Forty Sermons
1. To stamp an Impress of spiritual and eternal Salvation, even [Use.] on our Temporal deliverances: that as it's the same Savior and saving Love that effects both; so in the one we may have a Glimps, Representation and Specimen of the other. And hence thou shalt be put into such Circumstances and Exigences, that thou shalt see plainly that it was God only that saved thy Body or outward Estate, the more to mind thee, that it was he only that saved thy Soul. And if my case sometimes were such, that, when all others gave me over, he himself saved me from Sickness and Death, then it was none but He alone that saved me from Sin and Hell; that Christ only trod the Winepress alone, and there was none with him, and that when he looked, and there was none to help, and wondered that there was none to uphold, then his own Arm brought Salvation to us: And when Levite and Priest left us, then our good Samaritan relieved us.
2. And therefore secondly, To let us know how for both Salvations we are more beholden to one God, than all the World besides, when in our greatest straits it's He always especially, and at sometimes only, saves us. Others never can without him: But he often-times doth without them.
Be we never so much beholden to other Friends and Creatures for greatest Deliverances, yet then even in and for them we are infinitely more beholden to God. If the Inhabitants of Jerusalem be my strength, it's in the Lord of Hosts their God, Zech. 12. 5. Though others may be Instruments, yet he only is 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , Heb. 5. 9. the Author of Salvation. And therefore the Sword of the Lord and of Gideon, Judge. 7. 20. is but like Caesare & Bibulo Consulibus: God is the Figure, and Gideon is but the Cypher. The one but the Sword, the other the Arm that smites with it. My Physician may Curare valetudinem; but it's my God that works the Cure. Counsellers may advise for us, and Soldiers may fight for us; but it's God that saves us: As they confess, We have wrought no Deliverance in the Earth; but thy dead Men shall live, Isa. 26. 18, 19. We may Sow and Plant, but Heaven's Shine and Showers give the increase: For else if the Heaven be Brass, the Earth will be Iron. When others are and do most, Christ even then is All in all, Col. 3. 11. and if he be All, then all without him are just nothing: When others do most, it's all in and from God, and He then doth more.
But sometimes it must needs be God's Salvation only, and he do all, because all else are and can do nothing. When I am in close Prison, the best Friend cannot come; when in a Pest-House, he dare not; when on a Death-Bed, and I am bidding good night and adieu to all, my Physician gives me over, and some Friends take leave of me, others it may be, stand by me and weep over me, but cannot help me; Oh now none but Christ, none but Christ. It's none else but the Living God alone, who in that dying Hour can relieve me. In a word, think what is possible, and withal what is certain.
It is possible that in a more violent way, the Man may be stripped as naked as ever Job was of all his outward Estate.
That the Town or City may be so straitly round about begirt, that none may come in or go out, and only Restat iter caelo.
The whole Land, as God sometimes Threatens in the Prophets, may come to its 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 to be utterly emptied and spoiled, emptied of Man, Woman, and Child, as Rome was sometimes by Totilas, or as the Prophet threatens Israel, no Man to pass through, no Voice of the Cattle heard: Both Fowls of the Heaven, and the Beasts fled: Nothing of all that we had to comfort us left: But Zion left as a Cottage in a Vineyard, and a Lodg in a Garden of Cucumbers all alone, forlorn and desolate. Like a lone Lamb in a waste Wilderness, Hos: 4. 16. as a Beacon on the top of a Mountain, and as an Ensign on a Hill, Isa. 30. 17. This possibly (I do not say probably) may be.
And on the other side, in an ordinary natural Course it's certain these outward Supports and Comforts will not abide by us always. The Flower will fade, the Shadow will decline, and the Sun set. When we are now to leave the World, (if not before) Friends, Estates, Honors, Health, Life itself will leave us. It's God and his Salvation only that must then relieve us. And is not the good Samaritan then the Neighbor that comes in to us, when Priest and Levite pass away from us? And am not I more beholden to God than all the World, who then stands by me and saves me, when all the best Comforts and Confidences I have in the World have cast me off and left me?
3. And as upon this account we are more beholden to God than all the World, so truly upon it too we owe more to Him, than to all the World besides: More Fear, and Love, and Service, and Praise, even our whole selves to God only, who whether with or without any else is our alone Savior.
It's all Reason; and Self-love would teach us it, to be fearful to offend, and careful to please him at all times, who sometime or other may be able to pleasure us, when none else can. That Physician of all others I should be most loath to displease, who only can cure that sore Disease that I am subject to, and should I not then be much more afraid to offend God, who alone can be my help in all these Maladies, which none else can Heal, or at least without him are Physicians of no value? It's not wisdom to provoke a Man, when we know not how soon we may be in his Lurch, and lie at his Mercy. Friend, how safe soever thy present Condition is, yet at best thou art always in Misericordia Domini; especially in some more eminent dangers, it's manifest that God only can or doth help thee: and how then do the Tyrians crouch to an offended Herod, when their Country is nourished by his? And how do they cry Abrek, bow the Knee before Joseph, when without him none might lift up Hand or Foot in all Egypt? Gen. 41. 43, 44. To be sure there's none in all the World, that can lift up either Hand to descend us, or Foot to make a step to relieve us, without our Joseph, our Jesus, and help from him. And therefore how should we bend the knees of our very Souls to him, without least lifting up of Heel or Head against him? O take heed of sinning, with the Prodigal, against Heaven; for such Droughts may soon be, which may quite dry up all Springs of Comfort that lie here in the Earth, especially in the Land of Israel, which hath few such, as Jerome saith, and drinks of the Rain of Heaven, depends more of Heaven's Showrs, than these lower earthly Springs, as Moses tells us, Deut. 11. 10, 11. If Heaven therefore being angry should shut up its Treasures from us, in Samnio Samnium, Canaan would not be itself, a Land flowing with Milk and Honey; but, as now it is, a barren and burnt Wilderness. And therefore fear we God much, on whom we depend so much for safety and deliverance, always chiefly and principally, and at sometimes and in some cases only.
And let this also persuade us to love him above all, who then sticks to us, when all else fail us. At my first Answer, saith Paul, no Man stood with me, but all forsook me, notwithstanding the Lord stood with me, 2 Tim. 4. 16, 17. Such failing Brooks are other best Friends, Job 6. who either, through weakness or falseness then do least, when we need and expect most. Sub cultro liquit, as the Proverb is. But should not our hearts then lie close to the Fountain-head of Living-Waters, which as those perennes Fontes, retain an equal fullness in the driest Summer, and in the wettest Winter; and the only difference is, that in the greatest heat they are coolest, and so most refreshing? Let Jacob have Rachel 's love and self, who rolls away the Stone for her, that none other can. And let the lost Prodigal think at last of returning home to a Father, who will allow Children's Bread, when others cannot afford Husks. With Men it's equal, that they should have most of our love, whose bounty and kindness we most taste of. And therefore it's all reason, that we should love God with all our Heart and Soul, because he only in all our straits is our All-sufficient Savior.
And upon that ground praise him too for whatever Salvation and Deliverance we are at any time blest with. Instruments may have their due, but not so as to rob God of his. And if Victories gained by the Soldiers valor be usually ascribed to the General, as matter of his praise, 2 Sam. 21. 22. who it may be only gave direction, and sometimes not that; how should the Captain of our Salvation, Cui nihil ex istâ lande Centurio, nihil praefectus, nihil cohors, &c. who either immediately, without the subserviency of any Instruments, creates Salvation, Isa. 4. 5. or when Instruments do most, he not only directs, but assists, and commands Deliverance, Psal. 44. 4. & 71. 3. How should he that is the God of our Life, Psal. 42. 8. and the God of our Mercy, Psal. 59. 17. be the God of our Praise! Psal. 109. 1. It's not the line cast out that saved thee from drowning; but the friendly hand that cast it out, and by it drew thee out of the deep Waters. It's not thy Meat that feeds thee, nor thy Physic that cures thee, nor thine own Sword, or the greatest Champion's on Earth, that defends thee. It's thy God that either with or without all these saveth thee. And therefore what they maliciously said, to the blind Man recovered, against Christ; Give God the praise, for we know that this Man is a Sinner, John 9. 24. Say we humbly and thankfully of and to Christ, Lord, we give thee the praise of these Salvations and Deliverances: for these means which we used were poor, these Instruments weak, these Men sinful, and therefore might rather have hurt than helped us. And therefore through them we look up to thee, and both for them, and any help we have had by them in all that's past, we bless and praise thee.
And for the present, and for what's to come in all straits and occasions, when we have either most or least of the Creature's help, we will trust thee, and cast the stress of all our Salvation upon thee. At this Anchora Sacra let us ride in greatest Storms, when all other Anchors break or come home. In desperate cases, let not the Romans rely more on their Triarii, than we on a blessed Trinity. Eleazar smote the Philistines, and wrought a great Victory, when the Men of Israel were all fled and gone, 2 Sam. 23. 9, 10. and he but a weak Shadow and Type of Christ our true Eleazar (the help of God, as that name signifieth) who can recover deep Consumptions, help at desperate Plunges, rescue us when all else have quite deserted and left us: Other Props and Supports often fail us, sometimes ruin us, Jer. 2. 37. Vallus vitem decipit, like the weary Man that leans his hand on the Wall, Amos 5. 19. and it either totters and fails him, or a Serpent in it bites him. But what Peace, Peace, perfect Peace is there in staying the Soul upon that everlasting Rock! Isa. 26. 3, 4. Safe standing on so sure ground. Good laying hold where there is so good hand-hold. Good hanging on that Nail fastened in a sure place, on which we may hang both Issue and Off-spring, both Cups and Flaggons, Isa. 22. 23, 24. Our selves, and all our not only lesser, but even greatest wants and burdens. Jacob here did so both for himself and his Posterity; and though now fainting, and dying, yet he could quietly lay down his weary Head in his Father's Bosom, and there pour out his Soul in this sweet warm breathing, I have waited for thy Salvation, O Lord.
SERMON XXXV.
BUt this leads me to the fourth Particular at first propounded.
That the Israel of God in all their straits should [Doct. 4] wait for his Salvation. Yea, in the way of thy Judgments, O Lord, have we waited for thee, saith the Church, Isa. 26. 8. Wait on the Lord, Psal. 27. 14. And Jacob here by a Spirit of Faith and Prophesy, as he foreseeth the miseries of his Posterity, that they had need of Salvation, so he foreseeth also how God from time to time would raise up Judges and Kings, and others to deliver them, and so he comfortably and confidently waits for it, nay prevents the danger with expectation of deliverance, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 in the Preter Tense, even long before, I have waited for thy Salvation, O Lord. So old Jacob here, which old Simeon, Luke 2. 30. otherwise expresseth, Lord, mine eyes have seen thy Salvation; which two Speeches of these two old dying Men, set out the difference of the two Testaments. The one saith, Lord, I wait; the other, I have seen; but both the same Salvation. So that now that our Savior is come, we see that which they waited for. But because he is to come again a second time, and till then perfect Salvation will not fully be come, but mean while many difficulties and dangers will be coming between; as we shall have need, so it will be our duty in this present condition with Jacob here to be waiting for God's Salvation. Which waiting contains in it three Particulars; 1. An earnest desire. 2. A confident expectation of it. And, 3. a meek staying of God's leisure, and attending upon him for it.
1. An earnest desire and out-going of the Soul to the Salvation that it waits for. The word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 here used.
In the rise of it (as Oleaster and Foster observe) hath an affinity with 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , and so signifieth an extended stretching and reaching out of the Soul: And in the use of it, is joined with others that signify a diligent seeking, Psal. 69. 6. an earnest defiring, Isa. 26. 8. an ardent breathing, as the heated Labourer or Traveler doth after the cool shadow, Job 7. 2. Such a breathing, and even breaking of the Soul there is in waiting, as the Watchman, that in a cold dark night waits for the Morning, Psal. 130. 6. with many a long look and longing desire, as David 's Soul went out to Absalom in his long absence; and Sisera 's Mother upon his long stay looks out at the Window, and cries through the Lattess, Why is his Chariot so long in coming? Why tarry the Wheels of his Chariots?
And such an 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , as the Apostle calls it, Rom. 8. 19. such an out-looking and longing, such an out-going and reaching stretching out of the Soul, such breathing and panting, in most fervent Prayers and ardent Desires after God's Salvation, doth he work in them that wait for it, and expect from them, that being in straits stand in need of it.
And this,
1. That he may have the honor of the Gift, whilst all eyes with long looks are up to him, and all hands stretched out towards him, thereby proclaiming, that they expect all from him, as Psal. 145. 15.
2. That hereby also it may appear, that they are sensible of their need. This poor Man cried, saith the Psalmist, Psal. 34. 6. pointing at himself as a poor Beggar, whilst he is crying for an Alms. The dry Earth saith it's thirsty, when it gapes for Heaven's Rain; and so do we under pressures and burdens tell God, (as fainting Jacob here in the Text) that we are spent and out of breath, when we breath after his Salvation, as Isa. 38. 14. O Lord, I am oppressed, ease me, or undertake for me.
3. That so he may the more hasten the Mercy and Deliverance. When the Child crieth earnestly, the Mother comes running in speedily. Nor is our Heavenly Father oft wont, when his Children cry aloud, to stay long. When Israel in Egypt sighs, and cries, and groans by reason of their bondage; their cry came soon up to God, Exod. 2. 23, 24, 25. and it was not 〈…〉 they came out of that Furnace: As it's said of that travailing Woman, Rev. 12. 2. which signifieth the Suffering Church, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , she cried travailing in Birth, and pained to be delivered. Clamabat parturiens. Her crying out in her Pains, was both a sign and a means of her delivery now at hand.
And truly for this very end God ofttimes quickens throws, to force our cries, that so he might hasten the Birth. On purpose he multiplies and aggravates Afflictions and Burdens, that he might quicken our desires, and call out our more earnest Cries and Groans, the more to quicken the earnings of his Bowels towards us, and so the more to hasten our deliverance.
Which tells us in these times of our perplexities and dangers, [Use.] what bad Friends we are to ourselves, and what Enemies to our Salvation, in our neglect of this first Particular of waiting for it.
