grace terminat to believers in time and eternity but only of the love manifested in the work of redemption this being proper to the Text He loved his Church and gave himself for it Neither 2dly can we speake of this love according as the nature of it requires since it is a mystery into which even the Angels desire to pry all that we can doe is to do as the painter who being defired to draw the Sunne did take a black coal to draw it with since he found it impossible for him to find any thing whereby to resemble it in the beauty and brightnesse thereof Only for opening the point a little we shall insist on these two we shall prove it and apply it For the proofe of it that it is matchless and may be a pattern for the love required in the most intimat relations we shall demonstrat this from Scripture and reason and first from Scripture there be five or six things in Scripture which all tend to prove it First the Scripture calls it the love of God 1. Joh. 3.16 hereby perceave we the love of God because he laid downe his life for us Every thing in God is matchless even these attributes which are called communicable there are but some shaddowes of resemblance of them in the creatures but there is a special reason why we should look on his love as such since it is not only tearmed the love of God but God himself He that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God for God is love 1. Joh. 4.8 God is love not only loving but love it self Secondly the Scripture proclaims this love incomprehensible Eph. 3.19 there is bredth and length and depth and hight Philosophers will not admit of four dimensions but here the Apostle who was aboundantly learned ascribs foure to this as to a thing passing all dimension yea and immediatly on this subjoins an expression any would think one part of it inconsistant with an other and to know the love of Christ that passeth knowledge to know it and yet it passes knowledge in the perfection of it though a little of it may be known Thirdly the Scripture assimilats it to the love wherewith the Father loves the Sonne the love of a woman to her sucking child or Jonathan to David are unfit resemblances of this There is no love to resemble it by but one 15. John 9. as the Father hath loved me so have I loved you How great the Fathers love is to the Sonne is testified twice by an immediat voice from Heaven My beloved Sonne in whom I am well pleased The Prophet I saiah calls him the delight of his Fathers Soule Isa 42.1 and Christ himself Prov. 8. Testifies that er the foundations of the world were He was dayly his delight and yet as the Father hath loved me so I you Fourthly it is frequently in Scripture made the pattern and copie of love to all the creatures Not to multiplie instances ye find twice so in this same chapter v. 2. Walk in love as Christ also loved us and gave himself for us And here again in the verse read love your wives as Christ loved his Church and gave himself for it There are indeed some copies wherein a scholer may out-reach his master but here as in the first verse of the chap. we must be followers of God as dear Children Fifthly whensoever our love to him yea even of his choise Apostles are brought in competition with this love to us it is so farr undervalued that the name of love is denyed to it like the starres that disappear as if they were no lights when the Sunne ariseth 1. Joh. 4.10 Herein is love not that we loved him but that he loved us It is strange the Apostle gives our love the name of love through all the precepts of that Epistle where love is commanded But when it is set beside his becoming a propitiation for our sins the name of love is denyed to it not that we loved him Sixthly It is in the Scripture made the fountain and spring out of which issewes all his peoples love to him as the sun that is the fountain of all the light in the moon or starrs Our love yea of all his elect in all ages is but a ray reflecting back again on the sun whence it proceeded 1 John 4 19. We love him because he loved us first All these in the Scripture layd togither prove it to be such as it is delineat in the poynt In the second place to demonstrat yet further the truth of the poynt we shall consider his love manifested in the work of redemption in a fourfold referrence 1. Consider it with a respect to the person loveing 2dly With a respect to the persons loved 3dly In the properties of it 4thly In the effects that it hath produced And all the four will contribut to clear how matchless it is and how fitt to be a paterne to the love of the most intimat relations First Consider it with respect to the person loveing it is the love of a person who is both God and Man which adds a great deal of weight to it 1. It is the love of a person who is God Divyns say it renders the sacrifice of infinit value that it wes the blood of God Practick divyns say that the sympathie Christ hath with beleevers is of infinit excelencie because it is a Sympathie proceeding from a person that is God for so he can be affected with the evils they feel and the evils they feil not and why not an infinit value in his love because it is the love of God We read in histories of singular testimonies of love from parents to their children wives to their husbands and they reciprocally to them But no man can put more liquor in a quart bottel but an quart he wer mad that should attempt to put the Ocean in a cockil shell Secondly it was the love of a person who was man in his humane nature beside all the infinite habits that wherein him beyond