Dr. CONANT's SERMONS Preach'd on Several Occasions IMPRIMATUR Geo. Royse R. Rmo in Christo Patri ac Dom. Dom. Johanni Archiep. Cant. à Sacris Domest Mart. 14. 1692 3. SERMONS Preach'd on Several Occasions By JOHN CONANT D. D. LONDON Printed for Richard Chiswell and Tho. Cockerill At the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Church-yard and at the Three Leggs in the Poultrey over-against Stocks-Market MDCXCIII TO THE INHABITANTS OF NORTHAMPTON AND More especially to those of the Parish of All-Saints there Christian Friends and Neighbours THough my great Age and the Infirmities attending it have lately constrained me to quit my relation to you yet I still account my self obliged to endeavour to promote your spiritual welfare what I may In order whereunto I here lay before you some few of those plain and practical Sermons which I formerly preached unto you hoping that they may take better effect than when you heard them from the Pulpit which that they may so do is the unfeigned desire and earnest Prayer of Your truly loving Friend and Servant JOHN CONANT THE PUBLISHER TO THE READER IT may be expected by those that knew the Reverend Author of these Sermons and the publick Station he was in for several years in the University of Oxford as Divinity Professor there that he should have gratified the World with another sort of Work I mean his Lectures which he there read and were composed with great Learning Accuracy and Judgment But that it seems is not so agreeable to his native modesty who chuses rather to live and die in a kind of obscurity than be set as a city upon an hill and values himself more upon the relation he had to a Parochial Cure and the Capacity he was in of doing good to the Souls of men than of being in one of the most publick Stations in the Church And in which since by the privation of his Sight and other Infirmities of Age he has been no longer able to serve he thought by publishing some Practical Discourses preach'd in that Auditory he might though he be in a sense dead yet speak and be useful among them The Discourses are such as he usually composed plain and practical and suited to the meanest Capacity And if there be any thing that is not of that nature as there is very little and which the Author had he had the last perusal would have revised the Error is to be imputed to the Publisher to whose care and choice they were committed The Discourses sometimes are large and comprehend several Sermons though under the title of one but it was not well to be prevented and which the Reader however may well dispence with The Two last Sermons are Occasional but the occasion such as will render them profitable to all John Williams THE CONTENTS SERMON I. JOHN III. 19 20. AND this is the condemnation That light is come into the world and men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil For every one that doth evil hateth the light neither cometh to the light lest his deeds should be reproved Pag. 1. PART II. Verse 20. Every one that doth evil hateth the light pag. 25. SERMON II. JER XIII 23. Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the Leopard his spots then may ye also do good that are accustomed to do evil pag. 59. SERMON III. EPHES. V. 15 16. See then that ye walk circumspectly not as fools but as wise Redeeming the time because the days are evil pag. 89. SERMON IV. 3 Ep. JOH Ver. 3. Beloved thou doest faithfully whatsoever thou doest to the brethren and to strangers pag. 183. SERMON V. PROV XXII 2. The rich and the poor meet together the Lord is the maker of them all pag. 219. SERMON VI. 2 CHRON. XXXIII 10 11 12 13. And the Lord spake to Manasseh and to his people but they would not hearken Wherefore the Lord brought upon them the Captains of the Host of the King of Assyria which took Manasseh among the thorns and bound him with fetters and carried him to Babylon And when he was in affliction he besought the Lord his God and humhled himself greatly before the God of his Fathers And prayed unto him and he was intreated of him and heard his supplication and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom Then Manasseh knew that the Lord he was God pag. 257. SERMON VII 2 CHRON. XXXIII 10 11 12 13. And the Lord spake to Manasseh and his people but they would not hearken c. pag. 337. SERMON VIII LAM III. 39 40. Wherefore doth a living man complain a man for the punishment of his sins Let us search and try our ways and turn again to the Lord. pag. 403. SERMON IX LAM III. 40. Let us search and try our ways and turn again to the Lord. pag. 463. SERMON X. EZRA IX 13 14. After all that is come upon us for our evil deeds and for our great trespass seeing that thou our God hast punished us less than our iniquities deserve and hast given us such a deliverance as this Should we again break thy Commandments and join in affinity with the people of these abominations Wouldest not thou be angry with us