they say : so, by a slanting blow, tliey hit God himself in contemning his ambassador. Secondlj', The greatness of the person, whose place the minister snpplies, Ministers are but deputy ambassadors ; C'lu-ist himself had the first patent, called therefore the Messenger of the Covenant, Mai. iii. 1 ; and the Apostle of our profession, Ileb. iii. 1. From him the ministers receive their authority : 'All power is given unto me, — Go ye, therefore, and teach all na- tions,' Matt, xxviii. 18. 'We pray yon in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God,' 2 Cor. v. 20. As if the apostle had said, We do but deliver that mes- sage which Christ should and woidd have done, had he not been called to hea- ven about the affairs of his church, and therefore hath left us as his deputies to carry on that ministry which himself began when he was here below. Now, what an honour is it for a poor creature to stand up in Christ's room, and bring that message to poor sinners which was first committed unto him ! Thirdly, The excellency of the message they bring. There are three kinds of embassies, which particularly demand the honourable entertainment of the messengers who bring them to any state.
Section III. — First, Embassies for peace. Beautiful are their feet, and honoured are their persons, that bring glad tidings of peace along with them ; especially when these four things concur in their embassage, which will be all found in the minister's negotiation. First, When an ambassador comes from some puissant prince, whose power is formidable, and whose armies are irre- sistible : an ambassador from such a prince to a people naked and unarmed, for peace and amity, O, how welcoine is his approach ! Such a king we come from ; he offers not peace because he cannot maintain war, or stands in need of our friendship. Sinners need his favour, but he fears not their hostility ; never could they shoot any of their arrows so high as heaven, but all have come down upon their own heads. What can he expect that spits against the wind, but to have it blown back upon his own face ? and he that fights with God, but expect to have his weapons beat back to his own head? Worldly princes treat when they cannot fight : think not so of God ; his instruments of death are ready, there is no place where he hath not his armed troops able to subdue his proudest enemies. There is no creature so little, but contaiais an army in it large enough to tame the proudest king in the world. The worm under Herod's foot, at God's command, shall seize on him, and eat out his heart. O, with what fear and trembling should the ambassadors of this God be received! When Samuel came to Bethlehem, the elders of the town trembled at his coming, and said, ' Comest thou peaceably?' 1 Sam. xvi. 4. Secondly, When such a puissant prince sends his ambassador to offer peace to a people that have already felt the impressions of his power, and are pining under the bleeding miseries which their war have brought upon them, O how would they run to open their city-gates to him ! as willingly, surely, as Noah opened the window to receive the dove that brought the olive branch after that dismal flood. This is the deplorable state which the ministry of the gospel finds mankind involved in. What a forlorn condition hath our war with Heaven brought us into ! Do we not feel the arrows of Divine vengeance sticking in our very hearts and consciences? — the curse of God cleaving to every faculty of our souls, and member of our bodies ? Are not all the creatures in arms against us? And doth not hell from beneath open its devouring mouth upon us, ready to swallow us up in everlasting destruction? And yet are we so stout, that we can find no lodging in our town for his ambassadors but a prison? — no entertainment to the offers of peace they make, but contempt and scorn? Thirdly, When the terms of peace which the ambassador brings are honourable. Gold, we say, may be bought too dear, and so may the peace of one state with another. As when Nahash, the Ammonite, offered peace with the men of Jabash Gilead,but upon condition that they should have every one his right eye thi-ust out, to lay it as a reproach on Israel, and therefore was rejected with just indignation ; they resolving rather to die with honour than live with shame. It is the custom among many of this world's princes to make their demands according to the length of their sword ; where their power is great, it is hard to have peace on easy terms. Now, this, one would think, should make the ministers of the gospel and their message infinitely welcome to poor sinners, that though they come from the great God, who may make his own demands, and might not only require the eye out of our
Foil WHICH I AM AN AMBASSADOR. J^JY