our own spirits within or be put into us by other spirits by the ministery of Angels from without but inspired truths from this Spirit alone Angels indeed are sometimes the messengers of it but never called the spirits of it they bring it they do not breath it When they have brought it and done their message be it never so true never so comfortable it will not comfort but amaze us it will not sink into us but ly only at our doors till this Spirit breath and work it in He alone Spiritus Veritatis the Inspirer of truth Hence it is that this Spirit of of all Spirits is only call'd the Comforter for that he only lets in the comfort to the heart whatever Spirit is the Messenger Be it the Angels those Spirits and Messengers of heaven or be it the Ministers those Messengers upon earth with all the life and spirit they can give their words no comfort from either unless this Spirit of truth blow open the doors inspire and breath in with them Truth it self cannot work upon our spirits but by the spiration of this Spirit of truth 'T is but a dead Letter a vanishing voice a meer piece of articulate air the best the greatest the soundest truth no other it has no spirit it has no life but from this Spirit of truth To conclude this Point It is not when the Spirit of truth is come or when He that is the Comforter is come though both be but one he shall guide you neither title single but He the Spirit of truth both together to teach us first That the truth which this Spirit brings is full of comfort always comfortable Startle us it may a little at the first but then presently Fear not comes presently to comfort us trouble us it may a little at the first nay and bring some tribulation with it as times may be but ere the verse be out ere the words be out almost Be of good chear says Christ 't is but in the world and I have overcome the world and in me ye shall have peace St. Iohn xvi 33. that came before so that tribulation is encompassed with comfort Ye shall be sorrowful indeed but your sorrow shall be turned into joy ver 20. the first is no sooner mentioned but the other follows as fast as the Comma will let it Christs truth and this Spirits truth is the Comforters truth as well as the Spirits and have not only spirit to act and do but comfort also in the doing and after it to be sure Nay Joyn'd so 2. He the Spirit of truth to teach us again that nothing can comfort us but the truth no Spirit hold up our Spirits but the Spirit of truth Lies and falshoods may uphold us for a time and keep up our Spirits but long they will not hold a few days will discover them and then we are sadder than at first To be deluded adds shame to our grief 't is this Spirit only that is the Spirit of our life that keeps us breathing and alive t is only truth that truly comforts us which even then when it appears most troublesome and at the worst has this comfort with it that we see it that we see the worst need fear no more whilst the joys that rise from false apprehensions or lying vanities indeed from any thing below this Spirit of truth and heaven bring so much fear of a change or close or too sudden an end that I may well say they have no comfort with them They flow not from this Comforter they come not from this Spirit that 's the reason they have no Comfort no Spirit in them It may well occasion us as soon as we can to look after this He the Spirit of truth and for our own sakes enquire where he is watch his motion what and whence and whither it is 2. To understand the motion and coming of the Spirit what it means we can take no better way than to peruse the Phrases of the holy Book under what terms it elsewhere does deliver it The first time we hear of it we read it moving Gen. i. 3. The next time striving with man Gen. vi 3. Then filling him Exod. xxxi 3. Then resting upon him Num. xi 25. Sometimes he is said to come Iudg. iii. 10. Sometimes to enter into us Ezek. ii 2. Sometimes to fall upon us Ezek. xi 5. Sometimes to be put upon us Num. xi 29. Sometimes to be put into us Ezek. xxxvi 27. Sometimes to breath sometimes to blow upon us Isa. xl 7. All these ways is he said to come whether he move us to good or strive with us against evil or fill us with sundry gifts and graces or rest upon us in their continuance whether he comes upon us in the power of his Administrations or whether he enter as it were and possess us wholly as his own whether he appear in us or without us whether he come upon us so suddenly and unusually that he seems even to fall upon us or be put upon us by ordinary ways and means whether by imposition on or breathing in whether by a softer breath or a stronger blast whether he come in the feathers of a Dove or on the wings of the wind whether in Fire or in Tongues whether in a visible shape or in an invisible power and grace they are his comings all sometimes one way sometimes another his comings they are all Yet but some not all of his comings for all his ways are past finding out and teach us a Lesson against curiosity in searching his out-goings And yet this word Come sounds somewhat hard for all this still Did we not say he was God And can God be said to come any whither who is every where Nay of this very Spirit expresly says the Psalmist Psal. cxxxix 7. Whither shall I go then from thy Spirit And if I cannot go from him what needs his coming Coming here is a word of grace and favour and certainly be we never so much under his eye