till thou hadst consumed us so that there should be no remnant nor escaping SERMON XI HAG. II. 6 7 8 9. Thus saith the Lord of Hosts Yet once it is a little while and I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land And I will shake all nations and the desire of all nations shall come and I will fill this house with glory saith the Lord of Hosts The silver is mine and the gold is mine saith the Lord of Hosts The glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the former saith the Lord of Hosts and in this place will I give peace saith the Lord of Hosts The First Sermon JOHN III. 19 20. And this is the condemnation That light is come into the world and men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil For every one that doth evil hateth the light neither cometh to the light lest his deeds should be reproved I May take it for granted That by light here we are to understand the light of the Gospel And yet hereby Christ is not excluded who is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the light in the seventh and eighth Verses of the first Chapter of this Evangelist and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the true light v. 9. Both these lights may well go together Christ the Sun of ousness and the Gospel the Rayes which he sends forth to enlighten the dark World Besides as Christ conveyeth to us the Gospel so the Gospel conveyeth Christ unto us and offers him unto the World in both which respects it's called the Gospel of Christ Gal. 1.7 Gal. 1.7 he being as the Author so the principal subject of it Now both these Lights are come into the World Christ by his Incarnation and together with
of his Judgments If such impudent and daring Sinners should be still found amongst us it were enough to set the Town on a light flame once more Let such persons tremble to think what awaits them if nothing will reform them Lastly Be you all in general persuaded to lay aside your mutual Animosities and Contentions which have been and still are the great reproach of this place Be kindly affectionate one towards another with brotherly love as the Apostle exhorts Be all of one mind study peace and the things that make for peace Live in peace and the God of peace and love shall be with you The Eleventh Sermon HAG. II. 6 7 8 9. Thus saith the Lord of Hosts Yet once it is a little while and I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land And I will shake all nations and the desire of all nations shall come and I will fill this house with glory saith the Lord of Hosts The silver is mine and the gold is mine saith the Lord of Hosts The glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the former saith the Lord of Hosts and in this place will I give peace saith the Lord of Hosts WHen God turned the Captivity of his People The First Sermon Preached in the New Church at Northampton Rebuilt after the Fire brought them out of Babylon and once more settled them in the Promised Land they for a time wholly minded their own private Interests and Concernments but the publick Worship of God as if that had been no man's concern was no man's care The settling of their own Affairs and the building and beautifying of their own Houses so took them up that the building of the House of God was little regarded It was long before this work was begun and after it was begun and some progress had been made therein it met with several difficulties and interruptions and went on very slowly as for the most part Church-work doth Two great obstructions there were that did not a little retard and set back this work the one from without the other from within 1. The Enemies from without omitted no endeavours left no Stone unturned whereby they might hinder the building of the Temple And what by their own Power what by their Interest in the Persian Court they so far prevailed as to put divers stops to the work 2. The obstruction from within was their lukewarmness and indifferency their want of Zeal and forwardness for promoting and carrying on the work Now as well for their encouragement against the Enemy as for rousing them up and exciting them to more Zeal and Activity in promoting a work in which the honour of God and the happiness of that people were so much concerned God was pleased to raise up and imploy two extraordinary Persons the Prophet Haggai and the Prophet Zechary The Prophet Haggai having reproved them for their slackness and negligence for their minding their own private Interests and Affairs with the neglect of what referred to the honour and publick worship of God and having laid before them the several Judgments which for this their Sin God had inflicted on them doth assure them of God's gracious presence assistance and blessing in this weighty undertaking if they should in good earnest engage therein and pursue it with that Zeal Vigour and Industry which in the managing and carrying on of so important an Affair was