Light from Heaven

And, without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness: God manifested in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up to glory (1 Tim 3:16).

There are two things that God values more than all the world besides: the church and the truth. The church is the “pillar and ground of truth,” as it says in the verse before. The truth of religion is the seed of the church. Now the blessed apostle St. Paul, in equipping his pupil Timothy for the ministerial office, does so from two grounds especially: from the dignity of the church, which he was to instruct and in which he was to live, and from the excellency of the mysteries of the gospel, that excellent soul-saving truth. On this basis he seriously exhorts Timothy to take heed how he conducted himself in the church of God, in teaching the truth of God.

The church of God is “the house of God,” a company of people that God cares for more than for all mankind besides, for whom the world stands, for whom all things are. “It is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of truth.” And as for the truth of God, which must be taught in this church, it is so excellent a thing that we see the blessed apostle here use great words, high titles, lofty expressions concerning it. As the matter is high and great, so the holy apostle has expressions to suit it; a full heart breeds full expressions.

As no one went beyond St. Paul in the deep sense of his own unworthiness and of his state by nature, so no one reached higher in large and rich thoughts and expressions of the excellency of Christ and the good things we have by him. We see it here. Setting forth the excellency of the ministerial calling, which is to deal with God’s truth toward God’s people, he sets forth the truth of the gospel gloriously: “Without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness: God manifested in the flesh.”

In these words, then, there is a preface, and then a particular explanation. There is a fountain or spring, and the streams issuing from it; the root and the branches. There is, as it were, a porch to this great house. Great buildings have fair entrances, and so this glorious description of the mysteries of the gospel has a fair porch and entry to it: “Without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness.”

Then the building itself is parceled out in six particulars:

God manifested in the flesh.

Justified in the Spirit.

Seen of angels.

Preached unto the Gentiles.

Believed on in the world.

Received up to glory.

First, the preface. By it he makes way to raise up the spirit of Timothy, and in him us, to a reverent and holy attention to the blessed mysteries that follow.

“Without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness.”

In this preface there is first the thing itself, “godliness.”

Then the description of it: it is a “mystery.”

And what is added to it: it is a “great mystery.”

And then the seal of it: it is a great mystery “without all controversy,” by the confession of all, as the word signifies. No one has ever felt the power of godliness without confessing it to be a “great mystery.”

Godliness is a “mystery,” and a “great mystery,” and it is so under the seal of public confession. Let us observe something from each of these.

“Godliness.”

1. Godliness is either the principles of Christian religion, or the inward disposition of the soul toward them, the inward holy affection of the soul. The word implies both, for godliness is not only the naked principles of religion, but also the Christian affection, the inward bent of the soul, suited to divine principles. There must be a godly disposition carrying us to godly truths.

To show that godliness includes the truths themselves, I need go no further than the connection of the words. In the last words of the verse before, the church is “the pillar and ground of truth”; and then it follows, “without controversy, great is the mystery.” He does not say of truth, but “of godliness.” Instead of truth he says godliness.

The same word implies the truths themselves, and the affection and disposition of the soul toward them. It stands in the place of truths to show that both must always go together. Wherever Christian truth is known as it should be, there is a supernatural light. It is not only a godly truth in itself, but it is embraced with godly affections. These blessed truths of the gospel require and breed a godly disposition. Their end is godliness; they frame the soul to godliness. Thus we see that the truths themselves are godliness, carrying us to God and holiness. I need not dwell much on that.

But that there must be an affection to answer the truth, and that this truth breeds it, deserves a little consideration. Why is religion itself called faith, and the grace in the soul also called faith? To show that faith, that is, the truth revealed (as we say “the apostles’ faith”), breeds faith, and must be apprehended by faith. Therefore one word includes both the object, the thing believed, and also the disposition of the soul toward that object. So here “godliness” is the thing itself, the principles of religion, and also the disposition of the soul that those truths work, where they are entertained as they should be. From this these other truths follow briefly.

(1) No truth breeds godliness and piety of life except divine truths, for that is called “godliness” because it breeds godliness. All the devices of men in the world cannot breed godliness. All that is not bred by a divine truth is superstition, and not godliness.

(2) Again, in that divine truth is called godliness, it shows us that if we would be godly we must be so from reasons of Christianity; not, as I said, by framing devices of our own, as graceless, foolish men do. We see this in popery, which is full of ceremonies of their own devising. But if we will be godly, it must be by reasons and motives from divine truth. That breeds godliness. It is only a bastard godliness, a bastard religion, that comes from a good intention without a good ground.

Therefore the word implies both the tenet, the doctrine, and the frame of soul that answers to that doctrine. Good principles without their impression on the soul are nothing. They will only help us to be damned. And godliness without a frame of doctrine is nothing but superstition. Godliness in doctrine frames the soul to godliness in conduct. There are many who, out of a natural superstition (which is always accompanied by a poisonous, malicious disposition against the truth of God), will have devices of their own, and those they will enforce with all their power. But if we will be godly, it must be from reasons drawn from divine truth.

(3) Again, from this we may draw a rule for discerning when we are godly. What makes a true Christian? When he nakedly believes the grounds of divine truth, the articles of the faith, when he can mutter them over, does that make a true Christian? No. It is when these truths breed and work “godliness.” For religion is a truth “according to godliness,” not according to speculation and notion only. Wherever these fundamental truths are embraced, there is godliness with them. A man cannot embrace religion in truth without being godly.

A man knows no more of Christ and divine things than he values and esteems and loves, and brings the whole inward man into a frame to be like those things. If these things do not work godliness, a man has only a human knowledge of divine things. If they do not carry the soul to trust in God, to hope in God, to fear God, to embrace him, to obey him, that man is not yet a true Christian; for Christianity is not a naked knowledge of the truth, but godliness.

The truth of our religion, the truth of the gospel, is “wisdom”; and wisdom is a knowledge of things that directs to practice. A man is a wise man when he knows so as to practice what he knows. The gospel is a divine wisdom, teaching practice as well as knowledge. It works godliness, or else a man has only a human knowledge of divine things.

Therefore he who is godly believes rightly and practices rightly. He who believes wrongly can never live well, for he has no foundation. He makes an idol of some notion of his own, apart from the word. And he who lives badly, though he believes rightly, will be damned too. Therefore a Christian has godly principles out of the gospel, and godly conduct suited to those principles.

And indeed, there is a force in the principles of godliness, from God’s love in Christ, to stir us up to godliness. The soul that apprehends God’s truth rightly cannot help but be godly. Can a man know God’s love in Christ incarnate, and Christ’s suffering for us, and his sitting at the right hand of God for us, the infinite love of God in Christ, and not be carried in affection back to God again, in love and joy and true trust, and in whatever else makes up the godly soul’s regard for God? It cannot be. Therefore it is not a cold, naked apprehension, but a spiritual knowledge, when the soul is stirred up to a suitable disposition and conduct, that makes godliness.

Now this godliness is “a mystery.”

What is a mystery? The word signifies a hidden thing. It comes from a word meaning to shut or stop the mouth from divulging. The heathen had their mysteries in their temples, which they must not disclose; and so there was an image before the temple with its finger before its mouth, showing that they must keep silent and not disclose hidden mysteries. Indeed, the mysteries of the heathen were so shameful that they did well to forbid their disclosure. But I speak only to unfold the nature of the word, which is to shut, or keep secret.

1. A mystery is a secret, not only for the present; it may be something that was a secret, though it is now revealed. For the gospel is now made known. It is called a mystery, not so much because it is secret, as because it was so before it was revealed.

2. That is called a mystery in Scripture which, however clear it is in its manifestation, yet has its reasons hidden. So the conversion of the Gentiles is called a mystery: that there should be such a thing, and why God should be so merciful to them. So the calling of the Jews is called a mystery, though the thing is revealed. Yet that God should be so wondrously merciful to them, that is a mystery. When there is some great reason, so that we cannot search into the depth of the thing, though the thing itself is made known, that is a mystery, as with the conversion both of Jews and Gentiles.

3. A mystery in Scripture is taken for that which is a hidden truth, and is conveyed by some outward thing. Marriage is a mystery, because it conveys the hidden spiritual marriage between Christ and his church. The sacraments are mysteries, because in the one, under bread and wine, the benefits of Christ’s body broken and his blood shed are conveyed to us; and in the other, under water, a visible outward thing, the blood of Christ is signified.

In a word, to cut off what is not pertinent, mystery in Scripture is either the general body of religion or the particular branches of it. The general body of religion is called a mystery in this place. The whole Christian religion is nothing but a continued mystery, a continuation of mysteries, a chaining together of mystery upon mystery.

And then the particular branches are called mysteries, as I said before. The conversion of the Jews, and likewise of the Gentiles, before it was accomplished, was a mystery. So the union between Christ and the church is a great mystery (Eph 5:32). But the whole gospel is meant here, as Christ says, “The mysteries of the kingdom of God” (Mark 4:11), that is, the description of the gospel. What is the gospel? The mystery of God’s kingdom, of Christ’s kingdom: a mystery revealing how Christ reigns in his church, and a mystery of bringing us to that heavenly kingdom. So, then, the whole truth of the gospel is a mystery.

For these reasons:

1. Because it was hidden and concealed from all men, until God brought it out of his own bosom: first to Adam in paradise, after the fall; still more clearly afterward to the Jews; and in Christ’s time more fully to Jews and Gentiles. It was hidden in the breast of God. It was not a thing framed by angels or men. After man had fallen into that cursed state, this plan of saving man by Christ never came into the head of any creature: to satisfy justice by infinite mercy, to send Christ to die, so that justice might be no loser. It could come from no other breast but God’s. It must be a divine, heavenly wisdom. Therefore it was a plan devised by the blessed Trinity, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It was hidden in the secret closet of God’s breast.

Christ brought it out of the bosom of his Father. “No man hath seen God at any time; Christ the only begotten Son, in the bosom of the Father” (John 1:18), he reveals the Father, and his meaning, to mankind. Who could ever have thought of such a depth of mercy to fallen man, when God promised the blessed seed (Gen 3:15), if God himself had not revealed it? Therefore this reconciling of justice and mercy is a mystery of heavenly wisdom that the creature could never think of, as is excellently set down through the whole of 1 Corinthians 2.

2. Again, it is a mystery because when it was revealed, it was revealed to only a few. It was revealed at first only to the Jews: “God is known in Jewry” (Ps 76:1). To them it was wrapped in ceremonies and types, and in general promises. It was quite hidden from most of the world.

3. Again, when Christ came and was revealed to the Gentiles, it is still a mystery even in the church, to carnal men, who hear the gospel and yet do not understand it, who have the veil over their hearts. It is “hid to them that perish” (2 Cor 4:3), however open it is of itself to those who believe.

4. It is a mystery because, though we see some part and parcel of it, yet we do not see the whole gospel. We do not see all, nor do we see wholly. We see but in part, and know but in part (1 Cor 13:9). So it is a mystery in regard of its full accomplishment.

5. Yes, and it is a mystery in regard of what we do not know, but shall hereafter know. How do we know divine truths now? In the mirror of the word and sacraments. We do not know Christ by sight. That manner of knowledge is reserved for heaven. So here we know, as it were, in a kind of mystery. We see divine things wrapped up in the mirror of the word and the mysteries of the sacraments. Indeed, compared with the Jewish church, this is to see the face of God in Christ (2 Cor 4:6), a clear sight. But compared with what we will have, it is to see in a glass, or mirror. If we look back, it is a clear sight; if we look forward, it is a sight as it were in a mystery. Even the little that we do know, we do not know as we will know it in heaven.

Question. But is the doctrine of the gospel itself the only mystery?

Answer. No. All the graces are mysteries, every grace. Let a man once know it, and he will find that there is a mystery in faith: that the earthly soul of man should be carried above itself, to believe supernatural truths, to depend on what he does not see, and to govern his life by spiritual reasons. That the heart of man should believe, that a man in trouble should carry himself quietly and patiently from supernatural supports and grounds, is a mystery. That a man should be as a rock in the midst of a storm, standing immovable, is a mystery.

That the bearing of the soul should be turned universally another way; that the judgment and affections should be turned backward, as it were; that he who was proud before should now be humble; that he who was ambitious before should now despise the vain world; that he who was given to his lusts and vanities before should now, on the contrary, be serious and heavenly-minded: here is a mystery indeed, when all is turned backward.

Therefore we see how, wise as Nicodemus was, it was a riddle to him when our blessed Savior spoke to him of the new birth: that a man should be wholly changed and remolded; that a man should be the same and not the same. He is the same man for soul and body, yet not the same in regard of a supernatural life and being put into him, carrying him another way, leading him in another manner, by other rules and considerations, as different from other men as a man differs from a beast. A strange mystery, that raises a man above other men as much as another man is above other creatures.

For a man to be content with his condition in all changes and varieties, when he is cast and tossed up and down in the world, and to have an immovable mind, is a mystery. Therefore St. Paul says in Philippians 4:11-12, “I have entered into religion,” as it were, “I have consecrated myself.” The word is wonderfully significant. “I have learned this mystery, to be content.” It is a mystery for a man to be tossed up and down and yet to have a contented mind. “I can want, and I can abound; I can do all through Christ that strengtheneth me.” Why? I have consecrated myself to Christ and religion, and from them I have learned this point, to be content.

Therefore in the text here, as we will see afterward, not only are divine truths a mystery (“great is the mystery of godliness”), but he insists on particular graces, “preached to the Gentiles, believed on in the world.” These are mysteries.

In Christ, all is mysteries: two natures, God and man, in one person; mortal and immortal; greatness and baseness; infiniteness and finiteness, in one person.

The church itself is a mystical thing. For under baseness, under the scorn of the world, what is hidden? A glorious people. The state of the church in this world is like a weather-beaten tree. The leaves and fruit are gone, but there is life in the root. So what is the church? A company of men who are in the world without glory, without comeliness and beauty; yet for all that, they have life in the root, a hidden life: “Our life is hid with Christ, in God” (Col 3:3).

The church has a life, but it is a hidden, mystical life, a life under death. They seem to die to the world, but they are alive. St. Paul excellently and contemplatively follows this out: “As dying, and yet we live; as poor, yet making many rich” (2 Cor 6:9-10). A strange kind of people: poor and rich, living and dying, glorious and base. Yet this is the state of the church here in this world. They are an excellent people, but they are veiled under infirmities of their own, and the disgraces and persecutions of the world. So we see that the doctrine itself, and the graces, and the head of the church, and the church itself, are nothing but mysteries.

Use 1. Is it so that religion is a mystery? Then, first of all, do not wonder that it is not known in the world, and that it is not only not known, but persecuted and hated. Alas! It is a hidden thing. Men do not know its excellency. The sons of great men in a foreign country are not received according to their worth, but according to what strangers take them to be. So these divine truths find little acceptance in the world, because they are mysteries; not only mysteries in doctrine, but in practice. Therefore the practice meets such opposition in the world. “Father, forgive them,” says our blessed Savior, “they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34). The world does not know what it is doing when it hates and persecutes religion and religious persons.

The church is a mystical thing, and religion is a mystery. It is hidden from them. Shall we be moved by the disgraceful speeches of carnal men? They speak they know not what. The thing they speak against is a mystery. Therefore why should we regard the speeches of the world, or follow the example of the world in embracing religion? Religion is a mystery. However great the world may be, this is not the knowledge of great men or of rich men; it is the knowledge of godly men. It is a “mystery of godliness.” Shall we follow the example of the world in religion when it is a mystery, and a mystery “of godliness,” which only godly men know and embrace? Therefore do not look to the greatness of position, or abilities. It is a mystery.

Use 2. Again, if it is a mystery, then it should teach us to carry ourselves suitably to it. Nature taught even the heathen to carry themselves reverently in their mysteries: “Away, begone all profane.” Let us therefore carry ourselves reverently toward the truth of God, toward all truths, however contrary they may be to our reason. They are mysteries altogether above nature. There are some seeds of the law in nature, but there are no seeds of the gospel in nature. Therefore we should come to it with a great deal of reverence. St. Paul teaches us an excellent lesson in Romans 11:33. When he entered into a depth that he could not fathom, did he cavil at it? No. “Oh the depth! Oh the depth!” So in all the truths of God, when we cannot comprehend them, let us reverence them with silence, and say with him, “Oh the depth!”

Divine things are mysteries; the sacraments are mysteries. Let us carry ourselves toward them with reverence. What is the reason that there is one word in the Greek and in other languages to signify both common and profane? Because those who come to holy things with common affections and common conduct profane them; because as the things are great, so they require suitable conduct, not common conduct. We profane the sacrament if we take the bread and wine as a common feast, as St. Paul says, “You discern not the Lord’s body” (1 Cor 11:29). We profane mysteries when we do not discern. Beasts and beast-like men do not discern the relation of things: that these outward elements have reference to great matters, to the body and blood of Christ. They do not discern them from common bread and wine, though they are used to raise up our souls to the bread of life.

So likewise when we come to the word of God and do not look to our feet (Eccl 5:1), but come to the church as if we were going to a play or some common place, without prayer, without preparation; when we come with common affections, this is to come profanely. Here we come to mysteries, to high things, to great matters. Therefore when we come to converse with God we must not come with common affections. We must carry ourselves holily in holy business, or else we offer to God “strange fire” (Num 26:61). “God was in this place,” says Jacob, “and I was not aware of it” (Gen 28:16). So when we come to hear the word, when we go to pray, when we receive the sacrament, God is here, and mysteries are here, and we are not aware of it.

It is a shame for us not to labor to bring suitable dispositions. It is a matter of such consequence that life or death depends on it. You know what St. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 11:30: “For this very cause some are sick, and some weak, and some sleep,” some die. Why? For coming with common affection, for “not discerning the Lord’s body,” for not examining ourselves, for not having dispositions that answer to the greatness of the mysteries we go about. Let us not think it enough to come to the sacrament, and then let loose the reins to every kind of vanity. The very heathen would be ashamed of that. It is the bane and blemish of religion, and such a thing that we may fear God will give all Christendom a purge for it, I mean, for our excess.

To apply this to the feast of Christ’s nativity: there is a lawful use of feasting and comely recreations. But to come with unjustifiable vanities, which are not fit at any time, when we should honor God for the greatest gift that ever was, for the incarnation of his Son; to be more profanely disposed then, and to give ourselves to more loose living than at other times, how can this fail to provoke the justice of God, especially since it is so common? Among other things we may justly look for the vengeance of God for this, and not only upon this or that place, for it is the fault of Christendom. Shall we carry ourselves so profanely at these times, when we should walk in a holy disposition? Is this the way to be thankful to God?

Let us labor to receive and embrace these mysteries of the gospel as we should, with conduct that suits them. For the gospel will stay no longer than it has love and affections suited to the greatness of the thing. The gospel may leave us, we do not know how soon, and go to people who are as barbarous as we were before the gospel came to us. The Romans thought they had victory tied to them, but we do not have these mysteries of the gospel tied to us. If we do not labor for conduct that answers to them, then, as God has removed the gospel from the Eastern churches of Asia, which are now under the tyranny of the Turks, so he may, and we do not know how soon, take away these blessed and glorious mysteries.

Let us reverence these mysteries and bless God for them, and labor to express our thankfulness in our lives and conduct, so that God may delight to continue with us and continue his blessed truth among us. Only consider for yourselves what justice there would be in truths being thrust upon people who do not care for them, who live under the mysteries of the gospel with as much liberty to the flesh as if they had never heard of it, whose lives are no better than those of pagans, and perhaps worse. When these things become general, will God continue these mysteries to us, when our affection and conduct are so out of proportion to them? Judge these things for yourselves. God would deal justly with us if he left us to the darkness of heathenism, and popery, and confusion, and carried the gospel farther west still, to a people who never heard of it, where it would have a better welcome than it has had from us. I beg you, let us labor to carry ourselves in a way that answers to this blessed and great mystery, if we want to have it continued longer among us.

Use 3. Again, are these things mysteries, great mysteries? Let us bless God, who has revealed them to us, for the glorious gospel. Oh, how St. Paul, in every epistle, stirs people up to be thankful for the revealing of these mysteries! What cause the Gentiles have, who were “in the shadow of death” before, to be thankful to God! What kind of nation were we in Julius Caesar’s time? As barbarous as the West Indians. The cannibals were as good as we were. We who were like that before have not only been civilized by the gospel but have had the means of salvation disclosed to us. What cause we have to be enlarged in thankfulness! And shall we show our thankfulness by provoking his majesty?

Nothing in the world gives such ground for thankfulness as the glorious gospel, which brings such glorious things as it does. Men are thankful to men for teaching them and disclosing to them the mysteries of their trades; and shall God disclose the great mysteries of the gospel of Christ, and shall we not be thankful? Are there not thousands who “sit in darkness” (Isa 42:7)? Is not the Roman Church under the “mystery of iniquity” (2 Thess 2:7)? And that we should have the glorious mysteries of the gospel revealed to us, that the veil should be taken off and we should see the face of God in Christ (2 Cor 4:6), what a matter of thankfulness this is to all gracious hearts that have ever felt comfort from it!

Use 4. Again, it is a mystery. Therefore it should also teach us not to set about the knowledge of it with any wits or abilities of our own, thinking to search into it merely by strength of wit and study of books and all the human helps there can be. It is a mystery, and it must be unveiled by God himself, by his Spirit. If we set upon this mystery only with wits and abilities of our own, then whatever our wits cannot pierce into we will judge to be untrue, as if our wits were the measure of divine truth, so that as much as we can conceive is true, and as much as we cannot conceive is not true. What pride this is in flesh, in worms of the earth, to make their own apprehensions and notions of things the measure of divine truth, as heretics have done in times past!

It was the fault of the schoolmen in later times. They would come with their logic alone and their strong wits, and such learning as those dark times afforded, to speak of grace, of the gospel, of justification. They spoke of it and drew their distinctions in a merely metaphysical and carnal manner. And so they brought only human learning. They were furnished with Plato and other natural learning, and with these they thought to break through all the mysteries of religion. We must not wrestle with the difficulties of religion with natural abilities.

It is a mystery. Now therefore it must have a double veil taken off: a veil from the thing, and the veil from our eyes. It is a mystery in regard to the things themselves and in regard to us. It is not enough that the things now revealed by the gospel are full of light; there must also be taken from our hearts whatever hinders our sight.

The sun is a most glorious creature, the most visible object in the world. But what is that to a blind man who has scales on his eyes? So divine truth is glorious. It is light in itself, but there are scales on the eyes of the soul. There is a film that must be taken off. There is a veil over the heart, as St. Paul says of the Jews, and therefore they could not see the scope of Moses, directing all to Christ. By nature there is a veil over people’s hearts, and that is the reason why, however many abilities they have, and though the things are light in themselves, they still cannot see. Therefore, I say, the veil must be taken both from the things and from our hearts, so that, light being shed into hearts full of light, both may close together.

Use 5. Again, being a mystery, it cannot be derived from the principles of nature; it cannot be derived from reasons.

Question. But does reason have no use, then, in the gospel?

Answer. Yes. Sanctified reason has a use, to draw sanctified conclusions from sanctified principles. Reason is of use in these mysteries this far, to show that they are not opposed to reason. They are above reason, but they are not contrary to it, just as the light of the sun is above the light of a candle but is not contrary to it. The same thing may be the object of both faith and reason. The immortality of the soul is a matter of faith, and it is well proved by the heathen by the light of reason. And in things that reason can conceive of, it is a delightful thing to the soul to have a double light, both the light of nature and the light of grace and of God’s Spirit, for the more light the more comfort.

What reason should do here is to stoop to faith in things that are altogether above reason, such as conceiving of Christ in the womb of a virgin, the joining of two natures in one, the Trinity of persons in one divine nature, and the like. Here the greatest reason is to yield reason to faith. Faith is the reason of reasons in these things, and the greatest reason is to yield to God, who has revealed them. Is it not the greatest reason in the world to believe him who is truth itself? He has said it; therefore reason itself says it is the greatest reason to yield to God, who is truth itself.

Therefore faith stands with the greatest reason there can be. For things have a greater being in God’s word than in themselves, and faith is above reason. Therefore it is the reason of reasons to believe when we have things revealed in the word. That is one use of reason in mysteries: to stop the mouths of objectors by reason, and to show that it is no unreasonable thing to believe.

Use 6. Again, seeing it is a mystery, let no one despair. It is not the quickness of the pupil that carries the day here; it is the excellence of the teacher. If God’s Spirit is the teacher, it does not matter how dull the pupil is. It is a mystery. Pride in great abilities is a greater hindrance than simplicity in lesser ones. Therefore Christ, in Matthew 11:25, glorifies God that he had revealed these things to the simple, and concealed them from the proud. Let no one despair, for the statutes of God “give understanding to the simple,” as the psalmist says (Ps 119:130). God is such an excellent, mighty teacher that where he finds no wit he can create wit. He has a privilege above other teachers: he not only teaches the thing, but gives wit and understanding. It is a mystery. Therefore, as no one should be so proud as to think of breaking through it with wit and abilities, so let no one despair, considering that God can raise shallow and weak wits to apprehend this great mystery.

Use 7. It is a mystery; therefore take heed of slighting divine truths. The empty, shallow heads of the world make great matters of trifles, stand amazed at baubles and vanities, and think it a fine accomplishment to slight divine things. This great mystery of godliness they despise. That which the angels themselves stand in wonder at and are students of, the wits of the world slight and despise, or trifle with, as if it were a matter not worth reckoning. But I leave such people to reformation, or to God’s just judgment, which has given them up to such an extreme of madness and folly. Let us labor to set a high price on the mysteries of godliness.

Question. How shall we come to know this mystery as we should, and to carry ourselves in a way that answers to it?

Answer. We must ask God to open our eyes, so that, as the light has shined, as the apostle says, “the grace of God hath shined” (Titus 2:11), and as there is a brightness in the mysteries, so there may be a brightness in our eye. In nature, all things require a double light, the brightness in the medium and the brightness in the sight. So here: though the mysteries are now revealed by preaching and books and other helps, yet to see this mystery and make a right use of it, a spiritual light is required to join with this outward light. And from this comes the necessity of depending on God’s Spirit in our dealings with this mystery.

We must use all helps and means, or else we tempt God. We must read and hear, and above all we must pray, as you see David do in Psalm 119:18: “Open mine eyes, Lord, that I may see wonders in thy law.” There are wonders in your law, but my eyes must be opened to see them. He had sight before, but he still desires a further and clearer sight. And like the poor man in the gospel who cried after Christ, when he was asked, “What wouldst thou have? Lord, that mine eyes might be opened” (Matt 20:33), so every one of us, considering that it is such a ravishing mystery, should cry after God and Christ, “Lord, that my eyes might be opened, that I may see wonders in thy law”; that I may see the wonders in your gospel, “the unsearchable riches of Christ” (Eph 3:8).

That is why St. Paul, in Ephesians 1:17, prays for “the Spirit of revelation,” that God would grant that Spirit to take away the veil of ignorance and unbelief from our souls so that we may see; and, as it is in Ephesians 3:18, “that we may comprehend the height, and breadth, and length, and depth,” and all the dimensions of God’s love in Christ. This must be done by the Spirit of God, for as St. Paul divinely reasons in 1 Corinthians 2:11, “Who knows the things of God, but the Spirit of God?” Therefore we must plow with God’s heifer. If we would know the things of the Spirit, we must have the same Spirit.

Now the Spirit teaches not only the truths of the gospel but the application of those truths, that they are ours: this truth of the gospel is mine; the sacrament seals it to me. The preaching of the word takes away the veil from the things, and the Spirit takes away the veil from our souls. It is the office of the Spirit to take the veil off the heart and to enlighten our understandings, and also to be a Spirit of application to us in particular. It is to no purpose to know that these things are mysteries unless they are for us and for our good, so that we know Christ is ours and God is reconciled to us. Therefore, says the apostle, “he hath given us the Spirit, to know the things that are given us of God” in particular (1 Cor 2:12).

So the Spirit not only brings a blessed light to the Scriptures and shows us the meaning in general, but he is a Spirit of application, bringing home those gracious promises to each one in particular, telling us the things that are given us of God, not only the things given to the church but those given to us in particular. For the Spirit of God will tell us what is in the breast of God, his secret good will to the church. He loves the church and he loves you, says the Spirit. Therefore he is called an “earnest” and a “seal” in our hearts, because he discloses not only the truth at large but the truth of God’s affection in all the privileges of the gospel, that they belong to us. What a blessed disclosure this is, which not only reveals divine truths to us, but reveals them to us in such a way that we have our share and interest in them!

1. Therefore, whenever we take the Book of God into our hands, whenever we come to hear the word, beg God for the Spirit. “My house,” says God, “shall be called the house of prayer” (Isa 56:7), not only the house of hearing divine truths, but the house of prayer. In the use of means we must look up to God and Christ. It is impudence and presumption to come to these things without lifting up our souls to God. The reason there is so little profit under these glorious mysteries is that there is so little prayer and lifting up of the heart to God. We should go to Christ, who “opens, and no man shuts; and shuts, and no man opens” (Rev 3:7). He has the key of David. Go to him, therefore, that he may both open the mysteries and open our hearts, so that they may close with them.

St. John wept in Revelation 5:4 when the book with “seven seals” could not be opened. He wept that the prophecy was so obscure that it could not be understood; but then Christ takes the book and opens it. So when we cannot understand divine mysteries, let us groan and sigh to Christ. He can open the book with seven seals, and he lays open all the mysteries as far as it concerns us to know. God’s children grieve when things are not disclosed to them.

God’s people have a disposition contrary to that of carnal papists. The papists are vexed that mysteries should be disclosed; God’s people grieve that they are not disclosed enough. The papists make a perverse use of this: divine truths are mysteries, they say, therefore they may not be published to the people. No, divine truths are mysteries; therefore they must be unfolded.

From this comes the necessity of the ministry. For if the gospel is a mystery, that is, a hidden kind of knowledge, then there must be some to reveal it. God has therefore established an office in the church, and with it he joins his own sacred Spirit, so that, ordinance and Spirit joining together, the veil may be taken off: How can they understand without a teacher? (Rom 10:14). And to us is committed the dispensation to preach “the unsearchable riches of Christ,” says St. Paul (Eph 3:6-8). Therefore there is this ordinance to unfold these depths as far as may serve for us.

Profane people think they know enough and need not be taught, as if this were a shallow mystery, or none at all. It shows a profane and wicked heart not to attend on all sanctified means; all are little enough. And sometimes God will not grant his Spirit in one means, because he will make us go to another, and from that to another, and run through them all. He denies his Spirit on purpose in hearing, because he will have us read; and he denies it in that, because he will have us confer together and practice the communion of saints; and all is little enough to apprehend this glorious, excellent mystery. One may know a profane heart, therefore, by its despising the use of any means of knowledge. It is a mystery. Therefore God’s people desire to have it taught.

2. Again, if we would understand these mysteries, let us labor for humble spirits; for the Spirit works that disposition in the first place. “The humble, God will teach” (Ps 25:9), the humble who will depend on his teaching. Now the kind of humility required here is a denial of our own wits, however capacious they are for the things of the world. We must be content “to become fools, that we may be wise” (1 Cor 3:18). We must deny our own understandings, and be content to have no more understanding in divine things than we can carry out of God’s book, than we can be taught by God’s word and ordinances. This humility we must bring if we want to understand this mystery.

3. And bring with it a serious desire to know, with a purpose to be molded to what we know, to be delivered to the obedience of what we know; for then God will disclose it to us. Wisdom is easy to the one who is willing. Together with prayer and humility, let us only bring a purpose and desire to be taught, and we shall find divine wisdom easy to the one who is willing. None ever go astray in the church but those who have false hearts. They do not have humble and sincere hearts, willing to be taught. For if they have that, then God, who has given this sincerity and will, this resolution that they will use the means and be taught, will suit it with teachers.

God usually suits men with teachers fit for their dispositions. Let a man have a wicked heart, and he will find flatterers to build him up in all violent and wicked courses. God in judgment will give him teachers to suit his disposition. But if he is a child of God and has a sincere heart to know the truth, he will meet with some who will be just as sincere in turn in telling him the truth.

Therefore we should pity men less when we see them run into errors. God sees that they have wicked dispositions. Indeed, if they are simple fools, God will have mercy on them, if they are sincere, though they are in error. But if we see men who may know the truth and yet run into errors, know that such a man has a poisonous heart, a malicious bent of heart against the truth, or else God would not give him up to such and such things as he is carried along by. There is much in the disposition of the man who is carried away with false teachers; I mean, where light has been disclosed. But where God gives a willing mind, there he opens his meaning. Wisdom is easy to the one who is willing to understand.

4. And take heed of passion and prejudice, of carnal affections that stir up passion; for they will make the soul unable to see mysteries that are plain in themselves. As we are strong in any passion, so we judge. And the heart, when it is given up to passion, transforms the truth into its own self, as it were. Just as where there is a suffusion of the eye, as in jaundice or the like, it sees colors like itself, and as when the taste is corrupted it tastes things not as they are in themselves but as it is itself, so the corrupt heart transforms this sacred mystery into its own self, and often forces Scripture to defend its own sin and the corrupt state it is in. It will believe what it pleases. What it loves it will force itself to believe, although it is contrary to divine mysteries, when the heart is deeply engaged in any passion or affection.

Let us labor therefore to come with purged hearts (it is the exhortation of the apostles James and Peter) to receive these mysteries; they will lodge only in clean hearts. Let us labor to see God and Christ with a clear eye, free from passion, and covetousness, and vainglory.

We see a notable example of this in the scribes. When they were not led by passion, and covetousness, and envy against Christ, how rightly they could judge of the gospel, and of the unfolding of the prophecies to the wise men! They could tell correctly that he should be born in Bethlehem. But when Christ came among them and opposed their lazy, proud kind of life, which kept people in awe with their ceremonies and so on, then they sinned against the Holy Spirit and against their own light, and bore malice toward Christ, and brought him to his end.

So it is with men. When their minds are clear, before they are overcast with passion and strong affections for the world, they judge clearly of divine things. But when those passions prevail with them, they are opposed, in God’s just judgment, to the truth they saw before; such is the antipathy and jealous rivalry of the heart against this sacred mystery. The heart of itself is an unfit vessel for these holy mysteries; let us ask God to purge and cleanse our hearts.

It is said of the Pharisees in the gospel that when Christ spoke of great matters they scoffed at him. But what does the text say? “They were covetous” (Luke 16:14). Let a covetous, proud man come to hear the word: he does not care to hear these mysteries. His heart is so engaged to the world that he scorns and laughs at it all.

And men are unsettled. Sometimes they will grant truths, and sometimes they will not, as their passions lead them. We see this in their conduct toward St. Paul. Before he disclosed that he was a Pharisee, it was “This man is not worthy to live” (Acts 22:22). But when he disclosed that he was on their side, “I am a Pharisee, and the son of a Pharisee” (Acts 23:6), oh, how finely they minced their words! “Perhaps an angel hath revealed it to him” (Acts 23:9). He was an honest man then. So men either judge or do not judge as their passions and affections carry them. Therefore it is of great consequence to come with clean hearts and minds to the mysteries of God.

Besides this mystery there is a mystery of iniquity, which St. Paul speaks of (2 Thess 2:7). There is the mystery of antichrist as well as the mystery of Christ.

Question. And why is that called a mystery?

Answer. Because mischief, and error, and wickedness are conveyed under seeming truth, and goodness, and virtue, just as in this mystery grace and goodness are conveyed to the world under a show of baseness and meanness. Therefore it is said in Revelation 17:5 that the beast has “mystery” in her forehead. Indeed, there is the “mystery of iniquity” in popery. It was literally fulfilled in Julius the Second, for on his papal crown there was written “Mystery,” until at last it was blotted out, and in its place was written, “Julius the Second, Pope.” They began to smell that it might be found out. This is recorded by those who saw it. It is a mystery indeed, but a “mystery of iniquity.” But more particularly:

Question. How is it a mystery of iniquity?

Answer. Because, under the name of Christ and of the Christian religion, he is antichrist, opposed to Christ. He is both an opposite (so the word antichrist signifies) and a rival, one who would be like Christ, a vice-Christ. He is such an opposite as would yet be his vicar. Under color of religion he overthrows all religion; and while he would be head of the catholic church, he is head of the catholic apostasy.

These God will have in the church together, the mystery of godliness and of ungodliness, of Christ and of antichrist. Why? That the one may be a foil to the other. And how shall men magnify, and relish, and highly esteem this mystery I speak of, unless they look, by way of opposition, at the mystery of antichrist, and see how contrary those courses are? Alas, the reason they so oppose the gospel and its purity is that they are contrary mysteries. That mystery must be maintained by ignorance. The gospel, which is a mystery, must be revealed, and God has ordained that it should be revealed more and more.

Therefore those who would support popery, who are friends of it, are enemies to the gospel and to those who publish it; they cannot carry off their underhanded dealing smoothly. All popish spirits are enemies to the mystery of godliness, because where this mystery is, it blows upon the “mystery of iniquity.” Indeed, the overthrowing of error is the exposing of it, for no one would willingly be cheated. Popery must be exposed with the breath of Christ, that is, with a mystery which is too sharp a breath for antichrist’s mystery to bear.

Therefore do not blame them for being such bitter opponents of the publishing of divine truths; the one mystery consumes the other. As Moses’ rod devoured all the other rods, so truth eats up all opposing errors whatsoever. Only look at experience. Wherever truth is planted (the gospel and the ordinances and the religion of God), see how Satan “falls down like lightning” (Luke 10:18), and antichrist falls. But this is by the way, to give a luster to the other. There are many other mysteries besides the mystery of iniquity in popery. Every trade has its mystery, and there are mysteries and secrets of state. But this is the mystery of all mysteries, which we should give ourselves most of all to understand. Therefore it is said to be a “great mystery.”

1. That is the attribute. It is a “great mystery.” And here I might go on endlessly. For it is not only great as a mystery, that is, in that much of it is concealed; it is a great and excellent mystery if we consider where it came from, from the bosom of God, from the wisdom of God. If we consider all who had any hand in it (God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; the angels attending on the church; the apostles, the penmen; preachers and ministers, the publishers of it), it is a “great mystery.”

2. If we consider the end of it, to bring together God and man, man who had fallen, to bring him back again to God, to bring him from the depth of misery to the height of all happiness, it is a “great mystery” in this respect.

3. Again, it is “great” for the manifold wisdom that God disclosed in the publishing of it by certain degrees: first in types, and afterward he came to truths; first in promises, and then performances. First the Jews were the church of God, and then the Gentiles come in: a sweet, manifold, and deep wisdom. It was a great mystery in the manner of conveying it from time to time, from the beginning of the world.

4. Again, it is a great mystery because it works. For it is such a mystery as is not only a discovery of secrets, but it transforms those who know it and believe it. We are transformed by it to the likeness of Christ, of whom it is a mystery, to be as he is, full of grace. It has a transforming, changing power. It gives spiritual sight to the blind, and spiritual ears to the deaf, and spiritual life to the dead. Whatever Christ did in the days of his flesh to the outward man, he does by his Spirit to the inward man, even by the publication of this mystery. Wonders are wrought by it daily.

5. If we consider any part of it, Christ, or his church, or anything, it is a mystery, and a “great mystery.” It must necessarily be great, when the very angels desire to pry into it (1 Pet 1:12).

6. It is a great mystery if we regard those who could not pry into it. As 1 Corinthians 2:6, 8 has it, the wise men of the world understood nothing of it: “Where is the philosopher?” (1 Cor 1:20). No natural abilities in the world could ever enter into this. It is above the sharpest wit, the deepest judgment, the farthest-reaching mind. They are all nothing here. It is a “great mystery.” It is a depth above all depths of natural abilities whatsoever. It is a wondrous depth. It has all dimensions, the depth and height of the love of God in Christ, and the “unsearchable riches of Christ,” says the apostle Paul.

7. Again, it is a great mystery because it makes us great. It makes times great, and the persons great who live in those times. What made John the Baptist greater than all the prophets and others in those times? It was because he saw Christ come in the flesh. What made those after John the Baptist greater than he? They saw Christ ascend gloriously, which John the Baptist did not. So persons and times are more or less glorious as they have a greater or lesser manifestation of this mystery. Great is that mystery itself that makes all things great, that makes times and persons great.

What made the times of Christ so great? “Happy are the eyes that see that that your eyes see, and the ears that hear that that your ears hear” (Matt 13:16). Why? Because the Messiah had come. What made the second temple greater than the first? The first, which was Solomon’s temple, was more magnificent than the other. Oh, it was because Christ came in the time of the second temple and taught there. So it is the manifestation of Christ’s truth that makes times and places glorious. Will he not, then, make the soul glorious where he is? Certainly he does.

What makes these times glorious? Were it not for our unthankful, dark hearts, we would acknowledge that they are blessed times that all of us have lived in under the gospel. What makes them so glorious? The glorious gospel, which shines in these times out of the Egyptian darkness of popery. We are little thankful for it, and that threatens a removal of the gospel. For when such great things are held in no esteem and undervalued, with men living under the gospel as badly as under paganism, will God continue these great things among us, to be vilified like this and held in no esteem?

Let us take heed therefore that we set a higher price on religion. It is a mystery, and a great mystery; therefore it must have great esteem. It brings great comfort and great privileges. It is the “word of the kingdom.” It is a “glorious gospel,” not only because it promises glory, but because it makes the soul glorious, more excellent than other persons. Let us raise in our hearts a greater esteem of this excellent truth. It is a “great mystery.”

8. Again, it is a great mystery if compared to all other mysteries. Creation was a great mystery, for all things to be made out of nothing, order out of confusion. For God to make man a glorious creature from the dust of the earth was a great matter. But what is this in comparison with God being made man? It was a great and wondrous thing for Israel to be delivered out of Egypt and Babylon; but what are those to the deliverance out of hell and damnation by the gospel? What are the mysteries of nature, the miracles of nature, the lodestone, and so on, to these supernatural mysteries? There are mysteries in the providence of God, in governing the world; there are mysteries of Satan, mysteries of iniquity, that deceive the world. The wise men of the world all wonder at the beast (Rev 13:3), a great mystery. But what are all mysteries, whether of nature or of hell, to this “great mystery”? I might go on endlessly on this point.

Use 1. Learn from blessed St. Paul how to be affected when we speak and think of the glorious truth of God: we should work on our hearts, to have large thoughts and large expressions of it. St. Paul did not think it sufficient to call it a mystery, but called it a great mystery. He does not only call it “riches,” but “unsearchable riches.” So when he speaks of the fruits of the gospel, what extraordinary words the Scripture has: “Peace of conscience that passeth understanding” (Phil 4:7); and “joy unspeakable and glorious” (1 Pet 1:8); “we are brought out of darkness into marvellous light” (1 Pet 2:9); as if all things in the gospel were full of wonder, both the thing itself and its fruits.

Surely all who have the same spirit, and have their eyes open to see these excellent mysteries in any measure, are in some measure disposed as the blessed apostle was. That is, they have full hearts, and, corresponding to that, they have full expressions. Out of the riches and treasure of the heart the mouth will speak. Therefore let us be ashamed of the deadness, and dullness, and narrowness of our hearts when we are to conceive or speak of these things, and labor to have full expressions of them.

(1) And so that we may do this the better, let us labor to have as deep conceptions in our understandings as we can of that mystery of sinfulness that is in us, and that mystery of misery. The cursed state we are in by nature cannot be conceived. It cannot be conceived what a depth of corruption is in this heart of ours, and how it issues out in sinful thoughts, and speeches, and actions every day.

Indeed, there is a height, and breadth, and depth of corruption in man’s heart; and there is a height, and breadth, and depth of the misery of man. For as it is said of this blessed estate, “neither eye hath seen, nor ear hath heard, nor hath entered into the heart of man to conceive the things that God hath prepared for those that love him” (1 Cor 2:9), so indeed neither has eye seen, nor has ear heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man to conceive the misery that men are in by nature. There are only some flashes of conscience, to give a little taste in this world of that misery into which men in the state of nature fall when they depart.

Therefore the more clear knowledge we have of the mystery of corruption (how prone our hearts are to deceive us) and of the great misery we are in by nature, the more we shall wonder at the boundless and bottomless goodness of God in the mystery of our salvation. The one will sharpen the appetite for the other. And indeed, we ought to have views of these two every day, to look to the state we are brought out of if we believe. If we are not yet in the state of grace, let us only consider what we are, how little there is between us and eternal destruction, that we are ready to drop into hell irrecoverably; and along with that, consider again the infinite love of God in Jesus. These are things fit to take up our thoughts.

(2) Again, if we would have large and deeply felt thoughts and conceptions of these things, such as the blessed apostle had, let us set some time apart to meditate on these things, till the heart is warmed. Let us labor to fasten our thoughts on them, as much as we can, every day, to consider the excellency of this mystery of religion in itself, and the fruit of it in this world and in the world to come. It is a good occupation, for from it we shall come to wonder at nothing else in the world.

What is the reason that men are taken up with wonder at petty mysteries, at poor things? Because their thoughts were never raised to higher considerations. A wise man will wonder at nothing, because he knows greater things than the objects presented to him; he has seen greater measures than those. So it is with a wise Christian. Do you think he will stand wondering at great and rich men, at great positions and honors, and such things? He knows, indeed, how to give the respect that is due. But alas! He has had greater matters in the eye of his soul. And what is great in this world to him to whom the world itself is not great? What is great in this world to him to whom Christ is great, to whom heaven and the mysteries of religion are great? All other things are little to him to whom these things are great.

Christ rebuked his disciples when they said, “O, Master, what kind of stones are here?” Here are “goodly stones and buildings” indeed. “Oh,” says Christ, “are these the things you wonder at? I tell you, that not one stone shall be left upon another” (Matt 24:2). So it is the nature of shallow men to wonder at the things of this world, to be taken with empty, vain things. Are these the things we wonder at?

If we would wonder, let us come to religion. There we have him “whose name is Wonderful” (Isa 9:6). Christ’s name is Wonderful because all is wonderful in Christ. He is wonderful in his person, in his offices, in the carrying out of them: to bring us to life by death, to glory by shame. He is wonderful in his government of his church: he governs by afflictions, by conforming us to himself, to bring us to glory; he perfects his work in abasement, bringing it low that he may raise it afterward. There are wonders every way in Christ, not only in himself, but in all his ways. There is “peace that passeth understanding,” joy unspeakable and glorious.

Religion will teach us what to wonder at. We see that of those who are under antichrist, under the mystery of iniquity, it is said, “They wonder at the beast” (Rev 17:8). Oh, what a goodly order they have among them, one under another! What a wise structure it is! What a linking together of things! All is wonderful. Indeed, it is fitting for those to wonder at it who have not seen these wondrous mysteries of the gospel. But those who have spiritual eye-salve to enlighten the eye of their souls, to see how great these blessed mysteries are, will be far from wondering at any earthly thing, much less at the mystery of antichrist.

Use 2. It is a “great mystery.” Therefore let us bring great endeavors to learn it, and great respect toward it, and great love to God for it. Let everything in us correspond to this “great mystery,” which is a “great mystery.”

“Without controversy.” It is so under the broad seal of public confession, as the word the apostle uses signifies in general: by the confession of all, it is “great.” It is a confessed truth that the “mystery of godliness is great.” As if the apostle had said, “I need not give you greater confirmation; it is, without question or controversy, a great mystery.”

Objection. What is more opposed than the mystery of godliness?

Answer. We must therefore take St. Paul’s meaning in a right sense. It is “a great mystery” for this very reason, that it is disputed by so many great intellects. Were it altogether obvious and open, they would never dispute it. It is without controversy on these two grounds.

(1) In itself, it is not to be doubted. It is a great, grounded truth, as full of light and as clear as if the gospel were written with a sunbeam, as one says. There is nothing clearer and more beyond controversy than sacred gospel truths.

(2) And as they are clear and full of light in themselves, so they are grasped by all God’s people. However much it is disputed by others, they are not worth taking into account. All who are children of the church, who have their eyes open, confess it to be so, and wonder at it as a “great mystery.” Without any doubt or controversy they embrace it.

Things in the gospel are not so clear that all who are sinful and rebellious may see them whether they will or not. For then it would be no great matter to have faith; it would be no great matter to be a Christian; and then men could not be rebellious, because things would be so clear. Things in the gospel are not so clear that they take away all rebellion, or that it is no grace to see that they are clear. But to those who are rightly disposed and have sanctified souls, they are “without controversy”; and things are said in Scripture to be as they are to those who are holily disposed.

The immortality of the soul is clear by reason from nature; yet, notwithstanding, ill-disposed souls will not be convinced of the soul’s immortality, but live and die like atheists in that particular. The reason is clear, but it is not clear to a sluggish, ill-disposed, perverse soul.

Therefore God orders the manifestation of gospel truths especially so that they may be clear to those whose eyes are open, and not to others. It is not that they would not be clear to these others if their eyes were open, but that they oppose them, and raise up rebellion and stubbornness of heart against them. It is an undeniable argument to prove the Scripture to be the word of God to a well-disposed soul; but come to another, and he will never stop quibbling. Yet a man may say, “without controversy,” it is the word of God, because it is so to a sanctified soul. Other persons are not to be taken into account in divine things. Therefore the apostle speaks of these truths as they are to God’s people, “without controversy.” Hence, then, we may know who is a true Christian: he who brings a firm assent to gospel truths, that they are “great without controversy.”

Question. But is there no staggering? Is there no fear that it may be otherwise?

Answer. Yes, there is. But in faith, so far as it is faith, there is no doubting, no contrariety, for staggering and wavering are contrary to the nature of faith and believing. But because there are always two contrary principles in a believer, therefore there is doubting in a believer, and wavering. Therefore we are exhorted to grow more and more; and the purpose of the ministry is not only to lay the foundation of a believer at the first, but to build them up, so that they are not carried away with every vain doctrine.

It is a truth, confessed to be true; for divine truths are conveyed in a history, in the history of the gospel. And what ground have we to call them in question, any more than the history of Thucydides, or the history of Livy, or the like? We accept those because they are the histories of those times. So the mystery of the gospel is “without controversy,” because it is a mystery in a history. In this respect a man who denies it is more unreasonable than he who denies Livy’s book to be Livy’s, or Tacitus to be Tacitus. No man calls these into question. Why should we question this that is the “mystery of godliness,” set down in the history of Christ, of his birth, his life, and death? But not to press that further.

