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mit thy government into his hand, and he fhall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerufalem, and to the houfe of Judah. And the key of the house of David will I lay upon his fhoulder: fo he fhall open, and none fhall fhut, and he shall fhut, and none fhall open." (1.) He is clothed with a royal robe. So Chrift is clothed, Rev. i. with a garment down to the foot, that ferves to cover and adorn himself and all his members; and his robe is so odoriferous, with the holy anointing oil of the Holy Ghoft, that they perfume the ivory palaces, Pfal. xlv. 8. (2.) He is ftrengthened with a girdle, a girdle of truth and faithfulnefs; he is always ready girded for the execution of his work. (3.) He hath the keys of the house committed to him, and the fole government; he opens, and none shuts, &c. the keys of the heart, and the keys of hell and death are in his hand.

3. We have his confirmation in his honourable office and ftation; he is "faftened as a nail in a fure place;" ver. 23. "And I will fasten him as a nail in a fure place," &c. Chrift is nailed in his mediatory work and office by an eternal decree, Pfal. ii. 6. and by the oath of God, Pfal. cx. 4.; and all the powers of hell and earth fhall never loose this nail. Many attempts have the powers of hell and earth made to loofe this nail, but the gates of hell could never, and never shall accom plifh their defign.

4. We are here told to what advantage he fhould discharge his truft: "He fhall be for a glorious throne to his Father's houfe." God manifefted in the flesh, or God reconciling the world to himself in Chrift, is the throne of grace to which we are called to come with boldness, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need: and this may well be called a glorious throne, because there is, in this difpenfation of grace, the brighteft difplay of the glory of God; the views of which made the angels, If. vi. to cover their faces with th ir wings, and, Luke ii. to tune their harps at his incarnation and birth, crying, "Glory to God in the higheft." Chrift is the ornament of his Father's houfe, the brightnefs of his glory, and the brightest crown that ever adorned the human nature. Heaven and earth has credit by him. Solomon tells us, Prov. xxvi. 6. that "he who fends a meffage by the hand of a fool, cutteth off the feet, and drinketh damage;" i. e. he fullies his own character, ruins his bufinefs, and is a reproach to him that fent him. But Chrift, the Sent of God, the great Apostle and High Priest of our profeffion, he managed the affair of redemption, in which he was employed, to fuch advantage, that all parties concerned in his embaify to this lower world, reap advantage and honour by him; he restores what he took not

away,

away, even glory to God, and salvation and happiness to lost mankind.

5. We have Chrift's pre-eminence in God's family, and the dependence of all the domeftics upon him: ver. 24. A they fall hang upon him all the glory of his Father's houfe, &c. Where we have, ft, The defignation given unto the church God; it is called, "The house of the God and Father of Chrift." God has a higher and a lower houfe. His higher houfe is heaven, where is the refidence of the church triumphant, If. xiv. 2. His lower houfe is the church militant: 1 Tim. iii. 15. we read " of the house of God, which is the church of the living God." See Heb. iii. Chrift was fent and received gifts for men, that the Lord God might have a houfe wherein he might dwell with men, Pfal. Ixviii. 18.

2dly, We have the nature and quality of the house it is glorious, there is glory in it: If. iv. 5. where the prophet, speaking of the church of Chrift under the New Testament, fays, "The Lord will create upon every dwelling-place of Mount Zion, and upon her affemblies, a cloud and fmoke by day, and the fhining of a flaming fire by night: for upon all the glory fhall be a defence." And Pfal. lxxxvii. 3. "Glorious things are fpoken of thee, O city of God." There is a vifible glory in the church visible, of which we read, Rom. ix. 4. "To them belonged the adoption, and the glory. Some view of this glory and majefty made Balaam, when he faw the comely order of the tents of Ifrael and God's tent, or tabernacle, in the midst of them, to cry out, "How goodly are thy tents, O Jacob, and thy tabernacles, O Ifrael! The Lord his God is with him." There is fuch a divine majefty in the church of Christ, when her doctrine, difcipline, worship, and government, is ordered according to the pattern fhewed in the mount, and fo much of a divine luftre, as ftrikes beholders both with terror and admiration; for then it is that "the looks forth as the morning, fair as the moon, clear as the fun, and terrible as an army with banners," unto all the enemies of Chrift; fo was it in our own land, in our reforming period. And as there is a visible glory in the church vifible, fo there is an invifible glory in the church invifible. God communicates fomething of the divine glory and image unto every one of his children: "The King's daugh ter is all glorious within." Through juftifying and fanctifying grace, they who had "lain among the pots," become like "the wings of a dove covered with filver, and her feathers with yellow gold."

3dly, We have the high and honourable station that Chrift hath in his Father's houfe; he is the great Mafter-household, and the whole family is committed to him, and is faid to hang

upon

upon him as a nail faftened in a fure place." Of which more afterward.

4thly, We have the common confent of the whole family unto his management; They shall hang upon him all the glory, &c. ; i. e. the Father of the family, and the whole offspring of the house, concur amicably that he fhould have the fole management. God the Father cries, "He is mine elect in whom my foul delighteth; and I have laid help upon one that is mighty;" and all the family in a day of converfion, having the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Chrift darted into their hearts, unanimously cry, every one, Approve, approve, approve!

5thly, We have fome account of the furniture of the house, committed to the management of the great New Teftament Eliakim. (1.) The glory. (2.) The offspring and iffue. (3) The vefels of Small quantity, from veffels of cups, even to all the veffels of flagons. By which we are to understand believers, for they are the children of God, and the feed of Christ by regeneration; and likewife called vessels, because they are the recipien: fubjects of divine grace, which is the wine, milk, and honey of the house. But of these things more afterward, if the Lord will.

