02. SERMONS UPON REVELATION I. 5, 6,
Others were raised before him, but to die again; they were raised in their own single persons, he as a public person: 'But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the first-fruits of them that slept,' 1 Cor. xv. 20. And he will by the same power raise again all his members to immortality and life. (3.) He is 'the Prince of the kings of the earth;' one that hath all power given him in heaven and in earth, and is superior to all princes of the world, not only in regard of eminency, as a far greater prince than they, but authority and power over them; he is their Lord and sovereign as well as ours: as it is said, Dan. iv. 17, 'The Most High ruleth in the kingdoms of men, and giveth them to whomsoever he will.'
1. Observe, these titles are given to Christ with respect to his three offices of king, priest, and prophet. (1.) His prophetic office is implied in that term, 'The faithful Witness;' one that hath brought the gospel out of the bosom of God, and plainly and clearly revealed it to the world, and hath confirmed the certainty of it by divers miracles, especially by his death, from which he rose again, and ascended, and poured out the Spirit upon the disciples for a testimony; and still continueth that dispensation in part of giving the Spirit, so far as to assure the hearts of his people that this is the truth. (2.) His priesthood is implied in that expression, 'The first-begotten from the dead.' He died, and so offered himself as a sacrifice of atonement to God; he rose again, and is entered within the veil, to continue the exercise of that office by his constant intercession. (3.) His kingly office is implied in that other expression, 'The Prince of the kings of the earth.' They are all his vicegerents, absolutely at his dispose, and can do neither more nor less than he will have them: Mat. xxviii. 13, 'All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.' He hath supreme and absolute authority given him over all things, both in heaven and earth, for the good of the church; and in the church he is the only head and king, to appoint and maintain the way and means of gathering, preserving, ruling the church, and ordering all the affairs thereof to the world's end.
2. Observe, that all these titles are suited to the present occasion of this prophecy, which is to encourage his people to suffer persecution for the gospel's sake. (1.) As he was 'The faithful Witness,' it assured their cause to be right. The gospel is called 'The testimony of Jesus Christ,' ver. 2. He declared nothing to us but the will of God. The flesh hath such a value for and tenderness of its interests, that men will soon distinguish themselves out of their duty if there be the least doubtfulness in the cause for which they suffer, or any suspicion of it. Therefore now, when dreadful troubles attended the profession of the gospel, he setteth forth Christ as 'The faithful Witness,' to heighten their zeal. As also, Rev. iii. 14, 'These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true Witness.' (2.) As he was 'The first-begotten from the dead,' it still encouraged them more, by assuring them of a joyful resurrection if their lives should fall in this quarrel and conflict. This should allay all the fears of death. Christ is not called the first-born of the living, but the first-born from the dead, to own a relation to us in every condition, dead as well as living: he, as the first-born, rose as a pledge and pattern of what should be done to us. (3.) As 'Prince
F of the kings of the earth,' of whose power and persecutions they were so much afraid, but needed not; for they are not only accountable to Christ at last, which those adverse powers little valued, having not embraced the profession of the gospel; but were held in by the reins of his government for the present, so as they could not so much as touch an hair of their heads without his leave. So that here was much encouragement for suffering christians, who at that time were to conflict with great difficulties, and exposed to the slaughters and butcheries of cruel enemies.
3. Observe, all these titles serve to beget a reverence and great respect in our hearts to the person that owneth them; he is 'The faithful Witness.' The great Prophet of the church should be regarded by us: 'This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him.' Mat. xvii. 5. We are to hearken to him, believe him, obey him, as knowing that we must stand or fall at the sentence of his word. He is the greatest and most excellent of all the prophets, and far above them all, who knew more of God and of his mind than all they joined in one; and hath declared his will more fully, clearly, and powerfully; and shall we set at nought his counsel? Some that despised the counsel of an ordinary prophet smarted for it: Heb. x. 28, 29, 'He that despised Moses' law died without mercy under two or three witnesses: of how much sorer punishment suppose ye shall he be thought worthy who hath trodden under foot the Son of God?' who came out of his bosom on purpose to teach us the way of salvation. If he require repentance and faith, with a promise of righteousness and eternal life, and a commination of eternal death unavoidable, if we believe not, nor repent, we are to believe it with all certainty, to set about this work with all care and diligence, and continue therein with all constancy and perseverance: Heb. xii. 25, 'See that ye refuse not him that speaketh; for if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven.' Christ came from heaven at first, returned to heaven again, from heaven sent down the Holy Ghost upon the apostles, and by that Spirit enabled them to preach the gospel with success. Oh, surely we should attend to his doctrine, and receive it with firm assent, and obey it with humble submission.
Again, he is 'The first-begotten from the dead.' That he died should render him dear to us, for it was for our sakes, as I shall show by-and-by. That he rose again was for our sakes, for our justification: 'Who was delivered for our offences, and rose again for our justification,' Rom. iv. 25; for it showeth that his sacrifice was accepted as sufficient for our atonement. Yea, for our blessed resurrection: 1 Cor. xv. 20, 'But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the first-fruits of them that slept;' as the whole harvest was blessed and sanctified in a little handful of the first-fruits offered to God. But I urge it now as an argument why we should give him glory, as deserving it by the greatness of his person. This made it evident that he was the Son of God: Rom. i. 4, 'Declared to be the Son of God with power, by the resurrection from the dead.' The true Messiah, and judge of the world: Acts xvii. 31, 'Because he hath appointed a day in the which he will judge the world in righteousness, by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead. If he had been an impostor, neither could he have raised up himself, being a mere man, nor would God have raised him up; for we cannot imagine that divine providence would co-operate to countenance a lie or cheat. As then you would not be found enemies to Christ in his imperial day, give him glory and dominion. If you slight him, you despise one that is evidently declared to be the Son of God. And there is no medium; either he must be your loving Saviour or your terrible judge. If you neglect him, he will not be the first-born from the dead to you, nor the first-fruits to you—the first-fruits did not bless the tares, or the cockle, or darnel, or filthy weeds, but only the good corn—though raised again you shall be by his judicial power.
Again, he is 'The Prince of the kings of the earth,' and therefore highly to be respected. Respect to great ones and fawning upon great ones is the practice of all the world; all will seek the ruler's face. As all rivers run to the sea, so do all the respects of the world to the great and the mighty; and is not the Son of God worthy of our respects, that is set down at the right hand of majesty above all? If we did live by faith as much as by sense, we would see it is our interest as well as our duty to honour Christ; we would not fear a mortal man, that can threaten us with a prison, but Christ, who can threaten us with hell; nor be dismayed at the frowns of men when Christ smiles: 'Who would not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name?' Rev. xv. 4. We would yield up ourselves to be his willing subjects, and obey his laws, who can reward us, not with temporal dignities, but eternal life. The authority and power that all others have is but derived from Christ, and subordinate to him; therefore, if he smiles, whose frowns need we fear? He is the one lawgiver, that hath potestatem vitae et necis, power of life and death; he is able to destroy absolutely, and you may be safe in his protection. Well, then, if we consider what he is, he deserveth everlastingly to be honoured.
II. What he hath done for us, 'He loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood.' And there we begin—
First, With the fountain and bosom cause of all, and that is Christ's love: 'To him that loved us.'
1. Christ's love is the ground of man's redemption; that stirred all the causes, and set them a-work, that concurred to this end. Other attributes were manifested in the redemption of mankind, as God's wisdom, power, justice, holiness; but they are all subservient to love: but love is at the upper end of all causes, subservient to nothing but itself. If you ask a reason of other things, it may be assigned; but if you ask a reason of his love, that cannot be given but from itself. If the question be, Wherefore did God discover such riches of wisdom, goodness, and power, for the saving poor worthless creatures? He loved us: John iii. 16, 'God so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son.' Wherefore did Jesus Christ submit to such bitter agonies, such an accursed death? He loved us: Eph. v. 2, 'Walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savour;' Eph. v. 25, 'Christ loved the church, and gave himself for it;' and Gal. ii. 20,
'Christ liveth in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh. I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.' But now put the question, Wherefore did he love us? Love only is the reason of itself; he loved us because he loved us: Deut. vii. 7, 8, 'The Lord did not set his love on you, nor choose you, because ye were more in number than any people, &c., but because the Lord loved you.'
2. As it is the fountain cause, so it was that property that shined forth most conspicuously in the work of redemption: Rom. v. 8, 'God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.' And therefore this is that which we should most admire and be ravished with in our thoughts. Here, next to the description of the excellency of Christ's person, the first thing mentioned in the doxology itself is this, 'To him that loved us.' This is a comfortable word, as if Jesus would be described and known by nothing so much as by his love. What was the Son of God but love incarnate, love born of a virgin, love conversing in the world, and preaching salvation to poor sinners; love going about and doing good; love relieving the diseased and the possessed, curing the deaf, and the dumb, and the blind, and the lame; and finally, love dying and hanging on the cross? 'God is love,' 1 John iv. 8. The angels in heaven adore this love, though spectators, not parties interested; he came not for their sakes, but ours only. We have a little notional knowledge of it, but could we once find the saving effects of God's love in Christ, impressed upon our hearts by the Spirit, how would you be melted and ravished, and ever be thinking what glory and honour you might bring to him that thus loved you? You and I may discourse of it; it is not a few cold thoughts of the love of Christ will work on us, but 'the shedding of this love abroad in your hearts by the Holy Ghost,' Rom. v. 5. There is no knowledge like the experimental knowledge which ariseth from the felt and known effects of this love; this would awaken your hopes, fill you with solid comfort, excite you to your duty: 2 Cor. v. 14, 'For the love of Christ constraineth us.' However, till you have this, the means you must use are sound belief and serious consideration.
[1.] Embracing by faith the love of God in Christ, and the good things prepared by it, as they are revealed and offered in the gospel; that is the way to get this fuller insight and experimental knowledge and feeling of this love; for so the apostle prayeth, Eph. iii. 17-19, 'That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge;' 1 John iv. 16, 'We have known and believed the love which God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.'
[2.] The serious contemplation and meditation of it. It is your duty to study it with the deepest, serious, and most ponderous thoughts you can use: Eph. iii. 18, 'That we may comprehend the breadth, and length, and depth, and height of it.' We are not to content ourselves with a superficial view of God's love in Christ, but must take an accurate inspection of it, in all the dimensions thereof, upward, downward, on the right hand and left. Narrow thoughts and shallow apprehensions do little good, either as to God's glory, or our solid comfort, and that earnest constraint or encouragement to duty which it is wont to produce in the heart. We must neither do it slightly nor seldom. Our hearts are too narrow to understand it all at once; it is so vast and boundless, so rich and unsearchable, yea, infinite. We never know so much but there remaineth more still to be known. Therefore we must often renew the meditation, and continue it so long, till the heart be warmed, and ready to break out into praise; and till our wonder and admiration be raised, and we see the object too big for the faculty, for it is beyond all created understanding; till we be swallowed and overwhelmed in this deep and bottomless ocean, and through a penury of thoughts cry out, Oh, the depth of the riches of the mercy and love of God! For the present I shall content myself with four properties of this love.
(1.) It was a free love: 'I will love them freely,' Hosea xiv. 4. If he did not love us with a free love, how could he love us at all? What could he foresee in us but what was the effect of his own grace? We were neither loving nor lovely. Not loving; we did not prevent God. To love those that love us, it hath nothing singular; that is the ordinary courtesy of the world. By nature we were God's enemies, and what could an enemy deserve? Not lovely; all that grace that is wrought in us afterward is his gift; therefore this was at first a free love, that had no motive nor foundation but within itself. He loveth us, not because he seeth anything lovely or amiable in us, but only because he will demonstrate the absoluteness of his own will, and self-inclination to do us good.
(2.) It was a real love, not an empty complimenting love; it rested not in good wishes; there was great proof and manifestation of it: 1 John iv. 9, 10, 'In this was manifested the love of God towards us, because that God sent his only-begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.' It was such a love as made him leave the height of his glory, and assume our nature, and die in that nature, and shed his blood, and by it wash us from our sins. There was a benevolence in it, and a beneficence also. A man may wish health when another is sick, and supplies when another is poor; but Christ did not wish us well only; but as fire showeth itself by heat and by light, so love by the real effects of it. Perhaps thou sayest to another, Believe that I love thee; but while this is only professed in words, he may believe it, but he cannot see it; but if upon occasion you do anything for him, or expose yourself to danger for his sake, then he saith, Now I see that thou lovest me. So God to Abraham: Gen. xxii. 12, 'Now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, from me.' Here is a plain proof and signal evidence. So here; Christ hath demonstrated the reality of his love; the man seeth it.
(3.) It was eminent and transcendent love. Compare it with the love of one creature to another, and in all the world you cannot find a parallel to equal it: John xv. 13, 'Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friend.' But where is that rare instance of friendship? Rom. v. 6-8, 'For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth his love towards us, in that, while we were yet enemies, Christ died for us.' He died, the just for the unjust, the judge for the offender, God for sinners. It can be resembled by no love upon earth; therefore he himself compareth his love to lost sinners with the Father's love to him: John xv. 9, 'As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you.' It is eternal, incomprehensible, and unchangeable.
(4.) It was a full love, removing our misery, procuring all blessings for us, to make us completely happy; for as it fetched us from the lowest hell, it leaveth us not till it bringeth us to joys and happiness in the highest heavens: 1 Thes. v. 9, 10, 'For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ; who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him.' Well, then, if I should stop here, I hope you have so much ingenuity and sense of your Redeemer's affection to you as to say, 'To him be glory and dominion, even to him who loved us.'
Secondly, The signal act of his love to us: 'He washed us from our sins in his own blood.'
1. Observe, this is put as the great instance of his love. We cannot know the love of God by any other fruit and benefit till this be done. By the bounty of his general providence he provideth for all his creatures, and feedeth them, and maintaineth them in that kind of being unto which he hath raised them out of nothing. So he supplieth the young ravens and the beasts of the field; much more is he good to mankind; he giveth them food and raiment convenient for them, and beareth with them notwithstanding their renewed provocations: Acts xiv. 17, 'Nevertheless, he left not himself without witness, in that he did good, and gave us rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness.' The heathen might trace God by acts of bounty rather than acts of vengeance. But hereby they can have no assurance of God's special love to them; for 'No man knoweth love or hatred by all that is before them,' Eccles. ix. 1. Thou canst not say, God giveth me riches, therefore he loveth me; or sendeth me poverty, therefore he hateth me. No; he may give these things to his enemies, and deny them to his friends; but you may undoubtedly conclude, He loveth me, for he hath washed me from my sins. Clear this once, and you have a full and concluding proof of God's special love to you.
2. The value and worth of this benefit is exceeding great. This will appear if you consider—
[1.] The necessity of it. We were all defiled with sin, which is such a filthiness and stain as cannot easily be washed away. The party displeased and provoked is God, and the party defiled is the immortal soul of man, which being subject to the power of God, and bound by his laws, upon disobedience is conscious to itself of the merit of death and punishment, and debarred from all communion with God. And it cannot have any sound peace till it knows that God is satisfied, and that it shall be admitted again into terms of grace and favour with him. That sin hath made us filthy and loathsome to God, that we cannot please him, nor be accepted with him, the word doth not only assert it:
Ps. xiv. 2, 3, 'The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, and seek God. They are all gone aside, they are altogether become filthy, there is none that doeth good, no not one;' Job xv. 14, 'What is man, that he should be clean? and he that is born of a woman, that he should be righteous?' Job xiv. 4, 'Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? not one.' But conscience is in part sensible of it, so that a sinner hath a secret dread and shyness of God, especially upon the commission of actual sins: 1 John iii. 20, 21, 'For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things. Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence towards God.' I know generally man looketh to the foulness and cleanness of the body, but is insensible of the stain of the soul. Yet we cannot always exempt, no, not the worst, from a secret sense of this. However, our misery and happiness dependeth upon God's judgment, not our own; if in the eye of God all of us are polluted and unclean, lying in our blood, defiled with the guilt of sin already committed, and the filthy vileness of sin yet indwelling. This is evident, we were miserable enough till God found out a remedy; and this misery is the deeper, because man loveth what God loatheth; as the swine loveth wallowing in the wire, and therefore it is a creature loathsome to us. We count sin a bravery, when it is the greatest impurity, a filthiness deeply ingrained in our natures, and therefore not easily washed away, both as to the guilt, as also to the stain and blot.
[2.] This being our misery, Christ came to wash us, and with no other laver than his own blood, as a priest offering himself a sacrifice for our sins. The remedy for so great a mischief must have a noble and excellent cause. That blood was necessary appeareth by the types of the law, for the typical expiation was made by the blood of bulls and goats offered in sacrifice. And that no blood but the blood of Jesus Christ would serve the turn is evident, if you consider the party displeased and provoked, who was God; the party defiled, the immortal spirit of man; and the heinous nature of the offence, which was a breach of his righteous and eternal law. Therefore it is said, 1 John i. 7, 'The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin;' Heb. i. 3, 'He by himself purged our sins;' and Heb. ix. 13, 14, 'If the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works, to serve the living God?' There is virtue and efficacy enough in the blood of Christ, partly from the institution of God, and its own manifold worth and value, as being the blood of God; partly by the way and manner in which it was offered, by an act done in our nature, of the greatest obedience and self-denial that ever was or can be, and so God is fully repaired in point of honour.
[3.] This sacrifice thus offered was accepted of God in the behalf of sinful man, as a full price and merit to procure for us both justification and sanctification. We needed both, being polluted both with the guilt and stain of sin. Both are a trouble to a sensible conscience or an awakened sinner, who is in the next capacity to receive this sacrifice:
1 John i. 9, 'If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.' As a man that hath broken his leg is not only troubled with the pain, but would have it set right again. Both are implied in this washing, and both are effectually accomplished by virtue of his bloody death and sacrifice: 1 Cor. vi. 11, 'And such were some of you; but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified, in the name of our Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.' And Christ hath obtained both by virtue of his bloody death and sacrifice for our pardon and restitution to God's grace and favour: Rom. v. 1, 'Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ.' As also the gift of the Spirit, to sanctify and renew us to the image of God: Titus iii. 5, 6, 'Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost, which he shed on us abundantly, through Jesus Christ our Saviour.'
[4.] Besides the impetration of this benefit, we must consider the application. The sacrifice had power to purge us and wash us from our sins, as soon as it was offered and accepted of God. The procuring of the power is the impetration, which was antecedent to actual pardon and sanctification; therefore it is said, 'When he had by himself purged our sins, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high,' Heb. i. 3. Then he interposed the merit; then was the first grant made or liberty given. But then for the application: It is applied when we submit to those terms that are agreed upon between our Redeemer and God, as our supreme judge and lawgiver. As when this sacrifice is believed and depended on, and pleaded in an humble and broken-hearted manner, and improved to thankfulness, and resolutions to return to the obedience of our creator, then is sin actually pardoned, and our hearts cleansed. He did not pardon, nor cleanse, nor sanctify, as soon as this blood was shed upon the cross, until it be effectually applied to the filthy soul by a lively faith: Acts xv. 9, 'Purifying their hearts by faith;' and a serious and broken-hearted repentance: 1 John i. 9, 'If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins.' We must bewail our sins, depend upon the sacrifice of Christ, sue out the virtue of it by prayer: Ps. li. 2, 'Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.' Extinguish the love of sin by godly sorrow and all holy means, and mortify the flesh by the help of the Spirit: Rom. viii. 13, 'If ye through the Spirit mortify the deeds of the body,' &c.; and more and more interest ourselves in his cleansing.
[5.] Because the application is a difficult work. Besides the purchase of the gift of the Spirit, Christ hath instituted the help of the word and sacraments, to bring us into possession of this benefit: Eph. v. 26, 'That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word.' The merit of his death falleth upon these means, that we may use them with the more confidence: John xv. 3, 'Now are ye clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.' The word is the glass wherein to see corruption, which sets a-work to seek purging; by that our sense of our natural impurity is revived, the means and causes of our cleansing set down, that we may with deep humiliation confess our sin, humbly sue out the grace offered, and wait for it in the conscionable use of all the means of grace. And for the sacraments: As the word containeth the charter and grant of Christ and all his benefits to those that will receive him, so this is the seal of the grant: Rom. iv. 11, 'He received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of faith;' whereby we are more confirmed in waiting for the Spirit, and excited to look for this benefit from Christ. Well, then, we must still lie at the pool of the word and sacraments.
