Part 43 (1/2)

ROBERT OGLE AND OLIVER AND BOYD

M. OGLE & SON AND WILLIAM COLLINS, GLASGOW. J. DEWAR, PERTH. W. MIDDLETON, DUNDEE.

G. & R. KING, ABERDEEN. W. M'COMB, BELFAST

HAMILTON, ADAMS, & CO., AND JAMES NISBET AND CO., LONDON.

1645.

REPRINTED BY A. W. MURRAY, MILNE SQUARE, EDINBURGH

1844.

PREFACE TO THE READER.

I have in this sermon applied my thoughts toward these three things: 1.

The soul-ensnaring error of the greatest part of men, who choose to themselves such a way to the kingdom of heaven as is broad, and smooth, and easy, and but little or nothing at all displeasing to flesh and blood, like him that tumbled down upon the gra.s.s and said, _Utinam hoc esset laborare_. 2. The grumbling and unwillingness which appeareth in very many, when they should submit to that reformation of the church which is according to the mind of Jesus Christ, like them that said to the seers, ”See not; and to the prophets, Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things,” Isa. x.x.x, 10; and again, ”Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us,” Psal. ii. 3. 3. The sad and desolate condition of the kingdom of Scotland, then calling for our prayers and tears, and saying, ”Call me not Naomi (pleasant), call me Mara (bitter): for the Almighty hath dealt very bitterly with me,” Ruth i. 20.

We were ”pressed out of measure, above strength,” and ”had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in G.o.d which raiseth the dead; who delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver; in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us,” 2 Cor. i. 8-10.

Our brethren also ”helping together by prayer for us,” that for the mercy bestowed on us by means of the prayers of many, thanks may be given by many on our behalf. ”The Lord liveth, and blessed be my Rock: and let the G.o.d of my salvation be exalted,” Psal. xviii, 46; He is our G.o.d; and we will prepare for him an habitation; our father's G.o.d, and we will exalt him, Exod. xv. 2; ”Blessed be the Lord G.o.d, the G.o.d of Israel, who only doeth wondrous things. And blessed be his glorious name for ever: and let the whole earth be filled with his glory,” Psal. lxxii. 18, 19. Scotland shall yet be ”a crown of glory in the hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand of thy G.o.d,” Isa. lxii. 3; and shall be called Hephzi-bah and Beulah. Only let us remember our evil ways, and be confounded, and never open our mouth any more because of our shame, when the Lord our G.o.d is pacified towards us. Now are both kingdoms put to a trial, whether their humiliations be filial, and whether then can mourn for sin more than for judgment. And let us now hear what the Spirit speaketh to the churches, and not turn again to folly New provocations, or the old unrepented, will create new ones; therefore ”sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto us.”

SERMON.

MALACHI iii. 2.

”But who may abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he appeareth? for he is like a refiner's fire, and like fuller's soap.”

If you ask, ”Of whom speaketh the Prophet this, of himself or of some other man?” (Acts viii. 34)-it is answered, both by Christian and Jewish interpreters: The Prophet speaketh this of Christ, the Messenger of the covenant, then much longed and looked for by the people of G.o.d, as is manifest by the preceding verse. And as it was fit that Malachi, the last of the prophets, should shut up the Old Testament with clear promises of the coming of Christ (which you find in this and in the following chapter), so he takes the rather occasion from the corrupt and degenerate estate of the priests at that time (which he had mentioned in the former chapter) to hold forth unto the church the promised Messiah, who was to come unto them to purify the sons of Levi.

But if you ask again, Of what coming or appearing of Christ doth the Prophet speak this? whether of the first, or of the last, or of any other?-the answer of expositors is not so unanimous. Some understand the last coming of Christ, in the glory of his Father, and holy angels, to judge the quick and the dead. This cannot stand with ver. 34, ”He shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them,” &c.; but at the last judgment it will be too late for the sons of Levi to be purified and purged, or for Judah and Jerusalem to bring offerings unto the Lord, as in the days of old.

Others understand the first coming of Christ. And of these some understand his incarnation, or appearing in the flesh; others take the meaning to be of his coming into the temple of Jerusalem, to drive out the buyers and sellers (Matt. xxi. 10-12), at which time all the city was moved at his coming. This exposition hath better grounds than the other, because the coming of Christ (here spoken of) did not precede, but soon follow after the ministry of John Baptist, and therefore cannot be meant of our Saviour's incarnation, but rather of his appearing with power and authority in the temple. But this also falleth short, and neither expresseth the whole nor the princ.i.p.al part of what is meant in this text; for how can it be said that the prophecy which followeth, ver. 3, 4 (which is all of a piece with ver. 2), was fulfilled during Christ's appearing and sitting in the temple of Jerusalem? or how can it be conceived that the offerings of Judah and Jerusalem were pleasant to the Lord at that time, when the Gentiles were not, and the Jews would not be brought in, to offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness? So that whether we understand by Judah and Jerusalem the Jewish church or the Christian, this thing could not be said to be accomplished while Christ was yet upon earth. And in like manner, whether we understand by the sons of Levi the priests and Levites of the Jews, or the ministers of the gospel, it cannot be said that Christ did, in the days of his flesh, purify the sons of Levi as gold and silver.