1. In want of these stronger out-goings of the Soul, and these warmer breathings after that Deliverance and Mercy, which we stand in so much need of; not that our outward peace and safety were either in itself, or in our deliberate esteem less desirable, no less than Health and Life is to a Man in a Lethargy. But that Disease makes him senseless, so as that, when he stands in most need of it, he is least of all affected with it, and so lieth still as dead, without desires of it, or any other way making out for it. O the deadness of our hearts! such a Lethargy, I fear, hath too much seized on us. Our Straits are many, our Dangers very great, and yet our Hearts very dead, because of later years we have been accustomed to troubles, and now like a Man before tired out with labor and watching, fallen into such a deep sleep as he cannot be wakened. We are very far from an awakened frame of Spirit to look up to God, and to look out for Salvation; and the right way to come by it, as the Prophet complained, though we fade like a Leaf, and our iniquities like the Wind are ready to take us away, (as a blustering Wind doth the fading Leaves from the Trees in Autumn) yet there is none that calleth upon God, that stirs up himself to take hold of him, Isa. 64. 6, 7. We are very secure in the midst of danger. The drunken Man is asleep on the top of the Mast, in the midst of the Sea. And although the four Winds of the Heaven strive upon the great Sea from all quarters of the World, nothing but Storms and Tempests, 〈…〉 ever, yet those sweeter gales are very silent, a spirit of Prayer is very much down; and when the Wind is down, the Showr is wont to pour down. The Lord grant it may not be a Showr of Fire and Brimstone, that Sodom's sins may not bring upon us a Sodom's overthrow. But so much for the first particular of this waiting, viz. an earnest desire.
2. The second, was a confident expectance: For waiting is an act of Hope, and Hope the Daughter of Faith, and Faith is 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Hebr. 11. 1. the very subsistence of things hoped for. Faith assures, and thereupon Hope expects, and thereupon also waits. My Soul, wait thou only upon God, for my expectation is from him, Psal. 62. 5. Waits as long as it expects, and no longer; as long as you expect a friends coming, so long you will wait, though it be very long: but give over looking for him, and then you will wait no longer. When that desperate Courtier in a pang of despair said, Behold this evil is of the Lord (which he will not, and we cannot remove, and so despair of remedy) then what followed but that desperate conclusion, why should I wait for the Lord any longer? 2 King. 6. 33. But a meekened Believer, because he expects much, is very willing to wait long, and in this patient waiting he continues confidently expecting, according to that Isa. 8. 17. I will wait upon the Lord, and I will look for him. Believing Waiters are men of great hopes and expectations. Mordecai is confident that enlargement and deliverance shall arise to the Jews, Esther 4. 14. Our God whom we serve is able▪yea and he will deliver us, said Daniel's three fellows, Chap. 3. 17. and fainting Jacob here in the Text, though whilst he foresaw the strength and prevalency of Enemies, and the sins and sufferings of his posterity, and especially of the Tribe of Dan, which he now speaks of; yet (as old Simeon, having it revealed that he should not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ Luke 2. 25, 26. So old Jacob here) seeing for certain a great deliverance by Sampson, and a greater by Christ, in the midst of all disheartening discouragements, whilst he expects he waits, and whilst he waits, he expects God's Salvation.
This did he, and this should we, and that in greatest straits, wait and look, wait and look to God, 2 Chron. 20. 12. nay wait and look for much from God, as the Cripple, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , looked on the Apostles expecting to receive something of them, Act. 3. 5. Especially when Peter had before in the 4th verse said to him, look on us. And the very same word God saith to us, when we lie before him in a more miserable condition, look unto me and be ye saved, Isa. 45. 22. As the Stung Man looked on the Brasen Serpent in assurance of cure, and the Servant on the hands of his Master in expectance of a langess: so our Lord and Master in this our waiting posture would have us by Faith look to him not only with desire, but with expectance of Salvation.
And this as very much making also,
1. For the Glory of God, which was much advanced (in the former particular) by having the Eyes of all Creatures looking to him in way of desire, but much more (in this) when they are fixed on him in expectation. That spake him an all-sufficient Sovereign, but this proclaims him a gracious and bountiful one: for otherwise with men, some may be so able that much is desired of them, but withal so strait-handed, that it's but little which is expected from then▪ but how glorious is our God, that is as gracious as great, not more powerful than bountiful, from whom his servants may promise themselves as much as they ask? My God will hear me, Micah. 7. 7. yea, expect more than they desire, as being both able and willing to do more, than we can ask or think, Ephes. 3. 20. This glory of his free and rich Goodness, is his great Design, especially in the Covenant of Grace: and therefore it is that he makes choice of the recumbency and expectance of Faith, by which he will dispense not only eternal, but even temporal Salvation, as that which in so doing much sets forth this his Glory.
2. And secondly, as much furthers and facilitates our Deliverance: for great Expectations are great Obligations, even with Men of generous spirits to do much for them, that rely much on them, and promise themselves much from them, that the others good thoughts may not exceed their goodness; and this sometimes to those that can plead no Merit, that it might appear to be mere Goodness and Mercy. If thus with ingenuous Men, then much more than so with an All-Gracious God, who hath professed, that he delights in them that trust and hope in his Mercy, Psal. 147. 11. and therefore takes pleasure to answer and exceed our good thoughts of him with his better performances to us. Our good persuasions of God prove very strong persuasions with him to do us good, that it may appear that we cannot outthink his infinite Goodness, that our thoughts of him cannot be better than his are towards us, nor our heart more enlarged by Faith to hope and expect a mercy than his hand opened with bounty to bestow it. And therefore open thy Mou • h wide, and I will fill it; so in the Old Testament: and according to thy Faith be it unto thee, so oft in the New. Under both, God hath oftentimes in very unlikely cases gratified the Faith and expectations of his Servants with extraordinary mercies and deliverances.
And therefore for the application of this branch also, seeing [Use.] the dangers are great that we may fear, and the Salvation great that we stand in need of; let not Sloth and Unbelief keep us from what we may have by asking and expecting. We strengthen our forces to fight with our Enemies; but it is (I do not say our cheapest, but I am sure) our safest and surest way to strengthen our Faith by expecting of much, to prevail for much from him. But we have low thoughts of God, and that keeps us from rising high: Misgiving hearts, which keeps God from being on the giving hand. Thou wouldst not so readily gratify another with that, which thou knowest he entertains so hard thoughts of thee about, that he thinks thou wilt not be so kind as to grant. God fully knows all our hard unkind thoughts of his unkindness; which discourageth him much from vouchsafing much of that which we need, & he otherwise is ready to give. The Prophet wanted not Oil, but the Widow Vessels. The Fountain, or River is full, but one carrieth away nothing from it, because he hath no Vessel to receive it, & another but a little, because his Vessel is so. Thank, nay blame unbelieving contracted hearts, that they hold no more of God's goodness; hands shrunk up like Jeroboam's, and paralytick, that can grasp no more, nor lay any faster hold on his bounty. Joash strikes with his Arrows but thrice, and therefore he overcomes the Syrians no oftener. O thou of little Faith! That's the reason why thou receivest no more, either of Spiritual or Temporal Salvation: and therefore, seeing that God is so unwilling to disappoint the Faith, and frustrate the expectations, which his own Spirit hath raised in Believers, that it's but hope and have; let us in a way of God even in most dangerous times hope much that we may enjoy the more.
I said, in a way of God. And that leads us to the following particulars. That we may with Jacob wait on God for Salvation, with such expectance and confidence it's required, that,
1. Our selves be under Covenant: for though to others God oft grants temporal Salvation, yet it's certain, that they, as such, have no ground with confidence to expect it. A Rebel may possibly be spared, but it's a loyal Subject that may justly expect his Princes Protection, whilst the other according to his demerit, may stand trembling at the Barr, and justly expect the Sentence of Condemnation. The Apostle speaks of a fearful looking for of judgment by some, Heb. 10. 27. But they are the Righteous, whose Hope is gladness, whilst the expectation of the wicked shall perish, Prov. 10. 28.
2. The Mercy or Salvation we would expect be under promise: for what God doth promise, we may confidently expect that he will assuredly perform, so that in doubtfullest times and cases, our Course and Duty is not so much to search into God's secret Will, what he will do, as into his revealed Word, what he hath therein promised, either in general to his Church at all times, or particularly to his People in some special times and cases. So Daniel looks into his Books, and finds that there, which enables him to look up to God for the return of the Jews captivity, Chap. 9. 2. But our Self-love oft promiseth us Salvation, when God's Word, if consulted, threatens Destruction; as it was with Judah before their threatened Captivity, who looked for Peace, but no good came; for a time of health, and behold trouble, Jer. 8. 15. and 14. 19. Scriptures, Promises, and Prophecies, especially that of the Revelations should be much read, and studied in these doubtful times, that we may know what to expect or fear by what is therein promised or threatened.
3. Our present way and course be under the Condition of the Promise: for else though we be in Covenant, and the Mercy be promised, yet if our present habitude and posture be not according to that Condition, that either we are under the actual guilt and defilement of some provoking sin, or in the use of unlawful means, instead of the Mercy expected, we may meet with the Mischief which we looked not for: Though Israel was no Servant, nor homeborn-Slave, yet he is spoiled, when God hath that to say to him, And now what hast thou to do in the way of Egypt, to drink the water of Sichor? And what hast thou to do in the way of Assyria, to drink the water of the River? Jer. 2. 14, 18. as before that, Josh. 7. 13. though they were in Covenant with God, and had the promise of Canaan, yet, when they had an accursed thing in the midst of them, they received a repulse at Ai, instead of gaining the victory. Salvation from God is only to be found in a way of God. Even an honest Man in by-paths may meet with Thieves and Robbers. Fouler sins put us out of God's protection, dash and frustrate expectation, whereas make but sure of these three, that the Mercy be found in a Promise, our selves in Covenant, and our way and temper within the Condition of it, and then we may not only with comfort desire, but also with confidence expect Salvation.
3. But yet so, as then in an humble and meek Patience silently to stay God's leisure for it, which is the third particular, wherein this Waiting most properly and formally consists, as ever including some longer or shorter stay: and therefore expressed in the New Testament usually by 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , or its compounds, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , or 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , a staying, abiding and sitting down by it: and in the Old Testament usually expressed by this word in the Text, which (I said) sign fieth an Extension or Prolongation as of the desire, so often of the thing desired. In the first particular of it (as we have seen) it contained in it long looks▪ and longing desires; but not like Womens longings, that are so short-winded, that they cannot stay, or like short-winged Birds, that can make no long flight. No, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Even in the way of thy judgments, O Lord, have we waited for thee. Though the way be deep, a way of judgments, and long too, as the word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 imports, yet, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , their line is stretched out to its length: and as long as God stayeth, they will wait▪ In waiting they will wait, Psal. 40. 1. Patiently they will wait, Rom. 8. 25. and this every day, continually, Hos. 12. 6. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 ▪ a Believer's juge sacrificium, which day by day he attends upon God with, and this all the day, Psal. 25. 5. and this, although it be a very Stormy Winter day, all the days of my warfare will I wait, saith Job. Chap. 14. 14. and Jacob here, though this Salvation which he expects was not till divers hundreds of years after his death, yet because he knoweth that God is so true and faithful, as never to forget his Word at last, and so wise and merciful, as to be sure to remember it at that time which shall be most fit: therefore although this Tribe of Dan was one of the last that was settled in its Lot, and therein very much molested by the Amorites, especially by their bad Neghbours the Philistines, yet, Dum spiro, spero, as long as he lives, he hopes, and when he is now a dying, his Hopes die not with his Life: but he both liveth in hope, and when he dieth, rests in hope: he be-believes that his Covenant will be able to reach his Seed when he is dead to a thousand Generations, Psal. 105. 8. and therefore expects that now, which shall betide them then: Mean while patiently waits God's leisure: And now being upon the point of Death, he layeth his Head in his Father's Bosom, and there quietly breaths out his Soul with this warm Breath, (And how sweet is it!) I have waited for thy Salvation, O Lord; which comes to this, that we are to stay God's Leasure, and to wait upon him for Mercy.
1. Though intervening Occurrences come cross, as it was in the Danites infestations from Amorites and Philistines. I acknowledge this puts Faith to it, as it did David's; who, after that he was promised to be King, was pursued as a Traitor; whereupon he sometimes thinks it long, and crieth out, O when wilt thou come unto me? Psal. 101. 2. And sometimes grows very quick and hasty, and in that haste saith, All Men are Liars, Psal. 116. 11. even Samuel himself, who promised him a Kingdom, and behold, nothing but Misery and Thraldom. But let Israel, even when the Sea is before them, and the Egyptians behind them, and so nothing in view but em •• inent Destruction instead of the promised Deliverance and Salvation, let Israel, I say, even in that posture stand still and wait, and see God's Salvation, Exod. 14. 13. The Man may be taking the greatest Leap, when he goes most backward, and God may be then about to do most for his People, when there is the least appearance of anything but of the quite contrary. Israel at last shall be settled in Canaan, though, when now upon the Borders of it, they are driven back in the way to the Red-Sea again. Stay therefore God's Leasure and wait upon him, though intervening Providences seem cross.
2. Though delays be very long. The Danites had their Lot with the last, and yet in reference to them Jacob's Faith could rest on God, and say, I have waited for thy Salvation, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , Hab. 2. 3. Though it tarry (and the word is in forma duplicata, to express a longer double delay) yet wait for it. The precious Fruit, that the Husbandman with such patience waits for, lieth sometimes long under ground, and so it is oft with God's preciousest Mercies: Oftentimes they have but slow beginnings, and no hasty progress (it may be) afterwards, but ripen very fast towards the latter end, like a natural motion, slow at first, but quick in the close. After God's Promise of multiplying Abraham's Seed as the Stars of Heaven, Gen. 15. 5. for above 200 Years of the 400 mentioned, ver. 13. The holy Seed were no more than Seventy. Chap. 46. You will say, It was but a backward Spring; but yet for all that, proved a very plentiful Harvest: Though their beginning was small, yet their latter end did greatly increase: When that Seventy in a less time, grew to six hundred thousand Men, beside Children, Exod. 12. 37. And of Dan, one Hushim, Gen. 46. 23. comes to Sixty two thousand seven hundred, Numb. 1. 38, 39. As single Numbers may be but few, but soon rise to vast Sums, if you go on to multiply them. And the same People in their last year in the Wilderness, advanced as much towards Canaan, as they had before done in all the former thirty nine. As he that runs fair and easily in the beginning of the Race, puts on apace, and makes all speed when now towards the end of it. And so God tells the Prophet, that the Vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it will speak and not lie: Though for the present you hear nothing of it, yet at the end it will speak out to purpose, and proclaim God to be True and Faithful; and therefore he might well add, though it tarry, yet wait for it. When the Master tarries, the Servant waits: And therefore, if God tarry as a Master, Faith should teach the Believer to wait as a Servant.
