Thomas Manton · 45 of 57

The Tenth Verse. · Part 4

2. This relation engageth affection.

[1.] It engageth Christ’s delight to Christians. As parents’ joy is in their seed, so is Christ’s in your thriving and welfare. God hath made love naturally descending and running down to them that come from us. Christ is brought in as a type of Isaiah, Heb. ii. 13, rejoicing over his children: ‘Behold I and the children which thou hast given me.’ Believers are a pleasure and glory to him. To look upon the numerousness of the saints is a pleasant sight to Christ; as to a father to see the increase of his loins: Isa. lxii. 4, ‘For the Lord delighteth in thee.’ Christ rejoiceth over his seed. It is promised as a privilege that he should see his seed, implying it should be a delight to Christ. And what a comfort is this, that we should be Christ’s joy! Therefore Paul saith, Phil. i. 8, ‘God is my record how greatly I long after you all in the bowels of Jesus Christ;’ that is, as the bowels of Jesus Christ did yearn after you, with such like bowels do I yearn for you.

[2.] It engageth Christ’s care of you. He shall see his seed; and you are his seed, and therefore he will look after you. He watcheth these great births, that they may not miscarry; and is as it were bound that we may lack nothing. All his care is about his seed: Cant. ii. 17, Christ walketh in the gardens to look after the green figs and tender grapes, that he may apply himself to them. The apostle saith, he is ‘worse than an infidel that provideth not for his own;’ not only beneath grace, but beneath nature. And certainly Christ will have a more tender regard to his own seed. The greatest expression of love that Christ would have spoken to Peter was to feed his lambs, John xxi. 15. We may look to him for provisions: Isa. xlix. 15, ‘Can a woman forget her sucking child? She may, but I will not forget thee.’ Men, by debauching their spirits, may wear out the impressions of natural affections, but Christ cannot forget his own seed: ‘The foundation of the Lord standeth sure.’

I come now to the second point.

Doct. That Christ shall see his seed, or an increase of the faithful through his word and Spirit. It noteth two things:—

First, The life of Christ. Many leave seed that do not see it, being snatched from their children and comforts as soon as they grow into any hopes: but Christ’s seeing his seed implieth he should live to see it propagated throughout all successions of time.

First observation, That the seed of Christ have a living parent: ‘He shall see his seed.’ God’s children can never be orphans. We say by many that their parents died too soon for them, because they were but young, and exposed to the hazards and uncertainties of the world. But believers cannot be left as orphans: John xiv. 18, ‘I will not leave you comfortless; I will come to you again.’

Well, then, to apply it: Lay up this comfort, though Christ be ascended and gone out of your sight, yet he seeth his seed, he liveth to take care for you. You have not his corporeal presence, but you have the presence of his Spirit to direct you: John xvi. 7, ‘It is expedient for you that I go away; for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come to you.’ Christ cannot die too soon; his absence in the flesh is abundantly recompensed and made up in the Spirit. That more generally and more particularly is the comfort that you have by the life of Christ as you are his seed: and therefore I shall not handle it at large.

1. You may be sure you are still an object working upon his affections. The sight of things worketh more vehemently upon us than the conceit of them. Imagination hath a great force upon the spirit, but not so great as the senses, as tasting, seeing, and the like. As you shall see in impure love: Gen. xxxix. 7, she ‘cast her eyes upon Joseph, and said, Lie with me;’ Mat. v. 28, Lusting cometh by looking. So in pure affection love is enkindled by the presence of the object. You may discern the workings of nature in these instances. As you shall see in another case; when God would stir up or provoke the rage of his justice, it is said, ‘And God looked upon the earth, and behold it was corrupt.’ It is spoken after the manner of man. It is true of the man Christ Jesus, who, looking upon us, and seeing our state and case, is the more touched with the feeling of our infirmities, Heb. iv. 15. It is said in Mat. xiv. 14, Christ saw a great multitude, and was moved with compassion towards them. Christ’s eye presented objects to his pity; therefore the prophet speaketh to Christ: Isa. lxiii. 15, ‘Look down from heaven, and behold from the habitation of thy holiness and thy glory.’ Christ shall see his seed; not only know their state by imagination, but live to look into their particular wants: ‘Though Abraham be ignorant of us,’ yet Christ liveth to see the several states of his seed.