And now you have my second argument why Jesus Christ should be honoured, lauded, and praised by all the saints; because he hath done so great an office of love, and procured so great a benefit for us, as the washing away of our sins in his blood, that we might be admitted to communion with God.
III. The fruits and benefits that we have thereby: 'He hath made us kings and priests unto God, and to his Father.' This doth oblige us the more to ascribe, and give glory and dominion to him for ever and ever, since he hath brought us into communion with God, and set us apart as consecrated persons, such as kings and priests were of old, to perform daily service to God.
In this third thing—
1. Observe the order. We must be washed from our sins before we can be kings and priests, or minister before the Lord. Aaron and his sons, though they were formerly designed to be priests, yet they could not officiate and act as priests before they were consecrated. So must we be consecrated and made priests to God, and that by the blood of Christ. They were seven days in consecrating. This whole life is the time of our consecration, which goeth on by degrees, and will be made complete, both for body and soul, upon the resurrection, when we shall be fit to approach the throne of glory, and serve our God in a perfect manner, in the eternal temple of heaven. For this life, though our consecration be not finished, yet here we are styled an holy priesthood, to minister before the throne of grace, though not before the throne of glory. Now, if we be washed from our sins in the laver of regeneration, we may draw near to God, as the priests under the law were washed in the laver, and then came to the altar. It holdeth good both in this life and in the life to come, that none but the washed can come so near to God, either before the throne of grace or throne of glory. The throne of grace: Heb. x. 22, 'Let us draw near with a true heart, in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.' So Heb. ix. 14, 'How much more shall the blood of Christ, who, through the eternal Spirit, offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?' In the state of glory: Rev. vii. 14, 15, 'These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple.' The persecuted saints, who came out of great tribulation, they first washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb, before they were admitted, as priests, to stand before the throne of God, to serve him day and night in his temple. Sanctification must go before consecration; and the more sanctified, the more consecrated. When our sanctification is finished, then our consecration is consummate; and then we shall have a full communion with our God, a clear vision of his eternal beauty, and as great a fruition of his godhead as we shall be capable of, in a state of full contentment, joy, and blessedness.
2. The privileges are exceedingly great, to be consecrated to so high a dignity; that we should be consecrated or set apart for God, to be objects of his special grace, and instruments of his glory and service. Much more, that we should be advanced to so great a dignity as to be kings and priests to God. We share in Christ's own dignity. He was a king and a priest, so are we; he had an unction, so have we; he was Christ, we are christians; by virtue of our union with him, we are partakers of his kingdom and priesthood. The church of Israel was called 'a kingdom of priests,' Exod. xix. 6; and believers in the new testament are called 'a royal priesthood,' 1 Peter ii. 9; not to disturb civil kings, or the order God hath instituted in the church; for it is kings and priests 'to God,' not to the world. Let us consider these privileges asunder.
[1.] Kings. King is a name of honour, power, and ample possession.
(1.) Here we reign spiritually, as we vanquish the devil, the world, and the flesh in any measure. It is a princely thing to be above these inferior things, and to trample them under our feet in an holy and heavenly pride. An heathen could say, Rex est qui metuit nihil, rex est qui cupit nihil—He is a king that fears nothing, and desires nothing. He that is above the hopes and fears of the world. He that hath his heart in heaven, and is above temporal accidents, the ups and downs of the world, the world beneath his heart and affections, this man is of a kingly spirit. Christ's kingdom is not of this world, neither is a believer's: Rev. v. 10, 'Thou hast made us unto our God kings and priests, and we shall reign on the earth,' viz., in a spiritual way. It is a beastly thing to serve our lusts, but kingly to have our conversations in heaven, and vanquish the world: 1 John v. 4, 5, 'Whosoever is born of God overcometh the world; and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?' To live up to our faith and love with a noble royal spirit.
(2.) Hereafter we shall reign visibly and gloriously, when we shall sit upon thrones with Christ, at his last coming to judge the world, and angels themselves: Mat. xix. 28, 'Verily, I say unto you, that ye which have followed me, in the regeneration, when the Son of man shall sit on the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel;' Luke xxii. 29, 30, 'I appoint unto you a kingdom, as my Father hath appointed unto me; that ye may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom, and sit on thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.' This was spoken at the Lord's supper, which is a pledge of it: 'The upright shall have dominion over them in the morning.' Ps. xlix. 14.
(3.) They shall be kings eternally in heaven: Luke xii. 32, 'Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom;' 2 Tim. ii. 12, 'If we suffer, we shall also reign with him;' that is, in heaven. With respect to this right, title, and interest, so they are made kings. We are heirs in Christ: Rom. viii. 17, 'If children, then heirs, heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ: if we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.' We are heirs of a kingdom that cannot be shaken.
[2.] Priests. That was a great dignity among the Jews. To this all christians are now advanced: 1 Peter ii. 5, 'Ye are an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.' Our sacrifices are not expiatory, but gratulatory; not sin-offerings, but thank-offerings; not typical, but spiritual. Jesus Christ is the only sin-offering. Our thank-offerings are either ourselves: Rom. xii. 1, 'I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.' Or our duties, which are spiritual offerings. We offer not beasts, which were typical, but the calves of our lips, our prayers and praises: Heb. xiii. 15, 'By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually; that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to his name.' Or alms: ver. 16, 'But to do good, and to communicate, forget not; for with such sacrifices God is well pleased;' Phil. iv. 18, 'But I have all, and abound; I am full, having received of Epaphroditus the things which were sent from you; an odour of a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable, well pleasing to God.' Now this is a great honour, that we should be separated by the Lord from all the rest of the world, and admitted into such a nearness and access to God with boldness, and hope of being accepted through Christ.
Use 1. In the general, all this should stir up our hearts to give continual praise and glory to Christ our blessed Redeemer. So doth the apostle here; that is the use he maketh of it: 'To him be glory and dominion for ever and ever, Amen.' It is a thing to be reproved in christians that we take so little time to admire, honour, and praise our Redeemer, which yet is a great part of our work. Surely if you had a due sight of his excellency, or a sense and taste of the riches of his goodness and love, you would be more in this delightful work. Usually praise is a stranger to our worship; and however we are enlarged in confession of sin or supplication for such things as we want, yet we are straitened in our gratulations. Surely lauding and praising God in Christ is as necessary as the other parts of worship: Ps. xxii. 3, God is said to 'inhabit the praises of Israel;' that is, in Israel, where he is praised. The great end of worship is not the relief of man so much as the honour of God; therefore we should not only ask things needful for ourselves, and mind merely the supply of our necessities, but the honour of Christ: Ps. l. 23, 'Whoso offereth praise glorifieth me.' If God will account it an honour to be well thought of and spoken of by his creature, we should more abound in this work. Why are we then so scanty in praises and thanksgivings? The reasons of this defect are self-love; we are eager to have blessings, but we forget to return to give God the glory. Prayer is a work of necessity, but praise is a work of mere duty. Self-love puts all upon prayer, but the love of God upon praise. Again, stupid negligence; we do not gather up matter of thanksgiving, nor watch in our prayers, nor seek after matter for it: Col. iv. 2, 'Continue in prayer, and watch in the same with thanksgiving.'
2. More particularly, let us take our example from this doxology, 'To him be glory and dominion for ever and ever, Amen.' We can but ascribe to Christ what he hath already, but we must do it heartily. Observe here—(1.) The things ascribed to Christ, 'Glory and dominion.' (2.) The manner of ascription; it is imperative. (3.) The duration, 'For ever and ever.' (4.) The seal of all, in the word 'Amen.'
[1.] The things ascribed to Christ, 'Glory and dominion.' In other places it is honour and power everlasting: 1 Tim. vi. 16, 'Who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see; to whom be honour and power everlasting, Amen.' In the Lord's prayer more fully: Mat. vi. 13, 'For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory, for ever, Amen.' Where by 'kingdom' is meant right and authority to dispose of all things according to his own pleasure; by 'power,' strength and all-sufficiency to execute what he pleaseth; by 'glory,' his honour, which is the result of all that he doth. Clara cum laude notitia—Excellency discovered with praise. We desire that he may be more honoured, and brought into request and esteem in the world. Here we have but two words, 'glory' and 'dominion.' 'Glory,' that is, just praise and esteem; gracious hearts think they can never set Christ high enough in their esteem and praise; this is all they can return to him for his great benefits. 'Glory,' that he may have the honour, as they the comfort. 'Dominion' implieth lordship and sovereignty; this they would have given to Christ as his due by his own purchase and God's assignment: Rom. xiv. 9, 'For to this end Christ both died, and rose, and revived, that he might be Lord both of the dead and living.' It was God's end: Phil. ii. 10, 'That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow.'
[2.] The form is imperative, as binding themselves and others to give him glory and dominion. Themselves in the first place, and that not only with the tongue, but with the heart; not only in word, but in deed. So they would give him glory, praise him with their lips, and honour him with their lives. They would make that their work and scope, that this may be the real language of their hearts and actions, which speak much louder than words. These 'show forth the praises of him who hath called them out of darkness into his marvellous light,' 1 Peter ii. 9, that really they may be the glory of Christ: 2 Cor. viii. 23, 'They are the messengers of the churches, and the glory of Christ;' 2 Thes. i. 12, 'That the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you.' So for dominion; the practical acknowledgment is better than the verbal: Luke vi. 46, 'Why call ye me Lord, Lord, and do not the things that I say?' Mat. vii. 21, 'Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.' Christ was mocked when they cried, 'Hail, king of the Jews!' Mat. xxvii. 29, and yet they crucified him. If we would have dominion given to Christ, we must look upon ourselves as not our own, but his; not live to ourselves, or use ourselves for ourselves, but resign up ourselves absolutely to him. Then for others, such is their love to Christ and the souls of men, that true christians desire that Christ may not only be glorified by themselves, but others; that he may be known, worshipped, and believed on in the world, especially those about them; as fire turneth all things about it into fire.
[3] The duration, 'For ever and ever.' In all doxologies a long duration is expressed. They desire not only the present age may glorify God, but the future. When we are dead and gone, the Lord remaineth, and they would not have him remain without praise and honour. It is the comfort of their souls, when dying, that God shall have a people to praise him; and they prize their own salvation the more, that they shall live for ever to glorify God; that, as God's blessings are everlasting, so shall be their praises.
[4] It is ratified by a solemn attestation, 'Amen.' It is nota desiderii et supplicationis; by it we testify our fervent affection, and strength of desire after the glory of Christ. We should have an Amen for our praises as well as for our prayers; not only to say, 'Jesus, master, have mercy on us, Amen;' but, 'To him be glory for ever and ever, Amen.'
SERMON II.
And hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father.
REV. i. 6.
I SHALL take up this subject again, and speak of our priesthood, when we shall be admitted into the immediate presence of God, and praise him for evermore. There is a ministration before the throne of grace, or before the throne of glory; before the throne of grace we minister in this life, before the throne of glory in the life to come. Of the latter I shall now speak, because it is a truth commonly overlooked.
Doct. That the priesthood which we have by Christ concerneth our ministration in the heavenly temple.
I shall prove it by these arguments—
1. Because a christian is conformed to Christ, and made like him in all things. Christ must πρωτεύειν, first it in all things: Col. i. 18, 'That in all things he might have the pre-eminence;' Rom. viii. 29, 'Whom he did foreknow, he did also predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the first-born amongst many brethren.' Now if I shall prove to you that Christ was not consecrated to his everlasting priesthood till he died, then it is very congruous that it should be so with a christian; for our office dependeth upon his, and is carried on in a way of conformity to his. Now, that Christ was consecrated at his death, I prove by these places: Heb. v. 9, 'And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him;' that is, when he had 'learned obedience by the things which he suffered,' ver. 8. And Heb. ii. 10, 'The captain of our salvation was made perfect through sufferings;' that is, fully consecrated, and fitted to be a priest, to perform that office to our comfort. His death is expressed by a notion of perfection: Luke xiii. 32, 'Behold, I cast out devils, and I do cures to-day and to-morrow, and the third day I shall be perfected;' that is, shall suffer death. It is good to inquire in what sense, in these and in many other places, Christ is said to be made perfect; it is not meant of his personal perfection, but official. As to his person, as he was God, he was perfect from all eternity; as God-man, he was perfect from the first moment of his conception. The word τελειωθείς, 'being made perfect,' relateth to his office, and may be rendered 'consecrated,' as well as 'made perfect;' 'being consecrated, he became,' &c.; and 'it behoved the captain of our salvation to be consecrated through sufferings.' The word signifieth, in its first sense, to finish and accomplish a thing. That which is brought to an end is perfected; so was Christ as a priest perfected; that is, fit to minister before God as a priest. But that it should be rendered consecrated I prove—
[1.] Because the word is rendered consecrated elsewhere: Heb. vii. 28, 'Consecrated for evermore.' In the margin, 'perfected,' τετελειωμένον. What is in the old testament, 'Thou shalt consecrate Aaron and his sons,' Exod. xxix. 9, the Septuagint render, καὶ τελειώσεις Ἀαρώνος τὰς χειρᾶς, thou shalt perfect, or fill the hand of Aaron and his sons. And the sacrifice of consecration is called θυσία τῆς τελειώσεως, the sacrifice of perfecting or completing, because the priest was to pass through some ceremonies; and these being done, he is said τελειοῦσθαι, to be consummate, or made perfect, or fully authorised to perform the priest's office.
[2.] I prove it from the context in Heb. v. There the apostle is discoursing of Christ's everlasting priesthood, and his being made perfect is with respect to that office. He was not perfect or fitted for that work till he stood before God with a sacrifice in his hand, till he had offered up himself with prayers, and tears, and strong cries, and had learned obedience by the things which he suffered; but then he was made perfect, for the rites of his consecration were over; that is, his agonies and bloody sufferings; then he was fully consecrated and completed to be a priest. So that Christ's solemn consecration was at his death.
[3.] The reason of the thing showeth it. Jesus Christ was to be 'a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people,' Heb. ii. 17. These two attributes, 'merciful' and 'faithful,' refer to God and us. Merciful to help and relieve sinful miserable man; faithful with respect to God, in performing all things which belong to his sacerdotal office, and going through with his work given him in charge, till he hath fully finished it. The best and most merciful high priest that ever was must be made in the best and most convenient manner. Well, then, he is made perfect when he hath had a thorough sense of our misery, and took the course prescribed to remove it; when his heart was entendered, and his hand was filled with the purest sacrifice that ever was offered; and so by his agonies and bloody sufferings he was perfected, consecrated, and fully qualified to minister before the Lord, and to intercede for poor creatures, and to bless them with the blessing of eternal life. His priestly actions after the order of Aaron were his consecration to his everlasting blessed priesthood after the order of Melchisedec. Without these sufferings he could neither be a faithful nor a merciful high priest, nor satisfy his Father's justice, nor have a full feeling from experience of the creatures' misery. Well, then, as Christ was consecrated at his death, so is a christian who runneth parallel with Christ in all his offices. As Christ had an inauguration into that priesthood he executed upon earth at his baptism, so hath a christian for his spiritual priesthood; as soon as washed in the laver of regeneration, but for his everlasting priesthood at death.
2. My next argument is, this suiteth with the other privilege of kings. We are made kings as well as priests. Now, as our kingly office is not perfect till we come to heaven, so neither our priestly; and therefore it mainly respecteth our ministration in the heavenly temple. How is a poor christian a king here, unless in a riddle, ἐν αἰνέγματι, as he vanquisheth the devil, the world, and the flesh? as it is a princely thing to be above inferior things, and to trample them under our feet. The heathen could say, Rex est qui metuit nihil, rex est qui cupit nihil—He is a king that is above the hopes and fears of the world, that feareth nothing and desireth nothing. This is indeed, in a metaphor, a kingly spirit, to have our hearts in heaven, and to look upon all sublunary things as beneath our care and affections. Christ's kingdom is not of this world, neither is a believer's. Here upon earth we reign only in a spiritual way; but the privilege cometh fully to be verified when we tread Satan under our feet, and triumph over enemies, and reign visibly and gloriously, sitting upon thrones with Christ at his coming, judging the world and angels themselves: Mat. xix. 28, 'Verily I say unto you, that ye which have followed me in the regeneration, when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory, ye shall also sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel;' Luke xxii. 29, 30, 'I appoint unto you a kingdom, as my Father hath appointed unto me, that ye may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom, and sit on thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel;' Ps. xlix. 14, 'The upright shall have dominion over them in the morning;' and 1 Cor. vi. 2, 'Know ye not that we shall judge the world?' and ver. 3, 'Know ye not that we shall judge angels?' neither will this kingdom be terminated and ended at the day of judgment, but they shall be kings eternal in heaven: Luke xii. 32, 'Fear not, little flock; it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom;' 2 Tim. ii. 12, 'If we suffer with him, we shall also reign with him;' that is, in heaven. With respect to this title, right, and interest, we are said 'to be made kings.' Now proportionably, the other privilege, of 'being made priests,' must be expounded also. We are spiritual priests upon earth; we have our sacrifices of prayers, praises and alms, and devoting ourselves to God; but this office is not completed till we come to heaven, and do immediately minister before the Lord. Then we have entrance into the holiest: Heb. x. 19, 'Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus.' Not in spirit, but in person; for if the chief part of our kingly office be yet behind, why not the chief part of our priestly office also?
3. Then we are qualified and prepared. Sanctification must go before consecration; and the more sanctified, the more consecrated; and when our sanctification is finished, then our consecration is consummated, and not till then. Now in this world our justification and sanctification is imperfect; we are not got above our legal fears, and grace is very weak in us. You know before we can serve the living God 'our consciences must be purged from dead works,' Heb. ix. 14, as the high priest was not to approach God without his washings lest he die; and we are bidden to 'draw nigh to God with a true heart, in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water,' Heb. x. 22. If we have the privilege of priests, we must perform the duties of priests. Now we are not perfect as appertaining to the conscience, nor are we fully cleansed and sanctified, till the veil of the flesh be removed, and we be presented to God without spot and wrinkle. Somewhat is begun indeed, that will tend to, and end in, perfect sanctification, enough to qualify us for our ministration at this distance from God. There is enough done on Christ's part, by way of impetration and merit: Heb. x. 14, 'For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified,' or consecrated; he hath paid the price; but as to the application, that is by degrees. The priest under the law was seven days in consecrating; this figured all the time that interveneth before we enter upon the everlasting sabbath. Our whole life is the time of consecration, which goeth on by degrees, and will be made complete, both for body and soul, at the resurrection; for then shall we be made fit to approach the throne of glory, and serve our God in a perfect manner in the eternal temple of heaven. In this life our consecration is not yet finished, we cannot come so near God. We are qualified indeed to come to the throne of grace, but not qualified to come to the throne of glory; but the work is a-doing, and in time it will be accomplished.
