[1.] First, The gifts that Christ gives to his are sinritual and hea- venly gifts, as is most clear by what hath been already said, and the spirituality of them doth demonstrate the excellency of them. And doubtless the more spiritual any gift, any promise, any truth, any prayer, or any service is, the more excellent is that gift, &c. All Christ's gifts are like himself, spiritual and heavenly.
[2.] Secondly, They are 'pure gifts. Christ gives wine without water, light without darkness, gold without dross, and sweet without bitter, Rev. xxii. 1, James iii. 17. There is much dross and poison in the gifts that the world gives, but there is none in the gifts that Christ gives. The streams are as the fountain is ; the fountain is pure, and so are the streams. The branches are as the I'oot is; the root is pure, and so are the branches.
[3.] Thirdly, The gifts that Christ gives are soul-satisfying gifts. They are such as are suitable to the soul, and therefore they satisfy the soul. Things satisfy as they suit. There is a good, and there is a suit- able good. Now, it is only the suitable good that satisfies the soul of man. A pardon is most suitable to a condemned man, and therefore it best satisfies him. Health is most suitable to the sick, and therefore it satisfies when it is attained, &c. As bread satisfies the hungry soul, and drink the thirsty soul, and clothing the naked soul, so do the precious gifts that Christ bestows upon the soul satisfy the soul. The light, the love, the joy, the peace, the fellowship, &c., that Christ gives, doth abundantly satisfy the soul, Jer. xxxi. 15, 16 ; Ps. xc. 14-, xxxvi. 8, Ixiii. 5, Ixv. 4. Oh, but the gifts that this world gives can never satisfy the soul : Eccles. v. 10, ' He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver; nor he that loveth abundance with increase.' A man may as soon fill a chest with grace, or a quart-pot with virtue, as a heart with wealth. If Alexander conquer one world, he will wish for another to conquer.^
[4.] Fourthly, The gifts that Christ gives are inost 'pevnianent and lasting gifts. The gi-ace he gives is called ' an immortal seed,' 1 John iii. 9 ; and the glory he gives is called ' everlasting glory,' Rom. ii. 7. The gifts of the world are fading, 2 Peter i. 11. A false oath, a spark of fire, a storm at sea, a treacherous friend, brings all to nothing in a moment. Sad experience doth every day confirm this.
[o.] Fifthly, and lastly, TJie gifts that Christ gives are the most use- ful gifts. '^ They are useful to the strengthening of the soul against temptations, and to the supporting of the soul under aftlictions, and to the sweetening of all changes ; health and sickness, strength and weak- ness, plenty and poverty, honour or disgrace, life or death. Oh, but worldly gifts cannot bear up the spirits of men from fainting and sink- ing when trials come, when troubles come.
Our modern stories relate of Queen Mary, that she should say, ' If they did open her when she was dead, they sliould find Calais lying at her heart ;' the loss of which, it seems, hastened Iier end.
' The creature is all shadow and vanity ; it \s filia noclis, like Jonah's gourd ; it is now llourisliinp;, and now dying, &c.
* Tlie golden crown cannot cure the headache, nor the chain of pearl cannot cure the toothache.
EpH. III. 8.] RICHES OF CHRIST. 1 13
The prior in Melanctbon rolled his hands up and down in a basin full of angels/ thinking to have charmed his gout, but it would not do. The precious gifts that Ciirist gives his, will bear up their heads above all waters, &c. Of all gifts, they are the most useful for the producing of the most noble effects. There are no gifts produce such effects as the precious gifts that Christ gives. They raise men up to much life and activity ; they make souls strong to do for God, to bear for God, to suffer for God ; to be anything, to be nothing, that God may be ' all in all.' They raise the strongest joy, the most lasting comfort, and the purest peace. There is no gifts draw out that thankfulness, and raise up to that fruitfulness, as the gifts that Jesus Christ gives. And so much for that third head, viz., the excellency of those gifts that Christ gives above all other gifts whatsoever.
I come now to the fourth head, and that is,
IV. The reasons why God gives his best gifts to his dearest ones.
I shall only give you these six :
[1.] First, Because he loves them ^vith the dearest, with the choicest, and with the strongest love; therefore he gives them the best gifts.
Christ doth not love believers with a low, flat, dull, common love, with such a love as most men love one another with, but with a love that is like himself Now, men will give as they love : 1 Sam. i. 4, 5, ' And Elkanah gave to Peninnah his wife, and to all his sons and daughters, portions, but unto Hannah he gave a worthy portion, for he loved her.' In the Hebrew it is, ' he gave her a gift of the face ;' that is, a great, an honourable gift. Men look upon great and honourable gifts with a sweet and cheerful countenance ; so the gifts that Jesus Christ gives to believers are the gifts of the face, that is, they are the greatest gifts, the honourablest gifts, the choicest gifts, gifts fit for none but a king to give.
Augustus, in his solemn feasts, gave trifles to some, but gold to others. The Lord Jesus scatters the trifles of this world up and down; as Luther well speaks, ' The whole Turkish empire is but a crust that God throws to a dog." God scatters giftless gifts, viz., the honours, riches, and favourg of this world, up and down among the worst of men f but as for his gold — his Spirit, his grace, his Son, his favour — these are jewels that he only casts into the bosom of saints, and that because he dearly loves them.
[2.] Secondly, Christ gives the best gifts to his people, because they are best principled and fitted to make a divine improvement of them.
There is no men on earth that are principled and fitted for the im- provement of the special gifts that Christ gives but his own people.^ None have such principles of wisdom, love, holiness, and faithfulness to make an improvement of the joy, the peace, the comfort, that the Lord gives as his people ; ergo. . . . Abraham gave unto ' the sons of the con-
' 'Coin,' so-called.- a.
* Mundus cadaver est, et venanies eum sunt canes; tlie world is a carcase, and those that hunt after it are dogs, is an Arabic proverb.
3 Wicked men are only principled to abuse mercy, which occasions God so often to rain hell out of heaven upon them, as he did once upon Sodom and Gomorrah for abusing of mercy.
114 THE UNSEARCHABLE [EPH. III. 8.
cubines gifts, and sent them awa}'^ ; but unto Isaac he gave all that he had,' Gen. xxv. 5. As Isaac was better beloved than the concubines' sons, so Isaac was better principled to imjDrove love than they were. The application is easy.