2. You may be sure that he is able to give you a constant and sufficient supply. Parents, that only leave a portion, cannot provide against all hazards. Christ doth not only leave you a portion, and so let you shift for yourselves, but you are still under his eye and care: Rev. ii. 2, ‘I know thy works, and thy labour, and thy patience.’ That was the ground of Christ’s pity to her: he ever seeth his seed. It was the prodigal’s comfort, that though he had spent all, yet still his father was living: Luke xv. 17, ‘There is bread enough in my father’s house.’ God doth not give us a stock of grace, and leave us to our selves; we are still in the family, and under the Father’s eye and care. You have a parent that liveth for ever, that dispenseth his grace to you, and teacheth you how you may manage it without impair and loss. A father, whilst living, will not put the whole out of his own hands; it is best that our stock is still in Christ’s keeping.

Secondly, He shall see his seed, noteth the increase that is implied in the phrase seed put indefinitely: it is put for a multitude, such a seed as is worth looking after. Observe then—

Second observation, That Jesus Christ hath a plenteous seed and numerous offspring. In the exposition I showed you it is plural, ‘He shall see his seeds.’ It is parallel with that, ‘He shall see his children’s children.’ A seed propagated through many successions of ages. This appeareth by the promises made to the types of Christ; as—

1. To several of the patriarchs, &c., viz., Isaac, Ham, Jacob, David, whose posterity was a shadow of it: Jer. xxxii. 22, ‘As the host of heaven cannot be numbered, neither the sand of the sea measured, so will I multiply the seed of David my servant, and the Levites that minister unto me.’ Great shall be the number of those that are grafted into Christ, and made kings and priests to him. So to Abraham: Gen. xxviii. 14, ‘And thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and thou shalt spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south; and in thee and thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed.’ It is meant principally of the holy and spiritual seed: Gen. xxxii. 12, ‘I will surely do thee good, and make thy seed as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude.’ Balaam says, Num. xxiii. 10, ‘Who can count the dust of Jacob, and the number of the fourth part of Israel?’ It is meant of Jacob’s sons that are propagated; and it is meant of Israel’s sons among the Gentiles principally, though not with exclusion of the other: Hosea i. 10, ‘Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured nor numbered; and it shall be said to them, Ye are the sons of the living God;’ which is applied by the apostle to the church among the Gentiles.

2. To the church: Isa. liv. 1,2,’ Sing, O barren, thou that didst not bear; break forth into singing, and cry aloud, thou that didst not travail with child: for more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife. Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thine habitations: spare not, lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes.’ It is said, the land should grow too little: Isa. xlix. 19, ‘The land shall be too narrow by reason of the inhabitants;’ Isa. lx. 8, ‘Who are these that fly as a cloud, and as the doves to the windows?’ Doves fly in flocks, so that they even darken the air.

3. To Christ; as here, that he should see his seed: Ps. ii. 8, ‘Ask of me, and I will give the heathen for thine inheritance, and the utter most parts of the earth for thy possession;’ Rev. vii. 9, ‘After this I beheld, and lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb.’

Use 1. Be not discouraged at the church’s paucity and fewness. Men say they are popular, and go against the whole world: Gen. xix. 9, ‘This one fellow came in to sojourn, and he will needs be a judge.’ Elijah was zealous alone. Do not be discouraged. A grain of mustard-seed will grow into a tree, Mat. xiii. A little flock may increase, so that you must stretch forth the curtains, and strengthen the stakes. The little stone hewed out of the mountain filled the whole earth, Dan. ii. 35; and Job viii. 7, ‘Though thy beginning was small, yet thy latter end should greatly increase.’

2. Wait and pray for the increase of it, for the coming in of the fulness of the Gentiles, Rom. xi. 25. Pray that the waters of the sanctuary may go out to the former and latter sea, Zech. xiv. 8.

We are now come to the second fruit of the sufferings of Christ: ‘He shall prolong his days;’ that is, though he die, the term of his life shall never be the shorter for it; he shall live for ever. Some apply this to the seed of Christ before mentioned; as if the sense were, He shall prolong the days of his seed. And the Seventy favour this sense in their translation, for they render this clause with the former, ‘He shall see his seed to be long-lived.’ I confess the result is the same; for if Christ be long-lived, we shall be long-lived; our life and glory hang upon his life and glory. But I conceive this phrase more expressly and properly doth concern Christ himself. The point is then—

Doct. That the days of the Lord Jesus Christ were not shortened by his dying, but rather prolonged and lengthened out to eternity.

