and Governours the streame of the people sometimes turning one way sometimes another as in the story appeares and in the end God sayes that he will root up Israel out of this good Land and pluck up this Reede even by the roots when it hath beene tost a while up and downe So it follows there I will end this Caution with two Rules First be sure you establish nothing but what you have full cleare and generall light for Secondly condemne nothing and suffer nothing to stand condemned in which you in your consciences are doubtfull there may be a truth For if you should build the least Hay and Stubble you will not onely suffer losse but lay a foundation of a new rent and division in the age to come For there is a Spirit mentioned in the Text even the Holy Ghost who will not rest working in mens spirits till the whole building be rightly framed according to the pattern in every piece of it And what ever is amisse and not according to his minde the light of his fire will both discover it and burne it up which leads me to the 5. Observation which is this That God carryes on the work of finishing his Temple not by power nor might but by his Spirit By Spirit he meaneth the holy Ghost by a more immediate hand stirring up mens spirits unto this work turning and convincing them of the truth and of their duty towards it and likewise by coincident acts of Providence so apparently wheeling about to the effecting of it that though might and power be brought to concur in it yet so as his hand alone shall be seene and acknowledged in it And thus his Spirit here is manifestly interpreted in the 10. ver. where it is said that as all should see the Plummet in the hand of Zerubbabel the instrument of building it so they should perceive those seven eyes of the Lord which run to and fro through the whole earth that is his eyes of Providence called seven because of their perfection these to have so guided and managed all the affairs thereof that all the rayes and beames of Providence issuing from those eyes might be seene to meet in the accomplishment of this as their ultimate aime and scope Now these seven eyes Rev. 5. 6. are called the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth And Rev. 1. 4. are plainly interpreted to be the holy Ghost in his various workings for Grace and Peace is there wished from the seven Spirits Thus much for the explication of it Now that the building of the Temple is thus more immediately carryed on by the working of the holy Ghost you may reade it all along in all the story of the building of this Temple in the Old Testament as likewise in that of the New First the laying the Foundation of this Temple it was done indeed by the power and might of Cyrus but yet Ezra 1. and 2. it is added The Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus and how but by a meere act of fore-sight or providence afore-hand about it God had an hundred yeers before his birth by his Spirit written a Prophecie of him and that by name Esay 44. ult. which these Jews shewing him Gods Spirit stirred up his spirit thereby for in his Proclamation himself sayes The Lord hath charged me to build him an house at Jerusalem so ver. 2. of Ezra 1. And when he had thus given leave to the Jews to goe and build it yet still it was a great matter of self-denyall to them to leave their houses and gardens which they had built and planted at Babylon Jer. 29. 5. Therefore it is further added in the 5. ver. of that 1. of Ezra Then rose up the chiefe of the Fathers and the Priests and Levites with all them whose spirit God had raised up to build the house of the Lord And then again when it came to this second work the Finishing of it they were exceeding backward to it but God sent Two Prophets who convinced them of their duty and therefore Hag. 1. 14. it is expresly and on purpose put in that The Lord stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel and the spirit of Jeshuah and the spirit of all the remnant of the people and they came and did work in the house of the Lord their God And againe whereas the Persian Kings had made Decrees against the building of it which was the greatest impediment of all the rest God brought Darius his heart at last off to it and that by so unexpected a way as made all the people joyfull So it is expresly said EZra 6. 22. They kept the feast of unleavened bread with joy for the Lord had made them joyfull and had turned the heart of the King of Assyria unto them to strengthen their hands in the work of the house of God Yea and his heart was so much stirred in it that he not onely makes a Decree for it ver. 8. but likewise against all those that should oppose it under a capitall punishment ver. 11. yea he curseth all that should put to their hand to alter it ver. 12. so that the enemies that before opposed it were now constrained to further it ver. 13. All this was done as you see Not by power nor by might but by Gods Spirit Thus much for this instance in the Text out of the Old Testament See the like in Gods building his Church in the New Both in setting up his Church in the world at first when Heathenisme backt with the power of the Romane Empire stood in the way of it and likewise in raising it up againe when Antichrist had throwne it downe For the first the Erecting of it Did he use might or power or an Armie as it is varied in the margent to conquer the world by No such matter He chooseth twelve or thirteene men whereof the most were poore fisher-men and he sends them not all together in one troop neither but dispersed apart into severall parts of the world some taking one Country to conquer some another The most ridiculous course in appearance for such a designe that could be imagined Yet as Revel. 