we need that need his grace need his favour Nay so much the more because he is so near us that so we may do nothing unworthy of his presence But He speaks to us after the manner of men who if they be persons of quality and come to visit us we count it both a favour and honour So by inversion when God bestows either favours or honours on us when this holy Spirit bestows a grace or a gift or a truth upon us that we had not before then is he said to Come to us I need not now trouble my self much to find out whence he comes Every good and perfect gift comes from above says St. Iames Iam. i. 17. From heaven it is he comes from the Father he sends him St. Iohn xiv 26. From the Son he sends him too in this very Chapter ver 7. And this is not only the place whence he comes but here are the persons too whence he proceeds
So that now we have gain'd the knowledge not only of his temporal but his eternal coming to his eternal Procession which though it be not the coming promised or intended here yet coming here upon the Context and Coherence relating so evidently to sending gives us but a just occasion both to remember to whom we owe this benefit the Father and the Son the greatness of it in that it is no less than infinite the Spirit of God God himself And 't is but fit here and every where to take notice of it that as the whence is above so the whither is beneath very much beneath him But we reserve that to a fitter place when we come to the persons that are guided by him 'T is best now to suspend a while the search of the nature to enquire into the time and manner of his coming But the time is next When he is come 3. Yea but when is that Sane novum supervenisse spiritum nova desideria demonstrant says St. Bernard you may know he is come by the desires he works in you when those begin to be spiritual hearty sincere and true to God then is the Spirit of truth come into you if you begin to long and breath and gasp after heaven 't is a sign some heavenly breath of the Spirit at least is slipt into you 2. When this Spirit that pants and beats after God within breaths out at the lips too ere it be long in prayers to God and praises of him in good communication all bitterness and malice and evil speaking and vanity too being laid aside as becommeth Saints This is a good sign too a true sign too if it be not meerly godly Phrases taken up to make a shew or to deceive if it proceed from the heart and inward Spirit 3. But the surest sign of it is in the hand in the works if they be such as are the genuine fruits of the Spirit Love joy peace long-suffering gentleness goodness faith meekness temperance Gal. v. 23. These are the Spirits perpetual attendants when he comes Boast men may of the Spirit but if they have no love if they be not the Sons of peace if patience and long-suffering be no vertue with them if gentleness appear not in their carriage if goodness and bounty to the poor abound not in them as well as faith if they be not meek and humble and sober and temperate temperate in diet in apparel in language in passion and affections and all things else boast they while they will of the Spirit and the Spirit of truth that they have it work and move by it are guided by it it will prove but the Spirit of error or the Spirit of giddiness or the Spirit of slumber they do but dream it or but their own Spirit at the best for such a one we read of and of Prophets that went according to it Ezek. xiii 3. foolish Prophets that follow their own spirit and have seen nothing ignorant Prophets who know nothing yet pretend they know more than all the Learned all the Fathers that are gone crafty Foxes only they are says the Prophet ver 4. cunning to spoil and ravine that seduce the people saying peace when there is no peace ver 8. they build and dawb with untempered morter ver 10. build up Babel the house of confusion and plaister up all the Scriptures Texts that are against them with incoherent Comments wild distinctions and interpretations that stick together like untempered mortar they make the righteous sad and strengthen the hands of the wicked that he should not return from his wicked way by promising him life ver 22. and yet they there pretended the Spirit that he was come to them and God had sent them when indeed it was no other Spirit from the Lord than such a one as came from him upon Saul when the good Spirit was departed from him The Spirit of truth wants no such covering no such morter makes not the righteous sad makes no body sad by any oppression joy is the fruit of it strengthens not the wicked in his wickedness it is all for justice and righteous dealing And where it comes upon any it as Samuel foretold it 1 Sam. x. 6. and Saul found it 1 Sam. x. 9. gives him another heart turns him into another man The new man St. Paul calls it created in righteousness and true holiness Eph. iv 2. Indeed there was another kind of coming of his this Day He came to day not only into the hearts but upon the heads of the Apostles sate there and thence disperst his heavenly light into rays and flames came down in wind and fire and tongues in wind to shew that it was the Holy Spirit the very breath of heaven that came in fire to signifie the light of truth it brought and in tongues to express it to the world But it was his Inauguration day the first solemnity of his appearance that so both the Disciples and the World might know that come he was whom Christ had