The Works of Mr. George Gillespie Part 41
I suppose I have said enough for confirmation and clearing of the doctrine concerning the necessity of our being ashamed and confounded before the Lord. I have now a fourfold application to draw from it.
The first application shall be to the malignant enemies of the cause and people of G.o.d at this time, who deserve Jeremiah's black mark to be put upon them: "Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? nay, they wore not at all ashamed, neither could they blush," Jer. vi. 15; viii. 12. When he would say the worst of them, this is it: "Thou hadst a wh.o.r.e's forehead, thou refusedst to be ashamed," Jer. iii. 3. There are some sons of Belial risen up against us, who have done some things whereof, I dare say, many heathens would have been ashamed; yet they are as far from being ashamed of their outrages as Caligula was, who said of himself, that he loved nothing better in his own nature than that he could not be ashamed: nay, their glory is their shame, Phil. iii. 19; and if the Lord do not open their eyes to see their shame, their end will be destruction. Is it a light matter to swear and blaspheme, to coin and spread lies, to devise calumnies, to break treaties, to contrive treacherous plots, to exercise so many barbarous cruelties, to shed so much blood, and, as if that were too little, to bury men quick? Is all this no matter of shame? And when they have so often professed to be for the true Protestant religion, shall they not be ashamed to thirst so much after Protestant blood, and in that cause desire to a.s.sociate themselves with all the Papists at home and abroad whose a.s.sistance they can have, and particularly with those matchless monsters (they call them subjects) of Ireland, who, if the computation fail not, have shed the blood of some hundred thousands in that kingdom? For our part, it seems they are resolved to give the worst name to the best thing which we can do, and therefore they have not been ashamed to call a religious and loyal covenant a traitorous and d.a.m.nable covenant. I have no pleasure to take up these and other dunghills, the text hath put this in my mouth which I have said. O that they could recover themselves out of the gall of bitterness, and bond of iniquity, Acts viii. 23; O that we could hear that they begin to be ashamed of their abominations, "Lord, when thy hand is lifted up, they will not see: but they shall see, and be ashamed for their envy at the people," Isa. xxvi. 11; the Lord "shall appear to your joy, and they shall be ashamed," lxvi. 5.
But now, in the second place, let me speak to the kingdom, and to you whom it concerneth this day to be humbled, both for your own sins and for the sins of the kingdom which you represent. Although yourselves, whom G.o.d hath placed in this honourable station, and the kingdom which G.o.d hath blessed with many choice blessings, be much and worthily honoured among the children of men, yet when you have to do with G.o.d, and with that wherein his great name and his glory is concerned, you must not think of honouring, but rather abashing yourselves, and creeping low in the dust.
Livy tells us,(1376) that when M. Claudius Marcellus would have dedicate a temple to Honour and Virtue, the priests hindered it, _quod utri deo res divina fieret, sciri non posset_, because so it could not be known to which of the two G.o.ds he should offer sacrifice. Far be it from any of you to suffer the will of G.o.d and your own credit to come in compet.i.tion together, or to put back any point of truth, because it may seem, peradventure, some way to wound your reputation, though, when all is well examined, it shall be found your glory.
You are now about the casting out of many corruptions in the government of the church and worship of G.o.d. Remember, therefore, it is not enough to cleanse the house of the Lord, but you must be humbled for your former defilements wherewith it was polluted. It is not enough that England say with Ephraim in one place, "What have I to do any more with idols?" Hos.
xiv. 8. England must say also with Ephraim in another place, "Surely after that I was turned, I repented; and after that I was instructed, I smote upon my thigh: I was ashamed, yea, even confounded, because I did bear the reproach of my youth," Jer. x.x.xi. 19. Let England sit down in the dust, and wallow itself in ashes, and cry out as the lepers did (Lev. xiii. 45), "Unclean, unclean," and then rise up and cast away the least superst.i.tious ceremony "as a menstruous cloth; thou shalt say unto it, Get thee hence,"
Isa. x.x.x. 22. I know that those who are not convinced of the intrinsical evil and unlawfulness of former corruptions may, upon other considerations, go along and join in this reformation; for according to Augustine's rule,(1377) men are to let go those ecclesiastical customs which neither Scriptures nor councils bind upon us, nor yet are universally received by all churches. And according to Ambrose's rule to Valentinian, epist. 31, _Nullus pudor est ad meliora transive_,-it is no shame to change that which is not so good for that which is better. So doth Arn.o.bius(1378) answer the pagans, who objected the novelty of the Christian religion: You should not look so much (saith he) _quid reliquerimus_ as _quid secuti simus_; be rather satisfied with the good which we follow, than to quarrel why we have changed our former practise.