Use 1. I will only make the use of it that a great scholar in his time, a noble earl of Mirandola, once made on this point. If there is no calling these things into question, if they have been confirmed by so many miracles (as they have been, in a strict sense), why then, how is it that men live as if they made no question of their falsehood? What kind of men are those who live as if it were “without controversy” that Christian truths had no truth at all in them? Men live so carelessly and profanely, and slight and scorn these great mysteries, as if they made no question but that they are false.

The lives of men show that they do not believe this, that it is true beyond question. To give an instance or two: if a man had to go through a storm for some great matter, and if he really believed he would receive some great advancement, would he not venture it? Certainly he would. Those, therefore, who will not venture anything for this excellent treasure, this unsearchable treasure, for a share in the gospel, do they believe it? He who will not part with a penny to gain a thousand pounds, does he believe that he shall have so much? Certainly he does not. There is such a disproportion between what he parts with and what is promised that if he did believe it, his heart would yield and assent to it, and he would buy it with the loss of such a petty thing. How much more in this case, when such an excellent treasure is set before us!

Those, therefore, who will deny themselves no lust, who will part with nothing for Christ’s sake, do they believe these things that the apostle says are “without controversy”? Certainly they do not. For there is less disproportion in the things I named before than between any earthly thing and the great good things we have laid open here in the mysteries of salvation. Therefore we may see by this that there is little faith in the world.

Use 2. Again, in that he says, “Without controversy,” or confessedly, “great is the mystery of godliness,” we may know from this what truths are to be received as catholic, universal truths: those that are received without question. Then, if the question is which is the catholic truth, popery or our religion, I say, not popery, but our religion. I prove it from this. That which all churches have held “without controversy” from the apostles’ time (yes, and the adversaries and opponents of the church too), that is catholic.

But the positive points of our religion have been held in all times and in all churches, even among the adversaries: that the Scripture is the word of God; that it is to be read; that Christ is the mediator; that Christ has reconciled God and man. All the positive parts of our religion have been confessed, “without controversy,” ever since the apostles’ times, by all writers; and they still are, even among the papists themselves, for they hold all the positive points that we do. They hold the reading of the Scripture, but not in the mother tongue. They hold that the Scripture is the word of God, but not alone, but traditions also. They hold that Christ is mediator, but not alone. So they add their part, but they hold the positive parts that we hold.

Therefore I ground this on the text: that which has been held “without controversy” in all times and ages of the church, and held “without controversy” by ourselves and the adversaries, is more catholic and general than those things in which they dissent from us, which were not held from the apostles’ times (for they were the inventions of popes, one after another; their fooleries, in which they differ from us, are late inventions, and we do not hold them). They are less catholic than what they and we and all Christians have held ever since the apostles’ times. But to come to a practical use.

Use 3. Therefore when the truths of religion are made known to us by the ministry, or by reading, when they are conveyed to our knowledge by any sanctified means, let us put these questions to our own souls: Are these things so or not? Yes. Do I believe them to be so or not? Yes. If I do believe them, then consider what the affection and inward disposition is, whether it is suitable to such things. And so let us work on our hearts that our knowledge may be affective knowledge, a knowledge with a taste, that sinks even to the very affections, that pierces through the whole soul, so that the affections may yield as well as the understanding. And let us never cease till there is a correspondence between the affection and the truth. Are they true? Believe them. Are they good? Embrace them.

Let us never rest till our hearts embrace them, as our understanding conceives them. And if the affections do not embrace them, let us think that there is a defect in our grasp of them, and that we are calling them into question. For always, in proportion to the weight and the depth of our grasp of the truth, the affection is stirred up, and the will is stirred up to embrace it. A man knows no more in religion than he loves and embraces with the affections of his soul.

The affections are planted for this end, upon the report of that which is good to them, to embrace it, to join with it. Therefore let us never think our state good till we find our hearts warmed with the goodness of divine, supernatural truths. “Oh! how do I love thy law!” says David (Ps 119:97). He wonders at his own affections. Let us labor to have great affections, corresponding to the things, and never stop till we can love them and rejoice and delight in them as the greatest things; and with blessed St. Paul, account all as dung and dross, in comparison of them (Phil 3:8).

That knowledge alone is saving knowledge that works the heart to love, to joy and delight, that works the whole man to practice and obedience; that alone is spiritual knowledge. All other knowledge serves for nothing but to give God matter for justifying our damnation. Our damnation will be just, because, knowing these things, we do not work on our hearts to love them, but rest in the naked, barren knowledge of them. It is a pitiful thing to know things no further and no deeper than to supply matter for our just damnation. Now all who do not have a transforming knowledge, who do not have a spiritual knowledge, are in this state.

Therefore we should labor to see spiritual things in a spiritual light; for where spiritual light is, there is always spiritual heat; where spiritual clarity is in the understanding, there is spiritual embracing in the affections. Clarity brings life. Supernatural light and supernatural life go together. Let us labor, therefore, that our grasp of these great mysteries may be supernatural and spiritual; and then, as the judgment grasps them “without controversy” to be true, the affections will be present to join with them. So much for the preface, “without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness.” Now we come to the particulars of this great mystery:

God manifested in the flesh (1 Tim 3:16).

This, and the other branches that follow, are all spoken of Christ. Indeed, the “mystery of godliness” is nothing but Christ and what Christ did. Christ was “manifested in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached to the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up in glory.” So from the general we may observe this:

Christ is the aim of Scripture.

Christ is the pearl of that ring; Christ is the main thing, the center where all those lines end. Take away Christ, and what remains? Therefore in the whole of the Scriptures, let us see that we keep an eye on Christ; all is nothing but Christ. The mystery of religion is Christ “manifested in the flesh, justified in the Spirit…”; all is but Christ.

And that is the reason the Jews do not understand the Scriptures better: they do not seek Christ there. Take away Christ and you take everything out of the Scriptures; they are but empty things. Therefore, when we read them, let us think of something so that they may lead us to Christ, as all the Scriptures lead, one way or another, to Christ. I might show this in particular, but I only name it in general.

He begins here with this: “God manifested in the flesh.” This means not God taken essentially, but God taken personally. God, in the second person, was manifested. All actions are of persons. The second person was incarnate. The three persons are all God; yet they were not all incarnate, because this was a personal action of the second person.

Question. And why in that person?

Answer. Because he was the image of God, and none but the image of God could restore us to that image. He was the Son of God, and none but the natural Son could make us sons. He is the “wisdom” of the Father, to make us wise, and he is the “first beloved,” to make us beloved. Such reasons are given by the schoolmen, and they do not disagree with Scripture. For indeed the great work of the incarnation, “God in the flesh,” belongs properly to the second person. Therefore they usually compare the incarnation of Christ to a garment made by three virgins, who are sisters, and one of them wears it. So all three persons had a hand in the garment of Christ’s flesh. The Father had a work in it, and the Holy Spirit sanctified it, yet only the Son wore it. Therefore the second person is “God manifest in the flesh.”

By “flesh” here is meant human nature, what properly belongs to human nature, both body and soul. And by “flesh” is also usually understood the infirmities and weakness of man, the miserable condition of man. So “God manifest in the flesh” means that he put on our nature and its properties; and not only that, but our infirmities and weaknesses and our miseries. And what is more, he took our flesh when it was tainted with treason, our base nature after it had fallen, which was a wondrous fruit of love. It is as if someone should wear a man’s colors or livery after he has been proclaimed a traitor; that is a great grace to such a man. For Christ to wear our garment when we had been proclaimed traitors, after we had fallen, was a wondrous honor done to us.

And he took not only our nature, but our flesh. He was “God manifest in the flesh,” that is, in the infirmities of our nature. He took our whole nature, a human body and a human soul. And he took our nature upon himself when it was at its worst; not in innocence, but with all the infirmities that are natural infirmities, not personal ones. Therefore he came to be so that he might be full of pity.

Question. You will say, “How can he be full of pity? There are many infirmities that he did not take upon himself; he did not take all infirmities upon himself.”

Answer. By proportion to those that he took, he knew how to be full of pity toward those he did not take. He is infinitely wise. He knows how to make the proportion. It is often stated, as in Hebrews 2:18 and Hebrews 4:15, that one end of his taking our nature upon himself was that he might be a pitying and merciful redeemer.

Objection. But some will say, “Indeed, he took my nature and the general infirmities, such as weariness and hunger and the like; but I am sick and troubled in mind and conscience.”

Answer. Though he did not feel all particular grievances, yet nevertheless, having taken our nature upon himself that he might be full of pity and mercy, he knows, according to the proportion of what he felt himself, how to pity us in our sicknesses and losses and crosses, in every way. And as for the chief of them, trouble of mind, alas, he knew it in that great desertion, when he cried out, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me!” (Matt 27:46). So we may comfort ourselves that we have a merciful, pitying, and gracious Savior, “God in the flesh.” He took our flesh upon himself for that purpose, that he might have experiential knowledge of our infirmities and weaknesses, and from that might be all the more sweet and kind and gentle to us.

He was not sick himself; but by experience of labor and thirst and the like, he knew what it was to be sick by what he felt. He did not know what it was to sin and to be troubled for sin, because he did not feel it in himself; but being our surety for sin, and feeling the wrath of God for it, he had experience from this to be compassionate. He was weary, to pity those who are weary; he was hungry, to pity those who are hungry; he was poor, to pity those who are poor; he was misused and reproached, to pity those who are in the same condition. You can name nothing to which he cannot, out of his own experience, be merciful and full of pity.

Since God, the second person, appeared in our nature, in our weak and tainted and disgraced nature after the fall, from this comes:

1. The enriching of our nature with all graces in Christ, as it says in Colossians 2:3, “All the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are in him,” that is, in our nature. In Christ there is an abundance of riches. Our nature in him is highly enriched.

2. From this comes, again, the ennobling of our nature. Since God appeared in our nature, it is much ennobled. When our nature is grafted into a higher stock, a lowly graft or scion into so glorious a stock as Christ, it is a high dignity. That our flesh is now married to the second person is a wondrous advancement of our nature, even above the angelic: “He took not the nature of angels” (Heb 2:16).

It was a great exaltation to our nature that God should take it into the unity of his person, for the human nature of Christ had no subsistence except in the second person. And this does not in any way debase the human nature of Christ, that it had no subsistence except in the Godhead. Peter, James, John, and others had a subsistence of their own, but Christ had no subsistence except in the second person. And yet, I say, it did not in any way demean the human nature of Christ, because it was advanced to a higher stock, where it has a glorious subsistence and being.

3. From this comes the enabling of our nature for the work of salvation that was wrought in our nature. It came from this: “God was in the flesh.” From where was the human nature enabled to suffer? From where was it upheld in suffering, so that it did not sink under the wrath of God? “God was in the flesh.” God upheld our nature. So both the riches and dignity of our nature, and its ability to be saving and meritorious, all came from this, that God was in our nature.

4. And from this likewise comes this, that whatever Christ did in our nature, God did it, for God appeared in our nature. He did not take upon himself the person of any man, but the nature. And therefore, our flesh and the second person being but one person, all that was done was done by the person who was God, though not as God. Therefore when he died, God died; when he was crucified, God was crucified. If he had been two persons, he would have died in one person, and the other would not have died. Now, being but one person, though two natures, whatever was done in the one nature, the person did it according to the other nature.

He could not die as God. Therefore, because in love he was willing to die and be a sacrifice, he was willing to take upon himself such a nature in which he could be a sacrifice. This is a great dignity, that our nature is taken into the unity of the person of the Son of God. Therefore it comes from this, I say, that whatever was done in our nature, God did it.

5. From this also comes the union between Christ and us. How is it that we are “sons of God”? Because he was the “Son of man,” “God in our flesh.” There are three unions: the union of natures, God becoming man; the union of grace, that we are one with Christ; and the union of glory. The first is for the second, and the second for the third. God became man, that man might be one with God; God was “manifested in the flesh,” that we might be united to him, and that, being brought again to God the Father, we might come again to a glorious union. By this, that God was “manifest in the flesh,” he was married first to our nature, that we by union might be married to him. We would never have had union with God unless God had united our flesh to himself, and in that flesh had satisfied God. All that Christ did, says Peter, was to bring us back again to God (1 Pet 3:18).

6. From this likewise comes the sympathy between Christ and us; for Christ is said to suffer with us: “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?” (Acts 9:4). He is said to be imprisoned in us, and we are said to ascend gloriously with him, because he took our nature upon himself. So if he is honored, we are honored; if we are despised, he is despised. There is a mutual affection and sympathy between Christ and us.

7. From this likewise comes the efficacy of what Christ did, that the dying of one man should be sufficient for the whole world. It was because “God was in the flesh.”

The apostle may well call this, “God manifest in the flesh,” a “mystery,” and place it in the first rank. For God to be enclosed in the womb of a virgin; for happiness itself to become a curse; for him who has the riches of all men to become poor for our sake; for him who always enjoyed his Father’s presence to lack the beams of it for a time, that he might satisfy his Father’s justice and undergo his wrath for our sins: here is a matter of wonder indeed!

Use 1. And shall we think that so great a mystery as this was for a small purpose? That the great God should take upon himself a piece of earth? That he should become a poor and weak man? That the immortal God should take our flesh upon himself and die? That he whom heaven and earth cannot contain should be enclosed in the womb of a virgin? That he should be so abased that there was never any abasement like Christ’s, because of the greatness of his person?

If angels had done so, alas, what of that? They were inferior creatures; they were servants to God. But for the Son of God to take our nature when it was so low, for so excellent a person to be abased so low! No one ever suffered what “God in our flesh” suffered. For as communion with his Father was sweeter to him than to all other men, so for him to lack communion with his Father upon the cross, when he cried, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” (Matt 27:46) was the greatest abasement to him, since he felt it most keenly. Therefore there was no suffering like Christ’s.

And shall we think so great a matter was for a small purpose, for little sins or for few sins only? Oh no. It was to give a foundation to our faith in all extremity of temptation, to steady our conscience in the guilt of great and crying sins. Oh, do not despair, do not despair! This great mystery the apostle speaks of, the great God becoming man, was for great sins, that where “sin hath abounded, grace might superabound” (Rom 5:20). God intended in this to settle the accusing conscience, to quiet and still it. God is offended, it is true; but “God manifest in the flesh” has made reconciliation and satisfaction. He was a sacrifice for sin, and God will answer God. God the Son will answer the displeasure of God the Father, because he is appointed to this office by him. He is “set forth,” as it says in Romans 3:25, “to be the propitiation.”

Therefore in all risings of conscience in the time of trouble, in the hour of death, let us remember this great mystery, “God manifest in the flesh.” God’s purpose in this was to triumph, as it were, over all the clamors of conscience whatsoever, over everything that Satan and the power of hell can object. Let Satan object what he will; here is a shield put into the hand of faith to beat back all his fiery darts.

God, in the covenant of grace, which is founded in Christ, in God in our nature, intends to be gracious to sinners. It is a greater mystery than that of the creation. For there God did good to a good man; he made Adam good, and continued him good while he stood. But after the fall, God intended to raise up the doubting, unbelieving soul against the greatest ills of sin and despair, and against all objections whatsoever on account of sin, drawn from the greatness of sin, whether natural or actual. It is the glory of God in the gospel to glorify his mercy and goodness by prevailing and triumphing over the greatest ills that can be. Now he is good to sinners, and to great sinners. So if faith is wrought by the Spirit of God, raising up our souls to lay hold of this “God manifest in the flesh,” let us not be discouraged by any sin. Our sins are but the sins of men; but “God manifest in the flesh” was made a sacrifice for our sins, and has given a price that answers to them.

What temptation will not vanish like a cloud before the wind when we see God’s love in sending his Son, and Christ’s love in taking our nature upon himself, to reconcile us by the sacrifice of his blood? Therefore let us treasure up this comfort. It is a spring of comfort, a well of consolation, as the Scripture speaks; therefore let us suck comfort from this breast of consolation.

We may turn these things over with ease now, in the time of peace; but in the time of temptation, when the soul is touched with guilt and Satan plies us with temptations, the soul will have no rest except in an infinite ground of comfort. The soul is naturally prone to misgivings, and to forecast the worst, and to think hardly of God in the time of temptation, as of an enemy. And Satan is then busy about nothing so much as getting us to have hard thoughts of God, and making us forget the main end of the great work of our redemption. That end is to undermine our unbelief by every means, by setting before the soul such grounds as the most unbelieving heart in the world, if it considered them, would fasten and lay itself upon. Therefore let us labor to cherish, at such times especially, large thoughts of the infinite goodness and mercy of God, and of the love of Christ condescending so low as to be manifest in the flesh for our sakes.

It is a point of wondrous comfort that now in Christ Jesus, God becoming man, we can in him break through the justice of God. For, as I said, when conscience is awakened, we have quite different thoughts of God than when it is sleepy and drowsy. Sleepy Christians have a slight conception of God, as if he thought as little of their sins as they do themselves. Oh, but when conscience is awakened, and when we are drawn away from the pleasures of sin, and they from us, and conscience has nothing to do but to look upon God and upon the time to come, which is eternity, then if there is not something for conscience to set against the justice of God that is equal to it, if there is not something about us to clothe us and arm us to pass through that justice, what will become of us? Therefore it is a fruitful consideration that God was “manifest in our flesh,” and that to give satisfaction to God, so that conscience might have full satisfaction.

This teaches us what we should do when we find any trouble rising in our conscience over sins and unworthiness. Let us cast ourselves upon “God in our flesh,” God who became “flesh” for us and died for us; let us rest ourselves there. I am unworthy! A lump of sin! There is nothing in me that is good. Oh, but I have everything in Christ. He is righteousness for me. He has abundance for me. His fullness is for me. Therefore you have it in Colossians 2:9: “The fullness of the Godhead dwells in him bodily.” To what purpose is this fullness in him? He shows in the words that follow: “In him we are complete” (Col 2:10). Suppose that in ourselves we are sinners and weak, that we are as bad as sin or the devil can make us in the time of temptation; yet “in him we are complete.” And for this end “the fullness of the Godhead dwells in him bodily.”

Therefore, in all doubts concerning sin and unworthiness, let us labor for faith (for faith is a grace that carries us out of ourselves, and plants and fixes us in Christ). Let us consider ourselves in him, and consider that whatever is in him is for us. It is no matter what we are ourselves; in him we are in a glorious condition.

And let us set him against the wrath of God and the temptations of Satan; for all will fall before this “God manifest in the flesh.” He is God, therefore he can subdue all; he is man, and therefore he will love us. “I know whom I have believed” (2 Tim 1:12): him who is merciful, because he is man and has taken my nature, and him who can subdue all enemies, because he is God, God in the flesh. Here is a fit ground and foundation for faith to rely upon. Let us therefore have recourse to this in all temptations whatsoever. We cannot glorify God and Christ more than by going out of ourselves and fixing our comfort here.

By this we have communion with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This incarnation of Christ brings us into fellowship with the blessed Trinity, and it teaches us what thoughts we should have of God, that we should have loving thoughts of him. How is it that we can call God Father? From this, “God manifest in the flesh.” The second person, to take away enmity, was “manifest in the flesh.” From this it is that I can call God Father, that I can boldly go to God, that I can think of God as gracious and lovely. And how is it that our persons have become lovely to God? From this, that God has taken our nature upon himself. Our nature has become lovely to him, and his is sweet and fatherly to us.

This should help us against Satan’s transforming of God and Christ to us in the time of trouble. Satan presents him as a terrible judge. Indeed, so he is to sinners who will go on in sin. His wrath will “smoke against such” (Deut 29:20). There is no comfort for them in Scripture. But to repentant sinners all is comfort: “Come unto me, ye that are weary and heavy laden” (Matt 11:28); and, Christ came “to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10); and he came “to save sinners,” as St. Paul says (1 Tim 1:15).

Let us think of God now as lovely, as a father, and of Christ as a sweet Savior, made “flesh” for this purpose. He is God and man because he came to be a mediator between God and man, a friend to both, since he was to deal with both. Therefore we should think of Christ in this way: as a great and mighty God, the ruler of the world, as Isaiah describes him (Isa 9:6); and think of him likewise as a meek, humble man. The one is to establish our faith, that we may not be shaken, having such a great God to rely upon; the other is to establish our faith in his good will, “God in our flesh.” God is a name of power; “God in our flesh” implies mercy and love, pity and compassion.

Therefore, let us not allow Satan to abuse our imaginations, if we have a mind to turn to God; for, as I said, there is no comfort for those who go on in their sins. God will wound the “hairy scalp of them that go on in iniquity” (Ps 68:21); and, “they treasure up wrath against the day of wrath” (Rom 2:5). There is nothing but discomfort for such people: “The wrath of God abides upon them” (John 3:36). They are in danger of damnation every minute of their lives. There is only a step between them and hell.

But as for those who intend to turn to God, God meets them halfway. We see that the prodigal only entertained a purpose to come to his father, and his father met him. “God in our flesh” has made God peaceable to us. If we go to Christ and lay hold on him for the forgiveness of our sins, God in him has become a loving, gracious, sweet Father to us. Let us frame our thoughts of God as the Scripture does. When sorrow for sin possesses our souls, let us beware of going away from God, who took our nature for this very purpose, that we may boldly go to him.

Oh, what boldness we now have to go to “God in our flesh”! If we think of God absolutely, apart from God in the flesh, he is “a consuming fire” (Heb 12:29), terrible in every way. But if we think of God in our nature, we may go to him securely: “He is bone of our bone, and flesh of our flesh” (Gen 2:23). We may go securely to God our brother, to him who is of one nature with us, and who now has our nature in heaven.

Think of God born of a virgin, of God lying in the cradle, nursing at the breast! Think of God going up and down teaching and doing all good! Think of God sweating for you, hanging on the cross, shedding his blood, lying in the grave, raising himself again, and now in heaven “sitting at the right hand of God” (Eph 1:20), our intercessor!

Conceive of God in this “flesh” of ours, lovely to us; and now our nature must be lovely to him. The nature of God must be lovely to us, since he has joined our poor beggarly flesh to the unity of the second person. Let us think in this way of “God manifest in the flesh.” To think of God alone swallows up our thoughts; but to think of God in Christ, of God “manifest in the flesh,” is a comforting consideration. To see the sun alone in itself, in its glory and luster, is impossible without hurting the eye; but to see the sun in water, as we do in an eclipse and the like, we can do. So we cannot conceive of God alone absolutely; but to conceive of “God in our flesh” is to look upon the sun, as it were, in the water, or upon the ground. God in himself is so glorious that we could never see him, as he tells Moses in Exodus 33:20, none can ever see God and live; that is, God nakedly or absolutely. Oh, but “God manifest in our flesh” we may see; and it will be our happiness in heaven to see him there, to see God in our flesh “face to face” (Exod 33:11).

We cannot meditate on these things too often. It is the life and soul of a Christian. It is the marrow of the gospel. It is the wonder of wonders. We need not wonder at anything after this. It is no wonder that our bodies will rise again, that mortal man should afterward become immortal in heaven, since the immortal God has taken man’s nature and died in it. All the articles of our faith and all miracles yield to this grand thing, “God manifest in the flesh.” Believe this, and believe all the rest. Therefore let us often have these sweet, cherishing thoughts of God in our flesh, so that they may strengthen, and feed, and nourish our faith, especially in the time of temptation.

Use 2. Again, from this, that God was “manifest in our flesh,” let us take care that we do not defile this flesh of ours, this nature of ours. What! Is this “flesh” of mine taken into unity with the second person? Is this “flesh” of mine now in heaven, “sitting at the right hand of God”? And shall I defile this flesh of mine, which I profess to be a member of Christ? “Shall I make it the member of an harlot?” (1 Cor 6:15). Shall I abuse it, as intemperate people do? Let us honor our nature, which Christ has so honored. Since God has so advanced our nature, let us take on a holy kind of dignity, and think ourselves too good to abase it to the service of sin.

Use 3. Likewise, it should teach us to stoop to any service of Christ or our brethren. What! Did the love of God draw him into the womb of the virgin? Did it draw him to take my nature and flesh on himself? And shall I grudge being of service to my poor brethren, for whom God was made flesh, and not only that, but was crucified? Such thoughts will take down the proud notions that enter our hearts when we are about any work of charity for the members of Christ. Shall I have low thoughts of any man, whose flesh Christ has taken? Especially when I see any goodness in him, let me abase myself to any work of charity.

Beware of pride. God himself emptied himself, and will you be full of pride? He became of “no reputation” (Phil 2:7), and will you stand on your reputation? He “took upon him the form of a servant,” and will you be wholly a lord and king in your affections, and not serve your brethren? Did Christ do this so that you should be a proud person? He came to expiate your pride. Away with your proud notions! If you are too proud to follow and imitate humble men, yet do not think yourself too good to imitate a humble God.

There is no spirit more opposite to the spirit of a Christian than a spirit swelling and lifted up, that thinks itself too good to be abased in the service of others, that carries itself loftily. A proud spirit is most opposite to the spirit of God, who became man to expiate this pride of ours, and to work out salvation in this flesh of ours. Of all sins let us beware of this diabolical, satanic sin. Let us be abased for Christ, who was abased for us. As he left his heaven (to do us good he left heaven itself), so let us. If we have an imagined heaven and happiness in ourselves, let us leave it, and become base and low, to do any good we can. Shall he stoop and bend to us from heaven to earth, and conceal his majesty so as not to be known to be what he was; and shall we not stoop to one another to do good, and come down from our imagined excellence?

Use 4. Here we have good ground likewise not to envy the blessed angels their greatness. Indeed, here we have that in which we are above the angels themselves; for “he took not upon him the nature of angels” (Heb 2:16), but he was “God manifest in our flesh.” Christ married our nature to himself out of his love, so that he might marry us to himself by his Spirit; and now, by our union with Christ, we are nearer to him than the very angels are. The angels are not the spouse of Christ, but now, because he has taken our nature, we are kin to Christ: “He is bone of our bone, and flesh of our flesh,” and we are “bone of his bone, and flesh of his flesh” (Eph 5:30). We are the body, Christ is the head. We are nearer to Christ than the very angels. No wonder, then, if those blessed spirits daily pry into this great mystery (1 Pet 1:12).

Use 5. Lastly, let us labor that Christ may be manifested in our particular flesh, in our persons. As he was God manifest in the flesh in regard of that blessed mass of flesh he took upon himself, so each one of us should labor to have God “manifest in our flesh.”

Question. How is that?

Answer. We must have Christ, as it were, born in us, “formed in us,” as the apostle speaks (Gal 4:19). Certainly the same Spirit that sanctified Christ sanctifies every member of Christ; and Christ is in some sort begotten, and conceived, and “manifested” in everyone who is a Christian. We must labor that Christ may be “manifest” in our understandings, in our affections, that he may be manifest to us, and conceived, as it were, in us. As St. Paul’s phrase is, “That the life of Christ may be made manifest in our mortal flesh” (2 Cor 4:11). The life and spirit of Christ must be “manifest” in every true Christian, and their “flesh” must be sanctified by the same Spirit by which Christ’s flesh was sanctified.

As Christ’s flesh was first sanctified, and then abased, and then glorious, so the flesh of every Christian must be content to be abased, as the flesh of Christ was, to serve Christ, to be conformed to Christ in our abased flesh. And let us not make too much of this flesh of ours, which will turn to rottenness before long. It must be gracious, sanctified flesh, as Christ’s was, and then glorious flesh. Christ must be manifest in our flesh, as he was in his own, so that when a man sees a Christian, he may see Christ manifest in him.

Objection. But how shall I come to have Christ manifest in my flesh? My heart is not fit to conceive Christ in. There is nothing in it but deadness, and darkness, and dullness, and rebellion.

Answer. Even as the virgin Mary conceived Christ when she yielded her assent. When the angel spoke to her, what did she say immediately? “Be it as thou hast said” (Luke 1:38); let it even be so. She yielded her assent to the promise that she would conceive a son. So it is when the promises of the forgiveness of sins, of salvation by Christ, are spoken to us, as soon as ever we have a spirit of faith to yield our assent: “Let it be so, Lord, as you have promised. You have promised forgiveness of sins: let it be so. You have promised favor in Christ: let it be so.” As soon as the heart is brought to yield to the gracious promise, then Christ is conceived in the heart. Even as Christ was conceived in the womb of the virgin when she yielded her assent to believe the promise, so Christ is in every man’s heart, to sanctify it, to rule it, to comfort it, as soon as this consent is worked in it. We should labor, therefore, to bring our hearts to this.

So much for this. Because it is of great consequence, and the leading mystery to all that follows, I have been somewhat longer in unfolding these words, “God manifest in the flesh.”

Justified in the Spirit (1 Tim 3:16).

These words are added to answer an objection that may arise from the former ones. He was “God manifest in the flesh.” He veiled himself. He could not have suffered otherwise. When he took it upon himself to be the mediator, he had to do it in abased flesh. If Christ, being God, had not abased himself, he would never have been put to death. Satan and his instruments would never have meddled with him. Therefore God being veiled in the flesh, being clouded with our flesh and infirmities, the world had a mistaken idea of him. He was not generally thought to be what he was indeed. He appeared to be nothing but a poor man, a debased, dejected man; a persecuted, slandered, disgraced man in the world. He was thought to be a wrongdoer.

It does not matter what he appeared to be when he was veiled with our flesh; he was “justified in the Spirit,” to be the true Messiah, to be God as well as man.

“Justified.”

In the language of Scripture it implies two things: being freed and cleared from false ideas and charges, and being declared to be truly what he was, to be other than the wicked world thought him to be. When a man is cleared of what is laid to his charge, he is “justified.” When a man is declared to be what he is, then he is said to be justified in the sense of the Scriptures. “Wisdom is justified of her children” (Matt 11:19), that is, cleared of the charges laid upon religion, that it is gloomy and foolish. “Wisdom is justified”; that is, cleared and declared to be an excellent thing by all her children. So Christ was “justified.” He was cleared of being what they took him for, and he declared himself to be as he “manifested” himself: a more excellent person, the Son of God, the true Messiah and Savior of the world.

“In the Spirit.”

That is, in his Godhead, which showed itself in his life and death, in his resurrection and ascension. The beams of his Godhead sparkled out. Though he was “God in the flesh,” yet he remained God still, and was “justified” to be so “in the Spirit,” that is, in his divine power, which is called the Spirit, because the spirit of anything is its quintessence and strength. God has the name of Spirit from his purity and power and vigor. So God is a Spirit; that is, God is pure, the opposite of gross things, of earth and flesh; and God is powerful and strong. “The horses of the Egyptians are flesh, and not spirit” (Isa 31:3), that is, they are weak. A spirit is strong; so much spirit, so much strength. So by the purity and strength of the divine nature, Christ revealed himself to be true God as well as true man.

The word Spirit is used especially in three senses in the gospel.

1. It is used for the whole nature of God. “God is a Spirit,” says Christ to the woman of Samaria (John 4:24). The very nature of God is a Spirit; that is, active and penetrating, the opposite of lowness and weakness.

2. Then again, Spirit is used more particularly for the divine nature of Christ, as in Romans 1:4: “Of the seed of David, according to the flesh,” but “declared mightily to be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of sanctification,” or holiness, “by the resurrection from the dead.” The contrast shows that Spirit is used there for the divine nature of Christ. He had spoken in the verse before concerning his human nature. He was made “of the seed of David, according to the flesh”; and it follows, “declared to be the Son of God, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead.” And so likewise in 1 Peter 3:18: “He was put to death in the flesh, but quickened in the Spirit.” He was put to death in his human nature, but quickened and raised as he was God.

3. The Spirit is used likewise for the third person in the Trinity, the Holy Ghost, the Holy Spirit. And indeed, whatever God the Father or God the Son does graciously to man is done by the Spirit. For as the Holy Spirit is in the order of the persons, so he is in the order of working. The Father works from himself; the Son works from the Father; the Holy Spirit from them both. The Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son, as from a common principle. Therefore the Father is sometimes said to raise Christ’s body by his Spirit. Christ is said to do things by the Spirit.

Here, in this place, it is especially to be understood of Christ’s divine nature, not excluding the Holy Ghost. For the Holy Ghost in the incarnation sanctified his “flesh”: the second person took flesh, but the third person sanctified it. So in the resurrection of Christ, it was the second person who raised himself up, but yet it was by the Holy Ghost too. So when Christ is mentioned here as “justified by the Spirit,” that means by his Godhead and by the Holy Ghost. He always made use of the Holy Ghost, though not as an instrument, for the Holy Ghost is a common principle with himself, one with himself, of equal dignity, differing only in the order of persons. Whatever Christ did, he did with the Spirit. That must not be excluded. Christ was “justified in the Spirit” as God just as truly as he was “manifest” in our nature as man.

And this was in the time of his abasement. In the greatest extremity of abasement, something came from Christ to “justify” him as the Son of God, the true Messiah. There is no part of his abasement in which some beams of his Godhead did not break forth.

He was made flesh, but he took upon himself the “flesh” of a virgin. Could that be otherwise than by the Spirit, to be born of a virgin, she remaining a virgin? When he was born, he was laid in a manger. Indeed, there was God in the low estate of the flesh. Yes, but the wise men worshipped him (Matt 2:11), and the star directed them. There he was “justified in the Spirit.” He was tossed when he was asleep in the ship, but he commanded the winds and the waves (Matt 8:24 and following). He lacked money to pay tribute, as one abased; but in fetching it out of a fish, there he was justified (Matt 17:27). The one was proof of his poverty and low condition, but the other was proof that he was a very different kind of person from what the world took him for, that he had all creatures at his command. He was arrested as a criminal, but he struck them all down with his word, “Whom seek ye?” (John 18:4).

Come to the greatest abasement of all. When he was on the cross, he hung between two thieves. Yes, but he converted one of them. Though the thief had so much to discourage him in seeing his Savior hang on the cross, yet Christ showed such power in that abasement that the very thief could see him to be a king, and was converted by his Spirit. He did hang upon the cross; but at the same time there was an eclipse. The whole world was darkened, the earth trembled, the rocks broke, the centurion “justified” him: “Doubtless, this was the Son of God” (Matt 27:54). He was sold for thirty pence, but he who was sold for thirty pieces redeemed the whole world by his blood.

Indeed, at the lowest degree of abasement of all, when he struggled with the wrath of God and was beset with devils, then he triumphed. When he was visibly overcome, then invisibly he overcame. He was an invisible conqueror when he was visibly subdued. For did he not on the cross satisfy the wrath of God, and by enduring the wrath of God free us from it and from Satan, God’s jailer, and reconcile us by his blood? The chief works of all were accomplished in his chief abasement.

At length he died and was buried; yes, but he who died rose again gloriously. Therefore he was “mightily declared to be the Son of God” by raising himself from the dead. His lying in the grave was the greatest abasement; and it was then above all that he was “justified,” by his resurrection from the dead and his ascension, especially in his state of glorification. So if we go from Christ’s birth to his lowest degree of abasement, there was always some manifestation of his justification by the Spirit.

He was “justified” in a double respect.

1. In regard of God, he was justified and cleared of our sins that he took upon himself. He “bore our sins upon the tree,” and bore them away, so that they should never appear again to our discomfort. He was made “a curse for us.” How did Christ come to be cleared of our sins that lay upon him? When by the Spirit, by his divine nature, he raised himself from the dead. So he was “justified” from what God laid upon him, for he was our surety. Now the Spirit, raising him from the dead, showed that the debt was fully discharged, because our surety was out of prison. All things are first in Christ and then in us. He was acquitted and justified from our sins, and then we were.

2. And then he was justified by the Spirit from all the charges of men, from the mistaken ideas that the world had of him. They thought him to be a mere man, or a sinful man. No. He was more than a mere man; indeed, more than a holy man; he was God-man. Where did his miracles come from? Were they not from his divine power? He overcame the devil in his temptations. Who can overcome the devil but he who is the Son of God? He cast out devils, and dispossessed them with his word. All the enemies of Christ that ever were, he conquered at length, and so declared himself mightily to be, as he was, the Son of God.

He healed the outward man and the inward man by his divine power; he caused the spiritual as well as the bodily eyes to see, the dead to live, and the lame to walk, and so on. Whatever he did in the body he did in the soul likewise. In those excellent miracles he was “justified,” and declared to be “the Son of God,” especially in his resurrection and ascension, and in daily converting souls by his ministry; all being done by his Spirit, who is his vicar in the world, ruling his church and subduing his enemies.

So he was in every way “justified in the Spirit” to be God, to be the true Messiah prophesied of and promised to the church. Therefore he was “justified” in his truth, in that all the promises were true of him; and in his faithfulness, in that he was faithful in performing the promises he made. He was “justified” in his goodness and mercy, and all those attributes; he was “justified in the Spirit.”

Objection. But you will say, it seems he was not “justified in the Spirit.” There are many heretics who do not think Christ to be God, who do not take Christ to be as glorious as he is.

Answer. I answer: when we speak of the justifying of Christ, it is meant to those who have eyes to see him, to those who do not shut their eyes. He was “justified” to be as great as he was to those “whose eyes the god of the world had not blinded” (2 Cor 4:4), to all who were his; as it is excellently set down in John 1:14, “The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us; and we beheld his glory, as the glory of the only begotten Son of the Father, full of grace and truth.” We “beheld his glory.” We did; others took no notice. But they were those “whose eyes the god of the world hath blinded,” the malicious scribes and Pharisees, who sinned against the Holy Ghost and would never acknowledge Christ, and ignorant people, who had neither faith nor the Spirit of God.

He was justified by the Spirit of God to all who had spiritual eyes to see and take notice of his course; as St. John says in one of his epistles, “What we have seen and heard, and our hands have handled, the Word of life, that we declare to you” (1 John 1:1). So he was “God manifest in the flesh,” and he showed himself to be the “Word of life” to those who were his apostles and disciples, and those who were converted by him. As we see in St. Peter, when he had felt Christ’s divine power upon his heart by his preaching: “Lord,” he says, “thou hast the words of eternal life; whither shall we go?” (John 6:68). He felt the Spirit in his preaching. And so another time St. Peter, in Matthew 16:16, confessed him to be “the Son of the living God.” You see to whom he was “justified” and declared to be the true Messiah, to be God as well as man, by his Spirit.

As for the reason why he justified himself to be so:

1. It was the more to strengthen our faith. All his miracles were but so many sparks of his divine nature, so many expressions of his divine power. And after he was raised from the dead, at his ascension and the sending of the Holy Ghost, he showed his divine power more gloriously; and all to strengthen the faith of the elect.

2. And it was to stop the mouths of all impudent, rebellious persons. For, considering that he worked such miracles, that he raised men from the dead, and raised himself; considering that he called the Gentiles, and converted the world, by the ministry of weak men, he showed that he was more than a man.

Well! To make some use of this, that Christ was “justified in the Spirit.”

Use 1. First of all, then, Christ will at length justify himself. This is a ground of faith. However much he may now be like a sign set up that many speak against and contradict, yet the time will come when he will gloriously justify himself to all the world. Now some willingly shut their eyes, and Christ’s opponents seem to flourish; yet Christ will be “justified by his Spirit” to all his elect in every age, especially in the resurrection. For when he shall come and appear to be glorious in his saints (2 Thess 1:10), it will appear who he is indeed.

Now he allows many to tread upon his church, and he allows many heretics to deny him, sometimes in one nature, sometimes in another, and so to offend against him. But the time will come when he will trample all his enemies under his feet; he will be “justified by his Spirit.” That is our comfort. There are many schismatics and heretics and persecutors, but Christ will be “justified” at length. The kingdoms of the earth will be the Lord Jesus Christ’s (Rev 11:15). Are they not so now? They are. But truly they do not appear to be so. But at length they will appear to be so.

At the conversion of the Jews and the overthrow of antichrist, then it will appear more and more that he is King of the world indeed. Now, as it were, his offices are darkened: his kingly office is darkened and his prophetic office is darkened; but at length it will appear that he is King of the church, and all kingdoms will be Christ’s. There are glorious times coming, especially the glorious day of the resurrection. Christ at length will be cleared; he will be justified. The sun at length will scatter all the clouds. In the morning they gather about the sun, as if they would cover it. Oh, but the sun breaks through them all, and gloriously appears at length. So Christ will scatter all clouds, and gloriously appear to be what the word sets him forth to be.

Again, as Christ will justify himself, so he will justify his church and children, first or last, by his Spirit. His children are now counted the offscouring of the world. They are trampled and trodden upon, they are the objects of scorn and hatred, and who is counted so base as they? Will Christ endure this? No. He who “justified” himself, that is, who declared himself, and will more and more declare himself to be as he is, will he not “justify” his church, his mystical body, to be as they are indeed? Certainly it will appear to the world that he will justify them, to be kings and priests, to be heirs, to be glorious, to be as near and dear to him as the Scripture sets them forth to be. Whatever the Scripture has spoken of the saints and children of God, the time will come when all this will be “justified” and made good by that Spirit of Christ by which he made good whatever he has said of himself.

Therefore in our eclipses and disgraces let us all comfort ourselves in this. Let the world esteem us for the present as the refuse of the world, as persons not worth knowing, not worth regarding; we shall be “justified” and cleared and glorified, especially at that day when Christ shall come to be glorious in his saints.

There is a hidden life of the church and of every Christian. They have a life in Christ, but that “life is hid in Christ,” in heaven (Col 3:3). Like the flowers in winter, they have a life, but it is hidden in the root. “When Christ shall appear,” as blessed St. Paul and St. John say, then it shall appear who we are. Then our glorious life, which is now in our Head, shall appear; then we shall be justified to be so glorious, as the Scripture sets us forth to be. The church will be glorious within and without, too, at that day. Therefore let us comfort ourselves. Though this hidden life does not appear now, yet we shall be justified. And from this we may answer some objections likewise.

Objection. Some may say, How does it appear that Christ is King of the church? We see how the church is trampled on at this day. Where is the life and glory of the church? What! His spouse, and treated like this! What! His turtledove, and polluted like this, and plucked by the birds of prey!

Answer. I answer, look through other spectacles, with the eye of faith, and then you will see a spring in the winter of the church. However much she may now be abased and eclipsed, yet she will be “justified”; and it will appear that Christ regards his church and people and children more than all the world besides. Only there must be a conformity.

It was fitting that there should be a time of Christ’s abasement; how could he have suffered otherwise? The world would never have crucified God. They could not have done it. Therefore he was abased; he veiled his Godhead under his manhood, under a base condition, and so he passed through suffering to glory. So it must be in the body of Christ. It must pass through the veil of infirmities, of weakness, affliction, and disgrace. How else could it be conformed to Christ?

If Christ had “justified” himself at all times in his humiliation, he could not have suffered. If we were justified now and appeared to all the world as who we are, who would persecute us? How could we be conformed to Christ? Therefore let us quietly and meekly endure for a while these things, which do nothing but conform us to our Head, knowing this: that as he was “justified” little by little, until he was perfectly “justified” when he was raised from the dead, so we shall be perfectly “justified” and freed from all charges at the last day, when by the same Spirit that raised him we shall be raised up too.

Indeed, even in this world, when it is for his glory and for our good, he will bring our righteousness to light as the noonday (Ps 37:6). He will free us from the accusations that the world lays on us. He will take care of our good name. For as Christ was “mightily declared to be the Son of God” (Rom 1:4) at a fit time, so shall we be when we are fit. Then the world will see that we are not the men that profane, bitter, malicious people, led by the spirit of the devil, charged us with being.

Let us not stumble at the present afflictions of the church. Christ will justify his mystical body by his glorious power in good time. Antichrist will not always swagger in the world. Christ will be justified to be the King and Ruler of the world. All power is committed to him (Matt 28:18).

But we see how things are now. Antichrist rages in the world, and the church seems to be shut under hatches. So it is with individual Christians too. As for those who belong to God, and who truly are what they profess themselves to be, though with much weakness, we see what kind of respect and esteem they are held in. Let us comfort ourselves, beloved. Christ justified himself by his Spirit; and will he not justify his poor church, and free it from the tyranny of antichrist? Will he not advance those who are trodden on now and made like the dirt in the street, so that they shall shine as the sun (Dan 12:3)?

Therefore when you hear of the dejected state of the churches abroad, do not be dismayed. Consider that there is a glorious King who rules the world, and he will make it appear before long. He will justify himself and his church, for he suffers in his church. He is wise. He sees cause to do this. He is working his own work. He corrects and rules and purges his church in the furnace of affliction. But be sure the time will come when he will bring the cause of religion to light, and show which side he owns. He will justify his truth, and tread Satan and all his members under foot. This state of things will not last long. As surely as Christ is in heaven, as surely as he is “justified” in his own person by his Spirit, by his divine power, so he will justify his mystical body. And as he has conquered in his own person, so he will by his Spirit conquer for his church.

Use 2. And as he will overcome for his church, so he will overcome in his church; “stronger is he that is” in the church, “in you, than he that is in the world” (1 John 4:4). And God’s children will be triumphant. Though they may be discouraged by the present course of things, yet the Spirit that is in them, above the world, will gather strength little by little, and it will appear at length, notwithstanding present discouragements. Undoubtedly the best things will have a true luster and glory at length, however they seem to go at present. You see how Christ has “justified” himself to be the true Messiah; and as he has justified himself, so he will justify all his own. The same reason holds for both.

For our further instruction and comfort, let us consider that with regard to God likewise we shall be “justified” from our sins, in our consciences here and at the day of judgment, before angels and devils and men. Christ was “justified” from our sins himself, and he will justify every one of us by his Spirit. His Spirit will witness to our souls that we are justified, and likewise his Spirit will declare it at the day of judgment; it will be openly declared that we are so indeed. There is a double degree of justification: one in our conscience now, another at the day of judgment. Then it will appear that we have believed in Christ and are cleansed from our sins. When we stand at the right hand of Christ, as all who cleave to Christ by faith will do, then it will appear that by him we are “justified” from all our sins whatsoever.

Use 3. Again, Christ was “justified in the Spirit.” From this we may learn our duty: we ought, all of us, to justify Christ. To whom is Christ justified by the Spirit? Only to his own church and children, not to the reprobate world. We may know that we are members of Christ if we are among those who justify Christ.

Question. How do we justify Christ?

Answer. (1) We justify Christ when, from an inward work of the Spirit, we feel and acknowledge him to be such as he is. Christ is God. Now, when we rely on him as our rock in all temptations, we justify Christ to be so. When we “kiss the Son” with the kisses of faith, of subjection, of obedience, of reverence and love, this is to justify Christ to be the Son of God, as it is in Psalm 2:12, “Kiss the Son, lest he be angry.” Those who in temptation are at a loss for their comfort do not justify Christ. They do not live as if he were a Savior, or as if he were God. In temptations to despair, they do not justify Christ.

(2) Those who have Christ illuminating their understandings to grasp the mysteries of religion justify Christ to be the prophet of his church, because they feel him enlightening their understandings.

(3) Those who find their consciences pacified by the obedience and sacrifice of Christ justify him to be their priest. For they can set the blood of Christ sprinkled on their hearts against all the temptations of Satan and against the risings of their own doubting conscience. Their hearts being sprinkled with the blood of Christ, they can go to God, and the blood of Christ speaks “peace” for them; it pleads “mercy, mercy.” Thus we justify Christ as a priest when we rest in his sacrifice and do not, with the papists, run to other sacrifices. To do that is not to justify Christ.

To justify Christ, God-man, is to make him a perfect mediator of intercession and redemption, to make him all in all. They do not justify Christ who think that God was made man to patch up a salvation, that he must do a part and we must merit the rest. Oh no! Take heed of that. Account all our obedience, and all that comes from us, as “menstruous cloths” (Isa 30:22), not able to stand before the justice of God.

(4) In a word, we justify and declare and prove that he is our king, and put a kingly crown on his head, when we allow him to rule us and to subdue our spirits and our rebellions; when we cherish no motions contrary to his Spirit; when we rest in his word and not in traditions, but stoop to the scepter of Christ’s word. This is to justify him as a king.

Thus we should labor to justify and declare to the world the excellence and power of Christ in our hearts, that we may make religion lovely and cause it to be welcomed in the world, because we show it to be an excellent, powerful thing. Let us examine our hearts, whether we justify Christ in this way or not, so that by our conduct toward him we prove that he is such as the Scripture sets him forth to be.

In particular, we justify him, that “he rose from the dead,” when we believe that we are freed from our sins, our surety being out of prison. We justify him as “ascended into heaven” when we have heavenly affections, and when we consider him as a public person gone to heaven in our name. We justify him as “sitting at the right hand of God” when we mind the things that are above (Col 3:1), and not those that are here below. Otherwise we deny these things, we do not believe them, we do not justify them, when our conduct does not answer to the things we believe.

If we are the children of wisdom, undoubtedly we shall justify wisdom. If we are the members of Christ, we shall justify our head. If we are his spouse, we shall justify our husband. Let us examine ourselves to see that we do so, and never think our state good until we can justify Christ.

In the next place, for our direction: as Christ justified himself by his Spirit, by his divine power, so let us know that it is our duty to justify ourselves, to justify our profession of faith, to justify all divine truth. Let us prove that we are the sons of God, that we are Christians indeed, having not only the name but the anointing of Christ, so that we may clear our religion from false accusations. Otherwise, instead of justifying our profession, we justify the slanders against it. The world is ready to say that none are worse than Christians, and that their religion is all words and shows and forms. Shall we justify these slanders? No. Let us, by the Spirit of God, justify our religion. Let us show that religion is a powerful thing; and so indeed it is.

For divine truth, when it is embraced and known, alters and changes our conduct and dispositions. It makes lambs of lions. It makes our natures mild and tractable and sweet. It raises a man from earth to heaven. Let us justify this our religion and profession against all who oppose it, whoever they may be. “Wisdom is justified of all her children” (Luke 7:35). Let us justify our religion and profession by maintaining it and standing up for it, and let us express the power of it in our lives and conduct.

Question. How shall this be done?

Answer. The text says, “by the Spirit.” For as Christ “justified” himself, that is, declared himself to be what he was, “by his Spirit,” so every Christian has the “Spirit of Christ, or else he is none of his” (Rom 8:9). And by this Spirit of Christ he is able to justify his profession. He is not only to justify Christ to be the true head, but all things he does must be done by the Spirit, or not at all. For Christ, when he became man and was in the world, did all by the direction of the Spirit. He was led into the wilderness by the Spirit; he taught by the Spirit. The Spirit that sanctified him in the womb guided him in all his life.

So a Christian is guided by the Spirit. God does all to him by the Spirit. He is comforted and directed and strengthened by the Spirit; and he in turn does all to God by the Spirit. He prays in the Spirit, and sighs and groans to God in the Spirit. He walks in the Spirit. He does all by the Spirit.

