Forty Sermons, Sermon 38
SERMON XXXVIII.
MAT. 24. 45, 46.
Who then is a faithful and wiſe Servant, whom his Lord hath made Ruler over his Houſhold, to give them Meat in due ſeaſon?
Bleſſed is that Servant, whom his Lord, when he cometh, ſhall find ſo doing.
BUt that Reward is the laſt part of my Text. We are before that to conſider of our Work.
And that is the 2d; Which (having diſpatched our 2 Work.Office, Servants, and yet made Rulers over God's Houſhold) we come to in thoſe words, foreign. It's to give them their Food in due ſeaſon.
1. I will not inſiſt upon that, which yet ſome obſerve from the word foreign, that it's a giving, and not a ſelling of this Food to the Houſhold. Chriſt once whipt Buyers and Sellers out of the Temple: but after-ages complained much that they were gotten in again. This Food for the Houſhold is the Maſters Proviſion, and only put into the Stewards hands for his Houſholds uſe. All thy Grace, Wiſdom, Ability to diſpenſe the Word and other Ordinances, to govern the Church, &c. are God's Gifts, which he never betruſted thee with to enjoy, or make a Mercat of for thy ſelf, thine own gain or applauſe, but for the Glory of thy Maſter, and the ſervice of his Spouſe: and therefore although the Labourer be worthy of his hire, Luke 10. 7. yet neither be thou on the one ſide ever ſo mercenary, as to account thy maintenance ſuch an hire of thy Labour as which thou aimeſt at, and putteſt off the Ordinances of God for: No, in this ſence freely thou haſt received, and therefore freely give.
Nor let the People be ever ſo mean as to think, when they Mat. 10. 8.have paid their Pittance they have bought you for Slaves, and like good Chapmen have made a fair purchaſe of the Word, and the reſt of God's Ordinances, which they hereupon claim as their due, and in caſe, though by their own default, they come ſhort of, you ſhall fall ſhort of yours. But how unworthy are ſuch baſe Simoniacal chafferings of thee, as thou art either a Miniſter, or Chriſtian? ſomething akin to Judas ſelling, and the Jews buying of Chriſt for thirty pieces of Silver: and a goodly price, wherewith I was priſed at of them, ſaith the Lord, Zeeh. 11. 13. The Apoſtle would lift us up to higher thoughts, when he calls the Church Officers maintenance, not Wages but Honour, 1 Tim. 5. 17. to be freely honorably allowed, not as a recompenſe of their Labour, but as an honorable teſtimony of our love and reſpect, not as the price of the Goſpel, and all that either we mean to give for it, or the Miniſters ſhould look at in diſpenſing of it. There's much more that God expects for it from the People, and which his Miniſters ſhould look at in their adminiſtrations of it. They are firſt foreign, to give the Houſhold their Food in due Seaſon.
2. The ſecond thing obſervable is, what they are to give, expreſſed in the word foreign, their Food and Nouriſhment, by which Hierom means Cibaria doctrinarum: others, verbi & Sacramentorum pabulum, the ſacred Food of the Word and Sacraments; not excluding either the wholſom Phyſick of Church-Cenſures, for it's Phyſick as well as Food, which we pray for, when we begg our daily Bread, Matth. 6. 11. or the due adminiſtration of any other of the parts of Church-Government, for as Chriſt foreign, feeds whilſt he rules, Matth. 2. 6. (Kings are foreign) ſo we may properly be ſaid to Feed, by Governing as well as Teaching. In reference to both which, Paul in his charge to the Elders of Epheſus calls upon them foreign, to feed the Church of God, Act. 20. 28. That's their Task, nor can you conceive otherwiſe, if you conſider,
1. Either the Maſter of the Houſe his Royal Bounty. He would not have his Family ſtarved, and therefore takes order that they ſhall be fed. In our Fathers Houſe there's Bread enough, Luke 15. 17.