And this not only in fair Way, and the lightsome Summer's Day of Peace and Prosperity, (for, if so only, our meaning is, that God should wait on us rather than we on him) but even in deepest Ways and foulest Weather, and darkest Winter-nights of Adversity and Afflictions, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , Yea, even in the Way of thy Judgments, have we waited for thee, O Lord, Isa. 26. 8.
An irksome task, I confess, and to Flesh and Blood intolerable, which thinks it's for Melancholick Fools to sit so long waiting and starving in the Dark, and to be looking for a late Morning-light in such long Winter-Nights. It's very hard meekly to tarry God's leisure, especially when he tarries long, and not one of these three ways to miscarry, and yet all contrary to waiting. After a longer sighing under Pressure, and breathing after Ease, not, 1. Either to sink in Discouragement, Lam. 3. 18. Or, 2. To rise up in Discontent, as Job, & Psal. 39. 3. Or, 3. To start out in some unwarrantable Way, so to make a shorter cut to our Freedom, 1 Sam. 27. 1. For we are naturally,
1. Sensual and Brutish, extremely affected with present Pain and Ease, Wants and Enjoyments. Want the wisdom of a Man, to foresee what may be best for hereafter, and the Faith of a Christian, which is the substance of things hoted for, and so are impatient of waiting upon even God himself, of whom we will have present Payment, and will give him no more time (though he always allows for it) especially if it be something that we are so greedy of, that with Eli's Sons, we will rather have it raw, than stay for it.
2. We are very Weak: And a weak Body cannot stand long under an heavy Burden without sinking. How much to do hath a weak sick Man to get over a long Winter's Night without fainting? Job was half at that pass, when he said, What is my strength that I should hope? Job. 6. 11, 12. And my strength and my hope is perished, said the Lamenting Church, Lam. 3. 18. When her Strength is spent that she can bear no more, her Hope is also gone with it, that she can wait no longer.
3. Unbelieving. As he that believeth maketh not haste: So nothing sinks the Heart sooner than Despair, which gives over hoping and waiting together, 1 Sam. 27. 1. They wait (Isa. 26. 8.) when the desire of their Souls by Faith is carried out to the remembrance of his Promises.
4. Not more Weak than Froward, as the sick weak Man useth to be; and the froward Child crieth fiercely, if you stay long. A Burden on a galled Back frets, and makes the Man go fretting, that he cannot standstill.
5. And very Proud too. Now waiting, as it puts Honor upon him that is waited on, and therefore great ones affect it, so it debaseth the Waiter: And therefore the proud Man cannot endure it, is hasty, cannot wait; no, not upon God himself, 2 King. 6. 33. It's not so with us, when we are humble; but ever some stirring of Pride, when we cannot quietly wait, and sit still.
6. And lastly, We are very full, as of Self-love, so of Self-conceit. The one concludes for our Safety, and the other consults for Means of it of our own, which usually are next hand, and so we cannot stay to wait on God's Counsel, Psal. 106. 13. This we see in Saul, who cannot stay for Samuel's coming, when he apprehends present danger, 1 Sam. 13. 11, 12. and so strains Courtesie and Conscience together, and Chap. 14. 19. he cannot tarry to wait for an answer from God, when he conceives he hath thought of a better Course than God could direct him to. Which even David also had a strong touch of, Chap. 27. 1. when consulting with his own Heart about the best way of his Safety, he cannot stay and wait upon God, who had so constantly preserved him: But he must needs both dangerously and dishonourably run away to the Philistines. No greater Enemy to our trusting and waiting upon God, than leaning to our own understandings, Prov. 3. 5. Thus Weakness and Unbelief sink us, Pride and Frowardness make us swell, and hastily rise up against God; Self-love, and Self-conceit, make us in unwarrantable ways of our own start out from him; all severally and jointly keep us from an humble, meek, faithful, self-resigning Waiting upon him. Which yet there is all reason we should endeavor and pr • ctice, if we consider:
1. Who, and how great that God is, that we are to wait on: O shame we ourselves, whilst we think how long we can endure to dance Attendance on great Men, and have not the patience to wait half the time on the Great God. How blasphemously irrational was his reasoning? 2 Kings 6. 33. This evil is of the Lord: What should I wait on the Lord any longer? The Prophet teacheth us a better and a quite contrary Inference, Hos. 12. 6. because he is Elohim; the Great God, and ours, we should therefore wait on him continually.
2. Who, and how Mean we are that do wait: poor Beggers; and Beggers may well be Waiters: The poor of the Flock waited on me, saith the Prophet, Zech. 11. 11. We are Poor, let us not be so Proud, as not to be willing to wait, but so Ingenuous as to blush, when we think how long we let the Beggar wait at our Doors, and yet have not ourselves the patience to wait any time at God's, who yet are but Beggers.
At best but Servants: And dost thou expect that thy Servant should wait on thee, and not thou on God? Especially seeing Waiting in Scripture is put for Service, Prov 27. 18. So it's that piece of Service, which God sometimes only calls for, only to wait on our Master, when we cannot work for him: That which both fits us for Work, and which God expects (even Waiting upon him both for Pardon and Acceptance) after all our Working, Luke 17. 7, 8.
3. As Great as God is, and as Base as we are, yet consider, whether in waiting God hath made us stay long:
Either absolutely, when sometimes he hath prevented our Prayers and Thoughts, Isa. 65. 24. So that as it is Chap. 30. 18, 19. He hath waited, that we might not wait: Not we so much, as He hath waited to be Gracious. And have we so much cause to be thankful to God, that He hath oftentimes rescued us so speedily, and can we see no cause then to be content when (always for some good Cause) He sometimes comes in more slowly? Oft-times absolutely it hath not been long that God hath made us wait.
At least comparatively, not so long; as
Our Betters have waited on him. Heman from his Youth, Psal. 88. 15. and David, all the day, Psal. 25. 5. Our selves have waited on Men for lesser Matters: Have made others wait on us for Trifles.
Nay, have made God himself wait on us, (1.) For first Conversion; Hand held out all the day long, Rom. 10. 21. (2.) Afterwards for further Entrance and Communion. Christ stands and knocks at his Spouse's Door till his Head be full of Dew, and his Locks with the Drops of the Night, Cant. 5. 2. for that which after all his waiting he hath gone away without, (as in both those places); and 1 Pet. 3. 20. His Long-suffering waited One hundred and twenty years in the days of Noah, and yet was disappointed.
4. Though never so long, yet not longer than till we be once fit for it. Though till then it did tarry, yet then it will not, Hab. 2. 3. Till then God waits, and not we.
5. Fifthly, for the most part we have not used to wait so long on God for Mercies in our want of them, as God hath waited upon us with Mercies in our enjoyment of them. Many of us must say, that our Fevers have neither been Quotidian, nor Hecticks; our Good days have been more than our Ill days; as with us in this Climate, our longest Winter-nights are not longer than our longest Summer-days: Our Peace longer than our War, and our Plenty than our Penury; and therefore either absolutely we have not waited long, or at least in all the former Particulars not so long Comparatively that we have cause to complain of it.
And though it should be longer, yet not longer, if we consider the weight and worth of the Mercy we wait for. It's sometimes no less than Christ and Salvation thou waitest for; assurance of God's Love, the mortifying of an habituated Lust, like the healing of an old Sore, and curing of a Chronical Disease. It may be it's now the Rescue of a whole Land from Destruction: A right Settlement of Church and State upon safe and lasting Foundations. Lameut only after the Lord, and he not too hasty to fret against him, though the time be long, 1 Sam. 7. 2. It's a great Load; think not much that it comes not in gallopping, but be drawn on heavily and come in slowly: a rich Fraight and Lading; think not a long Voyage long. The Husband man waits with much Long-suffering, for the precious Fruit of the Earth, James 5. 7. And shall we have no patience left in waiting for the more precious things of Heaven? Say not so much, that the Evils are great, which we therefore would make haste to be rid of: But argue, and think withal, that therefore the contrary Mercies are proportionably great, and therefore should be quietly stayed, and in God's Way and Time waited for.
6. And the rather, because humble and silent waiting at last will never be in vain, and wholly disappointed, Psal. 9. 18. At the end the Vision will speak and not lie, Hab. 2. 3. God bids us wait, Psal. 27. 14. and if we mean not to disappoint them, whom we bid stay, far be it from us to think God so unfaithful, as to let his People's Eyes quite fail with waiting. No, their Experiences and Praises bear witness for him to the contrary, while they can say, Lo, this is our God, we have waited for him, and he will save us: This is the Lord, we have 〈◊〉 waited for him, we will be glad and rejoice in his Salvation, Isa. 25. 9.
7. I might add, that this Salvation, the longer and the more patiently it hath been waited for before it come, it will be most seasonably and fully, with more Comfort and Blessing: Though, whilst deferred, it made the longing Heart sick, yet when come, it is a Tree of Life, Prov. 13. 12. An Isaac, a son of Laughter, that was long waited for. Thus, it will not be in vain at last.
8. No, nor for the present, were there nothing but what the faithful Soul meets with in the Interim, and whilst it stays waiting, even a Lamenting Church may truly, and feelingly say: The Lord is good unto them that wait for him, to the Soul that seeketh him, Lam. 3. 25. And therefore, ver. 26. It is good that a Man should hope, and quietly wait for the Salvation of God. Truly, so good, that for many a Mercy it's better with us in the waiting for it, than in the rejoicing of it. More of God's glorious Power (as some observe) manifested to Israel, waiting upon him in the Wilderness, than when settled in Canaan: And more of God's Grace and less Sin, expressed by David, whilst he waited upon God for a Kingdom, than when he was possessed of it. The waiting Soul is all that while kept more awful, humble, heavenly, closer to God in Prayer, and Spiritual Communion. Faith, Hope, Love, Meekness, Patience, Wisdom, Courage, are Ingredients in waiting into the very Substance (and not only in the Infusion) and in liveliest, strongest Exercises and Operations. Whilst they wait on the Lord, they renew their strength, they mount up with Wings as Eagles, they run and are not weary, and walk and yet not faint, Isa. 40. 31.
And therefore upon these and the like Considerations, in greatest either outward Dangers, or inward Faintings, let us live by Faith believing, and even die in Hope, then Waiting; and with dying Jacob, in the Text, even breath out our Souls into our Fathers bosom with his I have waited for thy Salvation, O Lord.
Which was the fourth Point, That all in straits we should after his Example wait for God's Rescue and Salvation. But that's not all. Something yet more which a Fifth Point held out, and that (as some think) according to the special meaning of the Text.
SERMON XXXVI.
THat in all outward temporal Deliverances by or from Men, [Doct. 5] we should look and wait for Spiritual and Eternal Salvation by Christ. So very many both Jewish and Christian Interpreters upon the Text agree, that although Jacob here looked and waited for a temporal Salvation to be wrought, especially by Sampson, Israel's Champion: (of which we spake in the former point) yet this satisfied not his desire, nor terminated the Eye of his Faith, for that was but a temporal Salvation: and after it, Sampson himself died, and Israel were oppressed, and carried away Captives, and therefore after the manner of the Prophets (as was before said) who when they spake of any great Deliverance or Deliverer, which did either typify, or any way resemble Jesus Christ and his Salvation, they were wont to look through the one to the other; so he looks at God's mercy in Sampson's Deliverance, but rests not there, but from the Nazarite looks to the Nazarene. Non sufficit Sampson, veniat Schilo, as Gordonius paraphraseth it; or rather as the Chaldee more fully. Non expecto redemptionem Gideonis filii Joas, quae est salus temporalis neque redemptionem Sampsonis, quae est transitoria: It's not the temporary transitory Salvation of Gideon, Jephthah, Sampson, or any of the rest of those Savior's that I so much look for, or at all rest in; but in, through and above all them, it's the Salvation of Jehovah, the Spiritual and Eternal Salvation of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of God: It's He, which I wait for. This was dying Jacob 's last Breath, and this the lively breathing of every true believing Soul, that in all straits waits for deliverance from God, but in all such Deliverances looks further for a greater Salvation by Christ with this 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 I have waited for thy Salvation, O Lord. All other outward Salvations thou workest, and they are truly thine; but this Spiritual, Eternal Salvation thou alone workest, and its every way only thine; which whether without or with them I look and long for especially, and in a manner only.
For the better clearing and pressing of which Duty, it will be useful for us to consider,
1. The Example of God himself, who, though the whole World be his, and what content the whole Body of the Creature can afford is at his command, yet it's not the flesh of Bulls that he eats, nor the Blood of Goats that he desires to drink, nor the strength of the Horse that he delights in; But he proclaims from Heaven, that it is Christ his Beloved Son, in whom he doth acquiesce, and is well pleased, Matth. 3. 17. That therefore which replenisheth the Ocean, should fill the Cistern. That in which God rests, we should, and in nothing else. Till we come to it we would be restless; and as God in the Creation rested not in his making all other Creatures till he had made Man; so answerably in our recovering or enjoying all other contentments, we should not rest till we enjoy God in Jesus Christ.
