,1 t\.t m^tosmt ^ 
 
 !f. 
 
 PRINCETON, N. J. 
 
 
 Shelf. 
 
 Number 
 
AN 
 
 EXPLICATION 
 
 HUNDRED AND TENTH PSALM 
 
 WHKREIN THE SEVERAL 
 
 HEADS OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION THEREIN CONTAINED, 
 
 TOUCH[NG 
 
 THE EXALTATION OF CHRIST, THE SCEPTRE OF HIS 
 
 KINGDOM, THE CHARACTER OF HIS SUBJECTS ^ 
 
 HIS PRIESTHOOD, VICTORIES, SUFFERINGS, 
 
 AND RESURRECTION, 
 
 VHE LARGELY EXPLAINED AND APPLIED. 
 
 By EDWARDMIEYNOLDS, D.D. 
 
 AFTERWARDS BISHOP OF NORWICH. 
 
 LONDON : 
 
 THE RELIGIOUS TRACT SOCIETY; 
 
 Instituted 1799. 
 
 SOLD AT THE DEPOSITORY, 56, PATERNOSTER-ROW ; 
 
 AND BY THE BOOKSELLERS. 
 
 1837. 
 
£In this edition some slight abridgments have been made ; and the 
 obsolete words exchanged for others of the same meaning, j 
 
I RtC, NOV 1881 
 
 TO THE READER 
 
 Christian reader, 
 
 When I was first persuaded to communicate 
 some of my poor labours to the public, my purpose was to 
 have added unto those Treatises which were extant before, so 
 much of this which I now present unto thy view as con- 
 cerneth the eulogy of the gospel of Christ, the instrument of 
 begetting the life of Christ in us : for little reason had I, 
 considering mine own weakness, the frequent returns of that 
 service wherein these pieces were delivered, and the groaning 
 of the press of late under writings of this nature, to trouble 
 the world a second time with any more of my slender provi- 
 sions towards the work of the sanctuary, in this abundance 
 which is on every side brought in. But finding that work 
 grow up under mine hand into a large volume, and conceiving 
 that it might be both more acceptable and useful to handle a 
 whole Scripture together, especially being both of so noble a 
 nature, and, at first view, of so difficult a sense, as this Psahn 
 is, than to single out some verse and fragment by itself; I 
 therefore resolved once more to put in my mite into the treasury 
 of the temple, which, though for no other reason, may yet, I 
 hope, be for this cause accepted, because it beareth the image 
 and inscription of Christ upon it. Some passages are therein 
 inserted which were delivered in another order, and on other 
 Scriptures ; and some likewise which were delivered in other 
 places, and on other occasions ; which yet, being pertinent 
 to the series of the discourse, I the. ght might justly seem as 
 natural parts, and not as incoherent and unsuitable pieces. 
 
 So, submitting my poor labours to thy favourable censure, 
 and commending thee to the blessing of God, I rest, 
 
 Edward Reynolds. 
 
TO THE EIGHT HONOURABLE 
 
 THOMAS, LORD COVENTRY, 
 
 BARON OF AILSBOROUGH, AND LORD KEEPER OF THE GREAT 
 SEAL OF ENGLAND, ETC. 
 
 Most noble lord, 
 
 It was the devout profession which St. Austin 
 once made of himself, when speaking of the great dehght 
 which he took in Cicero's Hortensius, (as containing a most 
 liberal exhortation to the love of wisdom, without any bias or 
 partiality towards sects,) he affirmeth, that " the heat of this 
 his delight was by this only reason abated, because there was 
 not in that book to be found the name of Christ ; without 
 which name nothing, though otherwise ever so polite and 
 elaborate, could wholly possess those affections which had 
 been trained to a nobler study." And Gregory Nazianzen, 
 that famous divine, setteth no other price upon all his 
 Athenian learning, wherein he greatly excelled, but only 
 this, that " he had something of worth, to esteem as no- 
 thing, in comparison of Christ :" herein imitating the example 
 of St. Paul, who, though he profited in the Jewish religion 
 above many others. Gal. i. 14, 16, yet, when the Son of God 
 was revealed in him, laid it all aside " as loss, for the excel- 
 lency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus his Lord," Phil. iii. 8. 
 The consideration of which sacred affections in those holy 
 men, together with the many experiences of your lordship's 
 abundant favour, hath put into me a boldness beyond my 
 
Vl THE EPISTLE DEDICATORY. 
 
 natural disposition, to prefix so great a name before these 
 poor pieces of my labours in God's church. Other argument 
 in this book there is none, to procure either your lordship's 
 reading or patronage, than this one, which that good father 
 could not find in all the writings of Plato or Cicero, that it 
 hath that high and holy Person for the subject thereof, the 
 knowledge of whom is not only our greatest learning, but our 
 eternal life. 
 
 In this confidence I have presumed to present unto your 
 lordship this public testimony of my most humble duty, and 
 deep obligations for your many thoughts of favour and bounty 
 towards me, not in myself only, but in others, unto whom 
 your lordship's goodness hath vouchsafed under that respect to 
 overflow. May the Lord Jesus, our eternal Melchizedek, meet 
 your lordship in all those honourable affairs which he hath 
 called you unto, with the constant refreshment and benediction 
 of his Holy Spirit, and long preserve you a faithful patron of 
 the church which he hath " purchased with his own blood," 
 Acts XX. 28; and a worthy instrument of the justice, honom, 
 and tranquillity of this kingdom. 
 
 Your lordship's most humbly devoted, 
 
 Edward Reynolds. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAaE 
 
 The analysis of the Psalm 2 
 
 Verse 1. 
 
 Christ's ordination to his kingdom 5 
 
 The quality of Christ's kingdom 6 
 
 Christ compels not man's will 8 
 
 Subjection due to Christ 9 
 
 The necessity of subjection 11 
 
 Christ the Son of David 12 
 
 How Christ is a Lord 13 
 
 How Christ is a Lord to us and the patriarchs 14 
 
 Obedience due unto Christ 16 
 
 The power of Christ's kingdom 17 
 
 The exaltation of Christ 18 
 
 Necessity of Christ's humiliation 22 
 
 Administration of Christ's kingdom 25 
 
 The Holy Spirit the gift of Christ 26 
 
 Different operations of Christ's Spirit 28 
 
 The Spirit our Comforter 35 
 
 The healing and renewing virtue of the Spirit 38 
 
 The Spirit makes fruitful 40 
 
 Continual supply of the Spirit 41 
 
 False love to Christ 42 
 
 Grounds of false love to Christ 44 
 
 Evidences of true love to Christ 51 
 
 Stability of Christ's kingdom 57 
 
 Claims of papal monarchy examined 61 
 
 Intranquillity of the church 68 
 
 God's patience hath fixed bounds 69 
 
 The obstinacy of sin 71 
 
 Punishment of the wicked 73 
 
 Christ's enemies his footstool 87 
 
 Verse 2. 
 
 Christ's regalities 95 
 
 The rod of Christ's strength 98 
 
 The power of the gospel . 100 
 
 The glory of the gospel 121 
 
 Christ's care of his church 170 
 
Vlll CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 The gospel is Christ's own power 186 
 
 The gospel sent by God 194 
 
 The ministerial office 197 
 
 The throne of Christ's kingdom 201 
 
 The calling of the gentiles 203 
 
 The church the seat of saving truth 204 
 
 The stability of the church 209 
 
 Christ's kingdom opposed in the world 213 
 
 Verse 3. 
 
 Analysis of third verse * . 218 
 
 The subjects of Christ's kingdom 221 
 
 Christ's people have a war to fight 229 
 
 Christ's people a willing people 232 
 
 How Christ's people are made willing 251 
 
 The beauty of holiness 260 
 
 Christ's subjects are numerous 272 
 
 The spiritual birth of a christian 278 
 
 Veese 4. 
 
 Christ's Priesthood confirmed by an oath 285 
 
 How God is said to repent, and how not 293 
 
 The immutability of the new covenant 295 
 
 The Priesthood of Christ 299 
 
 The sacrifice of Christ 315 
 
 The intercession of Christ 319 
 
 Justification by imputed righteousness 326 
 
 Our duty in respect to Christ's Priesthood 341 
 
 The order of Christ's Priesthood 343 
 
 Verses 5, 6. 
 
 The victories of Christ 360 
 
 Verse 7. 
 
 The sufferings and resurrection of Christ 382 
 
,# 
 
 HLU, 1\UV Itiil 
 
 AN EXPOSITION 
 
 HUNDRED AND TENTH PSALM. 
 
 Christ Jesus the Lord is the sum and centre of all 
 divinely revealed truth ; neither is anything to be preached 
 unto men, as an object of their faith, or necessary element of 
 their salvation, which doth not, some way or other, either 
 meet in him, or refer unto him. All truths, especially di- 
 vine, are of a noble and precious nature ; and, therefore, 
 whatsoever mysteries of his counsel God hath been pleased 
 in his word to reveal, the church is bound in her ministry to 
 declare unto men. And St. Paul professeth his faithfulness 
 therein ; " I have not shunned to declare unto you all the 
 counsel of God," Acts xx. 27 : but yet all this counsel, 
 which elsewhere he calls "the testimony of God," he 
 gathers together into one conclusion ; " I determined not to 
 know anything among you ;" that is, in my preaching unto 
 you to make discovery of any other knowledge, as matter of 
 consequence or faith, " save Jesus Christ, and him crucified," 
 1 Cor. ii. 1, 2. And therefore preaching of the word is 
 called preaching of Christ, 2 Cor. iv. 5 ; and ministers of the 
 word, ministers of Christ, 1 Cor. iv. 1, 2; and learning of the 
 word, learning of Christ, Eph. iv. 20 ; because our faith, our 
 works, and our worship, which are the three essential elements 
 of a christian, the whole duty of man, and the whole will of 
 God, have all their foundation, growth, end, and virtue only 
 in and from Christ crucified. There is no fruit, weight, nor 
 value in a christian's title, but only in and from the death of 
 Christ. 
 
 The word in general is divided into the Old and New 
 Testament, both which are the same in substance, though 
 
2 THE ANALYSIS OF THE PSALM. 
 
 different in the manner of their dispensations, as Moses veiled 
 differed from himself unveiled. Now, that Christ is the sub- 
 stance of the whole New Testament, containing the history, 
 doctrines, and prophecies of him in the administration of the 
 latter ages of the church, is very manifest to all. The old 
 Scriptures are again divided into the law and prophets ; for 
 the historical parts of them contain either typical prefigurations 
 of the evangelical church, or inductions and exemplary demon- 
 strations of the general truth of God's justice and promises, 
 which are set forth by way of doctrine and precept in the law 
 and prophets. Now, Christ is the sum of both tliese, Matt, 
 v. 17; Luke xvi. 16: they waited upon him in his transfi- 
 guration, Luke ix. 28, to note that in him they had their 
 accomplishment. 1. For the law ; Christ is the substance 
 of it ; he brought grace, to fulfil the exactions, and truth, to 
 make good the prefigurations of the whole law, John i. 17. 
 The ceremonial law he fulfilled, and abolished: the moral 
 law he fulfilled, and established ; that his obedience thereunto 
 might be the ground of our righteousness, and his spirit 
 and grace therewith might be the ground of our obedience ; 
 and therefore it is called the law of Christ, Gal. vi. 2. 
 2. For the prophets ; he is the sum of them, too, for to 
 him they give all witness. Acts x. 43. He is the Author of 
 their prophecies ; they spake by his Spirit : and he is the 
 object of their prophecies ; they spake of the grace and sal- 
 vation which was to come by him, 1 Pet. x. 11 : so that the 
 whole Scriptures are nothing else but a testimony of Christ, 
 and faith in him. of that absolute and universal necessity 
 which is laid upon all the world to believe in his name, John 
 V. 39. It is not only a necessary precept, because we are there- 
 unto commanded ; but a necessary medium too, because he is the 
 only ladder between earth and heaven, the alone Mediator 
 between God and man ; in him there is a final and unabolish- 
 able covenant established, and there is no name but his 
 under heaven by which a man can be saved. Acts iv. 12. 
 
 In consideration of all which, I have chosen to speak upon 
 this Psalm, and out of it to discover those ways whereby the 
 life of Christ is dispensed and administered towards his 
 church. For this psalm is one of the clearest and most 
 compendious prophecies of the person and offices of Christ 
 in the whole Old Testament, and so full of fundamental 
 truth, that I shall not shun to call it David's creed. And, 
 indeed, there are very few, if any, of the articles of that creed 
 
THE ANALYSIS OF THE PSALM. 3 
 
 which we all generally profess which are not either plainly 
 expressed, or by most evident implication couched in this 
 little model. First, The doctrine of the Trinity is in the first 
 words ; " The Lord said unto my Lord." There is Jehpvah 
 the Father, and my Lord the Son ; and the sanctification or 
 consecration of him, which was by the Holy Ghost ; by 
 whose fulness he was anointed unto the offices of King and 
 Priest; for so our Saviour himself expounds this word "said," 
 by the sealing and sanctification of him to his office, John x. 
 34 — 36. Then we have the incarnation of Christ in the 
 words, " My Lord," together with his dignity and honour 
 above David, as our Saviour himself expounds it, Matt. xxii. 
 42, 45. Mine, that is, my Son by descent and genealoo-y, 
 after the flesh, and yet my Lord, too, in regard of a hio-her 
 Sonship. We have also the sufferings of Christ, in that he 
 was consecrated a Priest, ver. 4, to offer up himself once for 
 all, and so " to drink of the brook in the way," ver. 7. We 
 have his breaking forth, and conquest over all his enemies ; 
 his sufferings ; his resurrection : " He shall lift up his 
 head." His ascension and intercession ; " Sit thou on my 
 right hand." And in that is comprised his descent into 
 hell, by St. Paul's way of arguing, — " That he ascended) 
 what is it but that he descended first into the lower parts of 
 the earth ? " Eph. iv. 9. We have a holy cathohc "church, 
 gathered together by the sceptre of his kingdom, and holding 
 in the parts thereof a blessed and beautiful communion of 
 saints ; " The Lord shall send the rod of thy strength out 
 of Zion : rule thou in the midst of thine enemies. Thy 
 people shall be willing in the day of thy power, in the beau- 
 ties of holiness from the womb of the morning : thou hast 
 the dew of thy youth." We have the last judgment, for all 
 his enemies must be put under his feet, which is the 
 apostle's argument to prove the end of all things, 1 Cor. xv. 
 25. And there is the day of his wrath, wherein he shall 
 accomplish that judgment over the heathen, and that victory 
 over the kings of the earth, who take counsel and band 
 themselves against him, which he doth here in his word 
 begin. We have the remission of sins comprised in his 
 priesthood, for he was to offer sacrifice for the remission of 
 sins, and to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself, Eph, 
 i. 7 ; Heb. ix. 26. We have the resurrection of the body* 
 because he must subdue all his enemies under his feet ; and 
 the last enemy to be subdued is death, as the apostle arc^ues 
 B 2 
 
4 THE ANALYSIS OF THE PSALM. 
 
 out of this Psalm, 1 Cor. xv. 25, 26, And, lastly, we have 
 life everlasting, in the everlasting merit and virtue of his 
 priesthood ; " Thou art a priest for ever after the order of 
 Melchizedek ;" and in his sitting at the right hand of God, 
 whither he is gone as our Forerunner, and to prepare a place 
 for us, Heb. vi. 20 ; John xiv. 2 ; and therefore the apostle, 
 from his sitting there, and ever living, inferreth the perfection 
 and certainty of our salvation, Rom. vi. 8. 11; viii. 17; 
 Eph. ii. 6; Col. iii. 1—4; 1 Cor. xv. 49; Phil. iii. 20, 21; 
 1 Thess. iv, 14; Heb. vii. 25; 1 John iii. 2. 
 
 The sum, then, of the whole Psalm is this : — The ordination 
 of Christ unto his kingdom, together with the dignity and 
 virtue thereof, ver. 1. The sceptre, or instrument of that 
 kingly power, ver. 2. The strength and success of both in 
 recovering, notwithstanding all the malice of enemies, a king- 
 dom of willing subjects, and those in multitudes, unto himself, 
 ver. 2, 3. The consecration of him unto that everlasting 
 priesthood, by the virtue and merit whereof he purchased this 
 kingdom to himself, ver. 4. The conquest over all his 
 strongest and most numerous adversaries, ver. 5, 6. The 
 proof of all, and the way of effecting it, in his sufferings and 
 exaltation. He shall gather a church, and he shall confound 
 his enemies, because for that end he hath finished and broken 
 through all the sufferings which he was to drink of, and hath 
 lifted up his head again. 
 
 VERSE I. 
 
 THE LORD SAID UNTO MY LORD, SIT THOU AT MY RIGHT HAND, 
 UNTIL I MAKE THINE ENEMIES THY FOOTSTOOL. 
 
 Here the Holy Ghost begins with the kingdom of Christ, 
 which he describes and magnifies ; 1. By his unction and 
 designation thereunto, the word or decree of his Father, — 
 " The Lord said." 2. By the greatness of his person in 
 himself, and yet nearness in blood and nature unto us, — " my 
 Lord." 3. By the glory, power, and heavenliness of his 
 kingdom ; for in the administration thereof he sitteth at the 
 right hand of his Father, — " Sit thou at my right hand." 4. 
 By the continuance and victories thereof, — " until I make thine 
 enemies thy footstool." 
 
 " The Lord said." Some read it, " certainly or assuredly 
 said," by reason of the affinity which the original word hath 
 
Christ's ordination to his kingdom. 5 
 
 with Amen, (from which it differs only in the transposition of 
 the same radical letters ;) which would afford, by the way, this 
 observation, that all which God says of or to his Son is very 
 faithful and true. For which cause the gospel is, by special 
 emphasis, called " the word of truth," Eph. i. 13 ; and,' " a 
 faithful saying, worthy of all acceptation,' 1 Tim. i. 13 ; or, 
 " most worthy to be believed and embraced," for so the Greek 
 words, being applied unto the gospel, signify, John i. 12 ; 
 John iii. 33; Acts xvii. 11; being opposite unto Acts 
 xiii. 46. 
 
 I. But the principal thing here to be noted is, the decree, 
 appointment, sanctification, and sealing of Christ unto his 
 regal office. For the " word of God " in the Scripture signifies 
 his blessing, power, pleasure, ordination. " Man shall not 
 live by bread alone, but by every word which proceedeth out 
 of the mouth of God," Matt. iv. 4. That is, by that com- 
 mand which the creatures have received from God to nourish 
 by, that benediction and sanctification which maketh every 
 creature of God good unto us, 1 Tim. iv. 5. God's saying 
 is ever doing something ; his words are operative, and carry 
 an unction and authority along with them. 
 
 Whence we may note, — That Christ's kingdom belongs 
 to him, not by usurpation, intrusion, or violence; but Je- 
 gally, by order, decree, investiture from his Father. All 
 kings reign by God's providence, but not always by his 
 approbation. " They have set up kings, but not by me ; 
 they have made princes, and I knew it not," Hosea viii. 4. 
 But Christ is a King both by the providence and by the good 
 will and immediate consecration of his Father. " The 
 Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into his 
 hand," John iii. 35. " The Father judgeth no man, but 
 hath committed all judgment to his Son," John v. 22 ; 
 that is, hath intrusted him with the economy and actual 
 administration of that power in the church which originally 
 belonged unto himself. He hath made him to be " Lord 
 and Christ," Acts ii. 36. He hath " ordained him to be 
 Judge of quick and dead," Acts x. 42. He hath appointed 
 him " over his own house," Heb. iii. 2, 6. He hath 
 crowned him, and " put all things in subjection under his 
 feet," Heb. ii. 7, 8. He hath " highly exalted him, and 
 given him a name above every name," Phil. ii. 9. There- 
 fore he calleth him, " My King ;" set up by him upon his own 
 holy hill, and that in virtue of a solemn decree, Psa. ii. 6, 7. 
 
6 THE QUALITY OF CHRIST's KINGDOiM. 
 
 But we must here distinguish between Christ's natural 
 kingdom, which belongeth unto him as God co-essential and 
 co-eternal with his Father ; and his dispensatory kingdom, as 
 he is Christ the Mediator, which was his, not by nature, but 
 by donation and unction from his Father, that he might be 
 the Head of his church, a Prince of peace, and a King of 
 righteousness unto his people. In which respect he had 
 conferred upon him all such meet qualifications as might fit 
 him for the dispensation of this kingdom. 1. God prepared 
 him a body, or a human nature, Heb. x. 3, and, by the grace 
 of personal and hypostatical union caused the Godhead to 
 dwell bodily in him, Col. ii, 9. 2. He anointed him with a 
 fulness of his Spirit ; not such a fulness as John the Baptist 
 and Stephen had, Luke i. 15; Acts vi. 5, which was still the 
 fulness of a measure or vessel, a fulness for themselves only, 
 Eph. iv. 7 ; 1 Cor. xii. 11; Rom. xii. 3, but a fulness 
 without measure, like the fulness of light in the sun, or 
 water in the sea, which hath an unsearchable sufficiency and 
 redundancy for the whole church, John iii. 34; Eph. iii. 8; 
 Mai. iv. 2. So that as he was furnished with all spiritual 
 endowments of wisdom, judgment, power, love, holiness, for 
 the dispensation of his own office, Isa. xi. 2; Ixi. 1, so from 
 his fulness did there run over a share and portion of all his 
 graces unto his church, John i. 16; Col. i. 19. 3. He did 
 by a solemn and public promulgation proclaim the kingdom 
 of Christ unto the church, and declare the decree in that 
 heavenly voice which came unto him from the excellent 
 glory, " This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well 
 pleased, hear ye him," Matt. iii. 17; xvii. 3; 2 Pet. i. 17. 
 4. He hath given him a sceptre of righteousness, and hath 
 put a sword in his mouth, and a rod of iron in his hand, 
 made him a Preacher and an Apostle, to reveal the secrets of 
 his bosom, and to testify the things which he hath seen and 
 heard. 5. He hath honoured him with many ambassadors 
 and servants to negociate the affairs of his kingdom, " some 
 apostles, and some prophets, and some evangelists, and some 
 pastors and teachers, for the perfecting of the saints, for the 
 work of the ministry, and for the edifying of his body," 
 Eph. iv. 11, 12; 2 Cor. v. 20. 6. He hath given him 
 the souls and consciences of men, even to the uttermost parts 
 of the earth, for his possession, and for the territories of his 
 kingdom, Psa. ii. 8 ; John xvii. 6. 7. He hath given him 
 a power concerning the laws of his church. A power to 
 
THE QUALITY OF CHRIST S KINGDOM. 7 
 
 make laws, the law of faith, (as St. Paul calls it, Rom. iii. 
 27,) Mark xvi. 15, 16. A power to expound laws, as the 
 moral law. Matt. v. A power to abrogate laws, as the law 
 of ordinances, Col. ii. 14. 8. He hath given him a power 
 of judging and condemning enemies, John v. 27 ; Luke xix. 
 27. Lastly, he hath given him a power of remitting sins, 
 and sealing pardons, which is a royal prerogative, Matt. ix. 
 6 ; John xx. 23. And these things belong unto him as he 
 is man as well as God, John v. 27. For the works of 
 Christ's mediation were of two sorts ; works of service and 
 ministry, for he took upon himself the form of a servant, and 
 was a minister of the circumcision, Phil. ii. 8 ; Rom. xv. 8 : 
 and works of authority and government in the church ; " All 
 power is given unto me in heaven and earth," Matt, 
 xxviii. 18. 
 
 The quality of this kingdom is not temporal or secular, 
 over the natural lives or civil negociations of men. He came 
 not to be ministered unto, but to minister ; his kingdom was 
 not of this world; he disclaimed any civil power in the dis- 
 tribution of lands and possessions ; he withdrew himself from 
 the people when by force they would have made him a king; 
 and himself, that in this point he might give none offence, 
 paid tribute unto Ceesar, Matt. xx. 28 ; xvii. 27 ; John xviii. 
 36; Luke xii. 13, 14; John vi. 15. But his kingdom is 
 spiritual and heavenly, over the souls of men, to bind and 
 loose the conscience, to remit and retain sins, to awe and 
 overrule the hearts, to captivate the affections, to bring into 
 obedience the thoughts, to subdue and pull down strong- 
 holds, to break in pieces his enemies with an iron rod, to 
 slay them with the words of his mouth, to implant fearfulness 
 and astonishment in the hearts of hypocrites, and to give 
 peace, security, protection, and assurance to his people. 
 
 The way whereby he enters upon his kingdom is ever by 
 way of conquest. For though the souls of the elect are his, 
 yet his enemies have the first possession; as Canaan was 
 Abraham's by promise, but his seed's by victory. Not but 
 that Christ proclaims peace first, but because men will not come 
 over nor submit to him without war. The strong man will not 
 yield to be utterly spoiled and crucified upon terms of peace. 
 Hence, then, we may first learn the great authority and 
 power of this King, who holds his crown by immediate tenure 
 from heaven, and was, after a more excellent manner than 
 any other kings, thereunto decreed and anointed by God 
 
8 CHRIST COMPELS NOT MAn's WILL. 
 
 himself. Much, then, are they to blame who find out ways to 
 diminish the kingdom of Christ, and boldly affirm that 
 though a King he could not but be, yet he might be without a 
 kingdom ; a King in personal right, without subjects or terri- 
 tories to exercise his regal power in ; a King only to punish 
 enemies, but not a King to govern or to feed a people. But 
 shall God give his Son the uttermost parts of the earth for 
 his possession, and shall men withhold it? Shall God give 
 men unto Christ, " Thine they were, and thou gavest them 
 me," John xvii. 6, and shall they detain themselves from 
 him? What is it that He gives unto his Son but the 
 souls, the hearts, the very thoughts of men, to be made obe- 
 dient unto his sceptre? 2 Cor. x. 5 ; and shall it then be within 
 the compass of human power to effect, as it is in their pride 
 to maintain, that, if possible, there should be no church? 
 We know one principal part of the kingdom and power of 
 Christ is to cast down imaginations, and every high thing 
 that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God; and that, 
 not only unto conviction, but unto obedience, as the apostle 
 shows ; to send such gifts of the Spirit unto men as should 
 benefit the very rebellious, that God might dwell amongst 
 them, Psa. Ixviii. 18; for inasmuch as Christ came to destroy 
 the works of the devil, that is, sin, as the apostle shows, 
 1 John iii. 8 ; John viii. 41, 44, and in their place to bring in 
 the work of God, which is faith in him, for so that grace is 
 frequently styled, John vi. 29; Phil. i. 29; Col. ii. 12, 
 therefore it is requisite that none of Satan's instruments and 
 confederates, such as the hearts of natural men are, should be 
 too strong for the grace of Christ. 
 
 But what then, doth Christ compel men against their 
 wills to be subject unto him? No, in no wise. He hath 
 ordered to bring them in by way of voluntariness and obe- 
 dience. And herein is the wisdom of his power seen, that 
 his grace shall mightily produce those effects in men, which 
 their hearts shall most obediently and willingly consent unto ; 
 that he is able to use the proper and genuine motions of 
 second causes to the producing of his own most holy, wise, 
 and merciful purposes. As we see hum.an wisdom can so 
 order, moderate, and make use of natural motions that by 
 them artificial effects shall be produced; as in a clock the 
 natural motion of the weight or plummet causeth the artificial 
 distribution of hours and minutes; and m a mill the natural 
 motion of the wind or water causeth an artificial effect in 
 
SUBJECTION DUE TO CHRIST. 9 
 
 grinding the corn ; how much more, then, shall the wisdom 
 of Almighty God, whose weakness is stronger, and whose 
 foolishness is wiser than men, be able so to use, incline, and 
 order the wills of men, without destroying them or their 
 liberty, as that thereby the kingdom of his Son shall be set 
 up amongst them? so that though there be still an habitual, 
 radical, fundamental indetermination and indifferency unto 
 several ways, unto none of which there can be a compul- 
 sion, yet, by the secret, ineffable, and most sweet operation 
 of the Spirit of grace, opening the eyes, convincing the judg- 
 ment, persuading the affections, inclining the heart, giving 
 an understanding, quickening and awakening the conscience, 
 a man shall be swayed unto the obedience of Christ; and 
 shall come unto him so certainly, as if he were drawn; and 
 yet so freely, as if he were left unto himself. For in the 
 calling of men by the word, there is a trahere, and a venire, 
 — a drawing, and a coming. The Father draweth, and the 
 man cometh, John vi. 44. That notes the efficacy of grace, 
 and this the sweetness of grace. Grace worketh strongly, 
 and therefore God is said to draw; and it worketh sweetly 
 too, and therefore man is said to come. 
 
 Again, from hence we learn our duty unto this King, the 
 honour and subjection which is due unto him. " The Father 
 hath committed all judgment unto the Son ;" that is, hath 
 anointed him with the office and abilities of a king ; for judg- 
 ment stands for the whole duty of a king, Psa. Ixxii. 1, and 
 is therefore frequently attributed unto the Messiah, Isa. xlii. 
 1, 4; Jer. xxiii. 5; xxxiii. 15. And from thence our 
 Saviour infers, " that all men should honour the Son, even as 
 they honour the Father," John v. 22, 23, with the same 
 worship, reverence, and subjection. For " God hath highly 
 exalted him, and given him a name above every name, that 
 at the name of Jesus," that is, unto that Holy Thing, unto 
 the power and sceptre of that Divine Person, which is unto 
 us so comfortably manifested in a name of salvation, " every 
 knee shall bow," Phil. ii. 9, 10. This duty the psalmist 
 expresseth by " kissing the Son," Psa. ii. 12. Which de- 
 noteth unto us three things: 1. Love. For a kiss is a 
 symbol and expression of love, and therefore used by the 
 primitive christians in their feasts of love, and after prayer 
 to God, and oftentimes enjoined by St. Paul as an expression 
 of christian love ; insomuch that it was a proverbial speech 
 amongst the heathen, *' See how these christians love one 
 B 3 
 
10 SUBJECTION DUE TO CHRIST. 
 
 another!" And this is a duty which the apostle requires, 
 under pain of the extremest curse that can light upon a man, 
 to love the Lord Jesus Christ, 1 Cor. xvi. 22; Eph. vi. 
 24. " He that loveth father or mother more than me," 
 saith our Saviour, " he is not worthy of me ; or son or 
 daughter more than me, he is not worthy of me," Matt. x. 
 37. That is, he is utterly unqualified for the benefit of my 
 mediation; for he that hath good by me cannot choose but 
 love me, Luke vii. 47. 2. To kiss, in the Scripture phrase, 
 noteth worship and service : " Let the men that sacrifice kiss 
 the calves," Hosea xiii. 2; Job xxxi. 26, 27. And thus we 
 find the four beasts, and the four and twenty elders, and 
 every creature in heaven and on earth, and under the earth, 
 worshipping the Lamb, and ascribing " blessing, honour, 
 glory, and power unto him," Rev. v. 8, 14. 3. To kiss is 
 an expression of loyalty and obedience ; thus Samuel kissed 
 Saul, when he had anointed him king over Israel, 1 Sam. 
 X. L And this is a duty which we owe unto Christ, to be 
 obedient to him, to be ruled by his mouth, and by the sceptre 
 of his mouth ; that is, by his word, which is therefore called 
 the law of Christ, because it hath a binding power in it. 
 We are commanded from heaven to hear him, Matt. xvii. 5 ; 
 and that, too, under pain of a curse : every soul which will 
 not hear that Prophet shall be destroyed from among the 
 people, Acts iii. 23. We should learn, therefore, to take 
 his commands as from God, for he speaketh his Father's 
 words, and in his name, Deut. xviii. 19 ; John iii. 34. 
 When Ahasuerus commanded Haman to put on the crown 
 upon Mordecai, he presently executed the king's pleasure, 
 and honoured his greatest enemy, because the king required 
 it. Now, God hath made Christ our King, and hath " crowned 
 him with honour and majesty," as the apostle speaks, Heb. 
 ii. 9, and requires of us to kiss his Son, and to bow unto his 
 name; and, therefore, be we what we may, princes or judges, 
 or great men of the world, who rejoice in nothing more than 
 in the name of wisdom, this is our wisdom and duty, Psa. 
 ii. 10, 12. It is too ordinary with great men to be regard- 
 less of God and his ways. Yet we see the wrath of God in 
 his creatures; fire, tempest, pestilence, sword, sickness, 
 make no distinction between them and others ; how much 
 less will God himself make, when all crowns, and sceptres, 
 and dignities shall be resigned to him, and all men shall 
 stand in an equal distance and condition before the tribunal 
 
THE NECESSITY OF SUBJECTION. 11 
 
 of Christ, when no titles of honour, no eminency of station, 
 no treasures of wealth, no strength of dependences, no retinue 
 and train of servants, will accompany a man into the presence 
 of the Lamb, or stand between him and the judgment of 
 that great day. We know he was a king that feared the 
 presence of a persecuted prophet, 1 Kings xxi. 20; and he 
 was a governor that trembled at the preaching of an apostle 
 in chains. Acts xxi v. 26. 
 
 The word of God cannot be bound nor limited ; it is the 
 sceptre which his Father hath given him, and we cannot, 
 without open contest against God, resist his government 
 therein over us. " He that despiseth you despiseth me ; and 
 he that despiseth me despiseth him that sent me," saith our 
 Saviour, Luke x. 16. It is Christ himself, whose ambassa- 
 dors we are, and with whom men have to do in our ministry. 
 And he will have it so: 1. For our peace; if God were to 
 speak again by the ministry of angels, in thunder and fire, as 
 he did on mount Sinai, we should quickly call for Moses 
 and ministers again, Exod. xx. 19. 2. For his own glory, 
 that the excellency may be of God, and not of men, 2 Cor. 
 iv. 7. That it may not be in him that planteth, nor in him 
 that watereth, " but in God which giveth the increase," 
 
 1 Cor. iii. 7. That it may not be in him which willeth, nor 
 in him which runneth, " but of God which showeth mercv," 
 Rom. ix. 16. That the service, co-operation, and help" of 
 the church's joy might be ours, but the dominion over men's 
 faith, and the teaching of their inner man, might be Christ's, 
 
 2 Cor. i. 24; Eph. iv. 20, 21. Very bold, therefore, and 
 desperate is the contumacy of those men who stand at defiance 
 with the power of Christ speaking in his servants. The 
 apostle saith, there is no escape for those who neglect so 
 great salvation, Heb. ii. 3. And yet this is the constant 
 folly and cry of natural men, " We will not have this man 
 to reign over us. Let us break their bands asunder, and cast 
 away their cords from us," Luke xix. 14; Psa. ii. 3. 
 
 But, 1. Every man must be subject to some king, either 
 Christ or sin, for they two divide the world, and their kingdom.s 
 will not consist. And the subjects of sin are all slaves and 
 servants, no liberty amongst them, John viii. 34; whereas 
 Christ makes all his subjects kings, like himself, Rev. i. 6 ; 
 and his is a kingdom of righteousness, peace, and joy, Rom. 
 xiv. 17. 2. If men, by being the subjects of sin, could keep 
 quite out from the judgment and sceptre of Christ, it were 
 
12 CHRIST THE SON OF DAVID. 
 
 something : but all men must, one way or other, be subdued 
 unto him, either as sons, or as captives ; either under his grace, 
 or under his wrath. " As I live, saith the Lord, every knee 
 shall bow to me," Rom. xiv. 10, 11. He must be either a 
 savour of life, or of death ; either for the rising, or the fall of 
 many in Israel ; either for a sanctuary, or for a stumbling block : 
 all must either be saved by him, or judged by him. There is 
 no refuge nor shelter of escape in any part of the world, for 
 his kingdom reacheth to the uttermost corners of the earth, 
 and will find out and fetch in all his enemies. 3. The matter 
 were not great, if a man could hold out in the opposition. 
 But " can thine heart endure, or thine hands be strong, saith the 
 Lord, in the days that I shall deal with thee ? " Ezek. xxii. 
 14. What will ye do in the desolation which shall come 
 from far ? when you are spoiled, what will ye do ? where will 
 you leave your glory ? what will become of the king whom 
 you served before ? It may be thy money is thine idol, and 
 thou art held in thraldom under thine own possessions. But 
 what will remain of a man's silver and gold to carry him 
 through the wrath to come, but only the rust thereof to join 
 in judgment against him? It maybe thou servest the times 
 and fashions of the world, rejoiceth in thy youth, in the ways 
 of thy heart, and in the sight of thine eyes : but thou must 
 not rise out of thy grave in thy best clothes, nor appear be- 
 fore Christ, like Agag, gorgeously apparalled. Thou must 
 not rise to play, but to be judged. It may be thou servest 
 thine own lust and another's beauty : but what pleasure will 
 there be in the fire of lust, when it shall be turned into the 
 fire of hell ? or what beauty wilt thou find on the left hand of 
 Christ, where the characters of every man's hellish conscience 
 shall be written in his face ? Thou servest thine own vain- 
 glory and affectations ; but what good will it be to be admired 
 by thy fellow-prisoners, and condemned by thy Judge ? In 
 one word, thou servest any of thine own evil desires : foolish 
 man, here they command thee, and there they will condemn 
 thee ; they are here thy gods, and they will be there thy 
 devils. 
 
 II. The second particular in the description of Christ's 
 kingdom is the greatness, and nearness of his person unto 
 David. " My Lord." David calleth him, " My Lord," upon a 
 double reason; by a spirit of prophecy, as foreseemg his incar- 
 nation and nativity out of the tribe of Judah and stock oi 
 Jesse ; and so he was David's son ; and by a spirit of faith, 
 
HOW CHRIST IS A LORD. 13 
 
 as believing him to be his Redeemer and salvation ; and so 
 he was David's Lord. ''A virgin shall conceive, and bear a 
 son ;" there we see his incarnation and descent from David ; 
 **and shall call his name Immanuel," God with us, Isa. vii. 
 14 ; there we see his dominion over David. As man, so he 
 was his son ; and as Mediator, so he was his Lord. As man, 
 so he was subject unto Mary his mother; and as Mediator, he 
 was the Lord and Saviour of his mother, Luke ii. 51; i. 46, 
 47. As man, he was made for a little while lower than the 
 angels, that he might suffer death ; but as Mediator, God and 
 man, in one person, he was made much better than the angels, 
 all the angels of God were his subjects, to worship him, and 
 his ministers, to wait upon him, Heb. ii. 7, 9 ; i. 4, 6, 7. 
 So then the pronoun mine leads us to the consideration of 
 Christ's consanguinity with David, as he was his son ; and of 
 his dignity above David, as he was his Lord. 
 
 From hence we learn, that though Christ was man, yet he 
 was more than a bare man. For, by the law of nature, no 
 son is lord to his father; domination doth never ascend. 
 There must be something above nature in him to make him 
 his father's sovereign, as our Saviour himself argueth from these 
 words. Matt. xxii. 42, 43. Christ then is a Lord to his people ; 
 he had dominion, and was the salvation of his own forefathers 
 
 A Lord ; 1. By right of the creation. For he is "before 
 all things, and by him all things consist," Col. i. 17 : which 
 the apostle makes the argument of his sovereignty ; " To us 
 there is but one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, 
 and we by him," 1 Cor. viii. 6. 
 
 2. By a right of sonship and primogeniture, as the chief, 
 the firstborn, the heir of all things. He is not in the house, 
 as Moses was, as a servant, but a son over his own house, Heb. 
 iii. 3, 6. That is, he was not a servant, but Lord in the 
 church, as the apostle elsewhere gives us the same distinction. 
 " We preach Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your ser- 
 vants," 2 Cor. iv. 5. For in the Scripture phrase the firstborn 
 notes principality, excellency, and dominion. " I will make 
 him," saith God, " my firstborn, higher than the kings of the 
 earth," Psa. Ixxxix. 27. So in Job, the firstborn of death is 
 the same with the king of terrors. Job xviii. 13, 14 ; and so 
 the apostle saith, that the heir is the lord of all. Gal. iv. 1. 
 And therefore from his primogeniture and designation to the 
 inheritance of all things, he inferreth his pre-eminence and 
 honour even above the angels, Gal. i. 18 ; Heb. i. 2, 4. 
 
14 HOW CHRIST IS A LORD TO US 
 
 3. By the right of his unction, office, and mediatorship, 
 unto which he was designed by his Father. He w^as in all 
 things to have the pre-eminence ; " For it pleased the Father 
 that in him should all fulness dwell," Col. i. 18, 19. Where 
 by fulness we must understand either fulness of the Godhead 
 bodily, as the apostle speaks, Col. ii. 9 ; or fulness of the 
 Spirit of grace, which St. John speaks of, John i. 16 ; iii. 34. 
 And in both respects he is Lord over all : in one, by the dig- 
 nity of his hypostatical union ; in the other, by the grace of 
 his heavenly unction ; and in both, as Mediator and Head in 
 the Church. Therefore the apostle saith, " that God hath 
 made him Lord and Christ," Acts ii. 36 ; and by the accom- 
 plishment of his office, in dying, rising, and reviving, he be- 
 came Lord both of the dead and living, Rom. xiv. 9 ; Rev.v. 12. 
 
 And thus he is Lord in two respects : 1. A Lord in power 
 and strength. Power to forgive sins ; power to quicken whom 
 he will ; power to cleanse, justify, and sanctify ; power to suc- 
 cour in temptations ; power to raise from the dead ; power to 
 save to the uttermost all that come unto God by him ; power 
 to hold fast his sheep ; power to cast out the accuser of the 
 brethren ; power to put down all his enemies, and to subdue 
 all things unto himself. 2. A Lord in authority ; to judge, 
 to anoint, to employ, to command whom and what he will. 
 He only is Lord over our persons, over our faith, over our 
 consciences ! to him only we must say, " Lord, save us, lest we 
 perish !" and, " Lord, what wilt thou have me to do ?" 
 
 And Christ was such a Lord to his own forefathers. 
 " They did all eat of the same spiritual meat, and did all drink 
 the same spiritual drink," even of that spiritual Rock, which 
 was Christ, 1 Cor. x. 3, 4. He was the substance of the cere- 
 monies, the doctrine of the prophets, the accomplishment of 
 the promises, the joy and salvation of the patriarchs and 
 princes, the desire and expectation of all flesh. The gospel 
 is to us a history and narration, and therefore delivered by the 
 hand of witnesses ; to them a promise and prediction, and 
 therefore delivered by the hand of prophets. The apostles 
 entered into the prophets' labours, and were servants in the 
 same common salvation ; these as sowers, and they as reapers ; 
 these as preachers of the seed hoped, and they as preachers 
 of the same seed exhibited. The ancient jews, then, were not 
 saved by bare temporal promises, neither was their faith ulti- 
 mately fixed upon ceremonies or earthly things ; but as their 
 preachers had the same spirit of Christ with ours, so the doc- 
 
AND THE PATRIARCHS. 15 
 
 trine which they preached, the faith and obedience which they 
 required, the salvation which they foretold, were the same 
 with ours. As the same sun enlightens the stars above and 
 the earth beneath, so the same Christ was the righteousness 
 and salvation both of his forefathers and of his seed. " They 
 without us could not be made perfect," Heb. xi. 40 ; that 
 is, as I conceive, their faith had nothing actually extant 
 amongst themselves to perfect it, but received all its form and 
 accomplishment from that better thing which was provided for, 
 and exhibited unto us. " For the law," that is, the carnal 
 commandment, and outward ceremonies therein prescribed, 
 " made nothing," grace, nor person, " perfect ; but the bringing 
 in of a better hope," that is, of Christ, who as he is unto us 
 the hope of glory, so he was unto them the hope of deUver- 
 ance, for he alone it is by whom we draw nigh unto God, 
 " hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified," Heb. vii. 
 19; Heb. X. 14. 
 
 If Christ then be our Lord, we must trust in him, and de- 
 pend upon him for all our present subsistence and our future 
 expectations. For he never faileth those that wait upon him. 
 " He that believeth in him shall not be ashamed," Rom. ix. 
 23. And indeed faith is necessary to call Christ, Lord ; " No 
 man can say Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost," 
 
 1 Cor. xii. 3 : because other lords are present with us, they 
 do with their own eyes oversee, and by their own visible power 
 order and direct us in their service : but Christ is absent from 
 our senses ; " Though I have known Christ after the flesh, 
 yet henceforth," saith the apostle, "know I him no more," 
 
 2 Cor. v. 16. Therefore, to fear, and honour, and serve him 
 with all fidelity, to yield more absolute and universal obedience 
 to his commands, though absent, and though tendered unto us 
 by the ministry of mean and despicable persons, than to the 
 threats and sceptres of the greatest princes ; to labour that not 
 only present, but absent, we may be accepted of him; to do 
 his hardest works of self-denial, of overcoming and rejecting 
 the assaults of the world, of standing out against principal- 
 ities, and pov.-ers, and spiritual wickedness, of suffering and 
 dying in his service, there needs must be faith in the heart to 
 see him present by his Spirit, to set our seal to the truth, 
 authority, and majesty of all his commands ; to hear the Lord 
 speaking from heaven, and to find by the secret and powerful 
 revelations of his Spirit out of the word to the soul, evident 
 and invincible proofs of his living by the power of God, and 
 
16 OBEDIENCE DUE UNTO CHRIST. 
 
 speaking mightily in the ministry of his word to our con- 
 sciences. Therefore, when the apostle had said, " We are ab- 
 sent from the Lord," 2 Cor. v. 6, he presently adds, " We 
 walk by faith ; " that is, we labour to yield all service and 
 obedience to this our Lord, though absent ; because by faith 
 (which giveth presence to things unseen, and subsistence to 
 things that are yet but hoped) we know that he is, and that 
 " he is a Rewarder of those that diligently seek him." 
 
 And indeed, though every man call him Lord, yet no man 
 doth in truth and sincerity of heart so esteem him, but those 
 who do in this manner serve him, and by faith walk after 
 him. " If I be a master, where is my fear, saith the Lord?" 
 Mai. i. 6. It is not every one that saith. Lord, Lord, but he 
 that doth my will, that trembleth at my word, that laboureth 
 hi my service, who declares himself to be mine indeed. For 
 the heart of man cannot have two masters, because which 
 way soever it goes, it goes whole and undivided. We cannot 
 serve Christ and any thing else which stands in competition 
 with him : 1. Because they are contrary masters ; one cannot 
 be pleased, or served, without the disallowance of the other. 
 "The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy;" that is, 
 oTudgeth, and cannot endure that any service should be done 
 to the Lord; for "the friendship of the world is enmity with 
 God," James iv. 4, 5. And therefore, saith the apostle, " If 
 any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him," 
 
 1 John ii. 15 ; and the reason is, because they are contrary 
 principles, and have contrary spirits and lusts ; and therefore 
 must needs overrule unto contrary services. 2. Because both 
 masters have employments enough to take up a whole man. 
 Satan and the world have lusts to fill the whole head and 
 heart of their most active and industrious servants ; for the 
 apostle saith, that all which is in the world are lusts, 1 John 
 ii. 16. And the heart of man is wholly or most greedily set 
 in him to do that evil which it is tasked withal, Eccles. viii. 
 11. The "all" that is in man, all his faculties, all his affec- 
 tions, the whole compass of his created abilities, are all gone 
 aside, or turned backward ; there is no man, no part in man, 
 that doth any good, no not one, Psa. xiv. 3 ; hii. 3. 
 
 Christ likewise is a great Lord, hath much m.ore business 
 than all the time or strength of his servants can bring about. 
 He requireth the obedience of every thought of the heart, 
 
 2 Cor. X. 5. Grace, and edification, and profit in all the words 
 that proceed out of our mouth, Eph. iv. 29. A respect mito 
 
THE POWER OF CHRIST's KINGDOM. 17 
 
 the glory of God in whatever works we go about, 1 Cor. x. 31. 
 The whole soul, body, and spirit, should be sanctified 
 throughout, and that even till the coming of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ, 1 Thess. v. 23. Christ hath much more service than 
 enough to take up all the might, strength, studies, abilities, 
 time, and callings of all his servants ; every christian hath his 
 hands full of work. And therefore Christ expostulateth that 
 it is an absurd thing to call him, Lord, Lord, to profess and re- 
 peat a verbal subjection, and yet not to do the things which 
 he requires, Luke vi. 46. 
 
 III. The third thing observed, touching the kingdom of 
 Christ, is the glory and power thereof, intimated by his sitting 
 at the Lord's right hand. God's right hand, in the Scripture, 
 is a metonymical expression of the strength, power, majesty, 
 and glory that belong unto him. " This is mine infirmity," 
 said the psalmist ; " but I will remember the years of the 
 right hand of the Most High," Psa. Ixxvii.IO. Where we find 
 God's power under the figure of a right hand, opposed to the 
 infirmity of his servant. So the right hand oi the Lord is 
 said to span, or extend the heavens, Isa. xlviii. 13. And the 
 psalmist expresseth the strength and salvation of the Lord by 
 his right hand, Psa. cxviii. 14 — 16. And his fury is the 
 " cup of his right hand," Hab. ii. 16, And he strengtheneth, 
 and helpeth, and upholdeth his people by the right hand of 
 his righteousness ; that is, by his power and faithful promises, 
 which in their weakness strengthens them, in their fear and 
 flagging helps them, in their sinking and falling upholds them, 
 Isa. xli. 10. So the psalmist saith of wicked men, that " their 
 right hand is a right hand of falsehood," Psa. cxliv. 11 ; that 
 is, either confidence in their own power will deceive themselves, 
 or they will deceive others to whom they promise succour and 
 assistance. Therefore God's right hand is called the right hand 
 of majesty, Heb. i. 3 ; and the right hand of power, Luke 
 xxii. 69. To sit then at God's right hand noteth the great 
 honour and judiciary office, and plenitude of power which God 
 the Father hath given to his Son, after his manifestation in 
 the flesh, in his nativity, and justification by the Spirit ; in his 
 resurrection, he was then, amongst other dignities, received up 
 into glory, 1 Tim. iii. 16. This we find amongst those ex- 
 pressions of honour which Solomon showed unto his mother, 
 that she sat at his right hand, 1 Kings ii. 19. And herein 
 the apostle puts a great difference between Christ and the le- 
 vitical priests, that they stood daily ministering, but Christy 
 
18 THE EXALTATION OF CHRIST. 
 
 after his offering, " sat down on the right*hand of God," Heb. 
 X. 12. Noting two things: 1. that Christ was the Lord, and 
 they but servants ; for standing is the posture of a servant or 
 minister, Deut. xvii. 12 ; Ezek xHv. 24, and not sitting, Luke 
 xvii, 7. 2. That their work was daily to be repeated, whereas 
 Christ's was consummated in one offering once for all, after 
 which he rested or sat down again. 
 
 1. This sitting of Christ at the right hand of Majesty and 
 Glory, notes unto us, the great exaltation of the Lord Christ, 
 whom God hath highly honoured and advanced, and given 
 a name above every name. 
 
 (1.) His Divine nature, though it cannot possibly receive 
 any intrinsical improvement or glory, all fulness of glory 
 essentially belonging thereunto, yet so far as it was hum- 
 bled, for the economy and administration of his office, so far 
 it was re-advanced again. Now, he emptied and humbled him- 
 -self, not by putting off any of his Divine glory ; but by suffer- 
 ing it to be over-shadowed with the similitude of sinful flesh, 
 and to be humbled under the form of a servant, as the light of 
 a candle is hidden in a dark and close lantern. So that de- 
 claratorily, or by way of manifestation, he is in that respect 
 magnified at God's right hand ; or, as the apostle speaks, de- 
 clared to be the Son of God with power in rising from the dead, 
 and returning to his glory again, Rom. i. 4. Again ; however 
 in the abstract we cannot say, that the Deity, or Divine na- 
 ture was exalted in any other sense, than by evident manifest- 
 ation of itself in that Man who was before despised and 
 accused as a blasphemer, for that he made himself equal with 
 God : yet, by reason of the communication of properties from 
 one nature to another in the unity of one person, it is true, 
 that as God saved the world by his blood, and as it was the 
 Prince of life that was crucified, and the Lord that lay in the 
 grave, so God likewise was in the form of a servant humbled, 
 and at the right hand of Majesty exalted again. 
 
 (2.) The human nature of Christ is most highly exalted 
 by sitting at God's right hand ; for in the right of his hypo- 
 statical union, he hath an ample and immediate claim to all 
 that glory which might in the human nature be conferred 
 upon him ; so that though, during the time of his conversation 
 amongst men, the exigence and economy of the office which 
 he had for us undertaken made him a man of sorrows, and 
 intercepted the beams of the Godhead and Divine glory from 
 the other nature ; yet, having finished that dispensation, there 
 
THE EXALTATION OF CHRIST. 19 
 
 was in the virtue of that most intimate association of the na- 
 tures in one person, a communicating of all glory from the 
 Deity which the other nature was capable of. For, as by the 
 Spirit of holiness he was filled with treasures of wisdom, and 
 knowledge, and grace, and thereby fitted for the office of a 
 Mediator, and made the first-fruits of the first-born, the Heir 
 of all things, the Head and Captain of the church ; furnished 
 with a residue and redundancy of the Spirit to sanctify his 
 brethren, and to make them joint heirs and first-born with 
 himself ; so, by the Spirit of glory is he filled with unmatchable 
 perfections, beyond the capacity or comprehension of all the 
 angels of heaven ; being not only full of glory, but having in 
 him all the fulness of glory which a created nature, joined to 
 an infinite and bottomless fountain, could receive. 
 
 From hence, therefore, we should learn to let the same mind 
 be in us which was in Christ ; to humble ourselves first, that 
 we may be exalted in due time ; to finish our works of self- 
 denial and service which we owe to God, that so we may enter 
 into our Master's glory. For he himself entered not but by a 
 way of blood. We likewise learn to have recourse and de- 
 pendence on him for all supplies of the Spirit, Phil. i. 19 ; 
 for all strength of grace, Phil. iv. 13 ; for all influences of life, 
 for the measure of every joint and member, Eph. iv. 16. He 
 is our Treasure, our Fountain, our Head. It is his free grace, 
 his voluntary influence, which habituateth and fitteth all our 
 faculties ; which animateth us unto a heavenly being, which 
 givethus both the strength and first act, whereby we are qualified 
 to work, and which concurreth with us in the second act to all 
 those works which we set ourselves about. As an instrument, 
 even when it hath an edge, cutteth nothing till it be assisted 
 and moved by the hand of the artificer ; so a christian, when 
 he hath a will and an habitual fitness to work, yet is able to 
 do nothing without the constant supply, assistance, and con- 
 comitancy of the grace of Christ, exciting, moving, and ap- 
 plying that habitual power unto particular actions. He it is 
 that giveth us not only to will, but to do ; that goeth through 
 with us, and worketh all our works for us by his grace. With- 
 out him we can do nothing ; all our sufficiency is from him. 
 But it maybe objected, If we can do nothing without a second 
 grace, to what end is a former grace given ? Or what use is 
 there of our exciting that grace and gift of God in us, which 
 can do nothing without a further concourse of Christ's Spirit ? 
 To this I answer, first, that as light is necessary and requisite 
 
20 THE EXALTATION OF CHRIST. 
 
 unto seeing, and yet there is no seeing without an eye, so 
 without the assisting grace of Christ's Spirit concurring with 
 us unto every holy duty, we can do nothing ; and yet that 
 grace doth ever pre-suppose an implanted, seminal, and habitual 
 grace, fore-disposing the soul unto the said duties. Again ; as 
 in the course of natural effects, though God be a most volun- 
 tary agent, yet in the ordinary concurrence of a first cause he 
 worketh after the manner of nature, measuring forth his assist- 
 ance proportionably to the condition and preparation of the 
 second causes : so in supernatural and holy operations, albeit 
 not with a like certain and unaltered constancy, though Christ 
 be a most voluntary Head of his church, yet usually he pro- 
 portioneth his assisting and second grace unto the growth, 
 progress, and deepening of those spiritual habits which are in the 
 soul before. From whence cometh the difference of holiness 
 and profitableness amongst the saints, that some are more 
 active and unwearied in all holy conversation than others ; as 
 in the natural body some members are larger and more full of 
 life and motion than others, according to the different distribu- 
 tion of spirits from the heart, and influences from the head. 
 
 This, then, affords matter enough both to humble us and to 
 comfort us. To humble us, that we can do nothing of our- 
 selves ; that we have nothing in ourselves, but sin. All the 
 fulness of grace is in him ; and therefore whosoever hath any, 
 must have it from him: as in the Egyptian famine, whosoever 
 had any corn had it from Joseph, to whom the granaries and 
 treasures of Egypt were for that purpose committed. And 
 this lowliness of heart, and sense of our own emptiness, is 
 that which makes us always have recourse to our Fountain, 
 and keep in favour with our Head, from whom we must re- 
 ceive fresh supply of strength for doing any good, for bearing 
 any evil, for resisting any temptation, for overcoming any 
 enemy ; for beginning, for continuing, and for perfecting any 
 duty. For though it be man's heart that doth these things, yet 
 it is by a foreign and impressed strength ; as it is iron that 
 burns, but not by its own nature, which is cold ; but by the 
 heat which it hath received from the fire. "Yet not I," 
 saith the apostle, " but the grace of God which was with me," 
 1 Cor. XV. 10. 
 
 To comfort us likewise, when we consider that all fulness 
 and strength is in him, as in an officer, an Adam, a treasurer 
 and dispenser of all needful supplies to his people, according 
 to the place they bear in his body, and to the exigence and 
 
THE EXALTATION OF CHRIST. "21 
 
 measure of their condition in themselves, or service in his 
 church. Sure we are that what measure soever he gives unto 
 any, he hath still a residue of Spirit ; nay he still retaineth his 
 own fulness ; hath still enough to carry us through any .con- 
 dition, and according to the difficulties of the service he puts 
 us upon ; hath still wisdom to understand, compassion to pity, 
 strength to supply all our needs. And that all this he hath 
 as a merciful and faithful Depository, as a Guardian, and 
 Husband, and elder Brother, to employ for the good of his 
 church. That he is unto this office appointed by the will of 
 Him that sent him, to lose nothing of all that which is given 
 him, but to keep and perfect it unto the resurrection at the last 
 day. That God hath planted in him a Spirit of faithfulness 
 and pity, for the cheerful discharge of this great office ; given 
 him a propriety in us, made us as near and dear unto him 
 as the members of his sacred body are to one another ; and 
 therefore whosoever cometh to him, with emptiness, and hun- 
 ger, and faith, he will in no wise cast them out ; it is as pos- 
 sible for him to hew off, and to throw away the members of 
 his natural body, to have any of his bones broken, as to 
 reject the humble and faithful desires of those that duly wait 
 upon him. 
 
 Again, from this exaltation of Christ in his human nature, 
 we should learn to keep ourselves in holiness and in honour, 
 as those who expect to be fashioned at the last like unto him. 
 For how can that man truly hope to be like Christ hereafter, 
 that labours to be as unlike him here as he can ? " Shall I 
 take the members of Christ, and make them the members of an 
 harlot?" saith the apostle, 1 Cor. vi. 15, So may I say, 
 Shall I take the nature of Christ, that nature which he in his 
 person hath so highly glorified, and make it in my person the 
 nature of a devil ?• If a prince should marry a mean woman, 
 would he endure to see those of her nearest kindred, her 
 brethren and sisters, live like scullions or the lowest menials 
 under his own 6ye? Now, Christ hath taken our nature into 
 a nearer union with himself than marriage ; for man and wife 
 are still two persons, but God and man is but one Christ. 
 Death itself was not able to dissolve this union ; for when the 
 soul was separated from the body, yet the Deity was separated 
 from neither. It was the Lord that lay in the grave, and he 
 that ascended was the same that descended into the lower part 
 of the earth. Matt, xxviii. 6 ; Eph. iv. 10. And shall we then 
 defile this nature by wantonness, intemperance, and vile 
 
22 NECESSITY OF CHRIST S HUMILIATION. 
 
 affections, which is taken into so indissoluble an unity with the 
 Son of God ? Christ took it to advance it ; and it is still, by 
 his Spirit in us, so much the more advanced, by how much the 
 nearer it comes to that holiness which it hath in him. We 
 should therefore labour to walk as becometh those that have 
 so glorious a Head, to walk worthy of such a Lord unto all 
 well pleasing, in fruitfulness and knowledge ; to walk as those 
 that have received Christ, and expect his appearing again, 
 Phil. i. 27 ; Col. i. 10 ; ii. 6 ; iii. 4, 5. 
 
 2. The sitting of Christ on the right hand of God, notes 
 unto us the consummation of all those offices which he was to 
 perform here on the earth for our redemption : for till they were all 
 finished, he was not to return to his glory again. " He that 
 hath entered into his rest hath ceased from his own works," 
 saith the apostle, Heb. iv. 10. First, he was to execute his 
 office before he was to enter into his rest. Though he were a 
 son, and so, by the law of nature, the inheritance were his 
 own before, yet he was to learn obedience by the things which 
 he was to suffer before he was made perfect again, Heb. v. 8, 9. 
 *' After he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever," that is, 
 after he had made such a complete expiation as should 
 never need be repeated, but was able for ever to perfect those 
 that are sanctified, he then " sat down on the right hand of 
 God ; from henceforth expecting till his enemies be made 
 his footstool," Heb. x. 12 — 14, This is the argument our 
 Saviour useth when he prayeth to be glorified again with his 
 Father ; " I have glorified thee on earth," or revealed the 
 glory of thy truth and mercy to thy church ; " I have finished 
 the work which thou gavest me to do, and now, O Father, 
 glorify thou me with thine own self," John xvii. 4, 5. " He 
 humbled himself," saith the apostle, " and became obedient 
 to death, even the death of the cross ; wherefore God hath 
 highly exalted him," Phil. ii. 8, 9. Noting unto us, the order 
 of the dispensation of Christ's offices : some were works of 
 ministry and service, in the office of obedience and suffering 
 for his church; others were works of power and majesty, in 
 the protection and exaltation of his church ; and those neces- 
 sarily to precede these. He " ought to suffer, and to enter 
 into his glory," Luke xxiv. 26, 46. Necessarily I say ; 1. by 
 a necessity of God's decree, who had so fore-appointed it, 
 Acts ii. 23, 24. 2. By the necessity of God's justice, which 
 must first be satisfied by obedience, before it could be appeased 
 with man, or in the person of their Head and Advocate exalt 
 
NECESSITY OF CIIRISt's HUMILIATION *2S 
 
 tliem to his glory again, Rom. Hi. 25; v. 10 ; vi. 6, 11 ; Eph. 
 ii. 5, 6. 8. By the necessity of God's word and will, signified 
 in the predictions of the prophets, Luke xxiv. 46 ; 1 Peter i. 
 10, 11, 4. By the necessity of Christ's infinite person, 
 which being equal with God, could not possibly be exalted 
 without some preceding descent and humiliation. " That he 
 ascended," saith the apostle, " what is it but that he also de- 
 scended first into the lower parts of the earth ? " Eph. iv, 9. 
 Therefore it is that our Saviour saith, the Spirit should 
 con\'ince the world of righteousness, because he was to go to 
 the Father, and should be seen here no more, John xvi. 10. 
 The meaning of it is, that the Spirit should, in the ministry of 
 the word, reveal unto those who are fully convhiced of their 
 sinful condition, and humbled in the sense thereof, a treasure 
 of full and sufficient righteousness by his obedience wrought 
 for sinners : and the reason which is given of it stands thus ; 
 our righteousness consists in our being able to stand in God's 
 presence. Now, Christ having done all as our Surety here, 
 went up into glory as our Head and Advocate, as the First-fruits, 
 the Captain, the Prince of life, the Author of salvation, and 
 the Forerunner of his people ; so that his going thither, is an 
 argument of our justification by him. Because it is a sign 
 that he hath finished the work of our redemption on earth ; a 
 sign that he overcame death, and was justified by the Spirit 
 from the wrongs of men and from the curse of the law. There- 
 fore he said to Mary, after his resurrection, " Go unto my 
 brethren, and say, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father ; 
 and to my God, and your God," John xx. 17. That is, by my 
 death and victory over it, you are made my brethren and recon- 
 ciled unto God again. Again ; because he hath offices in 
 heaven to fulfil at the right hand of his Father in our behalf, 
 to intercede and to prepare a place for us, to apply unto us the 
 virtue of his death and merits. If he had ascended without 
 fulfilling all righteousness for the church, he would have been 
 sent down, and seen again : but now, saith he," You see me no 
 more ;" for by once dying, and by once appearing in the end of 
 the world, he put away sin by the sacrifice of himself, Heb. 
 ix. 26 ; vii. 27 ; Rom. vi. 9, 10. " He was taken," saith the 
 prophet, " from prison and from judgment ;" to note, that the 
 whole debt was paid, and now " who shall declare his gene- 
 ration ?" Isa. liii. 8. That is, he now liveth unto num- 
 berless generations, he prolongeth his days, and hath already 
 fulfilled righteousness enough to justify all those that know 
 
24 NECESSITY OF CHRIST S HUMILIATION. 
 
 him, or believe in him. Thus we see that Christ's deliver- 
 ance out of prison, and exaltation at the right hand of God, 
 is an evident argument that he is fully exonerated of the guilt 
 of sin and the curse of the law, and hath accomplished all 
 those works which he had undertaken for our righteousness. 
 
 And this likewise affords abundant matter both to humble 
 and to comfort the church of Christ. To humble us in the 
 evidence of our disabiUties ; for if we could have finished the 
 works which were given us to do, there would, have been no 
 need of Christ. It was weakness which made way for Christ : 
 our weakness to fulfil obedience, and that weakness of the law 
 to justify sinners, Rom. v. 6; viii. 3; Heb. vii. 18, 19. All 
 the strength we have is by the power of his might and by his 
 grace, Eph. vi. 10 ; 2 Tim. ii. 1. And even this God dis- 
 penseth unto us in measure, and by degrees, driving out our 
 corruptions as he did the Canaanites before his people, by 
 little and little, Exod. xxiii. 30. Because, while we are here, 
 he will have us live by faith, and draw our strength, as we 
 use it, from Christ, and wait in hope of a better condition. 
 
 To comfort us likewise: (1.) Against all our unavoidable 
 and invincible infirmities. Every good christian desires to 
 serve the Lord with all his strength ; desires to be enriched, 
 to be stedfast, unmoveable, abounding in the work of the 
 Lord; to do his will as the angels in heaven do it. Yet in 
 many things he fails, and has daily experience of his own de- 
 fects. But here is all the comfort. Though I am not able to 
 do any of my duties as I should, yet Christ hath finished all 
 his to the full ; and therefore, though I am compassed with 
 infirmities, so that I cannot do the things which I would, yet 
 I have a compassionate Advocate with the Father, who both 
 giveth and craveth pardon for every one that prepareth his 
 heart to seek the Lord, though he be not perfectly cleansed, 
 1 John ii. 2 ; 2 Chron. xxx. 18, 19. 
 
 (2.) Against the pertinacy and close adherence of our cor- 
 ruptions, which cleave as fast unto us as the very powers and 
 faculties of our soul ; as heat unto fire, or light unto the sun. 
 Yet sure we are, that He who forbad the fire to burn, and put 
 blackness upon the face of the sun at midday, is able like- 
 wise to remove our corruptions as far from us as he hath re- 
 moved them from his own sight. And the ground of our ex- 
 pectation hereof is this ; Christ, when he was upon the earth 
 in the form of a servant, accomplished all the offices of suffer- 
 ing and obedience for usi therefore, being now exalted far 
 
ADMINISTRATION OF CHRIST S KINGDOM. 25 
 
 ahove all heavens, at the right hand of Majesty and Glory, 
 he will much more fulfil those offices of power which he hath 
 there to do : which are, by the supplies of his Spirit, to purge 
 us from sin ; by the sufficiency of his grace to strengthen us , 
 by his word to sanctify and cleanse us, and to present us to 
 himself a glorious church without spot or wrinkle. He that 
 brought from the dead the Lord Jesus, and suffered not death 
 to hold the Head, is able, by that power, and for that reason, 
 to make us perfect in every good work to do his will, and not 
 to suffer corruptioQ for ever to hold the members. It is the 
 frequent argument of the Scripture, Heb. xiii. 20, 21 ; Col. 
 ii. 12 ; Eph. i. 19, 20 ; Rom. vi. 5, 6 ; viii. 11. 
 
 (3.) Against all those fiery darts of Satan, whereby he 
 tempteth us to despair, and to forsake our mercy. If he 
 could have held Christ under when he was in the grave, then 
 indeed our faith would have been vain, we should be yet in 
 our sins, 1 Cor. xv. 17. But he who himself suffered, being 
 tempted, and overcame both the sufferings and the tempta- 
 tion, is able to succour those that are tempted, and to show 
 them mercy and grace to help in time of need, Heb. ii. 17, 
 18 ; iv. 13, 16. 
 
 (4.) Against death itself. For the accomplishment of 
 Christ's office of redemption, in his resurrection from the dead^ 
 was both the merit, the seal, and the first-fruits of ours, 
 1 Cor. XV. 20, 22. 
 
 3. The sitting of Christ on the right hand of his Father, 
 noteth unto us the actual administration of his kingdom. 
 Therefore that which is here said, " Sit thou at my right 
 hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool," the apostle 
 thus expoundeth ; " He must reign, till he hath put all ene- 
 mies under his feet," 1 Cor. xv. 25. And he therefore " died, 
 and rose, and revived, that he might be Lord both of dead 
 and living," Rom. xiv. 9; namely, by being exalted unto 
 God's right hand. Now this administration of Christ's king- 
 dom implies several particulars : — 
 
 (1.) The publication of established laws. For that which 
 is in this psalm called the sending forth of the rod of Christ's 
 strength out of Sion, is thus by the prophets expounded, 
 " Out of Sion shall go forth the law, and the word of the 
 Lord from Jerusalem," Isa. ii. 3 ; Micah iv. 2. 
 
 (2.) The conquering and subduing of subjects to himself, 
 by converting the hearts of men, and bringing their thoughts 
 
 c 
 
26 THE HOLY SPIRIT THE GIFT OF CHRIST. 
 
 into the obedience of his kingdom : ministerially, by the word 
 of reconciliation ; and effectually, by the power of his Spirit, 
 writing his laws in their hearts, and transforming them into 
 the image of his word, from glory to glory. 
 
 (3.) Ruling and leading those whom he hath thus con- 
 verted in his way, continuing unto their hearts his heavenly 
 voice, never utterly depriving them of the exciting, assisting, 
 co-operating grace of his Holy Spirit ; but by his Divine 
 power giving unto them all things which pertain unto life and 
 godliness, after he had once called them by his glorious 
 power, Isa. ii. 3 ; xxx. 21 ; John x. 3, 4 ; 1 Cor. i. 4, 8 ; 
 1 Peter ii. 9 ; 2 Peter i. 3. 
 
 (4.) Protecting, upholding, succouring them against all 
 temptations and discouragements. By his compassion pitying 
 them ; by his power and promises helping them ; by his care 
 and wisdom proportioning their strength to their trials ; bv 
 his peace recompensing their conflicts ; by patience and ex- 
 perience establishing their hearts in the hope of deliverance, 
 Heb. ii. 17 ; John xvi. 33 ; 1 Cor. x. 13 ; 2 Cor. i. 5 ; Phil, 
 iv, 7, 19 ; Rom. xv. 4. 
 
 (5.) Confounding all his enemies ; in their projects, 
 holding up his kingdom in the midst of their malice ; and 
 making his truth, like a tree, settle the faster, and like a torch, 
 shine the brighter, for the shaking. And in their persons, 
 whom he doth here gall and torment by the sceptre of his 
 word, constraining them by the evidence thereof, to subscribe 
 to the justice of his wrath; and whom he reserveth for the 
 day of his appearing, till they shall be put all under his feet : 
 in which respect he is said to stand at the right hand of God, 
 as a man of war ready armed for the defence of his church. 
 Acts vii. 5, 6. 
 
 4. The sitting of Christ on the right hand of God noteth 
 unto us his giving of gifts, and sending down the Holy Ghost 
 upon men. It hath been an universal custom, both in the 
 church and elsewhere, in days of great joy and solemnity, to 
 give gifts and send presents unto men. Thus, after the wall 
 of Jerusalem was built, and the worship of God restored, and 
 the law read and expounded by Ezra to the people, after the 
 captivity, it is said, that the people did eat, and drink, and 
 send portions, Neh. viii. 10, 12. The like form w^as by the 
 people of the jews observed in their feast of purim, Esther ix. 
 22. And the same custom hath been observed amongst 
 
THE HOLY SPIRIT THE GIFT OF CHRIST. 27 
 
 heathen princes upon solemn and great occasions, to distribute 
 donations and congiaries* amongst the people. Thus Christ, 
 in the day of his majesty and inauguration, in that great and 
 solemn triumph, when he ascended up on high, and led cap- 
 tivity captive, he did withal give gifts unto men, Eph. iv. 10. 
 
 Christ was notably typified in the ark of the testament. In 
 it were the tables of the law, to show that the whole law was 
 in Christ fulfilled, and that he was the end of the law for 
 righteousness to those that believe in him. There was the 
 golden pot which had manna, to signify that heavenly and 
 abiding nourishment which from him the church receiveth. 
 There was the rod of Aaron which budded, signifying either 
 the miraculous incarnation of Christ in a virgin, or his suffer- 
 ings, which are expressed by stripes, Isa. liii. 5 ; and our re- 
 surrection with him noted in the budding of a dry rod. Or 
 lastly, noting the sanctifying and fruitful virtue of his word, 
 which is the rod of his strength. Upon it also was the mercy 
 seat, to note that in Christ is the foundation of all that mercy 
 and atonement which is preached unto men. But in two 
 things principally did it signify Christ unto our present pur- 
 pose. 1. It was overlaid within and without with gold, and 
 had a crown of gold round about it, Exod. xxv. 1 1 ; xxxvii. 2 ; 
 denoting the plentiful and glorious kingdom of Christ, who 
 w^as crowned with glory and honour, Heb. ii. 7. 2. It had 
 rings, by which it was carried up and down, till at last it 
 rested in Solomon's temple, with glorious and triumphal so- 
 lemnity, Psa. cxxxii. 8, 9 ; 2 Chron. v. 13. So Christ, while 
 he was here upon earth, being anointed with the Holy Ghost 
 and with power, went about doing good. Acts x. 38. And 
 having ceased from his works, did at last enter into his rest, 
 Heb. iv. 10, which is the heavenly temple. Rev. xi. 19. 
 
 Now, this carrying of the ark into its resting-place denotes 
 two things : 1 . A final conquest over the enemies of God. For 
 as the moving of the ark signified the acting and procuring of 
 victory. Josh, vi 11, 20; so the resting of the ark noted tlie 
 consummation of \i^. "*" 2. It notes the conferring of gifts, 
 as we see in that triumphal song at the removal of the ark ; 
 being also a prediction both of that which literally happened in 
 the reign of Solomon, and was mystically verified in Christ,Psa. 
 Ixviii. 18. Thus Christ our Prince of peace, being now in 
 the temple of God in heaven, hath bound hell, sin, and death 
 
 * A gift distributed to the Roman people or soldiers, originally ia 
 i corn, afterwards in money. 
 
 c2 
 
28 DIFFERENT OPERATION OF CHRISt's SPIRIT. 
 
 captive, and hath demolished the walls of Jericho, or the king- 
 dom of Satan ; thrown him down from heaven like lightning, 
 and passed a sentence of judgment upon him ; and hath re- 
 ceived of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, and given 
 gifts unto men, Acts ii. 32, 35. 
 
 And we are to note, that as it began with his sitting there, 
 so it continueth as long as he shall sit there. It is true all 
 holy Scripture which God ordained for the gathering of his 
 people, and for the guidance of them in the militant church, 
 is already long since by the Spirit dictated unto holy and se- 
 lected instruments for that purpose, inspired with more abund- 
 ance of grace, and guided by a full and infaUible Spirit ; but 
 yet we must note, that in these holy writings there is such a 
 depth of heavenly wisdom, such a sea of mysteries, and such 
 an unsearchable treasure of purity and grace ; and though a 
 man should spend the longest life, after the severest and most 
 industrious manner, to acquaint himself with God in the reve- 
 lations of his word, yet his knowledge would be but in part, 
 and his holiness, after all, come short of maturity : as the 
 enemies are not all presently under Christ's feet, but are by 
 degrees subdued ; so the Spirit is not presently conferred in 
 fulness unto the members of Christ, but by measure and de- 
 grees, according to the voluntary influences of the Head, and 
 exigences of the members. So much of the Spirit of grace 
 and truth as we have here, is but the earnest and handsel of a 
 greater sum, Eph. i. 14 ; the seeds and first fruits of a fuller 
 harvest, 1 John iii. 9 ; Rom. viii. 23. Therefore the apostle 
 mentions a growing change " from glory to glory by the Spirit 
 of God," 2 Cor. iii. 18. We must not expect a fulness till 
 the time of the restitution of all things ; till that day of re- 
 demption and adoption wherein the light, which is here but 
 soWn for the righteous, shall grow up into a full harvest of 
 holiness and of glory. 
 
 But here ariseth a question out of the seeming contradiction 
 of holy Scripture. It is manifest that the Spirit of Christ 
 was in the church long before his ascension. The prophets 
 spake by him, 1 Peter i. 11; the ancient jews vexed him, 
 Isa. Ixiii. 10 ; John the Baptist was even filled with the Spirit, 
 to note a plentiful measure for the discharge of his office, 
 Luke i. 15 ; and yet St. John saith, that " the Holy Ghost 
 was not yet given ; because that Jesus was not yet glorified," 
 John vii. 39. To this I answer, that the fathers were sancti- 
 fied by the same Spirit of Christ with us. Difference there is 
 
DIFFERENT OPERATION OF CHRISt's SPIRIT. 29 
 
 none in the substance, but only in the accidents and circum- 
 stances of effusion and manifestation : as light in the sun, 
 and light in a star, is in itself the same original light, but very 
 much varied in the dispensation. It was the same truth which 
 was preached by the prophets and by Christ ; but the apostle 
 observes in it a difference : " sundry times, and in sundry 
 manners, hath God spoken by the prophets, but unto us by 
 his Son," Heb. i. 1 ; John xvi. 23 ; that is, more plentifully 
 and more plainly unto us than unto the fathers. Therefore, 
 though it be true that Abraham saw Christ's day, as all the 
 fathers did, (though he, being the father of the faithful, more 
 than others,) in which respect Eusebius saith of them, " that 
 tliey were christians really and in effect, though not in name :" 
 yet it is true likewise, that many prophets and righteous men 
 did desire to see and hear the things which the apostles saw 
 and heard, but did not. Matt. xiii. 17 ; namely, in such plain 
 and plentiful measure as the apostles did. They saw in 
 glimpses and morning stars, and prefigurations ; but these the 
 things themselves. They saw only the promises, and those 
 too but " afar off," Heb. xi. 13 ; these, the substance and 
 gospel itself, near at hand, in their mouth, and before their 
 eyes, and even amongst them, Rom. x. 8 ; Gal. iii. 1 ; John i. 
 14 ; 1 John i. 2, 3. They, by prophets, who " testified be- 
 forehand;" these, by eye witnesses, who declared the things 
 which they had seen and heard. Acts i. 8, 22 ; x. 41. There- 
 fore it is said, that Christ was a " Lamb slain from the 
 foundation of the world," Rev. xiii. 8 ; and yet " in the end 
 of the world that he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice 
 of himself," Heb. ix. 26. To note, that the fathers had the 
 benefit, but not the perfection of the promises, Heb. xi. 40 ; 
 for the apostle every where makes perfection the work of the 
 gospel, Eph. iv. 13; Heb. vi. 1. 
 
 So then, after Christ's sitting on the right hand of power, 
 the Holy Spirit was more completely sent, both in regard of 
 manifestation and efficacy, than ever before. The difference 
 is chiefly in three things : 
 
 (1.) In the manner of his mission. To the old church in 
 dreams and visions, in figures and latent ways ; but to the 
 evangelical churches in power, evidence, and demonstration, 
 1 Cor. ii. 4, 5. Therefore, he is called the " Spirit of wisdom 
 and revelation," which discovereth, and that unto principal- 
 ities and powers by the church, the manifold and mysterious 
 wisdom of God in Christ, Eph. i. 17 ; iii. 10. Therefore, 
 
30 DIFFERENT OPERATION OF CHRISt's SPIRIT. 
 
 the Spirit was sent in the latter days, in wind, and fire, and 
 tongues, and earthquakes, Acts ii. 2, 3 ; iv. 31 ; all which 
 have in them a self-discovering property, which will not be 
 hidden. Whereas, in the time of the prophets, God did not 
 in any such things, save only in a low and still voice, reveal 
 himself, 1 Kings xix. 1 1, 12. 
 
 (2.) In the subjects unto whom he was sent. Before, 
 only upon the hiclosed garden of the jews did this wind blow ; 
 but now is the Spirit poured upon all fleeh, and this heavenly 
 dew falleth not upon the fleece, but upon the whole earth. 
 And therefore our Saviour opposeth Jerusalem and the Spirit, 
 John iv. 21, 28. Every believer is of the Israel of God, 
 every christian a temple of the Holy Ghost ; no people of the 
 earth secluded, but in every nation he that feareth God and 
 worketh righteousness is accepted ; no place unclean, but 
 every where pure hands may be lifted up. 
 
 (3.) In the measure of his grace. At first he was sent 
 only in drops and dew, but afterwards he was poured out in 
 showers and abundance,Tit. iii. 6 ; and therefore, as I have be- 
 fore observed, the grace of the gospel is frequently expressed 
 by the name of riches, Eph. i. 7, to note, not only the precious- 
 ness, but the plenty thereof in the church. And it is here 
 worthy our observation that the Spirit, under the gospel, is 
 compared to things of a spreading, multiplying, and operative 
 nature. 
 
 [1.] To water, and that not a little measure to sprinkle or 
 bedew, but to baptize the faithful in. Matt. iii. 11 ; Acts i. 5 ; 
 and that not in a font or vessel which grows less and less, but 
 in a springing or living river, John vii. 39. Now, water, be- 
 sides its purging property, is of a spreading nature : it hath no 
 bounds nor limits to itself, as firm and solid bodies have, but 
 receives its restraint by the vessel or continent which holds it : 
 so the Spirit of the Lord is not straitened in himself, but 
 only by the narrow hearts of men into which he comes. " Ye 
 are not straitened," saiththe apostle, " in us ;" that is, in that 
 ministry of grace and dispensation of the Spirit which is com- 
 mitted to us, "but m your own bowels," which are not in any 
 proportion enlarged unto that abundance and fulness of heavenly 
 grace which, in the gospel of salvation, is offered unto you. 
 Spring water is a growing and multiplying thing; which is the 
 reason why rivers which rise from narrow fountains, have yet, 
 by reason of a constant and regular supply, a great breadth in 
 remote channels, because the water lives : whereas in pits and 
 
DIFFERENT OPERATION OF CHRISX's SPIRIT. 31 
 
 torrents it groweth less and less : so the graces of the Spirit 
 are living and springing things ; the longer they continue, the 
 larger they grow, like the waters of the sanctuary, Ezek. xxxvi. 
 25; and the reason is, because they come from a fountain 
 which is all life, John iv.lO; xiv. 6 ; Col. iii. 4. Again ; as 
 water multiplies in itself, so, by insinuation and molHfication, 
 it hath a fructifying virtue in other things. Fruitful trees are 
 planted by the water's side ; so the Spirit, searching and molli- 
 fying the heart, maketh it fruitful in holy obedience, Ezek. xi. 
 19, 20. Water is very strong in its own stream ; we see what 
 mighty engines it moveth, what huge vessels it rolleth like a 
 ball, what walls and bulwarks it overthrows : so the Spirit of 
 God is able to beat down all strong holds which the wit of 
 man or the malice of Satan can erect against the church. And 
 this strength of water serves to carry it as high as its own 
 spring and level : so the Spirit will never cease to raise the 
 hearts of his people till it carries them up to their fountain 
 and spring-head in heaven. 
 
 [^2.] The Spirit is compared to the rushing of a mighty 
 wind. The learned observe, that before Christ's time God 
 spake unto men in a soft still voice, which they called, " Bath 
 koll ; " but after, in the time of the gospel, by a mighty wind : 
 noting thereby both the abundance of his Spirit which he would 
 pour out in the latter days, and the strength thereof, as of a 
 rushing wind. Though a man have walls of brass and bars 
 of iron upon his conscience ; though he set up fortifications 
 of fleshly reason and the very gates of hell, to shut out the 
 Spirit of grace, yet nothing is able to withstand the power of 
 this mighty rushing wind. " Who art thou, O great mountain ? 
 Before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain," Zech. iv. 7. 
 
 £S.'] The Spirit is compared to fire ; noting likewise both 
 the multiplying or diffusive property thereof, turning every 
 thing into its own nature ; and the mighty strength thereof, 
 whereby it either cleanseth or consumeth any thing that 
 it meets with. If thou art stubble, it will devour thee ; if 
 stone, it will break thee ; if gold, it will purge thee. The hard 
 heart it can melt, and the foul heart it can purify. Lay down 
 thine heart under the word, and yield it to the Spirit, who is, 
 as it were, the artificer which doth manage the word, he can 
 frame it into a vessel of honour ; but if thou resist and be 
 stubborn against the Spirit in the word, know that it is but the 
 crackling of a leaf in the fire : if thou wilt not suffer it to 
 purge thee, thou canst not hinder it consuming thee ; nothing 
 
32 DIFFERENT OPERATION OF CHRISt's SPIRIT. 
 
 is more comfortable, nothing more consuming than fire ; no- 
 thing more comfortable than the light, warmth, and witness of 
 the Spirit ; nothing more terrible than the conviction, con- 
 demnation, and bondage of the Spirit. 
 
 Now this difference in the measure of the Spirit may be 
 seen in two things. 1. In a greater measure of knowledge ; 
 " They shall all know me, from the least of them unto the 
 greatest of them, saith the Lord," Jer. xxxi. 34. " And the 
 earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters 
 cover the sea," Isa. xi. 9. Our Saviour told his disciples that 
 all things he had heard of his Father he had made known 
 unto them, John xv. 15 ; and yet a little after he telleth them 
 that many other things he had to say unto them which they 
 could not bear, till the Spirit of truth came, who should guide 
 them into all truth, John xvi. 12, 13 ; noting that the Spirit, 
 when he came, should enlarge their hearts to a capacity of 
 more heavenly wisdom than they could comprehend before. 
 For we may observe, before how ignorant they were of many 
 things, though they conversed with Christ in the flesh. Philip 
 ignorant of the Father, John xiv. 8 ; Thomas of the way unto 
 the Father, John xiv. 5 ; Peter of the necessity of Christ's 
 sufferings, Matt. xvi. 22 ; the two disciples of his resurrection, 
 Luke xxiv. 43 ; all of them of the quality of his kingdom, 
 Acts i. 6. Thus, before the sending of the Holy Ghost, the 
 Lord did not require so plentiful knowledge unto salvation, as 
 after ; as in the valuations of money, that which was plenty 
 two or three hundred years since, is but penury now. 2. In 
 a greater measure of strength for spiritual obedience. They 
 who before fled from the company of Christ in his sufferings, 
 did afterwards rejoice to be counted worthy of suffering shame 
 for his name ; or, as the elegancy of the original words import, 
 to be dignified with that dishonour of being christians. Acts v. 
 41. For suffering of persecution for Christ, and the trial of 
 faith by divers temptations, is in the Scriptures reckoned up 
 amongst the gifts and hundred fold compensations of God to 
 his people, Mark x- 30 ; Phil. i. 29 ; Heb. xi. 26 ; James i. 2 ; 
 1 Peter i. 6, 7. " No man," saith our Saviour, " putteth new 
 wine into old bottles ; " that is, exacteth rigid and heavy ser- 
 vices of weak and unqualified disciples, and therefore my disci- 
 ples fast not while I am amongst them in the flesh : but the 
 days will come when I shall be taken from them in body, 
 and shall send them my Holy Spirit to strengthen and pre- 
 pare them for hard service, and then they shall fast and per- 
 
THE SPIRIT A COMFORTER. 33 
 
 form those parts of more difficult obedience unto me, Matt. ix. 
 15, 17. 
 
 Now further, touching this sending of the Holy Spirit, 
 which, together with Christ's intercession, was one of the prin- 
 cipal ends of his ascending up unto the right hand of power, 
 it may be here demanded, why the Holy Spirit was not, before 
 this exaltation of Christ, sent forth in such abundance upon 
 the church ? The main reason whereof, next unto the pur- 
 pose and decree of God, into which all the acts of his will are 
 to be resolved, Eph. i. 11, is given by our Saviour, John xiv. 
 16 ; xvi. 7; because he was to supply the corporeal absence of 
 Christ, and to be another Comforter to the church. Of which 
 office the Spirit, because it was one of the main ends of his 
 mission, and that one of the chief works of Christ's sitting at 
 God's right hand, I shall here, without any unprofitable or 
 impertinent digression, speak a little. 
 
 (1.) The Spirit is a Comforter, because an Advocate to his 
 people ; for so much the word signifies, and is elsewhere ren- 
 dered, 1 John ii. 1. Now, he is called " another Comforter," or- 
 Advocate, to denote the difference between Christ and the 
 Spirit in this particular. There is then an advocate by office 
 when one person takes upon himself the cause of another, and 
 in his name pleads it. Thus Christ, by the office of his medi- 
 ation and intercession, is an Advocate for his church, and doth, 
 in his own person in heaven, apply his merits, and further the 
 cause of our salvation with his Father. There is likewise an 
 advocate by energy and operation, by instruction and assist- 
 ance, which is not when a work is done by one person in the 
 behalf of another, but when one by his counsel, inspiration, 
 and assistance, enableth another to manage his own business 
 and plead his own cause. And such an advocate the Spirit is, 
 who doth not intercede nor appear before God in person for 
 us, as Christ doth, but maketh intercession for men in and by 
 themselves, giving them an access unto the Father, embolden- 
 ing them in their fears, and helping them in their infirmities, 
 when they know not what to pray, Eph. ii. 18 ; iii. 16 ; Heb. 
 X. 15, 19; Rom.viii. 26, 
 
 [1.] First then, the Spirit, as our Advocate, justifieth our 
 persons, and pleadeth our causes against the accusations of 
 our spiritual enemies. For as Christ is our Advocate at the 
 tribunal of God's justice, to plead our cause against the se- 
 verity of his law and that most righteous and undeniable 
 charge of sin which he layeth upon us ; so the Holy Spirit is 
 
 c5 
 
34 THE SPIRIT A COMFORTER. 
 
 our Advocate at the tribunal of God's mercy, enabling us there 
 to clear ourselves against the temptations and murderous as- 
 saults of our spiritual enemies. The world accuseth us by 
 false and slanderous calumniations, laying to our charge 
 things which we never did ; the Spirit in this case maketh us 
 not only plead our innocency, but to rejoice in our fellowship 
 with the prophets who were before us ; to esteem the reproaches 
 of Christ greater riches than the treasures of the world ; to 
 count ourselves happy in this, that it is not such low marks as 
 we are which the malice of the world aimeth at, but the Spirit 
 of glory and of God which resteth upon us, who is on their 
 part evil spoken of, 1 Peter iv. 14. Satan, that grand accuser 
 of the brethren, doth not only load my sins upon my con- 
 science, but further endeavoureth to exclude me from the 
 benefit of Christ, by charging me with impenitency and unbe- 
 lief. But here the Spirit enableth me to clear myself against 
 the father of lies. It is true indeed I have sinful flesh, the 
 seeds of all mischief in my nature ; but the first means which 
 brought me hereunto was the believing of thy lies, and there- 
 fore I will no longer entertain thy hellish reasonings against 
 mine own peace. I have a spirit which teacheth me to bewail 
 the frowardness of mine own heart, to deny mine own will and 
 works, to long and aspire after perfection in Christ, to adhere 
 with dehght and purpose of heart unto his law, to lay hold 
 with all my strength upon that plank of salvation which, in 
 this shipwreck of my soul, is cast out unto me. These affec- 
 tions of my heart come not from the earthly Adam ; for what- 
 soever is earthly, is sensual and devilish too. And if they be 
 holy and heavenly, I will not believe that God will put any 
 thing of heaven into a vessel of hell. Sure I am, that He who died 
 for me when I did not desire him, will in no wise cast me away 
 when I come unto him. He who hath given me a will to love 
 his service, and to lean upon his promises, will, in mercy, accept 
 the will for the deed, and in due time accomplish the work of 
 holiness which he hath begun. Thus the Spirit, like an ad- 
 vocate, secureth his client's title against the sophistical ex- 
 ceptions of the adversary ; and when, by temptations, our eye 
 is dimmed, or by the mixture of corruptions our evidences de- 
 faced, he by his skill helpeth our infirmities, and bringeth those 
 things which are blotted out and forgotten into our remember- 
 ance again. 
 
 [2.] An advocate admonisheth and directeth his client how 
 to order and manage his own business ; what evidences to pro- 
 
THE SPIRIT A COMFORTER. 35 
 
 duce, what witnesses to prepare, what offices to attend, what 
 preparations to make against the time of his hearing : so the 
 Spirit doth set the hearts of believers in a right way of nego- 
 tiating their spiritual affairs, maketh them to hear a voice be- 
 hind them, furnishing them with wisdom and pruderice in 
 every condition ; how to grapple with temptations, how to 
 serve God in all states ; when to reprove, direct, counsel, com- 
 fort ; when to speak, and when to be silent ; when to let out, 
 and when to chain up a passion ; when to use, and when to 
 forbear liberty ; how to prosecute occasions and apply occur- 
 rences unto spiritual ends ; every where and in all things 
 strengthening and instructing us to manage our hearts unto 
 the best advantages of peace to ourselves and of glory to our 
 master, Isa. xxx. 21 ; Col. i. 9, 10 ; Phil. iv. 12, 13. 
 
 [3.] An advocate maketh up the faihngs of his client, and 
 by his wisdom and observation of the case, picks out advan- 
 tages beyond the instructions, and gathereth arguments to fur- 
 ther the suit which his client himself observed not. So the 
 Spirit, when we know not what to pray, when, with Jehosha- 
 phat, we know not what to do ; when, it may be, in our own 
 apprehension, the whole business of our peace and comfort 
 lieth a bleeding, doth then help our infirmities, and by dumb 
 cries and secret intimations, and deep and unexpressible groan- 
 ings, presenteth arguments unto him who is the Searcher of 
 hearts, and whoknoweth the mind of the Spirit, which we our- 
 selves cannot express, Rom. viii. 27. 
 
 (2.) The Spirit is a Comforter by applying and representing 
 Christ absent, unto the soul again. For the Spirit carrieth a 
 christian's heart up to Christ in heavenly affections and conver- 
 sation, Col. iii. 1 — 3; Phil. iii. 20. As a piece of earth, 
 when it is out of its place, doth ever move to the whole earth, 
 so a spark of Christ's Spirit will naturally move upward unto 
 him who hath the fulness in him. A stone, though broken 
 all to pieces in the motion, will yet through all that peril and 
 violence move unto the centre ; so, though the nature of man 
 abhor, and would of itself decline the passages of death, 
 2 Cor. v. 4 ; yet the apostle desired to be dissolved and to be 
 taken asunder, that by any means he might be with Christ, 
 who is the centre of every christian's desire, Phil. i. 23. 
 Likewise the Spirit bringeth Christ down to a christian, 
 formeth him in his heart, evidenceth him, and the virtue of 
 his passion and resurrection unto the conscience, in the power- 
 ful dispensation of his holy ordinances. Therefore, when our 
 
86 THE SPIRIT A COMFORTER. 
 
 Saviour speaks of sending the Holy Spirit, he addeth, "I 
 will not leave you comfortless ; I will come to you. Yet a 
 little while and the world seeth me no more ; but ye see me." 
 This noteth the presence of Christ by his Spirit with the 
 church : but there is more than a presence, there is an in- 
 habitation : " At that day ye shall know that I am in my 
 Father, and ye in me, and I in you," John xiv. 18, 20. 
 
 (3.) The Spirit is a Comforter by a work of sweet and 
 fruitful illumination, not only giving the knowledge but the 
 love and comfort of the truth unto a christian, making him 
 with open face behold as in a glass the glory of God, and 
 thereby transforming him into the same image from glory to 
 glory. The light of other sciences is like the light of a can- 
 dle, nothing but light ; but the knowledge of Christ by the 
 Spirit is like the light of the sun, which hath influences and 
 virtue in it. And this is that which the apostle calls the 
 " Spirit of revelation in the knowledge of God ; " for though 
 there be no prophetical, nor extraordinary revelations by 
 dreams, visions, ecstacies, or enthusiasms ; yet according to the 
 measure of spiritual sight and diligent observation of holy 
 Scriptures, there are still manifold revelations, or manifesta- 
 tions of Christ unto the soul. The secret and intimate ac- 
 quaintance of the soul with God ; the heavings, aspirings, and 
 harmony of the heart with Christ ; the sweet illapses and 
 flashes of heavenly light upon the soul ; the knowledge of the 
 depths of God and of Satan, of the whole armour of God 
 and the strong man, of conflicts of spirit, protection of angels, 
 experiences of mercy, issues of temptation, and the like, are 
 heavenly and constant revelations out of the word manifested 
 to the souls of the faithful by the Spirit. 
 
 (4.) Lastly, and principally, the Spirit is a comforter in 
 those effects of joy and peace which he worketh in the heart. 
 For joy is ever the fruit and companion of the Spirit, Gal. v. 
 22 ; Acts xiii. 52 ; and the joy of the Spirit is like the inter- 
 cession of the Spirit, " unspeakable and full of glory," 1 Peter 
 i. 8. Not like the joy of the world, which is empty, false, and 
 deceitful, full of vanity, vexation, insufficiency, unsuitableness 
 to the soul ; mingled with fears of disappointment and mis- 
 carriage, with tremblings and guilt of conscience, with cer- 
 tainty of period and expiration ; but clear, holy, constant, un- 
 mixed, satisfactory, and proportionable to the compass of the 
 soul, exciting more gladness than all the world can take in the 
 increase of their corn and wine, Psa. iv. 7. 
 
THE SPIRIT A COMFORTER. 37 
 
 And this joy of the Spirit is grounded upon every passage 
 of a christian's condition, from tlie entrance to the end. 
 
 [1.] The Spirit worketh joy in discovering and bending the 
 heart to mourn for corruption. For it is the Spirit of grace and 
 supplication which maketh sinners mourn and loath themselves, 
 Zech. xii. 10, 11 ; Ezek. xxxvi. 27 : and such a sorrow as this 
 is the seed and the matter of true joy ; for Joseph's heart was 
 full of joy when his eyes poured out tears upon Benjamin's 
 neck. As in wicked laughter the heart may be sorrowful, so 
 in holy mourning the heart may rejoice, for all spiritual 
 afflictions have a peaceable fruit. This was the first glimpse 
 and beam of the prodigal's joy, that he resolved with tears and 
 repentance to return to his father again. For there is a sweet 
 complacency in an humble and spiritual heart to be vile in its 
 own eyes, as to the hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet. 
 Sacrifices we know were to be offered up with joy ; and of all 
 sacrifices a broken heart is that which God most delighteth in, 
 Psa. li. 16, 17. There is joy in heaven at the repentance of a 
 sinner, and therefore there must needs be joy in the heart 
 itself which repenteth, inasmuch as it hath heavenly affections 
 begun in it. Therefore, as the apostle saith, " Let a man become 
 a fool that he may be wise ;" so may I truly say. Let a man be- 
 come a mourner that he may rejoice. 
 
 If it be objected, how one contrary affection can be the 
 ground and inducement of another, and that he who feeleth 
 the weight of sin and displeasure of God, can have little rea- 
 son to boast of much joy; to this I answer, 1. That we do 
 not speak of those extraordinary combats and grapplings with 
 the sense of the wrath of God, breaking of bones, and burning 
 of bowels, which some have felt ; but of the ordinary humilia- 
 tions and courses of repentance which are common to all. 
 2. That such spiritual mourning and joy are not contrary, in 
 regard of the Spirit, nor does one exthiguish or expel the 
 other. As black and white are contrary in the wall, but meet 
 without any repugnancy in the eye, because, though as quali- 
 ties they fight, yet as objects they agree to vulgar apprehension. 
 So joy and mourning, though contrary in regard of their im- 
 mediate impressions upon the sense, do not only agree in the 
 same principle, the grace of Christ, and in the same end, the 
 salvation of man, but may also be subordinated to each other; 
 as a dark and muddy colour is a fit ground to lay gold upon ; 
 so a tender and mourning heart is the best preparation unto 
 spiritual joy. Therefore our Saviour compareth spiritual 
 
38 THE HEALING AND RENEWING VIRTUE 
 
 sorrow unto the pains of a woman in travail. Ottier pains, grow- 
 ing out of sickness and distempers, have none but bitter ingre- 
 dients and anguish in them ; but that pain groweth out of the 
 matter of joy, and leadeth unto joy: so though godly sorrow 
 have some pain in it, yet that pain hath ever joy both for the 
 root and fruit of it, John xvi. 21 ; and though for the present 
 it may perhaps intercept the exercise, yet it doth strengthen 
 the habit and ground of joy : as those flowers in the spring 
 rise highest and with greatest beauty, which in winter shrink 
 lowest into the earth. " I trembled in myself," saith the pro- 
 phet, " that I might rest in the day of trouble," Hab. iii. 16. 
 
 [2.] The Spirit doth not only discover, but heal the cor- 
 ruptions of the soul; and there is no joy like the joy of a 
 saved and cured man. The lame man when he was restored 
 by Peter, expressed the abundant exultation of his heart by 
 " leaping and praising God," Acts iii. 8. For this cause, 
 therefore, amongst others, the Spirit is called "the oil of glad- 
 ness," because by that healing virtue which is in him, he 
 maketh glad the hearts of men. *' The Spirit of the Lord," 
 saith Christ, " is upon me ; because the Lord hath anointed 
 me to preach good tidings unto the meek ; he hath sent me 
 to bind up the broken hearted," Isa. Ixi. 1 ; and again, " I will 
 bind up that which was broken, and will strengthen that which 
 was sick," Ezek. xxxiv. 16. Now, this healing virtue of 
 Christ is in the dispensation of his word and Spirit, and there- 
 fore the prophet saith, " the Sun of Righteousness shall arise 
 with healing in his wings," Mai. iv. 2; where the Spirit in the 
 word, by the which he cometh and preacheth unto men, Eph. 
 ii. 17 ; 1 Peter iii. 19, is called the wing of the sun, because 
 he proceedeth from him, and was sent to supply his absence, 
 as the beam doth the sun's ; and this Spirit the apostle calleth 
 the strengthener of the inner man, Eph. iii. 16. 
 
 [3.] The Spirit doth not only heal, but renew and revive 
 again When an eye is smitten with a sword, there is a 
 double mischief, a wound made, and a faculty perished ; anJ 
 here, though a surgeon can heal the wound, yet he can never 
 restore the faculty, because total privations admit no return or 
 recovery : but the Spirit doth not only heal and repair, but 
 renew and re-edify the spirits of men. As he healeth that 
 which was torn, and bindeth up that which was smitten, so he 
 reviveth and raiseth up that which was dead before, Hos. vi. 
 1,2; and this the apostle calls the renovation of the Spirit, 
 Tit. iii. 5 ; whereby old things are not mended end put together 
 
OF THE SPIRIT. 39 
 
 again, for our fall made us all over unprofitable and little 
 worth, Rom. iii. 12; Prov. x. 20; but are done quite away, 
 and all things made new again, 2 Cor. v. 17. The heart, 
 mind, affections, judgment, conscience, members changed 
 from stone to flesh, from earthly to heavenly, from the image 
 of Adam to the image of Christ, Ezek. xi. 19 ; 1 Cor. xv. 49. 
 Now this renovation must needs be matter of great joy ; for 
 so the Lord comforteth his afflicted people, Isa. liv. 11 — 14. 
 
 [4.] The Spirit doth not renew and set the frame of the 
 heart right, and then leave it to its own care and hazards again ; 
 but being thus restored, he abideth with it to preserve and 
 support it against all tempests and batteries. And this further 
 multiplieth the joy and comfort of the church that it is estab- 
 lished in righteousness, so that no weapon which is formed 
 against it can prosper, Isa. liv. 14, 17. Victory is ever the 
 ground of joy, Isa. ix. 3. And the Spirit of God is a victo- 
 rious Spirit : his judgment in the heart is sent forth unto vic- 
 tory. Matt. xii. 20 ; and before him mountains shall be made 
 a plain, and every high thing shall be pulled down, till he 
 bring forth the head-stone with shoutings, Zech. iv. 7. To 
 Stephen he was a Spirit of victory against the disputers of the 
 world. Acts vi. 10 ; to the apostles a Spirit of liberty in the 
 prison, Acts xvi. 25, 26 ; to all the faithful a Spirit of joy 
 and glory in the midst of persecutions, 1 Peter iv. 13, 14. 
 
 [3.] The Spirit doth not only preserve the heart which he 
 hath renewed, but maketh it fruitful and abundant in the 
 works of the Lord, Gal. v. 22 ; Rom. vii. 4. And fruitful- 
 ness is a ground of rejoicing, Isa. liv. 1. Therefore they 
 which are born of God cannot commit sin, that is, they are 
 not workers or artificers, or finishers of iniquity, because they 
 have the seed of God, that is his Spirit in them, which fitteth 
 them, as seed doth the earth, to bring forth fruit unto God. 
 Partly, by teaching the heart, and casting it, as it were, in the 
 mould of the word ; fashioning such thoughts, apprehensions, 
 affections, judgments, in the soul, as are answerable to the 
 will and Spirit of God in the word, so that a man cannot but 
 set his seal, and say Amen to the written law. Partly by 
 moving, animating, applying, and most sweetly leading the 
 heart unto the obedience of that law which is thus written 
 therein. 
 
 [6.] Those whom he hath thus fitted, he sealeth up unto 
 a final and full redemption by the testimony of their adoption, 
 which is the earnest of their inheritance ; and thereby begetteth 
 
40 THE SPIRIT MAKES FRUITFUL. 
 
 a lively hope, an earnest expectation, a confident attendance 
 upon the promises, and an unspeakable peace and security 
 thereupon ; by which fruits of faith and hope there is a glo- 
 rious joy shed abroad into the soul, so full, and so intimately 
 mingled with the same, that it is as possible for man to anni- 
 hilate the one, as to take away the other : for according to the 
 evidence of hope, and excellency of the thing hoped, must needs 
 the joy therefrom resulting receive its sweetness and stability. 
 By all this which hath been spoken of the mission of the 
 Spirit in such abundance, after Christ's sitting at the right 
 hand of God, we should learn with what affections to receive 
 the gospel of salvation, for the teaching whereof the Holy 
 Spirit was shed abroad abundantly on the ambassadors of 
 Christ ; and with what heavenly conversations to express the 
 power which our hearts have felt therein, to walk as children 
 of the light, and as becometh the gospel of Christ ; to adorn 
 our high profession, and not to receive the grace of God in 
 vain. Consider that the word thus quickened will have an 
 operation, either to convince unto righteousness, or to seal 
 unto condemnation ; as the sun, either to melt, or to harden ; 
 as the rain, either to ripen corn or weeds ; as the sceptre of a 
 king, either to rule subjects, or to subdue enemies ; as the fire 
 of a goldsmith, either to purge gold, or to devour dross ; as 
 the waters of the sanctuary, either to heal places, or to turn 
 them into salt-pits, Ezek. xlvii. li. Consider, according to 
 the proportion of the Spirit of Christ, in his word revealed, 
 shall be the proportion of their judgment who despise it. The 
 contempt of a great salvation and glorious ministry shall bring 
 a sorer condemnation, Heb. ii. 2 — 4. " If I had not come 
 and spoken unto them," saith our Saviour, " they had not 
 had sin," John xv. 22. Sins against the light of nature are 
 no sins in comparison of those against the gospel. The earth 
 which drinketh in the rain that falls oft upon it, and yet bear- 
 eth nothing but thorns and briars, is rejected, and nigh unto 
 cursing, Heb. vi. 7, 8. Consider that even here God will not 
 always suffer his Spirit to strive with flesh : there is a day 
 of peace, which he calleth " our day ;" a day wherein he entreat- 
 eth and bcseecheth us to be reconciled : but if we therein 
 judge ourselves unworthy of eternal life, and go obstinately on 
 till there be no remedy, he can easily draw in his Spirit, and 
 give us over to the infatuation of our own hearts, that we 
 may not be cleansed any more till he have caused his fury to 
 rest upon us, Ezek. xxiv. 13. 
 
CONTINUAL SUPPLY OF THE SPIRIT. 41 
 
 We see likewise by this doctrine whereupon the comforts of the 
 church are founded ; namely, upon Christ as the first Comforter, 
 by working our reconciliation with God ; and upon the Spirit as 
 another Comforter, testifying and applying the same unto our 
 souls. And the continual supply and assistance of this 
 Spirit is the only comfort the church hath against the domi- 
 nion and growth of sin. For though the motions of lust 
 which are in our members, are so close, so working, so full of 
 vigour and life, that we can see no power nor probabilities of 
 prevailing against them ; yet we know Christ hath a greater 
 fulness of Spirit than we can have of sin ; and it is the great 
 promise of the new covenant that God will put his Spirit into 
 us, and thereby save us from all our uncleannesses,Ezek. xxxvi. 
 27 — 29 : for though we be full of sin, and have but a seed, a 
 sparkle of the Spirit put into us, and upheld and fed by fur- 
 ther, though small supplies, yet that little is stronger than 
 legions of lust ; as a little salt or leaven seasoneth a great 
 lump, or a few drops of spirits strengthen a whole glass full 
 of water. Therefore the Spirit is called a Spirit of judgment 
 and of burning, because, as one judge is able to condemn a 
 thousand prisoners, and a little fire to consume abundance of 
 dross ; so the Spirit of God, in and present with us, though 
 received and supplied but in measure, though but a smoking 
 and suppressed fire, shall yet break forth in victory and judg- 
 ment against all that resist it. In us indeed there is nothing 
 that feeds, but only that which resists and quencheth it. But 
 this is the wonderful virtue of the Spirit of Christ in his mem- 
 bers, that it nourisheth itself. Therefore, sometimes the Spirit 
 is called fire, Isa. iv. 4 ; Matt. iii. 11; and sometimes oil, 
 Heb. i. 9 ; 1 John ii. 27 : to note that the Spirit is nutriment 
 unto itself ; that grace which we have received already is pre- 
 served and excited by new supplies of the same grace ; which 
 supplies we are sure shall be given to all that ask them, by 
 the virtue of Christ's prayer, John xiv. 16 ; by the virtue of 
 his and his Father's promise, John xvi. 7 ; Acts i. 4 ; and by 
 the virtue of that office which he still bears, which is to be 
 the Head, or vital principle of all holiness and grace unto the 
 church. And all these are permanent things, and therefore 
 the virtue of them abideth, their effects are never totally in- 
 terrupted. 
 
 5. and lastly, this sitting of Christ at the right hand of 
 God noteth his intercession in the behalf of the whole church, 
 and each member thereof. " Who is he that condemneth ?" 
 
42 CONTINUANCE OF CHRIST S KINGDOM. 
 
 saith the apostle. " It is Christ that died, yea rather, tliat is 
 risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also 
 maketh intercession for us," Roin. viii. 34. But of this doc- 
 trine I shall speak more fitly in the fourth verse, it being a 
 great part of the priesthood of Christ. 
 
 I now proceed to the last thing in this first verse, — the con- 
 tinuance and victory of kingdom, in these words, " Until I 
 make thy foes thy footstool : " wherein every word is full of 
 weight. Here is the term of duration, or measure of Christ's 
 kingdom, — " Until." The Author of subduing Christ's 
 enemies under him, — " I," the Lord. The manner thereof, 
 — " I will put them," and " I will put them as a footstool : '' 
 " put thy foes as a stool under thy feet." 
 
 Victory is a relative word, and presupposeth enemies, and 
 they are expressed in the text. Their enmity is here not de- 
 scribed, but only presupposed. It shows itseJf against Christ 
 in all the offices of his mediation. There is enmity against 
 him as a prophet ; enmity against his truth. In opinion, by 
 adulteratmg it with human mixtures and superinducements, 
 teaching for doctrines the traditions of men. In aifection, by 
 wishing many Divine truths were razed out of the Scriptures, 
 as being manifestly contrary to those pleasures which they love 
 rather than God. In conversation, by keeping down the truth 
 in unrighteousness, and in those things which they know, 
 as brute beasts corrupting themselves. Enmity against his 
 teaching, by quenching the motions, and resisting the evidence 
 of his Spirit in the word, refusing to hear his voice, and re- 
 jecting the counsel of God against themselves. There is en- 
 mity against him as a Priest, by undervaluing his person, suf- 
 ferings, righteousness, or merits. And as a King, enmity to his 
 worship, by profanely neglecting it, by idolatry perverting it, 
 by superstition corrupting it. Enmity to his ways and service, 
 by ungrounded prejudices, misjudging them as grievous, un- 
 profitable, or unequal ways ; and by wilful disobedience for- 
 saking them, to walk in the ways of our own heart. 
 
 And this is a point which men should labour to try them- 
 selves in ; for the enemies of Christ are not only oui of the 
 church, but in the midst where his kingdom is set up, ver. 2 ; 
 Isa. viii. 14. And indeed, by how much the more dangerous 
 it is, by so much the more subtle will Satan and a sinful heart 
 be to deceive itself therein ; for this is a certain truth, that 
 men may profess and falsely believe that they love the Lord 
 
FALSE LOVE TO CHRIST. 43 
 
 Jesus, and yet be as real enemies unto his person and king- 
 dom, as the jews that accused and the heathen that crucified 
 him. He was set up for a sign to be spoken against, for a 
 rock of offence, and a stone of stumbling, which the very 
 builders themselves would reject. There were false brethren 
 amongst the Philippians, who professed the name of christians, 
 and yet by their sensual walking and worldly-mindedness, de- 
 clared themselves to be enemies to the cross of Christ, Phil, 
 iii. 18, 19. To honour the bodies of the saints departed with 
 beautiful sepulchres, is in itself a testimonial of sincere love 
 and inward estimation of their persons and graces ; and there- 
 fore the Holy Ghost hath recorded it for the perpetual honour 
 of Joseph of Arimathea, and Nicodemus, that they embalmed 
 the body of Jesus, and laid it in a new sepulchre, John xix. 
 38 — 41 ; yet our Saviour pronounced a woe against the 
 scribes and pharisees, because they built the tombs of the 
 prophets, and garnished the sepulchres of the righteous. Matt, 
 xxiii. 29. The fault was not in the fact itself, but in the 
 hypocrisy of the heart, in the incongruity of their other prac- 
 tices ; and in that protection which, by this plausible pretext 
 of honour to the prophets, they laboured to gain their persons, 
 and appropriation to their attempts against Christ, in the 
 minds of the people, who yet ordinarily esteemed Christ, 
 whom they persecuted, a prophet sent from God. They pro- 
 fess, if we had been in the days of our fathers, we would 
 not have done as they did : but our Saviour reproves this 
 hypocritical persuasion, by showing that it was no strange 
 thing with them to persecute prophets, but a national and 
 hereditary sin, and therefore they had no reason to boast of 
 their descent, as their manner was, Luke iii. 8 ; John viii. 39 ; 
 or to think that God's mercies were entailed unto them, since, 
 by their own confession, they were the posterity of those that 
 had killed the prophets : and also that they did fulfil the measure 
 of their fathers ; that is, that which their fathers had been long 
 and leisurely doing, they now did altogether in one blow. For 
 it was the same Christ whom they persecuted in his person, 
 and their fathers in his prophets ; and therefore, though they 
 seemed to honour and revere the memory of those holy mar- 
 tyrs, yet upon them should light the guilt of all the righteous 
 blood which had ever been shed in the land, inasmuch as 
 their malice was directed against that fulness, of which all the 
 prophets had but a measure. If by several enemies a man be 
 severally mangled, one cuts off a foot, another a hand, another 
 
44 GROUNDS OF FALSE LOVE TO CHRIST. 
 
 an arm, and after all this, there come one who cuts off the 
 head, and yet bestows some honourable ceremonies upon 
 those members which the rest had abused, he shall justly 
 suffer, as if he had slain a whole man, inasmuch as his malice 
 did eminently contain in it the degrees of all the rest ; and 
 that pretended honour shall be so far from compensating the 
 injury, that it shall add thereunto an aggravation of base hy- 
 pocrisy. Thus, as the jews, when they thought they honoured 
 and admired the prophets, did yet harbour in their breasts that 
 very root of fury, and had that self-same constitution of soul, 
 which were in their forefathers who shed their blood: so in 
 our days, men may say and think that they love Christ, and 
 court him with much outside and empty service ; may boast 
 that if they had lived in the days of those unthankful jews, 
 they would not have partaken with them in so execrable a 
 murder, and yet interpretatively, and at second hand, show the 
 very same root of bitterness, and rancorous constitution of 
 heart against him, in his Spirit and ordinances, which was in 
 those men when they cried, " Away with him ; crucify him I 
 crucify him ! " 
 
 Many grounds there are of this grand mispersuasion of the 
 heart in its love to Christ, which I will but touch upon. 
 1. The first is the general acceptation and countenance which 
 the gospel of Christ receiveth amongst the princes of this 
 world, who, in christian commonwealths, do both by their own 
 voluntary and professed subjection, and by the vigour of their 
 public laws, establish the same. Now, this is most certain, 
 that as in all other sciences, the principles of one will not 
 serve to beget the conclusions of another ; so here, especially, 
 if a spiritual assent and affection be grounded upon no other 
 than human inducements, it is most undoubtedly spurious and 
 illegitimate. That reason which the pharisees used to dis- 
 suade men from believing in Christ, " Have any of the rulers 
 or of the pharisees believed on him ? " John vii. 48, is one of 
 the principal arguments which many men have now why they 
 do believe on him ; because the rulers, whose examples and 
 laws they observe more upon trust than trial, do lead them 
 thereunto ; and therefore we find amongst the jews that those 
 very men who, when the goverrment of the whole twelve 
 tribes was one, did all consent in an unity of religion ; upon 
 the distraction of the kingdom under Jeroboam, were presently 
 likewise divided in their observance of God's worship ; and 
 they who before were zealous for the temple at Jerusalem, 
 
GROUNDS OF FALSE LOVE TO CHRIST. 45 
 
 were afterwards as superstitious for Dan and Bethel : the pro- 
 phet giveth the reason of it, " They wilUngly walked after the 
 commandment," namely of Jeroboam, Hos. v. 11. No sooner 
 did the prince interpose his authority, but the people were will- 
 ing to pin their opinions and practices upon his word. If 
 Omri make statutes, and Ahab confirm idolatrous counsels by 
 his own practices, the prophet shows how forward the people 
 are to walk in them, Micah vi. 16. Therefore it is that our 
 Saviour saith of the best sort of wicked men, that those who 
 with gladness (and that is ever a symptom of love) received 
 the gospel, yet in time of persecution they were offended, 
 and fell away. Matt. xiii. 21 ; to note unto us, that when 
 Christ is forsaken because of persecution, the imaginary love 
 which was bestowed upon him before was certainly supported 
 by no other ground than that which is contrary to persecution, 
 namely the countenance and protection of public power. 
 
 2. A great part of men profess faith and love to Christ 
 merely upon the rules of their education. The main reason 
 into which their religion is resolved, is not any evidence of 
 excellency in itself, but only the customs and traditions of 
 their forefathers ; which is to build a divine faith upon a hu- 
 man authority, and to set man in the place of God. Certain 
 it is, that contrary religions can never be originally grounded 
 upon the same reason ; that which is a true and adequate prin- 
 ciple of faith or love to Christ can never be suitable to the 
 conclusions of mohammedanism or idolatry. Now then, when 
 a professed christian can give no other account of his love to 
 Christ than a Turk of his love to Mohammed ; when that 
 which moveth an idolater to hate Christ, is all that one of us 
 hath to say why he believeth in him, certainly that love and 
 faith is but an empty presumption, which dishonoureth the 
 Spirit of Christ, and deludeth our own souls. There is a 
 natural instinct in the mind of man to reverence and vindicate 
 the traditions of their progenitors, and at first view to detest 
 any novel opinions which seem to thwart the received doctrine 
 wherein they had been bred : and this affection is ever so much 
 the stronger, by how much the tradition received is about the 
 nobler and more necessary things. And therefore it discover- 
 eth itself with most violence and impatiency in matters of 
 religion, wherein the eternal welfare of the soul is made the 
 issue of the contention. We find with what heat of zeal the jews 
 contended for the temple at Jerusalem, and with how equal 
 and confident emulation the Samaritans ventured their lives 
 
46 GROUNDS OF FALSE LOVE TO CHRIST 
 
 for the precedency of their temple on mount Gerazim ; and 
 took an oath to produce proofs for the authority thereof; and 
 yet all the ground of this will-worship was the tradition of 
 their fathers ; for our Saviour assures us that they worshipped 
 they knew not what, John iv. 20 — 22, and only took things 
 upon trust from their predecessors. This we find was ever 
 the reason of the Jews' obstinacy against the prophets ; they 
 answered all their arguments with the practice and traditions 
 they had received from their fathers, Jer. ix. 14 ; xi. 1 ; xliv.l7 ; 
 Acts vii. 51. 
 
