humility and godly fear. "Holy Father," there is a word to beget confidence, and a word to beget reverence. This mixed affection is the fittest temper of soul in our addresses to God, confidence and reverence; he is a father, but a holy father. Nothing driveth the creature to such self-abhorrency as the consideration of God's holiness; we have to do with him who hath an infinite displeasure against sin and sinners. The more good anyone is, the more he hateth evil; since therefore God is infinitely good, he doth infinitely hate sin. The angels, that have lively and fresh thoughts of God's holiness, they are abashed in his presence: "Each one of the seraphims had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts," (Isa. 6:2,3). And the prophet having a sight of it in vision, he crieth out, "Woe is me, for I am undone, for I am a man of unclean lips," (v. 5). A thorough sight of God's holiness would drive us to our wits' ends. So when God had testified his displeasure for the violation of one circumstance in religion, looking into the ark, fifty thousand threescore and ten men were smote, (1 Sam. 6:20). The men of Bethshemesh said, "Who is able to stand before this holy Lord God?" Certainly we that are made up of imperfections should tremble more than we do, when we have to do with the holy God. So Peter, when Christ had discovered his glory in a miracle: "Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord," (Luke 5:8). God, that doth infinitely love his own holiness, doth as infinitely hate sin. Did we consider this hatred, we would more loathe and abhor ourselves, we would be more ashamed than we are in our confessions. To speak thus much of ourselves to a man would make us blush; and yet man hath but a drop of indignation against sin. God hath an ocean. God's children have a daunting power in their appearance. Guilty consciences, when they come into the presence of one that walketh closely with God, are terrified. Herod feared John Baptist, "knowing that he was a just man and an holy," (Mark 6:20).

[2.] To make us prize Christ. Our best works would stink in the nostrils of the most holy God if they were not accepted in and for Christ. Nothing can be acceptable to infinite purity but what is pure: "Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity," (Hab. 1:13). We should not have one good look from God were it not for Christ. To salve this attribute was Jesus Christ sent into the world. We think that Christ was only sent to satisfy justice; God hateth sin out of holiness, punisheth it out of justice, and executeth that punishment by his majesty and power; so that we dread God for his wrath, power, and justice; but all these are awakened by his holiness, there is the root of all. So that the consideration of God's holiness maketh us to prize Christ. Alas! what should vile creatures do before a holy God out of Christ!

[3.] It is God's principal glory: "Thou art glorious in holiness," (Ex. 15:11). God is mighty in power, rich in grace, glorious in holiness. It is good to mark the distinctness of expression in all the attributes. God, that he might show us how much we should prize grace, would be glorious in nothing so much as in holiness. This is seraphical divinity; the angels would teach us no other divinity and notions of God but "Holy, holy, holy Lord God of hosts," (Isa. 6:3). This is most pleasing to God, profitable to men. Christ taught us to pray first of all, "Hallowed be thy name." This should be the chiefest thing that we should think of in our addresses to God. So when the Angel Gabriel came to give notice of Christ: "That holy thing that shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God," (Luke 1:35). Prius sanctum quam Dei filium nominuvit, saith one of the fathers. You cannot call God nor Christ by a better title, it is his darling attribute. So the saints in heaven, "They rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty," (Rev. 4:8). It is nine times in Plantius's edition, as if they were delighted with the mention of it; they take a sweet content in the work, holy Father, holy Son, holy Spirit. In heaven they bless and praise God; praise him for his excellences, bless him for his benefits. We praise him for his holiness, we bless him for his mercy in Christ; this will be our employment in heaven: "Exalt ye the Lord our God, and worship at his footstool; for he is holy," (Ps. 99:5). God counteth it his chiefest glory, that he might teach the creature that moral perfections are to be preferred before natural; it is better to be wise than strong, to be holy than wise.