I cannot give you the full discussion, having spoken much concerning it upon that place which I shall now quote as the proof of it: Isa. liii. 8, ‘Who shall declare his generation?’ that is, who can count the number of his age and duration? The reason is—

Because, after suffering, Christ was to return to the glory of his God head: Luke xxiv. 26, ‘Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory?’ He was to put off meanness and death; these things could have no more dominion over him. He returned to all the other glories, and therefore to the glory of his immortality. And hence the apostle saith of our Lord Christ, l Tim. vi. 16, ‘Who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light;’ that is, in opposition to the creatures. He only hath it to dispose of it, and in himself; for otherwise we are immortal in our souls; but it is only by his benefit and promise, and as we live in his life. Well, then, you see the reason is, because Christ is in possession of glory and immortality.

Use 1. It maketh for the comfort of believers: your Saviour liveth for ever. As the second person in the Trinity, he is immutably glorious; and as the Mediator, he hath eternity made over by grant and covenant to him. It is for your comfort divers ways; besides what I have spoken to before, take these:—

1. If Christ be eternal, then his love is eternal, his care and his mercy are eternal, his kingdom is eternal: Isa. ix. 6, 7, ‘Of the increase of his government and peace there is no end.’ Everything in Christ is prolonged to you. As you find Christ to you now, so he will be to you for ever. It is true, there may be some withdrawings of love and grace as to our apprehensions. And so Job saith, Job xxx. 21, ‘Thou art become cruel to me.’ Saints may think they have lost God and lost grace, when it is only through the weakness of their own apprehensions; there may be a different appearance of Christ to the creature, but his heart is the same to them still; like children, that think the sun doth not give light but when they see it breaking out in glory. There is light for you in Christ, though you cannot see it through the darkness that is upon your spirits.

2. Here is relief against all our enemies. Is it the shortness of life? Ps. cii. 11, 12, ‘My days are like a shadow that declineth, and I am withered like grass; but thou, O Lord, shalt endure for ever.’ It may be you are assaulted with weaknesses, you carry about you a sickly, crazy, body that is ready at every turn to drop into the grave. This is a trouble to you: God having placed in the creature naturally a desire of immortality, the vanity and perishableness of their being is a trouble to them. But consider, Christ is long-lived, and therefore your glory shall not be left in the dust, nor God’s holy ones left to corruption and rottenness. Christ’s life was not shortened by his death, but prolonged; so shall yours be that have an interest in him. Oh, see that your lives are made long in the prolongation of Christ’s life; for as the body liveth in the life of the soul, so shall we live in the life of Christ. See how the church draweth out this comfort everywhere: Hab. i. 12, ‘Art thou not from everlasting, O Lord my God, my Holy One? We shall not die.’ We cannot perish if we have an interest in one that is everlasting: Ps. cii. 27, 28, ‘Thy years shall have no end; therefore the children of thy servants shall continue, and their seed shall be established before thee.’ It is taken for a good consequence, that if God continueth, the saints shall continue: ‘Thy years have no end, therefore their seed shall be established.’ What a privilege is this, that creatures that are in their own nature but of a day’s standing, as it were, should have their lives prolonged to the continuance of their Maker!

3. This will support and settle the heart in doubtful times, in days of misery and violence. Your hearts are ready to be overcome, to see the thriving of wicked men; and you know not how dangers may grow upon you. Consider, the days of the Lord Christ are prolonged; let them flourish never so long, he will outlive them. A man would comfort himself in this, if he knew that the interest of religion would thrive to a long continuance. Why, you may be sure Christ will take care of his church: Ps. ix. 6, 7, ‘O thou enemy, destructions are come to a perpetual end; but the Lord shall endure for ever.’ Their enemies are such as must die, but Christ will never die; his days are prolonged, but their days are shortened: Ps. lv. 23, ‘Bloody and deceitful men shall not live out half their days.’ You may see an end of Christ’s enemies, but never of the life of Christ. Alas! who would fear them? You may be sure when they perish, Christ will remain: Ps. xcii. 8, 9, ‘But thou, Lord, are most high for evermore. Thine enemies shall perish, all the workers of iniquity shall be scattered.’ Still you have an eternal God, and an everlasting Christ, that will live beyond your enemies.

4. It is comfort in the loss of outward enjoyments. Alas! their nature is vanishing, even the most glorious of all the creatures. The heavens shall be like a scorched scroll: Ps. cii. 26, ‘They shall perish, but thou shalt endure; yea, all of them shall wax old as doth a garment, as a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed.’ But you have an interest in a more lasting comfort, in a Christ whose days are prolonged, though all things else perish before you.

