crucify the Lord Jesus ; that with Judas can kiss Christ and betray Christ in a breath ; that pretend much kindness to the head, and yet shew nothing but unkindness to the body ; that preach as if they had no mind to go to heaven, and live as if they were resolved to go to hell ; that feast their own bodies, but starve their people's souls ; that are very devout upon a saint's day, but very loose and profane upon the Lord's-day ; that think it a greater sin to eat flesh in Lent, than it is to lie with their neighbour's wife ; that speak ten words for them- selves, and hardly two for Christ ; and that instead of preaching up holi- ness, and promoting of holiness, and countenancing and encouraging of holiness, do all they can to discountenance holiness, to browbeat holiness, to keep down holiness, to bespatter holiness, to work men out of love with holiness, and to hinder the growth and increase of holiness : oh that these men would seriously consider how unlike to the minis- ters of Jesus Christ they are ! i Do but look, into a scripture-glass, and you may easily see that hell is not more unlike to heaven, nor sin more unlike to grace, nor Satan more unlike to God, than you are unlike to the holy, conscientious, painful, &c., ministers of Jesus Christ. Several authors in print have proved this to my hand at large, and therefore I shall not enlarge upon it ; only give me leave to say, that God's holy things ought to be handled with fear and reverence, rather than with wit and dalliance. Spiritual niceness is the next degree to unfaithful- ness. Ministers must not be like the drug that the physicians say is hot in the mouth and cold in the operation : hot in the pulpit, but cold, carnal, and careless in their conversations. 2 Those that stand before princes must be exact in their carriages. God appointed both the weights and measures of the sanctuary to be twice as large as those of the commonwealth ; to shew that he expects much more of those that serve him there, than he doth of others. The souls of priests, I may say of ministers, must be purer than the sunbeams, saith golden-mouthed Chrysostom. Gay things in a sermon are only for men to gaze upon and admire. What are high strains and flashes of wit, new minted words and phrases, but like gay weeds and blue- bottles 3 to the good corn ? Doctrine is but the drawing of the bow ; application is the hitting of the mark. How many are wise in gene- rals, but vain, eV BiaXoyiafjLoi'i, in their practical inferences. A gene- ral doctrine not applied, is as a sword without an edge, not in itself, but to others ; or as a whole loaf set before children, that will do them no good. A garment fitted for all bodies, is fit for no body ; and so that which is spoken to all, is taken as spoken to none. Aaron's bells were golden bells, Dulce sonantes, sounding pleasantly, and not as sounding brass or tinkling cymbals, as many of the carnal clergy of this nation are this day. Many there be that account themselves the only ministers of Jesus Christ, that are but like empty orators, that have a flood of words, and but a drop of matter ; of whom we may
1 Gentlemen, if you please to turn to pages 296-299 of this book, you will find more matter that concerns you. [As before, in the original edition : see General Index, under ' Ministers.' — G.]
* See my ' Precious Remedies against Satan's Devices,' from page 349 to page 357 ; and see my ' Unsearchable Riches of Christ,' irom page 291 to page 314. [For the for- mer, in this edition, vol. i., p. 152 seq., for the latter, vol. iii., p. 207 seq.—O.] _
3 A field flower found among wheat : another Shakesperian word, curiously used in 2 Henry IV,, v. 4.— G.
24 THE EPISTLE DEDICATORY.
truly say, Multa loquuntur et nihil dicunt, They speak much, and yet say nothing, because they say nothing to the purpose. When the Lacedemonian in Plutarch heard how sweetly the nightingale sang, Oh, said he, that I had this bird, surely it is a rare dish ! but when he had taken it, and ate it, and found nothing but a little picking meat, he concluded with that proverbial saying, Vox es et prceterea nihil : Now I see that thou art a mere voice and nothing else. How applicable this is to many preachers in these days, who have good lungs, but bad brains, and worse hearts and lives, the prudent reader may easily see. John the Baptist was a burning and a shining light, as well as a voice. His sermons were stuffed with divine and weighty matter, &c., and not filled up with big words or strains of wit. Many there be that have John's voice in the ministry, that have not that heat and life that John had in his ministry. That great orator — De- mosthenes— himself could say, that the riches of Greece did not consist in words. The oracle would have King Philip of Macedon to use silver lances in winning an impregnable fort, &c. But it is not for ministers to use golden sentences, strong lines, frothy wit, in winning of souls to Christ ; for it is iron, and not gold, that killeth in the en- counter ; it is the steel sword, and not the golden sword, that winneth the field. Woe to such preachers that darken counsel by words without knowledge. Job xxxviii. 2, that affect sublime notions, obscure expres- sions, uncouth phrases, making plain truths difficult, and easy truths hard ; that seek abstrusities, and love to soar aloft in dark expressions, and take pleasure to shoot their arrows over their hearers' heads. The heathenish priests had their mythologies and strange canting expres- sions of their imaginary unaccessible deities to amaze and amuse their blind superstitious followers, and thereby to hold up their Popish and apish idolatries in greater veneration. And is not this spirit now revived among many ? Certainly men of abstracted conceits, and sublime speculations, are but wise fools ; and commonly they are as erroneous as they are curious. Such as mind more the humouring of their hearers' fancies, than the saving of their souls, do little consider that of Seneca, jEger non qucerit medicum eloquentem, sed sanantem : Sick men are not bettered by physicians' sugared words, but by their skilful hands. The sword of the Spirit never wounds deep, till it be plucked out of the gaudy scabbards of human eloquence. Mr Glreen- ham, speaking of non-residents, wisheth that this motto might be written on their study-doors without, and walls within, on all their books they look on, on all the beds they lie on, and on all the tables they sit at, &c. : ' The price of blood, the price of blood, the price of blood.' 1 A preacher's life should be a commentary upon his doctrine ; his practice should be the counterpane 2 of his sermons. Heavenly doctrines should always be adorned with a heavenly life.
' Preachers are the glass, the school, the book. Where people's eyes do learn, do read, do look.'
Gentlemen, by these short hints you may see, as in a glass, if you wUl not put a cheat upon your own souls, how unlike to the true, holy, and