WHAT FORCE THERE IS IN THE PROMISE TO MAKE THEM COME TO CHRIST

SECOND, “SHALL COME TO ME.” Now we come to show WHAT FORCE THERE IS IN THIS PROMISE TO MAKE THEM COME TO HIM. “All that the Father giveth me shall come to me.” I will speak to this promise, First, In general. Second, In particular.

[First], In general. This word SHALL is confined to these ALL that are given to Christ. “All that the Father giveth me shall come to me.” Hence I conclude,

1. That coming to Jesus Christ aright is an effect of their being, of God, given to Christ before. Mark, They shall come. Who? Those that are given. They come, then, because they were given, “thine they were, and thou gavest them me.” Now, this is indeed a singular comfort to them that are coming in truth to Christ, to think that the reason why they come is, because they were given of the Father before to him. Thus, then, may the coming soul reason with himself as he comes. Am I coming, indeed, to Jesus Christ? This coming of mine is not to be attributed to me or my goodness, but to the grace and gift of God to Christ. God gave first my person to him, and, therefore, hath now given me a heart to come.

2. This word, shall come, maketh thy coming not only the fruit of the gift of the Father, but also of the purpose of the Son; for these words are a Divine purpose; they show us the heavenly determination of the Son. “The Father hath given them to me, and they shall; yea, they shall come to me.” Christ is as full in his resolution to save those given to him as is the Father in giving of them. Christ prizeth the gift of his Father; he will lose nothing of it; he is resolved to save it every whit by his blood, and to raise it up again a