3. Why especially must we thus look upon him when we deal with him for grace and sanctification?

[1.] Because it is a relief to faith when we represent God to ourselves as the fountain of holiness. He is "the holy one of Israel," and Christ calls him "Holy Father;" "To them that are sanctified by God the Father," (Jude 1). There is enough in God: when we come for pardon, he is rich in mercy; when we come for holiness, he is glorious in holiness; he is the God of grace; you may have enough, if you be not wanting to yourselves. Men are willing to spare out of their fulness; the holy God is as able as willing to sanctify you, it is a work that he delighteth in. Joab interceded for Absalom, "when he perceived the king's heart was towards Absalom," (2 Sam. 14:1).

[2.] It may be a means to enlarge your spiritual desires. You are to be "holy as he is holy," (1 Pet. 1:15). The children, if they be of the right stock, they should have some resemblance of their father. Now you ask holiness of God that you may be as God in some degree of conformity, though not in exact equality. We cannot overtake God, but we should never cease to follow him. We have a high pattern, that we might not be content with any low measures of grace. When you are asking, it is good to be thinking of your pattern, that you may enlarge your spiritual desires. Lord, wash me thoroughly; Lord, make me holy, as thou art holy; I forget the things that are behind; it is nothing that I have already.

Use 1. Information. It informeth us:

1. How greatly they sin that deride men for their holiness, which is the express image of the glorious God. God is glorious in holiness; therefore they that despise holiness, they despise God himself. "Holy brethren should no more be a disgrace than "holy Father;" That is your scorn which is the divine glory, one of the chiefest excellences in the Godhead. You hate God more than you do the saints; holiness in them shineth with a faint lustre.

2. How much we should prize holiness. It is the glory of God and the glory of holy angels (the devils also excel in strength), and the glory of the saints: "That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing, but that it should be holy, and without blemish," (Eph. 5:27). This is the glory of the church; the church, that are a distinct people from all the world, should have a distinct excellency. Other societies are made glorious by their policy, their pomp, their trade; the church is a society for holiness, and therefore it is called "The fairest among women," the best of all societies, though it hath little of worldly pomp and splendor: "Holiness becometh thy house, O Lord, for ever," (Ps. 93:5). Some ordinances became God's house for a time; ceremonies, and sprinklings, and the veil, and the covering of badgers' skins, &c.; but holiness is a standing ordinance. So private Christians "are changed from glory to glory, (2 Cor. 3:18); it is from grace to grace, for the apostle speaketh of our being changed into the likeness of Christ. The world counteth purity and strictness a base thing; but the word is quit with the world, and calls a wicked man "a vile person," (Ps. 15:4), and "the basest of men," (Dan. 4:17).

Use 2. It presseth us to draw nigh to God as unto a holy Father. Worship must always be proportioned to the object of it. Conformity maketh way for communion: "God is a spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth," (John 4:24). As he is a God of peace, he will not be worshipped with wrathful affections: "I will that men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands,, without wrath and doubting," (1 Tim. 2:8). A living God must have a lively service; so a holy God should have a holy worship; this doth make us fit to enjoy God in the way of a sweet and gracious communion.

1. We must be in a holy state. If we be accepted by God, we must be like him," holy as he is holy, partakers of a divine nature." The majesty and glory of God we are not capable of. God would not have us to imitate his power and majesty, but his holiness. We enjoy him most when we are like him: "Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man can see God," (Heb. 12:14); cwriV ou, the masculine article, referreth to agiasmoV; though they have not peace with men, whatever entertainment they meet with in the world, they are sure to have the favor of God, peace with God. That "seeing God" referreth to the enjoyments of the other world; the degrees of vision are according to the degrees of sanctification: "We shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is," (1 John 3:2); but it holdeth good also in the present world. A dusky glass cannot represent the image so distinctly; we cannot have such a sight of God, we cannot expect any communion and intimacy with him, till we be holy. It is said, "Thou art not a God that hast pleasure in wickedness, neither shall evil dwell with thee," (Ps. 5:4). The idols of the heathen are stained with filthy practices; God is not such a one. Likeness is the ground of delight; God loveth himself for his own holiness, and they are best loved and liked that are most holy. For others, God professeth he will have no intimacy with them; he will have nothing to do with sinners, nor be of their fellowship and communion; and they shall have nothing to do with him: "What hast thou to do to declare my statutes? or that thou shouldst take my covenant in thy month?" (Ps. 50:16). Nay, God will not afford sinners one good look: "Thou art of purer eyes than to behold iniquity, and canst not look upon evil," (Hab. 1:13). As the prophet, to profess his detestation of that profane prince, said, "Were it not that I regard the presence of Jehoshaphat the king of Judah, I would not look towards thee, nor see thee," (2 Kings 3:14). God would not look towards a congregation were it not for his people in it.