 3. The heart may be mispersuaded of its love to Christ by 
 judging that an affection unto him, which is indeed nothing 
 but a self-love and a desire of advancing private ends. The 
 rule whereby Christ at the last day will measure the love or 
 hatred of men unto him, is their love or hatre-d of his brethren 
 and members here, Matt. xxv. 40, 45 ; for in all their afflictions 
 Christ himself is afflicted. " Peter, lovest thou me ? Feed 
 my sheep ; " make proof of thy love to me by thy service and 
 compassion to my people. And how many are there every- 
 where to be found whose love unto themselves hath devoured 
 all brotherly love ! who take no pity either upon the souls or 
 temporal necessities of those with whom they yet pretend a 
 fellowship in Christ's own body ! who spend more upon their 
 own pride and luxury, upon their backs and bellies, their plea- 
 sures and excesses, yea, bury more of their substance in the 
 maws of hawks and dogs, than they can ever persuade them- 
 selves to put into the bowels of the poor saints I Surely at 
 the day of judgment, however such men here profess to love 
 Christ, and would spit in the face of him who, with Justin 
 Martyr, should say, they were not christians, it will appear 
 that such men did as formally and as properly deny Christ, as 
 if, with Peter, they had publicly sworn, " 1 know not the man." 
 The apostle plainly intimates thus muchwhen he showeth that the 
 experiment of the Corinthians' ministration to the necessity of 
 the saints, was an inducement unto the churches to praise God 
 for their professed subjection to the gospel of Christ, 2 Cor. ix. 
 13. Again, as Christ is present with us in his poor members, 
 so likewise in the power of his ordinances, and in the light 
 and evidence of his Spirit, shining forth in the lives of holy 
 men. If then we are impatient of the edge of his word when 
 it divides between the bone and the marrow, when it discern- 
 eth and discovereth our secret thoughts, our bosom sins, our 
 ambitions, unclean and hypocritical intents : if the lives and 
 
GROUNDS OF FALSE LOVE TO CHRIST. 47 
 
 communion of the saints be in like manner an eye-sore unto 
 us, in shaming and reproving our formal and fruitless profes- 
 sion ; certainly the same affections of hatred, reproach, and 
 disestimation which we show unto them, we would with so m\ich 
 the more bitterness have expressed unto Christ himself, if we had 
 lived in his days, by how much that Spirit of grace, against 
 which the spirit which is in us envieth, was above measure more 
 abundantly in him than in the holiest of his members. " If 
 ye were of the world," saith our Saviour, " the world would love 
 his own, but I have chosen you out of the world ; " I have given 
 to you a spirit which is contrary to the spirit of the world, 
 " therefore the world hateth you," John xv. 19. And this 
 is evident, when men hate one another merely for that distinc- 
 tion which differenceth him from them, they much more hate 
 him from whom the difference itself originally proceedeth. 
 We see, then, that they who openly profess Christ, may yet 
 inwardly hate him, because the ground of their profession is 
 not any experimental goodness which they have tasted in him, 
 for by nature men have no relish of Christ at all, but only 
 self-love and private ends, whereby Christ is subordinated to 
 their own interests. 
 
 And may we not still observe amongst christians at this 
 day, many men who, contrary to the evidence of their judg- 
 ment, and peace of their consciences, conform themselves unto 
 the vanities, courses, and companies of this evil world, and, 
 like cowards, are afraid to adventure on a rigorous and uni- 
 versal subjection to the truth of Christ ; dare not keep them- 
 selves close to those narrow rules of St. Paul, to abstain from 
 jesting, which is not seemly ; to avoid all appearances of evil ; 
 to reprove the unfruitful works of darkness ; to speak unto edi- 
 fication, that their words may minister grace unto the hearers ; 
 to rejoice always in the Lord ; to give place unto wrath ; to 
 recompense evil with good ; to be circumspect and exact 
 in their walking with God ; and all this merely out of suspicion 
 of some disrespect and disadvantages which may hereupon meet 
 them in the world, of some obstacles and stoppage in the order 
 of those projects which they have contrived for their private 
 ends ? Now, if such purposes as these do startle men with a 
 punctual and rigorous profession of the gospel of Christ 
 and his most holy ways, (notwithstanding our vows in baptism 
 do as strictly bind us thereunto as unto the external title of 
 Christianity,) suppose we that the same, or greater disadvan- 
 tages should now, as in the primitive times, attend the naked 
 
48 GROUNDS OF FALSE LOVE TO CHRIST. 
 
 and outward profession of Christ, would not such men as 
 these fall into downright apostaey, and deny the Lord that 
 bought them ? Certainly, our Saviour hath so resolved that 
 case in the very best sort of unregenerate men, noted in the 
 stony ground ; when times of persecution happen, and they 
 are brought to the trial who it was whom in their profession 
 they loved, Christ or themselves, the excellency of the know- 
 ledge of him, or the secure enjoyment of secular contentments, 
 they will then certainly fall away, and be offended, Matt. xiii. 
 21. So profound and unsearchable is the deceitful heart of 
 man, that by that very reason for which men contend for the 
 outward face and profession of religion, because they love their 
 pleasures and profits, which, without such a profession, they 
 cannot peaceably enjoy ; they are deterred from a close, 
 spiritual, and universal obedience to the power thereof, be- 
 cause thereby likewise those pleasures and profits are kept 
 within such rules of moderation as the nature of a boundless 
 and unsatiable lust will not admit. This is a certain rule in 
 love, that the motions and desires thereof are strong, and 
 therefore in any thing which the soul loves, it therein strives 
 for excellency and perfection ; and this rule holds most true in 
 religion, because when the soul loves that, it loves it under 
 the apprehension of the greatest good, and therefore, by con- 
 sequence, sets the strongest and m.ost industrious desires of 
 the soul upon it. Therefore the apostle saith, that the love 
 of Christ, namely, that love of him which is by the Holy 
 Ghost shed abroad in our hearts, constraineth us to live unto 
 liim, and to aspire after him who died for us and rose again, 
 2 Cor. v. 14, 15. Love is as strong as death, it will take 
 no denial. It is the wing and weight of the soul, which 
 fixeth all the thoughts, and carrieth all the desires unto an 
 intimate unity with the thing it loves ; stirreth up a zeal to 
 remove all obstacles which stand between it ; worketh a lan- 
 guor or failing of nature in the want of it ; a softness of na- 
 ture to receive the impressions of it ; an egress of the spirits, 
 and, as it were, an haste of the soul to meet and entertain it. 
 Whence those expressions of the saints in holy Scripture : 
 " Comfort me with apples, stay me with flagons : for I am sick 
 of love. My soul breaketh for the longing that it hath unto 
 thy judgments at all times. The desire of our soul is to thy 
 name, and to the remembrance of thee. My soul thirsteth 
 for (rod. for the living God ; when shall I come and appear 
 before God ? O that my ways were directed, that I might 
 
GROUNDS OF FALSE LOVE TO CHRIST. 49 
 
 keep thy statutes ? With my whole heart have I sought thee. 
 I have stuck unto thy testhnonies. I will delight myself in 
 thy commandments ; thy statutes have been my songs. My 
 soul fainteth for thy salvation," Cant. ii. 5 ; Psa. cxix.' 20 ; 
 Isa. xxvi. 8 ; Psa. xlii. 2 ; cxix. 5, 10, 31, 47, 54, 81. By all 
 which we see that a true love of Christ doth excite strong 
 desires, and an earnest aspiring and ambition of the soul to 
 walk in all well-pleasing, and to be in all things conformable 
 unto him. What the apostle saith of spiritual hope, we may 
 truly say of love, (which is the fundamental affection and root 
 of all the rest,) he that hath it indeed in him, "purifieth 
 himself even as God is pure." The love of the world, and 
 the things and lusts of the world, may indeed consist with the 
 formal profession, but no way with the truth or power of a 
 true love to Christ or his government. For love is ever the 
 principle and measure of all our actions ; such as it is, such 
 likewise will they be too. 
 
 4. Something like love there may be in natural men unto 
 Christ, grounded upon the historical assurance and persuasion 
 of his being now in glory, attended by mighty angels, filled with 
 all the treasures of wisdom, knowledge, grace, power, and other 
 excellent attributes, which can attract love even from an enemy ; 
 and that he hath, and still doth procure such good things for 
 mankind, in their deliverance from the guilt of sin, and from 
 the wrath to come, as of which, might they but have an ex- 
 emption from his spiritual government, and a dispensation to 
 live according to their own lusts still, no man should be more 
 greedily desirous. As Samson met the lion as an enemy when 
 he was alive ; but after he was slain, he went unto him as to a 
 table ; there was only terror while he lived, but honey when he 
 was dead. So, doubtless, many men, to whom the bodily pre- 
 sence of Christ, and the mighty power and penetration of his 
 heavenly preaching, whereby he smote sinners unto the ground, 
 and spake with such authority as never man spake, would have 
 been unsufferably irksome and full of terror, as it was unto the 
 scribes and pharisees, can yet, now that he is out of their sight, 
 and doth not in person, but only by those who are his wit- 
 nesses, torment the inhabitants of the earth, pretend much ad- 
 miration and thankful remembrance of that death of his, 
 which was so full of honey for all that come unto him. For 
 as particular dependences and expectations may make a man 
 flatter and adore the greatness of some living potentate, whose 
 \ery image, notwithstanding, the same man doth professedly 
 
 D 
 
50 GROUNDS OF FALSE LOVE TO CHRIST, 
 
 abominate in other tyrants of the world who are dead, or upon 
 whom he hath not the same ends ; so the self-same reason may 
 make men in hypocritical expressions flatter and fawn upon 
 Christ himself, who is absent, and yet hate with a perfect 
 hatred the very image of his Spirit, in the power of his word, 
 and in the lives of his people. The very scribes and pharisees, 
 who blasphemed his Spirit, and contrived his death, could yet 
 be contented to be gainers thereby ; for so they confess ; " It 
 is expedient for us that one die for the people." 
 
 5. A false love to Christ may be grounded upon a false con- 
 ceit of love to his ordinances. For as it is certain, that he who 
 loves the word and worship of Christ, as his, doth love him, 
 too, who is the Author of them : so it is certain, likewise, that that 
 love which is sometimes pretended unto them, may indeed in them 
 fix upon nothing but accidental and by-respects. " The children 
 of thy people," saith the Lord to his prophet, " sit before thee 
 as my people, and they hear thy words, but they will not do 
 them : for with their mouth they show much love, but their 
 heart goeth after their covetousness." Here is love in pre- 
 tence, but falsehood in the heart. What then was it which in 
 the prophet they did thus love ? That presently follows ; 
 " Thou art unto them as a very lovely song of one that hath a 
 pleasant voice, and can play well on an instrument," Ezek. 
 xxxiii. 31, 32 ; that is, it is not my will which in thy ministry 
 they at all regard, but only those circumstantial ornaments of 
 graceful action and elocution, which they attend with just the 
 same proportion of sensual delight as an ear doth the harmony 
 of a well-tuned instrument. For as a man may be much af- 
 fected with the picture of his enemy, if drawn by a skilful hand, 
 and yet therein love nothing of the person, but only the cunning 
 of the workman who drew the piece ; so a man who hates the 
 life and spirit of the word of God itself, as being diametrically 
 contrary to that spirit of lust, and of the world which rules in 
 him, may yet be so wonderfully taken with that dexterity of 
 wit, or delicacy of expression, or variety of learning, or sweet- 
 ness of speech and action, or whatsoever other perfection of 
 nature or industry, in the dispensers of that word, are most 
 suitable to his natural affections, as that he may from thence 
 easily cheat his own conscience, and ground a mispersuasion of 
 his love to God's word, which yet indeed admireth nothing but 
 the perfections of a man. Nay, suppose he meet not with such 
 enticements to draw his affection, yet the very pacification of 
 the conscience, which by a notorious neglect of God's ordi- 
 
EVIDENCES OF TRUE LOVE TO CHRIST. 51 
 
 nances would haply be disquieted ; or the credit of bearing con- 
 formity to ecclesiastical orders and the established service of 
 God in his church, or some other the like sinister respect, may 
 hold a man to such an external fair correspondence, as by a de- 
 ceitful heart may easily be misconstrued a love of God's ordi- 
 nances. Nay, further ; a man may externally glory in the privi- 
 lege of God's oracles ; he may distinctly believe and subscribe 
 to the truth of them ; he may therein hear many things gladly, 
 and escape many pollutions of the world, and yet hence con- 
 clude no clearer evidence of his love to Christ in his word 
 than the unbelieving jews, or Herod, or Ahab, or Simon 
 Magus, or the foolish virgins and apostates, (all of which have 
 attained to some of these degrees,) could have done. 
 
 For the clearing then of this great case, — Touching the 
 evidence of a man's love to Christ, we must first know, that 
 this is not a flower of our own garden ; for every man by nature 
 is an enemy to Christ and his kingdom ; of the jews' mind, 
 " We will not have this man to reign over us ;" and the reason 
 is, because the image of the old Adam, which we bear, is ex- 
 tremely contrary to the heavenly image of the Second Adam, unto 
 which we are not born, butmust be renewed. And this is certain, 
 our love is according to our likeness ; he who hath not the na- 
 ture and Spirit of Christ can never love him, or move towards 
 him. For love is like fire, it carrieth things of a nature to one 
 another. Our love then unto Christ must be of a spiritual 
 generation ; and it is grounded upon these causes. 
 
 1. Upon the proportion which is in him unto all our desires 
 or capacities; upon the evidence of that unsearchable and 
 bottomless goodness which is in him, which makes him the 
 fairest of ten thousand, even altogether lovely. For that 
 heart which hath a spiritual view of Christ will be able, by 
 faith, to observe more dimensions of love and sweetness in him, 
 than the knowledge of any creature is able to measure. In 
 all worldly things, though of never so curious and delicate an 
 extraction, yet still, even those hearts which swim in them, and 
 glut upon them, can easily discover more dregs than spirits. 
 Nothing was ever so exactly fitted to the soul of man, wherein 
 there was not some defect, or excess ; something which the 
 heart could wish were away, or something which it could de- 
 sire were tempered with it : but in Christ and his kingdom 
 there is nothing unlovely. For as in man, the all that he is, is 
 full of corruption, so in Christ, the all that he is, is nothing 
 but perfection. His fulness is the centre and treasure of the 
 d2 
 
52 EVIDENCES OF TRUE LOVE TO CHRIST. 
 
 soul of man ; and therefore that love which is thereupon 
 grounded, must needs be in the soul as an universal habit and 
 principle, to facilitate every service whereby we move unto this 
 centre ; for love is the weight or spring of the soul, which sets 
 every faculty on work ; neither are any of those commandments 
 grievous which are obeyed in love ; and therefore it is called 
 the fulfilling of the law. True love unto Christ keeps the 
 whole heart together, and carries it all one way ; and so makes 
 it universal, uniform, and constant in all its affections unto 
 God, for unstedfastness of life proceeds from a divided or 
 double heart, James i. 8. As in the motions of the heavens, 
 there is one common circumvolution which equally carrieth 
 the whole frame daily unto one point from east to west, though 
 each several sphere hath a several cross way of its own, 
 wherein some move with a swifter and others with a slower 
 motion ; so, though several saints may have their several 
 corruptions, and those likewise in some stronger than in 
 others, yet being all animated by one and the same Spirit, 
 they all agree in a steady and unifonn motion unto Christ. 
 If a stone were placed under the concave of the moon, though 
 there be fire, and air, and water between, yet through them all 
 it would hasten to its own place ; so be the obstacles ever so 
 many, or the conditions ever so various, through which a 
 man must pass ; through evil report and good report ; through 
 terrors and temptations ; through a sea and a wilderness ; 
 through fiery serpents and sons of Anak ; yet if the heart 
 love Christ indeed, and conclude that heaven is its home, 
 nothing shall be able totally to discourage it from hastening 
 thither, whither Christ the Forerunner is gone before. 
 
 2. The true love of Christ is grounded upon the evidence 
 of that propriety which the soul hath unto him, and of that 
 mutual inhabitation and possession which is between them. 
 So that our love unto him, in this regard, is a kind of self- 
 love, (and therefore very strong,) because Christ and a christian 
 are but one. And the more persuasion the soul hath of this 
 unity, the more must it needs love Christ ; for " we love him, 
 because he first loved us," 1 John iv. 16, 19. And therefore 
 our Saviour, from the woman's apprehension of God's more 
 abundant love in the remission of her many and great sins, con- 
 cludeth the measure and proportion of her love to him. But, 
 saith Christ, " to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth 
 little," Luke vii. 47. 
 
 Now, true love to Christ and his kingdom thus grounded, 
 
EVIDENCES OF TRUE LOVE TO CHRIST. 53 
 
 will undoubtedly manifest itself, first, in an universal extent 
 unto any thing wherein Christ is present unto his ehurch. 
 
 (1-) The soul, in this case, will abundantly love and cherish 
 the Spirit of Christ ; entertain with dearest embraces, as 
 worthy of all acceptation, the motions, dictates, and secret 
 illapses of him into the soul ; will be careful to hear his voice 
 always behind him, prompting and directing him in the way 
 he should walk ; will endeavour, with all readiness and pliable- 
 ness of heart, to receive the impression of his seal, and the 
 testimony which he giveth in the inner man unto all God's 
 promises ; will fear and suspect nothing more than the froward- 
 ness of his own nature, which daily endeavoureth to quench, 
 grieve, resist, and rebel against the Holy Spirit, and to fling 
 off from his conduct again. 
 
 (2.) The soul, in this case, will abundantly love tlie ordi- 
 nances of God, in which, by his Spirit, he is still walking in 
 the midst of the churches ; for the law is written in it by the 
 finger of God, so that there is a suitableness and coincidence 
 between the law of God and the heart of such a man. He 
 will receive the word in the purity thereof, and not give way 
 to those human hiventions which adulterate it ; nor to that 
 spiritual treason of wit and fancy, or of heresy and contra- 
 diction, which would stamp the private image and superscrip- 
 tion of a man upon God's own coin, and torture the Scriptures 
 to confess that which was never in them. He will receive the 
 word in the power, majesty, and authority thereof, suffering it 
 like thunder to discover the forest, and to drive out all those 
 secret corruptions which sheltered themselves in the corners 
 or deceit of his heart. He will delight to have his imaginations 
 humbled, and his fleshly reasonings nonplussed, and all Jiis 
 thoughts subdued unto the obedience of Christ. He will re- 
 ceive the word as a wholesome potion to that very end, that 
 it may search his secret places, and purge out those incorpo- 
 rated lusts which hitherto he had not prevailed against. He 
 will take heed of hardening his heart that he may not hear, 
 of rejecting the counsel of God against himself, of thrusting 
 away the word from him, of setting up a resolved will of his 
 own against the call of Christ, as of most dangerous down- 
 falls to the soul. He will receive the word in the spirituality 
 thereof, subscribing to the closest precepts of the law ; suffer- 
 ing it to cleanse his heart unto the bottom. He will let the 
 consideration of God's command preponderate and over-rule 
 all respects of fear, love, profit, pleasure, credit, compliancy, 
 
54 EVIDENCES OF TRUE LOVE TO CHRIST. 
 
 or any other charm to disobedience. He will be contented to be 
 led in the narrowest way ; to have his most secret corruptions 
 revealed and removed ; to expose his conscience with patience 
 under the saving, though severest blows of this spiritual 
 sword. In one word, he will deny the pride of his own wisdom ; 
 and if it be the evident truth of God which is taught him, 
 though it come naked, and without any dressings or contribu- 
 tions of human fancy, he will distinguish between the Author 
 and the instrument, between the treasure and the vessel in 
 which it comes ; and from any hand receive it with such awful 
 submission of heart as becometh God's own word. 
 
 (3.) The soul, in this case, will most dearly love every 
 member of Christ. For these two, the love of Christ and 
 of his members, do infallibly accompany one another. For 
 though there be a far higher proportion of love due unto 
 Christ than unto men, yet our love to our brethren is, as re- 
 spects ourselves and our posterity, not only the evidence, but 
 even the measure of our love to Christ. " He that loveth not 
 his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom 
 he hath not seen ? " saith the apostle, 1 John iv. 20. He that 
 hath not love enough in him for a man like himself, how can 
 he love God, whose goodness being above our knowledge, re- 
 quireth a transcendancy in our love ? This, then, is a sure 
 rule, He that loveth not a member of Christ, loveth not 
 Christ ; and he who groweth hi his love to his brethren, grow- 
 eth likewise in his love to Christ. For as there is the same 
 proportion of one to five, as there is of twenty to an hundred, 
 though the numbers be far less ; as the motion of the shadow 
 upon the dial answereth exactly to that proportion of motion 
 and distance which the sun hath in the firmament, though the 
 sun goeth many millions of miles, when the shadow, it maybe, 
 moveth not the breadth of a hand : so, though our love to 
 Christ ought to be a far more abundant love than to anv of his 
 members, yet certain it is, that the measure of our progress in 
 brotherly love, is punctually answerable to the growth of our 
 love to Christ. 
 
 3. A true grounded love unto Christ v^ill show itself in 
 the right manner or conditions of it ; which are principally 
 these three : — 
 
 (1.) It must be an incorruptible and sincere love. "Grace 
 be with all them that love the Lord Jesus in" incorruption, or 
 *' sincerity," saith the apostle, Eph. vi. 24; that is, on those 
 who love not in w ord, or outward profession and stipulation 
 
EVIDENCES OF TRUE LOVE TO CHRIST. 35 
 
 only, but in deed and truth, or in the permanent constitution 
 of the inner man; which moveth them to love him always and 
 in all things ; to hate every false way ; to set the whole heart, 
 the study, purpose, prayer, and all the activity of our spirits 
 against every corruption in us which standeth at enmity with 
 Christ and his kingdom. 
 
 (2.) It must be a principal and superlative love, grounded 
 upon the experience of the soul in itself, that there is ten 
 thousand times more beauty and amiableness in him than in 
 all the honours, pleasures, profits, and satisfactions which the 
 world can afford ; that in comparison or competition with 
 him, the dearest things of this world, the parents of our 
 body, the children of our flesh, the wife of our bosom, the 
 blood in our veins, the heart in our breast, must not only be 
 laid down and lost as sacrifices, but hated as snares when they 
 draw us away from him. 
 
 (3.) It must be an unshared and incommunicable love, 
 without any rivals ; for Christ, as he is unto us all in all, so 
 he requireth to have all our affections fixed upon him. As 
 the rising of the sun drowneth all those innumerable stars 
 which did shine in the firmament before, so must the beauty 
 of this Sun of righteousness blot out, or else gather together 
 unto itself, all those scattered affections of the soul which 
 were before cast away upon meaner objects. 
 
 (4.) True love unto Christ will show itself in the natural 
 and genuine effects of strong and spiritual graces. Some of 
 the principal I before named, unto which we may add, 
 
 [1.] An universal, cheerful, and constant obedience to 
 his holy commandments. " If a man," saith Christ, " love 
 me, he will keep my words ; and my Father will love him, and 
 we will come unto him, and make our abode with him," John 
 xiv. 23. There is a two- fold love; a love which descends, 
 and a love which ascends ; a love of bounty and beneficence, 
 and a love of duty and service. So then, as a father doth 
 then only in truth love his child, when with all care he pro- 
 videth for his present education and future subsistence ; so a 
 child doth then truly love his father when, with all reverence 
 and submission of heart, he studieth to please and to do him 
 service. And this love, if it be free and ingenuous, by how 
 much the more, not only pure and equal in itself, but also pro- 
 fitable unto him the commandment is, by so much the more 
 carefully will it endeavour the observation thereof. And there- 
 fore, since the soul of a christian knows that as God himself 
 
56 EVIDENCES OF TRUE LOVE TO CHRIST. 
 
 is good, and doth good ; so his law, which is nothing but a 
 ray and gUmpse of his own hoHness, is Ukewise good in itself, 
 and doth good unto those who walk uprightly ; it is hereby 
 inflamed to a more sweet and serious obedience thereunto ; in 
 the keeping whereof, there is for the present so much sweet- 
 ness, and in the future so great a reward. " Thy word," saith 
 the psalmist, " is very pure : therefore thy servant loveth thee," 
 Psa. cxix. 140. 
 
 [2.] A free, willing, and cheerful suffering for him and his 
 gospel. " Unto you," saith the apostle, " it is given in the 
 behalf of Christ, not only to believe oa him, but also to suffer 
 for his sake," Phil. i. 29. We see how far a human love 
 either of country or of vain-glory, hath transported some 
 heathen men, to the devoting and casting away their own 
 lives. How much more should a spiritual love of Christ put 
 courage into us, to bear all things, and to endure all things for 
 Him, as the apostle speaks, 1 Cor. xiii. 7, who bare our sins, 
 and our stripes, and our burdens for us, which were heavier 
 than all the world could lay on I And this was the inducement 
 of that holy martyr Polycarp to die for Christ, notwithstanding 
 all the persuasions of the persecutors, who, by his apostacy, 
 would fain have cast the more dishonour upon the christian 
 religion, and, as it were, by sparing him, have the more cun- 
 ningly persecuted that. "This eighty-six years," saith he, 
 " I have served him, and he never, in all that time, hath done 
 me any hurt ; why should I be so ungrateful as not to trust 
 him in death, who in so long a life hath never forsaken me ? " 
 " I am persuaded," saith the apostle, " that neither death, nor life, 
 nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor 
 things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, 
 shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in 
 Christ Jesus our Lord," Rom. viii. 38,39. Nothing is able to 
 turn away his love from us, and therefore nothing should bp 
 able to quench our love to him. " Many waters," that is, by 
 the usual expression of the holy Scriptures, many afflictions, 
 persecutions, temptations, " cannot quench love, neither can 
 the floods drown it," Cant. viii. 7. 
 
 [3.] A zealous and jealous contention for the glory, truth, 
 worship, and ways of Christ. Wicked men pretend much 
 love to Christ, but they indeed serve only their own turns; as 
 ivy, which clasps an oak very close, but only to suck out sap 
 for its own leaves and berries ; but a true love is full of care 
 to advance the glor}' of Christ's kingdom, and to promote his 
 
STABILITY OF CHRIST S KINGDOM. 57 
 
 truth and worship ; fearing lest Satan and his instruments should 
 by any means corrupt his truth, or violate his church, as the 
 apostle to the Galatians professeth the fear which his love 
 wrought in him towards tliem : " I am afraid of you, lest I 
 have bestowed upon you labour in vain," Gal. iv. 11. So "we 
 find what contention, and disputation, and strife of spirit, the 
 apostles and others in their ministry used, wnen Christ and 
 his holy gospel was any way either injured by false bretliren, or 
 kept out by the idolatry of the places to which they came. Acts 
 XV. 2 ; xvii. 16 ; xviii. 25 ; xix. 8; Gah ii. 4, 5; Jude,ver. 3. 
 
 [4.] A longing after his presence, a love of his appearing, 
 a desire to be with him, which is best of all ; a seeking after 
 him, a grieving for him, when for any while he departs from 
 the soul ; a waiting for his salvation, a delight in his commu- 
 nion, and in his spiritual refreshments ; a communing with 
 him in his secret chamber, in his houses of wine, and in his 
 galleries of love. By which lively expressions the wise man 
 hath described the fellowship which the church desireth to 
 have with Christ, and that abiding and supping of Christ with 
 his church, feasting the soul with the manifestations of him- 
 self and his graces unto it, Psa. xlii. 3 ; cv. 4 ; 2 Cor. v. 2 ; 
 2 Tim. iv. 8; Phil i. 23; Cant. iii. 1, 2; v. 6, 8 ; Gen. 
 xlix. 18; Psa. cxix. 131 ; Cant. i. 4 ; ii. 4 ; vii. 5; John xiv. 
 21, 23 ; Rev. iii. 20. 
 
 Having thus, by occasion of the enemies of Christ, spoken 
 something of the true and false love which is in the world 
 towards himj we now proceed to the particulars mentioned 
 before. 
 
 1. And the first is the term of duration, or measure of time 
 in the text, — " Until." It hath a double relation in the 
 words, unto Christ's kingdom, and unto his enemies. As it 
 looks to the kingdom of Christ, it denotes both the continuance 
 and the limitation of his kingdom. The continuance of it in 
 his own person, for it is there fixed and intransient. He is a 
 King without successors, as being subject to no mortality nor 
 defect which might be by them supphed. The kingdom of 
 Christ, as I observed, is either natural, as he is God; or dis- 
 pensatory, and by donation from the Father, as he is Medi- 
 ator ; and not only of the former, but even of this latter like- 
 wise, the Scripture affirms that it is eternal. It is a kingdom 
 set up by the God of heaven, and it shall never be destroyed, 
 but stand for ever, Dan. ii. 44. " I have set my king upon 
 my holy hill of Zion," Psa. ii. 6; that notes unction and 
 d5 
 
58 STABILITY OF CHRIST's KINGDOM. 
 
 donation. And in mount Zion where God hath set him, he 
 shall reign from " henceforth, even for ever," Micah iv. 7. 
 Though he be a Child born, and a Son given, yet " of the in- 
 crease of his government and peace there shall be no end, 
 upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, 
 and to establish it with judgment and with justice, from 
 henceforth, even for ever," Isa. ix. 6, 7. " Unto the Son he 
 saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever," Heb. i. 8- 
 And here we must distinguish between the substance of 
 Christ's kingdom, and the form or manner of administering 
 and dispensing it. In the formet- respect it is absolutely eter- 
 nal : Christ shall be a Head and Rewarder of his members, 
 an everlasting Father, a Prince of peace unto them for ever. 
 In the latter respect it shall be eternal, according to some ac- 
 ception ; that is, it sliall remain until the consummation of all 
 things ; as long as there is a church of God upon the earth, 
 there shall be no new way of spiritual and essential govern- 
 ment prescribed unto it ; no other vicar, successor, monarch, 
 or usurper upon his office by God allowed ; but he only, by 
 his Spirit in the dispensation of his ordinances, shall order and 
 overrule the consciences of his people, and subdue their ene- 
 mies : yet he shall so reign till then, as that he shall then 
 cease to rule in such manner as now he doth. When the 
 end comes, he shall deliver up the kingdom to God the Father ; 
 and when all things shall be subdued unto him, he also him- 
 self shall be subject unto him that put all things under him, 
 that God may be all in all, 1 Cor. xv. 24, 28. He shall so 
 return it unto God, as God did confer, and, as it were, appro- 
 priate it unto him, namely, in regard of judiciary dispensation 
 and execution ; in which respect our Saviour saith, that, as 
 touching the present administration of the church, " The 
 Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment, 
 and hath given authority " to execute it," unto the Son," John v. 
 22, 27. Now, Christ governeth his church by the ministry of 
 his word and sacraments, and by the effusion of his Spirit in 
 measure and degrees upon his members ; by his mighty, 
 though secret power, he fighteth with his enemies, and so 
 shall do till the resurrection of the dead, when death, the 
 last enemy, shall be overcome, and then, in these respects, his 
 kingdom shall cease ; for he shall no more exercise the offices 
 of a Mediator in compassionating, defending, interceding for 
 his church ; but yet he shall still sit and reign for ever as God, 
 co-equal with his Father, and shall ever be the Head of the 
 
STABILITY OF CHRIST's KINGDOM. 60 
 
 church his body. Thus we see, though Christ's kingdom, 
 in regard of the manner of dispensation and present execu- 
 tion thereof, is Hmited by the consummation of all things 5 
 yet, in itself, it is a kingdom which hath neither within the 
 seeds of mortality, nor the danger of a concussion without, 
 but in the substance is immortal ; though in regard of the 
 commission and power which Christ had as Mediator, to ad- 
 minister it alone by himself, and by the fulness of his Spirit, 
 it be at last voluntarily resigned into the hands of the Father, 
 and Christ, as a part of that great church, become subject to 
 the Father, that God may be all in all. 
 
 Now the grounds of the constancy of Christ's government 
 over his church, and, by consequence, of the church itself, 
 which is his kingdom, are these, amongst others. 
 
 1. The decree and promise of God sealed by an oath, 
 which made it an adamantine and unbended purpose, which 
 the Lord would never repent of nor reverse. All God's 
 counsels are immutable ; though he may alter his works, yet 
 he doth never change his will ; but when he sealeth his de- 
 cree with an oath, that makes their immutabihty past question 
 or suspicion. In that case it is impossible for God to change, 
 because it is impossible for God to lie, or deny himself, Heb. 
 vi. 18. Now, upon such a decree is the kingdom of heaven 
 established. " Once have I sworn by my holiness that I will 
 not lie unto David," saith the Lord, Psa. Ixxxix. 35. 
 *' Once," that notes the constancy and fixedness of God's 
 promise. " By my holiness," that notes the inviolableness 
 of his promise ; as if he should have said. Let me no longer 
 be esteemed an holy God, if I keep not immutably that cove- 
 nant which I have sworn unto David in my truth. 
 
 2. The free gift of God unto his Son, Christ, whereby 
 he committed all power and judgment unto him. Power is 
 a strong argument to prove the stabiUty of a kingdom, 
 especially if it be on either side supported with wisdom and 
 righteousness, as the power of Christ is. And therefore from 
 his power he argues for the perpetuity of his church to the 
 end of the world ; " All power is given unto me in heaven 
 and earth. Go ye therefore and teach all nations ; and, lo, I 
 am with you alway, even unto the end of the world," Matt, 
 xxviii. 18 — 20. And the argument is very strong and em- 
 phatic; for though kingdoms of great power have been, and 
 may be subdued, yet the reason is, because much power hath 
 still remained in the adverse side ; or if they have been too 
 
60 STABILITY OF CHRIST's KINGDOM. 
 
 vast for any smaller people to root out, yet having not either 
 wisdom enough to actuate so husje a frame, or righteousness 
 to prevent or purge out those vicious humours of emulation, 
 sedition, luxury, injustice, violence, and impiety, which, like 
 strong diseases in a body, are in states the preparations and 
 seeds of mortality, they have sunk under their own weight, 
 and been inwardly corrupted by their own vices. But now, 
 first, the power of Christ in his church is universal ; there is 
 in him all power, and no weakness ; no power without him, or 
 against him ; and therefore no wonder if, from a fulness of 
 power in him, and an emptiness in his enemies, the argument 
 of continuance in his kingdom doth infallibly follow. For 
 what man, if he were furnished with all sufficiency, would 
 suffer himself to be mutilated and dismembered, as Christ 
 would, if any thing should prevail against the church, which 
 is his fulness. Again ; this power of Christ is supported with 
 wisdom, it can never miscarry for any inward defect ; for the 
 wisdom is proportionable to the power ; this " all power," and 
 that, " all the treasures of wisdom : " power, able by weakness 
 to confound the things which are mighty, and wisdom, able by 
 foolishness to bring to nought the understanding of the pru- 
 dent. And both these are upheld by righteousness, which is 
 indeed the very soul and sinews of a kingdom, upon which the 
 thrones of princes are established, and which the apostle 
 makes the ground of the perpetuity of Christ's kingdom ; 
 " Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever ; a sceptre of 
 righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom," Heb. i. 8. 
 
 3. The quality of Christ's kingdom is to be a growing 
 kingdom ; though the original thereof be but like a grain of 
 mustard-seed, or like Elijah's cloud ; to a human view despicable, 
 and almost below the probabilities of subsistence ; the object 
 rather of derision than of terror to the world ; yet at last it 
 groweth into a wideness which maketh it as universal as the 
 world. And therefore that which the prophet David speaks 
 of the sun, the apostle applies to the gospel, Rom. x. 18 ; to 
 note that the circle of the gospel is like that of the sun, uni- 
 versal to the whole world. It is such a kingdom as groweth 
 into other kingdoms, and eats them out. The little stone in 
 Nebuchadnezzar's vision, which was *he kingdom of Christ, 
 for so Jerusalem is called a stone, Zech. xii. 3, brake in pieces 
 tlie great monarchies of the earth, and grew up into a great 
 mountain which filled the world, Dan. ii. 34, 35 ; for the king- 
 doms of the earth must become the kingdoms of the Lord and 
 
CLAIMS OF PAPAL MONARCHY EXAMINED. Gl 
 
 of his Christ, Rev. xi. 15. Therefore the prophets express 
 Christ and his kingdom by the name of a branch, which 
 groweth up for a standard and ensign of the people, Isa. xi. 
 1, 10 ; Zech. iii. 8. A branch which grows, but never with- 
 ers. It hath no principles of death in itself; and though it 
 be for a while subject to the assaults of adversaries, and fo- 
 reign violence, yet that serves only to try it, and to settle it, 
 but not to weaken or overturn it. The gates of hell, all the 
 powers, policies, and laws of darkness, shall never prevail 
 against the church of Christ : he hath bruised, and judged, 
 and trodden down Satan under our feet : he hath overcome 
 the world : he hath subdued iniquity : he hath turned perse- 
 cutions into the seed and resurrections of the church : he 
 hath turned afflictions into matter of glory and of rejoicing : 
 so that in all the violence which the church can suffer, it doth 
 more than conquer, because it conquers, not by repelling, but 
 by suffering. 
 
 And this shows the sacrilege and pertness of the church 
 of Rome, which in this point doth, with a double impiety, 
 pervert the Scriptures, that it may derogate from the honour 
 of Christ and his kingdom. And those things which are 
 spoken of the infallibility, authority, and fulness of power 
 Christ hath in his body ; of the stabihty, constancy, and uni- 
 versality of his church upon earth, she doth arrogate only to 
 the pope and his see at Rome. As the donatists, in saint 
 Augustine's time, from that place of the spouse in the Can- 
 ticles, " Tell me, O thou whom my soul loveth, where thou 
 feedest, where thou makest thy flock to rest in meridie,'' [at 
 sultry noon,] Cant. i. 7, excluded all the world from being a 
 church, save only a corner of Africa, which was at that time 
 the nest of those hornets. So, because Christ says, his church 
 is built upon a rock, and the gates of hell shall not prevail 
 against it ; therefore the romanists from hence conclude all 
 these privileges to belong to them, and exclude all the famous 
 churches of the world besides from having any communion 
 with Christ the Head. That scornful expoctulation which 
 Harding makes with that renowned and incomparable bishop, 
 under whose hand he was no more able to subsist than a 
 whelp under the paw of a lion, " Shall we now change the 
 song of Micah the prophet, ' Out of Zion shall come the 
 law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem ;' and sing a 
 new song. Out of Wittenberg is come the ^gospel, and the 
 word of the Lord from Zurich and Geneva ? " may most truly 
 
62 CLAIMS OF PAPAL MONARCHY EXAMINED. 
 
 and pertinently be retorted upon himself and his faction, who 
 boldly curse and exclude all those christian churches from the 
 body of Christ and the hope of salvation who will not receive 
 laws from Rome, nor esteem the cathedral determinations of 
 that bishop (though perchance in himself an impure, diaboli- 
 cal, and intolerable beast, as, by their own confessions, many 
 of them have been) to be, notwithstanding the infallible edicts 
 of the Spirit of God, as undoubtedly the word of Christ, as 
 if St. Peter or St. Paul had spoken it ; an arrogancy than 
 which there is scarce any more express and characteristical 
 note to discern antichrist by. It is true, that Christ's regal 
 power doth always show forth itself in upholding his catholic 
 church, and in revealing unto it, out of his sacred word, such 
 necessary truths as are absolutely requisite unto its being and 
 salvation ; but to bind this power of Christ to one man and 
 to one see, as if, like the pope, he were infallible only in St. 
 Peter's chair, is the mere figment of pride and ambition, 
 without any ground at all, raised out of a heap and aggrega- 
 tion of monstrous presumptions, of human, and some most 
 disputable, others most false conceits ; of which, though there 
 be not the least vestige in sacred Scriptures, yet must they be 
 all first rested in for indubitable principles, and laid for sure 
 foundations, before the first stone of papal authority can be 
 raised. 
 
 (1.) As first, that the external and visible regiment of the 
 whole church is monarchical, and that there must be a predomi- 
 nant mistress church set over all the rest, to which in all 
 points they must have recourse, and to whose decisions they 
 must conform without any hesitancy or suspicion at all ; 
 whereas the apostle tells us, that the unity of the church is 
 gathered by many pastors and teachers, Eph. iv. 11 — 13. 
 For, as if several needles be touched by so many several load- 
 stones, all which have the self-same specifical virtue in them, 
 they do all as exactly bend to one and the same point of 
 heaven, as if they had been thereunto qualified by but one : 
 so, inasmuch as apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, teach- 
 ers, come all instructed with one and the same spiritual truth 
 and power towards the church ; therefore all the faithful, who 
 are any where by these multitudes of preachers taught what 
 the truth is in Jesus, do all, by the secret sway and conduct 
 of the same Spirit of grace, whose peculiar office it is to guide 
 his church in all necessary and saving truth, with an admi- 
 rable consent of heart, and unity of judgment, incline to the 
 
CLAIMS OF PAPAL MONARCHY EXAMINED. 63 
 
 same end, and walk in the same way, acknowledging no mo- 
 narch over their consciences but Christ, nor any other minis- 
 terial application of his regal power in tlie catholic church, 
 but only by several bishops and pastors, who, in their several 
 particular compasses, are endowed witli as plenary and ample 
 ministerial power as the pope and his consistory within the see 
 of Rome. 
 
 (2.) That Peter was prince and monarch, rock and head 
 in this universal church, and that he alone was keeper of the 
 keys ; and all this in the virtue of Christ's promise and com- 
 mission granted unto him, " Thou art Peter, and upon this 
 rock will I build my church : feed my sheep ; feed my lambs : 
 unto thee will I give the keys of the kingdom of heaven." 
 In which respect Baronius calleth him lapidem primariumy 
 the chief stone. And again, though Christ, saith he, be the 
 Author and Moderator of his church, yet the princedom and 
 monarchy he hath conferred upon Peter ; and therefore, as no 
 man can lay any other foundation than that which is laid, 
 namely Christ, so no man can lay any other than that which 
 Christ hath laid, namely Peter. And it is wonderful to con- 
 sider what twigs and rushes they catch at to hold up this their 
 monarchy. Because Peter did preach first, therefore he is 
 monarch of the church. By which reason his monarchy is 
 long since expired ; for his pretended successors scarce preach 
 at all. And yet if that may be drawn to any argument, it 
 proves only that he was lapis primus, the first in order and 
 forwardness to preach Christ, (as it became him who had 
 three times denied him,) but not lapis prim arius, the chief in 
 dignity and jurisdiction over the rest. And why should it not 
 be as good an argument to say that James had the dignity of 
 nrecedence before Peter, because Paul first names James, and 
 then Cephas, and that in a place where he particularly singles 
 them out as pillars and principal men in the church ; as to say 
 that Peter hath jurisdiction over James and the rest, because 
 in their synods and assemblies he was the chief speaker ? 
 Because Peter cured the lame man that sat at the gate of the 
 temple, therefore he is universal monarch. By which reason, 
 likewise, Paul, who in the self-same manner cured a cripple 
 at Lystra, should fall into competition with Peter for his share 
 in the monarchy. But the people there were not so acute 
 disputants as these of Rome ; for though they saw what Paul 
 had done, yet they concluded the dignity and precedence for 
 Barnabas, they called him Jupiter, and Paul, Mercury. Again ; 
 
64 CLAIMS OF PAPAL MONARCHY EXAMINED. 
 
 because Peter pronounced sentence upon Ananias, therefore 
 he is monarch of the universal church ; and why Paul should 
 not here likewise come in for his share, I know not ; for he 
 also passed judgment upon Elymas the sorcerer, and we no 
 where find that he derived his authority, or had any com- 
 mission from Peter to do so. And surely, if by the same 
 apostolical and infallible Spirit of Christ, which they both 
 immediately received from Christ himself, St. Paul did ad- 
 judge Elj^mas to bhndness. by the which St. Peter adjudged 
 Ananias to death ; I see not how any logic from a parity of 
 actions can conclude a disparity of persons, except ihey will 
 say that it is more monarchical to adjudge one to death, than 
 another to blindness. Again ; because Peter healed the sick 
 by his shadow, therefore Peter is monarch of the universal 
 church: and even in this point Paul likewise may hold on his 
 competition ; for why is not the argument as good, that Paul 
 is monarch of the church, because the handkerchiefs and 
 aprons which came from his body did cure diseases and cast 
 out devils, as that Peter is therefore monarch, because by the 
 overshadowing of his body the sick were healed ? But the 
 truth is, there is no more substance in this argument for 
 Peter's principality, than there is for their supposed miraculous 
 virtue of images and relics of saints, because the shadow, 
 which was the image of Peter, did heal the sick ; for that also 
 is the cardinal's great argument. Again ; because Peter was 
 sent to Samaria to confirm them in the faith, and to lay hands 
 on them, that they might receive the Holy Ghost, and to con- 
 found Simon Magus the sorcerer, therefore he is primate of 
 the catholic church, and hath monarchical jurisdiction. And 
 yet the pope is, by this time, something more monarchical 
 than Peter ; for he would scorn to be sent as an ambassador 
 of the churches from Rome to the Indians, amongst whom his 
 gospel hath been in these latter ages preached, and doubtless 
 they would be something more confirmed than they are by the 
 sovereign virtue of his prayers and presence. But alai, what 
 argument is it of monarchy to be sent by others in a message, 
 and that too not without an associate, who joined with him in 
 the confirmation of that church ? And if the confuting or 
 cursing of Simon Magus were an argument of primacy, why 
 should not St. Paul's cursing of Elymas, and Hymeneus, and 
 Alexander ; and also St. John's cursing of Cerinthus, be argu- 
 ments of their primacy likewise? Again ; because Paul went 
 up to Jerusalem to see Peter, therefore Peter was monarch ot 
 
CLAIMS OF PAPAL MONARCHY EXAMINED. 63 
 
 the catholic church. And why should not, by this argument, 
 Elizabeth be concluded a greater woman than the virfrin 
 Mary, and indeed the lady of all women, because the blessed 
 virgin went up into the hill country of Judea, and entered 
 into the house of Zacharias, and saluted EHzabeth ? But we 
 find no argument but of equality in the text ; for he went to 
 see him as a brotlier, but not to do homage to him, or receive 
 authority from him as a monarch ; else, why went he not up 
 immediately to Jerusalem, but stayed three years, and preached 
 the gospel by the commission he had received from Christ 
 alone ? And how came St. Paul to be so free, or St. Peter 
 to be so much more humble than any of his pretended succes- 
 sors, as the one to give with boldness, the other, with silence 
 and meekness to receive, so sore a reproof in the face of all 
 the brethren, as many years after that did pass between them ? 
 Certainly St. Paul, in so long time, could not but learn to 
 know his distance, and in what manner to speak to his mo- 
 narch and primate. 
 
 By these particulars we see upon what a sandy foundation 
 this vast and formidable Babel of papal usurpation and power 
 over the catholic church is erected, which yet, upon the mat- 
 ter, is the sole principle of romish religion, upon which all 
 their faith, worship, and obedience dependeth. But we say, 
 that as Peter was a foundation, so were all the other apostles 
 likewise, Eph. ii. 20; Rev. xxi. 14; and that upon the same 
 reason ; for the apostles were not foundations of the church by 
 any dignity of their persons, as Christ the chief corner stone 
 was, but by the virtue of their apostolical office, which was 
 universal jurisdiction in governing the people of Christ, uni- 
 versal commission in instructing them, and a spirit of infalli- 
 bility in revealing God's will unto them throughout the whole 
 world. And therefore as Peter had the keys of the kingdom 
 of heaven to remit or retain the sins of men, so likewise had 
 the other apostles, John xx. 23. That Christ's charge to 
 Peter, " Feed my sheep, feed my lambs," is no other in sub- 
 stance than his commission to them all, " Go and teach all 
 nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of 
 the Son, and of the Holy Ghost ; " and that the particular 
 directing of it unto Peter, and praying for him, was with re- 
 spect unto this particular only, by way of comfort and confirm- 
 ation, as being then a weak member ; not by way of dignity, 
 or deputation of Christ's own regal power to him in the visible 
 church. For all the offices of Chris;t are intransient and 
 
66 CLAIMS OF PAPAL MONARCHY EXAMINED. 
 
 uncommunicable to any other ; inasmuch as tliat administration 
 and execution of them dependeth upon the dignity of his per- 
 son, and upon the fulness of his Spirit, which no mortal man, 
 or immortal angel, is capable of. But all this is not enough 
 to be granted them for the raising their authority. 
 
 (3.) But then, thirdly, we must grant them too, that Peter, 
 thus qualified, was bishop of Rome, for proof whereof they 
 have no testimony of holy Scriptures, but only human tradi- 
 tion, which may very possibly be false ; so that in this, which 
 is one of the main principles they build upon, their faith can- 
 not be resolved into the word of God, and therefore is no 
 divine faith. 
 
 (4.) That he did appoint that church to be the monarchical 
 and fundamental see to all other churches ; for he was bishop 
 as well of Antioch as of Rome, by their own confession: and 
 I wonder why some of his personal virtue should not cleave 
 to his chair at Antioch, but all pass over with him to another 
 place. 
 
 (5.) That he did transmit all his prerogatives to his succes- 
 sors in that chair. By which assertion they may as well prove 
 that they all, though some of them have been sorcerers, others 
 murderers, others blasphemous atheists, were inheritors of 
 St. Peter's love to Christ; for from thence our Saviour infers, 
 " Feed my sheep," to note that none feed his sheep but those 
 that love his person. 
 
 (6.) That the long succession from St. Peter, until now, 
 hath ever since been legal and uninterrupted ; or else the 
 church must sometimes have been a monster without a head. 
 We grant that some of the ancients argue from succession in 
 the church ; but it was while it was yet pure, and while they 
 could, by reason of the little space of time between them and 
 the apostles, with evidence resolve their doctrine through every 
 medium, into the preaching of the apostles themselves. But 
 even in their personal succession, who knoweth not what simo- 
 nies and sorceries have raised divers of them unto that degree ? 
 And who is able to resolve that every episcopal ordination of 
 every bishop there hath been valid, since thereunto is requi- 
 site both the intention and orders of that bishop that ordained 
 him ? These and a world of the like uncertainties must the 
 faith of these men depend upon, who dare arrogate to them- 
 selves the prerogatives of Clirist, and of his catholic kingdom. 
 But I have been too long upon this argument. 
 
 Again ; this point of the stability of Christ's kingdom is a 
 
STABILITY OF CHRISt's KINGDOM. 67 
 
 ground of strong confidence and comfort to the whole church 
 of Christ, against all the violence of any outward enemies 
 wherewith sometimes they may seem to be swallowed up. 
 Though they associate themselves, and gird to the battle ; 
 though they take counsel, and make decrees against the Lord's 
 Anointed, and against his spouse, yet it shall all come to 
 nought, and be broken in pieces. All the smoke of hell shall 
 not be able to extinguish, nor all the power of hell to overturn 
 the church of God ; and the reason is, Immanuel, God is with 
 us, Isa. viii. 9, 10. That anointing which the church hath 
 received, shall deliver it at last from the yoke of the enemy, 
 Isa. X. 27. Though it seem for a time in as desperate a con- 
 dition as a dry stick in the fire, or a dead body in the grave, 
 yet this is not indeed a sepulture, but the seed-time. Thoucrh 
 it seem to be cast away for a season, yet in due time it will 
 come up and flourish again, Zech. iii. 2; Ezek. xxxvii. 11. 
 And this is the assurance that the church may have that the 
 Lord can save and deliver a second time, Isa. xi. 11 ; that he 
 is the same God yesterday, and to day, and for ever ; and 
 therefore such a God as the church hath found him heretofore, 
 such a God it shall find him to day, and for ever, in the re- 
 turns and manifestations of his mercy : which discovers the 
 folly, and foretells the confusion of the enemies of Christ's 
 kingdom. They conceive mischief, but they bring forth 
 nothing but vanity, Job xv. 35 ; they conceive chaff, and 
 bring forth stubble, Isa. xxxiii. 11. They imagine nothing but 
 a vain thing, their malice is but like the fighting of briars and 
 thorns with the fire, Isa. xxvii. 4 ; Nahum i. 10; like the 
 dashing of waves against a rock ; like a mad man's shooting 
 arrows against the sun, which at last return upon his own 
 head ; like the puffing of the fan against the corn, which driveth 
 away nothing but the chaff; like the beating of the wind 
 against the sail, or the foaming and raging of the water against 
 a mill, which, by the wisdom of the artificers, are all ordered 
 unto useful and excellent ends. And surely when the Lord 
 shall have accomplished his work on mount Sion, when he 
 shall, by the adversary, as by a fan, have purged away the ini- 
 quity of Jacob, and taken away his sin, he will then return in 
 peace and beauty unto his people again. Look on the pre- 
 paration of some large building ; in one place you shall see 
 heaps of lime and mortar, in another piles of timber, every- 
 where rude and undigested materials, and a tumultuous noise 
 of axes and hammers ; but, at length, the artificer sets every 
 
68 INTRANQUILLITY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 thing in order, and raiseth up a beautiful structure : such is 
 the proceeding of the Lord in the afflictions and devastations 
 of his church, though the enemy intend to ruin it, yet God 
 intends only to repair it. Thus far the word '' until " respects 
 Christ's kingdom in itself. 
 
 Now, as it respecteth the enemies of Christ, it notes, 
 1. The present inconsummateness of the victories, and by 
 consequence, the intranquillity of Christ's kingdom here upon 
 earth. All his enemies are not yet under his feet ; Satan is 
 not yet shut up ; the rage of hell, the persecutions and poli- 
 cies of wicked men, the present immunity of desperate sinners, 
 are evidences that Christ hath much work to do in his church. 
 But doth not the apostle say, that all things are put under his 
 feet ? Eph. i. 22. It is true, as regards his power to judge 
 the world, but not the exercise of his power in governing it : 
 he shall not receive any new power to subdue his enemies, 
 which he hath not already ; but yet he can execute that power 
 when and how he will. And he is pleased to suffer his ene- 
 mies, in this respite, to rage, and revile, and persecute him in 
 his members. Every wicked man is condemned already, and 
 hath the wrath of God abiding upon him, John iii. 18, 36; 
 only Christ doth suspend the execution of them for many 
 weighty reasons. 
 
 (1.) To show his patience and long-suffering towards the 
 vessels of wrath, for he ever comes first with an offer of peace, 
 before he draws the sword, Rom. ii. 4 ; ix. 22 ; Deut. xx. 10, 
 13; Lukex. 5, 11. 
 
 (2.) To magnify the power of his protection and provi- 
 dence over the church in the midst of their enemies ; for if 
 the Lord were not on the church's side when man riseth up 
 against it, if he did not rebuke the proud waves, and set them 
 their bounds how far they should go, there could be no more 
 power in the church to withstand them, than in a level of sand 
 to resist an inundation of the sea, Psa. cxxiv. 1, 5. 
 
 (3.) To reserve wicked men unto the great day of his ap- 
 pearing, and of the declaration of his power and righteous- 
 ness, wherein all the world shall be the spectators and wit- 
 nesses of his just and victorious proceedings against them, 
 Acts xvii. 31. 
 
 (4.) To show forth his mighty power in destroying the 
 wicked altogether. They who here carried themselves with 
 that insolence, as if every particular man meant to have 
 plucked Christ out of his throne, shall there all together be 
 
GOD S PATIENCE HATH FIXED BOUNDS. 69 
 
 brought forth before him. That as the righteous are reserved 
 to have their full salvation together, 1 Thess. iv. 17, so the 
 wicked may be bound up in bundles, and destroyed together, 
 Psa. xxxvii. 38 ; Isa. i. 28. 
 
 (5.) To fill up the measure, and to ripen the sins of wicked 
 men : for the Lord puts the wickedness of men into an ephah, 
 and when they have filled up their measure, he then sealeth 
 them up unto the execution of his righteous judgments. And 
 hence it is, that the Scripture calleth wicked men " vessels fitted 
 Cor destruction ; " for they first fill themselves with sin, and 
 then God filleth them up with wrath and shame. 
 
 (6.) To fill up the number of his elect, for he hath many 
 sheep which are not yet within his fold, and they many of 
 them the posterity of wicked men, John x. 16. 
 
 (7.) To fill up the measure of his own sufferings m 
 his members, that they may follow him unto his kingdom 
 through the same way of afflictions as he went before them, 
 Col. i. 24; Rev. vi. 11. 
 
 (8.) To exercise the faith of his church, to drive the faith- 
 ful, with the prophet Habakkuk, into their watch-tower, and", 
 with David, into the sanctuary of the Lord ; there to wait upon 
 him in the way of his judgments, to consider that the end of 
 the righteous man is peace, and that the pride and prosperity 
 of the wicked are but as the fat of lambs, and as the beauty of 
 grass ; that God hath set them in slippery places, and will 
 cast them down at the last, Hab. ii. 1 ; Psa. xxxvii. 2, 10, 
 20 ; Ixxiii. 18. 
 
 (9.) To wean the faithful from earthly affections, and to 
 kindle in them the desires of the saints under the altar, " How 
 long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge 
 our blood on them that dwell on the earth ! " Rev. vi. 10. 
 
 2. As " until " notes the patience of Christ towards his 
 enemies, so it notes likewise that there are fixed bounds and 
 limits unto that patience, beyond which he will no longer for- 
 bear. There is an appointed day wherein he will judge the 
 world in righteousness. Acts xvii.31. There is a year of 
 veno-eance, and of recompenses for the controversies of Sion, 
 Isa.^xxiv. 8. The wild ass that snufFeth up the wind at her 
 pleasure, may be found in her month, Jer. ii. 24. The Lord seeth 
 that the day of the wicked is coming : it is an appointed 
 time ; though it tarry, yet if we wait for it, it will surely 
 come, it will not tarry, Psa. xxxvii. 13; Hab. ii. 3. Well 
 then, let men go on with all the fierceness and excess of 
 
70 god's patience hath fixed bounds. 
 
 riot they will, let them walk in the way of their heart, and in 
 the sight of their eyes, yet all this while they are in a chain, 
 they have but a compass to go, and God will bring them to 
 judgment at the last. When the day of a drunkard and 
 riotous person is come, when he hath taken so many hellish 
 swallows, and hath filled up the measure of his lusts, his mar- 
 row must then lie down in the dust : though the cup were at 
 his mouth, yet from thence it shall be snatched away, and for 
 everlasting he shall never taste a drop of sweetness, nor have 
 the least desire of his wicked heart satisfied any more. A 
 wicked man's sins will not follow him to hell to please him, 
 but only the memory of them to be an everlasting scourge 
 and flame upon his conscience. O then take heed of ripening 
 sin by custom, by security, by insensibility, by impudence and 
 stoutness of heart, by making it a mock, a matter of glory 
 and of boasting, by stopping the ear against the voice of the 
 charmer, and turning the back upon the invitations unto 
 mercy, by resisting the evidence of the Spirit in the word, and 
 committing' sin in the lio[ht of the sun : for as the heat 
 of the sun doth wither the fruit which falls off, and ripen 
 that which hangs on the tree ; so the word doth weaken 
 those lusts which a man is desirous to shake off, and doth 
 ripen for judgment those which the heart holds fast, and will 
 not part with. When was Israel overthrown, but when they 
 mocked the messengers of God, and despised his word, and 
 misused his prophets, and rejected the remedy of their sin ? 
 And when was Judah destroyed, but when they hardened 
 themselves against the word, and would not take notice of the 
 day of their peace ? Alas, what haste do men make to pro- 
 mote their own damnation, and to go quickly to hell, when 
 they will break through the very law of God, and through all 
 his holy ordinances, that they may come thither the sooner, as 
 if the gate would be shut against them, or as if it were a place 
 of some great preferment ; as if they had to do with a blind 
 God which could not see, or with an impotent God which 
 could not revenge their impieties ! Well, for all this the wise 
 man's speech will prove true at the last, — " Know that God 
 will bring thee unto judgment." 
 
 3. " Until " notes the infallible accomplishment of Christ's 
 victories, and triumph over his enemies at the last, when the 
 day is come wherein he will be patient towards them no longer. 
 The prophet giveth three excellent reasons thereof in one verse, 
 Isa. xxxiii. 22 ; " The Lord is our Judge, the Lord is our 
 
THE OBSTINACY OF SIN. 71 
 
 Lawgiver, the Lord is our King ; he will save us." He is our 
 Judge, and therefore when the day of trial is come, he will 
 certainly plead our cause against our adversaries, and will con- 
 demn them, Micah vii. 9. But a judge cannot do what 
 pleaseth himself, but he is bound to his rule, and proceedeth ac- 
 cording to established laws. Therefore, Christ is our Lawgiver 
 likewise, and therefore he may appoint himself laws accordincr 
 to his own will. But when the will of the judge and the rule 
 of the law do both consent in the punishing of offenders, yet 
 then still the king hath a liberty of mercy, and he may pardon 
 those whom the law and the judge have condemned. But 
 Christ, who shall judge the enemies of his church according 
 to the law which himself hath made, is himself the King ; and 
 therefore when he revengeth, there is none besides, nor above 
 him to pardon. So at that day there shall be a full mani- 
 festation of the kingdom of Christ; none of his enemies 
 shall move the wing, or open the mouth, or peep against him. 
 IL The second thing formerly proposed in this latter part 
 of the verse was, the Author of subduing Christ's enemies 
 under his feet, — " I the Lord." Wicked men will never sub- 
 mit themselves to Christ's kingdom, but stand out in opposition 
 against him in his word and ways. When God's hand is 
 lifted up in the dispensation of his word and threatenings 
 against sin, men will not see, Isa. xxvi. 1 1 ; and therefore he 
 saith, "My Spirit shall not always strive with men ;" to note, 
 that men would of themselves always strive with the Spirit, 
 and never yield nor submit to Christ. Though the patience 
 and goodness of God should lead them to repentance, and 
 forewarn them to flee from the wrath to come, yet they, after 
 their hardness and impenitent heart, do hereby treasure up 
 against themselves the more wrath, Rom. ii, 4, 5 ; and because 
 judgment is not speedily executed, their heart is wholly set in 
 them to do mischief, Eccles. viii. 11. "Let favour," saith 
 the prophet, "be showed unto the wicked, yet will he not learn 
 righteousness : in the land of uprightness will he deal unjustly, 
 and will not behold the majesty of the Lord," Isa. xxvi. 10. 
 Certainly, if a wicked man could be rescued out of hell itself, 
 and brought back into the possibilities of mercy again, yet 
 would he in a second life fly out against God, and while he had 
 time, take his fill of lusts again. We see clay will but grow 
 harder by the fire ; and that metal which melted in the furnace, 
 being taken thence, will return to its wonted solidity. When 
 Pharaoh saw that the rain, and the hail, and the thunders 
 
72 THE OBSTINACY OF SIN. 
 
 were ceased, (though in the time of them he was like melted 
 metal, and did acknowledge the righteousness of God, and 
 his own sin, and make strong promises that Israel should go,) 
 yet then he sinned more, and hardened his heart, he and his 
 servants, and would not let the children of Israel go, Exod. 
 ix. 27, 28, 34, 33. Do we not see men sometimes cast on 
 a bed of sickness, brought to the very brink of hell, and to 
 the smell of that sulphury lake, when, by God's wonderful 
 patience, they are snatched like a brand out of the fire, and 
 have recovered a little strength, continue to provoke the Lord 
 again ? When they should set themselves to make good 
 those hypocritical resolutions of amendment of life, wherewith 
 in their extremity they flattered God, and deceived them- 
 selves, they suddenly break forth into more filthiness than 
 before, as if they meant now to be revenged of God, and to 
 fetch back that time which sickness took from them, by an 
 extremity of sinning ; as if they had made a covenant with 
 hell to do it more service if they might then be spared. All 
 the favours and methods which God useth are not enough to 
 bring wicked men home unto him of their own wills. 
 " Though I have redeemed them," saith the Lord, " yet they 
 have spoken lies against me. They have not cried unto me 
 with their heart, when they howled upon their beds. The 
 people turneth not unto him that smiteth them, neither do 
 they seek the Lord of hosts." Hoseavii. 13, 14; Isa. ix. 13. 
 So many judgments did the Lord send upon Israel on the 
 neck of one another, and yet still the burthen of the prophet 
 is, " Yet have you not returned unto me, saith the Lord," 
 Amos iv. 6, 8 — 11. Dam up the passage of a river, 
 and use all the art that may be to over-rule it, yet you can 
 never carry it backward in its own channel ; you may cut it 
 out into other courses, but no art can drive it into a contrary 
 motion, and make it retire into its own fountain. So, though 
 wicked men may haply, by divers reasons which their lusts 
 will admit, be so far wrought upon as to change their courses, 
 yet it is impossible to change themselves, or to turn them 
 quite out of their own way into the way of Christ. There is 
 in the world but a way of life, and a way of death ; and the 
 Lord, in the ministry of the word, gives us our option ; " I 
 have set before you this day life and death, blessing and 
 cursing : and he that believeth shall be saved ; he that be- 
 lieveth not shall be damned." To the former he invites, 
 beseecheth, enticeth us with promises, with oaths, with 
 
PUNISHMENT OF THE WICKED. 73 
 
 engagements, with prevention of any just objection which 
 might be made ; " We pray you," saith the apostle, " in 
 Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God." From the othei ,he 
 deters us by forewarning us of the wrath to come, and of the 
 period which death will put to our lusts with our lives. And 
 as TertulHan once spake of the oath of God, so may I of his 
 entreaties and threatenings ; " O blessed men whom the 
 Lord himself is pleased to solicit and entice unto happiness ! 
 But O miserable men, that will not believe nor accept of 
 God's own entreaties I" And yet thus miserable are we all 
 by nature. There is in men so much atheism, infidelity, 
 and distrust of God's word, so close an adherency of lust 
 unto the soul, that it rather chooseth to run the hazard, and 
 to go to hell entire, than to go halt and maimed unto heaven ; 
 yea, to make God a liar, and to bless themselves in their sins, 
 when he curseth ; and to judge of him by themselves, as if he 
 took no notice of their ways. It is not, therefore, without 
 just cause that God so often threateneth to remember all the 
 sins of wicked men, and to do against them whatsoever he 
 hath spoken. 
 
 We see then, that men will never submit themselves unto the 
 sceptre of Christ, nor prevent the wrath to come by a volun- 
 tary subjection. It remains, therefore, that God takes the 
 work into his own hands, and puts them by force under 
 Christ's feet. They will not submit to his kingdom of grace 
 and mercy, they will not believe his kingdom of glory and 
 salvation ; but they shall be made subject to the sword of his 
 wrath, and that without any hope of escape or power of op- 
 position ; for God himself shall do it immediately by his own 
 mighty power. He will interpose his own hand, and magnify 
 the glory of his own strength in the just confusion of wricked 
 men. So the apostle saith, that the Lord will show his 
 wrath, and make his power known in the vessels fitted for 
 destruction, Rom. ix, 22, Two means the apostle showeth 
 shall be used in the destruction of the wicked, to effect it, — 
 the presence, or countenance, and the glorious power of the 
 Lord, 2 Thess. i. 9. The very terror of his face, and the 
 dreadful majesty of his presence, shall slay the wicked. " The 
 kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and 
 the chief captains, and the mighty men," those who all their 
 lifetime were themselves terrible, and had been acquainted 
 with terrors, shall then beer of the mountains and rocks to 
 
74 PUNISHMENT OF THE WICKED. 
 
 " fall on them, and to hide them from the face of him that 
 sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb," Rev. 
 vi. 15, 16 ; Isa. ii. 10, 19 : whence that usual expression of 
 God's resolution to destroy a people, " 1 will set my face 
 against them." Oh then, how sore will the condemnation of 
 wicked men be, when therein the Lord purposeth to declare 
 the glorious strength of his own almighty arm ! Here, when 
 the Lord punisheth a people, he only showeth how much 
 strength and edge he can put into the creatures to execute 
 his displeasure. But the extreme terror of the last day shall 
 be this, that men shall fall immediately into the hands of 
 God himself, who hath said, " Vengeance belongeth unto 
 me, and I will recompense," Heb. x. 30, 31. And, there- 
 fore, the apostle useth this expostulation against idolaters, 
 " Do we provoke the Lord to jealousy ? Are we stronger 
 than he?" 1 Cor. x. 22. Dare we meet the Lord in his 
 fury? do we provoke him to pour out " all his wrath?" Psa. 
 Ixxviii. 38. He will at last stir up all his wrath against the 
 vessels that are fitted for it. And for that cause he will 
 punish them himself. For there is no creature able to bring 
 all God's wrath unto another ; there is no vessel able to hold 
 all God's displeasure. The apostle telleth us that we have to 
 do with God in his word, Heb. iv. 13 ; but herein he useth 
 the ministry of weak men, so that his majesty is covered, and 
 wicked men have a veil upon their hearts, that they cannot 
 see God in his word. " When thy hand is lifted up," 
 namely, in the threatenings and predictions of wrath out of 
 the word, " they will not see ;" for it is a work of faith to 
 receive the word as God's word, and therein beforehand to 
 see his power, and to hear his rod, Micah vi. 9. Other 
 men belie the Lord, and say. It is not he. But though they 
 will not acknowledge that they have to do with God in his 
 word, though they will not see when his hand is lifted up in 
 the preparations of his wrath, yet they shall see, and know 
 that they have to do with him in his judgments, when his 
 hand falleth down again in the execution of his wrath. So 
 the Lord expostulateth with them, " Can thine heart endure, 
 or thine hands be strong, in the days that I shall deal with 
 thee ? " Ezek. xxii. 14. The prophet Isaiah resolves that 
 question, " The sinners in Zion are afraid, fearfulness hath 
 surprised the hypocrites,'' (namely, a fearful looking for of 
 judgment and fiery indignation, as the apostle speaks, Heb. 
 
PUNISHMENT OF THE WICKED. 75 
 
 X. 27.) " Who among us shall dwell with the devouring 
 fire ? who^ among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings ?" 
 Isa. xxxiii. 14 ; that is, in the words of another prophet, 
 " Who can stand before his indignation ? and who can abide 
 in the fierceness of his anger ? His fury is poured out like 
 fire, and the rocks are throvm down by him," Nahum i. 6. 
 
 Confirmations of this point we may take from these consi- 
 derations : — 
 
 1. The quarrel with sinners is God's own, the con- 
 troversy his own, the injuries and indignities have been 
 done to himself and his own Son, the challenges have been 
 sent unto himself and his own Spirit ; and, therefore, no 
 marvel if he take the matter into his own hands, and, the 
 quarrel so immediately reflecting upon him, if he be provoked 
 to revenge it by his own immediate power. 
 
 2. Revenge is his royal and peculiar prerogative, Deut. 
 xxxii. 35, 41 ; from whence the apostle infers, that it is " a 
 fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God," Heb. 
 x. 30, 31. And there are these arguments of fearfulness in 
 it: it shall be in judgment, without mercy, James ii. 13; 
 there shall be no mixture of any sweetness in the cup of 
 God's displeasure, but all poison and bitterness ; there shall 
 not be afforded a drop of water to a lake of fire, a minute of 
 ease to an eternity of torment. It shall be in fury, without 
 compassion : in human judgments, where the law of the 
 state will not suffer a judge to acquit or show mercy, yet the 
 law of nature will force him to compassionate and grieve for 
 the malefactor whom he must condemn. There is no judge 
 so senseless of another's misery, nor so destitute of human 
 affections, as to pronounce a sentence of condemnation with 
 laughter. But the Lord will condemn his enemies in ven- 
 geance, without any pity. " I will laugh," saith the Lord, 
 *' at your calamity, I will mock when your fear cometh," 
 Prov. i. 26. It shall be in revenge and recompense, in 
 reward and proportion ; that is, in a full and everlasting de- 
 testation of wicked men ; the weight whereof shall, peradven- 
 ture, lie heavier upon them, than all the other torments which 
 they are to suffer, when they shall look on themselves as 
 scorned and abhorred exiles from the favour and presence of 
 Him that made them. For as the wicked did here hate 
 God, and set their hearts and their courses against him 
 perpetually, in all that time which God permitted them to 
 
 £2 
 
76 PUNISHMENT OF THE WICKED. 
 
 sin, so God will hate wicked men, and set his face and fury 
 against them perpetually too, as long as he shall be Judge of 
 the world. 
 
 3. This may be seen in the beginnings of hell in wicked 
 men upon the earth. When the door of the conscience is 
 opened, and that sin which lay there asleep before, riseth up, 
 like an enraged lion, to flee upon the soul ; when the Lord 
 suffers some flashes of his glittering sword to break in like 
 lightning upon the spirit, and to amaze the sinner with the 
 pledges and first fruits of hell ; when he melteth the stout 
 hearts of men, and grindeth them unto powder, what is all 
 this but the secret touch of God's own finger upon the con- 
 science ? For there is no creature in the world whose ministry 
 the heart doth discern in the commotions and invisible work- 
 ings of a guilty and unquiet spirit. 
 
 4. The torments of wicked angels, whence can they come ? 
 There is no creature strong enough to lay upon them a suffi- 
 cient recompense of pain for their sin against the majesty of 
 God. The devils acknowledge Christ their tormentor, and 
 that when he did nothing but rebuke them. There was ao 
 fire, nor any other creature by him supplied, but only the 
 majesty of his own word, power, and person, which wrung 
 from them that hideous cry, " Art thou come to torment us 
 before the time ?" Matt. viii. 29. 
 
 5. Consider the heaviness of Christ's own soul, his agony 
 and sense of the curse due unto our sin when he was in the 
 garden ; the trouble, astonishment, and extreme anguish of 
 his soul, which wrought out of his sacred body that woful and 
 wonderful sweat. Whence came it all ? We never read of 
 any devils let loose to torment him ; they were ever tormented 
 at his presence. We read of no other angels who had com- 
 mission to afilict him ; we read of an angel who was sent 
 to strengthen him, Luke xxii. 43. There is no reason to 
 think that the fear of a bodily death, which was the only thing 
 that men could inflict upon him, was that which squeezed out 
 those drops of blood, and extorted those bitter and strong 
 cries from him. There were not in his innocent soul, in his 
 most pure and sacred body, any seeds or principles of such 
 tormenting distempers ; his compassion towards the misery of 
 sinners, his knowledge of the guilt and cursedness of sin, was 
 as great at other times as then. What then could it else be, 
 but the weight of his Father's justice, the conflict with his 
 
PUNISHMENT OF THE WICKED. 77 
 
 Father's wrath against the shis of men, which wrought such 
 extremity of heaviness in his soul ? And he was our Surety, 
 he stood in our stead ; that which was done to tlie green tree 
 should much more have been done to the dry. If God laid 
 upon him the strokes which were due unto our sin, how 
 much more heavy shall his hand be upon those whom he 
 thoroughly hateth ! 
 
 But shall not the angels then be executioners of the sen- 
 tence of God's wrath upon wicked men ? I answer, The 
 angels shall have their service in the coming of the Lord ; 
 as attendants, to show forth the majesty and glory of Christ 
 to the world, 2 Thess. i. 7 ; Matt. 'xxiv. 31. Also, as 
 executioners of his will, which is to gather together the elect 
 and the reprobate ; to bind up the wicked as sheaves or fagots 
 for the fire. Matt. xiii. 30; xxiv. 31. But, still the Lord 
 interposeth his own power. As a schoolmaster setteth one 
 scholar to bring forth another unto punishment, but then he 
 layeth on the stripes himself. 
 
 But why is it said, that the Father shall put Christ's ene- 
 mies under his feet ? Doth not Christ himself do it, as well 
 as the Father? Yes, doubtless, God hath given the Son 
 authority to execute judgment also, and put into his hands a 
 rod of iron, to dash his enemies to pieces like a potter's 
 vessel ; "for whatsoever things the Father doth, these also 
 doth the Son likewise," John v. 19, 27 ; Psa. ii. 9. But 
 we are to note, that the subjecting of Christ's enemies under 
 his feet is a work of Divine power. And therefore, though 
 it be attributed to Christ as an officer, yet it belongeth to 
 the Father, as the fountain of all Divine operations. So 
 God is said to set forth his Son as a propitiation, Rom. iii. 
 25; and yet the Son came down and manifested himself, 
 Phil. ii. 7, 8 ; Heb. ix. 26. The Father is said to have 
 raised him from the dead. Acts ii. 32 ; Rom. vi. 4 ; and yet 
 the Son raised himself by his own power, John x. 18. The 
 Father is said to have set Christ at his own right hand in 
 heavenly places, Eph. i. 20 ; and Christ is said to have sat 
 down himself on the right hand of the Majesty on high, Heb. 
 i. 3, 10, 12. The Father is said to give the Holy Ghost, John 
 xiv. 16 ; and yet the Son promiseth to send the Spirit him- 
 self, John xvi. 7. So here, though the Son has received 
 power sufficient to subdue all his enemies under his feet, (for 
 he is able to subdue all things unto himself, Phil. iii. 21,) 
 
78 PUNISHMENT OF THE WICKED. 
 
 yet the Father, to show his hatred against the enemies of 
 Christ, and his consent to the victories of his Son, will like- 
 wise subdue all things unto him, 1 Cor. xv. 27, 28. 
 
 Oh, then, that men would be, by the terror of the Lord, per- 
 suaded to flee from the wrath to come, to consider the weight 
 of God's heavy hand, and when they see such a storm com- 
 ing, to hide themselves in the holes of that Rock of mercy ! 
 It is nothing but atheism and infidelity which bewitcheth 
 men with desperate senselessness against the vengeance of 
 God. And therefore, as the Lord hath seconded his word of 
 promise with an oath, that they might have strong consola- 
 tion who flee for refuge to lay hold on the hope which is set 
 before them, Heb. vi. 17, 18, so hath he confirmed the word 
 of his threatenings with an oath too : " If I lift up my hand 
 to heaven, and say, I live for ever — I will render vengeance 
 to mine enemies, I will reward them that hate me," Deut. 
 xxxii. 40, 41 ; and again, " The Lord hath sworn by the 
 excellency of Jacob, Surely I will never forget any of their 
 works," Amos viii. 7 ; and again, " I have sworn by myself, 
 That unto me every knee shall bow," Isa. xlv. 23 ; and this 
 he doth, that secure and obdurate sinners might have the 
 stronger reasons to flee from the wrath which is set before 
 them. How wonderful is the stupidity of men, that will 
 neither believe the words, nor tremble at the oath of God ! 
 He hath warned us to flee from the wrath to come, and we 
 make haste to meet it rather ; we fill up our measure, and 
 commit sin with both hands greedily ; with unclean and in- 
 temperate courses, we bring immature deaths upon ourselves, 
 that so we may hasten to hell the sooner, and make trial 
 whether God be a liar or not. For this, indeed, is the very 
 direct issue of every profane exorbitancy which men rush into. 
 Every man hath much atheism in his heart by nature, but 
 such desperate stupidity doth wonderfully increase it, and 
 bring men by degrees to the hellish presumption of those in 
 the prophets, " The Lord will not do good, neither will he do 
 evil ; it is not the Lord, neither shall evil come upon us ; 
 the prophets shall become wind, and the word is not in them. 
 The days are prolonged, and every vision faileth," Jer. v. 
 12, 13 ; Ezek. xii. 22 : this man prophesies of things afar 
 off, of doomsday, of things which shall be long after our time. 
 Unto these men I say, in the words of the apostle, though 
 they sleep, and see nothing, and mock at the promise of 
 
PUNISHMENT OF THE WICKED. 79 
 
 Christ's coming, yet '• their damnation slumbereth not," 2 Pet. 
 ii. 3, but shall come upon them soon enough, even Hke an 
 armed man. " Be ye not mockers," saith the propliet, " lest 
 your bands be made strong," Isa. xxviii. 22. Atheism and 
 scorn of God's judgments will make him bind them the faster 
 upon us ; he will get the better of the proudest of his enemies. 
 We may mock, but God will not be mocked, Gal. vi. 7, 8. 
 He that shooteth arrows against the sun shall never reach 
 high enough to violate it, but the arrows shall return upon 
 his own head. Contempt of God and his threatenings doth 
 but tie our damnation the faster upon us, and make our con- 
 dition the more remediless. The rage and wrestling of a 
 beast with the rope that binds him, doth make the knot the 
 faster. Nay, there is no atheist in the world but some time 
 or other feeleth, by the horrors of his own bosom, and by the 
 records of his own conscience, that there is a consumption 
 decreed, and a day of slaughter coming for the bulls of 
 Bashan. 
 
 Again ; others I have known acknowledge indeed the terror 
 of the Lord, but yet go desperately on In their presumptions, 
 and that upon two other dangerous downfalls. They thus 
 argue, Peradventure I belong to God's election of grace, and 
 then he will fetch me in, in his time, and in the mean time 
 his mercy is above my sins, and it is not for me to hasten his 
 work till he will himself. Oh, what a perverseness is this, 
 for the wickedness of man to disturb the order of God I 
 His rule is, that we should argue from a holy conversation to 
 our election, and by our diligence in adding one grace unto 
 another, to make it sure unto ourselves ; not to argue from 
 our election to our calling, nor to neglect all diligence till our 
 election appear. It is true, the mercy of Christ is infinitely 
 wider than the utmost rebellions of men, and it may be he 
 will snatch such a wicked disputer as this like a brand out of 
 the fire ; but then know withal, that every desperate sin thou 
 dost now wilfully run into, will at last cost thee such bitter 
 throes, such tears of blood, as thou wouldst not be willing, 
 with the least of them, to purchase the most sweet and con- 
 stant pleasure which thy heart can now delight in. And in 
 the mean time it Is a desperate adventure upon the patience 
 of God for any man, upon expectation of God's favour, to 
 steal time from his service, and to turn the probability of the 
 mercy of God into an occasion of sinning. The Ninevltes 
 
80 PUNISHMENT OF THE WICKED. 
 
 gathered another conclusion from these premises : " Let man 
 and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily unto 
 God ; yea, let them turn every one from his evil way, and 
 from the violence that is in their hands ;" and the ground of 
 this resolution is this, " Who can tell if God will turn and 
 repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish 
 not ?" Jonah iii. 8, 9. And the prophets teach us to make 
 another use of the possibility of God's mercy : " Rend your 
 heart, and not your garments, and turn unlo the Lord your 
 God ; for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of 
 great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil. Who knoweth 
 if he will return and repent, and leave a blessing behind him ?" 
 Joel ii. 12, 14. And again, "' Seek ye the Lord, all ye 
 meek of the earth ; seek righteousness, seek meekness : it 
 may be ye shall be hid in the day of the Lord's anger," Zeph. 
 ii. 3. 
 
 But there are not wanting desperate wretches who will 
 thus hellishly argue against the service of God : It may be 
 the decree is gone forth, and I am rejected by God, and why 
 should I labour in vain, and go about to repeal his will, and 
 not rather, since I have no heaven hereafter, take the fill of 
 mine own ways and lusts here ? Thus we find the wicked 
 epicures conclude. We shall die to-morrow, therefore let us 
 eat and drink to-day, 1 Cor. xv. 32. Nay, but who art thou, 
 O man, who disputest against God ; who rather choosest to 
 abuse the secrets of God, that thou mayest dishonour him, 
 than to be ruled by his revealed will, that thou mayest obey 
 him ? " Let the potsherds strive with the potsherds of the 
 earth ;" but let not the clay dash itself against him that made 
 it. Remember and tremble at the difference which our 
 Saviour makes even amongst the wicked in hell. It shall be 
 more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah, and for Tyre and 
 Sidon, in the day of judgment, than for those cities which 
 have heard and despised him. Wicked men are treasuring 
 up wrathj and hoarding up destruction against their own 
 souls ; every new oath or blasphemy heaps a new mountain 
 upon their conscience ; every renewed act of any uncleanness 
 plungeth a man deeper into hell, giveth the devil more hold- 
 fast of him, adds more fuel unto his Tophet, squeezeth in 
 more dregs and woful ingredients into the cup of astonish- 
 ment which he must swallow. Doubtless a sinner in hell 
 would account himself a happy creature if he did not feel 
 
PUNISHMENT OF THE WICKED. 81 
 
 there the weight and worm of some particular sins, which 
 with much easiness he might have forborne, nay, which 
 without pain and labour he could not commit. We see 
 Dives in hell begged for but a drop of water to cool his 
 tongue in that mighty flame. Now, suppose a man in a 
 burning furnace ; what great comfort could he receive from 
 but a drop of water against a furnace of fire ? Certainly, 
 the abatement of so much pain as the abiding of one drop 
 would remove, could in no proportion amount to the taking 
 away the punishment of the smallest sin, of the least idle 
 word, or unprofitable thought ; and yet in that extremity there 
 shall not be allowed a drop of refreshment against a lake of 
 fire. Oh that men would therefore in time consider what a 
 woful thincT it is to fall into the hands, and to rouse up the 
 jealousy of the living God ! that because he will do thus and 
 thus unto obdurate sinners, they would therefore in time 
 humble themselves under his mighty hand, and prepare to 
 meet him in the way of his judgments ! For certainly, no 
 sooner doth the heart of a sinner yield to God, but he meeteth 
 him in his return, and preventeth him with goodness ; his 
 heart Hkewise is turned within him, and his repentings are 
 kindled together. With much more delight will he put a 
 man into the arms of Christ than force him under his feet. 
 "He doth not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men ;" 
 he taketh no pleasure in the death of a sinner, but " he de- 
 lighteth in mercy." 
 
 III. The last thing observed, was the manner of this vic- 
 tory, expressed in those words, " to put," and " to put as a stool 
 under Christ's feet." Now, this expression, that the conquest 
 of Christ's enemies shall be but as the removing of a stool 
 into its place, noteth unto us two things : — 
 
 1. The easiness of God's victory over the enemies of 
 Christ. They are before him as nothing, less than nothing, 
 the drop of a bucket, the dust of a balance, a very little 
 thing. What thing is heavier than a m.ountain ? what thing 
 easier than a touch ? what lighter than chaff, or softer than 
 wax ? and yet they who in the eyes of men are as strong and 
 immovable as mountains, if God but touch them, they shall 
 be turned into chaff, and flow at his presence. If a man had 
 a deadly pestilence, and of infallible infection, how easily 
 might that man be avenged on his enemy with but breathing 
 in his face ! Now, the breath of the Lord is like a stream 
 e5 
 
82 PUNISHMENT OF THE WICKED. 
 
 of brimstone to devour the wicked. As easily as fire con- 
 sumeth flax or stubble, as easily as poison invadeth the 
 spirits of the body, as easily as a rod of iron breaketh in 
 pieces a potter's vessel, as easily as a burthensome stone 
 bruiseth that which it falls upon ; so, and much more irresis- 
 tibly, doth the wrath of the Lord consume his enemies. 
 
 Again ; God's power is, as it were, set on by his jealousy 
 and fury against sinners. Anger we know is the whetstone 
 of strength ; in an equality of other terms it v^dll make a man 
 prevail. Nothing is able to stand before a fire which is once 
 enraged. Now, God's displeasure is kindled and breaketh 
 forth into a flame against the sins of men, Deut. xxix. 20, 
 like a devouring lion, or a bereaved bear ; like the implacable 
 rage of a jealous man, so doth the fire of the Lord's revenge 
 break forth upon the enemies of his Son. 
 
 Add hereunto, our disposition and preparedness for the 
 wrath of God Strength itself may be tired out in vain upon 
 a subject which is incapable of any injury therefrom ; but if 
 the paw of a bear meet with so thin a substance as the skin 
 of a man's heart, how easily is it torn to pieces. Every 
 action is then most speedily finished, when the subject on 
 which it works is thereunto prepared. Far easier is it to 
 make a print in wax, than in adamant ; to kindle a fire in dry 
 stubble, than in green wood. Now, wicked men have fitted 
 themselves for wrath, and are the procurers and artificers of 
 their own destruction. They are vessels, and God is never 
 without treasures of wTath, so that the confusion of a wicked 
 man is but like the drawing of water out of a fountain, or 
 the filling of a bag out of a heap of treasure. 
 
 Add hereunto, our destituteness of all help and succour. 
 Even fire amongst pitch might be quenched, if a man could 
 pour down water in abundance upon it. But the wicked shall 
 have no strength either in or about them to prevent or remove 
 the wrath to come. Here indeed they have some helps, such 
 as they are, to stand out against God in his word. Wealth 
 and greatness to be the provisions of their lusts ; the counte- 
 nance of the wicked world to encourage them in their ways ; 
 Satan and the wisdom of the flesh to furnish them with argu- 
 ments, and to cast a garnish upon uncleanness ; but when 
 the lion comes, the shepherd can do the sheep no good ; when 
 the fire comes, the rotten post shall perish with the varnish 
 which covered it. He that was here strong enough to pro- 
 
PUNISHMENT OF THE WICKED. 83 
 
 voice God shall at last be bound hand and foot, and so have 
 no faculty left either to resist him or to run from him. 
 
 There is a foolish disposition in the hearts of men to think 
 that they shall ever continue in that state which they are 
 once in. The proud and wicked man hatli said in his heart, 
 " I shall never be moved, I shall never be in adversity. God 
 hath forgotten; he hideth his face ; he will never see it," Psa. 
 X. 6, 11. And David was overtaken with this gross error, 
 '' I said in my prosperity, I shall never be moved." This 
 was the vain conceit of the fool in the gospel, " Thou hast 
 much goods laid up for many years, take thine ease, eat, 
 drink, and be merry," Luke xii. 19. This ever hath been 
 the language of secure and wicked men ; " None evil can 
 come upon us," Micah iii. 11. "I shall have peace, though 
 I walk in the imagination of mine heart," Deut. xxix. 19. 
 " To-morrow shall be as this day, and much more abundant," 
 Isa. Ivi. 12. And so also in afflictions : " Hath God for- 
 gotten to be gracious ? hath he shut up his tender mercies in 
 anger?" Psa. Ixxvii. 9. " From day even to night wilt thou 
 make an end of me," Isa. xxxviii. 12. " I said my hope is 
 lost, and I am cut off' for my part," Ezek. xxxvii. 11. I 
 shall never overcome such an affliction ; I shall never break 
 through such a pressure. And both these come from want 
 of faith touching the power of God to subdue all enemies 
 under Christ's feet. If men would but consider how easily 
 God can break down all their cobwebs, and sweep away their 
 refuge of lies ; how easily he can spoil them of all tiie provi- 
 sions of their lusts, they would be more fearful of him, and 
 less dote upon things which will not profit ; they would take 
 heed how they abuse their youth, strength, time, and abilities, 
 as if they had a spring of them all within themselves, and 
 consider that their good is not in their own hand ; that the 
 scythe can get as well through the green grass as the dry 
 stubble ; that consuming fire can as well melt the hardest 
 metal as the softest wax. What is the reason why men in 
 sore extremities make strong resolutions, and vow much 
 repentance and amendment of life, and yet as soon as they 
 are off from the rack, return again to their vomit, and wallow 
 in their wonted lusts, but because their sense made them feel 
 that then, which if they had faith they might still perceive, 
 and so still continue in the same good resolutions, namely, 
 that God's hand was near unto them? But what, is not 
 
84 PUNISHMENT OF THE WICKED. 
 
 God a God afar off as well as near at hand ? Jer. xxiil. 23. 
 Doth not he say of wicked men, that in the fulness of their 
 sufficiency they shall be in straits ? Cannot he blast the corn 
 in the blade, in the harvest, in the barn, in the very mouth 
 of the wicked ? Did he not cut off Belshazzar in his cups, 
 and Herod in his robes, and Babylon and Tyrus in their 
 pride, and Haman in his favour, and Jezebel in her paint ? 
 Have but faith enough to say, I am a man, and therefore no 
 human events should be strange unto me ; and even that one 
 consideration may keep a man from outrage of sinning. It 
 may be I have abundance of earthly things, yet am I still but 
 a gilded potsherd. It may be I have excellent endowments, 
 but I have them all in an earthen vessel. And shall the 
 potsherd strive with the potter, and provoke him that made 
 it ? This would teach us to fear and tremble at God's power. 
 Though we look upon death and judgment as afar off, yet 
 God can make them near when he will ; for he hath said, 
 that the damnation of wicked men is swift, and that they are 
 near unto cursing. His judgments are like lightning, and 
 have wings suddenly to overtake a sinner. He requires but a 
 month, nay, but a morning, nay but a moment to consume 
 his enemies, and bring desolation upon those who said they 
 should sit as a lady for ever, and did never remember the 
 latter end. " Though a sinner do evil a hundred times, and 
 his days be prolonged," namely, by the patience and permission 
 of God, in whose hands his days are, " yet it shall be well 
 with them that fear God," Eccl. viii. 12, 13. The wicked 
 are not able to prolong their own days. 
 
 Again, for afflictions and temptations, it is a great fruit of 
 the infidelity of men's hearts, and a foolish charging and 
 chiding of our Maker, to account ourselves swallowed up of 
 any present pressure. If we did but consider that it is as 
 easy with God to subdue our enemies, and to rebuke our 
 afflictions, as it is with us to put a stool under our feet, we 
 should then learn to wait on him in all our distresses ; and 
 when we cannot answer difficulties, nor extricate ourselvei.- 
 out of our own doubts or fears, to conclude, that his thoughts 
 are above our thoughts, and his ways above our ways, and so 
 to cast ourselves wholly upon his power. It is an argument 
 which the Lord everywhere useth to establish his church 
 withal : " Fear not the fear of men, nor be afraid, but sanctify 
 the Lord of hosts himself, and let him be your fear," Isa.viii, 
 
PUNISHMENT OF THE WICKED. 85 
 
 1 2, 13. " Who art thou, that thou shouldst be afraid of a 
 man that shall die, and of the son of man which shall be made 
 as grass ; and forgettest the Lord thy Maker, and hast feared 
 continually every day because of the fury of the oppressor ? 
 and where is the fury of the oppressor?" Isa. li. 12, 13. " If 
 it be marvellous in the eyes of the remnant of this people, 
 should it also be marvellous in mine eyes ? saith the Lord of 
 hosts," Zech. viii. 6, 7. " Behold, I am the Lord, the God 
 of all flesh ; is there any thing too hard for me ? Blessed is 
 the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord 
 is : he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, which shall not 
 be careful in the year of drought. When the poor and needy 
 seek water, and there is none, and their tongue faileth for 
 thirst, I the Lord will hear them, I the God of Israel will 
 not forsake them. Though the fig-tree shall not blossom, 
 neither shall fruit be in the vines ; the labour of the olive 
 shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat ; the flock shall 
 be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the 
 stalls : yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God 
 of my salvation," Jer. xxxii. 27; xvii. 7, 8; Isa. xh. 17, 
 18 ; Hab. iii. 17, 18. He is " able to do abundantly above 
 all that we can ask or think." God would never so frequently 
 carry men to the dependence upon his power, if they were 
 not apt in extremities to judge of God by themselves, and to 
 suspect his power. 
 
 2. As this putting of Christ's enemies like a stool under 
 his feet noteth easiness, so also it noteth order and beauty. 
 When Christ's enemies shall be under his foot, then there 
 shall be a right order in things ; then it shall indeed appear 
 that God is a God of order; and therefore the day wherein 
 that shall be done is called " the times of the restitution of 
 all things," Acts iii. 21. The putting of Christ's enemies 
 under his feet is an act of justice ; and of all other justice is 
 the most orderly virtue, that which keepeth beauty upon the 
 face of a people, as consisting itself in a symmetry and pro- 
 portion. Again, every thing out of its own place is out of 
 order, but when things are all in their proper places and due 
 proportions, then there results a beauty and comeliness from 
 them. In a great house there are many vessels, some of 
 wood and brass, others of gold and silver ; some for honour- 
 able, others for base and sordid uses. Now, if all these were 
 confusedly together in one room, a man would conclude that 
 things were out of order ; but when the plate is in one place, 
 
86 
 
 the brass and wood in another, we acknowledge a decency 
 and cleanliness in such a house. Let a body be of never so 
 exact temperature and delicate complexion, yet if any member 
 therein be misplaced, the eye in the room of the ear, or the 
 cheek on the forehead, there can be no beauty in such a body. 
 So in the church, till God set every one in his right place, 
 the order thereof is but imperfect. Therefore when Judas 
 was put under Christ's feet, he is said to have gone to his 
 own place. Acts i. 25. 
 
 Why then should any man murmur at the prosperity of 
 wicked men, or conceive of God's proceedings as if they were 
 irregular and unequal, as if there were no profit for those who 
 walk mournfully, but the proud and wicked workers were 
 set up ? This is to revile the workman while he is yet in 
 the fitting of his work. The pieces are not yet put together 
 in their proper joints, and therefore no marvel if the evenness 
 and beauty of God's works be not so plainly discovered. For 
 everything is beautiful in its time ; what though the corn in 
 the held hang down the head, and the weeds seem to flourish 
 and overtop it ; stay but till the harvest, and it will then 
 appear which was for the garner and which for the lire. Go 
 into the sanctuary of the Lord, and by faith look unto the day 
 of the revelation of God's righteous judgments, and it will ap- 
 pear " that the ways of the Lord are right, though the transgres- 
 sors stumble in them," or be offended at them, Hos. xiv. 9. 
 
 From hence every man may learn how to bring beauty and 
 order into himself, namely, by subduing those enemies of 
 Christ, those lusts and evil affections which dwell within him. 
 Laws we know are the ligaments and sinews of a state ; the 
 strings, as it were, which being touched and animated by 
 skilful governors, do yield that excellent harmony which is 
 to be seen in well constituted commonwealths ; the more they 
 prevail so much the more unity is preserved, and faction 
 abated, and connnunity cherished in the minds of men. Even 
 so, where the sceptre of Christ, the law of the mind, the royal 
 law of liberty and grace, do more prevail over the lusts of the 
 heart, by so much the more excellent is the harmony and 
 complexion of such a soul. 
 
 III. Now, the last thing in this verse is, "A stool under thy 
 feet." Things are under Christ's feet two manner of ways: 
 either by way of subjection, as servants unto him, and so he 
 hath dominion over all the works of God's hands, and hath 
 ail things put under his feet. So the apostle saith, that 
 
CHRIST S ENEMIES HIS FOOTSTOOL. 87 
 
 God hath "set him at his own riglit hand in heavenly places, 
 far above all principality, and power, and might, and domi- 
 nion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, 
 but also in that which is to come ; and hath put all thinors 
 under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things 
 to the church," Eph. i. 21, 22. Which St. Peter expresseth 
 in a like manner : He " is gone into heaven, and is on the 
 right hand of God, angels and authorities and powers being 
 made subject to him," 1 Pet. iii. 22. Or, secondly, by way 
 of victory and triumph, and so all Christ's enemies are put 
 under his feet, which is the most proper way. For the 
 members of Christ are indeed under the Head : so we find 
 that the sheep of Christ are in his hands : " No man shall 
 pluck them out of my hand," John x. 28. And the lambs of 
 Christ are in his arms and bosom : " He shall gather the 
 lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom," Isa. xl. 11. 
 But the enemies of Christ are under his feet to be trampled 
 upon. And this is an usual expression of a total victory in 
 holy Scripture, the laying of an adversary even with the 
 ground, that he may be crushed and trampled upon. This 
 was the curse of the serpent, that he should crawl with his 
 belly upon the dust of the earth, and that the seed of the 
 woman should bruise his head. And it is the curse of God's 
 enemies, that they should lick the dust, and that the feet of 
 the church, and the tongue of her dogs should be dipped in 
 the blood of her enemies. 
 
 Now, this putting of Christ's enemies as a stool under his 
 feet, notes unto us, in regard of Christ, two things — his rest, 
 and his triumph. 
 
 1. To stand, in the Scripture phrase, (as I have before 
 observed,) denoteth ministry, and to sit, rest ; and there is 
 no posture more easy than to sit vvith a stool under one's feet. 
 Till Christ's enemies then be all under his feet, he is not 
 fully in his rest. It is true, in his own person he is in rest ; 
 he hath finished the work which was given him to do, and 
 therefore is entered into his rest. He hath already ascended 
 up on high, and led captivity captive ; yet in his members he 
 still suffers, though not by way of pain or passion, yet by 
 way of sympathy or compassion : he is touched with a feel- 
 ing of our infirmities, Heb. iv. 15. As by the things which 
 he suffered he learned obedience towards God, so by the 
 same sufferings he learned compassion, and thereupon mercy 
 and fidelity towards his members ; for no man can be more 
 
88 Christ's enemies his footstool. 
 
 tenderly faithful in the business of another than he who by 
 his own experience knoweth the consequence and necessity 
 of it. And therefore he is said to be afflicted in all the afflic- 
 tions of his people, Isa. Ixiii. 9 ; and the apostle tells us, that 
 the afflictions of the saints fill up the remainders, or that 
 which is behind of the afflictions of Christ, Col. i. 24. For 
 as the church is called the fulness of Christ, who yet of him- 
 self is so full as that he filleth all in all ; (neither doth the 
 church serve to supply his defects, but to magnify his mercy ;} 
 so the church's sufferings are esteemed the fulness of the 
 sufferings of Christ, although his were of themselves so full 
 before, as that they had their consummation, to seal up both 
 their measure and their merit ; and therefore our sufferings are 
 called his, not by way of addition or improvement unto those, 
 but by way of honour and dignity unto us. They show 
 Christ's compassion towards us, and our union and conformity 
 to him ; but no way either any defect of virtue in his, or any 
 value of merit in ours ; or any ecclesiastical treasure, or re- 
 dundancy out of a mixture of both : very profitable they are 
 for the edification of the church, but very base and unworthy 
 for the expiation of sin ; very profitable for the comfort of 
 men, but very unprofitable to the justice of God. So then, 
 though Christ rest from suffering in himself, yet not in his 
 saints ; though the serpent cannot come to the Head, yet it is 
 still bruising of his heel. Here then the apostle's inference 
 is good, " there remaineth therefore a rest for the people of 
 God," and that such a glorious rest as must arise out of the 
 ruin of their enemies. When the wicked perish, they shall 
 see it and rejoice, and shall wash their feet in the blood of 
 their adversaries. The revenge of God against his enemies is 
 such as shall bring an ease with it. " Ah," saith the Lord> 
 " I will ease me of mine adversaries, and avenge me of mine 
 enemies," Isa. i. 24. This is the comfort which the Lord 
 giveth his people, that they shall be full, when their enemies 
 shall be hungry, and that he will appear to their joy, when 
 their enemies shall be ashamed. 
 
 This must teach wicked men to take heed of persecuting 
 the members of Christ, for they therein are professed enemies 
 to Him, whom yet they would seem to worship. This is 
 certain, that all the counsels and resolutions which are made 
 against the subjects or laws of Christ's kingdom, are but vain 
 imaginations which shall never be executed. He will at last 
 avenge the quarrel of his people, and in spite of all the power 
 
CHRIST S ENEMIES HIS FOOTSTOOL. 89 
 
 or malice of hell, make them to sit actually in heavenly 
 places with him, whom he bath virtually and representatively 
 carried thither already. And it should comfort the faithful 
 in all their sufferings for Christ's sake; because hereby they 
 are, first, conformable unto him ; secondly, they are associates 
 with him ; and, thirdly, they are assured that they are in a way 
 to rest : for, saith the apostle, " it is a righteous thing with God 
 to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you, and to you 
 who are troubled, rest, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed 
 from heaven," 2 Thess. i. 6, 7. And " inasmuch," saith St. 
 Peter, " as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings, that 
 when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with 
 exceeding joy," 1 Pet. iv. 13. And this joy shall be so 
 much the greater, because it shall grow out of the everlasting 
 subjection of the enemies under Christ's feet ; and those whom 
 here they persecuted and despised, shall there, with Christ, be 
 their judges. 
 
 2. As it noteth the rest, so likewise the triumph of 
 Christ, when he shall set his feet on the neck of his enemies. 
 The apostle saith, that he triumphed over them in his cross, 
 Col. ii. 15. And there are two words which have an allusion 
 unto the forms of triumph, exspoliation, and publication, or 
 representation of the pomp unto the world of the faithful. 
 He spoiled principalities and powers ; that is, he took from 
 them all their armour wherein they trusted, and divided the 
 spoils, Luke xi. 22. The armour of Satan was principally 
 the handwriting of the law which was against us, or contrary 
 unto us ; so long as we were under the full force and rigour 
 of that, so long we were under the possession and tyranny of 
 Satan ; but when Christ nailed that unto the cross, and took 
 it out of the way, then all the other panoply of Satan was 
 easily taken from him ; he was then spoiled of all his weapons 
 and provisions of lust ; for the world, and all the things which 
 are in the world, were unto us crucified in the cross of Christ; 
 so that now by faith in him we are able to overcome the 
 world, to value it aright, to esteem the promises thereof thin 
 and empty, and the threatenings thereof vain and false ; the 
 treasures thereof baser than the very reproaches of Christ, 
 and the afflictions thereof not worthy to be compared with 
 the glory which shall be revealed in us, as being in their 
 measure but light, and but momentary in their duration. The 
 power and wisdom of Satan was likewise in the cross of 
 Christ most notably befooled and disappointed ; for when he 
 
90 Christ's enemies his footstool. 
 
 thought that he had now swallowed up Christ, he found a 
 hook under that bait ; he found that which neither himself 
 nor any of his instruments could have suspected, that Christ 
 crucified was indeed the wisdom of God, and the power of 
 God, and that through death he chose to destroy him who 
 had the power of death, I Cor. i. 24 ; Heb. ii. 14. 
 
 Again, he made a show, or public representation of this 
 his victory, and of these his spoils, openly unto the world. 
 As the cross was his triumphal chariot, so was it likewise the 
 pageant, as it were, and exhibition of his spoils ; for though 
 to a carnal eye there was nothing but ignominy and dishonour 
 in it, yet to those that are called there is an eye of faith given 
 to see in the cross of Christ, hell disappointed, Satan con- 
 founded, his kingdom demolished, the earthly members of the 
 old man crucified, affections and lusts abated, and captivity 
 already led captive. And indeed, what triumph of any the 
 most glorious conqueror was ever honoured with the openings 
 of graves, the resurrection of the dead, the conversion of 
 enemies, the acclamation of mute and inanimate creatures, 
 the darkness of the sun, the trembling of the earth, the com- 
 passion of the rocks, the amazement of the world, the admi- 
 ration of the angels of heaven, but only this triumph of 
 Christ upon the cross ? And if he did so triumph there, 
 how muob more at the right hand of the Majesty on high, 
 where he is crowned with glory and honour ; and at that great 
 day, which is therefore called the day of the Lord Jesus, 
 because he will therein consummate his triumph over all his 
 enemies, when he shall come with the attendance of angels, 
 in a chariot of fire, with all the unbelievers of the world 
 bound before his throne, and with the applause and admira- 
 tion of all the saints ! 
 
 And this is a plentiful ground of comfort to the faithful in 
 all their conflicts with Satan, sin, temptations, or corruptions; 
 they fight under his protection, and with his Spirit who hath 
 himself already triumphed, who accounteth our temptations 
 his, and his victories ours ; who turned the sorest perplexities 
 which the world shall ever see, into a doctrine of comfort 
 unto his disciples, Luke xxi. 25 — 28. Whenever then we 
 are assaulted with any heavy temptation, to discomforts, fears, 
 faintings, weariness, despair, sinful conformities, or the like ; 
 let us not depend upon any strength or principles of our own, 
 but look only by faith unto the victories of Christ, and to 
 this great promise which is here made unto him, as Head and 
 
Christ's enemies his footstool. 91 
 
 Captain of the church, by whom we shall be able to do all 
 things ; and though we were surrounded with enemies, to 
 escape as he did through the midst of them all. Our enemies 
 come against us in armies, with infinite methods and strata- 
 gems to circumvent us ; this only is our comfort, that we 
 have one refuge which is above all the wisdom of the enemy, 
 to climb up unto the cross of Christ, and to commit the 
 keeping of our souls unto him, out of whose hands no man 
 can take them. When David went forth against Goliath, he 
 did not grapple with him by his own strength, but with his 
 sling and his stone at a distance overthrew him. It is not 
 good to let Satan come too close unto the soul, to let in his 
 temptations, or to enter into any private and intimate combat 
 with him, (this was for our Captain only to do, who we know 
 entered into the field with him, as being certain of his own 
 strength,) but our only way to prevail against him is to take 
 faith as a sling, and Christ as a stone ; he will undoubtedly 
 find out a place to enter in, and to sink the proudest enemy. 
 We are beset with enemies, yea, we are enemies unto ourselves ; 
 the burden of the flesh, the assaults of the world, the fiery 
 darts of Satan, treason within, and wars without, swarms of 
 Midianites, troops of Amalekites, the sea before us, the 
 Egyptians behind us ; sin before, Satan and the world 
 behind ; either I must run on, and be drowned in sin, or I 
 must stand still, and be hewed in pieces with the persecutions 
 of wicked men, or I must revolt and turn back to Egypt, 
 and so be devoured in her plagues. In these extremities the 
 apostle hath given us our one great object : look unto Jesus ; 
 he that is the Author will be the Finisher of our faith, Heb. 
 xii. 1, 2. It is yet but a little while, he will come, and will 
 not tarry ; he is in the view of our faith ; he is within the cry 
 of our prayers ; he sitteth at the right hand of power, nay,^ 
 he there standeth, and is risen up already in the quarrel of 
 his saints. Acts vii. 56. The nearer the Egyptian is to 
 Israel, the nearer he is to ruin, and the nearer Israel is to 
 deUverance. Though Moses have not chariots, nor multi- 
 tudes of weapons, yet he hath a rod, a branch, an angel of 
 God's presence, which can open the sea, and give an issue to 
 the greatest dangers which can turn the enemy's rage into his 
 own ruin. There is no enemy so close, so dangerous, so 
 unavoidable, as our own lusts. Now, the Lord promiseth to 
 deal with the sins of his people as he did with the Egyptians; 
 we know he subdued their tyranny with plagues ; their first- 
 
92 Christ's enemies his footstool. 
 
 bom, the strength and flower of the land, he slew before, and 
 those who afterwards joined themselves against his people, he 
 drowned in the bottom of the sea ; so saith the prophet, " He 
 will subdue our iniquities," Mic. vii. 19 ; he will purge them 
 away, the power and strength of them he will abate by his 
 Spirit ; and as for those remainders thereof which are yet 
 behind, and rebel against his grace, he will cast all of them 
 into the depth of the sea, Psa. Ixv. 3 ; that is, he will remove 
 them utterly away from us ; he will drown them in everlasting 
 forgetfulness ; he will not only blot them out, that they may 
 not be, but he will not remember them, which is in some sort 
 to make them even not to have been. And which yet makes 
 the assurance of all this the stronger, the ground of it all is 
 only in God himself, his covenant and mercy. Now, though 
 our condition alter, yet his mercy is still the same. If the 
 root of the covenant were in us, then as we change, that also 
 would vary too ; but the root is in God's own grace, whose 
 mercy is therefore without repentance in himself, because it is 
 without reason or merit in us. 
 
 3. Lastly, this footstool under Christ's feet, in regard of 
 his enemies, noteth unto us four things : — 
 
 (1.) The extreme shame and confusion which they shall 
 everlastingly suffer, the utter abasing and bringing down of all 
 that exalteth itself against Christ. It notes, the extremest 
 degree of revenge, v/hich hath no mixture of mercy or com- 
 passion in it. So that by this we see the enemies of Christ 
 and his kingdom shall be put to utter and everlasting shame. 
 That as the faithful in that great day of their redemption 
 shall lift up their heads, and have boldness in the presence of 
 the Lamb ; so the wicked shall fall flat upon their faces, and 
 cleave unto the dust, when the books shall be unsealed, and 
 the consciences of men opened, and the witnesses produced, 
 and the secrets of uncleanness revealed on the housetop, and 
 the mouths of the wicked, who here for a little while dispute 
 against the ways of Christ, and cavil at his commands, shall 
 be everlastingly stopped ; when men shall be like an appre- 
 hended thief, (as the prophets speak,) then shall their faces 
 be as a flame, full of trembling, confusion, and astonishment, 
 Jer. ii. 26 ; JSzra ix. 6 ; Dan. ix. 7, 8. The very best that 
 are find shame enough in sin, how much they who give them- 
 selves over unto vile and dishonourable affections ! 
 
 (2.) Hereby is noted the burden which wicked men must 
 bear. The footstool beareth the weight of the body, so nmst 
 
Christ's enemies his footstool. 93 
 
 the enemies of Christ bear the weight of his heavy and ever- 
 lasting wrath upon their souls. Sin, in the committing, seems 
 very light, no bigger than the cloud which the prophet showed 
 his servant, but at last it gathers into such a tempest, as, if 
 the soul make not haste, it will be swept away, and over- 
 whelmed by it. Weighty bodies do with much difference 
 affect the sense according to the difference of places wherein 
 they are. That vessel, or piece of timber, which, when it is 
 on the water, may be easily drawn with the hand of a man, on 
 the land cannot be stirred with much greater strength : so is it 
 with sin upon the conscience ; in the time of committing it, 
 nothing more easy, but in the time of judging it, nothing more 
 insupportable. The wicked in sin, however for the time they 
 mav bear it out with much mirth, and cheer up their hearts in 
 the days of their pleasure, yet when sin is come to the birth, 
 and so fully finished, that it is now ready to bring forth deatli 
 unto the soul, they shall then find that it is but like the roll 
 which the prophet swallowed, sweet to the palate, but bitter 
 in the belly ; like a cup of deadly poison, pleasant in the 
 mouth, but torment in the bowels. On whomsoever the Son 
 of man shall fall, with the weight of his heavy displeasure, he 
 will grind him to powder. That must needs be a heavy burden 
 which men would most joyfully exchange for the weight of 
 rocks and mountains to lie everlastingly upon their backs ; and 
 yet the wicked at that great day shall in vain beg of the moun- 
 tains and rocks to fall upon them, and to hide them from the 
 wrath of the Lamb, shall choose rather to live eternally under 
 the weight of the heaviest creature in the world, than under 
 the fury of Him that sitteth upon the throne, Rev. vi. 16. 
 
 (3.) Herein likewise is noted the relation of a just and 
 equal recompense unto ungodly men. The Lord uscth often 
 to fit punishments to the quality and measure of the sins com- 
 mitted. He that on the earth denied a crumb of bread, in 
 hell was denied a drop of water. Man who, being in honour, 
 would needs affect to be as God, was thereby debased to become 
 like the beasts that perish. Nadab and Abihu offered strange 
 fire, and perished by strange fire from the Lord. That apos- 
 tate in St. Cyprian, who opened his mouth against Christ in 
 blasphemy, was immediately smitten with dumbness, that he 
 could not open it unto Christ for mercy. Eutropius the 
 eunuch, when he persuaded the emperor to take from male- 
 factors the benefit of refuge at the altars, did therein prevent 
 his own mercv, and beg away the advantage of an escape from 
 
94 Christ's enemies his footstool. 
 
 himself, the privilege whereof lie did afterwards in vain lay 
 hold on. And thus will Christ deal with his enemi*^s at the 
 last day. Here they trample upon Christ in his word, in his 
 ways, in his members. They make the saints bow down for 
 them to go over, and make them as the pavement on the 
 ground ; they tread under foot the blood of the covenant and 
 the sanctuary of the Lord, and put Christ to shame here ; 
 and there their own measure shall be returned into their own 
 bosom ; they shall be constrained to confess as Adonibezek, 
 "As I have done, so God hath requited me." Yea, this they 
 shall suffer from the meanest of Christ's members, whom they 
 here insulted over. They shall then as witnesses, and as it 
 were co-assessors with Christ, judge the very wicked angels, 
 and tread them under their feet. They shall take them cap- 
 tives, whose captives they were, and they shall rule over their 
 oppressors. All they that despised thee shall bow themselves 
 down at the soles of thy feet. They who gathered themselves 
 against Sion, and said, Let her be defiled, and let our eyes see 
 it, shall themselves be gathered as sheaves into the floor, and 
 the daughter of Sion shall arise and thresh them with horns 
 of iron and with hoofs of brass, Isa. xiv. 2 ; Mic. iv. !!» 13. 
 Then, saith the church, " she that is mine enemy shall see 
 it, and shame shall cover her which said unto me, Where is 
 the Lord thy God ? Mine eyes shall behold her ; now shall 
 she be trodden down as the mire of the streets." " So let all 
 thine enemies perish, O Lord ; but let them that love him be 
 as the sun when he goeth forth in his might," Judges v. 3L 
 
 (4.) Herein we may note, the great power and wisdom of 
 Christ, in turning the malice and mischief of his enemies to 
 his own use and advantage ; and in so ordering wicked men, 
 that though they intend nothing but extirpation and ruin to 
 his kingdom, yet they shall be useful to him, and against 
 their own wills serviceable to those glorious ends, in the 
 accomplishing whereof he shall be admired by all those that 
 believe. The Lord, by his wisdom, doth make use of wicked 
 men's persons and purposes to his own most righteous and 
 wonderful ends, secretly and mightily directing their wicked 
 designs, to the magnifying of his own power and providence, 
 and to the furthering of his people in faith and godliness, Isa 
 xxxvii. 28, 29. 
 
Christ's regalities. 95 
 
 VERSE II. 
 
 THE T.ORD SHALL SEND THE ROD OF THY STRENGTH OUT OF SION' : 
 RULE THOU IN THE MIDST OF THINE ENEMIES. 
 
 This verse is a continuation of the former, touching the king- 
 dom of Christ, and it contains the form of its spiritual admi- 
 nistration ; wherein is secretly couched another of the offices 
 of Christ, namely, his prophetical office. For that is, as it 
 were, the dispensation and execution of his regal office in the 
 militant church. The sum of this administration consists in 
 two principal things : first, in matters military, for the sub- 
 duing of enemies, and for the defence and protection of his 
 people; secondly, in matters civil and judicial, for the govern- 
 ment, preservation, and honour of his kingdom. And both 
 these are in this psalm ; the former in the latter part of this 
 verse, " Rule thou in the midst of thine enemies ;" the other 
 in the third verse, " Thy people shall be willing in the day 
 of thy power ;" and the way of compassing and effecting, in 
 the former words of this verse, " The Lord shall send the rod 
 of thy strength out of Sion." 
 