The doctrine that offers from the words is this.

DOCT. "That as the church is the houfe of God, so Chrift is the fole manager of it, and all its concerns hang upon him as upon a nail faftened in a fure place." And they fhall hang upon him all the glory, &c.

In difcourfing this doctrine, through divine affiftance, I incline to obferve the following method.

I. I would fhew that the church is the houfe of God, and fhew fomewhat of its glory.

II. That Chrift is the great manager of the house.

III. That he is faftened in the management like a nail in a fure place.

IV. Shew that all its concerns hang upon him, all the glory, all the offspring, and all the veffels of a lefler and greater quantity.

V. Why the management of the houfe is committed to

him.

VI. Make fome application and improvement of the whole.

I. The first thing in the method is, to flew that the church is the house of God.

This is clear from the whole current of fcripture; I only quote two or three texts to this purpofe. If. ii. 2. 3. where

there

there is a prophecy in the church of God in the days of the New Teitament, "And it fhall come to pafs in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord's houfe fhall be established in the top of the mountains, and fhall be exalted above the hills; and all nations fhall flow unto it. And many people fhall go and fay, Come ye, and let us go up to the houfe of the Lord, to the mountain of the house of the God of Jacob," &c. Heb. iii. 6. Chrift is faid to be "faithful as a Son over his own house; whose house are we, if we hold faft the confidence, and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end." Heb. x. 21. Christ is called "the high priest over the houfe of God." 1 Pet. ii. 5. Believers" are built up a fpiritual houfe." Now, how fitly the church is called the houfe of God, will appear by the following particulars.

1. He is the founder of the house: If. xiv. ult. "What shall one answer the meffengers of the nation? God hath founded Zion." And like a wife builder, he doth not lay his foundation upon the fand, but upon the rock, against which the gates of hell fhall never prevail. He hath founded the earth upon the feas, a fluctuating and unstable element; but when he builds a house, wherein he might dwell among men, he builds it upon a rock, and upon the holy mountain of the divine perfections as they are manifefted in Chrift. And as he lays the foundation, fo he rears up the fuperftructure. It is God that doth build up Jerufalem; he it is that digs the ftones out of nature's quarry, and joins them to the foundation that he hath laid in Zion.

2. He is the purchaser of the house; he hath bought it with an immenfe fum, not of filver and gold, but with the red gold of the blood of his eternal Son, Acts xx. 28. 1 Pet. i. 18. 19. All the vast fums expended in building the temple of Solomon were but a mere trifle in comparison of what was laid out in the purchase of the New Teftament church.

3. Having purchafed the houfe, it follows that he is the fole proprietor of it, and of every thing in it or about it: "The Lord's portion is his people: Jacob is the lot of his inheritance." His treafure, his peculiar treafure, is kept here: Here he hath his jewels, his crown and diadem: "Thou shalt be a crown of glory in the hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand of thy God." The house, I fay, and all its valuable furniture, are his property.

4. It is fitly called his houfe, because here he hath his abode and refidence; he thews himfelf prefent in his church, both in a fymbolical, gracious, and providential way: Pfal. cxxxii. 13. 14. "The Lord hath chofen Zion: he hath defired it for his habitation. This is my reft for ever: here will I dwell, for

I have defired it." Thus you fee that the church is a house, "whose builder and maker is God."

And hence it naturally follows, as is here fuppofed, that it must be a very glorious ftructure. The plan of it was laid by Infinite Wisdom from all eternity: Prov. ix. 1. "Wifaom hath builded her house, fhe hath hewn out her feven pillars." There being a joint concurrence of all the three persons of the glorious Trinity, it must needs be a confummate piece of workmanship.

I give you at prefent a little glimpse of the glory of this house in a few particulars, because I may have occafion afterwards, if the Lord will, to infift on thefe at greater length, when I come to fhew how all the glory hangs upon the Nail fastened in a fure place.

1. The foundation of the houfe is glorious; the stones are laid with fair colours, and its foundations with Japphires. When God is to lay the foundation of his church, he invites all the world to come and behold its glory: If. xxviii. 16. “Thus faith the Lord God, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation, a stone, a tried ftone, a precious corner-ftone, a fure foundation." This foundation is none other than Chrift, the brightness of the Father's glory, as the apostle Paul declares, 1 Cor. ii. 11. "Other foundation can no man lay, than that is laid, which is Jefus Chrift." Such is the glory of the foundation, that it tranfmits a divine glory upon all the inhabitants, all the vessels of the house.

2. The form of the house is glorious, when moulded according to the pattern fhewed in the mount of divine revelation. A house must needs have a form; to deny this is to make it like the primitive chaos, Gen. i. 2. " without form, and void.” The Old Testament church had a certain form both of doc trine, worship, difcipline, and government; much more muft the New Testament church, confidering that the whole Mofaic ceconomy was but like a porch to lead the world in to the greater glory of the New Teftament difpenfation. This the apostle argues at length, 2 Cor. iii. from ver. 7. to the close. Of this form of the houfe the prophet Ezekiel fpeaks as a thing moft facred, chap. xliii. 10. 11. "Thou fon of man, fhew the houfe to the house of Ifrael, that they may be ashamed of their iniquities, and let them measure the pattern. And if they be afhamed of all that they have done, thew them the form of the house, and the fashion thereof, and the goings out thereof, and the comings in thereof, and all the forms thereof, and all the ordinances thereof, and all the forms thereof, and ail the laws thereof: and write it in their fight, that they may keep the whole form thereof, and all the ordinances thereof, VOL. III.

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