A Preliminary Discourse on Catechizing
“If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled” (Col 1:23).
Since I intend to begin the work of catechizing next Lord’s Day, it will be useful to offer this preliminary discourse in preparation, showing how necessary it is for Christians to be well instructed in the grounds of religion.
“If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled”: two propositions follow.
1. It is the duty of Christians to be settled in the doctrine of faith.
2. The best way for Christians to be settled is to be well grounded.
Doctrine 1: Settled in the Doctrine of Faith
It is the duty of Christians to be settled in the doctrine of faith. This is the apostle’s prayer: “The God of all grace, stablish, strengthen, settle you” (1 Pet 5:10). Believers should not be meteors in the air, but fixed stars. The apostle Jude speaks of “wandering stars” (Jude 13). They are called wandering stars because, as Aristotle says, “They do leap up and down, and wander into several parts of the heaven; and being but dry exhalations, not made of that pure celestial matter, as the fixed stars are, they often fall to the earth.” Those who are not settled in religion will, at one time or another, prove to be wandering stars. They will lose their former strictness and wander from one opinion to another.
The unsettled are of the tribe of Reuben, “unstable as water” (Gen 49:4), like a ship without ballast, overturned by every wind of doctrine. Beza writes of one Belfectius whose religion changed with the moon. The Arians had a new faith every year. Such people are not “pillars” in the temple of God, but “reeds” shaken in every direction. The apostle calls them “damnable heresies” (2 Pet 2:1).
A man may go to hell for heresy as well as for adultery. To be unsettled in religion shows a lack of judgment; if their heads were not giddy, they would not reel so quickly from one opinion to another. It also shows lightness. Feathers are blown in every direction, and so are feathery Christians. As Cyprian says, “The wind does not carry away the wheat; empty chaff is tossed about.” Such people are therefore compared to children: “That we be no more children tossed to and fro” (Eph 4:14). Children are fickle, sometimes of one mind and sometimes of another; nothing pleases them for long. Unsettled Christians are equally childish: they embrace truths at one time and reject them at another. Sometimes they favor the Protestant religion, and soon afterward they are inclined to turn Papists. Therefore labor, with Ignatius, to be settled in the faith and to hold settled judgments in unsettled times.
1. The great purpose of the preached Word is to bring us to a settlement in religion. “And he gave some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; for the edifying of the body of Christ; that we henceforth be no more children” (Eph 4:11-12, 14). The Word is called “an hammer” (Jer 23:29). Every blow of the hammer fastens the nails of the building; the preacher’s words serve to fasten you more firmly to Christ. Ministers weaken themselves in order to strengthen and settle you. This is the grand design of preaching: not only to enlighten souls, but to establish them; not only to guide them into the right way, but to keep them in it. If you are not settled, you do not fulfill God’s purpose in giving you the ministry.
2. To be settled in religion is both a Christian’s excellence and honor. It is his excellence: when milk settles, it turns to cream. The settled Christian will be somewhat zealous for the truth and walk in close communion with God. It is also his honor: “The hoary head is a crown of glory, if it be found in the way of righteousness” (Prov 16:31). It is one of the finest sights to see an old disciple, to see silver hairs adorned with golden virtues.
3. Those who are not settled in the faith can never suffer for it. Skeptics in religion will hardly ever prove to be martyrs. The unsettled hang in suspense: when they think of the joys of heaven, they embrace the gospel, but when they think of persecution, they desert it. Unsettled Christians do not consider what is best, but what is safest. “The apostate (says Tertullian) seems to put God and Satan in balance, and having weighed both their services, prefers the devil’s service, and proclaims him to be the best master; and in this sense, may be said to ‘put Christ to open shame’” (Heb 6:6). Such people will never suffer for the truth. They are like a soldier who abandons his colors and runs over to the enemy’s side; he will fight on the devil’s side for pay.
4. Not to be settled in the faith is highly provoking to God. To embrace the truth and then fall away brings an evil report upon the gospel, and this will not go unpunished. “They turned back, and dealt unfaithfully; when God heard this, he was wroth, and greatly abhorred Israel” (Ps 78:57, 59). The apostate drops like windfallen fruit into the devil’s mouth.