requisite Now to the end that all objections against it might be answered and whatsoever was or could be matter of discouragement might be removed the Prophet in the words that I have read doth meet with the principal things which carnal Reason might pitch upon and make use of for the cooling of their Zeal the rebating of their Industry and the slackning of their Endeavours Were the Adversaries and Opposers of this work numerous and potent How many and how potent soever they were the Lord of Hosts would be with his People and stand by them He would exert and put forth his Almighty Power in the behalf of them he would shake the Heavens and the Earth and the Sea and the dry Land He would make all things give way to yield and stoop to his design and rather than any thing should hinder the accomplishment of what he had undertaken to do for his People he would turn the World upside down Now upon their late return from Seventy years Captivity in Babylon was their outward condition strait poor and low Were they altogether unfurnished with those rich supplies which were necessary for carrying on so costly a work That this might not trouble or dishearten them God tells them the Silver is his and the Gold is his He had all the Riches of the World at command and could plentifully furnish and supply them if he saw good Now that the platform of the House was drawn out and the Foundations of it were laid did the meanness of it discourage rhem Did it seem a poor and contemptible thing in comparison of Solomon's Temple How mean and despicable soever it might be in the eyes of any of them and how far short soever it was likely to be of the Splendor and Magnificence of Solomon's Temple yet God promiseth to fill that House with Glory and that the Glory of that latter House should be greater than the Glory of the former Were the frequent commotions and changes of the World and the inconstant and variable state of things in those parts of the World such as promised them little quiet and satisfaction in the enjoyment of God's publick worship when the Temple should be finished For allaying of these their fears as the close of all that God had promised he tells them that he would give peace in that place And in regard that these were great things and such as an oppressed people that had been long under hatches and had but of late begun to put up their Heads could not easily belive God ingageth his Omnipotency and Faithfulness for the performance of them within the compass of four verses five times repeating that solemn form of words Thus saith the Lord of Hosts So I have given you the main Intendment and Scope of these words In the handling of them I must take them in order as they lye And because there are many things contained in them which might take up some Hours if they were treated of at large I must with all convenient brevity speak to Particulars and pass on from one thing to another as lightly and speedily as I can But as I go on where the matter will admit of it and as far as it shall be capable thereof I shall endeavour to bring it as near the present occasion as I may Though the words will scarce admit of any genuine proper and convenient division yet such a division as they are capable of you may thus take 1. We have a prediction of great concussions and shakings in the World
before the coming of the Messiah Yet once it is a little while and I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land and will shake all nations 2. We have a Prediction of his coming And the desire of all nations shall come 3. A Promise of the Glory of the second Temple together with an answer to an objection against it And I will fill this house with glory the silver is mine and the gold is mine 4. An Amplification of that Promise concerning the glory of the second Temple The glory of this latter house shall be greater than the glory of the former 5. An additional Promise of Peace as an Appendix to all other Mercies promised And in this place will I give peace 6. The Ratification or Confirmation of the whole in those last words saith the Lord of Hosts so often mentioned before and with which all that was before promised is at last shut up and sealed To begin with the first of these the Prediction of great concussions and shakings in the World before the coming of the Messiah It is yet a little while and I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land and will shake all nations By these Metaphorical Expressions according to the usual Language and Style of the Prophets we are to understand great Troubles Commotions Changes and Alterations in the World in which high and low Persons of all Conditions Ranks and Qualities represented by the Heavens and the Earth should take their turns and have their share So God speaking of his terrible Judgments on the World saith Isa 13.13 I will shake the heavens and the earth shall remove out of its place in the wrath of