2. The practice of the faithful, who of all Men best know what Christ and his Salvation are. And here we find the Spouse Cant. 3. 2, 3. when she is at a loss for her Beloved, going about the City in the Streets and in the broad ways; and in that goodly City, especially in the fair Streets of it, was there no gay sight, or precious commodity, which might entertain her Eye and Heart, and bid her stay, and stand still and sit down, and give over her so earnest pursuit and inquest? No, if one would give her all the substance of his House, all the riches of the City, all the Glory of the World for her Love, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 it would utterly be contemned Chap. 8. 7. You find her in the highest Streets, pressing through the greatest crowds of other friends and contentments with her But saw ye him whom my Soul loveth? Saw you him whom my Soul loveth? Why! Mayst thou not see in such a City so many friends and contentments that thy Soul may not disdain to love, that in the midst of them, as bereft of all, thou makest such enquiry after him that thy Soul loves? Indeed, the Daughters of Jerusalem, Chap. 5. think it strange, and the Children of this World account it little better▪ than distracted non-sense: But whatever they think or say, she must still on in her pursuit, till she find him whom she seeks, and that's her Beloved, whilst she is thus sick of love. So when Daniel had prayed for Judah 's Deliverance from the 70 years Captivity in Babylon, he rests not there, but goeth on to inquire after (at least God doth to promise) a greater Salvation by Christ after 70 weeks of years, Dan. 9. 23, 24. Thus the Believers in the time of the Law, though in that Dispensation they were much entertained and even trained up with Temporal Mercies and Deliverances, and pompous outward Services, yet even then they lived and walked by Faith in that valley of Vision. Through those Vails they looked at Christ, and saluted him afar off, Heb. 11. 13. and under those leaves they felt for the Fruit of the Tree of Life; were not satisfied with those present outward mercies, but looked long for Christ, and waited for the Consolation of Israel by him, Luke 2. 25. as Ambrose upon that of the Psalmist, Defecit in salutare tu • m anima mea, My Soul fainteth for thy Salvation, showeth how earnestly their Souls went out to the Messiah, that the more their Souls fainted, the more lively and vigorous was their love: and the longer he was deferred (eo expectantis desideria majora sunt, & quâdam vi amoris ignescunt) the more were their Souls and desires kindled and inflamed with an Oh that thou wouldst rent the Heavens, and come down, Isa. 64. 1. Insomuch that Bernard when he thinks of it, is not more grieved than ashamed at our deadness and sluggishness. Compungor & confundor in memet ipso, pudet torporis & teporis miserabilium temporum horum, &c. that Christ and his Grace should not be entertained with so much Love and Joy now that they are exhibited, as they were with desire and expectation of them then when they were only promised. Cui namque nostrûm tantum ingerit gaudium gratiae exhibitio, quantum veteribus Patribus accendebat desiderium promissio? So little did their temporal Deliverances and Mercies, which they were trained up with, satisfy their Souls, or flat (but rather quicken) their longing desires after Christ and his Salvation. Answerable to which is that of the Apostle; for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but Dung, that I may gain Christ, Phil. 3. 8. Gain Christ: it seems therefore that Christ only was his Gain; and that whatever else he had gained, till he had him, all that gain he might put into a wet Eye, as being a very great loser: or, at best, at a very great loss, and therefore (v. 9.) he desires to be found in him, &c.
But withal, in that he suffered the loss of all for Christ, it affords by the way a further strong proof of this point; for he that could be content to suffer the loss of all for him, could not be content with anything without him. The Merchant in the Gospel, that sold all he had to buy the Pearl, was not satisfied with all he had, to go without it. A South Country will not satisfy a thirsting Soul, without upper and nether Springs. Whilest Rachel was barren, she said, Give me Children, or else I die: when she had them, and was after deprived of them, whatever other comforters she had, yet she could not be comforted, because they were not. Till a Christian have Christ, what ever else he hath he cannot be satisfied: and if afterward, in any manner he lose him, whatever else he keeps safe, he cannot be comforted. So Austin on that place of John 6. 68. Lord, whither shall we go? &c. brings in Peter, speaking thus, Repellis nos a te? da nobis alterum te. Lord if thou put us away from thee, thou must give us another that is the very same with thee, for we cannot be satisfied without thee; and as he elsewhere adds, Da amantem, da desiderantem, da esurientem, da talem, & sciet quid dicam: si autem frigid • loquor, nescit quod loquor, &c. To a dull dead spirit this is a riddle; but one that knows and loves Christ feelingly, understands it, as being his inward hearts language: To such an one all else is nothing besides him; and therefore nothing can satisfy without him. If Christ be all in all, Col. 3. 11. then all besides him, if without him, is nothing. As in God we live and move as Creatures, Acts 17. 28. so in Christ, as Believers. The Needle touched cannot leave trembling, till it pitch North: Were it but the Soul of a Man, it's unquiet till it rest in God, but let it be an Heart truly touched with sense of saving-Grace, whatever else it hath, it's yet unsatisfied without Christ.
3. And great reason for it, if we shall consider, Thirdly, who and what Christ and his Salvation is; and this without other things, that one thing necessary, Luke 10. 42. It's not necessary that we should have Health, Wealth, Worldly Honors, or outward Deliverances, but it's absolutely necessary for us to have Christ and Salvation by him; else we are utterly undone. And therefore to be satisfied with them without him, is to be content with trifles and superfluities, and want necessaries. For so in Scripture we shall find him called by the names of such things, which (what ever else we either have or want) we cannot be without; of Father, Husband, Captain, Shepherd, Head, Bread, Sun, Light, Life itself, and the Breath of our Nostrils, as divers expound that, Lament. 4. 20. and if all this, we may well ask Bernard's question, Ubi been est sine te? Ubi male poterit esse cum te? Lord with thee, how or where can it be ill with me? who in thee have Father, Husband, Captain, Shepherd, Head to guide, protect, and provide for me; the Staff of Bread to feed and support me, the Sun, Light, and Life to enlighten and enliven me. But alas! how? where will it, can it be well with me, if without thee, without whom all this, all else is nothing? What forlorn Orphans are we, if we have not him to be our Father? What desolate Widow-Souls have we, if divorced from this Husband? silly helpless stray lost Sheep, and only for a Prey, though fed in other never so fat and green Pastures, if not under this good Shepherds care! Though a Sampson should be my Champion, yet a miserable enthrall'd Captive I shall be, if not under the protection of this Captain of my Salvation; pined with all other dainties, if not fed with this Bread of Life; benighted in blackness of darkness forever, though other Starrs shine, and all other Torches be lighted, if not enlightened with this Sun of Righteousness▪ a senseless trunk if not united to this Head; a lifeless Life, if not enlivened with this quickening Spirit and Life. Sine Christo vanum est omne quod vivimus, what good will my Life do me, if Jacob marry with the Daughters of Heth? said Rebekah, Gen. 27. 46. and what good will mine do me, if I be not married to Christ? None but Christ, nothing but Christ. Whatever ground I stand on, my foot sinks till set upon this Rock. And therefore what ever other mercy or Deliverance I have, still with Jacob in the Text I will wait for thy Salvation, O Lord. Which leads to
4. A 4th. Consideration to this purpose, and that is, of what all other Mercies and Deliverances are, besides Christ & his Salvation.
1. They but pledges of this. Outward mercies of Christ and his Grace and Salvation. Indeed, they are not this in themselves, so as either wicked Men that have their share in them should thereby have any Evidence of interest in Him, or that the Godly from their want of them should doubt of their part in him. For in both these respects, Solomon's rule holds, By them no Man knoweth either Love or hatred, Eccles. 9. 1. But yet because as to Believers the same electing Love, that designs Heaven and Eternal Salvation to them in Christ, doth in and by him dispense also outward Mercies and Deliverances (and therefore the Apostle from the one argueth and ariseth to the other Rom. 8. 28, 29, 30.) therefore they in their enjoyment of them should so improve them, as Israel's Deliverances from the Iron Furnace in Egypt and Babylon were types of their and our Salvation by Christ from the fiery Furnace of Hell and Damnation; so still that temporal Favors and protections should be tastes and pledges to us of spiritual and eternal Salvation by Christ, as it was with Paul. 2 Tim. 4. 17, 18. I was delivered from the Mouth of the Lyon, and the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work, and preserve me unto his Heavenly Kingdom. But if so, then the thirsty Soul cannot be satisfied with such tastes, but by them rather hath its appetite further quickened after those fuller draughts of Grace▪ and Mercy in Christ. And these lesser pledges draw it out in more earnest longings after those greater matters, and which it far more looks after. For although in some other cases the pledge may in worth equal, yea and exceed the thing insured and expected, yet here it's far otherwise. This pledge is scarce an earnest penny, and therefore will not satisfy the wary Soul instead of its full payment. And so, though it hath this Earnest, yet it looks still for the Principal. Though delivered by Sampson, yet still waits on God for his Salvation.
2. These outward Mercies and Deliverances are given and intended by God in a sanctified use of them, to be as means, and as it were under-steps to lift up the Heart to higher desires and enjoyments of Christ and Salvation: As Zacchaeus by getting up into the Sycomore-Tree, gets a sight of Christ. In these more savourable and liberal entertainments in our way, God never intended that with the drowsy Disciples, we should dream of pitching our Tabernacles, and say it's good to be here; but that,
These Accommodations on the one hand should be as our viaticum and encouragements.
And those Deliverances on the other hand remove discouragements and stumbling-blocks in our way to Salvation.
The one build our Scaffold, that we might better edify ourselves in the Faith of Christ; as Act. 9. 31. when the Churches had rest and peace, they were edified, walking in the fear of God, and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost. And therefore the Lord by his Prophet Joel, Chap. 2. after he had promised plenty of other food. v. 26. adds a Promise of pouring out his Spirit, v. 28. The other are but to free us from incumbrances, that we might vacare Deo, and serve him with less distraction, as Zacharias sings, being delivered out of the hands of our Enemies, might serve him without fear, in Holiness and Righteousness before him all the days of our Life, Luke 1. 74, 75.
Indeed we are too subject so to abuse and pervert such outward helps, that on the contrary they too oft prove hindrances, Snares and Thorns to entangle us in our advance to Heaven, so that sometimes we never had less of Go •• than when we had most of the World, and our being set free from trouble is but the opening the Cage or Prison-door for loose hearts to run further from God.
Who thereby is enforced, that he may recover us out of those wild vagaries, to bring us into some narrow deep Lanes beset on both sides with Thorns, the better to keep us in our way; and to break those Crutches, which we too much rested on, that we may be taught to lean upon our Beloved in a Wilderness, Cant. 8. 5. and so we come to make more speed to our journey's end, when lightened of that Luggage, which so much loaded and hindered us in our way.
But that is from God's Grace. Mean while it's a great part of our folly and perverseness to turn our helps into hindrances. He at once both wrongs himself and his Friend's courtesy, who having a Stool lent him to reach something he hath great need of, when he hath gotten upon it, only stands strutting upon it, and braving over others that are under him, till instead of reaching what he wanteth, falls down headlong. He is a foolish Passenger, that when the Master of the Ship puts him ashore for his refreshment, or to take in something for his accommodation, stayeth so long gathering Shels on the Sand, or Flowers in the Meadow, that he loseth his Voyage: Nor is he the wisest Traveler, who for the more comfort and speed of his Journey, being by his Friend led in a plain fair way, and through pleasant Meadows, is so taken with them, that he lies down to sleep in them, forgetting his Errand, and so loiters as loath to part with them, as that he is benighted and falls short of Home. A good Traveler is of another mind, and takes another course; saith, the Coast indeed is clear and free from Thieves and Robbers, the way pleasant, and Inns and other Accommodations by the way commodious; but yet for all that (as it is in the Proverb) utinam domi essem, I would I were at home: And so, the fairer the way is, the more haste he makes and puts on. It is or should be so with every true Traveler Heaven-ward. If in his way he meet with trouble and danger, he saith I would I were at Home in Heaven, where there is none of this: but if safety and prosperity, yet would I were at Home in Heaven, where there is much better than this: Heaven is my Haven, and these are but fair Gales to carry me on with more speed thither. Christ is the End I aim at; and therefore as Austin upon that Title of the Psalm: In finem cum audis, in Christum intend, ne in vita remanendo non pervenias ad finem: When I hear of the End, I must think of making after Christ, and not stand still in my way, lest I come not to my Journey's end. Quicquid est ubi infra steteris, antequam ad Christum perveneris, nihil aliud Divinus sermo dicit, nisi Accede. How firm soever the Ground be that I stand upon, on this side of Christ, though Sense and carnal Reason say, stand still and abide by it; yet Scripture hath nothing else to say to me but this one word, Arise, this is not thy resting place, Mic. 2. 10. There is a Plus ultra: Get nearer to Christ, advance further to Heaven, and when a Sampson hath delivered thee from the Philistines, and other such-like Enemies, let not this be all thou lookest for, but still say with Jacob, O Lord, now that I am thus saved, yet still I wait for thy further and greater Salvation.
3. And this Thirdly, By reason of the little advantage of the one, if we fall short of the other. Though we should be saved from Bodily danger by an Arm of Flesh, if our Souls should not be saved from Hell and Wrath by Christ; What wilt thou give me, (said Abraham to God) seeing I go Childless? Gen. 15. 2. And in that Child he looked at Christ: And so a right Heir of Abraham saith, Lord, what good will all else that thou hast given me do me, if I go Christless? We are indeed unworthy of Crums, less than the least of God's Mercies, and therefore should be thankful for them: But yet because they are amongst those 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , Luke 16. 10. those least of Mercies, it's but little good we shall reap by them, if we have not Christ and his Grace, and Salvation, that great Gift of God with them. It's not an half-Mercy where Christ is wanting, who is All in all. As here Consider,
1. On the one side, how wretched we may be with all other Mercies and Deliverances without Christ. Indeed, so we may account ourselves as Happy, as he accounted himself Perfect: And therefore made the boasting Question, Mat. 19. 20. What lack I yet? And Answer here may be made, Yet lackest thou one thing, and that's Christ the one thing necessary, in whom only we are complete, Col. 2. 10. Happy the World may account, and call us, Psal. 49. 13▪ if with Judas we bear the Bag: But yet for all that so Happy, or Miserable rather, that with him, if we have nothing else, it had been better for us that we had never been Born, raised from a Sick-bed, and upon it fall more desperately Sick to the very Death of W • ntonness and Lust. Prison-Door set open, and then run wild from God, as it was usual with Israel, delivered to all those Abominations, Jer. 7. 10. set free from Oppressors and Enemies that fought against the Body, and then more than ever enslaved and inthralled to Satan and those Lusts, that fight against our Souls. As God told Israel, if the Canaanites should be suddenly destroyed, the wild Beasts would devour them. Wild Lusts are these wild Beasts, which raven most in the quiet Night, when the scorching Sun of Persecution is set: And like Vermin, breed fastest when the Weather is warmest. And is there not then need of a further Salvation?