promised and be convinced by a visible apparition who else would not have been convicted by any inward evidence which had been without it But thus he appeared but only once In the effect of Tongues indeed but not in the appearance of them he twice afterwards fell upon some Disciples upon the Centurion and his Company the first fruits of the Gentiles Acts x. 46. and upon those Disciples at Ephesus who knew nothing but Iohn's Baptism that so they might sensibly find the difference of Iohn's Baptism and Christs Acts xix 6. They both assoon as they were baptized spake with tongues says the Text the one so honour'd to teach this truth that in all Nations whoever doth righteousness shall be accepted the Gentiles now in Christ as well accepted as the Iews the other so highly favoured that imperfect Christians might be encouraged to go on and not be dismaied to see so many glorious Professors so exceedingly transcend them These comings were miraculous only to found Christianity and settle an Article of Faith the Article of the Holy Ghost never distinctly known to the world till Christianity arose Christ himself was fain to confirm his Divinity by signs and miracles and the God-head of the Holy Ghost can be perswaded by no less But this once done he was to lead us by an ordinary tract no longer now by sight but faith that salvation might be through faith 1 Pet. i. 5. and the blessing upon them who have not seen and yet have believed St. Iohn xx 29. This I must needs say seems the prime and proxime meaning of the words but not the full When he is come points chiefly and nearest at this his first and nearest coming but not only at it Else are we in an ill case now if no spirit to come to us no guide to lead us no truth to settle us It must extend beyond that his visible coming to the ways of his coming unto us
ready and willing to guide us into all truth yet and 2. to shew us how he will do it that we may learn how to be guided by him This the sum And the Vse of all will be that we submit our selves to him and to his guidance to be taught and led and guided by him to his guiding and to his truth and to all of it without exception To guide and to be guided are relatives infer one another If we will have him guide us he will have us be guided by him and give up our selves to his way of guiding Oh that we would that there were but a heart in us to do so we should not then have so many spirits but more truth one Spirit would be all and all truth would be one this one single Spirit would be sufficient to guide us into all truth He would guide us into all truth But I must from my wishes to my words where we see first we have a guide that though Christ be ascended from us into Heaven yet we are not without a guide upon the Earth I. I will not leave you comfortless said he when he was going hence St. Ioh. xiv 18. Had he left us without a guide he had so comfortless indeed in a vast and howling wilderness this earth is little else But a Comforter he sends ver 7. such a one as shall teach us all things St. Iohn xiv 26. that 's a comfort indeed none like it to have one to guide us in a dangerous and uncertain way to teach us that our ignorance requires to do all the offices of a guide unto us to teach us our way to lead us if need be in it to protect and defend us through it to answer for us if we be questioned about it and to cheer us up encourage and sustain us all the way II. Such a guide as this is 2. this He we are next to speak of He the Spirit of Truth so 't is interpreted but immediately before He shall teach you teach you the way reveal Christ to you for unless he do you cannot know him teach you how to pray Rom. viii 26. teach you what to say how to answer by the way if you be called to question in it St. Luke xii give you a mouth and wisdom too St. Luke xxi 15. teach you not only to speak but to speak to purpose He 2. shall lead you too deducet lead you on be a prop and stay and help to you in your journey He 3. shall protect and defend you in it as a guide free you from danger set you at full liberty 2 Cor. iii. 17. be a cover to you by day and a shelter to you in the night the breath of the Holy Spirit will both refresh us and blow away all our enemies like the dust He 4 if we be charged with any thing will answer for us like a guide and governor 'T is not you says Christ but the Spirit of your Father that speaketh in you St. Matth. x. 20. He lastly it is that quicken our spirit with his Spirit that encourages and upholds us like a guide and leader for without him our spirits are but soft air and vanish at the least pressure He guides our feet and guides our heads and guides our tongues and guides our hands and guides our hearts and guides our spirits we have neither spirit nor motion nor action nor life without him III. But here particularly he comes to guides us into the Truth And God knows we need it for surely men of low degree are vanity says the Psalmist and men of high degree are a lie Psal. lxii 9. not lyars only but a very lye as far from truth as a lie it self things so distant from that conformity with God which is truth for truth is nothing else that no lie is further off it Nor soul nor body nor heart nor mind nor upper nor lower powers conformed to him neither our understandings to his understanding nor our wills to his will nor any thâ—ng of us really to him our actions and words and thoughts all lye to him to his face