the Lord of Hosts and in the day of his fierce anger But now all the difficulty is what shakings should be here intended Some understand the words of the great things which the Evangelists report to have been done at and upon the Birth of Christ the Miracles wrought by him in his Life the strange and miraculous Providences at his Death and Resurrection and of the shaking of the World afterwards by the preaching of the Gospel whereby Idols were thrown down Heathenish Idolatry and Superstitions were abolished the Christian Religion and the Worship of the true God coming in place thereof These were great and wonderful things but how they should be here by the Prophet intended is not easie to conceive For he seems to speak of such concussions and shakings as should be antecedent to the coming of Christ and go before it not concur with it much less follow after it Thus saith the Lord of Hosts I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land and I will shake all nations and the Desire of all nations shall come that is after God should thus have shaken the World Christ should come And indeed very great and dreadful shakings there were between the time of this Prophecy and the coming of the Messiah in which shakings the people of God the Jewish Nation were not a little concern'd The Persian Empire under which they now were was not only shaken but shaken in pieces dissolved and ruined by the Grecians under the Conduct of Alexander the Great Then presently after Alexander's Death who died in the flower of his Age the Empire which he had but just then acquired and been possessed of was in effect once more rent in pieces and divided amongst his Chieftains and Principal Commanders While this state of things continued the Jews were miserably shaken oppressed and harassed by the Tyranny and Cruelty of Antiochus Epiphanes besides many other grievous pressures and sufferings which during the Government of the Seleucides they underwent After some time the Romans came upon them all and subdued all to themselves in which Revolution the distressed Jews fell under the power of the Romans and were at their Mercy After all these terrible shakings nearer the coming of Christ the Civil Wars under Augustus Caesar caused horrible shakings and convulsions in the Empire after which the Temple of Janus was shut up and a peaceable time ensued all Swords being sheathed and all Arms laid aside throughout the whole Empire and then was Christ the Prince of Peace born in the Forty first or as some will have it in the Forty second year of the Reign of Augustus Caesar Now whereas all these shakings were to go before the coming of Christ which was the greatest Mercy that ever was vouchsafed the World we may observe That great Troubles and Afflictions sometimes go before and make way for great and signal Mercies This is indeed the ordinary and usual method of God's most wise and gracious Providence Thus Joseph is sold to the Midianites carried into Egypt and there again sold to Potiphar falsly accused cast into Prison and laid in Irons that by this Series of long-continued Afflictions way might be made for his Advancement to the highest Honour in Pharaoh's Court and for his being made Ruler over all the Land of Egypt Thus seventy years Captivity and Bondage in Babylon goes before the joyful and triumphant Return of God's people into their own Land of which the Psalmist thus speaks Psal 126.1 2. When the Lord turned the captivity of Zion we were like them that dream then was our mouth filled with laughter and our tongue with singing then said they among the heathen The Lord hath done great things for them Which Psalm though placed among the Psalms of David yet is by Learned men upon good grounds supposed to have been penned by some other Person after the return from Babylon as also Psal 137. that is to say 460 years at least after that David had been gathered to his Fathers and perhaps much more for we know not how long after the return from Babylon it might be penned Thus the Ten most Cruel and Bloody Persecutions of the Christian Church in the first Ages thereof went before that quiet and tranquillity which the Church enjoyed under Constantine and the succeeding Christian Emperors when to use the expressions of the Prophet God made the peace of his Church as a river and the righteousness thereof as the waves of the sea Thus that wicked Usurpation and Tyranny of Antichrist making havock of the Church which hath been drawn out to so great a length already and yet we know not how much longer it may last goes before that happy estate of the Church and of the World when those joyful Acclamations shall be heard The kingdoms of the world are become the kingdoms of the Lord and of his Christ Rev. 11.15 And when they who shall have gotten the victory over the beast and over his image shall sing the song of Moses and of the Lamb saying Great and marvellous are thy works Lord God Almighty just and true are thy ways thou king of saints Rev. 15.1 2. And to add but one instance more here at home thus