He giveth instance, that when men found the art of weaving clothes, they did no longer clothe themselves in skins; and when they learned to build houses, they left off to dwell in rocks and caves. All this carrieth reason with it, for _optimum est eligendum_. If all this satisfy not, it may be n.a.z.ianzen's rule(1379) will move some man: When there was a great stir about his archbishopric of Constantinople, he yielded for peace; because this storm was raised for his sake, he wished to be cast into the sea. He often professeth that he did not affect riches, nor dignities, but rather to be freed of his bishopric. We are like to listen long before we hear such expressions either from archbishop or bishop in England, who seem not to care much who sink, so that themselves swim above. Yet I shall name one rule more, which I shall take from the confessions of two English prelates. One(1380) of them hath this contemplation upon Hezekiah's taking away the brazen serpent, when he perceived it to be superst.i.tiously abused: "Superst.i.tious use (saith he) can mar the very inst.i.tutions of G.o.d, how much more the most wise and well-grounded devices of men?"
Another(1381) of them acknowledged that whatsoever is taken up at the injunction of men, and is not of G.o.d's own prescribing, when it is drawn to superst.i.tion, cometh under the case of the brazen serpent. You may easily make the a.s.sumption, and then the conclusion, concerning those ceremonies which are not G.o.d's inst.i.tutions but men's devices, and have been grossly and notoriously abused by many to superst.i.tion.
Now to return to the point in hand, if upon all or any of these, or the like principles, any of this kingdom shall join in the removal of corruptions out of the church, which yet they do not conceive to be in themselves, and intrinsically corruptions in religion, in this case I say with the Apostle, "I therein do rejoice, yea, and will rejoice," Phil. i.
18, because every way reformation is set forward. But let such an one look to himself, how the doctrine drawn from this text falleth upon him, that he who only ceaseth to do evil, but repenteth not of the evil,-he who applieth himself to reformation, but is not ashamed of former defilements, is in danger both of G.o.d's displeasure, and of miscarrying in his judgment about reformation. It is far from my meaning to discourage any who are, with humble and upright hearts, seeking after more light than yet they have; I say it only for their sake, who, through the presumption and unhumbledness of their spirits, will acknowledge no fault in anything they have formerly done in church matters.
I cannot leave this application to the kingdom till I enlarge it a little farther. There are four considerations which may make England ashamed and confounded before the Lord.
1. Because of the great blessings which it hath so long wanted. Your flourishing estate in the world could not have countervailed the want of the purity and liberty of the ordinances of Christ. That was a heavy word of the Prophet, "Now for a long season Israel hath been without the true G.o.d, and without a teaching priest, and without law," 2 Chron. xv. 3. It hath not been altogether so with this land, where the Lord hath had not only a true church, but many burning and shining lights, many gracious preachers and professors, many notable defenders of the Protestant cause against Papists, many who have preached and written worthily of practical divinity, and of those things which most concern a man's salvation. Nay, I am persuaded, that all this time past, there have been in this kingdom many thousands of his secret and sealed ones, who have been groaning under that burden and bondage which they could not help, and have been "waiting for the consolation of Israel," Luke ii. 25. Nevertheless, the reformation of the church of England hath been exceedingly deficient, in government, discipline and worship; yea, and many places of the kingdom have been "without a teaching priest," and other places poisoned with false teachers. It is said (1 Sam. vii. 2), that all the house of Israel lamented after the Lord, when they wanted the ark twenty years. O let England lament after the Lord, until the ark be brought into the own place of it!
