SERM. cious, that are uttered upon fuch occafion. And that XII. ours at present should be fuch, the subject as well as the season of our discourse doth require. Words few, but pregnant, and affording ample matter for our beft affections to work upon and which more particularly will engage us, both to a hearty thankfulness for paft benefits, and to a confident expectation of future bleffings; while they acquaint us with the ancient exhibition of a gracious promife, 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 constantly perfift in obferying his covenant, and the teftimonies that he fhould 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 fhould fully and certainly be accomplifhed: that he would for ever fix his refidence in Sion; that he would protect and profper it, and all that did belong thereto; especially those that did moft need his favour and affiftance, 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 promife, her Priefts. 3. The thing promised, clothing with falvation. I. I fay, the Promifer, 1: that is, the Lord; the most XII. 4. lxxxix. 34. true, the most conftant, the most powerful God; moft S ERM. true and fincere in the declaration of his purpose, most conftant and immutable in the profecution, 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. lxvi. 10. who will do all his pleasure. These glorious attributes and perfections of his, fo often celebrated in holy Writ, do ground our reliance upon all God's promifes, and do oblige us, notwithstanding the greatest improbabilities or difficulties objected, to believe the infallible performance of this. II. The persons whom the promise mainly regards, her Priefts. Priests, that is, perfons peculiarly devoted to, and employed in, facred matters; diftinguished expressly from the poor, (that is, other meek and humble persons ;) and from the faints, (that is, all other good and religious men.) And, her Priefts; 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, folved to rest and refide in for ever. Whence it plainly 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 subsequent discourse, and by fome it may perhaps not be readily admitted, I fhall endeavour farther to confirm by these few arguments. 2 Chron. vii. 23. 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 Ver. 35, 36, 37. SERM. venant (or promife) is conceived in terms peremptory and XII. exprefsly importing perpetuity. This is my reft for ever, Ty, that is, as the Greek tranflators render it, siç alava Tou alwvos, (in feculum 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 alfo evident by thofe explications thereof in the eighty-ninth Psalm, 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 shall 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 exprefs 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 also 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 servant, 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 promife is both by the Prophets foretold, and expreffed by the Evangelifts, to appertain to the times of the Gospel. Ye heard even now the words of Jeremy, which are by him applied to Jer. xxxiii. thofe times, when God would caufe the Branch of righteousness (that is, Jefus of Nazareth, our bleffed Saviour) to grow up unto David, who should execute judgment and Verse 16. righteousness in the land. In those days, faith he farther, Shall Judah be faved, and Jerufalem shall dwell fafely : and this is the name wherewith she shall 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 Isaiah, God thus invites the 42. 28. 31. XII. Gentiles: Incline your ear, and come unto me; hear, and SERM. your foul fhall live: and I will make an everlafting 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 those 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 Psalm, 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 shall stand fast with him: and, My faith-Ver. 24. fulness and my mercy fhall be with him; that is, my faithful (or fure) mercy; τà σix TIOTà, as the LXX. and St. 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 promife cited, and applied to the times of the Gospel : Bleffed be the Lord God of Ifrael, who hath vifited and re- Luke i. 68, deemed his people; and hath raised up a horn of falvation in 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 Verse 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, 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 everlafting 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 Ix. where he Ifa. Ix. 14, thus prophefies of the Christian Church: The fons alfo of13, 69,70. i. 32. edit. 15, 16. SERM. them that afflicted thee fhall come bending unto thee, and all XII. they that defpifed thee fhall bow themselves down at the foles Verse 7. of thy feet; and they shall call thee The City of the Lord, The Sion of the Holy One of Ifrael. Whereas thou haft been forfaken and hated, so that no man went through thee; I will make thee an eternal excellency, a joy of many generations. Thou shalt alfo fuck the milk of the Gentiles, and fhalt fuck the breasts of kings, &c. And the Prophet Mic. iv. 1. Micah, speaking of the last days, (that is, of the evangelical times, when the mountain of the house of the Lord Should be established in the top of the mountains,) faith thus: And I will make her that halted, a remnant; and her that was caft far off, a ftrong nation: and the Lord shall reign over them in mount Sion from henceforth even for ever. And the Prophet Joel, speaking of the fame times, (when God would pour out his Spirit upon all flesh,) hath these Joel ii. 28. words: So fhall ye know, that I am the Lord your God, dwelling in Sion, my holy mountain: then fhall Jerufalem be holy, and there shall no strangers pass through her any more. All which places no man can reasonably doubt, and all Christians do firmly consent to respect the Christian Church. To which we may add that paffage of the author to the Hebrews, (ch. xii. ver. 22.) But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerufalem; that is, to the Chriftian Church. iii. 16.. 4. The manner of this covenant's delivery, and confirmation by the Divine oath, argues the inconditionate, irreverfible, and perpetual conftitution thereof: for to God's moft abfolute and immutable decrees this most auguft and folemn confirmation doth peculiarly agree. So the Heb. vi. 17. Apostle to the Hebrews feems to intimate: Wherein, faith he, God, willing more abundantly to demonstrate the immutability of his counfel, (ἐπιδεῖξαι τὸ ἀμετάθετον τῆς βουλῆς,) interpofed an oath. We may therefore, I fuppofe, upon these grounds, folidly and fafely conclude, that this promise doth principally belong, and shall therefore infallibly be made good, to the Chriftian priesthood; to those who, in the Christian Church, by offering fpiritual facrifices of praise and |