leave them now to themselves and suffer them to go on in their Sins to their Ruine seeing they refuse to hearken to him and harden their Hearts against all good Counsels Admonitions Reproofs and Warnings by which he hath solicited and provoked them to Repentance Having found them so perverse and refractory how justly might he now rid his Hands of them look no more after them but give them up to their own Hearts Lust Psal 81.12 and let them alone to walk in their own Counsels as in the like Case he dealt with Israel 'T is an Argument of his great Love to them that he will make Trial of all sorts of Means whereby they may be brought to Repentance before he will utterly cast them off and meddle no more with them or concern himself any further about their Good Vse 3. If God be pleased to make use of Afflictions for reclaiming and reducing of Sinners when other Means prevail not then let such as are afflicted indeavour to comply with God's Design in afflicting them They would not be won by gentler Means and therefore now God is trying whether his Rod may not effect that Good in them which his Word alone would not Be not so obstinate and refractory as to render all Means ineffectual which God makes use of for reclaiming you as to defeat and frustrate the Design of all those Methods of his Wisdom and Goodness by which you might be gained and be brought home to him Labour to answer God's End in correcting you and be perswaded to hear the Rod as God by the Prophet enjoins Mich. 6.9 Although you have stopped your Ears against the Word let not the same Complaint be taken up against you that was taken up by the Prophet against the Jews O Lord Jer. 5.3 are not thine Eyes upon the Truth thou hast stricken them but they have not grieved thou hast consumed them but they have refused to receive Correctionâ— they have made their Faces harder than a Rock they have refused to return Search after and indeavour to find out the Sins for which God hath a Controversy with you be truly humbled for them earnestly seek unto God for the Pardon of them cast them off and forsake them If God's Chastisements take you not off from your Sins if no Severities will imbitter them to you and make you willing to leave them then what remains but that God should look upon you as an incorrigible Person as one whose Disease is incurable and so leave you to perish in your Iniquity Thus God left Ephraim to take the Course which pleased him when it appeared that his Heart was so set upon his Idols that nothing would bring him out of love with them Hos 4.17 Ephraim is joined to Idols let him alone To be thus let alone is that indeed which wicked Men would have they would still gratify their Lusts go on in their Sins quietly and not be disturbed in the Enjoyment of them This is in their Account the greatest Happiness but 't is indeed the most dreadful Effect of God's highest Indignation against them It were a thousand times better and more eligible that all the Calamities and Miseries in the World should light upon a Man than that God should say of him He is an obstinate and incorrigible Sinner he is one that will not be reformed by any thing that I have said or done wherefore let him alone let him take his Fill of Sin he shall have no more Disturbance from me till I come to reckon with him once for all Do you not tremble at the fearful State of such a Man If you do not you justly may O take heed lest by your stubborn and obstinate Perseverance in your Sins against all Means for reclaiming you you at length bring your self into it And this may suffice to have been spoken concerning that Point The Point which I have now last spoken to was but general as arising from the Consideration of the Course in general which God took with Manasseh for humbling and reclaiming him when gentler Means did no Good upon him God made use of Afflictions I come to a more particular Consideration of that Affliction which God was pleased to lay upon him The Lord brought upon them upon him and his People the Captains of the Host of the King of Assyria and they took Manasseh among the Thorns and bound him with Fetters and carried him to Babylon And here 1st Whereas 't is said that the Lord brought upon them the Captains of the Host of the King of Assyria We may observe That 't is of God that one Nation makes War against another that one Country invades another and subjects it to all the Miseries and Calamities of the Sword This is frequently in the holy Scriptures ascribed to the over-ruling Providence of God and that not only in way of mere Permission but so as God is made in some Sense the Author and Procurer of Wars and Invasions and the Inflicter of all the Miseries that attend them Here the Lord is said to have brought upon Manasseh and his People the Captains of the Host of the King