The Common Principles of the Christian Religion, Sermon 5
Eph. 2. 20. And builded upon the foundation of the Apostles, &c.
BElievers are the Temple of the living God, in which he dwels and walks: 2 Cor. 6. 16. Every one of them is a little Sanctuary and Temple to His Majesty, Sanctifie the Lord of Hosts in your hearts, though he be the high & lofty one that inhabits eternity, yet he is pleased to come down to this poor Cottage of a creatures heart, and dwell in it: Is not this as great a humbling and condescending, for the Father to come down off his Throne of Glory, to the poor base foot-stool of the creatures soul, as for the Son to come down in the state of a servant, and become in the form of sinfull flesh. But then he is a Temple and Sanctuary to them, and he shal be to you a Sanctuary, Isa. 8. A place of refuge, a secret hiding-place. Now, as every one is a little separated retired Temple, so they all conjoyned make up one Temple, one visible body in which he dwels: Therefore Paul calls them living stones, built up into a spiritual house to God, 1 Pet. 2. 5 All these little Temples make up one house & Temple fitly joyned together, in which God shews manifest signs of his presence and working: unto this the Apostle in this place alludes. The Communion, & Union of Christians with God, is of such a nature, that all the relations and points of conjunction in the creatures are taken to resemble it, & hold it out to us. We are Citizens, saith he, & Domesticks, houshold men, & so dwel in his house; and then we are his House beside: Now ye know there are two principal things in a House, the Foundation and the Corner-stone; the one supports the building, the other units it, and holds it together: These two parts of this spiritual building are here pointed at; the foundation of every particular stone, and of the whole building is the Doctrine of the Prophets and Apostles, as holding out Jesus Christ to souls, the Rock on which our house shal be builded: Not the Apostles or Prophets, far lesse Pastors and Teachers since; for they are but at best, workers together with God, and imployed in the building of the house; not yet their Doctrine, but as it holds out that true foundation that God had laid in Sion, Isa. 28. which is Jesus Christ, for other foundation can no man lay. And then the Corner-stone is that same Jesus Christ, who reaches from the bottome even to the top of the building, & immediatly touches every stone, and both quickens it in it self, and unites them together.
Well then, here is a sure foundation to build our eternal happinesse upon, the word of God that endures for ever holds it out to us: all men are building upon something, every man is about some establishment of his hopes, layes some foundation of his confidence, which he may stand upon. They are one of the two that Christ speaks of: Luk 6. 46. One builds on the Rock, another on the Sand: now as the foundation is, so is the house; a changeable foundation makes a falling house, a sure foundation makes an unchangeable house; a house without a foundation will prove quickly no house: Now whatsoever men build their hope and confidence upon, beside the word of God, his sure Promise and sure Covenant, and Jesus Christ in them, they build upon no foundation, or upon a sandy foundation. All flesh is grasse, and the flower and perfection of it is as the flower of the field; here is the name and character of all created perfections, of the most excellent endowments of mind, of all the specious actions of men; its all but vanishing, and vanity, every man at his best estate is such; yea, altogether such: You who have no more to build upon but your prosperity and wealth, O that is but sand and dung; would any man build a house upon a dung-hill. You who have no other hope, but in your own good prayers and meanings your own reformations, & repentances, your professions, and practises; know this, that your hope is like a spiders house, like the web that she hath laboriously exercised her self about all the week over, and then when you lean upon that house it shal fall through & not sustain your weight: whatsoever it be, beside this living stone Jesus Christ, who is the very substance of the Word and Promises, it shal undoubtedly prove thy shame, and confusion. But behold the opposition the Prophet makes between the word and these other things, the word of our God shal stand for ever: Isa. 40. 6, 7 8. And therefore Peter makes it an incorruptible seed, of which Believers are begotten, 1 Pet. 1. 