2. Or his Servant's Office and Duty. They are elſewhere ſtiled Shepherds; and a Paſtor's work is to feed the Flock, Zech. 11. 7. Nurſes; and they ſuckle and cheriſh their Children, 1 Theſ. 2. 7. in the place of Luke parallel to the Text foreign, Stewards, whoſe whole work both here and there is ſummed up in this comprehenſive expreſſion of giving Food to the whole Family. And for your quickning herein, the Application of this
Proclaims the People of God their great need, even greater of Ʋſe. 1 theſe Spiritual ſupplies, than any can have of thoſe corporal, the fainting-Soul ſtanding in more need to be plied with Promiſes and Incouragements, than the ſwooning Man with Cordials; the careleſs and foul Sinner, of Threats and Admonitions, than the foul diſeaſed Body of ſtronger Purges; and the obſtiuate Sinner more to be caſt out, than the gangren'd Member to be cut off: all of us as much and more of this Spiritual Food, than any, than all of us do of our Natural-Food, and Job called that neceſſary Food, Job. 23. 12. and therefore no wonder if Paul ſaid, a neceſſity is laid upon me, and wo unto me if I Preach not the Goſpel, 1 Cor. 9. 16. God and Nature is not wanting to thee in neceſſaries: Let not Grace ſuffer thee to be wanting to thy charge in their neceſſities. Chriſt was willing to bleed, that of his Fleſh and Bloud he might make the Proviſions, wilt not thou be willing to be at the Coſt, though it be of thy Sweat, to ſet them on the Board? Let thy People's hungring deſires beſpeak thy pity. It was one of the ſaddeſt Notes in the Church's Lamentations, that the Children asked Bread, and there was none to break it to them, Lament. 4. 4. Or ſhould their Deſires be ſilent, yet let their Wants cry for thy Compaſſion. Cogita de cibo & potu animalium tuorum, ſaith Bernard, nam eſuriunt, & non potunt; they oft are Hungry, and yet ſo weak, ſullen, or ſhamefaced, that they will not, or cannot ask; nay (which is worſe) inediâ langnent, & tamen non eſuriunt, they too oft are half-famiſhed, and yet are not an hungry, are ready to die, not ſo much for want of Food, as of a Stomach, as it is with too many of our Flock at this day. And therefore (in this caſe, if in any) if there be any Conſolation in Chriſt, if any Comfort of Love, if any fellowſhip of the Spirit, if any Bowels and Mercies, let our Bowels earn over them. Starved Souls will be frightful Ghoſts to us, when they …d we at laſt ſhall ſtand together to give up our account, and to receive our doom. Let this make us think of our charge and mind our work, It is to give Food to God's Houſhold.
Which calls for a ſecond part of our care, that it be indeed Ʋſe 2 foreign, nouriſhing-Food, that we give them. If they ask Bread, give them not a Stone; or if Fiſh, let it not be a Serpent, (Matth. 7. 9, 10.) in hard and harſh uſages.
It's Food, not the Poyſon of Hereſies and corrupt Doctrines, or deſtructive Adminiſtrations. Your Power is given to Edification, 2 Cor. 10. 3.and not to Deſtruction.
It's foreign, ſolid nouriſhing Food, not the Froth of Airy Notions, or our fine-ſpun high-flown Speculations, not the Traſh, Hay and Stubble of our own Fancies, Humors, Paſſions, no nor the rareſt Flowers of our great Readings and curious Elegancies. The Sheep of Chriſt's Paſture uſe to feed on more wholſom Herbs, whilſt they let ſuch Flowers ſtand by. The Word is the immortal Seed, that begets us, 1 Pet. 1. 23. (Theſe too dilute to be prolifical, as he of the Philoſopher's Books, animum non dant, quia non habent) and the ſincere Milk Chap. 2. v. 2. to nouriſh us. From theſe we can ſuck nothing but Wind, which makes us ſwell, and that's all. What's the Chaff to the Wheat? Jer. 23. 28. It's foreign, the ſolid nouriſhing Bread of Life, and therefore away with all ſuch Kickſhaws.
