'^ Divitice corporales paupertatis plenoe sunt, earthly riches are full of poverty, saith Austin. \_Confessions, b. i, xii. IQ. — G.]
3 iTKoTovvToiK Whiles we look upon eternal things as a man looks upon the mark tiiat he aims to hit.
130 THE UNSEARCHABLE [EPH. III. 8.
afflictions with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season : esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the trea- sures of Egypt, for he had respect to the recompence of reward/ Ver. 27, ' By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king ; for he endured, as seeing him who is invisible/ And in ver. .35, ' They refused deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection/^
So in Heb. x. 34<, 'They took joyfully the spoiling of their goods,' (upon what account ?) ' knowing in themselves, that they had in heaven a better and more enduring substance/
(3.) Thirdly and lastly, Faith doth it by assunng the soul of enjoy- ing of better things. For my part I must confess; so far as I under- stand anything of the things of God, I cannot see how a soul under the power of a well-grounded assurance can be a servant to his slave, I mean the world. I confess men may talk much of heaven, and of Christ, and religion, &c. ; but give me a man that doth really and clearly live under the power of divine assurance, and I cannot see how such a one can be carried out in an inordinate love to these poor transitory things. I know not one instance in all the Scripture that can be produced to prove that ever any precious saint that hath lived in the assurance of divine love, and that hath walked up and down this world with his par- don in his bosom, have ever been charged with an inordinate love of the world.^ That is a sad word, 1 John ii. 15.
[4.] Now a fourth reason of this point, why persons are to exercise their graces, is, because it is the best ivay to preserve their souls from apostasy and backsliding from God. 2 Pet. i. 5 to 11, 'Add to your faith virtue, and to virtue knowledge, and to knowledge temperance, and to tempe- rance patience, and to patience godliness, &c. ; for if ye do these things ye shall never fall.' ' Add to your faith virtue.' The Greek word i'^iyoiny^- ears, that is here rendered add, hath a great emphasis in it. It is taken from dancing round. Link them, saith the apostle, hand in hand, as in dancing, virgins take hands; so we must join hand to hand in these measures of graces, lead up the dance of graces, as in the gall iarcP every one takes his turn. So in chap. iii. 17, 18, ' Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these things, beware lest ye also, being led aside with the eiTor of the wicked, fall from your own stedfastness.' There are many turn aside, and shake hands with God, and Christ, and truth, and the words of righteousness ; and therefore you had need to take heed that you fall not as others have fallen before you.*
But how shall we be kept from apostatising? Why, * grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.' It is agrowth in grace, it is the exercise of grace, that wiU make a man stand when others fall, yea, when cedars fall, &c.
[5.] Fifthly, All other exercises without the exercise of grace will jyrofit nothing.
Or if you will, take it thus:
All otlier exercises ivill be loss to us, without the exercise of grace; therefore we had need to improve our graces. When the house is on
' Every man is as the objects are about which his soul is most conversant, &c.
2 In my treatise called ' Heaven on Earth,' you may find many considerations to evince this, and to that I refer you, &c. [Vol. II. p. 301, seq. — G.]
3 French dance. — G. * Fulchrior in prculio occisus miles quam fugd talvua.
EpH. III. 8.] RICHES OF CHRIST. 131
five, if a man should only pray, and cry, &c., lie may be burnt for all that ; therefore he must be active and stirring ; he must run from place to place, and call out for help, and must work even in the fire, and bestir himself as for life, in the use of all means, whereby the fire may be quenched. So if grace be not acted, it is not all a man's praying and crying, &c., that "w411 profit him or better him. Grace must be exercised or all will be lost ; prayers lost, tears lost, time lost, strength lost, soul lost, &c. 1 Tim. iv. 7, 8, ' But refuse profane and old wives' fables.'' Shift them off, as the word is, set them by, say thou art not at leisure to attend them, make a fair excuse, as the word notes, tell them thou hast business of an eternal concernment to look after, and 'exercise thyself rather unto godliness;' or lay aside thy upper gannents, as runners and wrestlers do, to which the apostle alludes, and bestir thyself lustily ; for says he, verse 8, 'Bodily exercise ^J'/'o/t^s little, but godliness is profitable unto all things, and hath the promise of this life, and of that which is to come.'^ The Babylonians are said to make three hun- dred and sixty several commodities of the palm tree ; but what are those hundred commodities to those thousands that attend holiness, that attend the exercise of grace ? Nothing makes a man rich in spirituals, like the frequent and constant actings of grace. In Heb. iv. 2, 'The word did not profit them that heard it, because it was not mixed with faith.' He doth not speak there of unbelievers, but of those that had grace in the habit, but not in the exercise ; and therefore the word did not turn to their accounts ; they heard, and were never the better. And what was the ground of it ? Why, it was because they did not exercise faith upon the word. The words that fell from the preacher's lips into their ears were a sweet potion, but they did not work kindly, because there wanted the ingredients of faith. Faith is one of those glorious ingredients, that must make every sermon, every truth, work for their souls' advantage. Nothing will work for a be- liever's good, for his gain, if his graces be asleep.
[6.] Sixthly, Because it is the end of all the dignity OMd glory that God hath conferred upon his people; therefore they must exercise and improve their grace. In 1 Pet. ii. 9, ' But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people, that ye may shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light.'
' Ye are a chosen generation.' That is, a picked people ; the dearly beloved of his soul ; such as he first chose for his love, and then loves for his choice.
' A royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people.' The Greek is, ' a people of purchase,' such as comprehendeth, as it were, all God's gettings, his whole stock, that he makes any reckoning of, >^a6 s/j 'moi- Toirjffiv.
'Tliat ye may shew forth,' or, as it is in the Greek, ' that ye may preach forth,' that ye may publicly declare the virtues of him that hath 'called
' tra^ajTBw, make a fair excuse.