5. If you are not settled in religion, you will never grow. We are commanded “to grow up into the head, even Christ” (Eph 4:15). But if we are unsettled, there can be no growth: “the plant which is continually transplanted never thrives.” A person who is unsettled can no more grow in godliness than a bone out of joint can grow within the body.
6. There is great need to be settled because so many things work to unsettle us and make us fall away from the truth.
(1) Seducers. Seducers are abroad, and their work is to draw people away from the principles of religion: “These things have I written unto you concerning them that seduce you” (1 John 2:26). Seducers are the devil’s agents. They are the greatest thieves of all, for they would rob you of the truth. They have silver tongues, and a fair tongue can sell bad wares. They have a skill for deception (Eph 4:14). The Greek word there comes from those who can load a die and cast it to their own best advantage. In the same way, seducers are impostors. They can load the die; they can so disguise and corrupt the truth that they deceive others. Seducers use the following four methods to deceive.
[1] By wisdom of words: “By good words and fair speeches they deceive the hearts of the simple” (Rom 16:18). They use fine, elegant phrases and flattering language to work upon the weaker sort, speaking of being “christed with Christ” and of “the light within them.”
[2] Another method is a pretense of extraordinary piety, so that people will admire them and absorb their doctrine. They present themselves as men of zeal and sanctity who are divinely inspired. They claim revelations, as Munster, Michael Servetus, and others among the Anabaptists in Germany did, though they were tainted with pride, lust, and greed.
[3] A third method or fraud used by seducers is to labor to vilify and dismiss sound, orthodox teachers. They would eclipse those who bring the truth, like black vapors that darken the light of heaven. They defame others so that they themselves may be more admired. The false teachers did this to Paul, crying him down so that they themselves might be received (Gal 4:17).
[4] The fourth method or fraud of seducers is “preaching doctrine of liberty.” The Antinomian preaches that men are freed from the moral law as a rule, as well as from its curse. He preaches that Christ has done everything for them and that they need do nothing. In this way, he turns the doctrine of free grace into a key that opens the door to all licentiousness.
(2) Another thing that unsettles Christians is persecutors (2 Tim 2:12). The gospel is a rose; it cannot be plucked without prickles. The legacy Christ has bequeathed is the cross. While there is a devil and a wicked man in the world, never expect a charter exempting you from trouble. How many fall away in an hour of persecution! “There appeared a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns: and his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven” (Rev 12:3-4). The red dragon represents the heathen empire, and his tail, that is, his power and cunning, drew away stars, meaning eminent professing Christians who had seemed to shine like stars in the firmament of the church. We therefore see how necessary it is to be settled in the truth, lest the dragon’s tail cast us to the earth.
7. To be unsettled in what is good is the sin of the devils (Jude 6). They are called “morning stars” (Job 38:7), yet they became “falling stars.” They were holy, but mutable. As a vessel is overturned by its sail, so their sails, swollen with pride, overturned them (1 Tim 3:6). In your unsettledness, whom do you imitate but fallen angels? The devil was the first apostate. So much for the first proposition: it is a great duty for Christians to be settled. The sons of Zion should be like Mount Zion, which cannot be moved.
Doctrine 2: Grounded in the Principles of Religion
The second proposition is that the way for Christians to be settled is to be well grounded: “if ye continue grounded and settled.” The Greek word for grounded is a metaphor alluding to a building whose foundation has been well laid. Christians should likewise be grounded in the essential points of religion and have their foundation firmly laid.
Here let me speak to two things. First, we should be grounded in the knowledge of fundamentals. Second, this grounding is the best way to settlement.
1. We should be grounded in the knowledge of fundamentals. The apostle speaks of the “first principles of the oracles of God” (Heb 5:12). In all arts and sciences, such as logic, medicine, and mathematics, there are things that must be known beforehand, rules and principles that must necessarily be understood before those arts can be practiced. In the same way, the first principles must be laid down in divinity. Knowledge of the grounds and principles of religion is exceedingly useful.