 Every king hath his royal laws, certain royal prerogatives 
 and peculiar honours proper to his own person, which no 
 man can use. but with subordination unto him. And if we 
 observe them, we shall find many of them as exactly belong 
 unto Christ in his kingdom as to any secular prince in his. 
 Unto kings belong the public armouries, the magazines 
 for military provision, and the power and disposition of public 
 arms. Therefore he is said by the apostle to" bear the sword," 
 because arms properly belong unto him, and unto others under 
 his allowance and protection, Rom. xiii. 4. So to Christ 
 doth belong, and in him only is to be found, the public 
 armoury of a christian man. The weapons of our warfare 
 are mighty only through him. Nay, he is himself the Armour 
 and Panoply of a christian, and therefore we are commanded 
 to " put on the Lord Jesus." Again, the highway is the 
 kino-'s way, wherein every man walketh freely under the pro- 
 tection of his sovereign. So that law of faith and obedience 
 under which we are to walk, which St. Paul calleth " the law 
 
96 Christ's regalities. 
 
 of Christ," Gal. vi. 2, is by St. James called a " royal law," and 
 " alaw of liberty," James ii.8, in which while any man conti- 
 nueth he is under the protection of the promises and of the 
 angels of Christ. Again, lands that are concealed, and under 
 the evident claim of no other person or lord, do belong unto 
 the prince, as he that hath the supreme and universal domi- 
 nion in his countries. And this is most certainly true of 
 Christ in his kingdom ; if any man can once truly say. Lord, 
 I am not the servant of any other master ; no other king hath 
 the rightful dominion or peaceable possession of my heart, he 
 may most truly from thence infer ; therefore. Lord, I am thy 
 servant, and therefore. Lord, my heart is thine. True it is, 
 O Lord our God, that " other lords besides thee have had 
 dominion over us ;" but now " by thee only will we make 
 mention of thy name," Isa. xxvi. 13. Again, tributes, and 
 customs, and testifications of homage and fideUty, are personal 
 prerogatives belonging unto princes, and as the apostle saith, 
 due u°nto them, for that ministry and office which under God 
 they attend upon, Rom. xiii. (J, 7. So in Christ's kingdom, 
 there is a worship which the psalmist saith is " due unto his 
 name," Psa. xcvi. 8. They which came unto the temple, 
 which was a type of Christ, were not to come empty-handed, 
 but to bring testimonies of their reverence, and willing subjec- 
 tion unto that worship. When Abraham met Melchizedek, 
 a figure of Christ, as from him he received a blessing, so unto 
 hinT he gave an expression of a loyal heart, the tenth of the 
 spoils. When the people of Israel entered into the land of 
 Canaan, (which was a type of Christ's church which he should 
 conquer unto himself,) if any people accepted of the peace 
 which they were first to proclaim, they were to become tribu- 
 taries and servants unto Israel, Deut. xx. 11. So it is said 
 of Solomon, (whose peaceable kingdom was a type of Christ's 
 after his many victories,) that he levied a tribute of bond-ser- 
 vice upon all the nations about Israel, 1 Kings ix. 21 ; and 
 that those princes with whom he held correspondence brought 
 unto him presents, as testimonies of his greatness and wisdom, 
 1 Kincrs iv. 21. So when the wise men (the first-fruits of 
 the ge°ntiles after Christ appeared) came to submit unto his 
 kingdom, " they opened their treasures, and presented unto 
 hin? gifts, gold, and frankincense, and myrrh," Matt.^h. 11. 
 Again, the authorizing and valuation of public coins oelong 
 unto the prince only; it is his image and inscription alone 
 which maketh them current. Eve.n so unto Christ only doth 
 
Christ's regalities. 97 
 
 belong the power of stamping and creating, as it were new 
 
 ±nt S" s " ?Tt ' rh^ '' '''''' ^^^' "- ^^ 
 Zn i N^r^''^' ^''^' ""'^^^ '"^'S^ or express authority 
 tuti^ ^f ? u '"" ^">^ "^^" ^^^^ify ^^ ^«rrupt any consti- 
 
 fro^tL • P u '?y^^'>^' *^^" administration whereof is 
 
 from he pri.nce as the fountain of all human equity, funder 
 (xod,) deposited m the hands of inferior officers,Uo are as 
 xlS ho'sra":' f .^'-.P--V0P"bli^hthe'laws, Z:^ To 
 W to ht «f justice and peace which principally be^ 
 
 ong to his owii sacred breast. And so Christ saith of him- 
 
 Son- aJd ha^h " I ''""T'^ ^" >^S"^^'^^ ""^« the 
 John V 22-27^"'Lr '"'^""'^ ^^ ^^^^"^^ >^§--t'" 
 persons and di .i^^ .' "^ P°'''' '^ P^^^«» condemned 
 
 fsTtratopf^ r' '^'"^ ^'"^ '^^ '^^^°^^f *^^^^^'« sentence, 
 IS a transcendant mercy, a gem which can shine only from the 
 
 h Zct f • ""r ""^^ ^^^^^^ ^^k-- beLngeTh t 
 oUv of thi Pp"'' ''/"^"' ^^"^^ ^^ ^^ *^^^ most sacred 
 ever tV ev2 "'/ P''''' "°' '"^^ ^^ ^"^P^"^' b"t for 
 of Ll/. ' ^"^' ^' '* ^^'^' annihilate the sentence 
 of malediction under which every man is born. Ther a e 
 
 foreign kn'f,"^ t ^r^"' "'^^ "«"^ ^« «^"d to those 
 andfonl"^r ''.^r•'^'>^^^^^"^^^^^^^^ ^« testimonies 
 
 robeTn/T"' f ^heir dignity, an ivory sceptre, a roval 
 
 the Scriptures belonging unto Christ, that he was crowned 
 with glory and honour, Heb. ii. 9, and that he had a throne 
 aiid righteous sceptre belonging to his kingdom, Psa. xlv 6 
 Ihus we have seen, in several particulars, how Christ hath his 
 royalties belonging to his kingdom. Some principal of them 
 we hnd m this place ; a throne, a sceptre, ambassadors, and 
 armies, for the right dispensing of his sacred power. 
 
 We will first consider the words, and then raise such 
 observations as shall offer themselves. 
 
 1. What is meant by the rod of Christ's strength, or his 
 strong rod ? It notes a thing which a man may lean upon 
 or lay the whole weight of his body on in his weariness ; but 
 being spoken of Christ's kingdom, we take it for a sceptre or 
 rod ot majesty. But for the more distinct understanding of 
 the words, we may consider out of the holy Scriptures what 
 things were sent out of Sion ; and we find these two thii 
 
 iinc-s : 
 F 
 
98 THE ROD OF CHRIST's STRENGTH. 
 
 1. The word of the Lord, or his holy gospel : " The law 
 shall go forth of Sion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusa- 
 lem," Mic. iv. 2. 2. The Spirit of the Lord, which was 
 first sent unto Sion ; for at Jerusalem the apostles were " to 
 wait for the promise of the Father," Acts i. 4, and from thence 
 were shed abroad into the world upon all flesh. Acts ii. 17 ; 
 and both these are the power or strength of Christ. His 
 word, a gospel of power unto salvation, Rom. i. 16 ; 2 Cor. 
 iv, 7, and his Spirit a Spirit of power, 1 Cor. ii. 4 ; 2 Tim. 
 i. 7, which is therefore called the finger and the arm of the 
 Lord, Luke xi. 20 ; Isa. liii. 1 : so by the rod is meant the 
 gospel and the Spirit of Christ. ^ 
 
 2. What is meant by God's sending this rod of Christ s 
 strength ? It notes the manifestation of the gospel ; we knew 
 it not before it was sent. The donation of the gospel ; we 
 had it not before it was sent. The invitation of the gospel ; 
 we were without God in the world, and strangers from the 
 covenant of promise, before it was sent. The commission of 
 the dispensers of the gospel; they have their patent from 
 heaven ; they are not to speak until they be sent. 
 
 3. What is meant by sending it out of Sion ? It is put 
 in opposition to mount Sinai, from whence the law was some- 
 times sent with thunders and fire, and much terror unto the 
 people of Israel. " Ye are not come," saith the apostle, 
 " unto the mount that burned with fire, nor unto blackness 
 and darkness, and tempest— but ye are come unto mount 
 Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jeru- 
 salem, and to an innumerable company of angels, and to Jesus 
 the Mediator of the new covenant," Heb. xii. 18—24. And 
 the apostle elsewhere showeth us the meaning of this allego- 
 rical opposition between Sinai and Sion, between Sarah and 
 Hacrar ; namely the two covenants of the law and of grace, 
 or of bondage and liberty, Gal. iv. 24, 25. Sion was the 
 place whither the tribes resorted to worship the Lord ; the 
 place towards which that people prayed ; the place of Gods 
 merciful residence amongst them ; the beauty of holmess ; the 
 place upon which at first the gift of the Holy Ghost was 
 poured forth, and in which the gospel was first of all preached 
 after Christ's ascension. We may take it by a synecdoche, 
 for the whole church of the jews, unto whom the Lord first 
 revealed his covenant of grace in Christ, Acts ni. 26 ; xui. 
 
 46 ; Rom. ii. 10. , , . , . i 
 
 " Rule thou :" that is, thou shalt rule, which is a ilsuai 
 
THE ROD OF CHRIST S STRENGTH. , 99 
 
 form to put the imperative for the future indicative. It is 
 not a command which hath relation unto any service ; but 
 it is a promise, a commission, a dignity, conferred upon 
 Christ. 
 
 " In the midst of thine enemies." Some understand it of 
 changing the hearts of his enemies, and converting them as 
 captives unto his obedience. Others understand the wonderful 
 effect of the power of Christ's kingdom, that he can by his word 
 and Spirit hold up his church in despite of all the enemies thereof 
 round about. The church ever was and will be pestered with 
 divers kinds of adversaries, heretics, and hypocrites, and false 
 brethren, with profaneness, temptations, persecutions, spiritual 
 wickednesses ; and in the midst of all these the church of 
 Christ groweth as a lily amongst the thorns. Now, this " in 
 the midst " noteth two things : 1. A perfect, and a full govern- 
 ment, without mutilation, without impediment ; the church 
 being amongst the wicked as a rock in the midst of the sea, 
 or as a garrison in an enemy's town. " Let them rule in the 
 midst of the city," is an expression of such a rule as can no 
 way be hindered or removed. The church of God is a bur- 
 densome stone ; they who go about to remove it out of that 
 place where Christ shall plant it, shall be cut in pieces, 
 though all the people of the earth should gather together 
 against it, Zech. xii. 3. 2. A secure and confident government. 
 So in the Scripture phrase, " In the midst," notes confidence 
 and security. When the prophet asked the Shunamite, 
 " Wouldst thou be spoken for to the king, or to the captain of 
 the host? she answered, I dwell amongst mine own people,'' 
 2 Kings iv. 13 ; that is, I am safe, and have enough already. 
 When they of the synagogue would have cast Christ down 
 headlong from the brow of a hill, it is said that he " passed 
 through the midst of them, and went his way," Luke iv. 
 29, 30 ; that is, with much confidence, safety, and assurance, 
 he withdrew himself. So the prophet was full of security 
 and quietness in the midst of the Syrian siege, 2 Kings vi. 
 14—16. 
 
 The words being thus unfolded, we may observe in them 
 three of Christ's principal regalities — the sceptre, the throne, 
 and the power or government of his kingdom. His sceptre 
 is the word of his gospel, animated by the power of his Holy 
 Spirit, and accompanied with the blessing and authority of 
 God the Father, who sendeth it abroad into the world. His 
 throne, from whence this his sceptre is extended, Sion, the 
 f2 
 
100 THE POWER OF THE GOSPEL. 
 
 church of the Jews. His victorious, plenary, and secure 
 government. " Rule thou in the midst of thine enemies.'' 
 
 First. The sceptre here is the gospel and the Spirit of 
 Christ. Christ is a Shepherd tovv^ards his flock, the church, 
 Isa. xl. 11. A great Shepherd, Heb. xiii. 20, that notes his 
 power and majesty over them : and a good Shepherd, John 
 X. 14, that notes his care and tenderness towards his sheep. 
 Kings in the Scripture are called shepherds ; to lead, and to 
 feed, and to govern the people. So David is said to have 
 been taken from the sheepfolds to feed Jacob and Israel, Psa. 
 Ixxviii. 70, 71 ; 2 Sam. v. 2 : and thus Christ is a Shepherd 
 and a King. " I will set up one shepherd over them, and he 
 shall feed them, even my servant David — I the Lord will be 
 their God, and my servant David a prince among them,'* 
 Ezek. xxxiv. 23, 24. Prophets and teachers are in the 
 Scripture likewise called shepherds, Jer. xxiii. 1 — 4, and so 
 Christ is a Shepherd and a Bishop. " Ye were as sheep 
 going astray ; but are now returned unto the Shepherd and 
 Bishop of your souls," 1 Pet. ii, 25. And therefore we find 
 in the Scripture that Christ hath two pastoral staves, to note 
 his great care and double office in his church : " The Lord 
 is my Shepherd ; I shall not want — 1 VN^ill fear no evil : for 
 thou art with me ; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me,*' 
 Psa. xxiii. 1, 4; "I took unto me two staves; the one I 
 called Beauty, and the other I called Bands ; and I fed the 
 flock," Zech. xi. 7. So then, the rod of Christ's strength, or 
 his strong staff, doth in these several relatio-ns note unto us 
 three things : as it is a staff of strength, so it notes the power 
 of Christ ; as it is the sceptre of a King, so it notes the ma- 
 jesty of Christ ; as it is the staff of a bishop or prophet, so it 
 notes the care and superintendence of Christ over his church. So 
 then, this first particular of the rod of Christ's kingdom affords 
 unto us three observations : I. That Christ in his gospel and 
 Spirit is full of power and strength towards the church. II 
 That Christ in his gospel and Spirit is full of glory and 
 majesty towards his church. III. That Christ in his gospel 
 and Spirit is full of care and of tenderness towards his church. 
 I. The word of the gospel, with the Spirit, is full of power 
 and strength. No man will deny that Christ in his own per- 
 son is full of power. And as the power of a prince is princi- 
 pally seen in his laws, edicts, pardons, and gracious patents ; 
 so is the power of Christ wonderfully magnified towards the 
 church in his gospel, which unto us is both a covenant of 
 
THE POWER OP THE GOSTEL. 101 
 
 mercy and a law of obedience. We may observe how Christ 
 is frequently pleased to honour his gospel with his own titles 
 and attributes ; and therefore the apostle speaks of him and 
 his word as of one and the same thing : " The word of God 
 is quick, and powerful — a discerner of the thoughts and intents 
 of the heart. Neither is there any creature that is not manifest 
 in his sight ; but all things are naked and opened unto the 
 eyes of Him with whom we have to do," Heb. iv. 12, 13. 
 That which is the word in one verse, is Christ himself in 
 another, which hath given occasion to some learned men to 
 take the word there for the essential Word of God, or the 
 person of Christ himself. We know that Christ was crucified 
 at Jerusalem, and yet the apostle saith, that he was crucified 
 amongst the Galatians, Gal. iii. 1. Certainly, in that he 
 died, he died but once unto sin. St. Paul could not do that 
 himself, which he curseth others for doing, " Crucify afresh 
 the Lord of glory." So then, at Jerusalerri he was crucified 
 in his person, and at Galatia in the ministry of his word. One 
 and the same crucifying was as lively set forth in St. Paul's 
 preaching as it was really acted upon Christ's person ; for 
 Christ is as really present to his church now in the spiritual 
 dispensation of his ordinances, as he was corporeally present 
 with the jews in the days of his flesh. And therefore I say 
 it is that we find the same attributes given to both. " Christ 
 the power of God, and the wisdom of God," 1 Cor. i. 24 ; and 
 the gospel elsewhere is called " the power of God," Rom. i. 16, 
 and " the wisdom of God in a mystery" to them that are 
 perfect, 1 Cor. ii. 6, 7. Again, " Christ the Lord of glory," 
 1 Cor. ii. 8; and the gospel, the gospel of glory, or " the 
 glorious gospel," 1 Tim. i. 11. Christ " the Prince of life," 
 Acts iii. 13 ; yea, *' the word of hfe," 1 John i. 1 ; and the 
 gospel the word of life too, Phil. ii. 16. Christ a Judge, 
 John v. 27 ; and the word of Christ a judge too : " The 
 word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him at the last 
 day," John xii. 48. Christ a Saviour and salvation unto 
 men ; " Mine eves have seen thy salvation," Luke i. 69, 77 ; 
 ii. 30; and the gospel of Christ a salvation too; " We 
 know," saith Christ to the woman of Samaria, '* what we 
 worship : for salvation is of the jews," John iv. 22. The 
 force of the reason leads us to understand by salvation the 
 oracles of God which were committed unto that people ; for 
 out of them only it is that we know what and how to worship, 
 and this is not unusual in holy Scriptures. " If the word," 
 
102 THE POWER OF THE GOSPEL. 
 
 saith the apostle, " spoken by angels was stedfast, and every 
 transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of 
 reward ; how shall we escape, if we neglect so great salva- 
 tion ; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord?" 
 Heb. ii. 2, 3. Where we find salvation set in opposition to 
 the word spoken by angels, which was the law of God, or the 
 ministry of condemnation, and therefore it must needs signify 
 the gospel of Christ. " Be it known unto you," saith the 
 apostle to the unbelieving Jews, " that the salvation of God," 
 that is, the gospel of God, (as appeareth plainly by the like 
 parallel speech in another place,) " is sent unto the gentiles, 
 and that they will hear it," Acts xxviii. 28. So the apostle 
 saith, that the "engrafted word" is able to save the souls of men, 
 James i. 21. All which, and many other the like particulars, 
 note unto us, that as Christ is the power and image of his 
 Father, so the gospel is, in some sort, of Christ ; for which 
 reason the apostle, as I conceive, calleth the gospel the face 
 of Jesus Christ : " God, who commanded the light to shine 
 out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of 
 the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ," 
 2 Cor. iv. 6. Where is it that we behold the glory of God but in 
 a glass ? 2 Cor. iii. 18 ; and what is that glass but the word of 
 God, as St. James calls it ? James i. 23. Christ is not pleased 
 any other ways ordinarily to exercise his power, or to reveal his 
 glory, but in these ordinances of his which we dispense. 
 Therefore he walketh in his church with a sword in his 
 mouth. Rev. i. 16, and with a rod in his mouth, Isa. xi. 4, 
 to note, that he giveth no greater testification of his strength 
 than in the ministry of his gospel ; which is therefore some- 
 times called a sword, Eph. vi. 17, a hammer, a fire, Jer. xxiii. 
 29 ; sometimes only a savour of life and death, 2 Cor. ii. 16, 
 to note, the mighty working thereof, that can kill as well by a 
 scent as by a wound, as well by a breath as by a blow. 
 
 To consider this point a little more distinctly. This power 
 of the gospel of Christ appears in both these respects, as it is 
 a savour of life unto life, and as it is a savour of death unto 
 death : towards his church who shall be saved, and towards 
 his enemies who shall perish. 
 
 1. Many ways are the gospel of Christ and his Spirit a 
 rod of strength unto his church. 
 
 (1.) In their calling and conversion from the power of 
 Satan unto God. Satan is a strong man, and he is armed, 
 hath a whole panoply, and full provision of military instru- 
 
THE POWER OF THE GOSPEL. "103 
 
 ments, and (which is a great advantage) hath both the first 
 possession and the full love of the hearts of men, before Christ 
 attempts any thing upon them. And, therefore, that which 
 pulleth a man from under the paw of such a lion, and forcetli 
 him away from his own palace, must needs be much stron<i-er 
 than he. And, therefore, the apostle commendeth the power 
 of the word by this argument, that it is a sword fit to over- 
 come principalities and powers, and rulers of the darkness of 
 this world, and spiritual wickedness in high places, Eph. 
 vi. 12 — 17. Again ; the old man in our nature is a strono- 
 man too, a reigning- king, which setteth himself mightily 
 against the word and will of Christ, and cherisheth the 
 disease against the remedy. And by that likewise the 
 apostle commendeth the power of the gospel, that it is mighty 
 through God to the pulling down of strongholds, and imagi- 
 nations or fleshly reasonings. When Christ stilled the winds 
 and the sea with but two words, " Peace, be still,'' they were 
 exceedingly amazed at his power, and said one to another, 
 " What manner of man is this, that even the wind and the 
 sea obey him?" Mark iv. 39, 41. The conversion of a man 
 is a far greater work than the stilling of the sea, that will 
 be sometimes calm of itself, when the fury of the wind ceaseth. 
 The wicked indeed are like the sea, though not at any time, 
 but " like a troubled sea, when it cannot rest," Isa. Ivii. 20. 
 The sea we know is subject unto several motions : an inward 
 boiling and unquietness from itself, its ordinary fluxes and 
 refluxes from the influence of the moon, many casual agita- 
 tions from the violence of the winds, and from its own waves, 
 one wave precipitating, impelling, and repelling another : so 
 are the hearts of wicked men, by the foaming, estuations, and 
 excesses of natural concupiscence, by the provisions and 
 materials of sinful pleasures, by the courses of the world, by 
 the solicitations and impulsions of Satan, by a world of hourly 
 casualties and provocations so tempestuous, that they always 
 cast out upon the words and actions of men mire and dirt. 
 Now, in the dispensation of the word by the ministry of a 
 weak man, Christ stilleth the raging of this sea, quells the 
 lusts, correcteth the distempers, scattereth the temptations, 
 worketh a smoothness and tranquillity of spirit in the soul 
 of a man. Surely when this is done, the soul caimot but 
 stand amazed at its own recovery, and admire that wonderful 
 and invisible power which could so suddenly rebuke such 
 raging affections, and reduce them unto calmness and beauty 
 
104 THE POWER OF THE GOSPEL. 
 
 again : " What ailed thee, O thou sea, that thou fleddest ? 
 thou Jordan, that thou wast driven back ? Ye mountains, 
 that ye skipped hke rams ; and ye little hills, like lambs ? " 
 Psa. cxiv. 5, 6, This is an expression of God's power towards 
 his people in their triumphal entrance into the land of Ca- 
 naan. We may apply it to the conquest and possession 
 which the word takes of the souls of men. W^hat ailed a 
 man that he was driven back from his own channel, and 
 made suddenly to forget his wonted course ? What ailed 
 those strong and mountainous lusts, which were as immoveably 
 settled upon the soul as a hill upon his base, to fly away at 
 the voice of a man like a frighted sheep ? What ailed those 
 smaller corruptions and intemperances, which perhaps had 
 before lost their names, and were rather customs and infirm- 
 ities than sins, to fly away like lambs from the word of 
 Christ ? A man went into the church with a full tide and 
 stream of lusts ; every thicket in his heart, every reasoning 
 and imagination of his soul, did before shelter whole flocks 
 of evil affections ; when he came out, the tide was driven back, 
 the stream turned, the centre of his heart altered, his forest 
 discovered, his lusts scattered and subdued. What ails this 
 man? He hath but heard an hour's discourse, the same 
 which others hear, and their tide riseth the higher by it. 
 Certainly these devils were not cast out, these streams were 
 not turned back, but by the finger of God himself. When 
 the minister of Christ shall whisper in the ears of a dead 
 man, whom no thunder could have awakened, and he shall 
 immediately rise up and give glory to God ; when Christ shall 
 call men to deny themselves, to get above themselves ; to hate 
 father and mother, and wife and children, and their own life ; to 
 sell all that they have ; to crucify and be cruel to their own mem- 
 bers ; to pull out their right eyes, to cut off their right hands, 
 to part from those sins which before they esteemed their choicest 
 ornaments, and from those too which before they made their 
 chicfest support and subsistence ; to stand at defiance with 
 the allurements or discouragements of the world, and to be set 
 up for signs and wonders, for very proverbs of scorn, and ob- 
 jects of hatred to those of their own house ; to receive perse- 
 cutions as rewards, and entertain them not with patience only, 
 but with thankfulness and with rejoicing ; to be all their life 
 long in the midst of enemies, put to tedious conflicts with the 
 powers of the world and of darkness, to believe the things 
 which they have not seen, and to hope for things which they 
 
THE POWER OF THE GOSPEL. 105 
 
 do not know ; and yet, notwithstanding all this, to refuse to 
 consult with flesh and blood, to stand more in awe of God's 
 word than of any other thing: certainly that which with the 
 voice of a weak man bringeth such great things to pass, must 
 needs be a rod of strength ; a rod like the rod of Moses, 
 which can lead us through such seas as these, to one whom 
 we have never seen nor known before, Isa. Iv. 5. 
 
 (2.) The gospel of Christ is a rod of strength in the justi- 
 fication of men, as it is " a sceptre of righteousness," Heb. 
 i. 8 ; a word of reconciliation, 2 Cor. v. 19 ; a gospel of sal- 
 vation, Eph. i. 13 ; a law of the Spirit of life, Rom. viii. 2, 3 ; 
 a ministration of the Spirit of life and of righteousness, 2 Cor. 
 iii. 6, 8, 9 ; an opening of prisons, and a proclaiming of liberty 
 unto captives, Isa. Ixi. 1 : in these respects likewise it is full 
 of power. There was a mighty power in the law of God 
 typified in those thunderings and terrors with which it was ad- 
 ministered upon mount Sinai. The apostle calleth it a 
 '" schoolmaster," to scourge and drive us unto Christ, Gal. iii. 
 24 ; and the psalmist, an iron rod, able to break in pieces all 
 the potsherds of the earth, Psa. ii. 9. And w^e know boys in 
 a school do not apprehend so much terror in the king as in 
 their master. Yet, in comparison of the power of the gospel, 
 the law itself was very weak and unprofitable, Rom. viii. 3 ; 
 Heb. vii. 18, 19 ; able to make nothing perfect. The power 
 of the law was only to destruction ; the power of the gospel 
 for edification. The law could only hold under him that was 
 down before, it could never raise him up again. Now, the 
 power is far greater to raise, than to kill ; to forgive sins, than 
 to bind them. Herein is the mighty strength of God's mercy 
 seen, that it can pass by iniquities, transgressions, and sins, 
 Exod. xxxiv. 5 — 7 ; Micah vii. 18. To preach the gospel of 
 Christ in his name and authority, is an evident argument of 
 that plenary power which is given unto him both in heaven 
 and earth. And the very dispensing of this word of recon- 
 ciliation which is committed unto the ministers of the gospel, 
 how basely soever the ungrateful world may esteem them, 
 hath honoured them with a title of as great a power as a man 
 is capable of, to be called " saviours," Obad. ver. 21 ; to have 
 the custody of the keys of heaven, ministerially and instru- 
 mentally under Christ and his Spirit, to save the souls, and to 
 cover the sins of men, James v. 20. Now, then, that word 
 which from the mouth of a weak man is able to reconcile a 
 child of wrath unto God, and by the words of one hour to 
 F 5 
 
106 THE POWER OF THE GOSPEL. 
 
 cover and wipe out the sins of many years, which were scat- 
 tered as thick in the souls of men as the stars in the firma- 
 ment, must needs be a rod of strength. 
 
 (3,) The gospel of Christ is a rod of strength in the sanc- 
 tification of men ; as it is a sceptre which hath ever an unction 
 accompanying it : as it is a sanctifying truth, John xvii. 17 ; 
 a heavenly teaching, Isa. liv. 13 ; a forming of Christ in 
 the soul. Gal. iv. 19 ; a making of the heart, as it were, his 
 epistle, by writing the law therein, and manifesting the power 
 and image of Christ in the conscience, 2 Cor. iii. 2. If a man 
 should touch a marble or adamant stone with a seal, and, taking 
 it off, should see the print of it left behind, he could not but con- 
 ceive some wonderful and secret virtue to have wrought so strange 
 an effect. Now, our hearts are of themselves as hard as the 
 nether millstone ; when then a holy word, so meekly and gently 
 laid upon them, shall leave there an impression of its own 
 purity ; when so small a thing as a grain of mustard-seed shall 
 transform an earthy soul into its own nature ; when the eyes, and 
 hands, and mouth of Christ, being in the ministry of his word 
 spread upon the eyes, and hands, and mouth of a child, shall re- 
 vive the same from death ; when, by looking into a glass, we shall 
 not only have a view of our own faces, but shall see them changed 
 into the image of another face which from thence shineth upon 
 us, how can we but conclude that certainly that word by which 
 such wonders as these are effected is indeed a rod of strength ? 
 
 (4.) The gospel of Christ is a rod of strength in the pre- 
 servation and perseverance of the saints : it is a rod, like 
 Aaron's, which blossomed, and the blossoms perished not, but 
 remained in the ark for a testimony of God's power. For as 
 those buds, and the manna in the ark, did not perish, so neither 
 doth the word of the gospel in the hearts of the faithful. 
 The apostle saith, that we are "kept by the power of God 
 unto salvation," 1 Peter i. 3 ; and St. Jude, that God's 
 power keepeth the saints from falling, and presenteth them 
 faultless before the presence of his glory, Jude, ver. 24. And 
 what is this power of God whereby he doth it, but the gospel 
 of Christ, which St. Peter calleth incorruptible seed? 1 Peter 
 i. 23 ; and the Spirit of Christ, which St. John calleth an 
 abiding seed ? 1 John iii. 9. If I should see a tree with per- 
 petual fruit, without any variation from the difference of sea- 
 sons ; a tree like that in St. John's paradise, which every 
 month did bring forth fruit of twelve several kinds, I should 
 conclude that it had an extraordinary vital power in it : so 
 
THE POWER OF THE GOSPEL. 107 
 
 when I find Christ in his word promising, and by the planting and 
 watering of his labourers in the vineyard making good that pro- 
 mise unto his church, that every branch bringing forth fruit in 
 him, shall not only be as Aaron's rod, have his fruit preserved 
 upon him, but shall bring forth more fruit, and shall have life 
 more abundantly, how can I otherwise conclude, but that this 
 word which is the instrument of so imperishable condition, is 
 indeed a rod of strength, a rod cut out of the tree of life itself! 
 (5.) The gospel of Christ is a rod of strength in com- 
 forting and supporting of the faithful, as it is a rod of beauty 
 and of binding ; as it is a word which doth bind that which 
 was broken, and give unto them which mourn in Sion beauty 
 for ashes, and the garment of praise for the spirit of heavi- 
 ness, Isa. Ixi. 1 — 3 ; as it quencheth all the fiery darts, and 
 answereth all the blasphemous reasonings of Satan against 
 the soul ; as it is a staff which giveth comfort and support in 
 the very valley of the shadow of death. The shadow of 
 death is an usual expression in the Scripture for all fears, 
 terrors, affrightments, or any dreadful calamities either of soul 
 or body. The whole misery of our natural condition is 
 thereby signified, Luke i. 79. Many ways doth the prophet 
 David set forth the extremities he had been drawn unto : 
 " My bones are vexed, and dried like a potsherd, and turned 
 into the drought of summer ; my couch swimmeth with tears, 
 mine eye is consumed and waxen old with grief. I am 
 poured out like water, all my bones are out of joint, my heart 
 is like melted wax in the midst of my bowels. Thine arrows 
 stick fast in me, thine hand presseth me sore ; there is no 
 soundness in my flesh, my wounds stink and are corrupt, I am 
 feeble and sore broken ; I have roared by reason of the dis- 
 quietness of my heart. Innumerable evils compass me about, 
 I am not able to look up. Fearfulness and trembling are 
 come upon me, and horror hath overwhelmed me. My soul 
 is among lions, I lie amongst them that are set on fire. The 
 waters are come in unto my soul, I sink in the deep mire ; the 
 floods overflow me," These all, and the like, are compre- 
 hended in that one word, The shadow of death. And in that 
 it was only the word, and the Spirit of God which did sup- 
 port him : " This is my comfort in my affliction," saith he, 
 *' for thy word hath quickened me." When my afflictions 
 had brought me to the very brink and darkness of the grave, 
 thy word revived me again, and made me flourish. " Unless 
 thy law had been my delights, I should then have perished in 
 
108 THE POWER OF THE GOSPEL. 
 
 mine affliction," Psa. cxix. 50, 92. Now then, when I see 
 a man, upon whom so many heavy pressures do meet, the 
 weight of sin, the weight of God's heavy displeasure, the 
 weight of a wounded spirit, the weight of a decayed body, 
 the weight of scorn and temptations from Satan and the world, 
 in the midst of all this not to turn unto lying vanities, not to 
 consult with flesh and blood, not to rely on the wisdom or 
 help of man, but to lean only on this word, to trust in it at all 
 times, and to cast all his expectations upon it, to make it his 
 only rod and staff, to comfort him in such sore extremities, how 
 can I but confess that this word is indeed a rod of strength ? 
 
 (6.) The gospel of Christ is a rod of strength in sancti- 
 fying and blessing of our temporal things ; as it is a staff of 
 bread. Man liveth not by bread alone, but by the word which 
 proceedeth out of the mouth of God, Matt. iv. 4 ; not by the 
 creature, but by the blessing which prepare th the creature for 
 our use. Now, it is the word of God, namely his promises 
 in Christ of things concerning this life, as well as that which 
 is to come, that doth sanctify the creatures of God to those 
 who with thankfulness receive them.. All the creatures of 
 God are by sin mischievously converted into the instruments 
 and provisions of lust. The sun, and all the glorious lights 
 of nature, have become but instruments to serve the pride, co- 
 vetousness, adultery, and vanity of a lustful eye. All the deli- 
 cacies which the earth, air, or sea can afford, but materials to 
 feed the luxury and intemperance of a lustful body. All 
 the honours and promotions of the world, but fuel to satisfy 
 the haughtiness and ambition of a lustful heart. That word, 
 then, which can fetch out this leprosy from the creatures, 
 and put life, strength, and comfort hito them again, must needs 
 be a rod of strength. 
 
 2. The gospel and Spirit of Christ are a rod of strength, 
 in regard of his and his church's enemies. Able both to 
 repel and to revenge all their injuries ; to disappoint the ends 
 and machinations of Satan, to triumph and get above the 
 persecutions of men, to get a treasure which no malice nor 
 fury of the enemy can take away ; a nobleness of mind which 
 no insults of the adversary can abate ; a security of condition, 
 and calmness of spirit, which no worldly tempests can any 
 more extinguish than the darkness of a cloud, or the boiste- 
 rousness of a wind can blot out the lustre, or perturb the 
 order of celestial bodies ; a heavenly wisdom able to prevail 
 against the gates of hell, and to stop the mouths of every 
 
THE rOWER OF THE GOSPEL. 109 
 
 gainsayer. The word hath ever a readhiess to revenge dis- 
 obedience, as the apostle speaks, 2 Cor. x. 6 ; it hardens the 
 faces of men, and arms them, that they may break all those 
 who fall upon them. 
 
 This power of the word towards wicked men showeth it- 
 self in many particulars. 
 
 (1.) In a mighty work of conviction. The Spirit was 
 therefore sent into the world to convince it by the ministry of 
 the gospel, which one word containeth the ground of the 
 whole strength here spoken of; for all that the word bringeth 
 to pass, it doth by the conviction of the Spirit. This con- 
 viction is twofold. 
 
 [1,] A conviction unto conversion, whereby the hearts of 
 men are wonderfully overruled by that invincible evidence of 
 the Spirit of truth, to feel and acknowledge their woeful con- 
 dition by reason of sin, so long as they continue in unbelief, 
 to take unto themselves the just shame and confusion of face 
 which belong unto them, to give unto God the glory of his 
 righteous and just severity if he should destroy them ; and 
 hereupon to be, by the terror of the Lord, persuaded to count 
 worthy of all acceptation any deliverance out of that state 
 which shall be tendered unto them. To admire, adore, and 
 greedily embrace any terms of peace and reconciliation which 
 shall be offered them ; to submit unto the righteousness, and 
 with all willing and meek affection to bend the heart to the 
 sceptre of Christ, and to whatever form of judicature and 
 spiritual government he shall please to erect therein. And 
 this magnifies the strength of this rod of Christ's kingdom, 
 that it maketh men yield upon any terms. When we see the 
 little stone grow into a mighty mountain, and eat into all the 
 kinadoms of the world ; when we see emperors and prmces 
 submit their necks and sceptres to a doctrine at first every- 
 where spoken against, and that upon the words of a few de- 
 spicable persons ; and that such a doctrhie too as is diametri- 
 cally contrary to the natural constitution of the hearts of 
 men, and teacheth nothing but self-denial ; and this for hope 
 of reward from one whom they never saw, and whom, if they 
 had seen, they would have found by a natural eye no beauty 
 in him, for which he should be desired ; and this reward too, 
 whatever it be, deferred for a long time, and in the interim no 
 ground of assurance to expect it, but only faith in hnnself 
 that promiseth it ; and in the mean time a world of afflictions 
 for his name's sake,— how can we think that a world of wise 
 
110 THE POWER OF THE GOSPEL. 
 
 and of great men should give ear most willingly unto such 
 terms as these, if they were not a demonstrative and con- 
 straining evidence of truth and goodness therein, able to stop 
 the mouths, and to answer the objections of all gainsayers? 
 
 [2.] There is a conviction unto condemnation of those 
 who stand out against this saving power of the gospel and 
 Spirit of gi-ace, driving them from all their strongholds, and 
 constraining them by force to acknowledge the truth which 
 they do not love. Thus we find our Saviour disputing with 
 the jews, till no man was able to answer him a word, Matt, 
 xxii. 46 : and as he did so himself, so he promiseth that his 
 messengers should do so too ; " I will give you a mouth and 
 wisdom, which all your adversaries shall not be able to gain- 
 say, nor resist," Luke xxi. 13. And this promise we find 
 made good; the enemies of Stephen were not able to resist 
 the spirit by which he spake, Acts vi. 10 ; and Apollos might- 
 ily convinced the jews, showing by the Scriptures that Jesus 
 was Christ, Acts xviii. 28. And this the apostle numbereth 
 amongst the qualifications of a bishop, that he should be able 
 by sound doctrine to convince the gainsayers, and to stop the 
 mouths of those unruly deceivers, whose business it is to sub- 
 vert men, Titus i. 9 — ll. For this is the excellent virtue of 
 God's word, that it concludeth or shutteth men in, and leaveth 
 not any gap or evasion of corrupted reason unanswered, or un- 
 prevented, Gal. iii. 22. Thus we find how the prophets in 
 their ministry did still drive the jews from their shifts, and 
 press them with dilemmas, the inconveniences whereof they 
 could on no side escape. Either there must be a fault in you, 
 or else in God who rebuketh you ; but now, " What iniquity," 
 saith the Lord, " have your fathers found in me, that they 
 are gone far from me ? Have I been a wilderness unto Israel ; 
 a land of darkness ? Wherefore say my people, W^e are 
 lords ; we will come no more unto thee ? O my people, what 
 have I done unto thee ? and wherein have I wearied thee ? 
 Testify against me. I raised up of your sons for prophets, 
 and of your young men for Nazarites. Is it not even thus, 
 O ye children of Israel?" Jer. ii. 5, 31; Micah vi. 3, 4; 
 Amos ii. 11. Here the Scripture useth that figure which is 
 called by the rhetoricians communication a debating and delibe- 
 rating with the adverse party ; an evidencing of a cause so 
 clearly, as that at last a man can challenge the adversary him- 
 self to make such a determination, as himself shall in reason 
 judge the merit of the cause to require. " How shall I pardon 
 
THE POWER OF THE GOSPEL. Ill 
 
 thee for this ? for how shall I do for the daughter of iny 
 people ?" Jer. v. 7 ; ix. 7. Set me in a way, determine the 
 controversy yourselves, and I will stand to the issue which 
 your own consciences shall make. " O inhabitants of Jeru- 
 salem and men of Judah, judge, I pray you, betwixt me and 
 my vineyard," Isa. v. 3 ; that is, do you yourselves undertake 
 the deciding of your own cause. When a band of armed 
 men came against Christ to attack him, at the pro- 
 nouncing but of these words, " I am he," all fell down back- 
 ward to the earth, John xviii. 6 ; we must needs confess that 
 there was some mighty power and evidence of majesty in him 
 that uttered them ; what think we can he do when he reigneth 
 and judgeth the world, who did let out so much power when 
 he was to die and be judged by the world? Now, Christ 
 reigneth and judgeth the world by his word, and that more 
 mightily after his ascending up on high, and therefore he pro- 
 miseth his apostles that they should do greater works than 
 he himself had done. When I see a man armed with scorn 
 against Christ in his word, standing proudly upon the defence 
 of his own ways by his own wisdom, and wrapping up him- 
 self in the mud of his own carnal reasonings, yet by a few rea- 
 sonings and deductions from God's word, to be forced to 
 stop his own mouth, to be condemned by his own witness, to 
 betray his own succours, and to be shut up in a prison with- 
 out bars ; when I shall force such a man by the mighty pene- 
 tration and invincible evidence of God's word, to see his own 
 conscience subscribing to the truth which condemns him, and 
 belying all those delusions which he had framed to deceive 
 himself withal ; who can deny but that the rod of God's mouth 
 is indeed a rod of strength, an iron rod, able to deal with all 
 human reasonings, as a hammer with a potsherd, which 
 though to the hand of a man it may feel as hard as a rock, 
 yet it is too brittle to endure the blow of an iron rod ? 
 
 Strange it is to observe how boldly men venture on sins, 
 under the names of custom, or fashions, or some other pre- 
 tences of corrupted reason, contrary to the clear and literal 
 evidence of holy Scripture, the most immediate and grammat- 
 ical sense whereof, is ever soundest, where there doth not 
 some apparent and unavoidable error in doctrine, or mischief 
 in manners, follow thereupon. Men will justify the cause of 
 the wicked for reward, and by dexterity of wit put a better 
 colour upon a worse business, and yet the Lord saith ex- 
 pressly, " Thou shalt not speak in a cause to wrest judgment. 
 
112 THE POWER OF THE GOSPEL. 
 
 thou shalt keep thee far from a false matter," Exod. xxiii. 
 2, 7 ; for God, whom thou oughtest to imitate, will not justify 
 the wicked. Men will follow the sinful fashions of the 
 world, in strange apparel, in lustful and unprofitable expense 
 of that precious moment of time, upon the abuse or right im- 
 provement whereof dependeth the several issues of their eter- 
 nal condition ; though the Lord say expressly, " Be not 
 conformed to this world;" they that walk according to the 
 course of the world, walk according to the prince of the power 
 of the air. To conclude this particular, the apostle is pe- 
 remptory ; " Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor effeminate, 
 nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor ex- 
 tortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God," 1 Cor. vi. 9, 
 10 : and the consciences of many men, who yet will never 
 yield to the conclusion, cannot choose but secretly to admit as 
 the apostle goes on, " such were some of you ;" nay, and such 
 we will be too. But now, if we should bespeak these men in 
 the word of the prophet, *' Produce your cause, saith the 
 Lord ; bring forth your strong reasons, saith the King of Ja- 
 cob," Isa. xli. 21 ; they should find, at the last, their reasons 
 to be like themselves, vanity, and lighter than nothing ; that 
 the word of the Lord will at last prevail, and sweep away all 
 their refuge of lies, Isa. xxviii. 17. 
 
 (2.) The power of the word towards wicked men is seen 
 in affrighting of them. There is a spirit of bondage, and a 
 savour of death, as well as a Spirit of life and liberty, which 
 goeth along with the word. Guilt is an inseparable conse- 
 quence of sin, and fear of the manifestation of guilt. If the 
 heart be once convinced of this, it will presently faint and 
 tremble, even at the shaking of a leaf, at the working of a 
 man's own conscience ; how much more at the voice of the 
 Lord, which shaketh mountains, and maketh the strong 
 foundations of the earth to tremble I If I should see a pri- 
 soner at the bar pass sentence upon his judge ; and the judge 
 thereupon surprised with trembling, and forced to subscribe 
 and acknowledge the doom, I could not but stand amazed at 
 so inverted a proceeding ; yet in the Scripture we find prece- 
 dents for it. Micaiah, a prisoner, pronouncing death unto 
 Ahab, a king, 1 Kings xxii. 27, 28 ; Jeremiah, a prisoner, 
 pronouncing captivity unto Zedekiah, a king, Jer. xxxvii. 16, 
 17 ; Paul, in his chain, preaching of judgment unto Felix in 
 his robes, and making his own judge to tremble, Acts xxiv. 
 25. It is not for want of strength in the word, or because 
 
THE POWER OF THE GOSPEL. 113 
 
 there is stoutness in the hearts of men to stand out against it, 
 that all the wicked of the world do not tremble at it, but 
 merely their ignorance of the power and evidence thereof. 
 The devils are stronger and more stubborn creatures than any 
 man can be, yet because of their full illumination, and that 
 invincible conviction of their consciences from the power of 
 the word, they believe and tremble at it. Though men were 
 as hard as rocks, the word is a hammer which can break 
 them ; though as sharp as thorns and briars, the word is a 
 fire which can devour and torment them ; though as strong as 
 kingdoms and nations, the word is able to root them up, and 
 to pull them down ; though as fierce as dragons and lions, the 
 word is able to trample upon them, and to chain them up, 
 Jam. ii. 19; Jer. xxiii. 29; Jer. v. 14; Ezek. ii. 6; Deut. 
 xxxiii. 2; Jer. i. 10; Psa. xci. 13. 
 
 (3.) The power of the word is seen towards wicked men, in 
 that it doth judge them. " Son of man, wilt thou judge, wilt 
 thou judge the bloody city, saith the Lord ? yea, thou shalt show 
 her all her abominations," Ezek. xxii. 2. To note, that when 
 wicked men are made to see their filthiness in the word, they 
 have thereby the wrath of God, as it were, sealed upon them. 
 " He that rejecteth me, the word that I have spoken, the same 
 shall judge him at the last day,'' saith our Saviour, John xii. 
 48. " But if all prophesy," saith the apostle, "and there come 
 in one that believeth not, or one unlearned, he is convinced of 
 all, he is judged of all, and thus are the secrets of his heart made 
 manifest," 1 Cor. xiv. 24. Nay, the word doth in some sort 
 execute death and judgment upon wicked men ; therefore it 
 is said that the Lord would " smite the earth with the rod of 
 his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the 
 wicked," Isa. xi. 4. And again, " I have hewed them by 
 the prophets ; I have slain them by the words of my mouth," 
 Hosea vi. 5. And therefore the word of the Lord is called 
 ** fury" by the prophet, Jer. vi. 11, to note, that when wrath and 
 fury are poured out upon a land, they are the effects of God's 
 word. If a pestilence devour a city, and a sword come and 
 glean after it, it is the word only which slays ; they are but the 
 instruments, which are, as it were, actuated and applied by 
 the word of God to their several services. Therefore it is 
 that the prophet saith, that wise men see the voice of God, 
 and hear his rod, Micah vi. 9. A rod is properly to be seen, 
 and a voice to be heard ; but here is a transposition, and as it 
 were, a communication of properties between the word of God 
 
114 THE POWER OF THE GOSPEL. 
 
 and his punishments, to note, that towards wicked men there 
 is a judging, and tormenting virtue in the word: " for judg- 
 ment," saith our Saviour, " I am come into this world, 
 that they which see not might see; and that they which see 
 might be made bUnd," John ix. 39. If it be here objected 
 that Christ saith of himself, " The son of man is not come to 
 destroy men's lives, but to save them ;" and that " he came not 
 to condemn the world, but that the w^orld through hhn might be 
 saved," Luke vi. 56; John iii. 17, I answer, that there are two 
 events of Christ's coming, and by consequence of his gospel. The 
 one principal, and by him intended, the other accidental and 
 occasional, growing out of the ill disposition of the subject 
 unto whom he was sent. The main and essential business of 
 the gospel is to declare salvation, and to set open unto men a 
 door of escape from the wrath to come ; but when men wil- 
 lingly stand out, and neglect so great salvation, then, seconda- 
 rily, doth Christ prove unto those men a stone of offence, 
 and the gospel a savour of death unto death ; as that potion 
 which was intended for a cure by the physician, may, upon oc- 
 casion of the indisposedness of the body, and stubborn radi- 
 cation of the disease, hasten a man's end sooner then the dis- 
 ease itself would have done. So that to the wicked the word 
 of God is a two-edged sword indeed, an edge in the law-, and an 
 edorein the gospel : they are on every side beset with condemna- 
 tion ; if they go to the law^, that cannot save them, because they 
 have broken it ; if they go to the gospel, that will not save 
 them, because they have contemned it. 
 
 (4.) The power of the word towards wicked men is seen in 
 this, that it doth ripen their sins, and make them so much the 
 more sinful, and so much the sooner fill up their measure. " If 
 I had not come," saith Christ, " and spoken unto them, they had 
 not had sin ; but now they have no cloke for their sin," John 
 XV. 22. A tree which is fastened unto a wall, in which the 
 heat of the sun is more permanent and united, will bring 
 forth ripe fruit before the ordinary season : so a people upon 
 whom the light of the gospel hath constantly shined, and 
 which doth often drink in the rain which falleth upon it, must 
 nee ds bring forth summer-fruit ; sms speedily ripe, and there- 
 fore are so much nearer unto cursing. There is but a year be- 
 tween such a tree and the fire. We shall never find that the 
 sins of Israel, and of Judah (for w^hich they were at any time 
 plagued with captivity) were so long in ripening as the sins of 
 the Canaanites, upon whom there did no hght shine. The 
 
THE POWER OF THE GOSPEL. 115 
 
 land had rest sometimes forty years, and sometimes fourscore 
 years ; but we never find that they were suffered to provoke 
 the Lord to his face four hundred years together. We find 
 when God sent a prophet to Nineveh, to reveal unto them the 
 guilt and demerit of their sins, he then set them a very short 
 time, in which they should either forsake or ripen them ; " Yet 
 forty days and Nineveh shall be overthrown.'* 
 
 (5.) The power of the ingrafted word towards wicked men 
 is seen even in the rage and madness which it excites in them. 
 It is a sign that a man hath to do with a strong enemy when 
 he buckleth on all his harness, and calleth together all his 
 strength for opposition. When I see a river without any sensi- 
 ble noise or motion, I am ready to esteem it a standing pool ; 
 but when I look further, and there observe what huge engines 
 it carries about, and what weighty bodies it roUeth before it, I 
 then believe a strength in it which I did not see : so when I see 
 the word of Christ rouse up the rage and lusts of men, and 
 force them to set up against it strong holds, and high imagina- 
 tions, even the wisdom and strength of the gates of hell to 
 keep it out, I must needs then conclude that it is indeed a rod 
 of strength. The most calm and devout hypocrites in the 
 Avorld have by the power of this word been put out of their 
 demure temper, and mightily transported with outrage and bit- 
 terness against the majesty thereof. One time filled with 
 wrath ; another time filled with madness ; another time filled 
 with envy and hidignation ; another time filled with contradic- 
 tion and blasphemy; another time cut to the heart, and like 
 reprobates in hell, gnashing with their teeth : such a search- 
 ing power, and such an extreme contrariety there is in the gos- 
 pel to the lusts of men, that if it do not subdue, it will won- 
 derfully swell them up, till it distemper even the prudent 
 men of the world with those brutish and uncomely affections 
 of rage and fury, and drive disputers from their arguments 
 unto stones. Sin cannot endure to be disquieted, much less to 
 be shut in and encompassed with the curses of God's word. 
 Therefore, as a hunted beast, in an extremity of distress, will 
 turn back, and put forth its utmost strength to be revenged on 
 the pursuers, and to save its life ; so wicked men to save their 
 lusts will let out all their rage, and open all their sluices of 
 pride and malice to withstand that holy truth which doth so 
 closely pursue them. Till men can be persuaded to lay apart 
 all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, they will never 
 receive the engrafted word with meekness. For till then it is 
 
116 THE POWER OF THE GOSPEL. 
 
 a binding word, which sealeth their guilt and condemnation 
 upon them. 
 
 (6.) The mighty power of the word towards wicked men 
 is seen in altering them : in their semipersuasions and semi- 
 conversions unto godliness, in restraining them from those 
 lusts which they dearly love, and in forcing them to those ex- 
 ternal conformities which have no inward principles to sup- 
 port them. The humiliation of Ahab, the attention of Herod, 
 the incomplete persuasion of Agrippa, the forced obedience and 
 flatteries of the dissembling jews, the essays and offers of hypo- 
 crites towards religion, the low desires and hankerings of un- 
 resolved wills after Christ, are notable evidences of the power 
 and majesty which is in the gospel. If I should see a millstone 
 in the air, not falling constantly and swiftly down, but waver, 
 and float about in a kind of unresolved motion, as if it were 
 in a deliberation which way to go, one while yielding to its 
 own weight, another while lingering, and by fits attempting to 
 ascend, how could I sufficiently wonder at that secret virtue, 
 and those strange impressions which did retard the natural de- 
 scent of so weighty a body ? so when I see men, who still re- 
 tain the principles of their own corrupt nature, which carry 
 them with as strong an impulse to sin and hell as a millstone 
 is moved unto its center, hanker notwithstanding after good- 
 ness, and when they yield unto their lusts, do it not without 
 much hesitancy and conflict of a natural conscience, I must 
 needs acknowledge a mighty strength in that word which set- 
 teth bounds to the raging of so proud a sea. 
 
 From hence then, the messengers of Christ, who are en- 
 trusted with the dispensation of this rod of strength, may be 
 instructed how to behave themselves in that ministry. Few 
 men will lose any thing of that power which is given them ; for 
 every thing in its kind doth affect power. Now, Christ hath 
 committed unto us the custody of his own power, and there- 
 fore we ought to manage it as a word of power, as able alone by 
 itself, without the contemporations of human fancies, or the 
 superstruction of human opinions, to work mightily to the sal- 
 vation of those that believe, and to the conviction of gain- 
 sayers. Our commission is to charge even the great men of 
 the world. It is true, the ministers of the gospel are servants 
 to the church : in compassion, to pity the diseases, the in- 
 firmities, the temptations of God's people ; ia ministry, to 
 assist them with all needful supplies of comfort, or instruction, 
 or exhortation in righteousness ; in humility, to wait upon 
 
THE POWER OF THE GOSPEL. 117 
 
 men of lowest degree, and to condescend unto men of weakest 
 capacity. And thus the very angels in heaven are servants to 
 the church of Christ. But yet we are servants only for the 
 church's good; to serve their souls, not to serve their humours. 
 And therefore we are such servants as may command too. 
 " These things command and teach. Let no man despise thy 
 youth," 1 Tim. iv. 11, 12. And again, " These things 
 speak and exhort, and rebuke with all authority. Let no man 
 despise thee," Tit. ii. 15. No ministers are more despicable 
 than those who by ignorance, or flattery, or any base and am- 
 bitious affections, betray the power and majestical simplicity 
 of the gospel of Christ. When we deliver God's message, 
 " we must not then be the servants of men ; if I yet pleased 
 men, I should not be the servant of Christ," saith the apostle, 
 1 Cor. vii. 23; Gal. i. 10. To captivate the truth of God 
 unto the humours of men, and to make the Spirit of Christ in 
 his gospel to bend, comply, and complement with human lusts, 
 is, like Jonah, to play the runagate from our office, and to 
 prostrate the sceptre of Christ unto the insults of men. There 
 is a wonderful majesty and authority in the word when it is set 
 on with Christ's Spirit. Christ taught men as one who had 
 power and authority, or privilege to speak ; as one that cared 
 not for the persons of men ; and, therefore, wherever his Spirit 
 is, there will this power and liberty of Christ appear ; for he 
 hath given it to his ministers, that they may commend them- 
 selves in the consciences of those that hear them ; that they 
 may harden their faces against the pride and scorn of men ; 
 that they may go out in armies against the enemies of his 
 kingdom ; that they may speak boldly as they ought to speak ; 
 that they may not suffer his word to be bound, or his Spirit to 
 be straitened by the humours of men, 1 Cor. ii. 4; 2 Cor. iii. 
 17; xiii. 10; iv. 2; Jer. i. 6—8; Ezek. iii. 8, 9; Psa. ex. 3 ; 
 Eph. vi. 20. 
 
 Again ; we should all labour to receive the word in the 
 power thereof, and to expose our tender parts unto it. Cer- 
 tainly, the proudest of men have some tender part into which 
 a sting may enter. The conscience is as sensible of God's 
 displeasure, as obnoxious to his wrath, as subject to liis word, 
 in a prince, as in a beggar. If the word, like David's stone, 
 find that open, and get into it, it is able to sink the greatest 
 Goliah. Therefore we should open our consciences unto that 
 word, and expect his Spirit to come along with it, and receive 
 it, as Josiah did, with humility and trembling. We should 
 
118 THE POWER OF THE GOSPEL. 
 
 learn to fear the Lord In his word, and when his voice cryeth 
 in the city, to see his name and his power therein. " Fear ye 
 not me," saith the Lord ; " will ye not tremble at my presence, 
 which have placed the sand for the bound of the sea ? " Jer. v. 22. 
 No creature so swelling, and of itself so strong and encroaching, 
 as the sea ; nothing so small, weak, smooth, and passable as the 
 sand ; and yet the sand (a creature so easily removed, and swept 
 away) is decreed to hold in so raging an element. What in ap- 
 pearance weaker than words spoken by a despised man ? and 
 what in the experience of all the world stronger than the rag- 
 ing of an army of lusts ? and yet that hath the Lord appointed 
 to tame and subdue these, that men might learn to fear his 
 power. 
 
 Again ; it should teach us to rest upon God in all things, as 
 being unto us all-sufficient; a Sun, a Shield, an exceeding 
 great reward in the truth and promises of his gospel. The 
 word of God is a sure thing, that which a man may cast his 
 whole weight upon, and lean confidently on in any extremity* 
 All the creatures in the world are full of vanity, uncertainties, 
 and disappointments ; and usually deceive a man most, 
 when he most of all relies upon them ; and therefore the apos- 
 tle chargeth us not to trust in them, 1 Tim. vi. 17. But the 
 word of the Lord is an abiding word, as being founded upon 
 the immutability of God's own truth : he that maketh it his 
 refuge, relieth on God's omnipotency, and hath all the strength 
 of the Almighty engaged to help him. Asa was safe while he 
 depended on the Lord in his promises, against the hugest host 
 of men that we read of in the Scriptures ; but when he turned 
 aside to collateral aids he purchased to himself nothing but 
 perpetual wars. And this was that which established the 
 throne of Jehoshaphat, and caused the fear of the Lord to fall 
 upon the kingdoms of the lands which were round about 
 him, 2 Chron. xvii. 9, 10 ; because he honoured the 
 word of God, and caused it to be taught unto his people. When- 
 soever Israel and Judah did forget to lean upon God's word, 
 and betook themselves to human confederacies, to correspon- 
 dence with idolatrous people, to facility in superstitious com- 
 pliances, and the like fleshly counsels, they found them always 
 to be but very lies, like waxen and wooden feasts, made spe- 
 cious of purpose to delude ignorant comers ; things of so thin 
 and unsolid a consistence, as were ever broken with the weight of 
 those who did lean upon them. Let us not, therefore, rest 
 upon our own wisdom, nor build our hopes or securities upon 
 
THE POWER OF THE GOSPEL. 119 
 
 human foundations, but let us in all conditions take hold of 
 God's covenant, of this staff of his strength, which is able to 
 stay us up in any extremities. 
 
 Again ; since the gospel is a word of such sovereign power, as 
 to strengthen us against all enemies and temptations, to uphold 
 us in all our ways and callings, to make us strong in the grace 
 of Christ, (for ever a christian man's knowledge of the word is 
 the measure of his strength and comfort,) we should therefore 
 labour to acquaint ourselves with God in his word, to hide it 
 in our hearts, and grow rich in the knowledge of it. In hea- 
 ven our blessedness shall consist in the knowledge and com- 
 munion with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ. So 
 that the gospel and the Spirit are, to us upon earth, the pre- 
 ludes and supplies of heaven, for by them only is this know- 
 ledge and communion begun. And that man doth but de- 
 lude himself and lie to the world, who professeth his desire 
 to go to heaven, and doth not here desire to know so much of 
 God as he is pleased to afford to men on the earth. The gos- 
 pel is the patent and charter of a christian, all that he hath to 
 show for his salvation ; the treasure of his wealth and privi- 
 leges, all that he hath to boast in either for this life or ano- 
 ther ; the armoury of a christian, all that he hath to hold up 
 against the temptations and conflicts of his sorest enemies ; the 
 only tool and instrument of a christian, all that he hath to do 
 any action of piety, charity, loyalty, or sobriety withal ; the 
 only glass of a christian, wherein he may see his own face, and 
 so learn to deny himself, and wherein he may see the face of 
 God in Christ, and so learn to desire and to follow him. So 
 that, upon the whole matter, for any man to be ignorant of the 
 gospel, is to unchristian himself again, and to degenerate into a 
 heathen. " Pour out thy fury upon the heathen that know 
 thee not," Jer. x. 25. Ignorance makes a man a very heathen. 
 " This I say and testify," saith the apostle, "that you hence- 
 forth walk not as other gentiles walk, in the vanity of their 
 mind: — for ye have not so learned Christ," Eph. iv. 17, 20. 
 It is not the title, nor the possession which maketh a man a 
 real christian, and distinguisheth him from other heathen men, 
 but the learning of Christ in his Spirit and gospel. For as he 
 who was only outwardly, and in the flesh a jew, might be un- 
 circumcised in his heart : so he who is only in title and name 
 a christian, may be a heathen in his heart ; and that more 
 fearfully than Sodom and Gomorrah, or Tyre and Sidon ; be- 
 cause he hath put from himself the salvation of the Lord, 
 
120 THE POWER OF THE GOSPEL. 
 
 and judged himself unworthy of eternal life, Rom. ii. 28, 29 ; 
 Col. ii. 11; Philip, iii. 3. 
 
 Lastly ; if there be indeed such power in the gospel, we 
 should labour to bear witness unto the testimony which God 
 giveth of his word, in a holy conversation. It is a reproach 
 cast upon the ordinances of God when men do in their lives 
 deny that virtue which God testifieth to be in them. Wicked 
 men are said to crucify Christ again, to put him to shame, to 
 make God a liar ; not that these things can so really be, but 
 because men in their evil lives carry themselves, as if indeed 
 they were so. And in this sense the gospel may be said to 
 be weak too, because the pride of men holds out against the 
 saving power thereof. But these men m.ust know that the 
 word returneth not empty unto God, but accomplisheth some 
 work or other ; either it ripeneth weeds or corn. There is 
 thunder and lightning both in the word; if the one break not 
 the heart, the other will blast it ; if it be not humbled by the 
 word, it will certainly be withered, and made fruitless. Shall 
 the clay boast itself against the fire, because, though it have 
 power to melt wax, yet it hath not power to melt clay ? Is it not 
 one and the same power which hardeneth the one and which 
 softeneth the other ? Is not the word a sweet savour unto God, 
 as well in those that perish, as in those that are saved ? Cer- 
 tainly there is as wonderful a power in adding another death 
 to him who was dead before, (which upon the matter is to 
 kill a dead man,) as in multiplying and enlarging life. And 
 the gospel is to those that perish a savour of death unto death ; 
 such a word as doth cumulate the damnation of wicked men, 
 and treasure up wrath upon wrath. If it do not convert, it 
 will certainly harden ; if it do not save, it will undoubtedly 
 judge and condemn. The Lord doth never cast away his 
 gospel ; he that gave charge to gathei*up the broken meat of 
 loaves and fishes, that nothing might be lost, will not suffer 
 any crumb of his spiritual manna to come to nothing. Yet 
 we find the Lord giveth a charge to his prophets to preach 
 even there where he foretold them that their words would 
 not be heard. " Thou shalt speak all these words unto them ; 
 but they will not hearken to thee ; thou shalt also call unto 
 them, but they will not answer thee. Son of man, I send 
 thee to the children of Israel, to a rebellious nation : they are 
 impudent children and stiff-hearted. Thou shalt speak my 
 words unto them, whether they will hear, or whether they will 
 forbear, for they are most rebellious. They will not 
 
THE GLORY OF THE GOSPEL. 121 
 
 hearken unto thee, for they will not hearken unto me : for 
 all the house of Israel are impudent and hard-hearted," Jer. 
 vii. 27; Ezek. ii. 3,4, 7; iii. 7. Certainly, when the Lord 
 taketh pains by his prophets to call those who will not hear, 
 he doth it not in vain ; they shall know at length that 
 a prophet hath been amongst them. Therefore, as the 
 apostle saith, that the gospel is a sweet savour even " in those 
 that perish," 2 Cor. ii. 15; so we find that those messages 
 which have contained nothing but curses against an obstinate 
 people, have yet been as honey for sweetness in the mouth of 
 those that preached them. " I did eat the roll," saith the pro- 
 phet, "and it was in my mouth as honey for sweetness ;" and 
 yet there was nothing in it written but " lamentations, and 
 mourning, and woe," Ezek. iii. 2, 10. Jeremiah did not de- 
 sire the woeful day, but did heartily say Amen to the false pro- 
 phets in their predictions of safety ; yet in regard of his readv 
 service unto God, and of that glory which God would work 
 out unto himself in the punishment of that sinful people, the 
 word of prophecy, which was committed unto him, was the 
 joy and rejoicing of his heart ; so that in all respects the gos- 
 pel of Christ is a word of power, and therein we do and must 
 rejoice. 
 
 We observed before, that this rod of strength is both the 
 sceptre of Christ, as he is a King, and his pastoral staff, as he 
 is a Bishop. It denoteth the administration of Christ's king- 
 dom, which consisteth in the dispensing of his gospel, as it is 
 a word of majesty, and of care. So then here are (as I before 
 observed) two observations yet remaining to be noted out of 
 these words, " the rod of thy strength." 
 
 II. That the gospel of Christ, accompanied with his Spirit, 
 is a word of great glory and majesty. For we must ever 
 make these concomitants, " We preach the gospel," saith 
 St. Peter, " with the Holy Ghost, sent down from heaven," 
 1 Pet. i. 12. And indeed the Spirit is peculiar to the gospel, 
 and not belonging to the law at all, if we consider it alone by 
 itself, under the relation of a distinct covenant. For though 
 as itproceedeth out of Sion, that is, as it is an appendix and 
 addition unto the gospel, it tends unto liberty, and so cometh 
 not without the Spirit ; yet by itself alone it gendreth no- 
 thing but bondage. And therefore, when the apostle showeth 
 the excellency of the gospel above the law, he caileth the one 
 a ministration of death and of the letter, the other a ministra- 
 tion of the Spirit and life, 2 Cor. iii. 6—8. To show, that 
 
 G 
 
122 THE GLORY OF THE GOSPEL. 
 
 properly the Spirit belongeth unto the gospel of grace. Now 
 this spiritual gospel of Christ is the sceptre of his kingdom ; 
 and therefore as it is an ensign of royalty, it importeth glory 
 and majesty. It is a gospel full of glory. We may observe, 
 that the very typical prefigurations of that mercy, which is the 
 sole business of the gospel of Christ, are in the Scriptures 
 honoured with the name of glory. The garments of the 
 priests, being types of the evangelical righteousness of the 
 saints, were made for glory and beauty. The tabernacle, which 
 was ordained for an evidence and seal of God's evangelical 
 presence with that people, is called by the prophet David, a 
 tabernacle of honour, Psa. xxvi. 8 ; the place which God did 
 use to till with his own glory, Exod. xl. 34. The ark of 
 God, which was nothing else but the gospel under vails and 
 shadows, is called by excellency the glory of Israel, 1 Sam. iv. 
 22 ; which is the attribute of Christ, " All kings shall see thy 
 glory," Isa. Ixii. 2. The temple at Jerusalem was the place 
 of God's rest ; " This is my rest for ever ; here will I dwell. 
 Arise, O Lord God, into thy rest ; thou, and the ark of thy 
 strength," Psa. cxxxii. 8, 14. It was so called, to note the 
 stability of God's everlasting covenant in Christ ; it was not 
 to be changed, nor to be repented of ; but to be sure and fixed 
 in Christ for ever. His kingdom is a kingdom which was 
 not to be shaken ; his priesthood, a priesthood which was not 
 to pass away, Heb. vii. 24 ; his teaching a teaching which was 
 to continue to the world's end. And secondly, to note the de- 
 light of God in Christ, and in the mercy which through him 
 was unto the world revealed ; therein the Lord rested and re- 
 poseth himself, as in the crown and accomplishment of all his 
 works. And this temple is called a glorious rest, a glorious 
 high throne, a house of glory, of beauty, and of holiness, Isa. 
 xi. 10; Jer. xvii. 12; Isa. Ix. 7; Ixiv. II. It is said, at 
 the first dedication thereof, that the glory of the Lord filled it ; 
 1 Kings viii. 11. It was not the gold or silver (wherewith 
 before that dedication it was beautified) wherein the glory 
 thereof did consist, but in the evidence of God's presence ; 
 which at that time was but a cloud, whereas the true glory 
 thereof himself was a Sun, as the prophet calls him, Mai. 
 iv. 2. And with this did the Lord fill the second temple, which 
 for this cause is said to have been more glorious than the 
 former, though in the magnificence of the structure far inferior. 
 Hag. ii. 7, 9. Now then, as the apostle, in a case of just a 
 like proportion, useth a term of excess, when he speaketh of 
 
THE GLORY OF THE GOSPEL. 123 
 
 the substance in comparison of the type, (" If the blood of bulls 
 and of goats sanctify to the purifying of the flesh, how much 
 more shall the blood of Christ?" Heb. ix. 13, 14,) so may 
 we in this case ; if the types of evangelical things were thus 
 glorious, how much more glorious must the gospel itself needs 
 be ? And therefore, as I before observed, in other things, so 
 in this is it true likewise, that Christ and his gospel have the 
 same attribute of glory frequently given unto them. Christ 
 is called the glory of the Lord, and of his people Israel, Isa. 
 xl. 5 ; Luke ii. 32. And the gospel a gloribus mystery, a 
 royal law, a ministration of glory, Col. i. 27 ; James ii. 8 ; 
 2 Cor. iii. 8, 9 ; nay glory itself, for so I understand that place 
 of the apostle, " That ye would walk worthy of God, who hath 
 called you unto his kingdom and glory," 1 Thess. ii. 12 ; that 
 is, unto the knowledge of his gospel ; for of that in all the 
 antecedent parts, and in the verse immediately following, doth 
 the apostle speak. A glory which draweth the study and 
 amazement of the most glorious creatures of God unto it, 
 1 Pet. i. 12. 
 
 To consider this point more particularly, the glory and 
 majesty of the gospel of Christ appeareth principally in 
 four things : in the Author of it ; in the promulgation, and 
 publishing of it; in the matter which it contains; and in the 
 ends, purposes, or uses, for which it serves. 
 
 1. In the Author of it : many things of small worth have 
 yet grown famous by the authors of them, and like the unpro- 
 fitable children of renowned progenitors, hold their estimation 
 and nobility from the parents which begat them. And yet 
 from men who are unclean, there will ever descend some un- 
 cleanness upon the works which they do. But the gospel is 
 therefore indeed a glorious gospel, because it is the gospel of 
 the blessed God. There is glory in all the works of God, be- 
 cause they are his ; for it is impossible that so great a workman 
 should ever put his hand to an ignoble work. And therefore 
 the prophet David useth his glory and his handiwork promis- 
 cuously for the same thing ; " The heavens declare the glory of 
 God, and the firmam.ent showeth his handy work," Psa. xix. 1 ; 
 to note, that there is an evidence of glory in any thing which he 
 puts his hand unto. And yet the prophet there showetli tliat 
 there is more glory in the law of his mouth, than in the works of 
 his hands. The Lord is better known by Sion, and his name 
 greater in Israel, than in all the world besides : the more God 
 doth communicate himself unto any of his works, the more 
 
 g2 
 
124 THE GLORY OF THE GOSPEL. 
 
 glorious it is. Now, there is nothing wherein God hath so 
 much put himself, wherein he may be so fully known, com- 
 municated with, depended upon, and praised, as in his gospel. 
 This is a glass in which the blessed angels do see and admire 
 that unsearchable riches of his mercy to the church, which they 
 had not by their own observation found out from the immedi- 
 ate view of his glorious presence. In the creatures we have 
 him a God of power and wisdom, working all things in number, 
 weight, and measure, by the secret vigour of his providence 
 upholding that being which he gave them, and ordering them 
 to those glorious ends for which he gave it. In the law we 
 have him a God of vengeance and of recompense, in the pub- 
 lication thereof threatening, and in the execution thereof in- 
 flicting wrath upon those that transgress it. But in the gos- 
 pel we have him a God of bounty and endless compassion, 
 humbling himself that he might be merciful to his enemies ; 
 that he might himself bear the punishments of those injuries 
 which had been done unto himself ; that he might not offer 
 only, but beseech his own prisoners to be pardoned and recon- 
 ciled again. In the creature he is a God above us, in the law 
 he is a God against us : only in the gospel he is Immanuel, 
 a God with us, a God like us, a God for us. 
 
 There is nothing doth declare God so much to be God as 
 his mercy in the gospel. He is invisible in himself, we can- 
 not see him but in his Son. He is unapproachable in him- 
 self, we cannot come unto him but by the Son. Therefore., 
 when he maketh himself known in his glory to Moses he 
 sendeth him not to the creation, nor to mount Sinai, but putteth 
 him into a rock, (being a resemblance of Christ,) and then 
 maketh a proclamation of the gospel unto him. Moses' 
 prayer was, " I beseech thee, show me thy glory," Exod. 
 xxxiii. 18,19. How doth the Lord grant this prayer? '' I 
 will make all my goodness to pass before thee," and then re- 
 vealeth himself unto him almost all by mercy. " The Lord, 
 the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long suffering, and 
 abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, 
 forgiving iniquity, and transgression, and sin," Exod. xxxiv.6, 
 7 ; to note unto us, that the glory of God is in nothing so much 
 revealed as in his goodness. " Who is a God like unto thee, 
 that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of 
 the remnant of his heritage?" Mic. vii. 18. 
 
 Besides, though the law be indeed from God, as from the 
 author of it, so that in that respect there may seem to be no 
 
THE GLORY OF THE GOSPEL. 125 
 
 difFerence of excellency between that and the gospel ; vet we 
 must observe, that by the remainders of creation, though God 
 should not have revealed his law again unto Moses in the 
 mount, much of the law, and by consequence of God himself, 
 might have been discovered by human industry, as we see by 
 notable examples of the philosophers and grave heathens. 
 But the gospel is such a mystery as was for ever hidden from 
 the reach and very suspicion of nature, and wholly of Divine 
 revelation : " Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have 
 entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath pre- 
 pared for them that love him."Rom. xvi. 25. The apostle speak- 
 eth of the mystery of the gospel, 1 Cor. ii. 9, noteth that it is 
 above the observation, or learning, or comprehension of nature, 
 so much as to suspect it ; nay the natural inquiry of the angels 
 themselves could never have discovered it ; even unto them it is 
 " made known by the church," Eph. iii. 9, 10 ; that is, if it had 
 not been for the church's sake that God would reveal so glo- 
 rious a mystery, the angels in heaven must have been for ever 
 ignorant of it. So extremely desperate was the fall of man, 
 that it required the infinite and unsearchable wisdom of 
 God himself to find out a remedy against it. If the Lord 
 had proceeded thus far in mercy towards man, and no further, 
 thou wouldst be a wretched creature, and I a righteous God ; 
 yea, so heavy is my wrath, and so woful thy condition, that I 
 cannot choose but take compassion upon thee ; and tlierefore I 
 will put the matter into thine own hands : requisite it is that 
 my pity towards thee should not swallow up the respects to 
 mine own justice and honour, that my mercy should be a 
 righteous and a wise mercy. Consult, therefore, together all 
 ye children of men, and invent away to reconcile my justice 
 and mercy to one another ; set me in a course to show you 
 mercy, without parting from mine own right, and denying the 
 righteous demands of mine offended justice, and I will pro- 
 mise you to observe it. I say, if the mercy of the Lord 
 had confined itself within these bounds, and referred tiie me- 
 thod of our redemption unto human discovery, we sliould for 
 ever have continued in a desperate state, everlastingly unable 
 to conceive, or so much as in fancy to frame unto ourselves a 
 way of escape. As the creatures before their being could 
 have no thought ©motion of their being brought out of that 
 nothing which they were before ; so fallen man could not 
 have the smallest conjecture or suspicion of any feasible way 
 to deliver himself out of that misery into which he fell. If all 
 
126 THE GLORY OF THE GOSPEL. 
 
 the learning in the world were gathered into one man, and 
 that man were to employ all his time and study to frame unto 
 himself the notions of a sixth, or seventh sense, which yet are 
 as expressly fashioned amongst those infinite ideas of God's 
 power and omniscience, as these five which are already cre- 
 ated, he would be as totally ignorant of the conclusion he sought 
 at last as he was at first. For all human knowledge of natural 
 things is wrought by a reflection upon those phantasms or 
 ideas, which are impressions made from those senses we 
 already use, and are indeed nothing else but a kind of notional 
 existence of things in the memory of men wrought by an ex- 
 ternal and sensible perception of that real existence which they 
 have in themselves. And yet in this case a sixth or a seventh 
 sense would agree in the nearest kind, and so have some kind 
 of relation with those we already enjoy. But a new covenant, 
 a new life, a new faith, a new salvation are things entirely 
 beyond the strain and sphere of nature. That two should 
 become one, and yet remain two still, as God and man do 
 in one Christ ; that He who maketh should be one with the 
 thing which himself hath made ; that He v/ho is above all 
 should humble himself ; that He who filleth all should empty 
 himself ; that He w^ho blesseth all should be himself a curse ; 
 that He who ruleth all should be himself a servant ; that He 
 who was the Prince of life, and by whom all things in the 
 world do consist, should himself be dissolved and die ; that 
 mercy and justice should meet together, and kiss each other ; 
 that the debt should be paid, and yet pardoned ; that the 
 fault should be punished, and yet remitted ; that death, like 
 Samson's lion, should have life and sweetness in it, and be 
 used as an instrument to destroy itself; these and the like 
 evangelical truths are mysteries which surpass the reach of all 
 the princes of learning in the world. It is to be believed by a 
 spiritual light, which was not so much as possible to a human 
 reason. We may observe that every Person in the Trinity set- 
 teth himself to teach the mystery of the gospel. The Father 
 reveaieth it unto men ; " Flesh and blood hath not revealed it 
 unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven," Matt. xvi. 17. 
 " It is written in the prophets, And they shall be all taught of 
 God. Every man therefore that hath heard, and hath learn- 
 ed of the Father, cometh unto me," John vi. 43. The Son 
 likewise teacheth it unto men, therefore he is called the An- 
 gel of God's covenant and counsel ; that is, the revealer thereof, 
 because unto the world he made known that deep project of 
 
THE GLORY OF THE GOSPEL. 127 
 
 his Father's counsel touching the restoring of mankind. " No 
 man hath seen God at any time ; the only begotten Son 
 which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him," 
 Johni. 18. He only it is who openeth the bosom of his Fa- 
 ther; that is, whorevealeth the secret and mysterious counsels, 
 and the tender and compassionate affections (for the bosom is 
 the seat of secrets of love) of his Father unto the world. And 
 therefore he is said to be a " Teacher come from God," John 
 iii. 2 ; and to be the Lord which speaketh from heaven in the 
 ministry of his gospel, Heb. xii. 25 ; and the doctrine which 
 he teacheth is called a " heavenly doctrine," John iii. 12, and a 
 " heavenly calling," Heb. iii. 1, and a " high calling," Phil. iii. 
 14 ; and oft by the apostle to Hebrews, " heavenly things," Heb. 
 viii. 5, 9, 23 ; to note that they are not of a natural or earthly 
 condition, and therefore not within the comprehension of an 
 earthly understanding. It is a "wisdom that is from above," 
 James iii. 17. The Holy Ghost likewise is a revealer of the gos- 
 pel unto the faithful. He was sent that he might convince the 
 world not only of sin, but of righteousness and judgment too, 
 which are evangelical things, John xvi. 8 — 11. The Spirit 
 searcheth all things, the deep things of God, 1 Cor. ii. 10 — 
 12; that is, his unsearchable love, wisdom, and counsel in the 
 gospel. Therefore the gospel is called " the law of the Spirit 
 of life," Rom. viii. 2; and the " ministration of the Spirit," 
 2 Cor. iii. 8 ; and the " revelation of the Spirit," Eph. i. 
 17 ; and " no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the 
 Holy Ghost," 1 Cor. xii. 3 ; that is, though men may out of 
 external conformity to the discipline and profession under 
 which they live, with their mouths acknowledge him to be the 
 Lord ; yet their hearts will never tremble, nor willingly sub- 
 mit themselves to his obedience ; their conscience will never 
 set its seal to the spiritual power of Christ over the tlioughts, 
 desires, and secrets of the soul, but by the over-ruling direction 
 of the Holy Ghost. Nature taught the pharisees to call 
 him Beelzebub, and Samaritan, Matt. xii. 24 ; John viii. 48 ; 
 but it is the Spirit only which teacheth men to acknowledge 
 him a Lord. Christ is not the power nor the wisdom of God 
 to any, but to those who are called, 1 Cor. i. 24 ; that is, to 
 those unto whose consciences the Spirit witnesseth the right- 
 eousness which is to be found in him. So then tlie publica- 
 tion of the gospel belongeth unto men, but the etfectual 
 teaching and revelation thereof unto the soul, is the joint work 
 of the Holy Trinity, opening the heart to attend, and persuad- 
 
128 THE GLORY OF THE GOSPEL. 
 
 ing the heart to believe the gospel, as a thing worthy of all 
 acceptation. Thus the gospel is a glorious thing in regard of 
 the original and Author of it. 
 
 From whence we may infer, that whatever men think of the 
 ministry and dispensation of the word, yet undoubtedly the 
 neglect and scorn which are shown to it, is done unto Christ him- 
 self, and that in his glory : he that receiveth not his word, 
 rejecteth his person, John xii. 48, and the sin of a man 
 against the words which we speak in the name and authority 
 of Christ, and in the dispensation of that office wherewith he 
 hath entrusted us, is the same with the sins of those men who 
 despised him in his own person. You will say, Christ is in 
 heaven ; how can any injuries of ours reach unto him ? Surely 
 though he be in heaven, (which is now the court of his royal 
 residence,) yet he hath to do upon earth, as one of the chief 
 territories of his dominion, and in the ministry of his word 
 he speaketh from heaven still. He it was who by his am- 
 bassador St. Paul came and preached peace to the Ephesians, 
 who were afar off. His Spirit it was who in the prophets 
 did testify of his sufferings and glory, Eph. ii. 17 ; 1 Pet. 
 i. 11. He it was who gave manifest proof of his own power, 
 speaking in his apostles. He then who refuseth to obey 
 the words of a minister in the execution of his office, 
 when he forewarneth him of the wrath to come, and 
 doth not discern the Lord's voice therein, but in despite of 
 this ministerial citation unto the tribunal of Christ, will 
 still persist in the way of his own heart, and as he hath 
 been, soresolveth to continue, a swearing, blasphemous, luxu- 
 rious, proud, revengeful, and riotous person, thinking it base- 
 ness to mourn for sin, and unnecessary strictness to humble 
 himself to walk with God ; and yet because all men else do 
 so, will profess his faith in the Lord Jesus ; that man is a 
 notorious liar ; yea, (as the apostle speaketh,) he maketh God 
 a liar too, 1 John v. 10, in not believing the record which he 
 giveth of his Son, which is that he should wash away the filth, 
 and purge out the blood of his people with a spirit of judg- 
 ment, and a spirit of burning, Isa. iv. 4 : that he should " sit 
 as a refiner and purifier of silver, purging the sons of Levi, 
 that they might offer unto the Lord an ottering in righteous- 
 ness," Mai. ]ii. 3. He walketh contrary to that covenant of 
 mercy which he professeth to lay hold on : for this is one of 
 the great promises of the covenant, " I will sprinkle clean 
 water upon you, and you shall be clean ; from all your hlthiness, 
 
THE GLORY OF THE GOSPEL. 129 
 
 and fiom all your idols will I cleanse you. I will put my Spirit 
 within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes," Ezek. xxxvi. 
 25, 27 . He vvalketh contrary to the quality of that fear of God, 
 which yet he professeth to feel as well as others : for the fear 
 of the Lord is a clean things Psa. xix. 9. He vvalketh con- 
 trary to the virtue of that blood, with which notwithstanding 
 he professeth to be sprinkled : for the blood of Christ cleans- 
 eth not only the lives, but the very consciences of men from 
 dead works, Heb. ix. 14 ; that is, makes the>n so inwardly 
 labour for purity of heart, as that they may not be conscious 
 to themselves of any, though the most secret allowed sin. He 
 walketh contrary to the fruitfulness of that grace which alone 
 he professeth to boast in : for the Spirit of grace which is 
 poured from on high, maketh the very wilderness a fruitful 
 field, Isa. xxxii. 15. He walketh contrary to the properties 
 of that faith, by which alone he hopeth to be saved : for true 
 faith purifieth the heart ; and therefore a pure heart and a 
 good conscience are the inseparable companions of an un- 
 feigned faith. And therefore whatever verbal and ceremoni- 
 ous homage he may tender unto Christ, yet in good earnest 
 he is ashamed of him, and dares not prefer the yoke of Christ 
 before the lusts of the world, or the reproaches of Christ be- 
 fore the treasures of the world. 
 
 Why should it be treason to kill a judge in his ministry on 
 the bench? or esteemed an injury to the state, to do any in- 
 dignity to the ambassador of a great prince ? but because in 
 such relations they are persons public and representative. 
 Surely, the case is the same between Christ and his ministers in 
 their holy function. And, therefore, we find the expressions pro- 
 miscuous: sometimes, "the gospel of Christ," and sometimes, 
 " my gospel ;" sometimes, "the preaching of Jesus Christ ;" and 
 sometimes, " my preaching ;" in the virtue of which co-opera- 
 tion and co-partnership with Christ and with God, as he sav- 
 eth, so we save ; as he forgiveth sins, so we forgive them ; as 
 he judgeth wicked men, so we judge them; as lie bescechcth, 
 so we also beseech, saith the apostle, that you be reconciled, 
 and receive not the grace of God in vain, 2 Cor. v. 20 ; 
 vi. 1. We, by his grace, and he, by our ministry. He there- 
 fore that despiseth any conviction out of the book of God, 
 (and he that obeyeth not, doth despise, for the Lord calleth 
 disobedience rebellion, stubbornness, and a rejecting of his 
 word, 1 Sara. xv. 22, 23 ;) he that persisteth in any known 
 sin, or in the constant omission of any evident duty, figliteth 
 o 5 
 
130 THE GLORY OF THE GOSPEL. 
 
 against Christ himself, throweth away his own mercy, stoppeth 
 his ears at the entreaties of the Lord, and committeth a 
 sin directly against heaven. And if he so persist, God will 
 make him know that there is flaming fire prepared for those 
 that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 Thess. i. 8. 
 Therefore, whensoever we come unto the word read or 
 preached, we should come with an expectation to hear Christ 
 himself speaking from heaven unto us, and bring such affec- 
 tions of submission and obedience as becometh his presence. 
 " Let him that hath an ear hear what the Spirit saith unto 
 the churches. I will hear what God the Lord will speak : 
 for he will speak peace unto his people," Rev. ii. 7 ; Psa. 
 Ixxxv. 8. Christ's sheep discern his voice in the dispensation 
 of the gospel, and will not know the voice of strangers, John 
 X. 4, 5. And this was the honour of the Thessalonians and 
 the men of Berea, that in the preaching of the word they set 
 themselves as in God's presence, expecting it in his authority, 
 and receiving it in his name, Acts xvii. 11 ; 1 Thess. ii. 13. 
 Dareth any man to rush with a naked weapon into the pre- 
 sence of his prince, and with scorn to throw back his own 
 personal commands into his face again ? And shall we dare to 
 come armed with high thoughts, and proud reasonings, and 
 stubborn resolutions against the majesty of the Lord himself 
 who speaketh from heaven unto us ? " Receive with meek- 
 ness,'' saith the apostle, " the engrafted word, which is ahle 
 to save your souls," Jam. i. 21. The word doth not mingle, 
 nor incorporate, and, by consequence, doth not change nor 
 save the soul, but when it is received with meekness ; that is, 
 when a man cometh with a resolution to lay down his weapons, 
 to fall down on his face, and give glory to God ; he that is 
 swift to wrath, that is, to set up stout and fretful affections 
 against the purity and power of the word, to snuff against it, 
 and to fall backward like pettish children which will not be 
 led, will be very slow to hear or to obey it ; " for the wrath 
 of man worketh not the righteousness of God,'' Jam. i. 19, 20, 
 A proud hearer will be an unprofitable liver. Ever therefore 
 come unto the word with this conclusion, It may be this day 
 will God strike me in my master vein ; I am an usual pro- 
 faner of his glorious name ; a name which I should fear for 
 the greatness, and love for the goodness, and adore for the 
 holiness of it ; he will peradventure lay close to my conscience 
 that guilt which himself hath declared to be in this great sin, 
 that whatsoever is more then yea and nay is sin unto me, and 
 
THE GLORY OF THE GOSPEL. 131 
 
 whatsoever Is sin is hell to my soul. I am a vain person, a 
 companion of loose and riotous men ; it may be the Lord 
 will urge upon my conscience the charge of his own word, 
 not to company with fornicators, to have no fellowship 
 with the unfruitful works of darkness, not to follow a multi- 
 tude to do evil, and that though hand join in hand, yet sin 
 shall not go unpunished. I am unprofitable, loose and rot- 
 ten in my discourse, and he will ply me with his own au- 
 thority, that for every idle word I must render an account. I 
 am full of oppression and unjust gain, and the Lord will now 
 urge the instructions of Nehemiah, and the restitution of 
 Zaccheus upon me, Neh. v. 11, 12; Luke xix. 8. In 
 these, or any other the like cases, if a man can come with St. 
 Paul's temper of heart, not to consult with flesh and blood, 
 but, " Lord, what wilt thou have me to do ? " Acts ix. 6 ; or 
 with the answer of Samuel, " Speak, Lord, for thy servant 
 heareth," 1 Sam. iii. 10 ; or with the resolution of Cornelius, 
 " I am here present before God to hear all things that shall be 
 commanded of God,'' Acts x. 33. I am come with a purpose 
 of heart to cleave unto thy holy will in all things. Here I am in 
 my sins, strike where thou wilt, cut off which of mine earthly 
 members thou wilt, I will not harm it, I will not extenuate it, I 
 will not dispute with thee, I will not rebel against thee, I will 
 second thee in it, I will praise thee for it : — this is to give God 
 the glory of his own gospel. It is not to part from a little money 
 towards the maintenance of the word, or to vouchsafe a little 
 countenance to the dispensers of it, (and yet alas, how few 
 are there who repay unto the ministers of the gospel that 
 double honour which God, and not they, hath given unto 
 them !) but to part from our lusts, and to suffer our old man 
 to be crucified, which giveth honour to the word. If a man 
 had thousands of rams, and ten thousand rivers of oil, and 
 would be content to part from them all for God's worship : 
 if a man had children enough, and in a famine of the word, 
 would buy every sermon which he heareth with the sacrifice 
 of a son : yet all this would not give glory enough to the or- 
 dinance of God, Micah vi. 6, 10. Men naturally love their 
 lusts, the issue of their evil hearts, better then their lands or 
 the children of their body. If Herod's son stand m the way 
 of his ambitious security, it were better to be his hog than his 
 child. The loss of catde, and fruits, and water, and light, 
 and the first-born of all the land, was not enough to make 
 Pharaoh let go his sin, he will once more rush into the midst 
 
132 THE GLORY OF THE GOSPEL. 
 
 of a wonderful deliverance of Israel, and venture his own and 
 his people's lives, for but the bondage of his enemies, and 
 the satisfaction of his lust. To do justly then, to love mercy, 
 and to walk humbly before God, to acknowledge his name in 
 the voice of the minister, and to put away the treasures of 
 wickedness out of our hands, this only is to give God the 
 glory which is due unto his word. 
 
 2. The gospel is glorious in the promulgation and publish- 
 ing of it unto the world. And this may appear whether we 
 consider the initial promulgation in Christ's own personal 
 preaching ; or the plenary revelation thereof in the sending of 
 the Holy Ghost to those selected vessels who w^ere to carry 
 abroad this treasure unto all the world. For the former we 
 may note, that there was a resemblance of state and glory ob- 
 served in the preaching of Christ. A forerunner sent to pre- 
 pare his way, and to bear his sword before him, as a herald to 
 proclaim his approach, and then at last is revealed the glory of 
 the Lord, Mal.iii, 1. And thus we may observe, how he sent 
 his harbingers before his face into every city and place whi- 
 ther he himself would come, Luke x. 1 ; that so men might 
 prepare themselves, and lift up their everlasting gates that 
 the Prince of glory should enter in. When one poor ordi- 
 nary man intendeth to visit another, there is no state nor dis- 
 tance, no ceremonies nor solemnities observed ; but when a 
 prince will communicate himself unto any place, there is 
 a publication, and officers sent abroad to give notice thereof, 
 that meet entertainments may be provided. So doth Christ 
 deal with men ; he knoweth how unprepared we are to give 
 him a welcome, how foul our hearts, how barren our con- 
 sciences, and therefore he sendeth his officers before his face 
 with his own provision, his graces of humiliation, repentance, 
 desire, love, hope, joy, hungering and thirsting after his ap- 
 pearance ; and then when he is esteemed worthy of all accep- 
 tation, he cometh himself. 
 
 Look upon the more consummate publication of the gos- 
 pel, (for Christ in his own personal preaching is said but to 
 have begun to teach,) and we shall see that as princes in the 
 time of their solemn inauguration do some special acts of 
 magnificence and honour, open prisons, proclaim pardons, 
 create nobles, stamp coin, fill conduits with wine, distribute 
 donatives and congiaries to the people : so Christ, to testify 
 the glory of his gospel, did reserve the full publication there- 
 of unto the day of his installation, and solemn readmission 
 
THE GLORY OF THE GOSPEL. 133 
 
 Into his Father's glory again. When he ascended up on high, 
 he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men, namelv, 
 the Holy Ghost, who is called the gift of God, Acts ii. 38 ; 
 viii. 20; John iv. 10; and in the plural number gifts : as else- 
 where he is called " seven spirits," Rev. i. 4 ; to note, the plenty 
 and variety of graces which are by him shed abroad upon the 
 church. Wisdom, and faith, and knowledge, and healings, and 
 prophecy, and discerning, and miracles, and tongues, " all 
 these worketh that one and the self-same Spirit, dividing to 
 every man severally as he will," 1 Cor. xii. 8, 11. And these 
 gifts were all shed abroad for evangelical purposes, " for the per- 
 fecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, and for the 
 edifying of the body of Christ." And this Spirit, St. Peter 
 telleth us, is " a Spirit of glory, " 1 Pet. iv. 14; and there- 
 fore, that gospel, for the more plentiful promulgation whereof 
 he was shed abroad, must needs be a gospel of glory too. 
 
 And this further appears, because in this more solemn publi- 
 cation of the gospel, there was much more abundance of glorious 
 light and grace shed abroad into the world. The Sun of 
 righteousness, in his state of humiliation, was much eclipsed 
 with the similitude of sinful flesh, the communion of our 
 common infirmities, the poverty of a low condition, the grief 
 and vexation of the sins of men, the overshadowing of his 
 Divine nature, the form and entertainment of a servant, the 
 burden of the guilt of sin, the burden of the law of God, the 
 ignominy of a base death, the agony of a cursed death. But 
 when he ascended up on high, like the sun in its glory, he 
 then dispelled all these mists, and now sendeth forth those 
 glorious beams of his gospel and Spirit, which are the two 
 wings, by which he cometh unto the churches, and under 
 which the healing and salvation of the world are treasured. 
 John Baptist was the last and greatest of all the prophets who 
 foretold of Christ ; a greater had not been born of women ; and 
 yet he was less than the least in the kingdom of heaven ; that 
 IS, than the least of those upon whom the promise of the 
 Spirit was shed abroad, for the more glorious manifestation of 
 the kingdom of his gospel. All the prophets and the law 
 prophesied until John; but at the coming of Christ they 
 seemed to be taken away, not by way of abrogation and ex- 
 tinguishment, as the ceremonies, but by way of excess and 
 excellency. " As the stars disappear at the rising of the sun," 
 as the orator speaks : so saith the apostle, " Even that which 
 was made glorious, had no glory in this respect, by reaso" ' " 
 
134 THE GLORY OF THE GOSPEL. 
 
 the glory that excelleth," 2 Cor. iii. 10. Therefore, the full 
 revelation of the gospel is called an effusion of the Spirit, Tit. 
 iii. 6 ; not in dew, but in showers of rain, which multiply into 
 rivers of living water, (for the rain of the Spirit fioweth from 
 heaven as from a spring,) and into wells of salvation, and into 
 a sea of knowledge. Which attributes note unto us two 
 things : the abundance of spiritual grace and knowledge by 
 the gospel, it should be a river ; and the growth and increase 
 thereof, it should be living water, multiplying and swelling 
 up like the waters of the sanctuary, till it came to a bottom- 
 less and unmeasurable sea of eternal life. And to touch that 
 which was before spoken of, very glorious are the virtues of 
 the Spirit in the gospel, intimated in this similitude of living 
 water, Isa. xxxiii. 14; John iv. 10; Ezek. xlvii. 12; Zech. 
 xii. 10. To quench the wrath of God, that otherwise con- 
 suming and unextinguishable fury, which devoured the adver- 
 saries with everlasting burnings. To satisfy those desires of 
 the thirsty soul which itself begetteth ; for the Spirit is both 
 for medicine and for meat : for medicine, to cure the dull and 
 averse appetites of the soul ; and for meat, to satisfy them. 
 The Spirit is both a Spirit of supplication, and a Spirit of 
 grace, or satisfaction : a Spirit of supplication, directing us to 
 pray ; and a Spirit of grace, supplying those requests, and sa- 
 tisfying those desires which himself did dictate. To cleanse, 
 to purify, to mollify, to take away the barrenness of our natural 
 hearts. To overflow and communicate itself to others. To 
 withstand and subdue every obstacle that is set up against it. 
 To continue and to multiply to the end, Ezek. xxxvi. 25 ; 
 Isa. XXXV. 6, 7; Ezek.xi. 19; Mai. iii. 16; Gal. vi. 1, 2; 
 V. 17 ; Phil. i. 27. 
 
 By this then we learn the way how to abound in grace and 
 and how to be transformed into the image of Christ, 
 'he beam and light of the sun is the medium of the heat and 
 influence of the sun ; so the light of the gospel of Christ is 
 that which conveyeth the virtue and gracious working of the 
 Spirit upon the soul. And, therefore, we are to seek those va- 
 rieties of grace, which are for meat to satisfy the desires, and 
 for medicine to cure the bruises of the soul, only upon the 
 banks of the waters of the sanctuary ; that is, in the knowledge 
 ofthe word of truth, which is the gospel of salvation. The 
 more of this glorious light a man hath, the more proportion of 
 all other graces will he have too. And, therefore, the apostle 
 puts the growth of these two together, as contributing a 
 
THE GLORY OF THE GOSPEL. 135 
 
 mutual succour unto one another ; " Grow in grace, and in the 
 knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ," 2 Pet. iii. 
 18. Your grace will enlarge your desires of knowledge, and 
 your knowledge will multiply your degrees of grace. And 
 St. Paul makes the knowledge of the will of God in wisdom, 
 and after a spiritual manner, to be the ground of fruitf alness in 
 every good work, and that again an inducement to increase in 
 knowledge. Col. i. 9, 10 ; as in the twisting together of two 
 cords into one rope, they are by art so ordered, that either 
 shall bind and hold in the other. As in the heavens the in- 
 ferior orbs have the measure and proportion of their general 
 motion from the supreme, so in the motions of grace in the 
 soul, the proportion of all the rest ariseth from the measure of 
 our spiritual and saving light. The more distinctly and 
 thoroughly the spirit of a man's mind is convinced of the ne- 
 cessity, beauty, and gloriousness of heavenly things, the more 
 strong impressions thereof will be made upon all subordinate 
 faculties ; for we move towards nothing without preceding ap- 
 prehensions of its goodness, which apprehensions, as they 
 more seriously penetrate into the true and intimate worth of 
 that thing, so are the motions of the soul thereunto propor- 
 tionably strengthened. Thus the apostle telleth us, that the 
 excellency of the knowledge of Christ was that which made 
 him so earnest to win him ; the knowledge of the power of his re- 
 surrection, and fellowship of his sufferings was that which made 
 him reach forth, and press forward unto the mark and price of 
 that high calling which was before him, Phil. iii. 8, 10, 14. 
 3. The glory of the gospel of Christ, with his Spirit, may 
 be considered in regard of the matters which are therein con- 
 tained, namely the glory, the excellency, the treasure of God 
 himself. " We all," saith the apostle, " with open face be- 
 hold as in a glass" (that is, in the spiritual ministration of 
 the gospel, having the veil of carnal stupidity taken away by 
 the Spirit) "the glory of the Lord," 2 Cor. iii. 18. What 
 glory do we here behold, but that which a glass is able to re- 
 present ? Now, nothing can be seen in a glass but the image 
 of that thing which sheddeth forth its species thereupon ; and 
 therefore he immediately addeth, " We are changed into the 
 same image from glory to glory." And he elsewhere putteth 
 these two together, " Man is the image and the glory of God, " 
 1 Cor. xi. 7 ; for nothing can have any thing of God in it, 
 any resemblance or form of him, but so far it must needs be 
 glorious. But how do we in the gospel see the image of 
 
136 THE GLORY OF THE GOSPEL. 
 
 God, who is invisible ? The apostle expresseth that else- 
 where, " God who commanded the light to shine out of dark- 
 ness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the know- 
 ledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ," 2 Cor. 
 iv. 4 — 6. Christ is the image and express character of his 
 Father's glory, as the impression in the wax is of the form 
 and fashion of the seal ; there is no excellency in God which 
 is not completely, adequately, and distinctly in Christ ; so 
 that in that glass wherein we may see him, we may likewise 
 see the glory of the Father. Now, the gospel is the face of 
 Jesus Christ ; that which as lively setteth forth his grace and 
 Spirit to the soul, as if he were present in the flesh amongst 
 us. Suppose that a glass could retain a permanent and un- 
 vanishing species of a man's face within it, though he himself 
 were absent, might we not truly say this glass is the face of 
 that man, whose image it so constantly retaineth ? So, inas- 
 much as Christ is most exactly represented in his gospel, it is 
 therefore justly by the apostle called the face of Jesus Christ ; 
 and, therefore, the glass wherein we see the image and glory of 
 God. As it is the same light which shineth from the sun upon 
 a glass, and from a glass upon a wall, so it is the same glory 
 which shineth from the Father upon the Son, and from the 
 Son upon the gospel ; so that, in the gospel, we see the un- 
 searchable treasures of God, because his treasures are in his 
 Son: therefore that which is usually called preaching the 
 gospel, Rom. xv. 19; 1 Cor. xv. 1, is in other places called 
 preaching the kingdom, and the riches of Christ, Acts xx. 25 ; 
 Eph. iii. 8, to note, the glory of those things which are in 
 the gospel revealed unto the church. 
 
 It containeth the glory of God's wisdom, and that wisdom is a 
 manifold and various wisdom, as the apostle speaketh, who there- 
 fore calleth Christ and his gospel by the name of wisdom : "We 
 preach Christ crucified ; unto them which are called the power of 
 God, and the wisdom of God," and, '* We speak wisdom amongst 
 them that are perfect," Eph. iii. 10 ; 1 Cor. i. 24 ; ii. 6, 7 : 
 wisdom to reconcile his own attributes of mercy and truth, 
 righteousness and peace, which by the fall of man seemed to 
 be at variance among themselves ; wisdom in reconciling the 
 world of obstinate and rebellious enemies unto himself ; wis- 
 dom in sanctifying the whole creation by the blood of the cross, 
 and repairing those ruins which the sin of man had caused; 
 wisdom in incorporating Christ and his church, things in 
 their own distinct natures as unapt for mixture as fire and 
 
THE GLORY OF THE GOSPEL. 137 
 
 water in their remotest degrees ; wisdom in uniting the jew.s 
 and gentiles, and reducing their former jealousies and disafFec- 
 tions into an intimate fellowship in the same common mys- 
 teries : in one word, wisdom above the admiration of the 
 blessed angels, in finding out a way to give greater satisfaction 
 to his offended justice, by showing mercy and saving sinners, 
 than he could ever have received by either the confusion or 
 annihilation of them. It containeth the glory of God's good- 
 ness and mercy, of that goodwill towards men, which brought 
 glory to God, and to the earth peace ; for the gospel is, as it 
 were, a love-token or commendatory epistle of the Lord unto 
 his church. God left not himself without witnesses of his 
 care, and evidences of some love, even to those whom he suf- 
 fered to walk in their own ways without any knowledge of his 
 gospel. He did them good ; he gave them rain from heaven and 
 fruitful seasons ; so even they had experience of some of his 
 goodness, as the goodness of his providence ; for he is the Saviour 
 of all men ; but the gospel containeth all God's goodness, as 
 a heap and miscellany of universal mercy. " I will make all 
 my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name 
 of the Lord before thee ; and will be gracious to whom I will 
 be gracious, and I will show mercy on whom I will show 
 mercy." God's special and gracious mercy, the mercy of his 
 promises in Christ, doth convey unto the soul an interest in 
 all his-goodness ; nay, it maketh all things good unto us, so 
 that we may call them ours, as gifts and legacies from Christ. 
 He hath given to us all things that pertain to life and godli- 
 ness, 2 Pet. i. 3, 4, the world, and life, and death, and things 
 present, and things to come : " all are yours,'' saith the apos- 
 tle, 1 Cor. iii. 22. Death itself and persecutions are amongst 
 the legacies of Christ unto the church, and a portion of all 
 that goodness with which in the gospel she is endowed. It 
 contains the glory of God's power and strength ; for it is the 
 " power of God unto salvation," as hath been declared. It 
 containeth the glory of God's grace. The grace of his favour 
 towards us, and the grace of his Spirit in us. " The law was 
 given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ," 
 John i. 17 ; that is, favour, instead of God's fury ; and strength, 
 instead of man's infirmity ; for because man was unable to ful- 
 fil the law, therefore the law came with wrath and curses against 
 man ; but in the gospel of Christ there is abundance, even a 
 whole kingdom of grace ; (the apostle saith, that by Jesus 
 Christ grace reigned, Rom. v. 21 ;) there is grace to remove 
 
138 THE GLORY OF THE GOSPEL. 
 
 the curse of the law, by God's favour towards us ; (so that 
 on all sides the law is weak, unable, by reason of man's sin, 
 to save ; and unable, by reason of God's favour, to condemn :) 
 and there is grace to remove the weakness of man by God's 
 Spirit in us ; for though our own spirit lusts unto envy, or 
 sets itself proudly against the law of God, yet " he giveth 
 more grace ;' that is, strength enough to overcome the counter- 
 lustings of the flesh against his will, and to enable us in sin- 
 cerity and evangelical perfection to fulfil the commands of 
 the law. Lastly ; it containeth, in some sort, the glory of 
 God's heavenly kingdom, in that therein are let in the glimpses 
 and first-fruits, the seals and assurances thereof unto the soul 
 by the promises, testimonies, and comforts of the Spirit. 
 And therefore it is frequently called the gospel of the king- 
 dom, and the mysteries of the kingdom of God, Mark i. 14 ; 
 Luke viii. 10 ; namely, that kingdom which beginneth here, 
 but shall never end. As if a man born in Ireland be after- 
 ward transplanted into England, though he change his coun- 
 try, he doth not change his king, or his law, but is still under 
 the same government : so when a christian is translated from 
 earth to heaven, he is still in the same kingdom : in heaven it is the 
 kingdomi of glory ; (mended much by the different excellency of 
 the place and preferment of the person ;) inearth it is the same 
 kingdom, though in a less pleasant and comfortable climate, 
 the kingdom of the gospel. These and many other the like 
 things are the glorious matters which the gospel containeth. 
 
 Here then we see how and wherein we are to look upon 
 God, so that we may receive his glory, and be comforted 
 by it ; we must not look upon him in his own immediate 
 brightness and essence, nor by our impertinent curiosities pry 
 into the secrets of his unrevealed glory, for he is a consuming 
 jfire, an invisible and unapproachable light. We may see his 
 back-parts in the proclaiming of his mercy ; and we may see 
 the horns or bright beams of his hands, in the publishing of 
 his law ; but yet all this was under a cloud, or under the 
 hiding of his power : his face no man can see and live. We 
 must not look upon him only in ourselves. Though we 
 might at first have seen him in our own nature, for we were 
 created after his image in righteousness and true holiness ; yet 
 now that image is utterly obliterated, and we have by nature 
 the image only of Satan and the old Adam in us. We must 
 not look upon him only in mount Sinai, in his law, lest the fire 
 devour us, and the dart strike us through ; we can find 
 
THE GLORY OF THE GOSPEL. 139 
 
 nothing of him there but rigour, inexorableness, wrath, and 
 vengeance. But we must acquaint ourselves with him in his 
 Son, we must know him and whom he hath sent together. 
 There is no fellowship with the Father, except it be with the 
 Son too, John xvii. 3 ; 1 John i. 3. We may have the know- 
 ledge of his hand, that is, of his works and of his punishments, 
 without Christ ; but we cannot have the knowledge of his 
 bosom, that is of his counsels and of his compassions ; nor 
 the knowledge of his image, that is of his hoHness, grace and 
 righteousness ; nor the knowledge of his presence, that is of 
 his comforts here and his glory hereafter, but only in and by 
 Christ. We may know God in the world, for in the creation 
 that which may be known of him is manifest ; namely, his 
 eternal power and Godhead : but this is a barren and fruit- 
 less knowledge, which will not keep down unrighteousness ; 
 for the wise men of the world when they knew God, they glori- 
 fied him not as God, but became vain in their imaginations, 
 and held that truth of him which was in the creation revealed, in 
 unrighteousness. We may know him in his law too, and that in 
 exceeding great glory when " God came from Teman, and the 
 Holy One from mount Paran" (whereabout the law was the se- 
 cond time repeated by Moses) " his glory covered the heavens, 
 and the earth was full of his praise. And his brightness was as 
 the light," Habak. iii. 3, 4. But this is a killing knowledge, 
 a knowledge which makes us fly from God, and hide ourselves 
 out of his presence, and fight against him as our sorest ene- 
 my, and come short of his glory ; therefore the law is called 
 " a fiery law," or a fire of law ; to show not only the original 
 thereof, for it was spoken out of the midst of the fire, Deut. 
 xxxiii. 2 ; v. 22, but the nature and operation of it too, 
 which of itself is to heap fire and curses upon the soul ; and 
 therefore it is called " the ministration of death," 2 Cor. lii. 
 7. But now, to know the glory of God in the face of Jesus 
 Christ, is both a fruitful and a comfortable knowledge : we know 
 the pattern we must walk by, we know the life we must live by, 
 we know the treasure we must be supplied by, we know 
 whom we have beUeved, we know whom we may be bold with 
 in all straits and distresses ; we know God in Christ full of love, 
 full of compassion, full of cars to hear us, full of eyes to 
 watch over us, full of hands to fight for us, full of tongues to 
 commune with us, full of power to preserve us, f ul of grace to 
 transform us, full of fidelity to keep covenant with us, fu of 
 wisdom to conduct us, full of redemption to save us, lull ol 
 
140 THE GLORY OF THE GOSPEL. 
 
 glory to reward us. Let us, therefore, put ourselves into this 
 rock, that God's goodness may pass before us, that he may 
 communicate the mysteries of his kingdom and of his glory 
 unto us, that by him our persons may be accepted, our prayers 
 admitted, our services regarded, our acquaintance and fellow- 
 ship with the Lord increased by that blessed Spirit which is 
 from them both shed abroad in the gospel upon us. 
 
 4. Now lastly, the gospel of Christ is glorious in those 
 ends, effects, or purposes for which it serveth : and in this 
 respect principally doth the apostle so often magnify the glory 
 of the gospel above the law. The law was a glorious minis- 
 try, as appears by the thunderings and lightnings, the shin- 
 ing of Moses' face, and trembling at God's presence, the 
 service of the angels, and sound of the trumpet, the ascending 
 of the smoke, and the quaking of the mountain ; but yet still 
 the glory of the gospel was far more excellent, a better cove- 
 nant, a more excellent ministry, Heb. viii. 6. The law had 
 weakness and unprofitableness in it, (both terms of diminution 
 from the glory thereof,) and therefore it " could make nothing 
 perfect," Heb. vii. 18, 19 ; but that which the law could not 
 do, inasmuch as it was weak through the flesh, " the law of 
 the spirit of life in Christ Jesus" (which is a periphrasis of 
 the gospel, as appeareth, 2 Cor. iii. 6,) did do for us, namely, 
 make us free from the law of sin and death, Rom. viii. 2. So 
 then the law was glorious, but the gospel in many respects 
 did excel in glory, 2 Cor. iii. 10. 
 
 To take a more particular view of the spiritual glory of the 
 gospel of Christ in those excellent ends and purposes for which 
 it serveth ; 
 
 (1.) It is full of light, to inform, to comfort, to guide 
 those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death, into 
 the way of peace. Light was the first of all the creatures 
 which were made, and the apostle magnifieth it for a glorious 
 thing in those other luminaries which were after created, 
 1 Cor. XV. 41. How much more glorious was the light of the 
 gospel ! The apostle calleth it " a marvellous light," 1 Pet. 
 ii. 9 ; and therefore the kingdom of the gospel is expressed 
 by light and glory together, as terms of a promiscuous signi' 
 fication, Isa. Ix. 1 — 3. Of all other learning, the knowledge 
 of the gospel doth infinitely excel in worth, both in regard of 
 the object thereof, which is God manifested in the flesh, and 
 in regard of the end thereof, which is flesh reconciled, and 
 brought unto God. A knowledge which passeth knowledge. 
 
THE GLORY OF THE GOSPEL. 141 
 
 a knowledge which bringeth fuhiess with it, even all the fulness 
 of God ; a knowledge so excellent, that all other human excel- 
 lences are but dross in comparison of it. What angel in hea- 
 ven would trouble himself to busy his noble thoughts (which 
 have the glorious presence of God and the joys of heaven to 
 fill them) with metaphysical, or mathematical, or philological 
 contemplations, which yet are the highest delicacies that 
 human reason doth fasten on to delight in ? And yet we find 
 the angels in heaven, with much greediness of speculation, 
 stoop down, and, as it were, turn away their eyes from that in- 
 expressible glory which is before them in heaven, to gaze upon 
 the wonderful light and bottomless mysteries of the gos- 
 pel of Christ. In all other learning a devil in hell (the most 
 cursed of all creatures) doth wonderfully surpass the greatest 
 proficients amongst men ; but in the learning of the gospel, 
 and in the spiritual revelations and evidences of the benefits of 
 Christ to the soul from thence, there is a knowledge which 
 surpasseth the comprehension of any angel of darkness ; for 
 it is the Spirit of God only which knoweth the things of God. 
 Though, therefore, it were to the Jews an offence, as contrary 
 to the honour of their law, and to the Greeks foolishness, as 
 contrary to the pride of their reason, yet to those that were 
 perfect it was an hidden and mysterious wisdom, able to con- 
 vince the gainsayers, to convert sinners, to comfort mourners, 
 to give wisdom to the simple, and to guide a man in all his 
 ways with spiritual prudence ; for, whatever the prejudice of 
 the world may be, there is no man a wiser man, nor more able 
 to bring about those ends which his heart is justly set upon, 
 than he who, being acquainted with God in Christ by the gos- 
 pel, hath the Father of wisdom, the Treasurer of wisdom, the 
 Spirit of wisdom, and the law of wisdom to furnish liim there- 
 withal. It is not for want of sufficiency in the gospel, but for 
 want of more intimate acquaintance and knowledge thereof in 
 us, that the children of this world are more wise in their ge- 
 neration than the children of light. 
 
 (2.) Another glorious end and effect of the gospel is, to be 
 a ministration of righteousness, a publication of pardon to 
 the world, and that so general, that there is not one exception 
 therein of any other sin than only of the contempt of the par- 
 don itself. And in this respect likewise the gospel exceeds in 
 glory. " If the ministration of condemnation," saith the 
 apostle, " be glory, much more doth the ministration of right- 
 eousness exceed in glory," 2 Cor. iii. 9. It is the glory of a 
 
142 THE GLORY OF THE GOSPEL. 
 
 man to pass by an offence, and the Lord proclaimeth his glory 
 to Moses, in that he would forgive iniquity, transgression, and 
 sin, Exod. xxxiv. 7 ; that is, multitudes of sins, and sins of 
 all degrees. And thus the Lord magnifies his mercy and 
 thoughts towards sinners, above all the ways and thoughts of 
 men, even as the heavens are higher than the earth, because 
 he can "abundantly pardon,'' or multiply forgivenesses, upon 
 those who forsake their ways, and turn to him, Isa. Iv. 7 — 9 ; 
 and therefore justifying faith, whereby we rely upon the power 
 of God to forgive and subdue our sins, is said to give glory to 
 God. Abraham " staggered not at the promise of God 
 through unbelief, but was strong in faith, giving glory to God," 
 Rom. iv. 20, 21 ; namely, the glory of his power and fidelity. 
 " Ye shall not bring this congregation into the land which I 
 have given them," saith the Lord to Moses and Aaron, " be- 
 cause ye believed me not, to sanctify me in the eyes of the 
 children of Israel," Numb. xx. 12 ; that is, to give me the 
 glory of my power and truth, (for to sanctify the Lord of 
 hosts, signifies to glorify his power by fearing him more 
 than men, and by relying on him against the power and con- 
 federacies of men, Isa. viii. 12, 13.) And, therefore, in the 
 same argument, touching the happiness of the saints, if they 
 suffer for righteousness' sake, or be reproached for the name 
 of Christ, St. Peter useth in one place "sanctifying of the Lord 
 in our hearts," and in another " glorifying of him," as terms equi- 
 valent, I Pet. iii. 14, 15 ; iv. 14. And, therefore, unbeHef 
 is said to make God a liar, 1 John v. 10 ; that is, to dishonour 
 him, and to rob him of the glory of his truth ; and despair to rob 
 God of his mercy, and to make the guilt of sin greater than 
 the power of God. And, therefore, murmurers and unbelievers 
 are said to speak against God, and to grieve him, to tempt, to 
 limit him, Psa. Ixxviii. 18, 19 ; xl. 41 ; that is, to call in 
 question the glory of his power and truth. Herein then con- 
 sisteth another glorious effect of the gospel of Christ, that, 
 being a ministration of righteousness, it is a glass which exhi- 
 bits that power, truth, mercy, and fidelity of God, which by 
 faith we rest upon for the forgiveness and subduing of sin. 
 
 (3.) Another glorious end of the gospel is to be a minis- 
 tration and a law of life. " If the ministration of death," saith 
 the apostle, " were glorious, how shall not the ministration of 
 the Spirit be rather glorious?" 2 Cor. iii. 7, 8. The law 
 alone, by itself, is towards sinners but a dead letter ; only the 
 rule according unto which a man ought to walk, not any 
 
THE GLORY OF THE GOSPEL. 143 
 
 principle enabling him to walk. If Moses alone should 
 speak unto men, he could only tell them what they ought to 
 do, he could in no wise enable them to do it : nay, further, the 
 law hath occasionally, from the sin of man, a malignant pro- 
 perty in it, to irritate and exasperate lust the more, to beget 
 an occasional rage and fierceness in our nature; as the sun 
 shining on a dunghill exhaleth noisome vapours, and maketh 
 it the more offensive. But now the gospel, by the Spirit, 
 doth not only teach, but help also ; showeth us what we should 
 do, and giveth us strength to do it. We do not only therein 
 see the glory of God, but are withal "changed into the same 
 image, even from glory to glory," that is, (as I conceive from 
 that allusion to a glass,) the glory of the Lord shining upon 
 the gospel, and from the gospel shining upon our hearts, doth 
 change them into the image of the same glory ; even as the 
 glory of the sun shining upon a glass, and from that glass re- 
 flecting on a wall, doth therein produce a more extraordinary 
 image of its own light ; so that the apostle's " from glory to 
 glory,'' is the same with the poet's " to behold as in a glass ;" 
 from the glory of the gospel, which is one glass of God's 
 image, there is shaped the same glory in the heart, which is 
 another glass of his image. This is that which the apostle 
 calleth the forming of Christ in the soul, and the planting of 
 it into the likeness of his death and resurrection. 
 
 (4.) It is a glorious gospel in the judicature thereof. The 
 Spirit in the gospel doth convince not of righteousness only, 
 but of judgment too, John xvi. 11 ; that is, the Spirit shall 
 erect a throne in the hearts of men ; shall pull down the 
 prince of this world, and dispossess him ; shall enable men's 
 own hearts to proceed like upright judges with truth and witli 
 victory (which are two of the principal honours of judgment) 
 against their own lusts, to censure, to condemn, to crucify 
 them, though before they were as dear as their own members ; 
 and to judge and revenge themselves. " Ephraim shall say, 
 What have I to do any more with idols .''" Hosea xiv. 8. " In 
 that day," saith the Lord, " every man shall cast away liis 
 idols of silver, and his idols of gold, which your own hands 
 have made unto you for a sm," Isa. xxxi. 7. " I have surely 
 heardEphraim bemoaning himself thus : After that I was turned, 
 I repented ; and after that I was instructed, I smote upon my 
 thigh," Jer. xxxi. 18, 19. Thus the government of the 
 gospel in the heart makes a man severe to sentence every sm, 
 to hang up his Haman, his favourite lusts, to give up himself 
 
144 THE GLORY OF THE GOSPEL. 
 
 to the obedience of Christ, and to have his conversation, his 
 trading, his treasure, his privileges, his freedom, his fellow- 
 ship m heaven, as being now constituted under the gracious 
 and peaceable government of an heavenly Prince. 
 