4. We have not the full privileges of priests till then, which is intimacy, full communion, nearness of access to God, and ministration before him. This is the privilege we have as priests. The apostle telleth us, Heb. ix. 8, 'The Holy Ghost significeth that the way to the holiest of all was not yet made manifest, while as the first tabernacle was yet standing.' How did the Holy Ghost signify this? I answer—By the whole economy and frame of that dispensation. God kept state and majesty then, and his people must not come too near him; the common Israelite must not come too near the sanctuary; they were not to camp or pitch their tents round about it, but only the Levites, lest they die: Num. i. 52, 53, 'And the children of Israel shall pitch their tents every man by his own camp, and every man by his own standard throughout the host. But the Levites shall pitch round about the tabernacle of testimony, that there be no wrath upon the congregation of the children of Israel.' It was a dangerous thing for the common Israelites to be too near the symbols of God's presence; to teach us the distance between God and men, and their unworthiness to come near him and his holy things. But though the Levites might encamp near it, yet none but the priests must enter into the tabernacle: Num. iv. 18-20, 'Cut ye not off the tribe of the family of the Kohathites from among the Levites; but this do unto them, that they may live, and not die; when they approach unto the most holy things, Aaron and his sons shall go in, and appoint them every one to his service, and to his burden: but they shall not go in to see when the holy things are covered, lest they die.' They were to keep near the tabernacle, and the Kohathites to bear things which they must not see and touch, upon pain of death. And this was not only threatened, but executed on the Bethshemites, which was a city of Levites, when they looked into the ark: 1 Sam. vi. 19, 20, 'And he smote the men of Bethshemesh, because they had looked into the ark of the Lord, even he smote of the people fifty thousand and threescore and ten men. And the people lamented, because the Lord had smitten many of the people with a great slaughter. And the men of Bethshemesh said, Who is able to stand before this holy Lord God? and to whom shall he go up from us?' Well, God kept at a distance from that people, and would not have them too familiar with him; but the priests might come near and minister before the Lord, but not till they were consecrated, and till they had cleansed themselves: Exod. xxx. 20, 21, 'When they go into the tabernacle of the congregation, they shall wash with water, that they die not; and when they come near to the altar to minister, to burn an offering made by fire unto the Lord. So they shall wash their hands and their feet, that they die not.' But though an ordinary priest might come to the altar of burnt-offering, yet the high priest was only to enter into the sacriary, or holiest of all; and that not when he pleased, but only once a year: Lev. xvi. 2, 'And the Lord said unto Moses, Speak unto Aaron thy brother, that he come not at all times into the holy place within the veil, before the mercy-seat, which is upon the ark, that he die not.' The high priest was a solemn type of Christ, yet he was not to be too familiar with God. The people were sensible of this state and distance which God kept, and murmured at it: Num. xvii. 12, 13, 'And the children of Israel spake unto Moses, saying, Behold, we die, we perish, we all perish; whosoever cometh anything near unto the tabernacle of the Lord, shall die: shall we be consumed with dying?' What did the Holy Ghost signify by all this? That the way of the holiest of all was not yet made manifest. But now God is more familiar with his people; a christian hath the privilege of the high priest, a privilege which the most eminent person of that dispensation could enjoy but once a year, in the most solemn service which ever he performed, and that not till after many washings and purifications. In every time of need we may come to the throne of grace. It was dangerous heretofore to thrust themselves upon God, but now the Lord is willing to admit us into his presence; gospel-believers may come to him, the fountain of grace is not inaccessible. Well, but though we may come to the throne of grace, we cannot come to the throne of glory, thence we are all shut out; no man can immediately approach the throne of glory till he be both fully and perfectly justified and sanctified; for the present we are not fit to come nigh him; as Absalom, when his peace was made, and he was permitted to come home to Jerusalem, yet he was not admitted to his father's sight and presence: 2 Sam. xiv. 24, 'The king said, Let him turn to his own house, and let him not see my face.' And Esther, when chosen for a spouse for the great king Ahasuerus, yet she was to 'accomplish the months of her purification,' Esther ii. 12. We have access to the throne of grace, that is all we can have in this life: but hereafter we shall have access to the throne of glory, then we shall have full communion with our God, and a clear vision of his eternal
G beauty, and as great a fruition of his godhead as we shall be capable of, in a state of full contentment, joy, and blessedness.
5. If there be a temple in the other world, then there are priests, and there will be a ministration; but now heaven is often represented as a temple. As the temple under the law was a type of Christ, in whom the fulness of the godhead dwelt bodily, and a type of the church, in which God manifesteth his power and presence; so also it was a type of heaven, and so frequently applied. As in the temple there were three partitions, the outward court, the holy place, and the holy of holies; so is there the airy heaven, the starry heaven, and the heaven of heavens, as it is called, Acts iii. 21. 'Whom the heavens must receive until the times of restitution of all things;' and the third heaven: 2 Cor. xii. 2, 'I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, such an one caught up to the third heaven.' This third heaven, the seat of God and of the blessed saints, is often called 'the holiest,' with respect to the type in the temple or sanctuary. Therefore that is called 'a worldly sanctuary,' Heb. ix. 1, and 'holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true;' that is, heaven itself, ver. 24. The earthly or worldly sanctuary was the throne and palace of God, residing as a king in the midst of his people, which figured or shadowed a more excellent throne and palace, which is heaven, where God doth manifest his presence in a far more glorious manner. Well, then, in this temple must we minister, and be admitted to a nearer attendance upon God.
6. One great part of our sacrifices and oblations remaineth everlastingly to be done by us, and that is the sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving; it is a great branch of the thank-offerings of the gospel: Heb. xiii. 15, 'By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to his name.' And in heaven they cease not. Prayer suiteth more with our imperfect state, when we are compassed about with divers infirmities and necessities; but the angels praise God, and so do the blessed spirits. We shall then have a fuller sense of the mercies and goodness of God, when our redemption is full and complete, and a clearer sight of his excellencies when we see him face to face. Here we do but tune our instruments, and prepare for the work of heaven, but then we perform it. We are here but as learners, when we see God by faith, and understand a little of the love of Christ, but then as practisers. Therefore certainly to be kings and priests unto God doth not respect the present life only, but our ministration in the heavenly temple. There is a 'for ever' always affixed to the doxologies of the saints, to show that now they do but begin in the work which they shall complete hereafter.
7. The scriptures do plainly express that our service is not ended with our lives, but, as we still stand in the relation of creatures to God, so we still glorify him and serve him: Rev. vii. 14-16, 'And he said unto me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb: therefore they are before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in the temple. And he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them, and they shall hunger no more, nor thirst any more.' &c. There is the explanation of the mystery of being washed in Christ's blood, and made kings and priests unto God. This office they chiefly perform when they come to enjoy their happiness before the throne of God and in the heavenly temple. And what is the work there? They serve him day and night; they do not their service then by fits and starts, but constantly. A type whereof were the priests under the law, who, in their courses, were admitted day and night to be in the temple: Ps. cxxxiv. 1, 'Bless ye the Lord, all ye servants of the Lord, which by night stand in the house of the Lord.' But what was done by many in their turns is now done by the same persons continually; for they are never weary, and there is no intermission in their service. And God always dwelleth amongst them; they shall not be at a distance from God, nor he at a distance from them; but they shall still enjoy his company, as dwelling in one house with him; for there shall not be sin nor sorrow any more, and then shall they praise God cheerfully. This will be our work when we are admitted into the most holy place.
8. As heaven hath the notion of a place, a temple, so our estate in heaven hath the notion of a day or time wherein our priesthood is to be solemnly exercised; for it is called σαββατισμός, a sabbath or rest: Heb. iv. 9, 'There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God.' A sabbath is for holy rest, not a time of idleness, but to be religiously employed; so this glorious eternal rest, which is prepared for and promised to believers, is not passed over in ease and idleness, but in acts of worship and adoration. It is a rest from toil and labour, but not from work and service. On the sabbath-day the sacrifices were doubled; the priest had more to do upon that day than any other; so in our everlasting sabbatism, we serve God after a more perfect manner than now we do. On the sabbath, a special delight and rejoicing in God was to be raised: Isa. lviii. 13, 14, 'If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day, and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honourable, and shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words: then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord, and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father; for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.' So in our eternal rest shall we delight ourselves in his presence.
Use 1. It informeth us—
1. That our service is an honour, and worship a privilege; for it is not only a way to heaven, but a beginning of heaven. Our work there is a part of our reward. The priestly ministration is so the work of heaven, that it is also a reward for our present diligence. Well, then, it is the most blessed life we can live upon earth, to be serving God and ministering before the Lord, and to be employed in any nearness about him; his people desire no sweeter work. Alas! what is the work of all the world to this but a toilsome drudgery or base servility? Go to the brutish world, what is the work of the drunkard, glutton, gamester, or fornicator, compared with that of the spiritual priest? They are priests to feed the belly, that base dunghill-god: Phil. iii. 19, 'Whose god is their belly.' Their business is to provide for and please the flesh. Nay; go to the more refined part of the world, the covetous and ambitious worldlings; they aim at nothing beyond this life; but the spiritual priest continueth for ever; his service is begun, and will ever last; his work is his wages.
2. That it is no easy matter to be familiar with God, and to draw nigh to him in worship. We are stupid, and therefore not sensible of it. You see what distance God kept under the law, and what distance he yet keepeth as to his immediate presence. Surely 'God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints, and to be had in reverence of all that are about him,' Ps. lxxxix. 7. The redeemed are honoured to have access to God with boldness, yet they ought to be humbly sensible of the privilege. Every nearer approach to God is an enlargement of honour. We must keep an even hand between natural bondage and irreverence. Natural bondage; we are sometimes afraid to come into God's presence, and doubt of access, being so unworthy to come before the Lord; but we are privileged by our calling; Christ by his death hath made us kings and priests. The priests were sanctified to draw nearer unto God than the common people, and to be employed in his most holy service; so if we be cleansed by the blood of Christ, we are separated from the ungodly world, and may acquaint him with all our desires, griefs, and fears. On the other side, against irreverence. It is no easy matter to come before the Lord as we ought to do; and we must be sure to bless and thank the Redeemer for this favour, that we are made priests of God and Christ, that we are freed from the fears of the second death: Rev. xx. 6, 'Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection; on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ;' and we may hope for a more solemn service.
Use 2. To exhort the children of God—
1. To long and hope for the time of their ministration in the heavenly temple. When the time of our consecration is finished, then we shall be admitted into this blessed estate. Oh, comfort yourselves with the forethought of it! There are many reasons to induce us—
[1.] Because then we shall see him whom we worship, and stand before his throne. This is often promised: Ps. xvii. 15, 'As for me, I shall behold thy face in righteousness; I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness;' 1 John iii. 2, 'When he shall appear we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.' So 1 Cor. xiii. 12, 'Now we see through a glass darkly, but then face to face;' John xvii. 24, 'Father, I will that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me.' Now it is a blessed thing to see what we love, and possess what we see. The priests here, though they do not worship an unknown God, yet they worship an unseen God. The Romans, when they brake into the sanctum sanctorum, and saw no image there, gave out that the high priest did worship the clouds. The world suspecteth the God whom we worship; but there we see him face to face, with a clear and distinct vision: 2 Cor. v. 7, 'For we walk by faith, not by sight.' There vision succeeds in the room of faith, fruition of hope, and perfect love of that weak adherence which now we put forth towards God. If God should suffer himself to be seen by his creature in the condition to which sin hath reduced him, it would prove rather a ground of fear and astonishment than of love and fruition; or else the majesty must be clouded with some allay of condescension, which would not sufficiently reveal him to us. The immediate presence of God, which is our felicity in heaven, would be our misery upon earth. The scripture telleth us, Exod. xxxiii. 20, 'No man shall see him and live.' And Manoah, Judges xiii. 22, 'We shall surely die, because we have seen God.' We cannot look upon this glorious sun but we are in danger of losing our life together with our sight. The scripture sometimes maketh God to dwell in darkness, sometimes in light inaccessible, to note the incapacity of our faculties, and the incomprehensible splendour of his glorious majesty. We are not able to pierce through this darkness or endure this light. But the majesty of God is not there formidable, but comfortable; for we shall behold the glorious God in a glorified estate, both of soul and body.
[2.] We shall serve him perfectly, and without weakness, weariness, and distraction.
(1.) Here is weakness. What dull and low conceptions have we of God! What heartless, irreverent, and poor expressions of his glorious excellency whenever we come to worship before him! such as should make us ashamed to open our lips before the Lord: Isa. vi. 5, 'Woe is me, for I am undone,' saith the prophet Isaiah, 'for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.' Or as Job, chap. xl. 4, 'Behold I am vile; what shall I answer thee? I will lay my hand upon my mouth.' The best of God's servants, when their eyes are but a little opened to see the glory of that God they speak to, how sensible would they be of the shortness of their apprehension and expressions of that God they speak to! Alas! how can such narrow hearts frame an apprehension, or receive an impression of such an infinite greatness and eternal goodness as there is in God! But when we shall see him as he is, then we shall better praise him, and conceive more suitably of him.
(2.) Here is weariness, and we cannot endure long under our weak duties, neither as to the frame of body nor mind; but there God in communion is always new and fresh to us every moment. And the more we look upon the object, the more is the faculty fortified and strengthened in conversing with God: Mat. xviii. 10, 'In heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven.' The blessed spirits are never weary of beholding God, and enjoying his glorious presence.
(3.) Here is distraction. We pretend, when we worship God, to leave the world, and turn the back upon all things else, and to set ourselves before the throne of God; but alas! we bring the flesh along with us, and that will have its excursions, and so our hearts are stolen away from under Christ's own arm. We mingle sulphur with our incense, groan under divers infirmities: 'We cannot do what we would do,' Gal. v. 17. But there is nothing to divert us from thinking of God; there is no blemish in priest or sacrifice; nothing will appear in us displeasing unto God, which is a comfort in our present weaknesses.
[3.] We shall then serve God uninterruptedly; for there shall be no impediment of business, nor need of sleep. Here earthly occasions straiten Christ, and crowd up his interest in the soul, and we spend almost half our time in sleep, not showing one act of thankfulness to God; but then 'we shall be ever with the Lord,' 1 Thes. iv. 17. We shall always stand before his throne of glory, and abide in his blessed presence. Our labour shall not need repose, nor shall the night ever draw a curtain upon that day. There will be no miseries, wants, and necessities to distract us, and take off our minds. The whole strength of our souls is carried out to God, and our time is spent wholly and only in worshipping and serving God. Constant and perpetual solemn service is a celestial privilege, and they that serve God most uninterruptedly come nearest heaven, for there Christ is ever with us, and we ever with him: 2 Cor. v. 8, 'We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.' When absent from the body, we are present with the Lord, and shall follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth.
[4.] There we are admitted into a nearer communion with God than now in this mortal estate. We draw nigh to him now, but we are not so nigh but there is some distance; but in the palace of glory our approach will be so near as to take away all distance, and we shall have immediate and full communion with God. Now God is in heaven and we upon earth, we receive no more of God than an ordinance can convey to us. Here and there he droppeth in a little comfort and quickening into the soul; the pipe cannot convey much, and the vessel can hold less; the means are narrow, and the person is not capacitated to be filled up with all the fulness of God; but then the Lord will do his work by himself, the means shall not straiten him; God will communicate himself without means, and be instead of all means; he will be all in all, and therefore will communicate his grace in full perfection. The more we draw nigh to God here, the more like him. Moses, while he conversed with God in the mount, his face shone. Christ was transformed in his prayers: Luke ix. 29, 'And as he prayed, the fashion of his countenance was altered, and his raiment was white and glistering.' So by proportion in heaven; the nearer we draw to God, the more we enjoy of him: 1 John iii. 2, 'When he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.' Perfection of holiness is the glory and happiness of the saints in heaven; as iron by lying in the fire seemeth to be all fire; when it is red-hot the qualities of fire are imprinted on it; so we, by being ever with the Lord, and ministering in his presence, have more of the divine nature communicated unto us.
[5.] There is the unanimous conjunction of all the saints in the praises of God, or a joining in comfort, without jarring or difference. The apostle biddeth us, Rom. xv. 6, 'With one mind and with one mouth to glorify God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.' It is our duty, but never performed to the full, but when we meet together in that great πανήγυρις, that council of souls, or 'the general assembly and church of the first-born,' which the apostle describeth, Heb. xii. 23, 'The spirits of just men made perfect,' or consecrated. It is comfortable to join in worship with the people of God now. Moses preferred it, with afflictions, before all the riches, and honours, and pleasures he enjoyed in Egypt: Heb. xi. 24, 'Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season.'
But then is the communion of saints completed, when all are admitted to the vision and clearest knowledge of God, and have the most perfect adherence and love to him. Now what an happy time will that be, when we and all the holy ones of God shall, with the same enlarged affection, set about the same work! as our groans here made but one sound, and our conjoined tears but one stream, and our united desires but one prayer, so all our praises then shall make but one melody and harmony. If it be an happiness to live with the saints in their imperfection, when sin doth often embitter their society, surely it is an happiness to live with them for ever when they are purged and freed from sin, and fully consecrated and fitted to minister before the Lord.
[6.] To think of God, and to rejoice in his glory, and to love and praise him, will be our great employment. There we shall be intent upon our choice and noble work, which is praising and lauding God: Ps. lxxxiv. 4, 'Blessed are they that dwell in thy house; they are still praising thee.' Praises now are a part of our sacrifices, and must be mingled with our prayers: Phil. iv. 6, 'In everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be known unto God.' So Rev. v. 8, 'The four beasts and four-and-twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps, and golden vials full of odours, which are the prayers of the saints.' Harps signify their praises and thanksgivings. Here it cometh in by way of mixture, but there it is our sole employment. There is no need of prayers, for there are no sins, nor wants, nor necessities there; all is praise. David calleth upon the angels 'to bless the Lord,' Ps. ciii. 20, to tell us what they do. And when a multitude of them descended at Christ's birth, Luke ii. 13, 14, they presently fell a-landing and praising God, 'Glory be to God in the highest.' It is the opinion of the ancient Hebrews that every day they sing praises to God, and that in the morning; this they gather from Gen. xxxii. 6, 'Let me go, for the day breaketh;' which place the Targum of Jerusalem thus explaineth, 'Let me go, for the pillar of the morning ascends; and behold, the hour approacheth that the angels are to sing.' This was their opinion. Sure we are that the angels bless God, and that in an eminent manner, as appeareth by frequent passages of scripture, where they are called upon to bless the Lord; for though the speech be in the imperative mood, as if it were hortatory, yet it is to be expounded by the indicative, as narrative of what the angels do. Particularly we read they blessed God for his own excellence: Isa. vi. 1-3, 'In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. Above it stood the seraphims; each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts, the whole earth is full of his glory.' For the creation: Job xxxviii. 4-7, 'Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding. Who hath laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest? or who hath stretched the line upon it? Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? or who laid the corner-stone thereof, when the morning-stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?' For the nativity of Christ:
Luke ii. 13, 14, 'And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, on earth peace, good will toward men.' So they blessed Christ: Rev. v. 11, 12, 'I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne, and the beasts, and the elders; and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing.' Though they cannot fully comprehend God, yet they do it far more clearly than we. They apprehend God's excellency and perfection in himself; they know also the excellency of his works, creation, and providence, and the redemption of mankind. 'Then we shall know as we are known,' 1 Cor. xiii. 12, and understand the faithfulness of God's conduct in bringing us to glory. O blessed time when we shall fall upon the work of angels, when we shall have a sublime understanding to know God, an heart to love him, and a mouth to praise him for evermore! We shall not need any excitement, but be willing and ready to do it. We have greater cause of blessing God than the angels have. It is a question whether an innocent or a penitent person is more bound to thank God? An innocent man is bound to praise God in respect of the greatness of the benefit, and the continuance of it; but a penitent man in respect of the freeness and graciousness of it. The freeness and graciousness is much more conspicuous towards men. God was indeed good and bountiful to the angels, creating them out of nothing, endowing them with many excellent gifts; but to man sinful was God good indeed; he loved us as enemies; when his justice, offended by sin, put a bar to our salvation, he spared not his beloved Son, but delivered him to a cursed death in our room and stead.
2. To exhort us to prepare ourselves for this estate; and let us labour that we may be such as may be counted meet to minister before the Lord in his heavenly temple. To this end—
[1.] Let us hasten the acts which belong to our consecration, and attend upon them with more seriousness, which is the cleansing of the soul from the guilt and stain of sin. From the guilt of sin: Rom. v. 1, 2, 'Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ; by whom also we have access by faith unto this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.' Comfortable access to God here in the world depends upon our justification; the more clear that is, the more we are fitted to come before the Lord. From the stain of sin: Mat. v. 8, 'Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.' Though all see enough of God to satisfaction, these see more than others do. Therefore the more we cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit, the more of God shall we see, and the sooner shall we be admitted into his blessed presence. It was an old observation, even among the heathens, ὃν φιλεῖ Θεὸς ἀποθνήσκει νεός, that he whom God loveth dieth young. Not that all that die young are beloved of God; but ordinary observation will teach you this, that let a man more than ordinarily improve in purity of heart, though God may lend him to the world for an example for some time, yet they are taken to God sooner than others; or if they are continued in the world, they are continued under more weaknesses, and do with more earnestness expect their translation to the everlasting priesthood.