23. It is the unchangeable truth & immutable faithfulnesse of God that makes his word so sure, its builded up to the Heavens. Therefore the Psalmist often commends the Word of the Lord as a tryed word, as purified seven times, it hath endured the tryal & proof of all men, of all tentations, of all generations, it hath often been put in the furnace of questions & doubtings, it hath often been tryed in the fire of afflictions, but it came forth like pure Gold, without drosse. This is faiths foundation, God hath spoken in his holiness, and therefore, though all men be liars, yet God will be found true, he deceives none, and is deceived of none. The Lord hath taken a Latitude to himself in his working, he loves to shew his Soveraignty in much of that; and therefore he changes it in men, and upon men as he pleaseth, yet he hath condescended to limit and bound himself by his word, and in this to shew his faithfulnesse. And therefore, though heaven and earth should pass away, though he should innihilate this world, and create new ones, yet not on jot of his world shal sail. The earth is established sure, though it hath no foundation, for the Word of his command supports it: And yet a Believers confidence is on a surer ground: Though the earth should be removed, yet it cannot pass or fail, saith our Lord: And therefore the Psalmist useth to boast in God, That though the earth were moved, and the flouds lifted up their voice, yet he would not fear, because his foundation was unshaken for all that; the word is not removed, when the world is moved, & the fore he was not moved: The worlds stability depends upon a word of cōmand, but our salvation depends on a word of promise. Now, you know, promises put an obligation upon the person, which commands do not, a man may change his commands as he pleases to his children or servants, but he may not change his promises, therefore the promises of God put an obligation upon him, who is truth it self, not to fail in performance; or rather he is to himself, by his unchangeable will & good pleasure, by his faithfulnsse and truth, an oblidging and binding Law: When no creature could let bounds to him, he incloses himself within the bounds of promise to us, and gives all flesh liberty to challenge him if he be not faithfull.
Now all the promises of God are yea, & Amen, in Iesus Christ, that is, established, and confirmed in him: Christ is the surety of them, and so the certainty and stability of them depends upon him, at least, to our sense; for God in all his dealing condescends to our weaknesse, that we may have stronge consolation: A Promise might suffice to ground our faith, but he addeth an Oath to his promise, & he takes Christ surety for the performance; and therefore Christ may be called the Truth indeed, the substantial Word of God, for he is the substance of the written and preached Word; and then he is the very certainty and assurance of it, the Scriptures testifie of him, and lead us to this Rock higher than we, to build upon, and against this the gates of hell cannot prevail: If the Word lead not a soul unto Christ himself, that four hath no foundation; though thou hear the Word, though thou know the Word, yea, suppose thou couldst teach others, and instruct the ignorant, yet all that will be no foundation, as good as none, except thou do it: And what is it to do the Word, but to believe in him whom the Word testifies of: this is the work of God, to resign thy soul to his mercies, and merits, and have no confidence in the flesh: To scrape out all the rubbish of works, and performances, and parts, out of the foundation, and singly to roll thy souls weight upon Gods promises, and Christs purchase, to look, with Paul, on all things beside, in thee, and about the, as dung and drosse, that thou can lean no weight upon, and to remove that dung-hill from the foundation of thy hope, that Jesus Christ may be the only foundation of thy soul, as God hath laid him in the Church for a sure foundation, That who so believeth in him may not be ashamed: What ever beside, a soul be established on, though it appear very solid, and the soul be setled & fixed upon it, yet a day will come that will unsettle that soul, and raze that foundation: either it shal be now done in thy conscience, or it must be done at length, when that great tempest of Gods indignation shal blow from heaven against all unrighteousnesse of men, in the day of accounts, then shal thy house fall, and the fall of it shal be great. But a soul established upon the sure promises, and upon Christ, in whom they are Yea, and Amen, shal abide that storm, and in that day have confidence before God, have wherewith to answer, in Jesus Christ, all the challenges of divine justice, and the accusations of conscience, He that trusteth in him shal be as Mount Sion, which cannot be moved. You see all things else change, and therefore mens hopes and joyes perish; even here, the tentations and revolutions of the times undermines their confidence, and joy; and the blasts of the Northern wind of affliction blows away their hopes.
