Inf. 1. Hence we infer the unreasonableness of infidelity, and how little rejecters of Christ can have to pretend for their so doing. You see he hath opened his commission in the gospel, shewn the world his Father s hand and seal to it, given as ample satisfaction as reason itself could desire, or expect ; yet even his own received him not, John i. 11. And he knew it before-hand, and therefore complained by the prophet, Isa. liii. 1. " Who hath believed our report r" kc. Yea, and that he is believed on in the world, is by the apostle put among the great mysteries of godliness, 1 Tim. hi. 16. A man that well considers with what convincing evidence Christ comes, would rather think it a mystery, that any should not believe. But, Oh the brutish obstinacy, and devilish enmity, that is in nature to Jesus Christ ! Devilish did I say ? You must give me that word again, for he compelled the devil's assent ; " We " know thee, whom thou art.1' And it is equally as wonderful to see the facility that is in nature to comply (meanwhile) with any, even the most foolish imposture. Let a false Christ arise, and he shall deceive many, as it is, Matth. xxiv. 24. Of this Christ com- plains, and not without great reason, John v. 43, " I am come in " my Father's name* and ye receive me not : If another come in " his own name, him will ye receive," q. d. You are incredulous to none but me : every deceiver, every pitiful cheat, that hath but wit, or rather wickedness, enough to tell you the Lord hath sent him, though you must take his own single word for it, he shall obtain and get disciples ; but though \ come in my Father's name, i. e. shewing you a commission signed and sealed by him, doing those works which none but a God can do, yet ye receive me not. But in all this, we must adore the justice of God, permitting it to be so, giving men up to such unreasonable obstinacy and hardness. It is a sore plague that lies upon the world, and a wonder that we, all are not ingulphed in the same infidelity.
Inf. % If Christ was sealed to his work by his Father, then liow
SERM. VI. THE FOUNTAIN OF LIFE. 93
great is the sin of those that reject and despise such as are sent and sealed by Jesus Christ ? For look, as he came to us in his Father's name, so he hath sent forth, by the same authority, ministers in his name ; * and as he acts in his Father's, so they in his, authority. " As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent * them into the world," John xvii. 18. And so, John xx. 21. " As u my Father hath sent me, so have I sent you.'' You may think it a small matter to despise or reject a minister of Christ, (a sin, in the guilt whereof, I think no age hath been plunged deeper than this ;) but hear, and let it be a warning to you for ever : in so doing you despise, and put the slight both upon the Father that sent Je- sus, and upon Christ that sent them : so that it is a rebellion, that however it seems to begin low in some small piques against their persons, or some little quarrels at their parts and utterance, tones, methods or gestures ; yet it runs high, even to the fountain-head of the most supreme authority. You that set yourselves against a minister of Christ, set yourselves against God the Father, and God the Son ; Luke x. 16. " He that heareth you, heareth me ; and he K that despiseth you, despiseth me ; and he that despiseth me, de- " spiseth him that sent me" God expects that you behave your- selves, under the word spoken by us, as if he himself spake it ; yea, he expects submission to his word in the mouths of his ministers from the greatest on earth. And therefore it was that God so se- verely punished Zedekiah, " because he humbled not himself before " Jeremiah the prophet, speaking from the mouth of the Lord," & Chron. xxxvi. 12. God was angry with a great king for not fumbling himself before a poor prophet. Yet here you must dis- tinguish both of Persons, and of Acts, f This reverence and sub- mission is not due to them as men, but as men in office, as Christ's ambassadors ; and must involve that respect still in it. Again, we owe it not to them, commanding or forbidding in their own names, but in Christ's, not in venting their own spleen, but the terrors of the Lord ; and then to resist is a high rebellion and affront to the sovereign authority of heaven. And, by the way, this may instruct ministers, that the way to maintain that veneration and respect that is due to them, in the consciences of their hearers, is by keeping close to their commission.
* This form of the mission of the Apostles by Christ, evidently enough shews the dignity of their office, in their authority and power, which was supreme and incompa* rable. Cameron.
f As if a master of a family should first prescribe to his servant what he should order to be done in the family, and then should say, Whoso heareth you, heareth me ; it would not thence follow, that it is impossible for that servant to depart from what his Master had prescribed to himj or whenever he should do so, he should be obeyed. Cameron, Myroth. p. 130.
54 THE FOUNTAIN OF LIFE. SERM. VI.
Inf. 3. Hence also we infer, how great an evil it is to intrude into the office of the ministry without a due call. It is more than Christ himself would do ; he glorified not himself: the honours and advantages attending that office, have invited many, to run before they were sent But surely this is an insufferable violation of Christ's order. Our age hath abounded with as many church-levellers as state-levellers. I wish the ministers of Christ might at last see and consider, what they were once warned of by a faithful watchman :
• I believe (saith he *) God hath permitted so many to intrude into
* the ministers1 calling, because ministers have too much meddled c with, and intruded into other men's callings.'