our security in him and are willing to live both under God's Government and Protection we are properly of the World and walk according to its course Isa 33.22 The Lord is our King he will save us is as it were the Natural and Primitive Language of all Returning Sinners when they are effectually called to be Saints God's offering of himself to us in the Unlimited Ministry of the Word does not make him Ours for he is offered to multitudes now whom he will not know at last but our hearty Complyance with it 't is a mutual agreement on both hands which must confirm the Interest and complete the Title God is not to be lookt upon as our Rock before the Spirit perswades and prevails with us to chuse him and if we are not perswaded so to do we are not really his people though we may be called by his Name The Second thing is to shew how it does appear that our Rock or the Rock which the Church is entitled to is better than that of our Enemies If we compare them a little together we shall quickly and easily see a vast Disproportion I only premise that as a long continued Ridge of Hills is sometimes reckoned by Geographers and others as One Mountain so their Rock who are and have been the Churches greatest Enemies though it go under that single denomination is indeed a Conjunction of many things which they make their Refuge and esteem their safety I shall instance in six particulars which may be comprehended under this General term First An Humane Head is their Rock The degenerate Roman Church does expresly and openly avow this they declare themselves to be Originally headed by Peter as the chief of the Apostles and their Bishop and Founder and now by the Pope as his Successor Let us look a little into both First As to Peter though we should grant him to be Bishop of Rome which is more than we need to do because no satisfying proof can be brought that ever he was there yet that he had the primacy among the rest of his Brethren the Apostles and that the Christian Church was founded upon him is by no means to be allowed The Text which they have urg'd to countenance this Opinion hath been so frequently and fully cleared that I think they can scarcely abuse it to do them any further service Matth. 16.18 Thou art Peter and on this Rock will I build my Church The case in short was this v. 16. Peter a little before had made a good confession Thou art Christ the Son of the Living God Christ requites him by saying also to him Thou art Peter q. d. Thou art fitly called so Peter signifying a Rock or Stone John 1.42 And hast made good this Character by the stedfastness of thy Faith in me then he adds not upon thee Peter but upon this Rock will I build my Church i. e. upon this Truth which thou hast confess 't or upon my self who am the matter and substance of it Certainly if Peter were to have had so great a preheminence beyond his Fellows our Lord would not have plac't them all equally upon twelve Thrones Matth. 19.28 which utterly shuts out the pretence of exalting Peters Chair above the rest Besides this it deserves to be remark't that none of the Apostles excepting the Son of Perdition whose Charge was taken by another fell so foulely as Peter did none deny'd and abjur'd their Master but only he as if God had resolv'd to discourage the design of advancing him to any such Headship over the Church as the Papists would put upon him He that seem'd to be a Pillar Galat. 2.9 was but left a while to himself and he seem'd like a reed shaken with the wind Secondly As to the Pope the present visible Head of the Roman Church his Succession to Peter in that Seat can never be clearly made out and if it could their case would not be much the better We know very well what abominable Monsters have possest both the place and the power as even their own Historians have reported as Rome is spiritually called Sodom and Egypt Revel 11.8 so that Chair hath been literally filled with unclean Sodomites and Egyptian Sorcerers as their Antichristian Church is often described by the Beast so the Heads of it have been more properly Brutes than Men and while they have lifted up themselves above all that is called God they have carried the notorious mark and Image of the Devil The greatest Deceivers that ever appeared in the World have been their Men of Infullibility and such as have departed furthest from the Truth have been their Vnerring Guides If this Rock of theirs be as our Rock let all that have the least part of an Eye to see determine 1 Cor. 10.4 our Rock is Christ as the Rock of the Jewish Believers was a Rock which no Darts of Temptation could pierce and a Rock which stands fast for ever the Holy one of God and the King Eternal Secondly Vnwritten Traditions are their Rock and the Word of God is ours What comparison is there between these two How many things have our Enemies deliver'd to the World as Oracles which have been grosly false and fabulous And how doubtful and uncertain must the best be if we consider how lyable they were to be alter'd and deprav'd either through the remisness or treachery of those into whose hands they came How hardly can we credit a report in our own times after it hath been propagated from one to another unless we trace