The people's good estate in grace is the minister's joy, and will be, espe- cially after the day of judgment. ' Ye are our rejoicing.' As he saith, Philip, iv. 1, ' Ye are our crown and our glory.' And so, 1 Thess. ii. 19, * What is our crown and rejoicing ? Is it not you ?'
In eveiy epistle almost, those good and gracious people, he makes them his hope, and joy, and crown, and rejoicing.
In what sense ?
1. Because they were the objective matter of his joy. When he looked
320 COMMENTARY ON
on them, he looked on such as yielded bim comfort. He could not pre- sent Iheni to Lis tlionj,dits, but bo tbougbt of them as matter of joy. Here be the people that God batb honoured me to do much good \mto. Ho could not think of them but as the object of his rejoicing. The word is Caiichema* ' oui- rejoicing,' that God Lad given them to him to bring to Leaven.
Love descends, we know, and the workman looks upon his work with a kind of complacency. St Paul could not look upon those that he was used as a blessed instrument to do good upon, without a special kind of delight. They were the object matter of his joy.
2. Then, again, they were not only the matter of his joy and rejoicing, presenting to his soul comfortable considerations, but also they ivere some means to increase his joi/ in hearen ; for 'those that convert souls shall shine as the stars in the firmament,' Dan. xii. 3. Those that are honoured of God so far as to bring souls to God, ' they shall shine as the stars in the firmament,' especially those that convert souls shall have a degree of honour above others, though the substantial glory be by Christ. It is not to be denied that the accidental increased glory comes by the increase of the fruit of the ministry ; and so Christians, those that arc fruitful Christians, that do much good, they shall have much glory. St Paul shall have more re- joicing than others that did not so much good as he. ' Ye are our re- joicing,' because you shall be a means of my greater rejoicing. They were the object of his joy and the means of his joy.
3. Then in the third place, they were his rejoicing, because they were the seal of his ministry, that he was a sound minister. How was it known whether St Paul were a good minister or no ? Behold his works ! see how he wrought on such and such people ! how many he gained to God ! When he looked on them, he looked on them as a seal of his ministry, that he was a good minister, and in that regard they were his rejoicing.
4. And in some regard likewise in the fom'th place, that their gaining tvas an evidence to his soul that he ivas a good man. Ordinarily (though God convert men by ill men, as Judas no question might convert some, yet) for the most part God honours his servants ; and he that is heat himself, can kindle another. Those that are not heat with grace, they cannot speak of the efiicacy and power of the things they feel not in their own hearts, as others do. Therefore no question but it comforted him in the state of Chris- tianity, that God honoured him to be a means to bring others in to Clirist. So in many respects the people's goodness is the minister's joy.
Use. If this be so, let those that are under the ministry not deny them- selves that comfort, or the ministers that joy to be good. There are many poisonful, spiteful spirits that are in love with damnation, that will cherish the corruptions of their naughty nature, in spite of God and all. Rather than they will acknowledge to be wrought on by such and such, to be their children, they will be as they are ; they will be broken in a thousand pieces before they will bend to any minister, upon such weak resolutions to yield to a poor ordinance of man. Here is the devilish pride and poison of man's corrupt nature. Can we set light by that, but that at the same time we must set light by our own comfort and salvation ?
How were the Corinthians St Paul's joy ? Were they not their own joy- first ? They were matter of joy to St Paul, because he saw he had gained them to Christ. The good was especially theirs. It reflected on him only by consideration. When he looked on them he was comforted ; but * That is, naJoyriiLa — G.
2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, \'ER. 14. 321
they -were more comforted a great deal. They had mjre comfort in his rejoicing than he. His was but by reflection of then- goodness, a com- fort that came by consideration. They had the main comfort of their goodness.
It is Httle comfort for any to carry themselves so, as that those that are over them in Clu'ist Jesus, when they think of them, can but sigh, when they hear their blasphemies ; when they cannot so much as gain of them to leave courses that the very light of nature condemns. The filthy dis- coveries of a rotten heart, their vile words, and their oftensive caiTiage, can this be a grief to the minister, and not for the damnation of their souls to- gether ? And they shall find it a hea^y and bitter thing to grieve the Spirit of God in others, as well as they wound their own conscience. Both are joined together.