As it is the glory of the stock, when the grafts grow and thrive in it, even so it is the glory of Christ when those that are ingrafted into him thrive and grow. This declares to all the world that Christ keeps a good house, and that he doth not feed his children with trash, but with the choicest delicates ; that he is open-handed and free-hearted. It is the glory of the father when the child grows rich under him, and the glory of the master when the servant grows rich under him ; and so it is the glory of Christ when poor souls grow rich under him. The name of Christ, and the honour of Christ, is kept up in the world by souls that are rich in grace. They are the persons that make others think well and speak well of Christ. You may at your leisure read the first and second epistles to the Thessalonians, and there you shall see what an honour they were to the Lord Jesus and the gospel who abounded in spiritual riches. Such Christians that are like to Pharaoh's lean kine reproach three at once, God, the gospel, and their teachers : and this age is full of such Christians. It is your greatest work in this world to keep up the honour and the glory of the Lord, and this you can never, you will never do, except you labour to be rich in grace. Let others * labour for the meat thiit perisheth,' do you ' labour for that which en- dureth to everlasting life.' When you come to die, and when you come to make up your accounts, it will never be a grief, but a joy unto you, that you have made it your greatest business and work in this world to be rich in grace.
But here you may say,
What means must we use that we may grow Hch in grace ?
[1 .] First, Let no discouragements take you off from labouring to he enriched tvith spiritual riches.
A soul that would be spiritually rich must be divinely resolved, that come what can come, he will hold on in the use of means, that he may be rich with the riches of Christ. Joshua was resolute in this point: ' Choose you whom ye will serve, whether the Lord, or those other gods that your fathers served ; as for my part, I and my house will serve the Lord,' Jo.sh. xxiv. 15 ; Lukexiii. 24, ' Strive to enter in at the strait gate.' The Greek word signifies, ' to strive with all your might,' with all your strength, to strive even to an agony, to strive as they did for the garlands in the Olympic games. The word here used seemeth to allude to their striving for the garland, where they put out themselves to the utmost. So in John vi. 27, ' Labour not for the meat that perish- eth, but for that which endures to everlasting life, wiiicli the Son of man shall give unto you, for him hath God the Father sealed.''
' Many men are like Cicero, not thoroughly resolved in themselves whether to follow
EpH. III. 8.] RICHES OF CHRIST. 173
I have read of one that did not fear what he did, nor what he suffered, so he might get riches : ' For,' saith he, ' men do not ask how good one is, or how gracious one is, but how rich one is.' Oh, sirs ! the day is a-coming when God will ask how rich your souls are ; how rich you are in faith, in wisdom, in knowledge, in fear, &c. ; and not how rich you are in money, or in jewels, or in land, or in goods, but how rich are you in grace ; which should provoke your souls to strive in the face of all discouragements to be rich in grace. What will not the merchant do, and the mariner do, for these temporal riches ? Oh the dangers, the hazards, the tempests, the storms, the deaths that they run through for earthly riches, which are never without their sting ! And shall not Christians labour in the face of all oppositions after spiritual riches ?
It is reported of Nevessan the lawyer, that he should say, ' He that will not venture his body can never be valiant ; and he that will not venture his soul will never be rich.' I am sure that man that will not venture, and venture hard, in the face of all discouragements, to be spiritually rich, will never be rich. He may be good in the main, and may go to heaven in a storm ; but he will never be rich in spirituals, that will not venture himself to the uttermost for the gain of spiritual riches.
[*2.] Secondly, Be fixed under a Christ-exalting and a soul-enrich- ing ministry.
Under that man's ministry that makes it his business ; not a thing by the by but his business, his work ; not to tickle the ear, to please the fancy, but to enrich the soul, to wm the soul, and to build up the soul. 2 Tim. iv. 3, ' For the time will come when they Mall not endure sound doctrine, but after their own lusts shall they heap up to them- selves teachers, having itching ears.' This age, yea, this city is full of such slight, light, mad souls, that love nor like nothing but what is empty and airy.
Junius confesses, 'that in his time there was one confessed that he had spent above twenty years in trying religions,' pretending that scripture, ' Try all things, and hold fast that which is good.' It is sad to see how many in our days, 'under pretences of angelical attainments, make it their business to enrich men's heads with high, empty, airy notions, instead of enriching their souls with saving truths. If these are not strangers to that wisdom that is from above, I know nothing. Prov. xi. 30, ' He that winneth souls is wise.' The Hebrew word signifies to catch souls, by using all art and industry, as fowlers do to take birds.* No wisdom to that which wins souls from sin and the world, and that wins souls to Christ and holiness ; no teaching to this. Remember this, you will never be rich in grace if you care not wlio you hear, nor what you hear. That Christ that commands you to take heed how you hear, commands you also to take heed who you hear. And every soul won to God is a new pearl added to a minister's crown, &c.
But you will say to me,
Hoiu should we know which is a soul-enriching ministry, that so we ma.y ivait on it ?
Pompey or Cajsar ; the riches of this world, or the riches of another world : such men will still be poor.
' npbl. He is the best preacher, not that tickles the ear, but that breaks the heart. Hon qui aurcs tetigerit, std qui cor pupugerit.
174; THE UXSEARCHABLE [EPH. III. 8.
Take these three rules:
(1.) First, Judge not of the soul-enriching ministry by the voice of the minister, nor by the multitude of hearers that follow him, nor by his affected tone, nor by his rhetoric and flashes of wit, but by the holiness, heavenliness, and spiritualness of the matter.*