(1) Without it, we cannot serve God rightly. We can never worship God acceptably unless we worship him according to his rule. How can we do that if we are ignorant of the rules and elements of religion? We are commanded to give God a “reasonable service” (Rom 12:1). If we do not understand the grounds of religion, how can our service be reasonable?
(2) Knowledge of the grounds of religion greatly enriches the mind. It is a lamp to our feet, directing us through the whole course of the Christian life as the eye directs the body. Knowledge of fundamentals is the golden key that opens the chief mysteries of religion. It gives us a whole system and body of divinity, exactly drawn in all its features and living colors. It helps us understand many difficult things that occur when we read the Word, and it helps untie many Scripture knots.
(3) It is armor that withstands attack, furnishing us with weapons to fight against the adversaries of the truth.
(4) It is the holy seed from which grace is formed. It is “the seed of faith” (Ps 9:10) and “the root of love”: “Being rooted and grounded in love” (Eph 3:17). Knowledge of these principles contributes to making a complete Christian.
2. This grounding is the best way to settlement: “grounded and settled.” A tree must be well rooted if it is to stand firm. Likewise, if you are to be well settled in religion, you must be rooted in its principles. Plutarch tells of a man who propped up a corpse, but it would not stand. “Oh,” he said, “there must be something within.” In the same way, if we are to stand in shaking times, there must be a principle of knowledge within us: first grounded, and then settled. For a ship to be kept from overturning, its anchor must hold. Knowledge of principles is to the soul what an anchor is to the ship, holding it steady amid all the rolling waves of error and the violent winds of persecution. First grounded, and then settled.
Application 1
Here we see why so many people are unsettled, ready to embrace every novel opinion and dress themselves in as many religions as they do fashions: they are ungrounded. Notice how the apostle joins these two together, “unlearned and unstable” (2 Pet 3:16). Those who are unlearned in the main points of divinity will be unstable. A body cannot be strong when its sinews have shrunk; neither can a Christian be strong in religion if he lacks the grounds of knowledge, which are the sinews that strengthen and establish him.
Application 2
We see, then, how necessary it is to lay down all the main grounds of religion in a catechetical form, so that even the weakest judgment may be instructed in the knowledge of the truth and strengthened in the love of it. Catechizing is the best means of grounding and settling people. I fear that one reason preaching has not done more good is that the chief heads and articles of religion have not been explained catechetically. Catechizing lays the foundation (Heb 6:1). To preach without catechizing is to build without a foundation.
This way of catechizing is not novel; it is apostolic. The primitive church had its forms of catechism, as these phrases imply: “a form of sound words” (2 Tim 1:13) and “the first principles of the oracles of God” (Heb 5:12). The church also had its catechumens, as Grotius and Erasmus observe. Many of the ancient fathers wrote in support of it: Fulgentius, Augustine, Theodoret, Lactantius, and others. God has given it great success. By laying down the grounds of religion catechetically, Christians have been clearly instructed and wonderfully built up in the Christian faith.
Indeed, when Julian the Apostate saw the great success of catechizing, he shut down all schools and places of public learning and instruction for the young. Therefore, with God’s blessing, I intend to begin this work of catechizing next Sabbath day. Every other Sabbath afternoon, I intend to devote my whole effort to laying down the grounds and fundamentals of religion in a catechetical way. If men hinder me in this work, or if death takes me away, I hope God will raise up another laborer in the vineyard among you who may complete the work I am now beginning.
Man’s Chief End Is to Glorify God
Question 1: What is the chief end of man?
Answer: Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.
Here are two ends of life specified: first, the glorifying of God; second, the enjoying of God.
1. Glorifying God
I begin with the first: the glorifying of God. “That God in all things may be glorified” (1 Pet 4:11). The glory of God is a silver thread that must run through all our actions. “Whether, therefore, ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Cor 10:31). Everything in nature and art works toward some end. Man, being a rational creature, must set an end before himself, and that end is to lift up God in the world. It is better to lose one’s life than to lose the purpose of living. The great truth asserted here, then, is this: the end of every man’s living is to glorify God. This is the yearly rent paid to the crown of heaven.