2. And so secondly, On the other hand, when God completeth an outward Mercy and Deliverance, he is wont to do more for the inward than for the outward Man; in Mercy to Hezekiah's Soul draws his Body out of the Pit of Corruption, and casts his Sins behind his Back further, than he leaves his Sick-bed behind him. A blessed thing to have a good Uprising from a Sickbed, that we Relapse not. Mercy is to be taken with a trembling Hand. When he plucks David out of the miry Clay, then sets his Feet upon the Rock, and orders his goings, Psal. 40. 2. To delivering Mercy adds guiding Mercy, as to Jerusalem, 2 Chron. 32. 22. when an Out▪gate from Misery is an Inlet to Grace, and so to Heaven: And the same good Hand that drew me out of the Water, leads me to the Rock that's higher than I; that is, a full complete Deliverance. And therefore (as some of our Divines observe) it's usual with the Prophets, when they made largest Promises of greatest Prosperity to Israel, to ground them upon, or to close them with something of Christ, as in whom both such Promises and Mercies had their full accomplishment: All our Good being so far indeed good, as it leads us on to Christ and his better Salvation.
Which, in the Application of it, shows us (First) a broad [Use. 1] difference between a Right-born, and a Bastard Israelite. The Sons of the Concubines were put off and satisfied with Gifts, but Isaac, the Son of the Promise, must have the Inheritance. The Carnal Jews sit down by it in Babylon, but those that were more Spiritual returned to Zion; as the Raven takes up with the Carrion, but the sole of the Doves foot cannot rest but upon the Ark.
It's on the one hand a plain evidence of a carnal worldly Heart to rest satisfied with Prosperity and Safety without Christ and his Salvation. A sign of an Harlot, to be contented with the Love-token without true desire of the Lover. As of the Mungril-Cur in the Fable, to leave the Game, and to take up with the Gobbet cast before him: Unchaste Soul, that commitest folly with the Gift, and neglectest God the Giver; fastnest upon the Bait, and art not drawn to Christ, who would draw thee to himself by that Cord of Love: Like the Romish Fisher, that casts away the Net when he hath caught the Fish he fished for; openeth the Door of the Heart so wide, as to take in an outward Mercy from the Hand of Christ, and then shuts it against him, who thereby would have made way for himself to enter in; nay, (it may be) with those Husband-men in the Gospel, will kill the Heir, that they may have the Inheritance; shakes hands and quits Christ with Demas, to embrace the World: At least, when he hath grasped the World, careth not to reach out to a Savior, as Adam of old satisfied his Appetite with the pleasant Fruit of the Tree of knowledge of Good and Evil, but cared not to taste of the Tree of Life. Foolish People and unwise, but do we so require the Lord, to forget him in those Tokens by which he would be remembered? To lose Christ in the Crowd in the midst of those Mercies, in and by which he would be found: To make the End, the Means, Christ as a Bridge only by which we would get over to what we would come to; and on the contrary, to make the Means and Way the end of our Journey, which we mean to sit down and rest in. Remember that as Christ calls it hating of Father and Mother, when we under-value them in comparison of him, so he calls it hating of him, Prov. 8. 36. when we prefer anything before him, or rest in anything that is short of Him and his Salvation. But what? (As he said) An Coelum desperâsti? Wretched Man, dost thou despair of Heaven, that thou thus liest groveling on the Earth? Now Sursum Corda. And when shall our Hearts make the Responsal, Habemus Domine? When we have all, have we an Heart hungering and thirsting after Christ, who is all in all, without whom all else is nothing?
For so on the other hand, a Jacob's, and every true Israelite's heart that is touched with sense of the emptiness of all else, and the only All-sufficient fullness of Christ, after fullest draughts of all other Contentments, thirsts everlastingly till satisfied with him; with Miphibosheth bids the Zibaes of the World take all, may but the King return to his Soul in peace: Bids others much good do them with their Corn and Wine, whilst he still cries, Lord, do thou lift upon me the Light of thy Countenance▪ is content to part with them all for him, and therefore cannot be content with them without him. With the Martyr saith, Valeat Pecunia, valeat Vita, veniat Christus: Farewell Money, farewell Life, farewell all; only come Christ, who is more than all, who is All in all. And though too oft in perfunctory Duties, he puts off Christ with skins and shells of Performances, yet he meaneth not to be so put off by him with these husks and shells of outward Contentments. No, Christ is the Kernel which his People hungers after, and is only satisfied with: And therefore the hungry Child is not put by with such Toys and Rattles, but crieth earnestly till it be fed with this Bread of Life: Like Ruth, and Elisha; the one is not shaken off by Naomi, with a Go return to thy Mothers House; nor the other with an Elijah's saying, Tarry here. But on they will, and nothing but Death (as it is in your English) nay, not Death itself shall separate them, as it is in the Hebrew, Ruth. 1. 17. So a true Christian, whose Heart is indeed touched with the Love of Christ, though he might have Chains of Gold to bind him down to fit still by what the World can afford him, yet he cannot rest but in the Bosom of his Savior. He cannot be safe in the greatest security that falls short of his Salvation. I, this is an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile, and let this be his Character, which we may judge both of him and ourselves by, and not be beguiled.
This, Secondly, instructs us what is a right Spiritual Use [Use. 2] and Enjoyment of all outward Mercies and Deliverances, if it be (as the Apostle speaks of Marrying Wives) only in the Lord. If they do not terminate our thoughts and desires so as to take them off from Christ, but rather (as it was here with Jacob) prove as a Rise to lift up our Souls to him: And as so many Illicia, and Prolectives, to draw them out more earnestly towards him. The Earth is indeed an opake dense Body, which we stick in; and our Eye cannot penetrate and pierce through, and so are earthly Contentments to earthly Hearts (like thick dull Glass) which intercept the Light, and dull, and almost terminate our Eye and Heart: But if all were right, they should be as Media diaphana, as clear Crystal Glass, that might transmit the Beams of the Sun of Righteousness to our Souls: Looking-Glasses, in which we may see Christ; or as so many Shadows, that better commend and set out to us the Beauty of Christ, that by these Streams we may be led up to the Spring-Head, and by these Rivers led out to the Ocean. This is the right Spiritualizing and Sublimating these low and gross earthly Enjoyments: Not a Rosicrucian Philosophica Theologizata; nor the Libertine Familist high-flown Allegorical, Mystical Divinity; Or the Enthusiasts crying up the Spirit, whilst he wallows in the Lusts of the Flesh: But a plain Honest-hearted Christian's taking advantage from outward things, to be raised up to Spiritual and Heavenly: As a Man from the rise of a Hill makes a greater Leap, and as the Bird, which from the Tree takes a longer-flight; so from the advantage of the higher Ground of an outward Exaltation and Deliverance, instead of being lifted and puffed up in Pride, to have the Heart raised up to diviner thoughts, and more ardent desires of God and Heaven; as he, Luke 14. 15. whilst sitting at Meat with Christ, raiseth up his thoughts to the Blessedness of him that eats Bread in the Kingdom of God. This Meat is pleasant; but Oh! what then is the Bread of Life? This Garment comely; But how Glorious then the Robe of Righteousness? This House a very good Dwelling; But Heaven is better. O sweet Friend! But O sweeter Savior! When thus these outward tastes do not dull, but rather quicken the Spiritual Appetite, and make us more hunger and thirst after fuller Meals and greater Draughts of Christ and his Salvation: This is a right, (not so much using as) improving them, which God would have us ready at, and have a holy Skill and Dexterity in. Their Anagogical Interpretations of Scripture are often vain, but here 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 is truly Divine, when an holy Heart out of Terrene and Corporal things extracts the Elixir or Divinest Contemplation and Affections to Christ and Heaven.
To this purpose God even in Paradise would have some Trees Sacramental and Mystical, that Adam in that Garden might rise higher than Philosophical speculation, and not perish by a Tree of Knowledge, but be fed and live by a Tree of Life.
And for this end likewise, Christ as he useth so many Parables, and spiritualizeth outward things, so he is set out by the Name of some of the Chief and Choice of all kinds of Beings. The Angel of the Covenant amongst the Angels; the Sun and Morning-Star in the Heavens; The Rock and Precious Stone among the Inanimates; The Vine and Apple-Tree amongst Vegetables; and both Lion and Lamb amongst Sensitives. And so of the rest; that as Quaelibet herba Deum, so in every Creature we see and feel after and find Christ; and that as all of them were at first made by him, so by all we might be led to him.
Which therefore (in the last place) is that which we should all be seriously exhorted to: [Use. 3]
1. That we would not have our desires terminated, and so take up with any or all such outward Mercies and Salvations which in the World we may be entertained with, but still to seek on, till we find a better Savior and Salvation, which we may safely and quietly rest in; as Joseph and Mary stay not with their Kinsfolk and Acquaintance, till they find the Child Jesus, Luke 2. 44, 45, 46. and mean while they seek him sorrowing, ver. 48. The Beggar that is ready to die for Hunger, though he have never so much else given him, if not Food, waits still as wanting that which he came for, and had most need of. When Christ said to the Blind-man, What wilt thou that I shall do unto thee? His answer is, Lord, that I may receive my sight. A Sinner that hath his Eyes so far open as to see Christ's Worth, and his own want of him, would have said, Lord, that I might receive Thee. A poor Believer hath a further and greater Errand to Christ, than for Corn and Wine, or outward Safety and Prosperity, which those in Hos. 7. 14. howled upon their Beds for. He hath a Soul to be both saved and satisfied; and nothing can do either of them, but Christ only. O that we had such hungering thirsting desires after him, that nothing might stay our Stomachs without him, much-less take away our Stomachs (as too too oft they do from him). Nor is this all that Speech of Jacob calls upon us for; not only not to be taken off or hindered in the out-goings of our Souls to Christ, by being satisfied with those outward Mercies and Deliverances: But
2. By them (as Helps) to be drawn out and raised up in our desires after him. It's great Mercy, if by any means our Hearts may be led out to him, though they be the Horrors of Conscience that prick us, the Terrors of the Law that whip us, outward Wants that drive us, or Dangers that affright us: It's well if anything will bring us, even Chains of Affliction will draw us to him, but yet not so well as if they were those Cords of Love: If we might be preserved in Sugar, rather than in Brine: If comfortable Supplies and Deliverances be not as Seats to sit down, but as Foot-stools to get up to Christ by.
In times of Want and Danger to seek Christ, may be rather to seek ourselves than him, and to make ourselves our End, when we only make use of Christ as a means to it. Such may be shaken off with Jephthah's check: Ye did thus and thus unto me, and why are you come to me now that ye are in distress, Judge. 11. 7. more out of love of yourselves than to me. And the like also may be said, if
In times of enjoyment of Mercy and Deliverance we rejoice in God, and seem to love and praise him. This also may be Self-love rather than the Love of God. They might rejoice in God's great Goodness, Neh. 9. 25. who yet did not serve him in his great Goodness, ver. 35. And he might say, Blessed be God, for I am rich, Zech. 11. 5. who yet never truly praised him. This may be but their following of Christ for Loaves, John 6. 26. as the Roman Emperors did▪ Populum annonâ demereri.
But thus to love God and Christ in his Mercies, that He is the Oil of Gladness, swimming on the top of all; that we are no way satisfied with them without him, and best satisfied when we enjoy Him in them and by them; this shows the ingenuity of our Love, and that it's not the World or Self, but Christ that is the Object of it: That as Paul said to his Corinthians, I seek not yours, but you; so it is not ourselves, but Christ that we love and desire; and not his Portion, but his Person; and not so much Man's, as his Salvation.
And therefore (to conclude) as in all our gettings, we are to get Wisdom, Prov. 4. 7. So, in all our seekings let us seek after Christ: And in and above all our Enjoyments let us enjoy and eye Him. As Jacob here in Sampson's salvation had a further longing look at His. And so Hannah, 1 Sam. 2. in a Samuel looks at a Savior. And therefore (as it hath been observed by some) her Song at his Birth, and Mary's at the news of Christ's, in many Passages of both very much agree, and are perfect Unisons. And this further that Song of Hannah will to our present purpose inform us, that the Eying of Christ in all other Mercies will,
1. Make little Mercies great. As the Diamond adds Value to the Brass-Ring. And the Figure added makes empty Cyphers vastest Numbers. And so you shall observe that Hannah in that Song for her gaining a Son, and prevailing against her Adversary Peninnah, as concerning their Household-talk, and Womens Brabbles, speaks of greater Matters, carries it in a very high Key, in the strain of a Triumphant Song of some glorious Conqueror: And such indeed Christ was, whom she in that looked at; and where ever Faith seeth him, it seeth Magnum, though in Parvo, which will make little Mercies great.
2. Will not (be they never so great) let the heart rest in them, which would be a dangerous Disease of a vain love-sick Soul, like those Obstructions in the Body, when those Vessels, that should convey Spirit and Nourishment to the other parts, stop and intercept them by the way; but like the Tennis-Ball toucheth upon the Ground, yet thereby rebounds upward; so it from the Earth mounts up Heaven-ward; as Jacob here from deliverance by Sampson, riseth up to Christ's. Though Sampson as the Serpent by the way so bites the Horse heels, that his Rider falls backward, and so he is saved from him, yet that's not enough, not all that he looks for: And therefore he adds, I have waited for thy Salvation, O Lord.
SERMON XXXVII.
IN the Parallel place of St. Luke upon our Savior's Exhortation there (as here) to Watchfulness Peter makes bold to ask him, Lord, speakest thou this Parable unto us, or even to all? ver. 41. Which Question of his our Savior answers with another Question in the words of the Text, Who then is that faithful and wise Servant? &c. By which he gives him and us to understand, that although in part he meant all others, yet especially them and their Successors, to whom he committeth the Government of the Church: for if the ordinary Soldier must Watch, then much more he that stands Sentinel. The Text therefore, and the Auditory suit, and in it you have these Four particulars.
1. Your Office. Servants, but yet made Rulers over the Lord's Household.
2. Your Work and Employment, to give them Meat in due season.
3. Your Qualifications requisite for the discharge of it, You must be Faithful and Wise, ver. 45. and so sincere, constant and instant about it, that the Lord, when he comes, may find you so doing, ver. 46.