2. There is another cause of this great humiliation, and that is, the point in the text, to be ashamed "of all that you have done." Sin, sin is that which blacketh our faces, and covereth us with confusion as with a mantle, and then most of all when we may read our sin in some judgment of G.o.d which lieth upon us; therefore the Septuagint here, instead of being "ashamed of all that they have done," read-"accept their punishment for all that they have done," which agreeth to that word in the law:(1382) "If then their uncirc.u.mcised hearts be humbled (the Greek readeth there _ashamed_) and they then accept of the punishment of their iniquity," Lev.
xxvi. 41. This is now England's case, whose sin is written in the present judgment, and graven in your calamity as "with a pen of iron, and with a point of a diamond" (Jer. xvii. 1), to make you say, "The Lord our G.o.d is righteous in all his works which he doeth: for we obeyed not his voice,"
Dan. ix. 14. Did not the land make idol G.o.ds of the court, and of the prelatical clergy, and feared them, and followed them more than G.o.d, and obeyed them rather than G.o.d, so that their threshold was set by G.o.d's threshold, and their posts by G.o.d's posts? as it is said, ver. 7. I speak not now of lawful obedience to authority. Is it not a righteous thing with the Lord to make these, your idols, his rods to correct you? Hath not England harboured and entertained Papists, priests, and Jesuits in its bosom? Is it not just that now you feel the sting and poison of these vipers? Hath there not been a great compliance with the prelates, for peace's sake, even to the prejudice of truth? Doth not the Lord now justly punish that Episcopal peace with an Episcopal war? Was not that prelatical government first devised, and since continued, to preserve peace and to prevent schisms in the church? And was it not G.o.d's just judgment that such a remedy of man's invention should rather increase than cure the evil? So that sects have most multiplied under that government, which now you know by sad experience. Hath not this nation, for a long time, taken the name of the Lord in vain, by a formal worship and empty profession? Is it not a just requital upon G.o.d's part, that your enemies have all this while taken G.o.d's name in vain, and taken the Almighty to witness of the integrity of their intentions for religion, law and liberty, thus persuading the world to believe a lie? What shall I say of the book of sports, and other profanations of the Lord's day? This licentiousness was most acceptable to the greatest part, and they "loved to have it so," Jer.
v. 31. Doth not the great famine of the word almost everywhere in the kingdom, except in this city, make the land mourn on the Sabbath, and say, "I do remember my faults this day?" Gen. xli. 9. Yea, doth not the land now enjoy her Sabbaths, while men are constrained not only to cease from sports on that day, but from labouring the ground, and from other works of their calling upon other days? What should I speak of the l.u.s.ts and uncleanness, gluttony and drunkenness, chambering and wantonness, prodigality and lavishness, excess of riot, masking, and balling, and sporting, when Germany and the Palatinate, and other places, were wallowing in blood, yea, when there was so much sin and wrath upon this same kingdom? Will not you say now, that for this the Lord G.o.d hath caused your "sun to go down at noon," and hath turned your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentations? (Amos viii. 9, 10.) Or what should I say of the oppressions, injustice, cozenage in trading and in merchandise, which yourselves know better than I can do how much they have abounded in the kingdom? Doth not G.o.d now punish the secret injustice of his people by the open injustice of their enemies? Do ye not remember that mischief was framed by a law? And now, when your enemies execute mischief against law, will you not say, Righteous art thou, O Lord, and just are thy judgments.