Glorifying God has respect to all three persons of the Trinity: to God the Father, who gave us our life; to God the Son, who lost his life for us; and to God the Holy Spirit, who produces a new life in us. We must bring glory to the whole Trinity.
When we speak of God’s glory, a question naturally arises.
Question: What are we to understand by God’s glory?
Answer: There is a twofold glory.
1. The glory God has in himself: his intrinsic glory. Glory is essential to the Godhead as light is to the sun. He is called the “God of glory” (Acts 7:2). Glory is the sparkling of the Deity; it is so natural to the Godhead that God cannot be God without it. A creature’s honor is not essential to his being: a king is still a man even when his crown and royal robe are taken away. But God’s glory is so essential to his being that he cannot be God without it. God’s very life lies in his glory. This glory can receive no addition, because it is infinite. It is what God guards most jealously and will not surrender. “My glory I will not give to another” (Isa 48:11). God will give temporal blessings to his children, such as wisdom, riches, and honor. He will give them spiritual blessings: grace, his love, and heaven itself. But his essential glory he will not give to another.
King Pharaoh gave Joseph a ring from his finger and a gold chain, but he would not surrender his throne. “Only in the throne will I be greater than thou” (Gen 41:40). So God will do much for his people; he will give them the inheritance and place some of Christ’s mediatorial glory upon them. But his essential glory he will not part with: “in the throne he will be greater.”
2. The glory ascribed to God, or which his creatures labor to bring to him. “Give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name” (1 Chr 16:29). And “Glorify God in your body and in your spirit” (1 Cor 6:20). The glory we give God is nothing other than lifting up his name in the world and magnifying him in the eyes of others. “Christ shall be magnified in my body” (Phil 1:20).
Question: What does it mean to glorify God, and what does it consist in?
Answer: Glorifying God consists in four things: 1. appreciation; 2. adoration; 3. affection; 4. subjection. This is the yearly rent we pay to the crown of heaven.
1. Appreciation. To glorify God is to set God highest in our thoughts and to hold him in deep, reverent esteem. “Thou, Lord, art most high for evermore” (Ps 92:8). “Thou art exalted far above all gods” (Ps 97:9). In God there is everything that can draw forth both wonder and delight. He is a constellation of all beauties, the first cause, the original and source of all being, who sheds glory upon the creature. We glorify God when we are God-admirers. We admire God in his attributes, which are the glistering beams by which the divine nature shines forth. We admire him in his promises, which are the charter of free grace and the spiritual cabinet where the pearl of price is hidden.
We admire God in the noble effects of his power and wisdom, namely the making of the world, which is called the “work of his fingers” (Ps 8:3), such exquisite needlework that none but God could produce it. To glorify God is to have God-admiring thoughts, to esteem him most excellent, and to search for diamonds only in this rock.
2. Glorifying God consists in adoration, or worship. “Give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name; worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness” (Ps 29:2). There is a twofold worship: (1) a civil reverence we give to persons of honor, “Abraham stood up and bowed himself to the children of Heth” (Gen 23:7). Piety is no enemy to courtesy. (2) A divine worship which we give to God alone; this is his royal prerogative. “They bowed their heads, and worshipped the Lord with their faces towards the ground” (Neh 8:6). God is very jealous of this divine worship. It is the apple of his eye, the pearl of his crown, which he guards as he guarded the tree of life with cherubim and a flaming sword, so that no one may come near to violate it.
Divine worship must be what God himself has appointed, or it is the offering of strange fire (Lev 10:2). The Lord would have Moses make the tabernacle “according to the pattern in the Mount” (Exod 25:40). Moses was to leave nothing out of the pattern and add nothing to it. If God was so precise about the place of worship, how much more precise will he be about the substance of it? Surely here everything must follow the pattern prescribed in his word.
3. Affection. This is a part of the glory we give to God. God counts himself glorified when he is loved. “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul” (Deut 6:5). There is a twofold love.