4. Your Reward. Happy Men if you be such, and do so, it's no less than Blessedness; Blessed is that Servant, whom his Lord, when he cometh, shall find so doing. You see I have much way to rid in a little time. I must therefore make the more haste, and view some things only in transitu, and stay upon nothing long, nor need I in so Pious and Judicious an Auditory.
I begin with the first, viz. their Office, which may be considered in a double reference. 1. To God in that word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 they are but his Servants. 2. To his People. They are 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , They are made Rulers of his Household.
1. The Governors of the Church are but Servants of Christ. Moses a King in Jeshurun, Deut. 33. 5, and yet but the Servant of the Lord, Josh. 1. 1. Faithful in God's House, but as a Servant, Hebr. 3. 5. Paul, not inferior to the chiefest Apostles, 2 Cor. 11. 5. and yet acknowledgeth himself to be the Servant of Jesus Christ, not only as a Christian, but as an Apostle, Rom. 1. 1. Though (as Aristotle observes) Nature makes them that have but weak parts to be Servants to Men; yet Grace teacheth Men of greatest Gifts Graces and Places to be Servants to Christ, who in the Government of his Family will be sure ever to be the Lord over his own House, as the Apostle speaks, Heb. 3. 6. whilst highest Church-Officers but Servants, and set over it, not as their House, but Christ's.
And in this, differing from Kings and other Civil Magistrates, that Church-Government and Governors are not Despotical, but merely Ministerial.
That whereas Princes 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 & 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , Exercise Lordly Authority over their people, our Savior's peremptory Interdict is vos autem non sic. In his Church he permits no such Lording it over his Heritage. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , Matth. 20. 26, 27. a Minister and a Servant is the highest style he suffers them to aspire to.
They, though Servants (Ministers of God, Rom. 13. 4.) yet are permitted to be such Lord's, as to create Offices, and to enact Laws for all things in their Government, provided they be not against the Law of God. And so both are 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , Ordinances of Man, 1 Pet. 2. 13. Here, though whilst observing the general Rules of the Word the persons may be designed and chosen by Men, yet the both erecting of Offices and the enacting of Laws is the Prerogative of the supreme Lord and Law-giver. They must be the Ordinances of Jesus Christ, which we as Servants must administer, and he only as Lord institute. No dogmatizing for us here, Col. 2. 20. The servants of Christ must not be Lord's of his people's Faith; the Lord make us helpers of their Joy, 2 Cor. 1. 24. As Church-Governors we are Servants to Christ, and in some respects to his Church, 2 Cor. 4. 5.
Be not therefore highminded, but fear. If God be a Master, [Use.] upon that account he expects Fear, Mat. 1. 6. and if we be Servants, though we have cause to be thankful, yet I am sure we have none to be Proud; and yet Men's Servants often are, and 'twere well that Christ's Servants never were. There is one that stiles himself Servus servorum, who (the Apostle tells us) exalts himself above Dominus Dominantium: and therefore we had need be very wary; and the rather,
1. Because as Pride is a spiritual sin, so it's through our corruption very subject to breed in Spiritual transactions. Liquor full of Spirits soon set on a bright flame.
2. Especially in Novices; 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , 1 Tim. 3. 6. not a Novice, lest being puffed up he fall into both the sin and condemnation of the Devil. Whence some collect the Devil's first sin was his being proud of his Office. A Novice, whether in Christianity or in Office, either it new, or he newly put into it, is subject to be proud, as the Child of his new-Coat. We had need therefore be the more careful.
3. And lastly, the rather, because to be sure many will be very watchful. New things are much viewed, and strangers most looked after. When Austin and his Company came first into England, the direction given, to discover whether they were the true Servants of God, or no, was to mark whether they were proud or humble. Look for the like eyes upon us now. Some have been so quick, or rather maliciously evil, that they could foresee, that in the managing of these affairs we would be proud, as the Devil foretold, that Job would be a Blasphemer; O that our humility, as well as Job's Patience, might make the Devil and such devilish malice a Liar: and no better way than by knowing our place, and the Text tells us, it's to be Servants; and that place and relation tells us our duty.
That what the Scripture requires as due from our Servants [Use 2] to us, we owe much more to God: calls for Subjection, Obedience, Fear, Fidelity, not with Eye-service, as Men-pleasers, but with singleness of heart, as unto Christ, waiting upon him to appoint you your work. Consult his Word and Providences, and say as, Act. 9. 6. Lord what wilt thou have me to do? And for direction, assistance, and acceptance in your doing of it.
And then, because a Servant is but 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , a rational tool in his Master's hand, to be ad nutum Domini, resigning up our Reason to his Wisdom, and our Will to his Commands, doing it willingly, cheerfully, fully, without contradiction, or exception.
Frequently and sadly thinking of our Account, Heb. 13. 17. which will be very great, when we have so many besides ourselves to reckon for; and yet most certain, and cannot be avoided, Luk. 16. 2. Matth. 25. 19.
And yet comforting and encouraging ourselves in a faithful and joyful expectation and assurance of a faithful and bountiful Lord's reward. From Enemies, Strangers, yea from Fellow-Servants (it may be) envy and hatred, derision, opposition, and the greatest injuries and mischiefs they can reach us: but what's all this to our Master's last Euge, well done good and faithful Servant, enter into thy Masters Joy?
Thus much of your Office, as in reference to God in the word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 . You are but his Servants.
2. Secondly, Consider it in reference to his People, so you by it are made Rulers of his household. In which words, two things: 1. The place itself▪ It's 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , Rulers of the household. 2. The Institution of it, and the investiture, or putting them into it, in the word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , he hath made or constituted Ruler of his Household. I shall briefly touch upon both.
1. For the Place or Station, Rulers of God's Household, as he, 2 Chron. 31. 13. is called, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 the Ruler of the House of God. I confess, the word is not here in the Original, as it is there: but
1. The Phrase in this place implieth it 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 over the Household, i. e. in place of Rule and Superiority over the Household: as Gen. 41. 43. its said, Pharaoh made Joseph 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 over all (i. e. as our English rightly expresseth it, Ruler over all) the Land of Egypt, according as it's expressed, Act. 7. 10. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 .
2. Other places in plain words and full titles express it, where they are called 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , words partly in Scripture, and partly in other Authors, given to Princes in Common-Wealths, to Generals & Captains in Armies, to Governors in Families; in all which there is an authoritative power of Rule and Government over them that are set under them. They are called Rulers, and that word commands Obedience.
Fathers, and that speaks Authority.
Elders, and such a 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , such a Senate hath power.
Were it but only Shepherds and Stewards (as he that is here called 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 is in Luke called 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , that tells that although like the Centurion, Matth. 8. 9. they be under a Superior Authority, yet as such, they have others under theirs. Called 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , Mark 13. 34. but not taken for an ordinary Porter, but servus atriensis, a Steward that hath the Keys of all, as Isa. 22. and yet as Porters, to let in and keep out of the House of God, and from his Table. Eve • •• ey who most of all raise up the Authority of the whole Church, as the immediate and first Subject of Church-power, as totum and finis, do freely grant the Exercise of that Power in some things, as only vested in the Officers, and in some other things in them especially. But the Duty of this place, especially of this day, is not to dispute Controversals, but to exhort and urge Practicals.
And therefore, in that God by this Office hath advanced you [Use 1] so high, as to set you over his Household, Be exhorted so far to know your Place, and the dignity and worth of it, as not to be ashamed of it, nor to be babished in the Execution of it. Take heed of such an height of spirit, as to grow proud of it; (of which by and by) but yet pray and labor for such a generous magnanimity of Spirit, as may in some measure answer the worth of it, and may help you with a Holy 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , a free boldness of Spirit, to manage it. Great Men expect it in their Stewards; and the great God requires it in his. This Masculine Ingenuity was in Jehoshaphat in his Temple-work. It's said, his Heart was lifted up in the ways of the Lord, 2 Chron. 17. 6. and Nehemiah, that unwearied and undaunted Repairer of Jerusalem's ruins, when the breaches were many, and the rubbish that hindered their work much▪ the strength of the Laborers little, and yet decaying, and the scorns, insolencies, and oppositions of Enemies very great, and yet increasing; how did he by Faith and Prayer, raise up his own Spirit, and by encouraging both Words and Actions endeavor to do as much for his Fellow-Laborers? Chap. 4. and 6. Tricubitalis Paulus, a low little Man for stature of Body, and yet for lowliness of heart yet lower, in his own Eyes less than the least of all Saints, Ephes. 3. 8. yet there was magnum in parvo. With what an Heroic Spirit doth he carry on the work of his Ministry? How doth the little Man stand as it were on Tiptoes, when the Pride and Malice of false Apostles and others, would have debased that Fastigium Apostolicum, with a 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , I magnify mine Office? Rom. 11. 13. Yours is nothing near so high, yet whilst it is over God's Household, too high to be trampled upon by the foot of Pride: which yet it is, and will (on purpose) be more, if Enemies once perceive that their Scorn and opposition can baffle you into a degenerous Despondency, whom this height of your Office should set above any such Indignities. A Luther's Courage with a Melancthon's Meekness make between them a fit temper for a right Church-Man.
Although what I have herein said, perhaps is not enough to raise some of our Spirits, yet it may be to some is too much, who will think I preach that Pride, which (out of their Charity) they say we will practice.
And therefore because it is a Duty of Humiliation we are now upon, I shall rather press Humility.
And that as from the former Particular, because by our Place [Use. 2] we are Servants; so also even from this, because that by it we are set over God's Household: For, though the Station be High, yet be not high-minded, but even therefore the rather fear. Lower thy Sail, the higher the Wind is. In Ezekiel's Vision we read the Rings were so high that they were dreadful, Chap. 1. 18. As the higher we are, the more we tremble when we look downward: The height and weight of your Places, though it may make an empty pragmatic spirit Proud, yet (when well considered) strongly engageth them that are better advised to be Humble, Watchful, Fearful.
As for Instance. Are we over God's Household?
1. It's an High Place, but withal it's a great Charge, which will bring at last to a great Account, Heb. 13. 17. If we be Overseers, Acts 20. 28. then (as Nehemiah contended with the Rulers, Chap. 13. 11. so) we shall be accountable for whatever miscarriage in our Charge is occasioned by our over-sight (As Diogenes struck the Master for the miscarriage of his rude Scholar). By our Offices we are made Debtors, Rom. 1. 14. And shall we be proud of such engagements? I that cannot answer for one of a thousand of mine own sins, Job 9. 3. How shall I for the sins of (it may be) thousands that I have the Charge of?
2. The higher the Place, the more in view. (As a blemish in the Face, in the Eye most visible). Our Savior told his Apostles, that they were as a (ity that is set on an Hill, set high; but therefore could not be hid, Mat. 5. 14. We may be sure to have many Eyes upon us, and, it's to be feared, too many of them evil enough, and what care (then) need we have that our Nakedness be not discovered in this our ascent to God's Altar? Exod. 20. 26.
3. The higher the place, the lower and heavier the Fall, if we tread awry: And no Precipice so dangerous, as when Satan prevails with us to cast ourselves down from the Pinacle of the Temple. The instances of Korah (in the Law) and of Judas (in the Gospel) and of many others since, say plainly; that, as God in a way of Judgment begins at the Temple, Ezek. 9. 6. so none heavier than such as have been inflicted on evil Church-Men. And justly: For of them it's especially spoken, the Servant that knoweth his Master's Will, and doeth it not, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , shall be beaten with many stripes, Luke 12. 47.
And therefore, if the higher my Place is, the greater is my Charge and Account, the more Eyes upon me, and the more desperate will be my downfall, How should this prick the bladder of my swelling Pride? How should it compose our Spirits to an humble, meek, awful, and watchful frame in all our Walkings, and especially in our Church-Administrations? When Christ the Master of the House was Meek and Lowly, how should we learn of him, who are but Servants, and at best but Stewards, set over the House, but not to be on the House-top, presently in Passion when at any time we are crossed? St. Paul teacheth us a better Lesson; The Servant of the Lord must not strive, but be gentle unto all Men, apt to Teach, Patient, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , 2 Tim. 2. 24, 25. Let not this Superiority be corrupted into a proud Superciliousness. Some say it will ruin us. I hope they will prove false Prophets; I am not in telling you that it will very ill beseem us. For,
In the third place, This Height in being over God's Household [Use 3] calls upon us (as I said before) not to be ashamed of the Office, so not to be a shame to it. But as we are herein much Dignified, so to walk worthy of this high and holy Calling, and to labor to be as much above others in Grace, as we are in Place. Is de nobis omnibus judicet, qui omnibus melior, was once the Vote of the People in the choice of their Censor. Think that it's the expectation of our People in each Pastor, or other Church-Governor and Censors. This 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , this Supervisorship of ours in the name and nature of it, speaks more of Care and Labor, than of Honor and Preferment. And therefore let it be our labor and care with Paul, to magnify our Office, as in a vigorous asserting it against such as oppose it, so in casting Beauty and Glory upon it in our holy, just, wise, grave, and faithful Management of it. The Law admitted of no Blemishes in their Priests, Lev. 21. 17, 18. &c. And would it not look very illfavoured, to see grosser Deformities in the Gospel's Ministers? But what a sweet Note is that of Paul's, 1 Thes. 2. 10. Ye are Witnesses, and God also, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , how holily, and justly, and unblamably we behaved ourselves among you that believe. I, that was for a Paul, for a Scholar of the highest Form, who (as Chrysostom saith of him) as for his Divine Contemplations was 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , so in regard of his heavenly Conversation 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 . Yea, and for us too to aspire unto, and labor after, that our Abilities, Graces, Carriages, may in some measure, if not answer, yet suit with our Offices, that when the one is high, the other may not be low; in the one, over others, and in the other under all. I say no more, but with Solomon, The Way of Life is above to the Wise, that he may depart from Hell beneath, Prov. 15. 24. The Lord help us in this kind, both to be Wise ourselves, and to be a means of making others also Wise to Salvation.