One thing I may not forget, and that is, that the Lord is punishing blood with blood, the blood of the oppressed, the blood of the persecuted, the blood of those who have died in prisons, or in strange countries, suffering for righteousness' sake. He that departed from evil did even make himself a prey, Isa. lix. 15. There was not so much as one drop of blood spilt upon the pillory for the testimony of the truth but it crieth to heaven, for precious is the blood of the saints, (Psal. lxxii. 14.) Doth not all the blood shed in Queen Mary's days cry? And doth not the blood of the Palatinate and of Rochel cry? And doth not the blood of souls cry? which is the loudest cry of all. G.o.d said to Cain, "The voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground," Gen. iv. 10. The Hebrew hath it, "Thy brother's blood," which is well expounded both by the Chaldee Paraphrase and the Jerusalem Targum, the voice of the blood of all the generations and the righteous people which thy brother should have begotten crieth unto me. I may apply it to the thing in hand: The silencing, deposing, persecuting, imprisoning, and banishing of so many of the Lord's witnesses, of the most painful and powerful preachers, and the preferring of so many either dumb dogs or false teachers, maketh the voice of bloods to cry to heaven, even the blood of many thousands, yea, thousands of thousands of souls, which have been lost by the one, or might have been saved by the other. G.o.d will require the blood of the children which those righteous Abels might have begotten unto him. There is, beside all this, more blood-guiltiness, which is secret, but shall sometime be brought to light. O blood! blood! O let the land tremble, while the righteous Judge makes "inquisition for blood," Psal. ix. 12; O let England cry, "Deliver me from blood-guiltiness, O G.o.d"! Psal. li. 14.
But you will say, peradventure, many of these things whereof I have spoken ought not to be charged upon the kingdom, they were only the acts of a prevalent faction for the time.
I answer, First, G.o.d will impute them to the kingdom, unless the kingdom mourn for them. G.o.d gives not a charge to the destroying angel (Ezek. ix.
4) to spare those who have not been actors in the public sins and abominations, but to spare those only who cry and sigh for those abominations.
Secondly, When the ministers of state, or others having authority in church or commonwealth, take the boldness to do such acts, the kingdom is not blameless; for they durst not have done as they did, had the Lord but disclaimed, discountenanced, and cried out against them. It is marked both of John Baptist (Matt. xiv. 5), and of Christ (Matt. xxi. 46), and of the apostles (Acts iv. 21), that so long as the people did magnify them, and esteem them highly, their enemies durst not do unto them what else they would have done.
3. A third consideration concerning the kingdom is this. Notwithstanding of all the happiness and gospel-blessings which it hath wanted in so great a measure, and notwithstanding of all the sins which have so much abounded in it, yet the servants of G.o.d have charged it with great presumption,(1383) that the church of England hath said with the church of Laodicea, "I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing,"
Rev. iii. 17. It hath been proud of its clergy, learning, great revenues, peace, plenty, wealth, and abundance of all things, and as the Apostle chargeth the Corinthians, "Ye are puffed up, and have not rather mourned,"
that the wicked ones "might be taken away from among you," 1 Cor. v. 2.
And would G.o.d this presumption had taken an end when G.o.d did begin to afflict the land. It did even make an idol of this Parliament, and trusted to its own strength and armies, which hath provoked G.o.d so much, that he hath sometimes almost blasted your hopes that way, and hath made you to feel your weakness even where you thought yourselves strongest. G.o.d would not have England say, "Mine own hand hath saved me," Judg. vii. 2; neither will he have Scotland to say, "My hand hath done it:" but he will have both to say, His hand hath done it, when we were lost in our own eyes. G.o.d grant that your leaning so much upon the arm of flesh be not the cause of more blows. G.o.d must be seen in the work, and he will have us to give him all the glory, and to say, "Thou also hast wrought all our works in us,"
Isa. xxvi. 12. O that all our presumption may be repented of, and that the land may be yet more deeply humbled! a.s.suredly G.o.d will arise and subdue our enemies, and command deliverances for Jacob; but it is as certain G.o.d will not do this till we be more humbled and (as the text saith) ashamed of all that we have done.
4. There is another motive more evangelical: Let England be humbled even for the mercy, the most admirable mercy which G.o.d hath showed upon so undeserving and evil-deserving a kingdom. See it in this same prophecy, "I will establish my covenant with thee; and thou shalt know that I am the Lord: that thou mayest remember, and be confounded, and never open thy mouth any more because of thy shame, when I am pacified toward thee for all that thou hast done, saith the Lord G.o.d," Ezek. xvi. 62, 63. And again: "Not for your sakes do I this, saith the Lord G.o.d, be it known unto you: be ashamed and confounded for your own ways, O house of Israel,"
Ezek. x.x.xvi. 32; "O my G.o.d (saith Ezra), I am ashamed and blush to lift up my face to thee," Ezra. ix. 6. And what was it that did so confound him?