I deny not but the Lord Jesus did then begin to set about this work. But that which is more princ.i.p.ally here intended, is Christ's coming and appearing in a spiritual, but yet most powerful and glorious manner, to erect his kingdom, and to gather and govern his churches, by the ministry of his apostles and other ministers, whom he sent forth after his ascension.

Of this coming he himself speaketh, Matt. xvi. 28, ”Verily I say unto you, There be some standing here which shall not taste of death till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom;” Mark addeth, ”with power” (Mark ix.

1). Neither was that all. He did not so come at that time as to put forth all his power, or to do his whole work. He hath at divers times come and manifested himself to his churches; and this present time is a time of the revelation of the Son of G.o.d, and a day of his coming. We look also for a more glorious coming of Jesus Christ before the end be: for ”the Redeemer shall come to Sion” (Isa. lix. 20), ”and shall turn away unG.o.dliness from Jacob” (Rom. xi. 26); and he shall destroy Antichrist ”with the brightness of his coming,” 2 Thess. ii. 8; in which place the Apostle hath respect to Isa. xi. 4, where it is said of Christ, the rod of Jesse, ”with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked.” There, withal, you have the church's tranquillity, the filling of the earth with the knowledge of the Lord, and the restoring of the dispersed Jews, as you may read in that chapter. Some have observed(1404) (which ought not to pa.s.s without observation) that the Chaldee Paraphrase had there added the word _Romilus_: ”He shall slay the wicked Romilus;” whereupon they challenge Arias Monta.n.u.s for leaving out that word to wipe off the reproach from the Pope. However, the Scriptures teach us, that the Lord Jesus will be revealed mightily, and will make bare his holy arm, as well in the confusion of Antichrist, as in the conversion of the Jews, before the last judgment and the end of all things.

By this time you may understand what is meant in the text by the day of Christ's coming, or e?s?d??,-_coming in_, as the Septuagint read, meaning his coming, or entering into his temple, mentioned in the first verse; by which temple Jerome upon the place rightly understandeth the church, or spiritual temple.

When this temple is built, Christ cometh into it, to fill the house with the cloud of his glory, and to walk in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks. The same thing is meant by his appearing: ”When he appeareth,” saith our translation; ”When he shall be revealed,”; others read, ”When he shall be seen,” or ”in seeing of him.” The original word I find used to express more remarkable, divine, and glorious sights, as Gen.

xvi. 13, ”Have I also here looked after him that seeth me?” xxii. 14, ”In the mount of the Lord it shall be seen.” From this word had the prophets the name of seers, 1 Sam. ix. 9; and from the same word came the name of visions, 2 Chron. xxvi. 5, ”Zechariah, who had understanding in the visions of G.o.d.”

Now, but what of all this? might some think. If Christ come, it is well,-he is the desire of all nations. O but when Christ thus cometh into his kingdom among men with power, and is seen appearing with some beams of his glory, ”Who may abide, and who shall stand?” saith the text. How shall sinners stand before the Holy One? How shall dust and ashes have any fellows.h.i.+p with the G.o.d of glory? How shall our weak eyes behold the Sun of righteousness coming forth like a bridegroom out of his chamber? Did not Ezekiel fall upon his face at ”the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord”? Ezek. i. 28. Did not Isaiah cry out, ”Woe is me, for I am undone,” ”for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts”? Isa.

vi. 5.

But why is it so hard a thing to abide the day of Christ's coming, or to stand before him when he appeareth in his temple? If you ask of him, as Joshua did, ”Art thou for us, or for our adversaries?” (Josh. v. 13,) he will answer you, ”Nay; but as a captain of the host of the Lord am I now come,” (ver. 14.) If you ask of him, as the elders of Bethlehem asked of Samuel (while they were trembling at his coming), ”Comest thou peaceably?”

He will answer you as Samuel did, ”Peaceably.” What is there here, then, to trouble us? Doth he not come to save, and not to destroy? Yes, to save the spirit, but to destroy the flesh; he will have the heart-blood of sin, that the soul may live for ever. This is set forth by a double metaphor: one taken from the refiner's fire, which purifieth metals from the dross; the other, from the fuller's soap; others read the fuller's gra.s.s, or the fuller's herb. Some have thought it so hard to determine, that they have kept into the translation the very Hebrew word _borith_. Jerome tells us,(1405) that the fuller's herb which grew in the marsh places of Palestina, had the same virtue for was.h.i.+ng and making white which nitre hath. Yet I suppose the fuller's soap hath more of that virtue in it than the herb could have. However it is certain that ???,-_borith_, cometh from a word which signifieth to make clean, according to that, Mark ix. 3, ”His raiment became s.h.i.+ning, exceeding white as snow; so as no fuller on earth can white them.”