The maid in Plutarch being to be sold in the market, when a chap- man asked her, ' Wilt thou be faithful if I buy thee ?' ' Ay,' said she, etiamsi non emeris, ' that I will though you do not buy me.' So minis- ters must be faithful, though God should not buy them, though he should not thus and thus encourage them in their work. Their very feet are beautiful who are faithful, and their message most comfortable to those that sigh and mourn, that labour and languish under the sense of sin and fear of wrath, Isa. Hi. 7.
[3.] Thirdly, They must preach Christ humbly as well as faithfully :^ 2 Cor. iv. 5, ' We preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and our- selves your servants for Jesus' sake.' Paul doth not compHment as the men of the world do, ' Your servants, sir,' but he spake as it was, for there are no greater servants than those that are servants to the souls of men for Jesus' sake. So John was very humble in the exercise of his ministry : John iii. 30, 31, ' He must increase, but I must decrease/ &c.
Luther used to say, ' that a minister must take heed of bringing three dogs into the pulpit, viz., pride, covetousness, and envy.' The friends of the bridegroom must not woo and sue for themselves, but for the bride- groom. Dispensers of the gospel are the bridegroom's friends, and they must not speak one word for the bridegroom and two for them&elves, as hath been the trade of many weak and worthless men. It is the greatest glory of a minister in this world to be high in spiritual work and humble in heart. Vain-glory is a pleasant thief ; it is the sweet spoiler of spiritual excellencies. Paul was very humble in the exercise of his ministry : none so high in worth as he, nor none so low nor humble in heart as he. Though he was the greatest among the apostles, yet he accounts himself ' less than the least of all saints ;' yea, he counted it not only his duty but his glory, to be a servant to the weakest saints : ' To the weak I became as weak ;' ' Who is weak, and I am not weak ? who is offended, and I burn not,' 1 Cor. ix. 22, 2 Cor. xi. 29.
[4.] Fourthly, As they are to preach the Lord Jesus Christ humbly, so they are to preach him wisely. In Prov. xi. 30, ' He that winneth souls is wise ; and indeed the greatest wisdom in the world is requisite to the winning of souls to Christ. He that wins souls, or he that catcheth souls, as the fowler doth birds, as the Hebrew word imports [ Velokeach, taketh, from Lakach, to take], or fishermen fishes, ' he is wise.' There is a holy and a heavenly craft required in the winning of souls to Christ: 2 Cor. xii. 16, 'Nevertheless being crafty,' saith the apostle, ' I caught you with guile.' He speaks of a holy and heavenly craft.^
It is written of the fox, that when he is very hungry after prey, and cm find none, that he lies down and feigneth himself dead, and so the
• The office of a minister is the highest office ; and if his office be highest, his faith- fulness must be answerable, or he will be doubly miserable.
2 Gregory Nazianzen, that famous preacher, setteth no other price upon all his Athen- ian learning, wherein he excelled, than this, that he had something of worth to esteem as nothing in comparison of Christ. [Homil. in Humil. — G.]
3 If one soul is more worth than a world, as he hath told us, who only went to the price of it. Mat. xvi. 26, then they must needs be wise who win souls to Christ.
214 THE UNSEARCHABLE [EPH. III. 8.
fowls light upon him, and then he catcheth them. Paul, hungering after the welfare of the Corinthians' souls, makes use of his heavenly craft to catch them. There is a great deal of wisdom required to hold out Christ unto the people, not only as a good, but as the greatest good, as the choicest good, as the chiefest good, as the most suitable good, as an immutable good, as an independent good, as a total good, and as an eternal good. Christ must thus be held forth to draw souls to fall in love with him, and to work their hearts to run out after him. There is wisdom required to answer all cavils and objections that keep Christ and poor souls asunder. There is wisdom required to take souls off from all false bottoms that they are apt to build upon ; there is wisdom required to present Christ freely to souls, in opposition to all unright- eousness, and to all unworthiness in man ; there is wisdom required to suit things to the capacities and conditions of poor souls, to make dark things plain, and hard things easy. Ministers must not be hke him in the emblem' that gave straAv to the dog and a bone to the ass ; but they must suit all their discourses to the conditions and capacities of poor creatures, or else all will be lost : time lost, pains lost, God lost, heaven lost, and souls lost for ever.
[5.] Fifthly, They must preach Christ, zealously, boldly, as well as wisely, Acts iv. 20. When they had charged them that they should preach no more in the name of Christ, Why, say they ! what do you tell us of the whip, or of prisons, or of this and that ? ' We cannot but speak the things we have seen and heard.' So in Jer. xx. 9, ' Thy word was in my heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I was weary with forbearing, and I could not stay;' Isa, Iviii. J, 'Cry aloud, spare not ; lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew my people their transgression, and the house of Israel their sins.'- And Isaiah had his tongue touched with a coal of fire from the altar, chap. vi. 6, 7. And when the disciples were to go and preach the gospel, the fire sat upon their tongues. Acts ii. 34.^ The worst of men are in a dead sleep, and the best of men are too often in a sinful slumber, as the spouse in Cant, v. 2, and the wise virgins in Mat. xxv. ; and therefore faithful ministers had need cry aloud ; they had need to be courageous and zealous, to awaken both sinners and saints, that none may go sleeping to hell. Every coward is a murderer, as the philosopher well observed.* The cowardice of the minister is cruelty ; if he fear the faces of men he is a murderer of the souls of men. Ministers must say, as Hector in Homer, ' I will combat with him, though his hands were as fire, and his strength as iron.' Let men's hands be as fire and their strength as iron, yet ministers must deal with them, and strive to make a conquest on them, Ezek. ii. 3, seq.
Luther professed that he had rather be accounted anything than be accused of wicked silence in Christ's cause. ' Let me be accounted,' says he, ' proud, let me be accounted covetous, let me be accounted a murderer, yea, guilty of all vices, so I be not proved guilty of wicked silence for the Lord Jesus Christ.*
' The Emblettiata, as before, one of Brooks's favourite volumes. — G. "^ As Crccsus his dumb son did for liis father. ' Heads, not tonguea. — G.