of Assyria Thus in 2 Kings 24.2 3 4. we read that the Lord sent against Jehoiakim Bands of the Chaldees and Bands of the Syrians and Bands of the Moabites and Bands of the Children of Ammon and that he sent them against Judah to destroy it according to the Word that he had spoken by his Servants the Prophets And by way of further Confirmation that all this was of God it follows in the next Words Surely at the Commandment of the Lord came this upon Judah to remove them out of his Sight for the Sins of Manasseh And thus is God said to have stirred up Hadad the Edomite against Solomon 1 Kings 11.14 and to have stirred up another Adversary against him Ver. 23. Rezon the Son of Eliadah So God speaking of the Executioners of his Justice whom he would make use of to punish his People Isa 5.26 saith he would lift up an Ensign to the Nations from far and that he would hiss unto them from the Ends of the Earth that they might come with Speed swiftly So again speaking of his calling for other Nations to invade the Land Isa 7.18 19. he saith The Lord shall hiss for the Flie that is in the uttermost part of the River of Egypt and for the Bee that is in the Land of Assyria and they shall come and shall rest all of them in the desolate Valleys So describing a cruel and implacable Enemy which he would cause to invade them he saith Behold I will send Serpents Jer. 8.17 Cockatrices among you which will not be charmed and they shall bite you Jer. 16.16 Behold I will send for many Fishers and they shall fish them and after that I will send for many Hunters and they shall hunt them from every Mountain and from every Hill and out of
after the sharp and bitter Persecutions under the Reign of Queen Mary followed that blessed Sunshine of the Gospel and the peaceable and undisturbed Enjoyment thereof throughout all the long and prosperous or rather glorious Reign of Queen Elizabeth and the continuance of it to us ever since even to this day notwithstanding all the destructive Machinations wicked Plots and restless Attempts of the Enemy to deprive us of it and to put out our light in obscure darkness Now some of the reasons of this method of Divine Providence are these 1. It conduceth very much to the displaying and illustrating of the glory of God's Wisdom Power and Goodness who can so wonderfully change the most dark and dismal state of things who creates darkness and forms light Isa 45.7 Who turns the shadow of death into the morning as the Prophet speaks Amos 5.8 Who turns a Town into Ashes and Rubbish in the space of few Hours making it a place meet for Zim and Okim to take up their abode in the merciless Element where it raged scarce leaving a Lintel for the Cormorant or Bittern to lodge in or the remainders of a scorched Window to sing in And then again within the space of few years out of the Dust and Ashes to raise up a Town for the Accommodation of men and a Church for the Service of God and both with the addition of that beauty and lustre which had never been unless God had laid the Foundations of that change for the better in ruin and desolation All Beholders must needs acknowledge such admirable turns and vicissitudes of things to be the operation of his Hands who is wonderful in counsel and excellent in working 2. By dark Providences by Troubles and Afflictions God fits and prepares us for Mercies Our Afflictions when sanctified humble us lay us low make us reflect upon our selves and consider our ways make us repent reform and turn to him that smiteth us and all this tends to the rendring us meet to be partakers of the Mercies which God hath in store for us For while we go on impenitently in a course of Sin blessings would be cursed to us and abuse of Mercies would increase our misery 3. Afflictions commend God's after-mercies and make them more sweet and acceptable to us as the darkness of the Night commends the light of the Morning A quiet and calm Season after a Storm how welcome how pleasant and delightsome is it Such is the unspeakable goodness of God that he so much consults our comfort as to order and dispose of the circumstances of our Mercies so as they may afford us most content and satisfaction 4. Great Troubles and Afflictions going before great Mercies dispose our Hearts to greater thankfulness for them When Mercies come in upon us in such a season and with such circumstances they greatly affect us and make deep impressions on our Hearts so as we think we can never be thankful enough we can never bless God sufficiently for them Now to apply this briefly The consideration of what hath been said concerning this method of God's Providence and the Reasons of it should perswade us and prevail with us to bear Afflictions meekly quietly and patiently and with that composedness calmness and evenness of Spirit which becomes Christians who are no strangers to the usual ways of God's Providence neither fretting against the Lord nor desponding or