SERMON XII.

A CONSECRATION SERMON.

Henry the Seventh's Chapel, July 4, 1663. at the Bishop of Man's confecra

tion.

PSAL. cxxxii. 16.

I will alfo clothe her priests with falvation.

THE context runs thus: The Lord hath fworn in truth SERM. unto David; he will not turn from it; Of the fruit of thy XII. body will I fet upon thy throne. If thy children will keep my covenant and my teftimony that I shall teach them, their children fhall also fit upon thy throne for evermore. For 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. I will abundantly bless her provision: I will fatisfy her poor with bread. I WILL ALSO CLOTHE HER PRIESTS WITH SALVATION: and her faints fhall fhout aloud for joy. There will I make the horn of David to bud, &c.

If all, not only inaugurations of perfons, but dedications even of inanimate things to fome extraordinary use, hath been usually attended with especial fignifications of joy and festival folemnity; with great reason the confecration of a person to so high and facred a function, as that of a Christian Bishop, (that is, of a prince, or principal paftor in God's Church,) requires most peculiar teftimonies of our gratulation and content: the face of things ought then to be ferene and cheerful; the thoughts of men benign and favourable; the words comfortable and aufpi

SERM. cious, that are uttered upon fuch occafion. And that XII. ours at present should be fuch, the fubject as well as the season of our discourse doth require. Words few, but pregnant, and affording ample matter for our best affections to work upon: and which more particularly will engage us, both to a hearty thankfulness for past benefits, and to a confident expectation of future bleffings; while they acquaint us with the ancient exhibition of a gracious promise, remind us of the faithful performance thereof hitherto, and affure us of its certain accomplishment for the future. The occafion whereof was this:

King David, moved by a devout inclination to promote God's honour, and benefit the Church, had vowed to build a magnificent temple, imploring God's propitious concurrence with, and approbation of, his defign. Whereupon Almighty God not only declares his acceptance of that pious refolution, but rewards it with a bountiful promife, confifting of two parts; one conditional, relating to David's children and posterity, that they in an uninterrupted fucceffion fhould for ever enjoy the royal dignity, in cafe they did conftantly perfift in obferving his covenant, and the teftimonies that he should teach them; the other more abfolute, that however, what he chiefly intended concerning God's established worship and the perpetual welfare of the Church, God would have an efpecial care that it should fully and certainly be accomplished that he would for ever fix his refidence in Sion; that he would protect and prosper it, and all that did belong thereto; especially thofe that did moft need his favour and affistance, the poor, the priests, and the faints, Ton (or gentle ones.) This is briefly the importance of the general promise wherein is comprehended that particular one whereon we are to treat: and in which we may obferve,

1. The Promifer, I.

2. The perfons who are especially concerned in the promise, her Priests.

3. The thing promifed, clothing with falvation.

I. I say, the Promiser, 1: that is, the Lord; the most

XII.

4. lxxxix.

34.

true, the most conftant, the most powerful God; most $ ERM. true and fincere in the declaration of his purpose, most conftant and immutable in the prosecution, most power ful and uncontrolable in the perfect execution thereof: whose words are right, and all whose works are done in Pfal. xxxiii. truth who will not break his covenant, nor alter the thing that is gone out of his lips: whofe counfel fhall ftand, and Ifa. Ixvi.10. who will do all his pleafure. These glorious attributes and perfections of his, fo often celebrated in holy Writ, do ground our reliance upon all God's promises, and do oblige us, notwithstanding the greatest improbabilities or difficulties objected, to believe the infallible performance of this.

II. The perfons whom the promise mainly regards, her Priests. Priests, that is, persons peculiarly devoted to, and employed in, facred matters; distinguished expressly from the poor, (that is, other meek and humble perfons ;) and from the faints, (that is, all other good and religious men.) And, her Priests; that is, the Priests of Sion: of that Sion which the Lord hath chofen; which he hath defired for his permanent habitation; which he hath re- Contra, Whence it plainly vii. 21. folved to rest and refide in for ever. enough follows, that the Priefts and Paftors of the Christian Church are hereby, if not folely, yet principally defigned. Which interpretation, because it is in a manner the foundation of our fubfequent discourse, and by fome it may perhaps not be readily admitted, I fhall endeavour farther to confirm by thefe few arguments.