Now as Christ is the Foundation, so he is the Corner-stone of the building: It is Christ who hath removed that Partition-wall between Jews and Gentiles, even the Ceremonies of the one, and the Atheism of the other: He is our peace, who hath made of two one. The two sides of the House of God are united by this Corner-stone Jesus Christ. Thus we who were the Temples of Satan, are made the Temples of God, thus poor stranger-Gentiles, who had no interest in the Covenant of Promises, come to share with Abraham, Isaac and Iacob, and to be founded upon the Doctrine of the Prophets, who taught the Jewish Church: Christ is the bond of Christians, this is the Head, into which all the members should grow up into a Body. Distance of Place, difference of Nations, distinction of Languages, all these cannot separate the Members of Jesus Christ, they are more one, though consisting of diverse Nations, Tongues, and Customes, and dispositions, than the people of one Nation, or Children of one Family: for one Lord; one Spirit, unites all: Alas, that all are not united in affection & judgement; why do the sides of this House contend, and wrestle one against another? when here is such a Corner-stone joyning them together? Are not there many Christians who cannot endure to look one upon another, who are yet both placed in one building of the Temple of God? Alace this is sad and shamefull! But that which I would especially have observed in this, is that Jesus Christ is such a foundation that reacheth throughout the whole building, and immediatly toucheth every stone of the Building; it's such a Foundation as riseth from the bottom to the top; and therefore Jesus Christ is both the Author and finisher of our Faith, the beginning and the end; the first stone & the last … of our building must rise upon him, and by him; the least degree of grace, and the greatest perfection of it both are in him; and therefore Christians should be most dependent creatures; dependent in their first being, and in after well-being, in their being, and growing, wholly dependent upon Christ, that out of his fulnesse they may receive grace, and then more grace for grace, that all may appear to be grace indeed. Now I beseech you, my beloved in the Lord, to know whereupon ye are builded, or ought to be builded. There are two great errours in the time, take heed of them, one is the Doctrine of some, and another is the practice of the most part: Some do prefer their own fancies, and night-dreams, and the imaginations of their own heart to the Word of God, and upon pretence of Revelation, of new Light, do cast a mist upon that Word of God, which is a light that hath shined from the beginning. Be not deceived, but try the Spirits whether they be of God, or not. There are many pretend too much of the Spirit, and therefore cry out against the Word, as Letter, as Flesh: But, my Brethren, believe not every Doctrine that calls it self a Spirit, that spirit is not of God that hears not Gods voice, as Christ reasons against the Jews, seek ye more of the Spirit of Christ which he promiseth, who is a Spirit that teacheth all things, and bringeth to remembrance these blessed sayings, and leads us to all truth: It shal be both safest and sweetest to you to meditate on the word of the Prophets and Apostles, and the entrance into it shal give you light: an old light which was from the beginning, & therefore a true light (for all truth is eternall) and yet a new light to your sense and feeling: It's both an old command, and a new command; an old word, & a new word; if thou search by the Spirits inspiration, that old word shal be made new, that Letter made spirit and life: Such are the words that Christ speaks, But yet there are many who do not reject the Scriptures in judgement, who notwithstanding do not build on them in practice; Alas it may be said of the most part of professed Christians among us, that they are not builded upon the foundation of the Prophets & Apostles, but upon the sayings of fallible and weak men! What ground have many of you for your Faith but because the Minister saith so, You believe so? the most part live in an implicite faith, and practice that in themselves which they condemne in the Papists. You do not labour to search the Scriptures, that upon that foundation you may build your faith in the questioned truths of this Age, that so you may be able to answer to those that ask a reason of the Faith that is in you. Alas simple souls, you believe every thing and yet really believe nothing, because you believe not the Word as the Word of the living God, but take it from men upon their authority! Therefore when a temptation cometh, when any gainsayings of the truth you cannot stand against it, because your Faith hath no foundation but the sayings of Men, or Acts of Assemblies. And therefore as men whom you trust with holding out light unto you, hold out darknesse in stead of light, you embrace that darknesse also; But I beseech you, be builded upon the foundation of the Prophets and Apostles, not upon them but upon that whereon they were builded, the infallible truths of God. You have the Scriptures, search them; since you have reasonable souls, search them: other mens faith will not save you, you cannot see to walk to heaven by other mens light, more than you can see by their eyes: You have eyes of your own, souls of your own, subordinate to none but the God of Spirits, and Lord of Consciences, Jesus Christ: & therefore examine all that is spoken to you from the Word, according to the Word, and receive no more upon trust from men, but as you find it upon triall to the truth of God.