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Is. xxii. 24. And they fball hang upon him all the glory of his Father's houfe, the offspring, and the issue, all veffels of small quantity: from the vessels of cups, even to all the vessels of flagons.

THE SECOND SERMON ON THIS TEXT.

Htion of the doctrine, I proceed now to,
AVING difcourfed the first general head in the profecu-

II. The fecond thing propofed, which was, to feru, that as the church is the boufe of God, fo Chrift is conftitute the great Ma nager of his Father's house, all the concerns of it are committed to his care. There is nothing clearer than this from the scriptures of truth. If. ix. 6. Unto us a child is born, unto us a fon is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder." Mic. v. 2. "Out of Bethlehem thall he come forth unto me, that is to be ruler in Ifrael: whofe goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting." But this will be farther cleared in the induction of the following particulars.

I. In the council of peace, from eternity, he was chofen to be the builder of the houfe. It was enacted at that counciltable, from eternity, as in Zech. vi. 12. 13. "Behold, the man whofe name is the BRANCH, he fhall grow up out of his place, and he fhall build the temple of the Lord, and bear the glory, and fit and rule upon his throne." As by him, who is the wifdom of God, and the power of God, he brought a beautiful world out of the barren womb of nothing; fo by him he rears up a beautiful habitation for himself among men, out of the vileft of materials, which were good for nothing but to be faggots for the fire of hell.

2. As he is the builder, fo he is the Father, and the everlafting Father of the family; If. ix. 6. "His name shall be called, The everlasting Father." The firft Adam was but a fhort-lived father unto his family; although he lived a long natural life, nine hundred and thirty years, yet he foon died as a covenant-head, and left his family like a company of fatherlefs orphans caft out to the open field, without any eye to pity them among men or angels. But when God, in his infi nite love, is to take up a new family among the fous of men, he provides also a new Father, an everlasting Father, for them. God had promifed to his beloved Son a feed to ferve him, Pfal. xxii. and that he should fee his feed; and that they

might never more be orphans again, he conftitutes his own Son, the Son of his love, God bleffed for ever, to be their everlasting Father, and through him the Father of Chrift becomes their Father alfo.

3. He is the great Oracle and Counsellor of the house: If. ix. 6. "His name fhall be called the wonderful Counsellor." And O what happiness is it to the offspring and iffue, that they have fuch a Counsellor to go to in all their perplexing cafes, who hath all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge hid in him, and therefore can never give the counsel that causeth to err! There is no fearching out of his understanding; he was never bemifted, or nonpluffed, with difficult cafes; yea, he is, both by office and promife, engaged to lead the blind in the way they know not, to make darkness light before them, and crooked things ftraight. The faith of this made David fing, Pfal. Ixxiii. 24. "Thou wilt guide me by thy counsel, and afterward thou shalt bring me to thy glory."

4. He is the great Prieft over the house, Heb. x. 21. As the high priest under the law was over the temple, fo Chrift is the great High Prieft over the houfe of God, and as fuch he is entered within the vail of the visible heavens, to appear in the prefence of God for us, to represent our perfons, and to offer up the prayers of the church with the much incense of his interceffion.

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5. He is the great Lord-treasurer of the houfe; yea, he himself is the treafury of the house; for " it hath pleafed the Father, that in him thould all fulness dwell, that out of his fulness we all might receive grace for grace." As all the ftores of Egypt were in the hand of Jofeph, fo all the stores of grace are in the hand of our Jefus. The whole bleffings and gifts of the covenant of grace lie ready in his hand for the use of the offspring; and whenever the children or fervants of the house want furniture, either for work or warfare, they have no more ado but to come unto him for it, and whoever comes unto him, he will in no wife caft out. For,

6. He is the great Lord-fteward or Difpenfer of the house; it is he that gives the offspring and iffue their food in due feafon; there is not a crumb of the children's bread but passes through his hand, and his very hand perfumes the food to the true-born children of the family, for his fingers drop fweetfmelling myrrh; and whenever they get a meal from him, thei: hearts are fo cheered with it, that they are ready to fing, as Eph. i. 3. "Bleffed be the God and Father of our Lord Jefus Chrift, who hath bleffed us with all fpiritual bleffings in Chrift Jefus."

7. He is the Lawgiver of the house: If. lv. 4. "I will give him for a commander to the people." Which may be understood not only in a military but forenfic fenfe, because all the laws of a God-Creator are iffued to the offspring of the family through him; for "we are not without law to God, but we we are under the law to Chrift ;" and as such, all the children of the houfe cry out with one confent, If. xxxiii. 22. "The Lord is our judge, the Lord is our king, the Lord is our lawgiver," or, as it is in the Hebrew, "our statute maker:" and this is it that makes the law to the believer a law of love, and a law of liberty; "his yoke is eafy, and his burden light; and his commandments are not grievous;" the love of Chrift conftrains them to obey, and run like the chariots of a willing people." So I fay, he is the Lawgiver of the house, and we that are minifters are exprefsly ordered to "go and teach all nations, to obferve and do whatfoever he has commanded us," Matth. xxviii. at the close. And therefore, whatever ministers or church officers teach or act in the house of God, that is inconfiftent with his orders, they have him to reckon with. And what fort of a reckoning they will meet with, at the coming of the great Master, fee Luke xii. 45-47. "But and if that fervant fay in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming; and fhall begin to beat the men fervants, and maidens, and to eat and drink, and to be drunken: the lord of that fervant will come when he looketh not for him, and at an hour when he is not aware, and will cut him in funder, and will appoint him his portion with the unbelievers. And that fervant, which knew his lord's will, and prepared not himfelf, neither did according to his will, fhall be beaten with many stripes."

