LXXV. SERM. as all former dispensations of favour and mercy were as preludes or preambles to this; the old law did aim to represent it in its mysterious pomps; the chief of providential occurrences did intimate it; the prophets often in their mystical raptures did allude to it, and often in clear terms did express its; the gracious designs of God, and the longing expectations of mankind being so variously implied in regard thereto; now all is come to be fulfilled, and perfected in most clear, most effectual, most substantial Gen. iii. 15. accomplishment; now is sprung up that seed of the woman, which, according to the first gospel preached 18. 16. 10. 15. vii. 37. to Adam, should bruise the serpent's head; now is the mystical Isaac, the miraculous Son of promise, Gen. xxii. born; now is that grant to Abraham, In thy seed Gal. iii. 8, shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, made Gen. xlix. good; now is Shiloh come, of whom Jacob foreboded, unto him the gatherings of the people shall be; Deut. xviii. now is that oracle of Moses more than verified, A Acts iii. 22. Prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like to me; him shall ye Num. xxiv. hear; now the Star is come out of Jacob, the vision whereof dazzled Balaam, and stopped him from cursing that people, in which it should arise; now is Ps. cxxxii. that oath discharged to David, Of the fruit of thy Luke i. 33. body will I set upon thy throne; now those illusIsa. xi. 1. trious predictions of Isaiah, There shall come forth a Rod out of the stem of Jesse-A virgin shall conceive, and bear a son; to us a child is born, 17. 11. vii. 14. ix. 6. lix. 20. Sapientia et benignitas Dei ac salutiferi operis mora capaciores nos suæ vocationis effecit, ut quod multis signis, multis vocibus, multisque mysteriis per tot fuerat secula pronunciatum, in his diebus evangelii non esset ambiguum, &c. Leo P. de Nat. Serm. 3. LXXV. 26. xxxiii. 15. vi. 12. xxxvii. 24. Mic. v. 2. Hag. ii. 7. to us a son is given; and the government shall be SERM. on his shoulders-There shall come out of Sion the deliverer, and shall turn ungodliness from Jacob, Rom. xi. are fully accomplished; now the righteous Branch, Jer. xxiii.5. of which Jeremiah and Zechariah spake, is sprouted Zech. iii. 8. forth; and Ezekiel's One Shepherd, Daniel's Son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven; Micah's xxxiv. 23. Ruler in Israel, whose goings forth have been from Dan. vii.13. old; Haggai's Desire of all nations; Malachi's An- Matt. ii. 6. gel of the covenant, and Sun of righteousness, have Mal. iii. 1. all in truth appeared: now is that glorious King. iv. 2. and Captain arrived, whom the holy oracles do so magnificently describe; whom Moses and Joshua, whom David and Solomon in so many pat circumstances did foreshadow; whom God would set upon Psal. ii. 6. his holy hill of Sion; the sceptre of whose kingdom lxxii. 11. is a mighty sceptre; who should raise the taber- Acts xv. 16. nacle of David that is fallen; before whom all Luke i. 33. kings should fall down, and whom all nations Mic. iv. 7. should serve; who should reign over the house of xcvi. Jacob for ever, and of whose kingdom there shall be no end. Now what can be more delightful, or satisfactory to our mind, than to reflect on this sweet harmony of things, this goodly correspondence between the old and new world; wherein so pregnant evidences of God's chief attributes, (of his goodness, of his wisdom, of his fidelity and constancy,) all conspiring to our benefit, do shine? Is it not pleasant to contemplate how provident God hath ever been for our welfare? what trains from the world's beginning, or ever since our unhappy fall, he hath been laying to repair and restore us? how wisely he hath ordered all dispensations with a convenient reference and xlv. 6. Am. ix. 11. Dan. vii.13. Aug. in Ps. SERM. tendency to this masterpiece of grace"? how steady LXXV. he hath been in prosecuting his designs, and how faithful in accomplishing his promises concerning Joh. viii. 56. σατο. it? If the holy patriarchs did see this day, and were glad; if a glimpse thereof did cause their hearts to 'Hyadaia leap within them; if its very dawn had on the spirits of the prophets so vigorous an influence1, what comfort and complacence should we feel in this its real presence, and bright aspect on us! How sensibly should we be affected with this our happy advantage above them; the which our Lord himself then did teach us to estimate duly, when he said, Matt. xiii. Blessed are your eyes, for they see; and your ears, for they hear: for verily I say unto you, that many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them. 16, 17. Eph. ii. 14. 