[2.] Let us begin our sacrifices, and discharge our priestly office now, and perform all the duties which belong to our ministration with more fidelity. Some of our duties are proper only to the present state, as consecrating ourselves to God, and using ourselves for God; that is out of date then, for our consecration is over before we come there. It is undeniable that the blessed spirits all live to God: Luke xx. 38, 'He is not a God of the dead, but of the living, for all live unto him.' But there is no need of giving up ourselves to God, for then we possess God. Mercy is useless in an estate where misery cannot approach; therefore now it must be exercised. None are priests in heaven but those that have acted the priest's part upon earth. But praise holds good now, and then too: Ps. cvii. 22, 'Let us sacrifice the sacrifices of thanksgiving, and declare his works with rejoicing.' This is to tune our instruments, and to be fitting ourselves for our everlasting work.
[3.] Let us be more frequent and often with God; for the throne of grace is the very porch of heaven; by it we pass to the throne of glory. Surely that life upon earth is best which is likest to the life of heaven: Ps. lxxxiv. 10, 'For a day in thy courts is better than a thousand: I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness.' Prayer giveth us the nearest familiarity which a man in flesh can have with God, and is the best preparation for our entrance upon our everlasting priesthood. A man acquainted with a God beforehand is not to seek for a God to pray to when he cometh to die, nor for a mediator to intercede for him, nor for a spirit of adoption to fly to God as a reconciled Father. Having been frequently entertained and accepted by God, he can the better resign his spirit into his hands, and with more confidence wait for this nearer attendance. Alas! to go out of the world into unknown and unseen regions, where we are wholly strangers, how sad is that! Who will venture into the ocean who hath not learned to swim in the shallow brooks and streams? Communion with God in a way of grace is the way to communion with him in a way of glory. We go to see him face to face whom we have seen by the eye of faith, to live with him in heaven with whom we have lived upon earth. Species non lurificat in patria, quem fides non consolatur in via—Sight will not be joyful to him in heaven whom faith hath not comforted upon earth. He that hath often heard and accepted us will not reject us.
3. Let us be more apprehensive of the greatness of the privilege of drawing nigh to God, that we may improve it accordingly. The priests were sanctified to draw nearer to God than the common people, and employed in his holy service. Yea, nearness of ministration before the Lord is the felicity of the glorified. How must we improve it?
[1.] Partly to be ashamed of our loathness to draw nigh to God, and our weariness of his special service. Oh, let us not shun God as an enemy, and be loath to come into his special presence, or backward to converse with him.
[2.] To thankfulness to our Redeemer. It was purchased by the blood of Jesus: Heb. x. 19, 'Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus.' We may be the more confident of drawing nigh to him in a way of grace, for he hath purchased also our entrance into glory: Eph iii. 12, 'In whom we have boldness, and access with confidence by the faith of him.'
Use 3. Comfort.
1. Against present weaknesses in duty. There will be a time when we shall more perfectly express our thanksgiving to God.
2. Against troubles and sufferings. It must be so now, that we may be conformed to our head; but no molestation should be an impediment in our work.
3. Against death. It should make us willing to die, that we may minister before the Lord. If David so longed for the enjoyment of God in the earthly temple: Ps. lxiii. 1, 2, 'O God! thou art my God; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee, in a dry and thirsty land where no water is; to see thy power and thy glory, so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary;' how much more cause have we to long for the time when we shall be made priests to him for ever?
SERMON I.
Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thy heart: thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbour, and not suffer sin upon him.—Lev. xix. 17.
I AM to speak to you at this time concerning christian and brotherly reproof. Our first care should be that we are not sinners ourselves; our next, that we partake not of the sins of others; which may not only be by counselling and abetting their evil actions, but also by a faulty connivance and silence, when the glory of God and love to our neighbours' souls do loudly call upon us to mind them of their duty and warn them of their danger. To this end I have made choice of this scripture, 'Thou shalt not hate,' &c. Where take notice—
1. Of the removal of the impediment, 'Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thy heart.'
2. An earnest excitement of the duty of reproof, 'Thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbour.'
3. A reason to enforce it, 'Thou shalt not suffer sin upon him,' or that thou bear not sin for him.
First, A removal of the impediment or hindrance, 'Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thy heart.' Hatred is forbidden when rebuke or reproof is prescribed, for two reasons—
1. Because there is a supposition of wrong done; that is, when any man hath wronged us in anything, let him not nourish hatred or anger in his bosom, lest by abiding there long, it soureth into malice and revenge; rather go and show them the evil that they have done, to bring them to repentance. It is said of Absalom, 2 Sam. xiii. 22, that 'Absalom spake unto his brother Amnon neither good nor bad, for Absalom hated Amnon, because he had forced his sister Tamar.' Amnon did the wrong, but Absalom reproved him not, because he hated him. Implacable malice and desire of revenge is hid under silence and dissimulation: 'He spake neither good nor bad to Amnon,' to wit, of that subject of the rape committed upon his sister; he reproved not the fact, that so he might conceal his malice, till he found occasion to put the same in execution; and this is the fashion of all that regard the wrong done to themselves, but not the offence done to God. Well, then, since hatred begets close and cunning dissimulation, till it have a full advantage to put forth itself, it is opposite to reproof; it is as fire raked under ashes, and reserved till another day. The historian Tacitus observeth it in Tiberius, who being offended by some words spoken in the senate by Haterius and Scaurus, In Haterium statim invectus, Scaurum cui implacabilis irascebatur, silentio transmittit—The one he rebuked, the other, whom he implacably hated, he passed by with silence. Therefore God, well knowing the disposition of man, giveth this direction by his servant Moses, 'Hate not thy brother in thy heart, but rebuke him in any wise.' So that you see it is meant of hatred, rising of offences principally; wherefore rebuke him, hate him not for such things. Suitable to this is the law of Christ: Luke xvii. 3, 'Take heed to yourselves: if thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke him; and if he repent, forgive him.' Do your utmost to reduce any that offendeth, though it be by injuring thee; do not desire revenge, but seek an opportunity to pardon him upon his reformation: Mat. xviii. 15, 'If thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone; if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother;' that is, thy charity must be sure to put off all thoughts of revenge against him; yea, it will oblige thee to use all prudent methods to bring him to a sense of his fault, and the most discreet and gentle ways are first to be essayed. That is the first reason.
2. He that doth not rebuke his brother when he doth anything amiss doth indeed hate him, not love him. There are two things which put us upon reproof—zeal for God's glory, and love to our neighbour's soul. There is a defect in our zeal if we do not seek to repair God's honour when it is wounded by others: Ps. lxix. 9, 'The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up, and the reproaches of them that reproached thee have fallen upon me.' Injuries done to God and religion affect us no less nearly than personal wrongs done to ourselves. So there is a defect in our love and charity to others to let them alone in soul-dangers; and therefore reproof, as it is opposed to hatred, so it is opposed also to flattery, which is false and corrupt love: Prov. xxviii. 23, 'He that rebuketh a man afterwards shall find more favour than he that flattereth with his tongue.' When we are about to reprove others for their faults, we are afraid we shall offend them, and that all friendship will be broken off between us and them, and so are tempted to connive at others' sinful courses for fear of a rupture and breach with them. Alas! at length, though the party be displeased a little for the present, when he recovereth and cometh to himself again, he will see that you showed him the true friendship, whereas others that connived at or flattered him in his sins, however they sought to please his humour, hated his soul; and they will love you the better for it, because you awaken them out of their sins, that would have been their eternal ruin. It is possible you may enrage a wicked and haughty scorner, but then you have discharged your duty, and freed your own soul. But for others, you get the more favour and thanks, because you have done a true office of love. So that that which you are afraid will be an occasion of breaking off friendship, will prove a means to nourish love: Prov. ix. 8, 'Reprove not a scorner, lest he hate thee; rebuke a wise man, and he will love thee.' Gain him to a sense of his duty, and he will bless God for thee while he hath a day to live. So Prov. xxvii. 5, 6, 'Open rebuke is better than secret love. Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful. Open rebuke is when we plainly, and sometimes sharply, convince men of their errors or sins they lie in; this is better than hidden love, for that is of no use and profit to us. He that reduceth me into the way when I go astray, and plucketh me out of the fire and water when I am in danger to be drowned or burned, though he break an arm or leg; he that cureth my disease, though by a sharp and troublesome medicine, doth me a greater benefit than he that professeth great love to me, and lets me alone to perish, and will not reach an hand to pluck me out, out of tenderness, as loath to trouble me. That is called hidden love that doth not make itself known by the offices of love and friendship, or for fear of offence will not warn a man of his danger; it is indeed true hatred. The next verse is to the same purpose. It may be my friend wounds me, as the physician lets me bleed to cure my fever; he doth it in faithfulness. A sharp reproof is there called 'a wound,' but it is the faithfulness of my friend, not done out of rancour or malice, with a desire to shame and reproach me; it is intended for my good; but 'the kisses of an enemy,' or one that hateth me and my soul, 'are deceitful.' By 'kisses' are meant the pretences of great love to us, as Joab kissed Amasa, and stabbed him, 2 Sam. xx. 9, 10; and Judas kissed Christ, and betrayed him, Mat. xxvi. 48, 49. Alas! this love is but deceitful, whilst it betrayeth your souls. That this is true love appeareth also, because thus God dealeth himself with his own children: Prov. iii. 12, 'For whom the Lord loveth he correcteth, even as a father the son in whom he delighteth.' God loveth his children dearly, but yet will not let them perish in their sins, therefore sometimes he useth a smart discipline towards them. Satan seeketh to lull them asleep by the delights of the flesh, but God awakeneth them by the sharp corrections and rebukes of his providence. I will but add David's expression, which showeth what thoughts he had of a sharp reproof wisely administered: Ps. cxli. 5, 'Let the righteous smite me, it shall be a kindness; and let him reprove me, it shall be an excellent oil, which shall not break my head.' David, perceiving what mischief those unhappy flatterers that Saul had about him had procured to him, beggeth of God as a great blessing that he might have such godly and faithful friends about him as would never consent to any wrong deed of his, and would not only dissent, but dissuade him from it, yea, reprove him, and rebuke him sharply, if need were; which sort of friendly smiting would be a most acceptable good turn as could be performed to him. Surely he that truly hateth sin loveth to be freely dealt withal, and reproved and admonished of it. It may be the reproof is as a wound to the flesh, which is proud and impatient of contradiction; but it is the fruit of love unfeigned; and when we are in our right wits, it should be as a precious oil, which they were wont to pour on the head, both for health, and cheering, and gladness.
Secondly, The exhortation itself, 'Thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbour.' Here is—(1.) The object; (2.) The act.
1. The object, thy neighbour and brother. Here the question will be the same that was put to Christ: Luke x. 29, 'Who is my neighbour?' Christ answereth him by a parable, and showeth him that every one that stood in need of his charity, he is the object of thy compassion and mercy. So in this piece of charity, by 'brother' and 'neighbour' is meant any other man, though he be to thee as a Jew to a Samaritan, upon terms of the greatest separation and hostility towards thee. So our Lord teacheth elsewhere: Mat. v. 43, 44, 'Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy: but I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them that despitely use you, and persecute you.' Offices of love must be extended to all, even to aliens and enemies; therefore for this case am I to reprove an infidel or one of a false religion?
We answer briefly, as the apostle, Gal. vi. 10, 'As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially to them who are of the household of faith.'
[1.] By the law of charity I owe this office of love to all, for I should bring home as many to God as possibly I can. Neither age, nor sex, nor any condition of life doth deprive them of the benefit, nor exempt me from my duty to them. Unbelievers are our neighbours, and to be loved with a true love; besides φιλαδελφία, 'Love of the brethren,' ἀγάπη, 'love' is required of christians: 2 Peter i. 7, 'Add to brotherly-kindness charity.' And therefore they must not be excluded from the common act and office of charity that belongeth to all men as men. Spiritual alms is no more restrained than bodily. Now upon occasion we are bound to relieve the worst in their great necessity, and none have such great necessity of being reduced as infidels, for they are further from God and more gone astray than others, and therefore most need information and warning of the danger they are in. An unbeliever may reprove a believer; so on the contrary: Gen. xx. 16, 'And Abimelech said unto Sarah, Behold, I have given to thy brother a thousand pieces of silver; behold, he is to thee a covering of the eyes to all that are with thee, and with all other: thus was she reproved.' This heathen king reproved her, because she wore not a veil, as wives are wont to do, but dissembled, and thereby she was in danger of being ensnared, and giving occasion of these mischiefs; as if he should say, Acknowledge freely hereafter that he is thy husband, and cover thy face in token that thou art a married woman, and that consequently he is the shield and defence of thy chastity; let it be a lesson and warning to thee to be more circumspect hereafter.
[2.] This is chiefly to be done to christians, and those who are members of the same church, for in a chief respect they are to be reckoned brother and neighbour. They have a nearer brotherly conjunction with us than others, and the precept of brotherly correction introduceth that discipline which is to be used in the church for ever: Mat. xviii. 15-17, 'Moreover, if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between him and thee alone: if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother. But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established. And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it to the church; but if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as a heathen man and a publican;' that is, thy fellow christian, he is first to be admonished privately, without putting him to any shame or reproach, and if he mend upon such admonition, there is an end. It is comfort enough to you to be an happy instrument of his repentance. But if that first method succeed not, other courses must be taken; and the case is to be brought before the christian church, ver. 17, that it receive no damage by wilful and obstinate offenders; so that reproof doth mostly concern the scandalous sins of a brother or professed believer.
[3.] Among christians, some are more nearly related to us, either by the bonds of natural kindred or special friendship, as those of our family, and with whom we have familiar converse. We know not the estate of those who are at a distance, but those within the sphere of our commerce we are more particularly concerned in; as the apostle says as to corporal relief: 1 Tim. v. 8, 'If any provide not for his own, and especially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel.' They act quite contrary to the laws of Christ. So here, they that are of the same family, we are bound in a special manner to seek their good and welfare, because, besides the common bond of christian charity, there is a special tie of kindred and relation, and also because this nearness and relation giveth an opportunity of frequent commerce, and opportunity is one of the talents which we are to account for.
2. The act is rebuking or reproving him for sin, which must be done faithfully, compassionately, and prudently.
[1.] Faithfully; for in the Hebrew it is 'in rebuking thou shalt rebuke;' that is, freely, plainly, soundly reprove him; for doubling of the words in the Hebrew increaseth the sense. We render it, 'Thou shalt in any wise rebuke.' We must sometimes, ἐλέγχων ἀποτόμως. So Titus i. 13, 'Rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith.' But the end and circumstances must govern the matter, for corrosives are not proper to all wounds and diseases, and a proud censure is not a charitable reproof. Therefore in the general it must be so as it may best obtain its effect.
[2.] With lenity and christian meekness, that it may appear an act of love; not the fruit of passion, but compassion: Gal. vi. 1, 'If a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual restore such an one in the spirit of meekness.' When we would reclaim and restore such as are surprised with any sin, we must do it in such a manner that they may see our love to them, and that we have a right aim, which is not the reproach and disgrace of the person, but his reformation and amendment. Our indignation against the sin must not transport us, or carry us besides our pity to the person; and there must not appear in it the rigour and severity of censure which proceedeth of pride, but the lenity of love, considering the circumstance of human frailty, and our own proneness to offend if we were in like circumstances. It is our brother's amendment we look after, not to beget in others an ill opinion of him, or a good opinion of ourselves, as if we were singular in holiness and hatred of sin above others; and we must by all means show that our reproving proceedeth from a zeal for the glory of God, and love to and care of the salvation of our neighbour.
[3.] Prudently. All circumstances must be well weighed, of person, time, and place, occasion, and the temptations to the offence, that all things may be done conveniently, and proportionable to the end: Prov.
xxv. 12, 'As an ear-ring of gold, and an ornament of fine gold, so is a wise reprover upon an obedient ear;' that is, wise reproof is a precious jewel, that is not so great an ornament to the ear as a wise seasonable reproof is acceptable to a gracious heart. Reproof is an ear-jewel; now an ear-jewel must not be too weighty and heavy, lest it tear and rend, rather than adorn the ear.
Thirdly, The argument by which this duty is enforced, 'Lest thou bear sin for him;' that is the marginal reading; in the text, 'Thou shalt not suffer sin upon him;' either reading affordeth a strong argument.
1. 'Thou shalt not suffer sin upon him;' that is, not leave him in his sin unreproved. Sin should be so odious to a gracious heart, that, as we should be careful not to commit it ourselves, so we should not permit it to lie upon others. As we would shake off a spark of fire from their clothes, so we must not suffer any sinful blemish to remain upon their consciences and conversations. God would every way hedge us within our duty; as by mourning for the sins of others he teacheth us penitence for our own, so by reproving others' sins he teacheth us caution for ourselves: Rom. ii. 1, 'Thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest; for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest doest the same things.' They that live and go on in these sins, in judging others they condemn themselves.
2. The other reading also offereth a good argument, 'That thou bear not sin for him.' To bear sin is to bear punishment; as Christ is said to 'bear our sins in his body upon the tree,' when he endured the punishment due to our sins, 1 Peter ii. 24. So he that reproveth not sin is said to bear sin for his brother or neighbour, that is, punishment for his sake, because he seeketh not to save a soul from death; as the Lord threateneth, Ezek. iii. 18, 'When I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt surely die, and thou givest him not warning, nor speakest to warn the wicked from his wicked way to save his life, the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his blood will I require at thine hands.' Others are to answer for it, who have ability and opportunity to reprove. Now we have sins enough of our own, that we need not take on us a new guilt, and be partakers of other men's sins, or bear more for their sakes.
From the whole observe—
Doct. That brotherly reproof is a necessary duty, which all are bound to practise as well as they can.
1. Let us consider the kind of the duty which we are bound to enforce. Reproof and admonition is either authoritative and by way of office, or charitative and by way of general duty.
1. For reproof by way of office we have many scriptures: 2 Tim. iv. 2, 'Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long-suffering and doctrine;' that is, urge them, press them, call upon them when they are at leisure to hear, and come together for that purpose; or when thou hast any opportunity to fasten anything upon them at other times. Labour still to convince the evil-doers of their wicked courses. This is the continual duty of ministers, and they must mind it ἐνκιάρως, ἀκιάρως, 'in season, out of season; both when they have probable opportunities, and when they take occasion, though they find it not; when the hearers, it may be, think it not so seasonable: the recovery of souls must not be delayed.
2. Reproof by way of general duty, which lieth upon all men that are capable, and have the use of reason. Of this the apostle speaketh, 1 Thes. v. 14. 'Now we exhort you, brethren, warn them that are unruly, comfort the feeble-minded, support the weak, be patient towards all men.' All these are duties of christian charity, which belong to private believers: τουθετεῖτε τοὺς ἀτάκτους, 'Warn them that are unruly.' Reproof is one of these duties: 2 Thes. iii. 15, 'Count him not as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother,' τουθετεῖτε; set his duty in his mind. Again, all christians must contribute their help to preserve the church of Christ from scandal and prejudice; and therefore, when they see any man forsake his station and his work, they must admonish him of his fault, and never leave till they have reduced him into his proper posture and place again. Now there is a difference between these two duties; for the one is not only an act of charity, but justice; the other is an act of charity, and that general duty that we owe to a neighbour as a neighbour. The one is done by a superior, by virtue of his office; the other is done by an equal towards his equal, or by a superior by virtue of his common relation. The one is done publicly by right dividing the word of truth, and giving every one his portion; the other is done privately between us and our brother, that we may gain him according to Christ's rule. The one is done by public declaration, and the evidence of truth in their consciences, disapproving their evil deeds: John iii. 20, 'Every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh he to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.' The other is done by closer application, or personal charge for the sins that we have heard and seen: Gal. ii. 11, 'When Peter was come to Antioch, I withstood him to the face, because he was to be blamed.' The one requireth aptness of gifts, the other only christian prudence and a fervent charity. This latter we have now in hand.