You may find it in that which followeth: G.o.d had showed them mercy, and had left them a remnant to escape, and had given them a nail in his holy place, and had lightened their eyes: "And now (saith he), O our G.o.d, what shall we say after this? for we have forsaken thy commandments," Ezra. ix.
10. Let us this day compare, as he did, G.o.d's goodness and our own guiltiness. England deserved nothing but to get a bill of divorce, and that G.o.d should have said in his wrath, Away from me, I have no pleasure in you; but now he hath received you into the bond of his covenant, he rejoiceth over you to do you good, and to dwell among you; his banner over you is love. O let our hard hearts be overcome and be confounded with so much mercy, and let us be ashamed of ourselves, that after so much mercy we should be yet in our sins and trespa.s.ses.
There is a third application, which I intend for the ministry, who ought to go before the people of G.o.d in the example of repentance and humiliation. You know the old observation, _Raro vidi cleric.u.m poenitentem_,-I have seldom seen a clergyman penitent. As Christ saith of rich men (Mark x. 24, 25), I may say of learned men, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a man that trusts in his learning to enter into the kingdom of heaven. He will needs maintain the lawfulness of all which he hath done, and will not be, as this text would have him, ashamed of all that he hath done. Yet it is not impossible with G.o.d to make such an one deny himself, and that whatsoever in him exalts itself against Christ should be brought into captivity to the obedience of Christ (2 Cor. x. 5). Among all that were converted by the ministry of the apostles, I wonder most at the conversion of a great company of priests, Acts vi. 7. I do not suspect, as two learned men have done,(1384) that the text is corrupted in that place, and that it should be otherwise read. I am the rather satisfied, because there is nothing there mentioned of the conversion of the high priest, or of the chief priests, the heads of the twenty-four orders which were upon the council, and had condemned Christ: the place cannot be understood but of a mult.i.tude of common or inferior priests, even as, by proportion, in Hezekiah's reformation, the Levites were more upright in heart than the priests, 2 Chron. xxix. 34.
And now many of the inferior clergy (as they were abusively called) are more upright in heart unto this present reformation than any of those who had a.s.sumed to themselves high degrees in the church. The hardest point of all is, so to embrace and follow reformation as to be ashamed of former prevarications and pollutions. But in this also the Holy Ghost hath set examples before the ministers of the gospel. I read, 2 Chron. x.x.x. 15, "The priests and the Levites were ashamed, and sanctified themselves, and brought in the burnt-offerings into the house of the Lord." They thought it not enough to be sanctified, but they were ashamed that they had been before defiled. A great prophet is not content to have his judgment rectified which had been in error, but he is ashamed of the error he had been in; "So foolish was I (saith he) and ignorant: I was as a beast before thee," Psal. lxxiii. 22. A great apostle must glorify G.o.d, and humbly acknowledge his own shame; "For I am the least of the apostles (saith he), that am not meet to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of G.o.d," 1 Cor. xv. 9. And shall I add the example of a great father? Augustine confesseth(1385) honestly, that for the s.p.a.ce of nine years he both was deceived, and did deceive others. Nature will whisper to a man to look to his credit: but the text here calleth for another thing,-to look to the honour of G.o.d, and to thine own shame; and yet in so doing thou shalt be more highly esteemed both by G.o.d and by his children.
Now without this let a man seem to turn and reform never so well, all is unsure work, and built upon a sandy foundation. And whosoever will not acknowledge their iniquity, and be ashamed for it, G.o.d shall make them bear their shame; according to that which is p.r.o.nounced in the next chapter, ver. 10-15, against the Levites, who had gone astray when Israel went astray after their idols; and according to that, Mal. ii. 8, 9, "Ye have corrupted the covenant of Levi, saith the Lord of hosts: therefore have I also made you contemptible and base before all the people."
The fourth and last application of this doctrine is for every Christian.