2. Let us consider what alteration our Lord's coming did induce, by comparing the state of things before it to that which followed it. The old world then consisting of two parts, severed by a strong wall of partition, made up of difference in opinion, in practice, in affection, together with a strict proActs x. 28. hibition to one of holding intercourse with the other. Of one, and that far the greater part, St. Paul h Non itaque novo consilio Deus rebus humanis, nec sera miseratione consuluit, sed a constitutione mundi unam eandemque omnibus causam salutis instituit. Leo P. de Nat. Serm. 3. i Magnam enim jucunditatem tunc carpebant ipsi sancti prophetæ, cum ea videbant in spiritu, non jam impleta, sed adhuc futura. Aug. in Ps. xcvi. ii. 1, 2. 18, 19. hath given us these descriptions and characters: SERM. They were aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, LXXV. and strangers from the covenant, having no hope, Eph. ii. 12. and being without God in the world; they were by nature the children of wrath and of disobe- Eph. ii. 3. dience; they were dead in trespasses and sins, walking according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that worketh in the children of disobedience ; they did walk in the vanity of their mind, hav- Eph. iv. 17, ing their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that was in them, because of the blindness of their heart; and being past feeling, did give themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness; they had their conversation in Eph. ii. 3. the lusts of the flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; being foolish, disobedient, Tit. iii. 3. deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living (Eph. v. 8. in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another. 1 Cor. vi. Such was the case, the dismally wretched case, of 11: the Gentile world; such were our forefathers, (such I Thess. iv. after them of course, by fatal consequence, should i Pet. iv. 3. we have been ;) they were in their minds blinded Rom. i. 29.) with gross ignorance, and deluded with foul errors; they were in their wills and affections corrupted with great disorder, perverseness, sensuality, malice; they did in their conversation practice all sorts of impiety, iniquity, and impurity; their conceptions of God were very unworthy, and their worship answerably such; (full of sottish, savage, beastly superstitions;) their principles were vain, and their life conformably dissolute; in short, they lived under the domination and influence of wicked spirits, who Col. iii. 7. Col. ii. 13. 2 Cor. iv. 4. 5. I Gal. iv. 8. LXXV. ii. 2. xvi. 11. 2 Tim. ii. 16. Col. i. 13. ii. 15. Acts xxvi. 18. SERM. thence are styled lords and princes of this world, of this air, of this secular darkness: even of the Eph. vi. 12. wisest among them, (the number of whom, notwith(John xii. standing the clatter their writings made, was very 31. xiv. 30. small and inconsiderable,) of those who by the con2 Cor. iv. 4. duct of natural light strove to disengage themselves from vulgar mistakes and miscarriages, the case was little better; for even their minds (after all their studious disquisitions and debates) proved dark and giddy; full of ignorance, of error, of doubt in regard to the main points of religion and of morality; some of them flatly denying the existence, or (which in effect is the same) the providence of God; the natural distinction between good and evil, the spiritual nature and future subsistence of our souls, the dispensation of rewards and punishments after this life; others wavering in doubt, or having but faint persuasions about these matters; few or none having clear notions, or steady opinions about any such things; whence their practice, in correspondence to their rules, must needs have been very loose, or very lame; so that well might our apostle Dah say of them, They became vain in their reasonings, and their foolish heart was darkened; professing themselves wise, they became fools; and as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient. μοῖς. As for the other part, or little parcel of men, the condition of that was also very low: if the rest of the world did lie in dark night, they did live but in Col. ii. 17. a dusky twilight; their religion was much wrapt up in shadow and mystery; they had but dilute ideas of God's nature, and scant discoveries of his will; Heb. viii. 5. X. I. |