64 SERMONS UPON TITUS II. 11-14. [Ser. IL
Others make dry confessions of sin, and give in a narrative, but are not so solicitous about the remedies and redresses ; but poor wounded spirits, that arc sensible of their misery by nature, say. Good sir, show us the way ; let God write down what articles he pleaseth, we would be glad to subscribe to them. Bonds of iniquity are much more sore than bonds of duty.
2. Let us attend more conscionably both upon the reading and hear- ing the word of the gospel, for both are instituted. Upon the reading of it ; we should often consult with it ; it is the counsel of God to poor lost souls, and the charter of our salvation. Do not think reading will be altogether unprofitable. The eunuch was reading, and wanted an interpreter, then God sent Philip, Acts viii. 33. He that sent Philip to the eunuch will send the Spirit to thee. Then attend more upon the hearing of the word of this salvation. Hearing is necessary. He that refuseth God's ordinance refuseth life and salvation. When men think they can get as much good by reading at home as by hearing sermons, they set up their foolish judgment against God's wisdom, as if they could tell a better means of salvation than God himself. God's word read is an ordinance, and God's word taught is an ordinance. Are we so wise as to be above the help of church gifts ? yet we are not above God's ordinance. When God hath instituted two things, we should observe both. He hath instituted baptism and the Lord's supper. We must not, because we have been baptized, neglect the supper; so we must not neglect hearing because we have reading. As God hath instituted prophets and apostles to write scripture, so likewise pastors and teachers to open, explain, and apply scripture ; and therefore the ministry must not be contemned.
Object. But you will say, God's blessing goeth with the gospel ; and when we read the scriptures at home, we are sure of pure gospel ; but we cannot say so of the sermons of men, who are liable to miscar- riage and error.
Ans. The scripture is pure gospel of itself and by itself, and the sermons of men for the scripture's sake, for they are but comparing one scripture with another ; they differ but as the cloth and garment ; scripture is the cloth, and sermons make it up into a garment for use ; or as corn and bread, the same substance remaineth in both. An apo- thecary, when he tempers several ingredients to make a medicine, he doth not destroy the nature of the simples, but compounds them, to make the medicine more effectual; so by gifts in the church, the gospel is not destroyed, but ordered and compounded, that it may be more useful. Indeed you must look to it that there be no sophistica- tion in the composition ; a spiritual man hath a distinguishing appetite ; therefore be much in reading, much in hearing. AVhen the wind is laid, the mill stirs not, and a ship under sail goes the swifter for oars, so the hearing of the word moves the affections ; but when we cannot come to hear it, our affections are laid and stir not.
3. In reading and hearing the word, receive all the parts of it : Acts XX. 27, ' I have not shunned to declare to you all the counsel of God. The receipts of a physician must not be altered, neither by the apothe- cary nor patient ; so we must not alter God's receipts, nor you neither ; we must not shun to declare, nor you to receive, the whole counsel of God. For instance, there is the history of salva-
YeR, 11.] SERMONS UPON TITUS II. 11-14. 65
tion ; the doctrinal and historical part must be kept pure, that is the foundation. You read, in Gen. xxvi. 20, there was a great strife between Isaac's herdsmen and the herdsmen of Gerar about wells. Oh : certainly we should earnestly ' contend for the faith that was once delivered to the saints,' Jude 3 ; these are wells of salvation. Take away one of the natures of Christ, or destroy one of his offices, and you lose a fountain of comfort ; there is a well of salvation dammed and stopped up. So the promissory and hortatory part is necessary to quicken us, that we may not look for more than God hath promised, an earthly kingdom without the cross, or imperfect justification that needs our merit, or perfect sanctification without the relics of the flesh. But especially let us have regard to the mandatory part of the gospel ; there we are apt to flinch and start aside ; but we must hearken not only to what God hath done for us, but what he requires of us, that we may obey the counsels as well as believe the history of the gospel. The covenant is mutual ; there is an obligation upon God, and an obligation upon us ; therefore we read, Exod. xxiv. 7-9, that half of the blood was sprinkled upon the altar, to note God took upon him his part of the obligation, and half upon the people, to note they must take upon them their part of the obligation. It is true that God in the covenant of grace gives the condition as well as the blessing promised, but our obligation is to be acknowledged; though it be wrought of God, yet it is to be done by us. And there must be a restipulation, ' the answer of a good conscience towards God,' 1 Peter iii. 21. AVhat answer do you make to God's proposals and articles ? It is an allusion to the manner of admitting persons to baptism in those days ; they were to answer to questions. Credis f dost thou believe ? The person to be baptized was to answer, Credo, I do believe. Ahrenuncias ? dost thou renounce the world ? he answered, Ahrenuncio, I do renounce. Spondes ? dost thou undertake to obey God ? Spondeo, I undertake, I promise so to do. We must not only regard what God and Christ have done, but there must be something in us before we can make use of what God and Christ have done for us. There is a mutual consent of both sides ; the gospel is as it were an indenture drawn between God and us ; therefore, as we look to God for eternal life and salvation, which is made over to us in the promises of the covenant, so God looks for obedience and faithful- ness from us, which is required of us in the precepts of the covenant.