III. The third thing in the method was, to fhew that Chrift is fixed, in the management of the house of God, as a nail in a fure place. This will appear, if we confider,

1. That there is an irreverfable decree paffed in heaven for it, that he should be the fole manager and governor of the houfe Pfal. ii. 6. 7. "I will declare the decree: the Lord hath faid unto me, Thou art mine only Son, this day have I begotten thee. I have fet or anointed him King in my holy hill of Zion." And therefore they who go about to dethrone him, as head and King of Zion, or to invade his fovereignty, as fome have done of late, they make but as vain an attempt, as one who with his hand attempts to remove mountains of brafs; yea, these mountains of brafs, I mean the divine purpofé eftablishing Chrift's government, will crush and grind VOL. III.

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them

them to powder in the iffue, however light an account they make of it at prefent.

2. He is fixed in the administration of the house, with the folemnity of a covenant tranfaction: Pfal. lxxxix. 3. "I have made a covenant with my chofen :-Thy throne fhall be eftablifhed for ever." In the council of peace, between the Father and the Son, it was concluded, agreed, and finally ended, that the Son of God fhould reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and, for farther fecurity, this is recorded in the volume of God's book.

3. With the folemnity of an oath taken by the great JEHOVAH. This is one of the immutable things wherein it is impoffible for God to lie: Pfal. lxxxix. 4. "Once have I fworn to build up thy throne, and perpetuate thy feed." And if God hath interpofed his oath, all controverfy fhould be at an end about Chrift's fupremacy in the houfe of God.

4. In his oath he pledges the brighteft jewel of the crown of Heaven, the mofi dazzling perfection of his nature: "I have fworn by my holinefs, I will not lie unto David," &c. He will as fcon ceafe to be a holy God, as fuffer his Son's authority in his houfe to be overturned.

5. He is fixed in the management by a falemn call and inveftiture: "I the Lord have called thee," If. xiii. 6. Heb. v. 4. he was "called of God, as was Aaron." And as for his inauguration into his mediatory oflices of Prophet, Priest, and King of his church, we read of it in the context; and Matth. iii. at the clofe, when the heavens were opened, a voice heard from the excellent glory, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleafed ;" and the Spirit, at the fame time, defcending upon him in the likene fs of a dove.

6. He is fixed in the government by an actual poffeffion of the throne, he is fet down at the right hand of the Majesty on high: Pfal. cx. 1. "The Lord fid unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemics thy footstool." See this actually fulalled, Phil. ii. 9-11. "Wherefore God alfo hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: that at the name of Jefus every knee fhould bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue fhould confefs, that Jefus Chrift is Lord, to the praife and glory of his eternal Father."

7. He is fixed in the government of the church, by a com plete victory over all his and his church's enemies, fo that none of them are capable to give him the leaft difturbance. The head of the old ferpent is bruifed, fin, that first-born of the devil, is finished, and tranfgreflion ended, the world is

overcome,

overcome, death is unftinged, the curfe of the broken law is abolifhed, torn, and difannulled, hell and death bound and caft into the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone.

Thus you fee that our great Immanuel is fixed in the government of his Father's houfe, like a nail fastened in a fure place.

IV. The fourth thing in the method was, to few that the whole boufe, with all its apurtenances, hang or depend upon this blefed nail that is fastened in a fure place. I fhall confine my-1 felf to the text; and there we find three things mentioned, that are faid to hang upon our bleffed Eliakin. 1. All the glory. 2. All the offspring and iffue. 3. Al the vejels of the houfe, from veffels of cups, to veffels of flagons. A word to each of thefe.

Firft then, All the glory of the houfe hangs upon our Lord Jefus Chrift. I gave already a hint to prove that the house is glorious; but now I would enlarge it a little, in order to let you fee, that every glorious thing in the houfe of our Cod hangs upon the nail that he has failened in a fure place; and you may take up this in the following particulars.

1. God's prefence in a church is that which makes her glorious: Pfal. 1. 2. "Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God hath fhined." Pfal. lxxvi. 1. 2. "In Judah is God known: his name is great in Ifrael. In Salem alfo is his tabernacle, and his dwelling-place in Zion." When God withdraws from a church, the ways of Zion do mourn, and a dismal Ichabod is to be read in every corner of her fireets, "The glory is departed." Well, this glory hangs upon Chrift, for it is owing to him that the tabernacle of God is with men. Unless God were in Christ reconciling the world to himself, if he had not been well pleafed with his perfon, his mediation, and fmelt a fweet favour in the facrifice of his death, the Lord God had never taken up houfe again with men, no more than with the angels that fell. It is owing to Chrift's appearing in the prefence of God for us in heaven, that God's delights are with the fons of men upon earth.

2. The revelation of the mind and will of God in the fcriptures of truth, is the glory of the church, and as neceffary for her as the light of the fan in the firmament is unto this lower world. This is "as a light fhining in a dark place, to which we do well to take heed, until the day dawn, and the day-star arife in our hearts." This was the glory of the church of Ifrael, that God gave his ftatutes and teftimonies unto them when he dealt not fo with every nation. This makes the church a Gofben, a land of light, when the reft of the world are

the

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