Therefore by the Spirit let us justify and declare ourselves to be what we are: that there is something in us above nature; that we have love above carnal men, and patience and meekness above the ability and capacity of other men. We justify our profession when we do something more than nature can, or when we do common, ordinary things in a spiritual, holy manner. Religion is not a matter of form, but of spirit. Let us show our religion not only by word but by the fruits of the Spirit: by love and mercy and meekness and zeal, when occasion calls for it.

The whole life of a Christian, as far as he is a Christian, gives evidence that he is a Christian. The whole life of a carnal, formal man gives evidence that he is not a Christian, because he has nothing in him above other men. As our Savior Christ says, “What peculiar thing do ye,” to distinguish yourselves from other men (Matt 5:47)? So let us ask ourselves. We profess ourselves to be the children of God, the heirs of heaven. “What peculiar thing do we?” How do we justify ourselves? A true Christian can answer, “I can justify it by the Spirit. I find that I do things from other principles and motives and inducements than the world does, which regards only the terms of civility and the aims of the world, or seeks to quiet the clamor of conscience. But I find that I do things out of assurance that I am the child of God, and in obedience to him.” Let us see what peculiar thing we do.

Alas! I cannot help lamenting the poor profession of many. How do they “justify” their profession? How do they prove that they have the Spirit of God raising them above other men, when they live no better than pagans, no, not so well, under the profession of the gospel and religion? Would pagans live as many men do? Did they not keep their word better? Were they so loose in their lives and conduct, and so licentious? Would they swear idly by their gods? Most of our ordinary people are worse than pagans.

Where is the “justifying” of religion? If Turks and heathens were to see them they would say, “You talk of religion, but where is the power of it? If you had the power of it, you would express it more in your fidelity and honesty and mercy and love and sobriety.” The kingdom of God, that is, the manifestation of the government of Christ, “it is not in word but in power” (1 Cor 4:20). Therefore let us labor to “justify” that we are subjects of that kingdom by the power of it.

Merely moral people, the apostle says of them in 2 Timothy 3:5, are such as “have a form of godliness, but deny the power of it.” All that rabble he names there have “a form.” A form is easy, but the power of it is not so easy. Therefore let us justify our religion by our conduct. Let us justify the ordinances of God, the preaching and hearing of the word of God, by reverence in hearing it as the word of God; and let us labor to express it in our lives and conduct, or else we think it nothing but the speech of man. Let us “justify” the sacrament to be the seal of God, by coming to it reverently and by finding our faith strengthened by it. So labor to “justify” every ordinance of God from some sweet comforts that we feel by them. Then we show that we are true members of Christ, that we are like Christ, who “justified himself in the Spirit.”

Beloved, it is a great power that must make a true Christian, no less than the power of the Spirit, that raised Christ from the dead. As it is in Ephesians 1:20, St. Paul prays that they might feel the power that raised Christ from the dead. It is no less power for Christ to shine in our dark hearts than to “make light to shine out of darkness” (2 Cor 4:6).

Now, what power is in the lives of most men? The power that raised Christ from the dead? Certainly not. What power is there in hearing the word, when many are so full of profaneness that they altogether neglect it? What power is there in now and then speaking a good word, or now and then doing a slight action? Is this the power that raised Christ from the dead, when men can do it by the strength of nature? There must be something above nature to justify a sound, spiritual Christian.

We must have something to show that our spirits are raised up by the Spirit of Christ, to justify our profession in all conditions. In prosperity, we must show that we have a spirit above prosperity, that we are not proud of it. Then in adversity we justify that we are Christians by a spirit that is above adversity, so that we do not sink under it as a mere natural man would do, when we have learned St. Paul’s lesson, in all estates to be content (Phil 4:11). In temptation we justify our Christian profession by arming ourselves with a spirit of faith, to beat back the fiery darts of Satan (Eph 6:16). When all things seem contrary, let us cast ourselves, by a spirit of faith, on Christ. It shows a powerful work of the Spirit when we can, in contraries, believe contraries.

Thus let us show that we are Christians, that we have something in us above nature, that when the course of nature seems to be contrary, we can still look with the eye of faith through all discouragements and clouds, and can see God reconciled in Christ. That will justify us to be sound Christians. Therefore let us labor, not only for slight outward performances that are easy for anyone to do, but by an inward frame of soul, and by behavior and a way of life becoming our profession, that we may walk worthy of our profession, fruitfully and watchfully, carefully and soberly, as becomes Christians in every way. So much for that. I proceed to the next words:

Seen of angels (1 Tim 3:16).

The word is not altogether fitly translated, for it is more pregnant with meaning than it is here rendered, “He was seen.” It is true. But he was seen with awe and wonderment by angels. He was seen as such an object presented to them should be seen, and seen with wonderment. The word implies what follows from sight. Sight stirs up affection. It stirs up the whole soul. Therefore it is put for all the rest.

1. They saw him with wonderment. For was it not a wonder that God should stoop so low as to be shut up in the narrow confines of a virgin’s womb? that Christ should humble himself so low as to be God in our flesh? Was this not exceedingly wondrous love and mercy to mankind, to wretched man, when he had passed by the glorious angels who had fallen? And was it not exceeding wisdom in God, in satisfying his justice so that he might show mercy? It was a matter of awe to the angels to see the great God stoop so low, to be clothed in such a poor nature as man’s, which is lower than their own. This doubtless is the meaning of the Holy Spirit: they saw it with awe.

2. And because he was their head, as the second person of the Trinity, and they were creatures made to attend upon Christ, their sight and wonderment must tend to some practice suitable to their condition. Therefore they so saw and wondered at him that they attended on Christ in all the events of his humiliation and exaltation: in his life, in his death, in his resurrection and ascension.

3. They saw him in such a way that they were witnesses of him to men. They gave testimony and witness of him. So it is a full word, in the intention of the Holy Spirit. Indeed, not only the angels but all gave witness of him, from the highest heavens to hell itself. All witnessed Christ to be the true Messiah.

In his baptism there was the Trinity: the Father in a “voice from heaven,” the Holy Spirit in the shape of a dove. He had the witness of angels, of men of all ranks, Jews and Gentiles, men and women. Yes, the devils themselves often confessed him in the Gospels. He was witnessed to by all ranks. They saw him, and gave evidence and testimony of him that he was the true Messiah.

He was seen of angels. To declare this a little more particularly:

The angels knew of Christ’s coming in the flesh before it happened, for what the church knew the angels knew in some measure. When God made the promise of the promised seed, the angels knew of it. And in Daniel the angel speaks of the seventy weeks; therefore they knew of him before his incarnation. But now they saw him with wonderment in our flesh; now they had an experiential knowledge of him. For the angels, besides their natural and supernatural knowledge, have an experiential knowledge that is daily increased in them, in the church. They continually see something to wonder at in the church, in the head, and in the members.

They knew of the incarnation of Christ before. You know that the angel brought the news of it beforehand to the virgin Mary. The angels attended on Christ from his very infancy. The angels ministered to him in his temptation (Matt 4:11). Before his death they comforted him in the garden (Luke 22:43). He was made “lower than the angels” in some sort, as it is in Psalm 8:5, for they came to comfort him. He was so low that he had the comforting of angels. Then they saw when he was buried; they “rolled away the stone” (Matt 28:2).

By the way, in general, it is the angels’ office to remove impediments that hinder us from Christ. A Christian will have angels to remove the stones, the hindrances that lie between heaven and him, rather than let them be any impediment to his salvation.

Then when he rose there were angels, one at the head and another at the feet, and they told Mary that he was risen. And then at his ascension the angels told the disciples that Christ would come again. You have the story of it at large in the Gospels, how from the annunciation of his conception to his ascension they saw him and attended on him and witnessed of him.

As soon as ever he was born, when they appeared to the shepherds, what a glorious hymn they sang! “Glory to God on high, peace on earth, good will to men” (Luke 2:14). How joyful they were over the incarnation of Christ, and the great work of redemption wrought by it!

And, as I said, they did not only see these things, but they wondered at the love and mercy and wisdom of God in the Head and members of the church. We see this in various places: in 1 Peter 1:12, we preach the gospel, “which things the angels desire to look into.” The very angels desire to pry and look with awe into the wondrous things of the gospel. So in Ephesians 3:10, “To the intent that unto principalities and powers in heavenly places might be made known by the church the manifold wisdom of God.”

There is something done by Christ, by his incarnation and resurrection and government of his church, that the very angels look into, and they wonder at the “manifold wisdom of God” in governing his church: his wisdom in electing them, and afterward in restoring mankind, and in his manner of dispensation to the Jews, first by ceremonies and then afterward by the body itself, Christ “in the flesh.” There is such a world of wonders in the government of the church, such “manifold wisdom,” that the very angels themselves look on this with awe and wonder and with great delight.

Use 1. Shall angels see and wonder at these things? at the love and mercy and wisdom of God in governing his church, in joining together things irreconcilable to man’s comprehension, infinite justice with infinite mercy in Christ, so that God’s wrath and justice should be satisfied in Christ, and infinite mercy thereby shown to us? Here are things for angels to wonder at. Shall they wonder at it, and joy and delight in it, and shall we slight the things that are the wonderment of angels?

There is a company of profane spirits (I wish there were not too many among us) who will scarcely deign to look into these things, who hardly have the book of God in their houses. They can wonder at a story or a poem or some frothy invention, at base things not worthy to be reckoned of. But as for the great mysteries of salvation, that great work of the Trinity concerning the salvation of mankind, they scoff at them, they slight them. They never talk seriously of these things, unless it is, as it were, with a graceless grace of slighting and scorn. They count it a disparagement to be serious about these things. They make no mysteries of what the glorious creatures, the angels themselves, look on and pry into, even with awe.

But it is beyond conceiving, the profaneness and poison that is in man’s nature against divine truths, as I shall show afterward: how it slights the means of its own salvation and stands wondering at baubles and trifles. And so men waste away their precious time in wonder at what is nothing but “vanity of vanities,” whereas we should spend our time in studying these transcendent things that go beyond the capacity of the very angels. Yet with these things we dally and trifle.

Use 2. Again, from this, that Christ was seen and attended on and marveled at by angels, there is a great deal of comfort that flows to us. It is the ground of all the attendance and comfort that we have from the angels. For this is a rule in divinity, that the same reasoning holds for the head and for the members; both head and members are one.

Therefore what comfort and attendance Christ, who is the head, had, the church, which is the body, has the same, only with some difference. They attended on him as the head; they attend on us as the members. They attended on him immediately for himself; they attend on us for his sake. For whatever we have from God, we have at second hand. We receive “grace for grace” (John 1:16) from Christ. We receive the attendance of angels because of the attendance they gave to Christ first; they attend on us by his direction and commission and charge. So we have a derivative comfort from the attendance of angels on Christ. But surely, whatever they did to him they do to us, because the same regard extends to head and members.

Therefore the devil did not mistake; he was right in that, when he quoted from the Psalm, “He shall give his angels charge over thee, that thou dash not thy foot against a stone” (Ps 91:11 and following). He was right in that, applying it to Christ. For however true it is of Christians, yet it is true of Christ too. It is true of the members as well as the head, and of the head as of the members. For “he that sanctifieth, and they that are sanctified, are all one” (Heb 2:11), as the apostle says, one Christ.

Now the care of angels concerning Christ and his church was shadowed out in Exodus 25:17 and the verses following, and in Exodus 26:31. There was the mercy seat, which covered the ark in which the law was, and on the mercy seat there were two cherubim facing one another, and both peered toward the mercy seat. They shadowed out the angels who look on the mercy seat, Christ; for he is the mercy seat that covers the law and the curse, in whom God was merciful to us. There they look on that with a kind of wonderment and attendance, which St. Peter alludes to in that place, into which mysteries the very angels pry (1 Pet 1:12).

And so in the veil of the tabernacle: the veil had pictures of cherubim all around it (Exod 26:31). What did that shadow out to us? The multitude of cherubim and seraphim and angels that attend on Christ and his church. So he was “seen” and attended on by “angels”; and it belongs to all who are his, as you have it in Hebrews 1:14, they are ministering spirits, for the good of the heirs of salvation.

They who serve the king serve the queen too. Christ is the King of his church, and the church is the greatest queen in the world. They attend on her. No, more: Christ has made us, with himself, kings. Now, what a king is that who has a guard of angels! As they guarded and attended on Christ, so they guard and attend all who are his; as you have it excellently in Daniel 7:10, there are thousand thousands of angels about the throne continually. All this is for our comfort, because we are one mystical body with him.

You have a notable representation of this in Jacob’s ladder. Jacob’s ladder reached from earth to heaven, and that pointed to Christ himself, who is “Immanuel,” God and man, who brought God and man together. He was a mediator between both, and a friend to both. He was that ladder that touched heaven and earth and joined both together. Now it is said that the angels ascended and descended upon that ladder. So the angels descend upon us because they first ascend and descend upon Jacob’s ladder, that is, upon Christ. “All things are yours,” says the apostle (1 Cor 3:21). What are those things? God is ours, the Spirit is ours, heaven is ours, the earth is ours; afflictions, life, death, Paul, Apollos, the angels themselves, all is ours. Why? “Ye are Christ’s” (1 Cor 3:23). That is the ground. So it is a spring of comfort to consider that Christ was “seen” and admired and attended by angels. They are ours because we are Christ’s. Let us consider what a comfort it is to have the attendance of these blessed spirits for Christ’s sake.

And hence we have the ground of the perpetuity of it, that they will forever be attendants to us, because their love and respect for us is founded upon their love and respect for Christ. When favor to another is grounded on a sound foundation, when the favor that a king or a great person bears to someone is founded on the love of his own son, so that he loves the other because he loves his son whom the other loves, then it is perpetual and sound, because he will always love his son. The angels will forever love and honor and attend us. Why? On what ground do they have respect for us at all? It is in Christ, whose members and spouse we are. As long as the church has any relation to Christ, so long the angels shall respect the church; but the church has relation to Christ forever. Therefore the respect that the blessed angels have for Christ and for the church is forever and forever.

Well, let us think of this so as to make use of it: that now in Christ we have the attendance of angels. We do not see them, as people did in former times, before Christ’s incarnation. That is true, because now, since Christ has come “in the flesh,” the government of Christ is spiritual, and we are not supported with those glorious manifestations; but they are about us in an invisible manner. We have Elisha’s guard about us continually, but we do not see them. There were more appearances in the infancy of the church, because Christ was dispensed to the church according to its weak state. But now Christ has come “in the flesh,” and has been “received up in glory,” and there is more abundance of spirit. We should be more spiritual and heavenly-minded, and not look for outward appearances of angels, but be content that we have a guard of them about us, as every Christian has.

“Despise not,” says Christ, “these little ones.” They are about Christians, and about little ones, little in years and little in esteem; “for their angels…” (Matt 18:10). It is a strange thing. They are God’s angels, but they are theirs for their service. Their angels behold the face of your heavenly Father. So Christ’s angels are our angels; they are angels even of children, of little ones. Indeed, let a man be ever so poor, even as poor as Lazarus, and he shall have the attendance of angels in life and death. There is no Christian of low degree, of the lowest degree, who should think himself neglected by God, for the very angels attend him, as we see in Lazarus. There is a general commission for the least, the little ones.

Likewise, it may comfort us in all our extremities whatsoever, in all our desertions. The time may come, beloved, when we may be deserted by the world and deserted by our friends. We may be in such straits that we have nobody in the world near us. Oh, but if a man is a true Christian, he has God and angels about him always. A Christian is a king; he is never without his guard, that invisible guard of angels. What! If a man has nobody by him when he dies but God and his good angels to carry his soul to heaven, is he neglected? Every Christian, if he has no one else with him, has God, the whole Trinity, and the guard of angels to help and comfort him and to convey his soul to the place of happiness. Therefore let us never despair, let us never be disconsolate. Whatever our condition may be, we shall have God and good angels with us in all our straits and extremities.

Go through all the passages of our life, and we see how ready we are to fall into dangers. In our infancy, in our tender years, we are committed to their custody. After that, in our dangers, they pitch their tents about us, as it says in Psalm 34:7, the angels of the Lord pitch their tents about those that fear the Lord. In our conversion they rejoice. There is joy in heaven at the conversion of a sinner (Luke 15:10). At the hour of death, as we see in Lazarus, they are ready to convey our souls to the place of happiness. Lazarus’s soul “was carried by angels into Abraham’s bosom” (Luke 16:22). At the resurrection they shall gather our dead bodies together; it is the office of the angels. In heaven they shall praise and glorify God, together with us forever. For Christ shall come with a multitude of heavenly angels at the day of judgment, “when he shall come to be glorified in his saints” (2 Thess 1:10). Then we shall forever glorify God, saints and angels together, in heaven.

Therefore in Hebrews 12:22 it is said, we are come to the innumerable multitude of angels. What is the meaning of that? It is this: now in the New Testament, by our communion with Christ, we have association with the blessed angels, “innumerable company of angels,” says the Holy Spirit there. We have association with them even from our infancy until we are in glory. Indeed, they are like nurses: “They shall carry thee, that thou dash not thy foot against a stone,” as it says in Psalm 91:12. They keep us from many harms.

Objection. But you will say, God’s children do fall into harm; how then are they attended by angels?

Answer. First of all, God’s angels preserve those who are his from many harms that they know nothing of. And certainly we have devils about us continually, and there is a conflict between good angels and devils about us continually. And when we do fall into any harm, it is because we are not in our way. If we go out of our way, they do not have the “charge over us”; they are to keep us “in our ways.”

And if they do not keep us from “dashing our foot against a stone,” if they do not keep us from trouble, yet they keep us in trouble and deliver us out of trouble at last. For they deliver us not only from evil, so that we do not fall into it, but they keep us in trouble and deliver us out of trouble, yes, and by trouble. If we suffer any harm in the custody of angels, it is so that we may be tried by it, so that we may be exercised and bettered by it. Nothing happens to God’s children in the world but they gain by it, whatever it is. This, therefore, does not count against the attendance of angels.

Therefore let us comfort ourselves in all conditions, for ourselves and for the state. Suppose it were brought down to a very small number, and the enemies were thousands more than we, many thousands and millions. Yet if we are in the covenant of grace and on good terms with God, we have more for us than against us; we shall have angels fight for us. You know that when Elisha’s servant saw a multitude of enemies, his eyes were opened to see a company of angels; and the prophet says, there are more for us than against us (2 Kgs 6:16 and following). So though we may be ever so few and ever so weak to the eye of the world, let us only have Elisha’s eye, the eye of faith, and we shall have his guard about us always, and about the commonwealth. This should comfort us.

But then we must learn this duty, not to grieve these good spirits. As it is wondrous humility that they will stoop to be servants to us, who are of a weaker, lower nature than they, so it is wondrous patience that they will still continue to guard us, even though we do what grieves those good spirits. Here is one motive to keep us in the way of obedience: that we do not grieve those blessed spirits who are our guard and attendance. Let us consider when we are alone (it would keep us from many sins): no human eye sees; yes, but God sees, and conscience within sees, and angels without are witnesses. They grieve at it, and the devils about us rejoice at it. These meditations, when we are tempted to sin, would draw our minds away and take up our hearts, if we had a spirit of faith to believe these things.

Let us learn to make this use likewise, to magnify God, who has thus honored us, not only by taking our nature upon him, to be “manifest in the flesh,” but also by giving us his own attendance, his own guard, a guard of angels. Indeed, in Christ we are above angels, advanced higher than angels. What cause we have to praise God!

How are we advanced above them? We are the spouse of Christ, and the angels are not. They are under Christ as a head of government and a head of influence. They have strength and confirmation from Christ. He is not a head of redemption to them, but of confirmation. St. Paul calls them “elect angels” who stand. They stand by Christ; they receive good through him. But they are not the spouse of Christ. We are the spouse and members of Christ. He has honored our nature more than the angelic nature: he did not take on himself the nature of angels, but of men. And as he has advanced us above angels, so he has ordered that those glorious creatures should be our attendants for our good; and they have no distaste for this attendance.

And this is what we should know: what care God has over us and what love he bears us, that he has honored us so much that creatures of a more excellent rank than we are, even the angels, should be serviceable to us in Christ. And the purpose of it all is that we should be full of thankfulness.

Objection. But you will say, What need is there for the guard or attendance of angels for Christ or for us, for head or members, considering that God is able to guard us with his almighty power?

Answer. It is true. The creatures that God has ordained in their several ranks do not exist because of any defect in God, to supply his lack of power, but further to enlarge and demonstrate his goodness. He is the “Lord of hosts”; therefore he will have hosts of creatures, one under another, and all serviceable to his end. His end is to bring a company to salvation, to a supernatural end, to happiness in the world to come; and being Lord of all, he makes all things serve that end. He could do it by himself; but having ordained such ranks of creatures, he makes all of them serve that end, for the manifestation of his power and of his goodness, not because of any defect of strength in himself.

He could do everything by himself. He could have been content with his own happiness and never have made a world; but he made the world to show his goodness and love and respect to mankind. So he will have angels attend us, though he watches over us by his own providence. This does not take away any care of his; rather, he shows his care in the attendance of angels and other creatures. He uses them to convey his care and love to us.

Objection. But you will say, How can the angels help our souls in any way? They may help our outward man, or the state where we live; but what good do they do to the inward man?

Answer. The inward man is especially subject to the Spirit of Christ. It is God who bows the neck of the inward man. But even so, if the devils can suggest sin, angels are as strong as devils, and stronger and wiser too. They are wiser than the devil is malicious, and stronger than the devil is powerful. Whatever the devils can do in evil, the good angels can do in good. Therefore there is no question that they suggest many thoughts that are good.

They are not only a guard about us, but they are tutors to teach and instruct us. They minister good thoughts, and stir up good promptings and suggestions. They do not work directly on the human heart to alter and change it (that is proper to God), but by stirring up promptings and by way of suggestion; as the devils do in evil, so they do in good. Therefore it is said that they comforted our blessed Savior, which I suppose was by more than their presence. So they comfort God’s children by presenting good promptings to their thoughts (we do not know how; the manner is mystical, and it is not for us to search into that), by stirring them up to good. Only the altering and changing of our dispositions is proper to the Holy Spirit of God.

Let us often think of this: what a glorious head we have, for whose sake the angels attend upon us in all conditions whatsoever, even until we come to heaven.

And this should stir us up to labor to be made one with Christ. All the good we have in any way comes by the share we have in Christ first. He holds it in chief, as the head. If we do not have a being in our head, Christ, we can claim nothing in the world, no attendance of angels; for the angels are at variance with us outside of Christ. We see that immediately after the fall the cherub was set with his sword drawn to guard the entrance of paradise, from which Adam was shut out, to show that immediately upon the fall there was a variance and a mighty distance between the angels and us. But now the angels no longer shut paradise. No, they accompany us in the wilderness of this world to the heavenly Canaan, to paradise. They go up and down Jacob’s ladder. They attend upon Christ, and for his sake they are ministering spirits for the comfort of the elect. So all things are now reconciled in Christ, both in heaven and earth, angels and men.

It should stir us up to get a share in Christ, so that we may have a share in all these excellent things that belong first to Christ and then to us. Whatever is excellent in heaven or earth belongs to the king of all, who is Christ, and to the queen of all, the church; and the time will come when there will be no excellency but Christ and his church. All that is in the world is nothing. It will end in hell and despair, all other excellencies whatsoever.

This should teach us likewise to carry ourselves in keeping with our condition, to take a holy dignity upon us. We should think ourselves too good to abase ourselves to sin, to be slaves to men, to flesh and blood, whoever they may be, to the corruptions and whims of any man, since we have angels to attend upon us. We are kings, and have a kingly guard. It should move us to take a holy dignity upon us. It should compel a bearing suited to kings, who have so glorious an attendance. Undoubtedly, if we had a spiritual eye of faith to believe and to know this in a way equal to the things themselves and their excellency, it would work a more glorious disposition in Christians than there is now, to carry ourselves as if we were in heaven before our time. Oh that we had clear eyes, equal to the excellency of the privileges that belong to us.

Again, it should teach us not to despise the lowliest Christians, seeing that angels do not despise attending on them. Shall we disdain to relieve those whom the angels do not disdain to comfort? To comfort and relieve one another is the work of an angel. Shall any man think himself too good to help any poor Christian? Oh, the pride of man’s nature, when the more glorious nature of the angels does not disdain to be our servants, and not only to great and noble men, but to little ones, even to Lazarus! What a devilish quality envy and pride are, that stir us up to disdain to be useful to one another, especially to those who are inferiors! We know it was the speech of wicked Cain, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” (Gen 4:9). Shall I stoop to him? Flesh and blood begins to stand on its dignity. Alas! If angels had stood on their dignity, where would this attendance have been? The devils who did not keep their first standing, being proud spirits, disdained the calling they had; the good angels humble themselves.

God himself, as it says in Psalm 113:6, does not disdain to look on things below. When the great God became man, shall we wonder that angels should attend upon the nature that God has so honored? What a devilish sin, then, envy and pride and disdain are! Let these considerations move us to fall out of love with this disposition. The angels rejoice at the conversion of others. Shall that be our heart’s smart and grief which is the joy of angels? Shall we despise the work of regeneration and the image of God in another? Shall the welfare and thriving of others, spiritually or outwardly, be the joy of angels and our sorrow? Shall we, out of disdain and envy, think ourselves too good to do anything when it is the delight of angels?

The angels are described in Isaiah 6:2 and following with wings to fly, to show their delight in their attendance, and wings to cover their faces and their feet, to show their adoration and reverence of God. The nearer they come to God, the more reverence they have. So there is no Christian but, like the angels, the nearer he comes to God, the more he abases himself and adores God; as Job, when he came nearer to God than he had been before: “I abhor myself,” he says, “in dust and ashes,” when God came to talk with him (Job 42:6). The angels, the nearer they come to God, the more reverence they show, the more they cover their faces in his presence. And with the other wings they fly and do their duty, to show their speed in their service to Christ and his church. They do readily what they do. Let us imitate the angels in this.

The angels have a double office: a superior office and an inferior. The superior office they have is to attend upon God, to serve God and Christ, to minister to our head. The inferior office is to attend his church, and to contend with the evil angels who are about us continually.

It is good for us to know our prerogatives, our privilege, and our strength, not to make us proud, but to stir us up to thankfulness and to a holy conduct that answers to them. It is a point not much thought on by the best of us all. We forget it and betray our own comfort. Satan deceives us and makes us forget the dignity and strength that we have. By this we dishonor God and wrong ourselves and wrong the holy angels, for lack of faith and consideration of these things. A Christian is a more excellent creature than he imagines.

It is often necessary to think to what a high degree God has raised us in Jesus Christ, that we have this glorious attendance about us wherever we are. Oh, it would move us, as I said, to comfort and to a reverent bearing! And indeed, when we carry ourselves otherwise, it is for lack of minding and believing these things. I have spoken somewhat more of it because we are prone to neglect this blessed truth. Therefore, for the time to come, let us take occasion to meditate on this spring of comfort more often than we have done before.

Preached to the Gentiles (1 Tim 3:16).

Since Christ, our blessed Savior, is the king of his church, it was not sufficient that he was “manifested in the flesh” and “justified in the Spirit,” that is, declared by his divine power to be God; he must also have his nobles acknowledge this. Kings at their inaugurations not only make good their own title as far as they can themselves, but they would have others acknowledge it. Therefore it is said that Christ was seen of angels, those noble and glorious creatures.

But not only the greatest of the kingdom, but also the lowlier subjects, must know their king. There must be a proclamation to them, so that they may know who is to rule over them. Therefore, since Christ is a general, universal king, there must be a publication and proclamation of Christ all the world over. He must be “preached to the Gentiles.” But even that is not enough. Upon proclamation, there must be homage from all those to whom he is proclaimed king. Therefore it follows, “Believed on in the world”; that is, the world must stoop and submit and give homage to Christ as the Savior of the world, as the Mediator of mankind. Thus we see how these things follow one upon another. To come to the words: “Preached to the Gentiles, believed on in the world.”

These follow one another by a necessary order, for “preaching” goes before faith. Faith is the outcome and fruit of preaching. Christ is first “preached to the Gentiles,” and then “believed on in the world.” The points to consider are these:

First, that there must be a dispensing to others of the salvation accomplished by Christ. It is not sufficient that salvation was accomplished by Christ “manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit”; this salvation and redemption, once accomplished, must be published and dispensed to others. Therefore he says “preached to the Gentiles.”

And then this publication and “preaching” must be of Christ. Christ must be published to the Gentiles. All that is necessary to be published is in Christ.

Then the persons to whom. “To the Gentiles,” that is, to all. The church has been enlarged since the coming of Christ; the fences and bounds of the church have been enlarged.

And then the fruit of this. Christ being thus dispensed to the Gentiles, the world “believes.” All preaching is for “the obedience of faith,” as St. Paul says (Rom 1:5; Rom 16:26): that the obedience of the faith may be yielded to Christ. “Preaching to the Gentiles” is so that he may be “believed on in the world.”

First of all, there must be a dispensing of Christ.

See how reasonable this is, even from human affairs. It is not sufficient that medicine be provided; it must be applied. It is not sufficient that there is a treasure; it must be dug out. It is not sufficient that there is a candle or light; it must be held out for the good and use of others. It was not sufficient that there was a “brazen serpent”; the brazen serpent must be “lifted up,” so that the people might see it. It is not sufficient that there is a standard; the standard must be set up. It is not sufficient that there is a foundation; there must be a building on the foundation. It is not sufficient that there is a garment; it must be put on. It is not sufficient that there is a box of ointment; the box must be opened, so that the whole house may be filled with the smell. It is not sufficient that there is tapestry and glorious hangings; they must be unfolded.

Therefore there must be a dispensing of the mysteries of Christ. For though Christ is medicine, he must be applied; though Christ is a garment, he must be put on; though he is a foundation, we must build on him, or else we get no good from him; though he in his truth is a treasure, yet he must be dug up in the ministry; though he is a light, he must be held forth; though he is food, there must be an application. Of necessity, therefore, there must be a dispensing of the gospel, as well as redemption accomplished by Christ: “preached to the Gentiles.”

To unfold the point a little, seeing how necessary it is, let me show what it is to preach, what it is to preach Christ, and what it is to preach Christ to the Gentiles.

1. To preach is to open the mystery of Christ, to open whatever is in Christ, to break open the box so that the fragrance may be perceived by all. It is to open what Christ’s natures and person are. It is to open the offices of Christ. First, he was a prophet to teach, which is why he came into the world. Then he was a priest, offering the sacrifice of himself. And then, after he had offered his sacrifice as a priest, he was a king. He was more publicly and gloriously known to be a king, to rule. After he had gained a people by his priesthood and offering, he was then to be a king to govern them. But his prophetic office comes before the rest. He was all of these at the same time, but I am speaking with regard to their manifestation. Now “to preach Christ” is to lay open these things.

And likewise it is to lay open the states in which he carried out his office. First, the state of humiliation. Christ was first abased, and then glorified. The flesh he took on himself was first sanctified and then abased, and then he made it glorious flesh. He could not accomplish our salvation except in a state of abasement; he could not apply it to us except in a state of exaltation and glory.

It is to open the merits of Christ, what he has done toward his Father for us. It is to open his power as the spiritual Head of his church, what wonders he works in his children by changing and raising them, by fitting and preparing them for heaven. It is likewise to open all the promises in Christ; they are only Christ dished up and parceled out. “All the promises in Christ are yea and amen” (2 Cor 1:20). They are made for Christ’s sake, and performed for Christ’s sake; they are all only Christ divided into so many particular gracious blessings. “To preach Christ” is to lay open all this, which is the inheritance of God’s people.

But it is not sufficient to preach Christ by laying all this open to the view of others. In the opening of these things, they must also be applied to the use of God’s people, so that they may see their own share in them. And there must be an alluring of them, for to preach is to woo. Preachers are the friends of the bridegroom, who are to bring about the marriage between Christ and his church. Therefore they are not only to lay open the riches of the husband, Christ, but also to entreat for a marriage, and to use all the gifts and abilities that God has given them to bring Christ and his church together.

And because people are in a state contrary to Christ, “to preach Christ” is even to begin with the law, to show people their condition by nature. A man can never preach the gospel if he does not make way for the gospel by showing people what they are outside of Christ, and convincing them of it. Who will marry Christ but those who know their own beggary and misery outside of Christ, and that they must of necessity have him, or else die in their debts eternally? They must have him, or else they are eternally miserable. Now when people are convinced of this, then they go out of themselves to Christ.

This must therefore be done, because it belongs to the right order; it is what makes way for the preaching of Christ. For “the full stomach despiseth an honeycomb” (Prov 27:7). Who cares for balm who is not sick? Who cares for Christ who does not see the necessity of Christ? Therefore we see that John the Baptist came before Christ, to make way for Christ, to level the mountains, to cast down whatever exalts itself in man. He who is to preach must discern what mountains there are between people’s hearts and Christ. He must labor to reveal them to themselves, and lay all human pride flat in the dust; for the word of God is forcible to pull down strongholds and imaginations and to bring all into subjection to Christ (2 Cor 10:4).

And indeed, though a man should not preach the law, yet by way of implication all these things are wrapped up in the gospel. What need would there be of a Savior, unless we were lost? What need for Christ to be wisdom to us, if we were not fools in ourselves? What need for Christ to be sanctification to us, if we were not defiled in ourselves? What need for him to be redemption, if we were not lost and sold in ourselves to Satan, and under his bondage? Therefore all is meant to make way for Christ: not only to open the mysteries of Christ, but in the opening and application to let us see the necessity of Christ.

In a word, since we are to bring Christ and the church together, our aim must be to persuade people to come out of the condition they are in, and to come and take Christ. Whatever serves this purpose, that course we must use, however much it may abase us. Therefore the gospel is proclaimed in a sweet manner. “I beseech you, brethren, by the mercies of God…” (Rom 12:1). The law comes with “Cursed, cursed”; but now in the gospel Christ is preached with sweet alluring: “I beseech you, brethren,” and “We as ambassadors beseech you, as if Christ by us did beseech you” (2 Cor 5:20).

This is the manner of the dispensing of the gospel: even to beg people to be good to their own souls. Christ, as it were, became a beggar himself, and the great God of heaven and earth begs for our love, that we would so care for our own souls that we would be reconciled to him.

It was more fitting, indeed, that we should beg of him. It was fitting that we should seek to be reconciled to him. But God so stoops in the dispensing and ministry of the gospel that he becomes a beggar and suitor to us, asking us to be good to our souls. As if he had offended us, he asks us to be reconciled. The wrong is done on our part, yet he so far rises above the doubts of human nature that he would have nothing cause man’s heart to misgive him, and no doubts or scruples arise. He himself becomes a pleader for reconciliation, as if he were the party who had offended. This is the manner of the publishing of the gospel. I only touch on these things, to show what it is to preach Christ.

Use. Since, then, there must of necessity be a dispensing along with the gospel, let us labor to magnify this dispensing by preaching: that together with redemption and the good things we have by Christ, we also have the standard set up and the brazen serpent lifted up by preaching, with “the unsearchable riches of Christ” (Eph 3:8) unfolded to us. It is a blessed condition. Let us magnify this ordinance, without disparaging other means, such as reading and the like. This preaching is the means by which God ordinarily dispenses salvation and grace.

And God in his wisdom sees it as the fittest way to dispense his grace to men by men. Why?

(1) To test our obedience to the truth itself. He wants men to regard the things spoken, not because of the person who speaks them, but for the excellence of the things. If some glorious creatures, such as the angels, were to preach to us, we would regard the excellence of the preachers more than the truth itself; we would believe the truth for the messengers’ sake.

(2) And then God wants to knit man to man by bonds of love. Now there is a relationship between pastor and people by this ordinance of God.

(3) And then it is more suitable to our condition. We could not hear God speak, or any more excellent creatures. God magnifies his power all the more in blessing these weak means.

(4) And it is better proportioned to our weakness to have the gospel preached by men who speak out of their own experience, who have felt its comfort themselves. It works on us all the more. Therefore those who first preached the gospel were such as had first felt its sweetness themselves. St. Paul was a great sinner outside the church, and St. Peter was in the church and fell after he was in the state of grace, so that these great apostles might show all people that there is no ground for despair, if we humble ourselves.

If they are sins committed outside the church, if they are sins against the first table of the law, as Paul was “a blasphemer,” or against the second, as he was “a persecutor,” yet he found mercy notwithstanding. And he found mercy for this purpose, he says, that he might teach the mercy of God to others, that he might be an example of the mercy of God to others (1 Tim 1:16). And so, if we relapse and fall, let no one despair. Peter, a great teacher in the church, an apostle: see how foully he fell! Now when men subject to the same infirmities make known the mercy of God out of the book of God, it works on us all the more.

It is good for us to have a right esteem of the ordinances of God, because the profane heart of man thinks it a needless matter.

Question. Some are ready to say, “Can I not read just as well privately at home?”

Answer. Yes. But private exercises, used with contempt of the public ones, have a curse on them instead of a blessing. It is with such men as with those who gathered manna when they should not have; it stank. Has God set up an ordinance for nothing, for us to despise? Is he not wiser, knowing what is good for us better than we do ourselves? God accompanies his ordinance with the presence of his blessed Spirit. The truth read at home has power, but the truth unfolded has more power. As we say of warmed milk, it is fitter for nourishment; and the rain from heaven has a richness in it, and a special influence, beyond other standing waters. So there is not the life and working and blessing accompanying other means that accompanies preaching, which is the ordinary means where it may be had.

Objection. Yes, but this ordinance of God, “preaching,” is only for laying the foundation of a church; it is not for a church once it is built. Then other helps, such as prayer and the like, may suffice without it.

Answer. Those who hold such notions make themselves wiser than the Spirit of God in St. Paul, as we see in Ephesians 4:8 and following. Christ, “when he ascended on high, he led captivity captive, he gave gifts to men, some apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, for the edifying and building up of the church.” So this ordinance is necessary for building up still, and for knitting the members of Christ together still. Therefore that is an empty excuse.

Objection. Oh, but what need is there of so much? Less would do.

Answer. This is how people come to scorn and despise this heavenly manna. But those who are acquainted with their own infirmities think it a happiness to have plenty. For by nature we are dull, we are forgetful, we are heedless. Though we know, we do not remember; and though we remember, yet we do not take things to heart. We are naturally weak, and therefore we need all the spiritual supports and helps there can be, to keep the vessel of our souls in good condition at all times. The more we hear and know, the fitter we are for doing and suffering, and the fitter our souls are for communion with God in every passage, both of life and of death. Therefore we cannot take too much care in this.

Oh, let us therefore choose Mary’s part, “the better part” (Luke 10:42), which will never depart from us; and let us beware of profane notions of this kind. They are to the harm of our souls. We must know that whenever God sets up an ordinance, he accompanies it with a special blessing. And we are not so much to consider the men in it as to consider the ordinance, which is his; and because it is his, a special blessing goes with the dispensing of the word by the ministry.

Objection. Others object that they know it well enough, and therefore they do not need to be taught.

Answer. The word of God preached is not altogether for teaching us, but, with the Spirit going with it, for working grace, necessary to “strengthen us in the inward man” (2 Cor 4:16). And those who say they know it well enough deceive themselves. They do not know it. Religion is a mystery, and can it be learned at the first? There is no mystery that does not require many years to learn. If it is only a handicraft, men spend six or seven years learning it. And do we think that religion, with its mysteries and depths, is learned so soon? There is a mystery in every grace, in repentance, in faith, in patience, that no one knows except those who have the graces, nor does anyone else know what belongs to those graces.

Religion does not consist in certain gifts and abilities to speak and think about these things; and yet even that is hard to learn, being contrary to our nature, since we have no seeds of these things. Even the outside of religion, which is the preparation for the inward part, takes some doing to bring our hearts to these things. But then, religion itself is a deep mystery; it requires a great deal of learning.

Let us therefore set a high price on God’s ordinance. There must be this dispensing. Christ must be “preached.” Preaching is the chariot that carries Christ up and down the world. Christ does not profit us except as he is preached. For supernatural benefits, if they are not uncovered, are lost; as we say of jewels, if they are not uncovered, what is their glory? Therefore there must be an uncovering by preaching, which is the ordinance of God for that purpose. For this reason God first raised up the apostles, who were the chief converters of the world. They had some prerogatives above all other preachers. They had an immediate calling, extraordinary gifts, and a general commission. In them a ministry was established to the end of the world.

“Christ, when he ascended on high and led captivity captive” (he would give no small gift then, when he was to ascend triumphantly to heaven), the greatest gift he could give was “some to be prophets, some apostles, some teachers, for the building up of the body of Christ, till we all meet a perfect man in Christ” (Eph 4:8, 11-13). “I will send them pastors according to my own heart,” says God (Jer 3:15). The ordinance of preaching is a gift of all gifts. God esteems it so, Christ esteems it so, and so should we esteem it.

And to add this further, to clear it of whatever may rise up in anyone’s mind, only consider from experience, where God sets up his ordinance, how many souls are converted. Some are savingly cast down and then raised up again. Their lives are reformed. They walk in the light; they know where they are going. They can give an account of what they hold. The state of those who live under the ordinance of God is incomparably brighter, and more comfortable and glorious, than that of those who are in the dark, who lack it. If we had no other argument, experience is a good argument. Where do popery and profaneness reign most? In those places where this ordinance of God is not set up; for popery cannot endure the breath of the gospel. Thus we see the necessity and benefit of preaching.

But then, in the next place, this preaching must be of Christ; Christ must be “preached.”

Question. But must nothing be preached but Christ?

Answer. Nothing but Christ, or what tends to Christ. If we preach threatenings, it is to cast men down, so that we may build them up. If a physician purges, it is so that he may give cordials. Whatever is done in preaching to humble men is done to raise them up again in Christ; all of it makes way for Christ. When men are dejected by the law, we must not leave them there, but raise them up again. Whatever we preach leads back to Christ, so that men may walk worthy of Christ.

When men have been taught Christ, they must be taught to “walk worthy of Christ, and of their calling” (Col 1:10), so that they may conduct themselves fruitfully, and holily, and constantly, in every way suited to so glorious a profession as the profession of the Christian religion. The foundation of all these duties must be from Christ. The graces for these duties must be drawn from Christ; and the reasons and motives of a Christian’s conduct must be from Christ, and from the state to which Christ has advanced us. The reasons that prevail for a holy life are drawn from Christ. “The grace of God hath appeared,” says St. Paul (it has shone gloriously), “teaching us to deny all ungodliness and worldly lusts, and to live soberly, and righteously, and holily, in this present evil world” (Titus 2:12).

So Christ is the main object of preaching. This is what made St. Paul, when he was among the Corinthians, profess no knowledge of anything but “Christ, and him crucified” (1 Cor 2:2), and esteem and value nothing else. He had learning and languages and abilities. He was an excellently qualified man, but he made a show of nothing, in his preaching and in what he valued and esteemed, except Christ and the good things we have by Christ.

Now Christ must be preached wholly and only. We must not take anything from Christ, nor join anything to Christ. The Galatians only believed that ceremonies were necessary along with Christ, and the apostle tells them, “Ye are fallen from Christ” (Gal 5:4). It is a destructive addition to add anything to Christ. Away with other satisfaction. The satisfaction of Christ is enough. Away with merits. The merits of Christ are all-sufficient. Away with the merit of works in the matter of salvation. Christ’s righteousness is what we must labor to be found in, and “not in our own” (Phil 3:9). All is only “dung and dross” (Phil 3:8) in comparison with the excellent righteousness we have in Jesus Christ. You must hear, and we must preach, all Christ and only Christ.

St. Paul says he was “jealous with a holy jealousy” over those he taught. Why? Lest Satan should beguile them, and draw them from Christ, to any other thing (2 Cor 11:2-3). Why is the Church of Rome so erroneous, except because she leaves Christ and cleaves to other things? Therefore we must labor to keep chaste souls for Christ; and those who are true preachers, and ambassadors, and messengers must be “jealous with a holy jealousy” over the people of God, that they look to nothing but Christ.

Christ must be preached; but to whom? “To the Gentiles.”

Here lies the mystery: that Christ, who was “manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit,” should be “preached to the Gentiles.” What were the Gentiles? Before Christ’s time they were “dogs,” in the verdict of our Savior Christ: Shall I give the children’s bread to dogs? (Matt 15:26). Before Christ’s time they “sat in darkness, and in the shadow of death” (Ps 107:10). Before Christ’s time they were “the halt and the lame,” whom he, the great feast-maker, sent to bid come in (Luke 14:21). They were “aliens from the commonwealth of Israel,” without Christ, “without God in the world” (Eph 2:12); without God because they were without Christ.

It is unimaginable what misery the poor Gentiles were in before the coming of Christ, except for some few proselytes who joined themselves to the Jewish Church; for the Gentiles worshiped devils. What were all their gods but devils? They were under the kingdom of Satan when the gospel came to be preached among them. They were “translated” out of the kingdom of Satan into the blessed and glorious kingdom of Christ (Col 1:13). Yet we see here that, though they were such a kind of people, the mystery of the gospel is preached to these, “to the Gentiles.”

It was such a mystery that St. Peter himself, although he had often been made acquainted with it by Christ, and could read of it in the prophets, still had to be put in mind of it. When he was to go to Cornelius, he saw a vision full of beasts, and heard a voice saying, “Kill and eat” (Acts 10:13); and indeed the “Gentiles” were little better than beasts. They were esteemed so before they had the gospel and the preaching of it to them. You see it was a mystery to St. Peter himself.

Objection. But why did God allow the Gentiles to “walk in their own ways,” as the apostle says in Acts 14:16? Why did he neglect and overlook the Gentiles, and allow them to go on “in their own ways,” for so many thousand years before Christ came? Were they not God’s creatures as well as the Jews?

Answer. This is a mystery, that God should allow those sharp-witted people, who were of excellent abilities, to go on “in their own ways.” But there was reason enough in themselves. We need not call God to our bar to answer for himself. They were malicious against the light they knew. They imprisoned the light of nature that they had, as it says in Romans 1:18. They were unfaithful in what they had. Therefore, besides the fact that it is a mystery, God may well be excused.

Only look at the judgment that some of the heathen had of divine things, what reprobate and malicious judgments they had, how basely they esteemed the Jews. The Jewish nation, says Cicero, shows how God regards them, in that she has been overcome so often, by Nebuchadnezzar and Pompey. What reasoning that was! And that proud historian Tacitus, how scornfully he speaks of Christians! It is unimaginable, the pride that was in the heathen against the Jewish religion, and especially the Christian religion, how they scorned and persecuted it in its beginning. So you see that in the best of the heathen men there was matter and ground for God’s just condemnation of them; therefore we need not quarrel with God over that.

Objection. But here is another mystery: why, when the Gentiles were all alike wicked, God should pass over the better of the Gentiles and reveal Christ to the worst. Were not Socrates and Plato and the like finer moralists than the Corinthians and Ephesians? What kind of people were the Corinthians? A proud people, “fornicators, idolaters”; as the apostle says, “such were some of you” (Eph 5:8; 1 Cor 6:11). Here is a mystery.

Answer. It is God’s sovereignty. We must let God do what he will. He will be merciful to whom he will be merciful, and he will neglect whom he will. Augustine says, “We must be very reverent in these matters”; it is safest to commit all to God, and to usurp no judgment here. It is a mystery; yet some satisfying reason may be given why the Gentiles were called when Christ came in the flesh, and not before. Besides the fact that many prophecies foretold it would be so, some reason may be given why it was so.

It was because they were to be incorporated with the Jews, to be “fellow-citizens” with the church of the Jews. They were to be of God’s household, as is excellently and at large set down in Ephesians 2:19. Now Christ’s coming took down the “partition-wall.” Christ is the center in whom they meet, in whom they are one. Therefore they met one another when Christ came, because he is the Savior of both. He is the “corner-stone” on which both are built. So now they are “fellow-citizens,” since Christ came.

And you see in the genealogy of Christ that he came of both Jews and Gentiles, as we see in Ruth. Various ancestors of our Savior were Gentiles as well as Jews, to show that he who came of both came to be the Savior of both.

But it is safest, as I said before, in these questions to rest in the wise, unsearchable dispensation of God, and rather to be thankful that God has reserved us for these times and places of knowledge than to ask why our forefathers did not know Christ. We enjoy a double spring of the gospel and its benefits. First, we were delivered from heathenism. What kind of people were we in Julius Caesar’s time? Barbarous people. And afterward, when popery came in, God delivered us from that; there was a second spring. Yet how few give praise to God, who has had mercy on us Gentiles, who has delivered us from Gentilism and from the darkness of popery. But we grow weary of religion, as they did of manna (Num 11:6).

Let us therefore make good use of this, that God has been merciful to us Gentiles in these later times. And let us who are born within the precincts of the church help our faith in this way in the time of temptation: Certainly God means well toward my soul. I might have been born earlier, in times of ignorance and places of ignorance, and never have heard of Christ; but I have been baptized and admitted into the church, and by that there is an obligation. Before I understood myself, I was bound to believe in Christ. God was so careful of my soul when I understood nothing that there should be a bond for me to believe in Christ. If God had not meant well to my soul, I would not have lived even so much as to hear of the gospel. Thus we should gain ground with God, as the woman of Canaan did with our Savior Christ, and fight against all distrust and unbelief, and all temptations of Satan, which present God as though he did not care for us. We cannot have too much art and skill to help our faith in this way.

Again, the Gentiles now have a share in Christ since the coming of Christ, and not before. It is a mystery. It would be no mystery if the Gentiles had already had a share in Christ and been within the pale of the church before.

There are several degrees in the dispensation of salvation. First, there is the ordaining of salvation. That was before all worlds. Then there is the promise of salvation. That was when Adam fell. Then there is the procuring of the salvation promised. That was by Christ, when he came in the flesh. Then there is the promulgation and enlarging of salvation to all people. This was after Christ had come in the flesh. Then there is the perfect consummation of salvation in heaven. Now the execution of the promise, and the performance of all good concerning salvation, was reserved to Christ’s coming in the flesh, and the enlargement of the promise to all nations did not come until then. I only touch on this to show that God has taken special care of this latter age of the world.

Some count the first age of the world to be a golden age, the next silver, and then an iron age. But indeed we may invert the order. We live in the golden age, the last ages, when Christ was “manifested.” What is the glory of times and places? The “manifestation of Christ.” The more Christ is laid open with his “unsearchable riches,” the more God glorifies those times and places; and that is the golden age where the gospel is preached.

Therefore we cannot be too thankful for that wondrous favor which we have enjoyed for so long a time together, under the glorious sunshine of the gospel.