what were in Adam he was anointed with the oyle of gladness above his fellowes Beside that I say he was content to learn by experience how to be compassionat He was tempted that he might be the more able to succour these that are tempted He knowes the heart of a stranger as the Lord spake of Israel Exod. 16. for he was once a stranger himself in the Land of Aegypt Now love proceeding from a person in whom both these natures are united cannot but be matchless Remarkable is that word of Bernard Dilexit nos Christus duleiter sapienter acfoeliciter Dulciter quia carnem induit sapienter quia culpam cavit fortiter quai Deus erat it is sweet and strong proceeding from one that is God and man Secondly consider with respect to these he loved and this also will prove it matchless Love usually is less singular if there be any thing in the object attractive of it as there
mariage relations Husbands love your wyves as Christ hath loved his Church and Wyves be subject to your husbands as the Church is subject unto Christ The love which is the summe of the husbands duty upon his part Eph. 3. Passeth knowledge thee can no love be found to resemble it but one John 15. as the Father hath loved me so have I loved you how lovingly speaks he to the Church throughout the song usually in such termes as these My love my dove my fair one and on the other part the Church is subject unto him she obeyes him even as Sarah obeyed Abraham and called him Lord That is true the obedience is imperfect and hath many craks into it yet she esteems all his commandments concerning every thing to be right and He graciously accepts of the will in stead of the dead Lastly There is in this mariage a reciprocal commutation of what belongs to the one party unto the other 1. Upon Christs part it is impossible to enumerat all the particular Jewels far less the high inheritance that is given the Church by Him we must rest upon that the Apostle hath 1 Cor. 3. towards the end all things are yours and ye are Christs all things present and things to come amongst the rest death is yours it is no longer your enemy but your servant for ye are Christs Now whatsoever may be comprehended under all things He communicats to his Church It is true the Church hath nothing to give him Let Pelagians talke of their preventing God and Papists of their merit and of their supererogating what they will beleevers know their goodness extends not unto him Only she gives herselfe and she gives her debt 1. She gives herself the Apostle commends this in the Macedonians that they gave themselves unto the Lord. And 2. their dept because his he payes it and discharges their debt the hand writting of ordinances which was against them and contrary to them by nailing it unto the Cross Thus we have briefly shewed wherein this mariage consists The 2d thing we proposed is how can such a mariage be possible especially considering the vast odds betwixt the parties For clearing this I shall briefly say only these things First Beleevers in their eternal election are given to Christ by his Father it is true we know but little of the manner and way of the eternal transactions betwixt the father and sone and some are too bold with Gods secrets in determining herein that is sufficient to our purpose to know that the father hath from all eternity made a gift of his elect unto Christ and in this is laid the first foundation of their mariage-union and communion All that the Father giveth me shall come to me and again of all that the Father hath given me I have lost none so that whatever they be in themselves yet since they are the fathers gift in their election there is in this a foundation laid for a mariage Secondly The love of Christ however it be high in regarde of the person loving yet withall it is very condescending in reference to the thing loved yea the more condescending it be and the less attracted by any excellency in the object the more of the nature of pure love there is into it amor purus said Bernard non est mercenarius His love then being altogither free hence it is stouping can and does very well condescend to bestow this highest love-relation upon basest wormes even so great a God to love with such a great love such as we Now from the love which is pure love proceeds this mariage and who can hinder his love Thirdly How low soever our naturs be in regard of creation being made a little lower then the Angels yet not a little advanced above the angelical nature by reason of the personal union of the humane nature with the divin in the person of the Mediator God-man haveing sit down at the right hand of the Father to which of the Angels said he at any tyme Sit thou down at my right hand Ahasuerus in his mariage with Esther did make her no more noble in blood then she was before But in this Brydegroom this is singular that he hes lifted up the nature of his Bryde in the union of the same nature with the divine it is nothing so strange then there be a mariage Lastly As for the moral distance betwixt Christ and his Bryde this is also removed by washing her in his own blood It is needless to debar whither our union with Christ or out justification preceed in order of natur since in order of tyme the odds cannot be great But we are all washen before our mariage-communion with Christ and as Esther perfumed with the incense of the righteousness of Jesus the Brydegroom Now lay these four togither and the mariage notwithstanding the wast odds betwixt the parties will not appear so strange But I go to the Application Application There