The righteous branch growing out of the root of Jesse and healing the nations held forth in several sermons upon Isai. chap. 11, from vers. 1 to 10 : together with some few sermons relating to all who live under the shadow of the branch / by William Colvill.

TO THE READER.

THe desire of light and know∣ledge to the understand∣ing, is natural unto every man; as by the outward light, things visible are seen by the eye of the body, So things intelligible, are perceived by the light and the knowledge in the mind: but of all knowledge, the knowledge of God in Jesus Christ his blessed Son our Mediator, is most to be desired. It is most necessar, because the specular knowledge of this in the holy Scriptures, is the Rudiment of that full and perfect knowledge the Saints

have in Heaven; for to know this, is life eternal, Joh 17.3. It is the foundation of our spiritual practical duties; without it, man cannot believe in God and whom he sent Jesus Christ; for, how shall they believe in him, of whom they have not heard? Rom. 10.14. without this know∣ledge, we cannot desire nor seek after Christ and his benefits; therefore our blessed Lord said to that poor sinful woman, Joh. 4.10. If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, give me to drink, thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living wa∣ter. For, the will cannot love and chuse Christ for our portion, till first he be repre∣sented in his beauty of holiness by light and knowledge in the understanding. This knowledge is most excellent in respect of the subject, who is the brightness of the Fathers glory, in whom are hid the trea∣sures of wisdom and knowledge: All na∣tural knowledge, though never so profound, as was that of Solomon, who knew and spoke of all Trees from the Cedar to the Hysop; yet, if we be ignorant of the true Vine, and of the righteous BRANCH that

healeth the Nations, all our secular know∣ledge will prove unsavory and gustless at the hour of death: but if we know, love and obey in sincerity the Lord Jesus Christ, then at the end of our life, we shall re∣joyce in our longing desire, and lively hope to be with him after death, and to know him as now we are known of him. This knowledge is not dull, but active; by our knowledge of him, we are justified, Is. 53.11. Saving faith, whereof knowledge is a spe∣cial and first ingredient, receiveth Christ wholly in all his Offices, and with him pardon of our sins; as all who were stung in the wilderness, if they looked to the brasen Serpent, were healed; So whoso∣ever believeth in him, shall not perish, but have eternal life. This knowledge is active also for our Sanctification; because this knowledge, by the obsignation of the holy Spirit, maketh such a deep impres∣sion of Christ known, upon the minds and hearts of believers, that they become like and conform unto him, 2 Pet. 1.4. and by the knowledge and light of the Gospel, representing him, they are changed from glory to glory, 2 Cor. 3.18. that is, from

one degree of grace to another in the course and progress of Sanctification, which is no other thing, but the commencement of that glory we look for in heaven. This saving knowledge, which true believers have of Christ, is an humbling and encreasing know∣ledge; Paul became very humble, thinking himself the chief of sinners, and least of Saints; it is a growing light and know∣ledge, the more they know him, they love him the more; and the more they love him, they desire to know the more of him. When they grow old, and the natural faculty of understanding waxeth weak and dim, though they grow not in the knowledge of the lite∣ral apprehension, yet they grow in the know∣ledge of appretiation and estimation; as the motion of every thing, the nearer it comes to its center, is the swifter; So the sound be∣liever, the nearer he draws to the term of his life and the hoped for fruition, the center of all his desires and hopes, the motion of his heart toward God is the greater, and he vehemently desires to be dissolved and to be with Christ, which is best of all.

This knowledge, in some abstruse and su∣pernatural mysteries, is but confuse and general; we know from divine revelation

something of the matter, but little or no∣thing of the manner; It is our duty to acquiesce on divine testimony, and refer the knowledge of the manner unto that day, wherein we shall see God face to face. It is with us here in this dark valley of Ba∣ca, as it was with that blind man of Beth∣saida, Mark 9. who at the first touch of his eyes by Christ, did see objects more generally and confusedly, but afterward at the second touch, more particularly and di∣stinctly: So here in this life, by his first touch and illumination of our mind with the light of faith, we see something of these great mysteries in a confused and general notion but at his second touch in heaven, by the beatifick vision, we shall know di∣stinctly and more particularly, at the least we shall know so much in these high myste∣ries, as will satisfie the desire of the soul, and will rejoyce the heart, without all anxi∣ous or painful desire to know more.

Therefore (Christian Reader) I made choice to speak in the publick Congregation, for some time, on this portion of Scripture, wherein the Lord Jesus Christ, the Righ∣teous BRANCH, is held forth to us,

that coming to him, we may be healed, both of sin, in our justification through him, who is JEHOVAH our Righteousness; and that we may be sanctified, and daily puri∣fied from all uncleanness of the flesh and spirit by him, who also is made of God, san∣ctification unto us, who bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we being dead to sin, should live unto righteousness. This knowledge is most to be sought after; for as the fashion of this world passeth away, so certainly, the knowledge of things worldly will be out of fashion after death: but the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, begun in the Elect here by faith unto the Gospel, will be perfect and everlasting in that day of eternity, when the Lamb will be our light for ever.

If thou (ingenuous Reader) shall reap, as I pray God thou mayest, any spiritual benefit by this small Treatise, published at the desire of some pious and sober minded hearers, give all praise to the Righteous BRANCH, who, as he is in himself most precious, so he maketh himself savoury and precious to believers: And that it may be seen he is so to thee, let thy conversation smell of the

BRANCH. What escapes thou perceiv∣est (as in the multitude of words there want not failings) impute them meerly to the weakness of the trembling hand here, that holds forth the BRANCH, but no wayes to the BRANCH it self. Though pos∣sibly thou cannot construct some expressions in this Treatise, with thine own sentiment and opinion; yet certainly, the intention of the Author, to magnifie the riches and power of Gospel-grace in the conversion of chief sinners, and his earnest endeavours to stir up Converts unto a suitable conversa∣tion in Christian duties, and unto Christian communion in love and peace among them∣selves, cannot be disrellished by any person of the Gospel-spirit. Farewell.