(2.) Christ is a necessary good. Things may be excellent, yet if they be not needful to us, the affections move but faintly after them. Now Christ is umcm necessarium, the one thing needful. It is not enough to choose that which is good, but that which is needful : Luke X. 42, ' But one thing is needful, and Mary hath chosen the better part.' Many follow after riches, pleasures, and honours, and outward comforts ; these may be good in their kind, but they are not needful. What good will those things do us to all eternity ? There the love of God will only stand us in stead. The things of this world, according to that usual saying among divines, are temporal in their use, but the punishment for the abuse cf them is eternal. The most necessary and serviceable good to us is Jesus Christ ; therefore get the judge to be your friend against the assizes.
(3.) Consider, he hath deserved that our strongest desires should be after him, not only as he is the being of beings, and the fountain of our lives and mercies, but as he laid down his life for us : John xii. 32, ' And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to me ; ' that is, I will do that which shall draw all men's desires to me ; he will leave such a debt of thankfulness upon them. Though we could expect nothing from Christ, yet, by the law of thankfulness, •our desires are due to him.
Thirdly, I come now to the third thing propounded, which was to give you some practical points and observations that concern man in the ordering of his life and conversation. I shall handle but three, and so quit tliis verse.
1. That God prosecuteth and accomplisheth his greatest designs by the most unlikely and despised means. Jesus Christ, the great Saviour of the world, was but a tender plant, which a man would be more apt to tread upon and crush, than to cherish.
2. God Cometh in for the deliverance of his people in times of greatest despair and unlikelihood. For when the branches of Jesse
VOL. III. Q
242 A PRACTICAL EXPOSITION UPON [IsA. LIII. 2.
were dried up, and liad no verdure, even tlien sprung up the greatest ornament of that stock, although a root out of a dry ground.
3. Mean beginnings may grow up to great matters and glorious successes. Christ, the tender plant, was to be a tall tree, under the shadow of whose boughs all the fowls of heaven should lodge.
I begin with the first: —
Doct. 1. That God accomplisheth his greatest designs by the most unlikely and despised means. I might trace the way of God's prose- cution thi-oughout all succession of ages, and show you how this truth is verified. He made us out of the dust, and that is contemptible matter. And as hath been our creation, so hath been our i)reserva- tion, even by dust, that which we would trample upon rather than admire. But I shall rather come to the reasons of it, which are as follow : —
1. That his glory may more appear. The weakness of the instru- ment directs our thoughts to the power of the supreme worker. tSliould things work according to the constant tenor of nature, and the order of second causes, God might have no glory. We should look upon successes and deliverances as coming to us by chance, and not mind the great sway and poise by which all things in the world are moved, and carried to their proper ends. Therefore God doth some- times more eminently put forth his hand this way. The weakness of the instrument holdeth forth the glory of the first mover and agent. The spirit of providence is discovered by it : Zech. iv. 6, ' Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord.' My Spirit ; that is, the invisible sway that directeth and ordereth all things to their proper uses and effects. God worketh sometimes the most eminent glorious things by these weak means, that you may not rest on second causes.
2. That we may not see to the end of his counsels. A man doth not know what God will do with despised branches ; God worketh in such a way as doth not suit with our usual expectations : Isa. xlviii. 7, ' They are created now, and not from the beginning, even before the day when thou heardest them not; lest thou shouldest say, Behold, I knew them.' The things of God's providence are said to be new things, not created of old, lest we should say we understood them ; deliverance cometh that way that we least looked for it. Certainly this is a new thing, it is not according to the course of this world. God hath created some things of higher value and greater efficacy than others, but they are the old things. Notwithstanding, weak things are often made use of by God. Should we see a man of a stately presence and comely lineaments and ])roportion, we should straightway cry. This is the anointed of the Lord, he is now before him, as Samuel did: 1 Sam. xvi. 7, ' Here is now the person that God will work by ; ' but it is added there, ' God sceth not as man seeth ; ' that is, God will not work according to the usual way of your expectation. David, the least and the youngest, God chooseth him. So again, man tliinketh that the eldest son shall advance the family, as being the flower of the parents' strength ; and by the constant course and tenor of nature, the elder proveth the most successful ; yet many times God appointeth otherwise: Gen. xxv. 23, 'The elder shall serve the younger.' God