 (3.) It is a glorious gospel, in that it was to be a continu- 
 ing ministration, and an immortal seed. " If that which was 
 done away," saith the apostle, " was glorious, much more 
 that which remaineth is glorious," 2 Cor. iii. 11. Now, the 
 gospel is able to preserve a man blameless unto the coming 
 of our Lord Jesus ; it will not suffer a man to be shaken nor 
 overturned by all the powers of darkness ; there is strength 
 enough in it to repel, and wisdom to answer, all the tempta- 
 tions and assaults of the enemies of our salvation. If the 
 world set upon us with any temptations on the right hand, or 
 on the left, with disgraces, persecutions, discomforts, re- 
 proachings, such as, Lo, this was the man who made God 
 his help, and would needs be more excellent than his neigh- 
 bours ; the gospel furnisheth us with sure promises and sure 
 mercies. This is answer sufficient against all the discourage- 
 ments of the world, " I know whom I have believed ;" I know 
 that he hath overcome the world, " and am persuaded that 
 He is able to keep that which I have committed unto him 
 against that day," 2 Tim. i. 12 ; and, in the mean time, the 
 world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world ; that is, we 
 are at an equal point of distance and defiance ; the world con- 
 temns me, and I am as careless of the world. If with pleasures, 
 honours, and gilded baits to draw us away from God, faith 
 in the gospel easily overcometh the world ; for it giveth both 
 the promises and first iruits of such treasures as are infinitely 
 more precious and weighty than all the world can afford ; the 
 very reproaches of Christ (how much more his promises ! how 
 infinitely more his performances at the last !) are far greater 
 riches then the treasures of Egypt. The daily sacrifice of a 
 godly life, and the daily feast of a quiet concience, put more 
 sweetness into the afflictions of Christ, than is in all the pro- 
 fits, pleasures, or preferments of the world, being made bitter 
 with the guilt of sin. If Satan or our own reasonings stand 
 up against the kingdom of Christ in us, the gospel is a store- 
 house which can furnish us with armoury of all sorts to repel 
 them. Faith can quench fiery darts ; the weapons of the 
 Spirit can captivate the very thoughts of the heart unto the obe- 
 dience of Christ. " No weapon that is formed against thee shall 
 prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in 
 
THE GLORY OF THE GOSPEL. 145 
 
 judgment, thou shall condemn," Isa. Hv. 17, is a staff which 
 can carry a man over any Jordan, and can support and com- 
 fort him in any shadow of death. This is the honour of the 
 word, that it doth not only sanctify men, but preserve their 
 holiness in them. If it were not for the treasure of the word 
 in the heart, every Httle thing would easily turn a man out of 
 his way, and make him revolt from Christ again. How easily 
 would afflictions make us mistrust God's affection to us, and 
 so change ours unto him, (for this is certain, his love to us 
 is the original of our love to him ;) make us murmur, repine, 
 struggle, fret under his hand, if in the gospel we did not look 
 upon them as the gentle corrections of a Father who loves us, 
 as the pruning and harrowing of our souls, that they may 
 bring forth more fruit I " Unless thy law had been my delight, 
 I should then have perished in mine affliction," Psa. cxix. 92. 
 My affliction would have destroyed me, and made me perish 
 from the right way, if it had not been tempered and sanctified 
 by thy word. It wrought so with that wicked king of Israel ; 
 " Behold, this evil is of the Lord, what should I wait for the 
 Lord any longer ?" 2 Kings vi. 33. What profit is there to 
 walk humbly before him, or to afflict ourselves before him, 
 who will not see, nor take knowledge of it, but continue to be 
 our enemy still ? Isa. Iviii. 3. But the gospel teacheth a man's 
 heart to rest in God, assureth it that there is hope in Israel, 
 and balm in Gilead ; that they which believe should not 
 make haste to limit or to misconstrue God, but wait for his 
 salvation, which will ever come in that due time wherein it 
 shall be both most acceptable and most beautiful. Again ; 
 how easily would temptations overturn the faith of men, if it 
 were not daily supported by the word ! What is the reason 
 that the sheep of Christ will not follow strangers, nor know tlieir 
 voice ; that is, will not acknowledge any force, nor subscribe 
 in their hearts to the conviction or evidence of any temptation, 
 which would draw them from God, but only because they hear 
 and know the voice of Christ in his gospel, and feel the Spirit 
 in their own hearts setting to its seal, and bearing witness to 
 that truth from whence those solicitations would seduce them ? 
 The apostle foretold the elders of Ephesus at his solemn de- 
 parture from them that grievous wolves would enter in among 
 them, and that some of themselves would arise speaking per- 
 verse things to draw away disciples after them. And the 
 main remedy which the apostle gives them against this danger 
 was, " I commend you to God, and to the word of his grace, 
 
 H 
 
146 THE GLORY OF THE GOSPEL. 
 
 which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance 
 among all them which are sanctified." Noting, that it is the 
 word of God which keepeth men from being drawn away 
 with perverse disputes. And the same intimation he gives 
 in his epistles unto them, " He gave some, apostles ; and 
 some, prophets ; and some, evangelists ; and some, pastors and 
 teachers. That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to 
 and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the 
 sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in 
 weight to deceive," Eph. iv. 11, 14. The more richly the 
 word of God, in the love and evidence thereof, doth dwell in any 
 man, and enable him to prove all things, the more stedfastly will 
 he hold that which is good, and stand immovable against the 
 slights and solicitations of men, 1 Thess. v. 21. Again ; 
 how easily would our own evil hearts gather a rust and mapt- 
 ness for service over themselves, if they were not daily whet and 
 brightened upon the word of God ! That only it is which 
 scrape th away that leprosy and mossiness which our souls are 
 apt to contract out of themselves. A man may lose all that 
 he hath wrought, all the benefit of what he hath done already, 
 and all the strength to do any more, only by not abiding in 
 the doctrine of Christ. He is not a doer of the word who 
 looketh in it, as a man on a glass, and presently forgetteth 
 the image and state of his conscience again ; it is only he 
 that continueth therein, who is a doer of the work, and 
 blessed in his deed. Jam. i. 23, 25. He that treasureth up 
 the gospel in his heart, and laboureth to grow rich in the 
 knowledge thereof, can never be turned quite out of his way, 
 or become an apostate from the grace of Christ. 
 
 (6.) It is a glorious gospel in regard of those noble and 
 majestical endowments with which it qualifieth the soul of a 
 christian : for there is no nobility comparable to that of the gos- 
 pel. It giveth men the highest privilege in the world ; to be 
 called the sons of God, to be kings and priests before him, to 
 be a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people, a na- 
 tion of priests, John i. 12 ; 1 John iii. 1 ; Rev. i. 6 ; 1 Pet. 
 ii. 9. Nothing doth so honour a land as to be the seat of 
 the gospel. It was the honour of the jews, that unto them 
 were committed the oracles of God, Rom. iii. 1,2: therefore, 
 the ark is called the glory of Israel, 1 Sam. iv. 22 ; and Christ 
 the glory of Israel, and the excellency of Jacob, Luke ii. 32 ; 
 Amos viii. 7. Neither is there anything else allowed a man 
 to glory in, save only this, that he understandeth and knoweth 
 
THE GLORY OF THE GOSPEL. 147 
 
 the Lord in his word, Jer. ix. 24. It putteth magnanimity 
 into the breasts of men, high thoughts, regal afFectionj,, 
 public desires and attempts, a kind of heavenly ambition to 
 do and to gain the greatest good. The main ends of a chris- 
 tian are all high and noble ; the favour of God, the fellow- 
 ship of the Father and the Son, the grace of Christ, the 
 peace of the church; his traffic and negotiation is for heaven, 
 his language the dialect of heaven, his order a heavenly order, 
 innumerable companies of angels, and the spirits of just men 
 made perfect. A holy man, who hath the spirit of his mind 
 raised and ennobled by the gospel, is an agent in the same 
 affairs, and doth in his thoughts, desires, prayers, and emula- 
 tions, pursue the same high and heavenly ends, for the ad- 
 vancement of the glory of Christ and demolishing the king- 
 dom of Satan, with the blessed angels of God. His desires 
 look no lower than a kingdom, a weight of massive and most 
 superlative glory. That which other men make the utmost 
 point even of their impudent and immodest hopes, the secu- 
 lar favours and dignities of the world, these put lowest under 
 their feet ; but their wings, the higher and more aspiring 
 affections of their soul, are directed only unto heaven and hea- 
 venly things. They no sooner are placed in the body of 
 Christ, but they have public services ; some to preach, some 
 to defend, all to pray, to practise, to adorn the profession they 
 have undertaken. For, indeed, every christian hath his ta- 
 lent given him, his service enjoined him. The gospel is a 
 public treasure, committed to the keeping of every christian, 
 each man having, as it were, a several key of the church, a 
 several trust for the honour of this kingdom, delivered unto 
 him. As in the solemn coronation of the prince, every peer 
 of the realm hath his station about the throne, and with the 
 touch of his hand upon the royal crown declareth the per- 
 sonal duty of that honour which he is called unto, namely, to 
 hold on the crown on the head of his sovereign, to make it the 
 main end of his greatness to study, and by all means endeavour 
 the establishment of his prince's throne ; so every christian, as 
 soon as he hath the honour to be called unto the kingdom 
 and presence of Christ, hath immediately no meaner a trust 
 committed to his care than the very throne and crown of his 
 Saviour, than the public honour, peace, victory, and stability 
 of his Master's kingdom. The gospel is committed to the 
 custody of the bishops and pastors of the church to preach 
 it ; they are, as it were, the heralds and forerunners of 
 
 H'2 
 
148 THE GLORY OF THE GOSPEL. 
 
 Christ, to prepare his way in the souls of men : to the cus- 
 tody of the princes and judges of the earth, to defend it, to be 
 a guard about the person and truth of Christ, to command the 
 obedience, and to encourage the teaching of it. The gospel 
 is the law of Christ's throne, and the princes of the world are 
 the lions about his throne, set there to watch and guard it 
 against the malice of enemies. And, therefore, it is recorded 
 for the honour of David, that he set in order the courses of 
 the priests, and appointed them their forms and vicissitudes of 
 service ; of Solomon, that he built, adorned, and dedicated 
 a temple for God's solemn worship ; of Josiah, that he made 
 the people to serve the Lord their God ; of Hezekiah, that he 
 restored the service and repaired the temple of God, that he 
 spake comfortably to the Levites, who taught the good know- 
 ledge of the Lord, that he proclaimed a solemn passover, that 
 he ordered the courses of the priests and Levites, that he gave 
 commandment concerning the portion of their due mainte- 
 nance, that they might be encouraged in the law of the Lord, 
 2 Chron. xxxiv. 33 ; xxix. 3; xxx. 1, 22; xxxi. 2 — 4, a 
 pattern worthy the admiration and imitation of all christian 
 princes. Lastly, the gospel is committed to the keeping of 
 every christian to practise it, to adorn it, to pray for it, 
 to be valiant and courageous in his place and station for the 
 truth of it. And for a man to neglect these duties, is to be- 
 tray and dishonour the kingdom of Christ, and to degenerate 
 from that high and public condition in which God had placed 
 him. 
 
 Again ; it putteth a spirit of fortitude and boldness into the 
 hearts of men, boldness to withstand the corruptions of the 
 times, to walk contrary to the courses of the world, to out-face 
 the sins and the scorns of men, to be valiant for a despised 
 truth or power of religion, not to be ashamed of a persecuted 
 profession, to spread out " his arms in buffeting the torrent," 
 to stand alone against the power and credit of a prevailing 
 faction, as Paul against the contradictions of the jews, and 
 Peter and John against a synod of pharisees. Acts xiii. 46 ; 
 xxviii. 28 ; 1 Thess. ii. 2 ; Acts ii. 14 ; xxiii. 36 ; iv. 8, 12, 
 13, 19; v. 29, 32: and those invincible champions of 
 Christ, Athanasius, against the power of Constantius, the fre- 
 quent synodical conventions of countenanced heretics, and the 
 general deluge of arianism in the world ; Ambrose, against 
 the wrath and terror of the emperor of the world, to whom, 
 having imbrued his hands in much innocent blood, that holy 
 
THE GLORY OF THE GOSPEL. 149 
 
 father durst not deliver the blood of Christ ; Chrysostom, 
 against the pride and persecution of the empress Eudoxa ; 
 Luther, against the mistress of fornications, the princess of 
 the earth, and as himself professed, if it had been possible, 
 against a whole city full of devils ; the christians of all ages, 
 against the fire, fury, and arts of torment executed by the 
 bloody persecutors of the church. Nay, further, the gospel 
 giveth boldness against that universal fire which shall melt 
 the elements, and shrivel up the heavens like a roll of parch- 
 ment. " Herein," saith the apostle, " is our love made per- 
 fect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment, be- 
 cause as he is, so are we in this world," 1 John iv. 17 ; that is, 
 we have his image in us, and his love shed abroad in our 
 hearts, and therefore we are able to assure our hearts before 
 him, and to have confidence towards him. Now, he 
 who hath boldness to stand before God, to dwell with 
 consuming fire, who can get the Lord on his right 
 hand, and put on the Lord Jesus, though he be not out 
 of the reach, or beyond the blow, yet is he above the in- 
 jury of the malice of men ; they may kill, but they can never 
 overcome him. " I am he that comforteth you ; who art 
 thou," saith the Lord, " that thou shouldest be afraid of a man 
 that shall die ; and forgettest the Lord thy Maker ?" Isa. li. 
 12, 13. What an invincible courage was that of Elijah, 
 which retorted the slander of Ahab upon his own face ; '* I 
 have not troubled Israel : but thou, and thy father's house," 
 1 Kings xviii. 18. And that of Micaiah, against the base re- 
 quest of a flattering courtier, who thought God to be such a 
 one as himself, that would magnify and cry up the ends of a 
 wicked king ; " As the Lord liveth, what the Lord saith unto 
 me, that will I speak," 1 Kings xxii. 14. And that of Amos 
 against the unworthy instructions of Amaziah, the priest of 
 Bethel ; " Thou sayest. Prophesy not against Israel, and drop 
 not thy word against the house of Isaac. Therefore thus 
 saith the Lord ; Thy wife shall be an harlot in the city, and 
 thy sons and thy daughters shall fall by the sword, and thy 
 land shall be divided by line ; and thou shalt die in a polluted 
 land : and Israel shall surely go into captivity forth of his 
 land," Amos vii. 16, 17. And that of Jeremiah, who boldly 
 gave the lie to Irijah, the captain of the ward: " It is false ; I 
 fall not away to the chaldeans,'' Jer. xxxvii. 13, 14. The 
 time would fail if I should speak of the unbended constancy 
 (or, as the gentiles styled it, obstinacy) of Ignatius, Polycarp, 
 
J50 THE GLORY OF THE GOSPEL. 
 
 Justin, Cyprian, Pionius, Sabina, Maximus, and those infinite 
 armies of the holy martyrs, who posed the inventions, tired 
 out the cruelties, withstood the flatteries, and with one word, 
 "We are christians," overcame all the tyrannies, quenched the 
 fire, and stopped the mouths of their proudest persecutors. 
 
 Again ; the gospel putteth a kind of lustre and terror on 
 the faces of those in whom it reigneth, and maketh them, as 
 the law did Moses, to shine as lights in the world, and to be 
 more excellent than their neighbours ; worketh in others to- 
 wards them a dread and awfulness. Though Jeremiah were 
 a prisoner, cast into a dungeon, and in such extremity that he 
 was there likely to perish ; yet such a majesty and honour did 
 God even then put upon him, and that in the thoughts of the 
 king himself, that he could not be quiet till he consulted 
 with him about the will of the Lord, and by his many confer- 
 ences with him made it plainly appear that he stood in awe 
 of his person and prophecies. So it is said, that " Herod feared 
 John, knowing that he was a just man, and holy, and observed 
 him," Mark vi. 20 ; to note, that holiness maketh men's per- 
 sons and presence dreadful to the wicked, by reason of that 
 grace and majesty which God hath put into them. The 
 whole council of scribes and pharisees, who afterwards 
 gnashed on Stephen with their teeth, were forced to acknow- 
 ledge the majesty of holiness shining upon him ; " They 
 looked stedfastly on him, and saw his face as it had been the 
 face of an angel," Acts vi. 15. The mighty power of the 
 gospel of Christ maketh unbelievers fall on their faces, and 
 confess of a truth that God is in those who preach it. This 
 we find verified in the poor astonished keeper of the prison 
 into which Paul and Silas had been cast ; " He sprang in, and 
 came trembling, and fell down before them, and brought them 
 out, and said. Sirs, what must I do to be saved ?" Acts xvi. 
 29, 30. It is true that naturally men hate Christ and his 
 servants ; but this is not as a man hateth a toad, (which he 
 can easily crush ,) with a simple hatred ; but as a man hateth 
 a lion, or as a malefactor hateth his judge, or as a thief hateth 
 the \i(r\\t, with a compounded hatred, mixed with a fear and 
 dread of that majesty within them : which majesty hath 
 sometimes shone so brightly even under torments and perse- 
 cutions, that it hath forced from heathen emperors a desire of 
 the christian's prayers ; sometimes not only astonished, but 
 converted the adversaries. 
 
 Lastly ; the gospel bringeth liberty and joy into the hearts 
 
THE GLORY OF THE GOSPEL. 151 
 
 of men with it. The Hberty is a glorious Hberty, Rom. viii. 
 21, and the joy a glorious joy, 1 Pet. i. 8 ; therefore the gos- 
 pel is called a gospel of great joy, Luke ii. 10. Liberty is so 
 sacred a thing, that indeed it belongs in the whole compass of 
 it only to the prince ; for, though other men be free from 
 servitude, yet they are not free from subjection. Now, the 
 gospel giveth a plenary freedom to the consciences of men ; 
 they may be commanded by their own consciences, but their 
 consciences cannot be commanded by any but by Christ. 
 The Son hath made them free from all others, that he might 
 only be the Lord over them. 
 
 Now then, to draw some inferences from the most useful and 
 
 excellent doctrine of the glory of the gospel, we learn from thence, 
 
 1. What liberty and what sincerity the ministers of Christ 
 
 ought to use in the administration of this his kingdom in the 
 
 word. 
 
 (I.) What liberty. The officers of a prince, who go 
 before him to prepare his way, make bold to strike and 
 to scatter those unruly throngs of men who press too near 
 upon his sacred person. We are the messengers of Christ 
 sent before-hand with his royal proclamation of peace, to 
 make room in the hearts of men for him, and to open their 
 everlasting doors, that this King of glory may enter in. We 
 may, therefore, boldly smite with the rod of his mouth ; we 
 may cry aloud, and spare not, pull down mountainous lusts, 
 subdue strong-holds, take unto us iron pillars, and brazen 
 walls, and faces of flint, to root up, to pull down, to batter 
 and destroy ; not to teach only, but to command with all 
 authority, and to commend ourselves to every man's conscience 
 in the sight of God. This use the apostle maketh of the 
 glory of the gospel; " Seeing that we have such hope," that 
 is, seeing in this glorious gospel we have the dispensation of 
 a blessed hope unto men, or the revelation of Christ, who is 
 unto us the hope of glory, or the assured confidence of doing 
 excellent works by the virtue of this so glorious a word, " we 
 use great plainness," or liberty, " of speech," 2 Cor. iii. 12 ; 
 for why should he who bringeth unto men glad tidings of 
 glorious things, who offers unto them the blessed hope of 
 eternal life, be afraid or ashamed of his office ? Though Rome 
 were the seat, and the emperor the first instigator, of the 
 persecutions of the church, yet even unto that place the apos- 
 tle was not ashamed to preach the gospel of Christ, because it 
 was the power of God unto salvation, Rom. i. 16. Therein 
 
152 THE GLORY OF THE GOSPEL. 
 
 no shame in being a deliverer ; and therefore it is both the 
 honour and duty of the dispensers of the gospel " to speak 
 boldly as they ought to speak ;" and of the people to pray 
 that the excellent Spirit may ever accompany so glorious a 
 message. This was the prayer of the primitive saints for the 
 apostles of Christ, " Grant unto thy servants that with all 
 boldness they may speak thy word," Acts iv. 29. And this 
 duty lies upon us with a heavy necessity. For, 
 
 [1.] We are dispensers of all God's counsels; there 
 must not be a word which God hath commanded that we 
 should refuse to make known unto the people ; for the things 
 revealed are for them and their children. Thus we find, when 
 the angel of the Lord brought forth the apostles out of prison, 
 he gave them this command, " Go, stand and speak in the 
 temple to the people all the words of this life," Acts v. 20 ; 
 and certainly some of these words will require boldness. When 
 we lay the axe to the root of the tree, when we hew off 
 men's members, when we snatch them like brands out of the 
 fire, when we make them to see their own faces in the law of 
 liberty, the face of a guilty, and therefore cursed conscience, 
 there will be need of much boldness. A surgeon who is 
 to search an inveterate wound, and to cut off a putrified mem- 
 ber, had not need to be faint-hearted, or bring a trembling 
 hand to so great a work. 
 
 [2.3 The severest message we are sent withal, and 
 which men are most unwilling to hear, is for them expe- 
 dient. No news could be so unwelcome to the apostles as to 
 hear of Christ's departure ; " Because I have said these 
 things, sorrow hath filled your heart. Nevertheless, I tell you 
 the truth, it is expedient for you that I go away," John xvi. 6, 
 7. The first news which we bring unto men is of Christ's 
 absence, of their false conceits and presumptions of their 
 being in him, of the distance and unacquaintance which is be- 
 tween them, of our fears of them, and of their condition ; and 
 in all this we are not their enemies, because we tell them the 
 truth. Gal. iv. 16. As it is our ofiice to speak, so it is the 
 people's duty and profit to hear, all things which shall be told 
 them of God ; for all Scripture, as well that which reproveth 
 and correcteth, as that which teacheth and instructeth in righte- 
 ousness, is profitable, and tends to the perfection of the saints, 
 2 Tim. iii. 16, 17 ; Deut. xii. 28. " All his precepts con- 
 cerning all things are right," Psa. cxix. 128. The contempt 
 of one is, virtually and interpretatively, in the constitution and 
 
THE GLORY OF THE GOSPEL. 153 
 
 preparation of heart, the violation of all, Jam. ii. 10, 11 ; be- 
 cause they are all grounded upon the same Divine authority, 
 and directed unto the same saving ends : and, therefore, we 
 ou^ht not to pick and choose either in the preaching or prac- 
 tismg thereof. 
 
 [3.] We are to answer for the blood of people, if we pre- 
 varicate. If we let their sins alone, they will have a double 
 edge, both to kill them and us ; like the mutual embracement 
 of two in a river, which is the means to drown them both. 
 •' Speak unto them all that I command thee ; be not dismayed 
 at their faces,'' saith the Lord to his prophet, " lest I con- 
 found thee before them," Jer. i. 17. " If thou speaketh not 
 to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life, the 
 same wicked man shall die in his iniquity ;" (thy bashfulness 
 shall do him no good ;) " but his blood will I require at thine 
 hand,'' Ezek. iii. 18. Is it at all congruous, that men should 
 have boldness enough to declare their sins, to speak of them,to 
 proclaim them, to wear them, to glory in them, and that those 
 officers who are sent for no other business, but in the name 
 and authority of Almighty God to fight against the corrup- 
 tions of the world, should, in the mean time, hang down the 
 head, and be tongue-tied ? that men should have more bold- 
 ness to destroy themselves, and to do Satan's works, than we 
 to save them, or to serve God ? 
 
 [4.] We are to speak in the person of Christ, and in the 
 virtue of his Spirit. We must speak as the oracles of God, and 
 with his words, as if he himself did by us speak unto the people. 
 We must give manifestation of Christ speaking by us, that men 
 may be convinced that God is in us of a truth, and that we are 
 full of power by his Spirit, that his Spirit setteth to his seal 
 to authorize our commission, and to countenance our ministry ; 
 and therefore we must use judgment and might, that is, spi- 
 ritual discretion and inflexible constancy against the sins of 
 men ; (for these two are contrary to the two grand props of 
 Satan's kingdom, which are his craftiness, and his weapons of 
 power ;) for where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty, 
 his Spirit will not be straitened, neither will the Lord keep 
 silence, '2 Cor. iii. 17 ; Micah ii. 7. He that speaketh by the 
 Spirit of Christ, must speak, though not in equality, (which 
 is impossible,) yet in some similitude and proportion as he 
 spake ; that is, as those that have authority and power com- 
 mitted to them for the edification of the church. 
 
 [5.] A partial, unsearcliing, and unreproving minister is 
 n5 
 
154 THE GLORY OF THE GOSPEL. 
 
 one of God's curses and scourges against a place, the fore- 
 runner of a final and fearful visitation. " The days of visi- 
 tation and recompense come," saith the Lord, " the prophet 
 is a fool, the spiritual man is mad, for the multitude of thine 
 iniquity, and the great hatred," Hos. ix. 7. If a man be 
 walking in the spirit and falsehood, that is, professing the 
 work of a spiritual man, and yet betraying his office ; or in a 
 false and lying spirit, prophesying of wine and strong drink, 
 that is, cherishing and encouraging sensual Hvers in their per- 
 nicious courses, he shall even be the prophet of this people, 
 Mic. ii. 11. And therefore, when the Lord will punish with 
 an extreme revenge the rebellion of a people against his gos- 
 pel, who judge themselves unworthy of so great a salvation, 
 he either removeth their candlestick, and taketh it away from 
 them, or else sealeth up the mouth of his prophets, that they 
 may be dumb, and reprove them no longer, and that they may 
 not be purged any more from their filthiness ; or else infatu- 
 ates their prophets, and sufFereth Satan to seduce them, and 
 to be a lying spirit in their mouths, that he may destroy 
 them ; as we see in the ruin of Ahab, and in the captivity of 
 Judah, 1 Kings xxii. 20, 23; Rev. ii. 5; Matt. xxi. 41,43; 
 xxiii. 37, 38 ; 1 Thess. ii. 16 ; Ezek. iii. 26 ; xxiv. 13 ; Jer. 
 iv. 10; xiv. 13 ; xxiii. 13 ; xxxiii. 40 ; Lam. ii. 14. 
 
 Again, as the ministers of the gospel must use liberty, 
 so must they likewise use sincerity in the dispensation thereof, 
 because it is a glorious gospel. This likewise is the apostle's 
 inference ; for having spent a whole chapter in this one 
 argument of the glory of the gospel, he presently concludeth, 
 " Therefore seeing we have this ministry," that is, the dispen- 
 sation of such a gospel committed unto us, " we faint not, but 
 have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty ;" that is, as 
 I conceive, the arts of daubing, and palliating, and covering 
 over unclean courses with plausible reasonings, and fleshly 
 apologies, (which is the manner of false prophets,) "not walking 
 in craftiness ; that is, not using human sleights, to carry men 
 about with every wind of doctrine," as sinners are very willing 
 to be deceived, and love to have it as false prophets say it is ; 
 " nor handling the word of God deceitfully," that is, falsify- 
 ing and adulterating it with corrupt glosses, and so tempering 
 it to the palate of sinners, that the working and searching vir- 
 tue thereof, whereby of itself it is apt to purge out and wrestle 
 with the lusts of men, maybe deadened, and so it may well con - 
 sist with the power of lusts still ; " but by manifestation of the 
 
THE GLORY OF THE GOSPEL. 155 
 
 truth," that is, hy such spiritual and perspicuous demonstra- 
 tions, as under which there can no falsity or deceit lurk, "com- 
 mending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of 
 God,'' 2 Cor. iv. 1, 2; that is, working not the fancies, or 
 humours, or fleshly conceits of men, (which always take the 
 part of sin,) but calling their very consciences, (which always is 
 on God's side,) to bear witness unto the truth which we speak ; 
 to receive it not as the wit or learning of a man, but as the 
 word and wisdom of God ; to acknowledge the conviction, the 
 judicature, the penetration thereof; and so to fall down upon 
 their faces, and to glorify God and report that he is in us of a 
 truth. And all this in the sight of God; that is, so handling 
 the word as that we may please and approve ourselves to his 
 eye, whose servants we are, and whose work we do : this is 
 that which the apostle calleth uncorruptness, gravity, sincerity, 
 soundness of doctrine, such as the very adversaries themselves 
 shall not be able to quarrel with, or to speak against, Tit. 
 ii. 1, 7, 8. We must not, then, make account to adorn the 
 gospel with our own inventions, or with superstructions of 
 human wit and fancy ; though these things may, to fleshly 
 reason, seem full of beauty, yet indeed they are but like the 
 mingling of glass beads with a chain of diamonds, or of lime 
 with pure and generous wine ; they are indeed but lurking 
 places for unclean lusts to hide themselves under, or to escape 
 away, while the corrupt fancies of men stand gazing at that 
 which pleaseth them ; as Agag, when he was gloriously 
 arrayed, thought nothing of the bitterness of death ; or Sisera 
 of the nail and the hammer, while he saw nothing but the milk 
 and the butter. Some there are who, by sleight and cunning 
 craftiness, impose upon weak and incautious hearers the visions 
 of their own fancy, the crude and unnourishing vapours of an 
 empty wit, (things infinitely unsuitable to the majesty and seri- 
 ousness of the foundation 'in the gospel,) for the indubitable 
 truth of God in his word ; which (with reverence may it be 
 spoken) is nothing else but to put the holy prophets and apos- 
 tles into a fool s coat : but however these men may please and 
 pufF up themselves in the admiration of their own wit, yet 
 certain it is, that the gospel of Christ doth as much scorn 
 human mixtures, as a wall of marble doth a roof of straw, or 
 the sun at noon doth the light of a candle. And therefore, 
 the palate of those who cannot tolerate the naked simplicity 
 of the gospel, without the blandishments of human wit, who 
 must needs have quails to their manna, is hereby discovered to 
 
156 THE GLORY OF THE GOSPEL. 
 
 be manifestly distempered with an itch of lust, and their eyes 
 blinded by the god of this world, 2 Tim. iv. 3 ; 2 Cor. iv. 3. 
 (2.) This glory of the gospel may teach us what admira- 
 tion and acceptation it should find amongst men, even as it 
 doth with the blessed angels themselves. " This is a faithful 
 saying, and worthy of all acceptation ;" worthy to be received 
 with all readiness of mind; worthy to be gazed upon, like the 
 star of the wise men, with exceeding great joy ; worthy to be 
 enamelled in the crowns of princes, and to be written in the 
 soul of every christian with a beam of the sun, " that Christ 
 Jesus came into the world to save sinners," 1 Tim. i. 15. In- 
 deed, the faithful have ever found beauty in the feet of those 
 that bring them glad tidings of this their King ; that is, in the 
 coming of this word of grace and salvation unto them, which 
 is the usual phrase of the Scripture, setting forth more abun- 
 dantly the mercy of the Lord, who did not choose one fixed 
 place for his gospel to reside in, and unto which all nations, 
 who would have benefit by it, should take the pains to resort, 
 as he did for the jews at Jerusalem, but hath made it an itine- 
 rary salvation, and hath sent it abroad to the very doors of 
 men, who else would never have gone out of doors to seek it. 
 What man, in a sad and disconsolate state, would not spread 
 wide open his heart, to run upon the embraces of that man, 
 who was coming unto him with a message of more lovely and 
 acceptable news than the very wishes of his heart could have 
 framed to himself? When Joseph was sent for out of prison 
 unto Pharaoh's court, when Jacob saw the chariots which were 
 brought to carry him unto Joseph his son, how were they re- 
 vived and comforted after their distresses I " When the Lord 
 turned again the captivity of Sion, we were like them that 
 dream," Psa. cxxvi. 1 : the thing was so incredibly suitable 
 to their desires, that it seemed rather the imaginary wish of a 
 dream, than a deliverance really acted ; as Peter, when he was 
 delivered out of prison, thought he had seen a vision. Jacob 
 could not at first believe the news of the life and honour of 
 Joseph his son ; and the disciples for very joy were not able 
 to believe the resurrection of Christ, Acts xii. 9 ; Gen. xlv. 
 26 ; Luke xxiv. 41. Now, what are all these good tidings 
 to those of the gospel, which is a word of salvation, which 
 opens prisons, and lets out captives, which brings our King 
 unto us, and makes us kings too, which gives us such a joy, 
 as the whole world cannot rob us of; " Your joy shall no 
 man take from you." The joy which Caligula gave unto 
 
THE GLORY OF THE GOSPEL. 157 
 
 Agrippa, Claudius might have taken from him, as he did 
 afterwards from Agrippa his son, and though he did not, yet we 
 see the angel did. But the joy of the gospel is unvariable ; 
 the angels themselves (to whom one might think the joys of 
 men should seem but small) call it a "great joy," Luke ii. 
 
 10. It is the joy of a treasure, infinitely more precious than 
 all which a man hath besides. A joy of a triumphal harvest, 
 and of victorious spoils, wherein there is not only an escape 
 from dangerous hazard, but a large reward of peace and 
 plenty. It is a full joy, there is no sorrow mingled with it, 
 nay, it is all joy, and therefore there is nothing but sorrow 
 without it. All joy in itself, and all joy in the midst of 
 opposition too. A joy in the heart like gold in the mine, 
 which turneth every thing about it into joy. Divers tempta- 
 tions take not away one scruple of it, no more than fire doth 
 of gold, it is all joy still. " My brethren," saith the apostle, 
 *' count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations," James 
 i. 2. It turneth the reproaches of men into riches, nay in 
 the midst of all other tribulations it is our peace, and our 
 glory; therefore, being so full of joy, when once aright appre- 
 hended, needs must it likewise be worthy of all acceptation 
 too. And therefore, the prophet calleth the time of the gospel, 
 " the acceptable time," or year, " of the Lord;" which Baronius 
 falsely understands of the first year of Christ's preaching only, 
 since the apostle useth the same phrase for the whole time of 
 evangelical dispensation, 2 Cor. vi. 2. 
 
 And indeed, if we look into the church, we shall see what 
 worthy acceptation this gospel hath found. Zaccheus made 
 haste, and received Christ into his house gladly, Luke xix. 
 26 ; so did the brethren at Jerusalem receive the apostles. Acts 
 xxi. 17 ; so did the men at Berea receive the word, Acts xvii. 
 
 11, " with all readiness of mind," or forward affection ; so did 
 the Galatians receive St. Paul with the honour of an angel, 
 yea, even as Christ Jesus himself, Gal. iv. 14 ; (for indeed 
 Christ and his gospel go still together ;) the man in the gos- 
 pel sold all he had for it ; the saints did earnestly contend for 
 it, and take the kingdom of heaven by violence, Mark x. 29. 
 Though they suffered the loss of all for Christ, yet they 
 counted godliness great gain still. In a shipwreck I throw 
 my goods overboard, and get my life for a prey ; in this case 
 I come no loser to heaven ; a man's life is sufficient trea- 
 sure in such an adventure. We are all by nature in an evil 
 condition, every man is a sea and a tempest to himself, as 
 
158 THE GLORY OF THE GOSPEL. 
 
 impossible to escape ruin, as to put off himself. Now, in the 
 gospel, Christ showeth a man a way to get out of himself, and 
 so to escape the tempest ; showeth a way how with him he 
 shall walk upon the sea, and not sink ; how he shall be in the 
 world, and not of it, nor swallowed by it. Oh how willingly 
 will the man, who is convinced of his danger, cast off every 
 thing which would press him down, and account it a plentiful 
 deliverance to have his soul saved from such a tempest of 
 wrath as was falling upon him ! We see what hazards men 
 run to get temporary riches ; to the bottom of rocks for dia- 
 monds, to the bowels of the earth for gold and silver ; such 
 affections have the saints had towards the gospel. If they 
 must dig in mines for Christ, (it was usual to condemn 
 christians to work in the mines,) they were most willing so to 
 do, they had a treasure there which the emperor knew not of, 
 they had infinite more precious wealth from thence than he. 
 If they must fetch Christ in the fire, or wrestle for him, as for 
 a precious prize, with the wild beasts of the earth ; if they 
 be not suffered to wear Christ, except they put off themselves, 
 how willing, how thankful are they for so rich a bargain ! 
 *' Look to your life," said the governor to St. Cyprian, that 
 blessed martyr, " be not obstinate against your own safety, but 
 advise well with yourself;" " Sir," said the holy man, " you are 
 my judge, you are none of my counsellor; do the office 
 which is committed to you, in so righteous a cause there is no 
 further need of consultation." " Take pity upon yourself; 
 sacrifice, and save your life,"said the officers to Polycarp; "No," 
 saith the martyr, " this eighty-six years I have served Christ, 
 and he hath done me no harm ; I will not do what you per- 
 suade me." That rich and blessed virgin in Basil, who was 
 for Christianity condemned to the fire, and was offered, if she 
 would worship idols, to have her life and estate safely restored 
 unto her, was obstinate in her resolution ; " I shall have 
 more life in Christ, than in myself : all the emperors, all the 
 physicians in the world cannot make my life, which I have in 
 myself, so long to-morrow^ as it is to-day ; but in Christ my 
 life is not only an abiding, but an abounding life ; I shall 
 have more of that by losing mine own ; my life in him is an 
 hidden life, free from all injuries and persecutions of men ; I 
 shall have more riches in him than in myself, even unsearch- 
 able riches, which can never be stolen away, because they can 
 never be exhausted." It is as possible for thieves to draw 
 out the mines of India, or to steal away the sun out of his 
 
THE GLORY OF THE GOSPEL. 159 
 
 oib, as for any human violence to take away Christ from a 
 man. Such acceptation hath the gospel found amongst re- 
 nowned worthies heretofore; and the like entertainment 
 should we all give unto it, even prefer it above our greatest 
 glory, and, as the Thessalonians did, receive it with joy in the 
 midst of afflictions, 1 Thess. i. 6 ; abide with Christ in his 
 temptations, esteem his gospel glorious as the stars in the 
 darkness of the night, or as a torch, which blazeth most when 
 it is most shaken. 
 
 This alone it is whicli proves our love to Christ to be sin- 
 cere and incorrupt, wlien we embrace his gospel for itself, and 
 can therein, in any condition, see Christ full of glory, grace, 
 and truth ; when a man can, with St. Paul, not rejoice only 
 in the name and profession of the cross of Christ, but in con- 
 formity and obedience thereunto, in that virtue of the orospel 
 which crucifies him unto the world, and the world unto him. 
 In days of peace and religion men may easily afford to magnify 
 the gospel, because they get by it. The persians, who, had 
 the dreadful decree continued, would have been the slaughterers 
 of the jews, yet when leave was given to that people to deliver 
 themselves from the malice of Haman, even many of them 
 turned jews themselves, because the fear of that people fell 
 upon them. We may observe this affection in the woman of 
 Samaria ; the first reason why she gave some heed to Christ, 
 speaking of his water of life unto her, was, because she should 
 thirst no more, nor come thither to draw, John iv. 14. So 
 long as Ephraim might have her work and her wages together, 
 she was contented to do God some service, like an heifer that 
 loveth to tread out the corn, Hos. x. 11 ; that is, while she 
 had no yoke on her neck, no muzzle on her mouth, while 
 she was not put to plough, but to easy and pleasant service, she 
 was willing to yield unto it ; to note, that it is but base and 
 hypocritical obedience which is supported by no other than 
 present rewards. " They seek me daily,'' saith the Lord to 
 the hypocrites among his people, " and delight to know my 
 ways, as a nation that did righteousness ;" but the end was, 
 that they might have their own wills, and as it were to oblige 
 God to reward them ; and therefore, as soon as God seemeth 
 to neglect them and their services, they proudly expostulate 
 with him, and even reproach him concerning their works ; 
 " Wherefore have we fasted, and thou seest not?" Isa. Iviii. 2, 
 3. This then is the proof of our sincere love unto Christ, 
 which is not raised upon mercenary respects, when we can 
 
160 THE GLORY OF THE GOSPEL. 
 
 receive the gospel with persecution. Persecution is amongst 
 Christ's legacies, a part of the church's portion, and of God's 
 gifts unto her, Mark x. 30 ; no man that will live godly can 
 be without them. Even in Abraham's house, which was, at 
 that time, if not the sole, yet the most glorious church on the 
 earth, there was a persecutor, and " as it was then, so is it 
 now," saith the apostle, Gal. iv. 29. The saints of God ever 
 have been, and ever will be, to the world's end, esteemed for 
 wonders, and marks, and madmen, and proverbs of reproach. 
 And hereby the Lord doth provide to make his gospel more 
 glorious, because he giveth men hearts to suffer scorn and re- 
 proach for it. To receive the word in affliction, and yet with 
 joy, is an exemplary thing, which maketh the sound and glory 
 of the gospel to spread abroad. Now then, if persecution be 
 thus an appendant to the gospel, every man must resolve to re- 
 ceive it in some affliction, when he must be put to discard his 
 wicked companies, to shake off his flattering and sharking 
 lusts, to forsake his own will and ways, to run a hazard of un- 
 deserved scorn, disreputation, and misconstructions in the 
 world, and yet for all this to set an high price upon the pre- 
 cious truths of the gospel still ; is not this to receive the 
 word in much affliction ? And surely, till a man can resolve 
 upon this conclusion, I am ready to be bound and to die for 
 the name of Jesus ; I count not my life, much less my liberty, 
 peace, credit, secular accommodations dear, so that I may finish 
 my course with joy ; Lord, my will is no more mine, but it shall 
 be in all things subject unto thee, — he can never give such en- 
 tertainment to the word as becometh so glorious a gospel. All 
 his seeming profession and acceptation is but like the Gada- 
 renes' courtesy in meeting of Christ, which was only to be 
 rid of him, Matt. viii. 34. 
 
 (3.) We should from hence learn a further christian duty, 
 which is to adorn this glorious gospel in an holy conversation, 
 Phil. i. 27. This use the apostle everywhere makes of the 
 gospel of Christ ; that we should walk as becometh the gos- 
 pel ; that we should in all things adorn the doctrine of God 
 our Saviour, Tit. ii. 10 ; that we should walk worthy of him 
 who hath called us unto his kingdom and glory, 1 Thess. ii. 
 12 ; that we show forth the praises of him who hath called us 
 out of darkness into his marvellous light, 1 Pet. ii. 9 ; that we 
 should not receive so great a grace as the ministry of reconci- 
 liation in vain, but that we should walk fittingly to the holi- 
 ness and efficacy of so exce lent a rule, as becometh a royal 
 
THE GLORY OF THE GOSPEL. 161 
 
 nation, a people of glory, a peculiar and selected inheritance, 
 even zealous of good works, Tit. ii. 14. It was once the ex- 
 postulation of Nehemiah with his enemies. Should such a man 
 as I flee from such men as you? Nehem. vi. 11. Such 
 should be our expostulation with Satan and our own lusts, 
 Should such men as we are, who have the gospel of Christ for 
 our rule, conform ourselves unto another law ? Is not this the 
 end why the gospel is preached, that we should live unto God ? 
 Doth it become the son of a king to go in rags, or to converse 
 with mean and ignoble persons ? Now by the gospel we have 
 that great honour and privilege given us to be called the sons 
 of God, and shall we then walk as servants of Satan ? 
 Would any prince endure to see the heir of his crown live in 
 bondage to his own vassal and most hated enemy ? Herein is 
 the greatest glory of the gospel above the law, that it is a law 
 of life and liberty, a word which transformeth men into the 
 image of Christ, and maketh them such as it requireth them 
 to be. So that to walk still according to the course of the 
 world as we did before, is, as much as in us lies, to make the 
 gospel as weak and unprofitable as the law. " How do ye 
 say, We are wise," saith the prophet, " and the law of the 
 Lord is with us ? Lo, certainly in vain made he it ; the pen 
 of the scribe is in vain," Jer. viii. 8 ; that is, the privilege of 
 having the oracles and ordinances of God committed unto us, 
 will do us no more good, if we walk unworthy of so great a 
 grace, than if those ordinances had never been written or re- 
 vealed to men. 
 
 Here then it is needful to inquire in what manner we are 
 to adorn and set forth the glory of the gospel. To this I 
 answer, 
 
 [1.] That the greatest honour we can do unto the gospel 
 is to set it up in our hearts, as our only rule by which we are 
 to walk, that we prefer it above all our own counsels, and ven- 
 ture not to mingle it with the wisdom and reasonings of the 
 flesh ; that we raise up our conversation unto it, and never 
 bend it unto the crookedness of our own ends or rules. " As 
 ye have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him," 
 saith the apostle. Col. ii. 6 ; that is, fashion your conversa- 
 tion to the doctrine of Christ, let that have the highest place, 
 and the over-ruling suffrage in your hearts. There is all wis- 
 dom in the gospel ; it is able to make men wise unto salvation : 
 that is, there is wisdom enough in it to compass the utmost 
 and most difficult end. And what can the reasonino;s of the 
 
162 THE GLORY OF THE GOSPEL. 
 
 flesh contribute to that which was all wisdom before, and 
 which can thoroughly furnish a man unto every good work ? 
 This glory, St. Paul (though a man of great learning, of 
 strong intellect, of a working and stirring spirit, qualities very 
 unapt to yield and be silent) did at the very first revelation 
 thereof give unto the gospel ; " Immediately," said he, " I 
 conferred not with flesh and blood,'' Gal. xvi. 1 ; I did not 
 compare the gospel of Christ with the principles of my carnal 
 wisdom ; I did not resolve to dispute against God's grace, or 
 to conform unto this mystery, no further than the precepts of 
 mine own reason, or the co-existence of mine own secular ends 
 and preferments would allow ; but I captivated all my thoughts, 
 and laid down all the weapons of the flesh at Christ's feet, 
 resting only on this word as a treasury of wisdom, and yield- 
 ing up my whole heart to be in all things ordered by this rule. 
 It is an horrible boldness in many men to wrest, and torture, 
 and distinguish the gospel into all shapes for their own lusts' 
 sake. As we see what shifts men will use, to make the way 
 of life broader than it is, by looking upon it through their own 
 multiplying glasses ; what evasions and subterfuges sin will 
 find out to escape by, when the letter of the word presseth 
 sore upon them. Oh how many sins might men escape, how 
 wonderfully might they improve the image of Christ in their 
 hearts, if they did, with David, make the law their counsellor, 
 and weigh every action which they go about, those especially 
 which they have any motions of reluctancy in the spirit of 
 their mind unto, not in the deceitful balance of human cus- 
 tom, but in the balance of the sanctuary, the holy Scriptures I 
 If they would seriously remember that they must always walk 
 in Christ, Col. ii. 6, make him the rule, the way, the end, the 
 judge, the companion, the assistant in all their works ; that as 
 the members of the body do nothing at all but in the fellow- 
 ship of the body, and as they are thereunto applied by the 
 same common soul which animates them all ; so christian men 
 should do nothing but as parts of Christ, and as actuated by 
 the same gracious Spirit which is in him. This is the mean- 
 ing of our being christians, and of that consent which in our 
 baptism we yield unto that covenant of Christ, that we will not 
 follow nor be led by Satan, the world, or the flesh, — that is, 
 by that wisdom which is earthly, sensual, devihsh, — but that we 
 will be ordered by that Spirit of regeneration, the seal of whose 
 baptism we receive in our sacramental washing. Oh then 
 what is become of the Christianity of many men, who forget 
 
THE GLORY OF THE GOSPEL 163 
 
 that they have been purged ; who live as if they had never been 
 baptized into Christ; who Uve as if they had never learned Christ? 
 What a prodigy and contradiction is it, that the tongue which 
 lately professed itself to be christian, and said Amen to a 
 most holy praver, should (like those beasts, which Seneca 
 speaketh of, which, by turning aside their head to some other 
 spectacle, do immediately forget the meat which they seemed 
 most greedily to eat before) break forth presently into blasphe- 
 mies, oaths, lies, revilings, clamours, obscenities, which are 
 the very fumes and evidences of hell in the heart I that those 
 hands which lately were reached forth to receive the sacred 
 pledges and mysteries of salvation, which were lately employed 
 in distributing alms to the members of Christ, or in helping to 
 lift up a prayer unto heaven, which seemed, like the hands of 
 Ezekiel*s living creature, to have wings of devotion over them, 
 should suddenly have their wings melted off, and fall down to 
 covetous and cruel practices again ! that those feet, which in 
 the morning carried men into the Lord's sanctuary, and into 
 the presence of Christ, should the same day turn the backs of 
 the same men upon the temple of the Lord, and carry them to 
 scenes of iniquity and nurseries of uncleanness I that those eyes, 
 which just now seemed to have been nailed unto heaven, and 
 to have contended with the tongue and the hand which should 
 more earnestly have presented the prayers of the soul to God, 
 should, almost in the space of their own twinkhng, be filled 
 with sparks of uncleanness, gazing and glutting themselves 
 upon vain or adulterous objects! What is this but for men to 
 renounce their baptism, to tear off their seal, and dash out 
 their subscription from the covenant of grace, to deny the Lord 
 that bought them, to repent their bargain which they had 
 made for salvation, and really to dishonour that gospel which 
 they hypocritically profess ? This, then, is the first honour 
 which we can do unto the gospel of Christ, when we set it up 
 in our hearts as a most adequate rule of all wisdom, and the 
 alone principle of every action. 
 
 [2.] We continue to honour the gospel of Christ by 
 walking in obedience thereunto as our perfect rule. In the 
 obedience of faith, receiving it, and leaning upon it, laying hold 
 on the covenant which is therein revealed, as on the only hope 
 which is set before us ; for this is a great acknowledgment of 
 the glory and praise of God when we trust in him for salvation. 
 Therefore the apostle, having showed the glory of Christ above 
 Moses, maketh this principal use of it, that therefore we 
 
164 THE GLORY OF THE GOSPEL. 
 
 should hear his voice, and take heed of an evil and unbelieving 
 heart, in departing from him, Heb. iii. 3 — 12. We, saith he, 
 are to the praise of God's glory, who trust in Christ, Eph. 
 i. 12. Again ; in obedience of life and holiness. When for 
 the honour of the gospel we can deny ourselves, and dishonour 
 our lusts, and part from all that we had before as from dross, 
 and express the image of Christ in our conversation. This is 
 indeed the true learning of Christ, when we show forth his life 
 in ours, when we walk as he also walked, when as he was, so 
 we are in this world, when the same mind, judgment, affec- 
 tions are in us, which were in Christ. Thus, the faithful are 
 said to honour God when they sanctify his sabbath, and to 
 glorify him when they bring forth much fruit, Eph. iv. 20, 22 ; 
 1 John ii. 6 ; iv. 17 ; Phil. ii. 5 ; Isa. Iviii. 13 ; John xv. 8. 
 [3.] We honour the gospel of Christ by constancy and con- 
 tinuance in our faith and obedience thereunto ; for standing fast, 
 or persisting immovably in our course without sorrow or repent- 
 ance, is an argument of the excellency of the gospel. " Walk," 
 saith the apostle, " as becometh the gospel — that I may hear 
 of your affairs, that ye stand fast in one spirit," Phil. i. 27. 
 Lusts ever bring inconstancy with them, and make the soul 
 like weary and distempered bodies, never well m any posture or 
 condition. Wicked men flee, like bees from one flower to ano- 
 ther, from one vanity to another, can never find enough in any 
 to satiate the endless intemperancy of unnatural desires ; only 
 the gospel, being spiritually apprehended, hath treasures 
 enough for the soul to rest in, and to seek no further. And 
 therefore falling away from the truth, power, or purity of the 
 gospel is said to expose Christ to shame, and to crucify him 
 again. For as in baptism, when we renounce sin, and betake 
 ourselves to Christ, we do, as it were, expose sin unto public 
 infamy, and nail it on the cross of Christ ; so, when we re» 
 volt from Christ unto sin again, and in our hearts turn back 
 unto Egypt, and thrust him from us, we do then put him to 
 shame again, as if he were either in his power deficient, or 
 unfaithful in those promises which before we pretended to rely 
 upon. If Israel, as they consulted, should likewise actually 
 have rebelled against Moses, and returned in body, as well 
 as in heart, unto Egypt again, what a scorn would it have 
 wrought in that proud nation, that their vassals should volun- 
 tarily resume their thraldom, after so many boasts and appear- 
 ances of deliverance I If a man should relinquish the service 
 of some noble person, and apply himself unto some sordid 
 
THE GLORY OF THE GOSPEL. 165 
 
 master for subsistence, would not the mouths of men be 
 quickly open ; or their minds jealous to suspect that, however 
 such a man carries a high name, and there be great expecta- 
 tions from attending on him, yet in truth he is but a dry mas- 
 ter, whom his own servants do so publicly dishonour ? so, 
 when any men turn apostates from the power and profession of 
 the gospel of Christ, presently wicked men are apt to blaspheme, 
 and to conceive desperate prejudices against our high and holy 
 calling. If any man make a boast of the law, and yet break it, he 
 dishonoureth God the more ; for, saith the apostle, " The 
 name of God is blasphemed among the gentiles through you," 
 Rom. ii. 24 ; so constancy in Christ's service giveth him the 
 glory of an honourable master, and his law of a royal law, put- 
 teth to silence the ignorance of those foolish men, who lie in 
 wait to take advantages, that they may blaspheme the name of 
 God, and his doctrine, 1 Pet, ii. 15, 16 ; 1 Tim. vi. 1. 
 
 [4.] The gospel of Christ is honoured by the unity of 
 spirit, and concurrent judgments and affections of men towards 
 it. When all the sincere professors thereof do unani- 
 mously strive together, and earnestly contend for it ; when all 
 that ever have been, or are acquainted therewith, do glorify it 
 with their suffrages and subscription ; it must needs be a glo- 
 rious gospel, if all that ever looked on it do so conclude. No- 
 thing was ever able to deceive all men, neither did so many 
 ever combine to deceive others. When the pliilosophers se- 
 verally strove for the precedence of their several sects, and 
 every man, after his own order, gave the next place unto Plato, 
 it was undoubtedly concluded that his was the most 
 excellent, because, after their own prejudice and personal re- 
 spects, it was honoured by the equal suffrages of all the rest : 
 how much more must the gospel needs be glorious, which 
 hath the joint attestation of angels and all holy men since the 
 world began to honour it withal I Therefore, when the apostle 
 proveth the greatness of this heavenly mystery, he useth a 
 word which importeth the consent of men, without any doubt, 
 or by an universal confession, "Great is the mystery of godliness," 
 1 Tim. iii. 16. Doth it not much set forth the glory of a 
 law, that there should be so much wisdom, power, equity, ma- 
 jesty, and beauty in the face of it, that every true subject in a 
 realm should concur in a constant and uniform love and 
 obedience to it ? Let us, therefore, express the glory of the 
 gospel, not only in our joint confessions, but in our united 
 obedience thereunto, and in our unanimous zeal and con- 
 
166 THE GLORY OF THE GOSPEL. 
 
 tention for it ; in our brotherly affections and compassions to 
 one another; for the schisms and disafFections of christians 
 bring much dishonour upon their holy profession, which in all 
 their miscarriages doth ever, by occasion of the unreasonable- 
 ness of wicked men, suffer together with them. Therefore, the 
 apostle, from the unity of Christ in himself, concludeth that 
 such he should be in his members too. Is Christ divided? 
 Hath he divers opinions, or hath he the truth of God in re- 
 spect of persons ? Such as he is, such should you be like- 
 wise, lest by your contentions you seem to make another 
 Christ, or another gospel, than that which you have received. 
 [3.] The gospel of Christ is honoured in our studying of 
 it, and digging after it in our serious and painful inquiries into 
 the mysteries of it. St. Paul despised all other knowledge. 
 and shook off every weight that he might press forward with 
 the more unwearied affections towards so excellent a treasure. 
 Surely, if men had the spirit of the apostle, or of those blessed 
 angels which desire to pry into the gospel of Christ, they would 
 not mispend so much precious time in frothy and fruitless 
 studies, nor waste away that lamp of reason in their bosoms in 
 empty and unnourishing blazes ; but would set more hours 
 apart to look into the patent of their salvation, (which is the 
 book of God,) and to acquaint themselves with Christ before- 
 hand, that when they come into his presence they may have the 
 entertainment of friends, and not of strangers. Men that in- 
 tend to travel into foreign kingdoms with any advantage to 
 their parts, or improvement of their experience, do beforehand 
 season and prepare themselves with the language, with some 
 topographical observations of the country, with some general 
 notions of the manners, forms, civilities, and entertainments of the 
 natives there ; do delight to converse with those men who are 
 best learned in these or the like particulars. Surely, as we 
 all profess a journey to heaven, a pilgrimage in this present 
 world, we should have our conversation now where we look 
 to have our everlasting abode with the Lord hereafter. Now, 
 in the gospel of Christ we have, as it were, a map, a topogra- 
 phical delineation of those glorious mansions which are there 
 prepared for the church ; we have a taste and description of 
 the manners of that people ; we have some rudiments of the 
 heavenly language ; in one word, we have abundantly enough, 
 not only to prepare us for it, but to inflame all the desires of 
 our soul unto it, even as exiles or captives desire to return to 
 their native country. Now then, if we no way desire to study 
 
THE GLORY OF THE GOSPEL. 167 
 
 it, or acquaint ourselves with it ; if we seem to desire the sif^ht 
 of Christ in heaven, and, when we may every day have a 
 blessed view of his face in the glass of his gospel, we turn 
 away our eyes, and regard it not, we do as good as proclaim 
 to all the world, that either our hopes of heaven are very slen- 
 der, or our care thereof little or none at all. And this I take 
 for a most undoubted truth, that there is so much of the 
 knowledge, grace, and Spirit of Christ, and through him of the 
 Father, in the holy Scriptures, (and those only are the things 
 which make heaven to be the home and the hope of men,) 
 as that whosoever neglecteth the study of them, and suffereth 
 the Scriptures to lie by him as a sealed book, would be every 
 whit as unwilling, if heaven gates were wide open unto him, to 
 relinquish his portion in the earth, and to spend his time in 
 the fruition or contemplation of that glorious country. 
 
 [6.] We honour the gospel when in our greatest distresses 
 we make it our altar of refuge, our door of escape, the ground 
 of all our hope and comfort, the only anchor to stay our souls 
 in any spiritual tempest, the only staff to lean upon in our 
 greatest darkness. Whatever other carnal comforts men may 
 for a time rejoice in, they will all prove but as a fire of sparks, 
 or as a blaze of thorns, which can yield no solid or abiding 
 light unto the soul. When sinners in Sion begin once to be 
 afraid, and to be surprised with the fearfulness of a guilty soul, 
 when the affrighted conscience shall put that dreadful ques- 
 tion, in the prophet, to itself, How can I dwell with devour- 
 ing fire ? How can I dwell with everlasting burning ? there 
 will no other answer allay the scorching terror thereof, but 
 that in the end of the same chapter, " The people that dwell 
 therein shall be forgiven their iniquity," Isa. xxxiii. 14, 24. 
 If thou wilt indeed be comforted, sue out thy pardon, flee to 
 the court of mercy which is erected in the gospel. This was 
 our Saviour's argument to the man that was sick of the palsy, 
 " Son, be of good cheer, thy sins be forgiven thee," Matt. 
 ix.2. There is no worldly affliction goeth closer to the life of 
 a man than sickness ; and yet, as in the midst of laughter the 
 heart of a wicked man is sorrowful, because it is still under 
 the guilt of sin, so in the midst of pain and sorrow the heart 
 of a godly man may be cheerful, because his sins are forgiven. 
 
 To conclude this point, we may, for our better encourage- 
 ment in so necessary a duty, lay together these considerations : 
 
 1. In point of honour we should learn to walk as becometh 
 the gospel, for the gospel is a christian's glory, and therefore 
 
168 THE GLORY OF THE GOSPEL. 
 
 ought to be preserved in his heart, as his chiefest privilege. 
 The Spirit of God will not endure to have holy things pro- 
 faned, as if they were common or unclean. Belshazzar con- 
 verted the consecrated vessels of the temple into instruments of 
 luxury and intemperance ; but the Lord tempered his wine 
 with dregs, and made them prove unto him as cups of trem- 
 bling and astonishment. Now then, if the Lord were thus 
 jealous for the types of his gospel, how think we, can he en- 
 dure to see the gospel itself dishonoured by an unsuitable pro- 
 fession, or the blood of the covenant trampled under foot, as 
 if it were a common or unclean thing ; in the contempt of the 
 gospel there is more dishonour done unto each Person of the 
 blessed Trinity, than can be by any other sin. An under- 
 valuing of the Father's wisdom, that great mystery and coun- 
 sel of redemption which was hidden from former ages ; and 
 what an indignity is it unto him, for a man to shut out the light 
 of the sun, that so he may enjoy the pitiful benefit of dark- 
 ness, to gaze upon the false glistering of rotten wood, or of 
 earthly slime, the deceit whereof would be by the true light 
 discovered ! An undervaluing of his wonderful love, as if he 
 had put himself unto a needless compassion, and might have 
 kept it still in his own bosom. A scorn unto the Son of God, 
 when we suffer him to stand at our doors, with his locks wet 
 with the dew of heaven, to put his finger into the hole of the 
 lock, as if he desired to steal an entrance upon the soul ; to 
 empty, to humble, to deny himself, to suffer the wrongs of men, 
 and the wrath of God, and after all this to have that precious 
 blood, which was squeezed out with such woful agonies, 
 counted no other than the blood of a common malefactor ; nor 
 that sacred body which was thus broken, discerned from the 
 bodies of the thieves which were crucified with him. An indig- 
 nity beyond all apprehension to the Spirit of grace, when we 
 suffer him to wait daily at our Bethesda, our houses of mercy, 
 and all in vain to spend his sacred breath in the ministry of 
 reconciliation, in doubling and redoubling his requests unto 
 our souls that we should be contented to be saved ; while 
 we harden our hearts, and stop our ears, and set up the 
 pride and stoutness of our own reasonings, till we do even 
 weary him, and chide him away from us. Now, this is a cer- 
 tain rule, God will not lose any honour by men's sins ; if 
 they refuse to give him the glory of his mercy, he will show 
 the glory of his power and justice in treading down the proud 
 enemies of Christ under his feet. As they that honour him 
 
THE GLORY OF THE GOSPEL. 169 
 
 shall be honoured ; so they who cast any disgrace upon his 
 truth and covenant, shall be sure to meet with shame and dis- 
 honour at the last. 
 
 2. To avoid scandal. The gospel is the light of a nation ; 
 and sins in the light, as they are committed with more impu- 
 dence, so likewise with more offence. An offence or scandal 
 tending unto sin in misguiding the weak, in encouraging and 
 confirming the obdurate, in opening the mouths of adversaries 
 to revile our holy profession ; and a scandal tending unto sor- 
 row in wounding the hearts of the godly, and vexing their 
 righteous spirits with a filthy conversation. 
 
 3. We should learn to walk as becometh the gospel, even 
 in respect to the state, for the gospel is the foundation of true 
 peace and tranquillity in a commonweal ; and those who show 
 forth the power thereof, are, as it were, lions about the throne 
 of their king. By righteousness the throne is established, but 
 sin is a reproach unto any people. One Joseph in Egypt is 
 a store-house to all the kingdom; one Elisha, an army of 
 chariots and of horsemen unto Israel ; one Moses, a fence to 
 keep out an inundation of wrath which was breaking in upon 
 the people ; one Paul, an haven, an anchor, a deliverance to 
 all that were in the ship with him. And now, if the stars fall, 
 we must needs look for tempests to ensue ; if the salt lose its 
 savour, we cannot look that any thing should be long pre- 
 served. If christians live as if they had no gospel, or as if 
 they had another gospel, what can we expect but that God 
 should either plague us, or forsake us, either send his judg- 
 ments, or curse his blessings ? 
 
 4. The gospel makes sin more filthy, if it do not purge 
 it ; the sweet savour of the gospel maketh the sins of men 
 more noisome and odious in the nostrils of the Almighty. 
 And therefore we see what a fearful doom the apostle pro- 
 nounceth against those, who having tasted of the good Spirit 
 of God, and been enlightened, and in some sort affected with 
 his grace, do yet afterwards fall away, — even an impossibility 
 of repentance or renovation, Heb. vi. 4, 7 ; x. 26. From 
 which place, perversely wrested, the Novatians of old did 
 gather a desperate and uncomfortable conclusion, that sin 
 committed after regeneration was absolutely unpardonable, 
 to avoid the danger of which damnable and damning doctrine, 
 some have boldly questioned both the author and authenticity 
 of that epistle ; yet, all these inferences being denied, we learn 
 
 1 
 
170 Christ's care of his church. 
 
 from thence this plain observation, — that precedent illumina- 
 tion from the gospel of Christ, doth tend much to the aggra- 
 vation of those sins which are committed against it. And there- 
 fore, from all these considerations, we should labour to walk 
 worthy of so glorious a gospel, and of so great a salvation. 
 
 III. Thus have we at large spoken of the rod of Christ's 
 strength, as it is an ensign and rod of majesty ; we are now to 
 speak a little of it as it is an episcopal rod, which denoteth 
 much heedfulness and tender care. This is the precept which 
 the apostle giveth unto the pastors of the church, that they 
 would take special heed to all the flock over which the Holy 
 Ghost had made them overseers, Acts xx. 28. And the apos- 
 tle again reckoneth vigilance, or care over the flock amongst 
 the principal characters of a bishop, 1 Tim. iii. 2 ; and he 
 professeth of himself, that there did daily lie upon him '* the 
 care of the churches," 2 Cor. xi. 28. And this consideration 
 atFordeth us another note out of the words, namely, that Christ 
 in the ministry of his gospel, and dispensation of his Spirit, is 
 full of care and tenderness towards his church. This Christ 
 maketh one main point of opposition between himself and 
 hirelings, that these care not for the flock, but suff'er the wolf 
 to come, and to scatter them, while they flee away ; whereas, 
 he keepeth them that none may be lost, and prayeth unto 
 the Father to keep them, through his own name, John x. 12, 
 13; xvii. 11, 12. The Lord committed the church unto 
 Christ as their head; gave them into his hands, not as an ordi- 
 nary gift, wherein he did relinquish his own interest rn 
 them, or care of them, (for he careth for them still,) but 
 as a blessed trust : entrusted them with him, as the choicest 
 of his jewels, as the most precious casket amongst all the trea- 
 sures of the creation, that he should polish, preserve, present 
 them faultless, and without spot before the presence of his 
 glory at the last day. And for this purpose, he gave him a 
 commandment of the greatest care and tenderness that ever the 
 world knew, that he should lay down his life for his sheep, and 
 should lose nothing of all that was given him, but should 
 raise it up at the last day, John x. 18; vi. 39. So that now, 
 want of care or compassion of Christ towards his church, 
 would be an argument of unfaithfulness ; if he had not been 
 a merciful High-Priest, neither could he have been faithful to 
 him that appointed him, for he was appointed to be merciful, 
 and was by the Spirit of God filled with most tender affections, 
 
CHRIST S CARE OF HIS CHURCH. 171 
 
 ^nd qualified with a heart fuller of compassion than the sea is 
 of waters, that he might commiserate the distresses of his 
 people, and take care of their salvation. 
 
 1. Notably doth this care of Christ show itself, in the appor- 
 tioning and measuring forth to every one his due portion, and 
 in the midst of those infinite occasions and exigencies of his 
 several members in providing such particular passages of his 
 word, as may be thereunto most exactly suitable ; for this 
 showeth that his care reacheth unto particular men. It is the 
 duty of a faithful bishop, to make such a difference between 
 men, and so to divide or distribute the word aright, as that 
 every one may have the portion which is due unto him. Some 
 are but lambs in Christ's flock, young, tender, weak, easily 
 offended or affrighted ; others are sheep, grown up to more 
 strength and maturity : some in his garner are but cummin 
 seed, others fitches, and some harder corn : some can but 
 bear a little rod, others a greater staff or flail, and some the 
 pressure of a cart wheel ; that which doth but cleanse some, 
 would batter and break others into pieces : some are suffering 
 from the pangs of a burdened conscience and the agonies of 
 deep contrition ; others are, as it were, new born, yet very ten- 
 der, weak, and fearful ; and these he gathers with his arm, and 
 carries in his bosom, shows them that his care doth not only 
 reach unto the least of his kingdom, but that his compassions 
 are most enlarged to those that are too weak to help them- 
 selves ; that he hath breasts of consolation to satisfy and de- 
 light, with abundance, the smallest infant of his kingdom, Isa. 
 Ixvi. 11. Some are broken-hearted, and those he bindeth ; 
 some are captives, to those he proclaimeth liberty ; some are 
 mourners in Sion, and for them he hath beauty, and oil of joy, 
 and garments of praise ; some are bruised reeds, whom every 
 curse or commination is able to crush ; and some are smok- 
 ing flax, whom every temptation is able to discourage ; and 
 yet even these doth he so carefully tend and furnish with such 
 proportionable supplies of his Spirit of grace, as makes that 
 seed and sparkle of holiness, which he began in them, get up 
 above all their own fears, or their enemies' machinations, and 
 grow from a judgment of truth and sincerity (as it is called by 
 the prophet) unto a judgment of victory and perfection, as it 
 is termed by the evangelist. In one word, some are strong, 
 and others are weak ; the strong he feedeth, the weak he 
 cureth ; the strong he confirmeth, the weak he restoreth : he 
 hath trials for the strong to exercise their graces, and he hath 
 
 i2 
 
172 Christ's care of his church. 
 
 cordials for the weak to strengthen theirs. According unto 
 the several states, and unto the secret demands of each mem- 
 ber's condition, so doth the care of Christ severally show it- 
 self towards the same in his word ; there is provision for any 
 want, medicine for any disease, comforts for any distress, pro- 
 mises for any faith, answers to any doubt, directions in any 
 difficulty, weapons against any temptation, preservatives 
 against any sin, restoratives against any lapse; garments to 
 cover my nakedness, meat to satisfy my hunger, physic to cure 
 rav diseases, armour to protect my person, a treasure to provide 
 for my posterity. If 1 am rich, I have there the wisdom oi 
 God to instruct me ; and if I am poor, I have there the 
 oblio-ations of God to enrich me. If I am honourable, I have 
 there the sight of my sins to make me vile, and rules of mo- 
 deration to make me humble ; if I am of low degree, I have 
 there the communion and consanguinity of Christ, the partici- 
 pation of the Divine nature, the adoption of God the Father, 
 to make me noble. If I am learned, I have there a law of 
 charity to order it unto edification ; and if I am. unlearned, 
 I have there a Spirit who searcheth the deep things of God, 
 who can give wisdom unto the simple, who can reveal se- 
 crets unto babes, who can command light to shine out of 
 darkness, who can give the light of the knowledge of the 
 glory, fulness, and love of God in the face of Jesus Christ, 
 who can make me, though ignorant of all other things, to 
 learn Christ, in whom there is more wisdom, more various and 
 admirable curiosity, more filling and plentiful satisfaction, 
 more proportion to the boundless desires of a soul once recti- 
 fied, more fruit and salvation (which should be the end of 
 every christian man's learning) than in all other knowledge, 
 which either past or present ages can afford. In one word, 
 everywhere, and in all things, I am there taught how to want, 
 and how to abound, and how to do all things through Christ 
 that strengthens me. A christian can be set in no condition, 
 wherein the abundant care of Christ over him is not in the 
 gospel wonderfully magnified. And commonly in the greatest 
 straits, he showeth the greatest care, as waters run strongest 
 in the narrowest passages ; when we walk in darkness, and 
 have no light, when we seek water, and there is none, and our 
 tongue faileth for thirst, then is his fittest time to help us, and 
 then is our fittest time to stay upon him. Israel were delivered 
 by miracles of mercy from their Egyptian bondage, and in the 
 wilderness conducted by a miraculous presence, and fed with 
 
CHRIST S CARE OF HIS CHURCH. 173 
 
 angel's food. Isaac was upon the altar, and then in the mount 
 was the Lord seen, and his mercy stepped in hetween the knife 
 and the sacrifice. Jacob in great fear of his brother Esau, 
 and then comforted by prevailing with an angel who was 
 stronger than Esau. Peter in sorest distress for denying Christ, 
 and he the first man to whom Christ sent news of his resur- 
 rection. Paul in the ship visited by an angel. Peter in pri- 
 son delivered by an angel. The distressed woman at Christ's 
 sepulchre comforted by an angel. Such as the extremities of 
 the saints are, such is Christ's care for their deliverances. 
 
 The care of Christ is thus further commended, that it pro- 
 ceedeth solely from the grace and compassion of Christ ; there 
 is no affection naturally in us to desire it, there is no virtue in 
 us to deserve it : when we were in our blood, well pleased 
 with our own pollution, he doubled his goodness, and used a 
 kind of violence and importunity of mercy to make us live ; 
 when we did not seek after him, when we did not so much as 
 ask whether he were fit to be sought, when we were aliens 
 from his covenant, and strangers to his name, he even then 
 multiplied his invitation unto us, " I said, behold me, behold 
 me, unto a nation that was not called by my name," Isa. 
 Ixv. 1. When we were weak, full of impotency ; when we were 
 sinners, full of antipathy ; when we were enemies, full of obsti- 
 nacy and rebellion ; when we cared not for him, but turned 
 our backs, and stopped our ears, and suffered him to throw 
 away in vain so many sermons, so many sacraments, so many 
 mercies, so many afflictions upon us ; when we cared not for 
 ourselves, no man repented, or said, " What have I done?" even 
 then did he magnify his compassion towards us ; he cared for 
 us, when we neglected ourselves, despised him ; he bestowed 
 his mercy not only upon the unthankful, but upon the 
 injurious. 
 
 But then a little compassion is enough for those that had 
 deserved none, for those that had provoked scorn and dis- 
 pleasure against themselves ; but herein is the care and tender-^ 
 ness of Christ abundantly magnified, that it hath in it all the 
 ingredients of a most sovereign mercy, that nothing more 
 could have been done, than he hath done for us. 
 
 1. For the foundation and original of all mercy, there is in 
 him an overflowing of love, without stint or measure, a turning 
 of heart, a rolling and sounding of bowels, a love which sur- 
 passeth all knowledge, which is as much beyond the thoughts 
 
174 Christ's care of his church. 
 
 or comprehensions, as it is above the merits of men, Hos. xi. 8 ; 
 Jer. xxxi. 20 ; Eph. iii. 19 ; Isa. Iv. 9 ; Jer. xxix. 11. 
 
 2. There is a study and inquisitiveness how to do good, a 
 debating within himself, a consulting and projecting how to 
 show mercy ; an arguing, as it were, of his grace with man's 
 sin, and his own severity ; " How shall I give thee up, Ephraim ? 
 how shall I deliver thee, Israel ? how shall I make thee as 
 Admah ? how shall I set thee as Zeboim ? mine heart is 
 turned within me, my repentings are kindled together," Hosea 
 xi. 8. True it is, thou hast been unto me as the rulers of 
 Sodom, and as the people of Gomorrah : but shall I be unto 
 thee, as I have been unto them ? Am I not God, and not man ? 
 shall I change my covenant, because thou hast multiplied thy 
 backslidings ? The Lord useth such human expressions of 
 his proceedings with men, as if their sins had put him to a stand, 
 and brought him to difficulties in showing mercy. " I said, 
 How shall I put thee among the children, and give thee a 
 pleasant land?" Jer. iii. 19. Thy case is very desperate, and 
 thou hast stopped up the courses of my mercy towards thyself; 
 how then shall I make good my resolutions of compassion to- 
 wards those that reject and nullify it to themselves ? Surely, 
 there is no way but one, to over-rule the hearts of obstinate 
 sinners, that they may not turn away any more. Thou shalt 
 call me my Father, that is, I will put filial affections, awful 
 thoughts, constant resolutions into thy heart, and thou shalt 
 not turn away from me. " I will melt them and try them," 
 saith the Lord ; " for how shall I do for the daughter of my 
 people ?'' Jer. ix. 7. The Lord setteth himself to study and 
 contrive mercy for his people, that as they set up their sins, as 
 it were, in pride to oppose his covenant ; so he gathereth to- 
 gether his thoughts of mercy, as it were, to conquer their sins. 
 
 3. There is constancy and continuance in this his care ; " His 
 mercy endureth, his compassions fail not, but are renewed 
 every morning," Lam. iii. 22, 23. And therefore the mercies 
 of David, that is, of Christ, for so he is called, or the 
 mercies of the covenant made with David, are called " sure 
 mercies ;" they have a foundation, the everlasting love and 
 counsel of God, upon which they are built ; they have many 
 ■seals by which they are confirmed, the faithfulness, the immu- 
 tabihty, and the oath of God : if there were not continuance 
 in his mercies, if he were not the same yesterday, and to day, 
 and for ever in his truth and fidelity to bis church ; if he 
 
Christ's care of his church. 175 
 
 should change and turn from us, as oft as we forsake lilin, if 
 he should leave us in the hand of our own counsel, and not 
 afford us such daily supplies of his Spirit, as might support us 
 against the ruinous disposition of our own nature, we should 
 be children of wrath every day anew. But herein doth the 
 abundant care of Christ in the gospel declare itself unto us, 
 that though we are worms in ourselves, full of weakness, and 
 of earthly affections, yet God hath a right hand of righteous- 
 ness, which can uphold us ; that, though we are bent to back- 
 sliding, yet he is God, and not man ; unchangeable in his 
 covenant with the persons, and almighty in his power and 
 mercy towards the sins of men, both to cover them with his 
 righteousness, and to cure them by his Spirit ; both to forgive 
 for the time past, and to heal and prevent backslidings for the 
 time to come. 
 
 4. That he might be fit for so mean and humble a service, 
 there was a lessening and emptying of himself; he was con- 
 tented to be subject to his own ; to be the child of his own 
 creature; to take upon himself not the similitude only, but 
 the infirmities of sinful flesh ; to descend from his throne, and 
 to put on rags ; in one word, to become poor for us, that we, 
 through his poverty, might be made rich, 2 Cor. viii. 9. 
 Amongst men, many will be willing to show so much mercy as 
 will consist with their state and greatness, and may tend to 
 beget a further distance, and to magnify their height and 
 honour in the minds of men : but when it comes to this exi- 
 gency, that a man must debase himself to do good unto 
 another ; that his compassion will be to a miserable man no 
 benefit, except he suffer ignominy, and undergo a servile con- 
 dition for him, and do, as it were, change habits with the man 
 whom he pities; what region of the earth will afford a man 
 who will freely make his own honour to be the price of his 
 brother's redemption ? Yet this is the manner of Christ's care 
 for us, who, though he were the Lord of glory, the brightness 
 of his Father's glory, and the express image of his person, 
 did yet humble himself to endure shame and the contra- 
 diction of sinners, that he might be the Author and Finisher 
 of our faith. 
 
 3. There was not only an humbling, or metaphoncal empty- 
 ing of himself, in that " he made himself of no reputation," 
 but there was likewise a real and proper emptying of himself: 
 he therein testified his wonderful care of the businesses of man, 
 that for them he put himself to the greatest expense, and to 
 
176 Christ's care of his church. 
 
 tlie exhausting of a richer treasure than any t-ither heaven or 
 earth could afford besides. " Ye were not redeemed," saith 
 the apostle, " with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from 
 your vain conversation, but with the precious blood of Christ, 
 as of a lamb without blemish, and without spot," 1 Pet. i. 
 18, 19. That which no man will bestow upon himself, and 
 that which was in nature, and might justly in love have been 
 nearest to Christ himself, even the soul in his body, and the 
 blood in his veins, he was contented to make a sacrifice for 
 them, who poured it out as the blood of a malefactor. 
 
 6. Besides this great price which he paid to his Father for 
 us, he hath opened another treasure of his grace and Spirit, 
 out of which he affordeth us daily supphes, and putteth into 
 our hands, as it were, an heavenly stock, for the better negoti- 
 ating and improvement of our salvation. He setteth up his 
 Spirit in our hearts, thereby conversing and communing with 
 us, teaching us the trade of the citizens of heaven, and of lay- 
 ing up treasures there, where our final abode must be ; 
 of having our conversation and commerce with innumerable 
 companies of angels, and with the spirits of just men made 
 perfect, and with all that general assembly and church of the 
 first-born which is enrolled in heaven. 
 
 7. To all this he addeth preparations and provisions for 
 the future for us ; he doth not only give, but he prepareth 
 things for those that love him, and whatever is wanting now 
 he will make it up unto us in the riches of his glory, 1 Cor. ii. 
 9; Phil. iv. 19. It was for our expediency that he left the 
 church on earth, (in regard of his carnal presence,) and went 
 unto his Father again ; he was not beholden to change of 
 place for his own glory, for his heaven was within himself as a 
 fountain ; and indeed it is his presence which maketh heaven 
 to be the place of glory: therefore St. Paul desired to depart, 
 and to be with Christ ; noting, that it is not heaven, but 
 Christ's presence, which is the glory of the saints. There- 
 fore, I say, it was for us that he went to heaven again ; " For 
 their sakes," saith he, " I sanctify myself;" " it is expedient 
 for you that I go away," John xvii. 19 ; xvi. 7. Expedient, 
 to seal and secure our full and final redemption unto us ; for, 
 as the levitical priest entered not into the holiest of all without 
 blood, so neither did Christ into heaven without making sa- 
 tisfaction ; he first obtained eternal redemption for us, and 
 then he entered into the holy place. And expedient to pre- 
 pare a place for us ; that the glory which is given to hiin, he 
 
CHRIST S CARE OF HIS CHURCH. 177 
 
 may give unto us ; that, being raised up together, we may 
 likewise sit together with him in heavenly places ; for, when 
 the head is crowned, the whole body is invested with roval 
 honour. He, by the virtue of his ascension, opened the king- 
 dom of heaven for all believers ; even the fathers before 
 Christ entered not in, without respect unto that consummate 
 redemption which he was in the fulness of time to accomplish 
 for his church ; as a man may be admitted into an actual 
 possession of land, only in the virtue of covenants, and under 
 the intuition of a payment to be afterwards performed. Thus 
 we see in how many things the abundant care of Christ doth 
 show itself towards the church. 
 
 And as there are therein all the particulars of a tender care, 
 so by the gospel likewise do all the fruits and benefits thereof 
 redound unto the faithful. 
 
 1. In the gospel he feedeth and strengtheneth them: even 
 in the presence of their enemies he prepareth them a table, 
 and feedeth them with his rod ; and according to their coming 
 out of Egypt, he showeth unto them marvellous things. And 
 therefoj;e our Saviour calleth his gospel the children's bread, 
 Matt. XV. 26. It is that which quickeneth, which strengthen- 
 eth them, which maketh them fruitful in spiritual works. 
 
 2. He upholdeth them from fainting ; if their strength at 
 any time fail, he leadeth them gently, and teacheth them to 
 go. As Jacob led on his cattle and his children softly, ac- 
 cording as they were able to endure ; so Christ doth lead out 
 his flock, and hold his children by the hand, and teach them 
 to go, and draweth them with the cords of a man, (that is, with 
 meek and gentle institution, such as men use towards their 
 children, and not to their beasts,) and with bands of love, Hos. 
 xi. 3, 4. As an eagle fluttereth over her young, and spreadetli 
 abroad her wings, and taketh them and beareth them on her 
 wings, Deut. xxxii. 11, 12 ; so doth the Lord in his gospel 
 sweetly lead on and institute the faithful unto strength and sal- 
 vation ; he dealeth with them as a compassionate nurse with 
 a tender infant, condescendeth to their strength and capacity : 
 when we stumble, he keepeth us ; when we fall, he raiseth us ; 
 when we faint, he beareth us in his arms ; when we grow 
 weary of well-doing, the gospel is full of encouragements to 
 hearten us, full of spirit to revive us, full of promises to esta- 
 blish us, full of beauty to entice us ; when we seem to be 
 in a wilderness, a maze, where there is no issue, nor view of 
 
 i5 
 
178 Christ's care of his church. 
 
 deliverance, even there he openeth a door of hope, and 
 allureth and speaketh comfortably unto us. 
 
 3. He healeth our diseases, our corruptions, our backshd- 
 ings : easily are the best of us misled out of the right way, 
 drawn and enticed away by our own lusts, driven away by the 
 temptations of Satan, the frowns or follies of the world ; pos- 
 sessed with carnal prejudices against the ways of God, as if 
 they were grievous, unprofitable, and unequal ; apt to take 
 every pretence to flinch away, and steal from the eye of God ; 
 apt to turn aside into every diverticle which a carnal reason and 
 a crooked heart can frame unto itself; for a corrupt heart is 
 like a wild beast, that loveth to have intricacies and windings 
 in his holes ; it cannot walk in straight paths, but loveth to 
 twist and pervert the rule of life. In these cases it is the care 
 and office of Christ to gather that which was scattered, to seek 
 that which was lost, to bring again that which was dri- 
 ven away, to bind up that which was broken, to strengthen 
 that which was sick, and to restore by his Spirit of meekness 
 those which are overtaken with a fault : his gospel is like the 
 trees of the sanctuary, not for meat only, but for m.edicine too, 
 Ezek. xxxiv. 16 ; Gal. vi. 1 ; Ezek. xlvii. 12. 
 
 4. As he healeth our diseases, and giveth us strength, so, 
 in the midst of enemies and dangers, he removeth our fears, 
 and giveth us comfort and refreshment. " I will make with 
 them," saith he, " a covenant of peace, and will cause the evil 
 beasts to cease out of the land, and they shall dwell safely in 
 the wilderness, and sleep in the woods," Ezek. xxxiv. 25 ; 
 " When the Assyrian shall come into our land, and when he 
 shall tread in our palaces, then shall we raise against him seven 
 shepherds, and eight principal men," Micah v. 3 ; namely, 
 the ministers of his gospel in abundance, to establish the hearts 
 of his people against all dangers. This is that Shiloh who 
 should bring tranquillity and peace into the church, even when 
 the sceptre should depart from Judah. When the heart is 
 full of doubts and distresses, disquieted with the fear of God's 
 displeasure, accused by the law, pursued by the adversary, and 
 condemned by itself ; then doth he still the raging of the sea, 
 and command the evil spirit to be dumb ; then doth he wipe 
 away tears from the conscience, and refresh it with living wa- 
 ters, even with the sweet communion of his Spirit, and with 
 the abundance of his graces. 
 
 5. He keepeth a continual watch over us by his spiritual 
 
CHRIST S CARE OF HIS CHURCH. 179 
 
 presence and protection. As Jacob testified his great care for 
 the good of Laban, that the drought consumed him by day, 
 and the frost by night, and that sleep departed from his eyes, 
 Gen. xxxi. 40 ; so doth the Lord commend his care towards 
 the church, in that he is the keeper or the watchman of 
 Israel, who doth neither slumber nor sleep. His presence is 
 with his people to guide them in their pilgrimage, and unto 
 which they have daily recourse for comfort and establishment. In 
 that great tempest when Christ was asleep in the ship, his disci- 
 ples awoke him and expostulated with him, " Master, carest 
 thou not that we perish ?" Mark iv. 38, 40. But, when he 
 had rebuked the wind and the sea, he then rebuked them like- 
 wise ; he had another storm of fear and unbelief to calm In 
 their hearts, who could not see him In his providence watch- 
 ing over them, when his body slept. 
 
 The grounds of this great care, which Christ in his gospel 
 testifieth towards his church, are these ; 
 
 1. He is our Kinsman ; there is affinity in blood, and there- 
 fore a natural care and tenderness In affection. We know that 
 amongst the jews, when a woman had burled an husband with- 
 out fruit of his body, the next of the kindred was to take care 
 of her, and to raise up the name of the dead upon his inheri- 
 tance. And If any man had waxen poor, and sold any of his 
 possession, the nearest kinsman was to have the first option 
 in the recovery and redemption of it. And from hence the 
 apostle argueth to prove the mercifulness and fidelity of Christ, 
 in sanctifying or bringing many sons unto glory, (for I take 
 those phrases to be In that place equivalent,) because lie was 
 not ashamed to call us brethren, but was made in all things 
 like unto us, Heb. 11. 11, 17. And we may observe, that in 
 the Scripture he hath almost all the relations of consanguinity, 
 to note that his care Is universal and of all sorts. He is a 
 Father ; " Behold, I and the children whom the Lord hath 
 given me," Isa. vill. 18 ; and the care of a father Is to govern, 
 to nourish, to instruct, to lay up for his children. He Is 
 a Mother; he carrleth his young ones in his bosom, Isa. 
 xl. 11; he gathereth them as a hen her chickens. Matt, xxlii, 
 37 ; and thus he hath a care of indulgence and compassion. He 
 Is a Brother ; " Go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend 
 unto my Father, and your Father ; and unto my God, and your 
 God," John XX. 17. And the care of a brother is to counsel, 
 advise, and comfort. " A brother Is born for adversity," Prov. 
 xvii. 17. Lastly, he is a Husband ; " Ye are married to him who 
 
180 Christ's care of his church. 
 
 is raised from the dead," Rom. vii. 4 ; and that word compriseth 
 all care, to love, to cherish, to instruct, to maintain, to pro- 
 tect, to compassionate, to adorn, to communicate both his se- 
 crets and himself. Christ is set forth unto us under all rela- 
 tions of blood and unity ; to note, that there can be no case 
 or condition of the church supposed, wherein the care of 
 Christ shall be impotent or deficient towards it, wherein he 
 is not able to correct, to nourish, to instruct, to counsel, to 
 comfort, to provide for it. 
 
 2. He is our Companion in sufferings ; he himself suffered and 
 was tempted, and this the apostle maketh a main ground of his 
 care towards us, and of our confidence in him; " We have not 
 an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our 
 infirmities, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without 
 sin;" and, therefore, "he is able to succour those that are 
 tempted," and to take compassion on those that are out of the 
 way, because he was compassed with such infirmities as 
 were much less grievous than the weight of sin, Heb. iv. 13 ; 
 ii. 17; V. 2. 
 
 3. He is our Head, and so is one with us in a nearer rela- 
 tion than that of affinity, in a relation of unity, for he and his 
 members make but one Christ. And, being the Head, he is the 
 seat of care, and the fountain of influences unto the rest of the 
 body ; all the wisdom and senses which are in the head, are 
 there placed as in a watch tower, or council chamber, to con- 
 sult and provide for the good of the whole ; the eye seeth, the 
 ear heareth, the tongue speaketh, the fancy worketh, the me- 
 mory retaineth for the welfare of the other members, and they 
 have all the same care one for another, 1 Cor. xii. 23. 
 
 4. He is our Advocate and Mediator, 1 Johnii. 1, 2. He 
 is the only practiser in the court of heaven, and therefore he 
 must needs be full of the businesses of his church. It is his 
 office to despatch the affairs of those that come unto him, and 
 crave his favour and intercession to debate their causes, and 
 he is both faithful and merciful in his place ; and besides fur- 
 nished with such unmeasurable unction of Spirit, and vast 
 abilities to transact all the businesses of his church, that who- 
 soever Cometh unto him for his counsel and intercession, he 
 will in nowise cast them out, or refuse their cause, John vi. 
 37. And this is one great assurance we may take comfort in, 
 that be our matters never so foul and inexcusable in them- 
 selves, yet the very entertaining of him as our counsel, and 
 the leaning upon his wisdom, power, fidelity, and mercy. 
 
Christ's care of his church. ISI 
 
 to expedite our businesses, to compassionate our condition, and 
 to rescue us from our own demerits, doth, as it were, alter the 
 property of the cause, and produce a complete contrary issue 
 to that which the evidence of the thing in trial would of itself 
 have created. And as we may observe, that men of extraor- 
 dinary abilities in the law delight to wrestle with some difficult 
 business, and to show their learning in clearing matters of 
 greatest intricacy and perplexity before ; so doth Christ es- 
 teem himself most honoured, and the virtue and wisdom of 
 his cross magnified, when in cases of sorest extremity, of most 
 hideous guilt, of most black and uncomfortable darkness of 
 soul, which perplex not only the presumptions, but the hope, 
 faith, conjectures, thoughts, and contrivances which the hearts 
 of men can even in wishes make to themselves for mercy, they 
 do yet trust Him " whose thoughts are infinitely above their 
 thoughts, and whose ways above their ways," Isa. Iv. 8. "Who 
 is among you that feareth the Lord, that obeyeth the voice of 
 his servant, that walketh in darkness, and hath no light? let him 
 trust in the name of the Lord, and stay upon his God," Isa. 1. 10. 
 When the soul can go unto Christ with such complaints 
 and acknowledgments as these; — Lord, when I examine my 
 cause by my own conscience and judgment of it, I cannot but 
 give it over as utterly desperate, and beyond cure ; my bones 
 are dried, my hope is cut off, I am utterly lost ; my sins and 
 my sorrows are so heavy that they have broken my spirit all to 
 pieces, and there is no sound part in me : but, Lord, I believe 
 thou knowest a way to make dead bones live ; that thy thoughts 
 and ways are above mine, that thou knowest thine own 
 thoughts of peace and mercy, though I cannot comprehend 
 them ; that thy riches are unsearchable, that thy love is above 
 human knowledge, that thy peace passeth all created under- 
 standing, that though I am the greatest of all sinners, and feel 
 enough in myself to sink me as low as Judas into hell, yet thou 
 hast not left me without patterns of all long-suffering, of thy 
 royal power in enduring, and in forgiving sins; And now. 
 Lord, though thou afford me no light, though thou beset me 
 with terrors, though thou make me to possess the sins of my 
 youth, yet I still desire to fear thy name, to walk in thy way, 
 to wait upon thy counsel : I know there is not in men or angels 
 so much wisdom, compassion, or fidelity as in thee, and there- 
 fore, if I must perish, I will perish at thy feet, I will starve 
 under thy table, I will be turned away and rejected by thee, 
 who hast promised to cast away none that come unto thee ; I 
 
182 Christ's care of his church. 
 
 have tried all ways, and I here resolve to rest, and to look no 
 further : thou that hast kept such a sinner as I am out of hell 
 thus long, canst by the same power keep me out for ever ; 
 upon thy wisdom and compassion (who canst make dry bones 
 to flourish like an herb, and broken bones to rejoice and sing) 
 I cast the whole weight of my guilty spirit ; into thy bosom I 
 empty all the fears, cares, and requests of my distracted and sink- 
 ing soul : — I say, when a man can thus pour out himself unto 
 Christ, he esteemeth the price and power of his blood most 
 highly honoured ; when men believe in him against reason, and 
 above hope, and beyond the experience or apprehensions they 
 have of mercy ; for Christ loveth to show the greatness of his 
 skill in the salvation of a Manasseh, a Mary Magdalen, a cru- 
 cified thief, a persecutor and injurious blasphemer, in giving 
 life unto them that nailed him to his cross : the more desperate 
 the disease, the more honourable the cure. 
 
 3. He is our Purchaser, our Proprietor : we belong unto 
 him by grant from the Father ; " Thine they were, and thou 
 gavest them unto me," John xvii. 6 ; and by payment from 
 him unto the Father; " Ye are bought with a price," 1 Cor. 
 vi. 20. There is no good that concerns the church that he 
 hath not fully paid for with his own precious blood. And 
 Christ will not die in vain ; he will take order for the accom- 
 plishing of that redemption which himself hath merited. And 
 this is the greatest argument of his care and fidelity, that he is 
 not as a servant, but as a lord, and his care is over his own 
 house. An ordinary advocate is faithful only, because the 
 duty of his office requireth it ; but the businesses which he 
 manageth come not close unto his heart, because he hath no 
 personal interest in them ; but Christ is faithful, not as 
 Moses, or a servant only, but as Lord in his own house ; so 
 that the affairs of the church concern him in as near a 
 right as they concern the church herself ; so that in his office 
 of Intercessor he pleadeth his own causes with his Father ; 
 and in the miscarriage of them, himself should lose that which 
 was infinitely more precious than anything in the world be- 
 sides, even the price and merit of his own blood. These are 
 the grounds of the great care of Christ towards his people. 
 
 And from hence we should learn faith and dependence on 
 Christ in all our necessities, because we are under the pro- 
 tection and provision of him who careth for us, and is able to 
 help us. A right judgment of God in Christ, and in his gos- 
 pel of salvation, will wonderfully strengthen the faith of men- 
 
CHRIST S CARE OF HIS CHURCH. 183 
 
 Paul was not ashamed of persecutions, because lie knew whom 
 he had believed; he doubted neither of his care nor power, and 
 therefore he committed tlie keeping of his soul unto him 
 against the last day ; and, when all forsook him, l:e stood 
 to the truth, because the Lord forsook him not, 2 Tim. 
 iv. 16^18. The reason why men trust in themselves, or 
 their friends, is because they are assured of their care and 
 good will to help them ; but if men did compare the affectiona 
 of Christ to other succours, they would rather choose to build 
 their hopes and assurances on him. This consideration of 
 the care and the power of God made the three children 
 stand against the edict of an idolatrous king ; " Our God is able 
 to deliver us, and he will deliver us," Dan. iii. 16, 17. And 
 this made Abraham resolve to offer his son without stag- 
 gering, because he rested upon the promise and the power of 
 God, who was able to raise him from the dead, from whence 
 in a sort he had received him before, namely, from a dead body, 
 and from a barren womb. And this is the ground of all 
 mistrust, that men consider not the power and the care of 
 God towards them, but conceive of him as if he had for- 
 gotten to be gracious, as if he had cast them out of his sight, 
 as if he had given over his thoughts of them ; and that 
 maketh them fear second causes, and seek unto things 
 which cannot profit. And therefore the Lord suffereth 
 second causes to go cross, to fail and disappoint a man, 
 because he loveth to be glorified by our dependence on his 
 all-sufficiency and protection. He suffereth friends to fail, 
 to be off and on, promises to be uncertain, assurances to 
 vanish, projections and frames of businesses to be shattered, 
 that men may know how to trust him ; for man, being impo- 
 tent in himself, must needs have something without himself to 
 subsist upon. Now, when a man findeth the creatures to be 
 deceitful, and second causes vain, and considereth that God 
 is " I am,'' and a most certain rewarder of those that diligently 
 seek him, then the soul findeth it good to draw near to God, 
 to live under his fidelity, and to cast all its care on him, be- 
 cause he careth for it, Heb. xi. 6 ; Psa. Ixxiii. 28 ; 1 Pet. v. 7. 
 And, indeed, a right judgment of God will help us to employ 
 our faith in any condition. In wealth men are apt to trust in 
 their abundance, to stand upon their mountain, and to say, I 
 shall never be moved. But now, in this estate, if a man con- 
 ceive aright of God, that it is he who giveth strength to be 
 rich, and who giveth riches strength to do us good, that he 
 
184 Christ's care of his church. 
 
 can blast the greatest estate with an imperceptible consump- 
 tion, and in the midst of a man's sufficiency make him be in 
 straits ; that he can embitter all with his sore displeasure, and 
 not suffer the floor nor the winepress to feed him : in great 
 wisdom and deep counsels, if a man consider that the counsel 
 of the Lord shall stand, and that he can turn the wisdom of 
 this world into foolishness, and catch the wise in their own 
 craftiness : in great provisions of worldly strength and hu- 
 man combinations, if he consider that God can take off the 
 wheels, and amaze the imagination, and dissipate the affections, 
 and melt the spirits, and waylay the enterprises of the hugest 
 hosts of men ; that he can arm flies, and lice, and dust, and 
 wind, and stars, and every small unexpected contingency against 
 the strongest opposition ; — it must needs make him set his mind 
 at rest, and hang his confidences and assurances upon a higher 
 principle. 
 
 Again ; in poverty and the extremest straits which a man 
 can be in, if he consider that God is a God as well of the val- 
 leys as of the hills; that he will be seen in the mount, when 
 his people are under the sword, and upon the altar ; that the 
 Lord knoweth the ways of the upright, and will satisfy them 
 in the time of famine ; that when the young lions famish for 
 hunger, yet even then he can provide abundantly for his ; 
 that when things are marvellous unto us, then they are easy 
 unto him ; that when they are impossible unto us, then they 
 are possible with him ; that he can lead in a wilderness, and 
 feed with an unknown and unsuspected bread ; that, when the 
 light of the sun and the moon shall fail, he can be an everlasting 
 light and glory to his people ; that as a Father, so he pitieth ; 
 and as an heavenly Father, so he knoweth, and can supply all 
 our needs ; that when we are without any wisdom to dis- 
 appoint, or strength to withstand the confederacies of men, 
 when they come with chariots of iron, and walls of brass, even 
 then the eyes of the Lord run to and fro to show himself va- 
 liant in the behalf of those that walk uprightly ; that he can 
 then order some accident, produce some engine, discover some 
 way to extricate and to clear all ; — then will a man learn to be 
 careful or distracted in nothing, but in everything, by prayer 
 and supplication, with thanksgiving, make his request known 
 unto him who is at hand, and who careth for him, Phil. iv. 6. 
 
 The like may be said of men's spiritual condition. When 
 men despair, as Cain, that their sin is greater than can be for- 
 given, the only ground is because they judge not aright of 
 
CHRIST S CARE OF HIS CHUKCII. 185 
 
 God in Christ, they look not on him in his gospel as a God 
 that careth for them, they do not lean upon the staff of his 
 strength. Despair is an affection growing out of the sense of 
 sin and wrath, as it is an evil too heavy to be borne, and yet 
 impossible to be removed. All victory ariseth either out of 
 an inward power of our own, or by the assistance of foreign 
 power which is more than our own. Now then, when we 
 despair because of sin, this cometh first from the considera- 
 tion of our own everlasting disability to break through sin by 
 our own strength ; and this is a good despair, which helpeth 
 to drive men unto Christ. 
 
 Another ground of mistrust cometh from a misconceiving 
 either of the power or care of those who might assist us ; some- 
 times from the misjudging of God's power ; for the forgiveness 
 of sins is an act of omnipotency ; and therefore, when the Lord 
 proclaimeth himself a forgiver of iniquity, transgression, and sin, 
 he introduceth it with his titles of power, " The Lord, the Lord 
 God, merciful and gracious," Exod. xxxiv. 6. To pardon 
 malefactors is a power and royalty which belongeth only unto 
 princes. There is much strength required in bearing burdens ; 
 and therefore patience, especially towards sinners, is an act of 
 power, and impatiency ever a sign of impotency. To con- 
 ceive sin greater than can be forgiven, is to misjudge the om- 
 nipotency of God : but, ordinarily, despair proceedeth from the 
 misjudging of God's affection and goodwill towards men; the 
 soul conceives of him as of one that hath cast off' all care or 
 respect towards it. This is an error touching God's benevo- 
 lence, and the latitude of his mercy, and height of his thoughts 
 towards sinners. He hath declared himself willing that all 
 men should be saved, he hath set forth examples of the com- 
 pass of his long-suffering ; his invitations run in general terms, 
 that no man may dare to anticipate damnation, but look 
 unto God as one that careth for his soul. Let a man's sins be 
 ever so crimson, and his continuance therein ever so obdurate, 
 (I speak this for the prevention of despair, not for the en- 
 couragement of security or hardness,) yet, as soon as he is wil- 
 ling to turn, God is willing to save ; as soon as he hath a 
 heart to attend, God hath a tongue to speak salvation unto 
 him. We see then the way to trust in Christ is to look upon 
 him as the Bishop of our souls ; as the Officer of our peace ; 
 as one that careth and provideth for us ; as one that hath pro- 
 mised to save to the uttermost ; to give supplies of his Spirit 
 and grace in time of need ; to give us daily bread and life in 
 
186 THE GOSPEL IS CHRlSx's OWN POWER. 
 
 abundance ; to be with us always to the end of the world ; 
 never to fail us nor forsake us. 
 
 And we may hereby learn our duty one to another, to put 
 on the affections of members, and the mind of Christ, in com- 
 passionating, considering, and seeking the good of one another, 
 in bearing one another's burthens, in pleasing not ourselves, 
 but our neighbour for his edification; for even Christ pleased 
 not himself. That man cannot live in honour, nor die in comfort, 
 who liveth only to himself, and doth not by his prayers, com- 
 passions, and supplies imitate Christ, and interest himself in 
 the good of his brethren. 
 
 Now, the ground of all this power, majesty, and mercy of 
 the gospel is here set forth unto us in two words : I. It is 
 the strength of Christ. IL It is sent by God himself. " The 
 Lord shall send the rod of thy strengtKout of Sion." 
 
 I. Here then we may note, that the gospel is Christ's own 
 power and strength, and the power of God his Father, by 
 whom it is sent abroad ; so the apostle calls it, " The power 
 of God unto salvation," and the " demonstration of the Spirit, 
 and of power ; that your faith should not stand in the wisdom 
 of men, but in the power of God," Rom. i. 16 ; 1 Cor. ii. 4, 
 5. Therefore in one place we are said to be taught of God, 
 John vi. 45 ; and in another to be taught of Christ, Eph. iv. 
 20,21: in one place it is called "the gospel of the blessed God," 
 1 Tim. i. 1 1 ; and in another " the gospel of Christ," Rom. xv. 
 19 ; to note that, whatsoever things the Father doth in his 
 church, the same the Son doth also ; and that the Father doth 
 nok make known his will of mercy, but by his Son ; that as 
 in the Son he did reconcile the world unto himself, so in the 
 Son he did reveal himself unto the world. No man hath seen 
 the Father at any time, but the Son, and he to whom the Son 
 shall reveal him, John i. 18. Christ is both the matter and 
 the Author of the gospel. As in the work of our redemption 
 he was both the sacrifice, and the Priest to offer, and the altar 
 to sanctify it ; so, in the dispensation of the gospel, Christ is 
 both the sermon, and the Preacher, and the power which giveth 
 blessing unto all. He is the sermon, " We preach Christ 
 crucified,'' saith the apostle ; " v.e preach not ourselves, but 
 Christ Jesus the Lord," 1 Cor. i. 23; 2 Cor. iv. 5. And 
 he is the Preacher ; " See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. 
 — He came and preached peace to you that were afar off, and 
 to them that were nigh," Heb. xii. 23 ; Eph. ii. 17. And, 
 
THE GOSPEL IS CHRIST's OWN POWER. 187 
 
 lastly, he is the power which enhveneth his own word ; " The 
 dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that 
 hear shall live. For, as the Father hath hfe in himself, so 
 hath he given to the Son to have hfe in himself. My sheep 
 hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me : and I 
 give unto them eternal hfe," John v. 25, 26 ; x. 27, 28. He 
 is the Lord of your faith ; we are but the helpers of your joy, 
 2 Cor. i.24. He is the Master in the church, John xiii. 13, 
 14 ; we are but your servants for Jesus' sake, 2 Cor. iv. 5. 
 He is the chief Shepherd, the Lord of the sheep, 1 Pet. v. 3, 
 4 ; the sheep are his own, John xxi. 13 ; we are but his depo- 
 sitaries, entrusted with the ministry of reconciliation, 2 Cor. 
 V. 19 ; unto us is committed the dispensation of the grace of 
 God. So then the word is his, but the service ours. 
 
 From whence both the ministers of the word, and they 
 which hear it, may learn their several duties. We should 
 learn to speak as the oracles of God, as the servants and 
 stewards of a higher master, whose word it is which we preacii, 
 and whose church it is which we serve. We should there- 
 fore do his work, as men that arc set in his stead ; preach him, 
 and not ourselves. There can be no greater sacrilege in the 
 world than to put our own image upon the ordinances of 
 Christ, than to make another gospel than that we have received. 
 St. Paul durst not please men, because he was the servant of 
 Christ, Gal. i. 10 ; neither durst he preach himself, because 
 he was the servant of the church. For hereby men do even 
 jostle Christ out of his own throne, and, as it were, snatch 
 the sceptre of his kingdom out of his own hand, boldly in- 
 truding upon that sacred and uncommunicable dignity which 
 the Father hath given to his Son only, which is to be the 
 Author of his gospel, and the total and adequate object of all 
 evangelical preaching. This sacrilege of self-preaching is 
 committed in three manner of ways. 
 
 I. When men make themselves the authors of their own 
 preaching ; when they preach their own inventions, and make 
 their own brains the seminaries and forges of a new faith ; 
 when they so gloss the pure word of God, as that withal they 
 poison and pervert it. This is that which the prophet calleth 
 lying visions, and dreams of men's own hearts, Jer. xiv. 14; 
 xxiii. 16; which St. Peter calls perverting, or making crooked 
 the rule of faith, 2 Pet. iii. 16 ; and St. Paul the adulterating 
 and using the word of God deceitfully, 2 Cor. iv. 2. Which 
 putteth me in mind of a speech in the prophet, " The prophet 
 
188 THE GOSPEL IS CHRIST's OWN POWER. 
 
 is a snare of a fowler in all his ways," Hosea ix. 8. Birds 
 we know are caught with the same corn wherewith they are 
 usually fed; but then it is either adulterated with some ve- 
 nomous mixture which may intoxicate the bird, or else put 
 into a gin which shall imprison it ; and such were the carnal 
 preachers in the prophet's and in St. Paul's time, who turned 
 the truth of God into a snare, that by that means they might 
 bring the church into bondage. The occasions and originals 
 of this perverse humour are, — 
 
 (] .) From without, such as the seducements of Satan, unto 
 which, by the just severity of God, they are sometimes given 
 over for the punishment of their own and others' sins. 
 
 (2.) Within them, (upon which the other is grounded,) as 
 pride of wit, joined with ambition and impatiency of repulse in 
 vast desires, which hath anciently been the ground of many 
 heresies and schisms. Nothing hath ever been more danger- 
 ous to the church of God than greatness of parts unsanctified 
 and unalloyed with the love of truth, and the grace of Christ. 
 
 (3.) Envy against the pains and estimation of those that are 
 faithful. This was one of the originals of Arius's cursed heresy, 
 his envy against Alexander, the good bishop of Alexandria, as 
 Theodoret reports. 
 
 (4.) Impatiency of the spirituality and simplicity of the holy 
 Scriptures, which is ever joined with the predominancy of 
 some carnal lust, whereby the conscience is notoriously wasted 
 or defiled. He that hath once put away a good conscience, 
 and doth not desire truth in order and respect thereto, that 
 thereby his conscience may be enlightened, purified, and kept 
 even towards God, will, without much ado, make shipwreck of 
 his faith, and change the truth for any thriving error. And 
 this impatiency of the spirit of truth in the Scriptures is that 
 which caused heretics of old to reject some parts, and to add 
 more to the canon of sacred Scriptures, and in these days to su- 
 peradd traditions and apocryphal accessions thereunto ; and in 
 those which are pure, and on all sides confessed, to use such 
 licentious and carnal glosses, as may force the Scripture to 
 the countenancing of their lusts and prejudices, rather than 
 to the rectifying of their own hearts by the rule of Christ. 
 
 2. Men preach themselves when they make themselves the 
 object of their preaching, when they preach self-dependence 
 and self-concurrence, making themselves, as it were, joint- 
 saviours with Christ : such was the preaching of Simon 
 Magus, who gave out that himtelf was some great one, even 
 
THE GOSPEL IS CHRIST's OWN POWER. 189 
 
 the great power of God. Of Montanus and his scholars, wlio 
 preached him for the comforter that was promised. Of Pela- 
 gius and his associates, who, though they acknowledged the 
 name of grace, to decline envy, and avoid the curse of the 
 great council of Carthage, yet still they did but shelter their 
 proud heresies under equivocations and ambiguities. Of the 
 Massilienses, in the time of Prosper and Hilary, and of some 
 ancient schoolmen, touching pre-existent congruities for the 
 preparations of grace, and co-existent concurrences with the 
 Spirit for the production of grace. Of the papists, in their 
 doctrines of indulgences, authoritative absolution, merits of 
 good works, justification, and other like, which do all, in effect, 
 out-face and give the lie unto the apostle, when he calleth 
 Christ an able and sufficient Saviour, Heb. vii. 25. 
 
 3. Men preach themselves when they make themselves the 
 end of their preaching, when they preach their own parts, pas- 
 sions, and designs, and seek not the Lord ; when, out of envy, 
 or covetousness, or ambition, or any other servile or indirect 
 affection, men shall prevaricate in the Lord's message, and 
 make the truth of God serve their own turns ; when men 
 shall stand upon God's holy mount as on a theatre, to act 
 their own parts, and as a step to their own advancement ; 
 when the truth of God, and the death of Christ, and the king- 
 dom of heaven, and the fire of hell, and the souls of men, and 
 the salvation of the world, shall be made basely serviceable 
 and contributary to the boundless pride of an atheistical Diotre- 
 phes. We must therefore always remember, that the gospel 
 is Christ's own, and that will encourage us to speak it as we 
 ought to speak : 
 
 (L) With authority and boldness, without silence or con- 
 nivance at the sins of men. Though in our private and per- 
 sonal relations we are to show all modesty, humility, and 
 lowliness of carriage towards all men ; yet, in our Master's 
 business, we must not respect the persons, nor be daunted at 
 the faces of men. Paul a prisoner was not afraid to preach of 
 righteousness, and temperance, and judgment to come, before 
 a corrupt and lascivious prince, though it made him tremble. 
 (2.) With wisdom, as a scribe instructed in the kingdom 
 of heaven. This was St. Paul's care, to work as a wise mas- 
 ter builder, 1 Cor. iii. 10. When Christ's enemies watched 
 him, to pick something out of his mouth, whereby they might 
 accuse him, so much depth of wisdom was found in the answers 
 and behaviour of Christ, as utterly disappointed them of 
 
190 THE GOSPEL IS CHRIST's OWN POWER. 
 
 their expectations, and struck them with such amazement, 
 that they never durst ask him any more questions, Matt.xxii.22, 
 46. So should we endeavour to behave ourselves in such 
 manner, as that our ministry may not be blamed, nor the truth 
 of God exposed to censure or disadvantage ; for sacred truths 
 may be sometimes either so unseasonably, or so indigestedly 
 and incoherently delivered, as may rather open than stop the 
 mouths of gainsayers, and sooner discredit the truth than 
 convert the adversary. The apostle saith, that we are to 
 make a difference, to save some with compassion, others 
 with fear, Jude 22, 23. This is to speak a word in due 
 season, and as our Saviour did, to speak as men are able to 
 hear ; to press the word upon the conscience with such season- 
 able and suitable enforcements, as may be most likely to con- 
 vince those judgments, and to allure those affections, which 
 we have to do with. It is not knowledge in the general, 
 but the right use thereof, and wise application unto particulars, 
 which winneth souls. " The tongue of the wiseuseth know- 
 ledge aright," Prov. xv. 2. This is that heavenly craft where- 
 with the apostle caught the Corinthians, as it were with guile, 
 2 Cor. xii. 16. Such art he used towards the philosophers 
 of Athens ; not exasperating men who were heady and confi- 
 dent of their own rules, but seeming rather to m.ake up the de- 
 fects which themselves in the inscription of their altar confessed, 
 and to reveal that very God unto them, whom they worshipped, 
 but did not know. Acts xvii. 23 — 28. Therefore, we find 
 him there honouring their own learning, and out of that dis- 
 puting for a resurrection, and against idolatry, to show that the 
 christian religion was no way against that learning, or rectified 
 reason, which they seemed to profess. The like art he used 
 towards king Agrippa, first presuming of his knowledge and 
 credit which he gave to the prophets, and then meeting and 
 setting on his inclinable disposition to embrace the gospel, 
 Acts xxvi. 2, 3, 27, 29 : like the wisdom of the servants of 
 Benhadad unto Ahab, " They did dihgently observe whe- 
 ther anything would come from him, and did hastily catch it ; 
 and they said, Thy brother Benhadad," 1 Kings xx. 33. And 
 the like wisdom he used everywhere ; he denied himself his own 
 liberty, and made himself a servant unto all ; to the jew, as a 
 jew; to the greek, as a greek ; to the weak, as weak; and all 
 things to all, that by all means he might save som.e, and so 
 further the gospel, 1 Cor. ix. 19, 23. One while he used cir- 
 cumcision that he might thereby gain the weak jews ; another 
 
THE GOSPEL IS CHRISt's OWN POWER. 191 
 
 while he forbade circumcision, that he might not misguide the 
 converted gentiles, nor give place by subjection unto false 
 brethren. " Who is weak," saith he, " and I am not weak? 
 who is offended, and I burn not ?" 2 Cor. xi. 29. His care of 
 men's souls made him take upon him every man's affection, 
 and accommodate himself unto every man's temper; that he 
 might not offend the weak, nor exasperate the mighty, nor 
 dishearten the beginner, nor affrighten those that were without 
 from coming in, but be all unto all for their salvation. The 
 same love is due unto all, but the same method of cure is not 
 requisite for all. With some love travaileth in pain, with 
 others it rejoiceth in hope ; some it laboureth to edify, and 
 others it feareth to offend ; unto the weak it stoopeth, unto 
 the strong it raiseth itself ; to some it is compassionate, to 
 others severe ; to none an enemy, to all a mother. But all this 
 it doth not by belying the truth, but by pitying the sinner. It 
 is not the wisdom of the flesh, nor to be learned of men. The 
 Scripture alone is able to make the man of God wise unto the 
 work of salvation. 
 
 (3.) With meekness, for that is the child of wisdom ; " Who 
 is a wise man ?" saith St. James, " let him show out of a 
 good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom ;" and 
 again, "The wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peace- 
 able, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy," Jam. iii. 
 13, 17. The gospel is Christ's gospel, and it must be 
 preached with Christ's spirit, which was very meek and lowly. 
 When the disciples would have called for fire from heaven upon 
 the Samaritans for their indignity done unto Christ, he re- 
 buketh them in a mild and compassionate manner ; " Ye 
 know not what manner of spirit ye are of," Luke ix. 55. A 
 right evangelical spirit is ever a meek and a merciful spirit. 
 " If a man,'' saith the apostle, " be overtaken in a fault, ye 
 which are spiritual restore such a one in the spirit of meek- 
 ness," Gal. vi. 1. And again, " In meekness," saith the apostle, 
 " instructing those that oppose themselves, if God peradven- 
 ture will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the 
 truth," 2 Tim. ii. 25. 
 
 (4.) With faithfulness, inasmuch as the gospel is none of 
 ours, but Christ's, whose servants and stewards we are. Christ 
 was faithful, though he were a Son over his own house, and 
 therefore might in reason have assumed the more liberty to do 
 his own will : much more doth it become us, who are but his 
 officers, to be faithful too ; not to dissemble anything which 
 
192 THE GOSPEL IS CHRIST's OWN POWER. 
 
 the state and exigence of those souls committed to our charge 
 shall require us to speak : not to add, diminish, or de- 
 viate from our commission, preaching one gospel in one place, 
 and another in anotlier; but to deliver only the counsel of God, 
 and to watch over the souls of men, as they that must give an 
 account. 
 
 Since the gospel is Christ's own power, we must all learn 
 from thence two duties : 
 
 1, To receive it as from him with the affection of subjects 
 which have been bought by him ; that is, first in hearing of 
 the v/ord to expect principally his voice, and to seek him 
 speaking from heaven. This is the nature of Christ's sheep, to 
 turn away their ears from the voice of strangers, and to hear him. 
 Two things principally there are which discover the voice of 
 Christ in the ministry of the word. It is a spiritual and heavenly 
 doctrine, full of purity, righteousness, and peace, touching the 
 soul with a kind of secret and magnetical virtue, whereby the 
 thoughts, affections, conscience, and conversation are turned 
 from their earthly centre, and drawn up unto him, as eagles to 
 a carcass. Also it is a powerful, an edged, a piercing doctrine, 
 Heb. iv, 12. If the word thou hearest speak unto thy con- 
 science, if it search thy heart, if it discover thy lusts, if it make 
 thy spirit burn within thee, if it cast thee upon thy face, and 
 convince and judge thee for thy trangressions, if it bind up 
 thy sores, and cleanse away thy corruptions, then it is cer- 
 tainly Christ's word, and then it must be received with such 
 affections as becometh the word of Christ. 
 
 (1.) With faith. If we confer with flesh and blood, we shall 
 be ever apt to cavil against the truth ; for he that rejecteth 
 Christ, doth never receive his word. A fleshly heart cannot 
 submit unto a heavenly doctrine. Christ and his apostles 
 did everywhere endure the contradiction of sinners. But yet 
 he claimeth this honour over the consciences of men, to over- 
 rule their assents against all the mists and sophistical reason- 
 ings of the flesh. The apostles themselves preached nothing, 
 but either by immediate commission from him, or out of the 
 law and the prophets. But his usual form was, " Verily, I say 
 unto you ;" noting, that he only was unto the church the Author 
 and Fountain of all heavenly doctrine ; that unto him only be- 
 longeth that authoritative and infallible spirit which can com- 
 mand the subscription and assent of the conscience ; that he 
 only can say with boldness to the soul, as he did to the Sama- 
 ritan woman, " Believe me," John iv. 21. And that there- 
 
THE GOSPEL IS CHRIST's OWN POWER. 193 
 
 fore no authority, either of men or churches, either episco])nl, 
 papal, or synodical, can, without open sacrilege, usurp power 
 to over-rule the faith of men, or impose any immediate and 
 doctrinal necessity upon the conscience in any points which 
 are not ultimately and distinctly resolved into the evident au- 
 thority of Christ in his word. St. Paul himself durst not assume 
 dominion over the faith of men ; nor St. Peter either suffer any 
 elders (amongst whom he reckoneth himself as an elder) to over- 
 rule, or prescribe unto the heritage of God. It is only Christ's 
 word which the hearts of men must stoop and attend unto, 
 and which they must mingle with faith, that it may be profit- 
 able unto them ; that is, they must let it into their hearts with 
 this assurance, that it is not the breath of a man, but the mes- 
 sage of Christ, who is true in all his threatenings, and faithful 
 in all his promises, and pure in ail his precepts; that he sendeth 
 this ministry abroad for the perfection of the saints, and the 
 edification of his church ; and therefore if they be not hereby 
 cleansed, and built up in his body, they do, as much as in them 
 lieth, make void the holy ordinance of God, which yet must 
 never return in vain. The word of God doth effectually work 
 only in those that believe. It worketh in hypocrites, and 
 wicked hearers, (according to the measure of tiiat imperfect 
 faith which they have,) though it worketh not effectually; that 
 is it doth not consummate nor accomplish any perfect work, but 
 only in those that believe ; in the rest it proves but an abor- 
 tion, and withers in the blade. 
 