II. The arguments by which we are to enforce it; which are needful in this case, because men are so apt to bear with sin, both in themselves and others; and this duty is of so great use, that Satan seeketh to hinder it with all his power; and so hard to be done rightly, that most men quite omit it.
1. I shall prove it from the law of nature, which teacheth me to love my neighbour as myself; and therefore conscience bindeth me to reduce those into the right way who are gone out of it; this is the obliging internal cause. We ourselves by a regular will, having erred, would be glad to be reduced, and set into the right way again: Jer. viii. 4, 'Thus saith the Lord, Shall they fall, and not arise? shall they turn away, and not return?' Is any man so absurd, heedless, and witless, that when he hath gotten a fall, will lie still, and not essay to get up again? or that hath been unwittingly out of the way, and will not desire to come into it again, and be willing to receive direction from those that would set him right? Now this being a dictate of nature, produced by God himself by his prophet, to aggravate their apostasy, who having fallen by their sin, refused to rise and return, holdeth good
II also to others, whom we are to love as ourselves. And therefore, when they are fallen, we must help them to rise again; and when they are turned away, we must help them to return. This is so natural, that the very birds and beasts desire to return to their proper places in their natural and appointed time when they have wandered; as the prophet speaketh of the stork, turtle, and crane: ver. 7, 'Yea, the stork in the heaven knoweth her appointed times; and the turtle, and the crane, and the swallow, observe the time of their coming.' Now, from that reciprocal obligation that is between men and the law of nature, we are bound to reprove our brother; as we desire it, and expect it from them, to be set right when we are wrong, we are to pay the same debt of love to them again. The argument holdeth a fortiori, because in spiritual things the danger is greater, the good to be procured is greater, the evil to be feared greater. Yea, this argument is the stronger, because it holdeth good concerning the ox and ass; not only of our own neighbour, but of our enemy; as Exod. xxiii. 4, 'If thou meet thine enemy's ox or his ass going astray, thou shalt surely bring it back to him again;' and Deut. xxii. 1, 'Thou shalt not see thy brother's ox, or his sheep, go astray, and hide thyself from them; thou shalt in any case bring them again to thy brother.' Surely hereby God would teach every man not to look on his own things only, but to love and do good to other men. This duty required towards beasts is much more towards men: Ezek. xxxiv. 4, 'Ye have not brought again that which was driven away, and ye have not sought that which was lost.' We are all like sheep going astray, and have need of one another's help. Mark, there are two precepts in Deut. xxii. 1—a prohibition, not to hide, and a commandment, to restore; so that they are doubly guilty that are not affected with other men's sins, or do not seek to reform them.
2. It is a duty because positively commanded by God; so that unless we will be guilty of flat disobedience, we ought to mind it. God bindeth all men to reprove their erring brother and neighbour, keeping the rules of prudence, justice, and charity. Now that God hath commanded this, many of the scriptures cited before prove: Mat. xviii. 15, 'If thy brother offend thee, go and tell him his fault between him and thee;' which is to be understood not only of offences done to us, but to be extended to all wilful crimes of which we see him guilty; for zeal for God should prevail with us as much as injuries done to ourselves; and it is not angry reproach, but christian admonition that we press you to: 1 Thes. v. 14, 'Warn them that are unruly;' 2 Thes. iii. 15, 'Admonish him as a brother.' So Rom. xv. 14, 'I myself also am persuaded of you, my brethren, that ye are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, able to admonish one another.' So Prov. xxv. 8-10, 'Go not forth hastily to strive, lest thou know not what to do in the end thereof, when thy neighbour hath put thee to shame. Debate thy cause with thy neighbour himself, and discover not a secret to another, lest he that heareth it put thee to shame, and thine infamy turn not away.' All these expressions concern brotherly reproof, debating matters in case of offence and injury real or supposed. If we presently run to law, without using previous gentle methods of taking up matters among ourselves, we run a great hazard, both of loss and infamy. Better end it by friendly composition than running to the judge, where, by many unhappy representations, a righteous cause may be oppressed. But for the common duty of christians, see Eph. v. 11, 'Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.' The word μᾶλλον 'rather,' doth not lessen our duty, but enforce it. Ἐλέγχειν δεῖ, saith Chrysostom, we ought to reprove. We shall not be excused before God unless we do our duty. So Jude 22, 23, 'And of some have compassion, making a difference; and others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire.'
SERMON II.
Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thy heart: thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbour, and not suffer sin upon him—LEV. xix. 17.
THIRDLY, Consider how far it bindeth.
[1.] Intensively, as to the value of the precept. It is not an arbitrary direction, which we may omit or observe at pleasure, but a necessary precept, which we must obey.
(1.) From the danger we incur. We are under danger of sin, and bearing punishment for them whom we reprove not; and the punishment of sin is eternal death, if it be omitted out of a culpable negligence. Eternal life and eternal death is in the case; there is no doubt of superiors, who by justice and office are bound to reprove, as well as by the law of common love and charity: Ezek. xxxiii. 6, 'His blood will I require at the watchman's hands.' But even private persons may bear sin for others.
(2.) Because of the good which cometh thereby, which is the glory of God and the gaining of our brother: Mat. xviii. 15, 'Thou hast gained thy brother.' And the gaining of another's soul is no small advantage; this will be your crown and rejoicing in the day of the Lord. To enforce both, consider that text, Prov. xxiv. 11, 12, 'If thou forbear to deliver them that are drawn unto death, and those that are ready to be slain: if thou sayest, Behold we knew it not; doth not he that pondereth the heart consider it? and he that keepeth thy soul, doth not he know it? and shall not he render to every man according to his works?' Here is a work of charity, delivering the innocent from temporal death. The sin is a sin of omission; every man is bound to do what he can to save his neighbour from imminent destruction. It is our duty not to be silent and see him perish; with a safe conscience we cannot do so; it is against the light of nature and all honesty to use tergiversation in this case, when we have probability to help it; and will not this hold good in the case of brotherly reproof, when thou seest thy neighbour likely to perish, and be undone for ever? The same charity that bindeth us to deliver him from temporal death will much more bind us to deliver him from eternal death: Heb. iii. 12, 13, 'Take heed lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.' Not only in you yourselves, but 'in any of you,' as will be clear in the remedy prescribed: 'But exhort one another daily, while it is called to-day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.' This is a work of christian charity, which we owe to one another as christian brethren. But see how God answereth the excuse, 'If thou sayest, Behold we knew it not.' They knew not the danger or innocency of the person. Can you answer so to God? 'Doth not be that pondereth the heart consider?' &c. He will be judge whether you love your brother, yea or no? whether this pretence be cowardice or mere ignorance?
[2.] How far the obligation reacheth extensively. It bindeth all; for all are to be able: Col. iii. 16, 'Let the word of God dwell in you richly, in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another;' and Rom. xv. 14, 'I am persuaded of you, my brethren, that ye also are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, able also to admonish one another.' There are several relations between christians, but all are bound to reprove. Some are superiors, some are inferiors; superiors are bound in point of justice; inferiors in point of charity. Superiors that have charge of souls are much more bound to reprove than others; God's threatenings against them are more grievous if they neglect this duty of love. The watchman must not spare. Yea, they are bound though it be with the danger of their lives; as Mat. x. 16, 'Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves.' John the Baptist reproved Herod, though it cost him his life, Mark vi. 27. And the reason is, they have a double tie and bond upon them, as their office and relation, besides the common bond of charity.
But now whether inferiors are bound to reprove those that are over them?
Yes, certainly; for David, a king, did receive with meekness a reproof not only from Nathan, a prophet, but from Abigail, a woman, 1 Sam. xxv. 32, 33; and Job produceth it as a proof of his integrity that he despised not the cause of his man-servant, or of his maid-servant, when they contended with him, Job xxxi. 13. Certainly we owe this duty to superiors, as their danger is greater. To save a private person is not so much as to do good to one that shineth in a higher sphere. Well, then, we are bound to reprove all whom we are bound to love, whether superiors or inferiors. But then to superiors we are to use great modesty: 1 Tim. v. 1, 'Rebuke not an elder, but entreat him as a father, and the younger men as brethren.' It should be rather an exhortation and entreaty than a reproof. So princes and magistrates, who are subject to errors and miscarriages, may with humility and wisdom be admonished; as Naaman's servant: 2 Kings v. 13, 'My father, if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, wouldst thou not have done it? how much rather then, when he saith, Wash and be clean?' Dan. iv. 27, 'Wherefore O king, let my counsel be acceptable to thee;' and Col. iv. 17, 'Say to Archippus, Take heed to the ministry which thou hast received in the Lord, that thou fulfil it.'
But yet this is still a generality. If every one be bound to reprove all, and all every one, when shall we know that this duty is to be put in act?
Ans. The admonisher should have a calling to it through some relation between him and the offender. So we may find it in all kind of relations; a minister or prophet, as Nathan reproved David, 2 Sam. xii. 1; as a counsellor, Joab reproveth him: 2 Sam. xix. 5, 6, 'Thou hast shamed this day the faces of all thy servants, which have saved thy life;' a yoke-fellow, as the husband the wife: Job ii. 10, 'Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh.' The wife the husband, as Abigail to Nabal: 1 Sam. xxv. 37, 'And it came to pass in the morning, when the wine was gone out of his head, and his wife had told him these things, his heart died within him, and he became as a stone.' A son, as Jonathan to Saul: 1 Sam. xix. 4, 'And Jonathan spake good of David to Saul his father, and said unto him, Let not the king sin against his servant, against David, because he hath not sinned against thee;' a servant admonisheth a prince, 2 Kings v. 13; a subject, so Daniel to Nebuchadnezzar, Dan. iv. 27; a friend to his friend: Prov. xxvii. 6, 'Faithful are the wounds of a friend.' Yea, a stranger travelling by the way, and seeing his fellow-traveller sin, or sitting at the same table, it is a call, because he is then in his company, and there is the sin committed; for so Christ proveth the Samaritan was a neighbour to the Jew, when he lighted upon him, Luke x. 29. So that the duty, though it universally obligeth, yet it is not impracticable; there is something giveth us the occasion.
4. It is recommended. When, besides the precept, there is a commendation, it showeth the value of a duty. Now God not only commandeth, but commendeth to us both the giving and taking a reproof, and that upon the highest and most pressing motives.
[1.] Let us see how the giving a reproof is recommended to us as a means to increase knowledge: Prov. xix. 25, 'Reprove one that hath understanding, and he will understand knowledge;' that is, profit in the fear of the Lord. Yea, as a means to convey life: Prov. vi. 23, 'And reproofs of instruction are the way of life.' They are a means to reduce men to God and eternal happiness; and it is called saving a soul from death: James v. 19, 20, 'Brethren, if any of you do err from the truth, and one convert him, let him know that he that converteth a sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins.' So Prov. xxiv. 25, 'But to them that rebuke him shall be delight, and a good blessing shall come upon him;' that is, all will pray for him, whereas they curse and detest flatterers. Many such promises there are.
[2.] Taking a reproof is commended: Eccles. vii. 5, 'It is better to hear the rebuke of the wise, than for a man to hear the song of fools.' It saddens the heart for the present, yet it is more wholesome and beneficial than vain mirth, that puts us off from seriousness in soul-dangers, and feedeth our lusts and corruptions. So Prov. xiii. 18, 'Poverty and shame shall be to him that refuseth instruction, but he that regardeth reproof shall be honoured.' A headstrong wicked man bringeth himself to beggary and shame, but he that taketh counsel betimes soon wipeth off the stain of his miscarriages. So see two proverbs together: Prov. xv. 31, 32, 'The ear that heareth the reproof of life abideth among the wise: he that refuseth instruction despiseth his own soul; but he that heareth reproof getteth understanding.'
The one is a slight careless person, that despiseth God and his salvation; but the other giveth a token of a wise and tractable disposition. So Prov. xvii. 10, 'A reproof entereth more into a wise man than an hundred stripes into a fool.' Corruption doth more good than correction. Now when God doth argue and persuade, and not only interpose his authority, surely this is a duty of importance, which we should make conscience of.
5. If God hath given directions about it, it is unquestionably a duty belonging to us; for directions suppose the duty, and show that God would not have it miscarry in our hands. As when God directeth to pray, he supposeth prayer; when God directeth to hear, he supposeth hearing; so when he directeth to reprove, he supposeth reproof to be a duty. Now the word of God doth everywhere abound with these directions: as with what lenity and meekness we should reprove: 2 Cor. ii. 4, 'For out of much affliction and anguish of heart I wrote unto you with many tears; not that you should be grieved, but that you may know the love which I have more abundantly unto you;' Gal. vi. 1, 'Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual restore such an one in the spirit of meekness, considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted.' What difference we should make of faults. Gnats and camels: Mat. xxiii. 24, 'Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel.' Of persons: Jude 22, 23, 'And of some have compassion, making a difference; others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire.'
6. The duty is necessary to prevent a sin, such as detraction, censure, and backbiting. It is the usual fashion of the world to change a duty into a sin; it should be the care of God's people to change a sin into a duty: Eph. v. 4, 'Not foolish talking or jesting, which are not convenient, but rather giving of thanks.' So do not speak of them that sin, but to them; do not judge, but reprove.
7. That without which no society can be maintained, no relation faithfully improved, certainly is an unquestionable duty; but so is reproof. No society can be maintained, for faults will arise, the injured will vent themselves in passion or reproof; now which condueeth to the welfare of human society? And for relations, how can I be faithful to God in them unless I take advantage of this nearness and frequency of converse for spiritual use? Even good men will miscarry: if we be privy to it, must we hold our peace? Well, then, observe the reasonableness of God's ordinance.
III. What is reproof? It is an act of charity or mercy, by which we seek by fit discourse to draw our brother from sin to his duty.
1. It is an act of charity and mercy, not of pride and vainglory: James iii. 1, 'My brethren, be not many masters, knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation.' No; it is not an act of mastery or rash judging, but of mercy towards our brother in his spiritual misery, as he hath rendered himself obnoxious to God's wrath.
2. The means it useth is fit discourse, not correction and chastening, but corruption or rebuke. It must be dispensed in most wholesome ways, such as may be most fit to gain a sinner and heal his soul. To some we must use more tenderness, but more sharpness to others. In general, we reprove from God's word: Col. iii. 16, 'Let the word of
Christ dwell in you richly, in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another; that the offender may see God reproving him rather than man; as Christ reproved the pharisees with mere words of scripture: Mat. xv. 7-9, 'Ye hypocrites, well did Esaias prophesy of you, saying, This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouths, and honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me: but in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.' The reproof must be insinuated as the matter requireth, either by exhortation, admonition, or caution.
3. The end, not to shame him, but to gain him from sin to his duty. If the man be good, to set him in joint again: Gal. vi. 1, 'Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual restore such an one in the spirit of meekness, considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted.' If carnal, to take this occasion to turn him from sin to holiness, or to save his soul from death: James v. 19, 20, 'Brethren, if any of you do err from the truth, and one convert him, let him know that be which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins.'
IV. Let us see when this duty bindeth or bindeth not; for it being an affirmative precept, it doth not bind at all times, but as circumstantiated. Affirmative precepts, non liquid ad semper, do not always bind, as negative precepts do, for evil actions are never lawful. Affirmative precepts bind only when time and place and other circumstances concur; and then the omission is faulty.
The question then is, at what times and in what circumstances this duty bindeth?
1. It bindeth not if I do not certainly or probably know the sin of my neighbour; for reproof by way of charge must be upon an apparent crime; as Gal. ii. 11, 'But when Peter was come to Antioch, I withstood him to the face, because he was to be blamed,' 1 Cor. v. 1, 'It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not so much as named among the gentiles; that one should have his father's wife,' 1 Cor. i. 11, 'For it hath been declared unto me of you, my brethren, by them which are of the house of Chloe, that there are contentions among you.' Mark the grounds; he goeth upon certain knowledge, public fame, and valuable testimony: 'It is commonly reported,' and 'it is declared by the house of Chloe.' Faults that we reprove must be certainly known and evident; we may not reprove upon bare suspicion, for 'charity thinketh no evil,' 1 Cor. xiii. 5; nor upon an uncertain hearsay: Isa. xi. 3, 'Neither reprove after the hearing of his ears;' not upon flying report, or forged stories, or the censures of any.
But here we must distinguish between the reproof of a public and private person and a bosom friend.
[1.] Mere private persons are not bound to use inquisition themselves, nor are they to be too suspicious, and credulously give ear to slanders. If private persons were bound to search and find out faults that they may reprove them, the obligation were intolerable, the number of sinners being so innumerable as they are, and a man could hardly avoid the imputation of a busybody and whisperer. Therefore it is a good rule of Austin. Do not seek out what thou mayest reprove, but seek to mend what thou dost reprove. Therefore private men are not bound to search and find out faults. The knowledge of another's sin is not scientia juris, which all are bound to have, but scientia facti, which none are bound to but those to whom the particular care of others' souls doth belong by office; for par in pares non habet imperium—equals have no power over one another. The fault must be known either by certain knowledge or common fame, when you see your brother sinning.
[2.] A superior and bosom friend may go upon suspicion, but then his reproof must be rather by way of caution than charge, and by virtue of special friendship, that as no guilt, so no blame may rest upon his friend. A superior is to search out the matter.
2. Not if he hath repented already; for to upbraid men with past sins is to rake in the filth which God hath covered. The elder brother said, Luke xv. 30, 'As soon as this thy son is come, which hath devoured thy living with harlots, thou hast killed for him the fatted calf.' There is a difference between the correction of a superior and the reproof of a neighbour. The correction of a magistrate respects the common good or the example of others; and therefore, whether the man repent or no, he may be corrected and punished for his faults, and he must patiently endure the punishment; but brotherly reproof respects the private good of the party admonished or reproved, to remove the fault, not to inflict punishment; the end is obtained if thou hast gained thy brother.
But yet here is an exception; if we have good cause to suspect his repentance is not thorough and sincere, or if he be in danger of a relapse into the sin again.
3. If it be evident he shall do no good by his reproof; for all means are required in order to the end. Therefore when there is no appearance of doing good at all, or that our reproof will be profitable or attain its proper end, we are not bound in such a case. Ministerial reproof must be given though there be no hope: Ezek. ii. 5, 'And they, whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear, for they are a rebellious house, yet shall know that there hath been a prophet among them.' The waters of the sanctuary must flow, whether men drink of them or no. But in private reproof we are bound while there is hope, and while they are not incorrigible. Yet there is this exception; every attempt must not discourage us, nor every reproach and scorn make us give over the cause as remediless; but we must reprove, and reprove again, as long as we have any hopes of reducing them into the right way: 2 Peter i. 13, 'Wherefore I will not be negligent,' saith the apostle Peter, 'to put you always in remembrance of these things.' Let us do our duty, and trust God with the event. Those that for the present do storm and rage may afterwards come to themselves again, especially if God stirreth us up by the secret motions of his Spirit to continue our endeavours: Acts xvii. 16, Paul's 'spirit was stirred in him, when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry.' Impulse of spirit doth determine circumstances of known duty though it doth not constitute new duties.
4. When the party is likely to be the worse, rather than better, if he be reproved: Prov. ix. 7, 'He that reproveth a scorner getteth to him-
SERMONS UPON, LEVITICUS XIX. 17.
self shame, and he that rebuketh a wicked man getteth himself a blot,' if it provoketh them to rail. So Mat. vii. 6, 'Give not holy things to dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you.' Some are so wedded to their sins, that God's providence calleth upon us to let them alone. No good statue can be made of crooked or knotty timber; a vicious stomach turneth all things into choler; rain maketh a spongy marsh ground the worse; blowing increaseth the fire; a dunghill stinketh the worse the more it is stirred. Some are contemptuous and scornful; their corruptions are irritated by seeking to restrain them. Therefore if he sinneth the more grievously, that is a worse inconveniency than the reproof can bring good. Yet we must take heed that we do not censure people to be such without a cause; the reasons for our omission of such a necessary duty must be clear and sure, such as we can urge and avouch before God himself. We must not put by the duty upon slight conjectures, but still remember that God sceth and will consider it. It is very notable that cautions against rash judging are given before the direction of not casting pearls before swine and dogs: Mat. vii. 1, 'Judge not, that ye be not judged.'