Hence we also have a ground for enlarging the gospel to all people, because the Gentiles now have a share in Christ, so that merchants, and those who give themselves to navigation, may carry the gospel to all people with good success. No one is shut out now, since Christ, in this last age of the world; and certainly there is great hope for those Western peoples. We see that the gospel has imitated the course of the sun. The Sun of righteousness has shone like the sun in the firmament. The sun begins in the east and goes to the west; so does the gospel. It began in the eastern parts. It has left them; they are under the barbarous Turkish tyranny at this time. The gospel has now come to the western parts of the world.

For Christ will take a holy dignity upon himself, and will not stay long where he is held in low esteem, where the gospel is undervalued and blended with what is injurious to its purity, where little care is taken over what people believe. The nature of the gospel and truth is such that if it is mingled too much with foreign stuff, that overthrows it; and Christ will not endure this indignity. Therefore let us take care to keep Christ and his truth with us with all exactness. And let us beware of sinning against the gospel, if we want it to stay with us, especially of sins directly against the gospel, as, for instance:

1. Beware of joining superstition and popish trash with it, or the like, which will eat out the very heart of the gospel and set up man in the place of Christ.

2. Again, beware of decaying in our first love. We see that God threatens the church of Ephesus, for not cherishing and maintaining her first love, that he will remove not only the gospel, but the “candlestick,” the church itself. For complacency in abundance and plenty, and decay in her first love, God threatens to scatter the candlestick, the church itself, into foreign places.

3. Again, a sin against the gospel is unfruitfulness under it. When people have the blessed influence of the gospel, the soul-saving truth, the good word, long among them, and are as barren under it as if they were pagans; when the gospel has no more power over our souls than if we had no gospel at all; when there is no difference between us and heathens in regard to our conduct; when we go no further than they do, no, not even so far, in honesty and justice and sobriety: let us beware of these and similar sins against the gospel.

And I say it should be a ground for laboring for the conversion of those who are savages, however barbarous they may be, and for striving to gain them to Christ. There are indeed some hindrances. There are Jannes and Jambres among them, instruments of the devil, to keep them in blindness and ignorance. Then there is the custom they are bred in, which prevails most with the sorriest people. For ignorant people whose wits are set in one direction are so strong in it that they cannot be untaught, just as it is hard to teach a beast, because it has been taught to go one way, lacking variety of conceptions, being void of reason. Now, people by nature are little better than beasts. Therefore they are so fixed and set in the way they are brought up in, and so settled in it by the devil and those priests among them, and by the tyranny of those who have come among them, the Spaniards, that it has much hindered their conversion.

Yet, take them as bad as they can be, God has a time for them. What were we of this nation sixteen hundred years ago? There is a fullness of the Gentiles to come in, and certainly it has not yet fully come. For it is probable, indeed more than probable, that there are some people who never had the gospel; and the fullness of the Gentiles must come in before the other mystery of the calling of the Jews. I say this to encourage those who have a stake in that work not to take violent courses with them. There is nothing so voluntary as faith. It must be wrought by persuasions, not by violence. And there is a ground of encouragement here, that since the coming of Christ there is liberty for all nations to come in. Christ must be “preached to the Gentiles.”

To conclude this point, let us consider that we are those Gentiles who have enjoyed this preaching of Christ, and it is the glory of our nation. It is not our strength or riches, or any ornament above others, that sets us forth so much as this: that we have the gospel “preached” among us, that these blessed streams run so plentifully everywhere among us. Let us labor to value this inestimable benefit. Where the gospel is not “preached,” those places are salt-pits, despicable places, whatever else they are, as it is in Ezekiel. They are under the kingdom of Satan. It is the glory of a nation to have the truth among them. The glory of Israel was gone when the ark was taken (1 Sam 4:21). The religion and truth we enjoy are our ark; our glory is gone if we part with that.

Therefore, whatever God takes from us, let us desire that he would still continue the gospel of truth, that he would still graciously dwell among us and not leave us. What would all things in the world besides be if we did not have the blessed truth of God? We must leave all of it before long. Therefore let us labor to have the eyes of our understanding enlightened, to conceive rightly of the difference of things, and to value ourselves by this, that Christ is “manifested” to us and that we thereby have a share in Christ, more than by any share and part and portion in the world besides. For then Christ will delight to stay with us, when we make much of him, and esteem and prize and value him.

Believed on in the world (1 Tim 3:16).

After “preached to the Gentiles,” he joins “believed on in the world,” to show that faith “comes by hearing” (Rom 10:17). Indeed, “preaching” is the ordinance of God, sanctified for the begetting of faith, for the opening of the understanding, for the drawing of the will and affections to Christ. Faith is the marriage of the soul to Christ. Now in marriage there must be no mistake or error about the person, for then it is a kind of nullity. So that the person to whom we are to be married by faith may be known to us, an ordinance of preaching is set up, to lay open our own beggary and necessity, what we are without him, and to open the riches of our husband, the nobility and privileges and whatever is glorious in Christ, that the church may know what kind of husband she is likely to have.

In Romans 10:14 and the verses following you have the ladder of heaven, as a good old martyr called it; and we must not presume to alter the rungs of that ladder. “How can they call upon him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe without a preacher? and how shall they preach unless they be sent?” Here is preaching, and believing, and then prayer.

There are some who are bitter against this ordinance of preaching, and who exalt another excellent ordinance, prayer, to the disparagement of this one. If they would join them both together, it would be well. You see what the apostle says: “How shall they call upon him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe without a preacher?” Without this ordinance of preaching? He shows by this that we cannot have the spirit of prayer without faith, nor faith without preaching. And the wise man says, “He that turns his ear from hearing the law” (under whatever pretense), “his prayer shall be abominable” (Prov 28:9). The prayers of such men as would cry down this ordinance, how are they likely to be accepted? They are abominable. We see here that the apostle sets them down in this order: hearing, and believing, and prayer; and here in this place preaching goes before believing.

Therefore the gospel unfolded is called “the word of faith,” because it begets faith. God works faith by it. And it is called the “ministry of reconciliation” (2 Cor 5:18), because by it God publishes reconciliation. As preaching goes before believing, so it is the blessed instrument for working faith, because of the Spirit who accompanies it.

In the ministry of the gospel there is not only an unfolding of the excellent things of Christ, but there is also grace given by the Spirit to believe. And in this, this publication and proclamation differs from all other publications in the world. Men may publish and proclaim what they wish, but they cannot give hearts to believe it. But in the blessed promulgation and publishing of divine truths, the Spirit of God accompanies it, to work what it publishes. It opens the riches of Christ and offers Christ, and Christ is given to the heart with it. It publishes what is to be believed and known, and it alters our courses. Together with it there goes a power (the Spirit clothing the ordinance of preaching) to do it all. Therefore it is called “the ministry of the Spirit” (2 Cor 3:8). Why? Because what is published in the preaching of the word has the Spirit to convey it to the souls of God’s people, to those who belong to God. Therefore he says here, first preached and then believed.

Therefore those who are enemies to this ordinance of God are enemies of the faith of God’s people, and consequently enemies of the salvation of God’s people. But the more the proud and haughty atheistical heart of man rises against it, the more we should think there is something divine in it. It must be excellent, because the proud heart of man resents it so much. We see here that it is the means of working faith. Therefore, as we esteem faith and all the good we have by it, let us be stirred up to prize and esteem this ordinance of God highly. So much for the coherence or connection: “preached to the Gentiles,” and then “believed on in the world.”

For the words themselves, we see here, first, that as Christ must be unfolded in preaching, so he must be “believed on.”

For the dispensing of it by the ministry is not enough unless there is an applying grace in the heart; and that is a spirit of faith, whose property is to make our own what is offered. There is a power of application in this grace of faith. Where there is a giving there must be a receiving, or else the gift is ineffectual. Christ is the garment of the soul. He is the foundation and the food. As I said before, he is our husband. We must give our consent. “Believing” is a spiritual marriage. In marriage there must be consent. This consent is faith. That makes up the bond between Christ and the believing soul. Therefore of necessity there must be faith; all else, without believing in Christ, is nothing. Faith is the means of making Christ our own, and nothing else whatever is.

The papists have ridiculous means, which neither they themselves nor anyone else understands. They make the sacrifice of the Mass a means of applying Christ, along with other courses. But the ministerial means of application to Christ is the preaching of the gospel, and faith that is wrought by the ministry of the gospel; and there is no other way of application, by the Mass or any such thing. Christ without faith does us no good, as in Hebrews 4:2: “The word that they heard did not profit them, because it was not mingled with faith.” The word of God, the gospel, is the “power of God to salvation,” but it is to all who “believe” (Rom 1:16). Whatever good Christ does to us, he does it by faith. It is a rule in divinity, and one much to the purpose in deciding some controversies, that a spiritual benefit not known and applied is a nullity; because God intends everything we have to be opened to us and applied, that he may have the glory and we the comfort. We see the excellence and necessary use of this grace of faith.

How is Christ to be believed on?

1. We must rest on nothing else, either in ourselves or outside ourselves, but Christ only. In popery they have many other things to rest on, and since their faith is corrupt, all their obedience that springs from it is likewise corrupt. They dishonor Christ by joining anything in the world with him. The apostle is wondrously zealous in this, to have nothing joined with Christ, as in Galatians 5:2: “If ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing.” Christ only must be believed on in the matter of salvation.

2. And the whole Christ must be received. “Believing” is nothing but a taking or receiving of Christ as a Lord and as a Savior: as a priest, to redeem us by his blood, and as a king, to govern us. We must take the whole Christ.

We see what manner of faith is in most people, who snatch out of Christ what they please, to serve their own turn. As he died for their sins, they are glad of him; but as he is a lord and king to rule and govern them, they will have none of him, but “turn the grace of God into wantonness” (Jude 4). But as we must rest and rely on Christ only, so we must receive him and believe on him wholly.

Now faith looks on Christ as its main object, as it justifies. The same faith looks on the whole word of God as divine truth revealed; but for its main work, it looks to Christ. Christ is the jewel that this ring of faith encloses; and as the ring has its value from the jewel, so faith has its value from Christ. In the main point of justification and comfort, faith lays hold on Christ for mercy. For the distressed, afflicted soul looks first of all to comfort and peace and reconciliation, and therefore it looks first to him who wrought it, that is, Christ. Now the same faith that does this believes all divine truths, the threatenings and precepts. Faith does not choose its object, to believe what it pleases, but it carries the soul to all divine truths revealed. But when we speak of justifying faith, then Christ, and the promises, and the mercy of God in Christ, are the first thing the soul looks to.

Christ is the first object of faith, before any benefit or gift we have from him. First we must receive Christ, before we have any grace or favor or strength from him. And a sanctified soul looks first to Christ, to the love of Christ, to the person of Christ, and then to his goods and riches. A woman who is married regards first the person of her husband, and then looks to the enjoyment of his goods and inheritance and noble standing, or else it is no better than a harlot’s love.

So faith looks to the person first. It knits us to Christ, to be in love with him and to embrace him, and then it looks to all the good things we have by him. For he never comes alone. There is a world of good things in him: all that tends to grace and glory. Yet it is the person of Christ that the soul of a Christian principally looks to. Other divine truths are the object of faith to direct and sway our lives; yet, notwithstanding, they are not the object of faith when we look for comfort, for forgiveness of sins, and for reconciliation with God. Then it looks to Christ especially.

Therefore we who are ministers of the gospel of Christ should especially aim to unfold the riches of Christ, and those who are God’s people should especially desire to have Christ unfolded, and the riches of God’s love in Christ. The soul that has ever found the sting of sin, the conscience that was ever awakened to feel the wrath of God, counts nothing so sweet as gospel truths, those things that concern its Husband and Savior. A carnal man loves to hear moral points cleverly spoken of, as something delightful to his ear. But the soul that understands itself, what it is by nature, that has ever felt in any degree the wrath of God for sin, desires most of all points to hear of Christ and him crucified. Therefore we may judge by our ears what temper our souls are of, for “the ear tastes of speeches as the mouth doth meat,” as Job says (Job 12:11).

Believed on in the world (1 Tim 3:16).

By “world,” especially here in this place, is meant the world taken out of the world, the world of the elect. There is a world in the world, as one says well in unfolding this point; as we see, man is called a little world in the great world. Christ was preached to the world of wicked men, that by preaching a world might be taken out of the world, which is the world of believers. From this we may clear our judgments on that point, that when Christ is said to redeem the world, it must not be understood generally of all mankind. We see here that the world is said to believe in Christ. Did all mankind believe in Christ? Was there not a world of unbelievers?

We see here Christ “believed on in the world,” the world that was opposed to him, that were enemies, that were under Satan. Who shall despair, then? Therefore let us think well of Christ. Why was he “manifest in the flesh”? And why is there an ordinance of preaching? Why is all this, but that he would have us believe, whatever our sins may be? Suppose there were a world of sin in one man, that one man were a world of evil; as in some sense St. James says, “there is a world of wickedness in the tongue” (Jas 3:6). If in the tongue, much more in the heart, which is the cesspool of wickedness. But suppose there were a world of wickedness in one man: what is this to the satisfaction of “God manifest in the flesh,” and to the infinite love of God, now pacified in Christ, looking on us in the face of his beloved Son?

You see here Christ is “believed on in the world.” Just consider what is meant by the world in Scripture, how it is set down as being in a state opposite to Christ, and look at the particular state of the Gentiles, who are said to be the world. What wretched people the Corinthians were before they believed, and the Ephesians, and the rest!

Let no one therefore despair. Nor, as I said before, let us despair of the conversion of those who are savages in other parts. However bad they may be, they are of the world, and if the gospel is preached to them, Christ will be “believed on in the world.” Christ’s almighty power goes with his own ordinance to make it effectual. Since the coming of Christ, the world lies before Christ, as beloved of him, some in all nations. The gospel is like the sea: what it loses in one place it gains in another. So the truth of God, if it loses in one part, if it is not respected there, gains in another, until it has gone over the whole world.

And when the fullness of the Gentiles has come in, then comes the conversion of the Jews. Why may we not expect it? They were the people of God. We see Christ “believed on in the world.” We may therefore expect that they also shall be called, since there are many of them and they keep their nation distinct from others.

Now I will show how this is a mystery. “Great is the mystery of godliness, Christ believed on in the world.” It is a great mystery to join these together: “the world” and “believing.” It is almost as great a mystery as to join God and man together, a virgin and a mother: to bring together an unbelieving, rebellious heart, such as is in the world, and believing. It is a great mystery on several considerations.

1. If we consider what the world was, an opponent and enemy to Christ, and under his enemy, being slaves to Satan, being idolaters, in love with their own inventions, which men naturally dote on, here was the wonder of God’s love and mercy, that he should grant it to such wretches. We may see by St. Paul’s epistles what kind of people they were before they embraced the gospel. Here was God’s wondrous condescension, that God should shine on those who “sat in darkness, and in the shadow of death,” who were abused by Satan at his will.

That the world, that is, all sorts of the world, from the highest to the lowest, should at length stoop to the cross of Christ; that the emperors should lay their crowns at Christ’s feet, as Constantine and others did (Christ at length subdued the Roman empire itself to the faith); that the philosophers of the world, who were wise and learned, should at length come to embrace the gospel (for several of the fathers were philosophers before); that men of great position, of great gifts and learning and education and breeding, should deny all, and cast all prostrate at the feet of Christ; that these should be overcome by plain preaching; that lowliness should overcome mightiness; that ignorance should overcome knowledge! Yet, notwithstanding, these great and wise men of the world were overcome by the gospel.

It was a mystery that the world should believe. If we consider, besides their greatness and wisdom, the inward malicious disposition of the world, being in the strong man’s possession, then for these men to believe the gospel must surely be a great mystery.

2. Again, if we consider the people who carried the gospel, by which the world was subdued: a company of weak men, unlearned men, none of the deepest in knowledge, only they had the Holy Spirit to teach and instruct them, to strengthen and fortify them (which the world took no notice of); men of low condition, of low esteem, and few in number. And these men came not with weapons or outward defense, but merely with the word and with sufferings. Their weapons were nothing but patience and preaching, offering the word of Christ to them and suffering indignities; as Augustine says, “The world was not overcome by fighting, but by suffering.”

So the lambs overcame the lions, the doves overcame the birds of prey, the sheep overcame the wolves. “I send you,” says Christ, “as sheep among wolves” (Matt 10:16). And how? By nothing but carrying a message, and suffering constantly and undauntedly for going with their message. For they had cruel, bloody laws made against them, which were executed to the utmost. Yet by these means they overcame, by preaching, and by sealing the truth they taught with suffering: a strange kind of conquest. The Turks conquer men to their religion, but it is by violent means; it is a religion of blood. But here, as I said, lowliness overcame greatness, ignorance overcame learning, simplicity overcame pride, low estate overcame glory; a mystery in this respect.

3. Again, if we consider the truth that they taught, it was contrary to the nature of man, contrary to his affections. It enforced self-denial on men who are naturally full of self-love, who make an idol of their wit and will. For them to come to be taught to be fools in respect of wit, and to resign their wills to the will of another, for these men to believe things that are above belief to carnal men, as Augustine observes, was the wonder of the world. What a kind of doctrine this was, to win such a reception in the world as it did! Yet it did make men deny themselves, deny their wits, their wills, their goods, their lives. Therefore in this respect it was a great mystery that Christ should be “believed on in the world.”

4. Again, if we consider another circumstance, it adds to the mystery, that is, the suddenness of the conquest. The world was conquered to the faith and obedience of Christ. In a short time after Christ, one man, St. Paul, spread the gospel over almost all the world; he conquered almost all the world. He spread the savor of the gospel like lightning, suddenly and strongly, because there was an almighty power and Spirit accompanying the glorious gospel; and so it came to be thus effectual with the world.

5. Again, it is a wonder in respect of Christ, whom the world “believed on.” What was Christ? Indeed, he was the Son of God, but he appeared in abased flesh, in the form of a “servant.” He was crucified. And for the proud world to believe in a crucified Savior was a mystery.

6. Lastly, it is a great mystery, especially in respect of faith itself, since faith is so contrary to the nature of man. For the heart of man, where faith is worked, must go out of itself and embrace a beginning, a principle and a rising of life from another. It must seek justification and salvation by the righteousness and obedience of another. The proud heart of man must stoop to this: to acknowledge no righteousness of its own to stand before the tribunal of God, but to have all derived from Jesus Christ; to fetch forgiveness of sins out of the death of another; to wrap itself in the righteousness and obedience of Christ, given by God for it. Without a supernatural work of the Spirit to subdue it, the heart of man will never yield to this. Proud flesh and blood will always have something in itself to dote upon and to set out before God; and when it finds nothing in itself, then it despairs.

For the heart of man thus to go out of itself and rely only upon the righteousness of Christ, not having its own righteousness, this is the greatest mystery. It is especially so for a guilty soul that has had its eyes opened to discern its own condition, for a conscience awakened to trust in God, who is a holy God, a just God. For these two to meet together, God and a doubting, galled, misgiving conscience that forecasts the worst; for such a conscience to find peace by this act of faith casting itself upon Christ: this is more than can be done by any power of nature.

There is something in nature for all obedience to the law. Man naturally has some seeds, to love his parents, to hate murder and the like. But to go out of himself and cast himself upon God’s love and mercy in Christ: there are no seeds of this in nature, but everything is against faith in Christ. Often when a man is cast down, everything in the world seems to work against him. And then for a man to have his heart raised up by an almighty power to “believe,” certainly this must be a mystery.

I say, when everything works against him: his conscience works against him, and the judgment of God against him, and Satan’s temptations against him. The whole frame of things present seems to be against him. God himself often seems to be against him, to be an offended God, justly offended with his sins. For the soul in this case to cast itself upon God in Christ, there must of necessity be a hidden, excellent, deep work on the soul. This is the greatest mystery. The greatest difficulty lies in this branch, considering how contrary faith is to the heart of man.

Let us take heed of shallow notions of faith, as if it were an easy, common, universal grace to “believe.” No, beloved! It is a supernatural, powerful work. St. Paul sets it out divinely and at large in Ephesians 1:19. He calls it the “mighty power” of God. It requires not only a power, but an almighty power, to raise the heart of man to believe. For even as the work of redemption by Christ is a greater work in itself than the work of creation, so also is the work of conversion.

(1) Though they are all one to an infinite power, yet in itself it is more difficult to make the heart of man believe than to make a world out of nothing. For when God made the world there was nothing to oppose him. There he had to do with simply nothing. But when God comes to make the heart believe, he finds opposition and rebellion. He finds man against himself. He finds the heart and conscience against itself. He finds opposition from Satan, who helps man’s distrustful heart. Then all meet together: afflictions, the sense of God’s anger and man’s guilty conscience. Now to make such a man believe is more than to create a world.

(2) And as God showed more power, so he showed more mercy in the work of redemption than in the creation. In the creation he did good to a good man: Adam was created good, and had he stood, he would have continued in a good condition. But in the work of redemption God does good to evil men. Here God’s love excels, because the glory of his mercy reigns in the work of redemption. So, since the power, wisdom and mercy are greater in the work of redemption, it requires a more supernatural power in the soul to apprehend this than any other truth. As the work of redemption is more glorious, so the divine grace and virtue in the soul that makes use of this, which is faith, must be more excellent than all other graces whatsoever.

And as it must be God that saves and redeems us, so it must be God that persuades the heart of this. As Christ, who is God, must perform the work of redemption, so it must be God the Holy Spirit who persuades the heart that God loves it so much, and who raises the heart to apprehend it and make use of it. No less power will do it.

Let us, I say, have great thoughts of this excellent grace of faith. “All men have not faith” (2 Thess 3:2). It is a rare grace, a rare jewel. When Christ comes, “shall he find faith in the world?” (Luke 18:8). Certainly it is a mystery for a man to believe in Christ, for a natural man to be brought to rely upon Christ. “To you it is given to believe,” says the apostle (Phil 1:29). He might well say it is “given.” And it is no ordinary gift either. Therefore let us pray with the disciples, “Lord, increase our faith” (Luke 17:5); and with the poor man in the gospel, “Lord, I believe, help my unbelief” (Mark 9:24).

The next thing I shall touch on is this, that faith is put here for all graces. Here, in these six clauses of this “great mystery of godliness,” only this one is within us. “God manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached to the Gentiles, received up in glory”: these are all outside us. But this one, “believed on in the world,” is the only one within us, and it is set down in place of all the rest. And indeed so it is, for it draws all other graces after it.

It enlivens and quickens the soul. It is the spring of spiritual life in us. It is the first grace of all. There are perhaps some degrees of the Spirit before it, but all graces have their quickening from faith. It infuses supernatural vigor into all the parts and powers of the soul and into all graces whatsoever. Where Christ is “believed on in the world,” all follows: love and patience, courage and fortitude, whatsoever it may be. We see this in Hebrews 11:2, “By faith they had a good report.” They had a good report for patience and for courage and other good works, but all these came from faith. Therefore, “by faith they had a good report.” So the acting of all other graces comes from faith. By faith “Enoch walked with God”; by faith Noah and Moses did this and that, which signifies that faith is the ground of all.

Faith fetches spiritual life from Christ for all, for whatever is good. It knits us to the spring of life, Christ. It is the grace of union. Even as Satan by unbelief infused all his poison at the first, for sin came by making our first parents stagger at the word of God, so by faith all obedience comes. All have their rising and beginning from faith.

As faith draws spiritual life from Christ, so the encouragements to all other graces whatsoever, to patience, love and the rest, come by faith. Faith must set before them the object, and the reasons drawn from the glory to come and from the love of God in Christ. When faith propounds all this, then it stirs and quickens all graces. Faith yields strong reasons and arguments to stir us up to whatever is necessary. Why do I hope for the glory to come? I believe it first. Why do I love God? I believe he is my Father in Christ. All have strength from love, and love from faith. Unless I believe that God loves me in Christ, I cannot love him; unless I love him, I can express no virtue for him, no patience, no good work. So faith puts life into all, and therefore it is here put for all: “believed on in the world.” This should stir us up to make much of this faith, and to desire it above all graces.

And since faith is a mystery and so excellent a grace, we need to discern whether we have it or not. Therefore I will touch on a few evidences, some of them out of the text.

1. If you believe, it usually comes after preaching. We see here, “preached to the Gentiles,” and then “believed on in the world.” Where did your faith come from? If it did not come by the ordinance of God, you may expect it to be a bastard faith; it does not have a right beginning. Especially if it is joined with contempt of God’s ordinance, it is no faith, but a presumptuous fancy. Preaching and believing here go one after another. Therefore examine how your faith was worked in your heart.

2. Again, as I said, faith is a mystery because of such a world of opposition between the heart of man and Christ, with Satan helping the unbelieving heart. So there must of necessity be a strife and conflict with faith. Therefore those men who never had conflict with their own unbelieving heart, who never had conflict with Satan’s temptations, never had faith; for it is a mystery to have faith. It comes with opposition and conflict. No grace has such conflict and opposition from Satan, for in all sins Satan aims to shake our faith and trust in God’s love. As God aims at the strengthening of faith above all, so the devil hates it above all, and in all temptations whatsoever he aims at last to shake our faith.

Therefore there must of necessity be opposition to ourselves and our own doubting nature, to Satan’s temptations, and to the course of things, which are sometimes flatly against a man. For a sinner to believe the forgiveness of sins; for a miserable man to believe in glory in the world to come; for a dying man to believe in eternal life; for a man tumbled into the grave to believe that he shall rise from the dead: if there is no conflict with these things, so opposite to faith, there is no faith.

3. Then again, it is the spring of all obedience. The apostle calls it the obedience of faith (Rom 1:5). All preaching is for the obedience of faith. The obedience of faith brings obedience of life and conduct. Examine yourself, therefore, by the course of your obedience, by that which comes from faith. See what it works in your soul, in your life and conduct. And here I might speak at great length.

(1) For where faith is, after it has been a means to justify, to lay hold of the all-sufficient righteousness of Christ to stand between God and us and to clothe and cover our souls, it then pacifies the conscience. “Being justified by faith, we have peace with God, through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom 5:1). Faith has a quieting power. It quiets the soul because it propounds to the soul a sufficient satisfaction in the God-man. It propounds to the soul Christ sealed by God the Father. And since he has done all that is necessary to salvation, it settles the soul: for he was God, and therefore able; and man, and therefore willing to save.

Faith sets Christ before us as wooing us first. In his ministers he invites us, allures us and commands us, and he removes the objections that arise from our unworthiness: “Come unto me, all ye that are weary and heavy laden” (Matt 11:28). He removes too the objections that arise from our lack of any goodness: “Come and buy without money” (Isa 55:1). This is the all-sufficiency of Christ. Hereupon faith comes to quiet the soul, in the sweet course that Christ takes to bring the soul to himself. He is so able and willing, and he shows his willingness by all means that may procure love, so that the soul may rest without doubting.

The soul says, “Surely Christ intends well toward me, being so able, ‘God in the flesh,’ and setting up an ordinance, a ministry, by which he invites me, allures me and commands me. And then too I have examples before me of wicked men who have been converted.” Hereupon the soul comes to be at rest. Faith has a quieting power.

(2) And then again, there is immediately an alteration of the course: Jordan goes backward. There is a turning of a man wholly, for faith is a turning of the soul clean another way. It turns the soul from the world to God and Christ, from the present evil world to a better world. We see that as soon as Zacchaeus believed, his thoughts were altered and his esteem of the things of this life was altered: “half my goods I give to the poor” (Luke 19:8). We see in Acts 19:19 that as soon as they believed, they burned their books. As soon as a man believes in Christ, down goes the esteem of the world and of all worldly things whatsoever, because he sees a higher excellency in Christ. The poor jailer, when he had mistreated the apostles, as soon as he believed, we see how he neglects everything and at once makes a feast for them.

(3) As soon as faith enters into the soul, there is a mean and low esteem of all things, and a high esteem of Christ. All is dung, in comparison of Christ (Phil 3:8). There is a change of the soul, and an esteem that goes before that change. We work as we esteem. As soon as we believe, we esteem Christ and the things of a better life above all other things, and thereupon the whole soul and the bent of it goes that way, though with some conflict. We see in the epistles of St. Paul, before those men believed in Christ, the Ephesians, the Colossians, the Romans and others, what wicked people they were, and how they were changed as soon as they believed. Then they were saints.

(4) Again, where this faith is, it is a triumphing, a conquering grace, a prevailing grace. It overcomes the world and whatever is opposed to it, for it sets before the soul greater things than the world can. The world presents terrors. What are these “to the glory that shall be revealed?” The world sets out pleasures to allure us, and profits and favors, and this and that. But what are all these to the favor of God in Christ? What are they to heaven? What can the world set before the soul of a believer that is not beneath it? Faith can raise the soul above all worldly things. It subdues the natural doubts and loves, the fears of troubles and cares for the world, and all the affections that previously ruled in the soul. Faith, coming into the soul, subdues all to itself and makes them all serviceable. Thus it prevails, if not at the first, yet in the course of time. It prevails little by little in the hearts of all believers.

It is a victorious grace, as we see in Moses and Abraham and others, how it prevailed against all obstacles whatsoever. How many discouragements blessed Abraham had, to leave his father’s house, to go he knew not where, and afterward to sacrifice his son! Yet faith overcame all. So too with Moses, to leave the court and to cleave to a despised people: what a work of faith was there! Faith is victorious.

Therefore when people are drawn away by anything, when the looks of any man scare them, when the very noise of danger frightens them; when the hope of any advancement will make them bend to do anything, when the hope of any gain will make them crack their conscience: where is the triumph of faith? As I said before, there is a prevailing power in faith, because faith sets before the soul that which is incomparably better and incomparably worse. What is all that man can do in comparison with hell and damnation? Conscience says, “If you do this, you shall die.” And on the other side, what is all the world can give in comparison with heaven, which faith presents to the eye of the believer?

(5) Again, where this believing is, it is a working grace; it works by love. By love to God it desires the communion and fellowship of what it desires, and it works by love to other believers. Toward Satan it works hatred; toward wicked men it works a distance in our dealings with them. It is a working grace. It works by love to all good, to God and God’s people and to ourselves. It makes us have too high an esteem of ourselves to be stained with the base services of sin. It works every way, and indeed it must be so, when faith sets before the soul the love of God in Christ.

Has God loved me so, to redeem me from such misery by such a course as this, “God manifest in the flesh,” to advance me to such happiness, when I was before such a one as I was, a sinner? Oh, the thought of this will constrain us, as the phrase of the apostle is, “The love of Christ constraineth me” (2 Cor 5:14); and then the soul will be active and earnest in anything that may be for the honor of Christ. Has Christ thought nothing too dear for me, not even his own blood, for the salvation of my soul is the price of his blood? He came down from heaven, he was “God manifest in the flesh,” on purpose, in love to my soul; and shall I think anything too dear for him?

And so faith works and stirs up love; and when love is stirred up by faith, faith is set in action by love. It uses the love of God in all the performance of worship to God, and in doing all good to our brothers and to ourselves, to carry ourselves as we should in every way.

We see the woman in the Gospel: when she had much forgiven her, “she loved much” (Luke 7:47). All duties come from love. Why need I speak of particular branches? Christ brings all to love. He includes all duties in that one, in love, because they come from love, and have love to carry them and to mingle itself with them; and love comes from faith. “Faith working by love” (Gal 5:6) is evidence that we believe. Where there is no love there is no faith. Therefore let us labor to have this affection of love kindled. If we would have love kindled, we must stir it up by faith. You see then that this believing is the leading grace.

Let us labor by every means, therefore, to water this root. When we want trees to flourish and thrive, we pour water on their roots. Now, the root grace in a Christian’s soul is this believing, this trusting in God reconciled in Christ, this relying upon Christ, a convincing persuasion that God and Christ are mine. This is the root grace of all the others. Let us water and cherish this by all means whatsoever.

And to this end, let us labor to increase in knowledge. “I know whom I have believed,” says the apostle (2 Tim 1:12), for all grace comes into the soul by the light of knowledge. Whatever is good is conveyed by light into the heart. Faith especially is the bent of the will to Christ, receiving him; but this comes by a supernatural light, revealing Christ. Therefore let us desire to hear much of Christ, of his privileges and promises. The more of Christ we know, the more we shall believe, and say with the apostle, “I know whom I have believed” (2 Tim 1:12).

It is a foolish and wicked tenet of the papists to say that ignorance is the mother of devotion; and Bellarmine’s tenet is that “faith is better defined by ignorance than by anything else,” a foolish and unlearned notion. For although the reason and depth of the things of faith cannot be searched out, yet we may know the things that are revealed in the Scriptures. The more I know the things that are revealed concerning Christ, and know that they are God’s truths, the more I know, the more I shall believe.

Faith of necessity requires knowledge; therefore knowledge is put for all other graces. “This is eternal life, to know thee, and whom thou hast sent” (John 17:3), because it is an ingredient in all graces. It is a main ingredient in faith. The more we know, the more we shall believe. “They that know thy name will trust in thee” (Ps 9:10). Is it not so in men’s matters? The more we know a man to be able and loving and faithful to his word, the more we shall trust him. Is it not so in divine things? The more we know of Christ and of his riches and truth, the more experiential knowledge we have of him, finding him to be so, the more we shall trust him. Therefore, by the knowledge that is gained through the means of grace, let us labor for an experiential knowledge, so that we may trust and believe in him more and more.

Let us look to the passages of our lives in former times, how gracious God has been to us, and trust him for the time to come, that he will be so to the end. “He is the author and finisher of our faith” (Heb 12:2).

And let us search into the depth of our own needs and weaknesses, and this will force us to grow in faith more and more. This will be a means to increase our faith. The more we see of our own nothingness and inability without Christ, that we are nothing, indeed, that we are miserable without him, the more we shall cleave to him and cast ourselves upon him. Those who have the deepest apprehensions of their own needs and weakness usually have the deepest apprehensions of Christ, and grow more and more rooted in him.

The searching of our own corruptions every day is a notable means to grow in faith, to consider what we would be if it were not for God’s mercy in Christ. This will make us go out of ourselves to Christ; it will make us fly to the city of refuge. Joab, when he was pursued, fled to the horns of the altar (1 Kgs 2:28). When conscience pursues us, it will make us fly to the horns of the altar, to the city of refuge. A search into our own conscience and ways will force us to live by faith and to exercise faith every day in Christ Jesus.

And this is to feed on Christ daily: to fly to Christ when we are stung with sin, and when we hunger in the want of grace and strength, to fly to him for supply; and so to keep and increase faith by this excellent means. Christ is all in all to those who hope to be saved by him. Christ is the ground of our life and comfort and our happiness. Therefore we should go out to him on all occasions, to cleave to him in life and death.

We cannot press this point of faith too much. Why are Christians called believers? Because believing is all. If we can prove the truth of our faith and belief, we prove all. If we are faulty in that, all is rotten. “Whatsoever is without faith is sin” (Rom 14:23). All men’s natural morality and civility are, as it were, but copper graces, but counterfeits. They are only for outward appearance, and not in truth. They are not enlivened and quickened by faith in Christ. But I leave this, and come to the last clause:

Received up in glory (1 Tim 3:16).

This is the last branch of this divine “mystery of godliness,” but it is by no means the least. Christ “ascended,” if we respect himself; he was “received,” if we look to his Father. He himself “ascended”; his Father “received” him. The Scripture has both words: he “ascended up,” that is, in respect of himself; he was “received up,” that is, he was taken up.

There is no difficulty in the words. He “ascended up” as well as being “received up,” actively as well as passively. In his death he was not only crucified by others and delivered by his Father, but he gave himself to death. So also he was not only “received up in glory,” but he “ascended up into glory.”

This shows the exaltation of Christ. The apostle begins with “God manifest in the flesh.” There is the descent, and it is a great mystery for the great God to descend into the womb of a virgin, to descend to the “lowest part of the earth” (Eph 4:9). And then he ends with this: “received up in glory.” The ascent rises to the place from which the descent began. Christ ascended and was “received” as high as the place from which he came down. “God manifest in the flesh” is the beginning of all; “received up in glory” is the consummation and shutting up of all.

This last phrase implies everything: his exaltation, his resurrection, his ascension, his “sitting at the right hand of God,” and his coming to “judge the quick and the dead.” What is especially meant is his glory after his resurrection, his ascension and “sitting at the right hand of God,” yet it presupposes his resurrection: “Received up to glory.”

“Glory” implies three things. It is an exemption from what is opposite to it, a conquering of the contrary base condition. It implies some great eminence and excellence as its foundation, and then a manifestation of that excellence. And it implies victory over all opposition. Though there is excellence, if there is no manifestation of that excellence, it is not “glory.” Christ was inwardly glorious while he was on earth in the state of abasement. He had true glory, as he was God and man; but there was no manifestation of it, and therefore it is not properly called “glory.” There was no victory and subduing of all that was contrary to his glory, for he was abased, and suffered in the garden, and died.

But where these three things are found, there is glory: an exemption and freedom from all baseness and from all that may diminish a person’s standing and esteem; a foundation of true excellence; and a shining, a declaring and a breaking forth of that excellence.

But Christ, after he was “manifest in the flesh” and had done the work here that he had to do, was “received up to glory.” That is, all baseness was laid aside. As his glory appeared, all abasement vanished. He was victorious over it in his resurrection, for that was the first degree of his glory. You know that the cloths he was bound with were left in the grave and the stone was removed. All things that might hinder his glory, that might abase him in body, in soul or in condition, were removed. There was an excellence in everything that had not been there before, as far as its manifestation goes.

As for his body, it was now impassible, an immortal, spiritual body. It could suffer no longer. It was not fed with food and drink, as in the time of his abasement. It was a body so agile and so nimble that he could move just as he willed. So a glory was put upon his body above that of the sun. There was a glory upon his soul as well. All that might hinder that glory was subdued, for there was no sorrow, no fear, no grief, as there had been in his soul before he was glorified. So both in body and in soul he was more glorious.

And then his whole condition was glorious. He was abased no longer, for now he was taken into the highest place of all, above the heavens; and as his place is most eminent, so his government is most eminent. For he is taken up there “above all principalities and powers,” as it is in Ephesians 1:21, and is gloriously set down at the right hand of God (1 Pet 3:22). All things being subject to him, he has the dominion and government of all. So whatever might shadow and cloud him, all ills, whether in body, in soul or in condition, were removed, and he was glorious in all.

As for excellence, the foundation of glory, that was always with him even in his very abasement, but now it was “manifested.” He was mightily declared to be the Son of God, by raising himself from the dead (Rom 1:4). He was declared to be glorious in all those things in which he could be glorious. Since no person can be glorious except in body or soul or condition, he was glorious in them all. For he was “received up” into the place of “glory,” to heaven, to the assembly of glory, to the presence of his Father and the blessed saints and angels, and no question there was a glorious welcome. If the angels came so cheerfully to proclaim his incarnation when he was born, and sang, “Glory be to God on high, on earth peace, and good will towards men” (Luke 2:14), what kind of triumph do you think was made by all the blessed company in heaven when he was received there after his abasement? It is beyond anything we can imagine.

It will not be altogether without use to speak of the circumstances of Christ’s being “taken up to glory.”

1. Whence was he taken? He was taken “up to glory” from Mount Olivet, where he used to pray, where he sweat water and blood, where he was humbled. From the place of humiliation came his ascension to glory. This shows us that the places where we often pray, where we are afflicted, our sickbeds, indeed the places of our abasement, the very prisons, may be as Mount Olivet to us, from which God will take us to glory. Let no one, therefore, fear any abasement; in this respect it may prove a Mount Olivet to them.

2. And when was he taken “up to glory”? Not before he had finished his work, as he says in John 17:4, “I have finished the work thou gavest me to do.” He was taken up then, when he had done all, when he had accomplished our salvation; and after his abasement, not before. So our being taken “up to glory” must come when we have done our “work,” when we have finished our “course,” when we have run our “race,” when we have “fought the good fight.” And it must also come after our abasement. We must first “suffer” with Christ before we can be “glorified” with him.

Again, if we speak of the first degree of Christ’s glory, his resurrection, he was taken “up to glory” when he was at the lowest that could be, when he was in the grave. So God’s church and children are nearest to glory when they are at their lowest. We are accustomed to say that things are nearest mending when they are at their worst. So it is with the state and condition of the church of God and of every particular Christian. When he is lowest he is nearest rising, as we shall see afterward.

3. The witnesses of this were the angels. They proclaimed his incarnation with joy, and without doubt they were much more joyful at his ascending up to glory. It took place in the presence of the angels. So likewise, when he comes to manifest his glory at the day of judgment, there will be innumerable thousands of angels. Those glorious creatures were witnesses of his glory, and no question they gave their joyful attendance and service, since they had been so willing to attend him at his birth and coming into the world.

4. He was carried up in the clouds, in which he shall also come again at the last day.

But before he was taken up “to glory” he was forty days on earth, to give evidence of his resurrection to his apostles and disciples, and to instruct and furnish them in things concerning their callings. Afterward he was taken “up to glory.” And in all that time of his stay on earth, after his first degree of glory, his resurrection, he was never seen by any sinful eye, as far as we can see in Scripture. I mean the eyes of those who were scorners of him, who despised him. The scribes and Pharisees and carnal people did not see him. They had no dealings at all with him after his resurrection. Those who despised him in his abasement had no comfort from his exaltation.

But what I will chiefly press in this clause is to show that, as this is a mystery, so it is a “mystery of godliness,” to stir us up to godliness. For, as I said before, divine truths and principles are called “godliness” because, where they are embraced, they work godliness, and the soul is transformed into them. Where these truths are “engrafted in the soul,” as St. James says, they turn the soul into their own nature. Therefore I will show how this mystery, Christ “received up to glory,” breeds a frame of godliness in the heart.

That it is a mystery will easily appear. For was it a “great mystery” that God should take our nature upon him, to be abased in it? Surely it must be a mystery that God will be glorified in our nature. Was our nature advanced in his incarnation? Much more was it glorified in his exaltation, when he carried it to heaven with him. Here was the mystery of the exaltation of our nature. God was as much abased as he could be, being born and dying for us. Our human nature was as much advanced as it could be, when God raised it up to heaven. God could be abased no further and still remain God, and man’s nature can be advanced no further and still remain the true nature of man.

This is a “great mystery,” the advancement of our nature in Christ, which was made “lower than the angels.” He was “a worm, and no man” (Ps 22:6). Now our nature in Christ is advanced above the angels. Now this nature of ours in Christ is next to the nature of God in dignity. Here is a mystery.

Among many other respects, it is a mystery for its greatness. We see that after his ascension, when he appeared to Paul in glory, a glimpse of it struck Paul down; he could not endure it. Indeed, before he suffered, a mere shadow of his glory amazed Peter and James and John. They could not bear it; they forgot themselves: “Let us build,” they say, “three tabernacles.” If a little disclosure of his glory on earth produced these effects, what great glory must he have in heaven! Certainly it is beyond all expression.

In this glorious condition into which Christ is received, he fulfills all his offices in a most comforting manner. He is a glorious prophet, to send his Spirit now to teach and open the heart. He is a glorious priest, to appear before God in the holy of holies, in heaven, for us, forever. And he is a king there forever; from there he rules his church and subdues his enemies. So although he accomplished and fulfilled those blessed offices that were appointed him in the state of humiliation on earth, as was fitting for that state, which was to suffer for us, yet it was necessary that he should enter into glory, to manifest that he was a king, priest and prophet. For it was not truly made known who he was, to our comfort, until he was “received up in glory.”

We did not have the Spirit, the Holy Ghost, sent from above to apply Christ and to help us make use of him and all his benefits and riches, until he ascended. As it is in John 7:39, “The Holy Ghost was not given, because Christ was not ascended.” So both the manifestation of Christ’s offices and the application of all the good we have by them come through Christ “received up in glory.”

To come to some application.

1. We must lay this down as a ground and foundation of what follows: that Christ ascended as a public person. He must not be considered as a private individual, alone by himself, but as the “second Adam.” As he took the nature of man in his incarnation, so he ascended into heaven in it as a public person. Just as the first Adam was a public person, in whom we all sinned, and all came to misery and baseness, and died, so Christ must be considered as the “second Adam,” in his ascension to glory as in other things.

2. We must know that there is a wondrous nearness between Christ and us now. For before we can think of any comfort from the “glory of Christ,” we must be one with him by faith, for he is the Savior of his body. Therefore we must be in him, we must be his members, we must be his spouse; and once we are so, we are one with Christ. There is no relation in the world able to express sufficiently the nearness between Christ and us. Therefore, when we speak of Christ ascending into glory, we must think of ourselves, and of our glory and advancement.

He was taken up to glory in our nature, not only for himself but for all who are his. As the husband of the church, he has gone before to take possession of heaven for his wife. As a husband takes possession of land in another country for his spouse, though she is not there, so Christ has taken possession of heaven for us: “I go before to prepare a place for you” (John 14:2). So likewise he is in heaven as a glorious head, supplying power and comfort and strength to all who are his. All our power and strength comes from Christ now, as our head in heaven.

3. Again, there is a causality, the force of a cause, in this: because Christ, therefore we. Here is not only a priority of order but a cause as well, and with great reason. Was there the force of a cause in Adam, who was merely a man, to convey sin and misery and the displeasure of God to all who are born and descended from him? And is there not the force of a cause in the “second Adam,” to convey grace and glory to his own, he being God and man? Therefore whatever is good is first in Christ and then in us. Christ first rose, therefore we shall rise; he ascended into glory, therefore we shall afterward be in glory.

4. And then we must consider Christ not only as an efficient cause, but as a pattern and example of how we shall be “glorified.” He is not only the efficient cause of all glory, within and without, but he is the exemplary cause, for all is first in him and then in us. He was first abased, and so must we be; and then he was glorified, and so shall we be. We must be conformed to his abasement, and then to his glory. “He is the first-fruits of them that sleep” (1 Cor 15:20); he being the first-fruits, we follow.

These things being laid down as grounds, I come to make some use of this comforting point.

Use 1. Christ is received up in glory. Therefore, first of all, for our instruction, we must not seek him in a wafer-cake, we must not look for him bodily in the sacrament. How can he be there when he is “received up in glory”? Therefore when we come to the sacrament, let us consider that we now have to deal with Christ who is in heaven. Can Christ not show his power to comfort and strengthen us unless we have his body in the communion to touch our bodies? The foot receives influence from the head, yet the head is distant from it in place. The outermost branches have life and sap from the root, yet they are remote from it in place. A king spreads his influence over his whole kingdom, however large it may be, yet in his person he is in only one place. Does the sun in the heavens come down to the earth to make the spring and to make everything fruitful? Can it not send beams and influence from there to cherish the earth?

Must Christ come down in his body to us, or else he can do us no good? Must there be a bodily descent, or else we can receive no influence from him? There may be a flow of power from Christ though his person is in heaven, where he shall remain till the last day, when he shall come to be “glorious in his saints.” The sun does more good being in heaven than it could do if it were on the earth. If the sun were lower, what would become of the earth? But being so remote and so far above, it is able to shine over the greatest part of the earth at once; being greater than the earth, it shines over more than half the earth at once. Christ, being in heaven as the “Sun of righteousness,” shines more gloriously over all, and we have more comfort and benefit and influence from Christ, now in heaven, than we could have if he were on earth.

Must we make him bodily present everywhere, as the papists do, and other heterodox men of strange opinions in Germany? What need is there for us to do this, when there may be influence from Christ, now in heaven, to us on earth (as we see in other things), without confusing his divine properties with his body, or making his body as his Godhead is? Therefore do not seek him bodily anywhere but in heaven. Those opinions overthrow three articles of our faith at once: “He ascended into heaven”; “He sitteth at the right hand of God”; and “He shall come to judge the quick and the dead.” And where is his body in the meantime? In the sacrament? No. He is “received up in glory.” Therefore we must have our thoughts in heaven when we are about that business. We must “lift up our hearts,” as it is in our liturgy, which is taken out of the ancient liturgy: “We lift them up unto the Lord.” We must have holy thoughts raised up to Christ in heaven.

Use 2. Again, is Christ “received up to glory”? Here is singular comfort, considering what I said before, that he has ascended as a public person, on our behalf, in our nature, for our good. Therefore, when we think of Christ in heaven, let us think of our husband in heaven, think of ourselves in heaven: “We are set together in heavenly places with Christ,” as the apostle says in Ephesians 2:6. We have a glorious life, but it is hidden with Christ in heaven. When Christ himself shall be revealed, our life shall be revealed.

Though we creep upon the earth as worms, yet we have communion and fellowship with Christ, who is joined with us in the same mystical body and who is now “at the right hand of God” in heaven. And he who has glorified in heaven the natural body that he took upon him will glorify his mystical body. For he took flesh and blood, his natural body, for the glory of his mystical body, that he might bring his church to glory. Therefore we ought as truly to believe that he will take his mystical body, and every particular member of it, to heaven, as that he has taken his natural body and set it there in glory.

It is a comfort in the hour of death that we yield up our souls to Christ, who has gone before to provide a place for us. This was one purpose of his being taken up to heaven, to provide a place for us. Therefore, when we die, we do not have a place to seek. Our house is provided beforehand. Christ was taken up to glory to provide glory for us. Even as paradise was provided for Adam before he was made, so we have a heavenly paradise provided for us. We had a place in heaven before we were born. What a comfort this is at the hour of death, and at the death of our friends, that they are gone to Christ and to glory!

We were shut out of the first paradise by the first Adam. Our comfort is that now the heavenly paradise in Christ is open: “This day shalt thou be with me in paradise,” says Christ to the good thief (Luke 23:43). There was an angel to keep paradise when Adam was shut out, but there is none to keep us out of heaven. No, the angels are ready to convey our souls to heaven, as they did Lazarus; and as they accompanied Christ in his ascension to heaven, so they do the souls of his children.

Likewise, there is comfort in our sins and infirmities. When we have to deal with God the Father, whom we have offended with our sins, let us fetch comfort from here. Christ has ascended into heaven to appear before his Father as a mediator for us, and therefore God turns away his wrath from us. We have a friend, a favorite in the court of heaven, the Son of God himself, at his Father’s “right hand,” who makes intercession for us. As Jonathan appeared in Saul’s court to speak a good word and to plead for David, so our Jonathan, Jesus Christ, but with far better success, appears in the court of heaven for us, continuing our peace with God in our daily breaches and perfuming our prayers. And there is no danger of his dying, for he is a priest for ever at the right hand of God, to make intercession for us. His very presenting himself in heaven speaks for us.

