The Ethiopians paint angels black, and devils white, in favour of their own complexion ; and they say that if the brute creatures could draw a picture of the divine nature, they would make their shape the copy, and thus they flatter and delude themselves. Take heed, young men, take heed that you do not put the like cheats upon your own souls ; take heed that you be not like those limners who, so as they can make a man's picture gay and gaudy, care not to draw it so as to re- semble him. It is safest and best, O young man ! to know the worst of thyself, and to know thyself as thou art in thyself, and not as thy own flattering heart, or as other flatterers, may represent thee to thyself.
Duty (3). Thirdly, If you would be good betimes, then you must acquaint yourselves with Jesus Christ betimes.
You must know him betimes. A man never begins to be good till he begins to know him that is the fountain of all goodness : ' This is life eternal, to know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent,' John xvii. 3.
The knowledge of Christ is the beginning of eternal life ; it is the way to eternal life, it is a taste of eternal life, it is a sure pledge and pawn to the soul of eternal life.
The Spaniards say of Aquinas, that he that knows not him knows not anything, but he that knows him knows all things. He that knows Jesus Christ not notionally only, but practically, not apprehensively only, but affectively, he knows all things that may make him happy ; but he that knows not Jesus Christ knows nothing that will stand him in stead, when he shall He upon a dying bed, and stand before a judg- ment seat.
Justin Martyr relates that when, in his discourse with Trypho, he mentioned the knowledge of Christ as conducing to our happiness and perfection, Trypho's friends laughed at it ; but I hope better things of all those into whose hands this treatise shall fall.
Sirs ! the sun is not more necessary to the world, the eye to the body, the pilot to the ship, the general to the army, &c, than the knowledge of Christ betimes is necessary for all those that would be good betimes.
Dear hearts, as ever you would be good betimes, you must labour, even as for life, to know and be thoroughly acquainted with these six things concerning Jesus Christ betimes.
(1.) First, If you would be good betimes, then you must know be- times thai there is everything in Christ that may encourage you to seek him and serve him, to love him and obey him, to believe on him and to marry with him}
If you look upon his names, his natures, his offices, his graces, his dignities, his excellencies, his royalties, his glories, his fulnesses, they all speak out as much.
Are you poor? Why, Christ hath tried gold to enrich you, Rev. iii. 18. Are you naked? Christ hath white raiment to clothe you. Are you spiritually blind? Christ hath eye-salve to enlighten you. Are 1 Nee Christut, nee ccelum, patitur hyperbolem.
1 Kings XIV. 13.]. apples of gold. 24-1
you in straits ? He bath wisdom to counsel you. Are you unrighteous ? He will be righteousness to you ? Are you unholy ? He will be holiness and sanctification to you, 1 Cor. i. 30. Are you hungry? He is bread to feed you. Are you thirsty ? He is wine and milk to satisfy you. Are you weary ? He is a bed, a seat, to rest you. Are you sick ? Why, he is a physician to cure you, &c. Omne bonum in summo bono, All good is in the chiefest good.1
The creatures have their particular goodness, health hath its parti- cular goodness, and wealth hath its particular goodness, and learning hath its, and the favour of the creature hath its, &c, but now Jesus Christ he is an universal good.2 All the petty excellencies that are scattered abroad in the creatures are united to Christ ; yea, all the whole volume of perfections which is spread through heaven and earth is epitomised in him. Ipse unus erit tibi omnia, quia in ipso uno bono, bona sunt omnia — [Augustine], One Christ will be to thee instead of all things else, because in him are all good things to be found. Abraham's servant brought forth jewels of silver and jewels of gold, to win Rebekah's heart to Isaac ; so should you, O young men ! be often in presenting to your own view all those amiable and excellent things that be in Christ, to win your hearts over to Christ betimes.
Secondly, If you would be good betimes, then you must know be- times that Jesus Christ is mighty to save.
' He is able to save to the uttermost all them that come unto him, that believe in him, and that cast themselves upon him/3 The Lord hath laid help upon one that is mighty. Christ saves perfectly, tho- roughly, perpetually, them that come unto him.
The three tongues that were written upon the cross, in Greek, Latin, and Hebrew, to witness Christ to be the king of the Jews, do each of them, in their several idioms, avouch this axiom, that Christ is an all- sufficient Saviour ; and ' a threefold cord is not easily broken.' They say it is true of the oil at Rheims, that though it be continually spent in the [inauguration of their kings of France, yet it never wasteth. Christ is that pot of manna,, that cruse of oil,, that bottomless ocean, that never fails his people. There is in Christ an all-sufficiency for all creatures at all times, in all places.4
The great Cham is said to have a tree full of pearls hanging by clusters. ; but what is the great Cham's tree to Christ, our tree of life, who hath all variety and plenty of fruit upon him.5 The happinesses that come to believers by Christ are so many, that they cannot be numbered ; so great, that they cannot be measured ; so copious, that they cannot be denned ; so precious, that they cannot be valued ; all which speaks out the fulness and all-sufficiency of Christ.
There is in Christ plenitudo abundantice, and plenitudo redundan- tice, a fulness of abundance, and a fulness of redundancy, as well as a fulness of sufficiency.
1 John vi. 48; Isa. Iv. 1; Matt. xi. 28, ix. 12. 2 Christ is the bonum in quo omnia bona.
3 Heb. vii. 25, h; ro a-avrtxis, perpetually, constantly. Matt. ix. 28, Isa. lxiii. 1. Mighty to save.
4 Christ is never vacuis minibus empty-handed.
6 Rev. xxii. 2. Christ is like the trees of the sanctuary, which were both for meat and for medicine, Ezek. xlvii. 12.
'1V1 APPLES OF GOLD. [1 KlNGS XIV. 13.
1. The fulness of the Spirit.
2. The fulness of grace.
3. The fulness of the image of God.
4. The fulness of the Godhead.
5. The fulness of glory.
But T must not now open nor dilate on these things, lest I should tire both myself and the reader.
Plutarch, in the life of Phocion, tells us of a certain gentlewoman of Ionia, who shewed the wife of Phocion all the rich jewels and precious stones she had. She answered her again, All my riches and jewels is my husband Phocion. So may a penitent sinner say of his blessed Saviour, Christ is all my jewels, my riches, my treasures, my pleasures, &C. ; his sufficiency is all these, and more than these, to me.