6. 2. Christ in these went forth conquering and to conquer and took nothing with him but his Bow as it is there and his Arrowes as it is Psal. 45. 5. the preaching of the Gospel even the foolishnesse of preaching as the Apostle calls it yet hereby the people fell so under him as the Psalmists phrase there is that in three hundred yeares that whole Empire was turned Christian and Heathenish worship throwne downe and this you see not by power nor by might but by his Spirit But then again Antichrist steps up the Beast of Rome and after Him all the world wondered that is the European world Revel. 13. 3. saying Who is like unto the Beast who is able to make warre with him ver. 4. But at the 14. Chap. a Lambe encounters him and but with a
when the House it selfe should once be reared according to the patterne without the Candlestick and its light it would have beene full of darknesse as some affirme which I will not now dispute For however the bringing in the Candlestick argued not onely the compleatnesse of the edifice and building it selfe but also by a Synecdoche the introducing all sorts of ordinances that were appointed for the adorning of it An Altar would not so evidently or necessarily have supposed the Temple perfected for Ezra 3. 3. an Altar was set up when yet not so much as the foundation of the Temple was laid ver. 6. But a Candlestick and that lighted too supposes the house built and compleatly furnished And therefore under the Gospel their whole Church state and that as in the Primitive times under their full perfection is set forth by seven golden candlesticks so Revel. 1. 13. which ver. ult. are interpreted to be the seven Churches of Asia The difference is that here is but one candlestick because the Church of the Jews was nationall and but one but there are seven for the Churches under the Gospel are many And for that other part of the Vision the representing Zerubbabel and Jeshua by two Olive trees and those planted in Gods Court so neere the Candlestick is no new or strange thing For David being the Ruler of the Jews and a nursing Father to the Church compares himselfe to a greene Olive tree in the house of God Psal. 52. 8. and the pillars of the doores of the Temple and the Cherubims therein being made of that wood The allusion is lesse remote And these emptyed golden oyle that is their estates and paines for the finishing this costly work and likewise because it was done in sincerity of heart therefore it is called golden or pure oyle And further seeing it was made the duty of every Jew to bring pure oyle olive beaten to cause the lamps to burn continually as Lev. 24. 2. hence therefore to compare the eminent persons the Magistrates and Priests of that Church to Olive trees themselves that for the first lighting of the candlestick did naturally afford it was every way most elegant And they are called sons of oyle ver. 14. as being fruitfull and affording plenty of it Thus Esay 5. 1. a fruitfull hill and a fertile soile is in the Originall as here called A son of oyle And thus much for the Vision Now for the interpretation of it in the words of the Text as it explaines the mind of the Vision so it addes all encouragements unto them to set upon this work First by assuring them that that mountaine of opposition which you heard in the story was raised up against it should be made a plaine before them namely that Samaritan faction which was backt by many of the people of the land Ezra 4. 4. A Mountaine is a similitude frequent in Scripture to note out high and potent opposition lying in the way of Gods proceedings Prepare ye the way of the Lord every mountaine shall be brought low Luke 3. 5. And so the Poets doe expresse their fained war of the Giants against the Gods by heaping up mountaine upon mountaine And secondly whereas their doubting hearts might aske How this was possible it being so great and so rooted a mountaine with such foundations where are the spades the meanes that should remove it The Angel answers Not by might or as in the Originall an Army or multitude nor by power of authority that was in any humane fore-sight as yet like to countenance it but by my Spirit and he that sayes it is the Lord of Hoasts By his Spirit meaning both the holy Ghost enclining and strengthening their hearts yea turning those of their opposites thereunto And by Spirit also meaning many concurrent acts of Providence which should fall in to the effecting of it For there is said to be a spirit of life in the wheeles of Providence which moves them Ezek. 1. 20. Not but that God did use the power and authority of the Persian Monarchy for Ezra 6. 