it to the Spring How many times are we deluded and mistaken in things which are but of Yesterday How much more when Traditions are pretended of so great Antiquity But indeed 't is a great temptation to Men to leave the Word of God and seek out other supports when they find that the Word is against them if the Bible could be suborn'd as a positive Witness in their Cause they would not fly to these Vnscriptural Sanctuaries they are forc't as it were to say something of this kind that they may not be speechless How much safer and happier are we therefore who are built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets We are able to say with David Ephes 2.20 that we hope in the Word and we believe as the Sacred Canon directs us to believe but no otherwise Our Faith does not lean upon the Words of Men but the Inspired Writings of those that came from God which the Apostle Peter commends as more sure than a voice from Heaven 2 Pet. 1.18 19. Thirdly Images Reliques and the Consecrated Elements are their Rock I joyn all these together as having some affinity one to another and being of equal signification i.e. of none at all What confidence do the Romanists place in Images as if those lifeless representations like the shadow of Peter passing by could perform extraordinary matters Acts 5.15 A piece of
Rock to be better than our own Briefly there may be these three grounds and reasons of it First There is a mighty Evidence in some Truths which cannot be resisted by Men of the most corrupt minds The Light of Nature is not so far put out in the vilest Persons but that they do see some of the Differences between good and evil Indeed the deep Mysteries of the Gospel are such as cannot be known by Natural Men 1 Cor. 2.14 but there are other Truths so manifest and notorious that they cannot easily be ignorant of them 't is almost impossible to hide them from their understandings and Conviction breaks in against their Wills. It may be in their power to deny many things which 't is not in their power to disbelieve their Tongues perhaps may speak in opposition to that which their Judgments do necessarily assent to as the Devil may be the Author of Atheistical Suggestions to others tho' he cannot doubt of the being of God himself I question not but that our Enemies would judge their Rock to be better than ours if they could bring their thoughts as well as their Words so much under their own Command therefore we must conclude that they think thus because they are not able to avoid it by thinking otherwise Secondly Signal Rebukes of Providence do many times make this Truth more plain to our Enemies of the Incomparable Excellency of our Rock Then it becomes as legible to them as the Handwriting upon the Wall to Belshazzar and they discern it as clearly Exod. 8.19 as Pharaohs Magicians did the finger of God when they could no longer imitate the miraculous Works of Moses by their Enchantments If Dagon cannot stand before the Ark of the Lord 1 Sam. 5.2 even in the house of Dagon but like a poor helpless God be driven of from his own dunghil it must needs in some measure open the eyes of those that are most in love with darkness When God frustrates the most probable tokens of the Lyers and turns the wisest counsells into foolishness When he brings his wheel on a sudden over their necks that are trampling upon others and makes Men's own contrivances and preparations most pernicious and fatal to themselves When Enemyes that were wont to be attended with the strangest successes fall afterwards under as surprizing disappointments and the stream of prosperity which hath carried all before them runs as strong against them This will certainly make them reflect though Satan bend all his cunning to stiste such Reflexions upon the weakness of the Rock which they trust in There are some appearances of God in all his works he does nothing but what declares the glory of the Agent nevertheless there are particular dispensations also towards the Enemies of the Church Psal 9.16 wherein the Lord is eminently known by the Judgments which he executeth Thirdly The Terrours of God are a Demonstration of this truth sometimes to Adversaries even in the midst of their prosperity I do not think that Babylon even while she sits as a Queen can fortifie her Children against inward Convulsions or that they who seem above the fears of any visible disturbance are therefore alwayes perfectly at ease the Worm of Conscience may be biting while their Gourd is flourishing the Spirits of Israels troublers may be troubled and when their voice to others is as the roaring of a Lyon. God may speak more dreadfully in his Wrath to them Psal 2.5 He who can touch the Mountains so as to make them smoak can make the Pillars of the Antichristian Kingdom tremble and their Hearts astonished at his reproof This way of God's dealing with the minds of Men is worse than the heaviest strokes of Providence falling upon their outward concerns 't is many times indeed industriously cover'd and dissembled by those that feel it who know how to laugh when they have more cause to howl but it cannot be totally escap't nor quietly endur'd It will unsettle Men from their lees and beget a sense of