(1) A love of desire, which is really self-love: we love another because he does us a good turn. A wicked man may be said to love God in this sense, because God has given him a good harvest or filled his cup with wine. But properly speaking, this is loving God’s blessings rather than loving God.
(2) A love of delight, as a man takes delight in a friend. This is to truly love God. The heart is set upon God as a man’s heart is set upon his treasure. This love has three qualities: [1] it is abundant, not a few drops but a stream; [2] it is supreme, we give God the best of our love, the cream of it. “I would cause thee to drink of spiced wine, of the juice of my pomegranate” (Song 8:2). If the spouse had a cup juicier and more richly spiced, Christ must drink of it. [3] It is intense and ardent. True saints are seraphim, burning in holy love to God. The spouse was struck with love, in fainting fits, “sick of love” (Song 2:5). To love God this way is to glorify him: he who is the chief of our happiness receives the chief of our affections.
4. Subjection. We glorify God when we dedicate ourselves to him and stand dressed and ready for his service. This is how the angels in heaven glorify him: they wait at his throne and are ready to receive a commission from him. That is why they are represented by the cherubim with wings displayed, showing how swift the angels are in their obedience. We glorify God when we are devoted to his service, our minds studying for God, our tongues pleading for him, our hands relieving his members. The wise men who came to Christ did not only bow the knee to him but presented him with gold and myrrh (Matt 2:11). So we must not only bow the knee and give God worship, but bring presents: golden obedience.
We glorify God when we shrink from no service, when we fight under the banner of his gospel against regiments, and when we say to him as David said to King Saul, “Thy servant will go and fight with this Philistine” (1 Sam 17:32). So then, you see what the glorifying of God consists in: appreciation, adoration, affection, subjection.
A good Christian is like the sun, which not only sends forth heat but also travels its circuit around the world. Likewise, the one who glorifies God does not merely have affections warmed with love for God; he travels his circuit too, moving vigorously in the sphere of obedience.
Question: Why must we glorify God?
Answer:
1. Because he gives us our being. “It is he that made us” (Ps 100:3). We think it a great kindness when a man spares our life, but how much greater a kindness is it for God to give us our life? We draw our breath from him. And as life itself, so all the comforts of life come from God. He gives us health, which is the sauce that sweetens life; he gives us food, which is the oil that keeps the lamp of life burning. Since everything we receive comes from the hand of his bounty, is it not reasonable that we should glorify him and live to him, seeing that we live by him? “For of him, and through him are all things” (Rom 11:36). Of him are all things: everything we have flows from his fullness. Through him are all things: everything we have comes through his free grace.
Therefore to him should be all glory, as the text continues: “To him be glory for ever.” God is not only our benefactor but our founder. The rivers come from the sea, and they pour their silver streams back into the sea again.
2. Because God has made all things for his own glory. “The Lord hath made all things for himself” (Prov 16:4), that is, for his glory. As a king collects taxes from commodities, God will have his glory out of everything. He will have glory out of the wicked, the glory of his justice; they will not give him glory, but he will get his glory upon them: “I will get me honour upon Pharaoh” (Exod 14:17). But especially he has made the godly for his glory; they are the living instruments of his praise. “This people have I formed for myself, and they shall show forth my praise” (Isa 43:21). It is true they cannot add to his glory, but they may exalt it; they cannot raise him higher in heaven, but they may raise him in the esteem of others.
God has adopted the saints into his family and made them a royal priesthood, that they should show forth the praises of him who called them (1 Pet 2:9).
3. Because the glory of God has such intrinsic value and excellence in it that it surpasses the thoughts of men and the tongues of angels. God’s glory is his treasure; all his riches lie there. As Micah said, “What have I more?” (Judg 18:24). So it is with God: what does God have beyond his glory? God’s glory is worth more than heaven, worth more than the salvation of all human souls. It would be better for kingdoms to fall and for men and angels to be annihilated than for God to lose one jewel of his crown, one beam of his glory.
4. Creatures below us and above us bring glory to God. Do we then expect to sit rent-free? Shall everything glorify God but man? It would be a pity that man was ever made if so.