we think too low we speak too mean we deal too falsly with him pretend all his yet give most of it to our lusts and to our selves and we are so used to it we can do no other we are all either verbal or real lies need we had of one to guide us into the truth God is Truth to guide us to him Christ is the Truth St. Iohn xiv 6. to guide us to him His Word is Truth to guide us into that into the true understanding and practise of it His Promises are Truth very Yea and Amen to guide us to them to rest and hold upon them His way is the way of Truth to guide us into that into a Religion pure holy and undefiled that only is the true one Into none of these can any guide but this guide here He sheweth us of the Father He reveals to us the Son He interprets the Word and writes it in our hearts He leads and upholds us by his Promises seals them unto us seals us again to the day of Redemption the day of truth the day when all things shall appear truly as they are He sets our Religion right he only leads us into that Man cannot he can speak but to the ear there his words dye and end Angels cannot they are but ministring spirits at the best to this Spirit Nature cannot these truths are all above it are supernatural and no other truth is worth the knowing Nay into any truth this Spirit only can we only flatter and keep ado about this truth and that truth and the other but into them we cannot get make nothing of any truth without him unless he sanctifie it better else we had not known it Knowledge puffeth up all knowledge that comes not from this Spirit so the very truth of any truth that which truly confirms it to the divine will and understanding that makes truth the same with goodness is from this Spirit from his guiding and directing his breathing it or breathing into it or upon it IV. Thus we are faln upon the fourth particular that he will guide us into all truth Gods mercies and Christs are ever perfect and of the largest size and the conducts of the Spirit are so too into all goodness Gal. v. 9. into all fulness Ephes. iii. 19. into all truth here into all things That we are not full is from our selves that we are not led into all truth is for that all truth does not please us and we are loth to believe it such if it make not for us he for his part is as ready to guide us into all as into one For take we truth either for speculative or practical either for the substance against types and shadows or the discerning the substance through those shadows or take we it in opposition to obscurity and doubting understand we it
may be perfect thorowly furnished unto all good works 2 Tim. iii. 16 17. Inspir'd purposely by this Spirit to be a way to guide us into all truth and goodness But this may all pretend to and every one turns it how he lists We must adde a second And the second is the Church for we must know this says St. Peter know it first too 2 Pet. i. 20. That no Scripture is of any private interpretation There are some things so hard to be understood both in St. Pauls Epistles and also other Scriptures says he that they that are unlearned and unstable wrest them unto their own destruction 2 Tim. iii. 16. and therefore presently his advice follows to beware least we be led away with that error the error as he calls it of the wicked and so fall from our own stedfastness ver 17. When men unlearned or ungrounded presume to be interpreters or even learned men to prefer their private senses before the received ones of the Church 't is never like to produce better The pillar and ground upon which truth stands and stays is the Church if St. Paul may be allowed the judge 1 Tim. iii. 16. The pillar and ground of truth In matters of discipline when a brother has done disorderly tell it to the Church says Christ St. Mat. 18. 17. and if he neglect to hear that let him be unto thee as a heathen man and as a Publican He is no Christian. In matters 2. of doubt and controversie send to the Church to Hierusalem to the Apostles and Elders there conven'd in Counsel and let them determine it so we find it done Acts xv 2 28. In a lawful and full assembly of the learned Fathers of the Church such shall be determined that 's the was to settle truth In matters 3. of Rites and Ceremonies the Spirit guides us also by the Church If any man seem to be contentious about them St. Pauls appeal is presently to the Churches Customs We have no such custom neither the Churches of God that 's answer enough full and sufficient thinks the Apostle 1 Cor. xi 16. If the Churches custom be for us then 't is good and true we think or speak or do If against us 't is all naught and wrong whatever purity or piety be pretended in it Nay so careful was the Apostle to preserve the publick Authority of the Church and beat down all private ways and fancies by which ways only Schism and Heresie creep in that he tells Timothy though a Bishop and one well read and exercised in the Scriptures from a child 2 Tim. iii. 14. of a form of sound words he would have even him hold fast to 2 Tim. i. 13. and the Romans he tells of a form of Doctrine to be obeyed Rom. 6. 