The fii'st gospel ever preached in pardon was by God himself. Never was any creatui'e so near damnation as our fii-st father Adam, cast from the greatest happiness, miserrimxon est fuisse felicem ; for he that enjoyed before communion with God and his angels, ha\dng sinned, and having conscience of his sin, considering his great parts, and apprehension of the state he had been in, this must needs affect him deeply ; and being in this condition, * Probably a misprinted repetition. — G.
ISA. XXV. 8.] BETWEEN CHRIST AND HIS CHURCH. 495
the promise of the * seed of the woman to break the serpent's head,' revived him.
There is a strange efficacy in the gospel. The Roman empire was the greatest enemy that the church ever had The ten persecutions you see what they were ;* and yet notwithstanding the word grew upon them and never rested, the spreading of the gospel, and the Spirit with it, till the cross got above the crown, as it did in the time of Constantine, and so it continueth.
6. And must not this be a divine word which hath this efficacy, to revive, comfort, change, cast down, raise up again, search secrets, search the heart to the bottom? A poor idiot f that comes to hear the word of God, when he hears the secrets of his heart laid open by the word, he concludes certainly, ' God is in you, and you are God's ministers,' 1 Cor. iv. 25. The word ' di\-ideth between the marrow and the bone,' Heb. xv. 12 ; it arraigneth the heart before God's tribunal seat. Those that are saved, it hath these efteets in them that I have named. And if you ask how they know whether the word be the word ? A man may answer, I have found it to be so, raising me up, comforting me, and strengthening me. I had perished in my affliction if the word had not raised me. Princij^Ies are proved, you know, from experience, for thej' have nothing above them. There is no other principle to prove the word, but experience from the working of it. How know you the light to be the light, but by itself, and that fire is hot, but by itself ? Principles prove themselves only by experience ; and this principle is so proved by itself, that there is no child of God but can say by experience, that the word is the word.
6. If a man might go to reason, one might bring that ichich coiiJd not be easilij answered for the satisfaction of an atheist. Let him but grant there is a God, he will grant one thing in religion or another. But let him grant there is a God and a reasonable creature, then there must be a service, a religion ; and this service must be according to some rules prescribed ; for the superior will not be served as the inferior pleaseth. He must discover what good the superior intendeth, and what duties he expects. This must be revealed in some word. God and the reasonable creature, and religion, make a necessity of a word, and that must be the word we have, or an- other ; and what word in the world is probable to be the word but this ?
Obj. You will say it may be corrupt.
Ans. The Jews looked to the Old Testament, that it should not be cor- rupted ; for they knew eveiy syllable in it, and presei-ved every letter. It is one part of their superstition, and God blesseth that superstition to take away all such cavils. For the New Testament the Jews cared not for ; but heretics on their side watch over it that there should be no corruption ; they will so observe one another. But what are these reasons to those which the soul of a gracious Christian knoweth by the operation of the word upon the heart ?
Use 1. And, therefore, let us regard it as the word of God; hear it as the word of God ; read it as the word of God. A company of profane wretches you shall have, the scums and basest of the people, that will discourse, and to grace their discourse, they must have Scriptm-e phrases ; but whose word is it ? It is the word of the great God. Eglon was a heathen king, and yet when a message came from God, he arose up and made obeyance, J
* See Note b, vol. I. p. 384.— G. f See Note e, vol. I. p. 290.— G.
X This interpretation of the ' rising up' of Eglon anticipates Bishop Patrick m loc. — G.
496 THE MARRIAGE FEAST [SeRMON VII,
Judges iii. 20. We should never read the word but with reverence, con- sidering whose book it is, and that we must be judged by it another day.
Use 2. If it be the word, I beseech you consider what we say, and know tliat God will make every part of it (jood. There shall not a jot of it fail, nothing of it shall miscarry. God speaketh all these words. And, there- fore, if you be blasphemers, you shall not carry it away guiltless. God hath said it. If you continue not to obey, you are under God's curse. Unless you repent you shall perish. Every threat God will make good. You must repent and get into Christ, else perish eternally. God hath said it, and we may confii'm it in the imfolding and reading of it. The time is coming for the execution of it, and then God is peremptory. Now God waiteth our leisure, and entreateth us, but if we will not repent, we shall have that arrow in our sides that will never be gotten out till we die in hell. Whose sins are condemned in Scripture, they are condemned by God ; and whom we shut heaven to, by opening the Scriptures, God will shut heaven to. The opening of the Scriptures is the opening of heaven. If the Scripture saith, a man that liveth in such a sin shall not be saved, heaven shall be shut to him ; he is in a state of death, he is strucken, and remaineth in danger till he repenteth. How many live in sins against con- science, that are under the guilt and danger of their sins. They be wounded, they be struck by the word. There is a threat against their sins, although it be not executed ; and they be as much in danger of eternal death as a condemned traitor, only God suffers them to live, that they may make their peace. They have blessed times of visitation. Oh, make use of it ! It is the word of God ; and know that God will make every part of his word good in threats as well as in promises.