А

SERMON

PREACHED BEFORE THE

KING,

Upon the Twenty-eighth of March, 1669.

PHILLIP. iii. 8.

Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss, for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord.

OUR blessed Saviour compareth the kingdom of heaven to a 'hid treasure,' and a pearl of great price,' which a wise merchant, having found, sold all that he had, to buy it. This hidden treasure is our life, which is hid with Christ in God b: this pearl of great price is that, which the apostle calls the unsearchable riches of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith.'d St. Paul, unto whom the Lord from heaven did reveal this treasure and pearl, hath, in this chapter, discovered himself to be one of those wise merchants, who parted with all for this inestimable purchase. He looked on himself before as a rich man' in things pertaining unto God. Great dignity;-of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews. Great strictness of religion; ;-a Pharisee ", separated from the ways of the world.—

a Matth. xiii. 45, 46.

• Gal. i. 11.

b Col. iii. 3.

⚫ Eph. iii. 8. Vid. Aug. d Phil. g Vid. Nicet.

contra 2 Ep. Pelag. lib. 3. c. 7. de Grat. et lib. Arbit. c. 12. iii. 9. f 2 Cor. xi. Phil. iii. 5. Choniat. Thesaur. Orthodox. 1. c. 40.—Baron. Apparat. Sect. 8, 9, 10.—Drus. de 3 sectis Judæor. 1. 2. Ad voces N. T. p. 131. Scultet. Exercit. Evang. 1. 1. c. 24, 25, 26. Camero. To. 3. in Matt. 20. 3.-Buxtorf. Lexic. Rab. p. 1851. h Acts xxxvi.

m

Great learning;-brought up at the feet of Gamaliel', and taught according to the perfect manner of the law of the Fathers. Great zeal and fervency, even unto persecution.Great sanctity in his own opinion; "I was alive without the law once1; as touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless." These things, before he came to the knowledge of Christ, he esteemed very gainful, advantageous, and meritorious to salvation; for he had profited in the Jews' religion above many his equals." But when it pleased God to reveal his Son unto him, he consulted no more with flesh and blood; he set no more value on mere carnal privileges or performances; looked on them as loss and dung; on all his own righteousness, but as a menstruous cloth°; durst put no confidence in any thing of his own ; but in the alone righteousness of Christ Jesus his Lord, in the fellowship of his sufferings, and in the power of his resurrection. He would glory in nothing but the cross of Christ; he would rely on nothing but the grace of Christ; he would lose all, that he might win Christ.

I have chosen these words, to open the excellency of the gospel of Christ, and of the saving knowledge of him thereby; in comparison whereof the apostle esteemed all his other dignities, privileges, righteousness, performances, upon which he had formerly built the hopes of his salvation, to be all but loss and dung.

I begin with the former of these, the excellency of evangelical doctrine, called by the apostle a 'glorious gospel"," a 'ministration" of righteousness which exceeds in glory, a 'word of life',' a 'gospel' of salvation", the riches' of the world, a 'treasure, accompanied with the excellency of divine power, a 'great mystery of godliness; with other the

i Acts xxii. 3. Phil. iii. 6. Aug. cont. 2 Ep. Pelag. 1. e. 9. 1 Rom. vii. 9. m Phil. iii. n Gal. i. 14. • Vide Bernard. Serm. 1. in Festo Omnium Sanct. de verbis Isaiæ Ser. 5. in dedicat. Eccles. Serm. 5. p Præsume non de operatione tua, sed de gratia Christi: Ambros. de Sacram. 1. 5. c. 4.-Quicquid est circa te vel in te, unde possis præsumere, abjice à te, et tota præsumptio tua Deus sit: Aug. in Psalm. 85.-Nihil tuis meritis attribuas: nihil de te præsumas: in virtute tua nihil ponas: in viribus tuis non confidas: in tua audacia fiduciam non habeas : omnia divino dono, et divinæ gratiæ ascribe-Confidentia tua semper sit in Christo: Bernard. de modo bene vivendi, Serm. 3. q Gal. vi. 14. Tim. i. 11. $ 2 Cor. ir. 9. u John vi. 63. ■ Eph. i. 13.

y Rom. xi. 12.

t Acts v. 20.

* 2 Cor. iv. 7. 1 Tim. iii. 16.

like eulogies, setting forth those unsearchable riches of Christ therein, as draw forth the wonder and adoration both of men and angels.

We shall consider the excellency of the gospel, 1. Comparatively: 2. Absolutely. For the former, I shall not put the whole world, nor all the diadems, honours, pleasures, and revenues thereof, into the balance with Christ; he having assured us that it will little profit a man to win them all3, and to lose his soul: for though a man could win the whole world, yet within a few years he would lose it again; but the soul, being once lost, is lost for ever, never to be recovered.

But 1. We shall compare the gospel with the state of innocency in paradise. It cannot be denied, but that there were divers things in that state of primitive integrity, wherein Adam excelled any of his sinful offspring. He was made then wholly upright, without any mixture of corruption or infirmity; no evil of sin to defile him, no evil of sorrow to disquiet him: whereas, now, the holiest men are commanded and constrained to cry out, "Forgive us our trespasses, deliver us from evil." d He had no war between the flesh and spirit, no inward combat between the law of the members, and the law of the mind; no temptation of lust to entice and draw him away from God: whereas the holiest men are now forced to complain, "O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body of death?" He did not, in that state, stand in need of Mediator of reconciliation to restore him to the favour of God, wherein he stood right and entire, by the law of his creation. He had no guilt to fill him with shame or fear, or to drive him away from the presence of the Lord. Yet, in some respect, the grace of the gospel is more excellent than the state of Adam in paradise.