17. so far was that great and eloquent Apostle from being against forms any forms of the Church though he could have prayed and preached ex tempore with the best had tongues and eloquence and the gift of interpretation to do it too so far from leaving truth to any private interpretation or sudden motion whatsoever Nor is this appeal to the Fathers any whit strange or in Christian Religion only first to be heard of it was Gods direction from the first For ask now says Moses of the days that are past that were before thee Deut. iv 32. Stand you in the ways and see and ask for the old paths where is the good way says God Ier. vi 16. As if he had said Look about and see and examine all the ways you can yet the old way that 's the good one For enquire I pray thee of the former Age and prepare thy self to the search of their Fathers for we are but of yesterday and know nothing Iob viii 8. See how slightly things of yesterday new interpretations new devices new guides are accounted of And indeed in it self 't is most ridiculous to think the custom and practice and order and interpretation of all times and Churches should be false and those of yesterday only true unless we can think the Spirit of truth has been fifteen or sixteen hundred years asleep and never wak'd till now of late or can imagine that Christ should found a Church and promise to be with it to the end of the World and then leave it presently to Antichrist to be guided by him for above fifteen hundred years together Nor can I see why the Spirit of truth should now of late only begin to move and stir except I should think he were awak'd or delighted with noise and fury Nor is it reasonable to conceive a few private Spirits neither holier nor wiser than others for ought appears nor arm'd with Miracles to confirm their Doctrines should be more guided by the Spirit of truth than the whole Church and succession of Christians and Christian Fathers especially wherein at any time they agree Yet 3. not always to go so high Thou leadest thy people like sheep says the Psalmist by the hand of Moses and Aaron Psal. lxxvii 20. Moses and Aaron were the Governours of the Church the one a Priest the other a Prophet by such God leads his People by their lawful Pastours and Teachers The one the Civil Governour is the cloud to cover them from the heat The other the Spiritual is the light to lead them in the way The first protects the other guides us and we are bid to obey them those especially that watch for our souls Heb. xiii 17. Such as labour in the Word and Doctrine 1 Tim. v. 17. By such as God sets over us in the Church to teach and guide us into truth we must be guided if we will come into it In things unlawful nor one nor other is to be obeyed In things indifferent they always are In things doubtful 't is our safest course to have recourse to them provided that they be not of Corahs company that they exalt not themselves against Moses and Aaron nor draw us to it If they do we may say to them as Moses did to those Ye take too much upon you you Sons of Levi. God leads his People like a flock in peace and unity and by the hands of Moses and Aaron Thus 3. the Spirit guides into all truth because the Spirit is God and God so guides You have heard the way and means the first part of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the Spirits guiding The Second follows his act and motion 1. He leads or guides us only he does not drive us that 's not the way to plant truth by force and violence fire and fagots not the Spirits sure which is the Spirit of love 2. Yet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there is we told you in it Some Act of the Spirit He moves and stirs up to it enlightens our understandings actuates our wills disposes ways and times occasions and opportunities to it that 's the reason we hear the truth more willingly at some time than other Paul
grace not of desert That 't is 4. yet a receiving sufficient full every one enough and that not single grace neither but one for another one after another one upon another That 't is 5. a general business all receiving somewhat some grace or other and that seldom or never by it self none without receiving That 6. it is from Christ from him it is from his grace and from his fulness that we receive whatever we receive That lastly grace for grace it is for some end and purpose it is that we receive it receive grace that we may say grace give thanks and acknowledge it 2. Receive grace that we may shew grace receive grace from God that we may shew it unto men 3. Receive grace even for grace it self to increase and grow in it daily more and more till both it and we come both to perfection Of all these this is the sum that in Christ there is fulness all fulness fulness in both natures fulness that contents not it self till it have fill'd others till it fill us all That from this fulness we receive receive all we have all we have though not all he has all sorts of graces fitting for us and all gratis are therefore to give thanks for it as we have received so to repay again grace for grace And of all this is the scope the Exaltation of Christ and of his grace the scope of the Text the Sermon and the day 'T is but making it yours too and then all will be full And that it may so I begin now particularly to open to you all this fulness where I am first to shew you whose it is His fulness 1. His you know is a Relative must relate to somewhat that is before His to some that was spoken of before who 's that one to whom Saint Iohn bare witness that he was before ver 15. long before in the beginning ver 1. but was fain to draw nearer e're we could see him or his fulness to draw himself into the flesh e're we could fully discern his grace or behold his glory