(1) Creatures below us glorify God. The inanimate creation glorifies him: “The heavens declare the glory of God” (Ps 19:1). The intricate workmanship of the heavens sets forth the glory of their maker; the firmament is adorned and painted in blue and azure, where the power and wisdom of God may be clearly seen. “The heavens declare his glory”; we may see God’s glory blazing in the sun and twinkling in the stars.
(2) Look into the air: “The birds, with their chirping music, sing hymns of praise to God,” says Anselm. Every beast in its kind glorifies God: “The beasts of the field shall honour me” (Isa 43:20).
(3) Creatures above us glorify God. “The angels are ministering spirits” (Heb 1:14). They wait continually on God’s throne and bring revenues of glory into the treasury of heaven. Surely, then, man should be far more devoted to God’s glory than the angels, for God has honored man more than the angels. Christ took man’s nature upon him, not the nature of angels. Though, in regard to creation, God has made man “a little lower than the angels” (Heb 2:7), yet in regard to redemption God has set man higher than the angels. He has married mankind to himself; the angels are Christ’s friends, but not his spouse. He has covered us with the purple robe of righteousness, which is a better righteousness than the angels possess (2 Cor 5:21). Since the angels bring glory to God, how much more should we, being dignified with honor above the angelic spirits.
5. We must bring glory to God because all our hopes hang upon him. “My hope is in thee” (Ps 39:7). And “My expectation is from him” (Ps 62:5); I expect a kingdom from him. A good-natured child will honor his parent, expecting everything he will ever have from that parent. “All my springs are in thee” (Ps 87:7), the silver springs of grace, the golden springs of glory.
Question: How many ways may we glorify God?
Answer:
1. We glorify God when we aim purely at his glory. It is one thing to advance God’s glory; it is another thing to aim at it. God must be the ultimate end of all our actions. So Christ said, “I seek not mine own glory, but the glory of him that sent me” (John 8:50). It marks a hypocrite that he has a squinting eye, looking more to his own glory than to God’s. Our Savior describes such people and warns against them: “When thou givest alms, do not sound a trumpet” (Matt 6:2). A stranger would ask, “What does the noise of this trumpet mean?” The answer would be, “They are going to give to the poor.” And so they were not giving alms but selling them for honor and applause, to have glory from men. The breath of men was the wind that filled the sails of their charity. “Verily they have their reward.”
The hypocrite may write his own receipt and mark it “received in full payment.” Chrysostom calls vainglory one of the devil’s great nets to catch men. And Cyprian says, “Whom Satan cannot prevail against by intemperance, those he prevails against by pride and vainglory.” Oh, let us beware of self-worship and aim purely at God’s glory!
Question: How shall we know that we aim at God’s glory?
(1) When we prefer God’s glory above all other things: above reputation, wealth, and personal relationships. When God’s glory comes into competition with these, we set his glory before them. If relationships stand in our way to heaven, we must either leap over them or tread them underfoot. A child must set aside his identity as a child and forget that he is a child; he must recognize neither father nor mother when God’s cause requires it. “Who said unto his father and mother, I have not seen him; neither did he acknowledge his brethren” (Deut 33:9). This is to aim at God’s glory.
(2) We aim at God’s glory when we can be content for God’s will to take effect even when it crosses our own. Lord, I am content to be a loser if you are a gainer; to have less health if I have more grace and you more glory. Whether it is food or bitter medicine you give me, Lord, I desire what may be most for your glory. So our blessed Savior prayed, “not as I will, but as thou wilt” (Matt 26:39). Provided God might gain more glory through his sufferings, he was content to suffer: “Father, glorify thy name” (John 12:28).
(3) We aim at God’s glory when we can be content to be outshone by others in gifts and esteem, so long as God’s glory is increased. A man who has God in his heart and God’s glory in his eye desires God to be exalted. If that is accomplished, he rejoices whoever the instrument may be. “Some preach Christ of envy: notwithstanding Christ is preached, and I therein do rejoice, yea, and will rejoice” (Phil 1:15). They preached Christ out of envy; they envied Paul the crowds that gathered to hear him, and preached in order to outshine him in gifts and draw away some of his hearers. Yet Paul says, “Christ is preached, and God is likely to have glory, therefore I rejoice; let my candle go out, if the Sun of Righteousness may but shine.”