5. When it will be rationally presumed that he will amend without our reproof. As alms ought not to be given to one that is indeed in poverty, when we know there are those that will plentifully relieve him, so in the case of reproof, when neither by ourselves, nor by the help of any other, a man is likely to be awakened, then we are bound to reprove him, or procure another that may do it more successfully; for some are capable to manage it with more wisdom than ourselves. I confess this must be taken cautiously. A general presumption that another will do his office doth not absolve us in foro conscientiae, because this duty ariseth not from any voluntary contract or paction between men and men, but from the law of God, our supreme governor and judge, binding every one; and therefore we must do our own duty, and not think to be discharged by the zeal and diligence of others. And besides, a presumption that others will do it may cause it wholly to fall to the ground; as, Luke x. 33, the good Samaritan had not been absolved from uncharitableness if he had presumed that the priest and Levite would relieve the distressed man, or, if not they, that some other of his countrymen that came that way, and were nearer to him by nation and blood, and more charitable than the former, that they would relieve him; but he neither minded the one nor the other, but performed his duty; he saw a miserable spectacle, one wounded with thieves, 'and he had compassion on him, and went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him,' ver. 33, 34. So here. The papists indeed make this limitation, Nisi probabiliter presumatur aliumde nocturna, qui cum corripiat—Except he probably presume that another will reprove him; but this presumption must be evident and rational, not probable only; and where I am privy to it, and know it, and procure it, and know how much better he is able to manage it than myself, then I am not to take it out of his hands, or when others are present whose gifts and office more oblige them to it.
6. When he doth expect a better opportunity, his omission is not faulty for the present; for all things must be gone about in their season: Eccles. iii. 7, 'There is a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;' and in another place, because 'to every man there is time and judgment, therefore the misery of man is great upon him,' Eccles. viii. 6-8. He speaketh of the misery men contract upon themselves by disproving public disorders, especially in great persons, princes, and potentates. Therefore certainly it concerneth us to take a fit season; not when a man is drunk; as Abigail told Nabal not a word when the wine was in his head, 1 Sam. xxv. 36, 37; not when they are in the heat of passion, for then they are not capable of discerning right and reason: James i. 20, 'For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God;' therefore opportunity and conveniency of circumstances must be considered and improved. Yet here is caution still; we must not adjourn it too far. Life is short, and sin groweth: Heb. iii. 13, 'Exhort one another daily, while it is called to-day, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.' And it must be done at length; if we have long waited for a season, and cannot find it, we must make it, and break a rule of civil prudence rather than violate conscience; for civilities must not prescribe to religion.
7. If it be uncertain whether that which you reprove for be a sin, as suppose some kind of games or sports, which are questionable, because usually they do hurt, engross time, and enchant the mind, and are as the execsa mundi, the high places of the world, that have a strange blast and judgment of God upon them, though we cannot say that for the nature of them they are utterly unlawful. What shall we do in this case? Many weak people are importunate to have others reproved for these things; but if once we give way to this, it looketh like an itch of reproving; and if we reprove for doubtful matters, men fly from our reproof for what is clear and open. Yet we may hold an argument, and prudently debate things, and discourse about them; but take heed you do not hinder yourselves in matters that are of more weighty importance.
8. When greater loss and damage may come to ourselves by the reproof than benefit to the reproved. It is out of question that he that can easily discharge this duty without any considerable inconveniency, and only forbears it out of sloth and pusillanimity, hath the greater sin if he doth it not; for he standeth with God for a trifle. But now if a considerable damage shall redound to myself in discharging this duty, it is of weight in this matter. Our Lord saith, Mat. vii. 6, 'Give not that which is holy unto dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you.' As suppose there be a danger of your life, having to do with a contemptuous sinner; if I carry my life in my hand, and put it to hazard, there must be many things considered in this case. But now in extreme cases, if our neighbour be in present danger of losing his soul, with the danger of my bodily life I am to do what I can to save his soul. The work is good; the danger, depending upon a future event, is not absolutely certain; God can preserve me. However, it is a part of much self-denial to venture all in God's hands.
9. Public reproof is sometimes, not always necessary. If the sin be public, either as committed in sight before all: 1 Tim. v. 20, 'Them that sin, rebuke before all, that others also may fear; or as judged by a public judicatory; or if an hidden sin tends to the damage of the community; or a greater hurt follow upon it than the loss of my neighbour's fame; or if the person have lost all right to fame, or to a good name (as some have forfeited it), I need not stand nicely upon their good name, but in such cases I am to reprove publicly. In other cases the reproof must be private; and the rule is, Mat. xviii. 15, 'Go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone.'
Use 1. If we are to reprove others, let us take care that we be innocent ourselves, not culpable, but blameless. They that are faulty themselves cannot reprove others without blushing and great shame. Pull out the beam out of thine own eye. Physician, heal thyself: Mat. vii. 3-5, 'And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye, and behold, a beam is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye, and then shalt thou see clearly to pull out the mote out of thy brother's eye;' Rom. ii. 21, 'Thou that sayest a man should not steal, dost thou commit sacrilege?' The Jews were tender of idolatry after they had smarted in the matter of the golden calf, yet all the latter prophets condemn them for sacrilege and robbing God of his due. If we are faulty ourselves, either in the same kind or worse, we spoil our reproof: Ps. exli. 5, 'Let the righteous smite me, it shall be a kindness; and let him reprove me, it shall be an excellent oil.' They may admonish with the greater authority. Others are remotely bound, they nearly; others not without special repentance and humility, acknowledging their own sins, and desiring they may not be examples to harden others. A sinner is not freed from the debt of love, but he is bound humbly to acknowledge his sin, and forsake it, that he may be fit to reprove others.
Use 2. If others be bound to reprove, certainly you are bound to take a reproof. Solomon brings in the wretched sinner, when his sin hath found him out, speaking thus, Prov. v. 12, 13, 'How have I hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof; and have not obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor inclined mine ear to them that instructed me!' These are the lamentations of one that is ready to perish in his sin. And Prov. x. 17, 'He is in the way of life that keepeth instruction; but he that hateth reproof, erreth.' They wander far and wide, that hate to be brought into the right way: Prov. xii. 1, 'He that hateth reproof is brutish.' Why? Because he despiseth the great help of mankind, and so is carried away with his base and impetuous desires, and will not hear reason to the contrary: Prov. xiii. 18, 'Poverty and shame shall be to him that refuseth instruction; but he that regardeth reproof shall be honoured;' as unwilling to go on in a wrong course after he seemeth to be engaged in it; and he shall be honoured as one that is prudent: Prov. xv. 5, 'A fool despiseth his father's instruction; but he that regardeth reproof is prudent.' He is wise at the second hand; though not in his first choice, yet in rectifying his ill choice. Nay, Prov. xv. 10, 'Correction is grievous unto him that forsaketh the way; and he that hateth reproof shall die.' Better be corrected than die and perish for ever. God's reproofs and rebukes at the last day will be very severe and amazing. And ver. 31. 'The ear that heareth the reproof of life abideth among the wise;' that is, forsaketh the ill company which misled him, and betaketh himself to better guides: Prov. xxix. 1, 'He that, being often reproved, hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy.' Our case without repentance is desperate; for when we have hardened ourselves in an evil way, the Lord overtakes us with a sudden destruction.
Use 3. It exhorts us to set upon this duty. There is need of it; which will appear if we consider the infirmity of nature, that is to be restrained, a blind mind to be enlightened, a drowsy heart to be awakened, vehemency of passions to be curbed, and great allurements to sin to be withstood. Say not with Cain, Gen. iv. 9, 'Am I my brother's keeper?' Thou art so: do it then with love, lest you do the work of an enemy under the vizard of a friend. No hatred or ill end must put you on this business; for when you rebuke sin with sin, you increase it. Again, there is need of it; for it will prevent many evils, as censuring and detraction, and speaking ill of others, and invasion of the ministry. This is one great evil that heretofore hath reigned among us. Many little prattlers, that had no gifts, set up for ministers. This itch would soon be cured if men would mind necessary duties, such as meditation (which is a preaching to themselves), family instruction, and brotherly reproof.
Use 4. Direction to perform this duty. Many graces are necessary hereunto, as zeal for God, love to our neighbour, and courage. Avoid pusillanimity, that you be not hindered by your fears, this is the way to prevail; and if you prevail not, you must mourn and pray; as Lot: 2 Peter ii. 8, 'For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their ungodly deeds:' Jer. xiii. 17, 'But if ye will not hear it, my soul shall weep in secret places for your pride, and mine eye shall weep sore, and run down with tears.'
SERMON I.
*If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.—1 Cor. xv. 19.*
In the context the apostle is disputing for the truth of the resurrection. This way of reasoning is *deducendo ad absurdum*, by showing the absurdities that would follow upon the denial of it.
The first absurdity is mentioned, ver. 13, 'If there be no resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not risen.' In all things he is a pattern to his people; if the head be risen, so shall the members also.
The second absurdity consequent upon that is mentioned, ver. 14–16, 'And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain: yea, and we are found false witnesses of God; because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ; whom he raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not: for if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised.' Whole christianity would be a forgery, and whatever was preached by the apostles, and believed by them, vain and frivolous, if Christ be not risen.
The third absurdity, ver. 17, 'And if Christ be not risen, your faith is vain; you are yet in your sins.' That the new covenant, and all their confidence about remission of sins upon repentance, would come to nothing.
The fourth absurdity, that those that had lost their lives for Christ would perish eternally, and would have nothing to recompense this loss: ver. 18, 'Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished.'
The fifth absurdity is in the text; if all our hopes in Christ were terminated with this life, christians were the most wretched sort of men in this world: 'If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.' But these are such absurd thoughts, that every christian should abhor them with indignation.
In the words we have—
1. A supposition, 'If in this life only we have hope in Christ.'
2. An absurdity thence inferred, 'We are of all men most miserable.'
*Doct.* That the calamities of the godly in this life show that we have much more to hope for from Christ in the life to come.
1. I shall state the point, in what sense it is said that christians are of all men most miserable if there be no life to come.
2. Confirm and prove it, by showing the validity of the apostle's reasoning.
I. For the supposition.
1. This is supposed, that affliction and misery is the common burden of the sons of Adam. In the present life all are liable to misery, some more, some less. We walk through a valley of tears, live in a groaning world; none have such an uninterrupted current and stream of worldly felicity but that they have their crosses and afflictions. These things are common to man. We are told in the book of Job, chap. v. 7, 'Man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upward;' and chap. xiv. 1, 'Man, that is born of a woman, is of few days, and full of trouble.' None can reasonably expect to be absolutely exempted from the common lot of human lapsed nature. Though life be short, yet it is long enough to be vexed with many sorrows. 'Few and evil have the days of the years of my life been,' saith old Jacob, Gen. xlvii. 9. Since they are evil, it is well they are but few. Most men little consider of this, that they come into the world to bear crosses, but rather imagine they come hither to spend their days in pleasure; at least, they do not mind the true cause of their troubles, nor the proper remedy. The true cause is sin; man's transgressions are the door by which it entered; and the proper remedy is the grace of God in Jesus Christ. Well, then, whatever may be the particular and various dispensations of God towards men, yet to be miserable in some sort and degree is common to all Adam's posterity, which should make us to look higher than the present life.
2. Of all men, virtuous good men are more miserable than others, if you consider their temper and the state of the world. Their temper; they deny themselves the pleasures of the flesh, and the world too often deprive them of the ordinary comforts of life. They deny themselves the irregular pleasures of the flesh, as being an impediment to goodness, and that sense and appetite may not carry them against the dictates of reason, and so, instead of being led by conscience, as they ought, they serve their brutish passions and inclinations, as others do. This is the difference between them and others: 'They do not run with them into the same excess of riot,' 1 Peter iv. 4. But besides this, they are subject to many tribulations and persecutions. We often see that instruments of public good are made sacrifices of public hatred. The bad will hate the good, as differing from them, and disgracing that kind of life which they affect: Prov. xxix. 27, 'He that is upright in the way is abomination to the wicked.' They have a malignity and enmity to that goodness which they want themselves, and therefore deal worst with those that deserve best at their hands, because they cannot so quietly take satisfaction in their lusts, whilst others about them excel in virtue and holiness.
3. Of all good men, the profane carnal world is more enraged against christians than others. Probity and honesty in the heathens hath met with opposition in the world; and some among them, that would reform a depraved and disordered age, have met with sore troubles, and been hurried even unto death for seeking to stop the inundation of public vices. But especially hath this been the portion of christians: 2 Tim. iii. 12, 'All that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.' Christianity is the more violently opposed because it carrieth us to an higher pitch of purity and holiness than bare morality doth; for therein men are more devoted to God, and do most resemble him, as they are made partakers of the divine nature. Therefore a true, constant, christian course doth more enrage the world. Besides, it is most contrary to those diabolical impostures which have prevailed over the nations, and are entertained by them with much veneration, as being received by a long tradition from ancestors. Therefore the devil ever had a greater rage against this way; and many of the truths of it are not only mysteries, and therefore contradicted, but mysteries of godliness, tending to imbue men with right thoughts of God, and do more shake the interests of the devil's kingdom. Thence hath it been that christians have been worse used than other good men; and so, considered as to their outward estate, are of all men most miserable.
4. To induce men to lead such an holy godly life, which exposeth them to so many miseries, such motives are necessary as are greater than the temptations of the world; partly with respect to Christ, for Christ is so good that he would not impose this duty upon us without a sufficient recompense for our losses and troubles; for he came not to make us miserable, but happy, to save, not to destroy, that the world might have benefit by him, and not loss and trouble. We have a two-fold apprehension of God, as an holy and happy being. There is in his nature, τὸ ἀγαθόν, goodness, and τὸ μακύριον, blessedness; accordingly Christ hath made a discovery of him to us when he came to plant godliness and holiness in the world. He hath revealed him as a God of infinite purity and blessedness, that, by imitating him in purity, we might be made partakers of his blessedness; or that, self-denyingly carrying on a life of holiness here, we might have our blessedness in a better life hereafter: his calling is an high and holy calling. And partly with respect to us: In this state of frailty, this living godly in Christ Jesus cannot be carried on unless our natural and sensual inclination be overruled by the bias of a stronger affection. The flesh in us is importunate to be pleased; and therefore when our troubles and trials are sore and manifold, what shall we do if we have not such higher motives as may rationally prevail with us? The voice of nature is, Spare the flesh; but the voice of faith is, Save the soul. Now if this salvation be not greater than the temptations of the present life, how shall we row against the stream of flesh and blood, and run all hazards with Christ?
5. Christ hath promised an happiness that will countervail all these afflictions. There is a fourfold comparison which believers usually make, or in scripture are taught to make, between this life and the next; as—
[1.] Sometimes they compare temporal good things with eternal good things, or the portion of a carnal man with the happiness of a child of God: Ps. xvii. 14, 15, 'From men which are thy hand, O Lord, from men of the world, which have their portion in this life, and whose belly thou fillest with thy hid treasure; they are full of children, and leave the rest of their substance to their babes. But as for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness; I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness.' That is, the rich and great men of the world have all their good things allowed by thee in this life; here they have all riches, and plenty, and a numerous posterity, wealth sufficient not only to enjoy themselves, but to leave abundantly to their children; but I count myself abundantly provided for if I may have thy favour with a painful holy life here, and when I awake out of the sleep of death, may so see thee hereafter, as to be like thee; I am satisfied with the hopes of the vision and fruition of God.
[2.] Sometimes they compare temporal evil things with eternal evil things; as a prison with hell, or the killing of the body with the casting the body and soul into hell-fire: Luke xii. 4, 5, 'Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. But I will forewarn you whom you shall fear: Fear him which, after he hath killed, hath power to cast into hell; yea, I say unto you, Fear him.' Certainly it is more for our interest to fear displeasing God than displeasing men; the utmost that men can do is to kill the body, and then their malice is at an end; but God can cast body and soul into everlasting torments. Every one would submit to a lesser evil to avoid a greater. When you must sin to escape trouble in the world, you run into eternal sufferings to avoid temporal. No wrath like the wrath of God; no torment like the fire of hell.
[3.] Sometimes they compare temporal good with eternal evil; as Mat. xvi. 26, 'What is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul?' The plentiful life of worldlings with the forfeiting of the soul; the pleasures of sin for a season with the pains of hell.
[4.] The fourth sort of comparison which the scripture directs us unto is temporal bad things with eternal good things; and that is the case we have now in hand. Thus Rom. viii. 18, 'For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.' Sufferings for the present may be very great, but the glory that is revealed to us, and shall one day be revealed in us, is much greater; as there is no comparison between a little flea-biting, or the prick of a pin, with eternal ease and rest, or the trouble of entering by a strait gate or entry into a glorious palace: 2 Cor. iv. 17, 'For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.' The sufferings of the present world are leves et breves, light and short; not in themselves, but in comparison with eternal life. In themselves they may be some of them very sharp and grievous, and some also very long and tedious; but look, what a point is to the circumference, that is time to eternity, and what a feather is to a talent of lead, that are present evils to future glory and blessedness. All this is spoken to show that it is better to be miserable with the people of God than happy with his enemies, and that we should not be drawn away from Christ neither by the comfortable nor troublesome things we meet with in the world.
6. This happiness which Christ hath proposed is at the general resurrection, or Christ's coming to judgment; for that is the point which the apostle is now discoursing of. There is a distinction between the good and the bad at death, when 'the spirits of just men are made perfect,' Heb. xii. 23, and the spirits of the wicked are sent to prison,
1 Peter iii. 19. The soul dieth not with the body, but some go one way, some another; the souls of just men to God's palace of glory, where they are with Christ, and the souls of the wicked to the prison of hell. But this retribution is not sufficient, for two reasons—because it is private, and doth not openly vindicate the justice and holiness of God; and it is but on a part, the soul, and not the body.
[1.] Because it is private, and dispensed apart to every single person, man by man as they die. Certainly it is more for the honour of God to bring his judgment to light, as the prophet speaketh, Zeph. iii. 5, 'Every morning doth he bring his judgment to light.' Here the love of God towards the good, and the justice of God towards the wicked, is not brought into the clear light, nor at death; neither the mouth of the pit is visibly opened, nor the glory of heaven exposed to view. But then this different respect is more conspicuous when the justice of God hath a public and solemn triumph, and his enemies are branded with shame and ignominy, and the faith of his elect found to praise and honour, and the one are publicly condemned, and the other justified by the judge sitting upon the throne: Acts iii. 19, 'That your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord.'
[2.] As it is upon a part, the soul only. The bodies of the holy and the wicked are both now senseless, and moulder into dust in the grave; and till they be raised up, and joined to their souls, can neither partake of woe or weal, pleasure or pain. The soul, though it be a principal part, is but a part. The body essentially concurreth to the constitution of the man; and it is the body that is most gratified by sin, and the body that is most pained by obedience; and therefore the body, which is the soul's sister and coheir, is to share with it in its eternal estate, whatever it be. Therefore, that we may not be in part punished, nor in part rewarded, there is a time coming when God will deal with the whole man, and that is in the day of Christ's solemn court and audience, when all the world shall be summoned before his tribunal.
7. The apostle proveth this, because the righteousness of God's government will not permit that his people should be accounted of all men most miserable.
To clear this I shall show—
First, In what sense the apostle saith, If there were no life to come, christians were of all men most miserable.
Secondly, How this will not consist with the righteousness of God's government.