is a threefold use we shall follow from this point Is there such a mariage betwixt Christ and beleevers Then let all admire and praise the Brydegroom for this admirable condescendency thy Maker is thy Husband are words of wonder there be these things that make the mariage truely admirable First The majesty and greatness of the Brydegroom The Apostle forbidds us to be unequaly yoked but how unequaly is he yoked the brightness of the Fathers glory the express image of his person he that thinks it no robbery to be equal with God the man that is his fellow whom all the Angels adore thus to condescend how admirable is it Especially if in the second place we consider the baseness of the Bryde Might not the Church say as Abigail said to David when he sent to take her in mariage 1 Sam. 24 4. Behold let thine Handmaid be a servant to wash the feet of the Servants of my Lord How base and polluted are we and yet admitted to such a mariage and taken into his bosome If thirdly We consider how earnestly he suited us and how many repulses he indured before he could gain our consent How oft he did stand at the door and knock till his locks were wet with the dew of the night How oft did he put in his hand at the hole of the door and his fingers dropped myrrhe How oft did he intreat beseech alure with promises and yet we greived his Spirit despised it quenched it How oft was he made to sit down and weep over us as he did over Jerusalem and say Oh! if that thou in this day had known the things that belong to thy peace How oft hes he pyped unto us and we have not danced and mourned unto us and we not lamented Fourthly Consider the admirable priviledges we are advanced to by this mariage the Church in the 2d of Hosea after she hes tryed all other lovers vers 7. I will go and return to my first husband for then it was better with
is when we love him but here nothing such if we consider whom he loved under a threfold notion 1. as base and ignoble 2dly as loathsome and filthy 3ly as not only in a State of enemity but fraughted with actual enemity against the person loving 1st as base and ignoble we have indeed some instances in history of love descending from noble to ignoble But to descend so low as to love that that is farther below him then the basest worme can be below us there being an infinite disparity which cannot be between meere creatures what histories can paralel this Beside baseness there is filthiness and loathsomness which being added to the former makes it admirable Ezek. 16. when thou was lying in thy blood that became a time of love We were as the word is Psal 14. altogether become filthy there was none that did good no not one and yet to love us But the 3d added that we were fraughted with enemity against him who loved us Augustus Cesar because he could not marry a mean woman who loved him commanded yet a vast soume to be given here to testify his respect to her love But Rom. 5. God commended his love to us that when we were yet enemies Christ dyed for us Thirdly take a view of the properties of this love and it will appear more matchless amongst many properties of it I only mention at present these four 1. it was altogether free there was no necessity of nature for he is admitted by a Covenant Isa 42. yea we find him offering himself to the work of redemption when mans case is seen to be desperat Psal 40. Sacrifices and offerings thou didst not desire and what could man do for reconciliation beyond sacrifices and offerings and when it is thus then said I behold I come 2dly It was also stronge and vehement it was indeed a love many watters could not quench God so loved the world that he gave his Sonne so loved there is a great emphasis in that so Amongst other things it imports the transcendent fervency of that love manifested in the worke of redemption 3dly It is a discriminating love to men and not to Angels The Prophet Malachie commends the love of Jacob from this that he hated Esaw though Esaw was Jacobs brother there was nothing in us to cast the ballance Angels were more excellent natures it is true some in the schools say 1. the sin of the divel was greater then mans because their natures were more perfect and they sinned without a tempter Yet even this they cannot deny but the price payed for lost man had been sufficient for their restauration had it been intended for them Beside even those say mans sinnes had several aggravations theirs wanted so that there was nothing antecedent in the objects to excite this love to the one and not to the other and O how great a difference makes it Lastly it is an everlasting love that his delight was with the sons of men Pro. 8. before the mountains were brought forth so it is to everlasting He cannot be budded to alter or change this love Balaam attempted it with one and twenty sacrifices to turn him from loving Israel and to curse them but it would not Esay 54.7 With an everlasting kindness will I have mercy on the sayes the Lord-thy Redeemer Fourthly If we considder this love in the fruits and effects of it and we shall like wayes herein find it matchless The Apostle to the Thessalonians speaks of a labor of love if ever there was love that might be called a labor of love it is here Amongst many things to manifest this consider only to what a low eb he was brought in giveing himself for his Church which is the Testimony of love the Apostle pitches on here and there be only two things to pitch upon to evidence this 1. The names that are given him 2. The sufferings that he did undergoe in testifying