2. We glorify God by a sincere confession of sin. The thief on the cross had dishonored God in his life, but at his death he brought glory to God by confessing his sin: “We indeed suffer justly” (Luke 23:41). He acknowledged that he deserved not only crucifixion but damnation. “My son, give, I pray thee, glory to God, and make confession unto him” (Josh 7:19). A humble confession exalts God. How greatly is God’s free grace magnified when he crowns those who deserve to be condemned! By contrast, excusing and minimizing sin casts a reproach upon God. Adam did not deny that he ate the forbidden fruit, but instead of a full confession he turned and accused God: “The woman whom thou gavest me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat” (Gen 3:12). As much as to say: if you had not given me the woman to be a tempter, I would not have sinned.
Confession, then, glorifies God; it clears him and acknowledges that he is holy and righteous in all he does. Nehemiah vindicates God’s righteousness: “Thou art just in all that is brought upon us” (Neh 9:33). A confession is sincere when it is free and not forced. “I have sinned against heaven, and before thee” (Luke 15:18). The prodigal charged himself with sin before his father ever charged him with it.
3. We glorify God by believing. “Abraham was strong in faith, giving glory to God” (Rom 4:20). Unbelief affronts God and gives him the lie: “he that believeth not, maketh God a liar” (1 John 5:10). Faith, by contrast, brings glory to God; it sets its seal that God is true (John 3:33). The person who believes flies to God’s mercy and truth as to an altar of refuge, fortifies himself in the promises, and entrusts everything he has to God: “Into thy hands I commit my spirit” (Ps 31:5). This is a great way of bringing glory to God, and so God honors faith because faith honors God. It is a great honor we do to a person when we trust him with all we have, placing our lives and our fortunes in his hand, a sign we have a good opinion of him.
The three children glorified God by believing: “The God whom we serve is able to deliver us, and will deliver us” (Dan 3:17). Faith knows there are no impossibilities with God, and will trust him where it cannot trace him.
4. We glorify God by being tender of his glory. God’s glory is as dear to him as the apple of his eye. When we lay his dishonors to heart, that tenderness is itself a glorifying of him. A devoted child weeps to see his father disgraced: “The reproaches of them that reproach thee are fallen upon me” (Ps 69:9). When we hear God reproached, it is as if we were reproached ourselves; when God’s glory suffers, it is as if we suffered. This is what it means to be tender of God’s glory.
5. We glorify God by fruitfulness. “Hereby is my Father glorified, if ye bring forth much fruit” (John 15:8). As it is a dishonor to God to be barren, so fruitfulness honors him: “Filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are to the praise of his glory” (Phil 1:11). We must not be like the fig-tree in the Gospel, which had nothing but leaves, but like the citron tree, which is continually either mellowing or blossoming and never without fruit. It is not profession but fruit that glorifies God. God expects to receive his glory from us this way: “Who planteth a vineyard, and eateth not of the fruit of it?” (1 Cor 9:7). Trees in the forest may be barren, but trees in the garden are fruitful.
We must bring forth the fruits of love and good works: “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven” (Matt 5:16). Faith sanctifies our works, and works testify our faith. To do good to others, to be eyes to the blind and feet to the lame, greatly glorifies God. Christ glorified his Father in just this way: “he went about doing good” (Acts 10:38). By being fruitful we are fair in God’s eyes: “The Lord called thy name a green olive-tree, fair and of goodly fruit” (Jer 11:16). And we must bear much fruit; it is the muchness of fruit that glorifies God: “if ye bear much fruit.” The spouse’s breasts are compared to clusters of grapes (Song 7:7) to show how fertile she was.
Though the lowest degree of grace may bring salvation to you, it does not bring so much glory to God. It was not a spark of love Christ commended in Mary, but much love: “she loved much” (Luke 7:47).
