A Puritan Sermon Mystery

There is a sermon contained in Volume Three (pp. 611-624) of Puritan Sermons, 1659-1689, entitled "What Advantage May We Expect From Christ's Prayer for Union With Himself, and the Blessings Relating to It?" It has a sweet, gospel-incense savor to it, and I commend it to the Reader who wishes to delve into the wonderful prayer of our Savior in John 17. But there is also a mystery associated with this sermon. Who wrote it?

It was published anonymously ascribed to "N.N." as was another sermon included in the Cripplegate Morning Exercises (now titled Puritan Sermons, 1659-1689), "How the Religious of a Nation are the Strength of It," which has generally been ascribed (by Cotton Mather and others, including James Nichol) to John Collins (c. 1632 - 1687), and both sermon manuscripts are apparently written in the same hand.

However, James Nichol, 19th-century editor of the Cripplegate Morning Exercise Sermons, "on the strength and credit of a List of Preachers, written in ancient hand, and prefixed to a well-preserved copy of the volume," ascribes it to David Clarkson, although this sermon is not included the Practical Works of David Clarkson (editor Basil Cooper believes that Nichol was mistaken and proposes instead that "Mr. Barker" should be credited).

Moreover, James Darling in one place (Cyclopaedia Bibliographica, Vol. 2, 2114) ascribes its authorship to David Clarkson (although he fails to include it in a list of Clarkson's works elsewhere, Cyclopaedia Bibliographica, Vol. 1, 689-690), and in another (Subjects, 1150) to John Barker.

John Langdon Sibley, Biographical Sketches of Graduates of Harvard University, Vol. 1, p. 191, points out that the timeframe for John Barker (1682-1762) makes it seemingly impossible for him to have preached this sermon, published in 1682, and instead assigns its authorship to John Collins.

Thus, we are left with conflicting claims of authorship and, for those inclined to press the question, a mystery as to who authored the sermon. Do you, dear Reader, have any insights as to who the author may be? If so, let me know.

Meanwhile, consider, and rejoice that, as the author as noted,

Here is the greatest encouragement for our prayers that can be desired. -- For hereby it is manifest, that whatever we can beg of God, which is needful for our happiness here or hereafter, it hath already been prayed for on our behalf by Christ himself, who was not, and could not, be denied. When we pray for our relatives or others, who are given to Christ, but do not yet believe, that they may have faith; when we pray for union with the Father and the Son, for the comfort, improvement, and continuance of this union; when we pray for pardon of sin, and the purging of guilt, by the Grand Sacrifice of expiation; when we pray for holiness, the increase and exercise of it; when we pray to be kept from the evil of the world, (which is all in the world we need to fear,) from the evil of suffering, or whatever may be destructive to our souls; in a word, when we pray for eternal glory; -- it is evident, by the premisses, that all these, and what else is necessary for these purposes, were, on the behalf of those that do or shall believe, the requests of the Great Mediator, -- who was God and man in one person, and could no more repulsed than God can deny himself, -- in a prayer that was not liable to the least exception from Justice or Holiness itself, that was in all points exactly agreeable unto the will of God, and infinitely acceptable to the Divine Majesty. Therefore, praying for any or all [of] these things expressed or included in this divine prayer, as we are required, we may be as fully persuaded that they will not be denied us, as we may be confident that the requests of our great Advocate, Jesus Christ the righteous, will be granted.