Use 2. Is advice to the world, first, to get an interest in Christ; his friendship will last. Make a friend of him, that you may be sure will abide by you to the last. This is Christ’s argument for improvement of wealth: ‘They will receive you into everlasting habitations,’ Luke xvi. 9, to wit, those whose bowels you have refreshed. Make friends of the saints, but especially of Christ, that when other things fail, you may have an eternal God to stand by you. Christ is a friend that can never fail. Barzillai commended his son to David, 2 Sam. xix. 37; but David must yield to the fate of all men, and was forced to leave him to Solomon, 1 Kings ii. 7. Oh, commend your souls to Christ, and he will not leave them to another. His days are prolonged, and he doth not yield to the fate of the creatures. Well then, choose him. Those are not friends that beguile you in your hopes (and then are not able to stead you), as the creatures do. Christ is a friend that is able to stand by you in the worst of times; he will confess you before his Father in heaven.

2. He will give you long life, which is the great desire of the creatures: Ps. xxxiv. 12, ‘What man is he that desireth life, and loveth many days, that he may see good?’ What man is there that doth not desire to live long? that is the meaning of it: Prov. iii. 16, ‘Length of days is in her right hand, and in her left riches and honour,’ Length of days is the right-hand blessing of wisdom; it is the blessing of Jesus Christ. Therefore it is said, Eternal life is in the Son: and he that hath the Son hath life; his days are prolonged, and he will prolong and lengthen out yours to eternity.

Having showed the things most proper to this phrase, I come now to the latter clause, that ‘the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hands.’ The point is, that all the will and pleasure of God shall prosper and be effectual in the hands of Jesus Christ.

Reasons—

1. Because he is the choice instrument of God, the special servant of his decrees, therefore everywhere called his servant: Isa. xlii. 1, ‘Behold my servant, whom I uphold.’ He is God’s servant as Mediator, therefore God will uphold him, and hear him out in his work: Isa. liii. 11, ‘By his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many.’ Certainly God’s will and work will thrive in the hands of Christ. When God raiseth up any special instrument among the creatures to accomplish his pleasure, they are successful. Nebuchadnezzar, that was but a remoter servant of God’s decrees, and one taken in by the by to do God’s will, he was prosperous: Jer. xxv. 9, ‘Behold, I will send and take all the families of the north, saith the Lord, and Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and I will bring them against this land, and against the inhabitants thereof, and against all these nations round about, and will utterly destroy them, and will make them an astonishment, and a hissing, and perpetual desolation.’ So the Medes and Persians, when called to the service of God’s decrees, they were successful: Isa. xiii. 3, ‘I have commanded my sanctified ones; I have also called my mighty ones for mine anger, even them that rejoice in my highness.’ They are set apart for that work. The lowest servants of the decrees cannot miscarry, much less, then, can Christ, the choicest instrument of God’s decrees.

2. Because the Lord Christ is so qualified that the will of God must needs prosper with him.

[1.] He is willing and ready to comply with the will of God the Father. It is motive sufficient to Christ that it is the Father’s plea sure: John iv. 34, ‘My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work.’ It is Christ’s pleasure, as much as God’s, to work out the good of the creatures. Work is best done by a willing servant; now Christ is willing. As God gave Christ, so Christ gave himself to die for man. The Father’s delight is to you, and so is the Son’s; and therefore the business is not like to miscarry, Prov. viii. 31. Christ is brought in speaking as the Wisdom of the Father, ‘rejoicing in the habitable parts of the earth, and my delights are with the sons of men.’ Christ’s delights were with men; it was a pleasure to him to do them good. The pleasure of the Lord will prosper in any hand, but especially in the hands of Christ, for it is his own pleasure.

[2.] He is able and mighty, so as he must needs effectuate the will of God: Ps. lxxxix. 19, ‘I have laid help upon one that is mighty.’ It is an able Christ that the work is committed to, that can break through discouragements, overcome difficulties, remove lets. Alas! there is no mountain that is anything before this Zerubbabel: Col. i. 19, ‘It pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell.’ He wanteth nothing for the accomplishment of this work, there is a fulness and supply of all things: Col. ii. 3, ‘In him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.’ There is an unexhausted treasury of grace and knowledge to be found in Christ; it was hid, the world does not easily see it, but there is a rich magazine of grace, and sufficiency to effect all the will of God; but our weakness measureth things by appearance, and till God bringeth us within the veil we can not see it.

But you will say, What is this pleasure of the Lord?

I answer—It is the whole decree of God about the good of the creatures; more especially, that I may open your hearts to the view of some cases, these comforts work best when they are drawn forth into particulars.