 (2.) With love and readiness of mind, without despising 
 or rejecting it. No man can be saved who doth not receive 
 the truth in love, who doth not receive it (as the prhnitive 
 saint did) with gladness and readiness of mind : as Eli, 
 though from the hand of Samuel, a child, 1 Sam. iii. 18 ; as 
 David, though from the hand of Abigail, a woman, 1 Sam. xxv. 
 32 ; as the Galatians, though from the hand of Paul, an infirm and 
 persecuted apostle. Gal. iv. 14. For hereni is our homage to 
 Christ the more apparent, when we suffer a little child to lead us. 
 
 (3.) With meekness and submission of heart, reverencing 
 and yielding unto it in all things. Wresting, shifting, evad- 
 ing, or perverting the word, is as great an indignity unto Christ, 
 as altering, interlining, or erasing a patent which the king hath 
 drawn with his own royal hand, is an offence against him. 
 Patience and effectual obedience, even in affliction, is an argu- 
 ment that a man esteems the word to be indeed God's own 
 word, and so receives it. He only who putteth off the old 
 
 K 
 
194 THE GOSPEL SENT BY GOD. 
 
 man, the corrupt deceitful lusts of his former conversation, and 
 is renewed in the spirit of his mind, is the man who hath learned 
 and been taught of Christ ; who hath received the truth in him. 
 
 2. Inasmuch as the gospel is the rod of Christ's own 
 strength, or the instrument of his arm, (" Who hath believed 
 our report, and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed, Isa, 
 Ixiii. 1,) and the instrument is no further operative or effectual 
 than according to the measure of that impressed virtue which 
 it receiveth from the superior cause ; therefore we should learn 
 always to repair unto Christ for the success of his word. For 
 he only is the Teacher of men's hearts, and the Author of their 
 faith ; to him only it belongeth to call men out of their 
 graves, and to quicken whom he will. We have nothing but 
 the ministry ; he keepeth the power in his own hands, that men 
 might learn to wait upon him, and to have to do with him, who 
 only can send a blessing with his word, and teach his people 
 to profit thereby. 
 
 II. Another ground of the power of the word is, that it is 
 sent from God : " The Lord shall send forth the rod of thy 
 strength ;" from which particular likewise we may note some 
 useful observations : as, 
 
 1. That God's appointment and ordination is that which 
 gives being, life, majesty, and success to his own word ; au- 
 thority, boldness, and protection to his servants. When he 
 sendeth his word, he will make it prosper, Isa. Iv. 11. When 
 Moses disputed against his going down into Egypt to deliver 
 his brethren, sometimes alleging his own unfitness and in- 
 iirmity, sometmies the unbelief of the people ; this was still 
 the warrant with which God encouraged him, " Who hath 
 made man's mouth ? or who maketh the dumb, or deaf, or the 
 seeing, or the blind ? have not I the Lord ? Now therefore go, 
 and I will be thy mouth, and teach thee what thou shalt 
 say," Exod. iv. 11, 12. " I was no prophet, neither was I 
 a prophet's son," saith Amos, " but 1 was an herdsman, and 
 a gatherer of sycamore fruit. And the Lord took me as I 
 followed the flock, and said unto me. Go, prophesy unto my 
 people Israel," Amos. vii. 14, 15. And this made him peremp- 
 tory in his office to prophesy against the idolatry of the king's 
 court, and against the flattery of the priest of Bethel. And 
 this made the apostles bold, though otherwise unlearned and 
 ignorant men, to stand against the learned council of priests 
 and doctors of the law ; " We ought to obey God rather than 
 men." Upon which, grave was the advice of Gamaliel ; "If 
 
THE GOSPEL SENT BY GOD. 195 
 
 this counsel or this work be of men, it will come to nouglit ; 
 Imt if it be of God, ye cannot overthrow it ; lest haply ye be 
 found even to fight against God," Acts v. 29, 38, 39. For 
 to withstand the power or progress of the gospel, is to set a 
 man's face against God himself. 
 
 2. Inasmuch as the gospel is sent forth by God ; that is, 
 revealed and published out of Sion, we may observe, that 
 evangelical learning came not into the world by humah dis- 
 covery or observation, but it is utterly above the compass of all 
 reason or natural disposition, neither men nor angels ever 
 knew it but by Divine revelation. And therefore the apostle 
 everywhere calleth it a "mystery; a great and hidden mystery, 
 which was kept secret since the world began," Rom. xvi. 25 ; 
 1 Cor. ii. 7, 9; Rom. i. 20. There is a natural theology, 
 without the word, gathered out of the works of God, out of 
 the resolution of causes and effects into their first originals, 
 and out of the law of nature written in the heart. But there 
 is no natural Christianity. Nature is so far from finding it out 
 by her own inquiries, that she cannot yield unto it, when it is 
 revealed, without a spirit of faith to assist it. The jews 
 stumbled at it, as dishonourable to their law, and the gentiles 
 derided it, as absurd in their philosophy. It was a hidden and 
 secret wisdom, the execution and publication whereof was com- 
 mitted only to Christ, 1 Cor. ii. 7, 10. In God it was an eter- 
 nal gospel ; for Christ was a lamb slain from before the foun- 
 dations of the world ; namely, in the predeterminate counsel and 
 decree of his Father ; but revealed it was not till the dispen- 
 sation of the fulness of time, wherein he gathered together in 
 one all things in Christ. The purpose and ordination of it 
 was eternal, but the preaching and manifestation of it reserved 
 until the time of Christ's solemn inauguration into his kingdom, 
 and of the obstinacy of the jews, upon whose defection the 
 gentiles were called in. Which might teach us to adore the 
 unsearchableness of God's judgments unto former ages of the 
 world, whom he suffered to walk in their own ways, and to 
 live in times of utter ignorance, destitute of any knowledge 
 of the gospel, or of any natural parts, or abilities to find it 
 out. For these things are true : 
 
 (1.) That without the knowledge of Christ there is no sal- 
 vation, " This is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only 
 true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent. By his 
 knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many," John 
 xvii. 3; Isa. liii. 11. 
 
 K 2 
 
196 THE GOSPEL SENT BY GOD. 
 
 (2.) That Christ cannot be known by natural, but evangeli- 
 cal and revealed light. The natural man cannot know the 
 things of the Spirit of God, because they are spiritually dis- 
 cerned, 1 Cor. ii. 14. The light shined in darkness, and the 
 darkness was so thick and fixed that it did not let in the light, 
 nor comprehend it, John i. 5. 
 
 (3.) That this light was, at the first, sent only unto the jews, 
 as to the first-born people, (excepting only some particular 
 extraordinary dispensations and privileges to some few first- 
 fruits and preludes of the gentiles.) " He showeth his word 
 unto Jacob, his statutes and his judgments unto Israel. He 
 hath not dealt so with any nation," Psa. cxlvii. 19. He hath 
 not afforded the means of salvation ordinarily unto any other 
 people ; the world by wisdom knew him not. 
 
 (4.) That this several dispensation towards one and the other, 
 the giving of saving-knowledge to one people, and withhold- 
 ing it from others, was not grounded upon any preceding dif- 
 ferences and dispositions thereunto in the people, but only in 
 tlie love of God. " The Lord thy God hath chosen thee to 
 be a special people unto himself, above all people that are 
 upon the face of the earth. The Lord did not set his love 
 upon you, nor choose you, because ye were more in number 
 than any people, for ye were the fewest of all people; but be- 
 cause the Lord loved you. The Lord thy God giveth thee 
 not this good land to possess it for thy righteousness ; for thou 
 art a stiff-necked people. Your fathers dwelt on the other 
 side of the flood in old time, and they served other gods," 
 Deut. vii. 6 — 8 ; ix. 6 ; Josh. xxiv. 2. There was no 
 difference between them and the gentiles from whom he ga- 
 thered them. 
 
 (5.) That the gospel was hidden for others in God, his own 
 will and counsel was the cause of it. He forbade men to go 
 into the cities of the gentiles, neither were they to go unto 
 them without a special gift and commission. The same 
 good pleasure was the reason of revealing it to some, and of 
 hiding it from others ; " Even so, O Father, for so it seemed 
 good in thy sight." 
 
 If all these particulars be true, needs must we both 
 admire the inscrutableness of God's judgments towards 
 the gentiles of old, for no human presumptions are a fit 
 measure of the ways and severities of God towards sinners ; 
 and also everlastingly adore his compassions towards us, whom 
 he hath reserved for these times of light, and out of the alone 
 
THE MINISTERIAL OFFICE. 197 
 
 unsearchable riches of his grace, hath, together with princi- 
 palities and powers in heavenly places, made us to see what 
 is the fellowship of that great mystery which from the begin- 
 ning of the world was hidden in himself. 
 
 3. In that the Lord doth send forth the gospel of Christ 
 out of Sion into the world, we may further observe, that the 
 gospel is a message and an invitation from heaven unto men. 
 For to that end was it sent, that thereby men might be invited 
 and persuaded to salvation. The Lord sendeth his Son up 
 and down, carrieth him from place to place; he is set forth 
 before men's eyes, he comes, and stands, and calls, and knocks 
 at their doors, and beseecheth them to be reconciled. He set- 
 teth his word before us, at our doors, and in our mouths and 
 ears. He hath not erected any standing sanctuary or city of 
 refuge for men to fly for their salvations unto, but hath ap- 
 pointed ambassadors to carry this treasure unto men's houses 
 where he inviteth them, and entreateth them, and requireth 
 them, and commandeth them, and compelleth them to come 
 unto his feast of mercy. And this must needs bean unsearch- 
 able riches of grace, for mercy, pardon, preferment, life, and 
 salvation to go a begging, and sue for acceptance ; and very 
 unsearchable likewise must needs be the love of sin, and mad- 
 ness of folly in wicked men, to trample upon such pearls, and 
 to neglect so great salvation when it is tendered unto them. 
 Oh what a heavy charge will it be for men. at the last day, to 
 have the mercy of God, the humility of Christ, the entreaties 
 of his Spirit, the proclamations of pardon, the approaches of 
 salvation, the days, the years, the ages of peace, the minis- 
 ters of the word, the book of God, and the great mystery of 
 godliness, to rise up in judgment, and to testify against their 
 souls ! 
 
 4. In that the gospel is sent from God, the dispensers 
 thereof must look upon their mission, and not intrude upon so 
 sacred a business before they are thereunto called by God. 
 Now, this call is twofold : extraordinary, by immediate instinct 
 and revelation from God, which is ever accompanied with im- 
 mediate and infused gifts, but of this we do not now speak ; 
 and ordinary, by imposition of hands, and ecclesiastical de- 
 signation. Whereunto there are to concur three things. 
 
 (1.) An act of God's providence casting a man upon such 
 a course of studies, and fashioning his mind unto such affec- 
 tions towards learning, and disposing of him in such schools 
 and colleges of the prophets, as are congruous preparations, 
 
198 THE MINISTERIAL OFFICE. 
 
 and were appointed for nurseries and seminaries of God's 
 church. It is true, many things fall under God's providence, 
 which are not within his allowance, and therefore it is no suffi- 
 cient argument to conclude God's consent or commission in 
 this office, because his wisdom hath cast me upon a collegiate 
 education. But when therewithal. He, in whose hands the 
 hearts of all men are as clay or wax, to be moulded into such shapes 
 as the counsel of his will shall order, hath bended the desires 
 of mv heart to serve him in his church, and hath set the 
 strongest delight of my mind upon those kinds of learning 
 which are unto that service most proper and conducive ; when, 
 measuring either the good will of my heart, or the appliable- 
 nessof my parts, by this, and other professions of learning, I 
 can clearly conclude that such measure and proportion which 
 the Lord hath given me is more suitable unto this, than other 
 learned callings, (I suppose, other qualifications herewith con- 
 curring,) a man may safely from hence conclude, that God, 
 who will have every man live in some profitable calling, doth 
 not only by his providence permit, but by his secret direction 
 lead him unto that service, whereunto the measure of gifts 
 which he hath conferred upon him are most suitable and 
 proper. 
 
 (2.) There is to be respected in this ordinary mission, the 
 meet qualification of the person who shall be ordained unto 
 this ministry. For, if no prince will send a mechanic from 
 his loom, or his shears, on an honourable embassage to some 
 other foreign prince ; shall we think that the Lord will send 
 forth stupid and unprepared instruments about so great a work 
 as the perfecting of the saints, and edification of the church ! 
 It is registered for the perpetual dishonour of that wicked 
 king Jeroboam, (who made no other use of any religion, but 
 as a secondary bye thing, to be the supplement of policy,) 
 that he made of the lowest of the people, those who were really 
 such as the apostles were falsely esteemed to be, the scum and 
 off-scouring of men, to be priests unto the Lord, 1 Kings xii. 
 31. Now, the qualities more directly and essentially belong- 
 ing unto this office are these two ; fidelity and ability. " The 
 things," saith the apostle, " that thou hast heard of me 
 among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, 
 who shall be able to teach others also," 2 Tim. ii. 2. 
 
 We are stewards of no meaner a gift than the grace of God, 
 and the wisdom of God : that grace which by St. Peter is 
 called "manifold grace," 1 Pet. iv. 10 ; and that wisdom which 
 
THE MINISTERIAL OFFICE. 199 
 
 by St. Paul is called " the manifold wisdom of God," Eph. 
 iii. 10. We are the depositaries and dispensers of the most pre- 
 cious treasures which were ever opened unto the sons of men : 
 the incorruptible and precious blood of Christ, the exceediufr 
 great and precious promises of tlie gospel, the word of the 
 grace of God, and of the unsearcliablc riches of Christ. Now, 
 it is reqiured of stewards, that a man be found faitiiful, 1 Cor. 
 iv. 2 ; that he defraud not Christ of his purchase, which is tlie 
 souls of men, nor men of their price and privilege, which is 
 the blood of Christ ; that he never favour the sins of men, nor 
 dissemble the truth of God ; tliat he watch, because he is a 
 seer ; that he speak, because he is an oracle; that he feed, be- 
 cause he is a shepherd ; that he labour, because he is a hus- 
 bandman ; that he be tender, because he is a mother ; that he 
 be careful, because he is a father ; that he be faithftd, because 
 he is a servant to God and his church : in one word, that he 
 be instant in season and out of season, to exhort, rebuke, in- 
 struct, to do the work of an evangelist, to accomplish and 
 make full proof of his ministry ; because he hath an account to 
 make, because he hath the presence of Christ to assist him, 
 the promises of Christ to reward him, the example of Christ, 
 his apostles, prophets, evangelists, bishops, and martyrs of the 
 purest time, who have now their palms in their hands, to en- 
 courage him. It was Christ's custom to enter into their syna- 
 gogues on the sabbath days, and to read and expound the 
 Scriptures to the people, Luke iv. 16, 31. It was St. Paul's 
 manner to reason in the synagogues, and to open the Scrip- 
 tures on the sabbath days, Acts xvii. 2 ; xviii. 4. Upon Sun- 
 day, saith Justin Martyr, all the christians that are in the cities 
 or countries about meet together, and after some commenta- 
 ries of the apostles, and writings of the prophets have been 
 read, the senator or president doth by a sermon exhort the 
 people, and admonish them to the imitation and practice oi 
 those Divine truths which they had heard read unto them. 
 And St. Austin telleth us of Ambrose, that he heard him 
 rightly handUng the word of God unto the people every Lord's 
 day. Yea, it should seem by the homilies of St. Chrysostom, 
 that he did often preach daily unto the people, and therefore 
 we frequently meet with his " yesterday," this and this I 
 taucrht you. And Origen intimateth this frequency of ex- 
 pounding the Scriptures in his time ; " If," saith he, " you come 
 frequently unto the church of God, and there attend unto the 
 sacred Scriptures, and to the explication of those heavenly 
 
200 THE MINISTERIAL OFFICE. 
 
 commandments, thy soul will be strengthened, as thy body 
 with food." And our church, in her ecclesiastical constitutions, 
 hath provided for the continuance of so faithful and pious a 
 custom, enjoining every allowed preacher to have a sermon 
 every Sunday in the year, and in the afternoon besides, to 
 spend half an hour in catechizing the younger and ruder sort 
 in the principles of christian religion. The neglect of which 
 most necessary duty no man can more bewail, nor more urge 
 the necessity thereof, than those who, looking abroad into the 
 world, have experience of more thick and palpable darkness 
 in the minds of men, concerning those absolute necessary doc- 
 trines of the passion, merits, and redemption of Christ, and of 
 faith in them, than men who have not with their own eyes ob- 
 served it can alm.ost believe. And that too in such places 
 where sermons have been very frequently preached. I will 
 close this point with the assertion and profession of holy 
 Austin. Nothing, saith he, is in this life more pleasant and 
 easy than the life of a bishop or minister, if it be carelessly 
 and flatteringly executed ; but then in God's sight, nothing 
 more base, more vile, more damnable. And it is said of 
 him, that he was never absent from his episcopal service and 
 attendance, upon any licentious and assumed liberty, but only 
 upon some other necessary service of the church. 
 
 Touching the ability required in the discharge of this great 
 office, there are, as I conceive, two special branches thereunto 
 belonging. 
 
 [1.] Learning, for the right information of the consciences 
 of men, that men may not pervert the Scripture. 
 
 [2.] Wisdom, or spiritual pTrudence, for seasonable appli- 
 cation of the truth to particular circumstances, which is that 
 which maketh a wise builder. For this latter, it being so va- 
 rious, according to those infinite varieties of particular cases 
 and conditions, which are hardly reduceable unto general 
 rules, I cannot here speak, but refer the reader to the grave 
 and pious counsels of those holy men who have given some 
 directions herein. For the other, two great works there are 
 which belong to this high calling — instruction of the scholar, 
 and conviction of the adversary. Unto the perfection of 
 which two services, when we duly consider how many differ- 
 ent parts of learning are requisite, — as knowledge of the 
 tongues, for the better understanding of the holy Scriptures by 
 their original idiom and emphasis ; of the arts, to observe 
 connexion, and augmentation, and method of them ; of 
 
THE THRONE OF CHRIST S KINGDOM. 201 
 
 ancient customs, histories, and antiquities of the Bahylonians, 
 Persians, Greeks, and Romans, without insight whereinto the full 
 meaning of many passages of holy Scripture cannot be clearly 
 apprehended; of school learning, for discovering and repellin<T 
 the subtilty of the adversaries, a thing required in a rhetorician 
 by Aristotle and Quinctilian, insomuch that Julian the apos- 
 tate complained of the christians, that they used the weapons 
 of the gentiles against them, and therefore interdicted them 
 the use of schools of learning ; and lastly, of histories and anti- 
 quities of the church, that we may observe the succession of 
 the professors, and doctrines hereof, the originals and sprout- 
 ings of heresy therein, the better to answer the reproaches of 
 our insolent adversaries, who lay innovation to our char<Te : — I 
 say, when we duly consider these particulars, we cannot suffi- 
 ciently admire, nor detest the impertinence of those bold in- 
 truders, who when they have themselves need to be taught 
 what are the first principles of the oracles of God, become 
 teachers of the ignorant before themselves have been disciples 
 of the learned, and before either maturity of vears, or any se- 
 vere progress of studies, have prepared them, boldly leap, some 
 from their manual trades, many from their grammar and logic 
 rudiments, into this sacred and dreadful office, unto which 
 heretofore the most learned and pious men have trembled to 
 approach. 
 
 (3.) And lastly, unto this call is requisite the imposition 
 of hands, and the authoritative act of the church, ordaining 
 and setting apart, and deriving actual power upon such men, 
 of whose fidelity and ability they have sufficient evidence, (for 
 hands are not to be laid suddenly on any man,) to preach the 
 word, and to administer the sacraments, and to do all those 
 ministerial acts, upon which the edification of the people of 
 Christ doth depend. I have now done with the first of 
 Christ's regalities in the text, — the sceptre of his kingdom. 
 
 Having thus enlarged upon the first thing proposed, " The 
 sceptre of Christ's kingdom," I now proceed to speak of the 
 second, which is the throne of his kingdom : " The Lord 
 shall send the rod of thy strength out of Sion." Which notes 
 unto us, 
 
 1. That the church of the jews was the chief, original, and 
 
 metropolitan church of all others. Therefore our Saviour 
 
 chargeth his disciples to tarry in the city of Jerusalem, till 
 
 they should be endued with power from on high, Luke xxiv. 49. 
 
 K 5 
 
!202 THE THRONE OF CHRIST S KINGDOM. 
 
 The apostle saith, that they had the advantage or pre- 
 cedence and excellency above other people, *' because that 
 unto them were committed the oracles of God. To them did 
 pertain the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and 
 the giving of the law, and the service of God and the pro- 
 mises," Rom. iii. 1, 2 ; ix. 4. Of them was Christ after the 
 flesh. All the fathers, patriarchs, prophets, apostles, and 
 writers of the holy Scriptures were of them. There is no 
 church that can show such privileges, nor produce such au- 
 thentic records for her precedency as the church of the jews. 
 Therefore they are called by an excellency, " God's first-born," 
 and the " first fruits of his creatures," Jer. xxxi. 9 ; Jam. i. 
 18 ; they are called " the children of the kingdom," Matt. viii. 
 12, whereas others were at first dogs, and strangers. Matt. xv. 
 26. Their titles, Sion, Jerusalem, Israel, are used as proper 
 names to express the whole church of God by, though amongst 
 the gentiles, Gal. iv. 26 ; vi. 16 ; Heb. xii. 22. Christ 
 Jesus, though he came as a Saviour unto all, yet he was sent 
 to be a Prophet and a Preacher only unto them. Therefore the 
 apostle calleth him " the Minister of the circumcision," that 
 is, of the jews, Rom. xv. 8 ; and he saith, " I am not sent 
 but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel," Matt. xv. 24. 
 And when he gave his apostles their first commission, he sent 
 them only into the cities of the jews, Rom. xi. 1 1 ; the gen- 
 tiles were incorporated into them, were brought in upon their 
 rejection, and refusal of the gospel, took the christians of 
 Judea for their pattern in their profession, 1 Thess. ii. 14 ; 
 fi-om that church were rules and constitutions sent abroad into 
 other churche^s, as binding and necessary things. Acts xv. 2, 
 22. To that church the churches of the gentiles were debt- 
 ors, as having been made partakers of their spiritual things, 
 Rom. XV. 27 ; and though they be now a rejected people, yet 
 when the fulness of the gentiles is come in, Israel shall be ga- 
 thered again, and made a glorious church, Rom. xi. 23, 26. 
 And in the mean time their dispersion tendeth unto the con- 
 version of the gentiles. For though they were enemies to the 
 faith of christians, yet they did bear witness unto those Scriptures 
 out of which the christians did prove their faith ; and there 
 is no greater evidence in a cause, than the affirmative testi- 
 mony of that man who is an enemy to the cause. If the 
 church of Rome had such evidences as these out of the book 
 of God, to prove their usurped supremacy by, how proud and 
 intolerable would they be in boasting thereof, and obtruding it 
 
THE CALLING OF THE GENTILES. 203 
 
 unto others, who are now so confident upon far sk'ndcrfi 
 grounds I 
 
 And from hence we may learn to take heed of the sins of 
 that people, which were principally the rejectincr of tlie Corner- 
 stone, and the putting off the gospel of Christ away from 
 them, as every obstinate and unbelieving sinner doth from 
 himself. This is that which hath made them of all nations 
 the most hated, and the most forsaken, and hath brought wrath 
 to the utmost upon them, because when Christ came' unto 
 his own, they received him not. " Because of unbelief tliey 
 were broken off," saith the apostle, "and thou standest by 
 faith. Be not high-minded, but fear, for if God spared not 
 the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee," 
 Rom. xi. 20, 21. And we should likewise learn to pray for 
 the fulness of the gentiles, and for the restoring of this people 
 unto their honour and original privileges again ; for we are 
 their debtors ; we entered upon the promises which were made 
 to them ; and therefore good reason we have to do for them 
 now, as they did for us before. " We have a little sister," or 
 rather an elder sister, " and she hath no breasts :" the ora- 
 cles and ordinances of God are taken from her ; " what 
 shall we do for our sister in the day when she shall be spoken 
 for?" Cant. viii. 8. 
 
 2. This notes unto us the calling of the gentiles into the 
 fellowship of the same mystery which was first preached unto 
 the jews, that they mig])t be the daughters of this mother 
 church, that they may take hold of the skirt of the jew, and 
 say, " We will go with you : for we have heard that God is 
 with you," Zech. viii. 23. The church of Jerusalem was set 
 up as a beacon, or an ensign, or a public sanctuary, to which 
 the nations should flee, as doves to their windows. Of this 
 merciful purpose some evidences and declarations the Lord 
 gave before in Rahab, Job, Nineveh, the wise men, and otiiers, 
 who were the preludes and first-fruits of the gentiles unto 
 God : and did after fully manifest the same in his unlimited 
 commission to his apostles, " Go ye into all the world, and 
 preach the gospel to every creature," Mark xvi. 15. 
 
 And now alas, what were we that God should bring us 
 hitherto? St. Paul saith, that we were filled with all unright- 
 eousness ; that we did neither understand God, nor seek after 
 him. All our faculties were full of sin, and the fulness of all 
 sin was in us ; we were ruled by no laws but the course of 
 the world, the prince of the air, and the lusts of tho flesh, with- 
 
204 THE CHURCH THE SEAT OF SAVING TRUTH. 
 
 out God in this world, and without any hope for the world to 
 come. Here, vessels of lust and poison, and fitted to be here- 
 after vessels of destruction and misery. We were no nation, 
 a foolish people, a people that sought not, nor inquired after 
 God ; and yet his own people hath he passed by, and called 
 us to the knowledge of his love and mercy in Christ. And 
 that, not as many other gentiles are called, who hear of him 
 indeed, and worship him, but have his doctrine corrupted and 
 overturned with heresy, and his worship defiled with supersti- 
 tion and idolatry : but he hath for us purged his floor, and 
 given unto us the wheat without the chaff; he hath let the 
 light of his glory to shine purely upon us only in the face of 
 Jesus Christ, without any human supplements, or contribu- 
 tions. How should we praise him for it ; and as we have re- 
 ceived Christ purely, so labour to work worthily in him I How 
 should we run to him that called us when we knew him not ! 
 How should we set forward, and call upon one another, that 
 we may flee like doves in companies unto the windows of the 
 church ! How earnestly should we contend for this truth, the 
 custody whereof he hath honoured us withal ! How should 
 we renew our repentance, and remember our first works, lest so 
 excellent a privilege be removed from us ! There is no wrath 
 that is wrath to the utmost, but that which depriveth a people 
 of the gospel, and taketh away their candlestick from them. 
 
 3. It notes unto us the difference of the two covenants, the 
 one out of Sinai, the other out of Sion, Heb. xii. 18, 22 ; 
 Gal. iv. 23. At first the law proceeded out of Sinai, wherein, 
 though the end were merciful, yet the manner was terrible, 
 and therefore the effect nothing but bondage ; but after it was sent 
 out of Sion with the Spirit of grace and adoption, it was observed 
 with cheerfulness and liberty, as by those that know God will 
 spare them, as a man spareth his child that serveth him : for 
 in my bond-slave I look to the perfection of the work ; but in 
 my son, to the affection and disposition of the heart. 
 
 4. It notes unto us, that the seat of saving truth, the cus- 
 tody of the promises, and the gospel of salvation, doth still belong 
 unto Sion, to the church of God. Out of the church there 
 is no gospel, and therefore out of the church there is no salva- 
 tion. The apostle saith of children which are born out of 
 the church, that they are unclean, 1 Cor. vii. 14; unto the 
 church (above all congregations of men) belongeth this ex- 
 cellent privilege, to be the treasurer of the riches of Christ, 
 and to hold forth the word of life unto men, Phil. ii. 16. In 
 
THE CHURCH THE SEAT OF SAVING TRUTH. 205 
 
 which sense the apostle salth, that it is " the pillar and ground 
 of the truth," 1 Tim. iii. 15; not that which givoth hoing to 
 the truth, for the law must not fail nor perish ; nor that which 
 giveth authority, imposeth a sense, canonlzeth and niaketh 
 authentic, is a judge or ahsolute determiner of the truth ; for 
 in that sense the church is held up hy the word, and not the 
 word by the church, for the church is built upon the founda- 
 tion of the prophets and apostles, Eph. ii. 20; namely,, upon 
 that fundamental doctrine which tliey have laid : but the 
 church is the depository of the truth, that orb out of wliich 
 this glorious light shines forth ; unto it appertains the cove- 
 nants and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and 
 the promises. Her office and her honour it is to be the can- 
 dlestick which holdeth up the word of truth, to set to her seal 
 unto the evidence and excellency thereof; by her ministry, 
 authority, consent, and countenance to conciliate respect there- 
 unto in the minds of ahens, and to confirm it in the minds of 
 unbelievers ; to fasten the nails and points thereof, like mas- 
 ters of the assemblies under one principal shepherd, who is 
 Christ, in the hearts of men. Not to dishonour it by their 
 usurped authority above it, (for by that means all controversies 
 of religion are turned not into means to discover doctrine, that 
 may be rested in, which doth appear to have in it most 
 intrinsical majesty, spirituality, and evidence ; but into fac- 
 tions and emulations of men, which that sect may rest in, 
 who can with most impudence and ostentation arrogate an 
 usurped authority to themselves,) but by their willing submis- 
 sion thereunto, to credit it in the affections of men, and to es- 
 tablish others in the love and o])edience thereunto : for the 
 authority of the church is not an authority of jurisdiction 
 above the Scriptures ; but only an authority of dispensation 
 and of trust, to proclaim, exhibit, and present the truth of G(k1 
 unto the people ; to point to the star, which is directed unto 
 by the finger, but is seen by the evidence of its own light. 
 To hold forth, as a pillar, that law, and proclamation of 
 Christ, the contents whereof we discover out of itself. In one 
 word, that place showeth the duty of the church to preserve 
 knowledge, and to show forth the truth of sacred Scriptures 
 out of themselves; but not any infallibility in itself, or autho- 
 rity over others, to bind their consciences to assent unto such 
 expositions of Scripture, as derive not their evidence from the 
 harmony and analogy of the Scriptures themselves, but only 
 because the church hath spoken it. 
 
206 THE CHURCH THE SEAT OF SAVING TRUTH. 
 
 To conclude this point, we are to note for the clear understand- 
 ing of the office of the church concerning the holy Scriptures : 
 (1.) That some things therein are "Hard to be understood," 
 as St. Peter speaks, 2 Peter iii. 16, either by reason of their 
 allegorical and figurative expressions, as the visions of Eze- 
 kiel, Daniel, Zechariah, &c.; or by reason of the obscure and 
 strange connexion of one part with another, or of the de- 
 pendence thereof upon foreign learning, or the like. But then 
 we must note, that the knowledge of such things as these, is 
 not of absolute necessity unto salvation ; for though the per- 
 verting of hard places be damnable, (as St. Peter telleth us.) 
 yet that ignorance of them which groweth out of their own 
 obscurity, and not out of our neglect, is not damnable. 
 
 (2.) Some things have evidence enough in the terms that 
 express them, but yet are hard to be believed, by reason of the 
 supernatural quality of them. As when we say that Christ 
 was the son of a virgin, or that he died and rose again, there 
 is no difficulty in the sense of these things, it is easily under- 
 stood what he that affiimeth them doth mean by them. All 
 the difficulty is to bring the mind to give assent unto them. 
 
 (3.) Some things, though easy in their sense to be understood, 
 and it may be easy likewise in their nature to be believed, are yet 
 hard to be obeyed and practised, as repentance, and forsaking 
 of sin. Now, according unto these differences we may con- 
 ceive of the office and power which the church hath in 
 matters of holy Scripture. 
 
 [ 1 .] For hard places in regard of the sense and meaning of 
 the place, it is the duty of the church to open them to God's 
 people with modesty and moderation ; and therein God al- 
 loweth the learned a christian liberty, (with submission of 
 their opinions always to the spirits of the prophets, so long as 
 they do therein nothing contrary to the analogy of faith, to the 
 general peace and unity of the church, to the rules of charity, 
 piety, loyalty, and sobriety,) to abound in their own sense, and 
 to declare, for the further edifying of the church, what they 
 conceive to be in such difficult places principally intended. 
 And further than this no church nor person can go ; for if 
 unto any man or chair there were annexed an infallible spirit, 
 enabling him to give such a clear and indubitable exposition of 
 all holy Scriptures, as should leave no obscurity in the text, 
 nor hesitancy in the minds of men, how comes it to pass that 
 hitherto so many difficulties remain, wherein even our adver- 
 saries amongst themselves do give several conjectures and ex- 
 
THE CHURCH THE SEAT OF SAVING TRUTH. 207 
 
 plications ? and how can that man, to whom so excellent a 
 gift of infallibility is bestowed, clear himself of envy, and 
 abuse of the grace of God, who maketh not use thereof 
 to expound the Scriptures, and to compose those differences 
 thereabouts, which do so much perplex the world ? 
 
 [2.] For those places which in their meaning are easy to be 
 understood, but in their excellent and high nature hard to be 
 believed, (as all articles of faith, and things of absolute ne- 
 cessity are in their terms perspicuous, but in their heavenly 
 nature obscure unto human reason,) the office of the church is 
 not to bind men's consciences to believe those truths u})on her 
 authority ; for we have not dominion over the faith of men, 
 neither are we lords in Christ's flock ; and how shall any 
 scrupulous mind, which is desirous to swallow things to the 
 bran^ be secure of the power which the church in this case 
 arrogates, or have any certainty that this society of men must 
 be believed in their religion, who will allow the same honour 
 to no society of men but themselves ? But in this case the 
 office of the church is, both to labour by all good means to 
 evidence the credibility of the things which are to be believed ; 
 to discover unto men those essential and intimate beauties of 
 the gospel, which to spiritual minds and hearts, raised to 
 such a proportionable pitch of capacity as are suitable to the 
 excellency of their natures, are apt to evidence and notify 
 themselves ; and also to labour to take men off from depend- 
 ence on their own reason or corrupted judgment ; to work in 
 their heart an experience of the Spirit of grace, and an obe- 
 dience to those holy truths which they already assent unto ; 
 with which preparations and persuasions, the heart being pos- 
 sessed, will in due time come to observe more clearly, by that 
 spiritual eye, the evidence of those things which were at first 
 so difficult. So then the act of the church is, in matters of 
 faith, an act of introduction and guidance ; but that which 
 begetteth the infallible and unquestionable assent of faith, is 
 that spiritual taste, relish, and experience of the heavenly 
 sweetness of divine doctrine, which by the ministry of the 
 church, accompanied with the special concurrence of Al- 
 mighty God therewith, is wrought in the heart ; for It is only 
 the Soirit of God which writeth the law in men's hearts, which 
 searcheth the things of God, and which maketh us to know 
 them, • 
 
 [3.] For those places which are difficult,rather to be obeyed 
 than to be understood, the work of the church is to enforce 
 
208 THE CHURCH THE SEAT OF SAVING TRUTH. 
 
 upon the conscience the necessity of them, to persuade, re- 
 buke, exhort, and encourage with all authority. 
 
 Which should teach us all to love the church of Christ, 
 and to pray for the peace and prosperity of the walls of Sion ; 
 for the purity, spirituality, power, and countenance of the 
 word therein, which is able to hold up its own honour in the 
 minds of men, if it be but faithfully published. We should 
 therefore study to maintain, to credit, to promote the gospel ; 
 to encourage truth, to discountenance error ; to stand in the 
 gap against all the stratagems and advantages of the enemies 
 thereof, and to hold the candlestick fast amongst us ; to buy 
 the truth, and sell it not, betray it not, forsake it not, temper 
 it not, misguise it not. This is to be a pillar, and to sus- 
 tain the gospel of Christ. And surely, though the pa- 
 pists boast of the word and name of the church, (as none 
 more apt to justify and boast of their sobriety, than those 
 whom the wine hath overtaken,) yet the plain truth is, they 
 have far less of the nature thereof, than any other churches, 
 because far less of the pure service and ministration thereof. 
 For instead of holding forth the word of life, they pull it down, 
 denying unto the people of Christ the use of his gospel, 
 halving the use of his sacrament, breeding them up in an ig- 
 norant worship, to beg they know not what, in all points dis- 
 gracing the word of truth, and robbing it of its certainty, suf- 
 ficiency, perspicuity, authority, purity, and energy in the 
 minds of men. And this is certain, the more they set them- 
 selves against the light and general knowledge of the word of 
 truth, the less of the nature of the church they have in them, 
 whatever ostentation they may make of the name thereof. 
 
 The last thing observed in this second verse amongst the 
 regalities of Christ, was his rule and government in his church 
 by his holy word, notwithstanding all the attempts and ma- 
 chinations of the enemies thereof against it : " Rule thou in 
 the midst of thine enemies ;" that is, thou shalt rule safely, 
 securely, undisturbedly, without danger, fear, or hazard from 
 the enemies round about ; their counsels shall be infatuated, 
 their purposes shall vanish, their decrees shall not stand ; 
 their persecutors shall but sow the blood of Christ, and the 
 ashes of christians the thicker ; they shall see it, and gnash 
 with their teeth, and gnaw their tongues, and be horribly 
 amazed at the emulation and triumph of a christian's suffer- 
 ings over the malice and wrath of men. 
 
THE STABILITY OF THE CHUHCII. 209 
 
 The kingdom of Christ is two-fold ; h.is kingdom of glory, 
 of which there shall he no end, when he shall rule over his 
 enemies, and tread them under his feet: and his kin<r(iom of 
 grace, whereb}' he ruleth among his enemies, by thcT sceptre 
 of his word. And this is the kingdom here spoken of; noting 
 unto us, that Christ will have a church and piopie gathered 
 unto him by the preaching of his gospel on the earth, not- 
 withstanding all the malice, power, or policy of all his ene- 
 mies. Never was Satan so loose ; never heresy and darkness 
 so thick, never persecution so prevalent, never the tail of the 
 dragon so long, as to sweep away all the stars of heaven, or to 
 devour the remnant of the woman's seed. The o-ates of hell, 
 all the policy, power, and machinations of the kino-dom of 
 darkness shall never root out the vine which the Father hath 
 planted, nor prevail against the body of Christ. His gospel 
 must be preached to the world's end, and till then he will be 
 with it to give it success. Though the kings of the earth 
 stand up, and the rulers gather together against the Lord and 
 his Christ ; yet they imagine but a vain thing, and He that 
 sitteth in heaven shall laugh them to seorn. 
 
 The grounds of the certainty and perpetuity of Christ's 
 evangelical kingdom, is not the nature of the church in itself 
 considered, either in the whole or parts ; for Adam and Eve 
 were a church at first, a people that were under the law of 
 obedience and worship to God, and yet they fell away from 
 that excellent condition. And the prophet tells us, that ex- 
 cept the Lord had left a very small remnant, the church had 
 been all as Sodom and like to Gomorrah, Isa. i. 9. But the 
 grounds hereof are, L The decree, ordination, and appoint- 
 ment of God, Psa. ii. 7 ; Acts x. 42 ; Heb. iii. 2 ; and we 
 know, whatever men project, the counsel of the Lord must 
 stand. 2. God's gift unto Christ : '' Ask of me, and I shall 
 give thee the heathen for thine inheritance," Psa. ii. 8. 
 " Thine they were, and thou gavest them me," John xvii, 6. 
 *' My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all ; and 
 no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand," 
 John x. 29. 3. God s oath, which is the seal of his irre- 
 versible decree and covenant with Christ . " Once have I 
 sworn by my holiness that I will not lie unto David. His 
 seed shall endure for ever, and his throne as the sun before 
 me," .Psa, Ixxxix. 35, 36. 4. Christ's own purchase and 
 price which he paid for it. The apostle saith, Christ died not in 
 vain, Gal. ii. 21 ; and the virtue of his blood lasteth to the end ol 
 
210 THE STABILITY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 the world ; for as his blood was shed from the beginning of 
 the world, in regard of God's decree, so doth it continue to 
 the end, in regard of its own merit and efHcacy : so long as he 
 sitteth at the right hand of God, which must be till the time 
 of the restitution of all things, the merit of his blood shall 
 work amongst men. 5. Christ's own power, to keep in- 
 violable the propriety he hath gotten : " My sheep hear my 
 voice ; and I give unto them eternal life ; and they shall 
 never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my 
 hand," John x. 27, 28. 6. The Father's command unto his 
 Son : " This is the Father's will, that of all which he hath 
 given me, I should lose nothing," John vi. 39. 7. Christ's 
 love and care. The church is his spouse, under his cover- 
 ture and protection ; and therefore as he hath power and office, 
 so he hath delight to preserve it still. His love is better able 
 to help, than the malice of the enemy is to hurt. 8. Christ's 
 intercession, which is not for the world, but for those whom 
 God hath given him out of the world, and those he demandeth 
 of his Father, (who heareth him always,) in virtue of that cove- 
 nant which between them was ratified, on God's part by a 
 promise and oath, and on Christ's part by a merit and pur- 
 chase. Now, Christ's intercession shall last till his return- 
 ing to judge the world, and therefore still he must have a 
 church, for whom to intercede. 9. Christ's own promise to 
 be with the preaching of his gospel ; that is, to give it assist- 
 ance and success, for the gathering together and perfecting of 
 the saints, unto the end of the world. Matt, xxviii. 20. 
 Here then may be answered two great questions : 
 1. Whether the church may fail upon the earth or not ? To 
 which I answer, that the church may be taken either mysti- 
 cally, spiritually, and universally ; and in that sense it can 
 never fail, but there must be upon the earth a true church of 
 Christ, not only by the certainty of the event, which is on all 
 sides agreed ; but by a certainty growing out of those 
 irresistible causes upon which the being of the mystical body 
 of Christ on the earth dependeth. Or it may be considered 
 particularly in the several parts and places of the world where 
 the gospel is planted ; and hierarchically and politically, de- 
 noting a company of men, professing the faith of Christ, and 
 reduced into a quiet, peaceable, composed and conspicuous 
 government ; and so we affirm that there is no church in the 
 world so safe, but that it may fail, and be extinguished out of 
 its place. The church of the jews did, and after them any 
 
THE STABILITY OF THE CHURCH. 211 
 
 may. Else the apostle's argument even to the Roman 
 church itself (which was then a famous church throughout 
 the world; and of that passage in the apostle, Baronius makes 
 a long boast) were very weak, when from tlie greater to the 
 less, he thus argueth, " Be not high-minded, but fear ; for if 
 God spared not the natural brandies, take heed lest he also 
 spare not thee," Rom. xi. 20, 21, Thus we find the ten 
 tribes in their apostacy, till they became Lo-ammi, to be no 
 more a people ; and their brethren afterwards full into their con- 
 dition. " Wrath,' saith the apostle, " iscome Uj)oii them to the 
 uttermost," 1 Thess. ii. 16. And he telleth us, that the 
 man of sin, the son of perdition, should be revealed by apos- 
 tacy ; to note unto us that antichrist was to be generated out 
 of the corruption or falling away of some eminent church, and 
 that by a mysterious and insensible declination. 
 
 2, A second question which may be made, is this, — That 
 since the church doth not totally fail from off the earth, 
 whether that which remaineth thereof be always visible ? To 
 which we answer, that if we take the church for the spiritual 
 and mystical body of Christ, which is indeed the house of God, 
 so it is, in a sort, still invisible, because the qualities and 
 principles which constitute a man in the bodv of Christ, as 
 faith, and the Spirit of grace, are invisible things. Seen in- 
 deed they may be by an eye of charity, in their fruits, but not 
 by an eye of certainty in their own infallible being. But if 
 we take the church for a company of men professing the true 
 doctrine of Christ, we answer, that take the men in them- 
 selves so truly professing, and it is impossible but their faith 
 should show itself in the fruits thereof; for the kingdom of 
 Christ is in the heart like leaven, which will manifest itself 
 in the whole lump ; and so we can in all, even in the worst ages 
 of the church, show some who have witnessed the truth 
 against that deluge of ignorance, error, and idolatry which 
 have invaded the world, like gray hairs here and there mingled 
 on a black head. As if you single out fire from the ashes it 
 will be seen by its own evidence, though it may be so raked 
 up that it is not observed. But then, if we speak of these 
 men in the aggregate, as concurring to make up a distinct ex- 
 ternal body, or church, so we say, that the professors of the 
 truth may be so few, and they persecuted, traduced, suppressed, 
 cried down, driven into the wilderness, without any apparent, 
 separated conspicuousness, and government of its own, (as in 
 the time of Constantius the emperor the public professors of 
 
212 THE STABILITY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 the Divinity of Christ's person, against the damnable heresy of 
 the Arians were used,) as that in this sense we may justly 
 deny the church to have been always visible ; that is, the few 
 true professors of Christ in power and purity to have had a 
 free, open, uncontrolled, distinct ecclesiastical body of their 
 own, notoriously and in the sight of men different from that 
 tyrannical and pompous hierarchy under which they suffered : 
 for though Christ rule, yet it is in the midst of his enemies ; 
 and the enemies may be so many, and Christ's subjects in 
 whom he rules so few, that the corn may be invisible for the 
 abundance of weeds amongst which it grows, though in 
 itself very apt to be seen. 
 
 And this giveth a full answer to that question, where our 
 church was before the late reformation began by l^uther ; for 
 that reformation did not new-make the church, but purge it. 
 And that it stood in need of purging, the papists themselves 
 were fain to confess, and declare to the world, in their council 
 of Trent. Only herein is the difference ; the council pre- 
 tended a reformation in points of discipline and manners, and we 
 made a reformation in points of doctrine too. When Christ purged 
 the temple of buyers and sellers, it was the same temple after, 
 which it was before. When a man separateth the wheat from the 
 chaff, it is the same corn which it was before. In these cor- 
 rupter ages, then, the pure professors of Christ, who denied 
 not his faith, did dwell where Satan had his seat. The 
 members of Christ were amongst the rulers of antichrist. We 
 are not another church newly started up, but the same which 
 before from the apostles' times held the common and neces- 
 sary grounds of faith and salvation, which grounds being in 
 latter ages perverted and overturned by anlichristianism, have 
 been by valiant champions for the faith of Christ therefrom 
 vindicated ; who have only pruned the Lord's vine, and picked 
 out the stones, and driven the boars out of his vineyard, 
 but have not made either one or other new. 
 
 Now this point, that Christ ruleth in the midst of his 
 enemies, is ground of great confidence in his church, inasmuch 
 as she subsisteth not upon any corruptible strength of her 
 own, but upon the promise, decree, oath, power, and love of 
 God, things invincible by all the powers of darkness. Let 
 the enemies rage ever so much, they cannot dethrone Christ, 
 nor extinguish his gospel, for it is an " everlasting gospel," 
 Rev. xiv. 6. It is but as the coming forth of shepherds 
 against a lion, as the prophet compareth it, Isa. xxxi. 4. 
 
CHRIST S KINGDOM OPPOSED IN THE WORLD. 213 
 
 For either Christ is unable to protect his peo))le, and tliat is 
 contrary to St. Jude ; he is " able to keep you from h\\\w^, and 
 to present you faukless," Jude, ver. 24 : or else he is un- 
 willing, and that is contrary to St. Paul ; '' This is the will of 
 God, even your sanctification," 1 The.ss. iv. 3 : or else both 
 his power and his will are suspended upon expectation of hu- 
 man concurrence, or nullified and disappointed by us, and 
 that is against the influence of his grace, which giveth us both 
 the will and the deed, Phil. ii. 13 ; against the mercy of his 
 gracious promise ; " I will be merciful to their unrighteous- 
 ness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no 
 more. I will heal their backslidings, 1 will love them freelv," 
 Heb. viii. 12 ; Hos. xiv. 4 ; against the immutal)ility of hk 
 covenant and holy nature ; " I am the Lord ; I cliange not ; 
 therefore the sons of Jacob are not destroyed," Mai.' iii. 6. 
 
 Now, besides this general observation, the words afford some 
 particular notes which I will but briefly touch. 
 
 1. Christ's kingdom in this world is a kingdom of the cross ; 
 a kingdom beset with enemies ; of all other the most hated and 
 opposed. They that submit unto it, must resolve to be herein 
 conformable to their Head ; a cross was his throne, and thorns 
 were his crown ; and every one who will live godly must suf- 
 fer persecution, and through many afflictions enter into his 
 Master's kingdom. As Christ was, so must christians be. 
 No marvel if the world hate the church of Christ, for it hated 
 him first. In his word he is resisted, disobeyed, belied, and, 
 if it were possible, silenced and corrupted ; in his oflicers, 
 mocked and misused ; in his subjects, persecuted and re- 
 viled ; in his Spirit, thrust awav and grieved ; in his worship, 
 neglected and polluted ; in all his ways slandered and blas- 
 phemed. 
 
 The reasons of which strange entertainment of the kingdom 
 of Christ, are, 1. Because it is a new kingdom, which enters 
 into the world by way of challenge and dispossession of for- 
 mer lords, and therefore no wonder if it find opposition. 2. 
 It is an invisible, inconspicuous, unattended, desolate, and in 
 appearance ignoble kingdom. It began in the form of a servant, 
 in the ignominy of the cross ; with none of the princes of this 
 world, none of the learned of this world to countenance or 
 help to set it up, but amongst them all, esteemed as an oflen- 
 sive and foolish thing. 3. It is an universal kingdom ; Christ 
 will admit of no consorts or rivals in his government. Body, 
 soul, and spirit, he will have wholly and throughout unto 
 
214 Christ's kingdom opposed in the world. 
 
 himself. And this amongst others is given for the reason, 
 why when Tiberius proposed Christ unto the Roman senate, 
 with the privilege of his own suffrage, to be worshipped, they 
 rejected him, because he would be a God alone. If he would 
 exempt some of the earthly members from his subjection, let 
 Just have the eye, or folly the ear, or violence the hand, or 
 covetousness the heart, or any other evil affection share with 
 him ; he would be the easier tolerated ; but when he will be 
 absolute, and nothing must remain in our hearts but as his 
 vassal, to be spoiled, subdued, condemned, and crucified by 
 him, if the whole state of sin must be ruined, and the body 
 destroyed, no wonder if the world cannot but away with him. 
 4. Which is the sum of all, it is a heavenly kingdom, a spi- 
 ritual kingdom : " My kingdom is not of this world ;" and 
 therefore no marvel if the devils of hell, and the lusts of the 
 flesh, do set themselves against him. 
 
 2. Even there where Christ's throne and kingdom are set 
 up he hath enemies. Satan hath his seat even where Christ 
 dwelleth, Rev. ii. 13. Men may say they are jews, and are 
 not, but are of the synagogue of Satan ; and men may say they are 
 christians, and are not, but are of the kingdom of Satan too. 
 A wen in the body seemeth to belong unto the integrity of the 
 whole, when indeed it is an enemy and thief therein. Ivy 
 about a tree seemeth to embrace it with much affection, when 
 indeed it doth but kill and choke it. Men may take upon 
 thern the profession of christians, and like a wen be skinned 
 over with the same outside which the true members have, 
 may pretend much submission, worship, and ceremony unto 
 him, and yet, (such is the hellish hypocrisy of the heart,) the 
 same men may perhaps inwardly swell and rankle against the 
 power of his truth and spirit. " This people," saith the Lord, 
 " draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips honour 
 me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear 
 toward me is taught by the precept of men," Isa. xxix. 13. 
 
 In the apostles' times there were false brethren and false 
 teachers, who crept in to spy out and betray the liberty of 
 the church, and privily to bring in damnable heresies, and to 
 speak hes in hypocrisy ; that is, under the pretext of devotion 
 and carnal humility, to corrupt the doctrine of Christ, and 
 under a form of godliness to deny the power thereof^ There- 
 fore antichrist is called a harlot, because she should seduce the 
 christian world with much expression of love, and creep peace- 
 ably and by flatteries into the kingdom of Christ : of these 
 
CHRIST S KINGDOM OPPOSED IN THE WORLD. 215 
 
 several enemies of Christ, under the profession of his name 
 and worship, some are christians, but not in purity, as heretics ; 
 some not in unity, as schismatics ; some not in sincerity, as 
 hypocrites ; some not so much as in external conformity, as 
 evil workers : the heretic corrupteth Christ, the schismatic 
 divideth him, the hypocrite mocketli him, the profane per- 
 son dishonoureth him, and all deny him. 
 
 Let us then learn to look unto our hearts, for we may flatter 
 Christ, when we do not love him ; we may inquire and seek 
 early after him, and yet have no desire to find him ; we may 
 come unto his school as untoward children ; not for love of 
 his doctrine, but for fear of his rod ; we may call him Hus- 
 band, and yet be wedded to our own lusts ; we may be bap- 
 tized in his name, so was Simon Magus ; we may preach him, 
 so did the false brethren ; we may flock after him, so did the 
 multitude who followed him not for his words or miracles, but 
 for the loaves ; we may bow unto him, so did his crucifiers ; 
 we may call upon his name, so did the hypocrites that said, 
 Lord, Lord, and yet did not enter into the kingdom of hea- 
 ven ; we may confess and believe him, so do the very devils 
 in hell ; we may give him our lips, our eyes, our tongues, our 
 knees, our hands, and yet still our kingdom, our throne, our 
 hearts may be Satan's. And all this is to make him but a 
 mock-king as the jews did, when indeed we crucify him. 
 
 3. Christ's word and Spirit are stronger than all adverse op- 
 position. This is his glory that his kingdom cometh in unto 
 him by way of conquest, as Canaan unto Israel. Therefore, 
 at the very first erecting of his kingdom, when in all presump- 
 tion it might most easily have been crushed, he suffered his 
 enemies to vent their utmost malice, and to glut themselves 
 with the blood of his people, that so it might appear, that 
 though they did fight against him, they could not prevail 
 against him, but that his counsel should still stand and flourish, 
 and should consume, and break in pieces all the kingdoms 
 which set themselves against it ; that they all should be afraid 
 of the ensign of the gospel, and should fly from it. 
 
 This jealousy of God for his church may be seen, in frus- 
 trating the attempts, and pulling off the wheels on which the 
 projects which are cast against his church do move, as he dealt 
 with Pharaoh. He can dissolve the confederacies, shatter the 
 counsels, cast a spirit of treachery, unfaithfulness, and muti- 
 nous affections into the hearts of his enemies, as he did into 
 the Midianites, and into the children of Ammon, Moab, and 
 
216 Christ's kingdom opposed in the world. 
 
 Edom, when they gathered together against his people. He 
 can infatuate their counsels, and make them the contrivers 
 and artificers of their own ruin, as we see in the consultation 
 of Rehoboam with his young men, and of Jeroboam in his 
 idolatrous policy, and of Haman in his gallows. He can de- 
 feat their expectations, and disannul their decrees, and make 
 his own counsel alone to stand, Judg. vii. 22 ; 2 Chron. xx. 
 22,23; Isa. xix. 9; xxix. 14; Mic. iv. 11, 12; Isa. xxxvii. 
 83, 34; Psa. xxxiii. 10, 11. 
 
 Let us take heed then of being Christ's enemies, in oppo- 
 sing the power and progress of his word, the evidence and pu- 
 rity of his Spirit in the lives of men. It is but to make a com- 
 bination to pull the sun out of the heaven ; or for a wave to 
 contend with a rock : for as the ruins of a house are broken 
 on the things upon which they fall, so are the enemies of 
 Christ, that gather together against his church, and fall 
 upon the rock, at length ruined by their own malice. Sam- 
 son's foxes were themselves burnt amongst the corn which 
 they fired. The land brought forth corn the next year again, 
 (and it may be more plentifully by reason of that fire,) but 
 the foxes never came up any more. Even so can the Lord 
 deal wuth those enemies that waste and depopulate his 
 church, make them the authors of their own utter confusion, 
 and bring forth his church with shouting, and with doubled 
 graces. 
 
 Who then is the man that desireth tranquillity of life, and se- 
 curity against all evil ? Let him become a subject in this 
 conquering kingdom, and cast himself under the banner and 
 protection of Christ, and he cannot miscarry. "He that 
 walketh uprightly, walketh surely. The name of the Lord is 
 a strong tower ; the righteous runneth into it, and is safe. 
 The Lord is a sun and a shield." A fountain of all good : 
 "The Lord will give grace and glory, and no good thing will 
 he withhold from them that walk uprightly." A protection 
 against all evil : " I will not be afraid of ten thousand of 
 people," saith the prophet David, " that have set themselves 
 against me round about," Psa. iii. 6. When there is no light, 
 nor issue, nor in nature possibility of escape, he can open 
 a door of deliverance, to relieve his church. As a man in the 
 king's highway is under the king's protection, so in Christ's 
 way we are under his protection. Let us then never repine 
 at the miscarriages of the world, nor murmur against the wise 
 proceedings of God in the several dispensations towards his 
 
CHRIST S KINGDOM OPPOSED IX THE WORLD. 217 
 
 church on earth : when he punisheth, he doth it in measure ; 
 less than our sins deserved ; and when we search and try our 
 ways, and return unto liim, he knoweth how to work liis own 
 olory in our deliverance. Tliose stones which arc appointed 
 for a glorious buikhng are first under the saw and the liani- 
 mer to be hewed and squared ; and those christians in whom 
 the Lord will take most delight, he usually thereunto fitteth 
 by trials and extremities. He that is brought to tremble in 
 himself, may with most confidence expect to rejoice in God. 
 
 4. This is the honour of Christ's kingdom, that it is a peace- 
 able, quiet, and secure kingdom, not only after the victory, 
 but in the midst of enemies. *' This man," saith the prophet 
 of Christ, " shall be the peace, when the Assyrian," the 
 enemy, '' shall come into our land," Mic. v. 5. We have peace in 
 him, when we have tribulation in the world. Christ saith of 
 himself, " I came not to send peace, but a sword," Matt. x. 
 34 ; and yet the apostle saith, that he " came and preached 
 peace to those which were afar off, and to them that were 
 nigh," Eph. ii. 17. How shall these things be reconciled ? 
 Surely as a man may say of a rock, nothing more quiet, be- 
 cause it is never stirred, and yet nothing more unquiet, because 
 it is ever assaulted : so we may say of the church, nothing 
 more peaceable, because it is estabhshed upon a rock, and yet 
 nothing more unpeaceable, because that rock is in the midst 
 of seas, winds, enemies, persecutions. But yet still the pro- 
 phet's conclusion is certain, " The work of righteousness shall 
 be peace, and the effect of righteousness, quietness and assur- 
 ance for ever," Isa= xxxii. 17. 
 
218 ANALYSIS OF THE THIRD VERSE. 
 
 VERSE III. 
 
 THY PEOPLE SHALL BE WILLING IN THE DAY OF THY POWER, IN THE 
 BEAUTIES OF HOLINESS FROM THE WOMB OF THE MORNING : THOU 
 HAST THE DEW OF THY YOUTH. 
 
 The prophet before showed the reign of Christ over his ene- 
 mies ; he now speaketh of his reign over his people, and de- 
 scribeth what manner of subjects or soldiers Christ should 
 have. I will not trouble you with a variety of expositions, (oc- 
 casioned by the many metaphors and different translations,) 
 but give> in a few words, those which I conceive to be most 
 literal and pertinent to the place. 
 
 " Thy people ;" that is, those whom thou dost receive from 
 thy Father, and, by setting up the standard and ensign of thy 
 gospel, gather to thyself. 
 
 " Shall be willing :" the word is " willingnesses ;" that is, 
 a people of great willingness and devotion, or (as the original 
 word is elsewhere used, Psa. cxix. 108) shall be " freewill of- 
 ferings" unto thee. The abstract being put for the concrete, 
 and the plural for the singular, note how exceeding forward 
 and free they should be ; as the Lord, to signify that his peo- 
 ple were most rebellious, saith that they were rebellion itself, 
 Ezek. ii. 8. So then, the meaning is, — Thy people shall, with 
 most ready and forward cheerfulness, devote, consecrate, and 
 render up themselves to thy government as a reasonable sa- 
 crifice ; shall be of a most liberal, free, noble, and uncon- 
 strained spirit in thy service ; they shall be voluntaries in the 
 wars of thy kingdom. 
 
 " In the day of thy power," or " of thine armies." By 
 these words we may understand two things, both of them 
 aiming at the same general sense : 1. So as that "armies" 
 shall be the same with " thy people" before ; in the day when 
 thou shalt assemble thy soldiers together, when thou shalt set 
 up thine ensigns for them to seek unto, (that is, when thou shalt 
 cause the preaching of thy gospel to sound like a trumpet, that 
 men may prepare themselves in armies to fight fhy battles,) 
 then shall all thy people with great devotion and willingness 
 gather themselves together under thy colours, and freely 
 
ANALYSIS OF THIRD VERSE. 219 
 
 devote themselves to thy military service. 2. So as tliat by 
 " power," or armies, may be meant the means whereby this free 
 and wilUng devotion in Christ's pco})lc is wrought : that is, — 
 When thou shalt send forth the rod of tliy strength ; wlicn thou 
 shah command thy apostles and ministers to go forth and 
 fight against the kingdoms of sin and Satan ; when thou shalt, 
 in the dispensation of thine ordinances, reveal thy power and 
 spiritual strength unto their consciences, then shall they most 
 willingly relinquish their former service, and wholly devote 
 themselves unto thee, to fight under thy banners, and to take 
 thy part against all thine enemies. 
 
 " In the beauties of holiness." This likewise we may se- 
 verally understand. Either in thy holy church : which may 
 well so be called, with allusion to the temple at Jerusalem, 
 which is called " the hcauty of holiness," Psa. xxix. 2, and 
 a "holy and beautiful house," Isa. Ixiv. 11, and a "glorious 
 high throne," Jer. xvii. 12. And hither did the tribes resort 
 in troops, as it were in armies, to present their free-will offer- 
 ings, and celebrate the other services of the Lord, Psa. Ixxxiv. 
 7. Or else we may understand it causally, thus : "In the day 
 of thy power," that is, when thou shalt reveal thy strength and 
 Spirit; "in the beauties of holiness," when thou shalt reveal 
 how exceeding beautiful and full of loveliness thy holy ways 
 and services are, then shall thy people be persuaded with all free 
 and willing devotion of heart to undertake them. Or, lastly, thus : 
 as the priests who offered sacrifices to the Lord were clothed with 
 holy and beautiful garments, Exod. xxviii. 2, 40 ; or as those 
 who, in admiration of some noble prince, voluntarily follow 
 the service of his wars, do set themselves forth in the most 
 complete furniture, and richest attire, that are fit to give notice of 
 the nobleness of their minds, (for beautiful armour was wont 
 to be esteemed the honour of an army,) so they who willingly 
 devote themselves unto Christ to be soldiers and sacrifices 
 unto him, are not only armed with strength, but adorned with 
 such inward graces, as make them " beautiful as Tirzah, 
 comely as Jerusalem, fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and 
 terrible as an army with banners," Cant. vi. 9, 10. All which 
 three explications meet in one general, which is principally 
 intended, — that holiness hath all beauties in it, and is that only 
 which maketh a man lovely in the eyes of Christ. 
 
 " From the womb of the morning : thou hast the dew of 
 thy youth." There is a middle point, or colon, after those 
 words, " the womb of the morning," which may seem to disjoin 
 l2 
 
220 ANALYSIS OF THIRD VERSE. 
 
 the clauses, and make these words refer wholly to the pre- 
 cedincr In which relation, there might be a double sense 
 concetved in them. Either thus :— In the beauties of hohness, 
 or in holiness very beautiful, more than the Aurora, or womb 
 of the morning, when she is ready to bring forth the sun. 
 And then it is a notable metaphor to express the glorious 
 beauty of God's ways. Or thus :— Thy people shall be a wdling 
 people from the very womb of the morning ; that is, from the 
 very first forming of Christ in them, and shining forth upon 
 them ; they shall rise out of their former nakedness and secu- 
 rity, and shall adorn themselves with the beautiful graces of 
 Christ's Spirit, as with clothing of wrought gold, and raiment 
 of needle-work, and shall with gladness and rejoicing, with 
 much devotion and willingness of heart, be brought unto the 
 king, and present themselves before him as voluntaries in his 
 service, Psa. xlv. 13—15. But because the learned con- 
 ceive that the middle point, or colon, is only a distinction for 
 convenient reading, not a disjunction of the sense, I shall 
 therefore rest in a more received exposition : — Thy children 
 shall be born in great abundance unto thee, by the power of 
 thy word, in the womb of the church, as soon as the morning, 
 or Sun of righteousness shall shine forth upon it : as the 
 dew is born out of the cool morning air, distilling down in 
 innumerable drops upon the earth ; so thine elect shall be 
 born unto thee, by the preaching of thy word, and first ap- 
 proach of thy heavenly light, in innumerable armies. And 
 this explication is very suitable to the harmony of holy Scrip- 
 ture, which useth the same metaphors to the same purpose in 
 other places. " The remnant of Jacob," saith the prophet, 
 " shall be in the midst of many people as a dew from the 
 Lord," Mic. v. 7. And Christ is called the " bright Morn- 
 ing-star," and the " Day- spring,'' and the " Sun of righteous- 
 ness," Rev. xxii. 16; Luke i. 78 ; Mai. iv. 2 : and the time of 
 the gospel is called the time of day, or the approach of day. 
 Rom. xiii. 12 ; 1 John ii. 8. So that, " from the womb of 
 the morning,'* is from the heavenly light of the gospel, which 
 is the wing or beam whereby the Sun of righteousness reveal- 
 eth himself, and breaketh out upon the world ; as the rising 
 sun, which rejoiceth Hke a giant to run his race, shall the 
 succession increase, and armies of the church of God be con- 
 tinually supplied. 
 
 The words, thus unfolded, contain in them a lively character 
 pf the subjects in Christ's spiritual kingdom. I. Described 
 
THE SUBJECTS OF CIIRIST's KINGDOM. 221 
 
 by their relation to him, and his propriety to them,— 
 *' Thy people." II. By their present condition, intimated 
 in the word, "willing," or voluntaries, and (if we take 
 "thy people" and "armies" for synonymous terms, the one 
 notifying the order and quality of the otlier) that is, mihtary 
 men. III. By their thorough and universal resignation, 
 subjection, and devotedness unto him. For when he 
 conquereth by his word, his conquest is wrought upon the 
 wills and affections of men: — "Thy people shall be wilhng." 
 The ground of which willingness is further added, (for so 
 chiefly I understand those words,) " the day of thy power." 
 So that the willingness of Christ's subjects is effected by the 
 power of his grace and Spirit in the revelation of the gospel. 
 IV. By their honourable attire, and military robes, in which 
 they appear before him, and attend upon him ; " in beauties 
 of holiness," or in the various and manifold graces of Christ, 
 as in a garment of divers colours. V. By their a^e, multi- 
 tudes, and manner of their birth ; they are " the dew of the 
 morning ;" as many as the small drops of dew : and they are 
 born to him out of " the womb of the morning ;" as dew is gene- 
 rated, not on the earth, but in the air, by a heavenly calhng, 
 and by the shining of the Morning-star, and Day-spring upon 
 their consciences, " Ye are all the children of light," saith 
 the apostle, " and the children of the day ; we are not of the 
 night, nor of darkness," 1 Thess. v. 3. 
 
 In these parts of the holy Scripture, which are written for 
 models and summaries of christian doctrine, there is weight 
 in every word, as in a rich jewel there is worth in every sparkle. 
 
 I. Here then we may take notice of Christ's propriety to 
 his people: — "thy people." All the elect and believers do 
 belong unto Christ : they are his people ; they are his own 
 sheep ; there is a mutual and reciprocal propriety between 
 him and them. " My beloved is mine, and I am his," Cant, 
 ii. 16. His desire is towards me. " His," I say, not as he is 
 God only, by a right of inseparable dominion as we are his 
 creatures. For "all things were created by him and for him," 
 Col. i. 16. And he is " over all, God blessed for ever," Rom. ix. 
 5. Nor his only, as he is the Firstborn and Heir of all things : 
 in which respect he is Lord of the angels ; and God hath set him 
 over all the works of his hands, Heb. i. 2, 3 ; ii. 7, 8. But 
 as he is the Mediator and Head in his church : in which re- 
 spect the faithful are his by a more peculiar propriety ; " We 
 are thine ; thou never barest rule over them ; they were not 
 
222 THE SUBJECTS OF CHRIST S KINGDOM. 
 
 called by thy name," Isa. Ixiii. 19. The devils are his vas- 
 sals ; the wicked of the world his prisoners : the faithful 
 only are his subjects and followers ; his jewels, his friends, 
 his brethren, his sons, his members, his spouse : his, by all 
 the relations of intimateness that can be named. 
 
 Now, this propriety Christ hath unto us upon several 
 grounds. 
 
 1. By constitution and donation from his Father. ** God 
 hath made him both Lord and Christ," Acts ii. 36. He "hath 
 put all things under his feet, and gave him to be head over all 
 things to the church," Eph. i. 22. " Ask of me, and I shall give 
 thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts 
 of the earth for thy possession," Psa. ii. 8. " Behold, I and the 
 children whom the Lord hath given me," Isa. viii.18. " Thine 
 they were, and tliou gavest ihem to me," John xvii. 6. For as 
 in regard of God's justice we were bought by Christ in our 
 redemption, so in regard of his love we were given unto Christ 
 in our election, that he might redeem us. 
 
 2. By a right of purchase, treaty, and covenant between 
 Christ and his Father. For we having sold away ourselves, 
 and being now in the enemies' possession, could not be re- 
 stored unto our primitive state without some intervening price 
 to redeem us. Therefore, saith the apostle, he was made un- 
 der the law, that he might buy out those that were under the 
 law, Gal. iv. 4, 5. And again, " Ye are bought with a price," 
 1 Cor. vi. 20. He w^as our Surety, and stood in our stead, 
 and was set forth to declare the righteousness of God, Rom. 
 iii. 25. God dealt in grace with us, but injustice with him. 
 
 3. By a right of conquest and deliverance. He hath 
 plucked us out of our enemies' hand ; he hath dispossessed and 
 spoiled those that ruled over us before ; he hath delivered us 
 from the power of Satan, and translated us into his own king- 
 dom. We are his freemen ; he only hath made us free from the 
 law of sin and death, and hath rescued us as spoils out of the 
 hands of our enemies ; and therefore we are become his ser- 
 vants, and owe obedience unto him as our Patron and Deliverer. 
 As the Gibeonites, when they were delivered from the sword 
 of the children of Israel, were thereupon made hewers of wood 
 and drawers of water for the congregation ; so we, being res- 
 cued out of the hands of those tyrannous lords who ruled over 
 us, do now owe service and subjection unto him that hath so 
 mercifully delivered us. " Being made free from sin." saith 
 the apostle, " ye became the servant? of righteousness." And 
 
THE SUBJECTS OF CHRIST S KINGDOM. 223 
 
 " we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we 
 were held ; that we should serve in newness of spirit," Worn. 
 vi. 18 ; vii. 6. And again, " He died for all, that they wliirh 
 live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him 
 which died for them, and rose again," 2 Cor. v. 15. 
 
 4. By covenant and stipulation. " I entered into a covenant 
 with thee, and thou becamest mine," Ezek. xvi. 8. Therefore in 
 our baptism we are said to be " baptized into C lirist," and to " put 
 on Christ," and to be baptized into his name ; that is, wholly to 
 consecrate and devote ourselves to him as the servants of his 
 family, Rom. vi. 3 ; Gal. iii. 27 ; Acts xix. 5. Therefore, 
 they that were baptized in the ancient church, were wont to 
 put on white raiment, as it were the livery and badge of Christ, 
 a testimony of that purity and service which therein they 
 vowed unto him And therefore it is, that we still retain the 
 ancient form of vow, promise, or profession in baptism, which 
 was to renounce the devil and all his works, the world, with 
 the pomp, luxury, and pleasures thereof. And this is done 
 in a most solemn and deliberate manner, by way of answer to 
 the question and demand of Christ. For which purpose St. 
 Peter calleth baptism " the answer," or the interrogatory trial, 
 "of a good conscience toward God," 1 Pet. iii. 21. He 
 who conformeth himself to the fashions, and setteth his 
 heart upon the favours, preferments, empty applause, and admi- 
 ration of the world ; he who liveth according to the rules and 
 courses, and sinful maxims of worldly men, in such indiffer- 
 ency, compliancy, and connivance, as may flatter others and 
 delude himself; he who is freely and customarily over-ruled 
 by the temptations of Satan, that yieldeth to looseness of 
 heart, to vanity of thoughts, lusts of the eye, pride of life, 
 luxury, intemperance, impurity of mind or body, or any other 
 earthly and inordinate aff'ection, is little better, in the sight of 
 God, than a perjured and a runagate person ; flinging ofl'from 
 that service unto which he had bound himself by a solemn vow, 
 and robbing Christ of that interest in him, which by a mutual 
 stipulation was agreed upon. 
 
 b. By the virtue of our communion with him, and partici- 
 pation of his grace and fulness. All that we are in regard of 
 spirit and life is from him ; we are nothing of ourselves ; and 
 we can do nothing of ourselves. All that we are is from the 
 grace of Christ ; " By the grace of God I am what I am," 
 1 Cor. XV. 10. And all that we do is from the grace of Christ ; 
 " I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth 
 
224 THE SUBJECTS OF CHRISt's KINGDOM. 
 
 me," Phil. iv. 13. As when we do evil, it is not we our- 
 selves, but sin that dwelleth in us ; so when we do good, it is 
 not we, but Christ who liveth in us, Rom. vii. 20 ; Gal. ii. 20. So 
 that, in all respects, we are not our own, but his who died for us. 
 Now, this being a point of so great consequence, it is need- 
 ful that we labour therein to try and secure ourselves that we 
 belong unto Christ. For which purpose we must note, that 
 a man may belong unto Christ two manner of ways : 1. By a 
 mere external profession. So all in the visible church that 
 call themselves christians are his, and his word and oracles 
 are theirs. In which respect they have many privileges, (as 
 the apostles show of the jews.) Yet notwithstanding, such 
 men, continuing unreformed in their inward man, are nearer 
 unto cursing than others, and subject unto a sorer condemna- 
 tion for despising Christ in his word and Spirit, with whom in 
 their baptism they made so solemn a covenant. For God 
 will not suffer his gospel to be cast away, but will cause it to 
 prosper unto some end or other ; either to save those that 
 believe, or to increase the damnation of those that disobey 
 it. He will be more careful to cleanse his garner, and to 
 purge his floor, than of other empty and barren places. A weed 
 in the garden is in more danger of being rooted out than in the 
 field. Such belong unto Christ no otherwise than ivy unto the 
 tree, unto which it externally adheres. 2. A man may belong 
 unto Christ by implantation into his body ; which is done by 
 faith. But here we are to note, that as some branches in a 
 tree have a more faint and unprofitable fellowship with the 
 root than others, having no further strength than to furnish 
 themselves with leaves, but not with fruit ; so, according unto 
 the several virtues or kinds of faith, may the degrees of men's 
 ingrafture into Christ be judged of. There is a dead, inope- 
 rative faith, which, like Adam after his fall, hath the nakedness 
 thereof covered only with leaves, with mere formal and hypo- 
 critical conformities. And there is an unfeigned, lively, and 
 effectual faith ; which is available to those purposes for which 
 faith was appointed ; namely, to justify the person, to purify 
 the heart, to quench temptations, to carry a man with wisdom 
 and an unblameable conversation through this present world, 
 to work by love, to grov/ and make a man abound in the ser- 
 vice of the Lord. And this distinction our Saviour giveth 
 us, that there are some branches in him which bear not fruit, 
 and those he taketh away ; and others which bear fruit, and 
 those he purgeth that they may bring forth more, John 
 
THE SUBJECTS OF CIIRISt's KINGDOM. 225 
 
 XV. '2. Those only are the branches which he desires to 
 
 own. 
 
 And thus to belong unto Christ, is that only which maketli 
 us a purchased and a peculiar people unto him. And tlicre 
 are several ways of evidencing it. I will only name two or 
 three, and those mostly in the text. We must know that Clirist is 
 a Morning-star, a Sun of righteousness, and so ever comes to the 
 soul with self-evidencing properties. Unto him belonoeth 
 that royal prerogative, to write an hnvard witness in the hearts 
 of men ; to be himself the witness to his own acts, purchases, 
 and covenants. Therefore his Spirit came in tongues of fire, 
 and in a mighty wind, all which have several ways of mani- 
 festing themselves, and stand not in need of any borrowintr or 
 foreign confirmations. If Christ then be in the lieart, he will 
 discover himself. His Spirit is the original of grace and 
 strength, as concupiscence is of sin. It is a seed in'the heart 
 which will spring up and show itself. And therefore, as lust 
 doth take the first advantage of the faint and imperfect stir- 
 rings of the reasonable soul in little infants, to evidence itself 
 in pride, folly, stubbornness, and other childish sins : so the 
 Spirit of grace in the heart cannot lie dead, but will work and 
 move ; and as a Spirit of burning, by the light, heat, purging, 
 comforting, inflaming, combating virtue which is in it, make 
 the soul, which was barren, and settled on the lees, and unac- 
 quainted with any such motions before, stand amazed at its 
 own alteration, and say with Rebecca, * If it be so, why am 
 I thus ?" Externals maybe imitated bv art ; but no man can 
 paint the soul or the life, or the sense and motion of the creature. 
 Now, Christ and his Spirit are the internal forms, and activt- 
 principles in a christian man ; Christ liveth in us : " When 
 Christ, who is our life, shall appear,"Col. iii. 4. Therefore, it is 
 impossible that any hypocrite should counterfeit, and by con- 
 sequence obscure those intimate and vital workings of his 
 grace in the soul, whereby he evidenceth himself thereunto. 
 It is true, a man that feareth the Lord may walk in darkness, 
 and be in such discomforts, that he shall see no light ; and yet, 
 even in that condition, Christ doth not want properties to evi- 
 dence himself, in tenderness of conscience, fear of sin, striving 
 of spirit with God, closeness of heart, and constant recourse 
 to him in his word, and the like ; only the soul is shut up 
 and overclouded that it cannot discern him. The Spirit of 
 Christ is a seal, a witness, an earnest, a first-fruit of that ful- 
 ness which is promised hereafter, Eph. i. 13, 14 ; Heb. x. 1.5. 
 L 5 
 
226 THE SUBJECTS OF CHRIST's KINGDOM. 
 
 It is Christ's own Spirit, and therefore fashioneth the hearts 
 of those in whom he dwells unto his heavenly image, to long 
 for more comprehension of him, for more conformity unto him, 
 for more intimacy and communion with him, for more grace, 
 wisdom, and strength from him ; he turneth the bent and course 
 of the soul from that earthly and sensual end unto which it 
 wrought before, as a good branch having been ingrafted into 
 a wild stock converteth the sap of a crabtree into pleasant 
 fruit. 
 
 Again ; if a man be one of Christ's people, then there hath 
 a day of power passed over him, the sword of the Spirit hath 
 entered into him ; he hath been conquered by the rod of 
 Christ's strength ; he hath felt John's axe laid to the root of 
 his conscience, and hath been persuaded by the terror of the 
 Lord : for the coming of Christ is with shaking. The con- 
 science hath felt a mighty operation in the word, though to 
 other men it hath passed over like empty breath ; for the word 
 worketh effectually in those that believe, and bringeth about 
 the purposes for which it was sent. To those that are called, 
 it is the power of God, 1 Cor. i. 24. 
 
 Again ; where Christ comes, he comes with beauty and 
 holiness : those who lay in their blood and pollutions before, 
 bare and naked, are made exceedingly beautiful, and renowned 
 for their beauty ; are perfect through the comeliness which he 
 puts upon them. He comes unto the soul with beauty and 
 precious oil, and garments of praise, Isa. Ixi. 3 ; that is, with 
 comfort, joy, peace, and healing, to present the church a holy 
 church without spot or wrinkle to his Father. 
 
 Lastly ; where Christ cometh, he cometh with the " womb 
 of the morning :" with much light to acquaint the soul with 
 his truth and promises ; and with much fruitfulness, making 
 the heart, which was barren before, to flow with rivers of liv- 
 ing water, to bring forth fruit more and more, and to abound 
 in the works of the Lord. These are the particular evidences 
 of our belonging to Christ in the text, and by these we must 
 examine ourselves. Do I find in my soul the new name of 
 the Lord Jesus written, that I am not only in title, but in 
 truth, a christian ? Do 1 find the secret nature and figure of 
 Christ fashioned in me, swaying my heart to the love and 
 obedience of his holy ways? Do I hear the voice, and feel 
 the hand and judicature of his blessed Spirit within me, leading 
 me in a new course, ordering mine inner man, sentencing and 
 crucifying mine earthly members? Am I a serious and 
 
THE SUBJECTS OF CHRIST S KINGDOM. 227 
 
 earnest enemy to my original lusts and closest corruptions ? Do 
 I feel the workings and kindlings of tlicni in n)ine heart with 
 much pain and mourning, with mncii humiliation for them, 
 and deprecation against ihem ? Is Christ my centre? Do I 
 find in mine heart a willingness to he with him, as well here 
 in his word, ways, promises, directions, and comforts ; yea, in 
 his reproaches and persecutions, as hereafter in his glory ? Is 
 it the greatest business of my life to make myself more like 
 him, to walk as he also walketh, to he as he was in this world, 
 to purify myself even as he is pure ? Hath the terror of his 
 wrath persuaded me, and shaken my conscience out of its car- 
 nal security, and made me look about for a refuge from the 
 wrath to come, and esteem more beautiful than the morning 
 brightness, the feet of those who bring glad tidings of deli- 
 verance and peace ? Hath this gospel an effectual creative 
 virtue within me, to new form my nature and life daily unto 
 his heavenly image ? Is it an ingrafted w^ord which mingleth 
 with my conscience, and hideth itself in my heart, actu- 
 ating, determining, moderating, and over-ruling It to its own 
 way ? Am I cleansed from my filthiness, careful to keep 
 myself chaste, comely, beautiful, a fit spouse for the fairest of 
 ten thousand? Do I rejoice in his liglit, walking as a child 
 of light, living as an heir of light, going on like the sun unto 
 the perfect day, labouring to abound alwavs in the work of 
 the Lord ? Then I may have good assurance that I belong 
 unto Christ. And if so, that will be a source of much 
 comfort to my soul. 
 
 1. If we are Christ's, then he careth for us, for propriety is 
 the ground of care. " He that is an hireling," saith our Sa 
 viour, '' and not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, 
 seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep. Because he is 
 an hireling he careth not for the sheep. I am the good Shep- 
 herd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine," John x. 
 12 — 14. He watcheth over us, he searcheth and seeketh us 
 out in our stragglings, and feedeth us. This is the princi])al 
 argument we have to believe that God will look upon us for 
 good, notwithstanding our manifold provocations, because he 
 is pleased to own us, and to take us as his own peculiar peo- 
 ple. Though the church be full of ruins, yet because it is iiis 
 own house, he will repair it ; thougli it be black as well as 
 comely, yet because it is his own spouse, he will \nty and che- 
 rish it; though it bring forth wild grapes, and be indeed meet 
 for no work, yet because it is his own vine, planted by his 
 
228 THE SUBJECTS OF CHRIST's KINGDOM. 
 
 own right hand, and made strong for himself, he will be there- 
 fore careful to fence and prune it. This is the only argum^ent 
 we have to prevail with God in prayer, that in Christ we call 
 him Father, we present ourselves before him as his own, we 
 make mention of no other Lord or name over us, and there- 
 fore he cannot deny us the things which are good for us. 
 
 2. If we are Christ's, then he will certainly purge us, and 
 make the members suitable to the Head. " I sware unto thee, 
 and entered into a covenant with thee, saith the Lord, and 
 thou becamest mine ;" and immediately it follows, " then 
 washed I thee with water ; yea, I thoroughly washed away thy 
 blood from thee," Ezek. xvi. 8, 9. " Every branch in me 
 that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more 
 fruit," John xv. 2. He purifieth to himself a pecuHar peo- 
 ple. If we be his peculiar people, and set apart for himself, 
 (as the pro))het David speaks, Psa. iv. 3,) he will undoubtedly 
 purify us ; that we may be honourable vessels, sanctified and 
 meet for the Master's use, and prepared unto every good work, 
 2 Tim. ii. 21. He will furnish us with all such supplies of the 
 Spirit of grace, as the condition of that place in his body 
 requires, in the which he hath set us. Grace and glory will 
 he give, and no good thing will he withhold from those who 
 walk uprightly ; our propriety to Christ giveth us right unto 
 all good things : " all are yours, and ye are Christ's." 
 
 3. If we are Christ's, then he will spare us. This was the 
 argument which the priest was to use between the porch and 
 the altar ; " Spare thy people. O Lord, and give not thine 
 heritage to reproach," Joel ii. 17, 18. Then will the Lord 
 be jealous for his land, and pity his people. " They shall be 
 mine, saith the Lord, in that day when I m.ake up my jewels ; 
 and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that 
 serveth him," Mai. iii. 17. Of my servant, to whom I give 
 wages for the merit of his work, not out of love or grace, I 
 expect a service proportionable to the pay he receives ; but in 
 my child I reward not the dignity of the work, but only the 
 willingness, the loving and obedient disposition of the heart ; 
 and therefore I pass over those failings and weaknesses which 
 discover themselves for want of skill or strength, and not of 
 love, praising the endeavours, and pardoning the miscarriages. 
 Thus doth the Lord deal with his children. 
 
 4 If we be Christ's he will pray for us : "I pray not for 
 the world, but for them which thou hast given me ; for they 
 ai'e thine. And all mine are thine, and thine are mine," 
 
Christ's subjects have a war to fight. 229 
 
 John xvii. 9, 10 ; so that we shall be sure to have help in all 
 times of need, because we know that the Father heareth his 
 Son always, John xi. 42 ; and those things wliich in mucli 
 fear, weakness, and ignorance we ask for ourselves, if it be 
 according to God's will, and by the dictate and mouth of the 
 Spirit in our heart, Christ himself in his intercession demandcth 
 for us the same things. " And this is the confidence that we 
 have in him, that, if we ask anything according to his will, 
 he heareth us : and we know that we have the petitions that 
 we desired of him," 1 John v. 14. For as the world hateth 
 us, because it hateth him first ; so the Father loveth and 
 heareth us, because he loveth and heareth him first. 
 
 5. If we be Christ's, then he will teach us, and commune 
 with us, and reveal himself unto us, and lead us with his 
 voice. " He calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth 
 them out. And when he putteth forth his own sheep, he 
 goeth before them," John x. 3, 4. Because Israel was his 
 own people, therefore he showed them his words, Psa. 
 cxlvii. 19. The law was theirs, and the oracles theirs. When 
 he entereth into covenant with a people, that they become his, 
 then he writeth his law in their hearts, and teacheth them. 
 This is the prophet David's argument, " I am thy servant : 
 give me understanding," Psa. cxix, 125. Because I am 
 thine in a special relation, therefore acquaint me with thee in 
 an especial manner. " The earth, O Lord, is full of thy 
 mercy ;" there is much of thy goodness revealed to all the na- 
 tions of the world, even to those that are not called by thy 
 name : but as for me, whom thou hast made thine own by a 
 nearer relation, let me have experience of a greater mercv ; 
 " teach me thy statutes," ver. 64. 
 
 6. If we be his, he will chastise us in mercy, and not in 
 fury ; though he leave us not altogether unpunished, yet he 
 will punish us less than our iniquities deserve ; he will not deal 
 with us as with others : '* Though I make a full end of all 
 nations whither I have scattered thee, yet will I not make a 
 full end of thee : but I will correct thee in measure," Jer. 
 xxx. 10, 11. I will correct thee to cure, but not to ruin thee. 
 
 II. The second thing to be considered in the words, is the 
 present condition of the people of Christ, which is to be 
 mihtary men, to johi with the armies of Christ against all his 
 enemies. As he was, so must we he in this world : no sooner 
 was Christ consecrated by his solemn baptism unto the work 
 of a mediator, but presently he was assaulted by the tempter ; 
 
230 Christ's subjects have a war to fight. 
 
 and no sooner doth any man give up his name to Christ, and 
 break loose from that hellish power under which he was held, 
 but presently Pharaoh and his hosts, Satan and his confede- 
 rates, pursue him with deadly fury and pour out floods of malice 
 and rage against him. Hell and death are at truce with 
 wicked men ; there is a covenant and agreement between them. 
 Satan holdeth his possession in peace ; but when a stronger 
 than he cometh upon, and overcometh him, there is from that 
 time implacable venom and hostility against such a soul ; the 
 malice, power, policy, stratagems, and machinations of Satan ; 
 the lusts and vanities, the pleasures, honours, profits, persecu- 
 tions, frowns, flatteries, snares of the wicked world : the affec- 
 tions, desires, inclinations, deceits of our own fleshly hearts, will 
 ever ply the soul of a christian, and force it to perpetual combats. 
 
 There is in Satan an everlasting enmity against the glory, 
 mercy, and truth of God ; against the power and mystery of 
 the gospel of Christ. This malice of his exerciseth itself 
 against all those that have given themselves to Christ, whose 
 kingdom he mightily laboureth to demolish : by his power 
 persecuting it, by his craftiness and wily insinuations under- 
 mining it ; by his vast knowledge and experience in palliating, 
 altering, mixing, proportioning, and measuring his temptations 
 and spiritual wickedness in such a manner, as that he may 
 subvert the church of Christ, either in the purity thereof, by 
 corrupting the doctrine of Christ with heresy, and his worship 
 with idolatry and superstition ; or in the unity thereof, by 
 pestering it with schism and distraction ; or in the liberty 
 thereof, by bondage of conscience ; or in the progress and 
 enlargement thereof, endeavouring to blast and make fruitless 
 the ministry of the gospel. And this malice of Satan is won- 
 derfully set on and encouraged both by the corruption of our 
 nature, those armies of lusts and affections which swarm within 
 us, entertaining, joining force, and co-operating with all his 
 suggestions ; disheartening, reclaiming, and pulling back the 
 soul when it offers to make any opposition ; and also by the 
 men and materials of this evil world. By the examples, the 
 threats, the interests, the power, the intimacy, the wit, the 
 tongues, the hands, the reproaches, the persecutions, the in- 
 sinuations and seductions of wicked men. By the profits, the 
 pleasures, the preferments, the acceptation, credit, and applause 
 of the world. 
 
 By all which means Satan most miportunately pursueth one 
 of these two ends, either to subvert the godly, by drawing them 
 
CHRIST S SUBJECTS HAVE A WAR TO FIGHT. 231 
 
 away from Christ to apostacy, formality, hypocrisy, spiritual 
 pride and the like ; or else to discomfort them will/ dittidc-i ice, 
 doubts, sight of sin, opposition of the times, vexation of 
 spirit, and the hkc affections. And these oppositions of Satan 
 meet with a cln-istian in every respect or consideration, under 
 which he may be conceived. Consider him in his spiritual 
 state, in his several parts, in his temporal relations, in his 
 actions or employments ; and in all these Satan is l)usy to 
 overturn the kingdom of Christ in him. In his spiritual state, 
 if he be a weak christian, he assaulteth him with perpetual 
 doubts and fears touching his election, conversion, adoj)tion, 
 perseverance, christian liberty, strength against corruptions, 
 companies, temptations, and persecutions. If he be a stronrr 
 christian, he laboureth to draw him unto self-confidence, sj)i- 
 ritual pride, contempt of the weak, neglect of further profi- 
 ciency, and the like. There is no natural part or faculty 
 which is not aimed at likewise by the malice of Satan ; for 
 Christ, when he comes, takes possession of the whole man, 
 and therefore Satan sets himself against the whole man. 
 Corporeal and sensitive faculties are tempted either to sinful re- 
 presentations, letting in and transmitting the provisions of lust 
 unto the heart, by gazing and glutting themselves on the ob- 
 jects of the world ; or to sinful executions, finishing and 
 letting out those lusts which have been conceived in the 
 heart. The fancy is tempted by satanical injections to be the 
 forge of loose, vain, unprofitable, and unclean thoughts. The 
 understanding, to earthly wisdom, vanity, infidelity, prejudices, 
 mispersuasions, fleshly reasonings, and vain speculations and 
 curiosities. The will, to stiffiiess, resistance, dislike of holy 
 things, and pursuit of the world. The conscience, to dead- 
 ness, immobility, and a stupid benumbedness, to slavish ter- 
 rors and evidences of hell, to superstitious bondage, to carnal 
 security, to desperate conclusions. The affections, to inde- 
 pendence, distraction, excess, and precipitancy. In temporal 
 conditions, there is no state of health, wealth, peace, honour, 
 estimation, or the contraries unto these : no relation of hus- 
 band, father, magistrate, or subject, unto which Satan hath not 
 such suitable suggestions, as by the advantage of fieshly cor- 
 ruptions may take from them occasion to draw a man from 
 God. Lastly, in regard of our actions and employments, 
 whether they be divine, such as respect God, as acts of piety, 
 in reading, ' hearing, meditating, and studying his word, in 
 calling upon his name, and the like ; or such as respect our- 
 
232 Christ's people a willing people. 
 
 selves, as acts of temperance and sobriety, personal examina- 
 tions, and more particular acquaintance with our own hearts ; 
 or such as respect others, as acts of righteousness, charity, and 
 edification : or whether they be natural actions, such as are 
 requisite to the preservation of our being, as sleep and diet : 
 or civil actions, in our callings or recreations ; in all these 
 Satan laboureth either to pervert us in the performance of 
 them, or to divert us from it. There is then no condition, 
 faculty, relation, or action of a christian man, the which is not 
 always under the eye and envy of a most raging, wise, and 
 industrious enemy. And therefore, great reason there is, that 
 christians should be military men, well instructed in the whole 
 armour of God, that they may be able to stand against the 
 wiles of the devil, and to quench all his fiery darts. It is our 
 calling to wrestle against principalities and powers, and 
 spiritual wickedness in high places, to resist the devil, to strive 
 against sin, to mortify earthly members, to destroy the body 
 of sin, to deny ourselves, to contradict the reasonings of the 
 flesh, to check and control the stirrings of concupiscence, to 
 resist and subdue the desires of our evil hearts, to withstand 
 and answer the assaults of Satan, to out-face the scorns, and 
 despise the flatteries of the present world, and in all things to 
 " endure hardness as good soldiers of Jesus Christ," 2 Tim. 
 ii. 3. Our cause is righteous, our Captain is wise and puis- 
 sant, our service honourable, our victory certain, our reward 
 massy and eternal ; so that in all respects great encouragements 
 we have to be voluntaries in such war, the issue whereof is 
 our enemies' perdition, our Master's honour, and our own sal- 
 vation. 
 
 III. The third thing observed was, the thorough awd uni- 
 versal resignation and devotedness of Christ's people unto 
 him : " Thy people shall be wilHng," or a people of great devo- 
 tion, "in the day of thy power." From whence I shall gather 
 these observations : 
 
 1. They that belong unto Christ as his people, are most 
 thoroughly and willingly subject unto his government ; do con- 
 secrate, resign, and yield up their whole souls and bodies to 
 serve in his wars against all his enemies. For the distinct 
 understanding of which point we are to observe, that by 
 nature we are utterly unwilling to be subject unto Christ. 
 The carnal mind is enmity against God, it is not subject to 
 the law of God, neither indeed can be, Rom. viii. 7, 8, 10. 
 For if Christ be over us, the body of sin must die ; it once 
 
CHRIST S PEOPLE A WILLING PEOPLf:. 20:) 
 
 crucified him, and he will be revenged ui).)n it, liy natuie we 
 are willingly subject unto no law, but the law of our mem- 
 bers ; to Jio will, but the will of the flesh ; full of contumacy, 
 rebellion, and stoutness of spirit against the truth and beauty 
 of the word and ways of God. The love of corruj)tcd nature 
 is wholly set upon our own ways ; as an untamed heifer,or a wild 
 ass, men wander, and go al)out, and weary themselves in their 
 full compass and swing of lust, and will not be turned. - And 
 therefore it is that they bid God depart from them, and desire 
 not the knowledge of his ways ; that they leave the paths of 
 uprightness ; that having crooked hearts of their own, they 
 labour likewise to pervert and make crooked the gospel of 
 Christ, that they may from thence steal countenance to their 
 sins, contrary to that holy affection of David, " Make thy 
 way straight before my face ;" that they snuff, and rage, and 
 pull away the shoulder, and fall backward, and thrust away 
 God from them, Eccles. viii. 11 ; Prov. xiv. 14 ; Jer. ii. 24 ; 
 viii. 6; Hos. iv. 16; Jer. ii. 20; xxxi. 22; Isa. Ivii. 10; 
 Job xxi. 14; Deut. xxxii.5; Gal. i. 7 ; 2 Pet. iii. 16 ; Psa. v. 
 8; Mal. i. 13; Neh. ix. 29; Acts vii. 39, 31. And 
 hence it is that men are so apt to cavil, and foolishly to charge 
 the w^ays of God : 1. As grievous ways, too full of austerity, 
 narrowness, and restraint. " I knew that thou wert a hard 
 man," Matt.xxv. 24 ; and " This is an hard saying : who can 
 hear it ?" John vi. 60. " The land is not able to bear all 
 his words," Amos vii. 10. There is a lion in the way, a 
 certain damage and unavoidable mischief will follow me if I 
 keep in it, Prov. xxii. 13. Thus Israel, when they heard 
 of giants and sons of Anak, had no heart to Canaan, but 
 cried, and whined, and rebelled, and mutinied, and in their 
 hearts turned back into Egypt, Num. xiii. 31 ; xiv. 1, 4; 
 that is, had more will to their own bondage, than to God's 
 promise : so when a natural man hears of walking in a narrow 
 way with much exactness and circumspection, that come what 
 bait of preferment, pleasure, profit, or advantage whatsoever, 
 yet he must not turn to the right hand nor to the left, nor 
 commit the least evil for the greatest good ; that as the people 
 in the wilderness were to go only where the cloud and pillar 
 of God's presence led them, though he carried them through 
 giants, terrors, and temptations, so a christian must resolve to 
 follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth ; he then turneth 
 back to his iniquities, and refuseth to hear the words of the 
 Lord. 2. As unprofitable ways : for " who will bhow us any 
 
234 Christ's people a willing people. 
 
 good ?*' is the only language of carnal men, Psa. iv. 6. What 
 can the Almighty do for us ? say the wicked in Job, xxii. 17. 
 " It is in vain to serve God ; what profit is it that we have kept 
 his ordinance ?" Mai. iii. 14, 15. If we must take our con- 
 science along in all the businesses of our life, there will be no liv- 
 ing in the world ; notwithstanding the Lord saith, that his words 
 do (rood to those that v/alk uprightly, that godliness hath the 
 promises even of this life ; that God will honour those that 
 honour him, Mic. ii. 7 ; 1 Tim. iv. 8 ; 1 Sam. ii. 30. 3. As 
 unequal and unreasonable ways ; as a strange, a mad, and a 
 foolish strictness ; rather the meteor of a speculative brain, 
 than a thing of any real existence ; rather a wish or figment, 
 than a soHd truth. And from such prejudices as these men 
 grow to wrestle with the Spirit of Christ, to withstand his 
 motions, to quench his suggestions, and to dispute against him. 
 This people are as they that strive with the priest, such a 
 bitter and irreconcileable enmity there is between the two 
 seeds, Hos. iv. 4. 
 
 2. We may observe, that, notwithstanding this natural 
 averseness, yet many, by the power of the word, are wrought 
 violently and compulsorily to tender some unwilling services 
 to Christ, by the spirit of bondage, by the fear of wrath, by 
 the evidences of the curse due to sin, and by the wakefulness 
 of the conscience. " They have turned their back unto me, 
 and not their face," saith the Lord ; which notes the disposition 
 of their will. " But in the time of their trouble they will say, 
 Arise, and save us," which notes their compulsory and unnatural 
 devotion. " They shall go with their flocks and with their herds ;" 
 that is, with their pretended sacrifices, and external ceremonies ; 
 " to seek the Lord ; but they shall not find him ; he hath with- 
 drawn himself," Jer. ii. 27 ; Hos. v. 5, 6. As when the Lord sent 
 lions amongst the Samaritans, then they sent to inquire after the 
 manner of his worship, fearing him, but yet still serving their 
 own gods. But this compulsory obedience doth not proceed 
 from a fear of sin, but a fear of hell. And that plainly ap- 
 pears in the readiness of such men to apprehend all advan- 
 tages for enlarging themselves, and in making pretences to 
 flinch away and steal from the word of grace, in consulting 
 with carnal reason to silence the doubts, to untie the knots, 
 and to break the bonds of the conscience asunder, and to turn 
 into every diverticle which a corrupted heart can shape ; in 
 taking every occasion and pretext to put God off, and delay 
 the payment of their service unto him. Thus Felix, when he 
 
Christ's people a willing people. 235 
 
 was frightened with the discourse of St. Paul, put it off with 
 pretence of some further convenient season ; and the unwill- 
 ing jews in the time of rebuilding the temple at Jerusalem, 
 " This people say, The time is not come, the time that the 
 Lord's house should be built," Hag.i.2. Again; in slightinfr the 
 warnings and distinguishing the words of Scripture out of dieir 
 spiritual and genuine purity, and so belying the Lord, and 
 saying. It is not he. '' The word of the Lord," saith'the 
 prophet, " is unto them a reproach ; they have no delight in 
 it," Jer. V. 12, 13; vi. 10; that is, they esteem me when I 
 preach thy words unto them rather as a slanderer, than as a 
 prophet. Wouldst thou then kuow the nature of thy devo- 
 tion? Abstract all conceits of danger, all workino-s of the 
 spirit of bondage, the fear of wrath, the pre-occupations of 
 hell, the estuations and sweatings of a troubled conscience, 
 and if all these being secluded, thou canst still afford to de- 
 dicate thyself to Christ, and be greedily ambitious of his image, 
 that is an evident assurance of an upright heart. 
 
 3. We may observe, that, by the power of the word, there 
 may yet be further wrought in natural men a certain low de- 
 gree of desire, a languid and incomplete will, bounded with 
 secret reservations, exceptions, and conditions of its own, 
 which maketh it upon every new occasion mutable and in- 
 constant. When the hypocritical jews came with such a so- 
 lemn protestation unto the prophet Jeremiah, " The Lord be 
 a true and faithful witness between us, if we do not even ac- 
 cording to all things for the which the Lord thy God shall 
 send thee to us," Jer. xlii. 5, 6, 20 ; I suppose they then 
 meant as they spake, and yet this appears in the end to have 
 been but a weak desire and incomplete resolution, a zealous 
 pang of that secret hypocrisy which in the end discovered 
 itself, and brake forth into manifest contradiction. When Ha- 
 zael answered the prophet, " Is thy servant a dog that he 
 should do this great thing?" 2 Kings viii. 13, he then meant 
 no otherwise than he spake ; upon the first representation of 
 those bloody acts, he abhorred them as prodigious villanies ; 
 and yet this was but a fit of good nature for the time, which 
 •^id easily wear out with the alteration of occasions. When 
 Judas asked Christ, Master, is it I that shall betray thee ? 
 it is possible, and peradventure it is probable, that hearing 
 at that time and believing that woful judgment pronounced 
 by Christ against his betrayer, " It had been good for that 
 man if he had not been born," Matt. xxvi. 24, he might then, 
 
236 Christ's people a willing people. 
 
 upon the pang and surprisal of so fearful a doom, secretly and 
 suddenly relent, and resolve to forsake his purpose of treason ; 
 which yet when that storm was over, and his covetous heart 
 was tempted with a bribe, did fearfully return, and gather 
 strength again. When the people returned, and inquired 
 early, and remembered God their Maker, they were in good 
 earnest for the time, and yet that was a weak desire, and un- 
 grounded devotion, their heart was not right towards him, 
 neither were they stedfast in his covenant. When Saul, out 
 of the force of natural ingenuity, did, upon the evidence of 
 David's integrity, who slew him not when the Lord had de- 
 livered him into his hands, relent for the time and weep, and 
 acknowledge his righteousness above his own, he spake all 
 this in earnest as he thought ; and yet we find that he after- 
 wards returned to pursue him again, and was once more, by 
 the experience of David's innocency, reduced unto the same 
 acknowledgement. The people, in one place, would have 
 made Christ a king, so much did they seem to honour him ; 
 and yet, at another time, when their over-pliable and unre- 
 solved affections were wrought upon by the subtle pharisees, 
 they cried against him, as against a slave, " Crucify him, cru- 
 cify him :" so may it be in the general services of God ; men 
 may have wishings and wouldings, and good liking of the 
 truth, and some faint and floating resolutions to pursue it, 
 which yet having no firm root, nor proceeding from the whole 
 bent of the heart, from a thorough mortification of sin and 
 evidence of grace, but from such weak and wavering principles 
 as may be perturbed by every new temptation, hke letters 
 written in sand, they vanish away like a morning dew, and 
 leave the heart as hard and scorched as it was before. The 
 young man, whom for his ingenuity and forwardness Christ 
 loved, came in a sad and serious manner to learn of Christ the 
 way to heaven : and yet we find there were secret reservations 
 which he had not discerned in himself, upon discovery whereof 
 by Christ he was discouraged and made to repent of his resolu- 
 tion, Mark X. 21, 22. The apostle speaketh of a "repent- 
 ance not to be repented of," 2 Cor. vii. 10, which hath firm, 
 solid, and permanent reasons to support it ; therein secretly 
 intimating, that there is likewise a repentance, which rising out 
 of an incomplete will, and admitting certain secret and undis- 
 cerned reservations, doth, upon the appearance of them, flag 
 and fall away, and leave the unfaithful heart to repent of its 
 repentance. St. James tells us that " a double-minded man 
 
CHRIST S PEOPLE A WILLING PEOPLE. i>;]7 
 
 is unstable in all his ways," James i. 8, never uniform or con- 
 stant to any rules. Now, tlii.s division of the mind stands 
 thus ; the heart, on the one side, is taken up with the pleasures 
 of sin for the present; and, on tlie other, witli the desires of 
 salvation for the future ; and according as the workings and 
 representations of the one or other are at the time more fresh 
 and predominant, in like manner is sin for ihat time either 
 cherished or suppressed. Many men at a good sermon, when 
 the matter is fresh and newly presented, while they are looking 
 on their face in the glass ; or in any extremity of sickness, 
 when the provisions of lust do not relish for tlie present, when 
 they have none but thoughts of salvation to depend upon, are 
 very resolute to make promises, vows, and professions of better 
 living ; but when the pleasures of sin grow strong to present 
 themselves again, they return like a man recovered of an ague 
 with more stomach and greediness to their lusts again. As 
 water, which hath been stopped for awhile, rusheth with the 
 more violence when its passages are opened. 
 
 4. But we must observe, that in the day of Christ's power, 
 when he, by his word and Spirit, worketh effectually in the 
 hearts of men, they are then made free-will offerings ; totally 
 willing to obey and serve him in all conditions. The heart 
 of every one stirreth him up, and his spirit maketh him willing 
 for the work and service of the Lord, Exod. xxxv. 21. They 
 yield themselves unto the Lord, and their members as weapons 
 of righteousness unto him, 2 Chron. xxx. 8 ; Rom. vi. 19. 
 They offer and present themselves to God as a living sacri- 
 fice ; and therefore they are called " an oblation," sanctified 
 by the Holy Ghost, Rom. xii. 1 ; xv. 16. Therefore they 
 are said to come unto Christ, by the virtue of his Father's 
 teaching, John vi. 43. To run unto him, Isa. Iv. 3. To 
 gather themselves under him as a common head ; and to flow 
 or flock together with much mutual encouragement unto the 
 mountain of the Lord, Hos. i. 1 1 ; Isa. ii. 2, 3. To wait 
 upon him in his law, Isa. xlii. 4. To enter into a sure cove- 
 nant, and to write and seal it, Neh. ix. 38. In one word, 
 " To serve him with a perfect heart, and with a willing mind," 
 1 Chron, xxviii. 9 : when the heart is perfect, undivided, and 
 goeth altogether, the mind will be willing to serve the Lord. 
 This willingness of Christ's people showeth itself in two 
 things : 
 
 (1.) In begetting most cordial and constant enmity against 
 all the enemies of Christ, never holding any league or intelli- 
 
238 Christ's people a willing people. 
 
 gence with them, but being always ready to answer the Lord, 
 as David did Saul, " Thy servant will go and fight with this 
 Philistine." He that is a voluntary in Christ's armies, is not 
 disheartened with the potency, policy, malice, subtlety, or pre- 
 vailing faction of any of his adversaries. He is contented to 
 deny himself, to renounce the friendship of the world, to bid 
 defiance to the allurements of Satan, to smile upon the face of 
 danger, to hate father and mother, and land, and life, to be 
 cruel to himself, and regardless of others, for his Master's ser- 
 vice. Through honour and dishonour, through evil report 
 and good report, through a sea and a wilderness, through the 
 hottest services and strongest oppositions, will he follow the 
 Lamb whithersoever he goeth : though he receive the word 
 in much affliction, yet he will receive it with joy too. 
 
 (2.) In begetting most loving, constant, and dear affections 
 to the mercy, grace, glory, and ways of God ; and an universal 
 conformity unto Christ our Head, who was contented to take 
 upon him the form of a servant, to have his will subjected unto 
 the will of his Father. " I delight to do thy will, O my God : 
 yea, thy law is within my heart," Psa. xl. 8. And as he was, 
 so are all his in this world ; of the same mind, judgment, 
 spirit, conversation, and therefore of the same will too. 
 
 Now, this dear and melting affection of the heart towards 
 Christ and his ways, whereby the soul longeth after him, and 
 hasteneth unto him, is wrought by several principles : 
 
 I. By the conviction of our natural state, and a thorough 
 humiliation for the same. Pride is ever the principle of dis- 
 obedience. They were the proud men who said unto Jere- 
 miah, " Thou speakest falsely, the Lord our God hath not sent 
 thee," Jer. xliii. 2. And they were the proud men who har- 
 dened their necks, and withdrew the shoulder, and would not 
 hear, and refused to obey, Neh. ix. 16, 17, 29. A man 
 must be first brought to deny himself before he will be willing 
 to follow Christ, and to carry a cross after him. A man must 
 first humble himself before he will walk with God, Mic. vi. 
 8. The poor in spirit only receive the gospel : the hungry 
 only find sweetness in bitter things. Extremities will make 
 any man not only willing, but thankful to take any course 
 wherein he may recover himself and subsist again. When the 
 soul finds itself in darkness, and hath no light, and begins to 
 consider whither darkness leads it ; that it is even now in the 
 mouth of hell, under the paw of the roaring lion, under the 
 guilt of sin, the curse of the law, and the hatred and wrath of 
 
CHRIST S PEOPLE A WILLING PEOPLE. 239 
 
 God, it most willingly pursues any probability, and with 
 most enlarged affections meets any tender of deliverance. 
 Suppose we tbat a prince should cause some malefactor 
 to be brought forth, should set before his eyes all the racks 
 and tortures which the wit of man can invent to punish 
 prodigious offenders, and should cause him to taste some 
 of those extremities ; and then, in the midst of his howling 
 and anguish, should not only reach out a hand of rhercy 
 to dehver him, but should further promise him, upon his sul)- 
 mission, to advance him like Joseph from the iron which 
 enters into his soul, unto public honour and service in the 
 state ; would not the heart of such a man be melted into 
 thankfulness, and with all submission resign itself unto the 
 mercy and service of so gracious a prince ? Now, the Lord 
 doth not only deal thus with sinners ; doth not only cause 
 them, by the report of his word, and by the experience of their 
 own guilty hearts, to feel the weight, fruitlessness, and shame 
 of sin, and the first-fruits of that eternal vengeance which is 
 thereunto due : not only set forth Christ before them as a 
 rock of redemption, reaching out a hand to save, and offer- 
 ing great and precious promises of an exceeding, eternal, 
 abundant weight of glory ; but, besides all this, doth in- 
 wardly touch the heart by the finger of his Spirit, framing it to 
 a spiritual and divine conformity unto Christ. How can the 
 soul of such a man, in these present extremities of horror, 
 which yet are but the pledges of infinite more which must en- 
 sue ; and in the evidence of so wonderful and sweet promises, 
 the seals of the eternal favour and fellowship of God, but 
 choose, with much importunity of affection, to lay hold on so great 
 a hope which is set before it, and with all readiness and am- 
 bition of so high a service, yield up itself into the hands of so 
 gracious a Lord, to be by him ordered and overruled unto any 
 obedience ! 
 
 2. This willingness of Christ's people is wrought by a 
 spiritual illumination of the mind. And, therefore, the con- 
 version of sinners is called a conviction, because it is ever 
 WTOught in us as we are reasonable and intelligent creatures. 
 I take it (under favour and submission to better judgments) 
 for a firm truth, that if the mind of man were once thoroughly, 
 and in a spiritual m.anner, (as it becometh such objects as are 
 altogether spiritual,) possessed of the adequate goodness and 
 truth which is in grace and glory, the heart could not utterly 
 reject them : for human liberty is not a brutish, but a reason- 
 
240 Christ's people a willing people. 
 
 able thing ; it consisteth not in contumacy, or headstrongness, 
 but in such a manner of working, as is apt to be regulated, 
 varied, or suspended by the dictates of right reason. The 
 only cause why men are not willing to submit unto Christ is, 
 because they are not thoroughly, and, in a manner, suitable to 
 the spiritual excellency of the things, enlightened in their 
 mind. The apostle often maketh mention of fulfilling and 
 making full proof of our ministry, and of preaching the gospel 
 fully, namely with the evidence of the Spirit and of power, and 
 with such a manifestation of the truth as doth commend itself 
 unto the conscience of a man. Col. iv. 17 ; Acts xiv. 26 ; 
 2 Tim. iv. 5; Rom. xv. 19. The Vv'ord of God, saith the 
 apostle, " was not yea and nay," 2 Cor. i. 18 ; that is, a thing 
 which may be admitted or denied at pleasure, but such a word 
 as hath no uncertain evidence in itself, nor leaveth any un- 
 certainty or hesitancy in a mind fitted to receive it. And as 
 we may thus distinguish of preaching, that there is an imper- 
 fect, and a full preaching : so may we distinguish of under- 
 standing the things preached ; in some it is full, and in 
 others superficial : for there is a twofold illumination of the 
 mind ; the one theoretical, and merely notional, consisting in 
 knowledge ; the other practical, experimental, and spiritual, 
 consisting in the irradiation of the soul by the light of God's 
 countenance, in such an apprehension of the truth as maketh 
 the heart to burn thereby, when we know things as we ought 
 to know them ; that is when the manner and life of our know- 
 ledge is answerable to the nature and excellency of the things 
 known, when the eye is spiritually opened to believe and se- 
 riously conclude that the things spoken are of most pre- 
 cious and everlasting consequence to the soul, as things that 
 concern our peace with God. This is the learning of Christ, the 
 teaching of the Father ; the knowing of things which surpasseth 
 knowledge ; the setting to the seal of our own hearts that God 
 is true ; the evidence of spiritual things, not to the brain, but 
 to the conscience. In one word, this is that which the apostle 
 calleth a spiritual demonstration. And surely, in this case, the 
 heart is never over-ruled contrary to the full, spiritual, and 
 infallible evidence of divine truths unto a practical judgment. 
 Therefore the apostle saith, that Eve being deceived was in 
 the transgression, 1 Tim. ii. 14 ; and there is frequent men- 
 tion made of the deceitfulness of sin, to note, that sin got into 
 the world by error and seduction. For certainly the will is 
 a rational appetite ; and, therefore, (as I conceive.) doth nx)t 
 
CHRIST S PEOPLE A WILLING PEOPLE. •_>-! \ 
 
 Stir from such a good as is fully and spiritually represented 
 thereunto, as the most universal, adequate, and unqnestionahle 
 ohjeet of the desires and capacities of a human soul ; for the 
 freedom and willing consent of the heart is not lawless, or 
 without rules to moderate it ; but it is therefore said to be 
 free, because, whether out of a true judgment it move one way, 
 or, out of a false, another, yet in both it moves naturally, in a 
 manner suitable to its own condition. 
 
 If it be objected, that the heart being unregcnerate, is ut- 
 terly averse unto any good, and therefore is not likely to be 
 made willing by the illumination of the mind ; to this I 
 answer. It is true, the will must not only be moved, but also 
 renewed and changed, before it can yield to Christ. But 
 withal, that God doth never so fully and spiritually convince 
 the judgment in that manner of which I have spoken, without 
 a special work of grace thereupon, opening the eye, and re- 
 moving all natural ignorance, prejudice, hesitancy, inadvert- 
 ency, mispersuasion, or any other distemper of the mind which 
 might hinder the evidence of spiritual truth. By which means 
 he also frameth and fashioneth the will to accept, embrace, and 
 love those good things, of which the mind is thus prepossessed. 
 
 3. This willingness of Christ's people is wrouglit by the 
 communion and inspiration of the Spirit of grace, which is a 
 free Spirit, a Spirit of love, and a Spirit of liberty : a Spirit 
 which is in every faculty of man as the soul and principle of 
 its Christianity, or heavenly being and working. And there- 
 fore it makes every faculty, in a way peculiar to itself, to work 
 unto spiritual ends and objects. As the soul in the eye 
 causeth that to see, and in the ear to hear, and in the tongue 
 to speak ; so the Spirit of grace in the mind causeth it 
 rightly to understand, and in the will causeth it freely to de- 
 sire heavenly things, and in every faculty causeth it to move 
 towards Christ in such a way and manner of working as is 
 suitable to its nature. 
 
 4. This willingness of Christ's people ariseth from the ap- 
 prehension of God's dear love, bowels of mercy, and riches of 
 most unsearchable grace, revealed in the face of Jesus Christ 
 to every broken and penitent spirit. Love is naturally, when 
 it is once apprehended, an attractive of love. And therefore 
 it is that the apostle saith, Faith worketh by love ; that is, by 
 faith, first, the heart is persuaded and affected with God's 
 love unto us in Christ. " I live by the faith of the Son ot 
 God, who loved me, and gave himself for me," Gal. ii. 20 ; 
 
 M 
 
242 Christ's people a willing people. 
 
 Eph. in. 17 — 19. Being thus persuaded of his love to us, the 
 heart is framed to love him again : for who can he persuaded 
 of so great a benefit as the remission of sins, and not be most 
 deeply inflsuned with the love of him by whom they are re- 
 mitted ? 1 John iv. 19 ; Luke vii. 47. And by this reci- 
 procal love of the heart to Christ, faith becometh effectual to 
 work obedience and conformity to his will. Love is the ful- 
 filling of the law : he that loves God, would with all joyful- 
 ness fulfil every jot of God's law if it were possible ; " This 
 is the love of God," saith the apostle, " that we keep his com- 
 mandments : and his commandments are not grievous." True 
 love overcomes all difficulties, is not apt to pretend occasions 
 for neglecting any service of God, nor to conceive any preju- 
 dices against it, but puts an edge and alacrity upon the spirit 
 of a man; he can no more be said to love Christ, who doth 
 not wilhngly undergo his yoke, than that woman to love her 
 husband who is ever grieved at his presence, and delighteth 
 more in the society of strangers. 
 
 5. This willingness of Christ's people ariseth from the 
 beauty and preciousness of those ample promises, which by 
 the love of Christ are made unto us. It is said of Moses that 
 he chose (and that is the greatest act of willingness) " rather 
 to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the 
 pleasures of sin for a season ;" and the ground of this willing- 
 ness was, " he had a respect unto the recompense of the re- 
 ward," Heb. xi. 25, 26. So Christ endured the cross, and 
 despised the shame ; that is, the shame (which would much 
 have staggered and disheartened an unresolved man) was no 
 prejudice or discouragement unto him, to abate any of his 
 most willing obedience ; and the motive was, " for the joy that 
 was set before him,'' Heb. xii. 2. And St. Paul professeth 
 of himself that he " pressed forward ;" he was not only willing, 
 but importunate and contentious to put forth all his spirits, 
 and, like riders in a race, to rouse up himself in a holy fervour 
 and emulation, and all this was " for the prize of the high 
 caUing of God in Christ Jesus ;" which was, as it were, be- 
 fore his face in the promises thereof, Phil. iii. 14 : so the 
 apostle assureth us, that a christian's hope to be like unto 
 Christ hereafter, will cause him to purify himself, " even as 
 he is pure," 1 John iii. 3. When a man shall sit down, and 
 recount with David, what God hath done for him already ; 
 " Who am I, O Lord God ? and what is my house, that thou 
 hast brought me hitherto?" and what God hath further 
 
CHRIST'S PEOPLE A WILLING PEOPLE. 243 
 
 promised to do for him more ; " Thou hast spoken also of 
 thy servant's house for a great while to come :" of a cliild of 
 wrath thou hast called me to an inheritance of the saints in 
 light, and into the fellowship of more glory than can he 
 shadowed forth hy all the lights of heaven, though every star 
 were turned into a sun ; — I say, when the soul shall thus re- 
 count the goodness of God, how can it but be wonderfully 
 enlarged with thoughts of tliankfulness, and grieved at. the 
 slow and narrow abilities of the other parts to answer the ur- 
 gent and wide desires of a willing soul ! 
 
