DISCOURSE I. Pattern fora Dissenting Preacher. is,IN vii. 46. The officers answered, never man spake like this man. THE II Jewish church was grown very corrupt when our Lord Jesus Christ was sent into the World, as the reformer of his people, and the Sal four of mankind. The rulers of the church hated reformation, and would not suffer any thing to be altered in their establishment. Therefore their rage against our Saviour rose high, and the pharisees andchief priests sent their officers to seise hire, as you find in verse 32. to seize .Jesus, the best preacher that ever spoke in the name of God to men : They sent men to silence him in the midst of his sermon, to summon and constrain him to appear before them. The chief priests were the highest ecclesiastical governors, and the phari- sees were a set of men that applied themselves to the study of the law, and their worship, and separated themselves from the rest of the people, under a pretence of greater holiness. These Jewish clergy, and Jewish devotees, joined to send their ser- vants upon this wicked errand to lay hold on Christ the Lord. Thepersons that were sent, arecalled officers in my text : Pro- bably they might be some ecclesiastical officers that belonged to their courts, because we find that the priests liad power over them, and they gave them commission for their work, though we are not acquainted with their particular title. But when they came and heard the gracious words that proceededfrom his mouth, his sublime doctrines of truth and mercy, and his kind invitations to thirsty sinners to receive living water, as you found in a few words before my text, they were astonished and struck silent, they were inwardly restrained from executing their impious commission ; they returned to their masters without having done their work: And when they asked them the reason why they had not brought the , preacher with them, they boldly replied, that their consciences withheld their hand from him, for never man spake like this man. To improve these words to our present advantage, we shall consider, I. What difference there was betweenour Lord's ministry, and the preaching of other men in that day. II. What different effects it liad on those that heard him.III. Draw some Ma ferences for our instruction, and some for our practice. I. We shall consider "what difference there was between
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=