6. Place, this blessed Plant is renowned for his scent and pleasant savour. O sirs! there is such a blessed savour in this Plant of Renown, as has cast a perfume through all the Paradise above! He has cast a perfume through the church militant, which in Isaiah v. is called God’s vineyard. O sirs! do you find any thing of the scent of this Plant? I can tell you, if ever you have been made to know him, it will be so: “because of the savour of thy good ointment, thy name is as ointment poured forth, therefore do the Virgins love thee.” The believer he finds a scent about him, he draws a savour from him. What is the design of us ministers, but to cast abroad his scent, and it is by this we win souls; and they that cast out and drop the Plant of Renown out of their sermons, no wonder their sermons stink, and they shall stink to eternity, that throw Christ out of their sermons. The great business of ministers is to cast forth the scent of Christ to the people. I shall read you a word to this purpose, in 2 Cor. ii. 14—16. “Now, thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ.” The apostle triumphs in him, and all other honest ministers will triumph in him too; and all Christians that know him, triumph in him. “And maketh manifest the savour of his knowledge by us in every place. For we are unto God a sweet savour in Christ, in them that are saved, and in them that perish. To the one we are the savour of death unto death; and to the other, the savour of life unto life; and who is sufficient for these things?” Who is able to tell the sweet savour that is in him? Again,
7. This blessed plant in my text, is not only renowned for his savour, but likewise for his shadow. Song, i. 3. “I sat down under his shadow with great delight;” the shadow of the Plant of Renown. You are all sitting there or standing, but are you sitting under the Plant of Renown? Jonah’s gourd did him service against the scorching heat of the sun, that was like to take away his life; but alas! that soon failed him, for God sent a worm and smote it that it withered; and the worm of death will soon smite and wither you and me: O get in under the shadow of this Plant of Renown, and ye are secured against death and vindictive wrath for ever. Get in under his shadow; the shadow of his intercession,—the shadow of his power,—the shadow of his providence,—the shadow of his faithfulness: O sit under his shadow, and you will find shelter there against all deadly; whatever blasts come, you will find safety there. Would you be shadowed from the king of terrors? Death is a terror to many, O if you be shadowed against the awful terrors of death and God’s vengeance, get in under this shadow, and you are safe.
8. This Plant is renowned for his stature. He is a high Plant, he is a tall Plant: you see the heavens above you, but they are but creeping things in comparison of him; for this glorious Plant is, The high and lofty One that inhabits eternity. You can never see his height; your eye will look high, and your thought will reach higher, but neither your eye nor thought will reach unto him; he is taller than all the cedars in the Lebanon of God: “Eye hath not seen, nor hath ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man,” to think of the height and glory of this Plant of Renown! And,
Lastly, This Plant is renowned not only for his stature, but for his extent also: he is a broad Plant, he was planted in the first promise in Paradise; he spread through the old testament church; he came the length of filling the land of Judea; and, at length, this Plant has spread itself among us: And O that I could open the leaves of this Plant to take you in; he is a broad Plant, he will serve you all. We read of the Tree of Life being on every side of the river: there is a great river betwixt us and heaven, and that is death; and we are all running into this river of death. As one well observes on the place, this Tree is in the middle of the river; he is on this side of time, and he is on that side of time. Now, this Plant is on both sides of the river; though you were going to the wastes of America, you will find him there as well as here, if you have but the art of improving him. And this Plant will spread himself through all kingdoms, “The earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the Lord, just as the waters cover the sea.” He will not only fill the earth, but the whole heavens throughout eternity! O but he is a broad Plant, that will extend himself both to heaven and earth! And this shall serve for the second thing proposed, namely, To show that this Plant is indeed a most Renowned Plant.
The third thing I proposed in the prosecution of this doctrine, was, concerning the raising or upbringing of this Plant. You see it is no other than the Great God, that raised up this Plant. I find the Great Jehovah glorying in his skill and wisdom in the raising up of this Plant for the use of the church. In Psalm lxxxix. 19. says the Lord, “I have laid help upon one that is mighty; I have exalted one chosen out of the people; I have raised up David my servant; with my holy oil have I anointed him.” Here he glories in it that he had raised up this glorious Plant of Renown.
I will tell you a few things with reference to the raising up of this blessed Plant.
1. He was raised up in the counsel of God’s peace from eternity. The Trinity sat in council anent the upbringing of him; “The counsel of peace was between them both,” Zech. vi. 13. The Father and the Son agreed upon it, that in the fulness of time the Son should come into the world.
2. He was raised up in the first promise to Adam and Eve. Till this Plant was discovered to them, they were like to run distracted: And indeed, sirs, if Christless sinners saw where they were, and the wrath of God that is hanging over their heads, they would be ready to run distracted, till a revelation of Christ was made to them. All the promises, all the prophecies, all the types, and all the doctrines of the old testament, they were the gradual springings of this Plant: but it was under ground until,
3. His actual manifestation in the flesh, when, in the fulness of time he appeared: “In the fulness of time, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, &c.”