8. Darius reverst the former Decree and made a new one for the building of the house But because that God by his Spirit and owne immediate hand brought about the power of that State to countenance it Therefore it is said to be not by power but by the Spirit and for this he used not an Armie as it is in the margent there was no sword drawne the state stood as it did but by my Sprit sayes the Lord of Hosts that so it might appeare that although Zerubbabels hand was in it yet that God would bring it so to passe that nothing should be ascribed to them but the glory of all unto God himselfe Which is the third thing in this speech of the Angel here that when the house should be finished signified by Zerubbabels bringing forth the head stone thereof as Master builders use to doe the first and last stone they should with many shoutings and acclamations of joy cry Grace Grace unto it that is magnifie Gods meere free grace and acknowledge this to have been the work of it alone and it was marvailovs in their eyes Thus much for the Exposition of the words I shall now raise some Observations out of them Out of the recited storie and what is here said in the 9. verse which doth put Jeshua upon finishing the Temple The first Observation is this That God carryes on the building of the second Temple after the comming out of Babylon which was a type of the Reformation of our Churches not all at once but by degrees The first Temple under the Old Testament was at once erected perfect so by Solomon And the Tabernacle before him by Moses was quickly finished according to the patterne of the Mount Exod. 40. 43. but this second Temple after the Captivity received degrees of rearing of it And thus in the New Testament those Primitive Churches were set up perfect as for matter of rules by the holy Apostles And so it was meet they should be because the Patterne was but once to be given in the model of them But Antichristianisme having laid that Temple desolate and defiled Gods worship in all the parts of it and those Ages wherein it should be restored wanting Apostles immediately inspired hence the restauration of them becomes a work of time The holy Ghost Age after Age gradually revealing pieces of the platforme of it the Spirit by degrees consuming and dispelling the darknesse that Antichristianisme had brought in by light shining clearer and clearer to the perfect day which is the brightnesse of Christs comming as 2 Thes. 2. 8. Compare we for this the type the building of this second Temple here with this Anti-type under the Gospel These Jews when first they were come out of Babylon and gathered to Mount Sion which was holy ground where they might sacrifice they erected an Altar onely Ezra 3. and that in haste the
ZERVBBABELS ENCOVRAGEMENT TO Finish the Temple A SERMON Preached before the Honourable House of COMMONS at their late Solemne Fast Apr. 27. 1642. By THO. GOODWIN B. D. Published by Order from that House REVEL. 11. 4. These are the two Olive Trees and the two Candlesticks standing before the God of the earth c. LONDON Printed for R. DAWLMAN 1642. TO THE HONORABLE HOVSE OF COMMONS Assembled in PARLIAMENT YOur Command giving me the opportunity I took the boldnesse to urge and encourage you to Church-Reformation which is the maine scope of this Sermon a subject which otherwise and in all other Auditories I have beene silent in and am no whit sorry for it For I account it the most fit and happy season to utter things of this nature unto Authority it selfe although the people likewise are to know their duty My comfort is that what I have spoken herein I have for the generall and I have spoken but generalls long beleeved and have therefore spoken You were pleased so far to owne me as to betrust me with this Service to be Gods mouth in publique unto you and also this Sermon of mine as to command the publishing of it Wherefore as in propriety it is now become yours more then mine or all the worlds So let it be in the use of it If it shall adde the least strengthening to your resolutions to keepe this purpose for ever in the thoughts of your hearts I have what I aimed at Goe on worthy Fathers and Elders of this people and prosper in yea by this work without which nothing that you doe will prosper But the rest I shall speak to God for you Let me be known to you by no other thing then this To be one whose greatest desires and constant prayers are and have been and utmost endeavours in my spheare shall be for the making up the divisions of the Church in these distracted times with love of Truth and Peace And therein to use Davids words am Wholly at your commandment Tho Goodwin ZECH. 4. VER. 6 7 8 9. Ver. 6. Then he answered and spake unto me saying This is the word of the Lord unto Zerubbabel saying Not by might nor by power but by my spirit saith the Lord of hosts 7. Who art thou O great mountaine before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plaine and he shall bring forth the head stone thereof with shoutings crying Grace grace unto it 8. Moreover the word of the Lord came unto mee saying 9. The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house his hands shall also finish it and thou shalt know that the Lord of hosts hath sent me unto you THese words are