Sayfadaki görseller
PDF
ePub

they dig for others. And notwithstanding all their endeavours to the contrary, he will settle our Church upon such foundations, that the gates of hell itself shall never be able to prevail against it. Neither will he only continue his Church to us, but likewise his Spirit to our Church, so as always to perform this promise in my text; “Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen."

O blessed Jesu! thou eternal Son of God; to whom with the Father and the Holy Spirit, be everlasting honour, praise, and glory, from this time forth and for

evermore.

SERMON II.

CHRISTIANITY AN HOLY PRIESTHOOD.

1 PET. 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, 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, "God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continu

1 Gen. i. 31.

ally." 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 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 alway 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 everlasting fire, "that is prepared for the devil and his" apostate "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.

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

2 Gen. vi. 5.

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 word of God, in this he adviseth them as "new-born babes to desire the sincere milk of the same word," that as they were born, "so they may grow by it 4." "If so be," saith he, "ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious 5." For if they 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 foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth in him shall not make haste," or "be confounded "." And "the stone," saith David, "which the 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 this the apostle alludes in this very place, saying, "To whom coming, as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of 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

66

3 Ver. 21.

5 Ver. 3.

7 Ps. cxviii. 22.

"Matt. xxi. 42.

4 Ver. 2.

Isa. xxviii. 16.

Rom. ix. 33.

8 Acts iv. 11. 1 Pet. ii. 7.

Mark xii. 10. Luke xx. 17.

the whole fabric resteth. "For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ1."

But the apostle here calls him a "living stone," to show 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 to dwell; according to that of the apostle to the saints at Corinth, "Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?" And to those at Ephesus, "Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of 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 3." 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 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

[blocks in formation]
« ÖncekiDevam »