Yea, necessity is not only laid upon them to preach, but to keep close to their commission in preaching the gospel, 1 Thess. ii. 3, 4, 5. " Our exhortation was not of deceit, nor of uncleanness, nor " in guile, but as we were allowed of God to be put in trust with " the gospel, even so we speak, not as pleasing men, but God who " trieth our hearts:" the word is not to be corrupted to please men,
2 Cor. ii. 17. their business is not to make them their disciples, but Christ's; not to seek theirs, but them, & Cor. xii. 14. to keep close to their instructions, both in the matter, manner, and end of their ministry. So did Christ himself, the treasure of wisdom and know- ledge; yet, being sent by God, he saith, John vii. 16. "My doc- " trine is not mine, but his that sent me." And so he expects and requires that his ambassadors keep close to the commission he hath given them, and be (according to their measure) faithful to their trust, as he was to his. Paul is to deliver to the people, that which he also received from the Lord, 1 Cor. xi. And Timothy must keep that which was committed to him, 2 Tim. i. 14.
5. It implies the removal of the gospel-ministry to be a very great judgment to the people. The remanding of ambassadors pre- sages an ensuing war. If the reconciling of souls to God be the greatest work, then the removal of the means and instruments
THE METHOD OF GEACE» 53
thereof, must be the sorest judgment. Some account " the falling " of the salt upon the table,'1 ominous ; but surely the falling of them whom Christ calls the salt of the earth, is so indeed.
What now are those once famous and renowned places, from whence Christ, (as he threatened) hath removed the candlestick, but magna latrocinia, dens of robbers, and mountains of prey !
6. And lastly, It implies both the wisdom and condescension of God to sinful men, in carrying on a treaty of peace with them by such ambassadors, negociating betwixt him and them. Without a treaty, there would be no reconciliation ; and no method to carry on such a treaty like this ; for had the Lord treated with sinners personally, and immediately, they had been overwhelmed with his awful Majesty. The appearances of God confound the creature, " Let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God, (saith " Israel) neither let me see this great fire any more, that I die not : " Yea, so terrible was that sight, that Moses said, I exceedingly " fear and quake," Deut. xviii. 16. Heb. xii. 21.
Or, had he commissioned angels for this employment, though they stand not at such an infinite distance from us as God doth, vet such is the excellence of their glory (being the highest species and order of creatures) that their appearances would be more apt to astonish than persuade us ; besides, they being creatures of another rank and kind, and not partaking with us, either in the misery of the fall, or benefit of the recovery by Christ, it is not to be sup- posed they should speak to us so feelingly and experimentallv, as these his ministers do; they can open to you the mysteries of sin, feeling the workings thereof daily in their own hearts ; they can discover to you the conflicts of the flesh and Spirit, as being daily exercised in that warfare ; and then, being men of the same mould and temper, they can say to you as Elihu did to Job, chap, xxxiii. 6, 7. " Behold, I am according to thy wish, in God's " stead, I also am formed out of the clay ; behold, my terror " shall not make thee afraid, neither shall my hand be heavy " upon thee."
So that, in this appointment, much of the Divine wisdom and condescension to sinners is manifested : " We have this treasure " in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of " God, and not of us," 2 Cor. iv. 7. God's glory and man's ad- vantage are both promoted by this dispensation.
Secondly, Next we are to consider that great concernment about which these ambassadors of Christ are to treat with sinners ; and that (as the text informs us) is their reconciliation to God.
Now reconciliation with God, is the restoring of men to that for- mer friendship they had with God, which was broken by the
54 THE METHOD OE GRACE. 3ERM. III.
fall *, and is still continued by our enmity and aversation whilst we continue in our natural and unregenerate state. Now this is the greatest and most blessed design that ever God had in the world ; an astonishing and invaluable mercy to men, as will clearly appear, by considering these particulars following.
First, That God should be reconciled after such a dreadful breach as the fall of man made, is wonderful ; no sin, all things considered, was ever like to this sin : other sins, like a single bul- let, kill particular persons, but this, like a chain-shot, cuts off mul- titudes as the sand upon the sea-shore, which no man can number.
If all the posterity of Adam in their several generations, should do nothing else but bewail and lament this sin of his, whilst this world continues, yet would it not be enough lamented ; for a man so newly created out of nothing, and admitted the first moment into the highest order, crowned a king over the works of God's hands, Psal. viii. 5. a man perfect and upright, without the least inordinate motion, or sinful inclination : a man whose mind was most clear, bright, and apprehensive of the will of God, whose will was free, and able to have easily put by the strongest tempta- tion : a man in a paradise of delights, where nothing was left to desire for advancing the happiness of soul or body : a man under- standing himself to be a public, complexive person, carrying not only his own, but the happiness of the whole world in his hand : so soon, upon so slight a temptation, to violate the law of his God, and involve himself and all his posterity with him, in such a gulf of guilt and misery ; all which he might so easily have prevented ! O wonderful amazing mercy, that ever God should think of being reconciled, or have any purposes of peace towards so vile an apos- tate creature as man.
Secondly, That God should be reconciled to men, and not to angels, a more high and excellent order of creatures, is yet more astonishing ; when the angels fell they were lost irrecoverably ; no hand of mercy was stretched out to save one of those myriads of excellent beings, but chains of darkness were immediately clap- ped on them, to reserve them to the judgment of the great day, Jude 6.
That the milder attribute should be exercised to the inferior, and the severer attribute to the more excellent creature, is just matter for eternal admiration. Who would cast away vessels of gold, and save earthen potsherds ! Some indeed undertake to shew us the reasons, why the wisdom of God made no provision for the reco- very of angels by a Mediator of reconciliation ; partly from the