part of the interpretation of a stately Vision of a Candlestick and two Olive trees standing thereby and pouring Oyle into it made to the Prophet Zechariah in the 2. and 3. verses the scope and matter both of that Vision and of this Interpretation is to encourage Zerubbabel their Prince and with him the Priests and Elders of the Jewes to finish the building and make compleat the ornaments of the Temple whereof the foundation had many yeeres before been laid but was left imperfect and was left dis-furnished And this his scope is plainly and without a Parable held forth in the 9. ver. The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house his hands shall also finish it And indeed to stir him and them up unto this perfecting Gods house unto which work they had been too backward as appeares by Hag. 1 2 3 and 4. verses The people say The time is not come that the Lords house should be built was the principall end why God sent unto them no lesse then two Prophets Haggai and Zachary as two extraordinary Ambassadours from heaven on purpose to put them on upon it for the finishing of the Temple is a businesse of that moment as is worth two Prophets at any time And this appeares not onely by both their Prophecies but also by the story Ezra 5. 1 2. THEN the Prophet Haggai and Zachariah prophecyed unto the Jews that were in Judah in the name of the God of Israel Then rose up Zerubbabel and Jeshua and began to build the house of God which is at Jerusalem and with them were the Prophets of God helping them That same particle or circumstance of time Then doth refer us to the story of those times recorded in the book of Ezra as that which is necessary for the full understanding of their two prophecies what is recorded there being the occasion of them but more especially for the understanding of this piece of our Prophet Zachary his Prophecie which I have read unto you which wholly concernes the finishing of the Temple I must necessarily therefore as a preparative Introduction to the exposition of these words set you downe in and give you a prospect of those times and the occurrences thereof which were the occasion of these words here Who art thou O great mountaine c. And if Zachary himselfe a Prophet and that lived in those times knew not at the first the meaning of the Vision in this Chapter ver. 5. Knowest thou what these be And I said No my Lord much lesse shall we be able to know the interpretation thereof and how fitted to this vision nor what this mountaine here is c. without being pre-possest of the knowledge of this story which in briefe is this The Babilonian Monarchy Romes Type had trod downe the holy City and laid waste the Temple and worship of God for seventy yeares which being expired the Jews had liberty and authority from the first Persian King Cyrus to build the Temple and restore Gods worship according to their Law This is the summe of the first and second Chapters of Ezra In the third Chapter you have an Altar set up Sacrifices renewed Feasts kept and the foundation of the Temple laid which was as true a Type of that great Reformation from under Popery But after this work had been begun and fairely carryed on in all the Fundamentals of it there started up a company of Samaritans that were adversaries to the Jewes as we read Chap. 4. Samaritans they were as appears by ver. 10. They were the Nations seated in the City of Samaria brought thither ver. 2. in the roome of the ten Tribes A generation of men who were not heathens in their profession for they professed the same Religion with the Jewes So they alledge for and arrogate to themselves in the afore-said verse We seeke your God as you doe and we sacrifice unto him and have done so long from the dayes of Esar Haddon who brought us up hither And yet they were not true Jews neither nor perfectly of the same Religion but of a mungrell and mixt kind betweene the Religion of the Heathen and of the Jews intermingling Heathenish Idolatries with Jewish worship So 2 Kings 17. ver. 33. and 41. compared it is said These Nations feared
handfull in comparison out from among whom he sends a few emisaries to preach the everlasting Gospell to every Nation tongue and kindred ver. 6 c. and in the end he wins all the Northerne Kingdomes to embrace that Gospell and will stil goe on to conquer and winne ground so that in the 15. Chap. and 2. ver. we reade of a perfect victory over the Beast And whereas before it had beene said of his Holinesse the Pope Who is like unto the Beast Now it is said ver. 4. Who shall not feare thee O Lord for thou onely art holy And whereas afore All the world wondred after the Beast and worshipped him the world is now so altered that it is said All Nations shall come worship before THEE in the same 4. v. And now the wonder is as much how all this is brought about Not by power nor by might but by his Spirit So it is expresly said 2 Thes. 2. 8. speaking of this man of sin he sayes Whom the Lord shall consume with the Spirit of his mouth that is by his Spirit in the preaching of the Gospel and working in the hearts of men and overcomming Kingdomes unto Christ and his Church So we reade Revel. 17. 