It is as if he should say, “These people who ask in my name are the people I was born for, the people I obeyed for, the people I died for, the people I was sent into the world to work the great work of redemption for.” For he worked our redemption in his abased state, but he applies it as he is exalted. Application is as necessary as merit. We have no good from the work of redemption without application, and for that purpose he appears in heaven for us and pleads for us.

For even as speech is attributed to Abel’s blood, which cried, “Vengeance, vengeance!” so with Christ now appearing in heaven for us, his blood cries, “Mercy, mercy! These are those I shed my blood for; mercy, Lord!” The very appearing of him who shed his blood cries for mercy at the throne of mercy, which is a throne of mercy for this very reason, because he is there. He shed his blood to satisfy justice, to make way for mercy.

In the law, the high priest, after he had offered a sacrifice of blood, was to go into the “holy of holies.” So Christ, after he had offered himself as a sacrifice, went into the “holy of holies,” into heaven, to appear before God. And as the high priest, when he went into the holy of holies, had the names of the twelve tribes on his breast, to show that he appeared before God for them all, so Christ, having gone into the “holy of holies,” into heaven, has all our names upon his breast. That is, he has in his heart the name of every particular believer to the end of the world, to present them before God. Therefore, when we have to deal with God, let us think of Christ, now glorious in heaven, appearing for us. God can deny him nothing, nor deny us anything that we ask in his name; we have his promise for it.

It is likewise a ground of contentment in all conditions, whatever we may lack. What if we lack comfort or houses on earth, when we have heaven provided for us and glory provided for us, when we are already so glorious in our Head? Shall not any condition in this world content a person who has such a glorious condition to enter into, in the eye of faith? We should not so much as look up to heaven without comfort: “Yonder is my Savior, yonder is a house provided for me.” We should think of heaven and look upon it as our own place, where Christ has gone before and keeps a room for us.

Here we may lack comforts; we may be thrust out of house and home, out of our dwelling and country and all. But all the world and all the devils in hell cannot thrust us out of heaven, nor dissolve and break the communion that exists between Christ and us. They cannot take away either grace or glory from us. Therefore we should be content with any condition in this world. Christ has ascended into heaven to keep a blessed condition for us.

Likewise, when we think of the troubles of this world, of the enemies we have here, let us think of Christ taken “up to glory,” and think of Christ’s order. First he suffered, and then he entered into glory. So we must be content to suffer first and then be glorious. We are predestined to be conformed to Christ. In what does our conformity consist? It is in abasement first, and then in glory. Christ entered into glory in this order, and shall we think to come to heaven in another order than Christ did? Shall we wish for a condition severed from his? If we are in Christ, all that we suffer in this world are sufferings of conformity, to make us suitable to our Head and to fit us for glory.

And our greatest abasements, what are they compared with the abasement of Christ? None was ever so low, and there is none so high. As he was the lowest in abasement, so he is the highest in glory. When he was at the lowest, in the grave, not only dead but under the kingdom and command of death, then he rose gloriously and ascended. Our lowest abasements are forerunners of our advancement and glory. This assumption of Christ to glory should help us in this respect.

In all disconsolations there is a world of comfort from this. We must not think of Christ as if his honors had changed his manners, as happens among men, as though now he had become stately and does not regard his poor church. No such thing! He regards his poor church now that he is in heaven as much as he ever did. The members here cannot suffer anything without the Head in heaven feeling it, as it is in Acts 9:4, “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?” The foot is trodden on, and the tongue complains. Our blessed Savior is not like Pharaoh’s unkind butler, who forgot Joseph when he himself was out of prison. Christ, though now advanced to honor, does not forget us here. No, he is like good Joseph, who was sent into Egypt to provide beforehand for all his family. So this our Joseph, the great steward of heaven and earth, has gone to provide for us all, in readiness for our coming to heaven.

He does not forget us: He disdains not to look on things below (Ps 113:6); he considers every poor Christian. He is as merciful now as he was when he was on earth, as you have it proved at length in Hebrews 2:17, that he was man for this end, that he might be a merciful high priest; and he is so in heaven, and pities all our infirmities. It is not “Out of sight, out of mind” here, for, as I said, he has us in his breast. Yes, and he is with us by his Spirit to the end of the world. He is taken up to heaven in his body, but his Spirit, who is his general vicar, is here with us to the end of the world: “I will send you the Comforter, and he shall abide alway with you” (John 14:16).

And it is better for us to have the Comforter here without his bodily presence than to have his bodily presence without the abundance of his Spirit, just as it was better with the disciples when he was taken up to heaven and was present by his Spirit than it was before. We lose nothing, therefore, by the ascension of Christ. It was for us. He was given for us, born for us. He lived for us, he died for us, he rose and ascended to heaven for our good: “It is good for you that I go” (John 16:7). It was to provide a place for us and to send the Comforter. All was for our good, whatever he did, in his abasement and exaltation.

Again, this gives comfort in regard of the afflictions of the church. When the church is under any abasement, at its lowest, it has a glorious head in heaven. And what! Does he sit there and do nothing? No. He sits “at the right hand of God,” and rules his church, even in the midst of his enemies. If he does let out the chain to them, it is for special ends. His people stand in need of all that they endure, and whatever his church suffers, he measures it out even to a dram; for they are his members, and he feels their sufferings. He is “a high priest that is touched with our infirmities” (Heb 4:15).

Therefore nothing can befall his church apart from his rule. He lets the enemies loose so far, and then he restrains them, and subdues and conquers them, making them his “footstool.” The enemies seem to domineer now and to trample on the church, but before long they will become the church’s “footstool.” Christ will govern his church till all his enemies “be under his feet.” He has ascended into heaven for this purpose; and he is fitting his church by these afflictions for greater grace in this world and for eternal glory in the world to come.

Therefore let us not be offended at the present sight of things. We stand amazed to see the state of Europe at this time; but for our comfort let us consider that Christ is taken “up to glory,” and that he sits in heaven and rules his church, and will guide all these wars to a good and gracious end. He sits at the helm. The ship where Christ sleeps may be tossed, but it cannot be sunk. The house that is built upon a rock may be blown upon, but it shall never be overthrown. The bush in which the fire is may burn, but it shall never be consumed. The church, in which Christ rules and governs, may be tossed, but it shall never be overcome and subdued.

Indeed, by all these things that the church suffers, Christ rules, and exercises his church’s graces, and mortifies his church’s corruptions. It is necessary that there should be some change. Standing water breeds frogs and other base creatures, and so it is with Christians. If there is not some exercise by afflictions, what kinds of vices grow? We see in these times of peace what kind of lives most men live, so that we may well wonder that God should be so merciful as to continue his truth to a company of proud, base, carnal persons, who lead lives under the gospel no better than if they were in paganism. Therefore we cannot look for any good without further abasement. And certainly, if troubles come, many of us would be better than we are now. Afflictions would be so far from doing us harm that they would refine us. We shall lose nothing but what does us hurt, what we may well spare, what hinders our joy and comfort.

But, I say, let us comfort ourselves in respect of the present state of the church. Christ rules in the midst of his enemies, in the midst of crosses and persecutions. He does not rule there so as always to free us from them, but he rules by turning them to good, by strengthening and exercising our graces. And he rules in the midst of his church at this time by turning his enemies’ cruelty to the good of the elect. He ruled in the Israelites when he allowed Pharaoh to go on in the hardness of his heart, yet he had a time for Pharaoh’s ruin. So Christ has a time for the persecutions of the church, as he had for all the ten persecuting emperors, who came to base and fearful ends. “Was there ever any man fierce against God and prospered?” says Job (Job 9:4). Was there ever anyone who set themselves against the church of God and prospered? No, no.

It is with the church as it was with Christ. If people had looked on Christ hanging and bleeding on the cross, if they had seen him prostrate on the ground in the garden, they would have been ready to take offense. What! He, the Savior of the world? But stay, and see him in the text, taken up to glory, and then no offense would be taken at Christ. So it is in the church. You see the church suffer persecutions, but set one thing beside another. See the church in heaven with the Head of the church. See the church advanced. See it in glory before long. See it refined and fitted by sufferings, to come better out of afflictions than it went in. Then no one will be offended at the afflictions of the church, as they ought not to be at the abasement of Christ. For though he was “God manifest” in weak “flesh,” yet we see he “ascended up in glory.”

There is a comforting saying: “It is even the time of Jacob’s trouble; but he shall be delivered out of it” (Jer 30:7). So we may say, this is the time of the church’s trouble, but the church shall be delivered out of it. The enemies have their time to afflict and trample upon the church, but Christ has his time to trample on them. Let us wait, and look with comfort for better times. The kingdoms of the world will be known to be the Lord Jesus Christ’s. When the fullness of the Gentiles and the conversion of the Jews come to pass, there will be a further subjection to Christ’s kingdom than there has ever been since the first times.

Let us comfort ourselves with the times to come. Christ is in glory, and he will bring his church to further glory even in this world, besides eternal glory at the latter day. “Rejoice not over me, O mine enemy: for though I be fallen, yet shall I rise” (Mic 7:8). Let the enemies of the church not triumph too much. Though the church has fallen, yet she shall rise again “after three days,” says the prophet (Rev 11:11). Christ, though he was abased as low as he possibly could be, yet arose after three days; so the church shall rise out of her troubles after three days, that is, after a certain time that we do not know. The exact time is only in the hands of Christ. But certainly there are glorious times of the church coming.

Consider the wonderful love of Christ, who would suspend his glory so long. The glory of heaven was due to him upon his incarnation, by virtue of the union of his human nature with the divine; for that nature, being united to the Godhead, must necessarily have a right to glory by that very union. What should hinder it, when it was so near to God as to be one person, as to be taken into the union of the person? But oh, where would our salvation have been then, if Christ had entered into glory upon his incarnation, if he had not shed his blood, if he had not been abased to the death of the cross?

Therefore the schoolmen speak well: he enjoyed the presence of God with the affection of justice and all virtues. That is, he was just as gracious from the beginning, from his incarnation, in the matter of grace and the love of all that is good; yet not with the affection of enjoyment. There was a nearness to God in pleasure and joy and comfort. This he denied himself till he was taken up to glory after his resurrection, and this he did in love to us, that he might suffer and be abased to work out our salvation. That overflow of glory that should have been upon his person immediately upon the union was held back till his resurrection, that he might accomplish and fulfill our salvation. What a mercy and love this was!

So it is with the church. It is glorious as it has union with Christ. Is the church not a glorious thing, being joined to Christ, who is “Lord of lords, and King of kings,” the ruler of heaven and earth? What is the reason, then, that the church is so abased?

If the church were not abased, it could not be conformed to Christ. Christ, that he might work our salvation, had to be abased, and to have the glory due to him suspended and stopped till the resurrection. Of necessity we must be conformed to Christ as far as we may; and that we may be conformed to him in abasement and suffering, there must be a stop of our glory till we are dead and turned to dust, until we rise again, until Christ comes to be “glorious in his saints” (2 Thess 1:10). If Christ, as I said before, had shown all his glory in his abasement, he could never have suffered. The devil himself would have done him no harm. There would have been no pretext. The Pharisees would never have persecuted him and hated him if they had seen him to be the person he was; but he veiled his glory that he might suffer.

If the world saw but the thousandth part of the glory that by right belongs to Christians, would they revile them, and disgrace, and malign, and trample on them? Certainly they would not. This is disclosed in Scripture; but the world, disclosing its atheism, that it does not believe the word of God, takes no notice of it. And that the children of God may be conformed to their Head, and that way may be made for the malice of wicked men to trample upon them, they go about in the shape of miserable men.

Therefore let us not be discouraged by any abasement. We have a glorious life hidden with Christ, which shall be revealed one day; in the meantime, in the midst of abasement, let us believe glory. And let me add this to the rest:

The same body in which Christ was spit upon, and mangled, and crucified, in that same body he rose again, and in that same body he ascended into heaven; and so it shall be with us. The same body that suffers anything for Christ, the same body that dies, that same body shall rise and be taken up to glory.

Hence we likewise have a ground of patience in all our sufferings from another reason, not from the order but from the certainty of glory. Shall we not patiently suffer, considering the glory that we shall certainly have? “If we suffer with him we shall be glorified with him” (Rom 8:17). Who will not be patient awhile who has such glory in his eye? Therefore let us look upon the glory of Christ in all our sufferings whatever. What made Moses and all the saints in all times so patient? They had an eye this way. What made Stephen not only patient but glorious? “His face shone as the face of an angel” (Acts 6:15). He looked on Jesus Christ, and saw him “sitting at the right hand of God.” What made the martyrs not only patient but triumphant in all their sufferings? They had an eye of faith to see Christ sitting in glory, and to see themselves in heaven glorious in Christ; and not only to see themselves glorious in Christ, but glorious in themselves afterward. We are not only glorious in our Head, but we ourselves shall be where he is, “taken up in glory.”

And let it stir us up likewise not to be ashamed of religion, and to stand firm in good causes for Christ and the church. “He is not ashamed to be called our brother” (Heb 2:11). No, not after his resurrection: “Go tell my brethren, I ascend to my Father and your Father” (John 20:17). He was not ashamed of it when he began to be in the state of glory. He is not ashamed of our nature now, to take it up into heaven. He is not ashamed to own us here, and at the day of judgment to set us at his right hand. And shall we now, for fear of men, for fear of shame, for any base earthly consideration, be ashamed of our glorious Head? Do we believe that we have a Head who is glorious in heaven, “sitting at the right hand of God,” who before long will come to “judge the quick and the dead”; and shall we be ashamed to hold to the profession of religion because of a sneer, a word, a frown?

Where is the “Spirit of glory,” the spirit that should be in Christians who hope to be glorious? “He that is ashamed of me here,” says Christ, “I will be ashamed of him at that great day.” How can we think that Christ will own us when we will not own religion here? When we are ashamed to stand for him, shall we think to stand at his right hand? All base, carnal, atheistical spirits, who are afraid of disgrace, of displeasure, of loss, of anything but him they should be afraid of, let them know there is no comfort for them in Christ’s exaltation; for if they had any communion with Christ, he would infuse another kind of spirit into them. Let us therefore stand for Christ. We have a glorious Head, a glorious hope, a glorious inheritance.

And let us go on with encouragement in good duties, with a spirit of faith; for why is Christ in heaven but to rule his church by his Spirit, “to lead captivity captive, and to give gifts to men” (Eph 4:8)? Let us therefore go on with confidence that Christ from heaven will give us his Spirit to subdue our corruptions. He is in heaven to rule his church; and what is his kingdom but the subduing of our spirits by his Spirit, to make us more humble, and more holy and gracious every way?

Let us not think that our corruptions will be too strong for us, but go on in a spirit of faith, believing that Christ, who died for us as a priest, will rule us as a king; and if we are true to our own souls, we shall have strength to sustain us. He sits in heaven to rule us by his gracious Spirit. Let us not despair. Though we carry this and that corruption about with us, we shall little by little overcome all. He will “lead captivity captive,” and overcome all in us, as he did in his own person. He who overcame for us will overcome in us, if there is a spirit of faith to depend upon him.

Again, this mystery is a “mystery of godliness.” It tends to godliness and holiness of life, and enforces them. Christ is “received up to glory.” You see then that our flesh is in heaven. Christ has taken the pledge of our flesh into heaven, and given us the pledge of his Spirit. It was a dignifying of our nature that God should be manifest in our flesh. What was an abasing to him, as God, was an honor to our nature. The incarnation of Christ was the beginning of his abasement in regard of his Godhead, for the Godhead to be clouded under flesh; but it was a dignifying of the human nature that it should be grafted into the second person. And is it not a greater honor to our nature that now in Christ it has gone to heaven, and is there above the angels? Our nature in Christ rules over all the world.

And why is all this? As it is for wondrous comfort, so it is for instruction, that we should carry ourselves in keeping with our dignity. What! Has God taken our nature upon him into unity with the second person, and exalted and honored and enriched it? Has he likewise gone to heaven in our nature, and is he there above all principalities and powers? All the angels in heaven attend upon him. And shall we debase and dishonor our nature that is so exalted? Let it work upon us to carry ourselves with a holy kind of dignity. Shall we defile ourselves with sinful courses, and make ourselves baser than the earth we tread on, worse than any creature? For a man without grace is next to the devil in misery, if God is not merciful to him.

If God has thus honored our nature above all created excellency whatever, shall this not stir us up to corresponding conduct? It is often pressed by the apostle that we “walk worthy of our calling” (Eph 4:1). And indeed, let us often consider to what great matters we are called; for the life of heaven must be begun upon earth. “Whosoever hath this hope,” to be glorious with Christ in heaven, “it purgeth him” (1 John 3:3). It frames him to be like the state he hopes for; and as for the one who has no care to suit and fit his conduct and disposition to the state he believes in, it is an empty hope, and he deludes himself.

Whoever shall be glorious with Christ in heaven is also glorious now. There is a Spirit of glory resting upon them, that is, grace; grace makes them glorious. Those who do not have a Spirit of glory, that is, a Spirit of grace, to fashion and conform them, in some measure, to be like Christ, little by little, have no right or interest in the state of glory that shall be revealed afterward.

Is Christ taken up to glory, and for us as well as for himself? “What manner of men ought we to be in holy conversation” (2 Pet 3:11). We should “keep ourselves unspotted of the wicked world” (Jas 1:27). Shall we think to have communion and fellowship with Christ in glory when we make “the members of Christ the members of an harlot” (1 Cor 6:15), when we make our tongues instruments of blaspheming God and Christ, like a company of vile wretches who will come to the ordinances of God, and yet have not overcome their atheistical nature so far as to leave their swearing and filthy courses? Do we think to have communion with Christ in glory, and not get the victory over these base courses? Do we profess ourselves to be Christians, and live like pagans? Has God such need of people to fill heaven with that he will have such unclean persons? Shall we have such base thoughts of heaven? No, beloved. These things must be left, if ever we are to entertain thoughts of fellowship in this glory on good ground. There is “a new heaven and a new earth” (2 Pet 3:13) for the new creature, and only for such. Let us not delude ourselves.

There must be a correspondence between the head and the members, not only in glory but in grace; and the conformity in grace comes before the conformity in glory. Will God overturn his method and order for our sakes? No, no. All who come to heaven, he guides them by his Spirit here, in grace, and then he brings them to glory. He gives “grace and glory, and no good thing shall be wanting to them that lead a godly life” (Ps 84:11); but first grace and then glory.

Therefore let not the devil deceive us, nor our own false hearts, into pretending a share in this glory, when we find no change in ourselves, when we do not find so much strength as to get the victory over the base and vile corruptions of the world. The apostle from this ground infers the mortification of our earthly members: “You are risen with Christ” (Col 2:12), “Your life is hid with Christ in God” (Col 3:3), and “we are dead with Christ” (Col 2:20). Therefore we ought to mortify our sinful lusts. For the soul, being finite, cannot be carried up to these things that are of a spiritual, holy, and divine consideration, unless it dies in its love and affection and care for earthly things and sinful courses.

Therefore let us never think that we truly believe these things unless we find a disposition, by grace, to kill and subdue all things that are contrary to this condition. Something, it is true, will remain in us to humble us; or else why are the precepts of mortification given to those who were saints already, if not because there is something that will draw us down to abase us? But this is no comfort to him who is not a child of God, who lives in filthy courses that he might easily command himself in. Let him abandon the name of a Christian. He has no interest in the comfort of this, that Christ is “received up to glory.”

Again, the mystery of Christ’s glory tends to godliness in this respect, to stir us up to heavenly-mindedness. The apostle divinely enforces this in the place just named: “If ye be risen with Christ, seek the things that are above” (Col 3:1). From our communion with Christ, rising and ascending into heaven and sitting there in glory, he enforces heavenly-mindedness, that our thoughts should be where his glory is, where our Head and husband is. And certainly there is nothing in the world stronger to enforce a heavenly mind than this, to consider where we are in our Head.

Christ, our Head and husband, is taken up into glory. There is our inheritance; there are a great many of our fellow brethren; there is our country; there is our happiness. We are for heaven, and not for this world. This is but a passage to that glory that Christ has taken up for us; why then should we have our minds groveling here upon the earth? Certainly if we have an interest in Christ, who is in glory “at the right hand of God,” it is impossible that our souls should not be raised to heaven in our affections before we are there in our bodies. All who are Christians are in heaven beforehand in their spirit and manner of life. Our heavy, dull, earthly souls, being touched by his Spirit, will ascend.

Iron, when it is touched with the lodestone, though it is a heavy body, ascends up to the lodestone and follows it. The sun draws up vapors that are heavy bodies of themselves. Christ, as the lodestone, being in heaven, has an attractive force to draw us up. There is no disposition in the world so earthly, even if our hearts were as heavy as iron, that he will not draw us up, if we have communion with Christ and have our hearts once touched by his Spirit, though of ourselves we are heavy and lumpish. This meditation, that Christ our Head is in glory, that we are in heaven in him, and that our happiness is there, will purge and refine us from our earthliness, and draw up our iron, heavy, cold hearts.

It is proof of a great deal of atheism and unbelief in our hearts (as indeed our base nature is prone to sink down and be carried away with present things) that, professing to believe that Christ is risen and ascended into heaven and that he is there for us, we should yet be plodding and plotting altogether for the earth, as if there were no other heaven, as if there were no other happiness but what is to be found below. There is nothing here that can satisfy the capacious nature of man. Therefore we should not rest in anything here, considering the great things that are reserved for us where Christ is in glory. Therefore when we find our souls falling down of themselves, or drawn downward to base cares and earthly contentments by anything here below, let us labor to raise ourselves up with such meditations. I know of none more fruitful than to consider the glory to come and the certainty of it.

Christ is taken into glory, not for himself only, but for all his; for “where I am,” he says, “it is my will that they be there also” (John 17:24). Christ would lose his prayer if we did not follow him to heaven. It is not only his prayer but his will, and he is in heaven to make good his will. The wills of men may be frustrated, because they are dead; but he lives to make good his own will, and his will is that we be where he is. Now, if a man believes this, can he be base and earthly-minded? Certainly not. “Where our treasure is, our hearts will be there also” (Matt 6:21), by the rule of Christ; “Where the body is, the eagles will resort” (Matt 24:28). If we made these things our treasure, we would mount above earthly things. Nothing in the world would be sufficient for us, if we had that esteem of Christ, and of the glory where Christ is, that we should and might have.

And it is not only meditation on these things that will cause us to be heavenly-minded; but Christ, as a head sending out his influence from heaven, conveys spiritual life to draw us up. “When I am ascended, I will draw all men after me” (John 12:32). There is a power from Christ that does it. There is a necessity of cause and consequence, as well as strength of reason and equity. There is an influence issuing from Christ our Head, to make us so indeed. Therefore those who are otherwise may thank themselves. The best of us, indeed, have cause to be abased, that we betray our comfort, and the means we have of raising up our dead and dull hearts, for want of meditation. Let us but keep this faith in exercise, that Christ is in heaven in glory, and that we in him are in heaven as truly as if we were there in our persons, as we shall be before long; and then let us be comfortless, and base, and earthly-minded, if we can.

To conclude all. As the soul of man is first sinful and then sanctified, first humble and then raised, so our meditations on Christ must follow this order. First, think of Christ as abased and crucified; for the first comfort the soul has is in Christ “manifested in the flesh,” before it comes to “received up into glory.” Therefore, if we would have comforting thoughts of this, “Christ received up in glory,” let us think of him first “manifest in the flesh.”

Let us have recourse in our thoughts to Christ in the womb of the virgin; to Christ born and lying in the manger; going up and down doing good; hungering and thirsting; suffering in the garden; sweating water and blood; nailed on the cross; crying to his Father, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”; finishing all upon the cross; lying three days in the grave. Let us have recourse to Christ thus abased, and all for us, to expiate our sin; he obeyed God to satisfy for our disobedience. Oh, here will be comforting thoughts for a wounded soul, pierced with the sense of sin and assaulted by Satan: to think thus of Christ abased for our sins, and then to think of him “taken up into glory.”

In the sacrament, our thoughts must especially have recourse, in the first place, to Christ’s body broken and his blood shed, as the bread is broken and the wine poured out, so that we have benefit by Christ’s abasement and suffering, by his satisfying his Father’s wrath and reconciling us to God. Then think of Christ in heaven, appearing there for us, keeping that happiness that he has purchased for us by his death, and applying the benefit of his death to our souls by his Spirit. He is able to shed that Spirit more abundantly, being in that high and holy place, heaven; for the Spirit was not given in that abundance before Christ had ascended to glory, as it has been since.

In this manner and order we shall have comforting thoughts of Christ. To think of his glory in the first place would dazzle our eyes; it would terrify us, being sinners, to think of his glory, now that he has ascended. But let us think of him as first descended, as he says, “Who is he that ascended, but he that descended first into the lower parts of the earth?” (Eph 4:9). So, who is this that is taken “up in glory”? Is it not he who was “manifest in our flesh” before? This will be comforting. Therefore let us begin first with Christ’s abasement, and then we shall have comforting thoughts of his exaltation.

These points are very useful, being the main grounds of religion, and having an influence on our lives and conduct above all others. Other points have their life and vigor and quickening from these grand mysteries, which are the food of the soul. Therefore let us often feed our thoughts with these things, with Christ’s abasement and glory, considering him in both as a public person, “the second Adam,” and our surety. And then let us see ourselves in him, and labor to have power from him, fitting us in body and soul for such a condition. The very serious meditation on these things will put a glory upon our souls, and the believing of them will transform us “from glory to glory” (2 Cor 3:18).

And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will towards men (Luke 2:13-14).

The words are few and pregnant, very precious, having much excellency in a little quantity. The heavens never opened except to great purpose. When God opens his mouth, it is for some special end; and when the angels appeared, it was on some extraordinary occasion. This was the most glorious appearance that ever was, setting aside the one at Christ’s baptism, when the heavens opened, and the Father spoke, and the Holy Spirit appeared in the likeness of a dove upon the head of Christ (Matt 3:16), when all the Trinity appeared. But there never was such an appearance of angels as at this time, and there was great cause.

1. There was never such a ground for it, whether we regard the matter itself, the incarnation of Christ. There never was such a thing from the beginning of the world, nor ever shall be in this world: for God to take man’s nature on himself; for heaven and earth to join together; for the Creator to become a creature.

2. Or whether we regard the benefit that comes to us by it. By this means Christ brings God and man together again after the fall. Christ is the accomplishment of all the prophecies, of all the promises. They were made in him and for him. Therefore he was the expectation of the Gentiles.

Before he was born, he was revealed by degrees. First, generally, “the seed of the woman” (Gen 3:15). Then, more particularly, “to Abraham and his seed”; and then to one tribe, “Judah,” that he should come to him; then to one family, the house of David; and then, more particularly, “a virgin shall conceive and bear a son” (Isa 7:14), and the place, “Bethlehem” (Mic 5:2). So it went until at last John the Baptist pointed him out with his finger: “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sins of the world” (John 1:29). Just as after midnight the sun climbs little by little, until its beams strike forth in the morning, and afterward it appears in glory, so it was with the “Sun of righteousness.” As he came nearer, he revealed himself more gloriously by degrees, until he was actually born; and then you see here a multitude of angels celebrating his nativity.

Now, as before his birth he was revealed by degrees, so after his incarnation he was revealed to all sorts: to the old, in Simeon; to women, in Anna, a prophetess; to wise men and to simple shepherds; to all ranks of people. And all those to whom the incarnation of Christ was revealed when he was born received it with joy. The angels sang and praised God. Simeon was even content then to die. Zechariah, you see, breaks forth beforehand, “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel” (Luke 1:68). And the shepherds went away rejoicing.

There is a special working of divine providence in the way this manifestation was carried out. Christ was revealed to the wise men, who were Gentiles, by a star, because they were given to star-gazing. He was revealed to the shepherds by the appearance of angels. The scribes, who were conversant in Scripture, found it out by searching the Scriptures. God adapts himself to every person’s condition.

“And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude…”

You see here that although Christ lay in the crib, in the manger, there were nevertheless some circumstances that showed the greatness of his person, that he was no ordinary person. He lay in the crib indeed, but the wise men came and adored him. And he appeared to the shepherds, poor men; yet nevertheless, here is a host of angels praising him. So likewise at his death he converted the good thief, and cast the sun itself into shadow, and then he gloriously rose again. So there were some beams of his divine nature that broke forth in all his abasements. We see here an appearance of angels.

In the words consider these things.

Here is, first of all, an appearance of heavenly angels, and then their celebration of Christ’s birth.

The appearance: “And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host.”

The celebration of it: “praising God, and saying.”

The substance of the celebration and praising of God: “Glory to God in the highest,” “In earth peace,” “Good will towards men.”

I shall dwell especially on those words, but something must be touched on concerning the appearance of these angels.

1. The circumstances of their appearance.

(1) They appear to poor shepherds.

God is no respecter of callings. He means to confound the pride of those who set so much store by what God so little regards, and to comfort people in all conditions.

(2) Again, the angels appeared to them in the midst of their business and callings. And indeed God’s people, like Moses and others, have had the sweetest fellowship with God in the midst of their affairs. Often, to be employed in business, rather than to struggle with temptations, is the fittest way to hinder Satan’s temptations and to drive him off. We many times meet with comfort in our business, in our callings, that apart from it, in contemplation or otherwise, we would never have.

(3) And then they appeared to them in the night.

God reveals himself in the night of affliction. Our sweetest and strongest comforts come in our greatest miseries. God’s children find light in darkness; indeed, God brings light out of darkness itself. We see, then, the circumstances of this appearance.

He calls these angels “a heavenly host” in various respects, and especially in these:

(1) A host for number. A number is set down here. A multitude is distinct from a host; but in that they are a host, they are a multitude, as in Daniel 7:10, ten thousand times ten thousand angels attend upon God. And so there is a world of angels about the church (Rev 5:11). In Hebrews 12:22 we have come to have communion with an “innumerable company of angels.” He does not set down the number; and here there appears a multitude of angels. Worldly, besotted people who live here below think there is no other state of things than what they see. They are taken up only with the senses, and pleasures, and the fine outward show of things. Alas, poor souls! There is a far different state and order of things, if they only had spiritual eyes to see the glory of God, and of Christ our Savior, and their attendants there: a host, a multitude of heavenly angels.

(2) A host likewise implies order; otherwise it is a rabble, not a host or army. God is the God of order, not of confusion (1 Cor 14:33). If you want to see disorder, go to hell. Surely disordered places and companies are hells more than anything else; indeed, in some respects they are worse, for there is a kind of order even among the devils themselves. They join together to destroy the church and its members. I note this in passing. Here was a host of angels; that is, they are an orderly company. What that order is, I confess with Augustine, is undetermined in Scripture. We must not rashly presume to look into these things.

(3) Again, here is consent: a host all joining together in praising God, “Glory to God on high.” And surely it is a heaven upon earth when a company of Christians, led by one Spirit, join in one work to praise God, and to help one another in some spiritual way. When they meet together to hear the word and to pray to God, all with one consent, their prayers meet in heaven. Christ commends union and consent. “Where two or three are met together in my name, I will be in the midst of them” (Matt 18:20); and whatsoever two or three shall ask in my name, if they agree (if there is no discord, no schism, no breach among them), I will grant it (Matt 18:19). Agreement in good is a notable likeness of that glorious condition we shall enjoy in heaven. This multitude of angels all agree with one consent.

(4) A host of angels likewise shows their employment. A host is for defense or attack. That is the employment of angels here below especially: to defend the church and to attack the enemies of the church. It is a great comfort to the church and children of God. The church is in the midst of devils here. We are all strangers on the way to heaven. We live in the midst of devils, and devils incarnate, devilish-minded men who are led by the spirit of the devil. But here is our comfort: we have a multitude, a host of angels, whose office is to defend the church and to attack the enemies of the church, as we see in Scripture.

(5) Again, a host implies strength. We have a strong garrison and guard. We are kings in Christ, and we need a guard; and God has appointed us a strong guard, a guard of angels. Even taken singly, angels are strong creatures. We see that one of them destroyed all the firstborn in Egypt, and one of them destroyed the host of Sennacherib the Assyrian in one night. If one angel destroyed a whole host, consisting of many thousands, what can a multitude of heavenly angels do? Yet all are for the service of Christ and of his church. These and similar observations we may gather from the fact that they are said to be a host of angels.

Beloved, we have need of such comforts; and let it not seem a slight thing to us to hear of angels because we do not see them. It is a thing too much forgotten by us. Why are we so cold, and dead, and dull, and distrustful in dangers? We forget our strength and comfort in this way. There is at this very time an earthly host against the church, men led by antichristian spirits. Let us comfort ourselves: we have a heavenly host with us. As Elisha said to his servant, there are more with us than against us (2 Kgs 6:16). If God sees fit, he can make this outward host of heaven, the sun, moon, and stars, fight for his church, as in Sisera’s case (Judg 5:20).

But there is another host, who see the face of God; that is, who observe and wait on his will and command. We have a heavenly host within the heavens who, having a command from God, can come down quickly for the defense of the church and of every particular Christian; and not only one angel. That everyone has his own angel is only an opinion. Rather, just as God sees fit, it may be one or two, or more, a multitude, a host of angels.

God uses angels, not for any lack of power in himself to do things, as though he must have such a host, but for the further demonstration of his goodness. He is so diffusive in goodness that he will have a multitude of creatures, that they may be a means to diffuse his goodness: angels to the church, and the church to others. It is for the spreading of his goodness, for he is all in all in himself. Let it make an impression on us that we have such glorious creatures for our service.

We see here this host of heavenly angels attending the Lord of hosts at his birth, for Christ is the creator of angels, their Lord; not only as God, but as Mediator. As God, he is the creator of angels (Col 1:16); as Mediator, he is the head of angels. It was fitting, therefore, that a host of angels should attend the Lord of angels; it was for the honor of Christ. God would let the world know (although they paid it no heed, and there was no such thought in Augustus’s court at that time) that an excellent, glorious person had been born into the world. God himself took our nature: Christ, Immanuel. Though he was neglected by the world and obliged to lie in a manger, yet God took better notice of him than that. Heaven took notice of him when earth did not regard him. Therefore God, to show that he had a far different respect and regard for Christ than the world had, sends a multitude, a host of heavenly angels, to celebrate the nativity of Christ.

There is much solemn ceremony at the birth of princes; and God, who is King of kings and Lord of lords, likewise makes a solemn ceremony at the birth of his Son, the greatest that ever was: a host of heavenly angels. But I only touch on these things.

“And suddenly there was…”

“Suddenly”: that is, in an imperceptible time, yet still in time; for there is no motion in a moment, and no creature moves from place to place in a moment. God is everywhere. “Suddenly”: this not only shows us,

1. Something exemplary, from the quick dispatch of the angels in their business. We pray to God in the Lord’s Prayer, “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven”; that is, willingly, “suddenly,” cheerfully.

2. But it also serves for comfort. If we are in any sudden danger, God can dispatch an angel, “a multitude” of angels, to encamp about us “suddenly.” Therefore, though the danger is present, and the devil is present, and devilish-minded men are present to hurt us, God has a multitude, a host of angels just as present to defend us. Indeed, as he himself is everywhere, so in the midst of his church he is present more than angels can be. He is not only among us, but he is in us by his Spirit, to comfort and strengthen us. Therefore let us stir up the Spirit of God in us, in all difficulties and dangers whatsoever, considering that we have such grounds of comfort every way.

What is the use and end of this glorious appearance? In regard to the poor shepherds, it was to confirm their faith, and in them ours. For if one or two witnesses confirm a thing, what will a multitude do? If one or two men confirm a truth, how much more a host of heavenly angels! Therefore it is base unbelief to call into question what is confirmed by a multitude of angels. And it was likewise to comfort them in this appearance. We see in passing that for one Christian to confirm and comfort another is the work of an angel, an angelic work; for one person to discourage another is the work of a devil.

When Christ was in his agony, the angels appeared to comfort him (Luke 22:43). We may take notice how willing and ready these glorious spirits were to attend our blessed Savior Jesus Christ, in all the stages from his incarnation to his glory. We see they appeared here at his incarnation. They ministered to him after his temptation. At his resurrection they were ready to attend him, and at his ascension they were ready then. But oh, the welcome when he entered into heaven! There were the glorious embraces, when all the host of heaven received him at his ascension. In the garden, as I said, they comforted him. Let us imitate them in this blessed work, if there are any in distress who need comfort and confirmation. We love examples of great, noted persons. Here you have an example above yourselves, the example of angels, who, to confirm and comfort the poor shepherds, appear in a host, a multitude of heavenly angels.

As the angels attend Christ, so for his sake they attend us too; for he is that Jacob’s ladder. Jacob’s ladder, you know, stood on the earth, but it reached to heaven, and the angels went up and down on the ladder. That is, it is Christ who knits heaven and earth together, God and man. And through Christ the angels have communion and fellowship with us, as I noted from Hebrews 12:22, “we are come to an innumerable company of angels.” So they attend us for Christ’s sake, whose members we are.

They attend the mystical Christ as well as the natural Christ: “For they are ministering spirits for the sakes of them that shall be saved” (Heb 1:14). And therefore in our childhood and tender years the custody of us is committed to them, as Christ says, “their angels behold the face of God” (Matt 18:10). In our dangers they pitch their tents about us. At our death they carry our souls to the place of happiness, as they carried Lazarus’s soul into Abraham’s bosom. And at the resurrection they shall gather our dead bodies together. So, just as they never left our blessed Savior from his birth to his ascension, they always attend his members, his spouse. For his sake we have communion with the blessed angels. These things may be of some use, but they are not what I mainly intend. Thus much for the appearance.

2. Now the celebration is “a multitude of the heavenly host praising God.” The word signifies “singing” as well as praise. It implies praise expressed in that manner; and indeed “praising God” is the best expression of the affection of joy. The angels were joyful at the birth of Christ their Lord. Joy is in no way better expressed than in “praising God,” and it is a pity that such a sweet affection as joy should run in any other stream, if that were possible, than the “praising of God.” God has planted this affection of joy in the creature, and it is fitting that he should reap the fruit of his own garden. It is a pity for a clear stream to run into a puddle; it should rather run into a garden. And it is a pity that so sweet and excellent an affection as joy should be employed otherwise than “in praising God” and doing good to men.

They express their joy in a suitable way, “in praising God.” The sweetest affection in man should have the sweetest employment. The sweetest employment that joy can have is to be enlarged in love, “to praise God,” and for God’s sake to do good to others.

See here the pure nature of angels. They praise God for us. We have more good by the incarnation of Christ than they have; yet nevertheless, such is their humility that they come down from heaven with great delight, and praise and glorify God for the birth of Christ, who is not their Redeemer but ours. Some strength they do have from it. There is no creature that does not have some good by the incarnation of Christ, and this reaches to the angels themselves. Yet although they have some strength from Christ, in the increase of the number of the church, he is not the Redeemer of angels. In some sort he is the head of angels, but he is our Redeemer. “To us a child is born; to us a Son is given” (Isa 9:6).

And yet see, their nature is so pure and so clear of envy and pride that they even glorify God for the goodness shown to us, creatures lower than themselves. And they do not envy us, though by the incarnation of Christ we are advanced to a higher place than they. For, beloved, the very angels do not have such affinity to Christ in this as we do. They are not the spouse of Christ. They do not make up the mystical Christ. The church does. The church is the queen, as Christ is the king of all. It is married to Christ. Angels are not. And yet although they see us advanced above them in various respects, they are so pure and free from envy that they join in “praising God” here in love to us.

Let us labor, therefore, for angelic dispositions; that is, such as delight in the good of others, and the good of others lower than ourselves.

And learn this also from them. Shall they glorify God for our good especially, and shall we be dull and cold in praising God on our own behalf? Shall they come suddenly from heaven, and cheerfully, and willingly, and “to praise God” for his goodness to us, and shall we be frozen and cold in this duty, which is for our good more especially? I hasten to what follows.

What is the substance of their celebration and rejoicing? “Glory to God in the highest,” “In earth peace,” “Good will towards men.”

There is some difference in the readings. Some copies have it, “On earth peace to men of good will,” to men of God’s good will; and so they would make it two branches, not three. If the word is rightly understood, it is no great matter.

1. The angels begin with the main and chief end of all. It is God’s end; it was the angels’ end, and it should be ours too: “Glory to God on high.”

2. Then they wish the chief good of all, that by which we are fitted for the main end: “peace.” God cannot be glorified on earth unless peace is wrought, for otherwise man conceives of God as an enemy. By this peace we are fitted to glorify God. If we find reconciliation with God through Jesus Christ, then the sense of God’s love in the work of reconciliation will inflame our hearts to glorify God. Therefore, next to the glory of God, they wish “peace on earth.”

3. Then here is the ground of all happiness, from which this peace comes: from God’s good will, from his good pleasure or free grace, to men of God’s good will. So if we go back again, the good will and pleasure of God is the cause and ground of peace in Christ; and peace in Christ puts us into a condition to glorify God and stirs us up to do it. So we see there is an order in these three.

To begin with the first: “Glory to God in the highest.”

The angels, those blessed and holy spirits, begin with that which is the end of all. It is God’s end in all things, his own glory. He has no one above himself whose glory he could aim at. And they wish glory to God in the highest heavens.

Indeed, he is more glorified there than anywhere in the world. It is the place where his majesty most appears; and the truth is, we cannot perfectly glorify God until we are in heaven. There is pure glory given to God in heaven. There is no corruption there in those perfect souls. There is perfect glory given to God in heaven. Here on earth God is not glorified at all by many. The whole life of many is nothing but a dishonoring of God, by abusing his ordinances, trampling on his church and children, and slighting his word and sacraments. So there is little honor given to God in the world, except by a few, whom he intends to glorify forever. And indeed, if we would glorify God here, we must raise our thoughts to heaven at that time; raise them above the world, to heaven, where we shall glorify him forever, where we shall join with the blessed saints and angels, and sing, “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of hosts.”

In the meantime, let me add this in passing, that in some sort we may glorify God more on earth than in heaven. It may seem a paradox, but it is true. It is this way. Here on earth we glorify God in the midst of enemies; he has no enemies in heaven, where they are all of one spirit. Here on earth we live not only among devils but among men led by the spirit of the devil, where God is dishonored. And if here we take God’s side, and the side of the truth and the gospel, and stand for God’s cause, then in some sort we honor God here more than we are capable of doing in heaven, where there is no opposition. In this respect, let us be encouraged to glorify God as much as we can here; for if we begin to glorify God here, it is a sign that we are of the number he intends to glorify with himself forever.

The verb is not set down here. It may be “Glory is given to God”; or, by way of wishing, “Let glory be given to God”; or, by way of prediction or prophecy for the time to come, “Glory shall be to God,” from now to the end of the world. Since the verb is lacking, all of these have a truth. For, first, it could not be a wish unless it were a positive doctrinal truth that all glory is due to God in the incarnation of Christ. And because all glory is due to him, from this comes the ground of wishing and of prayer, “Let God be glorified.” Why? Because it is due.

If it were not a positive doctrinal truth, there could be no foundation on which to raise a wish or a prayer. For what is a prayer but the turning of a promise or truth into a prayer? And what is praise but the turning of a truth into praise? So it is a doctrinal truth, first, that God is to be glorified especially in Christ; and in Christ, in this particular, in the incarnation of Christ. And it is a wish for the time to come, let him be glorified; and a prediction, God shall be glorified in the church. He will always have some to glorify him for Christ, and especially for his incarnation.

“Glory to God on high.”

Glory is excellency, greatness, and goodness, with the eminence of it, so that it may be revealed. There is a fundamental glory in things that are not revealed at all times. God is always glorious, but, alas! few have eyes to see it. But here I take it for the excellency and eminence of the goodness and greatness of God, revealed and taken notice of.

In the former part of the chapter “light” is called the “glory of the Lord” (Luke 2:9). Light is a glorious creature. Nothing expresses glory so much as light. It is a sweet creature, but it is a glorious creature. It carries its evidence in itself; it reveals all other things and itself too. So excellency and eminence will reveal themselves to those who have eyes to see them; and this, being manifested and also taken notice of, is glory.

Because the angels begin with the glory of God, I might speak of this doctrine, that the glory of God, the setting forth of the excellencies and eminencies of the Lord, should be the end of our lives, the chief thing we should aim at. The angels here begin with it, and we begin with it in the Lord’s Prayer, “hallowed be thy name.” It should be our main employment. “Of him and by him are all things, therefore to him be glory” (Rom 11:36). Therefore we should give God what is his own: “Thine is the glory,” as it says in the conclusion of the Lord’s Prayer.

But since this is a general point, I will pass it by and come to the particular, in which it will appear with more comfort, as this glory shines in Christ. In the incarnation of Christ there is cause for both angels and men to glorify God.

And here I do not take the incarnation of Christ in abstraction from other things in Christ. I take the incarnation of Christ as a foundation and prerequisite to all the other good we have by Christ. “Glory to God on high,” now Christ is born. Why? Only because he is born? No. But by reason of this incarnation there is a union of the two natures, God and man. So by the incarnation Christ is now man, and holy man. The human nature in Christ is pure and holy, being sanctified by the Spirit and united to God.

Now because Christ is not only man, but pure man and God-man, God taking our nature into the unity of his person, it is from this that he came to be qualified for all that he did and suffered afterward. It was from this that they had their worth. What was the reason that his being made a curse, and dying for us, should be of such worth? It came from a person who was God-man.

Indeed, so near is the humanity to God that what the humanity did, God did, because the person was God. The second person took the nature of man, and what he suffered in his human nature, God suffered according to man’s nature. From this comes that phrase, the communication of properties. Whatever was done or suffered in man’s nature, God did as a mediator; God did it in that nature. From this comes its price. Thus the incarnation is a prerequisite and foundation to all other benefits by Christ. Therefore take it joined together: his incarnation, and his death, and resurrection, and ascension, and all.

Well then, the incarnation of Christ, together with the benefits it brings us, that is, redemption, adoption, and so on, is that in which God will show his glory most of all. That is the doctrinal truth. The glory and excellency of God shines most in his love and mercy in Christ. Every excellency of God has its proper place or theater where it is seen: his power in the creation, his wisdom in his providence and ruling of the world, his justice in hell, his majesty in heaven. But his mercy and kindness, the tender mercy of his inmost heart, appear most of all in his church among his people. God shows the excellency of his goodness and mercy in the incarnation of Christ and the benefits we have by it. Many attributes and excellencies of God shine in Christ, such as these.

His truth: “All the promises of God are yea and amen in Christ” (2 Cor 1:20). In him there is an accomplishment of all the promises.

And then his wisdom, that he could reconcile justice and mercy by joining two natures together. This plan was laid in heaven by God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, the Trinity, that God and man should be joined together. To join and knit together two attributes that seem contrary, justice and mercy; to reconcile man by reconciling justice and mercy, and by so excellent a way that God should become man, Emmanuel: this was great wisdom. It was great wisdom to reconcile justice and mercy by such a person as would satisfy justice and make way for mercy, that is, by Christ. God will lose none of his attributes. His justice must be satisfied, so that his mercy might be manifested. The wisdom of God found out that way. It is a plan the angels study.

Likewise here is justice, justice fully satisfied in Christ. He who is God as well as man became our surety. If no creature can satisfy God, God can. When the second person took our nature, and was our surety, and died for us, he was the glory of God’s justice.

And here is the glory of his holiness, that he would be satisfied for sin in no other way. Sin was so foul a thing that to show his hatred of it he punished it in his own Son, when he became our surety. How holy and pure God is! That is, what a separation there is in the nature of God from sin, considering that he so punished it in his Son, our surety, that he made him cry out, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” (Mark 15:34). We cannot see the nature of God in anything in the world so much as in Christ. In Christ we see, as in a mirror, his infinite sweet wisdom, his justice, and his holiness in hating and loathing sin.

But the main thing of all is his mercy and goodness, which set him to work to devise this great work of redemption by the incarnation and death of Christ. The infinite, rich, glorious, abundant mercy: that is the main thing in which God is glorious now in Christ. Therefore everywhere you find these and similar titles given to his goodness and mercy. The bounty of God appeared, and the riches of his mercy, and the exceeding great height, and breadth, and depth of his love. There are no words large enough to set out the goodness and mercy of God in Jesus Christ.

Therefore I will speak only of this attribute, because it bears the mastery among all the other attributes. God is equally powerful and just, and yet he expresses his mercy and grace most of all in Jesus Christ toward poor wretched man. For after the fall, when man was miserable and sinful, what attribute could exalt itself but mercy to misery, and grace to sinful man in pardoning his sin? Considering the terms on which man stood, no other attribute could exalt itself but grace and mercy, to triumph over misery and sin.

In a city, those who are otherwise equal in honor may sometimes have one bearing rule above another; and the one who is now magistrate and chief may at another time be inferior to others. So since the fall the mercy of God holds office, and is chief governor and commander over all the attributes of God.

For, as I said, what moved God to set his wisdom to work to devise such a thing as the salvation of mankind, to reconcile God and man in one person? His mercy moved him. What moved him to satisfy his justice? It was so that an excellent way might be made, without prejudice to any other of his attributes, for his free grace and mercy. That is what set all the others to work. That is the main triumphing attribute, considering that man now stood in such dire need of mercy. Therefore “glory to God in the highest heavens,” especially for his free grace and mercy in Christ.

Now so that you may understand this sweet point, which is very comforting, and indeed the grand comfort to a Christian, just compare the glory of God, that is, the excellency and eminence of God’s mercy, and goodness, and greatness of this work of redemption by Christ, with other things.

1. God is glorious in the work of creation. “The heavens declare the glory of God” (Ps 19:1), and the earth manifests the glory of God. Every creature indeed has a beam of the glory of God, especially those celestial bodies in the heavens. They praise God in their kinds, but with our mouths; they give us matter for praise. And if we have gracious hearts we take notice of it and magnify him for his goodness. His goodness appears in the use of the creatures, his greatness in the bulk of the creatures, and his wisdom in ordering and ranking them. So his mercy shines marvelously in all things in heaven and earth. Oh, but, beloved, heaven and earth will come to nothing before long. What is all this glory of the goodness and greatness of God to us, if we are sent to hell after this short life is ended? What comfort is it that we walk on the earth and enjoy the comforts God gives us in this world, and then perish forever? Therefore the glory and goodness of God does not appear so gloriously in the creation of the world.

