SERMON VIII.

CHRISTIANITY AN HOLY PRIESTHOOD.

1 PETER ii. 5.

Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.

WHEN the Lord, the Lord God omnipotent, had by the Word of His power commanded all things out of nothing, it is written, "That God saw every thing that He had made, Gen. 1. 31. and behold it was very good." Every thing was just as He would have it, exactly fitted to the ends and uses for which He designed it; and therefore it was "very good" in His sight, or He was much pleased with it: and so He hath been ever since with all things in Heaven, except the apostate angels; every thing else moving and acting there continually according to His will and pleasure. Neither is there any thing that He hath made upon earth, but what is "very good" in His eyes, so that He is infinitely pleased with it, except mankind; who being fallen from their first estate, are so far from being very good, that they are very bad in the sight of God, as bad as bad can be: for it is written, "That God saw that the wickedness of man was Gen. 6. 5. great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." This is the case of man in general, even of all mankind, from first to last. There never was a mere man from the fall to this day, that was every way such as God made him ; and therefore never one, that did any one thing that in itself was perfectly good in the sight of God, and so pleasing or acceptable unto Him. But the whole race of mankind being

VIII.

SERM. corrupted in all the faculties of their souls and members of their bodies, and always therefore acting irregularly and contrary to the will of God, He is always displeased with them, and with every thing they think or speak, or do of themselves, or by their own natural powers. So that He might justly have condemned them all to the same ever[Matt. 25. lasting fire," that is prepared for the Devil and his apostate 41.] angels;" and would certainly have done it, but that He knew how to advance the glory of His goodness and truth, in restoring them to a capacity of pleasing Him again, and enabling them accordingly to do so, if they will, and to be willing also to do it.

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This is a mystery that is beyond the reach of human understanding; neither could any man have thought it possible, if God had not revealed it in His Holy Word: but now that we have His word for it, we have surer grounds to believe it, than we have to believe any thing that we ourselves can understand. From whence we may see how much we ought to value the Holy Scriptures, and likewise how far the Christian exceeds all other religions for though all sorts of people profess some kind of religion, whereby they hope to please the God they worship; yet none have any sure ground to believe they worship the true God, nor to hope that He will be pleased with what they do, but only they who believe the Holy Scriptures, both of the Old and New Testament, to be given by His inspiration; which seeing none but Christians do, none but they can be ever certain that any thing they do is pleasing unto God but they may be certain of it, and ought to be so, in that they have the way and manner how to do it most plainly revealed to them by God Himself in many places of His Holy Scriptures, and particularly in that which I have now read.

The Apostle writes this Epistle to the elect, or Saints of God. And having in the first chapter put them in mind how they became such, even by being born again by the [1Pet. 2.2.] Word of God, in this he adviseth them as 66 new-born babes to desire the sincere milk of the same Word," that as they were born, "so they may grow" by it. "If so be," saith he, "ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious." For if they

Ver. 2.

Ver. 3.

66

Rom. 9. 23.

had once tasted of it, as be sure they had, they could not but long for more of the Grace of Christ, here called the Lord, as appears from the following words; "To whom coming, as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God, and precious; ye also as lively stones are built up a spiritual house." For the Church being wholly built upon Christ, and all our hopes of salvation depending upon Him; for the better strengthening and confirming our faith in Him, He is often spoken of in Holy Writ, under the name and notion of a "rock" or "stone." 'Behold," saith God by the Prophet, "I lay in Zion for a Isa. 28. 16. foundation, a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner-stone, a sure foundation; he that believeth shall not make haste," or be confounded. "And the stone," saith David, "which the Ps. 118. 22. builders refused, is become the head of the corner." For that this stone is Christ, appears from the many places in the New Testament, where these words are applied to Him, not only by His Apostle, but by Christ Himself. And to Acts 4. 11. this the Apostle alludes in this very place, saying, "Unto Matt.21.42. whom coming as to a living stone, disallowed indeed of Mark 12.10. men, but chosen of God, and precious:" which is the same in effect with His being "refused of the builders, but chosen of God to be the head of the corner." The corner or foundation-stone upon which the whole fabric resteth. "For 1Cor. 3. 11. other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ."