casting away our confidence in him Though it be night with you at present yet you may hope it will not be so always the day will return There is an interchangeable vicissitude of these Providences after darkness light breaks forth and the longer your night hath been the nearer are the approaches of the day wherefore in the most dark and disconsolate condition say with the Church of God Mic. 7.7 8 9. I will look unto the Lord I will wait for the God of my salvation Rejoice not against me O mine enemy when I fall I shall arise when I sit in darkness the Lord shall be a light unto me I will bear the indignation of the Lord because I have sinned against him until he plead my cause and execute judgment for me he will bring me forth to the light and I shall behold his righteousness So I have done with the first thing the Prediction of great concussions and shakings in the World before the coming of the Messiah 2. I come now to the second Particular The Promise of his coming And the desire of all nations shall come The Desire of all Nations that is Christ the object of the desire of all Nations or whom all Nations shall desire But then this must be understood of some of all Nations of as many out of all Nations as are disposed to receive him though others perhaps the generality of some Nations may be so far from desiring him that they may hate him blaspheme his Name and persecute to the Death all that acknowledge him for their Saviour But if this sense be judged too strait then by the desire of all Nations we may understand the desireable of all Nations or he who hath that in him which should render him lovely and desirable to all Nations and in respect whereof all Nations may and should desire him and so far as they know him and understand their own interest will desire him This description or character of Christ is agreeable to what the Scriptures elsewhere say concerning him The Spouse having described him and set forth his Perfections and Excellencies saith He is the thiefest among ten thousand Cant. 5.10 And altogether lovely ver 16. And Jacob Prophetically speaking of him under the Name of Shiloh saith To him shall the gathering of the people be Gen. 49.10 That is all People and Nations out of an high esteem of him and an earnest desire after him shall flow in to him So God speaking of the coming in of the Gentiles to the Church in the Times of the Gospel and under the Kingdom of the Messiah saith Behold I will lift up my hand to the Gentiles and set up my standard to the people and they shall bring thy sons in their arms and thy daughters shall be carried upon their shoulders Isa 49.22 In that day there shall be a root of Jesseâ— which shall stand for an ensign to the people to it shall the Gentiles seek Isa 11.10 Behold my servant whom I uphold mine elect in whom my soul delighteth I have put my spirit upon him he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles I will give him for a Covenant of the people for a light of the Gentiles Isa 42.1 It is a light thing that thou shouldst be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the preserved of Israel I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles that thou mayest be my salvation to the ends of the earth Isa 49.6 Hence it is that the Church gathered out of all Nations is represented to St.
John in a Vision as giving glory to Christ I beheld saith he and lo a great multitude which no man could number of all nations and kindreds and people and tongues stood before the Lamb clothed in white robes and palms in their hands and cryed with a loud voice saying Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne and to the Lamb Rev. 7.9 10. Now if you ask in what respects and upon what account Christ is the desire of all Nations I answer this is a subject which would take up much time if I should enlarge on it Briefly therefore he is the desire of all Nations because he is the promised seed in whom all the nations of the earth were to be blessed Gen. 22.18 Because he is the Saviour of all Nations the saviour of the w rld John 4.42 The propitiation for the sins of the whole world 1 John 2.2 There being no other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved Acts 4.12 In short he it is that satisfieth the Justice of God for Sinners and delivers them from the wrath to come that purchaseth for them pardon of sin peace with God Grace here and Glory hereafter In a word this is he who is of God made unto us wisdom righteousness sanctification and redemption 1 Cor. 1.30 Now let us all reflect upon our selves and consider whether he who is the desire of all Nations be the desire of our Souls and whether he be in our esteem the chiefest among ten thousand Do we count all things loss and dung for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Do we intirely love him Do we earnestly long after him Are our Affections towards him such as we can never be satisfied