2. Indeed, the glory of God’s love and mercy did not shine on us so when we were in Adam; not in Adam, for there God did good to a good man. He created him good and showed goodness to him. That was not so great a wonder. But for God to show mercy to an enemy, to a creature in opposition to him, in a state of rebellion against him, is a greater wonder and more glory. It was a marvelous mercy for God to make man out of the earth; but here God was made man, he became man himself. There all was done with one word, “Let us make man” (Gen 1:26). It was easily done. But in this, for Christ to become man for us, and to suffer many things, to be “made a curse for us” (Gal 3:13), was not so easy a matter.

Therefore in this there is a great manifestation of the glory of God’s goodness and mercy to us. For God has set himself to be glorious in his mercy, and goodness, and grace, in Christ. He has set himself to triumph over the greatest evil in man, which is sin, in the glorious work of redemption. So you see here that the greatest glory and mercy of God appears in our redemption by Jesus Christ, the foundation of which is his incarnation.

In Exodus 34:6, God gives an answer to Moses, who desired to see the glory of God, that he might have it manifested to him, not out of curiosity, but that he might love God the more. How does God manifest his glory to him? Jehovah, strong, merciful, glorious, pardoning sin and iniquity. When God would set himself to show his glory in answering Moses’s petition, he does it by setting out his glorious mercy and grace and loving-kindness in pardoning sin and iniquity, to show that he will now have his glory appear most in the sweet attribute of mercy and compassion in the forgiveness of sins.

In Titus 2:11-12, “The grace of God hath appeared, teaching us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts.” “The grace of God hath appeared.” Grace has no body to appear visibly. Yes, but Christ appeared; and when he appeared it was as if grace and love had become incarnate and taken a body. So grace and mercy shine most of all in the incarnation of Christ.

I need not clarify the point further, but will only make a little use of it, and so end. Does the grace and love and mercy of God, those sweet attributes, now appear and show themselves in Jesus Christ? I beg you, let us remember it. There is no point of divinity of more use and comfort, especially in the greatest crises and extremities; for it answers all objections, the greatest and strongest that can be made.

The sinner will object, “My sins are great, of long continuance and standing; they are of a deep dye.”

Look then on God in Christ, and consider his purpose in the incarnation of Christ. It was that his mercy and goodness and grace should be exalted, and triumph over all man’s unworthiness. The greater your sin, the greater will be the glory of his mercy; and that is what God seeks now, to be glorious in his mercy.

Again, your heart tells you that if any mercy is shown to such a wretch as you are, it must be no ordinary mercy.

That is true. God’s mercy is no ordinary thing. Of all his attributes, he will triumph in that one. The glory of his mercy and goodness is what he seeks to have from men, by the incarnation and redemption wrought by Christ, above all things whatsoever.

Objection. You want infinite mercy.

Answer. You have it in Christ.

Objection. Your sins have abounded.

Answer. God’s grace abounds much more.

Objection. Your sins are mountains.

Answer. God’s mercy is as the ocean, to cover those mountains.

Objection. But is it possible for God to forgive such a wretched sinner, who has been a blasphemer?

Answer. It would not be possible with men; but God says, “My thoughts are not as your thoughts” (Isa 55:8): you are vindictive in your dispositions and will not pardon, but my thoughts are as far above yours as the heavens are above the earth. Therefore do not bound the infinite mercy of God, in which he will triumph, with your narrow thoughts. Let it have its scope, especially in crises and assaults, and at such times as the best of us may be brought to. In Hosea 11:9, “I am God, and not man,” implying that if he were man, we might have low thoughts of him, confined thoughts; but “I am God, and not man.” Therefore comfort yourselves in this, and consider how God sets himself to be glorious in his love and mercy to poor, miserable, wretched man in Jesus Christ.

You see the mercy of God in Christ even in the sacrament. He does not only give Christ to us: “So God loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son” (John 3:16), to be born and to die for us; but his mercy is a boundless mercy. We see that he labors to strengthen our faith by these pledges, so that we may make use of this. What good is it to us that God is merciful in Christ? And what good is it that Christ is gracious, and that there is nothing but grace and mercy? If there is no application, if there is no personal interest of our own, what benefit do we have from it? We must make this glorious person our own, make Christ our own, for it is all founded on Christ. All the glorious mercy of God is grounded on the satisfaction of justice, that is, in Christ. But this is nothing unless we make Christ and the mercy of God our own; for our own acceptance of it is the ground of all comfort.

God apart from Christ is a “fountain sealed.” He is a fountain of mercy, but he is sealed up. He is a “consuming fire,” but in Christ he is a cheering, comforting fire. But this is nothing to us unless we are in Christ. We must have a personal share in Christ. We must be “bone of his bone, and flesh of his flesh.” He has married our nature, that we might be married to him. Otherwise we have no benefit by his incarnation. Now all our comfort is by this union and communion with Christ, by marrying ourselves to Christ, by strengthening our faith in this union and communion, so that we may make use of the boundless mercy of God in Christ. How we should be encouraged, then, to come to the sacrament, to enjoy this comfort!

You have heard, beloved, of the joy of the angels and of their manner of celebrating the birth of Christ. If the angels were to leave heaven, and come down to earth, and take bodies on themselves, how they would celebrate the incarnation of Christ! You see here: “Glory to God on high.” This would be the course they would take to glorify God, in keeping with their song. So should we do, if we want to be like the blessed angels. We see how to celebrate the nativity of Christ. We need not go and fetch joy from hell to celebrate it. If the devil were to become incarnate and come to live among men, how would he celebrate the incarnation of Christ otherwise than it is celebrated in many places? If we do not love the thought of having our portion with devils, surely we should not imitate those whose state and condition we are afraid of.

The angels saw reason enough in the thing itself to make them sing, “Glory to God on high, on earth peace, good will towards men.” What! Has God been so rich in love to us in Christ, so wondrous in mercy, as to take our miserable nature, not at its best but at its worst, and to take our condition on himself? Here is matter for joy; and shall we be indebted to the devil for joy, when we should rejoice for Christ? Will not the thing itself yield matter for rejoicing? Oh, base dispositions, that we should not content ourselves with a joy of one kind with the thing itself and uniform with it!

I desire repentance, and reformation of what has been amiss. If there are any who have been guilty in this way, who intend to come near God in these holy mysteries, let them know that God will be honored by all who come near him; let them take it to heart. As Tertullian said in his time, What! Shall we celebrate that which is a public matter of joy to all the church as a public shame, in a disgraceful way?

I beg you, consider these things. “Repent, for the kingdom of God is near,” says the Baptist (Matt 3:2). What! Shall we therefore give carnal liberty to all looseness, as if Christ came to bring Christians liberty for licentiousness? Shall we, instead of repenting, run further and further into guilt, and make ourselves unfit for all goodness? Is that the reasoning of the Scriptures? No. “Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand.” Change your lives, for Christ and the fruits of the gospel are at hand. “The grace of God hath appeared” in Christ. What! To teach us to live as we please, and to be more disordered than at other times? Oh, no. “To live soberly and justly” (Titus 2:12), not to wrong anybody, and to live holy and godly in this present world. This is the Scripture reasoning, and if ever we look for comfort from God and Christ, we must reason this way too.

Let no one think it too late to speak of these things now. But those who have not had the grace of God to keep them innocent, let them make use of the grace of God to repent. As the phrase of some of the ancients has it, repentance is a board by which to escape to the shore after we have made shipwreck and done things amiss. Therefore, as I said, those who have not had the grace before to be innocent, let them make use of the grace of God that now invites them to repentance, or else not presume to come to these holy things. I say this not only to free my own soul, but to free you from contracting further guilt. For do you think to make amends by coming to the sacrament, without repentance for what you have done before?

“What hast thou to do,” says God, “to take my name into thy mouth” (Ps 50:16), that is, to take my sacrament into your mouth, “when thou hatest to be reformed?” God accounted his own service as the “cutting off a dog’s head” when they came indisposed and unprepared (Isa 66:3). The sacrament is bane and poison to us if we come without repentance. What does the apostle say? “For this cause” (because you come irreverently to the things of God) “some are sick, and some weak, and some sleep” (1 Cor 11:30). God struck them with death for it. And it is a great reason why many are hardened in their sins and still go on in them, because God executes these spiritual judgments for profaning these holy things, when men think to plaster things over with God and to pay him compliments in an easy performance.

I know that those who belong to God are sometimes permitted to do things amiss, and to fall into errors and failures, so that they may know themselves better. And indeed, much of our spiritual wisdom is gained by the sight of our own errors. We grow more established afterward against similar temptations for the time to come, and we can say by experience, “It is good that I know the foolishness of my own heart.” But those in whom God has no delight swell and rage against any admonition, even when it is given in love for their souls. I hope there are none such here. Therefore, those who have made their peace with God, let them come to these holy mysteries with comfort, notwithstanding anything before; for God has prepared these things, not for angels, but for weak men, whose faith stands in need of being strengthened.

And let us not think that Christianity is a matter of formal compliment, that because we are baptized, and come to hear the word, and receive the sacrament, all is well. For we may do all this and yet be greater sinners than Turks, or Jews, or pagans; for the most horrible sins are committed in the church. Where is the sin against the Holy Spirit committed, and sins against light and against conscience, but where the conscience and understanding are most enlightened? There are the horrible, provoking sins, where there is more light and direction to live in another way. When the grace of God and the riches of Christ are opened up, and yet men live in their sins, against conscience and the light of the gospel, the outward performance is so far from excusing us in sickness and at the hour of death that it aggravates our guilt and damnation, when we do not make a right use of the holy things of God.

What I will dwell on next will be to show:

1. How we may know whether or not we glorify God for Christ;

2. And then the hindrances that keep us from glorifying God for this excellent good;

3. And the means by which we may come to glorify God.

1. I will not speak much of glorifying God in general. It would be a large subject; and the point of glorifying God is most sweetly considered as clothed in such a benefit as this, when we think of it, not as an idea only, but think of it in Christ, for whom we have cause to glorify God, and for all the good we have by him.

(1) We keep tune with the blessed angels in giving glory to God when we exalt God in our souls above all creatures and things in the world; when we lift him up in his own place, and let him be in our souls as he is in himself, in the most holy place. God is glorious, especially in his mercy and goodness. Let him be so in our hearts, in these sweet attributes, above all our unworthiness and sin. For God has no glory from us until we give him the highest place in our love and joy and delight, and all those affections that are set on good, when they are set on him as the chief good. Then we give him his due place in our souls; we ascribe to him that divinity and excellency and eminence that is due to him.

And this appears especially in competition and opposition with other things, when we will not offend God for any creature, when we can say with the psalmist, “Whom have I in heaven but thee, and what is there in earth in comparison of thee?” (Ps 73:25). Therefore let us often ask our own thoughts what it is that our affections of delight and joy and love, and all the sweetness and marrow of our souls, are spent on and run after. Is it the sweet love of God in Christ, the excellent state we have in Christ? That is an excellent sign. Surely the blessed saints in heaven, and those on earth who look for heaven, are disposed this way for the most part, especially when they set themselves in their devotions before God.

Let us examine what is highest in our souls. “The loving-kindness of the Lord is better than life itself,” says the psalmist (Ps 63:3). We give God glory when we hold life itself cheap, as holy Saint Paul could say. What! Do you tell me of suffering at Jerusalem? I am not only ready to do that, but to die for the name of Christ (Acts 21:13); and in Philippians 1:20, so God may be magnified by my life or death. I am resolved. So if the question is whether we will sacrifice this blood and life of ours, or dishonor God and wrong the gospel, or be in any way prejudicial to the known truth, when we are ready to part with all, with father and mother, and houses and lands, and all for Christ, then with the angels we say, “Glory be to God on high.” Therefore when the two stand opposed and we cannot enjoy both, let us leave the creature and cling to God.

(2) Again, we give glory to God for Christ when we take all the favors we have from God in Christ, when we see Christ in everything. All things are ours because we are Christ’s (1 Cor 3:23). It is by Christ that we are heirs, that we have any comforting claim to anything. Therefore, when we accept all in Christ, and give God in Christ the glory of all, we practice what the angels do here; we give glory to God.

(3) Again, we give glory to God when we stir up others. All the angels agree. There was no discord in this harmony of the angels. We do this when we all join together and stir up one another, and labor to promote the knowledge of God in Christ in all the ways we can, every one in our place and calling, magistrates and ministers, and every one in our families, laboring that Christ may rule there, that God in Christ may be known.

In Psalm 103:20 and the following verses, the psalmist stirs himself up to glorify God, and he stirs up the angels; and here the angels stir up men, “Glory to God on high.” When there is zeal for God’s glory, and a disposition fit to glorify God, there will be a stirring up of one another, angels stirring up men and men stirring up angels, and a wishing that God may have glory in heaven and earth.

Therefore those who do not labor in their places that the truth may be made known, who for base and worldly ends oppose the publishing of the gospel in any way (as the fashion is now, they will not appear openly, but cunningly undermine the gospel under pretenses), they do not keep tune with these blessed angels. For those who have dispositions like theirs will study how this blessed truth may be promoted and propagated, and spread even over the world. Therefore every one of us should labor to spread the glorious gospel of Christ, especially those who are ministers, whose office it is to unfold and open the “unsearchable riches of Christ” (Eph 3:8).

(4) Again, we glorify God in Christ when we see such glory and mercy of Christ as transforms us and changes us, and from an inward change we always have a blessed disposition to glorify God, as I showed from 2 Corinthians 3:18. This is the difference between the mirror of the gospel and the mirror of the law and of created things. In the law we see the beams of the justice of God: “Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things…” (Gal 3:10). And we see the beams of his power and goodness in created things. But this does not change and transform us to be good and gracious.

But when we see the glory of God, of his goodness and infinite mercy, shining in the face of Jesus Christ (for we dare not look upon God directly), it changes the soul to be gracious like Christ. Therefore if we find that the knowledge of God in Christ has changed our dispositions, then it is a sign that we give glory to God indeed. For to glorify God is an action that cannot proceed except from a disposition of nature that is altered and changed. The instrument must be set in tune before it can yield this excellent music, to glorify God as the angels do; that is, all the powers of the soul must be set in order with grace by the Spirit of God.

If the meditations and thoughts of the gospel have altered our dispositions to love God and what pleases God, to do good to men, and to delight in goodness, it is a sign that we are instruments in tune to glorify God, and that we grasp the love and mercy of God in Christ as we should. For it has a transforming power to work this. The grace of God will teach us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts, and to live holily (Titus 2:12). When the grace of God, that is, the free love of God in Christ in forgiving our sins and advancing us to heaven, has this effect in our souls, it is a sign that we have a true notion and grasp of the excellence and eminence of God’s grace.

Otherwise, if we “turn the grace of God into wantonness” (Jude 4), making the benefits we have by Christ a pretense and covering for our wicked and loose lives, we do not know what it is to glorify God. Though in words we say, “Glory be to God,” yet in our lives we deny it, as the apostle says (Titus 1:16). The hypocrites in Isaiah 66:5 had good speeches in their mouths. God says, “Hear the word of the Lord, ye that tremble at his word: your brethren that hated you, and cast you out for my name’s sake, said, Let the Lord be glorified.”

So you will find that those who are opposers and persecutors and haters of sincerity will sing “Glory be to the Father,” “God be glorified.” But what good will this do them if they have diabolical, satanic dispositions, if they are like the devil in opposing the truth and hating what is good? The devils in the gospel could glorify God for their own ends: “We know that thou art the Son of God” (Luke 4:41). So devils incarnate can come to church and receive the sacraments, and seem to praise God.

Oh, but there must be a change; for to glorify God is a work of the whole man, especially of the Spirit. “All that is within me, praise his holy name” (Ps 103:1). It came from the heart-root of a sanctified judgment, out of grounds for why we do it. The wish of the angels here, “Glory to God on high,” came from a good ground, because they knew that God is to be glorified in Christ. For judicious phrases are founded upon truths. So there must be a sanctified judgment to be the ground of it, and the affections must be in tune, answering to those truths. Then we are fit to glorify God. And all this is by the power of the gospel transforming us.

(5) Again, we glorify God when we take to heart anything that may hinder, or stop, or eclipse God’s truth, and obscure it; when it works zeal in us in our places, as far as we can; when it affects us deeply to see the cause of religion hindered in any way. If there is any desire of glorifying God, there will be zeal. The heart will move with a kind of indignation when God is dishonored, and his truth eclipsed with false doctrine or by evil practice. It cannot be otherwise. It comes out of the nature of the thing itself.

Therefore those who are either instruments of stopping or obscuring the truth, or of causing it to be reproached by their wicked lives, or who, if they are not instruments, yet do not take it to heart when they see God dishonored, can surely speak little comfort to themselves. They have neither angelic nor evangelical dispositions; for if they had the knowledge of the gospel it would work this in them.

(6) Again, if we apprehend this glorious mystery of Christ in the gospel aright, it will work in us a glorious joy; for joy is especially a disposition that fits us to glorify God. We are fit to “glorify God” when our hearts are enlarged with joy; when we think of God in Christ; when we think of the day of judgment; when we think of heaven; when we think of hell with joy, as being subdued, and bless God for Christ; when we can think of all that is hostile as conquered in Christ. So our joy is enlarged in the apprehension of our own blessed condition. It is a good sign that we are in a disposition to “glorify God.” But I will not enlarge further on this point.

2. This being so excellent a duty, to which we are stirred by the angels, “Glory to God on high,” what are the main hindrances of it, that we do not give God more glory?

(1) The main hindrances are a double veil of ignorance and unbelief, so that we do not see the glorious light of God shining in Jesus Christ; or else, if we do know it, we do not believe it. And as a result, instead of that blessed disposition that should be in the soul, there comes an admiration of carnal excellencies, a delighting in base things.

This ignorance comes partly from the darkness of our own hearts, which are sometimes so overcast that such great things seem too good to be true. Our hearts have a hell of unbelief in them.

And sometimes it comes from the cunning of Satan, who casts dust in our eyes and labors that we may not see the glory of God in the gospel: “The god of this world hath blinded their eyes” (2 Cor 4:4). Ignorance arising from within or without is a great cause why we do not see the excellencies of God. Therefore it is no wonder if, where the gospel is not preached, the devil has a kind of reign, and God is not honored at all, because the devil is the prince of darkness and rules in darkness. That is one cause, ignorance.

(2) So likewise unbelief, when we hear and see and know the notion of mercy and of Christ, and can dispute about these things, like men who talk of what they never tasted. The devils know all these things better than any man; yet they do not “glorify God,” because they do not believe that these things pertain to them. Men lack a light suitable to the truth of the things themselves. A man may see them with a natural light, or with the light of education, or by books or the like, but not in a spiritual and proper light. He does not see spiritual, heavenly things in a spiritual light, and that is the reason he does not believe them.

These two veils are the cause why we do not see the light of God shining in the gospel, and why we do not glorify him. Light is a glorious created thing. It was the first thing created. It is not only glorious in itself, but it shows the glory of all other things too. If we had all the sights in the world presented to us, and there were no light to reveal them, or no sight in our eyes, if either were lacking, all their glory would be lost.

So it is in the gospel. Though there are wondrous, marvelous things there, if we lack either light or sight, if the light shines round about us, and the god of this world has blinded our eyes, and unbelief has blinded us, how can we “glorify God,” lacking a heavenly, proper, special, spiritual light suitable to the things? For a natural man, by the light that he has, cannot judge of them. These are the main hindrances, the veil of ignorance and unbelief.

(3) And, on the contrary, there is another hindrance, that is, too much light. There is either a lack of light altogether, or too much light, when the preaching of the word of God awakens our conscience and shows our sins to be so enormous, so transcendent, so odious, that we forget mercy in Christ, and so dishonor Christ by setting the sins of the creature above the infinite mercy of the Creator. Such are those who doubt, and from doubting proceed to despair of the mercy of God, seeing the vileness of their sins in their true colors, and seeing and feeling God’s anger and wrath together with their sins in the conscience. Here is too much light one way, and no looking to the other light, this excellent, glorious, infinite light of God’s mercy shining in the gospel. They do not look on God in “the face of Christ.”

Out of some stubbornness and pride they flatter themselves. They will not believe; they will not receive the consolations due to them, but dwell upon the consideration of their unworthiness and sins; and Satan holds them in that slavery and bondage. This is a great hindrance of glorifying God, when we lift up our sins above the mercy of God in Jesus Christ. This is to take away God and Christ altogether. For if the mercy and the rich and bountiful goodness of God, in which he will be infinitely glorious, were not greater than our sins, it would not be the mercy and bounty of a God. God would not be glorious in it. But there are only a few of these who are lost; God usually shines upon them at the last.

There are three ranks of men. Some, in the first rank, are profane, dead, loose Christians, who were never under the law, who never understood the corruption of nature or themselves. Some are brought from there to understand themselves a little too much; they are under the law and feel the flashes of God’s wrath. And some, in the third place, are brought from there to be under grace. That is the only happy condition, to be under the grace of God in Christ.

Some men never come to the second step. They never understand what sin is, and what the anger and wrath of God is. They will give their conscience no leisure to tell them what their condition is. There is hope of the second rank, that they will come to the third; but as for a company of profane persons, opposers of goodness, who talk of the mercy of God in Christ, they are not on the next step to it. A man must be aware of his sins and of his misery before he can have grace. Therefore, as for those who have too much light, though it is a great fault in some, and through this peevish stubbornness of theirs deprives God of much glory and themselves of much comfort, yet there are not many of them, and, as I said, few of them are lost.

Now, from these two veils that hinder the glory of God there come other hindrances; for the soul of man will wonder at and admire something. It will have something in its eye. And so, not seeing or not believing the mercy and goodness and love of God, and the excellent prerogatives of a Christian that issue from the goodness of God, and the fruits of it, they dote upon some worldly excellence. Either they are proud of their abilities, and so God is robbed of his honor, or they dote on creatures lower than themselves.

For the base nature of man, since the fall, dotes upon earth, upon gold and silver, mean and base things, not to be compared to the excellence of man; or else upon some duties they perform, upon their own works, as if God should be beholden to them. For not knowing themselves well, and the infinite glory of God in Christ, that God must have all the glory, not only of happiness but of the grace that brings us to happiness, they glory in what they have done; as in popery, they think they merit much by their performance.

In the nighttime a torch seems a fine thing, and sometimes rotten wood will shine; but in the daytime, when the sun appears, the very stars do not shine. We do not care for lesser lights, for what good do they do then? So the soul, when it lacks a sight of the greatest excellence, dotes upon rotten wood, upon every torchlight. Many vain things seem to be great. A man may see by the dispositions of many what they admire and take most pride in. Their conduct shows it well enough. It argues a corrupt and weak judgment. You see what the main hindrances are.

3. Now we come to the way to attain this glorious duty, to glorify God. The next thing shall be to give some directions, because it is a most necessary duty. Is it not what we pray for in the Lord’s Prayer, “Hallowed be thy name”? And what is the end for which we were created and redeemed, but that God may have some glory by us? Therefore, since it is a necessary, absolute duty, let us listen to some directions that may help us that way.

(1) Therefore, if we would glorify God, we must redeem some time to think of these things, and bestow the strength of our thoughts this way. The soul being the most excellent thing in the world, it is fitting that it should be set on the most excellent duty. Since man is in such an excellent condition, being heir of heaven and having an understanding soul, it is fitting that the most excellent part of the most excellent creature should be set upon the most excellent object. Now, the most excellent part of the soul is the understanding. It kindles all the affections and leads all the rest.

Therefore let us take some time to meditate and think of these things. Think what we are by nature, and the misery we are exposed to by sin, so that whatever we have more than hell is more than we deserve. And then, along with this, think what we are advanced to in Christ; what we are freed from, that cursed condition; and what we shall be freed from, the sting of death and all that we fear for the time to come. Think of what we are freed from, and what we are advanced to, and by whom: by God becoming man, a mystery that might ravish, no, that does ravish the very angels themselves; God-man, now in heaven, making good by his intercession what he did on earth. And then think of the ground of it all, the infinite love and mercy and bounty of God to poor distressed man.

The thought of these things will inflame the heart. Now, they never work upon the heart thoroughly until they end in wonder; and indeed the Scripture sets it down in terms of wonder: “So God loved the world” (John 3:16). “So.” How? So, as I cannot tell how, I cannot express it; and “what love hath God showed us, that we should be called the sons of God!” (1 John 3:1). And then the fruits that we have by this incarnation of Christ and by his death are wondrous: “peace that passeth understanding” (Phil 4:7), “joy unspeakable and glorious” (1 Pet 1:8). So the mystery is wonderful, and the dignity wonderful, and the fruits, the comfort and peace and joy, wonderful. Everything is an object of wonder.

Therefore when we think and meditate on these things, let us never stop until our souls are wound up to wonder at the excellent love of God. We wonder at things that are new and rare and great. Is there anything more new and rare than that which never had its like, for God to become man? Is there anything more excellent than the benefits we have by Christ becoming man, to free us from so great a misery and to advance us to so great a happiness? If anything is an object of wonder, surely it must be this. Therefore the apostle does well to give all the dimensions to the love of God in Christ, “height, and breadth, and depth, and length.” It is a love “passing knowledge” (Eph 3:19).

Question. What good will come of this?

Answer. When the soul is thus exercised, then it will be fit to “glorify God.” When it is in this frame, it will think itself too good for any base service of sin. Eagles will not catch at flies. When the soul is lifted up to consider God’s love and mercy in Christ, will it be catching at every base thing in this world? No, it will not. The soul never sins except when it loses this frame, of having a judgment suitable to things. When our judgment and affections for the best things are lost, then there comes in a judgment and affection for other things as better. So, losing the frame the soul should be in, we fall to created things, to commit spiritual fornication with them.

Let us labor to keep our souls in this temper. Let us begin every day with this meditation, to think what we were, what we are now in Christ, what we shall be, and by what glorious means all this was wrought, so that the soul may be warmed with the love of God in Christ. This frame of spirit will not allow the soul to sin, to stoop to base sinful lusts.

(2) Now, to help this, in the next place, beg of God the “Spirit of revelation” to reveal these things to us in their own proper light, “for they are spiritually discerned” (1 Cor 2:14). Now the Spirit knows the breast of God, what the love of God is to every one in particular, and he knows our hearts too. Therefore the apostle desires of God “the Spirit of wisdom and revelation” (Eph 1:17) to reveal these things to us, not only that they are truths, but that they are truths to us. For unless we know that these things belong to us in particular, we cannot glorify God as we should.

They are in themselves glorious things: to hear of God’s mercy in Christ, of God becoming man, to hear of kingdoms and crowns. Oh, but when there is a spirit of appropriation to make these our own, that God in Christ loves us, “who loved me, and gave himself for me” (Gal 2:20), then the soul cannot help but break forth with the angels here, “Glory to God on high.” Therefore beg the Spirit to reveal to us our part and portion, that he would show his face to us, that he is a Father to us in Christ. Surely in hearing, meditation, prayer, and the like, we shall find a secret whispering and report from heaven that God is our Savior and that our sins are forgiven, especially when we stand in most need of this comfort.

Let us therefore beg God to take away the veils of ignorance and unbelief, and openly to reveal his fatherly heart and tender mercy to us in Christ; to reveal to us in particular, more and more, our share in the same by his Spirit, who alone knows the secret of our hearts, and being above our hearts can settle our doubts. Only the Spirit can do it. For as God alone works salvation, so the Spirit alone can seal our salvation to our souls. This is one excellent way to help us to glorify God.

And add this as a motive, as a plea, not so much to move God as to move and satisfy our own hearts and to strengthen our faith: that it is the end of our lives and the height of our desires to “glorify God.” Therefore we desire God to reveal himself so far to us as to be our Father in Christ, that we may glorify him. Surely it is a forcible plea. God will do what is suitable to his end. “He hath made all things for his own glory” (Prov 16:4). Especially the work of redemption in Christ is for the glory of his rich mercy; and we desire the sense of his mercy and love for this end, that we may be fitter to glorify God. It is a prevailing argument, drawn from God’s own end.

(3) And let us labor daily, more and more, to see the vanity of all things in the world. Suppose we have honors and large possessions in the world, so that we lack nothing. If this were severed from God’s love in Christ for life everlasting, what comfort could we have in it, especially at the hour of death? Let us see, therefore, the vanity and emptiness of all things else apart from Christ and the good we have by Christ, and what it will all be before long. The daily thought of that will be a good means. For we must empty ourselves of what we are, that we may be filled with what we are not; and we must daily consider the emptiness of the created things with which we labor to support ourselves. For when men have no goodness in themselves, they will have an excellence in the creature.

Therefore, when we see ourselves, apart from Christ, to be nothing but fuel for God’s vengeance, and see that created things can afford us nothing but vexation, these thoughts, that these things are so, and that from experience, will make us draw near to God on all occasions. It will make us glorify him and abase ourselves. What made Job abase himself and glorify God? It was when he drew near to God and God drew near to him. “I abhor myself” (Job 42:6). And so we see in Abraham (Gen 18:27). Let us draw near to God on all occasions, in the word and prayer and in the sacraments, and this will make us see our own nothingness and God’s greatness. For that is the way to honor him, to see his greatness and a nothingness in created things; that all things in him are so excellent, and apart from him nothing, and worse than nothing.

Now we are to draw near to God in the sacrament; and the nearer to God, the more we honor him. Who honors God most? Surely Christ, because he is so near him, being God and man in one person. And next to him the blessed angels “glorify God.” They are near him. Therefore, in Isaiah 6:2, they “cover their faces,” it being impossible for the creature to comprehend the great majesty of God; and they cover their feet in modesty. The nearer we draw to God in the meditation and consideration of his excellence in the ordinances, the more humble and abased we shall be in ourselves, and the more we shall honor God, seeing his excellence, especially that of his love.

So next to the angels come the saints: “all thy works praise thee” (Ps 145:10); they give matter and occasion, but “thy saints bless thee.” If it were not for a few saints on earth, though all the works of God are matter of praise, they could not praise God: “thy saints bless thee.” And the nearer we come to God, the fitter we are for this.

Now, there is a wondrously near coming to God in the sacrament. If we come prepared, we come to have communion and strengthening in Christ. He is both the inviter and the feast itself. We come to be made one with him: “bone of his bone, and flesh of his flesh.” Therefore, if we come prepared, this is the way to bring us to a disposition to glorify God. You see here the wondrous, infinite love of God in the sacrament, to stoop so low to his creature, to strengthen our faith by giving us these things.

God would have been good to us whether he had given us his oath and his seal or not, but he knows we are weak and unbelieving and doubting. Therefore, to help us, he has given us not only his promise but his oath, and besides his oath he has given us signs and seals. Here is wondrous mercy. Let us be encouraged to come in and wonder at the love of God, not only in giving his Son Christ for us, but in affording us other means to strengthen our faith.

Let no one be discouraged in the sight and sense of their own sins; but let them come in, and they shall glorify God the more. “Where sin hath abounded” in their sense and feeling, there “grace shall more abound” (Rom 5:20). And those who have been good, and have slipped in any way, let them consider God’s infinite love in Christ. It is not a cistern, but a spring. God’s mercy in Christ, and the blood of Christ, is a “fountain opened for Judah” (Zech 13:1). That is, it serves not for our first conversion only, but every day, on every occasion when we have made any breach with God, we may come and wash in that bath, Christ’s blood.

“The blood of Christ purgeth” (1 John 1:7). It is in the present tense. It runs continually in its vigor. There is a spring of corruption in us; there is a spring of mercy in God. There is a spring of Christ’s blood that has a perfect efficacy to wash our souls. Therefore, if we have not yet been converted and humbled and cast down for our sins, let us now come in and give God the glory of his mercy. And if we have fallen again, consider that there is a fountain opened for Judah and Jerusalem to wash in, and let us come and renew our repentance and faith at this time.

Peace on Earth

The same holy affection in the angels that moved them to wish God to have his due of glory from the creature moves them to wish peace to men likewise. This shows, by the way, that there can be no true zeal for God’s glory without love to mankind.

They were not so ravished with the glory of God as to forget poor man on earth. Oh no! They have sweet, pure affections toward man, a poorer creature than themselves. Therefore let those who are injurious and violent in their dispositions, and insolent in their conduct, never talk of glorifying God when they despise and wrong men. There are some who overthrow all peace in the earth for their own glory, but he who seeks God’s glory will procure peace as far as he can; for they go together, as we see here: “Glory to God in the highest, peace on earth.”

Now, their end in wishing peace upon earth is that men might thereby glorify God; that, God being reconciled and peace being established in men’s consciences, they might glorify God. Hence observe this likewise, that we cannot glorify God until we have some knowledge of our peace with him in Christ.

We must have the first act, to cast ourselves upon God’s mercy in Christ, and to adhere and cleave to that mercy; and then we shall feel so much comfort as shall make us glorify God, though we may sometimes question it in desertion. Here the angels, intending that God should have glory from all, wish peace on earth, especially in the consciences of men.

The reason is that peace comes from righteousness. Christ is first the “King of righteousness,” and then “King of peace” (Heb 7:2); righteousness causes peace. Now, unless the soul is assured of righteousness in Christ, it can have no peace. What does the Virgin Mary say? “My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit rejoiceth in God my Saviour” (Luke 1:46-47). She begins with magnifying the Lord. But what was the ground? She rejoiced in God as a Savior; therefore she magnified him. So in the Lord’s Prayer we say, “Our Father,” which is a word of the covenant of grace, when the soul conceives of God as a gracious Father, reconciled in Christ. And then comes “Hallowed be thy name,” implying that until we know in some measure that God is our Father, we cannot say with a gracious spirit, “Hallowed be thy name.” For can we heartily wish for the manifestation of the glory of one we think is our enemy, one in whose greatness and goodness we have no interest? The heart of man will never do it. Therefore God must first speak peace to the soul (the angels knew that well enough), and then we are fit to glorify God.

“Peace on earth.”

What is peace? It is the best thing man can attain, to have peace with his Maker and Creator. Peace, in general, is a harmony and an agreement of different things. You may know what this peace is by its contrary, as the apostle says in Ephesians 1:10. The word there is very full of meaning. There is a recapitulation, or gathering of all to a head, in Christ. Out of Christ there is a division, a separation and a scattering, a breach that is fivefold.

(1) There is a scattering and a division from God, the fountain of good, with whom we had communion in our first creation, when his delight was in his creature. We lost that blessed communion, and our sins have separated between God and us, as the prophet says.

(2) Then there is a separation between the good angels and us; for they, being good subjects, take part with their prince, and therefore join against rebels, as we are. That is why, at the sight of angels, the very hearts of good men have sometimes been stricken, considering that we are on no very good terms with the angels until we come to Christ again.

(3) Then there is a division and scattering between man and man. No common Spirit of God will keep men together until they are in Christ, as it is said that God sent an evil spirit, a spirit of division, between the men of Shechem (Judg 9:23). So, since the fall, there is an ill spirit of division among men, until the gospel again brings peace. Above all, there is no sound peace between men in the state of nature and others who are God’s children, nor with the ordinances of God. For men take the ordinances of God as enemies. The word cuts and lances such a man. It is like the sentence of a judge condemning him. Therefore he fears and trembles at the powerful opening of the word. The ordinance of God speaks no comfort to a carnal man. He is like Ahab, who never had a word of peace from the prophet. The word always speaks ill to him. He is under the law, and it speaks nothing but terror and curses to him.

(4) And then there is a division and separation between a man and the creatures, which stand ready in arms against anyone in the state of nature, to take up God’s quarrel, as we see in the plagues of Egypt and other examples. If God only gives them leave, they at once make an end of sinful man; and they would glory in it too, to serve their Creator. It is part of the vanity laid on them to be subject to wicked men. The wicked have no peace with the creatures.

(5) And they have no peace with themselves. They speak peace to themselves, but, alas! God speaks none to them. They make a covenant with death and hell, but death and hell make no covenant with them. So it is a forced, sleepy peace. It is a dead sleep. The peace they have is only a diversion to other things. They do not consider themselves and the war they are in with God, with themselves, and with the creatures; it is only a truce that they take up for a time. When God opens their conscience, there is a hell in their hearts and souls which, when it is let loose, makes them suffer a hell upon earth. They enter into the pains of hell before their time. So there is “no peace to the wicked” at all (Isa 57:21). Since the fall there is a separation between God and man, between angels and man, between man and the creatures, between man and himself.

Now Christ at his coming, taking our nature upon him, brings all into one again. He brings God and man together again by offering himself a sacrifice, by making full satisfaction to the justice of God. And when sin, the cause of his displeasure, is taken away, then, God being gracious and merciful, his mercy runs upon us in full force. Sin alone separates between God and us, and that is what Christ takes away. Therefore he is called by St. Paul “Christ our peace” (Eph 2:14) and by Isaiah “the Prince of peace” (Isa 9:6). He was qualified to be our peace. He was a friend to both parties, having married our nature on purpose, that in our nature he might bring God and us together, as it is in 1 Peter 3:18. His whole work was to bring us back again to God, from whom we fell at the first.

Then if we are at peace with God, all other peace will follow; for good subjects will be at peace with rebels when those rebels are brought into subjection to their king, and all join in one obedience. Therefore the angels are brought to God again by Christ.

And so for men, there is a spirit of union between them. The same Spirit that knits us to God by faith knits us to one another by love.

And we have peace with the creatures, for when God, who is the Lord of hosts, is made peaceful to us, he makes all other things peaceable. The heathen could say, “When God is at peace, he makes all so.”

So there is peace in our own hearts. We are assured by the Spirit of God that he is our Father. He seals it to our conscience by his Spirit, because the blood of Christ is applied by the Spirit of God, and not by our own, so that now God and we are brought to one, and angels and we, and all other things. Therefore now, when Christ was born, the angels say, “Peace on earth.”

Now we will show that this blessed peace, in all its branches, is founded in Christ. Christ is the cause and the foundation of it. For though these words were spoken at the incarnation of Christ, yet we refer them to the whole work of his mediatorship, in the state of his abasement and in his state of exaltation. Our peace is wholly founded upon him. For he was born and became man, and became sin, that is, a sacrifice for sin for us; he became “a curse for us,” to establish a peace and to satisfy God’s anger. And then he rose again, to show that he had fully satisfied God’s anger, and that peace was fully established. Therefore the Holy Spirit was sent after the resurrection, as a testimony that God was appeased; and now he is ever in heaven as a priest, to make intercession for us. So Christ is our peace from his incarnation to his death, and from there to his resurrection, and ascension, and intercession. All peace with God, with angels, and with creatures is established in Christ.

Question. And why in Christ?

Answer. Christ is in every way fitted for it, for he is the mediator between God and man; therefore by office he is fit to make peace between God and man. He is Emmanuel, himself God and man in one person; therefore his office is to bring God and man together.

(1) It is fitting that it should be so in regard of God, who, being a “consuming fire,” will have no peace with the creature without a mediator. It would not stand with his majesty, nor can there ever be peace with us otherwise. Now Christ is a fit mediator, being a friend to God as the Son of God, and a friend to us, taking our nature upon him to be a merciful Redeemer.

(2) It was also fitting in respect of us that it should be so. Alas! “who can dwell with everlasting burnings?” (Isa 33:14). Who can have communion with God, who is a “consuming fire”? No. We cannot endure the sight of an angel. The Israelites could not endure the sight of Moses when he came from the mount, his face shone so; and can we endure the glorious presence of God, “who dwelleth in light that none can attain unto” (1 Tim 6:16)? Therefore God conveys all good to us in our flesh, so that though we cannot see God directly in himself, yet in the flesh we can see God incarnate. We may see the sun in the water, though we cannot look directly at that creature without hazard.

It was a comfort to the patriarchs that they had Joseph their brother as the second man in the kingdom. So it may be to every Christian that now we have the second person in heaven, our brother in our nature. He is the steward of heaven and earth, to dispense all God’s treasures to us. Will he not acknowledge us who are “bone of his bone, and flesh of his flesh,” when he took our nature for this end, to be a merciful Redeemer? It is most suitable to our condition that Christ should be the foundation of our peace.

(3) If we look to Christ himself, it is fitting that he, being God’s Son and the Son of his love, should make us sons, and sons of God’s love. Is it not most agreeable that he who is the image of God should again renew the image of God that we lost? Jacob’s ladder knit heaven and earth together; so Christ knits heaven and earth, God and us, together. You know that if a ladder lies on the ground, it does no good, and if it is kept above, it serves for nothing. So if Christ were only God, or only man, there could be no union wrought between God and man; but now, being both, he is a fit mediator between both.

Christ is the foundation of our peace, in the gracious covenant that God has made with us, in all his offices. For as a prophet, he proclaims peace. He preached before, in the time of Noah. He published peace as the prophet of his church, in himself when he lived, and by his ministers when he left the world. And as a priest, he worked our reconciliation, offering himself a sacrifice. He made a peace between God and us, and is now in heaven to make intercession between God and us. And as a king, he subdues the corruptions of our souls and pulls down the pride of our thoughts, to bring the heart into subjection to him by his mighty power, which indeed requires an almighty power. Also by his kingly office he rules, and governs, and subdues all the enemies of his church, without and within. You see then, without further illustration, that Christ is the foundation of our peace, by his incarnation, death, resurrection, and ascension.

This should teach us, first, that in whatever dealings we have with God the Father, we should take Christ, take our Benjamin, our Beloved, with us. We must not offer sacrifice without the High Priest. Let us offer nothing to God without Christ. There are no dealings between God and us until we are reconciled in Christ, in whom we must offer all our sacrifices and endeavors. Therefore, let us not acknowledge an absolute God in our devotions. Let us think of God “reconciled” in Christ, and at peace with us, and a Father in covenant in Christ; and then our persons, and prayers, and all, shall be accepted for the sacrifice of Christ, in whom he smells a sweet savor.

As it is said concerning Noah, he offered a sacrifice to God, a sweet smelling sacrifice of rest (Gen 8:21). So God smells it in Christ. He is the true mercy seat in Christ, in looking to whom God frees us from the curse of the law. Jerusalem was the glory of the world, and the temple was the glory of Jerusalem; but the mercy seat was the glory of the temple, because it pointed to Christ, the Mercy Seat, in whom we have our dealings with God the Father.

We do not conceive highly enough of the majesty of God when we go to him directly, without a mediator. We must go to him in his Son, whom he has sent, and anointed, and set forth “as the propitiation for our sins” (Rom 3:25), and “him hath God the Father sealed” (John 6:27). He comes with authority. Therefore God will be reconciled in Christ. We may bind God himself when we offer Christ. He is the foundation of reconciliation and peace by God’s appointment. He is “the Prince of peace,” of God’s own anointing. Therefore we may go boldly to God, to the throne of grace in Christ.

And let us often seriously meditate on the sweet favor and reconciliation now established between God and us through Christ. It is the sweetest meditation.

First, let us think on what ill terms we are with God by nature, and then think how near we now are to God in Christ, that we are at peace with him. It seems to me the word is too short. There is more meant than is spoken. At peace with God in Christ? More than that, now we are friends; more than that, we are sons and heirs, fellow heirs, fellow kings with Christ; for God’s favors are complete. As God, he does not establish a peace as men do, only to do no harm to those they are at peace with. Where he makes a peace, he confers all that is good: reconciliation, adoption, giving us the liberty of sons and friends, to go boldly to God as a Father in all our wants. Let us think more of this, and make use of this blessed privilege every day.

“Peace upon earth.”

Question. Why does he say, “peace on earth”?

Answer. Because peace was wrought here upon earth by Christ in the days of his flesh, when he offered himself a sacrifice of a sweet-smelling savour to his Father.

Because here on earth we must be partakers of it. We often put off making our peace with God from time to time, and think there will be peace made in another world. Oh, beloved, our peace must be made on earth. “We must live godly, and righteously, and soberly in this present world” (Titus 2:12). We must enter “into the kingdom of heaven” here. Further entrance must be ministered here, by growing in grace daily more and more (2 Pet 3:18). If heaven is not entered here, it will never be entered afterward; for the church is the nursery of the heavenly paradise. All who are taken to heaven, to be set there forever, are set in the church before they are planted, and grow up there a while under the means of salvation. Therefore, labor to have this “peace on earth,” or else we can never glorify God on earth; and if we do not glorify him on earth, we shall never do it in heaven.

But let us come to some trials of whether we have this peace made or not, whether we can say in spirit and truth that there is a peace established between God and us.

1. For a ground of this, one that may lead us to further trial, know that Christ has reconciled God and us together, not only by obtaining peace by way of satisfaction, but by way of application also. Those he died for to obtain “peace,” he gives a spirit of application to make use of that peace, to make use of “Christ, the prince of peace,” as their own. For there is a mutual commerce between God and man, who is an understanding creature; and there is nothing God does for man, if we look to the general and chief of his benefits, without something wrought in man by the Spirit to answer it again.

God is reconciled to man in Christ. Man must be reconciled to God in Christ, as in 2 Corinthians 5:19: “God was in Christ, reconciling the world.” When he was on the cross, God was there reconciled in Christ. Is that all? No. God by us entreats you to be reconciled to God. What a strange condescension, that God should entreat us by his ministers to be good to our own souls! “We entreat you to be reconciled” (2 Cor 5:20), that is, to accept the reconciliation wrought by Christ, and to lay aside all the weapons of rebellion with which you fought against God in the course of your vanity. We beseech you to be reconciled, and to “repent, because the kingdom of God is at hand” (Matt 3:2).

So unless reconciliation is wrought by a spirit of application on man’s part, it is not sufficient that God is reconciled in Christ, because God will always have an answering act from man. As he chooses man, so man by grace chooses him. As he loves and delights in man, so he will have man, by a spirit of sweetness, delight in him again above all the world. “Whom have I in heaven but thee?” (Ps 73:25). So there is something wrought by the Spirit toward God again.

Why should God be on good terms with us, but to enjoy the friendship of his poor creature? Unless, therefore, there is a gracious disposition wrought in the creature to look back, to love and delight in God as God does in him, there is no actual reconciliation. There must be a forcible application by the Spirit. If God did not give a spirit of application, as well as Christ obtaining heaven for us, those who are in the covenant of grace would not be established. But by this means God brings them so near that he, loving them, loves them forever, and they have an everlasting covenant and an everlasting union.

The carnal heart of man is a poisonous thing, and hates God by nature. It wishes that there were no God to judge him. He may think well of God for the good things of this life, but when he thinks of God as a judge who will cast him into hell, he wishes with all his heart, “Oh, that there were no God, so that I might have my fill of the pleasures of sin!” Now when the soul is at peace with God, when God by his Spirit speaks to the soul and says, “I am thy salvation” (Ps 35:3), “Thy sins are forgiven thee” (Matt 9:2), and as Christ said to the good thief on the cross, “This day shalt thou be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:43), when he whispers to the soul, “Thou art mine, and I am thine” (Song 2:16), then the soul becomes sweet and peaceable to God again, and studies by all means to advance the glory of God’s mercy and to advance the gospel of peace. It becomes friendly to God.

To come to some more familiar evidences of whether we are at peace with God, and whether we have the comfort of this peace established by Christ, or not:

2. Those who are reconciled to one another have common friends and common enemies. If therefore there is “peace” between God and us, it is so with us. We love all in whom we see any evidence of God’s love. We love Christians as Christians. And whom God does not love, we do not love; what God hates we hate in ourselves and others. We hate corruptions in ourselves and others, though we love their persons.

3. Another evidence of “peace” made in Christ between God and us is a boldness of spirit and acquaintance with God. “Acquaint thyself with God, and be at peace with him” (Job 22:21). A Christian who is at “peace” with God in Christ Jesus goes boldly to the throne of grace in all his necessities, as a poor child goes boldly to his father and moves his father’s tender heart by his petitions. When two kingdoms are at “peace,” trading is set up afresh. So when God is at “peace” with the soul, a heavenly exchange and trading is set up. No man is at “peace” with God who does not call upon God in his person and in his family. He sets up the worship of God there. He labors to bring to God all that he can. He thinks it the most gainful trade in the world. In the want of grace and spiritual comfort he goes to the fountain of grace, and makes use of that blessed prerogative we have by peace in Christ.

Where people do not have the Spirit of God to make use of it in communion and trading with God, it is a sign there is no peace. Being strangers to God shows that there is no peace. Alas, how like strangers many walk toward God, who from Sunday to Sunday scarcely lift up their hearts to heaven for a blessing, but walk in the strength of their own mother wit, and support themselves with the success of second causes, and bless themselves; they are strangers from the “God of peace.” Let us take notice of this, and account it a great prerogative that we may go to God with boldness, that it is not now as it was in paradise. There is no angel with a sword to shut us out from heaven. But now there is an entrance to the throne of grace. We may go boldly in the name of Christ, to offer ourselves and all our endeavors.

4. A Christian who has made his “peace” with God will never allow himself in any sin against conscience, because he knows sin is odious in itself, loathsome to God, and hurtful to his soul; therefore he will not be in league with any sinful, unjust course. What! To be in league with God, and to be at “peace” with what God hates more than the devil himself! He hates sin more than the devil, for he hates him for sin. Therefore, with a man who allows himself in known sins, there can be no peace between God and him, as it was said, Why do you talk of peace, as long as the witchcrafts and whoredoms of Jezebel remain? (2 Kgs 9:22). A man who lives in sins against conscience, who is an open swearer, an unjust person, who does not care by what means he advances himself, why does he talk of peace with God, when he is in league with God’s enemy?

Therefore such men may force a peace upon themselves. They do it out of the hardness of their hearts, which are harder than the nether millstone (Job 41:24), and God seals them up under a hard heart to damnation, unless some terrible judgment awakens them. Yet they ought to speak no peace, and they will find it so to their cost before long. Therefore let us examine our own hearts, how we stand affected toward any sinful course. There may be infirmities and weaknesses clinging to the best, which are beside their purposes and resolutions. But for a man resolutely to set himself in an evil way, how can he be at peace with God and with Satan at the same time? Let us take notice of these things, and not plaster over our own consciences.

5. Again, where a true peace is established, there is a high esteem of the word of peace, the gospel of reconciliation, as St. Paul calls it: “He hath committed to us the word of reconciliation” (2 Cor 5:19). In those who find this peace, there is stirred up by the Spirit in their breasts a high esteem of the ordinance of God, as being the word of their “peace.” How do we come to have peace between God and us? Is it not by the opening of the riches of God’s love in Christ in the Scriptures? Therefore the Scripture says, “blessed are the feet of them that bring glad tidings” (Isa 52:7). The lowest part of their body, their feet, are blessed. Therefore when people have contemptuous thoughts of the ministry of the word, and place their happiness in disparaging the labor and pains of that office and calling, it is a sign that they have profane hearts. For whoever has had any grace wrought by the word of reconciliation and of peace will highly esteem it, and respect its ministers for their office’s sake. It cannot be otherwise.