But what shall we do? and who can say, "My heart is clean"? and "who is able to stand before this holy God?" I answer—God hath provided a remedy in the gospel; in the gospel sense he only is pure who is purged and washed from the guilt of his sins in the blood of Christ. In a child of God there are many failings, but God in Christ giveth him an acquittance. But this is not all; there must be a habitual disposition of purity, and a man must enter into a true course of sanctification, if he would be accepted in God's eyes: "Such were some of you, but ye are washed, but ye are justified, but ye are sanctified, in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God," (1 Cor. 6:11). The work of the Spirit and the merit of Christ are inseparable. There is a relative and a real change, not only a judicial abolition of sin, but a real. If you would come to God as your holy one, you must be his holy ones; as David was called God's holy one, (Ps 16:10). Somewhat answerable there must be to God's nature before he can take pleasure in you, You will find it.

[1.] By a hatred of sin. Where God doth change a soul, he breedeth a disposition in it in some sort like himself. Those sympathies and antipathies that God hath, the soul hath. Now God is a holy God, he cannot endure sin; so it is with a holy heart. What have I to do with sinners? saith God; and, What have I to do with sin? saith the soul. The displacency is keen and strong; they have a nature put into them like God's, and therefore hate what he hateth. It is said, "Ye that love the Lord, hate evil," (Ps. 97:10). In what measure we love God, we hate what is contrary to God. In grace there is a love to the chiefest good, and a hatred of the chiefest evil; the one, as well as the other, is natural to the saints. Let us never talk of love to God, except there be a zeal to reform what he hateth. It is true we have a mixed nature, there is the divine nature and the carnal nature; a believer is partaker of both flesh and spirit; there will be slips and failings, but the prevailing part of the soul abhorreth sin. It is the evil which we hate, and though a child of God falleth into sin, yet he cannot rest in it. A fountain may be troubled, but it will work itself clean again. The needle in the compass may be joggled, but it rests not till it turns to the pole. A neat man may be dirtied, but he cannot endure any filthiness should lie on his clothes. Impure men are in their own element; if they abstain from sin, their unholy nature likes it, they forbear it, but do not abhor it; as Phaltiel forsook Michal only for fear of David's displeasure. Sinful affections continue in their full force and strength when the act is suspended.

[2.] By an act of duty and conformity to God's will and nature: "That ye put on the new man, which is after God created in righteousness and true holiness," (Eph. 4:24). There is a counterfeit holiness and true holiness; the true holiness is such a holiness as God's is, answerable in quality, though not in equality. Now what is God's holiness? Such an attribute by which he loveth himself above all things, and all other things as they do more or less partake of his nature. So when we are holy in truth, we love God out of a principle of the new nature. God is lovely, not only for his benefits, but for his essence, as he is diligibilis natura; it is eminently in him what is in us in a weaker degree. So there will be a delight in the saints, because of the resemblance they bear to God: "To the saints that are in the earth, and to the excellent, in whom is all my delight," (Ps. 16:3). Certainly they have cause to question their holiness to whom good company is a prison and a burden; they have not such dispositions as God hath. So they delight in duties as they exhibit much of God, and they delight in the practice and growth of holiness, as it maketh them more like God. Thus, Christians, should you strive to come up to the divine pattern more and more. You will think a child incapable of learning, when the longer he hath been at the writing-school the more he swerveth from the copy; and certainly that holiness that doth not grow up into a greater likeness and resemblance of God is to be suspected. Thus must you look to come in a holy state.

