486 SERMONS uroN JOHN XVII. [Ser. XXXll.
then, let the dignity of your office be in your eye, that you may not be a disgrace to him that sent you, but may walk with all religious cir- cumspection, gravity, and prudence.
[2.] In their ministry and calling there is also required faithfulness, gravity, and sincerity.
(1.) Faithfulness. Propound nothing to others but what you have in command from God, and what you know to be certainly agreeable to his will ; as an ambassador must not go beyond his commission, that is, upon his own score, and to his own peril. When Christ gave us our commission, this he gave us in charge' Mat. xxviii, 20, ' Teach them all things which I have commanded you.' The first mischief in the church came from dogmatising ; men would be wise above the word, and that made way for foul abuses, and they for heresies ; when you press things without warrant, others question all. You shall see the Lord Christ often avouchetli how punctually he kept to his com- mission : John xii. 49, * For I have not spoken of myself ; but the Father which sent me, he gave me commandment what I should say and what I should speak.^ Christ would not go a tittle nor hair's- breadth from his instructions. When we are adding to the word, others will detract from it. It is sweet when we can say, John vii. IG, ' My doctrine is not mine, bat his that sent me ; ' this 1 have in charge from God ; when we have clear evidence from the word, and a strong instinct from the Spirit to deliver such a message ; not the visions of our own brain, but the counsel of God to the people.
(2.) With gravity. God's message must be delivered like his mes- sage, speaking ' as the oracles of God,' 1 Peter iv. 11 ; with affection, as having experience of it in our souls, feeling the divine power of the word on our hearts. And with authority : thou art delivering Christ's message, in the presence of Christ and his holy angels ; and therefore it must not be delivered with frothy gayish eloquence, but with majesty and power. Vainglorious preacliing, such as is intermixed with strains of wit, and fancies, and idle speculations, ill becometh God's ambassadors. Such speak as if they were in jest, not as if they had a serious message to deliver from God ; this becometh the stage rather than the pulpit.
(3.) With sincerity. It is required of an ambassador that he be faithful to him that sent him. He is not sent abroad to seek his own ends, and enter into a confederacy with foreign princes, to gratify his interest by secret combinations, but must be faithful to him that sent him : Prov. xiii. 17, ' A wicked messenger falleth into mischief, but a faithful ambassador is health ; ' health to himself, and health to the prince that sendeth him ; and therefore we must not seek ourselves, but be faithful to God. You seek yourselves most when you do not ' seek yourselves, when you are faithful to God, when you do nothing for fear or favour of men, but are bold upon the Lord's conmiission. Your work is to go for another, not for yourselves. God himself will reward his own messengers, and will set the crown u})on their heads with his own hand. And that is one reason why he permits them to have bad entertainment in the world, that they may not take up with men, and that he himself might crown them, and give them their re- ward
Ver. is.] sermons upon John xvii. 487
3. It informetli us of the mercy and love of God to mankind. He was the offended party, and yet he first sendeth about terms of recon- ciliation. In us there is mfirmitas et animositates, weakness and strength of stomach ; though we have done the injury, yet we are not ready to offer terms of reconciliation. As David speaks of the mercy of the covenant in general, 2 Sam. vii. 19, ' And is this the manner of men, 0 Lord God ? ' Was it ever heard that he that is offended should be so solicitous and careful to send about agreement and recon- ciliation ? But this God doth, not out of any need that he hath of our friendship, as men sometimes in policy seek to those who have in- jured them, for God is stronger than we ; but out of pure love. The first ambassador God sent was his own Son : 1 John iv. 10, ' Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins ; ' and ver. 19, ' We love him, be- cause he first loved us.' Christ cometh out from the bosom of God. The law was delivered by an angel, but the gospel by Christ himself. And then God sendeth apostles with extraordinary gifts, and power of working miracles, to lay a foundation : 1 Cor. iii. 10, ' According to the grace that is given unto me, as a wise master-builder I have laid the foundation.' And then pastors and teachers, men of like passions with ourselves, weak men, but furnished with gifts proper to their calling. There is a mercy in this institution. We cannot endure God's presence : Deut. v, 25, ' If we hear the voice of the Lord our God any more, then we shall die.' Moses trembled and quaked when a voice was heard out of the clouds and darkness. Therefore God sends men of like infirmities with ourselves, that our defects might be borne with patience, because they have experience of the hardness and obstinacy of their own hearts ; and that our ignorance might be familiarly instructed, and knowledge dropped in by degrees ; we are to learn by little and little, here a line, and there a line ; God, in conde- scension to our weakness, hath appointed this help.