* Basil, Luther, Latimer, Dering, and multitudes of others, have been very zealous and courageous in their ministry, &c. ^ They that write the story of the travels of the apostles report that Simon Zolotoa
EpH. III. 8.] RICHES OF CHRIST. 215
Themistocles being about to speak to the general of the Greek's army, against Xerxes, he held up his staff, as if he had been about to strike him, ' Strike,' said Themistocles, ' but yet hear.'^ So should ministers say, strike, but yet hear ; rail, but yet hear ; despise, but yet hear ; censure, but yet hear ; oppose, but yet hear ; do what you will, but yet hear. Non amat, qui non zelat, saith Augustine, ' He is no friend to God that is not zealous for him."
When one desired to know what kind of man Basil was, there was, saith the history, presented to him in a dream, a pillar of fire with this motto. Talis est Basilius, Basil is such a one, all on a-light fire for God. So every minister should be all on a-fire for God.
[6.] Sixthly, They are to preach Christ laboriously, painfully,'^ fre- quently.'^ A minister must be like the bee, that is still a- flying from one flower to another to suck out honey for the good of others. Should not that dreadful word make every idle shepherd tremble : Jer. xlviii, 10, ' Cursed be he that doth the work of the Lord negligently ;' 1 Cor. XV. ult., ' Be ye stedfast and unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, kno\\^ng that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.' Oh the dreadful woes that are pronounced in Scripture against idle shep- herds! Jer. xxiii. 1; Ezek. xiii. 3, xxxiv. 2; Zech. xi. 17 ; Mat. xxiii. 13— 16, 23, 25, 27. The great Shepherd of our souls, the Lord Jesus, was still a-feeding of his flock, and much in provoking others to the same work : John xxi. 15, ' Feed my lambs, feed my sheep ;' 2 Tim. iv. 2, ' Preach the word in season, and out of season.' Christ wept for souls, and bled for souls, and prayed for souls ; and shall not ministers sweat much for souls, and work much for the good of souls ? Doubtless they will give but a sad account to Christ that make anything serve to fill up the hour ; that spend two or three hours at the end of a week to fit themselves for Sabbath exercises. - Idleness is hateful in any, but most abominable and intolerable in ministers ; and sooner or later none shall pay so dear for it as such. Witness the frequent woes that are denounced in Scripture against them. Where should a soldier die but in the field? And where should a minister die but in the pulpit ?*
Pompey. in a great dearth at Rome, having provided store of pro- visions for his citizens that were ready to perish, and being ready to put to sea, he commanded the pilot to hoist sail and be gone. The pilot told him that the sea was tempestuous, and that the voyage was like to be dangerous. ' It matters not,' said Pompey, ' hoist up sail ; it is not necessary that we should live, it is necessary that they should be preserved from ruin and famine.'^ So should ministers say, it is not necessary that we should live, but it is necessary that poor souls should live and be happy for ever; it is necessary that they should be acquainted with the things of their peace ; it is necessary that they sliould be de- preached here in England. If ever there needed some Zelotes it is now ; such, as Epi- phanius speaks of Elijah, that he sucked fire out of his mother's breast.
' Plutarch : Themistocles vi., et alibi. — G. ^ Painstakingly.' — G.
3 The father pajs the nurse though the child dies, the doctor has his fee though the patient dies, and the vine-dresser has his reward though the vine wither ; so will God deal with faithful ministers, 2 Cor. ii. 15 ; Isa. xlix. 2-4.
* If a minister had as many eyes as Argus to watcli, and as many hands as Briareus to labour, he might find employment enough for them all. [Cf. Vol. I. p. 3, footnote 1. — G.] 6 Plutarch : Pompey. — G.
216 THE UNSEARCHABLE [EPH. III. 8.
livered from the power of Satan and from wrath to come ; and therefore it is necessary that we should be frequent and ' abundant in the work of the Lord,' and not plead storms and tempests, or that a lion is in the way.^
It was Vespasian the emperor's speech, and may well be applied to ministers, Oportet imperatorem stantem mori, an emperor ought to die standing.^
[7.] Seventhly, As they are to preach Christ painfully, so they are to preach Christ eocemplarily :^ 1 Peter v. 3, 'Be thou an example to the flock.' They must preach Christ as well in life as in doctrine. Ministers must not be like the drugs, that physicians say are hot in the mouth and cold in operation ; hot in the pulpit, and cold and careless in their lives and conversations. They must say, as Gideon said to his soldiers : Judges xvii. 17, ' Look on me and do likewise ;' Mat. v. 16, 'Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.' They are called angels, and they are called stars, because they should shine in righteousness and holiness.
What Csesar once said of his wife, 'that it was not enough for her to be without fault, but she should be without all suspicion of fault,' may well be applied to ministers, who, of all men in the world, should be most free from the very appearances of evil. The lives of ministers oftentimes do convince more strongly than their words ; their tongues may persuade, but their lives command.*
Tace lingua, loquere vita, ' Talk not of a good life,' said the heathen, 'but let thy life speak.' God appointed that both the weights and measures of the sanctuary should be twice as large as those of the commonwealth, to shew, that he expects much more of those that wait upon him in the sanctuary than he doth of others. Ministers should be like musk among linen, which casts a fragrant smell, or like that box of spikenard, which being broken open, filled the house with its odour.
Gregory saith of Athanasius, that his life was a continual sermon and wooing men to Christ. Aristotle requires this in an orator, that he be a good man ; how much more then should God's orators be good and gracious ? When Eli's sons were wicked, the people abhorred the offering of the Lord, 1 Sam. ii. 17 ; and what is that that renders the things of God so contemptuous and odious in the eyes of many people in this nation, but the ignorance, looseness, profaneness, and baseness of those that are the dispensers of them. Unholy ministers pull down instead of building up. Oh the souls that their lives destroy ! These, by their loose lives, lead their flocks to hell, where theirselves must lie lowermost.^
A painter being blamed by a cardinal for putting too much red upon
' The angels on Jacob's ladder were some ascending, others descending, none standing or sitting still. Ministers must be like them.
* Suetonius. [Vesp. — G.]
' A preacher, as Quintilian saith of an orator, should be vir bonus, dicendi peritus, a well-spoken and well-deeded person.