1. There are some more general, that concern the universality and body of men; and so the pleasure of the Lord is that Christ should gather churches out of the world, out of all kindreds and nations in the world; and then give them his laws; and this Christ will do, notwithstanding the rage of tyrants, and the malice of evil men: ‘The isles shall wait for his law.’ And it is said, Isa. ix. 7, ‘The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.’ The Lord hath sworn he will maintain him against all the attempts of the world; that the gospel shall get ground and prosper. Now, see if Christ’s hand miscarried in these general works: Acts ii. 4, three thousand were converted by one sermon; one apostle preached the gospel from Jerusalem to Illyricum, and that was some thousands of miles, Rom. xv. 19. These general works prospered by the good pleasure of the Lord.

2. Some more special, as the reconciliation of sinners to God. This will thrive in Christ’s hands, for it is God’s pleasure: Luke iv. 18, ‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor, and sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives;’ Col. i. 20, ‘It pleased the Father that in him all fulness should dwell; and having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things to himself.’ The conversion of a sinner is the will of God: James i. 18, ‘Of his own will begat he us, by the word of truth.’ Do not doubt, then; there may be discouragements, but the will of God is for your regeneration. So the sanctification of the creatures: 1 Thes. iv. 3, ‘This is the will of God, even your sanctification.’ This is one of the wills that shall prosper in the hands of Christ, your preservation and keeping in a state of grace: John vi. 34, ‘And this is the Father’s will, who hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing.’ You may have many assaults, but it is God’s will you should be kept. Nay, it is his will to glorify you: Luke xii. 32, ‘It is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.’

Use. What an abundance of encouragement to faith is there from every word that is here used!

1. That all the work of Christ for your good is called chephets, the Lord’s pleasure. We may come to men for things with greater confidence when we know it is their pleasure to give them to us. It was an encouragement to Joab to set the woman of Tekoah at work to bring home Absalom, because the thing was pleasing to the king: 2 Sam. xiv. 1, ‘When he perceived the king’s heart was towards Absalom.’ So when we perceive God’s heart towards a thing, we may the better urge him to it. Among men we easily speed in an errand that is pleasing to him to whom we go: Ps. xxxv. 27, ‘The Lord hath pleasure in the prosperity of his servants.’ All that can make for good to you, it is the Lord’s pleasure; your welfare is his delight; nay, to those that are without, for them to come in to be recovered and accepted to mercy, it is the Lord’s pleasure. So it is in prayer, when you come with such requests to the throne of grace; you speak to God’s bowels when you ask for such things as are acceptable to him as they can be to yourselves. We have two hints of God’s pleasure—chaphets, it pleased the Lord to bruise him; and chephets, his pleasure in Christ’s bruises was our good.

2. It shall prosper. It goeth in the way of a promise; it is part of God’s covenant with Christ to relieve your souls from doubts and fears; you may go and urge it to him—Lord, was it not thy covenant that thy pleasure should prosper in the hands of Christ? This is thy pleasure. Christ urgeth this covenant, and therefore you may urge it: John xvii. 4, 5, ‘I have glorified thee on the earth, I have finished the work thou gavest me to do. And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self, with the glory I had with thee before the world was.’ Tell him Christ observed his ordinances to a tittle; you may plead promises though not performances; you may plead Christ’s merit, though not your own. But to the word, shall prosper. This signifieth to break through, or pierce through. Alas! all difficulties are nothing. They are but as a fly upon the wheel, that cannot hinder the motion. Rage and opposition will not hinder the collection and gathering the church of Christ. The devil, sin, and all the powers of darkness, shall not hinder the reconciling of a soul to Christ. The will of the Lord shall break through. Death nor the grave shall not hinder the glory of Christ. Mountains are nothing to Christ. God’s pleasure is not retarded by difficulty; it breaketh through all.

3. In his hand. Our hands would fail us, nay, be withered and decay. What is the reason discomfort seizeth upon men? They would have the will of God prosper in their own hands, like the monk that hopes to subdue corruption by his own vows, nihil videt prosperum: Gal. ii. 20, ‘I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.’ It is not in our hands, but in the hand of Christ. Oh that our souls would look up to him in the sense of our own weakness! Christ’s hand is a strong hand: John x. 28, ‘No man shall pluck his sheep out of his hand.’ The sheep are safe when in the hand of Christ, especially when upheld by God: Isa. xlii. 6, ‘I will hold thine hand, and keep thee.’ It is not Christ as man only, but as upheld by the power of the Godhead. As a man, he himself is subject to agonies and consternations: Ps. lxxxix. 21, ‘With whom my hand shall be established, and mine arm shall strengthen him.’