- Ministers of the gospel are by God designated ambassadors, to set out the duty of their office. Where there is honosthere is onus—places of honour are places of trust and service. Many like well enough to hear of the minister’s dignity—with Diotrephes, they love pre-eminence—that would willingly be excused the labour that attends it. None have a greater trust deposited in their hands than the minister. It is tremendum onus—a weight that made the apostle tremble under it: ‘I was among you,’ saith Paul, ‘with much fear and trembling.’ To them is ‘committed the word of reconciliation,’ II Cor. 5:19. If the treaty of peace between God and sinners doth not speed, the ambassador is sure to be called to an account how he discharged his place. But more of the minister’s duty as an ambassador afterwards.
Why God delivers his gospel by ambassadors from mankind
Second. The second thing we propounded to give an account of was, why God would send ambassadors to his poor creature. I answer,
- Negatively.
(1.) Not because he needs man’s good-will. Earthly princes’ affairs require they should hold a correspondence with their neighbours, therefore they send ambassadors to preserve peace or preserve amity. But God can defend his crown without the help of allies.
(2.) Not because he was bound to do it. There is a law of nations, yea of nature, that obliges princes before they commence a war to offer peace. But the great God cannot be bound, except he binds himself. When Adam sinned, God was free, and might have chosen whether he would make a new league with man, or take vengeance on him for breaking his faith in the first. But,
- Affirmatively. No other account can be given of this but the good-will and free-grace of God. When Christ, who is the prime Ambassador, landed first on earth, see what brought him hither, ‘Through the tender mercy of our God; whereby the dayspring from on high hath visited us,’ Luke 1:78. Tender mercy indeed, for the life of man lay under God’s foot at his pure mercy. He was no more bound to treat with his creature than a prince with a traitor legally condemned. Wherever God’s ambassadors come, they come on mercy's errand: ‘The Lord God of their fathers sent to them by his messengers, rising up betimes, and sending; because he had compassion on his people,’ II Chr. 36:15.
Question. But if God will treat with his poor creatures, why doth he it by ambassadors, and not by himself immediately?
Answer. This is the fruit of divine indulgence. Sin hath made the presence of God dreadful; man cannot now well bear it. What a fright was Adam put into when he heard but the voice of God walking towards him in the garden, and not furiously rushing upon him? The Jews had the trial of this; they soon had enough of God’s presence, and therefore came to Moses, saying, ‘Speak thou with us,...but let not God speak with us, lest we die,’ Ex. 20:19.