God's excellent greatness and it may be will extort such an acknowledgment also as it did from lofty Nebuchadnezar at the beginning of his Reign Dan. 2.47 that our God is the God of Gods. If God do work upon the Souls of Enemies as he is able to do without letting loose his visible hand against them he can bring every knee to bow and every tongue to confess If any should now ask Q. Why Our Enemies cleave to their Rock still seeing they must be secretly convinc't that our Rock is better the Answer is easie First A. 1. Common Convictions such as they at any time lye under are very weak and ineffectual as to the altering of Mens state and customary practice The meer speculative knowledge of Divine Truths hath but small influence in producing a Reformation when they are not deeply imprinted by the Spirit of God and backt with an Holy experience No man says our Saviour having drunk old Wine Luk. 5.39 desireth new but the new may still satisfie those that never had any more than a Notion of the goodness of the Old. 1 Pet. 2.2.3 Those Spiritual tasts and relishes which Believers have incline them to a love of the Word and keep them from following after Fables Secondly The Pride of their Hearts will not suffer them to destroy what they have been building up for so many hundreds of Years They must pull down the whole frame of their Church if they entertain any thoughts of a new foundation They must abandon all that they have been fiercely contending for so long if they espouse our Rock and quit their own It will not be enough to give up a few less material points but their main principles must be renounc't also And this is too hard a saying for those who have puff't up themselves with a vain Opinion that they cannot err Thirdly The powerful Temptation of Worldly Interest will hinder such a change For they must then strip themselves of all that pomp and grandeur and lay aside all those cunning Artifices of robbing the People to increase their Churches Treasure which recommends that Religion so much to the Lusts of Men. They know not how to sacrifice the pleasure of Domination or to leave that profitable Trade of the Merchandise of Souls which they must do if they make choice of our God and be reconcil'd to our Religion Great Possessions and Honours do very often even in lesser cases prejudice Men against the Doctrine of the Gospel Fourthly Their Consciences are Judicially seared as the Apostle Paul foretold of these Grand Apostates in the latter times 1 Tim. 4.2 2 Thess 2.11 They are under strong delusions as the same Person speaks of them elsewhere by the Righteous Judgment of God who because they have left the truth hath left them to themselves Perhaps God may have a Remnant of People that are yet in Babylon whom he will call out
supposition of their Obedience and consequently when they sold themselves by their Iniquities which is laid to their charge chap. 50.1 it might well be expected that their Rock should sell them in a way of Judgment and when they withheld or imprison'd Rom. 1.18 like the Heathen the Truth in Vnrighteousness they might rationally think that the Lord would shut them up in a state of Misery and Thraldom Now lest they or their Adversaries should overlook the Divine Hand in so marvellous a change and more especially lest their Adversaries should who were apt to say as we read in this very Chapter Our hand is high Ver. 27. and the Lord hath not done all this Moses adds in these words For their Rock is not c. q. d. Tho Multitudes of the Heathens should be defeated by a few of the Israelites it would be no strange thing because their Idol-Gods can do nothing at all for their protection and on the other side if many of the Israelites be vanquisht by a small number of the Heathen which carryes a more astonishing appearance it cannot be because those Idols act for their assistance but because our God does withdraw that help from us which he is able to afford to us We have here in the Text it self two particulars considerable 1. The Preference of the true God unto all others Their Rock is not as our Rock The Rock is a Title given to God not only in this and the preceding Verse but thrice before in this Chapter and very often in the Book of Psalms Ver. 4.15 18. Rocks anciently being places of shelter which Men used to fly unto in times of danger and distress 1 Sam. 13.6 and therefore Holy David calls God the Rock of his Refuge Psal 94.22 2. The Acknowledgment of this by Israels Adversaries Even our Enemies themselves being Judges They that were so ready to reproach and blaspheme the Name of God as well as to boast and magnifie themselves yet could not deny this It was owned not only by their Friends and Favourers Exod. 18.11 Josh 2.11 Exod. 14.18 1 Sam. 4.8 such as Jethro was and Rahab but also by their worst and greatest Opposers such as the Egyptians and Philistins too So that Moses his Appeal to the Heathens here is much like that which God made to the Inhabitants of Jerusalem Isa 5.3 and the Men of Judah in their own case Acts 4.19 or like that which the Apostles made to the Jewish Rulers whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God judge ye v. 37 Two things are evidently presupposed 1. That