 6. This willingness of Christ's people ariseth from the ex- 
 perience of that peace, comfort, life, liberty, triumph, and 
 security which accompanieth the Spirit and service of Christ. 
 Nothing makes a man more fearful of wars than the dangers 
 and hazards which are incident thereunto. But if a man can 
 serve under such a prince, whose employments are not only 
 honourable, but safe ; if he, who is able and faithful to make 
 good his words, promise us that none either of the stratagems 
 or forces of the enemy shall do us hurt, but that they shall 
 fly before us, while we resist them ; who would not be a volun- 
 tary in such services as are not liable to the casualties and 
 vicissitudes which usually attend other wars, wherein he might 
 fight with safety, and come off with honour ? David had ex- 
 perience of God's power in delivering him from the lion and 
 the bear, and was well assured that God, who was careful of 
 sheep, would be more pitiful to his people Israel, and that 
 made him. with much willingness ready to encounter Goliath, 
 whose assurance was only in himself, and not in God. When 
 a man shall consider what God might have done with him, 
 that he might have sent him to hell as soon as he first 
 breathed, deprived him of the means of grace, left him to the 
 rebellion and hardness of his evil heart, and to the rage of 
 Satan, burnt his bones, and dried up his bowels with the view 
 of that wrath which is due to sin ; and what he hath done 
 with him ; he hath called him to the knowledge of his will, 
 refreshed him with the light of his countenance, heard his 
 prayers, given an issue to his temptations, and a reviving out 
 of bondage, fastened him as a nail in his holy place, given 
 him his favour which is better than life, and spoken of his 
 servant for a long time to come : oh ! how readily will the spirit 
 of such a man conclude, Lord, according to thine own heart 
 hast thou done all this unto me, and I have found so mucli 
 sweetness in thy service above all mine own thoughts or 
 -M 2 
 
244 Christ's people a willing people. 
 
 expectations, that now, O Lord, my heart is prepared, my 
 heart is prepared, I will sing and rejoice in thy service I 
 
 7. This willingness of Christ's people ariseth from that 
 excellent beauty and attractive virtue which is in holiness. 
 " Thy word is very pure : therefore thy servant loveth it." 
 And therefore we find Christ and his church do kindle the 
 coals of love, and stir up those flames of mutual tenderness 
 towards one another, do cherish those longing, languishing, 
 and ravishing affections, and breathings of hearts, by the fre- 
 quent contemplations of each others beauty. " Behold, thou 
 art fair, my love ; behold, thou art fair ; thou hast dove's eyes. 
 Behold, thou art fair, my beloved, yea, pleasant," Cant. 
 i. 15, 16. These are the principles of that great devotion 
 and willingness which is in the people of Christ unto his 
 service. 
 
 And hereby we may make trial of the truth of that profes- 
 sion, subjection, and obedience which we all pretend unto the 
 gospel of Christ. It is then only sound when it proceeds 
 from a willing and devoted heart, from purpose, fervour, and 
 earnestness of spirit ; for as God in mercy accounts the will 
 for the deed ; because where there is a willing mind, there 
 will certainly be all answerable endeavours to execute that will, 
 and reduce it into act ; so he esteems the deed nothing without 
 the will. Cain and Abel did both sacrifice ; it was the heart 
 which made the difference between them : let the outward 
 conversation be what it will, yet if a man regard iniquity in 
 his heart, God will not hear him. It Is a worse token, saith 
 Gregory, of an evil man to love sin, than to commit it ; for it 
 may be committed out of temptation and Infirmity, and so 
 may be either in part the sin of another that tempteth us, or 
 at least not the sin of our wholeselves, but of those remainders 
 of corruption which dwell within us. But our love is all our 
 own : Satan can but offer a temptation, the heart itself must 
 love It : and love is strong as death, it worketh by the 
 strength of the whole man ; and therefore ever such as the 
 will is (which is the seat of love) such is the service too. 
 And the reason is : 
 
 (1.) Because the will is the first mover, and the master- 
 wheel in spiritual work ; that which regulateth all the rest, 
 and keepeth them right and constant : that which holdeth 
 together all the faculties of the soul and body in the execution 
 of God's will. In which sense, among others, I understand 
 that of the apostle, that love is the bond of perfection, Col. 
 
Christ's people a willing people. 245 
 
 iii. 14 ; because when love rcsideth in the heart, it will put 
 together every faculty to do that work of God perfectly which 
 it goes about. And therefore, by a like expression, it is 
 called the fulfilling of the law ; because love aims still at the 
 highest, and at the best in that thing which it loves; it is ever 
 an enemy to defects. He that loves learning will never stop, 
 and say, I have enough ; in this likewise love is as stron^r as 
 death. And he that loves grace, will be still ambitious to 
 abound in the work of the Lord, and to press forward unto 
 perfection ; to make up that which is wanting to his faith ; to 
 be sanctified throughout ; to bring forth more fruit ; to walk in 
 all pleasing ; to be holy, and unblameable, and unreprovable, 
 without spot or wrinkle. It is an absurd thing in relifrion to 
 dote upon mediocrities of grace ; he that with all the exact- 
 ness and rigour of his heart, can never gather together all 
 grace, can surely never have too much. In false religions no 
 man is so much magnified as he that is strictest. That papist 
 who is most cruel to his flesh, most assiduous at his beads, 
 most canonical in his hours, macerated with superstitious pe- 
 nance, most frequently prostrated before his idols, is of all 
 other most admired for the greatest saint. Oh why should 
 not an holy strictness be as much honoured as a superstitious 
 one ! why should not exactness, purity, and a contending 
 unto perfection, be as much pursued in a true as in a false re- 
 ligion I why should not every man strive to be filled with 
 grace, since he can never have enough till he have it all, till 
 he is brim-full! He that truly loves wealth, would be the 
 richest ; and he that loves honour, would be the highest of 
 any other : certainly grace is in itself more lovely than any of 
 these things. Why then should not every man strive to be 
 most unlike the evil world, and to be more excellent than his 
 neighbour ; to be holy as God is holy ; to be as Christ himself 
 was in this world ; to grow up in unity of faith, and in the 
 knowledge of him unto a perfect man ? Certainly, if a man 
 once set his will and his heart upon grace, he will never rest 
 in mediocrities ; he will labour to abound more and more, he 
 will never think himself to have apprehended, but forgetting 
 the things which are behind, he will reach forth to those 
 things which are before him ; for all the desires of the heart 
 are strong, and will over-rule any other natural desire. The 
 grief of David's heart made him forget to eat his bread. The 
 desire of Christ's heart to convert the Samaritan woman made 
 him careless of his own hunger. " It is my meat to do the 
 
246 Christ's people a willing people. 
 
 will of him that sent me, and to finish his work." A true 
 heart will go on to finish the work which it hath begun. 
 " The wicked sleep not," saith Solomon, " except they have 
 done mischief;" and the enemies of St. Paul provided to stop 
 the clamours and demands of an empty stomach with a solemn 
 vow that they would neither eat nor drink till they had slain 
 him. Lust never gives over till it finish sin, and therefore 
 the love of Christ should never give over till it finish grace. 
 
 (2.) Because God is more honoured in the obedience of the 
 will than of the outward man. Human restraints may rule 
 the one, but nothing but grace can rule the other ; for herein we 
 acknowledge God to be the Searcher of hearts, the Discerner 
 of secret thoughts, the Judge and Lord over our consciences. 
 " Whatsoever ye do," saith the apostle, " do it heartily as to 
 the Lord, and not to men.'' Noting unto us, that a man doth 
 never respect the Lord in any service which cometh not wil- 
 lingly, and from the inner man. Now, he worketh in vain, 
 and loseth all that he hath wrought, who doth not work for 
 him who is master of the business he goes about, arid who 
 only doth reward it. Therefore, saith the apostle, " Do it 
 heartily, as to the Lord ; knowing that of the Lord ye shall 
 receive the reward of the inheritance : for ye serve the Lord 
 Christ." He only is the pay-master of such kind of work, 
 and therefore do it only as to him, so that he may approve 
 and reward it. 
 
 Before I leave this point touching the willingness of Christ's 
 people, here is a great case, and of frequent occurrence to be 
 resolved, whether those who are truly of Christ's people, may 
 not have fears, torments, uncomfortableness, weariness, and 
 unwillingness in the ways of God ? St. John states the 
 case in general ; " There is no fear in love ; but perfect love 
 casteth out fear : because fear hath torment," ] John iv. 18 : 
 so that it seems where there is torment and weariness, there 
 is no love : for the clearing of this case, I shall set down some 
 few positions. 
 
 L In general, where there is true obedience there is ever a 
 willing and a free spirit ; in this degree at the least, a most 
 deep desire of the heart, and serious endeavour of the spirit of 
 a man to walk in all well-pleasing towards God ; a longing 
 for such fulness of grace and enlargement of soul, that may 
 make a man fit to run the way of God's commandments. 
 
 2. Where there is this will, yet there may, upon other 
 reasons, be such a fear as hath pain and torment in it ; and 
 
Christ's people a willing people. 247 
 
 that in two respects : 1 . There may be a fear of God's wrath. 
 The soul of a righteous man may be surprised with some 
 gUmpses and apprehensions of his most heavy displeasure ; he 
 may conceive himself set up as God's mark to shoot at, Job 
 vii. 20 ; that the poisoned arrows and terrors of the wrath of 
 God do stick fast upon him, Job vi. 4 ; that his transgres- 
 sions are sealed up and reserved against him, Job xiv. 17. 
 The hot displeasure of tlie Lord may even vex his bones, .and 
 make his soul sore within him, Psa. vi. 1 — 3. He may con- 
 ceive himself forgotten and cast out by God, surprised with 
 fearfulness, trembling, and tlie horror of death, Psa. xiii. 1 ; 
 Iv. 4, 3. Christ may withdraw himself and bo gone, in re- 
 gard of any comfortable and sensible fruition of his fellowship ; 
 and in that case the soul may fail, and seek him, but not find 
 him, and call upon him, but receive no answer. Cant. v. 6. 
 A man may fear the Lord, and yet be in darkness, and 
 have no light, Isa. 1. 10. 2. There may be a great fear, 
 even of performing spiritual duties. A broken and de- 
 jected man may tremble in God's service, and upon a 
 deep apprehension of his own unworthiness, and erroneous 
 applying of that sad expostulation of God with wicked men, 
 " What hast thou to do to take my covenant in thy mouth ?" 
 Psa. 1. 16 ; and, " What hath my beloved to do in mine 
 house, seeing she hath wrought lewdness with many ?" Jer. 
 xi. 13. He may be startled, and not dare adventure upon 
 such holy and sacred things without much reluctance and 
 shame of spirit. " O my God," saith Ezra, " I am ashamed 
 and blush to lift up my face to thee, my God : for our iniqui- 
 ties are increased over our head," Ezra ix. 6. Thus it is said 
 of the poor woman, who upon the touch of Christ's gar- 
 ment had been healed of her issue of blood, that she came fear- 
 ing and trembling, and fell down before Christ, and told him 
 the truth, Mark v. 33. But yet great difference there is be- 
 tween the fear of the saints and of the wicked. The fear of 
 the wicked ariseth out of the evidences of the guilt of sin ; but 
 the fear of the saints from a tender apprehension of the ma- 
 jesty of God, and his most pure eyes which cannot endure to 
 behold uncleanness, (which made Moses himself to tremble, 
 Acts vii. 32,) and out of a deep sense of their own unwor- 
 thiness to meddle with holy things. Such a fear as this 
 may bring much uncomfortableness and distraction of spirit ; 
 but, never at all any dislike or hatred of God, or any designed 
 disobedience against him : for as the fear of tiie soul deters, 
 
248 Christ's people a willing people. 
 
 so the necessity of the precept drives him to an endeavour of 
 obedience and v.ell-pleasing. Slavish fear forceth a man to 
 do the duty some v^^ay or other, without any eye or respect 
 unto the manner of doing it ; but this other, which is indeed 
 a filial, but yet withal an uncomfortable fear, rather dissuades 
 from the duty itself, the heart being so vile, and unfit to per- 
 form so precious a duty in so holy a manner as becomes it. 
 
 3. As the saints may have fear and uncomfortableness, 
 (which are contrary to a free spirit,) so they may have a weari- 
 ness and some kind of unwillingness in God's service. Their 
 spirits, like the hands of Moses in the mount, may faint and 
 hang down, may be damped with carnal affections, or tired 
 with the difficulty of the work, or plucked back by the impor- 
 tunity of temptations, so that though they begin in the Spirit, 
 yet they may be bewitched, and transported from a thorough 
 obedience of the truth, Gal. iii. 1. A deadness, heaviness, 
 insensibility, unactiveness, confusedness of heart, unprepared- 
 ness of affections, insinuation of worldly lusts and earthly cares, 
 may distract the hearts, and abate the cheerfulness of the best 
 of us. And hence come those frequent exhortations to stir up 
 ourselves ; to prepare our hearts to seek the Lord ; to enforce the 
 law upon our children ; to exhort one another, lest the deceit- 
 fulness of sin harden us ; to be strong in the grace of Christ ; 
 not to faint or be weary of well-doing, and the like. All 
 which, and sundry like, intimate a sluggishness of disposition, 
 and natural backwardness of the will from God's service. 
 
 4. The proportion of this discomfort and weariness ariseth 
 from these grounds : 
 
 (1.) From the strength of those corruptions which remain 
 within us : for ever so much fleshliness as the heart retains, 
 so much bias a man hath to turn him from God and his ways, 
 so much clog and encumbrance in holy duties. And this 
 remainder of flesh is in the will, as well as in any other fa- 
 culty, to indispose it unto spiritual actions. As it is in our 
 members that we cannot do the things which we would. Gal. 
 V. 17 : so in proportion it is in our wills, that we cannot with 
 all our strength desire the things which we should ; and there- 
 fore David praiseth God for this especial grace, " Who am I, 
 and what is my people, that we should be able to offer so 
 willingly after this sort ? for all things come of thee, and of 
 thine own have we given thee ?" 1 Chron. xxix. 14. 
 
 (2.) From the dulness or sleepiness of grace in the heart, 
 which without daily reviving, husbanding, and handling, will 
 
CHRIST S PEOPLE A WILLING PEOPLE. 249 
 
 be apt to contract a rust, and to be over-grown with tliat bit- 
 ter root of corruption within. As a ball will not move with- 
 out many rubs and stops in a place overgrown with grass, so 
 the will cannot move with readiness towards God, when the 
 graces which should actuate it arc grown dull and heavy. A 
 rusty key will not easily open the lock unto which it was first 
 fitted ; nor a neglected grace easily open or enlarge the lieart. 
 
 (3.) From the violent importunity and immodesty of some 
 strong temptations, and unexpellible suggestions, which fre- 
 quently presenting themselves to the spirit, do there beget 
 jealousies to disquiet the peace of the heart. Satan's first 
 end is to rob us of grace, hr which purpose he strengthens 
 our lusts against us ; but his second is to rob us of comfort, 
 and to toss us up and down between cur own fears and sus- 
 picions : for unwearied and violent ':ontradictions are apt to be- 
 get weariness in the best. " Consider Him that endured such 
 contradiction of sinners against himself," saith the apostle, 
 *' lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds," Heb. xii. 3. 
 
 (4.) From the present weight of some heavy fresh sin, 
 which will utterly indispose the heart unto good. As we see 
 how long security did surprise David after his murder and 
 adultery. Thus, as Jonah, after his flight from God, fell 
 asleep in the ship ; so stupidity and unaptness to work is 
 ever the child of any notable and revolting sin. When the 
 conscience lays bleeding under any fresh sin, it has a hard 
 task to go through in a more bitter renewing the tears of 
 repentance. And hard works have for the most part some 
 fears and reluctances in the performing of them. It hath not 
 such boldness and assurance to be welcome to God : it comes 
 with shame, horror, blushing, and want of peace, and so can- 
 not but find the greater conflict in itself. Sin dis wonts a man 
 from God, carries him to thickets and bushes. The soul 
 loves not to be discovered by God in the company of Satan 
 or any sinful lusts. That child cannot but feel some strug- 
 glings of shame and unwillingness to come unto his father, 
 who'is sure when he comes to be upbraided with the compa- 
 nions which he more delights in. 
 
 (5.) From the proportion of the desertions of the Spirit : 
 for the Spirit of God bloweth where and how he listeth ; and 
 it is he that worketh our wills unto obedience. If he be 
 grieved, and made to retire ; if he turn his wind from our sails, 
 alas, how slow and sluggish will our motion be I How poor our 
 progress ! Upon these, and several other the like grounds, may 
 M 3 
 
250 Christ's people a willing people. 
 
 the best of us be possessed with fears, discomforts, and un- 
 wiUingness in God's service. But yet, 
 
 5. None of all this takes off the will entirely, though it do 
 partially ; for the faithful, in their greatest heaviness and 
 unfitness of spirit, have yet a stronger bias towards God, than 
 any wicked man when he is at best : for it is true of them in 
 their lowest condition, that they desire to fear God's name, 
 Neh. i. 1 1 ; that the desire of their souls is towards the 
 remembrance of him, Isa. xxvi. 8 ; that they arc seriously 
 displeased with the distempers and uncomfortableness of their 
 spirit, Psa. xlii. 5 ; that they long to be enlarged, that they 
 may run the ways of God's commandments, Psa. cxix. 32; 
 that they set their affection unto God and his service, 1 
 Chron. xxix. 3 ; that tbey prepare their heart to seek the 
 Lord God, 2 Chron. xxx- 19; that they strive, groan, 
 wrestle, and are unquiet in their heaviness and dulness, ear- 
 nestly contending for joy and freedom of spirit, Psa. li. 11, 
 12, In one word, that they dare not omit those duties, 
 which yet they have no readiness and disposedness of heart to 
 perform ; but when they cannot do them in alacrity, yet they do 
 them in obedience, and serve the Lord when he hideth his face 
 from them. " I said, I am cast out of thy sight ; yet I will 
 look again toward thy holy temple," Jonah ii. 4. He that 
 feareth the Lord will obey his voice, though he walk in dark- 
 ness and have no light, Isa. 1. 10. So then the faithful have 
 still thus much ground of comfort, that God hath their wills 
 always devoted and resigned unto him ; though thus much 
 likewise they have to humble them too, the daily experience of 
 a backsliding and tired spirit in his service ; and should there- 
 fore be exhorted to stir up the spirit of grace in themselves, 
 to keep fresh and frequent their conmiunion with Christ. The 
 more acquaintance and experience the heart hath of him, the 
 more abundantly it will delight in him., and make haste unto 
 him, that it may, with St. Paul, apprehend him in fruition, by 
 whom it is already apprehended, and carried up into heavenly 
 places in assurance and representation. As long as wfe are 
 here there will be something lacking to our faith, some mix- 
 ture of unbelief and distrust with it, 1 Thess. iii. 10. Cor- 
 ruptions, temptations, afflictions, trials, will be apt to beget 
 some fears, discomforts, weariness^ and indisposedness towards 
 God's service ; the sense whereof should make us long after 
 our home ; and with the apostle, to groan, and wait for the 
 adoption, even the redemption of our bodies, and for the 
 
HOW Christ's people are made willing. 251 
 
 manifestation of the sons of God, (for though we are now sons, 
 yet it doth not appear what we shall be, 1 John iii. 2 ;) should 
 make us pray for the accomplishment of his promises, for the 
 hastening of his kingdom, where we shall be changed into an 
 universal spiritualness, or purity of nature; where these relics 
 of corruption, these strugglings of the law of the members 
 against the law of the mind, shall be ended ; these languish- 
 ings, decays, ebbs and blemishes of grace shall be removed ; 
 where all deficiencies of grace shall be made up, and that 
 measure and first fruits of the Spirit whicli we here receive, 
 shall be crowned with fulness and everlasting perfection. 
 Here we are like the stones and other materials of Solomon's 
 temple, but in the act of fitting and preparation ; no marvel if 
 we be here crooked, knotty, uneven, and therefore subject to 
 the hammer, under blows and buffets. But when we shall be 
 carried to the heavenly building which is above, and there laid 
 in, there shall be nothing but smoothness and glory upon us, 
 no noise of hammers, or axes, no dispensation of word or sa- 
 craments, no application of censures and severity ; but every 
 man shall be filled with the fulness of God, faith turned into 
 sight, hope turned into fruition, and love everlastingly ravished 
 with the presence of God, with the face of Jesus Christ, with 
 the fulness of the Holy Spirit, and with the communion and 
 society of all the saints. 
 
 There is further to be observed, the principle of this 
 willingness, " In the day of thy power," or " of thine armies ;" 
 tnat is, when thou shalt send abroad apostles, and prophets, 
 and evangelists, and doctors, and teachers, for evidencing the 
 word and Spirit unto the consciences of men. Whence we 
 may observe, that the hearts of Christ's people are made will- 
 ing to obey him by an act of power, or by the strength of the 
 word and Spirit. The heart is not barely enticed, but it is 
 conquered by the gospel of Christ, 2 Cor. x. 4, 5 ; and yet 
 this is not a compulsory conquest, (which is utterly contrary 
 to the nature of a reasonable will, which would cease to be 
 itself, if it could be compelled,) but it is an effectual conquest. 
 The will, like all other faculties, is naturally dead in trespasses 
 and sins : and a dead man is not raised to life again by any 
 enticements, nor yet compelled unto a condition of such exact 
 complacency and suitableness to nature by any act of violence. 
 So then, a man is made willingly subject unto Christ, neither 
 by mere moral persuasions, nor by any violent impulsions ; 
 
252 HOW Christ's people are made willing. 
 
 but by a power, in itself supernatural, spiritual, or divine ; and, 
 in its manner of working, sweetly tempered to the disposition 
 of the will, which is never by grace destroyed, but perfected. 
 Therefore the apostle saith, that it is God who worketh in us 
 to will and to do, Phil. ii. 13. He frameth our will according 
 to his own, (as David was said to be a man after God's own 
 heart ;) and then, by that will and the conscious acts thereof, 
 thus sanctified and still assisted by the Spirit of grace, he 
 setteth the other powers of nature on work in further obedience 
 unto his will. And therefore David praiseth God who 
 had enabled him and his people to offer willingly unto the 
 service of God's house, and prayeth him that he would ever 
 keep that willing disposition in the imaginations and thoughts 
 of the hearts of his people, 1 Chron. xxix. 14, 18. There- 
 fore the apostle saith, that our faith standeth not in the wis- 
 dom of men, but in the power of God, 1 Cor. iv. 5. There- 
 fore likewise it is called the faith of the operation of God who 
 raised Christ from the dead, Col. ii. 12. 
 
 For the more distinct opening and evidencing this point, 
 how Christ's people are made willing by his power, I will only 
 lay together some brief positions which I conceive to be 
 thereunto pertinent, and proceed to that which is more plain 
 and profitable. 
 
 1. Let us consider the nature of the will, which, to be a 
 free agent or mover, to have from itself, and within itself, an 
 indifFerency and undeterminateness unto several things ; so 
 that when it moves or not moves, when it moves one way oi 
 other, in none of these it suffers violence, but works according 
 to the condition of its own nature. 
 
 2. We may note that this indifFerency is twofold ; either 
 habitual, belonging to the constitution of the will, which is 
 nothing else but an original aptitude, or intrinsical non-repug- 
 nancy in the will, to move unto contrary extremes, to work, or 
 to suspend its own working : or else actual, which is in the 
 exercise of the former, as objects present themselves ; and this 
 is twofold ; either a freedom to good or evil, or a freedom to 
 will or not to will. 
 
 3. Notwithstandmg the will be in this manner free, yet it 
 may have its freedom in both respects so determined, as that 
 in such or such a condition, it cannot do what it should, or 
 forbear what it should, or cannot do what it should not, nor 
 forbear what it should not. Fallen man, without the grace 
 of God, is free only unto evil, and Christ in the time of his 
 
HOW Christ's people are made willing. 253 
 
 obedience was free wholly unto good. Man free to evil, but 
 yet so, as that he only doth it voluntarily, he cannot volun- 
 tarily leave it undone. Christ free only to good, yet so, as 
 that he doth it most freely, but could not freely omit the doing 
 of it. 
 
 4. The will worketh not in this condition of things unto 
 moral objects without some other concurrent principles which 
 sway and determine it several ways ; so that the will is the fa- 
 culty which moves, and the other the quality or virtue by 
 v/hich it moves. And these qualities are in natural men the 
 flesli, or the original concupiscence of our nature, which 
 maketh the motions of the will to be the will of the flesh ; and 
 in the regenerate, the grace and spirit of Christ, so far forth 
 as they are regenerate. 
 
 5. As the will is ever carried either by the flesh or the 
 spirit to its objects, so neither to the one or the other without 
 the preceding conduct and direction of the practical judgment, 
 whether by grace enlightened to judge aright, or by corrupt 
 affections bribed and blinded to misguide the will ; for the will, 
 being a rational appetite, never moveth but in a judicious 
 manner, upon apprehension of some goodness and conve- 
 nience in the thing whereunto it moves. 
 
 6. The judgment is never thoroughly enlightened to un- 
 derstand spiritual things in that immediate and ample beauty 
 and goodness which is in them, but only by the Spirit of 
 Christ, which makes a man to have the self-same mind, judg- 
 ment, opinion, and apprehension of heavenly things which he 
 had ; so that Christ and a christian think the same thing, as 
 the apostle speaks, Phil. ii. 5. The Spirit of grace, working 
 first upon the judgment to rectify that, and to convince 
 it of the evidence and necessity of that most universal 
 and adequate good which it presenteth, the whole nature is 
 proportionably renewed, and Christ formed, as well in the will 
 and affections as in the understanding. So that, at the same 
 time, when the Spirit of grace, by an act of heavenly illumi- 
 nation, is present with the judgment of reason to evidence, 
 not the truth only, but the excellency of the knowledge of 
 Christ thereunto, he is likewise present, by an act of heavenly 
 persuasion, and most intimate allurement unto the will and 
 affections, sweetly accommodating its working unto the exi- 
 gence and condition of the faculties, that they likewise may 
 (with such liberty and complacency as becomes both their own 
 nature and the quality of the obedience required) apply them- 
 
254 HOW Christ's people are made willing. 
 
 selves to the desire and prosecution of those excellent things 
 which are with so spiritual an evidence set forth unto them in 
 the ministry of the word. As hy the same soul the eye seeth, 
 and the ear heareth, and the hand workelh, so when Christ, 
 by his Spirit, is formed in us, (for the Spirit of Christ is the 
 first act, or soul, of a christian man, that which animateth him 
 unto an heavenly being and working, Rom. viii. 9 — 1 1 ; 1 Cor. 
 vi. 17,) every power of the soul and body is in some propor- 
 tionable measure enabled to work in such a manner as is con- 
 venient and proper to the quality of its nature, to the right 
 apprehension and voluntary prosecution of spiritual things. 
 The same Spirit who, by the word of grace, doth fully con- 
 vince the judgment, and let the light of the knowledge of the 
 glory of God shine upon the mind, doth, by the same word of 
 grace, proportionably excite and assist the will to affect it ; that, 
 as the understanding is elevated to the spiritual perception, so 
 the will likewise is enabled to the spiritual love of heavenly 
 things. 
 
 By all which we may observe, that this working of the 
 Spirit of grace, whereby we become voluntaries in Christ's 
 service, and whereby he worketh in us both to will and to do 
 those things which of ourselves we were not obedient unto, 
 neither indeed could be, is both a sweet and powerful work ; 
 as in the raising of a man from the dead (to which in the 
 Scriptures the renewing of a sinner is frequently compared) 
 there is a work of great power, which yet, being admirably 
 suitable to the integrity of the creature, must needs bring an 
 exact complacency and delight with it. We may frequently in 
 holy Scripture observe, that of the same effect several things 
 may be affirmed, by reason of its connexion unto several causes, 
 and of the several causalties of manners, or concurrence with 
 which those several causes have contributed any influence unto 
 it. As the obedience of Christ was, of all others, the most 
 free and voluntary service of his Father, if we consider it with 
 respect unto his most holy, and therefore most undistracted 
 and unhindered will, (for, if it were not voluntary, it were no 
 obedience ;) and yet, notwithstanding, it was most certain and 
 infallible, if we consider it with respect to the sanctity of his 
 nature, to the unmeasureableness of his unction, to the ple- 
 nitude of his unseducible and unerring spirit, to the mystery 
 of his hypostatical union, and the communication of proper- 
 ties between his natures, whereby whatever action was done 
 by him might justly be called the action of God, in which 
 
HOW Christ's people are made willing. 255 
 
 regard it was impossible for him to sin. In like manner, the 
 passive obedience of Christ was most free and voluntary as 
 it respected his own will ; for he troubled himself, he humbled 
 and emptied himself, he laid down his own life, he became 
 obedient unto death, even the death of the cross ; and yet thus 
 it was written, and thus it behoved or was necessary for Christ 
 to suffer, if we respect the predeterminate counsel and purpose 
 of God, who had so ordained, Acts ii. 23. God would not 
 suffer a bone of Christ to be broken, and yet he did not disable 
 the soldiers from doing it, for they had still as much strength 
 and liberty to have broken his, as the others who were cruci- 
 fied with him ; but that which in regard of the truth and pre- 
 diction of holy Scriptures was most certainly to be fulfilled, 
 in regard of the second causes by v/hom it was fulfilled, was 
 most free and voluntary. We find what a chain of mere casual- 
 ties and contingencies (if we look only upon second causes) 
 did concur, in the offence of Vashti, in the promotion ot 
 Esther, in the treason of the two chamberlains, in the wake- 
 fulness of the king, in the opening of the chronicles, in the 
 acceptance of Esther's request, and in the favour of the king 
 unto her, and all this ordered by the immutable and efficacious 
 providence of God (which moderates and guides causes and 
 effects of all sorts to his own fore-appointed ends) for the de- 
 liverance of his people from that intended slaughter determined 
 against them, the execution whereof would evidently have 
 made void that great promise of their returning out of cap- 
 tivity after seventy years : with relation unto which promise 
 their deliverance at this time was in regard of God's truth and 
 purpose necessary, though in regard of second causes brought 
 about by an accumulation of contingencies. In like manner, 
 when the hearts of men do voluntarily dedicate and submit 
 themselves to the kingdom of Christ, if we look upon it with 
 relation unto the Spirit of grace, which is the formal virtue 
 whereby it is wrought, so it is an effect of power, and, as it 
 were, an act of conquest ; and yet look upon it with relation 
 to the heart itself, which is the material efficient cause thereof, 
 and so it is a most free, sweet, connatural action, exactly tem- 
 pered to the exigency of the second cause, and proceeding 
 therefrom with most exact delight, answerably to the measure 
 of the grace of illumination, or spiritual evidence in the mind, 
 whereby our natural blindness, prejudices, and mispersuasions 
 may be removed, and to the measure of the grace of ex- 
 citation, assistance, and co-operation in the heart, whereby 
 
256 HOW Christ's people are made willing. 
 
 the natural frowardness and reluctancy thereof may be sub- 
 dued. 
 
 In one word, there are but three things requisite to make up 
 a free and voluntary action. It must be with a preceding 
 judgment. There must be an internal indeterminateness and 
 equal disposition of itself unto several extremes. The will 
 must have the power of her own work. And all these three 
 do sweetly consist with the point of the text, that the heart is 
 made willing to obey Christ by an act of power. 
 
 1. This power we speak of is only the power of the word 
 and Spirit, both which do always work in the ordinary course 
 of God's proceeding by them with men, by wav of judgment 
 and conviction, by a way of teaching and demonstration, which 
 are suitable to a rational faculty. 
 
 2. Which way soever the will is by the Spirit of grace 
 directed and persuaded to move, it still retains an habitual or 
 internal habitude unto the extremes ; so that, if it should have 
 moved towards them, that motion would have been as natural 
 and suitable to its condition, as this which it foUoweth ; for 
 the determination of the act is no extinguishment of the liberty 
 thereunto. 
 
 3. When the Spirit, by power of the word of grace, doth 
 work the will in us, yet still the will hath the dominion of its 
 own act ; that is, it is not servilely or compulsorily thereunto 
 overswayed, but worketh by a self-motion, unto which it is 
 quickened and actuated by the sweetness of Divine grace, as 
 the seed of that action. Thus we see how the subjection of 
 Christ's people unto his kingdom is a voluntary act in regard 
 of man's will, and an act of power in regard of God's Spirit, 
 inwardly enlightening the mind with the spiritual evidence, 
 not only of the truth, but the excellency and superlative 
 goodness of the gospel of Christ ; and inwardly touching the 
 heart, and framing it to a lovely conformity and obedience 
 thereunto. 
 
 The ground of this point, why there is an act of power re- 
 quired to conquer the wills of sinners unto Christ, is that 
 notable enmity, stoutness, reluctancy, rebellion, weariness, 
 averseness — in one word, fleshliness — which possesseth the 
 wills of men by nature : such forwardness unto evil, so much 
 frowardness against good ; such a spring and bias from pri- 
 vate ends, and worldly objects ; such fears without, such fight- 
 ings within ; such allurements on the right hand, such frowns 
 and affrlghtments on the left ; such depths of Satan, such 
 
257 
 
 hellish and unsearchable plots of prmcipalities and powers, to 
 keep fast and faithful to themselves this chief mistress of the 
 soul of man ; such sly and insinuating, such furious and fiery 
 temptations, to flatter or to fright it away from Christ ; such 
 strong prejudices, such deep reasonings; such high imagina- 
 tions, such scornfid and mean conceits of the purity and power 
 of the ways of Christ ; such deceitfulness of heart, such mis- 
 persuasions and presumptions of our present peace, or at least 
 of the easiness of our future reformation ; such strong -sur- 
 mises of carnal hopes which will be prevented, or worldly 
 dangers incurred, or private ends disappointed ; such lusts to 
 be denied, such members to be hewed off; such friends to be 
 forsaken, such passions to be subdued ; such certain persecu- 
 tions from the world, such endless solicitations of Satan, 
 such irreconcileable contentions with the flesh : in the midst 
 of all these pull-backs, how can we think the will should 
 escape and break through, if God did not send his Spirit (as 
 once an angel unto Lot, Gen. xix. 16) to lay hands upon it, 
 while it Imgers and hankers after its wonted course, to use a 
 merciful conquest over it ; and, as the Scriptures express it, to 
 lead it, to draw it, to take it by the arm, to carry it in his 
 bosom, to bear it as an eagle her young ones on her wings ; 
 nay, by the terrors of the Lord, and the power of his word and 
 wrath, to pull and snatch it as a brand out of the fire ? Rom. 
 viii. 14 ; John vi. 44 ; Hos. xi. 3 ; Isa. xl. 11 ; Deut. xxxii. 
 11 ; Psa. Ixxxviii. 15, 16; Jude 23. Certainly, there is so 
 much extreme perverseness, so much hellishness and devilish 
 antipathy to God and his service in the heart by nature, that 
 if it were left to its own stubbornness to kick and rebel, and 
 fall back and harden itself, and were not set upon by the 
 grace of Christ, no man living would turn unto him, or make 
 use of his blood : by the same reason that any one man pe- 
 risheth, every man would too, because in all there is as fun- 
 damental and original enmity to the ways of grace as there 
 is in any. 
 
 The consideration whereof may justly humble us, in our 
 reflection upon ourselves, whom neither the promises of hea- 
 ven can allure, nor the blood and passion of Christ persuade, 
 nor the flames of hell affright from our sins, till the Lord, by 
 the sweet and gracious power of his Holy Spirit, subdues and 
 conquers the soul unto himself. If a man should rise from the 
 dead, and truly relate unto the conscience the woful and ever- 
 lasting horrors of hell ; if a man's natural capacity were made 
 
258 HOW Christ's people are made willing. 
 
 as wide to apprehend the wrath, fury, and vengeance of a pro- 
 voked God, the fouhiess, guilt, and venom of a soul fuller of 
 sins than the heaven of stars, as the most intelligent devils of 
 hell do conceive them ; if an archangel or seraphim should be 
 sent from heaven to reveal unto the soul of a natural man the 
 infinite glory of God's presence, the full pleasures of his right 
 hand, the admirable beauty of his ways, the intimate confor- 
 mity and resemblance between his Divine nature in himself, 
 and the image of his holiness in the creature, the unsearchable 
 and bottomless love of Christ in his incarnation and sufferings, 
 the endless incomprehensible virtue and preciousness of his 
 blood and prayers ; yet so desperately evil is the heart of man, 
 that if, after all this, God should not afford the blessed opera- 
 tion and concurrence of his own gracious Spirit, the revelation 
 of his own arm and power upon the soul, to set on those in- 
 strumental causes, it would be invincible by any evidence 
 which all the cries and flames of hell, which all the armies 
 and hosts of heaven, were able to beget. There is no might 
 nor power able to snatch a man out of the hands of his sin, but 
 only God's Spirit. Notable are the expressions which the 
 Holy Ghost everywhere useth to set forth this wretched con- 
 dition of the heart by nature. Wilfulness and self-willedness ; 
 *' We will not hearken : we will not have this man to reign 
 over us," Jer. xliv. 16; Luke xix. 27 ; many wills in one; 
 rebellion and stubbornness, stoutness of heart, contention 
 with God, and gainsaying his word ; impudence, stiffness, and 
 hard-heartedness ; mischievous profoundness, and deep reason- 
 ings against the law of God; resolvedness, and abiding in 
 mischief; holding fast deceit, obstinacy, and self-obduration ; 
 " They have hardened their necks, that they might not hear," 
 Jer. xix. 15. Impotency, immovableness, and undocility ; 
 their heart is uncircumcised, they cannot hear, there is none 
 that understandeth or seeketh after God, Jer. vi. 10 ; Rom. 
 jii. 11. Scorning and slighting the messages of the Lord; 
 *' Where is the promise of his coming ?" Jer. xvii. 15 ; 2 Pet. 
 3, 4. Incredulity, and belying the Lord in his word, saying 
 it is not he ; " W^ho hath believed our report? and to whom 
 is the arm of the Lord revealed?" Isa. liii. 1 ; Jer. v. 12. 
 W^restling, resisting, and fighting with the word, rejecting the 
 counsel of God, vexing and striving with his Holy Spirit ; " Ye 
 do always resist the Holy Ghost," Luke vii. 30 ; Isa. Ixiii. 
 10 ; Acts vii. 51. Rage and fierceness of disordered affec- 
 tions, despising of goodness, traitorous, heady, and high- 
 
HOW Christ's people are made willing. 239 
 
 minded thoughts ; brutishness of immoderate lust, the un- 
 tamed madness of an enraged beast, without any restraint of 
 reason or moderation. In one word, a hell, and gulf of un- 
 searchable mischief, which is never satisfied. It is impossible 
 that any reasonable man, duly considering all these difficulties, 
 should conceive such an heart as this to be overcome with 
 mere moral persuasions, or by anything less than the mighty 
 power of God's own grace. To him therefore we should will- 
 ingly acknovs^ledge all our conversion and salvation. So ex- 
 tremely impotent are we, O Lord, unto any good, so utterly 
 unprofitable and unmeet for our Master's use, and yet so 
 strongly hurried by the impulses of our own lust towards hell, 
 that no precipice nor danger, no hope nor reward, no man 
 nor angel, is able to stop us, without thine own immediate 
 power ; and therefore " Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, 
 but unto thy name" only be attributed the glory of our con- 
 version. 
 
 Again ; by this consideration we should be provoked to stir 
 up and call together all our strength in the Lord's service, to 
 recover our misspent time, to use the more contention and 
 violence for the kingdom of heaven, when we consider how 
 abundant we have been in the works of sin, in the pursuing 
 of vast desires which had neither end nor hope in them. Oh 
 how happy a thing would it be if men could serve God with 
 the same proportion of vigour and willingness of mind as they 
 served Satan and themselves before I I was never tired in 
 that way ; I went on indefatigably towards hell ; like a swift 
 dromedary, or an untamed heifer, I pursued those evil desires 
 which had vanity for their object and misery for their end; 
 no fruit but shame, and no wages but death. But in the ser- 
 vice of Christ I have a price before me, an abiding city, an 
 enduring substance, an unfading crown to fix the highest of 
 my thoughts upon : I have the promises of Christ to 
 strengthen me, his angels to guard, his Spirit to lead, his word 
 to enlighten me. In one word, I have a soul to save, and a 
 God to honour. And why should I not apply my power to 
 serve him who did reach forth his own power to convert me .^ 
 A long way I have to go, and I must do it in a span of time ; 
 so many temptations to overcome, so many corruptions to 
 shake off, so many promises to believe, so many precepts to 
 obey, so many mysteries to study, so many works to finish, 
 and so little time for all ; my weaknesses on one side, my 
 businesses on another : mine enemies and my sins round about 
 
260 THE BEAUTY Ob HOLINESS. 
 
 me take away so much, that I have scarce any left to give to 
 God. And yet, alas ! if I could serve God on earth as he is 
 served in heaven, if I had the strength of angels and glorified 
 saints to do his will, it would come infinitely short of that 
 good will of God in my redemption, or of his power in my 
 conversion. If God should have said to all the angels in 
 heaven, There is such a poor wretch posting with full strength 
 towards hell, go stand in his way and drive him back again, 
 all those glorious armies would have been too few to block up 
 the passages betwen sin and hell ; without the concurrence of 
 God's own Spirit and power, they could have returned none 
 other answer but this, We have done all we can to persuade 
 and turn him, but he will not be turned. If then the Lord 
 did put forth his own power to save me, great reason there is 
 that I should set my weak and impotent faculties to honour 
 him, especially since he hath been pleased both to mingle 
 with his service great joy, liberty, and tranquillity here, and 
 also to set before it a full, a sure, and a great reward, for 
 my further animation and encouragement thereunto. 
 
 IV. The fourth thing observed in this verse was, the attire 
 vv'herein Christ's people should attend upon his service ; " In 
 the beauties of holiness." These words refer to those before, 
 and that either to the word " people," or to the word " will- 
 ing." If to " people," then they are a further description of 
 Christ's subjects or soldiers ; they shall be all like servants in 
 princes' courts, beautifully arrayed ; like the priests of the law 
 that had garments of beauty and glory ; and so Schindler ex- 
 pounds it. If to the word " willing," then it notes the ground 
 and inducement of their great devotion and subjection unto 
 Christ's kingdom ; that, as the people came up in troops to the 
 Lord's house, which was the beauty of his holiness, or as men 
 do flock toorether to the sight of some honourable and stately 
 solemnity, so Christ's people should, by the beauty of his 
 banners, be allured to gather unto him, and fly in multitudes 
 as doves unto their windows. Whichever way we understand 
 the words, we may from them observe, that holiness is a glo- 
 rious and a beautiful thing. The holy oil, with which all 
 the vessels of the sanctuary were to be consecrated, was a type 
 of that Spirit who sanctifieth us, and raaketh us kings and 
 priests unto God ; and it was to be compounded of the purest 
 and most delicate ingi'edients which the art of the apothecary 
 could put together. Therefore, our Saviour still calleth his 
 spouse the fairest of women, to note, that no other beauty \\\ 
 
THE BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 261 
 
 the world is to be compared with holmess, Cant. v. 9 : there- 
 fore our faith and holiness is called a wedding garment, at 
 which solemnity men use above all other to adorn themselves 
 with their costliest and most beautiful attire : therefore we are 
 said to " put on the Lord Jesus," and to " put on bowels of 
 mercy, humbleness of mind, and meekness,' Rom. xiii. 14 ; 
 Col. iii. 12 : and therefore the church is compared to a bride 
 decked in her choicest ornaments and jewels, broidered work, 
 silk, fine linen, bracelets, chains, jewels, crowns, gold, silver, per- 
 fect comeliness, garments of salvation and of praise, and robes 
 of righteousness. And Christ, the Husband of this spouse, 
 " the chlefest" and most amiable " among ten thousand ; yea 
 akogether lovely," Cant. v. 10, 16; "the desire of all na- 
 tions," and the allurement of all hearts that can look upon 
 him, Hag. 11. 7. And Jerusalem, the palace of this glorious 
 couple, described by the most precious stones and desirable 
 things which can be thought on : jasper the wall, gold the 
 pavement, pearl the gates, precious stones the foundation, and 
 the Lord the light thereof, Rev. xxl. 18 — 23. Of ourselves, 
 by reason of sin, we are full of filthiness and deformity in flesh 
 and spirit, clothed with filthy garments, and overspread from 
 the head to the foot with wounds and putrefaction. It is only 
 the holy word of God which maketh us clean from our filthi- 
 ness, and from all our pollutions. By the washing of water, 
 by the word, Christ sanctlfieth us ; that he might present 
 unto himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle ; 
 that it might be holy and without blemish, Eph. v. 27. And 
 therefore the apostle, St. Peter, exhorteth christian women 
 to adorn the inner man of the heart with the " ornament of a 
 meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God"(whose pure 
 eye they ought rather to please than the wanton eye of man) 
 " of great price," 1 Pet. iii. 3, 4. And the truth hereof may 
 be proved even from the practice of hypocrites themselves ; 
 for no man will counterfeit villanies, and make a show of the 
 vices, which Indeed he hath not, except he be desperately 
 thereunto swayed by an humour of pleasing his wicked com- 
 panions. 
 
 This point will more distinctly appear, if we consider 
 either the author, nature, properties, or operations of this 
 holiness. 
 
 1. The author is God himself by his Spirit. " The very 
 God of peace sanctify you wholly," salth the apostle, and " the 
 God of peace make you perfect to do his will," 1 Thess. v. 
 
262 THE BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 
 
 23; Heb. xili. 20,21. Therefore the Spirit is called a 
 " Spirit of holiness," by the power whereof Christ rising from 
 the dead was " declared to be the Son of God ;" to note the 
 answerableness between raising from the dead, or giving life 
 where there was none before, and the sanctification of a sinner, 
 Rom. i. 4. Therefore the apostle calleth it the " renewing of 
 the Holy Ghost," and the forming of Christ in us, the quick- 
 ening and creating us to good works. Tit. iii. 5 ; Gal. iv. 19; 
 Eph. ii. 5, 10. By all which we may note, that what beauty 
 the creation brought upon that empty and unshaped chaos, 
 when it was distributed into this orderly frame which we now 
 admire ; or what beauty the re-union of a living soul unto a 
 dead and ghastly body doth restore unto it ; the same beauty- 
 doth holiness bring unto the soul of a man which was filthy 
 before. But yet further we must note, that God did not make 
 man as other ordinary creatures, for some low and inferior use, 
 (and yet Solomon saith that they were made ail beautiful in 
 their season,) but there was a pause, a consultation, a more 
 than common wisdom, power, and mercy revealed in the work- 
 manship of man : for God made man for his own more peculiar 
 delight, company, and communion, one whom he would enter 
 into a more intimate league and covenant withal. " The 
 Lord hath set apart him that is godly for himself This peo- 
 ple have I formed for myself; they shall show forth my 
 praise," Psa. iv. 3; Isa. xliii. 21. I will magnify the beauty 
 of my glorious virtues in those whom I have sanctified for 
 myself. Thus we find what perfect comeliness the Lord hath 
 bestowed upon his people, when he entered into covenant with 
 them, and made them his own ; one which was always to lean 
 OH his bosom, and to stand in his own presence, Ezek. xvi. 
 8, 14. The church is the Lord's own house, a temple in the 
 which he will dwell and walk ; it is his throne, in which he sitteth 
 as our Prince and Lawgiver. And in this regard it must needs be 
 extraordinarily beautiful ; "for the Lord will beautify the place 
 of his sanctuary, and will make the place of his feet glorious," 
 Isa. Ix. 13. Now then, if by holiness we are made God's 
 building, and that not as the rest of the world is, for his crea- 
 tures to inhabit, but as a temple for himself to dwell in, as a 
 gallery for himself to walk and refresh himself in, certainly 
 holiness, which is the ornament and engraving of this temple, 
 must needs be a glorious thing, for there is much glory and 
 wisdom in all God's works. 
 
 2. If we consider the nature of holiness, it must needs be 
 
THE BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 263 
 
 very beautiful. In general it consists in a relation of confor- 
 mity, as all goodness, save that of God doth ; for no creature 
 is so absolute as to have its being from itself, and therefore its 
 goodness cannot consist in anything which hath its original 
 in itself. It is the rule and end which denominateth the 
 goodness of any created thing ; that therefore which ought 
 not to work for its own end, ought not to work by its own 
 rule, for he who is lord of an end must needs be lord of the 
 means and directions which lead unto that end. And this is 
 indeed the ground of all sin, when men make themselves, their 
 own will, wit, reason, or resolutions, to be the spring and 
 fountain of all their actions : therefore, sin is called our 
 " own ways," and the " lusts of our own hearts," and our 
 " own counsels," because it is absolutely from ourselves, and 
 hath no constituted rule to moderate and direct it. It is im- 
 possible for any creature, as it comes out of God's hands^ to 
 be without a law, or to be an original law unto itself: for as 
 he who hath none over him cannot possibly be subject unto 
 any law, inasmuch as a law is but the declaration of a supe- 
 rior's will, what he requires to be done, and what he threat- 
 eneth on default thereof to inflict, so he who is under the 
 wisdom and ends of another must needs likewise be subject 
 to the laws which his will prescribes for advancing and com- 
 passing his own ends, who, if he be in his own nature and 
 ends most holy, must needs be holy in the laws which he 
 enacts. By all which we may observe, that holiness con- 
 sisteth in conformity ; so that according to the excellency of 
 the pattern whereunto it refers, so is the measure of its beauty 
 to be conjectured. And the pattern of our holiness is God 
 himself, " Be ye holy, as your Father which is in heaven is 
 holy." Other creatures have some prints and paths of God 
 in them, and so are all beautiful in their time ; but man had 
 the image of God created in him ; his will was set up in our 
 hearts as a law of nature, most pure, right, holy, good, wise, 
 and perfect ; and that law did bear the same relation to man's 
 life as his soul doth unto his members, to animate, form, and 
 organize every motion of the heart, every word of the mouth, 
 every action of the soul and body, according unto the will of 
 God. When, after this, man threw away this image, and God 
 was pleased in mercy again to renew holiness in him, he did 
 it again by another pattern, or rather the same exhibited in 
 another manner. He made him then conformable to the 
 image of his Son, the heavenly Adam, who is himself the 
 
264 THE BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 
 
 image of the invisible God, the express character of his 
 Father's brightness, the Sun of righteousness, the Morning 
 Star, the Light of the world, the fairest of ten thousand : so that 
 compare holiness with the first original draught thereof in 
 paradise, the nature of Adam as it came new out of God's 
 fashioning ; or with the law of God written in his heart ; or 
 with the holiness of God, of which it was a ray shining 
 into the soul ; or image of God with itself in Christ the 
 Second Adam, and every way holiness in its nature consists 
 in a conformity and commensuration to the most beautiful 
 things. 
 
 3. If we consider some of the chief properties of holiness, 
 we shall find it in that regard likewise very beautiful. 
 
 (1.) Rectitude and uprightness, sincerity and simplicity of 
 heart. " God hath made man upright ; but they have sought 
 out many inventions," Eccles.vii. 29 ; that is, have sought up 
 and down through many turnings and by-ways to satisfy 
 crooked affections. It was David s prayer, " Make thy way 
 straight before my face," Psa. v. 8 ; and it is the apostle's 
 instruction, " Make straight paths for your feet, lest that which 
 is lame be turned out of the way," Heb. xii. 13. True ho- 
 liness is a plain and an even thing, without falsehood, guile, 
 perverseness of spirit, deceitfulness of heart, or starting aside. 
 It hath one end, one rule, one way, one heart ; whereas hypo- 
 crites are in the Scripture called double-minded men, because 
 they pretend to God, and follow the world. Jam. i. 8 ; and 
 crooked men, like the swelling of a wall, whose parts are not 
 perpendicular, nor level to their foundation, Deut. xxxii. .5. 
 Now, rectitude, sincerity, and singleness of heart are ever in 
 the eyes of God and man a beautiful thing. 
 
 (2.) Harmony and uniformity within itself. The philoso- 
 pher saith of a just man that he is like a dice, which is every 
 way even and like itself; turn it how you will, it falls upon an 
 equal bottom. And so holiness keeps the heart like itself in 
 all conditions ; as a watch, though altogether it may be tossed 
 up and down with the agitation of him that carrieth it about 
 him, yet that motion doth no way perturb the frame, or dis- 
 order the workings of the spring and wheels within : so, though 
 the man may be many vv^ays tempted and disquieted, yet the 
 frame of his heart, the order of his affections, the government of 
 the spirit within him, are not thereby stopped, but holdeth on in 
 the same tenor. We know in the body, if any part do exceed 
 the due proportion, it destroys the beauty and acceptableness 
 
THE BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 265 
 
 of the rest. Symmetry and fitness of the parts unto one 
 another is that which commends a body. Now hoHness con- 
 sisteth in this proportion, there is in it an exactness of obedi- 
 ence, an equal respect unto all God's commandments, an 
 hatred of every false way, a universal work upon the whole 
 spirit, soul and body, a supply made unto every joint, a mea- 
 sure dispensed unto every part ; not a grace due unto christian 
 integrity which is not in some proportion fashioned in a man. 
 He that leaves any one faculty of his soul neglected, or atny 
 one part of the service or law of God disobeyed, (I speak of a 
 total and constant neglect,) is undoubtedly a hypocrite, and 
 disobeys all. Jam. ii. 10, 11. As David with a Httle stone 
 slew Goliath, because his forehead was open; so can our 
 enemy easily deal with us, if he observe any faculty naked and 
 neglected. The actual and total breach of any one command- 
 ment, (total I mean, when the whole heart doth it, though 
 perhaps it doth execute not all the obliquity which the compass 
 of the sin admits,) is an implicit, habitual, interpretative, and 
 conditional breach of all : his soul stands alike disaffected to the 
 holiness of every commandment, and he would undoubtedly 
 adventure on the breach of this, if such exigencies and condi- 
 tions as misguided him in the other should thereunto as 
 strongly induce him. He that hath done any one of these 
 abominations, hath done all these abominations in God's ac- 
 count, Ezek. xviii. 10 — 13. There being in a christian man 
 a suitable life and vigour of hohness in every part, and a mu- 
 tual conspiring of them all in the same ways and ends, there 
 must needs likewise be therein an excellent beauty. 
 
 (3.) Growth and further progress in these proportions : for 
 it is not only uprightness and symmetry of parts, which 
 causeth perfect beauty and comeliness, but stature likewise. 
 Now holiness is a thriving and growing thing. The word is 
 seed, and the Spirit is rain, and the Father is an husbandman, 
 and therefore the life of Christ is an abounding life, John x. 
 10. The rivers of the Spirit of grace spring up unto eternity, 
 John vii. 37, 38. All who are Christ's, grow up unto the 
 point of perfection which it becometh them to have in him, 
 even " unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of 
 Christ," Eph. iv. 12, 13. The meaning of the apostle is, 
 that Christ is not always an infant in us as when he is first 
 formed, but that he doth '■'■ grandescere in Sanctis" as Mus- 
 culus well expresseth it ; that he groweth up still unto the sta- 
 ture of a man : for wheresoever there is faith and holiness, 
 
 N 
 
266 THE BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 
 
 there is ever generated an appetite for augmentation. Faith 
 is of a growing, and charity of an abounding nature, 2 Thess. 
 i. 3. By the word of truth, as by incorruptible seed, we were 
 begotten ; and by the same word, as by the sap and milk, are 
 we nourished and grow up thereby. This affection holiness 
 ever works, as it did in the disciples, " Lord, increase our 
 faith," Luke xvii. 5 ; and in David, " Strengthen, O God, 
 that which thou hast wrought for us," Psa. Ixviii. 28. 
 
 (4.) Besides the rectitude, harmony, and maturity which 
 is in holiness, there is another property, which maketh the 
 beauty thereof surpass all other beauty, and that is indeficiency. 
 The measure of Christ must be the rule of our growth ; but 
 Christ never was overtaken by old age or times of declining ; 
 he never saw corruption : so we must proceed from strength 
 to strength, like the sun to the perfect day, but there is no 
 sinking or setting of holiness in the heart. They that are 
 planted in God's house do still bring forth fruit in their old 
 age, and are even then fat and flourishing, Psa. xcii. 14. 
 " Though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is re- 
 newed day by day," 2 Cor. iv. 16. Our holiness is a branch 
 of the life of Christ in us, which doth never of itself run into 
 death, and therefore is not, agreeably to its nature, liable to 
 decay : for that is nothing but an earnest, beginning, and 
 assurance of death. " That which waxeth old," saith the 
 apostle, " is ready to vanish away," Heb. viii. 13/ 
 
 5. If we consider the operation of holiness, that likewise 
 will evidence the beauty thereof ; for it hath none but gracious 
 and honourable effects. It filleth the soul with joy, comfort, 
 and peace. All joy, unspeakable and glorious joy, peace, 
 quietness, assurance, songs, and everlasting joy. It maketh 
 the blind see, the deaf hear, the lame leap, the dumb sing, the 
 wilderness and parched ground to become springs of water. 
 It entertaineth the soul with feasts of fatted things, and of 
 refined wines, and carrieth it into the banquetting house unto 
 apples and flagons. It giveth the soul a dear communion 
 with God in Christ, a sight of him, an access unto him, a 
 boldness in his presence, an admission into most holy delights 
 and intimate conferences with him in the galleries of love. In 
 one word, it gathers the admiration of men, it secures the pro- 
 tection of angels, and, which is argument of more beauty than 
 all the creatures in the world have besides, it attracteth the 
 eye and heart, the longings and ravishments, the tender com- 
 passions and everlasting delights of the Lord Jesus. 
 
THE BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 267 
 
 I have insisted on these properties of hoHness, which denote 
 inward beauty, because all the graces of the Spirit do beautify 
 inherently. But the word properly signifies outward adorn- 
 ing, by a metaphor of rich apparel, expressing the internal 
 excellency of the soul: which notes unto us two things 
 more. 
 
 1. That the people of Christ are not only sanctified within, 
 but have interest in that unspotted holiness of Christ, where- 
 with they are clothed as with an ornament. So the priests of 
 God are said to be " clothed with righteousness," Psa. cxxxii. 
 9 ; and we are said to " put on Christ," Gal. iii. 27. And 
 the righteousness of Christ is frequently compared to long 
 white robes, fit to cover our sins, to hide our nakedness, and 
 to protect our persons from the wrath of God, Rev, iii. 18 ; 
 iv. 4 ; vi. 11; vii. 9 ; so that to the eye of his justice we ap- 
 pear, as it were, parts of Christ ; as when Jacob wore Esau's 
 garment, he was as Esau to his father, and in that relation 
 obtained the blessing. God carrieth himself towards us in 
 Christ, as if we ourselves had fulfilled all righteousness ; as if 
 there were no ground of contest with us, or exception against 
 us. And this is indeed the " beauty of holiness ;" the model, 
 prototype, and original of all beauty. 
 
 2. From the metaphorical allusion (as it is usually under- 
 stood) it notes unto us likewise, that all the people of Christ 
 are priests unto God, to offer up sacrifices acceptable unto 
 him by Jesus Christ, 1 Pet. ii. 5. They have all the privi- 
 leges and the duties of priests. To approach unto God, we 
 have liberty " to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus," 
 Heb. x. 19 ; to consult and have communion with him, to 
 be his remembrancers ; for as his Spirit is his remembrancer 
 unto us, " he shall bring all things to your remembrance, what- 
 soever r have said unto you," John. xiv. 26 ; so is he our 
 remembrancer unto God, to put him in mind of his mercy and 
 promises, to make mention of him, and to give him no rest. 
 To know and propagate his truth ; this was the office of the 
 priest, to be the keeper of knowledge, and to teach it unto others : 
 and this knowledge in the gospel doth overflow the earth, and 
 make every man, in a spiritual sense, a priest, an instructor, 
 and edifier of his brother. To offer to him such sacrifices as he 
 now delighteth in : the sacrifices of thanksgiving, the sacrifices 
 of a broken and contrite spirit, the sacrifices of praise, con- 
 fession, good works, and mutual communicating unto one 
 another : in one word, the sacrificing of a man's whole self, 
 
 n2 
 
268 THE BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 
 
 to be consecrated as a kind of first fruits unto God, being 
 sanctified by the Holy Ghost. 
 
 We see then that hohness is the badge of Christ's subjects; 
 they are called the people of his holiness, Isa. Ixiii. 18. 
 Israel was " holiness unto the Lord," and the first fruits of 
 his increase consecrated unto him and his service as a kind of 
 first fruits. The livery of Christ's servants is a parcel of the 
 same Holy Spirit with which his own human nature was 
 clothed. All the vessels and ministerial instruments of the 
 tabernacle were anointed with the holy oil; and the house of 
 the Lord was an house of holiness ; to signify, that every 
 christian should be sanctified by the Spirit of God, because he 
 is a temple ; and every member, because it is a vessel and instru- 
 ment for the Master's use. The Spirit of holiness is that 
 vyhich distinguisheth, and as it were, marketh the sheep of 
 Christ from the wicked of the world: "Ye were sealed with the 
 Holy Spirit of promise," Eph. i. 13 : "Ye have not received 
 the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God," 
 1 Cor. ii. 12. Holiness setteth us apart for God's service, for 
 his presence and fruition ; protecteth and privilegeth us from 
 the wTath to come, in the day when he shall separate between 
 the precious and the vile, and make up his jewels : without 
 this no man can either serve, or see, or escape God ; either do 
 his will, enjoy his favour, or decline his fury. All our services 
 w ithout this are but dross ; and who would thank that man 
 for his service, who with wonderful officiousness should bring 
 nothing but heaps of dross into his house ? If a man could 
 pour out of his veins rivers of blood, and offer up every day as 
 many prayers as thoughts unto God, if his eyes were melted 
 into tears, and his knees hardened into horn with devotion ; 
 yet all this, if it be not the fruit of holiness, but of will-wor- 
 ship, or superstition, or opinion of merit and righteousness, 
 it is but as dross in God's sight ? " Wherefore liest thou 
 upon thy face? there is an accursed thing in the midst of 
 thee," Josh. vii. 10, VS. Whatever sin thy conscience tells thee 
 lieth next thy heart, and warms it, so that thou art unwilling to 
 part from it, take heed of bringing it into God's presence, or 
 provoking him with thy services ; for he will cast them back into 
 thy face. " What hath my beloved to do in mine house, seeing 
 she hath wrought lewdness with many ? Wliat hast thou to 
 do to take my covenant in thy mouth, seeing thou hatest in- 
 struction ? Who hath required this at your hand to tread in my 
 courts ? Bring no more vain oblations ; incense is an abomina- 
 
THE BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 269 
 
 tion unto me," Jer.xi. 15 ; Psa. 1. 16, 17 ; Isa. i. 12, 13. Until 
 a man put away the evil of his doings, and cleanse himself, all 
 his worship of God is but mocking of him, and profaning his 
 ordinances. In vain did the mariners pray while Jonah was 
 in the ship ; in vain did Joshua intercede while the accursed 
 thing was in the camp. A man shall lose all which he hath 
 wrought in God's worship, and have neither thanks nor re- 
 ward for it, so long as he harboureth any unclean affection in 
 his heart, and will not yield to part from it. Any sin which 
 wasteth the conscience, (as every great presumptuous sin doth 
 in whomsoever it is,) unqualifieth that person for the kingdom 
 of heaven. Grace maketh a believer sure of salvation, but it 
 doth not make him reckless or secure in living ; though there 
 be not an extinguishment, yet there is a suspension of his 
 right upon any black and notorious fall, that a man must not 
 dare to lay claim to heaven, that hath dared in a presumptuous 
 manner to provoke the Lord. Our hoHness is not the cause 
 of our salvation, but yet it is the way thereunto ; he who, by 
 any wasting and presumptuous sin, putteth himself out of that 
 way, must by repentance turn into it again, before he can hope 
 to find out heaven ; for " without holiness no man shall see 
 the Lord." He who is an hundred miles from his own house, 
 notwithstanding his propriety thereunto, shall yet never ac- 
 tually enter therein, till he have travelled over the right way 
 which leads unto it. There is an order, from first to last, in 
 the salvation of men ; many intermediate passages between 
 their vocation and their glory: justification, repentance, and 
 sanctification, as a scale or ladder between earth and heaven. 
 He who falls from his holiness and purity of conscience, 
 though he be not quite down the ladder, hath the whole work 
 to begin again, as much as ever ; yea, doubtless he shall never 
 get to the top till he recover the step from which he fell. 
 
 And if in this case it be true, that the righteous shall 
 scarcely be saved, oh then, where shall that man appear whom 
 God at the last shall find without this garment and seal upon 
 him I And therefore we should labour to go to God's throne 
 with our garments and our mark upon us ; for all other en- 
 dowments, our learning, our honours, our parts, our prefer- 
 ments, our earthly hopes and dependencies, will not follow us, 
 but we shall live to see them, or the comforts of them, depart. 
 Ahithophel had wisdom like an oracle of God, but he lived to 
 see it bid him quite farewell ; for he died like a very fool, or 
 child, who when he may not have his own will, will be re- 
 
270 THE BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 
 
 venged upon himself. Haman had more honour than the am- 
 bition of a subject usually aspires unto, and yet he lived to see 
 it bid him farevvell, and died the basest death which himself 
 could devise for his most hated and despised enemy. Jehoia- 
 kim, a king, lived to see his crown take its leave, and was 
 buried with the burial of an ass, and dragged like carrion out 
 of the gates of the city. There will be nothing at last left 
 for any man to cast his trust upon, but God, or angels, or our 
 fellows ; and if then God be agauist us, though all which re- 
 mains were on our side, alas ! what is a handful of stubble to a 
 world full of fire ! But yet there will not be that advantage, but 
 the combat must be single between God and a sinner. The 
 good angels rejoice to do God's will, and the wicked will re- 
 joice to do man any mischief ; these will be only ready to 
 accuse, and those to gather the wicked together unto the wrath 
 of him that sitteth on the throne. Oh ! what would a man 
 give then for that holiness which he now despiseth ! what 
 covenants would such a man be content to subscribe unto, if 
 God would then show him mercy when the court of mercy is 
 shut up ! Wouldst thou return to the earth, and live there 
 a thousand years under contempt and persecution for my ser- 
 vice ? O yes, not under thy service only, but under the rocks 
 and mountains of the earth, so that I may be hid from the face 
 of the Lamb. Wilt thou be content to go to hell and serve me 
 there a thousand years in the midst of hellish torments, and 
 the reviling of damned creatures ? O yes, infinitely better would 
 it be, even in hell, to be thy servant than thine enemy. Wilt thou 
 revenge every oath with a year of prayers, every bribe of cor- 
 ruption with a treasury of aims, every vanity with an age of 
 preciseness ? Yes, Lord, the severest of thy commands to 
 escape but the smallest of thy judgments. Oh ! let us be wise 
 for ourselves ; there shall be no such easy conditions then 
 proposed when it will be impossible to observe them ; and 
 there are now far easier proposed, when we are invited to ob- 
 serve them. 
 
 Again ; from hence we learn, that none will be willing to 
 come unto Christ till they see beauty in his service, which, with 
 a carnal eye, they cannot do ; for naturally the heart is pos- 
 sessed with much prejudice against it, that the way of religion, 
 in that exactness which the word requires, is but the phantasm 
 of more sublimated speculations ; a mere notional and airy 
 thing, which hath no being at all, but in the wishes of a few 
 men, who fancy unto themselves the shape of a church, as 
 
THE BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 271 
 
 Xenophon did of a prince, or Plato of a commonwealth. And 
 therefore, though with their tongues they do not, yet in their 
 hearts men are apt to lay aside that rigour and exactness 
 which the Scripture requires, namely, to pull out our right eyes, 
 to cut off our right hands, to hate father and mother, and wife 
 and lands, and our own life ; to deny ourselves, to cross our 
 own desires, to mortify our earthly members ; to follow the 
 Lamb through evil report and good report, through afflictions 
 and persecutions, and manifold temptations whithersoever he 
 goeth ; to war with principaHties and powers, and spiritual 
 wickednesses ; to acquaint ourselves with the whole counsel of 
 God, and the like ; and instead thereof to resolve upon cer- 
 tain more tolerable maxims of their own to go to heaven by ; 
 certain mediocrities between piety and profaneness, wherein 
 men hope to hold God fast enough, and yet not to lose either 
 the world, or their sinful lusts. This is a certain and con- 
 fessed truth, that the spirit which is in us by nature, is con- 
 trary to the Spirit of purity and power which is in the word ; 
 and therefore, the universal and willing submission of the heart 
 unto this, must needs find both many antipathies within, and 
 many discouragements and contempts without. Christ was 
 set up for a sign of contradiction to be spoken against, and 
 that in the houses of Israel and Judah ; and as it was then, 
 so is it now, even in Abraham's family, in the household and 
 visible church of Christ, they that are of the flesh persecute 
 those that are after the Spirit : Christ had never greater ene- 
 mies than those which professed his name. This is one of 
 the sorest engines Satan hath against his kingdom, to make it 
 appear in the eyes of men as a despicable, contemptuous, and 
 unbeautiful thing. And therefore, no man comes under 
 Christ's government till that prejudice, by manifest evidence of 
 the Spirit, be removed. And for this reason the ways of 
 Christ are set forth as beautiful, even under crosses and afflic- 
 tions. " I am black" with persecution, with the beating of 
 the sun upon me, but yet I am " comely, O ye daughters of 
 Jerusalem," Cant. i. 5. When the watchmen smote the 
 church, and wounded her, and took away her veil, yet still she 
 acknowledged Christ, for whose sake she suffered these perse- 
 cutions, to be "white and ruddy, the chiefest among ten thou- 
 sand,"Cant. v. 7, 10 : and the same opinion hath Christ of his 
 church, though she be afflicted and tossed with tempest, yet 
 he esteemeth of her as of a beautiful structure. "How fair and 
 how pleasant art thou, O love, for delights !" Isa. liv. 11, 12 ; 
 
272 Christ's subjects are numerous. 
 
 Cant. iv. 1, 7. And this is that we should all endeavour to 
 show forth in a shining and unblamable conversation, the 
 beauty of the gospel, that the enemies may have no occasion 
 from any indiscretions, affectations, unnecessary reservedness, 
 deformities, ungrounded scrupulosities, over-worldly affec- 
 tions, or any other miscarriages of those who profess not the 
 name only, but the power of religion, to blaspheme or fling off 
 from a way, against which they have such prejudices offered 
 them ; for all that which the faithful have common with the 
 world, shall yet be sure to be charged upon their profession by 
 wicked men, who have not either reason or charity enough to 
 distinguish between God's rule, and man's error. " Submit 
 yourselves," saith the apostle, " to every ordinance of man for 
 the Lord's sake, for so is the will of God, that with well 
 doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men," 
 1 Pet. ii. 13 — 15 ; for this is certain, the ignorance of foolish 
 men will not so much lay the blows upon your persons, as 
 upon that truth and religion which you profess, when you 
 needlessly withstand any such ordinances as you might without 
 sin obey. 
 
 V. The last thing observed in this verse, was the multitudes 
 of Christ's subjects, and the manner of their birth ; " From 
 the womb of the morning : thou hast the dew of thy youth." 
 Thy children are born in as great abundance unto thee, as the 
 dew which falleth from the morning womb. 
 
 From whence we may note, — That Christ in the day of his 
 power, in the morning of his church, had multitudes of chil- 
 dren born unto him. This promise the Lord made to Abra- 
 ham, and it is not to be limited to his children after the flesh, 
 but to his children of promise, that his seed should be as the 
 stars, and as the dust for multitude. Gen. xxii. 17 ; xxviii. 14. 
 And the prophet applies that promise to Israel by promise, 
 when those after the flesh should be dispersed and become no 
 people ; " Yet," saith the prophet, " the number of the chil- 
 dren of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea which cannot 
 be measured nor numbered," Hos. i. 10 ; meaning the Israel 
 of God amongst the gentiles. Thus the faithful are said to 
 flock like doves unto their windows, and to swell into a sea of 
 great waters, an hundred and four and forty thousand, with an 
 innumerable company more, all sealed and standing before 
 the Lamb, Isa. Ix. 8 ; Rev. vii. 4, 9. 
 
 Now, this was in the day of small things, in the time when 
 Christ first bent abroad his armies and the rod of his strenorth 
 
Christ's subjects are numerous. 273 
 
 into the world. Before this, God suffered men to walk in their 
 own ways ; yea, in his own lifetime Christ forbad his disciples 
 to enter into the cities of the Samaritans, or the gentiles. And 
 he promised them that they should do greater works than he 
 him.self had done, because he went unto his Father, John xiv. 
 12 ; for when he ascended up on high, he then led captivity 
 captive ; he triumphed over that ignorance and thraldom under 
 which the world was held, and gave gifts of his Spirit unto 
 men of all sorts in abundance ; visions to the young, dreams 
 to the aged, and his gracious Spirit unto all. We never read 
 of so many converted by Christ's personal preaching, (which 
 was indeed but the beginning of his preaching, for it is the 
 Lord which speaketh from heaven still,) as by the ministry of 
 his apostles : he thereby providing to magnify the excellency 
 of his spiritual presence, against all the carnal superstitions of 
 those men who seek for an invisible, corporeal presence of 
 Christ on the earth, charmed down out of heaven under the 
 lying shapes of separated accidents ; and who cannot be 
 content with that all-sufficient Remembrancer, which himself 
 hath promised to his church, John xiv. 26, except they may 
 have others, and those such as the holy Scriptures every 
 where disgraceth as teachers of lies and vanity, the crucifixes 
 and images of their own erecting : therein infinitely derogating 
 from that all-sufficient provision which the Lord in his word 
 and sacraments (the only living and full images of Christ cru- 
 cified. Gal. iii. 1,) hath proposed unto men as alone able to 
 make them wise unto salvation, being opened and represented 
 unto the consciences of men, not by human inventions, but by 
 those holy ordinances and offices which himself hath appointed 
 in his church, the preaching of his word and administration 
 of his sacraments. And surely they who by Moses and the 
 prophets, by that ministry which Christ after his ascension 
 did establish in his church, do not repent, would be no whit 
 the nearer, no more than Judas or the pharisees were, if they 
 should see or hear Christ in the flesh. Therefore, it is ob- 
 served after Christ's ascension, that the word of God grew 
 mightily and prevailed, and that there were men daily added 
 unto the church, Acts xix. 20 ; ii. 47 ; that the savour of the 
 gospel was made manifest in every place, 2 Cor..ii. 14 ; that 
 the children of the desolate were more than of the married wife, 
 Isa. liv. 1. Therefore, the believers after Christ's ascension 
 are called " the multitude of them that believed ; and multitudes 
 both of men and women were added to the Lord," Acts iv, 
 n5 
 
274 Christ's subjects are numerous. 
 
 32 ; V. 14 ; ten to one of those there were before. " Ten men 
 shall take hold out of all languages of the nations even of the 
 skirt of him that is a jew, saying, We will go with you," Zech. 
 viii. 23 ; that is, shall take the kingdom of heaven by violence, 
 as Saul laid hold on the skirt of Samuel's mantle, that he 
 might not go from him. 
 
 The reason hereof is to magnify the exaltation and spiritual 
 presence and power of Christ in the church. While he was 
 upon the earth he confined his ordinary residence and personal 
 preaching unto one people, because his bodily presence was 
 narrow, and could not be communicated to the whole world ; 
 for he took our nature with those conditions and limitations 
 which belong thereunto. But his Spirit and power are over 
 the whole church, by them he walketh in the midst of the 
 candlesticks. Christ's bodily presence and preaching the jews 
 withstood, and crucified the Lord of glory ; but now, to 
 show the greatness of his power by the gospel, he goes him- 
 self away, and leaves but a few poor and persecuted men be- 
 hind him, assisted by the virtue of his Spirit, and by them 
 wrought works which all the world could not withstand. He 
 could have published the gospel, as he did the law, by the mi- 
 nistry of angels ; he could have anointed his apostles with 
 regal oil, and made them not preachers only, but princes, and 
 defenders of his faith in the world. But he rather chose to 
 have them to the end of the world poor and despised men, 
 whom the world (without any show of just reason which can 
 be by them alleged) should overlook, and account of as low 
 and mean conditioned men, that his Spirit might in their 
 ministry be the more glorified. " God hath chosen the foolish 
 things of the world to confound the wise : and weak things of 
 the world to confound the things which are mighty ; and base 
 things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God 
 chosen, yea, and things that are not, to bring to nought 
 things that are : that no flesh should glory in his presence,*' 
 1 Cor. i. 27 — 29 ; and that his own Spirit might have all the 
 honour : therefore, " I was with you in weakness," saith the 
 apostle, " and in fear, and in much trembhng, that your faith 
 should not stand in the wisdom of men,but in the power of God," 
 1 Cor. ii. 3, 5. And again ; "We have this treasure in earthen 
 vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and 
 not of us. Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit 
 saith the Lord," 2 Cor. iv. 7 ; Zech. iv. 6. Thus we find, 
 tliat when the church was most persecuted, it did then most 
 
Christ's subjects are numerous. 275 
 
 grow, and in the worst times it brought forth the greatest 
 Fruit, to note the power of Christ's kingdom above all the 
 attempts of men. " A great door and effectual is opened 
 unto me," saith the apostle, "and there are many adversaries ;" 
 intimating, that the gospel of Christ had great success when 
 it was most resisted. All persecutors (as St. Cyprian observes) 
 are like Herod ; they take their times, and seek to slay Christ, 
 and overthrow his kingdom in its infancy, and therefore at that 
 time doth he most of all magnify the power and protection of 
 his Spirit over the same. Never were there so many men 
 converted as in those infant times of the church, when the 
 dragon stood before the woman ready to devour her child as 
 soon as it should be born. The great potentates of the world, 
 which did persecute the name of Christ, were themselves at 
 last thereunto subjected, not by fighting, but by dying chris- 
 tians. As a tree shaken sheds the more fruit, and a perfume 
 burnt diffuseth the sweetest savour ; so persecuted Christianity 
 doth the more flourish by the power of the Holy Spirit, whose 
 foolishness is wiser, and whose weakness is stronger, than all 
 the oppositions and contradictions of men. But if there be 
 such multitudes belonging unto Christ's kingdom, is not uni- 
 versality, and a visible pomp, a true note to discern the church 
 of Christ by ? To this I answer, that a true characteristical 
 note or difference ought to be convertible with that of which 
 it is made a note, and only suitable thereunto ; for that which 
 is common unto many, can be no evident note of this or that 
 particular. Now, universality is common to antichristian, 
 idolatrous, and malignant churches. The Arian heresy in- 
 vaded the world, and by the imperial countenance spread itself 
 into all churches. The whore was to sit upon many waters, 
 which were peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues ; 
 the kings of the earth were to be made drunk with the wine 
 of her fornications, and all nations to drink thereof. Rev. xvii. 
 2 ; xviii. 3. Therefore, touching these multitudes in the church, 
 we are thus to state the points : 1. Consider the church in 
 itself, and so it is a very vast body ; but yet consider it compa- 
 ratively with the other more prevailing and malignant part of 
 the world, and so it is but a little flock ; as many grains and 
 measures of corn may lie hid under a greater heap of chaff. 
 2. The church now is many, comparatively with the old 
 church of the jews ; " More are the children of the desolate 
 than the children of the married wife," Isa. liv. 1 ; but not 
 Gomparatively with the adversaries of the church in general. 
 
"276 Christ's subjects are nUxMerous. 
 
 We see of thirty parts of the world, nineteen are either idola- 
 trous or mohammedan, and the other eleven serving Christ in 
 so different a manner as if there were many Christs or many 
 gospels, or many ways to the same end. 3. Though Christ 
 always have a numerous offspring, yet in several ages there is 
 observable a different purity and conspicuousness, according 
 to the different administrations and breathings of the Spirit 
 upon his garden. In some ages the doctrine is more uncor- 
 rupted, the profession and acceptation more universal than in 
 others. In the apostles' time there were many born unto 
 Christ, by reason of the more abundant measure of the Spirit 
 which was shed abroad upon them, Tit. iii. 6. In the times 
 of the primitive persecutions there were many likewise born, 
 because God would glorify the foundations of his church, and 
 the power of his Spirit above the pride of men. In the first 
 countenancing of it by imperial laws and favours, it was very 
 general and conspicuous, because professed by the obedience, 
 and introduced by the power of those great emperors whom the 
 world followed. But after long peace, and after great dignities 
 had corrupted the minds of the chief in the church, and made 
 them look more after the pomp than the purity thereof, the 
 mystery of iniquity, like a weed, grew apace, and overspread 
 the corn, first abusing, and after that subjecting the power of 
 princes, and bewitching the kings of the earth with its forni- 
 cations. 
 
 Hence likewise we may learn to acknowledge God's mercy 
 in the worst times ; in those ages wherein the church was 
 most oppressed, many yielded themselves unto Christ. The 
 woman was with child, and was delivered even when the dra- 
 gon did persecute her. Rev. xii. 1,4; and even then God 
 found out in the wilderness a place of refuge, defence, and 
 feeding for his church. As in those cruel times of Arianism, 
 when heresy had invaded the world, and in those blind and 
 miserable ages wherein Satan was loosed, God still stirred up 
 some notable instruments by whom he did defend his truth, 
 and amongst whom he did preserve his church, though they 
 were driven into solitary places, and forced to avoid the as- 
 semblies of heretical and antichristian teachers. 
 
 We learn likewise not to censure persons, places, or times. 
 God had seven thousand in Israel, when Elias thought none 
 but himself had been left : all are not alike venturous or con- 
 fident of their strength. Nicodemus came to Christ by night, 
 and yet even then Christ did not reject him. Therefore wc 
 
Christ's subjects are numerous. 277 
 
 must not presently censure our neighbours as cold or dead, if 
 they discover not immediately the same measure of courage 
 and public stoutness in the profession of Christ with ourselves. 
 Some men are by nature more retired, silent, unsociable, unac- 
 tive men : some, by the engagement of their places, persons, 
 and callings, wherein they are of more public and necessary 
 use in the church, are put upon more abundant caution and 
 circumspection in the moderate carriage of themselves than 
 other men. Paul was of himself very zealous and earnest in 
 that great confusion, when Gaius and Aristarchus were dragged 
 into the theatre, to have gone in unto the people in that their 
 outrage and distemper ; but the wisdom of the disciples and 
 some of his chief friends is herein commended, that they sent 
 unto him, desiring him that he would not adventure into the 
 theatre, and that they suffered him not, Acts xix. 30, 31. 
 
 Again ; we have from hence an encouragement to go on in 
 the ways of Christ, because we go in great and in good com- 
 pany : many we have to suffer with us, many we have to com- 
 fort and encourage us. As the people of Israel when they 
 went solemnly up to meet the Lord in Zion, went on from 
 troop to troop ; the further they went, the more company they 
 were mixed with, all going to the same purpose, Psa. Ixxxiv. 
 7 : so when the saints go towards heaven to meet the Lord 
 there, they do not only go unto an " innumerable company of 
 angels, and just men," but they meet with troops in their way, 
 to encourage one another, Heb. xii. 22, 23. All the discou- 
 ragement that Elias had was, that he was alone ; but we have 
 no such plea for our unwillingness to profess the truth and 
 power of religion now. We are not like a lamb in a wide 
 place, without comfort or company ; but we are sure to have 
 an excellent guard or convoy unto Christ's kingdom. And 
 this use the apostle makes of the multitudes of believers, that 
 we should by so great a cloud of witnesses, be the more en- 
 couraged in our patient running of that race which is set be- 
 fore us, Heb. xii. L 
 
 Lastly ; it should teach us, to love the multitudes, the as- 
 semblies, and the communion of the saints ; to speak often to 
 one another ; to encourage and strengthen one another ; not to 
 forsake the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of 
 some is ; to concur in mutual desires ; to conspire in the same 
 holy thoughts and affections ; to be of one heart, of one soul, 
 of one judgment ; to walk by one and the same rule ; to besiege 
 Heaven with armies of united prayers ; to be mutually 
 
278 THE SPIRITUAL BIRTH OF A CHRISTIAN. 
 
 serviceable to the city of God, and to one another as fellow 
 members. Therefore hath the Lord given unto men several 
 gifts, and to no one man all, that thereby we might be 
 enabled and induced to work together unto one end, and by 
 love to unite our several graces for the edification of the body 
 of Christ, Eph. iv. 11—13. 
 
 Now, for the manner of producing or procuring these mul- 
 titudes, it is set forth unto us in two metaphors, — a womb, 
 and the dew of the morning. Now, first, the birth of dew is of 
 heavenly birth. That which is exhaled is an earthly vapour, 
 but the heavenly operation changeth it into dew ; no art of 
 man is able to do it. It is also undiscerned and secret ; when 
 it is fallen you may see it, but how it is made you cannot see. 
 Again ; it is a sudden birth, in a night or morning it is both 
 begotten and brought forth. Here then we have four obser- 
 vations : 
 
 1. That all Christ's subjects are withal his children. They 
 are born unto him. Christianity is a birth ; " Except a man 
 be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God," John 
 iii. 3. There is a Father. Christ is our Father by generation ; 
 " Behold, I and the children whom the Lord hath given me," 
 Isa. viii. 18 ; as we are his brethren by adoption ; " He is not 
 ashamed to call us brethren," Heb. ii. 1 1. There is a mother ; 
 " Jerusalem, which is the mother of us all," Gal. iv. 26. 
 And there are subordinate instruments, both of one and other, 
 the holy apostles, evangelists, doctors, and pastors, who there- 
 fore are sometimes called fathers begetting us ; "In Christ Jesus 
 I have begotten you through the gospel," 1 Cor. iv. 15 ; and 
 sometimes mothers bearing and bringing forth ; " Of whom I 
 travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you," Gal. iv. 
 19. There is a holy seed out of which these children of 
 Christ are formed ; namely, " the word of God, which liveth 
 and abideth for ever," 1 Pet. i. 23. For the heart of a man 
 new born unto Christ cometh from the word as a paper from 
 the press, or as a garment from a perfume, transformed into 
 that quality of spiritualness and holiness which is in the word. 
 There is a formative virtue, which is the energy and concur- 
 rence of the Spirit of grace with the word ; for the truth is 
 not obeyed but by the Spirit ; "Except a man be born of 
 water and of the Spirit," (water as the seed, and the Spirit as 
 the formative virtue quickening and actuating that seed,) " he 
 cannot enter into the kingdom of God," John iii. 5. There 
 is a new being or nature ; a corruption of our old man, and a 
 
THE SPIRITUAL BIRTH OF A CHRISTIAN. '279 
 
 formation of the new : "Old things are passed away ; behold 
 all things are become new," 2 Cor. v. 17. The same holy 
 nature, the same mind, judgment, will, affections, motions, de- 
 sires, dispositions, the Spirit, produces in us which were in him ; 
 " He that hath this hope purifieth himself, even as he is pure ; 
 as he is, so are we in this world," 1 John iii. 3 ; iv. 17. Pa- 
 tient, as he is patient, Heb. xii. 2, 3 ; holy, as he is holy, 
 1 Pet. i. 15 ; humble, as he is humble, IJohn xiii. 14 ; com- 
 passionate, as he is compassionate, Col. iii. 12 ; loving, as 
 he is loving, Eph. v. 2 : in all things labouring to show Christ 
 fashioned in our nature, and in our affections. There is a 
 new conversation answerable to our new nature ; that as God 
 is good in himself, and doth good in his works, Psa. cxix. 68, 
 so we both are as Christ was, 1 John iv. 17, and walk as he 
 walketh, 1 John ii. 6. There is new food and appetites there- 
 unto suitable. A desire of the sincere, immediate, untem- 
 pered, uncorrupted milk of the word, as it comes with all the 
 spirits and life in it, that we may grow thereby. New privi- 
 leges and relations ; the Son of God, the brethren of Christ, 
 the citizens of heaven, the household, of the saints. New 
 communion and society ; the fellowship of the Father and the 
 Son by the Spirit ; fellowship with the holy angels, for we 
 have their love, their ministry, their protection ; fellowship 
 with the " spirits of just men made perfect," by the seeds and 
 beginnings of the same perfection, by the participation of the 
 same Spirit of holiness, by expectance of the same glory and 
 final redemption. 
 
 In the mean time, then,we should "walk as children of light," 
 Eph. V. 8 ; or, as it is here, as " children of the morning." The 
 day is given us to work in, and therefore in the morning, as 
 soon as we have our day before us, we should endeavour to 
 walk honestly. Night-works are commonly works of un- 
 cleanness, violence, dishonour, and therefore want a cover of 
 darkness to hide them. Thieves use to come in the night, 
 1 Thess. v. 2. " The eye of the adulterer waiteth for the twi- 
 light, saying. No eye shall see me, and disguiseth himself," Job 
 xxiv. 15. " In the twilight, in the evening, in the black and 
 dark night," he goeth to the house of the strange woman, 
 Prov. vii. 9. The oppressor diggeth through houses in the 
 dark ; " for the morning is to them even as the shadow of 
 death," Job xxiv. 16, 17. " They that be drunken are 
 drunken in the night," 1 Thess. v. 7. Sins are of the nature 
 of some sullen weeds, which will grow nowhere but in the side 
 
280 THE SPIRITUAL BIRTH OF A CHRISTIAN. 
 
 of wells and of dark places. But works of Christianity are 
 neither unclean nor dishonourable ; they are beautiful and 
 royal works, they are exemplary, and therefore pubHc works ; 
 they are themselves light ; " Let your light so shine before 
 men ;" and therefore they ought to be done in the light. 
 
 If we be children, we should express the affections of chil- 
 dren. The innocency, humility, and dove-Hke simplicity of 
 little children ; as the sons of God, blameless, pure, and 
 without rebuke, Phil. ii. 15. Children in mahce, though 
 men in understanding. The appetite of little children ; " As 
 new born babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye 
 may grow thereby," 1 Pet. ii. 2, 3. In all impatiency the breast 
 will pacify a little infant ; in all other delights the breast will 
 entice it, and draw it away : ever so should the word and wor- 
 ship of God work upon us in all our distempers, and in all our 
 deviations. Christ was hungry and faint with fasting ; it was 
 about the sixth hour, and he had sent his disciples to buy 
 meat, and yet having an occasion to do his Father service he 
 forgat his food, and refused to eat, John iv. 6 ; viii. 34. The 
 love of children ; he that is begotten loveth him that did beget 
 him, 1 John v. 1. With a love of thankfulness ; "We love 
 him, because he first loved us," 1 John iv. 19. " I love the 
 Lord, because he hath heard my voice and my supplications," 
 Psa. cxvi. 1. With a love of obedience ; " Faith worketh by 
 love," Gal. V. 6. " Love is the fulfilling of the law," Rom. 
 xiii. 10. " If a man love me, he will keep my words," John 
 xiv. 23. With a love of reverence and awful fear ; " A son 
 honoureth his father," Mai. i. 6. " If ye call on the Father, — 
 pass the time of your sojourning here in fear," 1 Pet. i. 17. 
 The faith of children ; for whom should the child rely on for 
 maintenance and support but the father ? '* Take no thought, 
 saying. What shall we eat ? or, What shall we drink ? or, 
 Wherewithal shall we be clothed ? for your heavenly Father 
 knoweth that ye have need of all these things," Matt. vi. 31, 
 32. The hope, assurance, and expectation of children ; for 
 as children depend on their parents for present supply, so for 
 portions and provisions for the future : fathers lay up for their 
 children, and so doth God for his. " There is an inheritance 
 reserved for us," 1 Pet. i. 4. Lastly ; the prayers and requests 
 of children ; "Because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the 
 Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father," 
 Gal. iv. 6. 
 
 2. The birth of a christian is a Divine and heavenly work. 
 
THE SPIRITUAL BIRTH OF A CHRISTIAN. 281 
 
 God is both father and mother of the dew : by his power and 
 wisdom a father ; by his providence and indulgence a mother. 
 Therefore he is so called in Clem. Alex. *'Metripaier;' to note, 
 that those causalities which are in the second agents divided, 
 are eminently and perfectly in him united, as all things are to 
 be resolved into a first unity. " Hath the rain a father ? or 
 who hath begotten the drops of dew?" saith Job. " Out of 
 whose womb came the ice ? and the hoary frost of heaven, 
 who hath gendefedit?" Job xxxviii. 28, 29. None but God 
 is the parent of the dew ; it doth not stay for nor expect any 
 human concurrence, or causality, Mic. v. 7 ; Isa. Iv. 10. 
 Such is the call and conversion of a man to Christ ; a hea- 
 venly calling, Heb. iii. 1 ; the operation of God in us, Col. ii. 
 12 ; a birth, " not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor 
 of the will of man, but of God," John i. 13. Paul may plant, 
 and Apollos may water, but it is God that must bless both ; 
 nay, it is God who by them, as his instruments, doth both : 
 " Of his own will begat he us," Jam. i, 18. The ministers 
 are " a savour of Christ," 2 Cor. ii. 15. It is not the gar- 
 ment, but the perfume in it, which diffuseth a sweet scent : 
 it is not the labour of the minister, but Christ whom he 
 preacheth, that worketh upon the soul. " I laboured more 
 abundantly than they all : yet not I, but the grace of God 
 which was with me," 1 Cor. xv. 10. 
 
 It is not good, therefore, to have the faith of God in respect 
 of persons ; the seed of this spiritual generation cannot other- 
 wise be given us than in earthen vessels, by men of like pas- 
 sions and infirmities with others. Therefore, when pure and 
 good seed is here and there sown, to attribute anything to 
 persons, is to derogate from God. Where gifts are fewer, parts 
 meaner, probabilities less, God may and often doth give an 
 increase above hope, as in the case of Daniel's pulse ; that the 
 excellency of the power may be of him, and not of man. 
 Though it be a lame or a leprous hand which soweth the seed, 
 yet the success is no way altered. Good seed depends not in 
 its growth on the hand that sows it, but on the earth that 
 covers, and on the heavens that cherish it : so the word bor- 
 roweth not its efficacy from any human virtue, but from the 
 heart which ponders, and the Spirit which sanctifies it. 
 
 When then thou comest unto the word, come with affections 
 suitable unto it. All earth will not bear all seed ; some 
 wheat, and some but pulse : there is first required a fitness, 
 before there will be a fruitfulness* Christ had many things 
 
282 THE SPIRITUAL BIRTH OF A CHRISTIAN. 
 
 to teach, which his disciples at the time could not carry away, 
 because the Comforter was not then sent, who was to lead 
 them into all truth, John xvi. 12, 13. They who by use have 
 their senses exercised, are fit for strong meat, Heb. v. 14. 
 The truth of the gospel is a heavenly truth, and therefore it 
 requires a heavenly disposition of heart to prosper it. It is 
 wisdom to those that are perfect, though to others foolishness 
 and offence, 1 Cor. ii. 6. The only reason why the word of 
 truth doth not thrive, is, because the heart is not fitted nor 
 prepared unto it. The seed, of itself, is equal unto all grounds, 
 but it prospers only in the honest and good heart ; the rain is 
 in itself alike unto all, but of no virtue to the rocks as to 
 other ground, by reason of their inward hardness and inca- 
 pacity. The pharisees had covetous hearts, and they mocked 
 Christ ; the philosophers had proud hearts, and they scorned 
 Paul. The jews had carnal hearts, and they were offended at 
 the gospel ; the people in the wilderness had unbelieving 
 hearts, and the word preached did not profit them. But now, 
 a heavenly heart comes with the affections of a scholar, to be 
 taught by God ; with the affections of a servant, to be com- 
 manded by God ; with the affections of a son, to be educated 
 by God ; with the affections of a sinner, to be cured by God. 
 It considers that it is the Lord from heaven, who speaks in 
 the ministry of the word to him that is but dust and ashes ; 
 and therefore he puts his hand on his mouth, dares not reply 
 against God, nor wrestle with the evidence of his Holy Spirit, 
 but falleth upon his face, and giveth glory unto God ; believes 
 when God promiseth, trembles when God threateneth, obeys 
 when God commandeth, learns when God teacheth, bringeth 
 always meekness and humility of spirit, ready to open unto 
 the word that it may incorporate. 
 
 From hence we must learn to look unto God in every ordi- 
 nance, to expect his arm and Spirit to be therein revealed, 
 to call on, and depend on him for the blessing of it. If a man 
 could, when he enters into God's house, but pour out his heart 
 in these two things ; a promise, and a prayer : Lord, I am 
 now entering into thy presence, to hear thee speak from hea- 
 ven unto me, to receive thy rain and spiritual dew which never 
 returneth in vain, but ripeneth a harvest either of corn or 
 weeds, of grace or judgment. My heart is prepared, O Lord, 
 my heart is prepared, to learn and to love any of thy words. 
 Thy law is my counsellor, I will be ruled by it ; it is my 
 physician, I will be patient under it ; it is my schoolmaster, 
 
THE SPIRITUAL BIRTH OF A CHRISTIAN. 283 
 
 I will be obedient unto it. But who am I, that I should pro- 
 mise any service unco thee ? and who is thy minister that he 
 should do any good unto me, without thy grace and heavenly 
 call ? be thou therefore pleased to reveal thine own Spirit 
 unto me, and to work in me that which thou requirest of 
 me ; — I say, if a man should come with such sweet prepara- 
 tions of heart unto the word, and could thus open his soul 
 when this spiritual manna falls down from heaven, he should 
 find the truth of that which the apostle speaketh, " Ye are 
 not straitened in us," or in our ministry, we come unto you 
 with abundance of grace ; but ye are straitened only in your 
 own bowels ; in the hardness, unbelief, incapacity, and negli- 
 gence of your own hearts, which receiveth that in drops, which 
 falleth down in showers. 
 
 3. As it is a Divine, so it is a secret and undiscerned birth. 
 As " the wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the 
 sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and 
 whither it goeth : so," saith our Saviour, " is every one 
 that is born of the Spirit," John iii. 8. The voluntary 
 breathings and accesses of the Spirit of God unto the soul, 
 whereby he cometh mightily, and as it were clotheth a man 
 with power and courage, are of a very secret nature ; and not- 
 withstanding the power thereof be so great, yet there is 
 nothing in appearance but a voice ; one of the most empty 
 and vanishing things. As dew falls in small and insen- 
 sible drops, and as a child is born by slow and undiscerned 
 progresses, as the prophet David saith, "I am fearfully 
 and wonderfully made," Psa. cxxxix. 14; such is the 
 birth of a christian unto Christ, by a secret, hidden, and in- 
 ward call ; a high calling, as St. Austin calleth it. By a deep 
 and intimate energy of the Spirit of grace Christ is formed, 
 and the soul organized unto a spiritual being. A man hears 
 a voice, but it is behind him, he seeth no man ; he feels a 
 blow in that voice, which others take no notice of, though ex- 
 ternally they hear it too-. Therefore it is observable, that the 
 men who were with Paul at his miraculous conversion, are 
 in one place said to hear a voice, Acts ix. 7, and in another 
 place, not to have heard the voice of him that spake unto 
 Paul, Acts xxii. 9. They heard only a voice, and so were 
 only astonished ; but Paul heard it distinctly as the voice of 
 Christ, and so was converted. 
 
 4. As it is a Divine and secret, so is it likewise a sudden 
 birth. In human actions, great workr. move like great 
 
284 THE SPIRITUAL BIRTH OF A CHRISTIAN. 
 
 engines, slowly and by leisure to their maturity : but in spiritual 
 generations, children are born unto Christ like dew, which is 
 exhaled, conceived, formed, produced, and all in one night. 
 Paul, to-day a wolf, to-morrow a sheep ; to-day a persecutor, to- 
 morrow a disciple, and not long after an apostle of Christ. The 
 nobleman of Samaria could see no possibility of turning a famine 
 into a plenty within one night, 2 Kings vii. 1, 2 ; neither 
 can the heart of a man, who rightly understands the closeness 
 and intimate radication of sin and guilt in the soul, conceive 
 it possible to remove either in a sudden change ; yet such is 
 the birth of men unto Christ. The earth bringeth forth in 
 one day, and a nation is born at once ; it is spoken of Jeru- 
 salem the mother of us all, Gal. iv. 26. 
 
THE PRIESTHOOD OF CHRIST. 285 
 
 VERSE IV. 
 
 TItE LORD HATH SWORN, AND WILL NOT REPENT, THOU ART A PRIEST 
 FOR EVER AFTER THE ORDER OF MELCHIZEDEK. 
 
 From the regal office of Christ, and the administration thereof 
 by the sceptre of his word and Spirit, to the conquering of 
 willing people unto himself, the prophet now passeth to his 
 sacerdotal office ; the vigour and merit whereof is by the two 
 former applied unto the church. Therefore we may observe, 
 that though the tribes were interdicted confusion with one 
 another in their marriages,* Numb, xxxvi. 7, yet the regal 
 and levitical tribes might interchange and minofle bloods ; to 
 intimate (as I conceive) that the Messiah, with relation unto 
 whose lineage that confusion was avoided, was to be both a 
 King and a Priest. Thus we find Jehoiada the priest married 
 Jehoshabeath the daughter of king Jehoram, 2 Chron. xxii. 
 1 1 ; and Aaron, of the tribe of Levi, took Elisheba the 
 daughter of Aminadab, who was of the tribe of Judah, Exod. 
 vi. 23 ; Numb. i. 7. In which respect I suppose Mary, and 
 EHzabeth, the wife of Zacharias the priest, are called cousins, 
 Luke i. 36. In the law, indeed, these two offices were dis- 
 tinct. " Our Lord," saith the apostle, " sprang out of Juda; 
 of which tribe Moses spake nothing concerning priest- 
 hood," Heb. vii. 14. And, therefore, when king Uzziah en- 
 croached on the priest's office, he was smitten with a leprosy, 
 2 Chron. xxvi. 16 — 21. But amongst the gentiles, (amongst 
 whom Melchizedek is thought to have been a priest,) it was 
 usual for the same person to have been both king and priest. 
 The words contain the doctrine of Christ's priesthood. 
 The quality of it, eternal. The order, not of Aaron, but of 
 Melchizedek. The foundation of both, God's immutable 
 decree and counsel ; he cannot repent of it, because he hath 
 confirmed it by an oath. I shall handle the words in the 
 order as they stand. 
 
 * Notwithstanding many learned authorities to the contrary, upon 
 more deliberate consideration of this matter, I conceive myself to 
 have been herein mistaken, and am rather persuaded, that marriages 
 were lawful between several tribes, save only in the case when daugh- 
 ters did inherit, to avoid confusion of possessions amongst the tribes. 
 
286 Christ's priesthood 
 
 " The Lord hath sworn." Here are two things to be in- 
 quired : How God is said to swear ? and why he swears in 
 this particular case of Christ's priesthood ? The former of 
 these the apostle resolves in one word, " an oath," Heb. vi. 
 17. He interposed in or by an oath, namely, himself; for 
 that is to be suppHed out of the thirteenth verse, where it is 
 said that he sware by himself. So elsewhere it is said, that 
 " he sware by the excellency of Jacob," that is, by himself, 
 Amos viii. 7 ; vi. 8. " By myself have I sworn, saith the 
 Lord, that in blessing I will bless thee," Gen. xxii. 16, 17. 
 The meaning is, that God should deny himself, (which he 
 cannot do, 2 Tim. ii. 13,) and should cease to be God, if the 
 word which he had sworn should not come to pass. So that 
 usual form, *' As I live," is to be understood. Let me not be 
 esteemed a living God if my word come not to pass. So 
 elsewhere the Lord interposeth his holiness ; " I have sworn 
 by my holiness that I will not lie unto David," Psa. Ixxxix. 
 35. As impossible for him to break his word as to be unholy. 
 
 For the second question, why God swears in this particular ? 
 I answer : 
 
 1. And principally, to show the immutable and irreversible 
 certainty of what he speaks, Heb. vi. 17. "I have sworn by 
 myself, the word is gone out of my mouth, and shall not 
 return," Isa. xlv. 23. Thus we find God confirming the im- 
 moveableness of his covenant by an oath, Isa. liv. 9, 10 ; 
 Psa. Ixxxix. 34, 35. When the Lord doth only say a thing, 
 (though his word be as certain in itself as his oath, for it is as 
 impossible for him to lie as to forswear himself,} yet there is 
 an implicit kind of reservation for the altering, revoking, or 
 reversing that word by some subsequent declarations. As in 
 the covenant and priesthood of Aaron, though God made it for 
 a perpetaal ordinance, yet there was afterwards a change of it, 
 for the weakness and unprofitableness thereof. So when the 
 Lord sent Jonah to preach destruction unto Nineveh within 
 forty days, though the denunciation came not to pass, yet was 
 it not any false message, because it was made reversible upon 
 an implicit condition ; which condition the Lord is pleased 
 sometimes in mercy to conceal, that men may be the sooner 
 frightened out of their security, upon the apprehension of 
 approaching danger. " At what instant," saith the Lord, 
 " I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a king- 
 dom, to pluck up, and to pull down, and to destroy it : if that 
 nation, against whom I have pronounced, turn from their evil, 
 
CONFIRMED BY AN OATH. 287 
 
 i will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them," 
 Jer. xviii. 7, 8. But when the Lord swears any absolute act, 
 or promise of his own, (for the revocation whereof there can 
 no other ground arise, than was extant at the time of making 
 it, and yet was no bar or hinderance unto it, namely the sin 
 of man,) he then by that oath seals and assures the immuta- 
 bility thereof, to those that rely upon it. 
 
 2. It is to commend the excellency and pre-eminence of 
 that above other things, which hath this great seal of heaven, 
 the oath of God, to confirm and establish it. " Inasmuch," 
 saith the apostle, " as not without an oath he was made 
 Priest : by so much was he made a Surety of a better testa- 
 ment," Heb. vii. 20, 22 ; and this is a consequence of the 
 former ; for by how much the more abiding, by so much the 
 more glorious is the ministry of the gospel. " If that which 
 was done away was glorious, much more that which remaineth 
 is glorious," 2 Cor. iii. 11. The more solemn and sacred the 
 institution was, the more excellent is the priesthood. Now, 
 this oath was that seal of God, by which he designed and set 
 apart his Son for that great office, in a more solemn manner 
 of ordination than was usual to others. " Him hath God 
 the Father sealed," John vi. 27. It was but " He hath said," 
 unto others, " ye are gods ;" but it is " The Father hath 
 sanctified," to his Son, John x. 34, 36. 
 
 3. It is to commend God's great compassion and good will, 
 for the establishing of the hearts of men in comforts and as- 
 surance. He therefore confirmed his promise by an oath, 
 " That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible 
 for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have 
 fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us," Heb. 
 vi. 17, 18. An oath, even amongst men, is the end of all con- 
 troversy, the determination and composing of all differences ; 
 how much more when he sets his seal upon his mercy and 
 covenant, should the hearts of men be secure, and lay fast 
 hold thereon without doubt or scruple ? Therefore we find 
 the saints, in the Scripture, make mention of the oath of God, 
 for establishing their hearts against fears or dangers. " Thou 
 wilt perform the truth to Jacob, and the mercy to Abraham, 
 which thou hast sworn unto our fathers from the days of old," 
 Micah vii. 20. " Thy bow was made quite naked, according 
 to the oaths of the tribes, even thy word," Hab. iii. 9 ; that 
 is, thou didst make it appear to thine enemies that thou didst 
 fight for thy people, and remember thy word or covenant of 
 
288 Christ's priesthood 
 
 mercy which thou didst swear unto Abraham the father of the 
 faithful, and so oftentimes ratify it anew unto his se^d, the 
 tribes which proceeded from him. And this is the ground of 
 all the church's comfort and stabiHty ; for, alas ! we every day 
 deserve to have God abrogate his covenant of mercy with us, 
 but he is mindful of the oath which he hath sworn, Deut. vii. 
 7, 8 ; ix. 5. There was wickedness enough in the world to 
 have drawn down another flood aft€r that of Noah ; the same 
 reason that caused it, did remain after it was removed. Gen. 
 vi. 12, 13 ; viii. 21. But God's oath bound him to his 
 mercy, Isa. liv. 9. 
 
 The meaning, then, of this first clause is this, — The Lord, 
 to show the immutability of his counsel, the unchangeable- 
 ness of Christ's priesthood, the excellency of it above the 
 priesthood of Aaron, and the strong consolation which the saints 
 may therefrom receive, hath sealed it by an oath ; so that he 
 is a Priest by a decree which cannot be revoked. 
 
 It notes unto us the solemn call of Christ unto the 
 office of priesthood, as before of King, ver. 1. He did not 
 usurp this honour to himself, as Nadab and Abihu did, when 
 of their own will they offered strange fire unto the Lord ; nor 
 encroach upon it as Uzziah ; but he was ordained and be- 
 gotten, and called of God thereunto, after the order of Mel- 
 chizedek, Heb. v. 5, 10. He was sanctified and sent, and 
 had a commandment, and a work set him to do, John x. 18, 
 36, 37. In which respect he was called a servant, or a 
 chosen officer formed for a special employment, Isa. xlii. 1 : 
 xhx. 5; liii. 11 ; Phil. ii. 7. Here then is the consent of 
 the whole Trinity unto Christ's priesthood. 1. The Fathers 
 consent, in his act of ordination ; " For him hath God the 
 Father sealed," John vi. 27. " Thou art my Son, to day have 
 I begotten thee," Heb. v. 5. 2. The Son's, by voluntary un- 
 dertaking for mankind : for he was the Surety of the covenant, 
 Heb. vii. 22. The apostle joineth these two together, " Lo, 
 I come to do thy will, O God;" Heb. x. 9, 10 : there was 
 God's will, and Christ's submission thereunto, in which re- 
 gard he is said to " sanctify himself," John xvii. 19. There 
 was a covenant between God and Christ ; Christ was to un- 
 dertake an office of service and obedience for men, to suffer 
 himself a sacrifice for sin, to be made of a woman under the 
 law, &c. And for this God was to prolong his days, to give him 
 a seed, and a generation that could not be numbered, a king- 
 dom which cannot be bounded, a portion with the great, and 
 
CONFIRMED BY AN OATH, 289 
 
 a spoil with the strong; a name above every name, to set a 
 joy and a glory before him, after he should have finished his 
 work, Isa hu. 8, 10, 11, 12; Psa. n, 7, 8; Phil. i,. 7, 9^ 
 John xvii, 2 4 5 ; Heb. ii. 8, 9 ; xii. 2. 3. Here is the con- 
 sent of the Holy Ghost, who did hereunto anoint him, who 
 came along with him, who formed him in the womb of the 
 virgni, and descended upon him in his solemn taking of this 
 office in John s baptism, by which Spirit he was consecrated, 
 warranted, and enabled unto this great function, Isa. Ixi. 1 ' 
 xlii. 1 ; Matt. iii. 16, 17 ; Heb. i. 9. ' 
 
 If then God call Christ unto his priesthood by a solemn 
 oath, and make him Surety of a better covenant, we ou^ht to 
 take the more especial notice thereof; for when God swears 
 he must be heard. The more excellent anything is, the more 
 earnest^^heed should be given unto it; for "how shall we 
 escape, saith the apostle, "if we neglect so great salvation," 
 so sure a covenant, Heb. ii. 1, 3. 
 
 This is the only rock on which we may cast anchor in any 
 trouble, doubt, or fear of spirit. It is not our own will or 
 strength that holds us up from ruin, but only God's oath, by 
 which Christ IS made a Priest, "able to save them to the 
 uttermost that come unto God bv him." St. Paul and his 
 company were in a great tempest, all hope that they should 
 be saved was taken away, Acts xxvii. 20, yet he exhorts them 
 to be ot good cheer, because there should not be the loss of 
 any mans hfe amongst them; and the ground thereof was 
 Oods promise, which he believed, ver. 24, 25. The case is 
 the same with us, we are compassed about with infirmities • 
 with enemies too hard, and with sins too heavy for us • with 
 tears and doubtings, that we shall lose all again ; how can we 
 in such tempests of Spirit be cheered, but only by casting 
 anchor upon God's covenant, which is established by an oath? 
 by learning to hope above hope? Rom. iv. 18; to be strong 
 m him, when we are weak in ourselves ? to be faithful in him 
 when we are fearful in ourselves ? to be stedfast in him' 
 when we stagger in ourselves ? in the midst of Satan's buffets 
 and our own corruptions, to find a sufficiency in his grace 
 ab e to answer and to ward off all ? 2 Cor. xii. 10. To catch 
 hold of his covenant, and to fly to the hope that is set before 
 us, as the only refuge and sanctuary of a pursued soul, when 
 we are not able to stand by ourselves ? Isa. Ivi. 6 ; Heb vi 
 f\- J^ ^ ""^'^ ^'^'^ ^^"'S when a man hath a distinct view 
 ot his hlthmess and guilt, by reason of sin, not to give over 
 
290 Christ's priesthood 
 
 himself and his salvation as desperate things. It is nothing 
 but icrnorance and insensibiUty which make men presume of 
 the pardon of sin. In this case then we must consider God's 
 oath and covenant with his people. 
 
 1. Not to reject them for their sins. "Israel hath not 
 been forsaken, nor Judah of his God : though their land was 
 filled with sin against the holy One of Israel," Jer. li. 5. 
 " My people are bent to backsliding, — yet I will not execute 
 the fierceness of mine anger, I will not return to destroy 
 Ephraim : for I am God, and not man," Hosea xi. 7, 9. 
 
 2. Not always to suffer them to lay under sin, but in due 
 time to heal their backslidings, Hosea xiv. 4. He will not 
 only remove our transgressions from himself, but he will re- 
 move them from us too ; and that so far, as that it shall be as 
 possible for the east and west to meet together, as for a man 
 and his sins, Psa. ciii. 12. Though we made him to serve 
 with our sins, and wearied him with our iniquities, yet he 
 will not remember against us our past sins, Isa. xHii. 25 ; 
 neither will he see against us the sins which remain. Numb, 
 xxiii. 21. Those he will forgive, and these he will subdue; 
 and all this because of his truth unto Jacob, and his mercy 
 unto Abraham, which he sware unto our fathers from the days 
 of old, Micah vii. 18 — 20. He hath given us ground for 
 both our feet to stand upon, and holdfast for both our hands 
 to cleave unto : a promise and an oath, " that by two immu- 
 table things, we might have a strong consolation," Heb. vi. 
 18. So the apostle saith, that all the promises of God 
 in Christ are " yea and amen :" yea, to note their truth ; and 
 amen, to note their certainty and stability, being confirmed by 
 the oath of Christ. For so that word may be understood, 
 either as an oath, or at least as a very strong and confident 
 affirmation, which is of equal force and power unto an oath, 
 2 Cor. i. 20 ; except haply we will understand the words 
 " nai* and " auto' to be the same thing expressed in seve- 
 ral tongues ; as Abba, Pater, in other places, thereby noting 
 not only the stability, but the universality of God's promises. 
 
 Many things there are in this call of Christ unto his office 
 to confirm this consolation, and upon which the troubled soul 
 may cast anchor. 
 
 1. From the Father he hath received a command and call 
 unto this service, and so as a servant he hath fidelity ; for 
 God chooseth none but faithful servants. He was an Apostle 
 and High Priest sent to preach the will, and to pacity the 
 
CONFIRMED BY AN OATH. 291 
 
 wrath of God; and he was " faithful to him that appointed him, 
 as Moses was," Heb. iii. 2. And if he be faithful, we may trust 
 him, for he will do the work which is given him to do. "Faith- 
 ful is he that calleth you, who also will do it," 1 Thess. v. 24. 
 
 2. From himself there is a voluntary submission, whereby 
 he gives himself for his church, and lays down his own life, 
 Eph. V. 25; Tit. ii. 14; John x. 11 ; for being of himself 
 equal with the Father, he could not be by him commanded, 
 ordained, or over-ruled to any service, without a voluntary 
 concurring to the same decree ; emptying himself and taking 
 on him the form of a servant ; making himself less than his 
 Father, and in some sort for awhile lower than the angels, 
 that so he might be commanded. So that besides his fidelity 
 to rest on as a servant, here is his especial mercy as a con- 
 curring agent in the decree, whereby he was ordained unto 
 this office : he is not only a faithful, but a merciful High 
 Priest, to make reconciliation for the sins of men, Heb. ii. 17. 
 But a man may, both by his fidelity as a servant, and by his 
 mercy, as having the same tender compassion with him that 
 sent him, be willing to help another out of misery, and yet 
 may not be able to effect his own desires for want of power. 
 And therefore, 
 
 3. By the unction of the Holy Spirit, who proceedeth from 
 the Father and himself; he is said to be sanctified by the 
 Father, John x. 36, and to sanctify himself, John xvii. 19; 
 to have received power and authority from his Father, Matt, 
 xxviii. 18 ; John v. 27 ; xvii. 2 ; and to have power likewise 
 within himself, John x. 18. That Spirit, which for the dis- 
 charge of this office he brought with him in fulness, and unto 
 all purposes of that service into the world, is a " Spirit of 
 power," 2 Tim. i. 7, whereby he is enabled perfectly to save 
 all comers, Heb. vii. 25 ; so that unto his fidelity and mercy, 
 here is added ability likewise. 
 
 4. As he received an office and a service, so he received a 
 promise from his Father hkewise, which did much encourage 
 him in this service. And this promise is two-fold. 1. The 
 promise of a great seed, which, by the execution of his office, 
 he should gather unto himself ; and of a great conquest over 
 all his enemies. God conferred this honour upon him, to be 
 the King of a mighty people, whom he should save and sanc- 
 tify to himself. They were given unto him, Psa. ii. 8 ; John 
 xvii. 6 ; so that unto his fidelity, mercy, and power, here is 
 further added a propriety to the thing which he saves : and 
 
 o2 
 
292 Christ's priesthood confirmed by an oath. 
 
 who would not use all fidelity in his own business, all mercy 
 towards his own seed, all the power he hath to deliver his own 
 house from the fire? Christ was faithful " as a Son over 
 his own house, whose house are we," Heb. iii. 6. 2. There 
 was the promise of a great glory and crown, which the nature 
 he had assumed should in his person receive after the fulfilling 
 ®f his service. After he had been a little while lower than 
 the angels, he was to be crowned with glory and honour, 
 Heb. ii. 7 ; and therefore we may be sure that he hath ful- 
 filled all righteousness, and done for his church all which he 
 was to do upon the earth, because he is gone, and we see him 
 no more : for his sufferings were to go before, and his glory to 
 follow, 1 Pet. i. 11. This is the apostle's argument why we 
 are not in our sins, but delivered from them, because Christ is 
 risen, 1 Cor. xv. 17. " Who is he that condemneth ? it is 
 Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at 
 the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us," 
 Rom. viii. 34. And it is his argument again, why we ought 
 to hold fast our profession, and to come boldly to the throne 
 of grace for help in time of need, because we have a great 
 High Priest that is passed into the heavens, Heb. iv. 14 — 16. 
 5. As he had a promise from the Father to encourage him, 
 so he had a nature from us to incline him unto the execution 
 of his office. He was made of a woman, made like unto us 
 in all things, sin only excepted, tempted and afflicted as we 
 are : and so there are two things which the heart of a behever 
 may rest upon in him in any discomforts. 1. His sympathy. 
 For besides his essential mercy, as he is God, there was in him 
 a mercy which he learned by being like unto us. " In all 
 things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren, that 
 he might be a merciful and a faithful High Priest, " Heb. ii. 
 17. Such was his compassion towards the hunger of the 
 multitude. Matt. xv. 32, because he himself knew what hun- 
 ger was, Matt. iv. 2 ; and such was his compassion towards 
 the sorrows of Mary and Martha, John xi. 33, 33, because 
 he himself was acquainted with grief, Isa. liii. 3 ; and such was 
 his compassion towards Peter in that state of desertion wherein 
 he lay, Luke xxii. 61, because he himself knew what it was 
 to be forsaken, Matt, xxvii. 46. And this is the apostle's 
 assurance that we shall obtain mercy and grace to help in 
 time of need ; because he had a feehng of our infirmities, and 
 was tempted, as we are, Heb. iv. 15, 16. 2. His consan- 
 guinity. He is not ashamed to call us brethren. He is our 
 
HOW GOD IS SAID TO REPENT, AND HOW NOT. 293 
 
 Goel, our Kinsman, and therefore our Redeemer, Heh. ii. 11 : 
 Ruth iii. 9 ; iv. 4. 
 