First, In what sense the apostle saith, If there were no life to come, christians were of all men most miserable. I put this first question, that we may not mistake the apostle's meaning, when he pronounceth christians to be of all men most miserable if our hopes in Christ were terminated with this life. Take him right; and therefore,—
I. Negatively.
[1.] It is not to deny all present providence or watchful care over his oppressed people. No; Eccles. iii. 16, 17, 'And moreover, I saw under the sun the place of judgment, that wickedness was there; and the place of righteousness, that iniquity was there.' He meaneth not in the mountains of prey only, but in the tribunals of justice; there was iniquity and wickedness: 'I said in my heart, God shall judge the righteous and the wicked; for there is a time there for every purpose, and for every work.' So again, Eccles. v. 8. 'If thou seest the oppression of the poor, and the violent perverting of judgment and justice in a province, marvel not at the matter; for he that is higher than the highest regardeth, and there be higher than they.' Both these places show that there is a providence; though God for a while permit his meek and obedient servants to be oppressed, and in the eye of the world they seem to be forgotten and forsaken and utterly left to perish, yet in due time God will exercise a righteous judgment on them and their enemies. The like you have, Ps. lviii. 11, 'So that a man shall say, Verily there is a reward for the righteous; verily he is a God that judgeth in the earth.' It is not meant of hereafter, but now. It is many times found that godliness and holiness are matters of benefit and advantage in this world, abstracted from all reward in another life. The world is not governed by chance, but by a wise and most just providence. It may be God doth not relieve the oppressed so soon as men would, yet in due time he will not fail to show himself the ruler of the affairs of mankind; so that this is not his meaning, to exclude all present providence.
[2.] Not to deny that we have such benefits by Christ here in this world as not to make our condition more valuable than that of the wicked. We have hopes by Christ of the pardon of sins, and that is a blessedness: Ps. xxxii. 1, 'Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.' Of communion with God: 1 John i. 3, 'And truly our fellowship is with the Father, and his Son Jesus Christ.' And that maketh way for a full joy, and countervaileth temporal evils. We have not only an interest in the love of God, but a feeling of it in our souls: Rom. v. 3-5, 'And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also, knowing that tribulation worketh patience, and patience experience, and experience hope, and hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, which is given unto us.' All things are sanctified to us as we are sanctified to God: Rom. viii. 28, 'All things shall work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to his purpose.' But yet this is not all; therefore the apostle saith, 'If in this life only we had hope, we are of all men most miserable.'
[3.] The apostle's drift is not to compare wickedness and godliness, as abstracted from the eternal reward; as if a wicked man were more happy than an afflicted godly man. No; Christ's worst is better than the world's best; godliness and holiness is amiable, or a reward in itself. Better be good though miserable, than bad though prosperous; for holiness and godliness, though abstracted from all reward in another life, is an excellency and perfection of human nature: Ps. xvi. 3, 'But to the saints that are in the earth, and to the excellent, in whom is all my delight;' Prov. xii. 26, 'The righteous is more excellent than his neighbour.' It is an honour put upon human nature to have the image of God impressed upon it. The more good we are, the more orderly we live, and agreeably to reason and those souls with which we are created; and the actions which the law of Christ calleth for at our hands are fittest to be done by us if they were not commanded, nor ever should be rewarded in us.
2. Positively; and so—
[1.] The apostle speaketh not of their inward enjoyments, but their outward estate, which no ways seems to answer God's covenant love nor governing justice; for the calamities of the godly raise two doubts—
(1.) How this doth stand with the love and goodness of God to his people? This was the psalmist's temptation: Ps. lxxiii. 1, 'Truly God is good to Israel, even to such as are of a clean heart.' It is a most certain and a most infallible truth that God is abundantly gracious and kind, and not only faithful and just to all his sincere servants; but we are under no small temptation to doubt of the truth of this when they are under severe scourges and chastisements, or exercised with continual afflictions, and others live in pomp and luxury, and all manner of secular felicity. (2.) But the other temptation to doubt of God's governing in righteousness was Jeremiah's temptation: Jer. xii. 1, 'Righteous art thou, O Lord; yet let me talk with thee of thy judgments. Wherefore doth the way of the wicked prosper? wherefore are all they happy that deal very treacherously?' Certain it is that God is righteous; yet when his people are in a sad condition, and their enemies thrive and prosper by their wicked courses, their minds are troubled; for to appearance none are in a worse condition than they that love God most, and serve him best, till he be considered not as to his external but eternal estate.
[2.] The apostle's meaning is, that a man cannot rationally be induced to submit to christianity, and, in defiance of all temptations, to lead an holy godly life, without the expectation of the happiness of another world. The temptation lieth in things present, and our strength lieth in a due reflection on things to come. Faith must guide us, that sense may not mislead us; and so, when the world's best and Christ's worst are brought into competition, the soul is the better enabled to make a right choice: Heb. xi. 26, 'Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt; for he had respect to the recompense of reward.' It is the hopes which Christ offereth in a better life which strike all temptations dead. Now in case this should not be, the apostle pronounceeth christians to be of all men most miserable, upon a fourfold account—
(1.) Because their very present comforts would seem to be but a fantastical impression or a fanatical illusion; for our whole religion would be a falsehood if the great promise be chimerical, or a mere dream and supposition: 1 John ii. 25, 'This is the promise which he hath promised us, even eternal life.' And so how can we imagine but that all the comfort which we take in the pardon of sins, communion with God, and the sense of his love, are mere conceit and vain imagination?
(2.) Because their future hopes and trust would be utterly disappointed, and they deluded in their greatest expectations: 1 Tim. iv. 10, 'Therefore we both labour and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, who is the saviour of all men, especially of those that believe.' It is our hope in God through Christ, or the assurance of an eternal reward, which is the only ground of our suffering patiently anything that befalleth us. He is the preserver of all mankind, but hath promised eternally to save those that believe and obey him.
Therefore, if there were no world to come, christians would not only be disappointed of their great hope, which is the worst kind of vexation, but draw a suspicion upon all these advantages that we seem to reap by Christ and enjoy here upon earth.
(3.) Their earnest desires would not be fulfilled if there were no blessedness to come. We may prove eternal life by the disposition and instinct of nature towards happiness in general, yea, eternal happiness, which if we should not enjoy, that desire were in vain; but God doth nothing in vain. The apostle intimately this universal desire in all rational creatures; they all grope and feel about for an eternal and infinite good: Acts xvii. 27, 'That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us.' Other creatures besides man are satisfied with what they have here, but the soul of man is satisfied with nothing but the eternal enjoyment of what is good, an immortal estate, an infinite good; this is the universal inclination of all mankind. Whence cometh that desire to be so universal if there be nothing to satisfy it? Where is this immortality that we seek after? Not in temporal enjoyments, riches, honours, and pleasures; they perish, and we perish. Yea, the lust of these things passeth away in time: 1 John ii. 17, 'The world passeth away, and the lust thereof.' Not in surviving fame; that is a shadow, like the pleasure which those take who want children in playing with little dogs and puppies. It lieth in the eternal enjoyment of God. But we urge not this now; we urge the desires of the renewed and sanctified, which do much more prove it, for these act more regularly, and direct their desires and hopes to a certain scope and end; and these are excited by the Holy Spirit of God, who imprinteth the firm persuasion of this happiness, and inclineth us to it, and stirreth up these groans after it: Rom. viii. 23, 'And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the first-fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.' The word of God warrants these desires, and the Spirit of God kindleth them in our hearts, and that usually in our gravest and severest moods, when we are solemnly conversing with God in his holy worship; then doth he raise up these affections towards heavenly things, as in the word, prayer, and sacraments; then is this relish left upon our hearts; and the more serious and holy any are, the more do they feel of this. And also in our bitter sufferings for God: Rom. v. 3, 'And not only so, but we glory in tribulation also, knowing that tribulation worketh patience;' 1 Peter iv. 13, 14, 'But rejoice inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings, that when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy. If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye; for the Spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you: on their part he is evil-spoken of, but on your part he is glorified.' This is a greater argument than the bare instinct and desire of nature. Certainly if our holiness be our torment, and God beget in us these desires which he never meant to satisfy, then we are of all men most miserable.
(4.) There would be no recompense for their greatest losses. Christ requireth us not only to venture, but lose our lives for his sake: Luke xiv. 26, 'If any man come to me, and hate not his father and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.' Now if our hopes in Christ be at an end with this life, what encouragement have we to lose our lives for Christ's sake? Nature will teach us to submit to a lesser evil to obtain a greater good than that evil deprive us of; but what will teach us to lose the greatest benefit we are possessed of when nothing cometh of it? Grace indeed teacheth us to quit this frail life for the hopes which Christ hath given us of an immortal blessed estate; but if that be not, christians are of all men most miserable, who had better have kept that life which they had till a natural death called them from it, than to have lost it for nothing.
Secondly, Having vindicated the apostle's meaning, I shall prove that it is inconsistent with the righteousness of God's government that his people should be always of all men most miserable. For a time they may be so, but not for ever. Certainly God is righteous; to deny him to be just is to deny him to be God and the governor of the world. The perfection of his nature includeth his justice; so doth also the eminency of his office: 'Is God unrighteous, who taketh vengeance? God forbid; for then how shall God judge the world?' Rom. iii. 5, 6; that is, he were then incapable of governing mankind. But when is this righteousness manifested? Not always in this world, especially to those who perish in their afflictions and persecutions, which they endure for his name's sake. No; 'He hath appointed a day wherein he will judge the world in righteousness,' Acts xvii. 31, and that is at the general resurrection. God now judgeth the world in patience, winketh or conniveth at many faults, endureth the wicked with much long-suffering, but then he will judge the world in righteousness.' None are punished now besides or beyond their deservings; but all are not punished according to their deservings, nor are the wrongs of his people righted, nor their labour of love recompensed. Therefore we must expect another day and time when that shall be done; and that is most fully and universally done in the great and general day of judgment, when the dead shall be raised out of their graves, they that have done good to the resurrection of life, and they that have done evil to the resurrection of damnation. And so it serves the apostle's scope to prove a resurrection.
SERMON II.
If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.—1 Cor. xv. 19.
II. I MUST show the validity of the apostle's argument, that there must be a life to come, because otherwise christians would be of all men most miserable. The apostle urgeth it here as a strong proof of the resurrection, and elsewhere he urgeth it as a demonstration of the general judgment; as when he, speaking of the persecutions of the righteous, telleth us, 2 Thes. i. 5, 'Which is a manifest token of the righteous judgment of God,' ἐνδένγμα, a plain and certain demonstration. Surely the argument is cogent and conclusive.
But where lieth the force of it?
1. I shall argue from the nature of God; and there—
[1.] I shall begin with his wisdom, which doeth things according to number, weight, and measure, and doth rightly dispose things in their proper places. This wisdom of his will not permit the disjunction of these two things so closely united together as sin and punishment, holiness and happiness. This cannot be but there will be an appearance of deformity and irregularity. If there be such a thing as good and evil, bonum et malum morale, as reason will tell us there is; again, if there be such a thing as pleasure and pain, joy and sorrow, or bonum et malum naturale, as sense will tell us there is; then it is very agreeable to the wisdom of God that these things should be rightly placed and sorted. That moral evil, which is sin, should be punished with natural evil, which is pain and misery; and that moral good, which is holiness, should end in joy and happiness; these seem to be such natural relatives, that without great incongruity they cannot be parted. It seemeth uncomely and an uncouth thing to us when it is otherwise: Prov. xxvi. 1, 'As snow in summer, and as rain in harvest, so honour is not seemly for a fool;' that is, as snow and rain in harvest and summer come unseasonable and unwelcome, and breed a kind of displeasure in our minds, so we look upon it as a blemish or an uncouth thing when the wicked are exalted. We have compassion on a miserable man, whom we esteem not deserving his misery, but are moved with indignation against one that is happy and successful, but unworthy the happiness he enjoyeth. This is the general sense of mankind, which is a proof and plain document that we perceive an excellent harmony, and natural order between these two things, sin and misery, holiness and happiness; and this sentiment is some stricture and shadow of the perfection of God's wisdom; and therefore, though for a time, while both good and bad are upon their trial, the good are not regarded, nor the bad punished, yet the wisdom of God will not permit it to be always so, that the godly should be in an afflicted and distressed condition, and the wicked prosperous.
[2.] Come we to the holiness of God, which inclineth him to hate evil and love that which is good. Surely God is not indifferent to good and evil, or more partial to the evil than to the good. That were a blasphemy, and such a diminution of God's holiness as should be abhorred by every good christian. No; 'He hateth all the workers of iniquity,' Ps. v. 5; and again, Ps. xi. 7, 'The righteous Lord loveth righteousness; his countenance doth behold the upright.' Well, then, wherein is this love and hatred demonstrated? God doth not openly declare it in his present dealings with the rebellious and the righteous, therefore it shall be seen in his final dealing with the wicked oppressors of his people, and those that walk uprightly. Therefore there is a life to come, for in this life this love and hatred is not sufficiently expressed; not his hatred against the wicked, even in the judgment of them who have no great knowledge of the nature of sin, and the punishment which is competent thereunto; nor his love to the godly, who are often exposed to bitter sufferings, and seem to be less favoured in the course of his external providence than their enemies. Therefore there is a time to come, when he will show his love to the good in making them everlastingly happy, and his detestation of the wicked in eternal torments.
[3.] Come we now to the justice of God. It is agreeable to the justice of his government that it should be well with them that do well, and ill with them that do evil, and that he should make a difference by rewards and punishments between the disobedient and the righteous. Conscience hath a sense of this, and therefore checketh and checreth, as we have done good or evil. Heathens had accusing or excusing thoughts, which the apostle urgeth as an evidence to the gentiles of judgment to come: Rom. ii. 15, 16, 'Which show the works of the law written upon their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts the meanwhile accusing or else excusing one another, in the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ, according to my gospel.' If every man's thoughts do accuse or excuse him respectively according to the nature of his actions, then there is in nature a sense of this different retribution. Notions of good and evil are as naturally implanted in our hearts as notions of truth and falsehood, and a man is as sensible of a difference between comely and base as between the right hand and the left; only the notions of good and evil are sooner corrupted than the notions of truth and falsehood. However, the workings of conscience cannot utterly be choked and deadened in any, though most men seek to stifle it, and the voice of it be oftentimes unheard. The very profane have hidden fears frequently revived in them because of these retributions of God's justice. The apostle telleth us, Rom. i. 32, 'Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death.' They were none of the tenderest men that are here spoken of, but such as were extremely debauched and corrupted, and did delight in the company of those who were as corrupt as themselves. Well, then, conscience is sensible of a reward and punishment, but this is not fully nor universally dispensed in this world; yea, rather the worst are permitted to enjoy most here, when the good are kept in a low and bare condition. And that is not the whole case; the worst do not only differ from the best, but are permitted to triumph over them. Now no righteous governor will suffer his disobedient subjects to persecute those who most carefully obey him, if he hath power to remedy it; and therefore, though he may permit it for a time, yet he will call them to an account, and then amends and satisfaction shall be made to them that have suffered wrongfully. Therefore the wicked are reserved to future punishment, and the godly to future reward.
[4.] Come we now to the goodness of God. The Lord is inclined to do good to his creatures; and if there were no sin to stop the course of his bounty, there would be nothing but happiness in the world; but certainly if any recover out of a state of sin, and are willing to devote themselves to God, and to contemn all their natural interests for his sake, certainly the Lord will be good and kind to them. A certain truth it is that no man serveth God for nought; and it is ἐν πρῶτοις, one of the first maxims of religion, that 'God is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him,' Heb. xi. 6. Next to his being, we believe his bounty, that God's service, first or last, will turn to a good account. And it is the rather to be believed by us, because carnal and corrupted nature begrudgeth everything, and in the eye of sense all is lost that is laid out upon God. We say with Judas, 'What needeth this waste?' The same opinion that Seneca had of the Jewish sabbath, the same thoughts have carnal men of the service of God. He said the Jews were a foolish people, quia septimum atatis partem perdunt vacando, because a full seventh part of their lives was lost in idleness and rest. While men are under the influence of such thoughts, they will never do anything for God that is great and worthy. And therefore, to confute this false conceit during the time of his patience, the superficial service he getteth from us hath its reward. He giveth many temporal blessings to those that worship him in the slightest fashion; as he suspended his judgments upon Ahab's mock humiliation, I Kings xxi. 29; and his present providence plainly declareth that none shall be a loser by God, nor do anything for nought. He pleaded by the prophet against this people for their sorry services and contemptuous usage of him: Mal. i. 10, 'Who is there even among you that would shut the doors for nought? Neither do ye kindle fire on mine altar for nought. I have no pleasure in you, saith the Lord of hosts, neither will I accept an offering at your hand;' that is, the porters of the temple did not open and shut the doors for nought, nor the Levites that kindled the fire, nor the priests attend upon the burnt-offering for nought; they were all well rewarded with tithes, portions, and oblations, and this by the Lord's own appointment and allowance. And again, if anything be done sincerely, though never so mean and inconsiderable, it hath its reward: Mat. x. 42, 'And whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold water only in the name of a disciple, he shall in no wise lose his reward.' The smallness and meanness of the benefit, help, and refreshing, done to any in Christ's name, shall not make it lose its estimation and recompense. This, though hardly credited by the unbelieving world, is very true: 'Verily I say unto you,' and 'he shall in no wise,' &c.; they are emphatical expressions. But now the more eminent services, which are carried on with hazard and difficulty and very considerable self-denial, surely they shall not fail of their recompense. Whatever we lose for Christ, we shall receive again with infinite advantage: Mark x. 29, 30, 'And Jesus answered and said, Verily I say unto you, there is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my sake and the gospel's, but he shall receive an hundred-fold now in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecution, and in the world to come eternal life.' He shall in this life, in the midst of his persecutions, and the time of his trials and troubles, have an hundred-fold; not in kind, an hundred wives and mothers (as Julian and Nero scoffed at the christians), but in value, in peace of conscience, and joy in the Holy Ghost, and the satisfaction of having discharged his duty. But God will not rest there; in the world to come he shall have eternal life.
SERMONS GPON I CORINTHIANS XV. 19.
Now, then, the argument growth upon our hands. If self-denying obedience would be not only man's loss but utter ruin, and he be made miserable by his duty without any recompense, God would not only be not the best, but the worst master; and they that suffer the loss of life and all things by the cruelty of their persecutors would be utter losers by their faithfulness and obedience to God, which is contrary to the experience of all mankind, and all that natural light and sense of religion that is in men's hearts. Surely Christ would never proselyte us to a religion that is our undoing, nor shall any of his people be losers by him, or they that venture the most for him be in the worst condition; and therefore there must be another life, wherein he will fulfil the good he hath promised, and execute the evil threatened.
2. From the nature, state, and condition of man.
[1.] He is God's subject; not left at liberty to break or keep God's laws at his own pleasure, which he would seem to be if no harm would come of it, yea, present good and profit; for we see here the wicked live a life of pomp and ease, and often have their will upon the godly, and oppress them at their pleasure; their wickedness is their advantage. Now this is not only a great discouragement to the gracious and heavenly-minded, but would quite destroy all obedience, if there were not assurance of a better estate. Therefore God expresses himself as particularly engaged to punish such as flatter themselves with hopes of impunity, though they go on in their wickedness: Deut. xxix. 19. 20, 'And it come to pass, when he heareth the words of this curse, that he bless himself in his heart, saying, I shall have peace, though I walk in the imagination of mine heart, to add drunkenness to thirst. The Lord will not spare him, but then the anger of the Lord and his jealousy shall smoke against that man, and all the curses that are written in this book shall lie upon him, and the Lord shall blot out his name from under heaven.' They that add the moist to the dry, and the dry to the moist. So Zeph. i. 12, 'And it shall come to pass at that time, that I will search Jerusalem with candles, and punish the men that are settled upon their lees, that say in their heart, The Lord will not do good, neither will he do evil.' And on the other side, he considereth the case of the faithful, that they have an opposite principle against their duty within their hearts, which must be always curbed and suppressed; and they meet with many temptations from the oppositions and reproaches of those that like not that sort of life which they addict and apply themselves unto; and therefore if they have not sufficient motives to keep them in the love of God and obedience to the end, how shall they bear up against all these blasts of persecution, when all the world is against them? They need both their cordials and their solaces from another and better world. Therefore God assureth them that their fidelity and obedience shall not be lost, that they are blessed already, and shall be perfectly blessed hereafter: James i. 12, 'Blessed is the man that endureth temptation; for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him;' 1 Peter iv. 13, 'But rejoice inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings, that when his glory shall be revealed, you may be glad also with exceeding joy;' that is, that these sufferings are sure pledges of the glory that shall ensue. Their joy is suspended while the glory of Christ is under a veil, but when he is manifested to the world, they shall be manifested to be the children of God. Alas! otherwise what would become of the best servants God hath in the world, when they are hooted at by the clamours of the wicked rabble, and pursued with sharp laws, and exposed to great difficulties and hardships, if they had no life to live but this? The bare sense of our duty would not support us in this state of imperfection if there were not a great recompense of reward set before us; so that the persuasion of another life is necessary to secure our duty.