The text teacheth us a difference betwixt a presumptuous and a truly humbled sinner; the one is ashamed of his sins, the other not. By this mark let every one of us try himself this day. It is a saving grace to be truly and really ashamed of sin. It is one of the promises of the covenant of grace, "Then shall ye remember your own evil ways, and your doings that were not good, and shall loathe yourselves in your own sight, for your iniquities, and for your abominations," Ezek. x.x.xvi. 31. Try, then, if thou hast but thus much of the work of grace in thy soul; and if thou hast, be a.s.sured of thy interest in Christ and in the new covenant. A reprobate may have somewhat which is very like this grace: but I shall lay open the difference betwixt the one and the other in these particulars:-
1. To be truly ashamed of sin, is to be ashamed of it as an act of filthiness and uncleanness. The child of G.o.d, when he comes to the throne of grace, is ashamed of an unclean heart, though the world cannot see it.
A natural man, at his best, looketh upon sin as it d.a.m.neth and destroyeth the soul, but he cannot look upon it as it defiles the soul. Shame ariseth properly from a filthy act, though no other evil be to follow upon it.
2. As we are ashamed of acts of filthiness, so of acts of folly. A natural man may judge himself a fool in regard of the circ.u.mstances or consequents of his sin, but he is not convinced that sin in itself is an act of madness and folly. When the child of G.o.d is humbled he becomes a fool in his own eyes,-he perceives he had done like a mad fool, 1 Cor. iii. 18; therefore he is said then to come to himself, Luke xv. 17.
3. The child of G.o.d is ashamed of sin as an act of unkindness and unthankfulness to a sweet merciful Lord, Psal. cx.x.x. 4; Rom. ii. 4. Though there were no other evil in sin, the conscience of so much mercy and love so far abused, and so unkindly recompensed, is that which confoundeth a penitent sinner. As the wife of a kind husband, if she play the wh.o.r.e (though the world know it not), and if her husband, when he might divorce her, shall still love her and receive her into his bosom; such a one, if she have at all any sense, or any bowels of sorrow, must needs be swallowed up of shame and confusion for her undutifulness and treachery to such a husband. But now the hypocrite is not at all troubled or afflicted in spirit for sin as it is an act of unkindness to G.o.d.
4. Shame, as philosophers have defined it,(1386) is "the fear of a just reproof:" not simply the fear of a reproof, but the fear of a just reproof. That is servile; this filial. The child of G.o.d is ashamed of the very guiltiness, and of that which may be justly laid to his charge; the hypocrite not so. Saul was not ashamed of his sin, but he was ashamed that Samuel should reprove him before the elders of the people, 1 Sam. xv. 15, 30. Christ's adversaries were ashamed (Luke xiii. 17), not of their error, but because their mouths were stopped before the people, and they could not answer him. A hypocrite is ashamed, "as a thief is ashamed when he is found," Jer. ii. 26; mark that, "when he is found;" a thief is not ashamed of his sin, but because he is found in it, and so brought to a shameful end.
5. When the cause of G.o.d is in hand, a true penitent is so ashamed of himself that he fears the people of G.o.d shall be put to shame for his sake, and that it shall go the worse with them because of his vileness and guiltiness. This made David pray, "O G.o.d, thou knowest my foolishness; and my sins are not hid from thee. Let not them that wait on thee, O Lord G.o.d of hosts, be ashamed for my sake; let not those that seek thee be confounded for my sake, O G.o.d of Israel," Psal. lxix. 5, 6. The sorrow and shame of a hypocrite (as all his other seeming graces) are rooted in self-love, not in the love of G.o.d: he hath not this in all his thoughts, that he is a spot or blemish in the body or church of Christ, and therefore to be humbled, lest for his sake G.o.d be displeased with his people; lest such a vile and abominable sinner as he is bring wrath and confusion upon others, and make Israel turn their back before the enemy. O happy soul that hath such thoughts as these!
I have now done with the first part of the text, wherein I have been the larger, because it most fitteth the work of the day.
The second follows: "Show them the form of the house," &c.
Before I come to the doctrines which do here arise, I shall first explain the particulars mentioned in this part of the text, so as they may agree to the spiritual temple or church of Christ, which in the beginning I proved to be here intended.