6. Lastly, those who have found peace are peaceable. It is universally true that God makes an impression of the same disposition in us toward others. Apprehending God in Christ to be peaceable to us, we are peaceable to others. Therefore, in Isaiah 11:6 and following, the knowledge of God in Christ alters and changes men’s dispositions. It makes wolves and lions to be of a milder disposition and temper. Harsh, proud, stubborn dispositions never felt “peace” and mercy themselves; therefore they are not ready to show it to others. In the nature of the thing itself it is impossible for the soul to apprehend peace in the love of God, and not to have its disposition wrought upon to show what it has felt.

Let us think of these and similar evidences daily, to keep our hearts from speaking false “peace.” The greatest danger in the world in this regard is in the church, for people under the gospel speak false “peace” to themselves. There is a spirit of delusion that carries them along to their death, and deceives them also in death; and so they are in hell before they are aware, and then too late. They see that they were never on good terms with God in all their life, because they looked on Christ making peace without any consideration of the spirit of application.

There must be a sprinkling of the blood of Christ on our souls to make it our own: “We are come to the blood of sprinkling” (Heb 12:24). It is not the blood of Christ that makes our peace only as blood, but as it is sprinkled by the hand of faith, which is as the hyssop that sprinkled the blood of the sacrifice upon the people. We must not think to have any good by the blood of Christ when we lack the blood of sprinkling, that is, this particular faith: “Christ loved me, and hath chosen me” (Gal 2:20); and I choose him, and love him again; and so go with boldness to God as a Father. Unless there is this interchange of the soul between God and us, let us not talk of peace. For if we might have good by Christ without a spirit of application, and if there were no necessity of sprinkling the blood of Christ upon our souls by faith, all the world would be saved.

In the next place, let me give a few directions for maintaining this peace actually and continually every day.

1. To walk with God, and to keep our daily peace with God, requires a great deal of watchfulness over our thoughts (for he is a Spirit), over our words and actions. Watchfulness is the preserver of peace. Where there is a great distance between two who are at peace, it is not kept without acknowledgment of that distance, and without watchfulness. It is not here as it is in a peace between two kings who are equals with one another; it is a peace between the King of heaven and rebels who are taken to be subjects. Therefore we must walk in humble, low terms. “Humble thyself, and walk with thy God” (Mic 6:8). We must watch over our conduct, that we do not “grieve the Spirit of God”; for then, though the first peace established in conversion should never be taken away, yet God interdicts our comfort. We cannot daily enjoy our daily peace without watchfulness. But God allows our knowledge and our former illumination to lash our conscience, and us to be more miserable in our inward man than a carnal man who never had any sight of goodness. Oh, the misery of a man who has fallen onto bad terms with God, who had peace before! Of all men, such a man has the most horror until he has made his peace again. Watchfulness will prevent this.

2. And because it is a difficult thing to maintain terms of peace with God, since we are so ill-disposed to it, we fall into breaches with God daily. Therefore we should often renew our covenants and purposes, every day.

And if we have fallen into any sin, let us make use of our great peacemaker, Christ, who is in heaven to make peace between God and us. Let us desire God, for his sake, to be reconciled to us, for God is, in Christ, reconciling us unto him (2 Cor 5:19) still. The fruit of Christ’s death remains still. Let us desire him to testify it to us by his Holy Spirit.

3. And take the direction of the apostle in Philippians 4:6, when we find any trouble in the world, not to trouble ourselves too much. “In nothing be careful.” No. Shall we cast away all care? Cast your care upon God; let your requests be made known to God with thanksgiving; let your prayers be made to God; and let him have his tribute of thanksgiving for what you have received already. What then? “The peace of God, that passeth all understanding, shall keep and preserve your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus” (Phil 4:7).

Perhaps we will not have what we pray for when we have made our requests known to God. If we do not have what we pray for right away, yet we will have the “peace of God, that passeth all understanding,” which will “keep our hearts and minds.” Therefore, when anything troubles us, let us consider that peace has been made between God and us, and put up our requests in the name of Christ, and we will find that peace that passes understanding.

4. Again, if we would maintain this peace, let us always be doing something that is good and pleasing to God. In the same chapter we read, “Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure… think of these things” (Phil 4:8); and what then? “The God of peace shall be with you” (Phil 4:9). The peace of God and the God of peace shall be with you. There must be a thinking of whatever is good. The thoughts must be exercised that way, and there must be a practice of what we think of. This is one means of maintaining this peace with God.

The very heathen had this reward from God (I mean in this life): when they did good to their country and to one another, they had contentment of conscience; they had a suitable peace. For in this world there is a suitable pleasure of conscience and contentment upon everything that is good. God rewards it in this world. For as heat always follows fire (naturally it cannot be without heat), so this contentment follows the thinking and practicing of what is good, especially when it is joined with some opposition to corrupt nature, when the light of nature rises above the corruption of nature. Even if a man is a pagan, he will have this reward in this world, a kind of inward peace; for we see how comfortably they sometimes speak after some notable deed for their country.

Now, the God of peace will be with us much more when we have laid the foundation of our peace rightly, in the mercy of God in Christ, besides what is reserved for us, heaven and happiness. In this world we will find the peace of God in doing what is good.

As for those who live in the church and are not yet in the state of grace, who have lived wicked lives, let them consider that the day of grace still continues, and the scepter of mercy is still held out in the ministry. There is a day of jubilee for them to return from their former captivity. Let them not abuse the patience of God and think to do it afterward, for that is the way to harden the heart more and more.

And this Scripture puts an effectual argument into the hearts of all who are on bad terms with God, who have not made their peace, or who have had peace and have broken it. Here is an effectual way of pleading with God: “Glory to God on high.”

If the soul can say, “I consider my folly and madness in running into sin; you might justly damn me if you chose; it is your mercy that I am not sent to hell. Oh, but you will have the greater glory! If I find mercy, then, so that I may say, ‘Glory to God on high,’ let me find peace on earth; speak peace by your Spirit to my soul; say, ‘I am thy salvation.’ This was the end of your sending of Christ, the end of creation, the end of providence, all to bring you glory. You might have the glory of your justice in damning me. Oh, but it will be the glory of your mercy to save me, so that as my sins have abounded, your glory will abound all the more. O Lord, extend the tender depths of your mercy,” will not the Lord be jealous “of his glory” when you plead it? Certainly he will. You see the angels here cry, “Glory to God on high, peace on earth.” The way to bring “peace” is to plead the glory of God’s mercy in Christ. It is a prevailing way.

Now, to stir us up more and more to search the grounds of our peace, I beseech you, let us:

1. Consider the fearful state of a man who has not made his peace with God. Although Christ has died, that will not be enough. But if Christ is food, and he is not eaten; if he is a garment, and he is not put on; if Christ is a foundation, and we do not build on him, what benefit is it to us? Therefore those who have not been brought by the Spirit of God to communion with Christ, alas! they are under the wrath of God, however God may treat them. He deals with them as princes deal with traitors in the Tower: he gives them the liberty of the prison, yet the sentence of death is not revoked. All the delights of a prisoner in the Tower do not content him; he knows he is on bad terms with his prince.

So, until we have made our peace with God, by hearty confession of our sins, by shaming ourselves, by a particular faith believing the forgiveness of our sins, and by a resolution against all sin for the time to come, alas! we have not sued for and obtained our pardon; all our delights are only like those of a prisoner in the Tower. Therefore ask your soul, Have you sued for and obtained your pardon? Has reconciliation been worked between God and you, and have the accounts been made even?

If we confess and forsake our sins, we shall find mercy (1 Kgs 8:35; 1 John 1:9). It is the word of the God of heaven, who is truth itself. He has pledged his fidelity and truth on it, to forgive us if we confess. He is content to be thought unjust and unfaithful if he does not forgive, if we honestly, without any guile of spirit, lay open our sins and take shame to ourselves.

2. If we do not make our peace with God, what a case we are in! God himself before long will appear as our enemy. Christ, whom we think will save us, will be our judge, and a terrible judge. The Lamb will be angry. “Who shall cover us from the wrath of the Lamb?” (Rev 6:16). We think of Christ only as an innocent, meek lamb who will not be angry. The rebellious kings and potentates who fight against Christ and his church think to trample on Christ and his gospel; but the time will come when they will desire the mountains to cover them (Rev 6:16), and “if his wrath be kindled, who shall abide it?” (Ps 2:12). He speaks there of Christ: “Happy are they that trust in him.”

3. As for the Holy Spirit, how can they look for comfort from him? They have grieved him; therefore he will grieve their conscience. The Holy Spirit, as he is the God of all comfort and consolation, so he is the ground of all terror to wicked men, when he has knocked at their hearts by the ministry of his word, asking them to open and let him in, but they would not.

4. And the angels are ready executioners of God’s vengeance upon any occasion; and other creatures wait only for a command from God to execute his wrath on sinners. The heavens are ready to rain on them as in the flood, and the earth is ready to swallow them as it did Korah. The beasts that carry us, the creatures we use, wait for a command from God to destroy us: our food to choke us, the air to infect us, the water to drown us. They are all ready to serve the Lord of hosts against his enemies, as he says in Isaiah 1:24, “Ah, I will be avenged on mine enemies.”

Indeed, here God shows his patience; and as for our long life, which we think a great favor, “it is a treasuring up of wrath against the day of wrath” (Rom 2:5). And then, when God’s wrath comes at the day of judgment, when God has forsaken sinful men, when God the judge of all has said, “Depart, ye cursed” (Matt 25:41), no creature will give them the least comfort. The sun will shine on them no more; the earth will bear them no longer. As we see in Dives, he did not have a drop of water to comfort him in those flames (Luke 16:24). Therefore, if we are not at peace with the Lord of hosts, every creature is ready to be in arms against us.

5. As for the devils, they will be ready to be tormentors. Those who incite to sin will be tormentors for sin afterward.

6. As for the church, what comfort can a wicked man look for from the church, which he has despised and whose ministry he has rejected?

7. And for the damned spirits, they are all in that cursed condition with him. Therefore, “where shall the ungodly appear?” (1 Pet 4:18). Before long, from where will he hope for comfort? Neither from God, nor angels, nor devils, nor wicked men, nor good men. None of them all will give him a dram of comfort.

Let us not therefore delude ourselves, but get into Christ, get into the ark in time, so that when any public calamity comes, we may be safe in Christ. If we are at peace with God, by repentance of sins and by faith in Christ, everything will minister thoughts of comfort to us. We cannot think of God except as our Father, or of Christ except as our Redeemer and reconciler, who has brought God and us together. The Holy Spirit takes on himself the title of Comforter for such people. Angels are ministering spirits. As for the church itself, God’s people, they all have a common stock of prayers for us. Everyone who says, “Our Father,” thinks of us. And all other things are at peace with us, as Job says, “The stones in the street” (Job 5:23); even more, the stone in a man’s body, the terrible pangs that come from that disease, have a blessing on them.

In the greatest extremities, though God may not deliver a soul at peace with him from the trouble, yet he delivers and supports him in the trouble. As the troubles increase, so his comforts increase, and the very troubles are at peace with him. “All work for the best to them that love God” (Rom 8:28). And in the greatest confusions and tumults of states, yet “the righteous is afraid of no ill tidings” (Ps 112:7), because his heart is fixed on God’s love in Christ.

The wicked, when war and desolation and signs of God’s anger appear from heaven, “shake as the trees of the forest,” like a wicked Ahaz (Isa 7:2), like a Belshazzar, when there is only a fear of trouble. How did he know that the handwriting was against him? It was nothing but this wicked conscience. He did not know what it was until it was expounded. So when any troubles come on wicked men, their consciences upbraid them with their former life. Their knees knock together, and they grow pale, as Belshazzar did.

Oh, the misery of a man who has not made his peace with God, in the evil day, and the comfort of a man who has! There is the difference between a godly and an ungodly man. Consider them in calamities. The one is at peace with God in the midst of all calamities and troubles; indeed, as I said, even troubles themselves are peaceable to him.

Yes, when death comes, which is the final outcome of all, the sting of it is taken away, and it is for our greatest good. He who has made his peace with God can say, with old Simeon, “Lord, now let thy servant depart in peace, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation” (Luke 2:30). My eyes have seen Christ with the eye of faith. He is willing to yield his soul to God, because he is at peace with God. Their graves are their beds, and their souls rest with God. They die in peace and commend their souls to God, “as to a faithful Creator” (1 Pet 4:19), with a great deal of confidence, as St. Paul says, “I have fought the good fight, I have kept the faith, I have run my race; henceforth is reserved for me a crown of righteousness; and not for me only, but for all those that love the blessed and glorious appearing of Christ” (2 Tim 4:7-8).

Oh, the comfort of a gracious soul that has made its peace with God, in the hour of death, when “the king of fears” (Job 18:14), death, will look with a ghastly, terrible look on men who have not made their peace! But to the other it is the end of misery, the entrance to eternal happiness. “Blessed are those that die in the Lord,” in the peace of the Lord; “they rest from their labours,” from the labor of sin, of callings, of afflictions (Rev 14:13). There is no resting until then. Saint Paul himself was troubled with the remainders of sin, and with afflictions and troubles of his calling; but blessed are those who die in the peace of God in Christ. They rest from their labors.

And after death, what comfort those are in who have made their peace with God in Christ! Then their Savior is to be their Judge. He who makes intercession for them in heaven will be their Judge; and will the head give sentence against the members, the husband against his wife and spouse? Oh no! Therefore the godly have comfortable and sweet thoughts of those blessed times that appall wicked men. They have a glorious expectation of the times to come. They cannot think of death and judgment, when their souls are in a good frame, without much comfort. “Lift up your heads, for your redemption draws near” (Luke 21:28).

Therefore let us not think slightly of this peace. It is not a freedom from petty ills and an advancement to a little good; it is a freedom from ills that are above nature: from the wrath of God, before which no creature can stand, no, not the angels themselves; from hell and damnation; from the curse of God; from the kingdom of Satan. It is a freedom from that condition that all the powers of the world will tremble at. How can they stand before the anger of God? And it is an advancement to the greatest good: a freedom from bondage, an advancement to sonship. Therefore let us have high thoughts of this peace, as the angels had when they sang, “Glory to God on high, on earth peace.”

“Good will towards men.”

Various copies have it otherwise: “On earth peace to men of good will.” Some have it, “Good will towards men.” The sense is not much different. Peace on earth, “To men of God’s good will, of God’s good pleasure.” That is, God has a pleasure to save, or “good will towards men,” of God’s good pleasure; “Peace on earth,” to men of God’s good will and pleasure; or God’s good pleasure toward men.

“Good will towards men.”

This is the spring and root of all. The angels begin with “Glory to God,” and then they come to “peace among men,” because without peace and reconciliation with God the heart of man cannot be enlarged to glorify God. The angels want men to glorify God as well as they do themselves. Therefore they desire peace on earth, so that God may be glorified in heaven. Now there is no peace that does not issue from grace. Grace is God’s free good will and pleasure. Therefore the angels say, “Good will towards men.”

The holy apostles could not have had better teachers for the salutations in their epistles than to learn from the angels. For as you have Saint Paul’s prefaces, “Grace, mercy, and peace,” the same as this gospel celebration and congratulation here to men, so here, “Peace on earth, good will towards men.” Only the apostles begin, “grace and peace,” and here the angels, “peace and grace.” But the meaning of the angels and the apostles is all one; for the angels, when they wish “peace on earth,” go to the spring of it, “good will towards men.” The apostles begin with grace, the spring, and then go on to peace afterward.

“Good will towards men.”

The words need no further explanation. There is no great difficulty in them. The points to consider are these.

1. God now has a gracious good will toward men.

2. This good will is the foundation of all good.

3. And this is founded on Christ.

The first of these I will only touch, because it only makes way for the others.

1. God now shows good pleasure toward men.

The love that God bears toward man has various names, from various relations. As it is an inclination in him to do good, it is love. As it is his free pleasure, so it is his good pleasure, or grace. As it is toward persons in misery, it is mercy. The fountain of all is love. But as the object is variously considered, so the terms are various. Good pleasure and grace imply freedom in the party loving, and mercy implies misery in the party loved.

Now this free good will and grace is toward men, toward mankind. He does not say toward angels. It is more toward men than even toward good angels, in some sense. For now man is taken to be the spouse of Christ. Good angels are not so. Neither is it good will to evil angels, for their state is determined. There is no altering of their condition. Therefore God is called the Lover of Mankind, not the Lover of Angels; and the Scripture calls this his love of mankind, the love that God has shown to men in Christ. Therefore we should have thoughts of God as gracious, loving our nature more than the angelic nature in some respects.

And learn this for imitation: to love mankind. God loved mankind; and surely there is no one born of God who does not love the nature of man, wherever he finds it. He will not stand altogether on whether it is good or bad. But because we are now on the way, and our state is not determined, and because God loves the nature of man, therefore every man who has the Spirit of God loves mankind. He will labor to win Turks, or Indians, and others, if he can, because he loves the very nature of man. But I pass from this point to the second.

2. This “good will of God” to restore fallen man by the sending of his Son is the ground of all good to man, and it has no ground but itself. God’s grace and love toward the creature are altogether independent of the creature. God does not fetch the reasons for his love from the creature, but from his own tender heart. What can he foresee in persons that were dead? Indeed, in persons who were in a disposition contrary to goodness? There is nothing but enmity in our nature to supernatural goodness. Can God foresee grounds of love in enmity?

So Moses tells the people of Israel in various places, that it was not for any foresight of good in them (Deut 7:8). They were the stubbornest people under heaven; therefore God, to show his free love, chose a stubborn people and singled them out to be the object of his mercy. So God often takes the unlikeliest men in the world and passes by many who otherwise have sweet natures. So we see that even the means themselves are of God’s free mercy and love.

We have whatever we have by virtue of the covenant; for what could we look for from God except in covenant, in which he has bound himself? Now, since the fall, this covenant is called the covenant of grace, so that now, if we believe in Christ, we shall not perish, but have life and salvation (John 3:15). In all its parts it is of God’s free grace and good pleasure. What is the foundation of the covenant? Christ. Christ is of free grace. “God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son” (John 3:16). There is nothing freer than a gift. Christ is a gift, the greatest gift. He came freely from God; he gave him to death for us all (Rom 8:32).

And then whatever good thing we have in Christ comes freely too. He who gave Christ freely, shall he not “with him give us all things too?” (Rom 8:32).

Then the very grace to keep the covenant, repentance and faith, is the gift of God. “I will take away your stony heart, and give you new hearts, and cause you to walk in my statutes; I will circumcise your hearts” (Ezek 11:19). So the grace to walk in the covenant of grace comes from God. God does his part and ours too, to show not only that the covenant of grace is a covenant of wondrous love, to give us grace here and glory hereafter, but that the foundation is of grace, and the performance on our part is of grace. Indeed, it is of grace that he would enter into covenant at all. He humbled himself wondrously to condescend to enter into covenant. It was humiliation on God’s part and exaltation to us. Therefore, as it is in Zechariah, we may cry, “Grace, grace” (Zech 4:7). There is nothing but grace and free love in the whole carrying out of our salvation.

If whatever good comes to man is entirely from God’s good will, let us empty ourselves and give him the glory of all. It is easily spoken and heard, but not so easily done. For man is naturally proud, and it is hard to bring flesh and blood to go out of itself and acknowledge nothing in itself, to give the glory of all goodness and happiness to God’s free grace and goodness. It is hard to bring proud nature to do this. But we must beg grace from God to work our hearts to this more and more, to empty ourselves of ourselves and to give God the glory of all.

But I come to the last point, because I want to end this text at this time.

3. This free love and grace of God is only in Christ.

Therefore the angels pronounce it now at the birth of Christ: “good will to men.” All these agree very well: Christ, free grace, and faith. For what we have by grace, we have only by Christ, because he has given satisfaction to God’s justice, so that grace may be conveyed and imparted to us without injury to any other attribute in God. And then the power and grace in us that embraces it is faith. So these three agree.

I say, whatever we have from God’s free love now, we have it in Christ. The free love of God is grounded in Christ. We in ourselves, especially when considered in the corrupt mass, cannot be the object of God’s love. God cannot look upon us except in him, the best beloved, first. Therefore in the whole carrying out of it, all is in Christ. We are elected in Christ, called in Christ, justified by Christ, sanctified by the Spirit of Christ, glorified in Christ. “We are blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly things in Christ” (Eph 1:3). “This is my beloved Son; I am well pleased in him” (Matt 3:17). It is the same word there, “in whom I delight” (Isa 42:1), the passage out of which the Father takes his speech: “This is the Son I delight in.” Now all God’s delight is fixed first in his Son, and in us because we must have communion with the Son. So the first object of God’s free love is Christ, and then he looks upon us in him.

The Trinity takes a wonderful delight in looking upon mankind. Now in Christ God loves us as those redeemed by Christ. Christ loves us as those elected by the Father, and given to him by the Father’s choice to redeem. The Holy Spirit has a special liking for us, seeing the love of the Father in choosing us and of the Son in redeeming us.

And surely, if we would likewise look upon those sweet exchanges of God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, it should be our main delight too to see how God has chosen us and given us to Christ to save; how Christ has redeemed us for this very reason, that the Father has chosen us and given us to him, as it is in John 17:6, “Thine they were, thou gavest them me”; and how the Holy Spirit is a Spirit of communion, the “communion of the Holy Ghost” (2 Cor 13:14), who has communion with the Father and the Son, and issues and proceeds from them both; and how he witnesses this love to our souls and applies it to us. The Holy Spirit applies all. The Father decreed and ordained all. The Son works and dispenses all. The consideration of this point is wonderfully comforting.

Whatever good will the Father has toward us, he has it as we are in Christ.

Question. And why in Christ?

Answer. Because Christ is the first thing that God can love. He is “the only begotten Son of God.” Whoever is loved to glory, in a spiritual order, is loved in the first beloved. Christ is loved by God as the exact imprint of his own image. The Son represents the Father. He is loved by God as mediator by office. So God looks upon us in Christ, who is the “Son of his love,” as St. Paul calls him (Col 1:13).

Then, if we consider ourselves, this must be so. Alas! We are not objects of God’s love in ourselves, nor can we be, except in some other who is loved first. For what are we? And what is the glory to which God loves us? To love such as we are to such glory, and to free us from the misery that was our due, must rest on another foundation than ourselves. Therefore God’s good pleasure is founded upon his Son Christ. This is a clear point. Scripture beats much upon it. He is our elder brother, and we must be conformed to him.

Use. To make some use of it.

First of all, then, we see here that all who are not in Christ lie open to the vengeance and wrath of God. His good will toward men is only in Christ.

Again, if all God’s good will and pleasure is in Christ as our high priest, without whom we can offer no sacrifice (as we know that whatever was not offered by the high priest was abominable), then we should look to God in Christ, love God in Christ, perform service to God in Christ, pray to God in Christ, give thanks to God in Christ, and desire God in Christ to make all things acceptable for Christ’s sake, because it is in Christ that God has any good will and pleasure toward us.

It is a point of marvelous comfort that God’s love and good pleasure is so well founded as in Christ. He loves Christ eternally, and sweetly, and strongly. Is not God’s love to us the same? Does he not love us with the same love with which he loves his Son? He loves his mystical body, which is Christ, head and members, with one love: “That the love thou bearest to me may be in them” (John 17:26). What a sweet comfort this is! God loves Christ and me with one love. He loves me strongly, and sweetly, and constantly, as he does his own Son. His love to me is eternal, because the foundation of it is eternal. It is founded upon Christ. The love of a prince, if it is founded on a favorite he loves dearly, must be firm and strong. Now God’s love to Christ is as ardent, and strong, and sweet as can possibly be conceived. Therefore it is so to us, his good will to us being founded on Christ.

Why should a believer fear that God will cast him away? God will as soon leave off his love to his own Son as his love to us, if we continue members of his Son. It is a love that cannot be annulled. It is a point of wonderful comfort. “What shall separate us,” says the apostle (Rom 8:35), “from the love of God founded in Christ? neither things present, nor things to come, nor life, nor death, nor anything.” Many things may sever soul from body, but there is nothing in the world but sin that shall sever either soul or body from the love of God in Christ, because both body and soul are members of Christ. Therefore let us treasure it up as a wonderfully comforting point.

To come to a use for testing ourselves: how shall we know whether God’s good will is toward us in Christ or not? How shall I know that he loves my person, that I am in the state of grace and love with him?

The Holy Spirit must make this certain. For as the work of salvation was so great that only God could satisfy God, so the doubts of man’s heart, and the guilt of his conscience when it is upon him, and the fear of God’s wrath upon just guilt, are such that God must assure him that God is reconciled to him. God the Son must reconcile God the Father, and God the Holy Spirit must seal this and make it certain to the soul. The soul will never be quiet until it sees and knows in particular that God is reconciled in Christ. The Spirit who is God, who is above conscience, must seal it to the soul, because he is above conscience. He can settle and quiet our conscience.

Now this Spirit who works this in us and assures us of God’s good pleasure alters and changes our dispositions, so that we come to have a good pleasure in God; for there is a mutual good pleasure. God has a good pleasure in us as his own, and we have a good pleasure in God, wrought by the Spirit. The Spirit not only witnesses this, but works this sweet and gracious disposition toward God. God delights in us, and we in God.

God delights in the church above all things. The church is his wife and spouse, his body, his friends, his children; and those who have the Spirit of God delight in them too: “All my delight is in the excellent” (Ps 16:3); and “My delight is in the sons of men,” says Christ (Prov 8:31), which he showed by taking the base nature of man upon him. So all who have the Spirit of Christ delight in the church and people of God: “All my delight is in the saints on earth” (Ps 16:3). God says his delight is in his church (Hos 2). So all who have the Spirit of God delight in the people of God.

God delights in obedience more than sacrifice. God’s people, in whom he delights, yield their bodies and souls a sacrifice to God: They will seek out what is well-pleasing and acceptable to God (Rom 12:1). God accepts them in Christ, and he is acceptable to them in Christ Jesus, and they seek out what pleases him and is acceptable to him. As the sons of Isaac sought out what might please their old father, what he could relish, so God’s children seek out what duties God relishes best. Thanksgiving is a sacrifice “with which God is well pleased.” Is it so? Then they will seek out that which may please him. God by his Spirit will work in them a disposition to please him in all things.

Therefore the people of God are said to be a voluntary, free people, “zealous of good works” (Titus 2:14), being set at liberty. The Spirit, infusing and conveying the love and good pleasure of God in Christ to them, sets their wills at liberty to devise ways to please God in all things. They have, as David prays (Ps 51:12), “a free Spirit.” As God, not out of any regard to anything from us, but freely from his own heart, loved us, and gave Christ to us, and delighted in us, so the soul freely, without any base motives, loves God again. Therefore, as for those who do their duties for base aims, and by force, like fire out of a flint and not like water out of a spring, so that duty does not come naturally and sweetly from them, God has no pleasure in them, because they have none in God; the good they do is extorted and drawn from them.

Let us test ourselves, therefore. If we have tasted God’s good will toward us, we will have a good pleasure toward him in return. Whatever is God’s pleasure shall be our pleasure; what pleases him shall please us. If it pleases him to exercise us with crosses, and afflictions, and losses, what pleases God shall please me; for when he has once loved me freely in Christ, everything that comes from him tastes of that free love. If he corrects me, it is out of free love and mercy. All the ways of God “are mercy and truth” (Ps 25:10). His way of correction and sharp dealing is a way of love and free mercy. Therefore, if it pleases him, it shall please me; my will shall be his will.

Again, if we find the free love of God toward us in Christ, it will quicken us to all duties, and strengthen us in all conditions. But these evidences shall suffice. Let us search our hearts to see how we stand affected toward God and toward the best things. We delight in them, if God delights in us.

And if we do not yet find ourselves to be the people of God’s delight, toward whom God has thoughts of love, as the prophet speaks (Jer 29:11), what shall we do?

Attend to the means of salvation, the gospel of peace and reconciliation, and wait for the good time, and do not stand disputing. This is what hinders many: their disputing and quibbling, that perhaps God has no purpose to save me, and that the greatest part of mankind goes the broad way, and so on. Leave disputing, and fall to obeying. God has a gracious purpose to save all who repent of their sins and believe in Christ. This is gospel. I will leave secret things. They belong to God, revealed things belong to me (Deut 29:29). I will desire of God his Spirit, to repent of my sins, and to believe and cast myself into the arms of his mercy in Christ, and then let God do as he pleases. If I perish, I will perish in the arms of Christ. Let us labor to bring our hearts to wait, in the use of the means, for God’s good Spirit to enable us to see our state by nature, and to get out of it by casting ourselves upon God’s love in Christ.

And do not bring up the greatness of any sin to hinder the comfort of God’s mercy. It is a free mercy. The ground of it is from himself, and not from you. It was free to Manasseh, who had sinned as no man had. Being a king, and the son of a good father, his sins spread further than ours can, in keeping with the greatness of his person. Being an infinite and free mercy, it extends to the greatest sinners. Let no one plead any sin or unworthiness, if he seriously repents. If any sin or unworthiness could keep it back, that would be something; but it is a free mercy and love from God’s own heart in Christ.

And consider how God offers this in the gospel, and lays down a command. It is your duty to have a good opinion of God in Christ. We ought not to suspect a man who is an honest man; and will God take it well from us to suspect him of being so and so: “He makes a show of his love and mercy in Christ, but perhaps he does not mean it”? Put it beyond question by believing. If you have grace to believe the mercy of God in Christ, you make yourself a member of Christ and an heir of heaven. Do you question whether you are one that Christ died for or not? Believe in him, and obey him, and you put that question beyond all question. Do you doubt whether God loves you or not? Cast yourself upon the love of God in Christ, and then it is beyond question. Whoever has grace to cast himself upon the free love of God fulfills the covenant of grace. Do not stand disputing and wrangling, but desire grace to obey; and then all questions concerning your eternal state are resolved; all is clear.

If these things will not move you, then let all who live in a sinful condition know that they had better have lived in any part of the world than in these glorious times and places of light. For when they hear the love of God in Christ laid open to them, if only they will come in and receive Christ, and cast themselves upon him, and be ruled by him, and they will not, it shall be easier for Sodom and Gomorrah, for Jews, and Turks, and pagans, and those who worship devils, than for us. For when God offers his free love and mercy in Christ, if we will entertain it, and we will have none of it, then justice alone shall not condemn us, but mercy shall condemn us; we will have none of mercy.

Even the worst man would have pardoning mercy. He is content to have God pardon his sin; but he will not take the whole mercy and love of God in Christ, curing, healing mercy. There are those who live in filthy courses, in profaneness, in swearing, and so on. It is food to them to be malicious, to disparage the best things. Serpents feed on poison. They are content to have their sins pardoned, if God will let their filthy nature alone (their poisonous, blasphemous disposition that exalts itself against God) and let them go on in their course. They will have one mercy but not another. But we shall never be saved without entire mercy, healing as well as pardoning. Those whom God loves, he not only pardons, but heals their nature and makes it like Christ’s, holy and pure.

Those who do not have the Spirit in them, so that they desire altering, changing, and healing grace as well as pardoning grace, are hypocrites.

Let us remember this especially, because it is most useful, and most people are deceived in this. They think, “Oh, God is merciful, and his love is free in Christ; and though I am unworthy, yet God will have mercy upon me.” But do you have a secret desire to partake of God’s whole mercy and love, to make you good as well as to make you his son and entitle you to heaven, to have your nature altered, to see the deformity of sin and the beauty of grace? If you would rather have the image of God upon you than any favor in the world, if you would rather be free from the bondage of sin than have any other deliverance, if it is thus, your state is good.

To hasten on: considering God’s free love, now opened in Jesus Christ, I urge you, let us study Christ, and labor to get into Christ daily more and more, that we may be members of Christ; and let us desire God, daily more and more, to reveal himself to us in Christ, that we may see his face in Christ, that we may know him in the sweet relations he has put on in the gospel.

To know God in general as a Creator and as doing good, and so on, the heathen did that by the light of nature; but we should labor to see him in the face of Christ, that is, to see him appeased and loving us, wishing us well. As for eternal glory, that must be by the light of the gospel and by the Spirit. Therefore in hearing the word, and in reading and meditating, desire God above all to reveal by his Spirit his gracious face in Christ, that in Christ we may see him as a Father, as a husband, as a friend, in those sweet relations of love that he has taken upon him.

It should be our daily desire that God would manifest his love to us more in Christ Jesus than in any other fruits of his love; for there are common fruits, such as giving us health, and friends, and liberty, and quiet government, which are great favors that we see denied to many nations. Oh, but the soul that is touched with the Spirit of God, and with the sense of its own condition by nature, is disposed like this: “Lord, I desire that you would show the fruits of your love to me; but I do not so much desire those common fruits, which the reprobate may have as well as I. Oh, show me by your Holy Spirit that you have a particular and special love to me in Christ; and for this end give me grace to know the mystery of Christ more and more, and the mystery of my natural corruption, that knowledge which may drive me to make much of your love and grace in Christ!”

Now the Spirit knows the deep things of God, the depth of God’s love to anyone in particular, and the depth of our hearts. If we beg the Spirit to reveal the good pleasure of God to us, in time God will show our souls that he delights in us, and that he is our salvation. This shows that the soul is in an excellent condition, that it sets a right price and value on things, that it prizes God’s favor above all things. That is the nature of faith. For what is faith? Only to believe in general that Christ died, and so on? No. It is to esteem God’s love as better than all the world; for God’s love is entire, in pardoning and curing too. By this the soul is raised up to esteem the love and mercy of God in pardoning and healing sin above life itself: “Thy loving-kindness is better than life” (Ps 63:3).

To conclude all with this one motive, the loving-kindness of God: when we once have it, it is no barren kindness of mere compliment. It is a loving-kindness that reaches from everlasting to everlasting, from God’s love in choosing us to his love in glorifying us. It is a love that reaches to the filling of nature with all the happiness it is capable of. In this world, in all misery, one beam of God’s loving-kindness will scatter all clouds whatsoever. What raised the spirit of Daniel in the lions’ den? Of the three young men in the midst of the furnace? Of St. Paul in the dungeon? The beams of God’s love in Christ broke into the prison, into the dungeon. A few beams of that will enlarge the heart more than any affliction in the world can cast it down.

Moses says an excellent thing in Deuteronomy 33:16: “The good pleasure of him that dwelt in the bush.” You know that God appeared in the bush when it was flaming. The flaming bush showed the state of Israel in the midst of the furnace of persecution; yet for all that the bush was not consumed. Why? Because the good will of God was in the bush. So let us be in any persecution whatever; suppose we are like Moses’s bush, all on fire; yet the fire shall not consume or hurt us. Why? The good pleasure of him who dwelt in the bush is with us. In Isaiah 43:2 we read, “I will be with thee in the fire, and in the water”; not to keep you out, but I will be with you in it. So in the greatest persecutions there can be, in the fiery trial, as St. Peter calls it, “the good will of him that dwelt in the bush will be with us.” So we shall not be consumed, though we are in the fire: “afflicted, but not in despair” (2 Cor 4:8). Why? The good pleasure of God dwells in the bush, in the church. In the midst of afflictions and persecutions he is with us. Who can be miserable who has the presence of God, the favor and good will of God? But this shall be sufficient for this time and text.

For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet he became poor for your sakes, that ye through his poverty might be rich (2 Cor 8:9).

The nature of man is very backward to do good. Our hearts are like green wood with only a little fire under it, which must be continually blown upon; so those sparks of grace that are in us must be stirred up. Therefore the apostle, intending to stir up these Corinthians to beneficence and bounty toward the poor, labors to enforce it by many reasons in this chapter and the next. Since man is an understanding creature, God would have what we do in matters of religion proceed from principles befitting men and Christians. Therefore he sets us upon our duties by reasons.

And because examples together with reasons are very forcible, the apostle, after many forcible reasons to be liberal to the saints, adds examples: first, of the Macedonians, who were a poorer people (2 Cor 8:2); then of the Corinthians, to whom the apostle was now writing. But people are not so gladly led by the example of equals and inferiors (they think it a kind of upbraiding of them, accounting themselves as good as they or better). Therefore the apostle leaves off exhorting them from the example of the Macedonians, who were poorer, and sets forth an example beyond all exception, the example of Christ himself. He stirs them up to bounty and goodness by the example of him who is goodness itself: “You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, who, though he were rich, he became poor.” It is as if he should have said, If the example of the poor Macedonians will not move you to give bountifully, yet let the example of our Savior move you. He was rich, yet he became poor to enrich you; therefore you must not begrudge bestowing something on his poor members.

Examples have a very great force in moving us, especially if they are examples of great persons, and of those who love us and whom we love, and who are near us. The example of Christ is the example of a great person, and of one who loves us, and whom we ought to love in return; therefore the apostle sets that forth.

He might have cited the precept of Christ. There are many commands that Christ gives concerning bounty and liberality to the poor: “Be merciful, as your heavenly Father is merciful” (Luke 6:36); and “give freely, looking for nothing again” (Luke 6:35); and “the poor ye shall have always with you” (Matt 26:11). But example has a more alluring power and moves more freely (precepts have a more compelling force). Therefore here he follows the stream of our disposition, which would rather be easily drawn than forced and pressed. He brings forward not the precept but the example of Christ: “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ…”

The points to be considered in these words are, first of all, this:

Doctrine 1: Christ Was Rich

There is no question to be raised about this truth, “Christ was rich,” because he was the second person in the Trinity, the Son of God, the heir of heaven and earth, rich every way. When he was poor, he was God even then. Though he covered his Godhead with the veil of humanity, with our base and beggarly nature that he took upon himself, he was always rich. But this refers especially to what he was before he took our nature. He was rich because he was God; and indeed God alone is rich in earnest, independently and eternally rich.

Riches imply, among other things, plenty, and plenty of precious and good things, and ownership. They must be good things that are our own. Christ had plenty of excellent things, and they were his own. He was not only rich in treasure, as he says, “Gold is mine, and silver is mine” (Hag 2:8), but heaven and earth, which contain all treasures, are his. “The earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof” (Ps 24:1); and it is he who made the heavens. He who made heaven and earth must of necessity be rich. Indeed, if there were need, he can make a thousand heavens and earths.

He is not only mighty, but almighty; not only sufficient, but all-sufficient. He can do what may be done; he can do what he has done, and more than he has done, and more than we can conceive. He can remove all difficulties that hinder him. He is rich in power and wisdom every way. The point is very large, but it is not so pertinent to the text to show what he was in himself as what he was for our sakes; therefore I will be shorter in it.

Hence, then, you see that Christ existed before he was manifested. He did good before he appeared. He was rich before he took our nature upon himself. He was God before he was man. I say this against the cursed heresy of Arius, which I will not now rake up again. But undoubtedly you see here a good ground of that grand article of our faith: Christ was God before he took our nature. He came; therefore he existed before he came. He was sent; therefore he existed before he was sent. He was God before he was God “manifest in the flesh.” In Philippians 2:6 it is set down fully and excellently: “Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus: who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God; but he was made of no reputation; he took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of man: he was found in the fashion of man; he humbled himself, and became obedient to death, even to the death of the cross; therefore God hath highly exalted him, and given him a name above all names.” It is a full commentary and explanation of this text, he was God; he thought it no robbery to be equal with God.

The devils, who were angels before they fell, would be gods by usurpation and robbery. They were not content in the place they were in, but they would be gods, independent, gods in their own right. It was robbery for them to do it; therefore from that high place of excellence they were thrown down to the lowest hell, and from angels they became devils. But Christ was God, not by usurpation and robbery against God’s will, but by nature. He was rich by nature. He thought it no robbery, no disparagement, no usurpation to be equal with God; he did God no wrong in it.

Therefore when he became man, he was not cast into these lower parts of the world to punish him, as if he had been a usurper. It was a voluntary taking of our nature upon himself: “being rich, he became poor,” and “being in the form of God, he made himself of no reputation.” If he had usurped his divinity, his abasement would have been violent, against his will. You see, then, that Christ was rich, as God.

Therefore, before he took our nature upon himself, he was mediator from the beginning. He was “yesterday, today, and tomorrow, and the same for ever” (Heb 13:8), as the apostle says; “he was, and is, and is to come” (Rev 1:8); he was the “Lamb slain from the beginning of the world” (Rev 13:8). For although he took our nature upon himself and paid the debt, yet he undertook the payment before the beginning of the world. A man may let a prisoner loose now, upon the promise to pay the debt a year later; so Christ undertook to take our nature and to pay our debt in the fullness of time.

By virtue, therefore, of his future incarnation, he was an effectual mediator from the beginning of the world, just as we now have the fruit of his mediation though his death is past. The act is past, but the fruit remains. So he was a mediator before he came in the flesh, because he undertook to his Father to discharge the office.

Question. But since Christ was God, was it necessary that he should become poor? Might not an angel, or some other creature, have served for the work?

Answer. No. God, being rich, had to become poor, or else he would not have been able to bring us back again to God. It is an act of divine power to bring us back again to God; and he who shall settle us in a firmer state than we had in Adam must be God. To establish us more strongly, and to convey grace to us, to make our state firm, only God can do it.

There are some things in the mediation of Christ that belong to ministry, and some things to authority. Those that belong to ministry are to be a servant and to die, and for that he must be man. But there are some things that belong to authority and power, such as to bring us back to God, to convey his Spirit, and to preserve us from Satan our great enemy. For these works of authority it was requisite that he should be God. In a word,

1. The greatness of the evil we were in required it. Who could deliver us from the bondage of Satan but God? He who must drive him out must be stronger than the “strong man.” Who could know our spiritual wants, the terrors of our conscience, and heal and comfort them, but God by his Spirit? Who could free us from the wrath of the great God, but he who was equal with God?

2. And then in regard of the great good we have by him. To restore us to friendship with God, and to preserve us in that state; to convey all necessary grace here, and to bring us to glory afterward, it was necessary that he should be God. Therefore he was rich, and became poor. The infinite comfort that springs from this is rather to be admired than expressed: that he who has undertaken to reconcile us, to make our peace, and to bring us to heaven, is God, the second person in the Trinity.

All three persons had a hand in this work. God the Father sent him, and the Holy Spirit sanctified the mass that his body was made of, but he himself wore the body. The Father gives his Son in marriage; the Son marries our nature; and the Holy Spirit brings them together. He sanctified our nature and fitted it for Christ to take. So though all three persons had a work in it, yet God the second person, from being rich, became poor. And indeed who was fitter to bring us to the love of God than he who was his beloved Son? Who was fitter to restore us to the image of God than he who was the image of God himself? And who was fitter to make us wise than he who was the Wisdom of God himself? There was infinite wisdom in this. I will not be longer on that point, that Christ was rich.

The next thing I observe is this:

Doctrine 2: Christ Became Poor

The poverty of Christ reaches from his incarnation to his resurrection. All the state of his humiliation goes under the name of his poverty. The resurrection was the first step or degree of his exaltation. He wrought our salvation in the state of humiliation, but he applies it in the state of exaltation.

1. The incarnation of Christ was an exaltation of our nature, to be united to God, to the second person in the Trinity. It was a humiliation of God, for the divine nature to stoop so low as to be veiled under our poor nature. So God could stoop no lower than to become man, and man could be advanced no higher than to be united to God. Thus in regard of God, the very taking of our nature upon himself was the first degree and passage of his humiliation.

2. But when did he take our nature upon himself? He took it upon himself after it was fallen, when it was capable of suffering and exposed to suffering; not as it was in innocence, free from all misery and calamity, but when it was at its worst. And,

3. He not only took our nature, but our condition. “He took upon him the form of a servant” (Phil 2:7). He was not only a servant in regard of God, but in regard of us; for he came into the world not to be “ministered unto,” but to “minister.” He took our nature upon himself when it was most beggarly, and with our nature he took our base condition. Indeed, that is not all.

4. He took upon himself our miseries; all that are natural, not personal. He did not take the leprosy and the gout, but he took all the infirmities that are common to the nature of man, such as hunger, and thirst, and weariness; he felt grief.

5. He likewise took upon himself our sins, so far as there is anything penal in sin, in respect of punishment. You know there are two things in guilt: there is the demerit and desert of it, and there is an obligation to punishment. Now the obligation to punishment he took upon himself, though the blame and desert he did not take: “He became sin” (2 Cor 5:21); that is, by sin he became bound to the punishment for sin. He did not take the demerit, for in respect of himself he deserved no such death as he underwent.

To clear this a little further: he took our nature upon himself that he might become sin for us; he took upon himself the guilt as far as guilt is an obligation to punishment. The son of a traitor loses his father’s lands, not by any communion of fault, but by communion of nature, because he is part of his father. So Christ took the communion of our nature that he might take the communion of our punishment, not of our fault. The son is no traitor, but because he is part of his father who was a traitor, by his nearness and communion with his father he is wrapped in the same punishment.

In a city that has incurred the king’s displeasure, perhaps there are some who are not guilty of the offense that the body of the city is guilty of; yet being all citizens, they are all punished by reason of their communion. So in this respect Christ became poor: he took our nature upon himself, and by communion with that nature he took upon himself whatever was penal that belonged to sin, though he did not take, nor could he take, the demerit of sin.

“He was made sin for us.” We cannot have a greater argument of Christ’s poverty than his being made sin for us. Sin is the poorest thing in the world, and the cause of all beggary and poverty and misery. He was made under the law, and so became a curse for us; he was made sin, a sacrifice for our sin.

In particular, he was born of a poor virgin, and instead of a better place he was laid in an inn, and in the basest place in the inn, in the manger. As soon as he was born, his birth was revealed to poor shepherds, not to emperors and kings, not to Caesar at Rome. Then soon after his birth he was banished together with his mother into Egypt (Matt 2:14). When he came home again, he had to be indebted to a poor woman for a cup of water when he was thirsty (John 4:7 and following). Again, when he was to pay tribute, he did not have the means to pay it, but had, as it were, to be indebted to a fish for it (Matt 17:27). And though he made heaven and earth, yet he had no dwelling of his own. “The foxes had holes, and the birds of the air had nests, but the Son of man had not where to lay his head” (Matt 8:20). When he was to ride in pomp to Jerusalem, he did not have a beast of his own; he had to send for and ride upon another man’s donkey. All his life was a state of poverty.

He was poor in death especially, for when life is gone all is gone. He gave himself to death for us. In death he was poor every way. They stripped him of all his clothes; he did not have so much as a garment to cover him. He was poor and destitute in regard of friends. They all forsook him when he had the greatest need of them, as he foretold that they would all leave him (John 16:32).

And as he was thus poor in respect of his body and condition, so he was poor in soul in some respects; and indeed the greatest poverty was there. For the greatest riches that Christ esteemed was the blessed communion that he had with his Father, which was sweeter to him than all things in heaven and earth. When his Father hid his face from him, so that he felt his displeasure, becoming our surety, in the garden before his death, the sense of God’s displeasure against sin affected him so deeply that he sweat water and blood (Luke 22:44). He was so poor, lacking the comfort of his Father’s love, that an angel, his own creature, had to come and comfort him (Luke 22:43).

And at his death, when he hung upon the cross, besides the lack of all earthly comforts, the want of any sense of the sweet love between him and his Father, which he had always enjoyed before, made him cry out, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” (Mark 15:34). Not that God had indeed forsaken him in regard of protection and support, or in regard of love and favor, but in regard of the solace and comfort that he felt before, in regard of the sense of divine justice being then upon him who stood surety for sin.

When he was dead he had no tomb of his own to lie in; he had to lie in another man’s tomb (Matt 27:60). And then he was held under the captivity of the grave three days. So from his birth to his death, there is nothing but a course of poverty.

And what adds to this abasement of Christ is that it was from an excellent condition to so low a state. As we say, it is a miserable thing for a man to have been happy; it makes him feel his misery more than other men do. For Christ, who was always in the presence and favor of heaven, to come into the virgin’s womb; for him to stand in need of the necessities of this life; for life to die; for riches to become poor; for the glory of heaven and earth to be abased; for the Lord of all to become a servant to his own servants: this must of necessity be a great abasement for him who was so highly advanced to become so poor.

But though Christ thus became poor, yet he did not then cease to be rich; only his riches were veiled with our flesh. The sun, though it is kept from our sight by clouds, is the sun still, and has its own proper luster still. It is as glorious in itself as it ever was, though it is not so to us. So Christ veiled his divinity under our human nature and under our misery; he became man and a curse. Therefore though he was “the Sun of righteousness,” glorious in himself, yet to appearance he was otherwise: “he became poor.”

The papist would have him a beggar. Bellarmine, to countenance begging friars, would have Christ to be one. It is a disgraceful, false notion. If we divide his life: before he was thirty years old, when he was invested in his office, he lived with his parents in their calling and submitted to them; he was no beggar. Afterward he lived by ministering the word of God, and what he received for this was not alms, but honor. It is not charity that is given to governors, especially ministers. It is not alms to receive temporal things for spiritual; it is due.

Besides, he had something of his own. He had a bag, and Judas was good enough to carry it (John 12:6). He gave to the poor; therefore he was not a beggar. For he who came to fulfill the law would not break the law. The law forbids beggars. It was one of Moses’s laws, “There shall not be a beggar among you” (Deut 15:4). So much, briefly, for that: “Christ was rich, and became poor.”

The next point is the parties for whom this was done.

Doctrine 3: For Your Sakes

Why does the apostle not say “for our sakes,” and so include himself in the number? He applies it to serve the argument in hand, since he is stirring up the Corinthians to bounty. He tells them that Christ was poor for their sakes, so that they might be assured of their salvation by Christ, and so that his example might be more effectual. The example of those in whom we have a personal interest is effectual; therefore he says, “for your sakes he became poor.” This should teach us, when we speak of Christ, to labor for a spirit of application, to appropriate Christ to ourselves, or else his example will not move us.

As without application we can have no good by him, so we can have no comfort by his example. It does not prevail unless we can say, as the apostle says to the Corinthians here, “for your sakes.”

Again, “for your sakes,” not for himself. He did not become poor to make himself richer; he did not merit for himself. What need had he? For by virtue of the union of the human nature with the Godhead, heaven was due to him at the first moment, as soon as he was born. What should hinder him? Had he any sin of his own? No. There was nothing to keep him from heaven and all the joy that could be, as far as he himself was concerned. But he had our salvation to work; he had many things to do and suffer, and therefore of his infinite goodness he was content that the glory that was due to him should be delayed.