2 Chron.

2 Chron.

1. Because the covenant here mentioned is not, as to the main parts thereof, of a conditional or temporary nature, but abfolute and perpetual; and must therefore be understood to respect the Christian Church: (that of the Vide Jews being long fince rejected, their temple demolished, vii. 16. their Sion utterly forfaken.) For although one particular contained therein, concerning the continual fucceffion of David's pofterity in the regal authority over Ifrael, hath a condition explicitly annexed; (and, confequently, the effects depending upon the performance of that condition were contingent and mutable ;) yet all the rest of this co

SERM. venant (or promife) is conceived in terms peremptory and XII. exprefsly importing perpetuity. This is my rest for ever,

Ver. 35, 36, 37.

yy, that is, as the Greek translators render it, eis aiva Toữ aiñvos, (in seculum feculi,) that is, to the end of this world; as εἰς αἰῶνας τῶν αἰώνων denotes the end of all worlds, or the most perfect fempiternity. And that it doth really in this cafe denote a proper and unlimited perpetuity, is also evident by those explications thereof in the eighty-ninth Pfalm, where the very fame covenant is, as to fome parts thereof, more largely recorded. Once have I fworn by my holiness, that I will not lie unto David: his feed fhall endure for ever, and his throne as the fun before me: it shall be established for ever as the moon, and as a faithful witness in heaven. No words can express more fully a perpetual duration, or at least one co-extended with the duration of the world, than those do. And the Prophet Jeremy, referring alfo to this very covenant, and particularly to this very clause Jer. xxxiii. thereof, thus expreffes the matter: Thus faith the Lord ; Vide 2 Chr. If you can break my covenant of the day, and my covenant of the night, and that there should not be day and night in their feafon; then may also my covenant be broken with David my fervant, that he should not have a fon to reign upon his throne; and with the Levites the priests, my minifters. But farther,

20, 21.

vii. 16.

15.

2. The completion of this individual promise is both by the Prophets foretold, and expreffed by the Evangelifts, to appertain to the times of the Gofpel. Ye heard even now the words of Jeremy, which are by him, applied to Jer. xxxiii. those times, when God would cause the Branch of righteousness (that is, Jefus of Nazareth, our blessed Saviour) to grow up unto David, who should execute judgment and Verfe 16. righteousness in the land. In those days, faith he farther, Shall Judah be faved, and Jerufalem fhall dwell fafely: and this is the name wherewith fhe fhall be called, (or rather, which he shall be called, as not only the vulgar Latin and the Greek interpreters, but the Chaldee also read it,) THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS. Likewife in the fifty-fifth of Ifaiah, God thus invites the

XII.

Gentiles: Incline your ear; and come unto me; hear, and SERM. your foul fhall live: and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the fure mercies of David: that is, I Ifa. Iv. 3. will ratify that everlasting covenant, which, in your behalf, I once made with David, and will confer on you thofe favours which I faithfully promised him; relating to this very promise alfo. For both in Solomon's prayer, (2 Chron. vi.) which in all probability was indited about the fame time, and upon the fame occafion with this Pfalm, and in the eighty-ninth Pfalm, the benefits of the fame covenant are called the mercies of David. O Lord 2 Chron. vi. God, turn not away the face of thine anointed, remember the mercies of David thy fervant, faith Solomon: and, My mercy, faith God, will I keep with him for evermore, Pf. lxxxix. and my covenant fhall ftand faft with him: and, My faith- Ver. 24. fulness and my mercy fhall be with him; that is, my faithful (or fure) mercy; và bσix пiotà, as the LXX. and St.

42.

28.

3.1.

Paul with them in the Acts, render this place of Isaiah. Acts xiii, And in the fong of Zachary we have one paffage of this promise cited, and applied to the times of the Gospel : Bleed be the Lord God of Ifrael, who hath vifited and re- Luke i. 68, deemed his people; and hath raifed up a horn of falvation in 69, 70. the houfe of his fervant David; as he spake by the mouth of his holy prophets: viz. by the mouth of this prophetical Pfalmift here, where it is faid, There will I make the horn of David to bud; and in the parallel Pfalm lxxxix. In my Verle 24. name fhall his horn be exalted. To omit those many places where our Saviour, in correspondence to this promife, is affirmed to poffefs the throne of his father David, Vide Luke and to rule over the houfe of Jacob for ever. Moreover,

i. 32. edit. Curcel.

3. That by the Sion here mentioned is not chiefly meant that material mountain in Judea, but rather that mystical Rock of Divine grace and evangelical truth, upon which the Chriftian Church, the only everlasting temple of God, is unmoveably feated, is very probable, (or rather, manifeftly certain,) by the Prophets' conftant acception thereof in this fenfe, when they affign the character of perpetual durability thereto. As in Ifaiah lx. where he Ifa. Ix. 14, thus prophefies of the Christian Church: The fons alfo of 15,

15, 16.