was made flesh the word made flesh ver 14. the only begotten of the Father become the only born of a Virgin Mother before we hear of any one full of grace and truth This word this eternal word this only begotten Son of God is He this His belongs to yet this fulness then fully His when he was made the Son of Man In that first appeared the fulness of his love the fulness of his Word and Promise the fulness of his Grace and Mercy the infinite grace and favour done to our flesh the fulness of his truth and reality above all those empty types and shadows which more amus'd then fill'd the world The body that 's of Christ says the Apostle Col. ii 17. the full body of truth full bodied grace never till he took a body to make it full The Law that could not fill us the very life of things there was poured out at the foot of the Altar and all the rest went into smoke The Prophets they could not fill us with any thing but expectation fill us with good words but alas they are but wind would have proved so too had not he embodied them All the world could not fill us the fulness of time was not come upon it till the Son of fulness came all that was in it till he came was vanity and emptiness could neither satisfie it self nor us 'T is Christ that filleth all in all Ephes. i. 23. He the end of the Law the completion of the Prophets the fulness of the World To him it is that this fulness is attributed to the fulness of Christ Ephes. iv 13. In him it is it dwells Col. i. 19. So it pleased God says the Apostle there so to gather together in one all things in Christ both which are in heaven and which are in earth even in him Ephes. i. 10. Fulness must needs be his in whom all things are gathered altogether in whom earth and heaven together 2. Thus the fulness you see is his and it being the fulness of Heaven and Earth you see in general what his fulness is In particular it cannot be measured It is as high as Heaven what canst thou do deeper then Hell what canst thou know the measure of it is longer then the earth and broader then the Sea Job xi 8 9. There is no end of his fulness no more than of his greatness In him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge Col. ii 3. all wisdom and knowledge treasured up in him all in the very knowing him all the very treasures of wisdom and knowledge the choicest to be found there all even hidden and obscured by his swallow'd up in that he knows all and to know him is to know all the highest Wisdom the deepest knowledge is but silliness and ignorance in respect of his hides it self at the comparison as lesser lights do at the Suns glaring Beams in him is all knowledge and in the knowledge of him is all wisdom hidden and contained In him 2. is the fulness of grace Full of grace are thy lips Psal. xlv 3. and if the lip 's full the heart 's not empty for out of the abundance there the fulness here the very stature of fulness Ephes. iv 13. In him 3. is the fulness of truth ver 14. so full that he is stil'd the very truth it self St. John xiv 6. I am the truth the truth of the promises all the promises since the Creation All the promises of God are in him yea and in him Amen 2 Cor. i. 20. The truth of all the Types and Shadows and Sacrifices from the worlds first cradle the true Paschal Lamb the true Scape-Goat the true High-Priest Adam and Isaac and Ioseph and Ioshua and Samson and David and Solomon were but the representations of him or what was to be more substantially done by him They are but the draughts and pictures he the substance all the way To him they all related had not their offices actions or passions scarce their very names fulfilled but in him all their fulness was in him Their truth and all truth besides the doctrine of truth never fully delivered never fully revealed or known till he came with it We knew it but in pieces we saw it but in clouds we heard it but in dark and obscure Prophesies till he came a light into the world to manifest it all 't is then we first hear of the whole will of God and the declaring that the whole counsel of God Acts xx 27. truth was not at the fulness till he taught it Nor 4. was his the fulness of wisdom and knowledge grace and truth but of the Spirit too not by measure St. Iohn iii. 34. but immeasurably full He all the graces of the Spirit and all of them to the full in him The Spirit himself proceeds from him St. Iohn xv 26. he must therefore
only but their bodies for him to go over not only to cut down boughs to strew his way but to cut down every one that stands any way in his way if he would have it will within a few days upon a little change be as ready to trample upon that great one they so much honour and even cut his throat if he command any thing that pleases not their humour or crosses their private interests and designs This very multitude so eager to day to exalt Christ to the highest in their loud Hosannahs are as fair on Friday to exalt him to the Cross by their louder cryings He yet would suffer them to give him honour that you might know all earthly honour what it is But 4. he thus receives this honour from the multitude that he might provoke great ones by their example St. Paul tells us that Salvation was come unto the Gentiles to provoke the Iews to jealousie Rom. xi 11. that they might in a holy strife and indignation endeavour to outgo them 'T is the like intended here that we might think much that simple men and women should outstrip