2. Having thus considered your place, Servants; and yet Rulers over God's Household: We come secondly, to take notice of the Institution of it, and your Investiture in it, and both held out in the same word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , whom the Lord hath made Ruler over his Household. Quem constituit: A word in the signification and use of it holding forth an Institution, and accordingly here signifieth Christ's Instituting the Office, and Constituting the Person; as here being compared to a Master taking a far Journey, and in his absence appointing, 1. That one of his Servants shall be in his place. And, 2. Choosing whom of them he pleaseth to look to the House, and to be over the rest of the Family. The Institution of the place, and choice of the Person being both at the Master's appointment, and both necessary, that that Servant may take it upon him, and act in it with Warrant and Authority; which holds here likewise, but only that the former (the Institution of the Office) is immediately and only from our Lord and Master: But the latter, viz. The calling and putting of fit Persons into it, though in extraordinary Functions, as of Apostles and Prophets, &c. that also belongs to God; yet in ours of Ministers and Elders, and such like, which are ordinary, he admits of an intermediate Call of the Church: But yet so according to general Rules prescribed by God, as that we may say, that both Places and Persons are Appointed of God, and that he hath made them Rulers over his Household.
Which I earnestly desire, that all of you, who take upon [Use.] you this Office, do heedfully take notice of, that (for your Encouragement whilst you are at your Work, and for your comfort when you are to give up your Account) you be groundedly assured that your Office is of God, and your Call to it, by God; that in both respects, whether you be Ministers, or other Elders, it is God that hath made you Rulers over his Household.
1. For us that are Preachers, that our Office is of God, I hope we are not in doubt, nor to seek for proof of. No. As long as we understand and remember what the Apostle saith, Ephes. 4. 11, 12. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , &c. And he gave some Apostles, some Prophets, some Evangelists, some Pastors and Teachers, for the perfecting of the Saints, for the Work of the Ministry, &c. No Socinian, or other Sectarian, will ever make us call it in Question.
You that are assisting Elders, have had your Place and Employment formerly decried, and to this very day questioned, as for a long time forgotten in the Church, nor so fully and clearly held out in the Word; and therefore as the Man, in whom the evil Spirit was, said, Paul I know, and Apollos I know, but who are ye? Acts 19. 15. So some almost out of a like evil Spirit are ready to say, Pastors I acknowledge, and Teachers I allow, but who are ye? And therefore you have the more need to be fully grounded in this main Point, that your Office is not only Permitted and Allowed, but directly Instituted by Jesus Christ. For whatever others hold, I for my own part must freely profess my Thoughts, that if by your Place you have, as Officers of the Church, a share and Interest in the Government and Censures of the Church, in ordaining Ministers, admitting Members, and in casting out and Excommunicating scandalous Offenders, things all of them so material and essential to Church-Communion, and so purely Ecclesiastical, nothing less than a Jus Divinum, and a true and proper Institution of Jesus Christ, will groundedly Warrant you to take upon you such an Office, and to manage such an Employment. Nothing is to be at the Master of the House his Appointment, if the great Officer and their chief Employments, upon which all the Government and Welfare of the whole Family depend, be not. Neither the Time, nor the Duty in hand will permit at present, a clearing of your Title: But it doth call upon me to call upon you to get it cleared in your own Consciences. The Priests, the Children of Hobajah, who out of Ambition had married into Barzilla'is stock, and would be called by his Name, when they sought their Register, and it could not befound in Aaron's Genealogy, they were, as polluted, put from the Priesthood, Nehem. 7. 63, 64. And lest such a Non est inventus be returned, you have great need to search the Scriptures, the Rolls and Registers in which all such of God's Charters and Commissions are recorded; and if in 1 Cor. 12. 28. in that 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , Governments, you can distinctly spell your Ruling-Power, you have in the beginning of that Verse God's 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , God hath set in his Church, and that speaks plainly an Institution; or if in 1 Tim. 5. 17. you can truly and satisfactorily make out Elders that Rule well to be distinct, both Persons and Officers, from them that labor in the Word and Doctrine, you have that which your Faith and Practice may safely build upon from that place, in which God provides for their Honor and Maintenance, and that in a Church-way, which he would not do, if they were our Creatures, and not his own Ordinances: for how should we dare to think what I am (though in way of abhorrency) afraid to utter, that our heavenly Father should keep our Bastards? Thus, make sure in the first place, that your Calling and Office be of God.
2. And as sure that your particular calling to it be from God also; that he made the Seat, and then set you in it, that you did not run before you were sent, that neither greedy desire of gain in Ministers, or a busy pragmaticalness, or a tickling Itch after applause and domination, to be accounted some great do-littles, do prick on them or other Elders, but that God, after he had in some measure fitted them, hath inwardly inclined them and brought them to Paul's 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , Rom. 1. 15. Or in case of a Moses, Jeremiah's, and Ezekiel's averseness, either some overpowering work of God's upon our Spirit, or over ruling providence in our way hath thrust us out to be Laborers in his Harvest, Matth. 9. 38. and the wants of our Brethren have with the Man of Macedonia to Paul cried to us, Come and help; the vote and mission of some, and the welcome reception and giving of the right hand of fellowship from others, have drawn us ab-inter sarcinulas, as once Saul, (though in another sense than he was) to be Rulers of his People.
In this Exhortation, I am the more serious:
1. As on the one side, because of our very uncomfortable walking in this way, if we halt in this particular. It's error in fundamento, a fault in the first Concoction. Were it no more than an unsettled hesitancy, or a scrupulous doubtfulness of our Minds, that either the Calling itself is not of God, or that we are not called to it by God, it will be like Gravel in a strait Shoe, will pinch, and make us tread very g • ntly, and tenderly, when we walk fair and easily in evenest ways; but will make us halt quite down, and give out wholly, when we are put to it in rough and hard ways; will make us fall short of that 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 or free boldness, which is requisite for the through carrying on of our work. When we seem to have the most assistance from God, and least opposition from Man, yet 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , the Man that hath some inward defect, is faint within, by the warmest Fire, and in the cheariest Sun-shine: as the Man, though at a marriage-Feast, yet when he could not answer that question; Friend how camest thou in hither? is said to be left Speechless, Matth. 22. 12. But suppose, at some special times, and in some heavy pull, and great strait of our employment, God should seem to frown, and the World and 〈◊〉 should indeed rage (as the former we may often deserve, and the latter we may be sure of) what cheer is like to be then, if as it was with Elijah, now in a Wilderness, and (as many think) out of his way, the Angel again and again haunt him, and ask, but what dost thou here Elijah? 1 King. 19. 9, 13. If in such a strait our own Consciences gagg us, and such misgiving thoughts rise up within us, I fear my work is not the work of God, or, that I am not the workman appointed to it by God; and so, though Men blame me, yet God doth not thank me; though they unjustly oppose me, yet he may most justly desert me with a quis requisivit haec? who required these things? or at least, of your hands? The discouragement and despondency of mind in this case would be very great, and the Event hath sometimes proved very dreadful, but not more disheartening,
2. Than on the other side, the Conscience and clear Evidence that our errand is from God, and that he hath sent us on it, will be encouraging and strengthening, and as good as Elijah's first and second B • it, with him to walk, though it be in a Wilderness, many a hot Summers-day, and cold Winters night, till we come to the Mount of God. If it be a way of the Lord, it's Strength to the upright, Prov. 10. 29. and if I be called by him to it, my Call is my Comfort, my Commission my Warrant, which therefore Jeremiah (Chap. 17. 16. & 20. 7.) Amos (Chap. 7. 14) and our Blessed Savior, and his blessed Apostle Paul, had often recourse to, and still held out and pleaded against all Objections and Oppositions. For who hath more Authority in the House, than the Lord of the Household? And if he have appointed and employed me, what hath a • y Enemy or stranger, yea or fellow Servant to do to appose or hinder me? When I can without wrong make use of the Apostle's plea, whether it be right in the sight of God, to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye, Acts 4. 19. it's a Back of Steel to my Bow, and a full Gale in my Sail, strongly engageth the heart
To be ready and earnest to do our utmost in our Duty. It was before the Lord that chese me, saith David, when he danced before the Ark with all his might, and he would therefore be more vile, though so vile already in Michal's Eyes, that she despised him. The Lion hath roared, who will not fear? The Lord hath spoken, who can but Prophesy? Amos 3. 8. We cannot but speak, Act. 4. 20. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , a necessity is laid upon me, and woe unto me if I preach not the Gospe • 1 Cor. 9. 16. It engageth and encourageth the Heart to duty.
And in doing of it, to expect and wait for God's Mercy. If I be sure that my work be God's, and that he hath called me to it, I dare not but so far honor him, as notwithstanding all discouragements to trust him, and confidently to rely upon him for
Acceptance: For if in both my Place and Employment I be his, in accepting of me, he owns himself; else I may say, Lord thou hast deceived me, Jer. 20. 7. Assistance, which other Masters are wont to afford their Servants in their work, and our best Master is not wont to be worse in this kind to his Servants in theirs, who never suffered his Servants to do his work by their own strength, but first bespeaks Gideon's might, Judge. 6. 12. and then v. 14. bids him go out in it, and promiseth he shall save Israel by it. Which adds a third thing,
Blessing. Common Adultresses use not to be fruitful, and so Bastard-Ordinances are barren; but as we love our own, so God, who hath more cause, useth to love and bless what's his. When Isaac sends Jacob to Padan-Aram, he blesseth him, Gen. 28. 1, 2. i. e. he prayed for it: but our Master, when he sendeth us, he so blesseth, that he bestows it. Because the false Prophets ran on their own heads, they therefore went on a bootless ernand. I sent them not, therefore they shall not profit this People at all, Jer. 23. 32. but had they stood in my Counsel, they should have converted my People, v, 22. How do we go amain, when we have the Wind as well as the Tide with us? the Gale of Heaven, as well as the current Stream of our Brethren's votes and desires?
Reward for whatever Man may do, yet God never suffered his Servants to serve him gratis. The same virtuous Woman that sether Servants their Task, gives them also their portion of Meat, Prov. 31. 13, 14, 15 and that God which sets you on work, will be sure to pay you your wages. For the outward Man, Gainers many of you cannot be, and it's well that it is so; and you might scape well, if you were but gainers in the sense of that Phrase, Act. 27. 21. where Paul speaks of gaining harm and loss, that is, in preventing and avoiding it. Injuries and Losses may be all our gains from Men: but there will be nothing lost by what we lose for God, when we come to our last reckoning. When God sends us of his errand, he bids us indeed be steadfast and immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord; but for our encouragement withal, he tells us, that our Labor shall not be in vain in the Lord, 1 Cor. 15. 58.
[What follows was prepared, but not Preached.]
SERMON XXXVIII.
MAT. 24. 45, 46.
Who then is a faithful and wise Servant, whom his Lord hath made Ruler over his Household, to give them Meat in due season?
Blessed is that Servant, whom his Lord, when he cometh, shall find so doing.
BUt that Reward is the last part of my Text. We are before that to consider of our Work.
And that is the 2d; Which (having dispatched our Office, Servants, and yet made Rulers over God 's Household) we come to in those words, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 . It's to give them their Food in due season.
1. I will not insist upon that, which yet some observe from the word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , that it's a giving, and not a selling of this Food to the Household. Christ once whipt Buyers and Sellers out of the Temple: but after-ages complained much that they were gotten in again. This Food for the Household is the Masters Provision, and only put into the Stewards hands for his Housholds use. All thy Grace, Wisdom, Ability to dispense the Word and other Ordinances, to govern the Church, &c. are God's Gifts, which he never betrusted thee with to enjoy, or make a Mercat of for thy self, thine own gain or applause, but for the Glory of thy Master, and the service of his Spouse: and therefore although the Labourer be worthy of his hire, Luke 10. 7. yet neither be thou on the one side ever so mercenary, as to account thy maintenance such an hire of thy Labor as which thou aimest at, and puttest off the Ordinances of God for: No, in this sense freely thou hast received, and therefore freely give.
Nor let the People be ever so mean as to think, when they have paid their Pittance they have bought you for Slaves, and like good Chapmen have made a fair purchase of the Word, and the rest of God's Ordinances, which they hereupon claim as their due, and in case, though by their own default, they come short of, you shall fall short of yours. But how unworthy are such base Simoniacal chafferings of thee, as thou art either a Minister, or Christian? something akin to Judas selling, and the Jews buying of Christ for thirty pieces of Silver: and a goodly price, wherewith I was prised at of them, saith the Lord, Zeeh. 11. 13. The Apostle would lift us up to higher thoughts, when he calls the Church Officers maintenance, not Wages but Honor, 1 Tim. 5. 17. to be freely honorably allowed, not as a recompense of their Labor, but as an honorable testimony of our love and respect, not as the price of the Gospel, and all that either we mean to give for it, or the Ministers should look at in dispensing of it. There's much more that God expects for it from the People, and which his Ministers should look at in their administrations of it. They are first 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , to give the Household their Food in due Season.
2. The second thing observable is, what they are to give, expressed in the word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , their Food and Nourishment, by which Jerome means Cibaria doctrinarum: others, verbi & Sacramentorum pabulum, the sacred Food of the Word and Sacraments; not excluding either the wholesome Physic of Church-Censures, for it's Physic as well as Food, which we pray for, when we beg our daily Bread, Matth. 6. 11. or the due administration of any other of the parts of Church-Government, for as Christ 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , feeds whilst he rules, Matth. 2. 6. (Kings are 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 ) so we may properly be said to Feed, by Governing as well as Teaching. In reference to both which, Paul in his charge to the Elders of Ephesus calls upon them 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , to feed the Church of God, Act. 20. 28. That's their Task, nor can you conceive otherwise, if you consider,
1. Either the Master of the House his Royal Bounty. He would not have his Family starved, and therefore takes order that they shall be fed. In our Fathers House there's Bread enough, Luke 15. 17.