But the Apostle here calls Him a "living stone," to shew that this is only a metaphorical expression, denoting His firmness and stability, together with the great need there is of Him in erecting the house here spoken of: but that He is not such a "stone" as those we see upon earth, that are all without sense and life, but a "living stone;" a stone that hath life in itself, and gives life to all that come unto Him, and are built upon Him. And therefore the Apostle having said, "To whom coming as to a living stone;" he adds, "Ye also as lively," or rather as living "stones, are built up a spiritual house." He is such a living stone Himself, that He makes them also who come unto Him, to be so: who therefore as such are built up a spiritual house; an house of God, a temple, wherein the living God Himself is pleased

L

1 Pet. 2. 7.

Luke 20.17.

1 Cor. 3. 16.

SERM. to dwell; according to that of the Apostle to the Saints at VIII. Corinth, "Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and Chap. 6. 19. that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?" And to those at Eph. 2. 19. Ephesus, "Now therefore ye are no more strangers and

foreigners, but fellow-citizens with the saints, and the household of God. And are built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief corner-stone; in whom all the building fitly framed together, groweth unto an Holy Temple in the Lord. In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit." Whence we see, that the whole Communion of Saints, the body of Christ, are the spiritual house spoken of in my text; "the house of God, or His habitation," by reason of His Spirit dwelling in them. And therefore they are all of the same household, the "household of Gal. 6. 10. God," as it is here called; and elsewhere," the household of faith." Because it is by faith that they are built upon Christ the foundation of this house. Hence it is that they are all advised "to build up" one another"in their most holy faith." And the Apostle often speaks of “ edifying" [1 Cor. 14. the Church, "edifying" the "body of Christ, edifying one another in love," that "all things may be done to edifying," and the like. All which expressions have relation to this spiritual house, denoting the necessity of our being edified or built up in faith or love, so that we may be real parts of it, and grow up into an holy temple in the Lord.

Jude,

ver. 20.

12; Eph. 4. 12; Rom. 14.19; 1 Cor. 14. 26.]

But in every temple of the Lord, it is necessary that there be a priesthood to offer sacrifices suitable to such a temple. And so there is here: for the Apostle having said, that the saints are a "spiritual house" or temple, he adds, that they are also an "Holy Priesthood." As they are the "living stones" of which this temple is composed and consisteth, so they are likewise all of the order of priesthood: "an Holy Priesthood," proper for such an house, where the most Holy God resideth. This was first revealed in the Old Exod. 19. 6. Testament, where God said, "His people should be unto Him a kingdom of Priests." A kingdom wherein all the subjects are both "kings" and "priests;" or, as St. Peter a Pet. 2. 9. little after my text expresseth it, "a royal priesthood." And how they come to be so, we learn from St. John, saying,

5. 10.

"That Jesus Christ hath made us kings and priests unto Rev. 1. 6; God and His Father." As he gives His Saints a "kingdom," so He consecrates them all to be "Priests;" not such as were under the law, when the "Priesthood" was confined to one family, and offered up only carnal sacrifices, but they are "an holy Priesthood," ordained "to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ."

For the understanding of which words, it will be necessary to consider, what sacrifices they are which the Saints. offer to God; wherefore they are called spiritual sacrifices; and that these spiritual sacrifices are acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.

First therefore, a sacrifice in general, is properly something that we give or offer to God for our own. For though we have nothing but what He first gives to us, yet when He hath given it to us, we have a civil right to it; it is our own in respect of all other men: but when we give it back again to God, divesting ourselves of our own right to it, and transferring it wholly to Him, then He looks upon it as a sacrifice offered up to Him, and is pleased to accept of it as such. Under the Law, God commanded, that oxen, and sheep, and lambs, and suchlike living creatures, should be offered up in sacrifice to Him; which being killed by a Priest, were consumed either by fire upon the altar, or else by those who waited at it, and so were fed as it were at God's table, of such things as were offered to Him. But these sacrifices being ordained only to foreshew and typify the "Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world," they [John 1. ceased in course, when "He had offered up Himself a sacri- 29.1 fice for our sins upon the cross." But now under the Gospel, 26.] other kind of sacrifices are required of us. We are now commanded to " present our bodies as a living sacrifice." Rom. 12. 1. Not to kill them, but to offer them up alive, as a “living sacrifice," by devoting ourselves wholly to the service of God; by "mortifying our members that are upon the earth," Col. 3. 5. and "crucifying the flesh with the affections and lusts," by Gal. 5. 24. keeping our bodies under, and bringing them into subjec- 27.] tion to our souls; by subduing our passions, "denying un- Tit. 2. 12. godliness and worldly lusts, and living soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world."

[Heb. 9.

[1 Cor. 9.