his love to his Church 1. The names that are given him he is called ane Angel which was far below him ane Apostle which was yet lower a man and the sone of man a Babe a messenger aservant a shepherd a worme and not a man a curse and if there can be any thing yet lower he became fin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in him what a wonderful testimony of love is here He that thought it no robbery to be equal with God and was his fellow to become a curse and sin for us the Apost 1 Timothy 3. v. last counts it a wonderful Mystery that he was at all manifested in the Flesh But to be so manifested how wonderful is it But in the 2d place if we should take a view of his sufferings that he did undergoe in his humane nature in testifieing this love when he gave himself for his Church what reproach what torment what A gony in his Spirit it was strang to hear that come from Him my soul is heavy and what shall I say He was bruised or as the word imports in the first Language Baken for our infirmities Nether can Bellarmin nor any other Jesuit prove that he merited any thing to himself by his suffering but it was wholly intended for us This testimony of his love is that which we are come togither the day to commemorat and which is represented in the breaking of the bread and pouring out of the wyn Now let us lay all these togither and see if the poynt be not proven that his love is matchless and may be a copie for the most special and intimat love required in the nearest relations Application There is only one use of exhortation which I shall follow from this poynt thus opened and we shall divide it in two brances 1. It serves to exhort to admire and praise his love 2. To render love to him for love 1. First It serves to exhort to admire and praise his love Let men disput as they will whither Christ as Mediator be the object of divine worship we may saffly determine that his love manifested in the redemption of lost man is a fitt object of admiration praise Saul much admired it and commended it in David when he found him in the cave and did not kill him will a man find his Enemie said Saul and will he not kill him But how would Saul have spoken of this for a man to find his enemy willingly be killed for him May we not all sit downe at this table crying with David when he heard of the death of Jonathan O Jonathan Jonathan how wonderful was thy love to me It was beyond the love of women And that we may make the better progress in this work of admireing and praising his love I shall offer you some helps to it There are some confiderations and some practises whereby we may be furthered in it First Consider admiring and praising his love is the constant worke of these who are in glory John
Name of the Gods The Story of Regulus returning to Carthage because he had given his oath to returne is well known though he knew he should be put to exquisit tortures if he returned yet ere he falsified his oath made in the name of his Gods he would return But how litle we esteem either in makeing or keeping of them our constant practice aboundantly declare All these six then laid togither which I have pitched upon amongst many I might have brought I hope sufficiently confirme the truth of the poynt Application There is only one use I shall prosecut a litle from this point Is it so that idolaters and worshipers of false Gods doe often outstrype and may justly reprehend the worshipers of the true God It serves for lamentation and humiliation Tell it not in Gath and publish it not in the streets of Askelon least the Daughters of the Philistins rejoyce But to us what matter lamentation is it Especially if we consider these six things First The excellency of our God beyond theirs Our God is the Lord who made Heaven and Earth Our God is in Heaven and doth whatsoever he will who is like unto the Lord among all the Gods Their Idols are Silver and Gold the work of mens hands they have ears and hear not and eyes and see not but how excellent is his name through all the earth Now so excellent a God and yet worse served how lamentable is it Secondly Our principles and ground we walk by and whereby we are bound to painful zealous worship to our God are infalliblie sure all that the witt of man could imagine to demonstrat the certainty of our principles and obligations to worship we have it the sone comeing downe from the Fathers bosome and revealing our duty to us and a voice from Heaven witnessing to the truth of his being his beloved sone his being so ratified by so many properties confirmed by so many miracles so divine doctrine proceeding from him as hath a clear stamp of a divin hand upon it It is ridiculous to hear of the original of some of their Gods to whom they offered sacrifices often they were the work of their own hands or some of the creatures which God had made their servitors now how lamentable is it we should be outstryped in worship then having so much reason to surpass Thirdly If ye shall consider the sweetness of the duties wherein we are called to performe worshipe to our God An Idol signifies sorrow what a griefe do you think behoved it to be to tender-hearted mothers to imbrew their hands in the blood of their own guiltless Children But the duties we are called to make a degree of Heaven on Earth In keeping of thy Commandements there is great reward Not only for keeping of them but in keeping of them What ease to a burdened mynd is prayer what joy in praises what refreshing consolations from the meditation of God as reconciled through a Mediator and