2. Or his Servant 's Office and Duty. They are elsewhere styled Shepherds; and a Pastor's work is to feed the Flock, Zech. 11. 7. Nurses; and they suckle and cherish their Children, 1 Thes. 2. 7. in the place of Luke parallel to the Text 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , Stewards, whose whole work both here and there is summed up in this comprehensive expression of giving Food to the whole Family. And for your quickening herein, the Application of this
Proclaims the People of God their great need, even greater of [Use. 1] these Spiritual supplies, than any can have of those corporal, the fainting-Soul standing in more need to be plied with Promises and Encouragements, than the swooning Man with Cordials; the careless and foul Sinner, of Threats and Admonitions, than the foul diseased Body of stronger Purges; and the obstiuate Sinner more to be cast out, than the gangrened Member to be cut off: all of us as much and more of this Spiritual Food, than any, than all of us do of our Natural-Food, and Job called that necessary Food, Job. 23. 12. and therefore no wonder if Paul said, a necessity is laid upon me, and woe unto me if I Preach not the Gospel, 1 Cor. 9. 16. God and Nature is not wanting to thee in necessaries: Let not Grace suffer thee to be wanting to thy charge in their necessities. Christ was willing to bleed, that of his Flesh and Blood he might make the Provisions, wilt not thou be willing to be at the Cost, though it be of thy Sweat, to set them on the Board? Let thy People's hungering desires bespeak thy pity. It was one of the saddest Notes in the Church's Lamentations, that the Children asked Bread, and there was none to break it to them, Lament. 4. 4. Or should their Desires be silent, yet let their Wants cry for thy Compassion. Cogita de cibo & potu animalium tuorum, saith Bernard, nam esuriunt, & non potunt; they oft are Hungry, and yet so weak, sullen, or shamefaced, that they will not, or cannot ask; nay (which is worse) inediâ langnent, & tamen non esuriunt, they too oft are half-famished, and yet are not an hungry, are ready to die, not so much for want of Food, as of a Stomach, as it is with too many of our Flock at this day. And therefore (in this case, if in any) if there be any Consolation in Christ, if any Comfort of Love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any Bowels and Mercies, let our Bowels earn over them. Starved Souls will be frightful Ghosts to us, when they •• d we at last shall stand together to give up our account, and to receive our doom. Let this make us think of our charge and mind our work, It is to give Food to God's Household.
Which calls for a second part of our care, that it be indeed [Use 2] 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , nourishing-Food, that we give them. If they ask Bread, give them not a Stone; or if Fish, let it not be a Serpent, (Matth. 7. 9, 10.) in hard and harsh usages.
It's Food, not the Poison of Heresies and corrupt Doctrines, or destructive Administrations. Your Power is given to Edification, and not to Destruction.
It's 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , solid nourishing Food, not the Froth of Airy Notions, or our fine-spun high-flown Speculations, not the Trash, Hay and Stubble of our own Fancies, Humors, Passions, no nor the rarest Flowers of our great Readings and curious Elegancies. The Sheep of Christ 's Pasture use to feed on more wholesome Herbs, whilst they let such Flowers stand by. The Word is the immortal Seed, that begets us, 1 Pet. 1. 23. (These too dilute to be prolifical, as he of the Philosopher's Books, animum non dant, quia non habent) and the sincere Milk Chap. 2. v. 2. to nourish us. From these we can suck nothing but Wind, which makes us swell, and that's all. What 's the Chaff to the Wheat? Jer. 23. 28. It's 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , the solid nourishing Bread of Life, and therefore away with all such Kickshaws.
3. The third thing observable in this second part is, that what Matthew here calls 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , their Food, Luke in the parallel place, calls 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , demensum, their portion of Meat, which Agur phraseth (though in another sense, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 (Prov. 30. 8.) Food convenient for me. The same Dispensation will not either for kind or measure suit all. There are in God's Family young Babes as well as grown Men. Some sick and weak, others healthy and strong, some sick of lighter Fevers, others of more putrid, it may be Hectical or Malignant. That which will feed the Child will pine the Man: and what's Food to him that's healthy, may be poison to the Sick: and that which will heal a Whitlow, will not cure a Gangrene: As therefore God in his greater House of the World, hath such both store and choice, that he answers the want and desire of every living thing, Psal. 145. 16. So this Presence-Chamber of his Church he hath so fully fitted and furnished, that in his Word, Sacraments, Censures, and other Administrations, his Manna is answerable to every Palat: he hath a fit Medicine for every Malady; both a Rod and a Pot of Manna in his Ark. But now to •• w which of them to use, and to whom. This 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , this right dividing of the Word of Truth, 2 Tim. 2. 15. so as the proud Sinner may not presume, nor the fainting Christian droop, the right Administration of the Keys, that no false Pretender, notwithstanding his greatest shows, may be let in, nor the weakest Believer, notwithstanding his many weaknesses, kept out, that we do not on the one hand, in too rigorous a way kill a fly on our Brothers Forehead with a Beetle, nor on the other, through ignorance, in advertency, Interest or the like, blow whole a corrupt Ulcer a little skinned over. This is one of the hardest pieces of our work; hic labor, huc opus, & 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 ; Lord who is sufficient for these things? 2 Cor. 2. 16. This would call for in Ministers a more diligent inspection into, and Knowledge of the state of our Flock (Prov. 27. 23.) than I fear we have any of us attained to, or many of us endeavored after; which we had need this day to be greatly humbled for our want & neglect of. This requires all the qualifications, which Christ here mentioneth, of Faithfulness, Wisdom, Sincerity, Constancy, Instancy, which (I said) are contained in the third part of the Text, so worthy to be sought, and yet so hard to be found, if all of you should be like some of us, that in both respects Christ may here ask the question, Who is that Faithful and Wise Servant, whom his Lord shall make Ruler over his Household, to give them their Food, or due portion of Meat, in due season?
4. Which last words, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 in season, is the fourth particular in this second part of the Text.
Food is to be given, and that in a fit proportion, and also in a fit Season. It's so with orderly Men, and in well-ordered Families, Eccles. 10. 17. and God would not have his House worse ordered. The wise Physician as he weighs the Dose he gives, so he calculates the time in which he should most seasonably give it. It's the Wisdom of God as Governor of the World, that as he satisfieth the desires of his Creatures in giving them their Food; so, that it is in due season, Psal. 145. 15. and accordingly as the Lawgiver of his Church you shall observe how punctual he is in the Law to require his Ordinances to be observed, but in their season, Exod. 13. 10. Levite. 23. 4. Numb. 9. 3, 7, 13 & 28. 2. He is now no whit less careful of it in the dispensaon of the Gospel. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , is the Apostolical Precept, 2 Tim. 4. 2. Be instant in season: He adds indeed, and out of season too, though that is out in some Copies: but if you take it in, you must understand it of that which the wisdom of the Flesh accounts out of season, as that it will not stand now with the Ministers profit, or the people's occasions or humors. For otherwise it's the both faithfulness and wisdom of Ministers and other Church-Officers heedfully and watchfully to watch and catch all fittest opportunities, in which they may act most seasonably:
1. Hard to be hit on, and therefore the more carefully to be heeded. Much good lost because the opportunity is slipped: because is every purpose there is a time and judgment, therefore the misery of Man is great upon him, Eccles. 8. 6.
2. Most Successful usually, if observed. The thing is then Beautiful, Eccles. 3. 11. and therefore taking: upon the Wheels them and therefore goeth on smoothly. I am no Arminian, to make the Efficacy of Grace to consist in Moral persuasions applied tempore & modo congruis, in the fitness and seasonableness of such Applications. No: I know that God to show the freeness and prevailing Efficacy of his Grace, sometimes works it (as in Paul and others) when the Sinner is most indisposed, as Christ the Physician came when the World was most Corrupted; who, otherwise than other Physicians, can to purpose give Physic in the height of a Fit, as he cured Simon's Wive's Mother, In aestu Febris, in the very Paroxism of her Disease. Nullum tempus occurrit Regi.
SERMON XXXIX.
ACcording as our Nature is, so proportionably is our Life and Practice. It is so with us, as we are Men; and so it should be with us, as we are Christians. As such, in my former Text lately handled, Peter told us that our Nature is Divine; and Paul telleth us here, that his Life is such: To me to live is Christ, and so to die is gain. When Christ first is our Life, then even Death at last proves our advantage. In the two following Verses, the Apostle telleth us, he is in a strait between two, and knew not which of them to choose. Happy strait! Not such an one as David was in, 2 Sam. 24. 14. when he was to choose which of three Evils, but of two Good things, and both so Good, that he knew not which to make choice of. Such a proffer whether to live or die to a condemned Malefactor would not be accounted a Strait, but an happy Enlargement, when all his hopes are in Life, and he hath no assurance of any Good after Death; Skin for Skin, and all he would give for his Life. Indeed such an Option (whether of Life or Death) was once by God tendered to Adam, and by Moses and Jeremiah afterward to Israel; and Death was by them unhappily made choice of, not as sometimes it is out of present anguish and weariness of Life, but from desperate preferring of Lust to Life, and a careless, if not willful Ignorance or non-attendance of what Death and its consequents come to. But Paul's both Case and Temper here was far better. Because Death would have been his own gain, so he could willingly have made choice of it: But because his Life would be Christ's and the Church's advantage (which he must prefer before himself, and therefore deny himself rather than them) so; as Christ, when Nature simply would have desired Life, out of Obedience to his Father, chose Death; so, on the contrary (but from the same Spirit) the Apostle Mortem habet in desiderio, vitam in patientiâ. When Self-interest would have made choice of Death, Christ's Interest makes him choose Life. And happy he, that he might so well do either, seeing to him to live was Christ, and to die was gain. Christ, (as other Interpreters and Translators render it) being to him both in Life and Death advantage. This latter reading Calvin preserreth, as containing a less forced Sense, and a more full Doctrine, and best agreeing with the words foregoing in the precedent Verse, in which the Apostle expressed himself confident, that Christ should be magnified in him, and that he was indifferent whether by Life or Death, because (as he addeth in this Verse) both in Life and Death Christ would be gain to him. Which not only Beza, and Bullinger, and Hemmingius follow, but also some of the Popish Expositors, taking leave to forsake their own vulgar Interpreter. For my part with Zanchi, and Piscator, and the joint concurrence of Antiquity, I take leave in this to follow the old Interpreter, and our last Translation; which I do not find clogged with the fore-objected Inconveniencies.
The Doctrine contained in the words thus read being full, as we shall afterwards see in the handling of them, the Sense nothing forced (as was Objected) but easy, and obvious, and exactly agreeable to the words as they are placed in the Greek, without the harsher Transposition of them, and Addition of some not expressed in the Original Text, which the other reading is encumbered with.
And lastly for the Coherence, much more agreeable to the words foregoing, to which they relate, as appears by the causal 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , for. And they are not those, ver. 19. For I know that this shall turn to my Salvation: But those immediately preceding (ver. 20.) Christ shall be magnified in my Body, whether it be by Life or by Death: For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. In which words he giveth an account, how Christ would be glorified both in his Life and Death, as Aquinas observeth, the two parts of the Text answering the two Expressions in the end of the two foregoing Verses, To me to live is Christ; that is, if I live, the aim and business of my whole Life shall be to promote his Honor and Service, and so he shall be glorified by my life, this expressly: The other Piscator thinks more impliedly, I conceive expressly enough: Thus; If I die a Martyr in his Cause, he will be as much if not more magnified by my Death, and so far he will be a Gainer, and myself also to boot, for then I shall be with Christ, which is 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , much more better, even best of all.
And so in the words of the Text (spoken by Paul, both as an Apostle, and as a Believer) we have these two Observables, 1. A good days Work. 2. A good evenings Wages and nights Rest. The Work and Business of a true Christian's Life, and the Happiness of his Death, the one is Christ, the other is Gain: For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.
The first then is this, That Christ is a true Christian's Life: [Doct. 1] or rather in the words of the Text, To a true Believer to Live is Christ: For so Zanchi observes, that the Apostle doth not say, Christ is his Life, as the efficient cause of it, but Ipsum vivere, his very Life was Christ, as the Final cause of it, the whole that he did and aimed at in it. So that Christ is not the Subject of the Proposition, as Calvin and Beza would have it, but the Predicate, so that whatever he either projected or acted, Christ might be predicated of it, it had the Signature of Christ, something of Christ, as the Principle or Effect, End or Object of it was stamped and found upon it; But herein I list not to be over-curious. Take it (if you please) according to the former Expression as more plain, Christ is a Christian's Life. But that you may know in what Sense it's here meant, Christ may be said to be a Christian's Life two ways:
1. On Christ's part, as he is the Efficiens, Procreans, and Conservans, the Author and Preserver of a Christian's Life even Natural, John 1. 3, 4. but especially Spiritual and Eternal, who is both the Way, the Truth, and the Life, John 14. 6. But this is not here intended, though in the prosecution of this Point we shall have occasion to make use of it.
2. But secondly, On the Christian's part, Christ is his Life, in that he desireth and endeavoreth to make him so, that although he live in the Flesh, (as he speaks in the following Verse) yet he liveth not to the Flesh, but to Christ. His Natural Life he looks at as a Mercy, as in which he hath opportunities and advantages to honor and serve God, and to do Good to himself and others: Otherwise to live, only to live, though it be with ease, content, and pleasure, it's not worth the while, as that which Beasts as much, it may be more than we, attain to; but if (as oftentimes it falls out with many) which we see (as we are wont to say) laboring for Life in Penury and Infamy with bodily Pains and Sickness, and inward Horror and Anguish, Death hath by many been desired, rather than such a Life: It is Vita minime vitalis: But 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , the Life, that vital Life which a Christian (as such) desires to live, without which a Man, though otherwise never so lively, is dead whilst he liveth, is Christ only.
But how and in what respects doth a Christian thus make Christ his Life?
1. First as the vital Principle from which he acteth: For that life is in every living Creature, and so Christ is to every living Christian. Paul liveth, but not so much he as Christ in him, because he in and from Christ; as Dionysius Areop. makes it the top of the Souls perfection in Praying, Working, Suffering, Potius passive quam active se habere: The life which I now live, I live by the Faith of the Son of God, Gal. 2. 20. It's a Life of Faith, and Faith fetcheth all from Christ, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , I can do all things, Phil. 4. 13. Great words you will say, and may be ready to think spoken by some Thrasonical Bragadocio. What! All things? Can he both do and suffer all Things? (For that is his meaning) And that with an 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , with full Strength and Ability? Yes, but in the very next words with the same Breath, he tells you, whence his Bow had such a back of Steel: It's 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , it was all in and from Christ that strengthened or enabled him: In which Expression, take notice of this multiplied Emphasis. 1. It's not I, but Christ. 2. Quoad potentiam, for the Power, Faculty, and Ability of it. It's 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 . It's his 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 which is the cause of my 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 . It's his Power that works in me this Ability. 3. Quoad actum, for the Act, or my actual exerting and putting forth this Ability, it's again 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , it's from his actual Influence, by which he actually strengtheneth me. 4. Quoad continuationem, for the continuation of it, it's still 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