Let us therefore set a price upon God's ordinance. There must be this dispensation. Christ must be ' preached.' Preaching is the chariot that carries Christ up and down the world. Christ doth not profit but as he is preached. For supernatural benefits, if they be not discovered, they are lost ; as we say of jewels, if they be not discovered, what is the glory of them ? Therefore there must be a discovery by preaching, which is the ordinance of God for that end. Whereupon God stirred up the apostles before, that were the main converters of the world. They had some pre-
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rogatives above all other preachers. They had an immediate calling, ex- traordinary gifts, and a general commission. In them was established a ministry to the end of the world. ' Christ, when he ascended on high and led captivity captive' — he would give no mean gift then, when he was to ascend triumphantly to heaven — the greatest'gift he could give was, ' some to be prophets, some apostles, some teachers, for the building up of the body of Christ, till we all meet a perfect man in Christ.' ' I will send them pastors according to my own heart,' saith God, Jer. iii. 15. It is a gift of all gifts, the ordinance of preaching. God esteems it so, Christ esteems it so, and so should we esteem it.
And to add this further, to clear it from whatsoever may rise up in any man's mind, do hut consider in experience, ivliere God sets up his ordinance, how many souls are converted. Some are savingly cast down and then raised up again. Their lives are reformed. They walk in the light, they know whither they go. They can give an account of what they hold. The state of those that live under the ordinance of God is incomparably more light- some, and comfortable, and glorious, than those that are in the dark, that want it. If we had no other argument, experience is a good argument. Where doth popery and profaneness reign most ? In those places where this ordinance of God is not set up ; for popery cannot endure the breath of the gospel. Thus we see the necessity and benefit of preaching.
But then, in the next place, this preaching it must be of Christ ; Christ must be ' preached.'
Quest. But must nothing be preached but Christ ?
Ans. I answer. Nothing but Christ, or that that tends to Christ. If we preach threatenings, it is to cast men down, that we may build them up. If a physician purge, it is that he may give cordials. Whatsoever is done in preaching to humble men, it is to raise them up again in Christ ; all makes way for Christ. When men are dejected by the law, w-e must not leave them there, but raise them up again. Whatever we preach, it is reductive to Christ, that men may walk worthy of Christ. When men have been taught Christ, they must be taught to ' walk worthy of Christ, and of their calling,' Col. i. 10, that they may carry themselves fruitfully, and hclily, and constantly, every way suitable for so glorious a profession as the pro- fession of Christian religion is. The foundation of all these duties must be from Christ. The graces for these duties must be fetched from Christ ; and the reasons and motives of a Christian's conversation must be from Christ, and from the state that Christ hath advanced us unto. The pre- vailing reasons of an holy life are fetched from Christ. ' The grace of God hath appeared' — saith St Paul, ' it hath shined gloriously' — ' teaching us to deny all ungodliness and worldly lusts, and to live soberly, and righteously, and holily, in this present evil world,' Titus ii. 12. So that Christ is the main object of preaching. This made St Paul, when he was among the Corinthians, to profess no knowledge of anything but of ' Christ, and him crucified ;' to esteem and value nothing else. He had arts and tongues and parts. He was a man excellently qualified, but he made show of nothing in his preaching, and in his value and esteem, but of Christ, and the good things we have by Christ.
Now Christ must be preached wholly and only. We must not take any- thing from Christ, nor join anything to Christ. The Galatians did but believe the necessity of ceremonies with Christ ; and the apostle tells them, * Ye are fallen from Christ,' Gal. v. 4. It is a destructive addition, to add anything to Christ. Avay with other satisfaction. The satisfaction of
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Christ is enough. Away with ratM-ils. The merits of Christ arc all-suffi- cient. Away with merit of" works in matter of salvation. Christ's right- eousness is that that we must hihour to be found in, and ' not in our own,' Philip, iii. 9. All is but ' dung and dross,' Philip, iii. 8, in comparison of the excellent righteousness wc have in Jesus Christ. You must hear, and wo must preach all Christ and only Christ. St Paul saith, he was 'jealous with a holy jealousy' over those he ' taught.' Why ? ' Lest Satan should beguile them, and draw them from Christ,' to any other thing, 2 Cor. xi. 2. Why is the Church of Rome so erroneous, but because she leaves Christ and cleaves to other things ? Therefore we must labour to keep chaste Bouls to Christ, and those that are true preachers, and ambassadors, and messengers, tlicy must be 'jealous with a holy jealousy' over the people of God, that they look to nothing but Christ.