 " And will not repent." Many things God hath said, 
 which he hath revoked, as the destruction of Nineveh, the 
 death of Hezekiah, and tlie like ; which implying a tacit con- 
 dition, fit in the particular cases to be concealed ; upon the 
 varieties of that, God might be said either to persevere, or to 
 repent, Jer. xviii. 7, 8 ; xxvi. 13, 19. God is ever most un- 
 changeable in all his ways, counsels, and purposes ; they stand 
 for ever. Nothing can fall out to make God more wise, more 
 merciful, more provident, more powerful, than he was before ; 
 and, therefore, nothing can make him truly to change his will, 
 or to repent of his former actions or resolutions. There is 
 with him " no variableness, neither shadow of turning. He is 
 not a man that he sliould repent. I the Lord change not," 
 Jam, i. 17 ; 1 Sam. xv. 29; Mai. iii. 6. Only in mercy unto 
 our weakness God condescends unto the manner of human 
 expressions, retaining still the stedfastness of his own work- 
 ing, which receiveth no variation nor difference from the con- 
 tingencies of second causes. He speaketh according to our 
 capacity, but he worketh according to his own counsel ; so that 
 God is then said to repent, when that which is once willed to 
 be, he after, by the counsel of the same will, causeth not to 
 be ; therein not changing his own counsel, but only willing 
 the change of the things, that the same thing for this period 
 of time shall be, and then shall cease. 
 
 Now then, when not only the counsel of God is immutable 
 in itself, but also he hath ordained some law, covenant, or 
 office, which he will have for ever to endure, without either 
 natural expiration, or external abolishment, then is God said 
 not to repent. To apply this to the present business ; the 
 apostle, speaking of a new covenant which is established upon 
 this new priestliood of Christ, (for the priesthoods and the 
 laws go both together ; the one being changed, there is made 
 of necessity a change of the other, Heb. vii. 12,) maketh the 
 introducing of this new covenant, which is founded upon the 
 oath of God, to make the preceding covenant old and transitory : 
 " In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first 
 old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to 
 vanish away," Heb. viii. 13. And he saith peremptorily, that 
 it was therefore disannulled, because of '' the weakness and 
 unprofitableness thereof," Heb. vii. 18 ; and this he affirmeth 
 
294 HOW GOD IS SAID TO REPENT, AND HOW NOT. 
 
 even of the moral law ; that law, the righteousness whereof 
 was to be fulfilled in us by the Spirit of Christ, Rom. viii. 
 3, 4 ; namely, in sincerity and in love, which are the bond of 
 perfection, and the fulfilling of the law. For the full under- 
 standing then and applying the words to the priesthood of 
 Christ and the law of grace, or the second covenant there- 
 upon grounded, it will be needful to resolve these two ques- 
 tions : 1. Whether or not God hath repented him of the law, 
 which was the rule and measure of the covenant of works ? 2. 
 Upon what reasons or grounds the immutability of ihe second 
 covenant or law of grace standeth ? 
 
 1. For the first of these, the psalmist telleth us, that the 
 commandments of God are sure, and that " they stand fast 
 for ever and ever," Psa. cxi. 7, 8. And we may note, that 
 the same form of speech which the Lord useth to show the 
 stability of the new covenant, (" The mountains shall depart, 
 and the hills be removed ; but my kindness shall not depart 
 from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, 
 saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee," Isa. liv. 10,) the 
 same kind of form doth our Saviour use to express the sta- 
 bility of the law ; " It is easier for heaven and earth to pass, 
 than one tittle of the law to fail," Luke xvi. 17. Now, the 
 law hath a twofold obligation ; the one principal, which is to 
 obedience, whereunto is annexed a promise of righteousness, 
 or justification : the other, secondary and conditional, which is 
 unto malediction, upon supposal of disobedience. For " cursed 
 is every one which continueth not in all things which are written 
 in the book of the law to do them," Gal. iii. 10. Now, if no 
 tittle of the law must fail, then neither of these two must fail, 
 but be both fulfilled ; and then it should seem that the first 
 covenant is not removed notwithstanding the weakness thereof. 
 For resolving thereof, we must note, that in point of validity 
 or invalidity, there can but five things be said of the law ; for 
 first, either it must be obeyed, and that it is not, " for all have 
 sinned, and come short of the glory of God," Rom. iii. 23. 
 Or, secondly, it must be executed upon men, and the curse or 
 penalty thereof inflicted ; and that it is not, for " tliere 
 IS no condemnation to them that are in Christ," Rom. viii. 1. 
 Or, thirdly, it must be abrogated, or extinguished ; and that 
 It IS not ; for heaven and earth must sooner pass away. 
 If there were no law, there would be no sin, for sin is the 
 transgression of the law ; and if there were no law, there would 
 be no judgment; for the world must be judged by the law. 
 
THE IMMUTABILITY OF THE NEW COVENANT. 295 
 
 Or, fourthly, it must be moderated and favourably interpreted 
 by rules of equity, to abate the rigour and severity thereof; 
 and that cannot be ; for it is inflexible, no jot nor tittle 
 of it must be abated. Or, lastly, the law itself remaining, 
 the obligation thereof notwithstanding, must, towards such 
 or such persons, be so far forth dispensed withal, as that a 
 surety shall be admitted, (upon a concurrence of all their 
 wills, who are therein interested — God willing to allow, 
 Christ willing to perform, and man willing to enjoy,) both to 
 do all the duties, and to suffer all the curses of the law, in the 
 behalf of that person, who in rigour should himself have done 
 and suffered all. So then, neither the law, nor any jot or 
 tittle thereof is abrogated, in regard of the obligations therein 
 contained, but they are all reconciled in Christ with the second 
 covenant. Yet, notwithstanding, to the purpose of a cove- 
 nant, or rule of righteousness, between us and God, so he 
 hath repented of it, and removed that office or relation from 
 it, that righteousness should come to us thereby, by reason of 
 the weakness and unprofitableness which is in it to that 
 purpose by the sin of man : yet thus much the law hath to do 
 with justification, that the fulfilling of the whole law is there- 
 unto ever some way or other presupposed. Only, in the first 
 covenant, we were to do it in our own persons ; in the second, 
 Christ is appointed and allowed to do it for us. He fulfilled 
 all the obligations of the law ; the duties thereof by active 
 obedience in his life, and the curses thereof by passive obedi- 
 ence in his death. Now then, we by faith becoming one with 
 Christ, the grace of God doth number us up in the same mass 
 and sum with him, and so imputeth and accounteth that ours, 
 which was done by him. There is no righteousness but doth 
 originally refer and bear proportion to the law of God, and 
 yet we are not justified by the law, but by grace ; because it 
 is the favour of God, contrary to the rigour and exaction of 
 the law, which alloweth the righteousness of the law by one 
 fulfilled, to be unto another accounted. A man is denomi- 
 nated righteous, as a wall may be esteemed red or green. 
 Now, that comes to pass two manner of ways, either by the 
 colour inherent and belonging unto the wall itself ; or by the 
 same colour in some transparent body, as glass, which by the 
 beam of the sun shining on the wall, doth externally affect the 
 same, as if it were its ovvu, and covers that true inherent 
 colour which it hath of itself. In like manner, by the strict 
 covenant of the law, we ousht to be risfhteous from a righteous- 
 
296 THE IMMUTABILITY OF THE NEW COVENANT. 
 
 ness inherent in, and performed by ourselves : but in the new 
 covenant of grace we are righteous by the righteousness of 
 Christ, which shineth upon us, and presenteth us in his colour 
 unto the sight of his Father. Here, in both covenants, the 
 righteousness, from whence the denomination groweth, is the 
 same, (namely, the satisfying of the demands of the whole law ;) 
 but the manner of our right and propriety thereunto is much 
 varied. In the one we have right unto it by law, because we 
 have done it ourselves : in the other, we have right unto it 
 only by grace and favour, because another man's doing of it 
 is bestowed upon us, and accounted ours. And this is that 
 gracious covenant of which the Lord here saith, " I have 
 sworn, and will not repent." 
 
 2. For resolving of the second question, upon what reasons 
 the immutability of the covenant of grace standeth, w-e must 
 note, that as things are of several sorts, so accordingly they 
 may be mutable or immutable several ways. 
 
 (1.) Some things are absolutely immutable out of the na- 
 ture of the thing itself; and that is, when the abrogation or 
 alteration of the thing would unavoidably infer some prodi- 
 gious consequences and notorious pravity with it, as certain 
 dishonour to God, and confusion upon other things. As if we 
 should concei'''e a man free from worshipping, reverencing, 
 acknowledging, loving, or trusting in God ; herein the crea- 
 ture would be unsubordinated to the Creator, which would 
 infer desperate pravity and disorder ; and God would be 
 robbed of his essential honour, which he can no more part 
 from, than cease to be God. But it is repugnant to the nature 
 of an entire covenant, to be in this manner immutable. For 
 in a covenant there is a mutual stipulation and consent be- 
 tween God and man ; and after performance of man's duty, 
 God maketh promise of bestowing a reward. Now, there 
 can be no binding necessity in God to confer, nor absolute 
 power in man to challenge any good from God, who doth 
 freely, and by no necessity, good unto his creatures. 
 
 (2.) Some things are merely absolute law, not of any in- 
 trinsical necessity, resulting out of the condition of their na- 
 ture ; such as are free either to be or not to be of themselves ; 
 or when they are free, to continue or to cease ; not in them- 
 selves determined unto any condition of being unvariably be- 
 longing unto their nature. And such are all covenants ; for 
 God might have dealt with men, as with lapsed angels, never 
 have entered anew into covenant with them : he might have 
 
THE IMMUTABILITY OF THE NEW COVENANT. 297 
 
 reserved unto himself a power of revocation and calling In his 
 patent, shutting up his office of mercy again. How then 
 comes It, that this covenant is immutable, and Christ's priest- 
 hood of everlasting and unchangeable vigour to all ages and 
 generations of men ? that there shall never be erected in the 
 church any other form of God's worship, or any other instru- 
 ments of man's salvation, than those which we now enj,oy ? 
 The apostle groundeth it upon two reasons, the promise and 
 the oath of God, Heb. vi. 17, 18. 1. The promise putteth 
 a right in the creature which he had not before ; and that pro- 
 mise determineth the will of God to the being, and leaveth it 
 not indifferent to the being or not being of the covenant. For 
 it is the foundation of a just claim, which we by faith may 
 make upon the fidelity, justice, and power of God, to make it 
 good. " He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins,'' 
 1 John I. 9. The righteous God shall give unto me a crown 
 of righteousness, '2 Tim. iv. 8. Righteousness and justice, 
 as well as mercy, are the ground of forgiveness of sin and salva- 
 tion, not in relation or respect to merit in us, but to promise 
 in God. Only mercy it was which moved him to promise ; 
 and having promised, only truth, fidelity, and righteous- 
 ness bind him to perform. As impossible it is for God to 
 break any promise, and to lie unto David, as It is to be an unholy 
 God, or to deny himself, Psa. Ixxxix. 35 ; 2 Tim. 11. 13. 
 2. The oath of God ; for that pawns his own being, life, 
 power, truth, holiness, to make good that which he hath so 
 ratified. Upon these two doth the Immutability of the second 
 covenant, and of Christ's priesthood depend. 
 
 Here then we see upon what ground all our comfort and 
 assurance subsisteth ; not upon any strength, power, liberty, 
 or inherent grace already received, which we of ourselves are 
 every day apt to waste and be cheated of by Satan and the 
 world, but upon God's unchangeable mercy and covenant. 
 This was all David's " salvation and desire," all that his heart 
 rested upon, that " though his house were not so with God," 
 that is, did fail much of that beauty and purity which therein 
 God required, and therefore did deserve to be cast ofT; yet 
 God had made with him an " everlasting covenant, ordered in 
 all things, and sure," 2 Sam. xxiii. 3. When the conscience 
 is afflicted with the sense of sin, with the fear of its own slip- 
 periness and unstedfastness in God's covenant, this is all it 
 nath to support It, that " God is one," Gal. ill. 20 ; that 
 Christ is " the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever," 
 o 5 
 
298 THE IxMMUTABILITY OF THE NEW COVENANT. 
 
 Heb. xiii. 8 ; that he is where he ever was, ready to meet 
 those that return, Isa. Ixiv. 5 ; Luke xv. 20. If I should do 
 to men as I have done to God, they would despise, forsake, 
 reveiK^e themselves on me ; I should never receive grace nor 
 favour acrain : but God is not as man, Hosea xi. 9 ; the whole 
 cause of his compassion is in and from himself, and therefore 
 he doth not take the advantage of our failings and exaspera- 
 tions to alter the course of his dealing towards us, Psa. ciii. 
 8, 14. Though we fail every day, yet his compassions fail 
 not ; and, therefore, from his immutable mercy it is that we are 
 not consumed, Lam. iii. 22 ; Mai. iii. 6. His blessing of 
 an adopted people is an irreversible thing ; because he is God, 
 and not man, and therefore cannot repent, nor call in the pro- 
 mise which he hath made ; for which purpose he doth not be- 
 hold iniquity in Jacob, nor perverseness in Israel, Numb, xxiii. 
 19 — 21. I might shut out the light of the sun from me, yet, 
 as soon as I remove the curtain, the sun is still where it was, 
 ready to be found, and to shine upon me. The case were 
 lamentable with us, if so often as man provokes God's justice, 
 he should presently revoke his mercy ; if the issue of our sal- 
 vation should depend upon the frailty and mutability of our 
 own nature, and our life should be in our own keeping. If 
 the pure angels of heaven fell from their created condition, 
 and became most black and hideous adversaries of the God 
 that made them ; if Adam stood not tirm with all that stock 
 of strength and integrity of will which he had in paradise, 
 how can I, who have so many lusts within, so many enemies 
 without, such armies of fear and temptations round about me, 
 be able to resist and stand ? Inherent grace is as mutable in 
 me as it was in Adam ; Satan as malicious and impetuous 
 against me as against Adam ; propensities to sin and falling 
 away, strong in me, which were none in Adam ; snares as many, 
 weaknesses more ; enemies as many, temptations more. From 
 the grace which is deposited in mine own keeping I cannot 
 but depart daily, if the Lord should leave me in the hand of 
 mine own counsel : even as water, though it could be made 
 as hot as fire, yet being left unto itself, will quickly reduce and 
 work itself to its own original coldness again. We have 
 grace abiding in our hearts from the Sun of righteousness, 
 who shines upon us ; as we have light in our houses, ahvays 
 by emanation, effusion, and supportance. Therefore, this is all 
 the comfort which a man hath remaining, tliat though I am 
 wantin/T to myself, and do often turn from God, yet he is not 
 
THE PRIESTHOOD OF CHRIST. 299 
 
 wanting to me, nor turns from me ; " for the gifts and calling 
 of God are without repentance," Rom. xi. 29. The heart of 
 the best man is like the wheels in Ezekiel's vision, Ezek. i. 
 ] 6. As mutable and moveable several ways as wheels ; as 
 perplexed, hindered, and distracted in itself, as cross wheels in 
 one another ; grace swaying one way, and flesh another : 
 who can expect stability in such a thing ? Surely of itself 
 it hath none ; but the constancy and uniformity of motion 
 in the wheels was this, that they were joined to the living 
 creatures who, in their motion, turned not when they went, 
 ver. 17 — 21. Such is the stability of the faithful in the co- 
 venant ; they have it not from themselves, for they are all like 
 wheels ; but from Him, unto whom, by the same Spirit of life, 
 they are united, who cannot repent nor return from the cove- 
 nant of mercy which he hath made. 
 
 " Thou art a Priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek." 
 We now come to speak of the priesthood of Christ itself, 
 which is thus sealed and made immutable by the oath of God. 
 " Every high priest," saith the apostle, " is ordained for men 
 in things pertaining to God, that he may offer both gifts and 
 sacrifices for sin," Heb. v. 1. These sacrifices are of two 
 sorts : some eucharistical, expressive of homage, subjection, 
 duty, and service ; as the dedication of the first-fruits, the 
 offerings of Abel and Cain, and the meat and drink offerings : 
 some expiatory, for the washing away of sins, for making 
 compensation to the justice of God, which had been in sin 
 violated, and to propitiate him again. So that, in this respect, 
 a priest was to be a middle person, appointed by God to stand 
 and to minister between him and men in their behalf ; to be 
 impartial and faithful towards the justice and truth of God, 
 and not to be overruled by his love to men to injure him; and 
 to be compassionate and merciful towards the errors of men, . 
 and not to be overruled by his zeal to God's justice, to give 
 over the care or service of them. And such an high priest 
 was Christ : zealous of his Father's righteousness and glory ; 
 for he was set forth to declare the righteousness of God, Rom. 
 iii. 23 ; and he did glorify him on earth by finishing the things 
 which he had given him to do, John xvii. 4 : compassionate 
 towards the errors and miseries of his church ; for he was ap- 
 pointed to expiate and to remove them out of the way, Col. ii. 14. 
 
 Touching this priesthood, we will thus proceed . I. To 
 inquire into the necessity we have of such a priest. II. What 
 
300 THE PRIESTHOOD OF CHRIST. 
 
 kind of qualifications are requisite in him who must be unto 
 us such a priest. III. Wherein the acts or offices of such a 
 priesthood do principally consist. IV. What is the virtue, 
 fruits, ends, events, of such a priesthood. V. What are the 
 duties v^hich the execution of that office doth enforce upon 
 us, or what uses we should make of it. In these five parti- 
 culars, I conceive, will the substance of most things which 
 pertain unto the priesthood of Christ be reduced. 
 
 I. For the first of these we must premise this general rule : 
 There can be no necessity of a priest, in that sense which 
 is most proper, and here intended, but between a guilty crea- 
 ture and a righteous God ; for if man were innocent in his 
 relations towards God, he would stand in no need of an ex- 
 piation ; and if God were unrighteous in his dealings with 
 man's sin, there would not be due unto him any just debt of 
 satisfaction. This being premised, I shall, through many 
 steps and gradations, bring you to this necessity of Christ's 
 priesthood which we inquire into. 
 
 1. Every creature is unavoidably subject to the Creator; 
 for he made all things for himself, and all are to return that 
 glory to him for which he made them, Prov. xvi. 4 ; Rom. ix. 
 21. And this subjection of the creature to the Creator doth 
 suppose a debt of service to the will of the Creator. It is 
 impossible, and utterly repugnant to the quality of a creature, 
 not to be subject to some law, and indebted in some obedience 
 or other to him that made it. It is a certain rule in creatures, 
 that God giveth every creature a being to this end, that it 
 might put forth that being in some such operations as he hath 
 fitted it for, and prescribed it to observe. The most excellent 
 creatures that excel in strength are ministers to do his pleasure 
 and to hear his voice, Psa. ciii. 20, 21 ; and all the rest have 
 their several laws and rules of working by his wisdom set 
 them, in the which they wait upon him, and according unto 
 which they move, like Ezekiel's wheels, by the conduct of an 
 invisible Spirit, and by the command of a voice that is above 
 them ; as if they understood the law of their Creator, and 
 knew the precepts which they do obey, Ezek. i. 13, 16 ; Psa. 
 civ. 19. No creature is for itself only, or its own end ; for 
 that which hath not its being of itself, cannot be an end unto 
 itself ; inasmuch as the end of every thing which is made, 
 is antecedent to the being of it in the mind and intention of 
 him that made it. 
 
 2. No creature is in its being, or in any of those operations 
 
THE PRIESTHOOD OF CHRIST. 301 
 
 and services which it owes to God, intrinsically and of itself 
 immutable. It is God's own peculiar honour to be without 
 variableness or shadow of change, James i. 17; Mai. iii. 6. 
 There was a time when the sun stood still, and moved back- 
 ward, and was filled with darkness, as with an internal cloud ; 
 when the lions have forgotten to devour, and the fire to 
 consume : God can, as he will, alter the courses of nature, 
 let go the reins, and dispense with the rules which him- 
 self had secretly imposed upon the creatures to observe ; 
 which shows that they are not in themselves immutable. 
 That constancy, which in their motions they observe, is 
 from the regular government of that most wise Providence 
 which carries them to their end without any turning, Ezek. i. 
 17 : but when his glory requires, and his will commands it, 
 the mountains tremble, the sea cleaves asunder, the rivers run 
 back, the earth opens, the laws of nature stand still for a while 
 without any execution, as if they were suspended or repealed 
 by him that made them ; and therefore in that text of Scrip- 
 ture, Ezek. i. 24, 25, things are said to move by a voice which 
 is above them, namely, by the command of the Supreme Cause. 
 
 3. Man being in his nature and formal constitution a rea- 
 sonable creature, was appointed by God to serve him after a 
 reasonable manner, out of judgment, discretion, and election ; 
 to make choice of his way above all others, as being most ex- 
 cellent and beautiful in itself, and most convenient and advan- 
 tageous unto man : therefore our service is called a " reason- 
 able service," Rom. xii. 1 ; and David is said to have chosen 
 the way of truth and the precepts of the Lord, Psa. cxix. 30 ; 
 and Moses to have chosen the afflictions of God's people and 
 the reproaches of Christ before the pleasures of sin, or the 
 treasures of Egypt, Heb. xi. 25, 26. And hence it is, that 
 holiness, in the language of Scripture, is called judgment : 
 " He will convince the world of judgment," John xvi. 8 ; 
 and " he shall bring forth judgment unto victory," Matt. xii. 
 20. Noting, that the Spirit of holiness ruleth and worketh in 
 the producing of obedience by the way of reason and conviction, 
 therefore he is called a " Spirit of judgment," Isa. iv. 4. 
 And for this cause God did not set any overruling law, or de- 
 terminating virtue over the operations of man, as of other 
 creatures, that so he might truly work out of the conduct of 
 judgment and election of will. 
 
 4. There is no deviation from a reasonable service, or true 
 active obedience, properl) so called ; (for the obedience of 
 
302 THE PRIESTHOOD OF CHRIST. 
 
 brutes and inanimate creatures is rather passive than active,) 
 which hath not some intrinsical pravity in it, and, by con- 
 sequence, some fundamental demerit, or obligation unto pu- 
 nishment; for guilt is the proper passion of sin, resulting out 
 of it, and therefore inseparable from it. It cannot be that a 
 creature should, of itself, and out of the corruption of its 
 own reason and judgment, choose to relinquish the service of 
 him to whom it is naturally and unavoidably subject, and by 
 that means become altogether unprofitable, abominable, and 
 unfit for the master's use, and for those holy ends to which it 
 was ori<Tinally ordered, but it must withal incur the displeasure, 
 and thereupon provoke the revenge of that righteous Creator 
 who, out of great reasons, had put it under such a service. 
 
 5. By all this which hath hitherto been spoken, it appears 
 that God is not unjust, but most holy and righteous : 1, In 
 making a law for man to observe when he forbad the eating 
 of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, to show 
 that man had nothing by personal, immediate, and un derived 
 right, but all by donation and indulgence. Any law God 
 might justly make, the obedience whereof he gave the creature 
 an original power to perform, by reason of the natural and 
 necessary subjection of the creature unto him. 2. In annexing 
 a curse and penalty to the violation of that law, which for the 
 declaration of his glorious justice he might most righteously 
 do, because of the inevitable demerit, or liableness unto cen- 
 sure from the disobedience of that law resultincr. 3. Inmakimr 
 man in such a mutable condition, as in the which he might 
 stand or fall by his own election, because he would be obeyed 
 by judgment and free choice, not by fatal necessity, or abso- 
 lute determination. 
 
 6. Here then comes in the fall of man, being a wilful or 
 chosen transgression of a law, under the precepts whereof he 
 was most justly created, a\id unto the malediction whereof he 
 was necessarily and righteously subject if he transgressed ; 
 for, as by being God's creature, he was subject to his will, so 
 by being his prisoner, he was as justly subject unto his wrath ; 
 and that so much the more, by how much the precept was 
 more just, the obedience more easy, the transgression more 
 unreasonable, and the punishment more certain. 
 
 Now, by this fall of man, there came great mischief into 
 tlie world, and intolerable injury was done by the creature to 
 Him tliiit made him. His dominion and authority in his holy 
 conunand was violated ; his justice, truth, and power, in his 
 
THE PRIESTHOOD OF CHRIST. 303 
 
 most righteous threcatcnings, were despised ; his most pure 
 and perfect image, wherein man was created in righteousness 
 and true hohness, was utterly defaced ; his glory? which, by 
 an active service, the creature should have brought unto him, 
 was lost and despoiled; so that now things will not return to 
 their primitive order and perfection again till these two things 
 be first effected : a satisfaction of God's justice, and a Repa- 
 ration of man's nature ; which two must needs be effected by 
 such a middle and common person as hath both zeal towards 
 God, that he may be satisfied, and compassion towards man, 
 that he may be repaired ; such a person, as having man's 
 guilt and punishment on him transferred, may satisfy the 
 justice of God, and, as having a fulness of God's Spirit and 
 holiness in him, may sanctify and repair the nature of man. 
 And this person is the Priest here spoken of by David. 
 
 Here the learned frame a kind of conflict in God's holy 
 attributes, and by a liberty which the Holy Ghost from the 
 language of holy Scripture alloweth them, they speak of God 
 after the manner of men, as if he were reduced unto some 
 straits and difficulties by the cross demands of his several at- 
 tributes. Justice called upon him for the condemnation of a 
 sinful, and therefore worthily accursed creature, which demand 
 was seconded by his truth, to make good that threatening : 
 " In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." 
 Mercy, on the other side, pleaded for favour and compassion 
 towards man, wofully seduced and overthrown by Satan; 
 and peace for reconcilement and pacification between an 
 offended Judge and an undone creature. Hereupon the infi- 
 nite wisdom and counsel of the blessed Trinity found out a 
 way, which the angels of heaven gaze on with admiration and 
 astonishment, how to reconcile these different pleas of his at- 
 tributes together. A priest then is resolved upon, one of the 
 same blessed Trinity, who, by his Father's ordination, his own 
 voluntary undertaking, and the Holy Spirit's sanctification, 
 should be fitted for the business. He was to be both a Surety 
 and a Head over sinful men, to suffer their punishments and to 
 sanctify their natures : in the relation of a Surety, to pay 
 man's debt unto God; and in the relation of a Head, to re- 
 store God's image unto man ; and thus in him, " Mercy and 
 truth have met together ; righteousness and peace have kissed 
 each other," Psa. Ixxxv. 10. 
 
 So then the necessity which fallen man hath of this Priest 
 here spoken of, is grounded upon the sweet harmony of God's 
 
304 THE PRIESTHOOD OF CHRIST. 
 
 mercy, truth, righteousness, and peace ; which will more dis- 
 tinctly appear by considering three things. 
 
 (L) God did purpose not utterly to destroy his creature^ 
 and that principally for these two reasons, as we may observe 
 out of the Scriptures : 1. His own free and everlasting love, 
 and that infinite delight which he hath in mercy, which dis- 
 poseth him abundantly to pardon and to exercise loving-kind- 
 ness in the earth, Micah vii. 18 ; Exod. xxxiv. 6, 7 ; Psa. 
 ciii. 8 ; Isa. Iv. 7 ; Jer. ix. 24. 2. His delight to be actively 
 glorified by his creatures' voluntary service and subjection ; 
 *' Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit," 
 John XV. 8. " I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, 
 but that he turn from his way and live," Ezek. xxxiii. 11. 
 He delighteth most in bloodless conquests, when by his pa- 
 tience, goodness, and forbearance, he subdueth the hearts, 
 affections, and consciences of men unto himself, so leading 
 them unto repentance, and bringing down their thoughts unto 
 the obedience of Christ. He loveth to see things in their 
 primitive rectitude and beauty, and therefore esteemeth him- 
 self more glorified in the services than in the sufferings of 
 men. He loveth to have a church and generation of men 
 wlio shall serve him in the midst of all his enemies. " The 
 Lord loveth the gates of Sion more than all the dwellings of 
 Jacob," Psa. Ixxxvii. 2 ; because he was there more solemnly 
 worshipped and served. And therefore he resolved not to de- 
 stroy all men, lest there should be no religion upon the earth. 
 When the angels fell, they fell not all ; many were still left to 
 glorify him actively in their service of him ; but when Adam 
 fell, all mankind fell in him, so that there was no tree of this 
 paradise left to bring forth any fruit unto God ; and this is 
 most certain, God had rather have his trees for fruit than for 
 fuel ; and for this reason he was pleased to restore mankind 
 again. These are the causes why the Lord would not utterly 
 destroy man ; but these alone show not the necessity of a 
 priest to come between God and man. 
 
 (2.) God did purpose not to suffer sin to pass utterly unpu- 
 nished, and that for these reasons : 1. Because of his great 
 liatred thereunto. He is of purer eyes than to behold evil ; 
 he cannot look on iniquity, Hab. i. 13 ; it provoketh abhor- 
 rency in him, Psa. v. 6; Zech. viii. 17; Amos v. 21, 22; 
 Isa. i. 13, 14. 2. Because of his truth and the law which he 
 had established against sin, which he will in nowise abolish ; 
 *' One jot or tittle shall in no wise pass from the law till all 
 
THE PRIESTHOOD OF CHRIST. 305 
 
 be fulfilled," Matt. v. 18. For it is altogether indecent, 
 especially to the wisdom and righteousness of God, for that 
 which provoketh the execution to procure the abrogation 
 of his law ; that that should supplant and undermine the law, 
 for the alone preventing whereof the law was before estab- 
 lished. 3. Because of his terror and fearful majesty ; for God 
 will have men always to fear before him, and by his terror to 
 be persuaded from sinning, 2 Cor. v. 10, 11. God will, for 
 this cause, have men always to fear before him, because he 
 referreth entirely to himself the punishment of sin. " Feai him 
 which is able to destroy both body and soul in hell. I say 
 unto you, Fear him," saith our Saviour, Matt. x. 28 ; Luke 
 xii. 3 ; for " it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the 
 living God ; " and therefore we ought to serve him "with reve- 
 rence and godly fear," because he is " a consuming fire," 
 Heb. X. 31 ; xii. 28, 29. 
 
 (3.) Add unto all this, the everlasting impotency which is in 
 man, either to satisfy God or to repair himself. God's justice, 
 which is wronged, is infinite, and his glory infinite ; of which 
 man had attempted to spoil and rob him ; and man is both 
 finite in himself, and very impotent by reason of sin, (for, to 
 be a sinner, and, without strength, are terms equivalent in the 
 Scripture, Rom. v. 6, 8). Now, then, between finite and infi- 
 nite there can be no proportion, and, therefore, from the one 
 to the other there can be no satisfaction : man is utterly unable 
 to do any of God's will, because he is altogether carnal, Rom. 
 viii. 7 ; 1 Cor. ii. 14 ; and he is utterly unable either to suffer 
 or to break through the wrath of God, because he hath not 
 strength enough to endure it, nor obedience to submit unto it. 
 Now then, join all these things together, and we shall see the 
 absolute necessity we had of a priest. God will not execute 
 the severity of his law, for thereby the creature should ever- 
 lastingly lose the fruition of him, and he should likewise lose 
 the service and voluntary subjection of his creature. And yet 
 he will not abolish his law neither, lest thereby his justice 
 should be more securely abused, his hatred against sin the 
 less declared, his truth in all his threatenings questioned, and 
 his dreadful majesty by men neglected. He will not punish 
 those persons whom he loves, because he is pitiful to them ; 
 he will not pass over the sins which he hates, because he is 
 jealous towards himself. Man and sin are as inseparably 
 joined together since the fall as fire and heat ; yet God will 
 have mercy on the man, and he will take vengeance of the sin. 
 
306 THE PRIESTHOOD OF CHRIST. 
 
 Some course, then, or other must there be found out to trans- 
 fer man's sin on another's person who may be able to bear them, 
 and to interest man's person in another righteousness, which 
 may be able to cover him. Some way must be found out, 
 that tilings may be all one in regard of man, as if the law 
 had been utterly abrogated ; and that they may be all one in 
 regard of God too, as if the creature had been utterly con- 
 demned. And all this is done in our High Priest: on him 
 was executed the curse of the law ; by him was fulfilled the 
 righteousness of the law ; for him was remitted the sin of 
 man, and through him were all things made new again. The 
 world was in Christ as in its Surety, making satisfaction to the 
 justice of God ; and God w^as in Christ as in his Ambas- 
 sador, reconciling the world unto himself again. By all which 
 we see the necessity which fallen man had of a priest to re- 
 store them. 
 
 Hence we may learn, how much we ought to hate sin, 
 which arms the law, justice, and power of God against us. 
 As hateful as it is unto God, so hateful it is in itself ; for he 
 judgeth uprightly, he seeth things just as they are, without 
 passion, prejudice, or partiality : and as hateful as it is in it- 
 self, so hateful should it be unto us, as the only ground of 
 our misery, of the creature's vanity, and of God's dishonour. 
 We see it is so hateful unto God that he will most certainly 
 be avenged of it. If he spare me, yet he will not spare my 
 sin, though his own beloved Son must be punished for it. 
 Oh, then, why should that be light to me which was as heavy 
 as a millstone to the soul of Christ ? Why should that be 
 my pleasure which was his passion ? why that be in a throne 
 with me which was upon a cross with him ? Why should I 
 allow that to be really in me which the Lord so severely pu- 
 nished when the guilt thereof was but imputed to his Son ? 
 Many sins there are which others in their practice, as well as 
 papists in their doctrine and profession, esteem for light and 
 venial sins. But, however, let us not dare esteem that a light 
 thing, for which Christ died. And woful had it been for men 
 if Christ had not, in his body on the tree, carried as well the 
 guilt of our idle words, our vain thoughts, our loose and im- 
 pertinent actions, as of our oaths, execrations and blasphe- 
 mies. If great sins were as the spear and nails, certainly small 
 sins were as the thorns which pierced his head. And there- 
 fore wc should learn, with David, to hate every evil way, be- 
 cause God hates it and suffers it not to pass unpunished ; to 
 
THE PRIESTHOOD OF CHRIST. 307 
 
 revenge the quarrel of Christ against those lusts of ours which 
 nailed him to his cross, and to crucify them for him again ; 
 and for that end was Christ crucified, " that our old man 
 might be crucified with him, that the body of sin might be 
 destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin," Rom. 
 vi. 6. 
 
 Again, we see by this necessity of a priest, how deeply we 
 stand engaged to our merciful God, who hath vouchsafed to 
 help us in our greatest necessity. How we ought to love him 
 who hath first of all loved us ; how we ought in our bodies 
 and in our spirits to glorify him who hath so dearly bought 
 us ; how we should willingly fight for him who overcame for us ; 
 how thankful we should be to him who was so compassionate 
 unto us ; how we should admire and adore the unsearchable 
 riches of his wisdom and goodness, who, when we were despe- 
 rately and incurably gone, had found out a way of escape and 
 deliverance for us. God stood not in need of us, or any ser- 
 vice of ours ; he could have glorified himself in our just de- 
 struction. Who, then, can enough express either the mercy 
 of God or the duty of man, when he considers that God 
 should call together all the depths of his own wisdom and 
 counsel to save a company of desperate fugitives, who had 
 joined in combination with his greatest enemies to resist and 
 dishonour him ? It would have posed all the wisdom of the 
 world, (though misery be commonly very witty to shape and 
 fashion to itself images of deliverance,) to have found out a 
 way to heaven between the wrath of God and the sin of man. 
 It would have posed all the heavenly intelligences and the 
 united consultations of the blessed angels to have reconciled 
 God's mercy in the salvation of man and his justice in the 
 condemnation of sin ; to have poured out hell upon the sin, 
 and yet to have bestowed heaven upon the sinner. If God 
 should have instructed us thus far, You are miserable creatures, 
 but I am a merciful God ; the demands of my justice I must 
 not deny, neither will I deny the entreaties of my mercy ; find 
 me out a sacrifice answerable to my justice, and it shall be ac- 
 cepted for you ail : oh ! where could man have found out a 
 creature of capacity enough to hold, or of strength enough to 
 bear the sins of the world, or the wrath of God ? Where 
 could he have found out, in heaven or earth, amongst men or 
 angels, a priest that durst accompany such a sacrifice into the 
 presence of so consuming a fire ? Or where could he have 
 found out an altar where'on to offer, and whereby to sanctify 
 
308 THE PRIESTHOOD OF CHRIST. 
 
 SO great a sacrifice ? No, no ; the misery of man was too 
 deep and inextricable for all the created counsel in the world 
 to invent a deliverance. Now, then, if God himself did study 
 to save me, how great reason is there that I should study to 
 serve him ? How ought all my wisdom, and counsel, and 
 thouorht, and desires be directed to this one resolution, to live 
 acceptably and thankfully unto him, who, when he might have 
 produced glory to himself out of my confusion, chose rather 
 to humble, and, as it were, for a while to unglorify himself for 
 my salvation ? Certainly, that man did never rightly under- 
 stand the horror of sin, the infinite hatred of God against it, 
 the heaviness of his wrath, the malediction of the law, the 
 mystery and vast dimensions of God's love in Christ, the 
 preciousness of his sacrifice, the end, purpose, or merit of his 
 death, or any of those unsearchable riches of God manifested in 
 the flesh, who will not crucify a vanity, a lust, a pleasure, an 
 earthly member unto him again ; who finds more content and 
 satisfaction in his own ways of sin and death ; more wisdom 
 in the temptations and deceits of Satan and his own fleshly 
 mind, than in those deep mysteries of grace and contrivances 
 of mercy which the angels desire to pry into. 
 
 Therefore, in the last place, we should labour to feel the 
 necessity we have of such a priest. This is the only reason 
 why so few make use of so precious a fountain, because they 
 trust in their own muddy and broken cisterns at home, and 
 are never sensibly and thoroughly touched with the sense of 
 their own wants ; for it is not the saying and confessing with 
 the mouth only, that I have nothing, nor the knowing in spe- 
 culation only that I have nothing, but the feeling and smarting 
 by reason of my want, which will drive me to seek for relief 
 abroad. If a man did seriously consider and lay together 
 such thoughts as these ; I am very busy for the affairs and 
 passages of this present Hfe, which will quickly vanish and 
 pass away like a weaver's shuttle, or a tale that is told ; 1 have 
 another, and an abiding life to live after this is over. All 
 that I toil for here is but for the back, the belly, the bag, and 
 posterity. And am I not nearer to myself than I am to my 
 money ? Am I not nearer to my soul than I am to my body, 
 or to my posterity ? Must I not have a being in that, when 
 neither I nor my posterity have either back to be clothed, or 
 beily to be fed, or name to be supported ? Oh ! why am I 
 as sadly employed ? why spend I not some at least as serious 
 and inquisitive thoughts about this as about the other ? 
 
THE PRIESTHOOD OF CHRIST. 309 
 
 Do I not know that I must one day stand before Him who is 
 a consuming fire ? that I must one day be weighed in the 
 balance ? and woe be unto me if I am found too light I Ap- 
 pear before him I dare not of myself alone, without a priest 
 to mediate for me, to cover and protect me from his fury,^ and 
 to reconcile me unto him again. My person wants a priest ; 
 it is clogged with infinite guilt, which, without him, cannot be 
 covered. My nature wants a priest ; it is overspread with a 
 deep and universal corruption which, without him, cannot be 
 cured. My sins want a priest ; they are in number and in 
 quality above measure sinful, which, without him, cannot be 
 pardoned. My services want a priest ; they are blemished 
 and poisoned with many failings and corruptions ; without him 
 they cannot be accepted. I say, if men did seriously lay to- 
 gether such thoughts as these, it could not be that rational 
 and serious men, men of deep thoughts in other matters, who 
 love to sift out things to the bran, and to be very solicitous 
 for evidence and certainty in them, should suffer such a busi- 
 ness as this, (their interest in that Priest who must alone 
 clothe their persons with his righteousness, and cleanse their 
 nature with his Spirit, and wash away their sins with his 
 blood, and sanctify their prayers, and alms, and all religious 
 devotions with his incense and intercession, or else all of them 
 must pass through the trial of such a fire as will consume 
 them all,) to be passed over with loose and slender thoughts, 
 and to be rested in and resolved upon, rather by the lying 
 presumptions of a deceitful heart, than by the evidences and 
 testimony of God's Holy Spirit. " Consider what I say, and 
 the Lord give you understanding in all things." 
 
 II. The second thing proposed to be considered in the 
 priesthood of Christ, was the qualification of that Person who 
 was to be a fit High Priest for us. Legal sacrifices would not 
 serve the turn to purge away sin, because of their baseness. 
 They are not expiations of sin, Heb. ix. 9, 12 ; but were only 
 remembrances and commemorations of sin, Heb. x. 3. Neces- 
 sary it was that heavenly things should themselves be purified with 
 better sacrifices, Heb. ix. 23 ; for they of themselves, without 
 that typical relation which they had unto Christ, Gal. iii. 23, and 
 that instrumental virtue which in that relation they had from 
 him, Heb. ix. 13, were utterly weak and unprofitable, Heb. 
 vii. 18; as the shadow hath neither being in itself, nor 
 can give refreshment unto another, but dependency on the 
 body to which it belongeth. And this appeareth by their 
 
310 THE PRIESTHOOD OF CHRIST. 
 
 reiteration : where the conscience is once purged, and there is 
 remission of sin, there is no more offering, Heb. x. 2, 18 ; for 
 the repeating of the sacrifice, shows that the person for whose 
 sake it is repeated is in the same condition now as he was in 
 at the time of the former oblation. Also, by their variety : 
 there were both gifts and sacrifices for sin, Heb. v. 1 ; viii. 3 ; 
 bulls, and goats, and calves, and lambs, Heb. ix. 12, 13 ; and 
 that shows that no one thing was fit to typify the full expia- 
 tion wrought by Christ ; whereas he offered but one sacrifice, 
 and by that perfected for ever them that are sanctified, Heb. 
 X. 12, 14. And if legal sacrifices would not serve the turn, 
 then neither would legal priests be fit for so great a work ; for 
 all the good which the priest doth is in the virtue of the sacri- 
 fice which he brings ; and this likewise the apostle proves by 
 many arguments. Because of their sinfulness ; for they them- 
 selves wanted an expiation, and therefore could not be medi- 
 ators for the sins of others, Heb. v. 3, 7, 27. Because of the 
 carnality of their institution ; they were made after the law of 
 a carnal commandment ; that is, of a temporary, perishable, 
 and merely external ordinance, Heb. vii. 16, which prescribed 
 only the examples and shadows of heavenly things. Because 
 of their mortality ; they were not suffered to continue by 
 reason of death ; whereas our Priest must ever live to make inter- 
 cession. Because of their ministry and the revolution of their 
 services, which never came to a period or perfection, in which 
 the priest might give over and sit down : they stood daily 
 ministering, and oftentimes offering, (their service did daily 
 return upon them again,) whereas Christ, "after he had 
 offered one sacrifice lor sin, for ever sat down on the right 
 hand of God," Heb. x. 11, 12. 
 
 To show you then the qualifications of this Priest. A 
 priest, in general, is ordained for men in things pertaining to 
 
 God, to offer sacrifice for the obtaining of riohteousness and 
 
 . . J, . o o 
 
 remission oi sins. 
 
 1. Christ being a Priest, must of necessity be a Mediator 
 and a Surety between parties, that he might have one unto 
 whom, and others for whom, and in whose behalf, to offer a 
 sacrifice. Every priest must be a mediator, to stand between 
 God and the people, and to intercept and bear the iniquity 
 even of their holy things. And to this mediation there must 
 concur the consent of the parties between whom it is nego- 
 tiated ; " For a mediator is not a mediator of one." Now, 
 God giveth his consent by laying on him our iniquities, and 
 
THE PRIESTHOOD OF CHRIST. 311 
 
 " making his soul an offering for sin," and tliereby declaring 
 himself to be one with ns ; and man gives his consent when, 
 by faith, he receiveth Christ, and so becometh not only the 
 friend, but the son of God, John i. 12. 
 
 2. Every mediator is not immediately a priest ; for there is a 
 mediation only by way of entreaty, prayer, and request, 
 wherein men do obtain, but not deserve, or purchase remission 
 for others : such mediators were Joab and the widow of Te- 
 koah in the behalf of Absalom, 2 Sam. xiv. There are 
 mediators by way of satisfaction, as sureties are between the 
 creditor and the debtor ; and such a mediator was Christ, 
 not only a Mediator, but also a Surety of a better covenant, 
 Heb. viii. 6 ; vii. 22. He was not to procure remission of 
 our sins by way of favour and request ; but he was set forth 
 to declare the righteousness of God, Rom. iii. 23 : and such 
 a Mediator between God and us must needs be a priest too ; 
 for the debt which we owed unto God was blood ; " Without 
 shedding of blood is no remission," Heb. ix. 22. 
 
 3. Being such a Priest, he must have a sacrifice answerable 
 to the debt which was owed to his Father. The debt we 
 owed was the forfeiture and subjection of our souls and bodies 
 to the wrath of God and the curse of the law. God is able 
 to destroy both soul and body in hell, Matt. x. 28. It is not 
 to be understood only of his absolute power, but of that power 
 which, as our Judge, he hath over us ; as we are his prisoners, 
 and so obnoxious to the curses of his law. Therefore our 
 Priest was to have a soul and a body, to pay as a Surety for 
 our souls and bodies : " Thou shalt make his soul an offering 
 for sin," Isa. liii. 10 ; " My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even 
 unto death," Matt. xxvi. 38. And again, " A body hast thou 
 prepared me ;" " We are sanctified through the offering of the 
 body of Jesus Christ once for all," Heb. x. 5, 10 ; '' His 
 own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree," 1 Pet. ii. 
 24. So he was to be man, that he might have a fit and an- 
 swerable sacrifice to offer. Thou hast fitted, or prepared, a 
 body for me, that my sacrifice might be proportionable to that 
 in the place whereof it stood. And thereby, as he is fit for 
 passion, so also for compassion ; he was to be our Kinsman, 
 and of our blood, that he might be a merciful and faithful 
 High Priest, Heb- ii. 11, 17 : and fit for derivation of his 
 righteousness, and transfusion of his Spirit upon us ; " for 
 both he that sanctifieth, and they who are sanctified, are all 
 of one," And as it must be thus fitted to the sinner, that it 
 
312 THE PRIESTHOOD OF CHRIST. 
 
 may be a proper and suitable sacrifice for his sin, so must it be 
 perfect likewise. Without blemish or sin. " Such an High 
 Priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate 
 from sinners," Heb. vii. 26 ; that so he might offer himself 
 " without spot to God," and have no need of a sacrifice for 
 himself, Heb. ix. 14. Also, without any manner of defect, 
 which should stand in need of supplement and contribution 
 from something else ; that of itself alone it might be sufficient 
 and available to bring perfection and salvation unto men, and 
 to leave no more conscience of sin behind it, Heb. vii. 19 ; 
 X. 2. 
 
 4. As there was to be such a sacrifice, perfect in itself, and 
 fit for the use and occasion for which it was appointed, so 
 there must be an altar upon which to offer it unto the Father ; 
 for it is the altar which sanctifieth the offering ; that is, which, 
 in regard of God, giveth it acceptance, and which, in regard 
 of man, giveth it virtue, merit, and value answerable to his 
 occasions. This sacrifice was to be sufficient for the satisfac- 
 tion of God, and for the justification and reparation of man ; 
 and both these by means of the altar on which it was offered, 
 which was the Divine nature. " Through the Eternal Spirit 
 he offered himself without spot to God," and so by his blood 
 purgeth our consciences from dead works, Heb. ix. 14. For 
 Christ, as God, sanctified himself as man, that so we, through 
 the virtue and merit of his sacrifice, might be sanctified like- 
 wise, John xvii. 19. He was to be God as well as man ; a 
 medium of participation before he could be the medium of re- 
 conciliation ; that so he might himself be supported to un- 
 dergo and break through the weight of sin and the law, and 
 having so done, might have compass enough in his sacrifice 
 to satisfy the justice of God, and to swallow up the sins of 
 the world. 
 
 3. Inasmuch as the virtue of the Deity was to be attributed 
 truly to the sacrifice, (else it could have no value nor virtue in 
 it,) and that sacrifice was to be the life, soul, and body 
 of the Priest who offered it, because he was not barely a 
 Priest, but a Surety, and so his person stood in stead of ours, 
 to pay our debt, which was a debt of blood, and therefore he 
 was to offer himself, Heb. ix. 26 ; 1 Pet. ii. 24 : and, inas- 
 much as his person must needs be equivalent in dignity and 
 representation to the persons of all those for whom he medi- 
 ated, and who were for his sake only delivered from suffering : 
 for these causes it was necessary that God and man should 
 
THE PRIESTHOOD OF CHRIST. 313 
 
 make but one Christ, in the unity of the same infinite Person, 
 whose natures they both were ; that which suffered, and that 
 which sanctified. The human nature was not to be left to 
 subsist in and for itself, but was to have dependence and sup- 
 port in the person of the Son, and a kind of inexistence in 
 him, as the graft of an apple may have in the stock of a plum. 
 From whence ariseth, 1. The communication of properties 
 between the natures ; when, by reason of the unity of the 
 person, we attribute that to one nature which is common to 
 the other, not by confusion or transfusion, but by communion 
 in one end and in one person ; as when the Scriptures attri- 
 bute human properties to the Divine nature : the Prince of life 
 was slain, Acts iii. 15; God purchased the church with his 
 own blood. Acts xx. 28 ; they crucified the Lord of glory, 
 1 Cor. ii. 8. Or, divine to the human nature : as, the Son 
 of man came down from heaven, John iii. 18 ; and the Son 
 of man shall ascend where he was before, John vi. 62. Or, 
 when both natures work with their several concurrence unto 
 the same work, as to walk on the waters, and to rise out of the 
 grave. By which communication of properties, virtue is 
 derived from the altar to the sacrifice, inasmuch as it was the 
 Lord of glory who was crucified. So that his passions were, 
 in regard of the person which bare them, both human and 
 Divine, because the person was God and man. 2. From the 
 unity of the person supporting the human nature with the 
 Divine, ariseth the appliableness of one sacrifice unto all men. 
 Because the person of the Son is infinitely more than equiva- 
 lent to the persons of all men, as one diamond to many thou- 
 sand pebbles ; and because the obedience of this sacrifice was 
 the obedience of God, and therefore cannot but have more 
 virtue and well-pleasingness in it than there can be demerit or 
 malignity in the sin of man. 
 
 Now, this person, in whose unity the two natures are con- 
 joined, is the second Person in the holy Trinity. He was 
 the person against whom the first sin was principally com- 
 mitted ; for it was an affectation of wisdom, and to be like 
 unto God, (as the falling sin now is the sin against the third 
 Person ;) and therefore the mercy is the more glorious that 
 he did undertake the expiation. By him the world was made. 
 Col. i. 16, 17 ; John i. 3 ; and therefore, being spoiled, he 
 was pleased to new make it again, and to bring many sons 
 unto glory, Heb. ii. 10. He was the express image of his 
 Father, Heb. i. 3; Col. i. 15 ; and therefore by him are we 
 
 p 
 
314 THE PRIESTHOOD OF CHRIST. 
 
 renewed after God's image again, Col. iii. 10. He was the 
 Son of God by nature, and therefore the mercy was again the 
 more glorified in his making us sons by adoption, and so joint 
 heirs with himself, who was the Heir of all things. 
 
 So then it became us to have such an High Priest as should 
 be first an equal, middle person between God and man. In 
 rec^ard of God towards man, an officer appointed to declare 
 his righteousness; and in regard of man towards God, a 
 Surety ready to purchase their pardon and deliverance. 
 Again, such a one as should be one with us ia the fellowship 
 of our nature, passions, infirmities, and temptations, that so 
 he might the more readily suffer for us, who in so many 
 things suffered with us ; and one with God the Father in his 
 Divine nature, that so by the virtue of his sufferings and resur- 
 rection he might be able both to satisfy his justice and to 
 justify our persons, to sanctify our nature, to perfume and 
 purify our services, to raise up our dead bodies, and to present 
 us to his Father a glorious church, without spot or wrinkle. 
 And both these in the unity of one person, that so by that 
 means the Divine nature might communicate virtue, merit, and 
 acceptableness to the sufferings of the human ; and that the 
 dignity of that person might countervail the persons of all 
 other men. And this person, that person of the three by 
 whom the glory of the mercy should be the more wonderfully 
 magnified. In one word, two things were requisite to our 
 High Priest : a grace of union, to make the person God and 
 man in one Christ ; and a grace of unction, to fit him with 
 such fulness of the Spirit as should enable him to the perform- 
 ance of so great a work, Isa. xi. 2. 
 
 1. By all which we should learn to adore this great mystery 
 of God manifested in the flesh and justified in the Spirit, the 
 unsearchableness of that love which appointed God to be 
 man, the Creator of the world to be despised as a worm, for 
 the salvation of such rebels as might justly have been left 
 under chains of darkness, and reserved to the same inevitable 
 destruction with the devils which fell before them. 
 
 2. To have always before our eyes the great hatefulness of 
 sin, which no sacrifice could have expiated but the blood of 
 the Son of God himself; and the great severity and inexora- 
 bleness of God's justice against it, which no satisfaction could 
 pacify, no obedience compensate, but the suffering and priva- 
 tion of himself. Oh ! what a condition will that man be in, 
 who must stand, or rather everlastingly sink, and be crushed 
 
THE SACRIFICE OF CHRIST. 3]5 
 
 under the weight of that wrath against sin which amazed and 
 made heavy unto death the soul of Christ himself I Which 
 made Him who had the strength of the Deity to support him ; 
 the fulness of the Spirit to sanctify and prepare him ; the 
 message of an angel to comfort him ; the relation of a be- 
 loved Son to refresh him ; the voice of his Father from 
 heaven testifying unto him that he was heard in that' he 
 feared ; the assurance of an ensuing glory and victory to en- 
 courage him, (none of which shall be allowed the wicked in 
 hell, who shall not only be the vessels of his vengeance, but, 
 which will be as grievous as that, the everlasting objects of 
 his hatred and detestation ;) which made, I say, even the Son 
 of God himself, notwithstanding all these abatements, to pray 
 with strong cries and bloody drops, and woful conflicts of the 
 soul against the cup of his Father's wrath, and to shrink and 
 decline that very work for which only he came into the 
 world ! 
 
 3. To praise God for that great honour which he hath 
 conferred upon our nature in the flesh of his Son, which in 
 him is anointed with more grace and glory, and filled with 
 more vast and unmatchable perfection than all the angels in 
 heaven are together capable of ; for though for a little while 
 he was made lower than the angels, for the purpose of his suf- 
 fering, yet he is now " sat down on the right hand of God ; 
 angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto 
 him," Heb. ii. 9 ; i. 4, 13 ; 1 Peter iii. 22. And for the 
 infinite mercy which he hath showed to our souls, bodies, and 
 persons in the sacrifice of his Son ; in our reconciliation and 
 favour with him ; in the justification of our persons from the 
 guilt of sin ; in the sanctification of our nature from the 
 corruption of sin ; in the inheritance reserved in heaven for 
 us ; in the communion and fellowship we have with Christ in 
 his merits, power, privileges, and heavenly likeness. " Now," 
 saith the apostle, " we are sons, and it doth not yet appear what 
 we shall be ; but we know that when he shall appear, we 
 shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is," 1 John iii. 2. 
 
 III. From these things which have been spoken of the 
 personal qualifications of our High Priest, it will be easy to 
 find out the third particular inquired into, touching the acts 
 or ofiices of Christ's priesthood, or rather, touching the parts 
 of the same action, for it is all but one. Two acts there are 
 wherein the execution of this office doth consist. 
 
 1. An act of oblation himself once for all, as an adequate 
 p2 
 
316 THE SACRIFICE OF CHRIST. 
 
 sacrifice and full compensation for the sins of the whole 
 world Heb. ix. 14, 26. Our debt unto God was twofold ; 
 as we were his creatures, so we owed unto him a debt of active 
 obedience in doing the duties of the whole law ; and as we are 
 his prisoners, so we owed unto him a debt of passive obedience, 
 in suffering willingly and thoroughly the curses of the law. 
 And under this law Christ was made, to redeem us who were 
 under the precepts and penalties of the law, by his fulfilling 
 all that ri<7hteousness. Therefore the apostle saith, he 
 was "sin for us ;" that is, a sacrifice for sin, to meet and 
 intercept that wrath which was breaking out upon us, 2 Cor. 
 V, 21. Herein was the great mercy of God manifest to us, 
 that he would not punish sinners, though he would not spare 
 sin. If he should have resolved to have judged sinners, we 
 must have perished in our own persons ; but being pleased to 
 deal with sin only in the abstract, and to spare the sinner, he 
 was contented to accept of a sacrifice, which (under the rela- 
 tion and title of a sacrifice) stood in his sight like the body of 
 sin alone by itself ; in which respect he is likewise said to be 
 made "a curse for us," Gal. iii. 13. Now, that which, to- 
 gether with these things, giveth the complete and ultimate for- 
 mality of a sacrifice unto the death of Christ, was his own will- 
 ingness thereunto in that he offered himself. And therefore he 
 is called the " Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the 
 world," because " he was dumb and opened not his mouth, but 
 was obedient unto death, even the death of the cross," Phil. ii.8. 
 
 (1.) Christ's death, in regard of God the Father, was 
 a necessary death ; for he had before determined that it 
 should be done, Acts iv. 28. *' Thus it is written, and 
 thus it behoved Christ to suffer," Luke xxiv. 46. " The 
 Son of man must be lifted up," John iii. 14 ; and therefore 
 he is said to be a " Lamb slain from the foundation of the 
 world," in regard of God's decree and pre-ordination. But 
 this gave it not the formality of a sacrifice ; for God the 
 Father was not the priest, and it is the action of the priest 
 which giveth the being of a sacrifice to that which is ofiered. 
 
 (2.) Christ's death, in regard of men, was violent ; they slew 
 him with wicked hands, and killed the Prince of life. Acts ii. 
 23; iii. 15. And in this sense it was no sacrifice either, 
 for they were not priests, but the murderers of Christ. 
 
 (3.) His death, in regard of himself, was voluntary. " 1 
 lay down my life, fio man taketh it from me, but I lay it down 
 of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power 
 
THE SACRIFICE OF CHRIST. 317 
 
 to take it again," John x. 17, 18 : and this oblation and will- 
 ing obedience, or rendering himself to God, is that which 
 gives being to a sacrifice. He was dehvered by God, Acts 
 ii. 23; he was delivered by Judas and the Jews, Matt, xxvii. 
 2 ; Acts iii. 13 ; and he was yielded and given up by him- 
 self, Gal. ii. 20 ; Eph. v. 25. In regard of God, it was 
 justice and mercy, John iii. 16, 17 ; Rom. iii. 25 ; in regard 
 of man, it was murder and cruelty, Acts vii. 52 ; in regard 
 of Christ, it was obedience and humility, Phil. ii. 8. And 
 that voluntary act of his was that which made it a sacrifice ; 
 " He hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to 
 God for a sweet smelling savour," Eph. v. 2. His death did 
 not grow out of the condition of his nature, neither was it in- 
 flicted on him by reason of an excess of strength in those that 
 executed it, (for he was the Lord of glory,) but only out of 
 mercy towards men, out of obedience towards God, and out 
 of power in himself. By his power he assumed those infirmi- 
 ties which the economy and dispensation of his priesthood on 
 the earth required ; and by the same power he laid them aside 
 again when the service was ended ; and this I say was that 
 which made it a sacrifice. As martyrdom, when men lay 
 down their lives for the profession of the truth and the service 
 of the church, is called a sacrifice, Phil. ii. 17. 
 
 If it be here objected, that Christ's death was against his 
 own will, for he exceedingly feared it, Heb. v. 7 ; and prayed 
 earnestly against it, as a thing contrary to his will. Matt. xxvi. 
 39. To this I answer, that all this doth not hinder, but com- 
 mend his willingness and obedience. Consider him in private 
 as a man, of the same natural affections, desires and abhor- 
 rences with other men ; and consider the cup as it was, a very 
 bitter cup, and so he most justly feared and declined it, as 
 knowing that it would be a most woful and a heavy combat 
 which he was entering upon. But consider him in his public 
 relation, as a Mediator, a Surety, a merciful and faithful 
 High Priest, and so he most wiUingly and obediently sub- 
 mitted unto it. And this willingness, by reason of his office, 
 was much the greater, because, by reason of his nature, his 
 will could not but shrink from it. It is easy to be wilHng in 
 such a service as is suitable to our natural condition and 
 affections ; but when nature shall necessarily shrink, sweat, 
 startle, and stand amazed at a service, then, not to repent, nor 
 decline, nor fling off the burden ; but, with submission of 
 heart, to lie down under it, this is, of all other, the greatest 
 
318 THE SACRIFICE OF CHRIST. 
 
 obedience. It was the voice of nature, and the presentation 
 of the just and implanted desires of the flesh, to say, " Let it 
 pass from me ;" it was the retractation of mercy and duty to 
 say, " Glorify thyself." Whatever my nature desires, whatever 
 my will declines, whatever becomes of me, yet still glorify thy- 
 self, and save thy church : if it cannot otherwise be than by 
 drinking this bitter cup, " Thy will be done." 
 
 2. The second act in the work of Christ's priesthood is the 
 act of application, or virtual continuation of this sacrifice to 
 the end of the world ; and that is in the intercession of Christ, 
 unto which there is pre-required a power and prevalency over 
 all his enemies, to break through the guilt of sin, the curse of 
 the law, and the chains of death, with which it was impossible 
 that he should be held. The vision which Moses had of the 
 burning bush was an excellent resemblance of the sacrifice of 
 Christ. The bush noted the sacrifice ; the fire the suffering ; 
 the continuance and prevailing of the bush against the fire, 
 the victory of Christ, and breaking through all those suffer- 
 ings which would utterly have devoured any other man. And 
 this power of Christ was shown in his resurrection, wherein 
 he was " declared to be the Son of God with power," Rom. 
 i. 4 ; and in his ascension, when he led all his enemies captive, 
 Eph. iv. 8 ; and in his sitting at the right hand of God, far 
 above all principalities and powers, Eph. i. 19, 20. All 
 which did make way to the presenting of his sacrifice before 
 the mercy-seat, which is the consummation thereof, and with- 
 out which he had not been a priest. " We have such an 
 High Priest," saith the apostle, " who is set on the right 
 hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens ; for if he 
 were on earth he should not be a priest, seeing that there are 
 priests that offer gifts according to the law," Heb. viii. 1, 4. 
 It was the same continued action whereby the priest did offer 
 without the holy place, and did then bring the blood into the 
 holiest of all, Heb. xiii. 11. For the reason why it was shed 
 was to present it to the mercy-seat, and to show it imto the 
 Lord there. So Christ's act or office was not ended, nor fit 
 to denominate him a complete priest, till he did enter with 
 blood, and present his offering in the holiest of all, not made 
 with hands, Heb. ix. 24. And therefore he had not been a 
 priest if he should have continued on the earth ; for there was 
 another priesthood there, which was not to give place but 
 upon the accomplishment of his ; for the whole figure was to 
 pass away when the whole truth was come. Now, Christ's 
 
THE INTERCESSION OF CHRIST. 319 
 
 oblation was the truth prefigured in the priest's sacrificing of 
 the beast ; and his entrance into heaven was the truth pre- 
 figured in the priest's carrying of the blood into the hohest of 
 all. And therefore both these were to be accomplished before 
 the levitical priesthood did give place. 
 
 Here, then, it will be needful, for the more full unfolding of 
 the priesthood of Christ, to open the doctrine of his inter- 
 cession at the right hand of his Father. The apostle calleth 
 it the appearing of Christ for us, Heb. ix. 24 ; which is a 
 forensic term, an expression borrowed from the custom of 
 buman courts ; for, as in them, when the plaintiff' or defend- 
 ant is called, their attorney appeareth in their name and be- 
 half; so when we are summoned by the justice of God to 
 defend ourselves against those exceptions and complaints 
 which it preferreth against us, " we have an Advocate with 
 the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous," who standeth out, 
 and appeareth for us, 1 John ii. 1. As the high priest went 
 into the sanctuary with the names of the twelve tribes upon 
 his breast, so Christ entered into the holiest of all with our 
 persons, and in our behalf ; in which respect the apostle saith 
 that he was apprehended of Christ, Phil. iii. 12 ; and that 
 we do sit together in heavenly places with him, Eph. ii. 6. 
 Merit and efficacy are the two things which set forth the virtue 
 of Christ's sacrifice, by which he hath reconciled us to his 
 Father. The merit of Christ being a redundant merit, and 
 having in it a plentiful redemption, and a sufficient salvation, 
 hath in it two things : First, there is an expiation, or satis- 
 faction, by way of price ; secondly, there is an inheritance, 
 by way of purchase and acquisition, Eph. i. 14. He was 
 made of a woman, made under the law, for two ends, that he 
 might redeem us from the curse under which we lay, and that 
 he might purchase for us the inheritance which we had for- 
 feited before ; for so by adoption in that place I understand, 
 in a complex and general sense, every good thing which be- 
 longs unto us in the right of our sonship with Christ, and 
 that is the inheritance of glory, Rom. viii. 17, 23. 
 
 Now, all this is eff'ected by the obedience of Christ's death ; 
 for in that was the act of impetration, or procurement, con- 
 sisting in the treaty between God and Christ. But there is 
 yet further required an execution, a real effectualness, and 
 actual application of these to us. As it must be, in regard 
 of God, a satisfaction and a purchase, so it must be likewise 
 in regard of us, an actual redemption and inheritance. And 
 
320 THE INTERCESSION OF CHRIST. 
 
 this is done by the intercession of Christ, which is the com- 
 memoration, or rather continuation of his sacrifice. He 
 offered it but once, and yet he is a Priest for ever ; because 
 the sacrifice once offered doth for ever remain before the 
 mercy-seat. Thus, as in many of the legal oblations, the 
 beast was slain on the altar, and then the blood was, together 
 with the incense, brought before the mercy-seat, Lev. xvi. 
 11, 15: so Christ was first slain, and then, "by his own 
 blood, he entered into the holy place," Heb. ix. 12 : that 
 was done on the earth, without the gate ; this in heaven, Heb. 
 xiii. 11, 12: that the sacrifice, or obtaining of redemption;, 
 this the application, or conferring of redemption. The sacri- 
 fice consisted in the death of Christ alone ; the application 
 thereof is grounded upon Christ's death, as its merit, but 
 effected by the life of Christ, as its immediate cause. His 
 death did obtain, his life did confer redemption upon us ; and 
 therefore, in the Scriptures, our justification and salvation are 
 attributed to the life of Christ : " He was delivered for our 
 offences, and was raised again for our justification," Rom. iv. 
 25. " If Christ be not raised, your faith is vain ; ye are yet 
 in your sins," 1 Cor. xv. 17. " He shall convince the world 
 of righteousness, because I go to my Father," John xvi. 8, 
 10. " Because I live, ye shall live also," John xiv. 19. " If 
 we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live 
 with him," Rom. vi. 8. " Being made perfect," or conse- 
 crated for ever, " he became the Author of eternal salvation 
 unto all them that obey him," Heb. v. 9 ; vii. 28. He is able 
 perfectly to save, because he ever liveth, Heb. vii. 25. We 
 were reconciled in his death ; but had he there rested, we 
 could never have been acquitted, nor entered in, for he was to 
 be our Forerunner; and therefore the apostle addeth a "much 
 more " to the life of Christ : " Much more, being reconciled, 
 we shall be saved by his life," Rom. v. 10. Not in point of 
 merit, but only of efficacy for us ; as in buying land, the 
 laying down of the price giveth a man a meritorious interest ; 
 but the delivering up of the deeds, the resigning of the pro- 
 perty, the yielding up of the possession, giveth a man an 
 actual interest in that which he hath purchased : so the death 
 of Christ deserveth, but the intercession and life of Christ 
 applieth salvation unto us. It was not barely Christ's dying, 
 but his dying victoriously, so that it was impossible for death 
 to hold him. Acts ii. 24, which was the ground of our salva- 
 tion. He could not justify us till he was declared to be 
 
THE INTERCESSION OF CHRIST. 321 
 
 justified himself; therefore the apostle saith that he was 
 "justified in the Spirit," 1 Tim. iii. 16; namely, by that 
 Spirit which quickened him, Rom. i. 4; viii. 11 ; 1 Peter iii. 
 18. When Christ offered himself a sacrifice for sin, " he 
 was numbered with the transgressors," Mark xv. 28. He 
 bare our sins along with him on the tree, and so died under 
 the wrongs of men, and under the wrath of God, in both re- 
 spects as a guilty person ; but when he was quickened by the 
 Spirit of holiness, he then threw off the sins of the world 
 from his shoulder, and made it appear that he was a righteous 
 person, and that his righteousness was the righteousness of 
 the world. So then our faith and hope was begun in Christ's 
 death, but was finished in his life ; he was the Author of it, 
 by enduring the cross ; and he was the Finisher of it, by 
 sitting down on the right hand of the throne of God, Heb. 
 xii. 2. The apostle sums up all together : " It is God that 
 justifieth. Who is he that condemneth ? It is Christ that 
 died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right 
 hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us," Rom. viii 
 33,34. 
 
 Now, to show more distinctly the nature and excellency of 
 Christ's intercession, it consisteth in these particulars. 
 
 1. His appearance, or the presenting of his person in our 
 nature and in his own, as a public person, a Mediator, a 
 Sponsor, and a pledge for us ; as Judah was both a mediator, 
 to request, and a surety, to engage himself to bear the blame 
 for ever with his father for his brother Benjamin, Gen. xliii. 
 8, 9 ; and Paul was a mediator for Onesimus ; " I beseech thee 
 for my son Onesimus," Philem. ver. 9, 10: and a sponsor; 
 *' If he hath wronged thee, or oweth thee ought, put that on 
 mine account; I will repay it," ver. 18, 19. So Christ is 
 both a Mediator and Surety for us, Heb. vii. 22 ; viii. 6. 
 
 2. The presenting of his merits as a public satisfaction for 
 the debt of sin, and as a public price for the purchase of glory ; 
 for the justice of God was not to be entreated or pacified 
 without a satisfaction ; and therefore where Christ is called 
 an Advocate, he is called a Propitiation too, 1 John ii. 2 ; 
 because he doth not intercede for us but in the right and 
 virtue of the price which he paid : for the Lord " spared 
 not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all," Rom. viii. 
 32. He dealt in the full rigour of his justice with him. 
 
 3. In the name of his person, and for the vigour and virtue 
 *ii bis merits, there is a presenting of his desires, his will, his 
 
 P 5 
 
322 THE INTERCESSION OF CHRIST. 
 
 request, and interpellation for us, and so applying both unto 
 US : " Father, I will that they also whom thou hast given me 
 be with me where I am," &c., John xvii. 24. 
 
 4. To all this doth answer the consent of the Father, in 
 whose bosom he is, who heareth him always, John xi. 42 ; 
 and in whom he is well pleased. Matt. xvii. 5 : who called 
 him to this office of, as it were, master of requests in the be- 
 half of his church, and promised to hear him in his petitions ; 
 " Ask of me, and I shall give thee," Psa. ii. 8, Thus, 
 when ^schylus the tragedian was accused in the Areopagus of 
 impiety, his brother Amyntas stood out as his advocate, using 
 no other plea but this, he opened his garments, and showed 
 them how he had lost his hand in the service of the state, and 
 so vindicated his brother. Or. as Zeleucus, when he put out 
 one of his own eyes for his son, who had been discovered in 
 adultery, delivered him from half the punishment which him- 
 self had decreed against that sin. Or, to come nearer, as 
 when the hand steals, if the back be scourged, the tongue may, 
 in matters that are not capital, intercede for a dismission : so 
 Christ, when he suffered for us, (which he might more justly 
 do than any one man can for another, because he was, by 
 Divine pre-ordination and command, and by his own power, 
 more lord of his own life than any other man is of his, John 
 X. 18,) may justly, in the virtue of those his sufferings, inter- 
 cede in our behalf for all that which those his sufferings did 
 deserve, either for the expiation of sin, or for the purchase of 
 salvation ; in which sense the apostle saith that the blood of 
 Christ is a speaking or interceding blood, Heb. xii. 24. 
 
 By all which we may observe the impiety of the popish 
 doctrine, which distinguishes between mediators of redemption 
 and mediators of intercession ; affirming that, though the 
 saints are not redeemers of the world, yet they are, as the 
 courtiers of heaven, mediators of intercession for us, and so 
 may be sought unto by us. To which I answer, that we must 
 distinguish of interceding, or praying for another : there is one 
 private, and another public, (which some learned men have 
 observed in Christ's own prayers ;) or praying out of charity, 
 and out of justice or office. Or, praying out of humility, 
 with fear and trembling, or out of authority, which is not 
 properly prayer, (for prayer, in its strictest sense, is a pro- 
 posing of requests for things unmerited, which we expect out 
 of God's gracious promise, and not out of any price or pur- 
 chase ;) but the presenting of the will and good pleasure of 
 
THE INTERCESSION OF CHRIST. 323 
 
 Christ to his Father, that he may thereunto put his seal and 
 consent ; the desiring of a thing so as that he hath withal a 
 right jointly of bestowing it, who doth desire it. To be a 
 Mediator belongs only to Christ, because true intercession (as 
 it is a pubhc and authoritative act) is founded upon the satis- 
 factory merits of the person interceding : he cannot be a right 
 advocate who is not a propitiation too ; and therefore the, pa- 
 pists are fain to venture so far as to affirm that the intercession 
 of the saints with God for us is grounded upon the virtue of 
 their own merits. " We pray the saints to intercede for us ; that 
 is, that we may enjoy the suffrage of their merits :" but this is 
 a very wicked doctrine. 1. Because it shareth the glory of 
 Christ, and communicateth it to others. 2. Because it commu- 
 nicateth God's worship to others. 3. Because, under pretence of 
 modesty and humility, it bringeth in a cursed boldness to deny 
 the faith, and driveth children from their Father unto servants, 
 expressly therein gainsaying the apostle, who biddeth us make 
 our requests known to God, Phil. iv. 6 ; and assured us that 
 by Christ we have boldness so to do, Heb. x. 19 ; and free 
 access allowed us by the Spirit, Eph, ii. 18 ; whereas one 
 chief reason of turning to the saints and angels is because 
 sinful men must not dare to present themselves or their ser- 
 vices unto God in their own persons, but by the help of those 
 saints that are in more favour with God, and with whom they 
 may be bolder. 
 
 Now, from this doctrine of Christ's intercession, many and 
 great are the benefits which come unto the church of God ; as, 
 
 1. Our fellowship with the Father and his Son. " I pray for 
 these;" that, " as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, they 
 also may be one in us," John xvii. 20, 21. 
 
 2. The gift of the Holy Ghost. " I will pray the Father, 
 and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide 
 with you for ever; even the Spirit of truth," John xiv. 16, 
 17. All the comforts and workings of the Spirit in our 
 hearts which we enjoy are fruits of the intercession of Christ. 
 
 3. Protection against all our spiritual enemies. " Who is 
 he that condemneth ? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that 
 is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who 
 also maketh intercession for us," Rom. viii. 34. " I pray that 
 thou wouldest keep them from the evil," John xvii. l5. But 
 are not the faithful subject to evils, corruptions, and tempta- 
 tions still ? How, then, is that part of the intercession of 
 Christ made good unto us ? For understanding hereof we 
 
^24 THE INTERCESSION OF CHKIST. 
 
 must know that the intercession of Christ is available to a 
 faithful man immediately ; but yet in a manner suitable and 
 convenient to the present state and condition of the church, so 
 that there may be left room for another life, and therefore we 
 must not conceive all done directly. As the sun shineth on 
 the moon by leisurely degrees till she come to her full light ; 
 or, as if the king grant a pardon to be drawn, though the 
 ijrant be of the whole thing at once, yet it cannot be written 
 and sealed but word after word, and line after line, and action 
 after action : so the grant of our holiness is made unto Christ 
 at first, but in the execution thereof, there is line upon line, 
 precept upon precept, here a little and there a little ; such an 
 order by Christ observed in the distribution of his Spirit and 
 grace as is most suitable to a life of faith, and to the hope we 
 have of a better kingdom. " I have prayed for thee that thy 
 faith fail not," saith Christ unto Peter ; yet we see it did 
 shake and totter : the prayer was not that there might be no 
 failing at all, but that it might not utterly and totally fail. 
 
 4. The assurance of our sitting in heavenly places. His 
 sitting in heavenly places hath raised us up together and 
 made us sit with him, Eph. ii. 6 ; because he sitteth there in 
 our flesh ; because he sitteth there in our behalf ; and because 
 he sitteth there as our centre, Col. iii. 1, 2 ; and so is near 
 unto us, by the unity of the same nature with us ; by the 
 quality of his office or sponsorship for us, and by the commu- 
 nion and fellowship of his Spirit. 
 
 5. Strength against our sins : for, from his priesthood in 
 heaven, which is his intercession, the apostle infers the wTiting 
 of the law in our hearts, Heb. viii. 4, 6, 9, 10. 
 
 6. The sanctification of our services ; of which the levitical 
 priests were a type, who were to " bear the iniquity of the 
 holy things of the children of Israel," that they might be ac- 
 cepted, Exod. xxviii. 38. He is the Angel of the covenant, 
 who hath a golden censer to offer up the prayers of saints. 
 Rev. viii. 3. There is a three-fold evil in man : 1. An evil 
 of state, or condition, under the guilt of sin. 2. An evil of 
 nature, under the corruption of sin, and under the indispo- 
 sition and inaptitude of all our faculties unto good. 3. An 
 evil in all our services, by the adherency of sin ; for that which 
 toucheth an unclean thing is made unclean ; and the best wine, 
 mixed with water, will lose much of its strength and native 
 spirits. Now, Christ, by his righteousness and merits, justi- 
 fieth our persons from the guilt of sin ; and by the grace and 
 
THE INTERCESSION OF CHRIST. 325 
 
 Spirit, doth in measure purify our faculties, and cure them oi 
 that corruption of sin which cleaves unto them. And, lastly, 
 by his incense and intercession, doth cleanse our services from 
 the noisomeness and adherency of sin, so that in them the 
 Lord smelleth a sw^eet savour : and so the apostle calleth the 
 contributions of the saints towards his necessities, " an odour 
 of a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable, well pleasing to God," 
 Phil, iv, 18 ; Gen. viii. 21. And this is a benefit which run- 
 neth through the whole life of a christian ; all the ordinary 
 works of our caUing, being parts of our services unto God, 
 (for in them we work as servants to the same Master,) are unto 
 us sanctified, and to the Father made acceptable, by the inter- 
 cession of his Son, who hath made us priests, to offer all our 
 sacrifices with acceptance upon this altar, Rev. i. 6 ; I Peter 
 ii. 5. 
 
 7. The inward intercession of the soul itself for itself, 
 which is, as it were, the echo of Christ's intercession in our 
 hearts : " The Spirit maketh intercession for us with groanings 
 which cannot be uttered," Rom. viii. 26. The same Spirit 
 groaneth in us, and more fully and distinctly, by Christ, pray- 
 cth for us. " These things I speak in the world," saith our 
 Saviour, " that they might have my joy fulfilled in them- 
 selves," John xvii. 13 ; that is, as I conceive, I have made 
 this prayer in the world, and left a record and pattern of it in 
 the church, that they, feeling the same heavenly desires 
 kindled in their hearts, may be comforted in the workings of 
 that Spirit of prayer in them, which testifieth to their souls 
 the quality of that intercession which I will make for them in 
 heaven. 
 
 8. Patience and unweariedness in God's service. " Let us 
 run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto 
 Jesus the Author and Finisher of our faith ; who for the joy 
 that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, 
 and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God," 
 Heb. xii. 1, 2. 
 
 9. Confidence in our approaches to the throne of grace. 
 *' Seeing then that we have a great High Priest, that is passed 
 into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our 
 profession, and come boldly unto the throne of grace," Heb. 
 iv. 14 — 16. And again; " This Man, after he hath offered 
 one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of 
 God, from henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his 
 foot-stool ;" from whence the apostle inferreth, " Having, 
 
326 JUSTIFICATION BY 
 
 therefore, boldness to enter into the hoUest by the blood of 
 Jesus ; and having an High Priest over the house of God ; 
 let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith," 
 Heb.x. 12,19,21,22. 
 
 And all these things are certain to us m the virtue of this 
 intercession of Christ : because the Father heareth him and 
 answereth him, John xi. 42 ; xii. 28, and appointed him to 
 this office, Heb. v. 4, 5. Because the Father loveth us ; "I 
 say unto you, that I will pray the Father for you : for the 
 Father himself loveth you, because ye have loved me," John 
 xvi. 26, 27. Because as Christ hath a prayer to intercede 
 for us, so hath he also a power to confer that upon us for 
 which he intercedeth ; " I will pray the Father, and he shall 
 give you another comforter," John xiv. 16. " If I go not 
 away, the Comforter will not come unto you ; but if I depart, 
 I will send him unto you," John xvi. 7. That which Christ 
 by his prayer obtained for us, by his power he conferreth upon 
 us ; and therefore he is said to " receive gifts for men," Psa. 
 Ixviii. 18 ; noting, the fruit of his intercession ; and by the 
 apostle " to give gifts unto men," Eph. iv. 8 ; noting, the 
 power and fulness of his person. " Having received of the 
 Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth 
 this, which ye now see and hear," Acts ii. 33. Thus great, 
 and thus certain are the benefits which come unto the church 
 from the intercession of Christ. 
 
 IV. The fourth thing to be inquired into about the priesthood 
 of Christ, was, — what are the virtue and fruits thereof? They 
 may be all comprised in two general words : there is the payment 
 of our debt, and an overplus and redundancy of merit. Satis- 
 faction, whereby we are redeemed from under the law ; and an 
 acquisition, or purchase of an inheritance and privileges for 
 us. The obedience of Christ hath a double relation in it ; 
 there is the relation of a legal righteousness, as it bears exact 
 and complete conformity to the law, will, and decree of his 
 Father. And there is the relation of a merit over and beyond 
 the law ; for though it were that which we did necessarily owe ; 
 yet it was that which of himself he was not bound unto, but 
 by voluntary susception, and covenant with his Father ; for 
 it was the blood and obedience of God himself. 
 
 Here then it is to be considered his payment of that debt 
 which we did owe unto God, in which respect he is said to 
 bear our sins. To bear sin, is to have the burden of the guilt 
 of sin and malediction of the law laid upon a man ; so it is 
 
IMPUTED RIGHTEOUSNESS. 827 
 
 said, " He that troubleth you, shall bear his judgment," Gal, 
 V. 10. " The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, 
 neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son ; the 
 wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him," Ezek. xviii. 20. 
 So wrath is said to abide on a man, John iii. 36 ; and sin is 
 said to be retained,* or held in its place, John xx. 23. So 
 Christ is said to bear our sins in his body on the tree, 1 Pet. 
 ii. 24 ; Isa. liii. 4, 5 ; and by so bearing them he took them 
 off from us, cancelled the oUigations of the law against us, 
 and did all whatsoever was requisite to satisfy an offended 
 justice ; for he fulfilled the law, which was our debt of ser- 
 vice ; " It becometh us to fulfil all righteousness," Matt. iii. 
 15. And he endured the cross, and curse, the bloody agony, 
 and ignominy of that death which was the debt of suffering, 
 Heb. xii. 2 ; and the covenant between him and his Father 
 was, that all this should be done by him as our Head and 
 Surety : and so he was to taste death " for every man," Heb. ii. 
 9 ; Rom. v. 8. So there is a commutation allowed, as it 
 were, that he should be in our stead ; his soul a sacrifice, and 
 his life a price, and his death a conquest for ours ; and there- 
 fore he is called a price or ransom for all those in whose place 
 he was made sin, 1 Tim. ii. 6 ; and a curse, 2 Cor. v. 21 ; Gal. 
 iii. 13. Though he had not any demerit, or proper guilt of 
 sin upon him, which is a deserving of punishment, (for that 
 ever grows out of sin either personally inherent, or at least 
 naturally imputed, by reason that he to whom it is accounted, 
 was naturally contained in the loins of him from whom it is 
 on him derived,) yet he had the guilt of sin so far as it notes 
 an obligation and subjection unto punishment, as he was our 
 Surety, and so in the sight of God's court of justice, one 
 with us who had deserved punishment imputed unto him. 
 
 The fruit which redounds to us hereby, is the expiation or 
 remission of our sins by the imputing of his righteousness unto 
 us. " This is my blood of the new testament, which is shed 
 for many for the remission of sins," Matt. xxvi. 28. " In whom 
 we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, 
 according to the riches of his grace," Eph. i. 7. And this 
 must needs be a wonderful mercy, to have so many thousand 
 talents forgiven us, such an infinite weight taken off from our 
 consciences, the penalty and curse of so many sins removed 
 from us. Our natural condition is to be an heir of everlast- 
 ing vengeance, the object of God's hatred and fiery indigna- 
 tion, exiles from the presence of his glory, vessels fit and full 
 
328 JUSTIFICATION BY 
 
 of misery, written within and without with curses, to be 
 miserable, to be all over-miserable, to be without strength in 
 ourselves, to be without pity from other, to be without hope 
 from God, to be without end of cursedness ; this is the condition 
 of a sinner, and from all this doth the mercy of God deliver us. 
 The manner whereby the satisfaction of Christ becomes 
 profitable unto us, unto the remission of sin and righteous- 
 ness, is by imputation, Rom. iv, 3, 5, 8 ; v. 19. No man is 
 able to stand before God's justice, for he is " a consuming 
 fire," Heb. xii. 29. No flesh can be righteous if God enter 
 into judgment. He is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity, 
 Hab. i. 13 ; for his eyes are not eyes of flesh, Job x. 4. 
 Now, all the world is guilty before God, and cometh short of 
 his glory ; it Ueth in wickedness, 1 John v. 19 ; and therefore 
 must be justified by a foreign righteousness, and that equal to 
 the justice offended, which is the righteousness of God unto 
 us graciously imputed. We are "justified freely by his 
 
 frace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus," 
 Lom. iii. 12, 24. 
 To open this point of justification by imputed righteous- 
 ness : we must note that two things are pre-required to deno- 
 minate a man a righteous man. There must be extant a 
 righteousness which is sufficient and able to justify ; and there 
 must be a right and propriety to it, whereby it cometh to pass 
 that it doth actually justify. 
 
 We must then first inquire what the righteousness is 
 whereby a man may be justified. Righteousness consisteth 
 in a relation of rectitude and conformity. " God hath 
 made man upright ; but they have sought out many in- 
 ventions," and turned into many crooked diverticles of their 
 own, Eccles. vii. 29 ; Deut. xxxii. 5. A wicked man loveth 
 crooked ways, to wander up and down in his own course, 
 Jer. xxxi. 22 ; Hos. iv. 16 ; whereas a righteous man 
 loveth straight ways, Heb. xii. 13 ; Psa. v. 8, because right- 
 eousness consisteth in rectitude : and this presupposeth some 
 rule, unto which this conformity must refer. The primitive 
 and orighial prototype, or rule of holiness, is the righteousness 
 of God himself, so far as his image is communicable to the 
 creature, or at least so far as it was at the first implanted in 
 man : " Be ye perfect, even as your Father which is in hea- 
 ven is perfect," Matt. v. 48. It is not meant of his infinite 
 perfection, (for it was the sin of Adam to aim at being a* 
 God, in absoluteness and independent excellency,) but of that 
 
IMPUTED RIGHTEOUSNESS. 329 
 
 perfection of his, which is in the word set forth unto us for 
 an image and pattern whereunto to conform ourselves. There- 
 fore, the secondary rule of righteousness, or rather the same 
 rule unto us revealed, is the law of God written in his word; 
 in the which God's holiness, so far as it is our example, ex- 
 hibiteth itself to the soul, as the sun doth communicate its 
 light through the beam which conveys it. Now, in the law 
 there are two things ; one principal, obedience ; the other se- 
 condary, malediction, upon supposition of disobedience : 
 " Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which 
 are written in the book of the law to do them," Gal. iii. 10. 
 So then, upon supposition of the sin of man, two things are 
 required unto justification ; the expiation of sin by suffering 
 the curse ; and the fulfilling of righteousness again. Man 
 created might have been justified by obedience only ; but man 
 lapsed cannot otherwise appear righteous in God's sight, but 
 by a double obedience ; the one passive, for the satisfaction 
 of his vindictive justice, as we are his prisoners ; the other 
 active, in proportion to his remunerative justice, as we are his 
 creatures. 
 
 But besides this, that there must be a righteousness extant, 
 there is required in the person to be justified or denominated 
 thereby, a propriety thereunto, that it may be his righteous- 
 ness, Jer. xxxiii. 16. Now, there may be a two-fold pro- 
 priety to righteousness according to a two-fold manner 
 of unity. There is a personal and individual unity, whereby 
 a man is one in and by himself, and so hath propriety to a 
 duty performed, because it is performed in his own person, 
 and by himself alone. There is a common unity, whereby a 
 man is one with another, or whereby many are one in and with 
 some other thing which is the fountain and original of them 
 all. And this is the ground of righteousness imputed ; for 
 in the law a man is justified by performing entire obedience in 
 his own person ; for the law requireth righteousness to be 
 performed by a created and implanted strength, and doth not 
 put, suppose, or indulge any common principle thereof out of 
 a man's self : therefore legal righteousness is most properly 
 called our own righteousness, and is set in opposition to the 
 righteousness of God, or that which is by grace imputed, 
 Rom. x. 3 ; Phil. iii. 8, 9. We see then, that in this matter 
 of imputation, either of sin or righteousness, for the clearing 
 of God from any injustice or partiality in his proceedings, 
 there must ever be some unity or other between the parties ; 
 
330 JUSTIFICATION BY 
 
 he whose act is imputed, and the other to whom it is imputed : 
 it would be prodigious and against reason to conceive that the 
 fall of angels should be imputed unto men, because men had 
 no unity in condition either of nature, or covenant with the 
 angels, as we have in both with Adam. 
 
 This common unity is two-fold : either natural, as between us 
 and Adam, in whom we were seminally contained, and 
 orio-inally represented ; for otherwise than in and with Adam 
 there could at the beginning be no covenant made with man- 
 kind, which should equally reach unto all particular persons 
 in all ages and places of the world : or voluntary, as between 
 a man and his surety, who are to be viewed but as one per- 
 son. And this must be mutual, the one party undertaking to 
 do for the other, and the other yielding and consenting there- 
 unto ; as between us and Christ ; for Christ voluntarily un- 
 dertook for us, and we by the Spirit of Christ are persuaded 
 and made willing to consent, and by faith to cast our sins 
 upon Christ, and to lay hold on him. And besides the will 
 of the parties who are, the one by default, the other by com- 
 passion and suretiship, engaged in the debt, there is required 
 the will and consent of the judge, to whom the debt is due, 
 and to whom it belongeth, in the right of his jurisdiction, to 
 appoint such a form of proceeding for the recovery of his 
 right as may stand best with the honour of his person, and 
 the satisfaction of his justice, who, if he would, might in rigour 
 have refused any surety, and have exacted the whole debt of 
 those very persons by whose only default it grew. And thus 
 it comes to pass that by grace we have fellowship with the 
 Second Adam, as by nature with the first, 1 Cor, xv. 45. So 
 then, between Christ and us there must be an unity, or else 
 there can be no imputation. And therefore it is that we are 
 said to be "justified by faith," and that "faith is counted for 
 righteousness," Rom. iv. 5 ; not the act of believing, as if that 
 were in itself accounted righteousness, as it is a work proceeding 
 from us by grace ; but because it is the bond of union between 
 us and Christ, and by that means makes way to the imputation 
 of Christ's righteousness unto us. Therefore we are said to be 
 buried, and crucified in and with Christ, by the virtue of faith 
 incorporating Christ and a christian together, and communi- 
 cating the fellowship of his sufferings and resurrection, Rom. 
 vi. 6 ; Gal. vi. 14 ; Eph. iii. 17 ; Phil. iii. 10. " If I be 
 lifted up," saith our Saviour, " I will draw all men unto me." 
 When Christ hung on the cross, we in a sort were there loo. 
 
IMPUTED RIGHTEOUSNESS. 331 
 
 As in Adam we were all in paradise by a natural and 
 seminal virtue, so in Christ by a spiritual virtue, whereby 
 in due time faith was to be begotten in us, and so we 
 to have an actual being of grace from him, as after our 
 real existence we have an actual being of nature from 
 Adam. Thus we see that Christ did for us fulfil all right- 
 eousness, by his passive meriting and making satisfaction unto 
 the remission of sins ; by his active covering our inabilities, 
 and doing that in perfection for us, which we could not 
 do for ourselves. He suffered our punishment ; " he was 
 wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniqui- 
 ties ; the chastisement of our peace was upon him ; and with 
 his stripes we are healed," Isa. liii. 5. If it be here objected, 
 that an innocent person ought not to suffer for a guilty, for 
 guilt is inseparable from sin ; " The son shall not bear the 
 iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity 
 of the son ; the soul that sinneth, it shall die," Ezek, xviii. 
 20. For the clearing of this objection, we must note that 
 there is a two-fold manner of guilt, (as I have before touched,) 
 either such as grows out of inherent sin, which is the deserv- 
 ing of punishment, as it is in us ; or such as grows out of im- 
 puted sin, and that not by reason of natural union, as the guilt 
 of Adam's sin is imputed unto us, Cwhich manner of imputa- 
 tion is likewise the foundation of our demerit, and causeth us 
 to deserve punishment,) but voluntary, by way of recognizance 
 and apprehension. And so guilt is only a free and willing 
 obnoxiousness unto that punishment which another hath de- 
 served. Amongst sinful men it is true, that the son shall not 
 bear the punishment of the father's sin : 1. Because he is 
 altogether personally distinct. 2. Because he is not appointed 
 so to do, as Christ was, John x. 18. 3. Because he is not 
 able to bear them, so as to take them off from his father, as 
 Christ did ours. He was himself able to stand under our 
 punishment without sinking, and was able, by suffering them, 
 to take them off from us, because his person was answerable 
 in dignity, and therefore (by the grace of God, and the act of 
 his Divine jurisdiction in ordering the way to his own satis- 
 faction) equivalent in justice unto all ours. 4. Because he 
 hath already too many of his own to bear. But yet, if the 
 will of the son go along with the father in sinning, it is not 
 strange, nor unusual for him to suffer for his father's and his 
 own sin together, as for the continuation of the same offence ; 
 because, though he do not will the punishment, (as Christ did 
 
332 JUSTIFICATION BY 
 
 ours,) yet imitating and continuing the sin, he has comeritecl 
 to the cause for the punishment too. 
 
 1. Now for an answer and resolution of the question, — 
 whether or not an innocent person may suffer for a guilty, we must 
 first note, that God, out of his dominion over all things, may 
 cast pains upon an innocent person, as it is manifest he did 
 upon Christ. And what ground of complaint could any crea- 
 ture have against God, if he should have created it in fire, 
 and made the place of its habitation the instrument of its 
 pain? Do not we ourselves without cruelty upon many 
 occasions put creatures that have not offended us unto pain ? 
 
 2. It is not universally against equity for one to suffer the 
 punishment of another's sin : we see the infants of Sodom, 
 Babylon, Egypt, of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, were in- 
 volved in the punishment of those sins of which themselves 
 were not guilty. The Lord reserved to himself the punish- 
 ment of the fathers on the children ; he punished the sins of 
 three hundred and ninety years all together, Ezek. iv. 5. 
 Ham committed the sin, and yet Canaan was cursed for it, 
 Gen. ix. 22, 25. The sin was Gehazi's alone, and yet the 
 leprosy cleaved not to him only, but to his posterity, 2 Kings v. 
 27. The sin of crucifying Christ was the sin of the jews in that 
 age alone, and yet wrath is come upon them to the uttermost 
 even unto his day. Matt, xxvii. 23 ; 1 Thess. ii. 16. Achan 
 trespassed alone, but he perished not alone, but his sons, and 
 his daughters, and all that he had with him, Josh. vii. 24. See 
 1 Kings xxi. 21 ; Judges ix. 56 ; 1 Kings ii> 33 ; Jer. xxii. 30, 
 
 3. The equity hereof in the case of Christ doth herein 
 plainly appear, when all parties are glorified, and all parties 
 are willing and well pleased, there is no injury done unto any ; 
 and in this the case is so. 1. All parties are glorified: the 
 Father is glorified in the obedience of his Son ; " I have both 
 glorified my name, and will glorify it again," John xii. 28. 
 " I have glorified thee on the earth : I have finished the work 
 which thou gavest me to do," John xvii. 4. The Son is 
 glorified ; " Thou madest him a little lower than the angels ; 
 thou crownedst him with glory and honour," Heb. ii. 7 ; 
 John xvii. 5. And the sinner is glorified ; " I will that they 
 also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am ; that 
 they may behold my glory," John xvii. 24. 2. All parties 
 are willing : the Father is willing, for by his ordination he 
 appointed Christ to it, Acts iv. 27, 28 ; by his love and ten- 
 der compassion he bestowed Christ upon us, John iii. 16 ; by 
 
IMPUTED RIGHTEOUSNESS. 333 
 
 his Divine acceptation he rested well pleased in it, Matt. xvii. 
 5 : in one word, by his wonderful wisdom he fitteth it to the 
 manifestation of his glory and mercy, to the reconciliation of 
 him and his creature, and to the exaltation of his Son. The 
 Son is willing ; he cheerfully submitteth unto it, Heb. x. 9 ; 
 and freely loved us, and gave himself unto us. Gal. ii. 20. 
 The sinner is willing, and accepteth and relieth upon it, as we 
 have seen at large before in the third verse ; so that there can 
 be no injury done to any party, where all are willing, and 
 where all are glorified. 
 
 4. That an innocent person may thus in justice and equity 
 suffer for a guilty, there is required, (besides these acts of or- 
 dination in the supreme, of submission in the surety, and of 
 consent in the delinquent,) 1. An intimate and near conjunc- 
 tion in him that suffereth with those that should have suffered. 
 Several unions and conjunctions there are ; as poKtic, between 
 the members and subjects in a state ; and thus in a common- 
 wealth, universally sinful, a few righteous men may, as parts 
 of that sinful society, be justly subject to those temporary evils 
 which the sins of the society have contracted ; and the people 
 may justly suffer for the sins of the prince, 2 Sam. xxiv. 17 ; 
 and he for theirs, 1 Sam. xii. 25. 2. Natural, as between 
 parents and children ; so the Lord visited the sins of Dathan 
 upon his little ones. Numb. xvi. 27, 33. 3. Mystical, as 
 between man and wife ; so the Lord punished the sins of 
 Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, by giving over his wife unto 
 whoredom, Amos vii. 17 ; and we see, in many cases, the 
 husband is liable to be charged and censured for the exorbi- 
 tances of his wife. 4. Stipulatory and by consent ; as in the 
 case of sureties, or hostages, who are punished for the sins of 
 others whom they represent, and in whose place they stand 
 as a caution and defence against injuries which might be 
 feared, as we see in the parable of the prisoner committed 
 to the custody of another person, 1 Kings xx. 39, 42. 
 5. Possessory, as between a man and his goods ; and so we find 
 that a man was to offer no beast for a sin-offering but that 
 which was his own, Lev. v, 6, 7. Now, in all these respects 
 there was in some manner conjunction between us and Christ; 
 he conversed amongst men, and was a member of that tribe 
 and society amongst whom he lived, and therefore was alto- 
 gether with them under that Roman yoke which was then upon 
 the people, and in that relation paid tribute unto Cassar. He 
 had the nature of man, and so was subject to all human and 
 
334 JUSTIFICATION BY 
 
 natural infirmities without sin. He was mystically married 
 unto his church, and therefore was answerable for the debts 
 and misdemeanours of the church. He entered into covenant, 
 and became Surety for man, and therefore was liable to man's 
 engagements. He became the possession, in some sort, of 
 his cliurch ; whence it is that we are said to receive him and 
 to have him, 1 John v. 12 ; not by way of dominion, (for so 
 we are his, 1 Cor. vi. 19,) but by way of communion and 
 propriety ; and therefore, though we cannot offer him up unto 
 God in sacrifice for our sins, yet we may in our faith and 
 prayers show him unto his Father, and hold him up as our own 
 armour and defence against the wrath of God, Rom.xiii. 14. 
 
 There is required in the innocent person suffering, that he 
 have a free and full dominion over that from which he parteth 
 in his suffering for another. As in suretiship, a man hath 
 free dominion over his money, and therefore in that respect he 
 may engage himself to pay another man's debt ; but he hath 
 not a free dominion over himself or his own life, and there- 
 fore he may not part with a member of his own in commuta- 
 tion for another's, nor lay down his own life for the delivering 
 of another from death, except in such cases as the word of 
 God limiteth and alloweth. But Christ was Lord of his own 
 life, and had therefore power to lay it down, and to take it up. 
 And this power he had, (though he were in all points subject 
 to the law as we are,) not solely by virtue of the hypostatical 
 union, which did not for the time exempt him from any of 
 the obligations of the law, but by virtue of a particular com- 
 mand, constitution, and designation to that service of laying 
 down his life : " This commandment have I received of my 
 Father," John x. 18. 
 
 It is required that this power be ample enough to break 
 through the suffering he undertaketh, and to re-assume his 
 life, and former condition again. " I have power to lay it 
 down, and I have power to take it again." So then, the sum 
 of all is this ; by the most just, wise, and merciful will of God, 
 by his own most obedient and voluntary undertaking, Christ 
 Jesus, being one with us in a manifold and most secret union, 
 and having full power to lay down, and to take up his life 
 again by special command and allowance of his Father given 
 him, did most justly, without injury to himself, or dishonour 
 to or injustice in his Father, suffer the punishment of their 
 sins, with whom he had so near an union, and who could not 
 themselves have suffered them with obedience in their own 
 
IMPUTED RIGHTEOUSNESS. 335 
 
 persons, or with so much glory to God's justice, mercy, and 
 wisdom. 
 
 If it be here again objected, that sin in the Scripture is 
 said to be pardoned, which seems contrary to this payment 
 and satisfaction : to answer this, we must note that, in the 
 rigour of the law, the delinquent himself is in person to suffer 
 the penalty denounced ; for the law is, " In the day that thou 
 eatest thou shalt die ;" and " the soul that sinneth, it shall 
 die. Every man shall bear his own burden," Gal. vi. 5. So 
 that the law, as it stands in its own rigour, doth not admit of 
 any commutation, or substitution of one for another. There- 
 fore, that another person suffering may procure a discharge 
 to the person guilty, and be valid to free him, the will, con- 
 sent, and mercy of him to whom the infliction of the punish- 
 ment belongeth must concur, and his over-ruling power must 
 dispense, though not with the substance of the law's demands, 
 yet with the manner of execution, and with that rigour which 
 binds wrath peremptorily upon the head only of him that hath 
 deserved it. So then we see both these things do sweetly 
 concur ; a precedent satisfaction by paying the debt ; and yet 
 a true pardon and remission thereof to that party which should 
 have paid it, and out of mercy towards him, a dispensing with 
 the rigour of that law, which in strictness would not admit any 
 other to pay it for him. 
 
 Thus we see how Christ hath suffered our punishment. 
 But further, he did all obedience, and fulfilled all actions of 
 righteousness for us ; " for such an High Priest became us, 
 who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners," Heb. 
 vii. 26. He came not into the world but for us, and there- 
 fore he neither suffered, nor did anything but for us. As 
 the colour of the glass is by the favour of the sun-beam 
 shining through it made the colour of the wall, not inherent 
 in it, but shining upon it, by an extrinsical affection ; so the 
 righteousness of Christ, by the favour of God, is so imputed 
 unto us, as that we are by an act of grace in the sight of God 
 righteous too. In which sense I understand those words, 
 " He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither hath he seen 
 perverseness in Israel," Numb, xxiii. 21. Though it is in- 
 deed in him, yet the Lord looketh on him as clothed with the 
 righteousness of Christ, and so is said not to see it ; as the 
 eye seeth the colour of the glass in the wall, and therefore 
 cannot behold that other inherent colour of its own, which 
 yet it knoweth to be in it. 
 
336 JUSTIFICATION BY 
 
 Now, of the doctrine of justification by Christ's righteous- 
 ness imputed we may make a double use. 1. It may teach 
 us that great duty of self-denial ; we see no righteousness will 
 justify us but Christ's, and his will not consist but with the 
 denial of our own. And surely, whatever the professions of 
 men in word may be, there is not any one duty in all the 
 christian reho^ion of more difficulty than this, to trust Christ 
 only with our salvation : to do holy duties of hearing, 
 reading, praying, meditating, almsgiving, or any other ac- 
 tions of charity or devotion, and yet still to abhor ourselves 
 and our works ; to esteem ourselves after we have done all, 
 as unprofitable servants, and worthy of many stripes : to do 
 good things, and not to rest in them ; to own the shame and 
 dross of our solemn services : when we have done all the good 
 works we can, to say, with Nehemiah, " Remember me, O 
 my God, concerning this, and spare me according to the 
 greatness of thy mercy," Neh. xiii. 22 ; and with David, 
 " Unto thee, O Lord, belongeth mercy : for thou renderest to 
 every man according to his work," Psa. Ixii. 12 ; it is thy 
 mercy to reward us according to the uprightness of our works, 
 who mightest in judgment confound us for the imperfection 
 of our works : to give God the praise of our working, and 
 to take to ourselves the shame of polluting his works in us. 
 There is no doctrine so diametrically contrary to the merits of 
 Christ, and the redemption of the world thereby, as justifica- 
 tion by works. No papist in the world is, or can be, more 
 conscientious for good works than we both in our doctrine, 
 and in our prayers, and in our exhortations to the people. 
 We say no faith justifieth us before God, but a working faith ; 
 no man is righteous in the sight of men, nor to be so es- 
 teemed, but by works of holiness ; " for without holiness no 
 man shall see the Lord ;" he that is Christ's is "zealous of 
 good works ;" " purifieth himself, even as he is pure," and 
 walketh as he did in this world. Here only is the difference ; 
 we do them, because they are our duty, and expressions of 
 our love and thankfulness to Christ, and of the workings of 
 his Spirit in our hearts ; but we dare not trust in them, as that 
 by which we hope to stand or fall before the tribunal of God's 
 justice, because they are, at best, mingled with our corrup- 
 tions, and therefore do themselves stand in need of our High 
 Priest to take off their iniquity. We know enough in Christ 
 to depend on, we never can find enough in ourselves. And 
 this confidence we have, if God would ever have had us justi- 
 
IMPUTED RIGHTEOUSNESS. 337 
 
 fied by works, he would have given us grace enough to fulfil 
 the whole law, and not have left a prayer upon public record 
 for us every day to repeat, and to regulate all our own prayers 
 by, " Forgive us our trespasses." For how dare that man 
 say, I shall be justified by my works, who must every day say, 
 Lord, forgive my sins, and be merciful unto me a siimer I 
 Nay, though we could fulfil the whole law perfectly, yet from 
 the guilt of sins formerly contracted, we could no other way 
 he justified, than by laying hold by faith on the satisfaction 
 and sufferings of Christ. 
 
 2. It may teach us confidence against all sins, corruptions, 
 and temptations. " Who shall lay anything to the charge 
 of God's elect ? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that 
 condemneth ? It is Christ that died," Rom. viii. 33, 34. 
 Satan is the blackest enemy, and sin is the worst thing he can 
 allege against me, or my soul is or can be subject unto ; for 
 hell is not so evil as sin. Inasmuch as hell is of God's 
 making, but sin only of mine. Hell is made against me, but 
 sin is committed against God. Now, I know Christ came to 
 destroy the works, and to answer the arguments and reasonings 
 of the devil. Thou canst not stand before God, saith Satan, 
 for thou art a grievous sinner, and he is a devouring fire. 
 But faith can answer, Christ is able both to cover and to cure 
 my sin, to make it vanish as a mist, and to put it as far out 
 of mine own sight, as the east is from the west. — But thou hast 
 nothing to do with Christ, thy sins are so many and so foul, says 
 Satan. Surely the blood of Christ is more acceptable to my 
 soul, and much more honourable and precious in itself, when 
 it covereth a multitude of sins. Paul was a persecutor, a 
 blasphemer, and injurious, the greatest of all sinners ; and yet 
 he obtained mercy, that he might be for a pattern of all long- 
 suffering to those that should after believe in Christ. If I 
 had as much sin upon my soul as thou hast, yet faith could 
 unlade them all upon Christ, and Christ could swallow them 
 all up in his mercy. — But thou hast still nothing to do with 
 him, because thou continuest in thy sin, says Satan. But 
 doth he not call me, invite me, beseech me, command me, to 
 come unto him ? If then I have a heart to answer his call, 
 he hath a hand to draw me to himself, though all the gates 
 of hell and powers of darkness, or sins of the world stood be- 
 tween. — But thou obeyest not this call, says Satan. True 
 indeed, and pitiful it is, that I am dull of hearing, and slow of 
 following the voice of Christ. I want much faith ; but yet, 
 
 Q 
 
338 JUSTIFICATION BY 
 
 Lord, thou dost not use to quench the smoking flax, or to 
 break the bruised reed. I believe, thou art able to help 
 mine unbelief. I am resolved to venture my soul upon thy 
 mercy, to throw away all my own loading, and to cleave only 
 to this plank of salvation. — But faith purifieth the heart, 
 whereas thou art unclean still, repKes Satan. True indeed, 
 and miserable man I am therefore, that the motions of sin do 
 work in my members. But yet. Lord, I hate every false way ; 
 I delight in thy law with my inner man ; I do that which I 
 would not, but I consent to thy law that it is good ; I desire 
 to know thy will, to fear thy name, and to follow thee whither- 
 soever thou leadest me. — But these are but empty desires, 
 the wishings and wouldings of an evil heart, says Satan. 
 Lord, to me belongeth the shame of my failings, but to thee 
 belongeth the glory of thy mercy and forgiveness. Too true 
 it is that I do not all I should ; but do I allow myself in any- 
 thing that I should not ? do I make use of mine infirmities to 
 justify myself by them, or shelter myself under them, or dis- 
 pense with myself in them ? Though I do not the things I 
 should, yet I love them, and delight in them, my heart and 
 spirit, and all the desires of my soul are towards them ; I hate, 
 abhor, and fight with myself for not doing them. I am 
 ashamed of mine infirmities, as the blemishes of my profession ; 
 I am weary of them, and groan under them as the burdens of 
 my soul. I have no lust, but I am willing to know it ; and 
 when I know, to crucify it. I hear of no further measure of 
 grace, but I admire it, and hunger after it, and press on to it. 
 I can take Christ and affliction, Christ and persecution 
 together. I can take Christ without the world ; I can take 
 Christ without myself. I have no unjust gain, but I am 
 ready to restore it. No time have I lost by earthly business 
 from God's service, but I am ready to redeem it. I have 
 followed no sinful pleasure, but I am ready to abandon it ; no 
 evil company, but I mightily abhor it. I never swore an oath, 
 but I can remember it with a bleeding conscience. I never 
 neglected a duty, but I can recount it with revenge and indig- 
 nation. I do not in any man see the image of Christ, but I 
 love him the more dearly for it, and abhor myself for 
 being so much unHke it. I know, Satan. I shall speed never 
 the worse with God, because I have thee for mine enemy. 
 I know I shall speed much the better, because I have my- 
 self for mine enemy. — Certainly., he that can take Christ 
 offered, that can in all points admit him, as well to 
 
IMPUTED RIGHTEOUSNESS. 339 
 
 purify as to justify, as well to rule as save, as well his 
 grace as his mercy, need not fear all the powers of darkness, 
 nor all the armies of the foulest sins which Satan can charge 
 his conscience with. 
 
 The great virtue and fruit of the priesthood of Christ 
 emanated from the redundancy and overflowing of his me'rit. 
 He doth merit to have a church ; for the very being of the 
 church is the effect of that great price which he paid ; there- 
 fore the church is called a purchased people, Acts xx. 28. 
 " Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inhe- 
 ritance," Psa. ii. 8. When he made his soul an offering for 
 sin, he did by that means see his seed, and divide a portion 
 with the great, Isa. liii. 10 — 12. The delivering and select- 
 ing of the saints out of the present evil world was the end of 
 Christ's sacrifice. Gal. i. 4. He did merit all such good 
 things for the church, as the great love of himself and his 
 Father towards the church did resolve to confer upon it. They 
 may, I conceive, be reduced to two heads : 
 
 1. Immunity from evil ; whatsoever is left to be removed 
 after the payment of our debt, or taking off from us the guilt 
 and obligation unto punishment. Such is the dominion of 
 sin : — " Sin shall not have dominion over you," Rom. vi. 14. 
 " The law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus, hath made me 
 free from the law of sin and death," Rom. viii. 2. " He that 
 committeth sin is the servant of sin ; but if the Son shall 
 make you free, ye shall be free indeed," John viii. 34, 36. 
 " Whosoever is born of God doth jiot commit sin," 1 John 
 iii. 9 ; that is, he is not an artificer of sin, one that maketh 
 it his trade and profession, and therefore bringeth it to any 
 perfection. He hath received a spirit of judgment, that 
 chaineth up his lusts, and a spirit of burning, which worketh 
 out his dross, Isa. iv. 4 ; Mai. iii. 2, 3 ; Matt. iii. 12. Such 
 is the vanity of our mind, whereby we are naturally unable to 
 think, or to cherish a good thought, 2 Cor. iii. 5 ; Eph. iv. 
 17. The ignorance and hardness of our hearts, unable to 
 perceive, or delight in any spiritual thing, Eph. iv. 18 ; John 
 i. 5 ; Luke xxiv. 25, 43. The spirit of disobedience and 
 habitual strangeness and averseness from God, Eph. iv. 18. 
 Such are also all those slavish, affrightful, and contumacious 
 effects of the law, in terrifying the conscience, irritating the 
 concupiscence, and compelling the froward heart to an unwill 
 ing and unwelcome conformity. The law is now made our 
 counsellor, a delight to the inner man ; that which was a lion 
 before, hath now food and sweetness in it. 
 q2 
 
2^0 OUR DUTY IN RESPECT TO 
 
 2. Many privileges and dignities, in the virtue of that prin- 
 cipal and general one, which is our unity unto Christ ; from 
 whence, by the fellowship of his holy and quickening Spirit, 
 we have an unction which teacheth us his ways, and his voice, 
 which sanctifieth our nature, by the participation of the 
 Divine nature ; that is, by the renewing of God's most holy 
 and righteous image in us, which sanctifieth our persons, that 
 they may be spiritual kings and priests. Kings, to order our 
 own thoughts, affections, desires, and studies towards him; to 
 fight with principalities, powers, corruptions, and spiritual 
 enemies. Priests, to offer up our bodies, souls, prayers, thanks- 
 givings, alms, and spiritual services upon that altar, which is 
 before his mercy-seat, and to slay and mortify our lusts and 
 earthly members ; which sanctifieth all our actions, that they 
 may be services to him and his church, acceptable to him, and 
 profitable to others. 
 
 From this unity with him grows our adoption, which is 
 another fruit of his sacrifice. He was " made of a woman, 
 made under the law, that we might receive the adoption of 
 sons," Gal. iv. 4, 5. By which we have free access to call 
 upon God in the virtue of his sacrifice ; sure supplies in all 
 our wants, because our heavenly Father knoweth all our 
 needs ; a most certain inheritance, and salvation in hope ; for 
 we are already " saved by hope," Rom. viii. 24, and Christ 
 is to us the " hope of glory," Col. i. 27. 
 
 Again ; there is from hence our exaltation, in our final 
 victory and resurrection, by the fellowship and virtue of 
 his victory over death, as the first-fruits of ours, 1 Cor. 
 XV. 20, 49; Phil. iii. 21. And in our complete salva- 
 tion, being carried on in our souls and bodies, that they 
 may be presented to himself without spot and blameless, 
 Eph. V. 26, 27, and to be brought unto God, 1 Pet. iii. 18. 
 Now, to take all in one view, what a sum of mercy 
 is here together ! Remission of all sins, discharge of all 
 debts, deliverance from all curses; joy, peace, triumph, 
 security, exaltation above all evils, enemies, or fears ; a pe- 
 culiar, purchased, royal seed, (the gift of God the Father 
 to his Son,) deliverance from the dominion and service of all 
 sin, vanity, ignorance, hardness, disobedience, bondage, co- 
 action, terror ; sanctification of our persons, natures, lives, 
 actions ; adoption, hope, victory, resurrection, salvation, glory. 
 Oh, what a price was that which procured it ! Oh, what man- 
 ner of persons ought we to be for whom it was procured ! 
 
 V. The fifth thing to be spoken of about the priesthood of 
 
THE PRIESTHOOD OF CHRIST. 841 
 
 Christ 1 shall quickly despatch, — the duty we owe upon all 
 this. 
 
 1. We should not receive so great a grace in vain, but by 
 faith lay hold upon it, and make use of it. " Let us fear," 
 saith the apostle, " lest, a promise being left us of entering 
 into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it. 
 For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto theiyi : 
 but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed 
 with faith in them that heard it," Heb. iv. 1, 2. God in 
 Christ is reconcileable unto us, one with us in his good 
 will, and in his proclamation of peace. When two parties 
 are at a variance, there is no actual peace without the mutual 
 consent of both again ; till we by faith give our consent, and 
 actually turn unto God, and seek his favour, and lay hold on 
 the mercy which is set before us : though God be one, in 
 that he sendeth a Mediator, and maketh tender of reconcile- 
 ment with us, yet this grace of his is to us in vain, because we 
 continue his enemies still. The sun is set in the heavens for 
 a public light, yet it benefiteth none but those who open their 
 eyes, to admit and make use of its light. A court of justice 
 or equity is a public sanctuary, yet it actually relieveth none 
 but those that seek unto it. Christ is a public and universal 
 salvation, set up for all comers, and applicable to all particu- 
 lars, John iii. 16. " He is not willing that any should 
 perish, but that all should come to repentance," 2 Peter iii. 
 9. He tasted death for every man, Heb. ii. 9. But all this 
 is not beneficial unto life, but only to those that receive him. 
 Only those that receive him are by these mercies of his made 
 the sons of God, John i. 12 : without faith they abide his 
 enemies still. God in Christ publisheth himself a God of 
 peace and unity towards us. Gal. iii. 20 ; and setteth forth 
 Christ as an all-sufficient treasure of mercy to all that, in the 
 sense of their misery, will fly unto him, Rev. xxii. 17. But 
 till men believe, and are thus willing to yield their own con- 
 sents, and to meet his reconciliation towards them, with theirs 
 towards him, his wrath abideth upon them still ; for, by believ- 
 ing only he will have his Son's death actually effectual, though 
 it were sufficient before. Oh, therefore, let us not venture to 
 bear the wrath of God, the curse of sin, the weight of the law, 
 upon our own shoulders, when we have so present a remedy, 
 and so willing a friend at hand to ease us ! 
 
 2. We should labour to feel the virtue of the priesthood 
 and sacrifice of Christ working in us, purging our consciences 
 
342 THE PRIESTHOOD OF CHRIST. 
 
 from dead works, renewing our nature, cleansing us from the 
 power and pollution ol sin ; for when by the hand of faith, 
 and the sweet operations of the Spirit we are therewithal 
 sprinkled, we shall then make it all our study to hate, and to 
 forbear sin, which forced out so precious blood, and wrung 
 such bitter cries from so merciful a High Priest ; to live no 
 lono-er to ourselves, that is, as men, 1 Cor. iii. 3 ; Hosea vi. 
 7, after our own lusts and ways : but (as men that are not 
 their own, but his that bought them,) to live in his service, 
 and to his glory, 1 Cor. vi. 19, 20 ; 2 Cor. v. 14. All that 
 we can do is too little to answer so great love : love to empty 
 himself, to humble himself, to be God in the flesh, to be God 
 on a cross, to take off from us the hatred, fury, and vengeance 
 of his Father, and to restore us to our primitive purity and con- 
 dition again. Why should it be esteemed a needless thing to 
 be most rigorously conscionable, and exactly circumspect, in 
 such a service as unto which we are engaged with so infinite 
 and unsearchable bounty? He paid our debt to the ut- 
 most farthing, drunk every drop of our bitter cup, and saved 
 us thoroughly : why should not we labour to perform his ser- 
 vice, and to fulfil every one of his most sweet commands to 
 the utmost too ? 
 
