[1.] If so, then you are humbled and awakened with a sense of your lost condition ; for God doth not offer grace to sinners, as sinners simply, but to lost sinners, such as are weary and heavy laden, Mat. xi. 28 ; to such as are broken in heart, and grieved, and troubled : Isa. lxi. 1,2,' The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings to the meek ; he hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening the prison to them that are bound, to proclaim the accept- able year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God, to com- fort all that mourn.' To such as confess and forsake their sins.
[2.] Art thou kept vile in thine own eyes, and in a humble admira- tion of grace after you are partaker of it ? Luke vii. 47, ' Her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much ; but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little.' When God is pacified towards them, they loathe themselves for what they have done : Ezek. xvi. 63, ' That thou mayest remember, and be confounded, and never open thy mouth any more because of thy shame, when I am pacified towards thee for all that thou hast done, saith the Lord.'
12 SERMONS UPON PHILIPPIANS III. [SER. II.
[3.] Then a partial outside obedience will not satisfy you. Pharisees tithed mint and cunirnin, but neglected the weightier things, Mat. xxiii. 23. No ; you must have your natures changed, every day grow more complete in the will of God.
[4.] Thankfulness for grace will set you a- work for God rather than a legal conscience. You will do what you do for God for love to him rather than fear. Duties are a thank-offering rather than a sin-offer- ing, and will not look upon God's rewards as a debt, but as a further act of his grace ; blessing God for Jesus Christ, rather than ascribing anything to yourselves ; in short, imploring pardon for our best duties, rather than boast of them. This is the true gospel spirit, and which only declareth that you find a loss rather than a gain in all those empty formal services and that external partial obedience that keep you from Christ. Christ is precious to you that believe.
SERMON II.
Yea, doubtless, and I count all tilings but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord ; for luhom I have suffered the loss of all tMngs, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ — Phil. hi. 8.
These words are added to the former by way of amplification, for three reasons —
1. To show his perseverance in the contempt and disesteem of all outward and worldly privileges ; he had counted them loss for Christ's sake, and did still count them loss : ' I have counted,' and ' do count.' He repeats it over and over ; he repented not of his choice in the review ; he seeth no cause to recede from it. He had undervalued and quitted everything that might keep him from Christ ; and this not only when first converted, but he still continued in the same opinion. We affect novelties, and are transported when we first change our profes- sion, but repent at leisure. No ; if he had done it, he would do it again.
2. To comprehend all other things besides the Jewish privileges, wherein he excelled the greatest pretenders among them. He had said before, ' Those things which were gain to me.' Now he extends this rejection to all things imaginable without Christ — honours, wealth, pleasures, all outward and worldly accommodations. A christian can deny anything for Christ's sake, his own honour, his own ease, profit, name, estate, everything but his own God and Christ.
3. In this new proposal he shows the reality of this assertion : ' Yea, doubtless.' It was not a pretended business, nor a bare naked appro- bation of Christ as more excellent than other things ; not a speculative, but a practical esteem : ' Yea, doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord.'
In the words observe — (1.) His great contempt of all worldly and
VEK. 8.] SERMONS UPON PHILIPPIANS III. 13
external privileges ; (2.) The causes of this contempt, out of his esteem and value of Christ.
1. His contempt is set forth by two things —
[1.] The vehemency and greatness of it : 'I account them loss,' yea, I account them ' dung.' So excellent is Christ, and so precious to them that believe in him, that all things compared with him have so much baseness, that a word bad enough cannot be found to express them o-Kvfiaka , the word signifieth the inwards of beasts, or refuse things thrown to dogs.
[2.] The reality and sincerity of it ; here was a real demonstration of it. Many approve the things that are excellent, Rom. ii. 18, yet have no mind to embrace them, because they cannot deny temptations. But the apostle saith not only rjyovficu ra irdvra, * I count all things but loss and dung,' but i^/iLcoOrjv ra iravra, ' I have suffered the loss of all things.' He proveth the sincerity of his purpose by his actual self-denial ; he had suffered the loss of friends and country, and all things dear to him in the flesh, that so he might become a christian. He did not only count them nothing worth, and despise them all, but was content to be stripped of all. These were not brags ; for he really suffered the loss of all, was hungry and naked, went in danger of his life often. We must either lose all, or be prepared to lose all for Christ when called thereto. Paul could value his natural interests as well as another, but in case of necessity, lose friends or lose Christ, then all is counted loss and dung. Men in a shipwreck throw overboard their most precious wares to save their lives.