5. Under the angels all other creatures are liken ise made serviceable for his people's good. Princes in authority are called in Scripture ' nursing fathers
* It has not been thought necessary to encumber and confuse tlie text with specific references to tliese and like fragmentary citations of familiar titles and designations from Holy Scripture. — G.
t Cf. John xiv. 26, Jer. xxxi. 33.— G
254 THE PRIVILEGES OF THE FAITHFUL.
and nursing mothers' unto tbe church of Christ, Isa. xlix. 23, the end of all magistracy being that we might live religiously and peaceably in all the ways of God.
6. Alinislers aho are stijled in the nrjrd hi/ the names of ' watchmen and seedsmen,' and ' spiritual fathers,' to beget men again to the kingdom of heaven. They are called ' God's husbandmen,' to manure and till his ground. They are called ' God's lights,' and ' the salt of the earth,' both to enlighten the church with the light of the glorious gospel whereof they are ministers, and to season them with such savoury and sweet instructions as may make them wise to salvation : this being the very end of all God's giving gifts to men, tbat they might build up the church of Christ hero below.
7. So also the icorcl of God is called the ' savour of life, and ' the power of God unto salvation.' It is 'the seed of God,' which being sown in the he'arts of God's children, springeth up in them to everlasting happiness. God's word is a ' light and a lantern' to guide and direct us in all his ways.* It is the sword of the Spirit, to arm us against sin and to maintain us in grace.
8. The sacraments likewise are the seals of life and pledr/es of our salvation in Christ ; and excommunication, though it be rough, and the extremest censure of the church (and therefore ought to be undertaken upon weighty grounds), yet the end of it is, to save the souls of God's people, and to make them by repentance turn unto him.
9. So all ouin-ard gifts, as beauty, strength, riches, and honours, these are given by God to serve for the good of his children. As the beauty of Esther was an instrument of her preferment, whereby she became a preser- vation to God's children, and an overthrow of her and their enemies : [and as] Joseph's outward honours and wealth were made by God's disposing hand a means of the preservation and nourishment of the Israelites, in the time of their great extremity and famine ; the like may be said of learning and other natural acquirements, all which do often tend to general and public advantages.
10. Yea, the outward gifts of God, which are bestowed upon reprobates, are still for the [/ood of his; for they who had skill and knowledge to build Noah's ark, though they themselves were not saved therein, yet were they the means of Noah's preservation ;f and so it many times falleth out, that men of excellent parts and great abilities without grace, though themselves are not profited thereby, yet God so useth them as their gifts much con- duce to further and build up the church of Christ.
11. 'EiYen' outward favour of jyrinces oft tend to God's servants' good. * A just man,' as the heathens could say, 'is a common benefit.' And so a true Christian, whatsoever good he hath, it is communicable to all the faithful ; and therefore St Paul saith of himself that ' he was a debtor to all men, both Jews and Gentiles,' Rom. i. 14; and that he 'became all things to all men, that he might win some,' 1 Cor. ix. 22.
But here the main question will be, and the difficulty arises, how all ill things can work together for the best to God's children. I shall therefore demonstrate,
1. The truth of this, how it can be so,
2. The reasons u'hy it is so.
* Cf. 2 Cor, ii. 16, Rom. i. 16, Luke viii. 11, Ps. cxix. 105.— G. t Tliis thought has been enlarged upon very effectively, in a popular American tract entitled ' Noah's Carpenters.' — G.
THE PRIVILEGES OF THE F.VITHFUL. 255
3. Observe .1 caution, that it be not abused.
4. Let us see the sweet and coinfortable use of this doctrine.
That this may the better appear, we must know that all evil things are either —
1. Spiritual evil things.
2, Outward evil things.
And for spiritual evil things, they are either, first, sin ; secondly, that which hath a refei*ence to sin, as being evils following after sin.
1. The first sin of all, which hath gone over whole mankind, and is spread abroad in every one of us, this by God's mercj' and our repentance proves to all believers a transcendent good ; for the fiill and sin of the first Adam caused the birth and death of the ' second Adam,' Christ Jesus ; who, not- withstanding he was God, took upon him the nature of man, and hath made us by his coming far more happy than if we had never fallen. Neither would God have suffered Adam to have fallen but for his own further glory, in the manifestation of his justice and mercy, and for the greater fohcity of his servants in Christ their mediator.