so in all other parts of worship I rejoyced when they said unto me let us go unto the House of the Lord now so sweet dutyes enjoyned us and yet outstryped how lamentable is it Fourthly They never pretended to that obligation to worship their Gods that we owe to ours though they thought they gave them corne and wyne and victory over their enemies yet they never pretended that any of them dyed for them to prevent their eternal ruine But by this unspeakably-great ty we stand bound to our worshipe when our loss was desperat he was broken for our iniquities and in his stryps we are healed and one of the ends he had in this was that we might be zealous worshipers of Him He gave himself Tit. 2. for us that he might purify to himself a peculiar people zealous of good works And we have his Apostles whom he sent out in the World to gather a Church to him pressing our duties on us on this very foundation Ye are bought with a price and are not your own glorifie God in your bodies and souls Now after such an obligation yet to be outstriped how lamentable is it Fifthly We have incouragments in our worship from the expectation of a farr more excellent reward then ever they could dream of or hope for in their Elysian Feilds which Seneca comforted himself with when at Nero's command he was cutting his veins where he hoped to meet the soule of Socrates were not only fancies but suppose they hade been real how low a reward were they being compared with that excellent exceeding great and eternal weight of Glory Notwithstanding of all that is told us of our reward that eare hath not heard nor eye hath not seen nor can it enter into the heart of man to consider what God hath prepared for them that love him and that yet we should be outstriped how sad is it Sixthly They never dreamed of assisting influences from their Gods to help them at their owrshipe all they did they did in the strength of inherent vertue naturall or acquired Socrates could tell that his Philosophy made him patient and bear reproaches And Diogenes that his Philosophie made him contemne riches and delight in poverty Ay but we have the influences of asisting grace secured to us by the word of him who cannot ly to help us at our worship If we know not how to pray nor what to pray the Spirit helpeth our infirmities there is a spirit of faith and a spirit of love and a spirit of a sound mynd Their waters came out of broken Cisternes that could hold no waters But the rock followes us and the rock is Christ All these laid togither evidence what matter of lamentation aryseth from this point But that I may come to a close by what means may we come to outstrype them in our worshipe to the true God Since it is so farr that we are outstryped and so much to our reproach that it should be so it will be necessary to answer this And for answer to it there were some things helped them in their worship which we are to imitat And there are some things they neglected of which we are to be careful And by this we may come to outstrype them First For the things they did that we are to imitat I shall name these three 1. They were keeped much in fear and awe of their Gods in reference to the Heathen it will in some measure hold true primos in orbe fecit deos timor They were still affrayed if they neglected their worshipe their Gods would fall upon them and be avenged of it It is true it is too servil a principle of Gospel-worshipe Fear should not be the pace that should make our wheels goe it should be love if thou love me keep my Commandments Yet where fear is wanting usually worshipe is wanting also Eliphaz in one of his discourses to Job joyns these two togither though He misapply them to Jobs case Surely thou restraines prayer and
in considering what might be said against the promises God made to him as who he was that made them Let Isaack be brought to Ashes yet Abraham will not stagger at the promise so long as two attributs of God remain he judged him faithful that had promised and he knew that he was able out of the ashes of Isaack to accomplish his promise However in a tentatione the promise goe out of thy light so that thou art put to say what is become of the promise Yet goe not to doubt of it lest thou question or deny either that God is faithful or that he is able O how honourable to God is it to hazard on the credit of a promise of God which is in appearance by providence as overturned on the account of the faithfulness and power of God Learn then to answer the objections against them as the Psalmist does Psal 56.4 In God will I praise his word I will not fear what flesh can doe Fourthly Abraham did shalte himself loose of all the outward Impediments that might intangle him and imped his obedience to God in this tentation he told not Sarah of it and as some Jewish Doctors relate the cause of her death which followed shortly after Abraham came home was the report of so strange ane attempt by Abraham how then would she have taken it being told her before Beside Abraham said at the foot of the mount to the Servants abide ye here and I and the lad will goe up to the mount Ordinarly in tentations to which we are called we are intangled by our too much consulting with flesh and blood who alwayes give Peter his advice but if we could shake ourselves loose of these intanglements from all which we will shostly be loosed whither we will or not we should be fitter for a tentatione and have more cheerfulness under it Lastly Abraham in this tentatione though he could not see thorow it yet he was very confident the event