4. Delight in and wait upon the powerful ministry of the word : * The prophets prophesy lies, and the people love to have it so,' Jer. V. 31. A vain people do but encourage a vain ministry. Do not
' 'Tfjuv 8i Ti. TovTO Tois KOLvois TjiMuv SioWaKTols, SiaWaKTal yap icrre, Kal aKOvaius rovra Xapi^eaOe.' — Naz. Orat. 13.
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delight, then, in a glozing dispensation, it will be successless. Frothy speculations, moral strains, do no good ; the people begin to grow weary of savoury and sound knowledge : the testimony of the witnesses was a torment to the dwellers on tiie earth, Rev. xi. 10 ; powerful preaching is their burden. The lazy world would fain lie upon the bed of ease, draw the curtains and rest, and therefore light is trouble- some; men begin to thirst and pant for the old unsavoury moral strains, which remain in wary generals, and do not irritate. The Lord may give you your desire ; but remember that is a carnal itch that must be clawed, and the times will be sad when men cannot endure sound doctrine, 2 Tim. iv. 3.
I have done Avith my address to the people.
Secondly, I shall speak a word to the ministry. I am the worst of a thousand to direct others, only I shall take the liberty, in all humility, to suggest my thoughts. Much may be done by you to the repaiiing of decayed godliness.
1. Christ must still be preached. That is the main truth that keepeth in the life of Christianity. The more evangelical dispensations are, the more powerful ; our beloved must still be kept as a bundle of myrrh next our hearts, Cant. i. 13, still fresh and fragrant in the thoughts ; all the comfort and support of a Christian depeudeth upon that ; this is the very spirit and flower of any ministry ; and therefore it is said, Rev. xix. 10, ' The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of pro- phecy.' It is not only the beauty, but the life of any dispensation. I know many think this needless, for, as I said before, the indistinct and undue preaching of Christ is the cause of all the looseness and vanity into wliich religion is degenerated. Ay ! but I add here, that this dispen- sation is still needful. The foolish world is apt to fly into extremes ; some are all for doctrines of Christ, others will hear nothing of him, because these sweet truths have been so much misapplied. Popery got up by this pretence ; they would not open that gap of free grace to the people. Paul would preach the righteousness of Christ though many did abuse it : Rom. iii. 8, ' Some slanderously report that we say, Let us do evil that good may come thereof ; whose damnation is just.' The meaning is, some gave out that Paul taught that they might sin freely, that God might have the more glory in pardoning ; Avhich is expressed there by doing evil that good may come of it. Now, saith the apostle, their damnation is just, that is, if they undo themselves with such a vile conceit, they may thank themselves; they never learned it from me. If poison be sucked out of the flower, thank the spider ; and if precious liquor be soured, it is because of the uncleanness of the vessel. Musculus in one of his books had said, that no places were so profane and irreligious as those where the gospel had been preached, or words to that effect. And Contzen, a Jesuit, crietli out upon this, hi sunt evangelici dodores — see the fruit of Protestantism and gospel- preaching.i Many are of his spirit, malign and slander a gospel dis- pensation. Alas ! we are not in the place of God, to prevent misappre- hensions ; it is our duty to keep this truth fresh in the thoughts, to offer it as a bundle of myrrh to the spouse's bosom.
2. Humbling doctrines must be duly pressed. John the Baptist
1 Adam Contzen in Mat. xxiv. 5.
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levelled moiintains, and in his days much violence was offered to the kingdom, Mat. xi. 12 ; and indeed, still John must go before Je.?us, like the day-star before the sun. Moses led the people in the wilderness, before Joshua led them into the land of Canaan. We must awaken first by a sense of wrath, or else they will not care for a sight of mercy. The people did not desire a mediator till they heard the thundering, Exod. XX. 18, 19 ; and it is God's usual method to suffer us to be dead to one law, ere we are alive to another, Gal. ii. 19 ; first to make us understand the severe obligation that is upon us by the covenant of works, ere we are brought into a better hope by Jesus Christ. God is never truly exalted in the soul till man be humbled ; Dagon must fall and be broken if the ark be set up. The Lord diggeth deep when he meaneth to raise the building high, and when he will bring off the soul to Christ powerfully, he bringeth them out of themselves by godly sorrow. This is the drift and scope of the whole scriptures, and there- fore I use the less of argument in this matter.