[2.] Man is bound to be upright and sincere in God's service, or to get such a constitution of soul as to resolve to adhere to God, whatever temptations he hath to the contrary. Our Lord describeth the good ground to be 'that good and honest heart which, having received the word, keeps it, and brings forth fruit with patience,' Luke viii. 15. This was a principle not denied by many heathens, who esteemed the love of honesty and goodness better than this mortal life with all its appurtenances, and thought that a man was never sincere nor thoroughly honest till he did abhor the practice of any villany and impiety more than death, and those things which were τὰ ἄπλῶς ἄγαθα, absolutely good, a man ought to love them more than life, and lose life rather than omit their practice. Now such principles, whether they saw it, yea or no, do necessarily conclude and infer a life after this much better than this is, and an estate of torment much worse than death to those that have lived and died dishonestly; for everything that hath a being doth by an indispensable law of nature desire the continuance of its being, but most of all its well-being, or the bettering of its present estate. Therefore every man (if there be not a life after death) is bound to seek the preservation and continuance of this life above all things in the world besides; and to do that, no device would be dishonest or practice amiss. But all they that have ever heard of the name of virtue abhor this principle as base and odious, that a man should make what shift he can, though never so base and wicked, to maintain and save his life. No means used to this end are to be accounted foul, for nothing is so ill as death, nothing so good as life. But if this would destroy all honesty and virtue, then certainly we have hopes and fears of another life. If you will say, No; virtue is a sufficient recompense to itself, at what rate soever it be purchased and maintained; yet what is there to countervail all the losses and grievances it exposeth us unto, such as the loss of life and limbs? Virtue is a sufficient reward to itself, spe, non re, in hope, not in the thing itself, but so far as it is the only way to everlasting communion with God, who is our exceeding great reward, or so far as the assured hope of a better life after death is inseparably connected to the constant practice of godliness in this life. And to do good merely for goodness' sake, without any eye or respect to the reward, is a strain of devotion contrary to that doctrine which is taught us by Christ and his apostles.
[3.] With respect to man's comfort and solace in his troubles, which ariseth from reflecting on our future reward when all things go cross to us here: 'Comfort one another with these words,' saith the apostle, 1 Thes. iv. 18. Now what words were those? The belief of a blessed
SERMONS UPON I CORINTHIANS XV. 19 resurrection of those that died in or for the Lord; that is, by occasion of the faith of Christ. He thought that consideration sufficient to yield matter of comfort or support to them. These are consolations proper to christians, because they are sure, as depending upon Christ's word; and they are congruous and suitable, because their hearts are set upon these things; not upon a vain world, but a blessed and glorious estate that Christ hath offered, and himself is entered into; and when we get thither, our affections will be satisfied, desires granted, and hopes fulfilled. So that still the apostle's reasoning is strong: 'If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable;' for our consolations, which are fetched from the other world, are our proper consolations.
[4.] With respect to the credit and esteem of God's servants in the world. It is neither for the glory of God nor the safety of his people that the most eminent virtue and goodness should lie under perpetual infamy. God's servants do not only suffer hard things, but their names are cast forth as evil. Now this is not for the honour of God, because it reflects upon him when the children of wisdom are represented as sons of folly, in checking their lusts, venturing their interests, and renouncing their all for their fidelity to Christ, as if they did foolishly in running into such inconveniences, when they might spare themselves, and sleep in a whole skin. Now it is a great dishonour to God that his wisest and most faithful servants should be accounted fools, and an humorous odd sort of men, that needlessly trouble themselves and others. This hardeneth the world in sin, and would quench and destroy all zeal for God, if there were not a time coming when the wisdom of the world shall be seen to be the greatest folly, and that there are no such fools as those that employ their greatest abilities in attaining present pleasure, profit, and preferment; but those are the wisest adventurers who have sold all to promote the glory of God and gain Christ, who look not upon things as they appear now to the sensual and deluded world, but as they will be found at the last day, when all things shall be seen in their own proper colours. Neither is it for the safety of the saints, who, though they seek nothing but the public good, are traduced as the troublers of Israel, and their way condemned as factions singularity. Therefore it is a great satisfaction that we have hopes that things shall be reviewed, and that which is good be restored to its public honour, and the godly, who prize a good name above all earthly interests, shall have their faith found to praise and honour and glory: 1 Peter i. 7, 'That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise, and honour, and glory, at the appearing of Jesus Christ.'
Use 1. It showeth us how much it concerneth us to be assured of the future estate. It is the life of our religion; it bindeth our duty upon us by the strictest tie, and doth also establish our true and proper comfort. If we may have hope of better things from Christ in another world, not only in our calamities, but by our calamities, we should not have such dark and doubtful thoughts about eternal blessedness, but live more in the clear foresight of it by faith, and the foretaste of it by hope. Especially should this support us in two cases—in sharp afflictions, and in death.
1. In sharp afflictions. We are apt to take scandal and offence at the sufferings that befall us for righteousness' sake; but consider not only the promises of Christ, but that our very persecution is an argument of our final deliverance. The opposition of ungodly and unrighteous adversaries is 'to them an evident token of perdition, but to you of salvation, and that of God,' Phil. i. 28. That they are wretched and obdurate people, and run on to their own destruction; but that you are sincere and penitent believers, who are not drawn away from your fidelity to Christ by any terrors whatsoever. It is not ἔνδειξις, not only an argument to confirm the hopes of the gospel, but a mark and token of your sincerity; it confirmeth your right. Well, then, though our afflictions be smart and grievous, let us comfort ourselves with these hopes. You are not to look to present things, but future; not to what is applauded in the world, but what opinion Christ will have of them at the last; not to what you feel now, but what you shall enjoy hereafter. Though all things appear with pomp and glory on the world's side, and terror to the saints, yet this scene is soon withdrawn, and present time is quickly past, like a dream or piece of fantasy; and then there is an utter inversion of things; shame is on the wicked's side, and honour put upon the saints; and the shame and glory are both eternal; and when they enter into everlasting torments, we enter into our master's joy; and the children of God, that are derided and vilified in the world, are then approved and justified by Christ; and it shall be plainly seen that they have chosen the better part that have chosen the faith, and patience, and holiness of the saints.
2. In death. This is a comfort suited to that time. When you die, you may commend your souls to Christ; as Stephen: Acts vii. 59, 'Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.' God trusted Christ with souls from all eternity; they were given him by way of charge and reward; and you may trust him, for he is able to make good his trust: 2 Tim. i. 12, 'I know whom I have believed, and I am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day.' If they are consecrated, they may be committed. And you may dismiss your bodies to the grave, there to rest in hope: Acts ii. 26, 'Moreover also my flesh shall rest in hope;' Acts xxiv. 15, 'And have hope towards God, that there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust.' So Acts xxvi. 6-8, 'And now I stand and am judged for the hope of the promise made of God unto our fathers: unto which promise our twelve tribes, instantly serving God day and night, hope to come: for which hope's sake, King Agrippa, I am accused of the Jews. Why should it be thought a thing incredible with you, that God should raise the dead?' Death seemeth to make void all the promises at once, but there is an estate after death. The dead shall rise; and to men bred up in the church this should not seem incredible. It is not incredible in itself, considering the justice and power of God; and this should not seem incredible to us, since all religion tendeth to it; but rather you should entertain it as a matter of undoubted certainty. All true believers do look and long for and prepare for this blessedness; otherwise why should they trouble themselves about religion, which abridgeth them of present delights, and often exposeth them to great difficulties and sufferings? But there is another life, which is happy and joyful; and therefore we serve God instantly day and night.
SERMONS UPON 1 CORINTHIANS XV. 19
Use 2. That it concerneth us to see this blessed estate, not only by the light of faith, but reason. Though the light of scripture be more sure and clear, yet the light of nature hath its use. Nature saith, It may be; faith saith, It shall be; yet the light of nature must not be rejected.
1. Because things seen in a double light work the more strongly upon us; as our affections are stirred more by a double consideration than a single. As Paul said of Onesimus to Philemon, that he was dear to him, but much more dear to him 'both in the flesh and in the Lord,' ver. 16, as being one of his faith, and one of his family; so this worketh upon our faith, when even nature teacheth us that it is reasonable to expect such a retribution; then all vain cavils are refuted. All have not received the light of scripture, at least with such veneration and reverence as they ought to do: to such the light of nature is a preparative inducement either to believe, or to believe it more firmly. Nay, the children of God have not such a steady belief of the life to come as they ought to have, especially in time of temptation, as the time of grievous and bitter persecution is. Surely we need all the succour and relief which the nature of the thing will afford. Evil is present and pressing, and our great hopes are to come; surely then, besides the grounds of faith, we must study the helps of faith. The grounds of faith are the promises of the gospel; the helps of faith are such demonstrations and evidences as the light of nature will afford in the case. Therefore reason must be allowed to be an handmaid to faith.
2. Because by this means a temptation is turned into an argument. Men doubt of the being of God, of providence, and the future estate, because of the afflictions of the good; and this is one means to settle you in the belief of these things. It is good to observe how differently men will reason from the same principles; for the wicked draw another conclusion hence, either that there is no God, or he hath no respect to human affairs, or that all things are governed by chance, or the like. So elsewhere you may see what contrary and different conclusions the causal and the spiritual draw from the same premises; as David infers the immutable certainty of God's promises: Ps. exix. 89-91, 'For ever, O Lord, thy word is settled in heaven: thy faithfulness is unto all generations. Thou hast established the earth, and it abideth: they continue this day according to thine ordinance.' But the scoffers said, 'Where is the promise of his coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation,' 2 Peter iii. 4. Because the frame of nature had kept one constant tenor and course, they plead for the eternity of the world, and the falsehood of the promises; but David was hereby confirmed in the belief of God's constancy and fidelity. So from the brevity of life: see the different conclusions drawn from hence: 1 Cor. vii. 29, 30, 'The time is short: it remaineth that both they that have wives be as if they had none, and they that weep as though they wept not, and they that rejoice as though they rejoiced not, and they that buy as though they possessed not, and they that use the world as not abusing it.' On the contrary: 1 Cor. xv. 32, 'Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we shall die.' So from the grace of God: Jude 4, 'Turning the grace of God into lasciviousness;' compared with Rom. vi. 1, 'Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?' So also, 2 Sam. vii. 2, 'I dwell in an house of cedar but the ark of God dwelleth within curtains.' Observe the workings of David's heart: The Lord hath built me a stately house, but what have I done for God? But those wretches, Hagr. i. 2, 'This people say, The time is not come, the time that the Lord's house should be built.' So I Sam. iii. 18, 'It is the Lord; let him do what seemeth him good;' compared with 2 Kings vi. 33, 'Behold, this evil is of the Lord; why should I wait for the Lord any longer?' See Prov. xxvi. 9, 'As a thorn goeth up into the hand of a drunkard, so is a parable in the mouth of tools.' All is as the heart is.
3. Because if the perverse carriage of things now be not a confirmation to your faith, it will at least be an help to your meditation. Improve the argument as it was set forth before, by your most serious thoughts; thus: Surely there is a God; he is wise, holy, just, and good, and would not impose duty upon a man, but he hath encouragements and rewards to quicken him to the performance of it. Few christians are so firm and strong in believing but they may find it a prop to their faith. Certainly all are so barren of thoughts that they will find it an help to their meditation. Would God make laws with a sanction of penalty and reward, and never look after them more? Doth he delight in the prosperity of his servants or their afflictions? Would he raise hopes and desires which he never meant to satisfy? give the wicked power to afflict and vex his people, and never call them to an account? bid us venture our all for him, and give us no recompense? If such thoughts were more frequent with us, God would bless them to the increase of faith, love, and hope.
Use 3. Is to persuade us to live in the constant hopes of this blessed estate in the life to come. Hope is a certain and earnest expectation of the promised blessedness. Let me show you—(1.) The necessity of this hope; (2.) The encouragements of it.
1. The necessity that the hope of eternal glory should always be cherished in us.
[1.] Because it is a special act of the new nature: 1 Peter i. 3, 'Who hath begotten us to a lively hope.' As soon as we are children, we look for a child's portion. The new nature presently discovereth itself by its tendency to its end and rest, which is the fruition of God in heaven. Indeed, the scriptures speak of a twofold hope—one that is the immediate effect of regeneration, and flows from our acceptance of the new covenant, and dependeth upon the conditional offer of eternal life; we take it for our happiness, resolving to seek it in God's way; without this we are not new creatures. There is another hope, which is the fruit of experience, and belongeth to the seasoned and tried christian, who hath approved his own fidelity to God, and hath had much trial of God's fidelity to him. This is spoken of, Rom. v. 4, 'Patience worketh experience, and experience hope.' This produceth not a conditional certainty, but an actual confidence of our own salvation. The former is more necessary, for we live by it, but this is very comfortable.
[2.] Because it is the great end why the scriptures were written, to beget and raise this hope in us: Rom. xv. 4, 'For whatsoever things were written aforetime, were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.' It is the business and design of these holy books.
[3.] Because the keeping up of this hope with zeal and industry is the distinguishing character between the temporary and the sincere convert. The one loseth his taste and comfort, and so casteth off the profession of godliness, or neglecteth the powerful practice of it; the other is diligent, serious, patient, moribled, heavenly, and holy, because 'he holdeth fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end.' Heb. iii. 6. And his end sweetens his work, for this grace doth quicken the whole spiritual life: Titus ii. 12, 13. 'Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world, looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ.'
[4.] Because we have nothing else to support us and fortify us against the difficulties that fall out between our first right to eternal life and our full possession of it. In our journey to heaven there are many sufferings and trials which must be undergone, and hope is our strength and support. He that sets his face heavenward will find difficulties that attend his service, temptations that assault his constancy, and troubles and calamities to which his religion exposeth him. Now it is hope carrieth us through, and therefore it is compared to an anchor: Heb. vi. 19, 'Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which entereth into that within the veil;' and to an helmet: Eph. vi. 17, 'And take the helmet of salvation,' compared with 1 Thes. v. 8, 'And for an helmet the hope of salvation.' As we would not go to sea without an anchor, and to war without an helmet, so we must not think of carrying on the spiritual life without hope; nothing else will compose the mind, and keep it stable in the floods of temptation, or cause us to hold up our heads in our daily conflicts and encounters. Without this anchor our souls are in danger of spiritual shipwreck; without this helmet our heads are exposed to deadly blows from sin, Satan, and worldly discouragements.
[5.] We shall need it not only while we live, but we shall have most need of it when we come to die. They that are destitute of the hope of glory then are in a dangerous, woful, and most lamentable case: Job xxvii. 8, 'For what is the hope of the hypocrite, though he hath gained, when God taketh away his soul?' They may be full of presumption and blind confidence while they live, but what hope have they when they come to die? All their worldly advantages will afford them no solid comfort. They live in a presumptuous dream that all shall be well; but then they die stupid and senseless, or else despairing, and their hopes fail them when they have most need of them.
2. The encouragements of it.
[1.] God's gracious covenant and promises. God would not invite and raise an hope to disappoint it, for surely God will not disappoint the creature that dependeth upon his word; and therefore we are allowed to challenge God upon his word: Ps. cxix. 49, 'Remember the word unto thy servant, upon which thou hast caused me to hope.' It contains a double argument; the promise was of God's making, and the hope of his operation; the grant of the new covenant, and his influence by the Spirit. We have a strong tie upon God; as he giveth us the promise, which is a ground of hope, we may humbly put the bond in suit; and when his Spirit hath caused the hope, it is not with a purpose to defeat it.
[2.] Consider what a foundation God hath laid for his promises: 2 Tim. ii. 19, 'The foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his;' 2 Cor. i. 20, 'For all the promises of God in him are Yea, and in him Amen, unto the glory of God by us.'
[3.] Observe what God hath given you by way of earnest. Hope is not built upon promises alone, but also upon assurances and earnest; the promises are contained in the word of God, but the earnest is given into our hearts: 2 Cor. i. 22, 'Who hath also sealed us, and given the earnest of his Spirit in our hearts;' 2 Cor. v. 5, 'Now he that hath wrought us for the self-same thing is God, who hath also given unto us the earnest of the Spirit;' Eph. i. 13, 14, 'In whom also, after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance, until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.' Though God be truth itself, and promiseth nothing but what he meaneth to perform, yet he will give earnest of his promises, and a pledge of his affection to us. An earnest is a part of the sum which is promised, so is the earnest of the Spirit a part of the promised felicity. God would not altogether weary us, and burden us with expectation, but giveth us somewhat in hand. Surely he that giveth us earnest will give us the whole sum. The earnest of the Spirit consisteth in light, life, grace, joy; one drachm of these is more precious than all the world, and yet these are but an earnest. Now, having such a confirmation in the midst of our doubts and fears, let us with more confidence look to receive the whole in due season.
[4.] Some already have got home to God upon the same terms, and in the same way in which you expect to get home to him. Think often of the happiness of the blessed, who are now enjoying what we expect, and are in possession of that supreme good which we hope for. They are entered into the joy of our Lord, and have neither miseries to fear nor blessings to desire beyond what they enjoy; they possess all that they love. And though the time of our advancement to these privileges be not yet come, yet we should look and long for it. We are all of the same family: Eph. iii. 15, 'Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named.' It is but one household; some live in the upper room, some in the lower, some in heaven, some on earth; but we are all of the same society and community: Heb. xii. 23, 'To the general assembly and church of the first-born, which are written in heaven.' We are said to be already come into this fellowship, only they have gotten the start of us, and are made perfect before us, that we should follow after. We are reconciled to the same God by the same Christ: Col. i. 20, 'By him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven.' And we expect our portion from the bounty of the same Father. If he hath been so good to that part of the family which is now in heaven, will he not be as good to the other part also? Therefore they that are working out their salvation with fear and trembling may encourage themselves, and look upon this felicity as prepared for them, though not enjoyed by them. It will one day be their portion, as well as those others who have passed the pikes, and are now triumphing with God.
To them who, by patient continuance in well-doing, seek for glory and honour and immortality, eternal life.—Rom. ii. 7.
In this scripture we have a plain and full character of the heirs of promise, or a short but complete description of that good which is necessary to life. The words are occasioned by the apostle's mentioning of the righteous judgment of God, which rendereth to every man according to their works. That general mentioned in ver. 6 is more distinctly explained in the next verses, wherein he showeth how the righteous judge will carry himself towards the good and towards the bad in the judgment of absolution and condemnation: towards the good in the text; toward the bad, ver. 8, 'But unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath.' The one is a reward of grace, and the other is a punishment awarded by his exact justice. We are to consider the first of these, the reward of grace, 'To them who, by patient continuance in well-doing, seek for glory and honour and immortality, eternal life.'
In the words observe the qualification and the reward—
1. The qualification or description of the heirs of promise.
[1.] By their end and design: they 'seek for glory, and honour, and immortality.'
[2.] The means or way wherein they seek it; by 'well-doing.'
[3.] Their constancy and perseverance in that way, καθ' ὑπομονὴν, by 'patient continuance.'
Well, then, here is a short and full description of those who shall be saved. They are those who, out of the hope of the eternal reward, persevere in the obedience of the truth; for they that 'continue in well-doing' are opposed to them that 'obey not the truth, but obey unrighteousness,' whereby is intended those that sin against the light of nature, and refuse the direction of the gospel. So that 'well-doing' must be stated partly by the light of nature, and partly by the light of scripture; or rather, by this latter alone, as it compriseth and explaineth the other. And their constancy and patient continuance in this work is as considerable as the work itself. Continuance implieth a constant tenor of righteousness and holiness; and patient continuance implies continuance notwithstanding temptations to the contrary, or bearing the persecutions which they underwent for the duties of the
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