/' Noluit prius eligere fsenatorcs, .scd piscatores, magna artificis nii.scricordia ! Seiebat enim quia si eligeret senatorem, diccret senator, dignitas mea electa est, &c. Et paulo post. — Da milii, iuquit, istum piscatorem, veni tu pauper, sequere me, nihil babes, nihil nosti, sequere me.' — Aug. Her. xix. de Verb. Bom.
- ' Valde protestatus sum me nolle sic ab eo satiari.' — Luth.
JaS. II. 5.] UPON THE EPISTLE OF JAMES. 195
SO ; you will not be quiet till you have the tokens of his special mercy,
Ohs. 2. There are poor in this world, and poor in the world to come. Dives, that fared deliciously every day, and was clothed in fine linen, yet wanted a drop to cool his tongue. Desidejxivit guttam, saith Austin, qtii non dedit micani ; he wanted a drop, that would not give a crumb : Isa. Ixv. 13, 14, ' Behold my servants shall eat, but ye shall be hungry ; behold my servants shall drink, but ye shall be thirsty : they shall rejoice, but ye shall be ashamed.' Ye are left to your choice, to be rich in this world, but poor in the world to come ; though here you swim and wallow in a sea of pleasures, yet there you may want a drop to cool your tongue.
Ohs. 3; The poor of this world may be spiritually rich. The apostle's riddle is made good, 2 Cor. vi. 10, ' As having nothing, yet possessing aU things ; ' nothing in the world, and all in faith.
Ohs. 4. Faith maketh us truly rich ; it is the open hand of the soul, to receive all the bounteous supplies of God. If we be empty and poor, it is not because God's hand is straitened, but om-s is not opened. A man may be poor notwithstanding the abundance of wealth: it putteth a difference between you and others for a while, but in the grave ' the poor and the rich meet together,' Job iii. 19 ; that is, are all in the same estate without difi'erence. In the charnel-house all skulls are in the same case, not to be distinguished by the ornaments or abasures of temporal life. It is grace alone that will make you to excel for ever. Nay, riches cannot make you always to differ in this world : ' They take to themselves wings, and fly away,' Prov. xxiii. 5. Well, then, you that are poor, do not envy others' plenty ; you that are rich, do not please yourselves in these enjoyments. Istoe dAvUice nee vera sunt, nee vestrce — they are neither true riches, neither can you always call them your own.
Ohs. 5. The Lord loveth only the godly poor. There are a wicked poor whose hearts are ignorantly stubborn, whose lives are viciously profane. Christ saith, ' Blessed are the poor, for yours is the kingdom of God,' Luke vi. 20. In the evangelist Matthew it is explained, ' Blessed are the poor in spirit,' Mat. v. 3. David saith, ' The ab- jects gathered themselves against me,' Ps. xxxv. 15. Many times men of that quality are malignant opposites to the children and cause of God, saucy dust, that will be flying in the faces of God's people ; and their rage is the more fierce because there is nothing of know- ledge, politic restraints, and civil or ingenuous education, to break the force of it.
Obs. 6. All God's people are heirs ; they are heirs, they are but heirs. They are heirs ; that cometh to them by virtue of their sonship : Eom. viii. 17, ' If children, then heirs, heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ.' Jesus Christ was the natural son and the natural heir ; and we, being adopted sons, are adopted heirs. He is called, Heb. i. 2, ' the heir of all things ; ' and he hath invested us with his own privi- leges. Do but consider what an heir a child of God is, one that is received into the same privileges with Christ ; and therefore the apostle saith, he is a ' joint-heir.' In a spiritual manner, and as we are capable, we shall possess the same glory that Christ doth. Again, they are
196 AN EXPOSITION, WITH N0TE8, [JaS. II. 5.
heirs whose right is indefeasihle. Men may appoint heirs, and alter their purpose, especially concerning adopted heirs ; but God never changeth. In assurance of it we have earnest, 2 Cor. i. 22, and we have first-fruits, Rom. viii. 23. We have earnest to show how sure, we have first-fruits to show how good, our inheritance is ; a taste how good, and a pledge how sure. Well, then, you that have tasted of the grapes of Eshcol, have had any sense of your adoption, you may be confident Goil will never alter his purposes of love. Again, they are heirs that not only look to inherit the goods of their heavenly Father, but his })erson. God doth not only make over heaven to you, but himself: ' I will be your God ; ' quantus quantus est, God is yours. So Ps. xvi. 5, 'The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance.' Again, they are heirs that possess by^ their father's lifetime. Men give their estates to us when they can possess them no longer. But this is our happiness, that God and we possess it together ; and therefore it is said, ' glorified with him.' Again, they are heirs to an estate that will not be diminished by the multitude of co-heirs. Many a fair stream is drawn dry by being dispersed into several channels ; but here, the more the greater the privilege. What a happiness is it to enjoy God among all the saints ! They ' sliall sit down Avith Abra- liam, and Isaac, and Jacob.' We may jointly inherit without envy. The company is a part of the blessing: it is one of the apostle's motives, ' Ye are come to an innumerable company of saints and angels,' Heb. xii. 22, 23. It was a foolish question, that, ' Who shall be greatest in the kingdom of heaven ? ' Mat. xviii. ; for when God is all in all, he will fill up every vessel. Such a question suiteth with our i)resent state ; but in glory, as there is no siu to provoke such curiosity, so there is no want to occasion it. They are but heirs : alas ! now they groan and wait for the adoption, Rom. viii. 23, that is, for the full en- joyment of the privileges of it. So 1 John iii. 2, ' We are the sons of God, but it (loth not appear what we shall be ; ' we have a right, but not full possession. Hope cannot conceive what the estate will be when it cometh in hand. There is nmch goodness laid out, but more laid up, Ps. xxxi. 19. It is observable that all Christian pri- vileges are spoken of in scripture as if they did not receive their ac- complishment till the day of judgment. I have spoken already of adoption, that the saints wait for it. For justification, then, we shall know the comfort of it ; when Christ, in his solemn and most imperial day, in the midst of the triumph of his justice, shall remember only the services, and pass by the sins, of the faithful. Then shall we know the meaning of that promise, ' I am he that forgiveth your iniquities, and will remember your sins no more.' Our comfort now is mixed, and we are often harassed with doubts and fears ; ])ut when our par- don is solemnly proclaimed before all the world, then sliall we indeed know what it is to be absolved. Therefore the scripture speaketh as if an act for our ju.stification were only passed then : Acts iii. 19, ' Re- I)ent, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord.' And possibly that may be the reason of that expression that intimatcth forgiveness of sins in the world to come : Mat. xii. 32, ' It shall never be tbrgiven, in this