us the ignorant know more of Piety and Religion do more at least the poor and meanest bestow more much more on Christ than we with all our wit and wealth and greatness and honour And in this 5. appears as well his power as providence and wisdom that he should out of such stones as these raise up children unto Abraham that he should thus out of the mouths of babes and sucklings perfect his own praise make the Child as eloquent as the Orator the women as valiant in his service as the stoutest men the People understand that which the learned Doctors would not see Even so O Father for so it pleased thee to reveal those things to babes and sucklings and hide them from the wise St. Luke x. 21. his only doing it was neither their doing nor deserving and it is marvelous in our eyes an evidence of the freeness of his power that he can do what he pleases that he does what he lists no man can hinder him none able to contradict him This 6. shews his Omniscience and his truth that nothing that he foretels not a tittle of it shall fall any time to the ground He had foretold it by his Prophet Zech. ix 9. that the daughter of Sion should rejoyce and the daughter of Ierusalem shout for joy and here we have it to a tittle even their Sons and Daughters doing it a very great multitude it is and children and women in it Children in the Temple ver 15. and the whole City moved ver 10. all Sexes then that the Prophesie might be fulfilled to the last letter So punctual is he of his word Yet to fulfil it fuller 't is a very great multitude in the Text that we might know that he that was here met by so great a company was the Saviour of all as many as would come that would spread their garments to receive him make him any kind of entertainment though butstrew boughs and rushes for him that 2. the World might know that he was going to his Passion he went freely too he could as well have used these multitudes to preserve himself as thus strangely to do him honour made them have bespread him with Arms and Weapons as well as arms and boughs of trees strewd the way with their bodies in his defence as well as their Garments in his honour but he would suffer death and therefore would not suffer that To tell us 3. that he should be served hereafter by great multitudes and not by little handfuls of men and women this was but a forerunner of the great multitudes of those that should hereafter believe on him Upon such grounds as these it is that the Eternal Wisdom so uses this great multitude here to set forth his glory makes them do that which themselves yet do not understand to tell us he is a Saviour of the poor and needy as well as of the rich and wealthy That he does not 2. utterly refuse mans service though he know it is not to last long to teach us 3. all the glory and honour we receive from men is but transitory and quickly vanishing to provoke us 4. by their doings to a godly jealousie and contention to out-do them to ascertain us 5. of the exact performance of every 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of his promises To intimate lastly to us that he is the Saviour of us willingly comes to suffer that he may be so that he may purchase a Church great multitude by it to himself Thus you have some kind of glimmering light why this great multitude are employed in this way of honouring him by the way And yet there is a mystery beyond it This multitude throngs together to inform us 1. how Christ would be serv'd and honoured with full Assemblies and Congregations The places where he comes he loves to see crouded with devout Worshippers to hear them encouraging and heightning one another with O come let us worship and fall down and kneel before God our Maker and by outward reverence gestures and expressions provoking one another to his service It instructs us 2. that there is neither man nor woman Master nor Servant old man or child poor or rich to be out in giving glory to him all sexes ages and conditions to flow together to do him service the very children to lisp it out they that have not a rag to cover shame may have a leaf to honour him they that cannot are not able to cut down a bough may strew it yet that cannot lift a branch may hold a twig do somewhat or other to his entertainment It preaches 3. to us that there is nothing readier to serve him than the poor in spirit that the spirit which most does him honour which is ever most ready to do it to him is the poor and humble Spirit such as ranks it self lowest thinks meanest of it self none so mean in the meanest multitude Here 's the spirit of this very great multitude the spiritual sense it speaks a serving Christ with a poor and humble spirit and bringing our selves and all ours our very children to speak or point out his praise to do it too in the great Congregation as the Psalmist speaks to praise him among much people And not only so but with much ceremony too so we read in the next particular some spread their garments in the way others cut down branches from the trees and strewed them in the way II. These Ceremonies neither of them were strange among the Iews in the days of joy or triumph or the inauguration of Kings and Princes When Iehu was anointed King 2 Kings ix 12. we find every man hasting to take his own garment and put it under him spreading them as carpets for him to walk on ver 13. And in the Feast of Tabernacles it was commanded them to take boughs of goodly trees