would be well ordered by God for his comfort it was a remarkable answer he gave Isaack goeing up the mount when he asked him my Father where is the sacrifice my Sone said Abraham God will proved as confidently as he had seen the Ram already caught by the horns amongst the bushes if we could like obedient children out of love to God follow our duety to him we needed not be anxious what will become of this or that it would satisfie us abundantly God will provide And indeed how darke soever this tentation was in the begining yet there were three things remarkable in it Which three or one of them may be found in the event of what tentation God shall think fitt to tryst thee with First Abraham had a clearer discovery of the truth of his own grace then before by ane immediate voice by this I know thou lovest me love to Christ in us is often times like fire in flint if the flint be not striken upon the fire appears not and who knowes but thou art much doubting of it at this communion if indeed thou lovest him But the trials for the discovery of it may be reserved Secondly Abraham had a cleare view of Christ in the Ram ready to be a sacrifice for Isaack to which some interpreters think Christ relaâ—s in the 8th of John where he tells Abraham saw my day affar off and rejoiced And what canst thou tell but this may be the event also of the tentations thou art so much afrayd of A clearer discovery of Christ then in all thy life before Only be content to goe to the mount if he call thee saying God will provide Lastly on the same mount where Isaack was bound his posterity saw ane statly Temple that was one of the wonders of the world built by Solomon whereas any might have thought mount Moriah was the mount upon which the Church was undone in cutting off the promised seed Yet they saw the same mount the place where the Temple did stand So contrary are Gods thoughts often to ours and his wayes to our wayes that light comes out of darkness and order out of confusion and life out of death SERMON I. On Josua 1 v. 2. Moses my Servant is dead THese words containe Mose's Epitaph In which a description of Moses from his life his original and his end His original Moses which signifies drawen out his life a Servant his end he is dead We shall 1. clear the words though not much difficulty in them First His Original imported in his name Moses It was given him as we may read Exod. 3 10. because of his being drawn out of the water where his Mother had layd him in obedience to Pharaoh's Edict The Lord would have his original writt on his name that he could not so much as lay to minde his very name but he behoved to remember that he was drawen out for as eminent a servant as he was as among all the Prophets of the Old Testament none was like him yet God had him to fitt for it he found him not so but drew him out when he was destinat to death The second thing is his life My Servant A Servant is one who is not at his own disposal but at the beck of another they are as Aristotle calls them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 liveing instruments or tools because they are at the will of another to be used at their discretion So was Moses but my Servant is ane eminent elogy he is called so in a three-fold sense 1. By way of distinction and difference some are Servants of Sin serving divers lusts and pleasures Some are Servants of Men in opposition to God some as Rom. 16. serve their own bellies but Moses MY Servant 2dly My Servant by way of special right and propriety being his by election by purchase 1 Cor. 6. yea and by Covenant which was made at the burning bush 3dly This My Servant hath something of glorying in Moses as when the Saints say My God they triumph in their portion So when God sayes My Servant as Job 1. Hes thou considered my Servant Job there is a glorying in it and this was Moses high Elogy that he was not a Servant of sin or of men but of God The third Particular is his End He is dead We have his Death threatned Numb 20. because of his cariage at the waters of Meribah and execute Deut. last where he goes up to mount Nebo and dyes and is buried in the plains of Moab Though He was a great Prophet to whom none under the Old Testament came near eminently learned in all the wisdom of the Aegyptians though admitted to so near communion with God yet none of these can exeeme him from the common lot of mankind but he must dye He is dead Having thus briefly cleared the words we shall take some Observations from them and be briefe in some of them and insist on others Observ 1. That often Gods most eminent Servants when first he
in the work look but on the begining of our reformatione from Popery and wonder at the instruments that ve may ascribe the praise to the principal agent Luther in a Popish cell Calvin a big of Papist Beza not only a Papist but even loose so that Papists by way of reproach objected his Juvenilia to him and he forced to tell they envyed to him the grace of God and yet what done by them Secondly This may incourage in reference to the case of the Church for the time to come Often we stand asking by whom will the Lord deliver Israel And where are the instruments to be found fitt for the work But cannot he who drew out Moses draw out Either he can raise up new or elevat the Spirits of such as are What a change did the pouring out of the Spirit make on the Apostles How boldly goe they to the temple to preach With what confidence and freedome of speech appear they before Counsels and witness for Christ He is the same he was then who did