until we can say that he is ours and we are his Could we be content to purchase him at any rate And is there nothing in all the World so dear unto us but that we could freely part with it for his sake O let us never be at rest until we find that our Hearts stand thus affected towards him What say you to this all ye that have the Name of Christ frequently in your Mouths and by an external Profession own him as your Saviour but say of him in your Hearts We will not have this man to reign over us Ye that give him good words but refuse to take his Yoke upon you and submit to his Government who profess you know him love him desire him and give him the chief room in your Hearts but in your works deny him being abominable disobedient and to every good work reprobate Deceive not your selves Christ will never own such as you are Without timely and sincere Repentance the sentence which you must expect from him is Depart from me ye that work iniquity I never knew you Mat. 7.23 Hitherto of the Character of Christ Now as to the Promise of his coming all that I shall therein take notice of is the circumstance of time when he was to come namely while the second Temple should be yet standing for he was by his presence to fill that House with Glory and to make the Glory of the latter House greater than that of the former as we shall presently see And this circumstance of his coming is that which also the Prophet Malachy who prophesied immediately before his coming foretold Behold saith the Messiah himself I send my messenger that is John the Baptist the forerunner of Christ and he shall prepare the way before me and the Lord whom ye seek namely the Lord Christ shall suddenly come to his temple Mal. 3.1 even the messenger of the Covenant whom ye delight in This as it confutes the unbelieving and blasphemous Jews and argues the wilful blindness of their minds and the miserable obstinacy and hardness of their hearts in denying the Messiah to be come and still fixing new periods of time for his coming as they find still that he comes not at the times by them assigned him for his coming so it greatly confirms our Faith in Christ as the true Messiah For as all other things prophesied and foretold concerning the Messiah exactly agree to him and none else so doth this remarkable circumstance of the time of his coming Wherefore the Apostle saith When the fulness of time was come God sent his Son into the world made of a woman made under the law to redeem them that were under the law Gal. 4.4 5. When the fulness of time was come that is when the time which God had predetermined and foretold was fully come This is that which Jacob prophesied of Gen. 49.10 The scepter shall not depart from Judah nor a lawgiver from between his feet until Shiloh come Though the Jews had now ever since the Conquest of Judea by Pompey been under the Power of the Romans and by them been deprived of all power to judge determine and punish in Capital Matters yet in other matters they had still a power allowed them so as all Government was not wholly wrested away from them and taken out of their hands But now the time was drawing near when their City and Temple were to be utterly destroyed their Polity Civil State and Commonwealth to be abolished the remainders of them after the fatal slaughters of that miserable people at the destruction of Jerusalem to be dispersed and scattered into several Countreys and not as much as the face or shadow of any Government to be left among them At this signal and critical time when the day of these their Calamities hastened was Christ born The sum of all is this The Messiah was to come while the second Temple was yet standing and while the Scepter was not yet wholly departed from Judah nor a Lawgiver from between his feet while at least somewhat of Civil Power and Government still remain'd among them and so accordingly he came But 't is now above sixteen hundred years since the Temple was destroyed and all Civil Government among them into what quarters of the World soever scattered perfectly abolished In vain therefore do the Jews expect any other Messiah and as for us Christians we have all imaginable evidence that Jesus the Son of the Blessed Virgin Mary is the Christ the promised Messiah To him therefore let us betake our selves for the pardon of our Sins and the salvation of our Souls on him let us rest to him let us securely commit the Everlasting Concernments of our Souls Other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid which is Jesus Christ 1 Cor. 3.1 If an angel from heaven preach any other gospel take upon him to hold forth any other Messiah or to declare any other way of salvation let him be accursed Gal. 1.8 3. Now follows the third Particular A Promise of the glory of the second Temple together with the answer of an objection against it I will fill this house with glory the silver is mine and the gold is mine I will fill this house