2. With holy and prepared affections. You should remember you have to do with the holy God: "Ye cannot serve the Lord, for he is a holy God," (Josh. 24:19). Do you know what it is to worship him? Rash entering upon the worship of God is not without sin; and to come reeking from your sins into God's presence, it is but as Cain's approach from blood to sacrifice. Before worship there must be a special purging. When Joseph came before Pharaoh, he changed his garments and shaved himself. When the children of Israel came to hear the law, they were sanctified, and washed their clothes, (Ex. 19:14). Under the law, there was a laver stood near the altar, and they were to wash before sacrifice; therefore David saith, "I will wash my hands in innocency, and so will I compass thine altar, Lord," (Ps. 26:6). So, "Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh o you; cleanse your hands, ye sinners, and purify your hearts, ye double-minded," (Jam. 4:8). These washings were frequent among the heathens before they went to worship; so there must be a special purgation and exoneration, and disburdening of the soul of those sins which we have committed.

3. We must converse with him in a holy manner: "I wilt be sanctified in all that draw nigh unto me," (Lev. 10:3). God will be sanctified upon us, or by us; here we are to sanctify him in our hearts, with special reverence and holiness of mind. Those that served before the heathen gods were clothed in white, an emblem of purity and innocency; and our communion with God in heaven is thus expressed, "They shall walk with me in white," (Rev. 3:4). So should we here, as much as we can, walk with God in white, with heavenly pure souls, put up holy prayers in a holy manner, and in the time of worship be at the greatest distance and elongation from sin. Many men, out of a natural conscience, will be devout in time of duty. You would be ashamed if a holy man should know what thoughts you have in time of worship, and darest thou conceive them in the presence of a holy God? What odious creatures should we be if our thoughts were as audible, and as liable to public notice, as our words! Alas! God knoweth thoughts as well as words; all your carnal, unclean, vain thoughts are known to him; therefore take heed, how will your holy Father brook this?

4. We should go away the more holy from worship. You have been with a holy God; what of his holiness do you carry away in your hearts? They that have looked on the sun go away with a glaring in their eyes, and they seem to see the sun in all that they look upon. You should carry away the enlightenings of worship along with you. When Moses came from God, his face shone; he had been conversing with the God of glory, and he went away with some rays of glory in his face. We should not be as the beasts in Noah's ark, to go in unclean and come out unclean. God's people are most full of indignation against sin when they come from God: when Moses had talked with God in the mount, at his return, seeing them sacrifice to the calf, he brake the tables, (Ex. 32:19). The more communion we have with God, the more shall we hate what is contrary to God. When Isaiah saw God in his glory, he began to loathe himself: "Woe is me, for I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell among a people of unclean lips, and mine eyes have seen the king, the Lord of hosts," (Isa. 6: 5). And those who have effectually conversed with God in meditation and prayer, they come away from him with a perfect hatred of sin; for a sight of God worketh an abomination of what is contrary to him. In a shop of perfumes you carry away the scent in your clothes. You wonder that a man should come away cold from the fire; and it is as great a wonder to come away from the holy God with vile affections. Here you come to make experiments whether God be a holy one, yea or no, whether he be originally, effectually holy. The Syrians, that were strangers to God's dispensations, could speak of him only by hearsay: "We have heard that the God of Israel is a merciful God;" but the Israelites, that were acquainted with him could speak of him by experience; we know it. As a man that hath never been acquainted with the use of fire may say, I have heard that the fire will warm; but he that hath been at the fire, he knows and feels it; so others can only discourse notionally of God's holiness. In duty we come to him for real experiences: Lord, we know that thou art a holy God.