effectuat this Thirdly This should make us hopefully pray for either such as are most indisposed for service or most reluctant to it since we have to do with one who can so easily draw them out and make them Veshels meet for his use Augustin ascribed much to his Mother Monica's Prayers who even when he was a Manichean ceased not to wrestle with God for him Lastly This should keep such as are honoured with eminent service humble when they call to mind what once they were and how drawn out to their work what have the best but what they have received And if received why glory they of it as though it had not been received But I goe to the second branch haveing dwelt too long on this my servant Moses his life and great Elogy Observ II. That it is the greatest Elogy and highest commendation of a Man after his death that in his life he hath been Gods Servant Thus it is here Moses his great testimony my servant is dead It is true all the creatures are in their kind subservient and his great estenemies doe his work But as this is not 〈◊〉 operantis so it is but some sins of common service but to be his as in the explication by way of distinction or propriety as Moses is a mans greatest elogy in death We shall 1st prove the point from Scripture 2dly Give some grounds of it 3dly Apply it From Scripture these things will prove it 1st It is the name given to the most eminent Saints as their Title of greatest honour Abraham my Servant Job my Servant Jacob my Servant David my Servant The greatest Prophets and Apostles glory in it Paul prefixes it to some of his Episties Paul a Servant of Jesus Christ 2dly This Name is given to the greatest Princes Nebuthadâ—â—zar Head of the Assiâ—ian Monarchy Jerem. 25.9 Cyrus Head of the Persian Isal 45. 3dly It is given to the exellent Martyrs Rev. 19.2 4thly It is given to the Saints in glory Rev. â—2 2. 5thly To the blessed Angels Rev. 19 10. Lastly To Jesus the Mediator Isai 42. Behold my Servant whom c. Behold all layed togither prove it ane eminent testimony of honour To evidence it further consider that there have been many things pitched on in the world as things commending men after their death according to the diversity of mens lives Some have been commended for their honour some their courage some their wisdome some their riches but where a concatination of these are 〈◊〉 eminently commendable must that 〈◊〉 be And in spending the life in service to God a multitude of these concurr I shall to demonstâ—at only pitch on these five 1st The wis 〈…〉 of life so spent 2dly The honourableness of it 3dly The gainfulness of it 4thly The sweetness of it Lastly The security of it Where all these concurr in the life how deservedly is the person commended First It is the highest wisdome His fear is the beginning of wisdome and a good understanding have all they that doe his Commandements If we sould take even the rule given by Azistotle whereby wisdom is discerned all would agree to his service Moses is brief in determining wherein wisdome consists Deut. 4 6. Keep his statutes for this is your wisdome Yea where his service is wanting the Scripture speaks of men as fools Jer. 8 9. Since they have rejected the word of God what wisdome is in them They are indeed foolish Virgins who make no provision for the time to come Though they should be able with Berengariâ—s to disput de omni scihili Or with Solomon to travel nature from the Cedar to the Hysop yet he that walks not circumspectly is a fool Eph. 5 16. So that if wisdome commend a Man at death it is a high Elogy to be his Servant Secondly There is no trade of life so honourable the way of life is above to the wise There be four things will discover how honourable a service it is First they are taken up with the noblest objects Philosophers call their Metapnisicks scientia Nobilissima quia tractant de enâ—e altissimo They are either meditating or delighting in God or with Angels doeing his commandments Others with Dioclesian are spending their time with fleas But his Servants like Caleb have ane other Spirit Numb 14. constantly follow him 2dly They act these great things from the noblest principles Love constraineth yea by regeneration they partake of the divine nature 2 Pet. 1. which elevats the Spirit farr above what the most famous among Grecians or Romans could ever reach 3dly They drive at the noblest ends such as the glory of God 1 Cor. 6. the good of his Church the salvation of their own souls Others like men of low Spirits have but low designes who will shew us any good Psal 4. Lastly They receive the noblest reward Henceforth is laid up for me a crowne of immortal glory blessed is that servant whom his Lord shall finde waiting verily I say unto you he shall make him ruler over all that he hath what more can be imagined if this be not More He will gird himself and stand and serve him So that if true honour commend a man at death it is a high elogy then to have been a Servant to God Thirdly As it is honourable so it is truely gainful to be his Servants Godliness is great Gain for it hath the promises of this life and that which is to come like ships that goe to a farr country they keep a trade with Heaven where they have wyne and milk and honey and whyt linen and eye-salve without money and without pryce No sooner doth his elect Children though prodigals before come to their Fathers house but they are clothed with the best rob and fed on the fatted calfe and have a ring on their hand and shoes on their feet It is true that which usually goes under the name of riches is not