First, We find here the form and fashion of a house; in which the parts are very much diversified one from another. There are, in a formed and fashioned house, doors, windows, posts, lintels, &c.; there is also a mult.i.tude of common stones in the walls of the house. Such a house is the visible ministerial church of Christ, the parts whereof are _partes dissimilares_,-some ministers and rulers; some eminent lights; others of the ordinary rank of Christians,-that make up the walls. If G.o.d hath made one but a small pinning in the wall, he hath reason to be content, and must not say, Why am not I a post, or a corner-stone, or a beam? Neither yet may any corner-stone despise the stones in the wall, and say, I have no need of you.
Secondly, The Prophet was here to show them "the goings out of the house, and the comings in thereof." These are not the same but different gates, it is plain: "When the people of the land shall come before the Lord in the solemn feasts, he that entereth in by the way of the north gate to worship, shall go out by the way of the south gate, &c., he shall not return by the way of the gate whereby he came in," Ezek. xlvi. 9. And that not only to teach us order, and the avoiding of confusion, occasioned by the contrary tides of a mult.i.tude, but to tell us farther, "No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of G.o.d," Luke ix. 62. We must not go out of the church the way that we came in (that were a door of defection), but hold our faces forward till we go out by the door of death.
Thirdly, The text hath twice "all the forms thereof," which I understand of the outward forms and of the inward forms, which two I find very much distinguished by those who have written of the form and structure of the temple. The church is exceedingly beautified, even outwardly, with the ordinances of Christ, but the inward forms are the most glorious: "For, behold, the kingdom of G.o.d is within you," Luke xvii. 21; and it "cometh not with observation," ver. 20; "The king's daughter is all glorious within;" yet even "her clothing is of wrought gold," Psal. xlv. 13. When the angel had made an end of measuring the inner house (Ezek. xlii. 15), then he brought forth Ezekiel by the east gate, which was the chief gate by which the people commonly entered, and measured the outer wall in the last place. G.o.d's method is first to try the heart and reins, then to give to a man according to his works, Jer. xvii. 10. So should we measure, by the reed of the sanctuary, first the inner house of our hearts and minds, and then to measure our outer walls, and to judge of our profession and external performances.
Lastly, The Prophet is commanded to write in their sight "all the ordinances thereof, and all the laws thereof;" for the church is a house not only in an architectonic, but in an economic sense. It is Christ's family governed by his own laws; and a temple which hath in it "them that worship," Rev. xi. 1, it hath its own proper laws by which it is ordered.
_Alioe sunt leges Coesarum, alioe Christi_ (saith Jerome(1387)),-Caesar's laws and Christ's laws are not the same, but divers one from another.
Schoolmen say,(1388) that a law, properly so called, is both illuminative and impulsive: illuminative, to inform and direct the judgment; impulsive, to move and apply the will to action. And accordingly there are two names in this text given to Christ's laws and inst.i.tutions: one(1389) which importeth the instruction and information of our minds; another,(1390) which signifieth a deep imprinting or engraving (and that is made upon our hearts and affections), such as a pen of iron and other instruments could make upon a stone. It is not well when either of the two is wanting; for the light of truth, without the engraving of truth, may be extinguished; and the engraving of truth, without the light of truth, may be obliterate.
All these I shall pa.s.s, and only pitch upon two doctrines which I shall draw from this second part of the text: one concerning the will of G.o.d's commandment, what G.o.d requireth of Israel to do; another concerning the will of G.o.d's decree, what he hath purposed himself to do.
The first is this: "G.o.d will have Israel to build and order his temple, not as shall seem good in their eyes, but according to his own pattern only which he sets before them," which doth so evidently appear from this very text, that it needeth no other proof; for what else meaneth the showing of such a pattern to be kept and followed by his people? Other pa.s.sages of this kind there are which do more abundantly confirm it.
The Lord did prescribe to Noah both the matter, and fashion, and measures of the ark (Gen. vi. 14-16). To Moses he gave a pattern of the tabernacle, of the ark, of the mercy-seat, of the vail, of the curtains, of the two altars, of the table and all the furniture thereof, of the candlestick and all the instruments thereof, &c. And though Moses was the greatest prophet that ever arose in Israel, yet G.o.d would not leave any part of the work to Moses' arbitrement, but straitly commandeth him, "Look that thou make them after their pattern, which was showed thee in the mount," Exod. xxv. 40.