4. The Lambe shall overcome the Kings that made war with him and yet not by power but by his Spirit The Reason of this is because the building of Gods Church is his owne businesse in a more speciall manner more then any other therefore he will be sure to doe it himselfe and more immediately be seene in it As it is said of Christ Personall the Tabernacle of his humane nature Heb. 9. 12. that it was not made with hands that is to say not of this building as the Apostle there speaks that is It was not framed by the power of nature as other men are but by the Spirit So it is true of Christ mysticall his Body and the Tabernacle of his Church It is not of the ordinary make that other societies of men whether Families or Kingdomes are of it is not made with hands with humane wisdome or power as they are that is to say is not of this building Thus Heb. 3. 4. Every house sayes the Apostle is built by some man That is All Kingdomes Families and Societies God in an ordinary providence leaves to men to build in their owne way but sayes he He that built all things is God Which is spoken of Gods building his Church which is his house and all things appertaining unto it as is evident both by the fore-going words ver. 3. He that built the house the Apostle speaking of Christ who is God hath more honour then the house And also by those words that follow after Moses was faithfull in all his house namely in the building of that house then as a servant but Christ as a Son over his owne house now whose house are we The reason why thus himselfe by his Spirit builds it is held forth in that one world It is his owne house and therefore he will over-see the doing this himself and will doe it so that none shall share in the glory with him although he useth them First Use is that which is made of it in the 10. verse namely that in matters which concern the building of the Church we should learne to despise the day of small things The Prophet speakes it by way of reproofe Who hath despised the day of small things Because the beginnings of this worke then were but small and there was little appearance in humane fore-sight to effect it Therefore who almost was there that did not despise it and despaire of it Remember that there is a Spirit in the Text and no man knowes how far he may carry on the smallest beginnings which he layes as the foundation of his greatest works that his owne immediate hand may the more appeare The Kingdome of heaven was at first but as a graine of mustard-seed sayes Christ the least of all seeds but when it is growne it is the greatest of hearbs and becomes a tree Mat. 13. 32. In the 2. of Dan. ver. 34 45. there is mention made of a stone that was cut out of the Mountain without hands which expression is used not onely to shew the Divine power that accompanied it but to intimate that it was at first but some little stone which without hands dropt out or was blowne downe from the Mountaine for if it had beene a great one it must then have had hands to cut and hew it out and to throw it downe And yet loe this little stone became a mountaine and filled the whole earth as it there follows A Second Use is that which is in the Text that when you see any thing done for Gods Church beyond the reach of humane wisdome and fore-sight that you would fall downe and cry as they are taught here ver. 7. Grace Grace unto it You are not to cry up Zerubbabel Zerubbabel that is any meanes or instrument whatever whether King or Parliament much lesse this man or that man but to exalt the free grace of God the worke of which alone it is and hath beene One word more unto Zerubbabel the Text cals for it This is the word of the Lord unto Zerubbabel From which let the Observation be this That this worke of finishing the Temple lies first and chiefly upon Zerubbabel and his Elders to take care of That is upon Prince and Elders And though Jeshuah and his fellowes the Priests are intended as being the one of those Olive trees formerly mentioned yet Zerubbabel and the Magistrates are onely spoken to All such motions should come first from You it is Your duty to be the he-goats of the flock to lead on all the rest as the Prophet EZekiel speaks Thus EZra 1. 5. Then rose up the chiefe of the Fathers of Judah and Benjamin to build the house of the Lord It had otherwise never been done to purpose So in the building of the Temple at first the motion came first into Davids heart 1 Chro. 29. 3. I have sayes he set my affection to the house of God And then ver. 6. The chiefe of the Fathers and Princes of the house of Israel they follow and then fell in the people and they rejoyced and offered willingly so ver. 13. You should commend unto the people what is good and right Let us bring back the Ark of our God unto us said David 1 Chron. 13. 3. and no sooner had he commended it unto them but as it followes ver. 4. all the congregation said they would doe so for the thing was right in the eyes of all the people And the reason why this is your more especiall duty is because God hath honoured Princes and Magistrates above and set them over others And as those who honour God God will honour so those whom God hath honoured he expects should honour him and you cannot doe it better then this way