3. The third thing obſervable in this ſecond part is, that what Matthew here calls foreign, their Food, Luke in the parallel place, calls foreign, demenſum, their portion of Meat, which Agur phraſeth (though in another ſence, foreign (Prov. 30. 8.) Food convenient for me. The ſame Diſpenſation will not either for kind or meaſure ſute all. There are in God's Family young Babes as well as grown Men. Some ſick and weak, others healthy and ſtrong, ſome ſick of lighter Fevers, others of more putrid, it may be Hectical or Malignant. That which will feed the Child will pine the Man: and what's Food to him that's healthy, may be poyſon to the Sick: and that which will heal a Whitlow, will not cure a Gangrene: As therefore God in his greater Houſe of the World, hath ſuch both ſtore and choiſe, that he anſwers the want and deſire of every living thing, Pſal. 145. 16. So this Preſence-Chamber of his Church he hath ſo fully fitted and furniſhed, that in his Word, Sacraments, Cenſures, and other Adminiſtrations, his Mannah is anſwerable to every Palat: he hath a fit Medicine for every Malady; both a Rod and a Pot of Manna in his Ark. But now to …w which of them to uſe, and to whom. This foreign, this right dividing of the Word of Truth, 2 Tim. 2. 15. ſo as the proud Sinner may not preſume, nor the fainting Chriſtian droop, the right Adminiſtration of the Keys, that no falſe Pretender, notwithſtanding his greateſt ſhews, may be let in, nor the weakeſt Believer, notwithſtanding his many weakneſſes, kept out, that we do not on the one hand, in too rigorous a way kill a fly on our Brothers Forehead with a Beetle, nor on the other, through ignorance, in advertency, Intereſt or the like, blow whole a corrupt Ulcer a little skinned over. This is one of the hardeſt pieces of our work; hic labor, huc opus, & foreign; Lord who is ſufficient for theſe things? 2 Cor. 2. 16. This would call for in Miniſters a more diligent inſpection into, and Knowledge of the ſtate of our Flock (Prov. 27. 23.) than I fear we have any of us attained to, or many of us endeavoured after; which we had need this day to be greatly humbled for our want & neglect of. This requires all the qualifications, which Chriſt here mentioneth, of Faithfulneſs, Wiſdom, Sincerity, Conſtancy, Inſtancy, which (I ſaid) are contained in the third part of the Text, ſo worthy to be ſought, and yet ſo hard to be found, if all of you ſhould be like ſome of us, that in both reſpects Chriſt may here ask the queſtion, Who is that Faithful and Wiſe Servant, whom his Lord ſhall make Ruler over his Houſhold, to give them their Food, or due portion of Meat, in due ſeaſon?
4. Which laſt words, foreign in ſeaſon, is the fourth particular in this ſecond part of the Text.
Food is to be given, and that in a fit proportion, and alſo in a fit Seaſon. It's ſo with orderly Men, and in well-ordered Families, Eccleſ. 10. 17. and God would not have his Houſe worſe ordered. The wiſe Phyſician as he weighs the Doſe he gives, ſo he calculates the time in which he ſhould moſt ſeaſonably give it. It's the Wiſdom of God as Governor of the World, that as he ſatisfieth the deſires of his Creatures in giving them their Food; ſo, that it is in due ſeaſon, Pſal. 145. 15. and accordingly as the Lawgiver of his Church you ſhall obſerve how punctual he is in the Law to require his Ordinances to be obſerved, but in their ſeaſon, Exod. 13. 10. Levit. 23. 4. Numb. 9. 3, 7, 13 & 28. 2. He is now no whit leſs careful of it in the diſpenſaon of the Goſpel. foreign, is the Apoſtolical Precept, 2 Tim. 4. 2. Be inſtant in ſeaſon: He adds indeed, and out of ſeaſon too, though that is out in ſome Copies: but if you take it Beza.in, you muſt underſtand it of that which the wiſdom of the Fleſh accounts out of ſeaſon, as that it will not ſtand now with the Miniſters profit, or the peoples occaſions or humors. For otherwiſe it's the both faithfulneſs and wiſdom of Miniſters and other Church-Officers heedfully and watchfully to watch and catch all fitteſt oportunities, in which they may act moſt ſeaſonably:
1. Hard to be hit on, and therefore the more carefully to be heeded. Much good loſt becauſe the opportunity is ſlipt: becauſe is every purpoſe there is a time and judgment, therefore the miſery of Man is great upon him, Eccleſ. 8. 6.
2. Moſt Succeſsful uſually, if obſerved. The thing is then Beautiful, Eccleſ. 3. 11. and therefore taking: upon the Wheels them and therefore goeth on ſmoothly. I am no Arminian, to make the Efficacy of Grace to conſiſt in Moral perſwaſions applied tempore & modo congruis, in the fitneſs and ſeaſonableneſs of ſuch Applications. No: I know that God to ſhew the freeneſs and prevailing Efficacy of his Grace, ſometimes works it (as in Paul and others) when the Sinner is moſt indiſpoſed, as Chriſt the Phyſician came when the World was moſt Corrupted; who, otherwiſe than other Phyſicians, can to purpoſe give Phyſick in the height of a Fit, as he cured Simon's Wive's Mother, In aeſtu Febris, in the very Paroxiſm of her Diſeaſe. Nullum tempus occurrit Regi.