There are no Persons in the World but what have some ROCK or other to be the object of their Confidence When Israel cast off the God of Abraham the Fear of Isaac and the Portion of Jacob they chose new Gods they did not turn perfect Atheists but they had their Gods still though poor counterfeit ones as the Rock in whom they trusted So the other Barbarous Nations had their several Deities whom they depended on for all necessary succours as well as paid a respect and veneration to This is included in what the Prophet says Micah 4.5 All People will walk every one in the Name of his God. Every Man is naturally sensible that he is not a self-sufficient being and therefore seeks after something without himself to believe in Men chuse rather to exercise Faith upon that which indeed is not God as Moses speaks in this same Song because it hath the Name v. 21. than to live absolutely without any God at all 2. The Church and the World do not repose their trust in the same God. Their Rock and our Rock are different The People of God and the rest of Mankind agree no better in their confidences than they do in their delights and many other things as they do not love the same Objects so they do not lean upon the same Some trust says the Psalmist in Chariots Psal 20.7 and some in Horses but we will remember the Name of the Lord our God. Many that pretend to believe and rest upon our Rock will be sure first to hew him after their own fancies they shape and fashion a God according as may please themselves but then it must be consider'd that if Men do not take him as the Scripture represents him he is not the same but another God. Many pretend a Relyance upon him but they make other things their supports in conjunction with him which is really the having of more Gods than one Psal 52.2 6. whereas we should say with David He only is my Rock and my Salvation The principal thing to be Observed from the Words is Doct. That the true Church of God is intitled to the best Rock in the Judgment of her very Enemies In the prosecuting of this I shall endeavour to shew I. In what respects God may be styled the Churches Rock II. How it appears that this Rock is better than that of her Enemies III. Whence it comes to pass that 't is better even in their Judgment who yet reject and oppose it IV. Conclude with some Inferences by way of Application especially to this day First of all I am to shew upon what accounts God may be styled the Churches Rock This shoul'd be open'd distinctly under these two Heads why is he called a Rock in general and why our Rock in particular First I shall enquire why God hath this general Name and Character of a Rock given to him here Not to run into the imprudent extream of alledging those resemblances which are forc't or foreign to this matter I shall only insist upon three which the Spirit of God himself does expresly propound to us The Infinite God may be very fitly set forth by a Rock upon the account of Height Fixedness and Strength First God is justly term'd a Rock in respect of Height Rocks are usually of an Elevated Situation above the other adjacent parts As this is commonly known and need not be laboriously prov'd so the Holy Ghost does particularly refer to it in this case The promise to him Isa 33.16 that walketh Righteously and speaketh uprightly as distinguisht from the Sinners in Zion is that he shall dwell on high his place of defence shall be the Munition of Rocks Psal 61.2 Accordingly David in the midst of his Troubles when his Heart was overwhelmed cryes out to God Lead me to the Rock which is higher than I. And elsewhere speaking of the Jews in the time of their Affliction Psal 78.35 he says that they remembred that God was their Rock and the high God their Redeemer God is often describ'd as the Lofty one and one that 's higher than the highest And the Most High God is the Name whereby he is called no less than four times within the compass of five Verses Gen. 14.18 19 20 22. This may
not only be understood of the Incomprehensibleness of God's Nature who is far above our sight and out of the reach of our thoughts but also and as I conceive principally of his Sovereignty and Dominion for all Creatures as they are vastly inferiour so they are perfectly subject to him This is a great security to the Church that their God hath every thing at his foot and under his absolute Command his proceedings are unaccountable and his purposes uncontroulable for he is the Supreme and therefore as the Prophet speaks we may rejoyce in his Highness Isa 13.3 Secondly God may be styled a Rock in respect of Fixedness Rocks are counted some of the most stable parts of this lower Creation and therefore when the Holy Ghost would represent a more than ordinary storm of Divine displeasure he says that the Rocks are thrown down by him Nah. 1.6 which implyes that they are not lyable to common shakings Our Saviour tells us of the Wise Man who built his House upon a Rock Matth. 