1. Herein is the manifestation of more glorious mercy and wisdom for it was most consonant to the goodness of God, to make reasonable creatures righteous at first; but when they wilfully fell from their created integrity, it was won

a Matth. xvi. 2. Prov. x. 2.

b Vid. Aug. de Civit. Dei, Lib. 14. c. 10, 11. de corrept. et grat. c. 11. Damusc. 1. 2. c. 12. c Eccles. vii. 2. d Matth. vi. 12. • Rom. vii. 2. Gemitus sanctorum contra carnals. concupiscentias dimicantium. Aug. cont. Julian. Pelag. 1. 6. c. 23.

derful and free mercy to restore them again ; wonderful and glorious wisdom to do it by so great a condescension and contrivance, as the incarnation and passion of the Son of God. There lay no bond upon God at all, to show mercy to a creature, which had cast him off, and rebelled against him. He might, 'pari jure,' have left men unredeemed, as he did the angels, and have glorified himself in their just perdition. It was mere and alone mercy, which made the difference. "He took not the nature of angels; but the seed of Abraham he took." (Heb. ii. 16)

2. By the gospel, the human nature is more highly advanced, than it could be in the first Adam, had he persisted in his integrity. First, In the person of Christ; in whom it was hypostatically united to the divine nature, and advanced far above all principality and power, might and dominion, and every name that is named. Angels, and principalities, and powers, are made subject to him. He is the first-born of every creature, and hath, in all things, the preeminence. 2. In all those who are spiritually descended from him, and estated by union and communion with him in his fulness both of grace and glory. For certainly, to be where Christ is, and to behold his glory when he shall come to be admired in those that believe, to be like unto him, to see him as he is, to sit down with him on his throne', to be joint heirs with him in his glory ",—which are some of those exceeding great and precious promises, which in the gospel are made unto true believers,—are more high and honourable expressions of the dignity of the sons of God by gracious adoption, than any we can discover to have belonged unto Adam and his natural posterity, had they persisted in that integrity, wherein they were created. For then the reward would only have borne proportion to the obedience whereunto it related: but now it shall have its dimensions from the dignity of the person, and excellency of the price. whereby it was purchased; both which do infinitely surpass both the person and obedience of Adam, or any other mere

3. By the gospel, there is more divine and supernatural help afforded to believers, to carry them through their course of obedience unto glory, than there was unto Adam in paradise. To Adam was given a 'posse non peccare, si vellet,' a power not to sin if he would "; and a power to have willed, if he would so have done. But he had not special supernatural assistance given him to will: for if he had had that, he had persevered. But unto believers there is such grace given,' qua efficitur ut velint." It is God that worketh in us both to will and to do, of his own good pleasure,” saith the apostle. (Phil. ii. 13) "Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power," saith the prophet David. (Psalm cx. 3) "I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgements, and do them," saith the Lord. (Ezek. xxxvi. 27) This point is excellently handled by that renowned champion of the grace of God, St. Austin P, in his book, ' De Correptione et Gratia.'

II. The excellency of the gospel will appear, if we compare it with the law of Moses. The priesthood thereof, a nobler priesthood, after the order of Melchizedek: the covenant thereof, a better covenant,-established upon better promises,' as the apostle proveth at large in his epistle to the Hebrews.

1. The law moral, considered singly and alone, is a ministration of death and condemnation'; a killing, enthralling, inexorable, insupportable law: insomuch that the people were not able to endure the commands thereof. (Heb. xii. 20.) 'Why should we die ?" say they; "this great fire will consume us :-if we hear the voice of the

Accepit gratiam, qua non posset peccare, si peccare nollet; nondum tamen tantam acceperat gratiam, qua nec peccare vellet. Fulgent, de incarnat. et Gra. Christi, cap. 12. Tale erat adjutorium, in quo permaneret si vellet, non quo fieret ut vellet. Aug. de corrept. et grat. c. 11. • Trahitur miris modis,

ut velit, ab illo, qui novit intus in ipsis hominum cordibus operari: non ut homines, quod fieri non potest, nolentes credant, sed ut volentes ex nolentibus fiant. Aug. cont. 2 Ep. Pelag. 1. 1. c. 19. Certum est nos velle cum volumus, sed ille facit ut vellemus, &c. de grat. et lib. arbit. c. 16, 17.-Vid. de Dono perseverant. 22, 23.-De grat. Christi, c. 24, 25, 26.—Enchirid. ad Laurent, c. 32.-Ep. 107, 143.-Ad Simplician. 1. qu. 2.—Vid. Concil. Arausican. 2. cap. 4, 6, 7, 9, 20, 23.— Pet. Diacon. de Incarnat. Christi, c. 6, 8.—Fulgent. de Incarnat. et grat. Christi, c. 17, 18, 19, 20, 24, 29, 30.-Bernard, de grat. et lib. arbit. et de modo bene vivendi, Serm. 3. P Cap. xi. 12. s Heb. vii. 22. viii. 6. ix. 23.

x. 34.

r 2 Cor. iii. 9, 7.