than relations, more than life, yea, more than all ? And why, then, do you not labour to enrich your souls ? Thou wert better have a rich soul under a thread-bare coat, than a thread-bare soul under a silk or golden coat. If he be a monster among men, that makes liberal pro- vision for his servant, his slave, and starves his wife, what a monster is he that makes much provision for his baser part, but none for his noble part ! A slothful heart in the things of God is a heavy judgment : Prov. iv. 31, ' I went by the field of the slothful, and by the vineyard of the man void of understanding,' or, as the Hebrew hath it, ' the man that had no heart,' that is, to make use of his vineyard, ' and lo, it was all grown over with thorns and nettles,' &c. Oh the lusts, the wicked- nesses that will overgrow slothful, sluggish souls ! Spiritual sluggards are subject to the saddest strokes. Oh the deadly sms, the deadly temptations, the deadly judgments that spiritual sluggards will unavoid'- ably fall under ! None such an enemy to himself, none such a friend to Satan, as the spiritual sluggard. It is sad to think how the riches of Christ, the riches of consolation, the riches of justification, the riches of glorification, are brought to many men's doors, and yet they have no hearts to embrace them : no judgment to this. ' Wherefore is there a price in the hand of a fool to get wisdom, seeing he hath no heart to it?' Prov. xvii. 16. Well, spiritual sluggards, remember this, when your consciences are awakened, this will be a sword in your souls, that you might have been saved, you might have been spiritually and eternally enriched, but that you have trifled and fooled away golden opportunities and your own salvation. Wealth without wit is ill be- stowed, &c.
[5.] Fifthly, Walk wpHghtly, holily, and obedientially.
If ever you would be spiritually rich, look to your walking. It is not the knowing soul, nor the talking soul, but the close-walking soul, the obediential soul, that is in spirituals the richest soul. Others may be rich in notions, but none so rich in spiritual experiences, and in all holy and heavenly grace, as close-walking Christians : Ps. Ixxxiv. 11, 'The Lord will give grace and glory, and no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.' The upright walker shall be both of his court and council ; he shall know anything, and have anything. In John xiv. 21, 23, compared, ' If any man love me, he will keep my com- mandments, and I will love him, and my Father will love him.' What then ? ' We will make our abode with him, and will manifest ourselves to him.' Certainly they cannot be poor that enjoy such guests as these; they must needs be full who enjoy them that are fulness itself. God and Christ are overflowing fountains, and holy souls find it so.^
[6.] Sixthly, Be most in with those sauls that are spiHtually rich.
Let them be thy choicest companions, that have made Christ their chiefest comparion. Do not so much eye the outsides of men, as their inside ; look most to their internal worth. Many persons have an eye upon the external garb of this and that professor, but give me a Chris- tian that minds the internal worth of persons, that makes such as are
' When my lieart is coldest and highest, 1 propcnt find to my soul under tlie notions of his piealiicss; biif when my heart is loose and fearing, then 1 present God to my soul under the notion of liis goodness, saith Luther.
EpH. III. 8.] RICHES OF CHRIST. 177
most filled with the fulness of God, to be his choicest and his chiefest companions.
In Ps. xvi. 2, ' My goodness extends not to thee/ says David, — now David speaks in the person of Christ, — ' but to the saints that are in the earth, in whom is all my delight.' There are saints, and there are ex- cellent saints. Now those are the excellent ones, that are most rich in heavenly treasures ; and these you should make your bosom friends, your choicest companions : Prov. xiii. 20, ' He that walketh with wise men shall be wise ;' that is, he shall be more wise, more humble, more holy, and more abounding in all spiritual riches. The word ']'^^, that is rendered walk, is an Hebrew participle, and signifies walking ; to note to us, that it is not he that talks with the wise, nor he that commends the wise, nor he that takes a step or two or three with the wise, that shall be wise, but he that gives up himself to the society and company of the wise, that shall be more and more wise, more and more gracious, more and more holy. He that cometh where sweet spices or ointments are stirring, doth carry away some of the sweet savour, though himself think not of it. The spouse's lips drop as the honeycomb : Cant. iv. 10, 'The tongue of the just is as choice silver,' he scatters pearls, he throws abroad treasures where he comes : Prov. xv. 7, ' The lips of the wise disperse knowledge.' The Hebrew word, 1'^^'', from zarah, is a metaphor from scattering abroad with a fan, or from seedsmen scattering abroad of their seed in the furrows of the field. They scatter their light, their love, their experiences, among those with whom they converse, as seedsmen scatter their seed in the field. Christ says his spouse's lips are like a thread of scarlet, with talking of nothing but a crucified Christ ; and thin like a thread, not swelled with other vain and wicked discourses.
The old zealous primitive Christians did so frequently, and so effect- ually mind and talk of the kingdom of heaven, and of the riches and glory of that state, that the Ethnicks^ began to be a little jealous that they affected the Roman empire ; when, alas,^ their ambition was of an- other and a nobler nature : JPs. xxxvii. 30, ' The mouth of the righteous speaketh wisdom, and his tongue talketh judgment ; for the law of the Lord is in his heart.' Prov. xii. 28, ' The tongue of the wise is health, his tongue is a tree of life, whose leaves are medicinable.' No way to be rich in spirituals, like being much in with precious souls, whose tongues drop marrow and fatness.^
Utterance is a gift ; and dumb Cliristians are blameworthy, as well as dumb ministers. We should all strive to a holy ability and dexterity of savoury discourse. If Christ should come to many of us, as he did to his two disciples, in that last of Luke, on Sabbath days and other times, and say to us, as to them, ' What manner of communication had ye,' or have ye ? oh ! with what paleness of face and sadness of counte- nance should we look ! The story of Loquere ut videam is common. * Speak that I may see thee,' said Socrates to a fair boy. When the
^ See Index, sub voce, for other similar uses of this interjection. — G.
^ Tlie very heathen man could say, Quando sapiens loquitur aurea animi aperit, when a wise man speaketh, he openeth the rich treasures and wardrobe of his mind, &c. [Seneca often in the Epistolos. — G.]
] 78 THE UNSEARCHABLE [EPH. III. 8.