7.24 25. and the rain descended and the floods came and the Winds blew and beat upon that House but it fell not for it was founded upon a Rock This shadows out to us the firm unshaken Counsels of the Immutable God who from Everlasting and to Everlasting is free from the least Alteration either in his Being or Will. He does not turn and waver to and fro as the best and noblest of his Creatures witness the fall of Angels and Men are prone of themselves to do but is alwayes in one State and of one mind This is a mighty advantage to us also as himself says Mal. 3.6 I am the Lord I change not therefore ye Sons of Jacob are not consumed An unchangeable God is the Author of the Churches stability or else she had been long ago toss't by the hand of Violence and kickt by the foot of Pride out of the World Psa 46.5 but God is in the midst of her and for that reason she shall not be moved His Eye and Heart which at the first were chiefly plac'd upon his People can never be taken off from them there is no more variableness in his Affection than uncertainty in his duration he may as soon be pluckt out of his Throne as the graving of Zion be raced out of the Palms of his Hands Thirdly God may be truly set forth under the notion of a Rock upon the account of strength When Balaam look't upon the Kenites a People very well fortifyed he took up this Parable Num. 24.21 Strong is thy dwelling place and thou puttest thy rest in a Rock We know that one of the Miracles at our Saviours Passion was the rending of the Rocks Mat. 27.51 What Instruments have force enough to enter into them They that split and break so many other things still remain whole and entire themselves This plainly holds forth to us the Eternal Power of God Isa 17.10 who is called the Rock of our strength Omnipotence is essential to him Psal 21.13 and therefore David mentions his being exalted in his own strength to difference him from us and such as we are because all created strength is borrowed and separable from the Creature How securely therefore can God bid defiance to the poor feeble attempts of Devils and Men who receive that strength from him which they exert against him How apparently unavoidable is it that whosoever dashes against this Rock must be broken As this should put God's Enemies in fear who contend with one that is infinitely mightier than themselves so 't is a very encouraging Motive of his Peoples Trust the Weakness of God may much better be relyed on than Humane Power when it is at its utmost pitch What is an Arm of Flesh to the Arm of the Lord How Invincible is he and they that confide in him Nothing can make any opposition if he think fit to prevent it nothing can have any success if he resolve to blast it He is able to do all that he desires and to undo all that is endeavour'd by any of his Adversaries Secondly I am to examine why God is called our Rock how comes the Church to have this peculiar propriety in him as divided from the World. There is a twofold Right or foundation for this claim God's Covenant and our Choice because he hath freely given himself to us and we if we are born from above have unfeignedly received him First God is our Rock by Covenant As he hath engaged and betrothed himself to us and us to himself for ever Hos 2.19 in Righteousness and in Judgment in Loving kindness and in Mercies None can doubt unless they assume more boldness to clip the Divine Prerogative than that of Man but that God may communicate a distinct and separate Interest in himself to whomsoever he pleaseth and every one who knows the Scripture must know that God does not please to communicate any such Interest but to his Church only as a Society call'd out of the World. The rest of Mankind as they have a rooted Principle of Atheism in their Hearts and say that there is no God so they have indeed as little relation to him as if there were none There is no General Covenant made since the fall with all the Children of Adam but a special Covenant of Grace with all the faithful which conveys a new Title to them instead of the Old one lost by the first Apostacy He that was a God to Abraham Gen. 17.7 and to his Natural Seed excluding all other Nations under the Old Testament is a God to his Spiritual believing Seed excluding all other Persons whatsoever now under the New Testament God is not the same to common Men as he is to his particular People though he be cloath'd with the same Attributes yet he does not exercise them alike As for the Men of the Earth he is not bound by promise to be their Rock but on the contrary he is oblig'd by his threatnings to be their Revenger his Truth does not tye him to defond but to destroy them Secondly God is Our Rock by Choice and voluntary acceptance All that are Israelites indeed have sincerely taken the Lord to be their God and thankfully rejoyce in him as such Jerem. 3.22 Behold we come unto thee says the Church for thou art the Lord our God. Again in another place we find them making the like profession Hos 14.3 We will not say any more to the work of our hands ye are our Gods. This Negative here implyes an Affirmative their renouncing and abandoning of false Gods did include their embracing of the true Such Texts are so numerous that 't is needless to cite them The taking of God to be our Ruler and our Portion our Soveraign and our Shield is the very first thing which truly adds us to the Church and manifests our saving Conversion Till we place our happiness and