e. This honourable Man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eminent in Countenance as he is called Esai 3.2 He is likewise born in Sion The mighty Man and the Man of War The Syriack Interpreter was so far sensible of this as that he expresses it in the very Text therefore in stead of saying This man was born there he saies A Potent man was born there 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and he has establisht it whereby as I conceive he takes in the word Highest which followes afterwards in the verse and refers it here to this place and so the Scripture sets it in other places besides Kings shall see and arise Princes also shall worship c. Esai 49.7 And again The Kings of Tarshish and of the Isles shall bring presents the Kings of Sheba and Seba shall offer gifis Psal 72.10 And again the Chaldee Paraphrast in the Text This King was born there understanding thereby Solomon as most conceive and apprehend it Indeed these great and potent men have not the greatest name for Religion for the most part Not many mighty not many noble are called But yet some there are and through Gods goodnesse instances of it such as these born in Sion Men of power and place and authority and nobility and the like This man was born there 3. This Godly man Thirdly Take it for spirituals and for these accomplishments especially This Man i. e. This godly Man this is that which is most proper and essential to Sion and to the being born in it yea it is that which makes Sion it self in the sense we now take it It is the highest perfection of it and the greatest commendation to it of any thing else This is the great honour of the Church that it formes men to such qualities and dispositions as those are which no other place does besides It is not all the Schools of the Philosophers The Stoa or Academy or Lycaeum though they also have their use and seasonable improvement which are able to send forth such a man as Sion does so qual fied and adorned and beautified especially in his inward parts As for other places and such as those which I now mentioned they may perhaps now and then reach to some other principles and those likewise very glorious in the eyes of the world morality and civility and ingenuity and smoothnesse of behaviour The School of Nature and common reason may sometimes come up to these and that in a very great measure yea but now go a little higher to brokenednesse of heart to self-denial to love of enemies to closing with Christ the frame and spirit of the Gospel this is to be found no where but only in Sion And here it is THIS MAN was born THERE This in the Amplification Now this will further take an advancement and amplification of it not only by considering this man what he is now but what he was once which is also intimated in the Text Behold Philistia and Tyre and Ethiopia This man was born there Here 's the excellency of the Ordinances and that Power and Energie which is stirring in the Church of Christ that it is able to work such a miraculous alteration as this to bring men from darknesse to light from Satan to God from a state of sin and corruption and unregeneracy to a state of Grace and Holinesse and Regeneration yea from the lowest degree of the one to the highest degree of the other That Philistia should turn into Palestina Tyre into Jerusalem Ethiopia into Judaea here 's the wonder of all The reconciling of these two opposite termes thus both together That Princes should come out of Egypt and that Ethiopia should stretch out her hands to God as it is Psal 68.31 That the Blackmore should change his skin and that the Leopard should change his spots And that this Ethiopian should become this Christian that he which was born there should be born here There are some which have understood this place here in the Text concerning the Ethiopian Eunuch mentioned in the 8. of the Acts and whom I mentioned in the beginning of the Sermon as if this passage here before us were spoken Prophetically of him But I conceive that to be a little too narrow an Interpretation and a little too much forced I rather take it more general and at large as relating to all kinde of sinners whosoever they be yea the worst that are as reduced by the power of the Gospel and the mediation of the Ordinances of the Church as sometimes through the goodnesse of God it happens to be And that 's the first thing here considerable in the children of Sion to wit the quality of the persons exprest in this man 2. The Dignity of number The second is the Number or plurality This and that man c. And there are three things again here For this man only to be born there there had been no great matter in that one Swallow does not make a Summer and there is not the plainest or meanest place that is but may chance to have one eminent man to be born in it In this First Variety Secondly Indifferency And thirdly Succession 1. Variety This and that man i. e. That man with this 2. Indifferency This and that man i. e. That man as well as this 3. Succession This and that man i. e. That man after this the one following and succeeding to the other 1. Variety First Variety 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A man and a man i. e. many men Repetition it does denote multitude in the ordinary signification of it And so here The Church is a fruitful Mother and has the honour of many eminent children to be born of her Many in the Multitude of persons both men and women and many in the multitude of Nations both Jewes and Gentiles There 's a Plurality and a Variety of both And so the Scripture declares unto us at large in sundry places of it in Act. 2.41 we finde how at one Sermon of Peters there were three thousand which were born at once and Act 5.14 After that Peter and the rest had been restrain'd it is said That Beleevers were the more added to the Lord even multitudes both of Men and Women This for the Multitude of the persons And so for the multitude of the Nations Sion Mystical is inlarged beyond Sion Local And it is not only a multitude of Jewes but also of Gentiles which is here intended as also elsewhere exprest in Esai 2.2 The Mountain of the Lords House shall be established c. And all Nations shall flow unto it yea and these too in great multitudes as we may see further in Esai 60.4,5,6,7 Lift up thine eyes round about and see All they gather themselves together c. And then thou shalt see and flow together and thine heart shall fear and be inlarged because the abundance of the Sea shall be converted unto thee and the forces or riches of the