When it came to the building of the first temple, Solomon was not in that left to his own wisdom, as great as it was, but David, the man of G.o.d, gave him a perfect "pattern of all that he had by the Spirit," 1 Chron.
xxviii. 11-13. The second temple was also built "according to the commandment of the G.o.d of Israel" (Ezra vi. 14), by Haggai and Zechariah.
And for the New Testament, Christ our great Prophet, and only King and Lawgiver of the church, hath revealed his will to the apostles, and they to us, concerning all his holy things; and we must hold us at these unleavened and unmixed ordinances which the apostles, from the Lord, delivered to the churches: "I will put upon you (saith he himself) none other burden: but that which ye have already hold fast till I come," Rev.
ii. 24, 25.
I know the church must observe rules of order and conveniency in the common circ.u.mstances of times, places, and persons; but these circ.u.mstances are none of our holy things,-they are only prudential accommodations, which are alike common to all human societies, both civil and ecclesiastical, wherein both are directed by the same light of nature, the common rule to both in all things of that kind, providing always that the general rules of the word be observed: "Do all to the glory of G.o.d," 1 Cor. x. 31; "Let all things be done to edifying," 1 Cor. xiv. 26; "It is good neither to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, nor anything whereby thy brother stumbleth, or is offended, or is made weak," Rom. xiv. 21; "Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind. To him that esteemeth anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean," Rom. xiv. 5, 14.
The text giveth some clearing to this point: There is here showed to the house of Israel a pattern of the whole structure, and of the least part thereof, and all the measures thereof; yet no pattern is given of the kind, or quant.i.ty, or magnificence of the several stones, or of the instruments of building. The reason is, because the former is essential to a house, the latter accidental,(1391) the former, if altered, make another building; the latter, though altered, the building is the same: therefore where we have in the text "the forms thereof," the Septuagint read ?p?stas?? a?t??,-_the substance thereof_.
But to clear it a little farther, I put two characters upon those circ.u.mstances which are not determined by the word of G.o.d, but left to be ordered by the church as shall be found most convenient. First, They are not things sacred, nor proper to the church, as hath been said. They are of the same nature, they serve for the same end and use, both in sacred and civil things; for order and decency, the avoiding of confusion and the like, are alike common to church and commonwealth. Secondly, I shall describe them as one of the prelates hath done, who tells us,(1392) that the things which the Scripture hath left to the discretion of the church are those things "which neither needed nor could be particularly expressed. They needed not, because they are so obvious; and they could not, both because they are so numerous, and because so changeable."
I will not insist upon questions of this kind, but will make a short application of the doctrine unto you, honourable and beloved. You may plainly see from what hath been said, that neither kings, nor parliaments, nor synods, nor any power on earth, may impose or continue the least ceremony upon the consciences of G.o.d's people, which Christ hath not imposed; therefore let neither antiquity, nor custom, nor conveniency, nor prudential considerations, nor show of holiness, nor any pretext whatsoever, plead for the reservation of any of your old ceremonies, which have no warrant from the word of G.o.d. Much might have been said for the high places among the Jews, as I hinted in the beginning; and much might have been said by the Pharisees for their frequent washings (Mark vii. 2, 3, 4, 7), which, as they were ancient, and received by the traditions of the elders, so they were used to teach men purity, and to put them in mind of holiness; neither was their washing contrary to any commandment of G.o.d, except you understand that commandment of not adding to the word (Deut.
iv. 2; xii. 32; Prov. x.x.x. 6), which doth equally strike against all ceremonies devised by man.
"A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump," Gal. v. 9; and a little leak will endanger the ship. Thieves will readily dig through a house, how much more will they enter if any postern be left open to them. The wild beasts and boars of the forest will attempt to break down the hedges of the Lord's vineyard (Psal. lx.x.x. 13), how much more if any breach be left in the hedges. If, therefore, you would make a sure reformation, make a perfect reformation, lest Christ have this controversy with England, "Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee," Rev. ii. 4. And so much of our duty.