 3. We should learn to walk before him with all reverence 
 and fear, as men that have received a kingdom which cannot 
 be moved, Heb. xii. 28. And with frequent consideration of 
 the High Priest of our profession, that we may not, in pre- 
 sumption of his mercy, harden our hearts, or depart from God, 
 Heb. iii. 1, 8. But in due remembrance of the end of his 
 sacrifice, which was to purchase to himself a peculiar people, 
 zealous of all good works. Tit. ii. 14. 
 
 4. We should learn confidence and boldness towards Him, 
 who is a great, a faithful, and a merciful High Priest : this 
 use the apostle makes of it ; " Seeing that we have a great 
 High Priest, let us hold fast our profession, and come boldly 
 unto the throne of grace," Heb. iv. 14 — 16. And again ; 
 " Having therefore boldness to enter into the holiest by the 
 blood of Jesus ; and having an High Priest over the house 
 of God ; let us draw near with a true heart, in full assurance 
 of faith,' Heb. x. 19—22. 
 
 5. We learn perseverance and stedfastness in our profession, 
 because he is able to carry us through, and save us to the 
 utmost. This is that which indeed makes us partakers of 
 Christ. " We are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the 
 
THE ORDER OF CHRlSX's PRIESTHOOD. 343 
 
 beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end," Heb. iii. 
 14. The considering of him, of his perseverance in finishing 
 of his own work, and our faith, and his power and ablhty 
 to save us to the uttermost, will keep us from fainting in 
 our service and the profession we have taken, Heb. xii. 2, 3 ; 
 X. 23. 
 
 6. We have hereby access to present our prayers, and all 
 our spiritual sacrifices upon this altar, sprinkled with the blood 
 of that great sacrifice, and liberty to come unto God by him 
 who liveth to make intercession for us, Heb. vii. 25. " In 
 whom we have access with confidence by the faith of him," 
 Eph. iii. 12. Therefore the Lord is said to have his eyes 
 open to our prayers, to hearken unto them, 1 Kings viii. 52 ; 
 because he first looketh upon our persons in Christ, before he 
 receiveth or admitteth any of our services. 
 
 7. We ought frequently to celebrate the memory, and to 
 commemorate the benefits of this sacrifice wherein God hath 
 been so much glorified, and we so wonderfully saved. There- 
 fore the Lord hath of purpose instituted a sacred ordinance in 
 his church, in the room of the paschal lamb, that as that was 
 a prefiguration of Christ's expected death, so this should to 
 all ages of the church be a resemblance and commemoration 
 of the same exhibited. " As often as ye eat this bread, and 
 drink this cup, ye do show the Lord's death till he come,'* 
 1 Cor, xi. 26. For in the ordinances he is crucified before 
 our eyes, Gal. iii. 1 ; therefore the apostle, more than once, 
 infers from the consideration of this sacrifice and office of 
 Christ, our duty of not forsaking the assemblies of the saints, 
 and of exhorting and provoking one another, Heb. iii. 13; 
 X. 24, 25. 
 
 I now proceed to the last thing mentioned in the words 
 concerning the priesthood of Christ, and that is about the 
 order of it : — " Thou art . a Priest for ever after the order of 
 Melchizedek." Of this Melchizedek, we find mention 
 made but in two places only in the Old Testament, and 
 in both very briefly ; the first in the history of Abraham, 
 returning from the slaughter of the kings, when Melchizedek, 
 being the priest of the most high God, brought forth bread 
 and wine, and blessed him, Gen. xiv. 18 — 20; and the other 
 in this place. And for this cause the things concerning him 
 and his order are hard to be understood, Heb. v. 11. It 
 was so then, and so it would be still, if St. Paul had not 
 
344 THE ORDER OF CHRIST S PRIESTHOOD. 
 
 cleared the difficulties, and showed wherein the type and the 
 antitype did fully answer ; which he hath largely done in 
 Heb. vii. 
 
 For understanding and clearing the particulars which are 
 herein considerable, here are some questions which offer them- 
 selves, 1. Who Melchizedek was? 2. What is meant by 
 "his order?" 3. Why Christ was to be a Priest after his 
 order, and not after Aaron's? 4. Why he brought forth 
 bread and wine ? 5. What kind of blessing it was with 
 which he blessed Abraham? 6. In what sense he was 
 without father and without mother, without beginning of days 
 or end of life ? 
 
 1 . For Melchizedek, who he was, much hath been said by 
 many men, and with much confidence. Some heretics of 
 old affirmed that he was the Holy Ghost. Others, that he 
 •was an angel. Others, that he was Shem, the son of Noah. 
 Others, that he was a Canaanite, extraordinarily raised up by 
 God to be a priest of the gentiles. Others, that he was Christ 
 himself, manifested by a special dispensation and privilege 
 unto Abraham in the flesh, who is said to have seen his day, 
 and rejoiced, John viii. 56. Difference also there is about 
 Salem, the place of which he was king. Some take it for 
 Jerusalem, as Josephus, and most of the ancients. Others, 
 for a city in the half tribe of Manasseh, within the river Jor- 
 dan, w^here Hierom reports that sOme ruins of the palace of 
 Melchizedek were in his days conceived to remain. I might 
 be tedious in insisting on this point, who Melchizedek was : 
 but when I find the Holy Ghost purposely concealing his 
 name, genealogy, beginning, ending, and descent, and that to 
 special purpose, I cannot but wonder that men should toil 
 themselves in the dark to find out that of which they have 
 not the least ground of solid conjecture, and the want of evi- 
 dence whereof is expressly recorded, to make Melchizedek 
 thereby the fitter type of Christ's everlasting priesthood. 
 
 2. What is meant by " his order ?" It is as much as the 
 state, condition, or prescribed rule of Melchizedek ; and that 
 was " after the power of an endless life," Heb. vii. 16. Not 
 by a corporeal unction, legal ceremony, or the intervening act 
 of a human ordination, but by a heavenly institution, and im- 
 mediate unction of the Spirit of life ; by that extraordinary 
 manner whereby he was to be both King and Priest unto God, 
 as Melchizedek was. 
 
 3. Why was he not a Priest after the order of Aaron ? 
 
THE ORDER OF CHRIST's PRIESTHOOD. 345 
 
 The apostle givcth us this answer, because " the law made 
 nothmg perfect," but was " weak and unprofitable,'* and there- 
 fore was to be abolished, and to give place to another priest- 
 hood. Men were not to rest in it, but by it to be led to Him 
 who was to aboHsh it, Heb. vii. 11, 12; as the morning-star 
 leadeth to the sun, and at the rising thereof vanisheth. The 
 ministry and promises of Christ were better than those of the 
 law; and therefore his priesthood, which was the office of 
 dispensing them, was to be more excellent likewise, Heb. viii. 
 6, For when the law and covenant were to be abolished, 
 the priesthood, in which they were established, was to die 
 likewise. 
 
 4. Why Melchizedek brought forth bread and wine ? 
 The papists, that they may have something to build the 
 idolatry of their mass upon, make Melchizedek to sacrifice 
 bread and wine, as a type of the eucharist. I will not fall 
 into so tedious a controversy, as no way tending to edification ; 
 and infinite litigations there have been between the parties 
 already about it. In one word ; we grant that the ancients do 
 frequently make it a type of the eucharist, but only by way 
 of allusion, not of literal prediction, or strict prefiguration ; like 
 that, " Out of Egypt have I called my Son," and, " In Rama 
 was there a voice heard," which were literally and historically 
 true in another sense, are yet, by way of allusion, applied by 
 the evangelist unto the history of Christ, Matt. ii. 15, 18. 
 But we may note : it is, he brought it forth, he did not offer 
 it up. He brought it forth to Abraham as a prince to en- 
 tertain him after his conquest, as Josephus, and from him 
 Cajetan understand it ; not as a priest to God. If he did 
 offer, he offered bread and wine truly ; these men, only the 
 lying shapes thereof, and not bread and wine itself, which they 
 say are transubstantiated into another thing. The priesthood 
 of Melchizedek, as type, and of Christ as the substance, was 
 a priesthood which could not pass unto any other, either as 
 successor or vicar, to one or the other, and it was only by 
 Divine and immediate unction ; but the papists make them- 
 selves priest by human and ecclesiastical ordination, to offer 
 that which they say Melchizedek offered : and by that means 
 most insolently make themselves either successors, or vicars, 
 or sharers, and co-partners, and workers together with him 
 and his antitype, Christ Jesus, in the offices of such a 
 priesthood as was totally uncommunicable, and intransient, 
 Heb. vii. 24 ; and so most sacrilegiously rob him of that 
 Q 5 
 
346 THE ORDER OF CHRIST's PRIESTHOOD. 
 
 honour which he hath assumed to himself as his pecuHar 
 office. 
 
 5. What kind of blessing it was wherewith Melchizedek 
 blessed Abraham? To this I answer, that there is a two-fold 
 benediction. The one out of love, and so any man may bless 
 another by way of well-wishing : " The blessing of the Lord 
 be upon you : we bless you in the name of the Lord," Psa. 
 exxix. 8 ; the other with authority, as a king, a priest, an ex- 
 traordinary superior and public person, by a way of office, and 
 to the purpose of effecting, and real conveying the blessing 
 itself desired : " Without all contradiction," saith the apostle, 
 " the less is blessed of the better," Heb. vii. 7 ; and such was 
 this of Melchizedek, a seal, assurance, and effectual confirma- 
 tion of the promise before made, Gen. xii. 2, 3. 
 
 6. In what manner he received tithes ? I answer, with 
 Calvin, that he received them as testifications of homage, 
 duty, and obedience from Abraham ; for the apostle useth it 
 as an argument to prove his greatness above Abraham, which 
 could be no argument in the case of pure gift : since gifts, as 
 gifts, though they prove not a general inferiority in him that 
 receives them, yet they prove, that in that case there is some- 
 thing which may be imputed, and which deserves acknow- 
 ledgment. But in this particular all the acknowledgments 
 are from Abraham to Melchizedek. Besides, nothing was 
 here, by Abraham or Melchizedek, done after an arbitrary 
 manner, but according to the extraordinary influences of the 
 Holy Spirit, and officially on both sides, as the learned Came- 
 ron hath observed. 
 
 7. In what sense he was without father, mother, or gene- 
 alogy ? I answer, with Chrysostom, that it is not meant 
 literally and strictly ; but only the Scripture takes notice of 
 him as an extraordinary man, without signifying his line, be- 
 ginning, end, or race, (as Tiberius said of Rufus, that he was 
 a man born out of himself,) that so he might be the fitter to 
 typify Christ's person and excellency, in whom those things 
 were really true, which are only spoken of the type, of whose 
 beginning, end, or parentage, we neither have, nor^ can have 
 any knowledge. These things thus premised, it will be easy 
 for you to anticipate those observations, which grow between 
 the type and the antitype, which therefore I will but cursorily 
 propose. 
 
 1. Christ's priesthood is such as did induce a kingdom 
 with it ; for Melchizedek was " king of Salem, and priest of 
 
THE ORDER OF CHRIST's PRIESTHOOD. 347 
 
 the most high God." This, Jerome, and from him Am- 
 brose, report to have been meant by the order of Melchizedek, 
 namely, that Christ was to be a royal Priest. By way of 
 merit purchasing a kingdom of his Father, and by way of 
 conquest recovering it to himself out of the hands of his 
 enemies. 
 
 2. Christ, by offering up himself a sacrifice unto God, is 
 become unto his people a King of righteousness, or, the Lord 
 our righteousness, in which sense he is called " the Prince of 
 Hfe," Acts iii. 15 ; that is, he hath all power given him as a 
 Prince, to quicken, and to justify whom he will, John v. 20, 
 21. And this comes from his sacrifice and perfect obedience 
 to us imputed, and by faith employed and apprehended ; for 
 having fulfilled the righteousness of the law, and justified him- 
 self by rising from the dead, he became, being thus made 
 perfect, the Author of righteousness and salvation to us, Heb. 
 v. 9. We had in us a whole kingdom of sin, and therefore 
 there was in him that should justify us, a kingdom of grace 
 and righteousness ; " that as sin hath reigned unto death, 
 even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal 
 life by Jesus Christ our Lord," Rom. v. 21 ; and therefore 
 we are said to be justified by the righteousness of God, Rom. 
 iii. 21, 22; that is, such a righteousness as is ours by gift 
 and grace, not by nature, Rom. x. 4 ; and such a righteous- 
 ness as God himself did perform, though in the human nature, 
 in our behalf, Acts xx. 28 ; Phil. ii. 6 — 8. 
 
 And this is the ground of all our comfort, the best direc- 
 tion in all our miseries and extremities whither to flee. A 
 king is the greatest officer amongst men, and his honour and 
 state is for the support, defence, and honour of his people : 
 he is the father and the keeper of the laws. If I want any 
 of that justice and equity, of which his sacred bosom is the 
 public treasure, I may freely beg it of him, because he is an 
 officer to dispense righteousness unto his subjects ; so also is 
 Christ unto his church. I find myself in a miserable con- 
 dition, condemned of sin by the conscience, by the testimony 
 of the word, by the accusations of Satan, and full of discomforts. 
 God is a God of justice, and a consuming fire ; myself a 
 creature of sin, and all stubble ; Satan the accuser of the 
 brethren, who labours to blow up the wrath of God against 
 me. In this case what shall I do ? Surely God hath set 
 his King on Zion ; and he is a King who hath life and 
 righteousness to give to me ; who hath grace enough to 
 
348 THE ORDER OF CHRIST S PRIESTHOOD. 
 
 quench all sin, and the envenomed darts of Satan ; in whom 
 there is erected a court of peace and mercy, whereunto to ap- 
 peal from the severity of God, from the importunity of the 
 devil, and from the accusations and testimonies of our own 
 hearts. And indeed he had need be a king of righteousness 
 who shall justify men ; for our justification is in the remission 
 of our sins ; and to pardon sins, and dispense with laws is a 
 regal dignity ; and God taketh it as his own high and peculiar 
 prerogative, " I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy trans- 
 gressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins," 
 Isa. xliii. 25. No man, nor angel, nor created power, no 
 merit nor obedience, no rivers of oil nor mountains of cattle, 
 no prayers, tears, nor torments, can wipe out the stains, nor 
 remove the guilt of any sin ; I only, even I, and none else 
 can do it. None but a Divine and royal power can subdue 
 sin, Micah vii. 18. 
 
 And this is aground of another comfort, that being a King 
 of righteousness, he is rich in it, and hath treasures to bestow ; 
 that as we have a kingdom, a treasure, and abundance of sin ; 
 so we have a King who hath always a residue of Spirit and 
 grace, who hath a most redundant righteousness from faith to 
 faith, Rom. i. 17. A man's faith can never overgrow the 
 righteousness of our King. If we had all the faith that ever 
 was in the world put into one man, it could not over-clasp the 
 righteousness of Christ, or be too big for it. As if a man had 
 a thousand eyes, and they should one after another look on 
 the sun, yet still the light would be revealed from eye to eye ; 
 or as if a man should go up by ten thousand steps to the top 
 of the highest mountain, yet he could never overlook all the 
 earth, or fix his eye beyond all visible objects, but should still 
 have more earth and heaven discovered unto him from step to 
 step ; so there is an immensity in the righteousness and mercy 
 of God, which cannot be exhausted by any sins, or over- 
 looked and comprehended by any faith of men. As God 
 doth more and more reveal himself, and the righteousness of 
 Christ unto the soul, so man maketh further progresses from 
 faith to faith. And therefore, we should learn everlasting 
 thankfulness unto this our King, who is pleased to be unto us 
 a Melchizedek — a Priest to satisfy his Father's justice, and a 
 Prince to bestow his own. 
 
 3. Melchizedek was king of Salem, that is, "of peace." Here 
 are two things to be noted ; the place, a city of the Canaan- 
 ites ; and the signification thereof, which is peace ; 
 
THE ORDER OF CHRIST's PRIESTHOOD. 349 
 
 (.1.) Then we must observe, that Christ is a Kiufr of Ca- 
 ll aanites, of gentiles, of those that lived in abominable lusts : 
 " Such were some of you ; but ye are washed, but ye are 
 sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus," 
 1 Cor. vi. 11. Be a man ever so sinful or unclean, he hath 
 not enough to pose or nonplus the mercy and righteousness of 
 Christ : he can bring reconciliation and peace amongst Jebu- 
 sites themselves ; though our father were an Amorite, our 
 mother an Hittite ; though we were gentiles estranged from 
 God in our thoughts, lives, hopes, ends ; though we had jus- 
 tified Sodom and Samaria by our abominations, yet he can 
 make us nigh by his blood, he can make our crimson sins as 
 wnite as snow, he can for all that establish an everlasting co- 
 venant unto us, Eph. ii. 11, 13; Isa. i. 18; Ezek. xvi. 60. 
 I was a blasphemer, a persecutor, very injurious to the Spirit 
 of grace in his saints ; I wasted, I worried, I haled into pri- 
 son, I breathed out threatenings, I was mad, and made havoc 
 of the church ; I was within one step of the unpardonable sin, 
 nothing but ignorance between that and my soul ; " Howbeit 
 for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ 
 might show forth all long -suffering, for a pattern to them which 
 should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting," saith St. 
 Paul, 1 Tim. i. 13, 16. Let us make St. Paul's use of it: 
 1. To love and to believe in Christ, to accept as a most 
 faithful and worthy saying, that Christ came to save sinners ; 
 indefinitely, without restriction, without limitation ; and me, 
 though the chiefest of all others. Though I had more sins 
 than earth or hell can lay upon me, yet if I feel them as heavy 
 weights, and if I am willing to forsake them all, let me not 
 dishonour the power and unsearchable riches of Christ's blood ; 
 even for such a sinner there is mercy. 2. To break forth into 
 St. Paul's acknowledgment, " Now unto the King eternal, 
 immortal, invisible, and only wise God ;" to him that is a 
 King of righteousness, and therefore hath abundance for me, 
 that is eternal, and yet was born in time for me ; immortal, 
 yet died for me ; invisible, yet was manifested in tlie flesh for 
 me ; the only wise God, and who made use of that wisdom, 
 to reconcile himself to me, and by the foolishness of preach- 
 ing doth save the world, " be honour and glory for ever and 
 ever. Amen." 
 
 (2.) From the signification of the word, we may note, 
 where Christ is a King of righteousness, he is also a King of 
 peace. So the prophet calleth him, " the Prince of peace," 
 
350 THE ORDER OF CHRIST S PRIESTHOOD 
 
 Isa. ix. 6 ; a Creator and Dispenser of peace. It is his own by 
 propriety and purchase, and he leaves it unto us : " Peace I 
 leave with you, my peace I give unto you : not as the world 
 o-iveth, give I unto you," John xiv. 27. The world either 
 deceives, or is deficient ; but peace is mine, and I can give it. 
 Therefore, as the prophet Jeremiah calleth him by the name of 
 rif^hteousness, Jer. xxxiii. 16, so the prophet Micah calleth 
 him by the name of peace ; '* This man shall be the peace 
 when the Assyrian shall come into our land," Micah v. 5. To 
 which St. Paul alluding, calleth him, our peace, Eph. ii. 14. 
 By him we have peace with God, being reconciled ; and 
 again, " Being justified by faith, we have peace with God 
 through our Lord Jesus Christ," Rom. v. 1 ; so that the 
 heart can challenge all the world to lay anything to its charge. 
 By him we have peace with our own consciences ; for being 
 sprinkled with his blood, they are cleansed from dead works, 
 and so we have the witness in ourselves, as the apostle speak- 
 eth, Heb. ix. 14 ; 1 John v. 10. By him we have peace with 
 men. No more malice, envy, or hatred of one another, after 
 once the kindness and love of God our Saviour towards men 
 appeared. Tit. iii. 3, 4. All partition walls are taken down, 
 and they which were two before, are both made one in him, 
 Eph. ii. 14. And then there is towards the brethren, a love of 
 communion ; towards the weak, a love of pity ; towards the poor, 
 a love of bounty, either brotherly love, or general love ; to- 
 wards those without, mercy, charity, compassion, forgiveness ; 
 towards all, good works, 2 Pet. i. 7. By him we have peace 
 with the creatures, we use them with comfort, with liberty, 
 with delight, with piety, with charity, with mercy, as glasses 
 in the which we see, and as steps by the which we draw 
 nearer to God. No rust in our gold or silver ; no moth, nor 
 pride in our garment ; no lewdness in our liberty ; no hand 
 against the wall ; no flying roll against the stone or beam of 
 the house ; no gravel in our bread ; no gall in our drink ; no 
 snare on our table ; no fears in our bed ; no destruction in our 
 prosperity : in all states we can rejoice ; we can do and suflTer 
 all through Christ that sirengtheneth us. We are under the 
 custody of peace ; it keeps our hearts and minds from fear of 
 enemies, and maketh us serve the Lord with confidence, bold- 
 ness, and security, Phil. iv. 7. " The work of righteousness 
 shall be peace ; and the effect of righteousness quietness and 
 assurance for ever," Isa. xxxii. 17. 
 
 4. From both these, that is, from a peace grounded in 
 
THE ORDER OF CHRIST's PRIESTHOOD. 351 
 
 righteousness, blessedness must needs result; for it is tlie 
 blessedness of a creature to be re-united and one with his 
 Maker ; to have all controversies ended, all distances swallowed 
 up, all partitions taken down ; and therefore the apostle useth 
 .righteousness and blessedness as promiscuous terms, Rom. iv. 
 5, 9. All men seek for blessedness, it is the sum and collec- 
 tion of all desires ; a man loveth nothing but in order and sub- 
 ordination unto that. And by nature we are all children of 
 wrath, and held under by the cuFse ; so many sins as we have 
 committed, so many deaths and curses have we heaped upon 
 our souls, so many walls of separation have we set up between 
 us and God, who is the fountain of blessedness. Till they be 
 all covered, removed, forgiven, and forgotten, the creature cannot 
 be blessed : " Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, 
 and whose sins are covered," Rom. iv. 7. All the benedic- 
 tions which we have from the most high God, come unto us 
 from the intercession and mediation of Christ. His sacrifice 
 and prayers give us interest in the all-sufficiency of Him that 
 is above all, and so are a security unto us against all adverse 
 power or fear ; for what or whom need that man fear, that is 
 one with the most high God ? " If God be for us, who can 
 be against us?" Rom. viii. 31. When God blesseth, his 
 blessing is ever with effect and success ; it cannot be reversed, 
 it cannot be disappointed : " Hath he said, and shall he not 
 do it ? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good ? 
 Behold,'' saith Balaam, " I have received commandment to 
 bless : and he hath blessed ; and I cannot reverse it," Numb, 
 xxiii. 19, 20. 
 
 5. From Melchizedek's meeting Abraham returning from 
 the slaughter of the kings, we may observe the great forward- 
 ness that is in Christ to meet and to bless his people, when 
 they have been in his service: " Thou meetest him that re- 
 joiceth, and worketh righteousness," Isa. Ixiv. 5. " I said, I 
 will confess my transgressions ; and thou forgavest the iniquity 
 of my sin," Psa. xxxii. 5. No sooner did David resolve in 
 his heart to return to God, but immediately the Lord was be- 
 fore him with his mercy, and anticipated his servant's confes- 
 sion with pardon and forgiveness : " Thou preventest him with 
 the blessings of goodness," Psa. xxi. 3. As the father of the 
 prodigal, " when he was yet a great way off'," far from that 
 perfection which might in strictness be required, yet because 
 he had set his face homeward, and was now resolved to sue 
 for pardon and re-admittance, when he saw him, " he had 
 
352 THE ORDER OF CHRIST S PRIESTHOOD. 
 
 compassion, and ran" (the father's mercy was swifter than the 
 son's repentance) " and fell on his neck, and kissed him," 
 Luke XV. 20, We do not find the Lord hasty in his punish- 
 ments ; he is slow to anger, and doth not stir up all his wrath 
 together. He is patient and long-suftering, " not willing that 
 any should perish, hut that all should come to repentance ;" 
 lie comes, and he comes again, and the third year he forbears, 
 before he cuts down a barren tree : but when he comes with a 
 blessing, he doth not delay, but prevents his people with 
 goodness and mercy. Oh, how forward ought we to be 
 to serve him, who is so ready to meet us in his way, and 
 to bless us ! 
 
 6. From the refreshments and preparations which Melchi- 
 zedek made for Abraham and for his men, we may observe, 
 that Christ, as King and Priest, is a comforter and refresher of 
 his people in all their spiritual weariness, and after all their 
 services. This was the end of his unction, to heal and to 
 comfort his people : " The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, 
 because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the 
 poor ; he hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach 
 deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the 
 blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the 
 acceptable year of the Lord," Luke iv. 18, 19, To provide 
 " a feast of fat things, a feast of wine on the lees, of fat things 
 full of marrow, of wine on the lees well refined," Isa. xxv. 6. 
 To milk out unto his people consolations and abundance of 
 glory, Isa. Ixvi. 11. To speak words in season to those that 
 are weary, and to make broken and dry bones to rejoice, and 
 to flourish like an herb, Isa. 1. 4 ; Psa. li. 8 ; Isa. Ivi. 14, 
 And this is a strong argument to hold up the patience, faith, 
 and hope of men in his service, and in all spiritual assaults ; 
 we have a Melchizedek who after our combat is ended, and 
 our victory obtained, will give us refreshments at the last, and 
 will meet us with his mercies. If we faint not, but wait 
 awhile, we shall see the salvation of the Lord, that in the 
 end " he is very pitiful, and of tender mercy," Exod. xiv. IS ; 
 Jam. v. 11. " He is near at hand, his coming draweth nigh: 
 he is near that justifieth me ; who will contend with me ? Let 
 us stand together : who is mine adversary ? let him come near 
 to me,'' Isa. 1. 8, 9. The readiness of the Lord to help is 
 a ground of challenge and defiance to enemies, Phil. iv. 5 ; 
 Jam. V. 8. Job went forth mourning, and had a great war 
 to fight ; but the Lord blessed his latter end more than his 
 
THE ORDER OF CHRIST's PRIESTHOOD. 353 
 
 beginning, and after his battle was ended, met him like Mel- 
 chizedek with redoubled mercies. David, Hezekiah, Heman 
 the Ezrahite, and many of the saints after their example, have 
 had sore and dismal conflicts, but at length their conflicts have 
 been proportionable to their wrestlings ; they never wanted a 
 Melchizedek after their combats to refresh them. " Rpjoicc 
 not against me, O mine enemy ; when I fall, I shall arise ; 
 when I sit in darkness, the Lord shall be a light unto me. I 
 will bear the indignation of the Lord, because I have sinned 
 against him, until he plead my cause, and execute judgment 
 for me ; he will bring me forth to the light, and I shall behold 
 his righteousness," Mic. vii. 8, 9. He hath strength, cou- 
 rage, refreshment, and spirit, to put into those that fight his 
 battles ; though they be but as Abraham, a family of three 
 hundred men, against four kings, yet he can cut Rahab, and 
 wound the dragon, and make a way in the sea for the ran- 
 somed to pass over, and cause his redeemed to return with 
 singing, and with joy and gladness upon their heads. " I, 
 even I, am he that comforteth you ; who art thou, that 
 shouldst be afraid of a man that shall die, and of the son of 
 man which shall be as grass ?" Isa. li. 12. 
 
 7. From Melchizedek's receivhig of tithes from Abraham, 
 (which the apostle taketh special notice of four or five times 
 together in one chapter, Heb. vii. 2, 4, 6, 8, 9,) we may ob- 
 serve, that Christ is a receiver of homage and tribute from his 
 people. There was never any type of Christ as a Priest, but 
 he received tithes ; and that not in the right of anything in 
 himself, but merely in the virtue of his typical office ; so that 
 originally they did manifestly pertain to that principal Priest, 
 whom these represented, whose personal priesthood is stand- 
 ing, unalterable, and eternal, and therefore the rights thereunto 
 belonging are such too. 
 
 Not to enter upon any disputes or unwelcome controversies, 
 thus much I cannot by the way but observe, that those who 
 labour in the word and doctrine, and therein are ambassadors 
 for Christ, and stand in his stead, to reveal the mysteries and 
 dispense the treasures of his grace in the church, ought to 
 have, by way of homage to Christ, and by way of recompense 
 and retribution to themselves, a liberal maintenance, befitting 
 the honour and dignity of that person whom they represent, 
 and of that service wherein they minister. The apostle saith, 
 that they are worthy of double honour, an honour of reve- 
 rence, and an honour of maintenance, 1 Tim. v. 17, 18 ; and 
 
354 THE ORDER OF CHRIST S PRIESTHOOD. 
 
 doubtless the very heathen shall rise up in judgment against 
 many who profess the truth in both these respects ; for the 
 heathen themselves did show so much honour to their idol- 
 atrous priests, that I remember reading of one of the Roman 
 consuls seeing a priest, and some vestal virgins going on foot, 
 and he riding on his chariot, descended, and would not go into 
 it again, till those diabolical votaries were first placed. Nay, 
 their very kings and emperors in Greece, Egypt, and Home, 
 thought it one of the greatest honours to be withal the priests 
 for the people. 
 
 Liberal maintenance is due to those that labour in the word 
 and doctrine, out of justice, and not out of mercy, for their 
 work's sake. I will not press the examples of heathens them- 
 selves in this duty for the shame of christians. We find that 
 the priests of Egypt had portions out of the king's own trea- 
 suries, and that their lands were still reserved unto them, Gen. 
 xlvii. 22. And we find besides these lands, that they had the 
 third part of all yearly tribute and levies, as Diodorus Siculus 
 tells us. But we vnll first look upon the example of God's 
 own priests and levites under the law ; and then upon the 
 precepts and commands of the gospel. God is not less mind- 
 ful of ministers under the gospel, than of those under the law. 
 Now then, if you will not believe that a liberal maintenance is 
 now by God allotted unto the ministry, look what he did allot 
 to them. Look upon the proportion cf their persons, and 
 then upon the proportion of their maintenance. For their per- 
 sons : it would not be hard to prove that the tribe of Levi, 
 though the thirteenth part of the people in regard of their 
 civil division, were not yet the fortieth part of the people ; 
 look unto the numbering of them, and compare Numb. i. 46 
 with Numb. iii. 39. The other tribes were numbered from 
 twenty years old and upward, all that were able to bear arms, 
 which was to the age of fifty years, as Josephus reports ; (for 
 at that age they were supposed to be unserviceable for war ;) 
 and yet thus their number amounted to six hundred and three 
 thousand five hundred and fifty men able to go to war. The 
 levites, on the other side, were numbered from one month old 
 and upward, and yet the whole sum amounted but to twenty and 
 two thousand. Now, conjecture the number of those in the other 
 tribes who were under twenty years of age, and who were too 
 old for warlike service to be but half as many as the rest, yet 
 the whole number of the tribes reckoned from their infancy 
 upward will amount, at the least, to nine hundred two thousand 
 
THE ORDER OF CHRIST's PRIESTHOOD. 355 
 
 men. Of which number, the number of the levites is just the 
 one and fortieth part. Afterwards we find that they increased to 
 a mighty number more, 1 Chron. xxiii. 3 ; but the whole people 
 mcreased accordingly; for the tribe of Judah, which was before 
 but seventy-four thousand, was then five hundred thousand ; 
 and, in Jehoshaphat's time, eleven hundred thousand at least, 
 2 Sam. xxiv. 9 ; 2 Chron. xvii. 12 — 19 ; well then, the levites 
 were but the fortieth part of the people, (not so much,) so 
 that this tribe was but almost a quarter as numerous as the 
 rest. Now look, in the next place, to the proportion of their 
 maintenance. One would think that the fortieth part of the 
 people could require but the fortieth part of the maintenance 
 in proportion. But, 1. They had the tenth of all the increase 
 of seed, and fruit, and great and small cattle. Lev. xxvii. 30. 
 2, They had forty-eight cities, with suburbs for gardens, and 
 for cattle. Numb. xxxv. 2 — 7. Which cities were next to 
 the best, and in many tribes the best of all ; in Judah, Heb- 
 ron, in Benjamin, Gibeon, both royal cities ; so that those, 
 with about a mile suburb to every one of them, can come to 
 little less than the wealth of one tribe alone, in that little 
 country, which, from Dan to Beersheba, was about a hundred 
 and sixty miles long. 3. They had all the first-fruits of clean 
 and unclean beasts, Numb, xviii. 13: of the fruits of the 
 earth and the fleece of the sheep, Deut. xviii. 4 ; Neh. x. 35 : 
 of men to be redeemed. Numb, xviii. 15. 4. The meat of- 
 ferings, the sin offerings, the trespass offerings, the heave 
 offerings, and the wave offerings, were all theirs, Numb, xviii. 
 9 — 11. 5. They had all vows, and voluntary oblations, and 
 consecrations, and every hallowed thing. Numb, xviii. 8, 9. 
 6. Excepting the holocaust, they had either the shoulder, or 
 the breast, or the skin, or something of every sacrifice which 
 was offered, Numb, xviii. 18; Lev. vii. ; Deut. xviii. 3. 7. 
 The males were to appear three times a year before the Lord, 
 and they were not to come empty-handed, Exod, xxiii. 15, 17. 
 8. Unto them did belong many recompenses of injury, which 
 was the restitution of the principal, and a fifth part. Numb. 
 V. 7, 8. Now, put the tithes, the cities, and these other con- 
 stant revenues together, and the priests and levites, who were 
 but about a quarter as many as one tribe, had yet about three 
 times the revenues of one tribe. 
 
 But to leave this argument, let us consider what the 
 apostle saith : " Let him that is taught in the word commu- 
 nicate unto him that teacheth," in all his goods, as Beza well 
 
356 THE ORDER OF CHRIST's PRIESTHOOD. 
 
 expounds it, Gal. vi. 6. " The elders that labour in the 
 word and doctrine are counted worthy of double honour. For 
 the Scripture saith, Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth 
 out the corn. And, The labourer is worthy of his reward," 
 1 Tim. V. 17, 18. " Whogoeth a warfare at any time of his 
 own charges ? who planteth a vineyard, and eateth not of the 
 fruit tliereof ? or who feedeth a flock, and eateth not of the 
 milk of the flock? Say I these things as a man," (that is, 
 am I partial ? do I speak merely out of affection, and human 
 favour to mine own cause, or calHng ?) or " saith not the law 
 the same also ? For it is written in the law of Moses, Thou 
 .shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn. 
 Doth God take care for oxen ? Or saith he it altogether for 
 our sakes." That is, doth God provide laws for rewarding 
 and encouraging the labour of brute beasts, and doth he leave 
 the maintenance and honour of his own immediate officers to 
 the arbitrary and pinching allowances of covetous and cruel 
 men ? " For our sakes, no doubt, this is written. That he 
 that plougheth should plough in hope ; and that he that 
 thresheth in hope should be partaker of his hope." That is, 
 that the encouragement of the ministers in their service might 
 depend upon such a hope as is grounded on God's law and 
 provision, and that they might not be left to the wills and 
 allowances of those men against whose sins they were sent. 
 And this the apostle proveth by an argument drawn from a 
 most answerable equity ; " If we have sown unto you spiritual 
 things, is it a great thing if we shall reap your carnal things ?" 
 If you do rightly judge of those heavenly treasures which we 
 bring in abundance unto you, impossible it is that you should 
 judge our pains and service towards your immortal and pre 
 cious souls sufficiently rewarded with a narrow and hungry 
 proportion of earthly and perishable things. " Do ye not 
 know that they which minister about holy things, live of the 
 things of the temple ? and they which wait at the altar are 
 partakers with the altar :" (to note, that they receive their 
 maintenance from the hand of God himself, whose only the 
 things of the altar are, and not from men :) " Even so hath 
 the Lord ordained that they which preach the gospel should 
 live by the gospel," 1 Cor. ix. 7 — 11, 13, 14. And what is it 
 to live ? They must live as men, they must have for neces- 
 sity and for delight. They must hve as believers. " He that 
 provideth not for his own is worse than an infidel," 1 Tim. v, 
 8. They must therefore have by the gospel sufficient to lav 
 
THE ORDER OF CHRIST's PRIESTHOOD. 357 
 
 up for those whom the law of common humanity, much more 
 of faith, commands them to provide for. They must hve as 
 ministers. They must have wherewith to maintain the duties 
 of their calhng, a good example of piety, and charity, anj 
 hospitality, that they may confirm by practice what in doc- 
 trine they teach, 1 Tun. iii. 2. And the instruments of "their 
 calling, which is a profession of so vast and unlimited a com- 
 pass of learning, (for there is no part of learning in the whole 
 circle thereof which is not helpful, and may not contribute to 
 the understanding of holy Scripture, and to some jiart or other 
 of a divine employment,) cannot but be very ciiargeablo. 
 And alas I how many men preach the gospel, and yet can 
 scarcely find the first and meanest of all these sup])Hes ! This 
 is the greatest inoratitude of the world, and withal the malice 
 and policy of Satan, by the poverty and contempt of the mi- 
 nisters, to bring the gospel itself into contempt, and to deter 
 able men from adventuring on so unrewarded a calling, as 
 Calvin justly complains. All that can with colour or coun- 
 tenance be pretended by those who are guilty of this neglect, 
 is poverty and disability to maintain the gospel. And it 
 were well if there were not places to be found wherein dogs 
 and horses, hawks and hounds grow fat with God's portion ; 
 and the mercenary preacher, when he grows lean with want, 
 is accused of too much study. But suppose that poverty be 
 truly alleged ; do we think poverty a just pretext for the neg- 
 lect of a moral duty ? May a man spend the Lord's-day in 
 his business because he is poor, and wants means ? And if I 
 may not rob God of his time, upon pretence of poverty, neither 
 then is the same any argument to rob him of his portion. 
 " Be not deceived, God is not mocked," Gal. vi. 7 ; namely, 
 with pretence of poverty and necessity, as Calvin expounds 
 that place. St. Paul bears witness unto some men, that they 
 did good beyond their power, that they were richly liberal, 
 though they were deeply poor, 2 Cor. viii. 2, 3 ; and yet 
 those were but contributions out of mercy, whereas double 
 honour is due to the ministers of the gospel by a law of jus- 
 tice. It is a wrong and foolish apology to pretend the pu- 
 nishment for the continuance of tlie fault. The poverty of 
 many men is doubtless a just recompense for their neglect 
 of the honour of the gospel ; for God hath ever severely 
 punished the contempt and dishonour done to his mes- 
 sengers, 2 Chron. xvi. 10, 12 ; xxiv. 21, 25; xxvi. 19, 20; 
 xxxvi. 16, 17. Whereas, on the other side, do thou deal 
 
358 THE ORDER OF CHRIST S PRIESTHOOD. 
 
 faithfully with God, fulfil to thy power his appointment and 
 decree, that they which preach the gospel, may live by the 
 gospel, and then hearken unto God : " Honour the Lord 
 with thy substance, and with the first-fruits of all thine in- 
 crease ; so shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses 
 shall burst out with new wine," Prov. iii. 9, 10. " Consider 
 now from this day and upward, from the day that the founda- 
 tion of the Lord's temple was laid, consider it. Is the seed 
 yet in the barn ? From this day will I bless you," Hag. ii. 
 18, 19. " Ye are cursed with a curse; for ye have robbed 
 me, even this whole nation. Bring ye all the tithes into the 
 storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove 
 me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts," (if you will not 
 do it out of duty, yet do it out of experiment,) " if I will not 
 open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, 
 that there shall not be room enough to receive it," Mai. iii. 
 9, 12. There was never any man lost by paying God his 
 dues ; there was never any man thrived by grudging, or 
 pittancing the Almighty. I will conclude this point with the 
 apostle ; it is his doctrine : faithful ministers are worthy of 
 double honour. And it is his exhortation ; " Render to all 
 their dues : tribute to whom tribute is due ; custom to whom 
 custom ; fear to whom fear : honour to whom honour," Rom. 
 xiii. 3. 
 
 8. The priesthood of Christ is an everlasting priesthood. 
 He also was without father and without mother, without be- 
 ginning of days, or end of life. As man, without a father ; as 
 God, without a mother ; " The same yesterday, and to-day, 
 and for ever, Heb. xiii. 8. His name was " Everlasting 
 Father," Isa. ix. 6. His gospel an " everlasting gospel," 
 Rev. xiv. 6. He was the Lamb slain from the beginning 
 of the world. The virtue of his blood goes backward 
 as high as Adam. He was fore-ordained before the foun- 
 dation of the world, 2 Tim. i. 9. The redemption of 
 those that transgressed under the first testament, the remission 
 of sins that were past, were procured by this sacrifice, Heb. 
 ix. 15 ; Rom. iii. 25. It goeth downward to the end of the 
 world ; he must reign till all be put under his feet, and he 
 must raise up all by the power and virtue of his victory over 
 death. And lastly, it goeth onward to all immortality ; for 
 though the acts and administration of his priesthood shall 
 cease, when he shall have delivered the kingdom to his Father, 
 and have brought the whole church into God's presence ; yet 
 
THE ORDER OF CHRIST S PRIESTHOOD. 359 
 
 the virtue and fruits of those acts shall be absolutely eternal ; 
 for so long as the saints shall be in heaven, so long they shall 
 enjoy the benefit of that sacrifice, which did purchase not a 
 lease, or expiring term, but an endless life, an everlasting glory, 
 an inheritance incorruj)tible, and that fadeth not away, re- 
 served in heaven for them. 
 
360 THE VICTORIES OF CHRIST. 
 
 VERSE V. 
 
 THE LORD AT THY RIGHT HAND SHALL STRIKE THROUGH KINGS IN 
 THE DAY OF HIS WRATH. 
 
 VERSE VI. 
 
 HE SHALL JUDGE AMONG THE HEATHEN, HE SHALL FILL THE 
 PLACES WITH THE DEAD BODIES ; HE SHALL WOUND THE HEADS 
 OVER MANY COUNTRIES. 
 
 In the former part of the psalm, we have had the description 
 of Christ's offices of King and Priest, together with the effects 
 thereof in gatliering a willing people unto himself. Now, 
 here the prophet showeth another effect of the powerful admi- 
 nistration of these offices, containing his victories over all his 
 enemies, allegorically expressed in a hypotyposis, or lively 
 allusion unto the manner of human victories ; wherein first I 
 shall in a few words labour to clear the sense ; and then the 
 observations which are natural, will the more evidently arise. 
 
 " The Lord at thy right hand." To lay aside their expo- 
 sition who understand these words of God the Father ; the 
 words are an apostrophe of the prophet to those at whose 
 right hand the Lord Jesus is. Some make it an apostrophe 
 to God the Father, a triumphal and thankful prediction of that 
 power and judgment which he hath given to this his Benja- 
 min, the Son at his right hand ; because that thereby the 
 phrase retaineth the same signification and sense which it had 
 in the first verse. As if David had said, O God, the Father 
 of all power and majesty, worthy art thou of all praise, thanks- 
 giving, and honour, who hast given such power to thy Son in 
 the behalf of thy church, as to smite through kings, and judge 
 the heathen, and pull down the chief of his enemies, and to 
 subdue all things to himself. These read it thus : " O Lord, 
 he that is at thy right hand shall strike through kings." 
 Others make it to be an apostrophe to the church, and so to 
 be a phrase not expressing Christ's exaltation, as verse 1, but 
 his care and protection over his church, his readiness to assist 
 and defend his own people against all the injuries and assaults 
 of adverse power. Solomon saith, " A wise man's heart is at 
 his right hand ; but a fool's heart at his left," Eccles. x. 2. 
 
THE VICTORIES OF CHRIST. 361 
 
 That is, his heart is ready and prepared to execute any wise 
 counsels or godly resolutions ; as the prophet David saith, 
 " My heart is fixed," or prepared ; " O God, my heart is fixed : 
 I will sing and give thanks." But a fool's heart, when he 
 should do anything, is like his left hand, unskilful, un- 
 active and unprepared ; " when he walketh by the way, his 
 wisdom faileth him," ver. 3. And this readiness and present 
 help of God to defend and guide his church is expressed fre- 
 quently by his being at the right hand thereof. " Because 
 the Lord is at my right hand, I shall not be moved," Psa. 
 xvi. 8. " He shall stand at the right hand of the poor to 
 save him," Psa. cix. 31. " I the Lord thy God will hold 
 thy right hand, saying unto thee, Fear not, I will help thee," 
 Isa. xH. 13. As if David had said. Be not dismayed nor cast 
 down, O ye subjects of this King, as if being exalted to God's 
 right hand, he had given over the care and protection of his 
 people ; for as he is at the right hand of his Father in glory 
 and majesty, so is he at your right hand too, standing to ex- 
 ecute judgment on your enemies, and to reveal the power of 
 his arm towards you in your protection. 
 
 Now the reasons of this phrase and expression, as I con- 
 ceive, are these two. 1. To note that Christ's power, provi- 
 dence, and protection do not exclude, but only strengthen, 
 assist, and prosper the ordinary and just endeavours of the 
 church for themselves. The Lord is not at our left hand, to 
 succour us in our idleness and negligence ; but at our work- 
 ing hand, to give success to our honest endeavours. The 
 sword of the Lord doth not fight without the sword of Gideon, 
 Judg. vii. 18. In the miracles of Christ, when he fed and 
 feasted men, he never created wine nor bread of nothing ; but 
 blessed, and so changed, or multiplied that which was by hu- 
 man industry prepared before. Our Saviour had fish and 
 bread of his own, and yet he would have his disciples put in 
 their net and catch, and bring of their own ; to note unto us, 
 that God's power and providence must not exclude, but en- 
 courage man's industry, John xxi. 9, 10. He protecteth us 
 in our ways, not in our precipices or presumptions, Psa. xci. 
 11. So long then as the church is valiant and constant in 
 withstanding the enemies of her peace and prosperity, God is 
 andoubtedly with her to bless that courage, and to strengthen 
 that right hand ; so long as Moses held up his hand, God 
 fought for Israel. There were Joshua's sword, and the hand or 
 prayer of Moses, and upon those God's blessing, Exod. xvii. 
 
 R 
 
362 THE VICTORIES OF CHRIST. 
 
 12, 13. And they were all to concur. If the sword should 
 cease, the prayer would do no good ; for God will not be 
 tempted : if the prayer faint, the sword is in vain, for God 
 will not be neglected. As in a curious clock, stop any wheel, 
 and you hinder the whole motion. If God promise to be 
 present, Joshua must promise to be courageous, Josh. i. 3, 
 6, 9. 2. To note unto us the care and miHtary wisdom of 
 Christ our Captain, to meet with and to prevent our enemies, 
 and to intercept their blows against us ; for we may observe 
 in the Scripture, that Satan plieth the right hand of the 
 church ; laboureth to weaken and assault us where there is 
 most danger towards him. " Let Satan stand at his right 
 hand," Psa. cix. 6 ; that is, give him over to the rage of 
 Satan, that he may be hurried to execute his will. Thus 
 Satan stood at the right hand of Joshua the high priest, to 
 resist him, Zech. iii. ] . Noting the assiduous and indefati- 
 gable endeavours of Satan to resist, disappoint, and overthrow 
 the works of the worthies in God's church : " We would have 
 come unto you, even I Paul, once and again ; but Satan hin- 
 dered us," 1 Thess. ii. 18. And to divert the strength of 
 men upon his own service. And therefore, to rebuke him, 
 and to show to the church that our strength is from him, and 
 due unto him, he also stands there to outvie the temptations 
 and impulses of Satan. 
 
 These are the two expositions which are given of these words, 
 " The Lord at thy right hand." 1 think it is not unfit to 
 embrace both ; and so something I shall touch upon both 
 senses. 
 
 " Shall strike through," or wound, or make gore of blood ; 
 " kings in the day of his wrath." The word is, " Hath 
 stricken through kings." It is a prophecy of things future, 
 spoken as of things to be done. To strike through, notes a 
 complete victory and full confusion of the enemy, an incurable 
 wound, that they may stagger, and fall, and rise up no more, 
 and that affliction may not arise a second time, Nahum i. 9 ; 
 1 Sam. xxvi. 8. The only difficulty is what is meant by 
 kings ; for which we must note, that the kingdom of Christ is 
 spiritual, and his war spiritual, and therefore his enemies for 
 the most part spiritual. Therefore I take it, we are hereby to 
 understand the most potent enemies of Christ; whether spi- 
 ritual, (" We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against 
 principalities, and powers, and spiritual wickedness in high 
 places," Eph. vi. 12 ; 2 Cor. x. 4 ;) or carnal, as heathen and 
 
THE VICTORIES OF CHRIST. 363 
 
 wicked men, Psa. ii. 8, 9; the fat and the strong enemies of the 
 church, Ezek. xxxiv. 16. Our spiritual enemies are called 
 kings, in Scripture. Satan, the prince of this world, the god of 
 this world, the prince of the power of the air, John xvi. 11 ; 
 2 Cor. iv. 4; Eph. ii. 2 : the king of the locusts, Rev. ix. 11. 
 Sin and original concupiscence are a king : " Let not sin reign 
 in your mortal bodies," Rom. vi. 12. And the earthly enemies 
 of Christ are called kings. The ten horns, that is, ten kings, 
 make war with the lamb. Rev. xvii. 12, 14. " The kings of 
 the earth stood up, and the rulers were gathered together 
 against the Lord, and against his Christ," Acts iv. 26. And 
 death, which is the last enemy, is a king ; the king of terrors, 
 that reigneth over men. And over all these kings do the 
 victories of Christ reach. Some, by kings, understand the 
 Roman emperors, (who are called kings, 1 Pet. ii. 13, 17,) 
 and their overthrow for persecuting the church. But since 
 all sorts of Christ's enemies are called kings in Scripture, and 
 all of them do push at his kingdom in the church, I see no 
 ground why we may not, by kings, understand them all, with 
 their subjects, armies, and associates. As in great victories 
 the lords and principal men are said to be overcome, when the 
 servants and soldiers are routed and slain. 
 
 " In the day of his wrath." That is, when time hath 
 ripened the insolency and malice of the enemy, when his fury 
 is fully stirred up and provoked, when the just and full time 
 of his glory is come ; that it may appear that they are over- 
 come, not by time, or chance, or human power, or secular 
 concurrence, but only by the power of his wrath he will do it. 
 Christ is never destitute of power, but in wisdom he hath 
 ordered the times of his church ; when to have his church 
 suffer and bear witness to him, and when to triumph in his 
 deliverances. So the meaning of this clause is this, — When 
 the day of recompense is come, when the sins and provocation 
 of his enemy are ripe, when the utmost period of his patience 
 is expired, in the fixed and unmoveable day which he hath set, 
 be the probabilities never so poor, and preparations never so 
 small, the expectations never so low, the means in human view 
 never so impossible, yet then, by his wrath, he will utterly and 
 incurably wound his enemies, both spiritual and temporal, that 
 they shadl not rise a second time. 
 
 " He shall judge amongst the heathen." The word judg- 
 ment noteth both government and punishment. " The Lord 
 shall judge his people, and repent himself for his servants, 
 R 2 
 
364 THE VICTORIES OF CHRIST. 
 
 when he seeth that their power is gone," Deut. xxxii. 36 : 
 there to judge, noteth government, " The Lord standeth 
 up to plead, and standeth to judge the people," Isa. iii. 13. 
 *' That nation whom they serve will I judge," Gen. xv. 14 : 
 there to judge noteth punishment. Here it is taken for ex- 
 ecuting condemnation upon the contumacious adversaries of 
 the gospel of Christ amongst the gentiles, as in the great 
 victory of Gog and Magog, Ezek. xxxix. Some, by gentiles, 
 understand all enemies, both spiritual and earthly. 
 
 " He shall fill the places with dead bodies." That notes 
 both the swiftness of the victory, and the greatness of the 
 victory; that it shdl be so general, and so speedy, that 
 the enemy shall have either none left, or they that are left 
 shall not be able, nor have leisure to bury their dead bodies, 
 Ezek. xxxix. 11. 
 
 " He shall wound the heads over many countries." That 
 is, either the principal of his enemies everywhere ; or Satan, 
 who is the god of the world, that ruleth as head over the 
 children of disobedience in all places ; or anti-christ, the head 
 of nations, the chief of God's enemies. Rev. xiii. 7, 8. 
 
 I. " The Lord at thy right hand." According to the two- 
 fold apostrophe before mentioned, here are two observations 
 which I will but touch. 
 
 1. That God the Father is worthy to have all the power, 
 majesty, and judgment, which he hath given to his Son our 
 Mediator, for our protection, salvation, and defence, most 
 thankfully and triumphantly acknowledged to him. We find 
 our Saviour himself praising God on this behalf, that he had 
 delivered all things into his hand, even power to make babes 
 believe on him, Matt. xi. 25, 27. And to this St. Paul fre- 
 quently refers, namely, in praising and glorifying God for 
 Christ. " O wretched man that I am ! who shall deliver 
 me ? — I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord," Rom. 
 vii. 24, 25. " All the promises of God in him are yea, and 
 in him Amen, unto the glory of God by us," 2 Cor.i. 19, 20. 
 " He gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from 
 this present evil world, according to the will of God and our 
 Father : to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen," Gal. 
 i. 4, 5. " That every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ 
 is Lord, to the glory of God the Father," Phil. ii. 11. And 
 reason there is that it should thus be acknowledged to the 
 Father, because he hath all his kingdom and power in the 
 church from the Father. All power is given unto me. He 
 
THE VICTORIES OF CHRliiT. ^65 
 
 )on 
 
 hath given me a name above every name ; and this the IS 
 hath revealed to us, that so he might manifest tlie name, 
 that is, get glory to his Father thereby, John xvii. 6, 7. 
 For it was Grod in Christ that reconciled the world to himself. 
 2. He hath it all given unto him in our nature, in our be- 
 half, and as our Head ; so that we, in the gifts of God to him, 
 were only respected, and therefore we have reason to praise 
 God for them. It was not indeed given to him strictly, (for 
 it was to him an office, but not a benefit,) but to him for us, 
 or to us hi and by him. In all the victories, deliverances, 
 refreshings, and experiences of God's power and goodness, we 
 must ever remember to praise God in and through his Son ; to 
 acknowledge the power of his right hand, which is not now 
 against his church, but against the enemies of his church. 
 Therefore, the deliverance of his church is ascribed to God's 
 right hand, because he hath there one to plead, to entreat, to 
 move his right hand in our behalf. Therefore, in all our dis- 
 tresses, in all conflicts and temptations, we must by faith look 
 up unto God's right hand, and put him in remembrance of that 
 faithfulness, righteousness, atonement, and intercession which 
 is there made in our behalf. There we have matter enough 
 to fill our mouths and hearts with praises, and triumph, 
 and rejoicing in him. " It is Christ, who is at the right 
 hand of God;" therefore " Who shall separate us from the 
 love of Christ ?" Rom. viii. 34, 35. Here are two arguments 
 for the church's safety and triumph ; the love of Christ, and 
 the honour of Christ. He loveth all his to the end. But 
 what good can love do without power? Therefore, he that 
 loveth us is exalted by God, and hath all power given him for 
 this purpose, that his love may do us good. In the conflicts 
 of my corruptions, (which are an adversary too subtle, too 
 numberless for me to vanquish,) I may yet, when I am driven 
 to Paul's extremity, rest in his thanksgiving ; and looking up 
 to Jesus, who will be the finisher of every good work which 
 he begins, and seeing him at God's right hand, may triumph 
 in the power and office which God hath given to his Son 
 there, which is, to subdue our iniquities, and to sanctify us by 
 his truth, and by that residue of Spirit which he keepeth for the 
 church, John xvii. 17, 19: for that prayer is a model, as it 
 were, and counterpart of Christ's intercession ; for, saith he, 
 " I come to thee ; and these things I speak in the world, that 
 they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves," vcr. 13; 
 that is. That they having a specimen and form of that 
 
366 THE VICTORIES OF CHRIST. 
 
 intercession, which with thee I shall make for them, left upon 
 public record for them to look on, and there finding that their 
 sanctification is the business of my sitting at thy right hand, 
 may, in the midst of the discomforts and conflicts of their cor- 
 ruptions, have a full joy and triumph in the honour which 
 thou hast given me. I am beset with the temptations of my 
 enemies, and persecutions for the name of Christ ; in this case 
 I may give God praise for the power which he hath given to 
 his Son. I may appeal from mine enemies unto God's right 
 hand. I may, like Stephen, when the stones and buffets are 
 about my soul, look up by faith, and see there my Captain 
 standing up in my defence. Acts vii. 55. I may acknowledge 
 unto God the power given unto his Son, that though nothing 
 of all this fall upon me without his provision and permission, 
 yet sure I am, that he hath power and mercy in his right hand ; 
 that though mine enemies were as strong as a combination 
 and army of kings, yet the Lord at his right hand hath from 
 him, in my behalf, received power enough to strike through 
 kings, when the day of his wrath is come. 
 
 Note further : Christ is at the right hand of his people, present 
 with them, and prepared to defend them from all their enemies. 
 Present by his Spirit, to strengthen, comfort, and uphold them ; 
 enabling them to glory and rejoice in all their sufferings, as 
 knowing that they are but for a moment, and that which is 
 needful to purge their faith, and to make them bear their 
 shame, 1 Pet. i. 6, 7 ; Jam. i. 2, 3 ; and to glorify the conse- 
 quent power of Christ, which shall be revealed to their joy, 
 1 Pet. iv. 13; when he will recompense double to us in mercy, 
 and to our enemies in severity, Isa. liv. 7, 8 ; Ixi. 7. Present 
 by his mighty power, and by his angels, to rescue, deliver, and 
 protect them ; to be as a wall of fire, as a shield, a buckler, a 
 rock, a Captain to his people, Zech. ii. 5. 
 
 And this is the ground of all the church's comfort, that 
 more is with them than against them. The enemies have 
 combinations and confederacies of men ; but the church hath 
 Immanuel, God with them, Isa. viii. 10. None can pull 
 Christ from the right hand of God, or from the right hand of 
 his people ; that is, none can take away either his power or 
 his love from his people. The church and truth can never 
 be crushed and overthrown, no more than a rock with the 
 raging of the waves : they are heavenly things, and therefore 
 nothing of earth or hell can reach to corrupt them. It was 
 but a vain attempt of the giants to build a tower to heaven. 
 
THE VICTORIES OF CHRIST. 367 
 
 The world was made, that there might be therein a church to 
 worship and contemplate that God who made it ; tlierefore, 
 in the creation, God never rested till he came to a church, to 
 note, that this was the end thereof ; and therefore it is easier 
 to pull down the world, and to shake in pieces the frame of 
 nature, than to ruin the church. The church hath Christ for 
 her Husband; he to whom all knees must bend, he whom every 
 tongue must confess, he who will subdue all things to him- 
 self ; so she hath love, power, and jealousy, all three very 
 strong things, on her side. And therefore, the only way to be 
 safe, is to keep Christ at our right hand, to hold fast his 
 truth, worship, and obedience ; for so long as we have Imma- 
 nuel, all adverse power is but flesh, and all flesh is but grass, 
 withered in a moment when God blows upon it. 
 
 Note again : Christ, in his appointed time, will utterly over- 
 throw the greatest enemies of his kingdom, and deliver his 
 church from under the sorest oppressions. There is not any 
 one argument in the holy Scriptures more frequently repeated, 
 than this of Christ's victories : they w^ere prefigured in the 
 deliverance of Israel out of Egypt, 1 Cor. x. 2 — 4 ; in the 
 deliverances of the ark out of the waters, 1 Pet. iii. ; and in 
 the deliverance of the jews from Babylon, Rev. xiv. 8 ; Isa. 
 xi. 10, 12, 13 : to note, that in the sorest extremities and 
 greatest improbabilities, God will show himself jealous for his 
 people. 1. This victory is expressed by treading of a wine- 
 press, Isa. Ixiii. I — 6, when there are none to help ; when the 
 church is brought to sorest extremities, though multitudes 
 meet against her, as many as the grapes in a vintage, they 
 shall all be but as clusters of grapes, he shall squeeze out their 
 blood like wine, and make his church to thresh them. Lam. i. 
 13; Rev. xiv. 19, 20; Joel iii. 13; Micah iv. 13. 2. By 
 the dissipation of smoke out of a chimney ; " They shall be as 
 the smoke out of the chimney," Hos. xiii. 3. 3. By fire 
 consuming thorns and briers, Isa. x. 17. While they be 
 folded together as thorns, and while they are drunken as 
 drunkards ; that is, while they have plotted their counsels and 
 confederacies so curiously, that no man dares so much as 
 touch them, and while they are drunken with the pride and 
 confidence of their own strength, they shall then be devoured 
 as stubble that is fully dry, Nahum i. 10 ; Isa. xxvii. 4 ; 
 xxxi. 9. 
 
 Therefore, the Scripture calleth Christ " a man of war," 
 Exod. XV. 3, because he is furnished with all arts of victory. 
 
368 THE VICTORIES OF CHRIST. 
 
 Power invincible; as a lion amongst shepherds, so is he 
 amongst his enemies, Isa. xxxi. 4. Wisdom unsearchable, 
 which must stand, ver. 1, 2 : if he purpose, none can disap- 
 point him, Isa. xiv. 27. Authority, by the least intimation 
 to gather together all the forces of the world against the ene- 
 mies of his church : if he but hiss unto them, they presently 
 come in troops, Isa. v. 26 ; vii. 18. He can command help 
 for his people, Psa. xliv. 4 ; Ixxi. 3 ; and if that should fail, 
 he can create help for his people, as he did for Israel, when 
 he wrought miracles to deliver them, Psa. cvi. 
 
 We may more profitably consider the truth and comfort of 
 this point, by discoursing of it in the several enemies of Christ 
 and his people. The great enemy of the Seed of the woman 
 is the serpent, that great red dragon, whose names are all 
 names of enmity ; — the accuser, the tempter, the destroyer, 
 the devourer, the envious man ; — furnished with much strength, 
 and mighty succour, legions of principalities and powers 
 attending on him ; and with much wisdom, which the Scrip- 
 ture calleth the wiles and craftiness of Satan. And his 
 arts of destroying men are two, — to tempt, and to accuse. 
 His temptations are two-fold : either unto sin, or unto discom- 
 fort; either to make us offend God, or to make us disquiet 
 ourselves ; either to wound us, or to vex us. And in all these 
 his arts, Christ, our Captain, will tread him under our feet, and 
 will give his church the victory at the last ; either by arming us 
 with sufficiency of grace and faith in his victories ; putting us, 
 by his Spirit, in mind of his temptations, which taught him 
 compassion towards us, who are so much weaker ; encou- 
 raging our hearts to cry out unto him who is our merciful and 
 compassionate High Priest, in our extremities, as Paul did, 
 2 Cor. xii. 8, 9 ; stirring up our faith to lay hold on him when 
 we are in darkness, and the spirit of adoption to cry unto him 
 when we are in danger, and the spirit of wisdom to solve the 
 objections, to discern the devices of Satan, and to prepare and 
 arm our hearts accordingly to wrestle with him : or else, by 
 rebuking of him, pulling in his chain, a^nd chasing him away, 
 and undertaking the combat in person for us, when Satan is 
 ready to prevail, Zech. iii. 1, 2. Thus he overcometh him as 
 a tempter, and ever giveth some either comfortable or profitable 
 issue out of them. 
 
 He likewise overcometh him as an accuser. Satan accuseth 
 the saints either by way of complaint and narration of the 
 things which they have done, Rev. xii. 10. which the apostle 
 
THE VICTORIES OF CHRIST. 3Gi> 
 
 calleth his laying of crimes to the charge of men, Rom. viii. 
 33 ; and then Christ overcometh him by his intercession, and 
 in the hearts of his saints by making them judge and accuse 
 themselves, that they may be able to clear themselves too, 
 1 Cor. xi. 31 ; 2 Cor. vii. 11. Or, he accuseth by way of 
 suspicion or preconjecture, as he did Job, Job i. 9 — 11 : and 
 herein, likewise, Christ overcometh him in his servants, by per- 
 mitting him to tempt and vex them, that they may come the 
 purer out of the fire ; and by putting a holy suspicion and 
 jealousy into them over their own hearts, which may still be a 
 means to prevent them against evils that are likely to assault 
 them, to teach them in every condition, as well possible as 
 present, how to walk acceptably before God, Phil. iv. 11 — 13. 
 Another great enemy of the kingdom of Christ, is, the lust 
 of our own evil nature. " The carnal mind is enmity against 
 God : for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed 
 can be," Rom. viii. 7 : enmity in grieving, vexing, and 
 quenching the Holy Spirit in us, and lusting enviously against 
 his grace. Jam. iv. 4, 3. And here also Christ overcometh, 
 by the prevailing power of his Spirit ; giving us more grace, 
 demolishing the kingdom of sin, and judging the prince of this 
 world, who before did rule in the children of disobedience. 
 And this he doth by the judgment seat and sceptre of his- 
 Spirit in the heart; for the judgment of the Spirit is too hard 
 for the principality of Satan, John xvi. 11. The Spirit of 
 Christ is a victorious Spirit ; he bringeth forth his judgment 
 unto victory, Matt. xii. 20 ; Isa. iv. 4. He worketh out by 
 degrees the dross and impurity of our nature and services. 
 1. By faith fixing upon better promises and hopes than lust 
 can make, 1 John v, 4 ; Heb. xi. 24 — 26. 2. By watchful- 
 ness in eyeing corruptions, and so stirring up those arguments 
 and principles which are strongest against them, Job xxxi. 1 ; 
 Psa. xxxix. 1. 3. By leading us to more acquaintance with 
 God in knowledge, love, and communion. Job xxii. 21 ; 
 1 John i. 3 ; and so fetching more wisdom and strength from 
 him : for this is the way that we get all our strength, even by 
 learning of him, Phil. iv. 12. 4. By inclining the heart to 
 hate, and to complain of corruptions ; to bemoan itself, as Paul 
 and Ephraim did, Rom. vii. 23 ; Mark ix. 24 ; Jer. xxxi. 18, 
 19. 5. By bringing the heart into the light, there to approve 
 and judge its actions, John iii. 20 ; by setting it always in 
 God's eye, that it may not sin against him, Psa. xvi. 8. 
 6. By convincing the heart of the beauty and excellency of 
 r3 
 
370 THE VICTORIES OF CHRIST. 
 
 arace, of the loathsomeness of sin to God ; and so making the 
 soul more full of desires for the one, and against the other^ Isa. 
 xxvi. 8 ; Ezek. xxxvi. 31 ; and thus kindling lust against lust. 
 Gal. V. 17. 7. By being always a present monitor and 
 watchman in the soul, to supply it with spiritual weapons and 
 reasoning against the temptation of lust, John xiv. 26. 8. In 
 one word, by daily supplies from the residue of the Spirit which 
 is in our Head ; whereby, according to the proportion and 
 exigence of the members, he floweth into them, Mai. ii. 15 ; 
 Phil. i. 19. This is that seed, that leaven, that vital instinct, 
 which is ever in the heart, setting itself against the workings 
 and life of lust, and by Httle and little wasting it away, as fire 
 doth water. 
 
 The grand instrument of Satan and lust (who are the two 
 leaders in this war against Christ) is the wicked world; that is, 
 the power, malice, wisdom, learning, or any other either natural 
 or acquired abilities of evil men : for even in an earthly re- 
 spect, by the word "kings," we are not only to understand those 
 raonarchs and princes of the earth, who set themselves against 
 Christ ; but all such as excel in any such worldly abilities as 
 may further that opposition. It notes the strength, poHcy, 
 pride, and greatness of mind, or scorn of subjection, which is 
 in the heart against Christ. So that "king" here stands in op- 
 position to subject ; they who reject Christ's yoke, and break 
 his bonds asunder, and will not have him to reign over them, 
 these are the kings in the text. And these also will he smite 
 through, and confound by the power of his word, and the 
 strength of his arm. " The Lord gave the word : great was 
 tlie company of those that published it. Kings of armies did 
 flee apace : and she that tarried at home divided the spoil," 
 Psa. Ixviii. 11, 12. " Tophet is ordained of old; for the 
 king it is prepared," Isa. xxx. 33. " Come and gather your- 
 selves together unto the supper of the great God ; that ye may 
 eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh 
 of mighty men, and the flesh of horses, and of them that sit on 
 them, and the flesh of all men, both free and bond, both small 
 and great," Rev. xix. 17, 18. " But those mine enemies, 
 which would not that 1 should reign over them, bring hither, 
 and slay them before me," Luke xix. 27. " Be wise now, O 
 ye kings ; be instructed ye judges of the earth. Serve the 
 Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, 
 lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath 
 is kindled but a little," Psa. ii. 10 — 12. Thus the Lord 
 
THE VICTORIES OF CHllIST. 371 
 
 overthioweth his church's enemies, and protecteth it against 
 all their greatest preparations, and most formidable power. 
 
 This he doth several ways : 1. Sometimes, by diverting their 
 forces from liis church into some other necessary cliannel, or 
 ambitious design of their own. Thus Rabshakah and his 
 host were called from Judah, 2 Kings xix. 7, 8. So the Lord 
 promised his people, that when they went up to appear before 
 him thrice a year, he would divert the desires of their enemies 
 from their land, Exod. xxxiv. 24. Thus Julian the apostate, 
 having but two main plots to honour, (as he supposed,) his 
 government and his idols withal ; the subduing of the Persians, 
 and the rooting out of the Galileans, as he called them ; was 
 prevented from the one by being first overthrown in the other ; 
 for the prosperous success of which expedition he vowed unto 
 his idol-gods a sacrifice of all the christians in the empire, as 
 Gregory Nazianzen relateth. 2. Sometimes, by infatuating, and 
 implanting a spirit of giddiness and distraction in the enemies 
 of his church, making them destitute both of counsel and 
 courage. When God would punish Babylon, (which is a 
 type of the enemies of Christ's kingdom,) he made their hearts 
 melt, that they should be amazed one at another, and " their 
 faces should be like flames," Isa. xiii. 7, 8 ; that is, not only 
 pale like a flame, but rather, as I conceive, full of variety of 
 fearful impressions, and distracted passions : nothing so tre- 
 mulous, so various, so easily bended every way with the 
 smallest blast, as a flame ; so their fear should make their 
 blood and spirits in their faces to tremble, quiver, and vary, to 
 come and go like a thin flame in them. Thus God threatened 
 to mingle a perverse spirit, to make the spirit of Egypt fail in 
 them, and their wisdom to perish, Isa. xix. 1 — 3, 14, 17. 
 3. Sometimes, by ordering casualties and particular emergencies 
 for the deliverance of his church ; a thing wonderfully seen in 
 the histories of Joseph and Esther. Thus a man, by a chain 
 made up of several links, some of gold, others of silver, others 
 of brass, iron, or tin, may be drawn out of a pit : so the Lord 
 by the concurrence of several insubordinate things, which have 
 no manner of dependence, or natural coincidence amongst 
 themselves, hath oftentimes wrought the deliverance of his 
 church, that it might appear to be the work of his own hand. 
 3. Sometimes, by ordering and arming natural causes to defend 
 his church, and to amaze the enemy. Thus the stars in their 
 courses are said to fight against Sisera, Judg. v. 20. A 
 mighty wind from heaven beating on their faces discomfited 
 
372 THE VICTORIES OF CHRIST. 
 
 them, as Josephus reports. To make good that promise, 
 " No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper." Thus 
 the Lord slew the enemies of Joshua with hail, Josh. x. 1 1 ; 
 and thus the Moabites were overthrown, by occasion of the 
 sun shining upon the water, 2 Kings iii. 22, 23. 4. Sometimes, 
 by implanting fancies and friglitful apprehensions into the 
 minds of the enemy, as into the Midianites, Judg. vii. 13, 14 ; 
 and the Assyrians, 2 Kings vii. 6. Thus the Lord caused a 
 voice to be heard in the temple, before the destruction of Je- 
 rusalem, warning the faithful to go out of the city. 5. Some- 
 times, by stirring up and prospering weak and contemptible 
 means, to show his glory thereby. The Medes and Persians 
 were an effeminate and luxurious people ; Cyrus a mean prince, 
 for he was not at this time the emperor of the Medes and Per- 
 sians, but only son-in-law to Darius, or Cyaxares ; and yet 
 these are made instruments to overthrow that most valiant 
 people, the Babylonians, Isa. xlv. 1, 13. As Jeremiah was 
 drawn out of the dungeon by old rotten rags, which were 
 thrown aside as good for nothing, Jer. xxxviii. 1 1 : so the 
 Lord can deliver his church by such instruments as the enemies 
 thereof before would have looked upon with scorn, as upon 
 cast and despicable creatures : for God, as he useth to infa- 
 tuate those whom he will destroy ; so he doth guide with a 
 spirit of wonderful wisdom those whom he raiseth to defend 
 his kingdom. The Babylonians were feasting, and counted 
 their city impregnable, being fortified with walls and the great 
 river ; and God gave wisdom beyond the very conjectures of 
 men, to attempt a business which might seem unfeasible in 
 nature, to dry up the Euphrates, and divide it into several 
 small branches ; and so he made a way to bring the army into 
 the city while they were feasting, the gates thereof being in 
 great confidence and security left open, Isa. xliv. 27 ; xlv. 1 ; 
 Jer. li. 36. 6. Sometimes, by turning the hearts of others to 
 compassionate the church, to hate the enemies, and not to 
 help them, but to rejoice when they are sinking, Isa. xiv. 6 ; x. 
 16; Nahum iii. 7. 7. Sometimes, by the immediate stroke of 
 God upon their bodies or consciences. Thus God gave the 
 church rest by smiting Herod, Acts xii. 23, 24. 8. Sometimes, 
 by tiring them quite out, and making them, for very vexation 
 and want of success, give over their vain attempts ; or else dis- 
 heartening them that they may not begin them. 9. Sometimes, 
 by turning their own devices upon their heads, ruining thern 
 with their own counsels, and, it may be, despatching them 
 
THE VICTORIES OF CHRIST. 373 
 
 with their own hands. Thus the Lord set every man's sword 
 against his fellow in the huge host of the Midianites, Jud<T. 
 vii. 22. Thus Pilate and Nero, the one the murderer of Christ, 
 the other the dedicator of all the consequent great persecu- 
 tions, both died by their own hands, as being most wicked and 
 most cruel, and therefore fittest to revenge the cause of Christ 
 and his people upon themselves. Thus God did not only 
 curse the counsel, but revenge the treason of Ahithophel by 
 an act of the most desperate folly and inhumanity which could 
 be committed. 1 0. Sometimes, by hardening them unto a most 
 desperate prosecution of their own ruin, as in the case of 
 Pharaoh ; suffering them to lift at the stone so long, till it 
 loosen, and fall upon them, Zech. xii. 3 ; Matt. xxi. 44. 
 11. Sometimes, by ingratiating the church with them to their 
 own destruction, as he did Israel with the Egyptians, Exod. 
 xii. 35, 36. By these, and many other like means, doth the 
 Lord overthrow the enemies of his kingdom. 
 
 II. Now all this is, " In the day of his wrath" or in his 
 own due time : where we may note, by the way, that Christ 
 hath wrath in him as well as mercy. Though he be by 
 wicked and secure men misconceived, as if he were only com- 
 passionate ; yet he will more sorely judge them hereafter, 
 whom he doth not by persuasions and allurements prevail with 
 here. So merciful he is, that he is called a Lamb for meek- 
 ness ; and yet so terrible, that he is called a Lion for fury. It 
 is true, fury is not in him, Isa. xxvii. 4, namely, to those that 
 apprehend his strength, and make their peace with him. But 
 yet to those that will not kiss, that is, not love, worship, nor 
 obey him, he can with a little wrath show himself very ter- 
 rible, Psa. ii. 12. He cometh first with peace, Luke x. 5 ; 
 but it is a peace mercifully offered ; not a peace growing out 
 of any necessity or exigencies on his part, and so wrought by 
 way of composition for his own advantages. The peace of a 
 conqueror, Zech. ix. 10; a peace which putteth conditions to 
 those to whom it is granted, that they shall be tributaries and 
 servants unto him, Deut.xx, 10 — 12. Therefore the apostle 
 saith, that he came to preach or to proclaim peace, Eph. ii. 
 17 ; but if we reject it, he then denounces the sentence, 
 " Those mine enemies which would not that I should reign 
 over them, bring hither, and slay them before me," Luke 
 xix. 27. 
 
 But the main thing here to be noted, is, that Christ hath a 
 day, a prefixed and constituted time wherein he will be avenged 
 
374 THE VICTORIES OF CHRIST. 
 
 on the greatest of his enemies. When he forhears and suffers 
 them to prevail, yet still he holdeth the line in his own hand ; 
 the hook of his decree is in their nostrils, and he can take 
 them short when he will. It is never want of power, wisdom, 
 or love to his church, that their quarrel is not immediately re- 
 yeno-ed ; but all these are fitted to his greater glory. The 
 Lord seemeth to neglect, to break up the hedge, to sleep while 
 his church is sinking ; (as Christ to his disciples seemed care- 
 less, Mark iv. 38, 39 :) thus, frequently in Scripture the saints 
 expostulate with God in an humble and mourning debate ; 
 " Why sleepest thou, O Lord ? arise, cast us not off for 
 ever," Psa. xliv. 23 ; Jer. xiv. 8. 9. But God hath his 
 question against us too for this infirmity and haste of ours ; 
 " Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and speakest, O Israel, my way 
 is hid from the Lord, and my judgment is passed over from 
 my God ?" — that is, he hath not taken notice of my calamity. 
 " Hast thou not known, hast thou not heard, that the ever- 
 lasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, 
 fainteth not, neither is weary ? there is no searching of his 
 understanding," Isa. xl. 27, 28. '*' He is wonderful in coun- 
 sel, and excellent in working ;" and therefore he doth not 
 slumber nor sleep ; but only, in wisdom, ordereth times and 
 seasons, that there may, in the end, be the greater glory unto 
 him, and in the things done, the more beauty. " Everything," 
 saith Solomon, " is beautiful in its season :'' if you gather it 
 before, it loseth both its beauty and virtue. It would be a 
 madness for a man to mow down his corn when it is in the 
 green blade. " The husbandman waiteth," saith the apostle, 
 " for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for 
 it," Jam. V. 7. Now, the prophet assuretn us, that "light," 
 that is, comfort, refreshment, peace, deliverance, " is sown for 
 the righteous," Psa. xcvii. 11. It was sown for the people of 
 God when they were in captivity, though to themselves they 
 seemed as dead men in their graves ; yet indeed they were not 
 dead, but as seed in the furrows, which revived again, Psa. cxxvi. 
 5, 6 ; and therefore the Lord, like a husbandman, is said to 
 wait, that he may be gracious to his people, Isa. xxx> 18. 
 Though a man suffer ever so much injury, and be most 
 violently kept out of his own right, yet he must wait till time 
 and mature proceedings have brought on his matters to a trial ; 
 therefore the Lord calleth it " The year of recompenses for 
 the controversy of Sion," Isa. xxxiv. 8. It is not for private 
 men to order the periods, or bounds, or revolutions of times 
 
THE VICTORIES OF CHRIST. 375 
 
 wherein businesses are to be tried ; but public authority 
 constitutes that, and every man must wait for tlie appointed 
 time: so the church must not set God the times when it 
 would be heard or eased ; but must trust his wisdom and power, 
 Jer. xlix. 19 ; for there is a set time wherein he will have 
 mercy upon Sion, Psa. cii. 13. Now, this time is ruled and 
 bounded by these considerations : 
 
 1. When the sin of the enemy is grown ripe, and his heart 
 proud and insolent against God and his people ; when he 
 trampleth upon the poor; when he sacrificeth to his own net; 
 when he adoreth his own counsels ; when he deifieth his own 
 condition, and thinketh that none can pull him down : then is 
 it a time for God to show himself, and to stir up his glory 
 " It is time," saith David, "for thee, OLord, to work : for they 
 have made void thy law," Psa. cxix. 126 : so outrageous 
 they are, that their fury runneth over from thy servants to 
 thine ordinances, to blot out the very records of heaven, the 
 name and fear of God out of the earth. And this reason and 
 period of time we find frequently in the Scriptures given : " In 
 the fourth generation they shall come hither again ; for the 
 iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full," Gen. xv. 16 ; it is not 
 grown to that ripeness and compass, as I, in my wise, secret, 
 and patient providence, will permit. " O thou that dwellest 
 upon many waters, abundant in treasures," (saith the Lord to 
 Babylon,) " thine end is come, and the measure of thy cove- 
 tousness," Jer. li. 13. When men have filled up the measure 
 of their sins, then is their end come ; be their wealth, or 
 safety, or their natural or acquired strength ever so great. 
 " Put ye in the sickle,'' saith the prophet, " for the harvest is 
 ripe : come, get you down ; for the press is full, the fats over- 
 flow ; for their wickedness is great," Joel iii. 13. When 
 wickedness is so great, that it filleth all vessels, then is the 
 Lord ready to put in his sickle, and to cut it down. 
 
 It is further demanded when sin is full ? To this I answer, 
 that there are three things principally which set forth the sin- 
 fulness of sin, — universality, impudence, and obstinacy. 
 1. When a whole land is filled with it, that there are none to 
 intercede, or to stand in the gap ; when from streets to palaces, 
 from houses to courts, from schools to churches, from every 
 corner sin breaketh forth, so that blood toucheth blood. 
 " The land is full of adulterers," saith the prophet ; " because 
 of swearing the land mourneth ; for both prophet and priest 
 are profane ; yea, in my house have I found their wickedness, 
 
376 THE VICTORIES OF CHRIST. 
 
 saith the Lord," Jer. xxiii. 10, 11 : when in every place, and 
 at every view there are new, and more abominations, Ezek. 
 viii. 17 ; Jer. v. 16. 2. When sin is impudent and out- 
 rageous ; when there is no fear, modesty, or restraint, but it 
 breaketh all bounds, and like a raging sea overrunneth the 
 banks. " They declare their sin as Sodom," saith the pro- 
 phet, " they hide it not. Woe unto their soul !" Isa. iii. 9 : 
 it is so full, that it breaks out into their countenance ; hypo- 
 crisy itself is too narrow to cover it. This is that which the 
 apostle calleth an " excess of riot," 1 Pet. iv. 4 ; and the pro- 
 phet, a rushing like an horse into the battle, Jer. viii. 6. Now, 
 when God thus gives a man over, sin will not be long a filhng 
 up. When lusts break forth, and throng together ; when from 
 concupiscence sin goes on to conception and delight, to for- 
 mation and contrivance, to birth and execution, to education 
 and custom, to maintenance and defence, to glory and boast- 
 ing, to insensibility, hardness, and a reprobate sense, then 
 there is such a fulness in sin, as is near unto cursing ; the 
 very next step is hell. 3. When sin holds out in stubborn- 
 ness, and is incorrigible ; when the remedy is refused, the par- 
 don rejected, peace not accepted ; then is sin come to its 
 fulness. The sins of the Amorites were never quite full, 
 until they rejected that peace, mercy, and subjection to God's 
 people, which was offered them. But when men sin against 
 those means of grace which are sent unto them, and leave no 
 remedy to themselves ; no marvel if the Lord give them over, 
 and let in the enemy upon them, 2 Chron. xxxvi. 16. There- 
 fore, we must take heed of finishing sin, for it is not sin 
 alone, but the consummation ard finishing of sin which con- 
 demns a man. 
 
 Now, when thus the sin of the enemy is grown so ripe, 
 that it breaketh forth into pride and insult against God's 
 people, then is the Lord's tiu:e to show himself. " I will 
 restore health unto thee," saith the Lord to his church, " and 
 I will heal thee of thy wounds ; because they called thee an 
 out-cast, saying, this is Sion, whom no man seeketh after," 
 Jer. xxx. 17 : see Jer. 1. 11 ; Ezek. xxv. 3 ; Obad. verse 3, 4. 
 When the highways were waste, and the way-faring man 
 ceaseth, and the enemy regarded no man, " Now will I rise, 
 saith the Lord ; now will I be exalted," Isa. xxxiii. 10, 
 W^hen the enemies help forward the affliction of God's people, 
 and by their pride and insult double the misery which is upon 
 them, then will the Lord return them in mercies, and be 
 
THE VICTORIES OF CHRIST. 377 
 
 sore^-displeased with his enemies, Zech. i. 15, 16 ; Isa. xl. 
 2 ; xlvii. 5, 6. 
 
 2. When God's people are thoroughly humbled and pur- 
 ged : for God useth wicked men as his staff or weapon, as his 
 fire or fan, to correct and purge them, Isa. x. 12. He intended 
 not in his punishments such severity against them, as against 
 their enemies: if the rod be for the child, the lire is for. the 
 rod, Isa. xxvii. 7 — 9. When men are so smitten, that they 
 can return to him that smiteth them, and not revolt more and 
 more ; for God will not throw any more darts at those who 
 are sunk and dead already. When they are stirred in their 
 hearts jointly to seek the Lord, and to meet him in the way of 
 his judgments, and to compassionate and favour the dust of 
 Sion, then is the day of his wrath : for when God's time to 
 deliver a people is come, he will more abundantly stir up the 
 hearts of his people to pray for it, Psa. cii. 16, 17 ; Dan. ix. 
 2, 3 ; whereas, when he will destroy a people, he will not 
 suffer his saints to pray, Jer. xiv. 1 1 . 
 
 3. When all human hopes and expectations are gone, when 
 a people is so pilled and broken, that they have no courage, 
 means, succours, or probabilities left, then is God's time to 
 deliver his church, and to punish his enemies. " The Lord 
 shall judge his people, and repent himself for his servants, 
 when he seeth that their power is gone," Deut. xxxii. 36 ; 
 Psa. cix. 31. In one word, when the preparation and pre- 
 mises, as it were, unto God's glory are best ordered and put 
 together, then is the day of his wrath come. 
 
 The church then need not be cast down with the insults of 
 her enemies, since Christ is the same yesterday, and to-day, 
 and for ever ; such as he was ever to his church, such he is 
 still, Deut. XX. 3, 4 ; Isa. li. 12, 13 ; Deut. xxxi. 6 — 8. If 
 he has delivered his church from the pride of her enemies 
 heretofore, his power, truth, watchfulness, compassion, are still 
 the same ; and by faith in them we may rebuke Satan, we may 
 chide away the weakness and fear of our own hearts, we may 
 rejoice against those that insult over us, when they rage most ; 
 we may hope their time is short, and that it is but the biting 
 of a wounded beast. Therefore, we find the saints in 
 Scripture arm themselves against present dangers, with the 
 consideration of what God hath done for his church in times 
 past, Psa Ixviii. 7, 8; Ixxiv. 13, 18; Isa. li. 9 — 11; and 
 in the confidence of the same truth and power, break forth into 
 a holy scorn of their enemies, Micah vii. 8 — 10. In the 
 
378 THE VICTORIES OF CHRIST. 
 
 sorest extremities we may fix our faith on God ; and he de- 
 Hcrhteth to be depended upon alone, when all outward helps 
 and probabilities fail: see Isa. xli. 17, 18; Habak. iii. 17, 
 18. One of the hugest hosts of men that we ever read of 
 came against Asa, yet by relying on God they were all de- 
 livered into his hand ; and the reason is added, because God 
 hath eyes and strength, 2 Chron. xvi. 8, 9 ; or, as he is else- 
 where described, seven horns, and seven eyes, much wisdom 
 and much power, to show himself valiant in the behalf of those 
 that walk uprightly, Rev. y. 6. 
 
 We should learn likewise to rejoice and triumph with all 
 thankfulness of heart when Christ subdueth the enemies of 
 his kino-dom, and giveth deliverance and refreshment to his 
 people. When he maketh his hand known to his servants, 
 and his fury to his enemies, then should all those that love 
 Jerusalem rejoice, Isa. Ixvi. 10. Thus the church, after they 
 were delivered from the malice of Haman, instituted days of 
 joy and feasting, Esther ix. 22. It is a sign of an evil heart 
 against the peace and prosperity of the church of Christ, to 
 envy, or slight, or think basely of the instruments and ways 
 whereby Christ delivereth it ; as we see in Tobiah and San- 
 ballat, Neh. iv. 2, 3. 
 
 4. We should learn wisdom to lay hold on the times and 
 seasons of God's peace, because he hath a day of wrath too ; 
 to apprehend the offers and opportunities of grace. Christ 
 had been at the church's door, and had knocked for admit- 
 tance ; but neglecting that season, he was gone, and she suf- 
 fered much before she could find him again. Cant. v. 2 — 6. 
 When the Lord speaketh unto us in his ordinances, and by 
 the secret motions and persuasions of his Holy Spirit, we should 
 not defer, nor put him off, as Felix did Paul, to some other 
 time, but pursue the occasion, and set ourselves to do every 
 duty in God's time. There is a time for every work, and it 
 is beautiful only in its time ; and therefore fit it is, that we 
 should observe wisely the signs and nature of the times. Matt, 
 xvi. 3; and accordingly proportion our devotions for the 
 church and ourselves. It is the worst loss of time, to let slip 
 the seasons of grace and spiritual wisdom, till, it may be, God's 
 time of mercy is passed over, " If thou hadst known in this 
 thy day the thing that belongs to thy peace I" But now thy 
 day is over, and my day of wrath is come, they are now hid- 
 den from thine eyes. 
 
 III. " He shall judge amongst the heathen." By heathen 
 
THE VICTORIES OF CHRIST. 379 
 
 we are to understand the same with enemies, verse 1, and 
 people, Isa. Ixiii. 6 ; meaninsr all the armies and swarms of 
 Christ's enemies, either spiritual or secular. The word ^ren- 
 tile was a word of great contempt and detestation amongst 
 God's people, as the word jew is now amongst us ; a proverbial 
 word to cast reproach and shame upon men. Therefore the 
 apostle saith of the Ephesians, that in times past they had 
 been gentiles in the flesh, Eph. ii. 11 ; as if by being chris- 
 tians they had ceased to be gentiles, or rather that word had 
 ceased to be a term of reproach. Gentile was a word of 
 scorn, as Samaritan, John viii. 48, or Canaanite, Ezek. xvi. 
 3, or publican, Matt, xviii. 17, Luke xviii. 11 ; and therefore 
 we find those two joined together, publicans and sinners : and 
 so the apostle joineth these two words, gentiles and sinners, 
 Gal. ii. 15. So then, the word heathen is added by David 
 to the enemies of Christ, to render them the more odious, and 
 to express their more abject and hateful condition. Thus 
 the meaning is, — his most abject and hateful enemies, that 
 are unto him as Canaanites and Samaritans, he shall judge ; 
 that is, he shall condemn and punish them 
 
 Whence we may note, that Christ's victories over his ene- 
 mies shall be by way of pleading and controversy. His mili- 
 tary is likewise a judiciary proceeding, grounded upon right- 
 eous and established laws. Therefore, the day of God's wrath is 
 called a time of vengeance, and recompense for the controver- 
 sies of Sion, Isa. xxxiv. 8 ; to show that the Lord doth not 
 take vengeance but by way of debate. And therefore, when 
 he punisheth, he is said to plead with men : " The priests 
 said not, where is the Lord ? and they that handle the law 
 knew me not. Wherefore I will yet plead with you, 
 saith the Lord, and with your children's children will I plead," 
 Jer.ii. 8, 9. Thus to plead, and to take vengeance, go together, 
 Jer. Ii. 36. And the Lord is said to reprove with equity, 
 and to smite the earth with the rod of his mouth ; that is, to 
 convince, and argue before he doth punish, Isa. xi. 4 ; as we 
 see in the case of Sodom, Gen. xviii. 21, 23. Herein the 
 Lord showeth that all our misery begins with ourselves ; that 
 if we perish, it is because we would not take his counsel, nor 
 be guided by his will ; that he did not sell us to any of his 
 creditors, but that for our iniquities we sold ourselves, Isa. 1. 1. 
 In human wars, though ever so regularly and righteously 
 ordered, yet many particular men may perish without any per- 
 sonal guilt of their own. But in these wars of Christ, there 
 
380 THE VICTORIES OF CHRIST. 
 
 shall not a man perish, till he be first convinced, by a judiciary 
 proceeding, of his own demerit. "Every mouth must be 
 stopped, and all the world," by the evidence and acknowledg- 
 ment of their own conscience, " become guilty before God," 
 before his wrath shall seize upon them. The Lord sent Noah 
 to preach, before he sent a flood to destroy the old world. 
 He aroiied with Adam, before he thrust him out of paradise. 
 The voice goeth ever before the rod, Micah vi. 9. This 
 course our Saviour observed towards him who had not the 
 weddino- o-arment ; first convinced him, until he was speech- 
 less, and then cast him into outer darkness. Matt. xxii. 12, 
 13. And this course the Lord took with his people when he 
 punished them, Isa. v. 3, 4 ; Amos ii. 11 ; iii. 7. For he 
 will have the consciences of men to subscribe, and acknow- 
 ledge the justness of his proceedings, and to condemn them- 
 selves by their own witness ; when he entereth into judg- 
 ment he doth it by line and plummet, Isa. xxviiL 17 ; in 
 proportion to the means of grace neglected, to the patience 
 and forbearance abused, to the times of grace overslipped, to 
 the purity of the law violated and profaned. We must take 
 heed, therefore, of continuing gentiles, of being aliens from 
 that commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from that cove- 
 nant of promise, of living without God in the world. No 
 man can with hope or comfort say, " Enter not into judge- 
 ment," but he who is the Lord's servant, and of his household 
 We must be all ingrafted into the natural olive, and become 
 the seed of Abraham, and jews by covenant, before Christ 
 will be our peace, or reconcile us unto his Father, Rom. ii 
 29 ; xi. 17, 24 ; Gal. vi. 16 ; Eph. ii. 11, 14. 
 
 IV. " He shall fill the places with dead bodies." This 
 notes the greatness of the victory, that none should be left to 
 bury their dead. There shall be an universal destruction of 
 wicked men together in the day of God's wrath, they shall 
 be bound up in bundles, and heaped up for damnation, Matt, 
 xiii. 30 ; Psa. xxxvii. 38 ; Isa. i. 28 ; Ixvi. 17. And it notes, 
 the shame and dishonour of the enemy, they shall lay like 
 dead bodies upon the face of the earth, and shall be behold- 
 ing to their victors for a base and dishonourable burial ; as 
 we see in the great battle with Gog and Magog, Ezek. xxxix. 
 
 V. " He shall wound the head over many countries." 
 Either literally, antichrist. Rev. xvii. 2, 8 ; who taketh upon 
 him to be universal bishop and monarch, and to dispose of 
 crowns, and dispense kingdoms at his pleasure. Or spiri- 
 
THE VICTORIES OF CHRIST. 381 
 
 tually, Satan, who is the prince of this world, whose head 
 Christ was to crush and tread under our feet, Gen. iii. 15 ; 
 Rom. xvi. 20. Or figuratively, the head, tliat is, the counsel 
 and power of many nations, which shall at last appear to have 
 been but a vain thing, Psa. ii. 2 ; 1 Cor. i. 19. What sense 
 soever we follow, the main thing to be observed is • that 
 which we handled before ; that Christ will in due time ut- 
 terly destroy the greatest, the highest, and the wisest of his 
 enemies. And therefore this may suffice upon this verse. 
 
382 THE SUFFERINGS AND RESURRECTION OF CHRIST. 
 
 VERSE VII. 
 
 HK SHALL DRI>KOF THE BROOK IN THE WAY : THEREFORE SHALL 
 HE LIFT UP THE HEAD. 
 
 Some understand these words in the sense of the two former, 
 for a figurative expression of the victories of Christ ; and that 
 in a two-fold manner. Some by " brook," understand the 
 blood of the adversary, with vdiich the way should be filled 
 as with a stream : and by drinking thereof, the satiating, re- 
 freshino-, and delighting himself in the confusion of his 
 enemies ; for the Lord is eased when his enemies are sub- 
 dued, Isa. i. 24. Others, that he should pursue his victory 
 with such heat and importunity, that he should not allow any 
 time of usual repast, but should content himself with such 
 obvious refreshment as should offer itself in the way ; and 
 should immediately lift up his head again, to pursue the 
 enemy at the heel ; and in this sense, there is no more 
 new matter here intimated than that which hath been before 
 handled. 
 
 Others understand the means whereby Christ should thus 
 lift up his head, and exalt himself above all the enemies of his 
 kingdom ; namely, by his passion and sufferings : by death 
 "destroying death and him that had the power of death, 
 which is the devil." I will not undertake to define which 
 sense is most agreeable to the place ; it being so difficult. 
 But upon occasion of this latter, (which I think is more ge- 
 nerally embraced,) I shall speak something of the means and 
 grounds of Christ's victories over his enemies, and of his 
 government in his church, namely, his sufferings and resur- 
 rection. 
 
 " He shall drink of the brook in the way." By brook, 
 then, or torrent, we may understand the wrath of God, and 
 the rage of men : the afflictions and sufferings which befel 
 Christ. And this is a very frequent metaphor in holy Scrip- 
 tures, by water to understand afflictions, Psa. xviii. 4, 5 ; xlii. 
 7 ; Ixix. 1 ; cxxiv. 4, 5. Thus the wrath of the Lord is called 
 a stream, and a lake, Isa. xxx. 33 ; Rev. xix. 20. In regard 
 
THE SUFFERINGS AND RESURRECTION OF CHRIST. 383 
 
 of the rage and irresistibleness thereof; and In regard of the 
 turbidnessand thickness thereof; for Ciod's wrath is full of dreo-g, 
 Isa. li, 17 ; Psa. Ixxv. 8. It is said in the history of Clirist's 
 passion, when he was going to wrestle with that woful agony 
 in the garden, tliat "he passed over the brook Cedron," John 
 xviii. 1. And we may observe in the history of the kings, 
 that when the good kings, Hczekiah, and Asa, and Josi<ih, 
 purged the city and the temple of idolatry, " they burnt the 
 cursed things at the brook Kidron, and cast them thereinto,'* 
 2 Chron. xv. 16; xxix. IG ; xxx. 14; 2 Kings xxiii. 6. To 
 note unto us, that this brook was the sink, as it were, of the 
 temple ; that into which all the uncleanness of God's house, 
 all the cursed things, were to be cast : with relation whcreunto 
 it is not improbable that the prophet David, by a prophetical 
 spirit, might notify the sufferings of Christ, by drinking of 
 that cursed brook over which he was to pass, to signify that 
 on him all the faithful might lay and pour out their sins, who 
 is therefore said to be made sin, and a curse for us, 2 Cor. 
 V. 21 ; Gal. iii. 13. As the people when they laid their hands 
 on the head of the sacrifice, did thereby, as it were, unload all 
 their sins upon it. 
 
 Now, as waters signify afflictions, so there are two words 
 with relation thereunto, which signify suffering of afflictions, 
 and they are both applied unto Christ. " Are ye able to 
 drink of the cup that I shall drink of, and be bapiized with 
 the baptism that I am baptized with ?" Matt. xx. 22. He 
 that drinketh hath the water in him ; he that is dipped or 
 plunged hath the water about him : so it notes the univer- 
 sality of the wrath which Christ suffered, it was within him ; 
 " My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death." And it 
 was all about him ; betrayed by Judas, accused by jews, for- 
 saken by disciples, mocked by Herod, condemned by Pilate, 
 buffetted by the servants, nailed by the soldiers, reviled by the 
 thieves and standers by, and which was all in all, forsaken 
 by his Father. Thus then, drinking of the brook, is meant 
 suffering of the curses ; and it is frequently so used, Jer. xxv. 
 27 ; xUx. 12 ; Ezek. xxiii. 32, 34 ; Habak. ii. 16 ; Rev. xiv , 
 9, 10. 
 
 By " the way," we must understand, either the life of Christ 
 on earth ; his passage between his assumed voluntary humility 
 and his exaltation again : or the way between mankind and 
 heaven, which by that flood of wrath, and torrent of curses, 
 which were *" against us," Col. ii. 14, was made utterly 
 
384 THE SUFFERINGS AND RESURRECTION OF CHRIST. 
 
 impassable, till Christ, by his sufferings, made a path through 
 it, for the ransomed of the Lord to pass over. 
 
 ** Therefore shall he lift up his head." It noteth, in the 
 Scripture phrase, victory ; bursting forth, and breaking through 
 those evils which did urge and press a man before, Psa. xxvii. 
 6 : and also boldness, confidence, and security to the whole 
 body, Luke xxi. 28. And further, it is not, He shall be lifted 
 up ; but, He shall do it himself. He hath the power of Hfe, 
 and the fountain of life in himself, John v. 26 ; x. 18. So 
 that, following this sense of the words, the meaning is, He shall 
 suffer, and remove all those curses which were in the way 
 between mankind and Heaven ; and then he shall lift up his 
 head in the resurrection, and break through all those suffer- 
 ings into glory again ; which sense is most punctually and 
 expresslv unfolded in those parallel places, Luke xxiv. 26, 
 46; PhiLii. 8, 9; ] Pet. i. IL 
 
 " He shall drink of the brook in the way." From hence 
 we may note, that between mankind and Heaven there is a 
 torrent of wrath and curses, which doth everlastingly separate 
 between us and glory ; a great and fixed gulf, which all the 
 world can neither wade through nor remove. The law, at 
 first, was an easy and smooth way to righteousness, and from 
 thence to salvation ; but now every step thereof sinks as low as 
 hell. It is written within and without with curses ; which way 
 soever a man stirs, he finds nothing but death before him : one 
 man's way by the morality of his education, the ingenuousness 
 of his disposition, the engagement of other ends or relations, 
 may seem more smooth and plausible than another's ; but, by 
 nature, they all run into hell ; as all rivers, though ever so dif- 
 ferent in other circumstances, run into the sea. It is as im- 
 possible for a natural man, of himself, to escape damnation, as 
 it is to make himself no child of the old Adam, or not to have 
 been begotten by fleshly parents. The gulf of sin in our 
 nature cannot be cleansed, and therefore the guilt thereof 
 cannot be removed. The image we have lost is by us irre- 
 parable ; the law we have violated, inexorable ; the justice we 
 have injured, unsatisfiable ; the concupiscence of our nature, 
 insatiable ; sin an aversion from an infinite good, and a con- 
 version to the creature infinitely ; and therefore the guilt 
 thereof infinite and unremovable too. 
 
 We should learn often to meditate on this point, to find 
 ourselves reduced unto these straits and impossibilities ; that 
 we cannot see which way to turn, or to help ourselves, for 
 
THE SUFFERINGS AND RESURRECTION OF CHRIST. 385 
 
 that is the only way to draw us unto Christ. Everv man na- 
 turally loves to be m tlie first place beholding to iinnsclf; in 
 any extremity, if his own wits, purse, projects, or endeavours 
 will help him out, he looks no further ; but when all his own 
 succours have forsaken liim, then he seeks abroad. It is 
 much more true in the matter of salvation ; no man ever did 
 begin at Christ, but went unto him upon mere necessitv, 
 when he had experience of the emptiness of all his other 
 succours and dependences ; we all by nature are oU'ended at 
 him, and will not have him to reign over us, till thereunto 
 we be forced by the evidence of that infinite and unpreventable 
 misery, under which, without him, we must sink for ever. 
 This is of all other the most urgent argument to men at 
 first to consider, that there is a torrent of curses, a sea of 
 death, a reign of condemnation, a hell of sin within, and a 
 hell of torments without, between them and their salvation ; 
 and there is no drop of that sea, no scruple of tliat curse, no 
 tittle of that law, which must not all be either fulfilled or en- 
 dured. Suppose that God should summon thy guilty soul to 
 a sudden appearance before his tribunal of justice ; and should 
 there begin to deal with thee even at thy birth ; alas ! thou 
 wouldst be utterly gone there ; even there of the seed of evil 
 doers, the spawn of viperous and serpentine parents, a cursed 
 child, a child of wrath, an exact image of the old Adam, and 
 of Satan. But then, after this is produced a catalogue 
 and history of sins of forty, fifty, or threescore years long. 
 And in them every inordinate motion of the will, every sud- 
 ien stirring and secret working of inward lust, every idle 
 word, every unclean aspect, every impertinency and irregu- 
 larity of life scored up against thy poor soul, and each of them 
 to be produced at the last, and either answered or avenged. 
 Oh, where shall the ungodly and sinners appear, if they have 
 not right in Christ ! And how should men labour to be se- 
 cured in that right ! Who would suffer so many millions of 
 obligations and indictments to lay between him and God un- 
 cancelled, and not labour to have them taken out of the way ? 
 Now, the only way to be brought hereunto, is, to deny our- 
 selves, and all we do ; to do no good thing for this end, that 
 we may rest in it, or rely upon it when we have done, but 
 after all to judge ourselves unprofitable servants : when we 
 have prayed, to see hell between heaven and our prayers ; 
 when we have preached, to see hell between heaven and our 
 sermons ; when we have done any work of devotion, to see 
 S 
 
386 THE SUFFERINGS AND RESURRECTION OF CHRIST. 
 
 Iiell between heaven and all our services, if God should mark 
 w^hat is amiss in them, and should enter into judgment with 
 us : in one word, to see hell between heaven and anything in 
 the world else, save only between Christ and heaven. Till in 
 this manner men be qualified for mercy, they will have no 
 heart to desire it, and God hath no purpose to confer it. 
 Christ must be esteemed worthy of all acceptation, before God 
 bestows him : and the way so to esteem of him is, to feel 
 ourselves the greatest of sinners. And when the soul is thus 
 once humbled with the taste and remembrance of that worm- 
 wood and gall which is in sin, there is then an immediate 
 passage unto hope and mercy. Lam. iii. 19 — 22 ; and that 
 hope is this, that Christ hath drunken up and dried that 
 torrent of curses which was between us and heaven, and hath 
 made a passage through them all by himself unto his Father's 
 kingdom. He was made sin, and a curse for us, that so he 
 might swallow up sin and death, and might be the destruction 
 of hell, Hosea xiii. 14. I will here but touch upon two things, 
 1. What Christ suffered. 2. Why he suffered. 
 
 1. For understanding of the first, we must note, that Christ's 
 human nature was, by the hypostatical union, exalted unto 
 many dignities, which to all the creatures in the world besides 
 are utterly incommunicable ; as the communication of pro- 
 perties, the adoration of angels, the primogeniture of the crea- 
 tures, the co-operation with the Deity in many mighty works, 
 the satisfaction of an infinite justice by a finite passion, &c. 
 Exalted likewise it was by his spiritual unction above all his 
 fellows, with that unmeasurable fulness of grace, which wonder- 
 fully surpasseth the united and accumulated perfections of all 
 the angels in heaven. We must note likewise, that all these 
 things Christ received for the work of man's redemption, 
 and therefore he had them in such a manner as was most 
 suitable and convenient for the execution of that work. Now, 
 Christ was to fulfil that work by a way of suffering and obe- 
 dience ; by death to destroy him that had the power of death ; 
 as David, by Goliath's sword, slew him that was master of the 
 sword. As there fell a mighty tempestuous wind upon the 
 Red sea, whereby the passage was opened for Israel to go out 
 of Egypt into Canaan ; so Christ was to be torn and divided 
 by his sufferings, that so there might be a passage for us to 
 God, through that sea of wrath which was between our 
 Egn,-pt and our Canaan, our sin and our salvation. Here 
 then are two general rules to be observed concerning the suf- 
 
THE SUFFERINGS AND RESURRECTION OF CHRIST. 387 
 
 ferings of Christ. 1. That the economy or dispensation of 
 his mediatorship, is the measure of all that lie sutf'ercd. So 
 much as that required, he did suffer, and more In; did not t 
 for though he suffered as man, yet he suffered not hecause he 
 was a man, but because he was a mediator. 2. Inasmucli as 
 a mediator between God and sinners was to be lioly and se- 
 parate from sinners, (for if he should have ])een a sinner," he 
 had been one of the parties, and not a mediator,) therefore 
 none of those sufferings which are repugnant to his holiness, 
 and by consequence unserviceable to the administration of 
 his office, could belong unto him. Such things then as did 
 no way prejudice the plenitude of his grace, the union of his 
 natures, the quality of his mediation, such things as were 
 suitable to his person, and requisite for our pardon, such as 
 were possible for him, and such as were necessary for us, those 
 things he suffered as the punishments of our sins. 
 
 Now, punishments are of several sorts ; some are sins, 
 some only from sins. Some things, in several respects, are 
 both sins and punishments. In relation to the law, as de- 
 viations, so they are sin : in relation to the order and dis- 
 position of God's providence, so they are punishments ; as 
 hardness of heart, and a reprobate sense. Other punish- 
 ments are from sin, and in this regard sin is two ways to be con- 
 sidered, either as inherent, or as imputed : from sin, as inherent, 
 or from the consciousness of sin in a man's self, doth arise 
 remorse, or torment and the worm of conscience. Again ; sin, 
 as imputed, may be considered two ways ; either it is imputed 
 upon a ground in nature, because the persons to whom it is 
 imputed are naturally one with him that originally committed 
 it, and so it doth descend, and is derived upon them. Thus 
 Adam's sin of eating the forbidden fruit is imputed unto us, 
 and the punishment thereof on us derived, namely the priva- 
 tion of God's image, and the corruption of our nature. Or 
 else it is imputed upon a ground of voluntary contract, un- 
 dertaking, or engagement, so that the guilt thereupon growing 
 is not a derived, but an assumed guilt, which did not bring 
 with it any desert, or worthiness to suffer, but only an obliga- 
 tion and obnoxiousness thereunto. As if a sober and honest 
 person be surety for a prodigal and luxurious man, who spend- 
 ing his estate upon courses of intemperance and excess, hath 
 disabled himself to pay any of his debts; the one doth for his 
 vicious disability deserve imprisonment, unto which the other 
 is as liable as he, though without any such personal desert. 
 s 2 
 
388 THE SUFFERINGS AND RESURRECTION OF CHRIST. 
 
 Now then, the punishments which Christ suffered are only 
 such as agree unto sin thus imputed, as all our sins were unto 
 Christ. 
 
 Again; in punishments we are to distinguish between 
 punishments inflicted from without, and punishments ingene- 
 rated, and immediately resulting from the condition of the 
 person that sufFereth ; or between the passions and actions 
 of the men that are punished. Punishments inflicted, are those 
 pains and dolorous impressions which God, either by his own 
 immediate hand, or by the ministry of such instruments as he 
 is pleased to use, doth lay upon the soul or body of a man. 
 Punishments ingenerated, are those which grow out of the 
 weakness and wickedness of the person lying under the sore 
 and invincible pressure of those pains which are thus inflicted ; 
 as blasphemy, despair, and the worm of conscience. In one 
 word, some evils of punishment are vicious, either formally in 
 themselves, or fundamentally, and by way of connotation in 
 regard of the originals thereof in the person suffering them. 
 Others are only dolorous and miserable, which press nature, 
 but do no way defile it, nor refer to any either pollution or 
 impotency in the person suffering them, and of this sort only 
 were the punishments of Christ. 
 
 Now, these punishments which Christ thus suffered, are 
 either incohate, or consummate. Incohate, as all those defects 
 of our nature which neither were sins, nor grounded upon the 
 inherence of sins, (for he took not our personal, but only 
 our natural defects,) so far as they have pain and anguish in 
 them : and these were either corporeal, as hunger, thirst, 
 weariness, and the like ; or spiritual, as fear, grief and sor- 
 row, temptations. Consummate, were those which he suffered 
 at last : and these likewise were either corporeal, as shame, 
 mockings, buffets, trials, scourgings, condemnation, and an 
 ignominious and cursed death ; or spiritual, and those were 
 principally two : 
 
 (1.) A punishment of dereliction; "My God, my God, 
 why hast thou forsaken me ?" Matt, xxvii. 46. There was 
 some kind of separation between God and Christ during the 
 time of his sufferings for sin in that cursed manner. For un- 
 derstanding whereof we must note, that he had a fourfold 
 union unto God. 1. In his human nature, which was so fast 
 united in his person to the Divine, that death itself did not 
 separate it either from the person or from the Deity. It was 
 the Lord who lay in the grave. 2. In love, and so there was 
 
THE SUFFERINGS AND RESURRECTION OF CHRIST. 389 
 
 never any separation either ; but when he hanged on the cross, 
 he was still the beloved Son of his Father, in wlioin he was 
 well pleased. 3. In the communion of his spirit and iiuliness ; 
 and in that regard likewise there was no disunion, for he was 
 offered up as a Lamb without spot or blemisii. 4. In the 
 fruition of the light of his countenance, and of his glory and 
 favour ; and in this respect there was for the time of iiis suf- 
 ferings a dereliction, by the withdrawing of his countenance, 
 not by the dissolvhig of his union. He looked upon Christ 
 as a God armed against the sins of the world which were then 
 upon him. 
 
 (2.) There was a punishment of malediction. Ciirist under- 
 went the curse of the law, he grappled with the wrath of God, 
 and with the powers of darkness ; he felt the scourges due unto 
 our sins in his human nature, which forced and wrung from 
 him those strong cries, those deep and woful complaints, that 
 bloody and bitter sweat, which drew compassion from the very 
 rocks. And surely it is no derogation to the dignity of 
 Christ's person, but on the other side, a great magnifying of 
 the justice of God against sin, of the power of Christ against 
 the law, and of the mercy of them both towards sinners, to 
 affirm, that the sufferings of Christ, whatever they were in the 
 kind of them, were yet, in their weight and pressure, equally 
 grievous with those which we should have suffered : for being 
 in all things, save sin, like unto us, and most of all in his 
 liableness to the curse of the law, (so far as it did not neces- 
 sarily denote either sin inherent, or weakness to break through 
 in the person suffering,) I see no reason why he should not 
 be obnoxious to as great extremities of pain ; for no degree of 
 mere anguish and dolor can be unbefitting the person of Him 
 who was to be known by that title, " A man of sorrows." 
 And surely, it was far more indignity to him to suffer a vio- 
 lent death of body from the hands of base men, than to suffer 
 with patience, obedience, and victory, far sorer stripes from 
 the hand of God his Father, who was pleased to lay upon 
 him the iniquity of us all. 
 
 2. For the second thing proposed, Why Christ suffered these 
 things ; the Scripture giveth principally these reasons : To 
 execute the decree of his Father, Acts iv. 27, 28. To fulfil 
 tlie prophecies, prefigurations, and predictions of holy Scrip- 
 tures, Luke xxiv. 46. To magnify his mercy and free love 
 to sinners, and most impotent enemies, Rom. v. 8. To de- 
 clare the righteousness and truth of God against sin, who 
 
390 THE SUFFERINGS AND llESURRECTION OF CHRIST. 
 
 would not be reconciled with sinners but upon a legal 
 expiation, Rom. iii. 25. For although we may not limit the 
 unsearchable wisdom and ways of God, as if he could no other 
 way have saved man ; yet we are bound to adore this means, 
 as being by him selected out of that infinite treasure of his 
 own counsel, as most convenient to set forth his wonderful 
 hatred of sin, his inexorable justice and severity against it, 
 his unsearchable riches of love and mercy towards sinners, 
 and in all things to make way to the manifestation of his 
 glory. But further, to show forth his own power, which had 
 strength to stand under all this punishment of sin, and at last 
 to shake it off, and to declare himself to be the Son of God 
 by the resurrection from the dead, Rom. i. 4. For though 
 Christ did exceedingly fear, and for that seems to decline and 
 pray against these his passions ; yet not out of jealousy, or 
 suspicion that he should not break through them. But he 
 feared them as being pains unavoidable, which he was most 
 certain to suffer ; and as pains very heavy and grievous, which 
 he should not overcome without much bitterness, and very woful 
 conflict. Now for a word of the last clause. 
 
 " Therefore shall he lift up the head." We may hence 
 observe, that Christ hath conquered all his sufferings by 
 his own power. As in his passion, when he suffered, he 
 bowed down his head, and gave up the ghost with a loud 
 voice, to note, that his sufferings were voluntary, John 
 xix. 30 ; so in his resurrection, he is said to lift up his head 
 himself, to note, that he had life in himself, that he was the 
 Prince of life, and that it was impossible for him to be held under 
 by death, as we were by the law, Rom. vii. 6. And that his 
 exaltation was voluntary likewise, and from his own power, 
 for he was not to have any assistance in the work of our re- 
 demption, but to do all alone, John ii. 19; v. 26; x. 17; 
 Acts iii. 15. 
 
 If it be objected, that Christ was raised from the dead by the 
 glory of his Father, and that he raised him up, Rom. vi. 4; 
 Acts xiii. 33 ; to this I answer, that this was not by way of sup- 
 plement and succour, to make up any defect of power in Christ ; 
 but only by way of consent to Christ's own power and ac- 
 tion, that so men might jointly honour the Son and the Father, 
 John V. 19, 23. Or, by the glory of the Father we may un- 
 derstand, that glorious power which the Father gave unto his 
 Son in the flesh, to have life in himself, John v. 26 ; annexing 
 thereunto a command to exercise the same power, John x. 18 
 
icrc'iii 
 
 Hi 
 
 THE SUFFERINGS AND RESURRECTION OF CHRIST. 391 
 
 Or, he is said to he raised hy himself and his Father 
 Ijoth, because the Holy Spirit which immediately quickened 
 him, was both his and his Father's, Rom. i. 4 ; 1 Tim. iii. 
 16 ; 1 Pet. iii. 18. It was not any personal thing wlic. 
 the Son differed from the Father, which raised Jesu^ from 
 dead, but that Spirit which was common to them both. 
 
 To conclude, then, with the consideration of those great 
 benefits, and that excellent use which this resurrection of 
 Christ doth serve for unto us. 
 
 1. It assureth us of the accomplishment of his works of 
 m.ediation on earth, and that he is now in the execution of 
 those other offices which remain to be fulfilled by him in 
 heaven, for the application of his sacrifice unto us ; for having 
 in the resurrection justified himself, he thereby rose for our 
 justification likewise, Rom. iv. 25. For if the debt had not 
 been taken quite off by the Surety, it would have been upon 
 the principal still. And therefore, the apostle provcth the 
 resurrection by this, that God's mercies are sure, Acts xiii. 34 ; 
 whereas, if Christ were not risen from the dead, we should 
 be yet in our sins ; and so, by consequence, the mercies of 
 David should have failed us, 1 Cor. xv. 17, 18. And for 
 this reason it is, as I conceive, that the Lord sent an angel 
 to remove the stone from the mouth of the sepulchre ; not to 
 supply any want of power in him, who could himself have 
 rolled away the stone with one of his fingers ; but as a judge, 
 when the law is satisfied, sendeth an officer to open the prison 
 doors to him who hath made that satisfaction : so the Father, 
 to testify that his justice was fully satisfied with the price 
 which his Son had paid, sent an officer of heaven to open the 
 doors of the grave, and, as it were, to hold away the hanging, 
 while his Lord came forth of his bedchamber. 
 
 2. It assureth us of our resurrection ; for as the Head must 
 rise before the members, so the members are sure to follow 
 the Head. The wicked shall rise by his judiciary power, but 
 not by the virtue and fellowship of his resurrection, as the 
 faithful, who are therefore called the " children of the resurrec- 
 tion," Luke XX. 36 ; 1 Cor. xv. 20, 21. 
 
 3. It doth, by a secret and spiritual virtue, renew and sanc- 
 tify our nature, Rom. vi. 4. For the acts of Christ's mediation 
 in his sufferings and victories are spiritually applicable and 
 effectual in us unto answerable efl'ects. His death to the mor- 
 tification of sin, Heb. ix. 14; 1 John i. 7 ; and his resurrection, 
 to the quickening of us in holiness, Eph. ii. 5; Col. ii. 12. 
 
392 THE SUFFERINGS AND RESURRECTION OF CHRIST. 
 
 4. It comforteth us in all other calamities of life which may 
 befall us, that He who raised up himself from the dead, hath 
 compassion and power to deliver us from all evil, and to keep us 
 from falling. This is the sum of Job's argument, God will 
 raise me up at the last day, therefore undoubtedly he is able 
 (if it stand with my good and his own glory) to lift me up 
 from this dunghill again. Job xix. 27. And this is God's 
 argument to comfort his people in patient waiting upon him 
 in their afflictions, because their dead bodies shall live, and 
 those that dwell in the dust shall awake and sing, Isa. xxvi. 19. 
 
 5. Lastly, it serveth to draw our thoughts and affections 
 from earth unto heaven ; because things of a nature should 
 move unto one another. Now, saith the apostle, " our con- 
 versation is in heaven, from whence we look for the Saviour, 
 the Lord Jesus Christ ; who shall change our vile body, that 
 it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to 
 the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto 
 himself." To Him, with the Father and the Holy Ghost, 
 three Persons, and one God, be all honour, glory, majesty, 
 and thanksgiving for ever. Amen. 
 
 THE END. 
 
 Londoa: Printed by W. Clowes and SoKS, Stamfoul-street. 
 
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