He became a servant to appease his Father’s wrath for us and to procure heaven for us; for us men, for us sinners, as it is in the ancient creed, and as the prophet says, “To us a child is born, to us a Son is given” (Isa 9:6). For us he was born; for us he was given; for us he lived; for us he died; for us he is now in heaven; for us he humbled himself to death, even to the death of the cross, to a cursed death (Phil 2:8). Therefore when we hear of Christ’s poverty, let us think, This is for me, not for himself; and this will increase our love and our thankfulness to him.

Again, it was for us, for mankind, not for angels. For when they fell they continued in that lapsed state for ever. This exalts God’s love to us above his love to those noble creatures the angels, who remain in their cursed condition to all eternity.

The end of Christ’s becoming poor: “That we through his poverty might be made rich.”

Question. How are we made rich by the poverty and abasement of Christ?

Answer. By its merit, and by efficacy flowing from Christ. For by the merit of Christ’s poverty there issued satisfaction to divine justice and the obtaining of the favor of God, not only for the pardon of our sins, but favor and grace to be entitled to life everlasting. And then by efficacy: we are enriched by the power of his Spirit, who alters and changes our natures and makes them like the divine nature.

Question. But more particularly, what are the riches that we have by the poverty of Christ?

Answer. (1) Our debt must be paid before we could be enriched. We are indebted for our souls and bodies. We owed more than we were worth. We were under Satan’s kingdom. Therefore Christ discharged our debt. There is a double debt that he discharged, the debt of obedience and the debt of punishment. Christ satisfied both. For the debt of obedience, he fulfilled the law perfectly and exactly for us; and for the debt of punishment, he suffered death for us and satisfied divine justice. So by his poverty we are made rich, by way of satisfaction for our debts.

(2) And not only are we made rich by Christ’s paying our debts, but he invests us with all his own riches. He makes us rich, partly by imputation, partly by infusion.

[1] By imputation: his righteousness and obedience are ours. His discharge for our debts is imputed to us, and likewise his righteousness for the attaining of heaven. He having satisfied for our sins, God is reconciled to us; and thereupon we are justified and freed from all our sins, because they are punished in Christ. For the justice of God cannot punish one sin twice. So we come to be reconciled because we are justified; and we are justified from our sins because Christ, as a surety, has discharged the full debt.

And hence it is that we are freed from all that is truly evil: from the wrath of God and eternal damnation. And freedom from the greatest evil has reference to the greatest good. For what would we have been, had we lain under that cursed condition? But God’s works are complete. He works like a God. Therefore we are not only freed from evil in justification, but entitled to heaven and life everlasting.

[2] And then he makes us rich by infusion of his Holy Spirit, by working all needful graces of sanctification in us. For by the virtue of Christ’s death the Spirit is obtained, and by the Spirit our natures are changed. So we have the riches of holiness from Christ, the graces of love, of contentment, of patience, and courage. “Of his fullness we receive grace for grace” (John 1:16); grace corresponding to the grace that is in him. The same Spirit that sanctified his human nature and knit it to his divine nature sanctifies his members, and makes them rich in grace and sanctification, which are the best riches.

[3] Then again, we are rich in prerogatives. We are the sons of God by adoption. “What love,” says the apostle, “hath the Father showed, that we should be called the sons of God” (1 John 3:1). And this we have by the poverty of Christ. Whatever Christ is by nature, we are by grace. He is the Son of God by nature; we are his sons by grace. And being sons, we are heirs, heirs of heaven, and heirs of the world as much as shall serve for our good. All things are ours by virtue of our adoption, because we are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s. There is a world of riches in this, to be the sons of God.

And what a prerogative this is, that we have liberty and boldness to the throne of grace, as it is in Ephesians 3:12; that we have boldness to appear before God, to call him Father, to lay open our needs, to fetch everything needful, to have the ear of the King of heaven and earth, to be favorites in the court of heaven! Every Christian may now go boldly to God, because our sins, the cause of the distance, which make a separation between God and us, have been taken away, and the mercy of God runs at full speed to us, our nature in Christ standing pure and holy before God.

And then we have this grand prerogative, that all things shall turn to the best for us (Rom 8:28). What a privilege this is, that there should be a blessing in the worst things! That the worst things to a child of God should be better than the best things to others! That the want and poverty of a Christian should be better than the riches of the world, because there are riches hidden in his worst condition! Moses esteemed the rebuke of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt (Heb 11:26). A cross, or the lack of any blessing, when sanctified, is better than the thing enjoyed that does not have God’s blessing with it. A Christian is so rich that he is blessed in his very afflictions and sufferings.

It is a greater prerogative to have evil turned to our good than not to have the evil at all. It is a proof of greater power and of greater goodness that God should turn the greatest evils, the greatest wrongs and distresses, to the greatest good, as he does for his children, for by them he draws his children nearer to himself. Hence the apostle says, “All things are yours, things present and things to come” (1 Cor 3:22). They are ours indirectly: God turns them to our good. He extracts good for us by them. All good things are ours in a direct course; and other things, by an overruling power, are brought around to our good, contrary to the nature of the things themselves.

What! Did I say all things are ours? Yes, God himself is ours; and he has all things who has him who has all things. Now, in Christ, God himself has become ours. “All things are yours, you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s” (1 Cor 3:22-23). We rejoice in God as ours (Rom 5:11). If God is ours, his all-sufficiency is ours; his power is ours, his wisdom, all is ours for our comfort.

[4] Again, as for glory, the riches of heaven, these are especially meant here. For although the riches of heaven are kept for the time to come, yet faith makes them present. When by faith we look upon the promises, we see ourselves in heaven, not only in Christ our head, but in our own persons, because we are as sure to be there as if we were there already. But as for the joys of heaven, they are unutterable. The apostle calls them “unsearchable riches” (Eph 3:8). “Eye hath not seen, nor ear hath heard, or hath entered into the heart of man to conceive, the things that God hath prepared for them that love him” (1 Cor 2:9). There shall be fullness of glory in soul and body; both shall be conformable to Christ. “At the right hand of God there is fullness of joy, and pleasures for evermore” (Ps 16:11).

Indeed, the first fruits, the down payment, the beginnings of heaven here are unsearchable to human reason: the riches of Christ’s righteousness imputed to us, the glorious riches of his Spirit in inward peace of conscience “and joy in the Holy Ghost.” As for the comfort and enlargement of heart in all conditions, “it is peace that passeth understanding,” and “joy unspeakable and glorious.” These are not only unsearchable to human reason; even Christians themselves, who have the Spirit of God in them, cannot search their depth, because we have the Spirit only in measure. We see, then, what excellent riches we have by the poverty of Christ.

Question. Was there no other way to make us rich except by Christ’s becoming poor?

Answer. God in his infinite wisdom ordained this way. He thought it best. We may rest in that. But besides this, to settle our minds the better, we were to be restored by a way contrary to the way we fell.

(1) We fell by pride; we must be restored by humility. We wanted to be like God; to expiate this, God had to become like us, and take our nature, and suffer in it.

(2) Then again, God willed to restore us by a way suitable to his own excellency in every respect, a way in which no attribute of his would be a loser. He willed to bring us to riches and friendship with him by way of satisfaction to his justice, so that we may see his justice shine in our salvation. Though indeed grace and mercy triumph most of all, yet notwithstanding, justice must be fully satisfied. There was no other way in which we could so greatly magnify the unsearchable and infinite wisdom of God, the wisdom that the angels themselves pry into (1 Pet 1:12), by which justice and mercy, seeming contrary attributes in God, are reconciled in Christ. By infinite wisdom, justice and mercy meet together and kiss one another. Justice being satisfied, wisdom is exalted.

But what set wisdom to work to devise this way of satisfying justice? The grace, and love, and mercy of God. It could not have been done any other way; for before we could be made rich, God had to be satisfied. Reconciliation presupposes satisfaction, and there could be no satisfaction except by blood; and there could be no equal satisfaction except by the blood of such a person as was God. Therefore Christ had to become poor to make us rich, because there had to be full satisfaction to divine justice, and with it all his precious poverty before his death. His incarnation, his want, his being a servant, all were part of his general humiliation. But all this was only to prepare him for his last work, the culmination of all, his death, which was the work of satisfaction.

(3) Again, all the inherent part of our riches, infused into our nature, comes by the Spirit of God. Now the Spirit of God would not have been sent if God had not first been satisfied and appeased, because the Holy Spirit is the gift of the Father and the Son. He comes from both. Therefore there had to be satisfaction and reconciliation before the Holy Spirit could be given, who enriches our nature directly. The direct cause of sending the Holy Spirit is Christ’s coming in our nature. Now, if God had not been satisfied in his justice, he would never have given the Holy Spirit, who is the greatest gift next to Christ. Therefore Christ became poor to make us rich, that we might have the Holy Spirit shed in our hearts.

(4) Now all these riches that we have by Christ presuppose union with him by faith, as the riches of a wife presuppose marriage. Union is the ground of all the comfort we have by Christ. Our communion springs from union with him, which is begun in effectual calling. As soon as we are taken out of old Adam and engrafted into him, all becomes ours. Christ procures the Spirit, the Spirit works faith, faith knits us to Christ, and by this union we have communion in all the favors of this life and the life to come. Therefore, I say, all is grounded upon union by the grace of faith. Christ married our nature that we might be married to him by his Spirit; and until there is a union, there is no conveying of grace and comfort. The head has influence only on the members that are knit to it. Therefore Christ took our nature, that he might be not only a head of eminence, as he is to angels, but a head of influence. Now, there must be a knitting of the members to the head before any spirits can be conveyed from the head to the members.

Therefore the apostle says that Christ is our riches. But it is as he is in us: “To whom God would make known what is the riches of this mystery among the Gentiles; Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Col 1:27). Christ is all to us, but it is as he is in us and we in him. We must be in him as the branches in the vine, and he in us as the vine in the branches. So Christ is “the hope of glory” as he is in us. We must labor, therefore, by faith to be made one with Christ before we can think of these things with comfort.

And when by faith we are made one with Christ, then there is a spiritual communion of all things. Now, upon our union with Christ, it is good to think what evil Christ has taken upon him for me, and then to think myself freed from it, because Christ who took it on him has freed himself from it. Whatever he is freed from, I am freed from. It can no more hurt me than it can hurt him now in heaven. Therefore, when I think of sin, and hell, and damnation, and wrath, I see myself freed from it in Christ. “He became poor” to take this away from me. My sins were laid on him, and he is justified and acquitted from them all, and from death and the wrath of God that he underwent; and I am acquitted in him by virtue of my union with him. And the devil can no more damage the salvation of a believer than he can pull Christ out of heaven.

And as we see ourselves freed from all evil in Christ, so for all good: see it in him first, and conveyed by him to us. Whatever he has, I shall have. He is risen and ascended; I shall therefore rise and ascend, and sit at the right hand of God forever with him: “We shall be for ever with the Lord” (1 Thess 4:17). Let us see our riches in him. He is rich first as the head or first fruits, and then we as the lump afterward. The first fruits were sanctified, and then the lump. The first fruits are glorious, and then the rest after. Whatever we look for in ourselves, see it in him first; and then the consideration of a Christian’s condition is a comforting consideration.

Take a Christian in all conditions whatever. If he is poor, Christ was poor for him, that his poverty might not be a curse to him. If he is poor, Christ was rich to make him rich in the best riches, and to take the sting out of poverty, and to turn it to his good. If he is abased, Christ was abased for him to sanctify his abasement. Let us labor to see the curse taken away in everything, and not only so, but to see a blessing in all, since all is made ours; and then it will be a comforting consideration.

Objection. But it may be objected, “We see no such thing; we see that Christians are as poor as others.”

Answer. The best riches of a Christian are unseen. Christians are unknown men, as we say of a rich man who makes no show of his riches that he is an unknown man. It is said of Christ, “All the riches of wisdom are hid in Christ” (Col 2:3). What is hidden is not seen. So the riches of a Christian are hidden. Christ was rich when he was upon earth; he was rich in his Father’s love and in all graces, but they were hidden riches; they took him to be a poor, ordinary man. So a Christian is a hidden man; his riches are hidden; he has an excellent life, but it is a hidden life. “Our life is hid with Christ in God” (Col 3:3). It is not obvious to the eye of the world, nor often to himself in the time of desertion and temptation.

Objection. But you will say, “For outward things, we see that Christians are poor now, as there were poor Christians in St. Paul’s time.”

Answer. It is no great matter. The riches we have especially by Christ are spiritual, in grace here and glory hereafter. He came to redeem our souls here from sin and misery, and he will hereafter come to redeem our bodies and invest them with the glory to which we have title now by him.

Yet also for outward things a Christian is rich. Though they are not the main thing, yet they are provision for his journey, and he shall have enough to bring him to heaven. “Fear not, little flock, it is your Father’s will to give you a kingdom” (Luke 12:32). Surely if he will give them a kingdom, they shall not lack daily bread; upon seeking the kingdom of God, these things shall be cast in for them.

Again, suppose a Christian is poor: he is rich in Christ, and Christ bears the purse. What if a child has no money in his purse? His father provides all necessities for him. He is rich as long as his father is rich. And can we be poor as long as Christ is rich, being so near us, being our head? We shall lack nothing that is needful; and when a thing is not needful and for our good, we are better off without it.

Again, he must be rich whose poverty and crosses are made riches to him. God never takes away or withholds outward blessings from his children without making it up in better, in inward blessings. They gain by all their losses, and grow rich by what they lack. For how many are there in the world who would not have been so rich in grace if they had had an abundance of earthly things? So though they are poor in the world, they are rich toward God, rich in grace, “rich in faith,” as St. James says (Jas 2:5).

The greatest grievances and evils in the world turn to a Christian’s benefit: sickness and shame and death. The Spirit of God is like the stone that men talk so much of, which turns all into gold. He teaches us to make a spiritual use of everything, and to extract comfort out of everything. As for the worst things we can suffer in the world, “All things are ours,” as I said before, even Satan himself. The Spirit of God helps us to make good use of his temptations, to cling faster to the fountain of good.

Again, though a Christian is poor, yet he has rich promises; and faith calls in those promises and presses God with them. If a man holds the bonds and obligations of a rich man, he thinks himself as rich as those bonds amount to. There is no Christian who does not have a rich faith and rich promises from God; and when he stirs up his faith, he can call in those promises (if it is not his own fault) in all his necessities. Therefore a Christian cannot be so poor as to be miserable.

I know that flesh and blood measures riches in another manner. But is not he richer who has a fountain than he who has only a cistern? A man who is not a Christian, however rich he is, has only a cistern; his riches are few; they are soon searched. But a Christian, though he is poor, has riches that are unsearchable. Another man, though he is a monarch, has riches that may be reckoned and added up; it is only a cistern, and such riches as he cannot carry with him. But a Christian has a fountain, a mine that is unsearchable, in the rich promises of God.

Again, a Christian, however poor he is, has a rich pledge. St. Paul says, “If he spared not his own Son, but gave him to death for us all, how shall he not with him give us all things?” (Rom 8:32). If he has given us such a pledge as Christ, who is riches itself, shall he not with him give us all other things? We have a pledge that is a thousand times better than what we need. We lack poor outward things, but we have Christ himself for a pledge.

Lastly, God sometimes sees that poverty and want in this world are part of our riches, that they are good for us; and what is good for me is my riches. If poverty is good for me, I will be poor that I may be humble; humility is better than riches. If I am in any want, if I have contentment, that is better than riches. If I fall into trouble, he will give me patience, which is better than friends. A man may have outward things and be wicked. But he who lacks outward comfort and has supply in his soul, is he not better off? Therefore take a Christian in any condition, and he is a rich man; and these riches we have by the poverty of Christ. “He became poor, that we through his poverty might be made rich.”

Use 1. We see here, then, that a Christian’s estate is carried under contraries, as Christ’s was. “He was rich, and became poor.” He carried his riches under poverty. He was glorious, but his glory was covered under shame and disgrace. So it is with a Christian. He passes for a poor man in the world, but he is rich; he dies, but yet he lives; he is disgraced in the world, but yet he is glorious. As Christ came from heaven in a way of contraries, so we must be content to go to heaven in a seeming contrary way.

Take no offense, therefore, at the seeming poverty and disgrace and want of a Christian. Christ himself seemed to the world to be other than he was. When he was poor, he was rich; and sometimes he revealed his riches. Beams broke forth even in his lowliest condition. When he died, there was nothing stronger than Christ’s seeming weakness. In his lowest abasement he revealed the greatest power of his Godhead. For he satisfied the justice of God; he overcame death and his Father’s wrath; he triumphed over Satan; he trod on his head (what has Satan to do with us when God’s justice is satisfied?); so that his hidden glory was revealed sometimes. So there is something that appears in the children of God by which others might see them to be rich, if they did not close their eyes. But we must be content to pass to heaven as Christ our head did, as concealed men.

Use 2. Again, here is matter not only for us men, but for the angels of heaven to admire and wonder at: this depth of goodness and mercy in Christ, that he would become poor to make us rich by his poverty. See the exaltation of his love in this. St. Bernard says well, “O love, you that are so sweet, why did you become so bitter to yourself?” From where did it flow that Christ’s love and mercy, so sweet in itself, should be only sour and bitter to him from whom it had its rise and spring? His love, so sweet to us, became bitter to him; he endured and did what we should have done and suffered.

Some men will do kindnesses, so long as they themselves are not the worse for it, so long as they are not the poorer, so long as they are not disgraced or do not risk the displeasure of others. But Christ has done all this great kindness for us by being poor for us, by taking our nature, our poverty, our misery. He does us good in such a way that he parted with heaven itself for a time, and with that sweet communion he had with his Father, the dearest thing to him in the world. He parted with it for our sakes, which made him cry out, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” (Mark 15:34). So he made us rich in a way that cost him something.

And let us be thankful to him in a way that may cost us something. Let us be content to be abased for him, to do anything for him. He descended from heaven to the grave, as low as he could for us; let us descend from our conceited greatness for him. Can we lose as much for him as he has done for us? What are our bodies and souls in comparison with God? It was God who became poor for us. We cannot part with as much for him as he did for us. And besides, we are gainers by him if we part with all the world, whatever we do for him. “I will be yet more vile for the Lord,” says David (2 Sam 6:22). He became vile for us; he became a sinner, and “of no reputation”; and shall we not be vile and empty for him? Certainly we shall.

If we have the Spirit of Christ in us, he will work a conformity. If Christ had stood on terms, and disdained the virgin’s womb and becoming poor for us, where would our salvation have been? And if we stand on terms when we are called to suffer for him or to stand for his cause, where will our comfort be? Surely it is a sign that we have no right by the poverty of Christ, unless we are content to part with our Isaac, with the best things we have, when he calls for it.

Use 3. Again, if the poverty of Christ has made us rich, what will his riches do? If he could save us when he was at the lowest, when he was on the cross and satisfied divine justice by his death, what can he do for us now that he is in heaven and has triumphed over all his enemies? What can we look for now by his riches, we who have so much by his poverty? Therefore we may reason with the apostle in Romans 5:10, “If, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, how much more, being reconciled, shall we be saved by his life?”

It is a strong argument, not only with respect to us (because it is more likely that any good should be done for us now that we are reconciled to God than before, when we were enemies), but also with respect to Christ. For he who did not hesitate to reconcile us to God by his death cannot be unwilling to save us by his life; and he who was able to redeem us by dying for us is more clearly and evidently powerful to save us now that he lives and reigns triumphantly in heaven.

For is he not able to preserve us, to protect us, and to invest us with the glory that he has purchased for us? He who did so much for us in the time of his abasement, will he not preserve the riches he has gained for us? Is he not in heaven in majesty, to apply all that he has gained? Is he not our intercessor at the right hand of God, to appear before God for us, to make all good? Certainly he will preserve what he has procured by his death.

To think of falling away from grace is to make Christ out to be unable. He is able to maintain us in that glorious condition to which he has advanced us, especially considering that he is now in heaven, and has laid aside the form of a servant, all his humiliation, except our human nature. That he has united to his person forever; but all other things of his abasement he has laid aside. He is able perfectly, not only to save us, as by his death, but to apply all that he has gained, and to preserve us to life everlasting. We are kept by the power of God for that glory that Christ has purchased by his death. Therefore why should we fear for the time to come, falling from grace, or the lack of what is good? Is Christ not able to maintain what he has gotten? Let us raise our hearts with this consideration: what Christ can do now in glory, when his poverty could do this much.

Use 4. Again, let us despise no man for his poverty, for Christ was poor to make us rich. Those who despised Christ and did not esteem him, but “hid their faces from him,” because he grew up “as a root out of a dry ground,” because there was no beauty in him (Isa 53:2), that is, because of his poverty, because he was a carpenter’s son, despised by this means the Lord of glory. In the same way, those who afterward despised his poor members, who “wandered up and down in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute and afflicted” (Heb 11:37), despised God’s jewels, his choice favorites, “of whom the world was not worthy” (Heb 11:38).

Let not the brother of low degree be cast down because he is poor, nor let the brother of high degree be lifted up because he is rich; for if riches had been the best thing, Christ would have been outwardly rich. But Christ was poor to show us what the best riches are, and that the riches of this world are only incidentals: “Seek the kingdom of God, and all other things shall be cast on you” (Matt 6:33), by way of addition and supplement.

The true riches of a Christian are spiritual. Christ did not become poor to make us rich in this world, to make us kings and emperors and great men here, but to make us rich spiritually, and that we might have such a portion of earthly things as may serve as provision for the journey to bring us to heaven. The main riches of a Christian are spiritual and eternal, in grace and glory. In popery they live as if Christ came to make them lords of the world, to usurp jurisdiction over kings and princes. Christ came to make us rich in another manner. St. Peter says, “Silver and gold have I none” (Acts 3:6), but his successors cannot say so.

Christ did not come as a servant to make us lords here, much less to set us at liberty to live according to the flesh and to do whatever we please. No; the end of Christ’s coming was to take away sin, “to destroy the works of the devil” (1 John 3:8). The common course of this time, and the devilish practice of many, overturns the end of Christ’s coming, as if he came not to destroy but to let loose the works of the devil, to let us loose to all licentiousness. He came to bring us to God, and not to give us liberty in courses that run further from God. But that is by the way.

Christ, as I said, did not come to make us rich in the things of this life. For only consider a little what outward riches are.

(1) They are not our own, as Christ says, we are but stewards (Luke 16:1 and following), and we must give a strict account before long of how we have used them.

(2) And as they are not our own, so they are not true riches, because they do not make us rich. We usually call a poor man a poor soul. A poor soul may be a rich Christian, and a rich man may have a poor soul, naked and empty of spiritual riches. These are not true riches, because they do not make a man better. They may be a snare to him, and make him worse, and puff him up, as every grain of riches has a vermin of pride and ambition in it. “Charge rich men that they be not high-minded” (1 Tim 6:17). They may make a man worse; they cannot make him better. Can that be true riches which makes a man poorer, if he has no gracious heart? Surely not.

These riches are often for the hurt of their owners. Men are filled like sponges, and then squeezed again. Are these true riches that expose a man to danger? True riches are such that we may not only do good by them, but that they make us good. Grace makes us better; it commends us to God. All the riches in the world do not commend us to God. It is said of Antiochus, a great monarch, that he was a vile and base person, because he was a wicked man. There is no earthly thing that can commend a man to God if he is wicked, if he has a rotten, profane heart.

(3) Again, they are not true riches, because a man outlives them. Death wrings him out of everything. Death comes and examines him as he goes out of the world, and will allow him to carry nothing with him. If a man comes to another man’s table and thinks to carry away his silver plate or anything else, he will be stopped at the gate and have it taken from him. We brought nothing into this world, and with nothing we must go out; and are those true riches that end with this life?

(4) Then again, these riches are not proportioned to the soul of man. When the soul of man has the image of Christ on it, nothing will satisfy it but spiritual things. There is nothing in the world that will satisfy a gracious soul but grace and glory. It is only grace and the spiritual things we have by Christ that are the true riches, that make us good, and keep us good, and stay with us. We carry them to heaven with us.

Therefore, as the apostle says, we should desire the best things (1 Cor 12:31); let us labor for the best portion, which shall never be taken from us. When we have many things in this world set before us, shall we make a base choice, as the Gadarenes did, who to save their hogs would lose Christ (Luke 8:37)? Shall we choose poor things, and leave grace and Christ? No. Since we have judgment to make a difference, let us make a wise choice. Judgment is seen in the choice between different things; for though these things are good, they are inferior goods. And we do not lose these things by laboring for grace and the best things. The best way to have these things is to labor for the best things. Solomon desired wisdom, and he had riches too.

Let us seek the kingdom of God, and these things (as far as they are needful) shall be cast on us (Matt 6:33). These are the truths of God. Therefore let us be ashamed to reveal our ignorance by making a base choice, and let us labor to choose the best things. Christ became poor to make us rich in the best things, to make us rich in grace, in joy, in peace and comfort.

Therefore let us esteem ourselves and others highly on this ground, and let us not judge by appearance. When Christ was put to death, how did the world judge him? As a miserable man, a sinner, because they judged by appearance. So it is the lot of God’s children. However rich they may be, those who look upon their outward condition and judge by appearance think they have no riches at all, because they are outwardly poor. “But judge not by appearance,” as Christ says (John 7:24). The life that we have is hidden; our happiness and riches are hidden with God. Yet what we have now is worth all the world. Is not a little peace of conscience, and joy in the Holy Spirit, and assurance that God is ours, worth all worldly things? The least measure of grace and comfort is worth all of it, and yet what we have here is nothing to what we shall have in heaven.

The best of us all may well be ashamed that we do not live up to our estate. We are often poorer in grace than we need to be. To have such a fountain so near us and to perish for thirst, to be at a feast and to perish for hunger, to be at a mine and to come away beggars: it is a sign that we lack spiritual senses. It is a sign of unbelief that we have no capacity to feel our spiritual wants. That we should profess ourselves to be Christians, to be members of Christ, and yet have no grace, no spiritual ornaments, no garments to hang on our souls: it is a sign that there is no union, because there is no communion. We draw nothing from Christ; we are Christians without Christ; we have no anointing from Christ.

Let us take care that we are not titular Christians, having only the name of Christians. Let us labor to be Christians indeed. And for that end consider: what was the end for which Christ became poor? To make us rich. Why should we frustrate his end?

Therefore let us search what riches we have from Christ, whether our debts are paid, whether our sins are forgiven. We may know that our sins are forgiven if we have sanctifying grace. God never pays our debts without giving us a stock of grace. Let us examine, therefore, what riches we have. Some Christians are rich, but they are deceived about their own condition. They think they are poor and beggarly and have nothing, when they are rich. What is it that deceives them? Sometimes it is because they do not have as much as others; therefore they think they have nothing, not considering the degrees in Christianity.

Or it is because they do not have as much as they would like. As a covetous man always looks forward and is never satisfied, so a Christian, out of a spiritual covetousness, by looking at what he lacks, forgets what he has.

Sometimes, when a Christian is under temptations and desertion, conscience may suggest nothing but his wants. God will humble him this way. Though it may be an error of conscience, yet I wish there were more of this kind. Such people are to be encouraged, as in Revelation 2:9, “Thou sayest thou art poor” (and the world thinks so), “but thou art rich.” So there are many who are poor in their own estimation, who think they have nothing, but indeed they are rich. They reveal their share in the true riches by their desire, and hungering, and thirsting after grace; by their care to please God in all things, to approve themselves to God, to do nothing against conscience; by their care in using the means of salvation, and by their walking circumspectly. A man may see and discover their riches in their conduct. And if there is the least degree of grace, it is great riches in comparison with inferior things, though it is little in comparison with what we shall have in heaven.

Let us search what we have, that we may walk thankfully and comfortably. We see how worldly men show themselves off in a little riches, and swell in their own estimation. A Christian has what is infinitely better, and shall he always droop and be cast down? If he is a sound Christian who has any goodness in him, let him live a comfortable and cheerful life that answers to his riches. We count those men base-minded who, though very rich, live as if they had nothing. So Christians are to blame who, having great riches in Christ, live as uncomfortably as if they had none.

What is the reason, Christ being so rich, that Christians have no more grace? Sometimes it is because they do not search their own estates for good as well as bad. And then they do not empty themselves enough that Christ may fill them. They are not thankful enough for what they have, for thankfulness is the way to get more.

Question. How shall we conduct ourselves so that we may put Christ’s riches to use, and be made rich in grace by him?

Answer. 1. Let us labor for the emptying grace of humility, which will empty the soul and give it a large capacity to contain a great measure of grace. God “fills the hungry with good things” (Luke 1:53); he “resists the proud, but he gives grace to the humble” (Jas 4:6). Let us labor to see our wants and necessities, and the vanity of all earthly things, and then we shall be fit to receive grace.

2. And then labor to see the excellency of the grace we lack, and that will stretch and enlarge our desires. And along with this, see the necessity of grace. We must have faith, hope, and love; we cannot live as Christians otherwise. We must have contentment; we shall live miserably otherwise. We cannot be like Christ without grace.

3. And along with this, know that Christ is rich for us. He has not only abundance of the Spirit, but redundance, to overflow to us his members. As the head has redundance of spirits and senses for the use of the whole body (it sees, and feels, and smells, for the use of the whole body), so whatever Christ has, he has for us. Let us labor to know our riches as we are Christians; as we grow in other things, so let us become acquainted with what we have in Christ. Children who are heirs to great things are ignorant at first of what they have, but as they grow in years they grow in further knowledge of what belongs to them, and they grow in spirit, in keeping with and suited to what they shall have. Let grace agree with nature in this; let us desire to know our riches in Jesus Christ.

4. And let us not only know that they are ours, but use what is ours to our own good and benefit on all occasions. If we offend God, as we do every day, let us make use of our riches in Christ for the pardon of our sins. He is full of favor, he is our High Priest, he makes intercession for us. If we lack knowledge, he is a Prophet to teach us by his Spirit. If we find our natures defiled and lack power over our corruptions, he is a King to guide and lead us, in the midst of all our enemies, to heaven. If we find our consciences troubled, let us consider what peace we have in Christ.

If we lack outward things, let us consider that we are under age. Great persons do not enjoy their inheritances while they are underage. If God measures out outward things to us, it is for our good. If he sends poverty and disgrace, it is for our good, to fit us for a better state. God in his infinite wisdom knows better what is good for us than we do for ourselves. In the lack of anything, let us believe that Christ is given as a public treasure to the church. Thus we may put to use the grace and riches we have in Christ.

5. Again, let us labor to make a good use of every favor we enjoy: of our liberties and recreations. We have them all by the poverty of Christ. Therefore let us use them in a sober manner, not as the fashion is, to cast off all care of Christ and pour ourselves out to all licentiousness. Let us consider that this liberty and refreshing that I have is from the blood of Christ. When David’s worthies broke through at the danger of their lives to get him water, “Oh,” he says, “I will not drink it, it is the blood of these men” (2 Sam 23:15 and following). So whatever liberties and good things I have, I have by the poverty of Christ, by the blood of Christ; and shall I misuse them?

And certainly it will make us esteem our spiritual privileges more highly than outward ones, considering that they cost Christ so dear. He became poor to set us up when we were utterly bankrupt. He stripped himself of everything to make us rich. Shall we not therefore esteem and use these things well?

And when we are tempted to sin, this will be a great means to restrain us: I am freed from sin by the blood of Christ; shall I make him poor again by committing sin? Shall I wrong him now that he is in heaven? The Jews treated him with contempt on earth in the form of a servant, but our sins are of a higher nature, of a deeper, double dye; we sin against Christ in heaven, in glory. When we are tempted to sin, this consideration will make us ashamed to sin: Since Christ has bought our liberty from sin at such a price, shall we make light of sin that cost him his dear blood and the sense of his Father’s wrath, which made him cry out, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” (Mark 15:34). It is impossible that any man who has this consideration should pour himself out to sin. Christ became poor, that we through his poverty might be made rich.

The next thing is the ground or spring from which all this comes: it is from grace. “You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.” It was purely his grace. There was nothing that could compel him. God the Father could not compel him, because he was equal with his Father; being God, there was an equality of essence.

And then, what was there in us that should move him to abase himself so low? Was there any worth in us? No. We were dead. Was there any strength in us? No. We were dead in sins. Was there any goodness in us? No. We were Christ’s enemies. Was there any desire in us? No. We were opposed to all goodness in ourselves; there was no desire in us to be better than we were. If God had left us alone to our own desires, we would have been racing to hell. It is the greatest misery in the world, next to hell itself, to be given up to our own desires. A man would be better off given up to the devil than to his own desires. The devil may torment him, and perhaps bring him to repentance; but to be given up to his own desires leads to hell. It is purely of grace, grace. It was the grace of God the Father that gave his Son, and it was grace that the Son gave himself.

What is grace? It is a principle from which all good comes from God to us. As God loves us men and not angels, it is love of mankind; as God’s affection is beneficial to our nature, it is love; as it is toward persons in misery, it is mercy; as it is free, without any worth in us procuring it, it is grace. It is the same affection; it differs only outwardly, in regard to the object.

Hence we see that Christ must be considered a joint cause of our salvation with the Father. It is “the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.” You see here that he became poor to make us rich. Indeed, he was sent and anointed and sealed, and had authority from his Father; yet his joint grace and consent went with it nonetheless. Therefore he was a principal, as Chrysostom speaks, with a principal. He differs nothing at all from his Father except in the order of persons: first the Father and then the Son, both being jointly God, and both joint causes of the salvation of mankind.

The Father chose us to salvation; the Son paid the price for us; and the Holy Spirit applies it and sanctifies our natures. God the Father loved the world, and gave his Son. Christ loved the world, and gave himself: “He loved me, and gave himself for me,” says St. Paul (Gal 2:20). Therefore we should think of the sweet consent of the Trinity in their love to mankind. So the Father loved us, that he gave his Son; so the Son loved us, that he gave himself; so the Holy Spirit loves us, that he conveys all grace to us, and dwells in us, and assures us of God’s love.

We must not think of Christ as an underling in the work of salvation. He is a principal in the work, from his Father. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ is the cause of all. It was the cause why he was man. It is the cause of all grace that is in us. That which is the cause of the cause is the cause of the thing caused. The grace of Christ is the cause of all in us, because it was the cause of Christ’s suffering, from which we have grace. Grace was the cause that Christ was man and that he suffered; therefore it is the cause of grace in us. Christ was a gift; the Father gave him, and he gave himself. “If thou hadst known the gift of God,” says Christ to the woman of Samaria (John 4:10). Oh, it is the greatest gift that ever was!

Therefore when we think of any one of the persons in the Trinity, we must not exclude the rest, but include all, which is a comfortable consideration, because there is a sweet union of all three persons in the great work of salvation. As Christ says, “I in the Father, and the Father in me” (John 17:21): not in essence alone (he is God, and I am God), but I am in the Father, and he in me. I consent with the Father, and the Father with me. We both agree in the great work of salvation.

Therefore we should return the glory of all the good we have to God the Father and to Christ, and as it is in Revelation 5:12, “Worthy is the Lamb, because he hath redeemed us.” When we think of the good we have by Christ, “Worthy is the Lamb, because he shed his blood for us.” “The Lamb of God, that takes away the sins of the world” (John 1:29), he is worthy of all praise and honor. We should honor the Father, and honor the Son, and the Holy Spirit who applies to us the good we have by Christ. When we glorify God, let us glorify Christ too, “who together with the Father is to be glorified,” because it was his grace to give himself; he made himself poor for us. We cannot honor the Father more than by honoring the Son; for God the Father will be seen in his Son, as the apostle says, “In Christ we behold the glory of God” (2 Cor 4:6). Therefore what he says of Christ here tends to the glory of the Father.

Christ is gracious and was willing for the work of salvation not only as God, but also as the meritorious cause of the grace of his Father; for grace would not have been conveyed to us from the Father unless it had first been seated on Christ in our nature, and conveyed to us in him.

The work of salvation, as it is from Christ, so it is from the grace of Christ; therefore it was free and voluntary. What is so free as grace? Therefore Christ’s abasement and poverty were altogether voluntary. If they had not been voluntary, they would not have been meritorious and satisfactory. It was a free-will offering; it was of grace, not forced and commanded without his own consent. It was purely of grace, for our good and salvation, that we might have the more comfort. It was a free-will offering.

As man he seemed to decline death, to show the truth of his manhood; but when he considered again why his Father sent him, it was “Not my will, but thine be done” (Luke 22:42), and with joy, “With a desire have I desired to eat my last passover with you” (Luke 22:15); and “I have a baptism, and how am I pained till I be baptized with it!” (Luke 12:50). However, to show the truth of his manhood, he feared death; yet when he considered what he was sent for, it was with a resignation to the divine nature. So it was a free-will offering, and a sacrifice “of a sweet smell to God the Father” (Phil 4:18).

Therefore when we think of Christ, let us think of nothing but grace; or when we think of heaven or of any blessing by Christ, all comes under the notion of grace, because all comes from pure favor. There are four descents of grace:

[1] Grace as it is in God and Christ in their own breasts: the favor of God resting in his own bosom.

[2] And then this grace and favor shown in grace, that is, in habitual grace: in bestowing grace upon our nature, to sweeten and sanctify it, to fit it for communion with God.

[3] And then actual grace: the movings of the Spirit to every good work, to every action of grace.

[4] And then every gift of God, every blessing is a grace, because it rises from grace. As we say of the gifts of a great person, “This is his grace or favor,” so every good thing we have is a grace. It is the favor of God in Christ that sweetens all. Let us labor to see grace in all, especially the fundamental grace, the favor of God and of Christ, the cause of all. And let us see any grace in us as coming from that grace, and every good act we do as a grace, from pure favor; and every blessing we have is a grace, if our hearts are good, as the apostle calls the Macedonians’ benevolence a grace (2 Cor 8:1). Everything that is good is a grace.

Therefore, “not unto us, not unto us, but unto thy name be the glory” (Ps 115:1), both of your favor and of all that comes from it. All that we have is sweet, because it issues from grace. The favor in the thing is better than the thing itself. As we say of gifts, we do not care for the gift but for the love of him who gave it, so the good things that we have are not so sweet as the favor of him who gives them, when we do not deserve so much as daily bread; but that too is of grace. The source and spring of all that is in us is free grace in the breast of God and Christ.

In the controversy between us and the papists, when we say we are justified by grace, we must not understand it of inherent grace, by which our natures are sanctified, and that only in part. It is meant of the free grace and mercy of God in Christ, and the free grace of Christ in his own breast. Let us take care that we do not build our justification and salvation upon a false title. The title is the grace of Christ, and of God the Father.

Now the grace we have in Christ in the breast of God is either the good will of God, by which he is disposed to give Christ and to do all good to us … There is no cause of that at all. Christ as God joins with the Father in that grace, which is the love of benevolence, the grace of good will. Christ as mediator is the effect of that grace. But then there is the grace of delight, by which God delights in us. This is bestowed upon the creature in effectual calling. Then God shows the grace of delighting in us, engrafting us into Christ by faith; for though before all worlds God had a purpose to do good to us, yet that is concealed until we believe.

As water that runs underground is hidden a long time until it suddenly breaks out, and then we discover that a stream had been running underground, as with Arethusa and other rivers, so it is with the favor of God from eternity: it runs underground. Until we are called we do not see Christ’s good will to us; but when we believe and become one with Christ, God looks upon us with the love of delight, with the same love with which he loves Christ, because we are in Christ, as it is in John 17:23, “I in them, and they in me.” God loves the head and the members with the same love. Christ as God was freely disposed to choose men; but Christ as mediator continues this favor and mercy of God, when we are grafted into him, to shine on us continually.

It is this second that we must labor for as a fruit of the first. Let us labor not only to know that there was an eternal love of God to some who are his, but let us labor by faith in Christ to know that he shines upon us in Christ; and all other graces within us, and all other gifts, are from this first grace. Therefore they have the name. Why do we call faith, hope, and love graces, except that they issue from the mercy and favor and love of God in Christ? And, as I said before, why do we call any benefit we have a grace? Because it comes from grace. All good things have the name of grace on them, to show the spring from which they come.

I will not enter into dispute with points of popery. Popery now stinks in the nostrils of every man who has so much as the use of ordinary reason, it is so full of folly and blasphemy. I would rather speak of positive truths, so that we may see God’s grace and favor, and bless God for it in everything we have.

Does all that we have in Christ come from grace, the grace in us, and comforts and outward things, purely from grace? Then value them more for the spring they come from than for themselves. The necessaries of this life, food and clothing, are only humble things in themselves. But if we consider what spring they come from, from the blood of Christ that has purchased them, and from the grace and love of Christ, then grace will add value to them. Grace will make all that we have sweet, when we can say, “I have this from the grace of God,” as Jacob said, “These are the children that God hath given me of his bounty and grace” (Gen 33:5). “This is the provision, the help and comfort that I have from the grace of Christ.” For the same grace that gives heaven gives necessaries and daily bread.

Let us look at everything and view everything in the light of grace. It is grace that we meet with afflictions by which we are corrected; God might have let us go on in the hardness of our hearts. Look upon everything as a fruit of God’s grace and favor. Why are we not more thankful for common benefits? Because we do not look on them as flowing from grace.

Take away grace, the free favor of God; extract this quintessence, take the love of God out of things, and what are they? Let a man be rich: if he does not have it from the love and mercy of God, what will it all be in time but snares? Let a man be great in the world: if it is not from the grace of God, what is it? As God says, “I will curse you in your blessings” (Mal 2:2). Without grace we are cursed in those things that otherwise are blessings.

Take grace from Adam in paradise, and Adam is afraid in paradise and hides his head. Take the favor of the king from Haman, and nothing will do him good. Take the favor of the king from Absalom, and all the other liberties he had are worth nothing when he must not go to the court (2 Sam 14:24 and following). So take away the grace and favor of God that sweetens all, and all things will prove snares, and we will find by experience that God will curse us in all our blessings. Let us labor, therefore, to have a felt sense of this free grace and mercy of God in Christ.

And let me add this further: the grace of Christ is a fruitful grace, a rich grace, as the apostle says here: “You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ,” who became poor to make us rich by his poverty. The favor of God and Christ is no empty favor. It is not like the winter sun, which puts on a fine countenance when it shines but gives little comfort and heat. Many men give sweet and comforting words, but nothing follows; it is only a barren favor. It is not so with God’s favor, to give only a shining countenance but no warmth. No, says the apostle, “You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, who, though he were rich, he became poor.” It was a grace that made him empty himself of himself to make us full; it made him poor to make us rich; he abased himself to make us glorious.

“As is the man, so is his strength,” says the proverb; and so, as is the person, such is the favor and goodwill we expect from him. Now, since Christ is so powerful a person, being God and man, his grace must be wondrously rich, suited to his greatness. If God will free a man, he will free him from all miseries. If he advances a man, he will advance him to heaven. If he will punish a man, he will punish him to hell, and his wrath will seize on him forever. What he does, he will do like a God. The grace of Christ is a powerful, rich grace.

Therefore let us examine ourselves: Am I in the favor of God and of Christ? If I am, surely it is a rich favor; it tends to the best riches. He became poor to make me rich. Where is my faith, my love, my hope, my contentment, my patience and victory over temptations and lusts? Is it a dead favor? Am I in the favor of Christ and find no fruits of it? Certainly it is only an illusion; therefore as yet I am not within the compass of Christ’s favor. Therefore I must wait in the use of means and in humbling myself: “he gives grace to the humble” (Jas 4:6).

And with a sense of our spiritual poverty, let us pray to God to shine on us in Christ, so that we may find the fruit of his love enriching us with grace. Oh, that my faith and hope and grace were greater! Oh, let it be shown by its fruits that I am in your favor, that I may find those riches you have procured by your poverty.

And let us not rest until we find the fruits of this grace, if not always in comfort, yet in strength and ability, so that we may perform, in some measure, what is required. Though we may not have much of the comfort we desire, yet if we have strength we have what is better. It is better to have grace than comfort here; God reserves comfort for another world. But let us always look for one of them: either felt peace and joy, or if not that, then strength against our corruptions and ability to do God service in some measure, to do something above nature.

Holy desires, and ability, and strength do not come from nature but from the favor of Christ. Therefore, having these, I know that I am in the love of Christ. These are favors he bestows only upon his own. Favors of the left hand he gives to castaways, but his special favors, the riches of grace, he gives only to his children. Therefore let us labor to find something worked in our natures that may give us evidence that we are in this rich favor of God.

Lastly, this grace of Christ is free: we neither desired it nor deserved it. Why, then, may not Manasseh take hope as well as David, if he submits himself, though he was so horrible a sinner? Why may not Paul, a persecutor, find mercy as well as Timothy, who was brought up to goodness from his youth? It is free. Therefore let no man despair who has lived wickedly in former times. The best stand in need of grace, and it is of grace that they are what they are, as St. Paul says: “By grace I am that I am” (1 Cor 15:10). And the worst, if they come in and submit themselves, and take Christ for their Lord, and submit to his government, and will be ruled by his word and Spirit, and do not continue to live in rebellious courses, may partake of this grace.

But again, let no one presume. For though it is free grace, yet we must confess our sins and forsake them, or else we will find no grace. We must be poor in spirit and feel our misery, for God enriches those who are empty and poor: “the rich he sends empty away” (Luke 1:53). We must plead with God for grace by the Spirit of grace, and take care that we do not turn these offers of grace into occasions of wantonness, and so divide Christ, taking from Christ what we please and leaving what we please. We must know that as Christ is our Jesus to save us, so he is our Lord, as the apostle says here: the Lord Jesus Christ. We must submit to him for the time to come, and then we will find experience of his sweet grace.

The next thing I observe briefly is this:

Doctrine 5: This Grace Must Be Known

Says the apostle here, “You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.” A man may know his riches; he may know his share in Christ. The apostle uses it here as an argument to persuade them to good works. What is used as an argument must be known before the thing can be persuaded. A thing cannot be made light by what is darker than itself. But the apostle here uses this as an argument, “You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ,” so that these truths are taken for granted: that all grace comes by the poverty of Christ, and then, that we may know ourselves to have a share in it, that Christ’s poverty was for us. A man who is a true Christian may know his share and portion in the grace of Christ. Otherwise how should he be persuaded by this as an argument if he does not know it? Or how shall he have comfort unless he knows that he has a share in Christ?

It may be known out of the Scriptures, as a history, that Christ is gracious, as a matter of fact. The devils know it as well as we do, and Judas knew it. But the apostle speaks here of a knowledge that carries a personal share. You know it by experience: “the Spirit witnesseth to your spirits” this much, that Christ gave himself for you. I know the grace of Christ as mine, as belonging to me, as if there were no other man in the world. And as this knowledge carries a personal share, so it stirs us up to do our duty. All other knowledge but this knowledge with a personal share may stand with despair. And what good will it do to know in general that Christ came to save sinners, and yet go to hell for all that? It is the knowledge that applies Christ in particular that saves a man, the knowledge that brings the general truth down to my own person. Therefore we must labor for this: Christ was poor for me; “he loved me and gave himself for me” (Gal 2:20).

The love and free grace of Christ may be known, and ought to be known. “We ought to give all diligence to make our calling and election sure” (2 Pet 1:10). It may be known, but it cannot be known without a great deal of diligence and self-denial. This knowledge is an added grace. It is one thing to be a sound Christian, and another thing to know it. A man cannot know it by reflecting on himself unless he is first good in practice. He must find grace working; he must give all diligence to make his calling and election sure to him. It may be sure in itself, but it cannot be sure to him without diligence. Therefore those who know their state in grace are fruitful, growing, careful, watchful Christians.

It is no wonder, in these complacent times, that if we ask many whether they know on sound grounds that they are in the state of grace, they wish themselves well and have many doubts. There are many who have the seeds and the work of grace in them, but the times are so complacent that they do not know it. Usually it is made known to us in the worst times, either in the time of affliction and temptation and trial, or afterward, when we have “fought the good fight” (1 Tim 6:12) and overcome our corruptions. “To him that overcometh will I give of the hidden manna” (Rev 2:17); that is, he will have a sweet sense of Christ as manna, as bread of life to him, to him who fights and gets the victory over his corruptions. The reason many do not feel that sweet comfort from the “grace of our Lord Jesus Christ” is that either they do not fight against their base corruptions, or if they do strive, they gain only a little ground on them.

And let us beware of that cold and injurious opinion, as if it were a thing not to be known whether we belong to Christ or not. What! Do we think that Christ would come in the flesh and become poor, no, become a curse for us, and that he is now in heaven for us, and all this so that we should doubt whether we are in his love or not, and so that we should not labor to find our portion in that love? What a wrong this is to the grace of Christ! Is not all his dealing with us so that we may be joyful in ourselves, and thankful and fruitful to him? And how can this be without some knowledge that our state is good? How can we live well and die in comfort without it? Therefore let us make it the main scope and aim of our endeavor.

Oh, the happiness of that Christian who is good and knows himself to be so! What in this world can happen to such a man that will greatly discomfort him? Nothing in the world can bring down his courage much. But another man, who doubts of this, can never have comfort in any condition. He cannot be joyful and thankful in prosperity; he cannot have comfort in adversity, for he does not know from what ground this comes, whether it is in love to him or not.

You see from this, likewise, that grace is no enemy to good works: neither the freedom of God’s favor, being without any merit on our part, nor the knowledge and assurance of salvation. It is no enemy to diligence and to good works; no, it is the foundation of them. The apostle does not use it here as an argument to neglect good works. No, he stirs them up by it.

If anything in the world will work upon a heart that has any honest nobility in it, it is the love and favor and grace of God. “The love of Christ constraineth” (2 Cor 5:14). The love of Christ, as known, melts the heart. The knowledge of the grace of Christ is very effective to stir us up to all duties, and especially to the duty of bounty and mercy, for experience of grace will make us gracious and kind and loving and sweet to others. Those who have felt mercy will be ready to show mercy. Those who have felt grace and love will be ready to reflect it, and show to others what they have felt themselves. As for those who are hard-hearted and barren in their lives and conduct, it is a sign that the Sun of righteousness has never yet shined on them.

There is a power in grace, and in grace known, to make the soul like Christ. It has a force to stir us up to what is good (Titus 2:11-12). The apostle enforces self-denial, a hard lesson, and holiness toward God, justice toward others, and sobriety toward ourselves. What is the argument he uses? “The grace of God hath appeared.” The grace of God has shined, as the word signifies. He means that Christ appeared, but he says, “The grace of God hath appeared”; when Christ appeared, grace appeared. Christ is nothing but pure grace clothed with our nature. What does this appearing of grace teach us? “To deny all ungodliness and worldly lusts, and to live holily, and righteously, and soberly.” Holily and religiously in regard to God; justly in regard to men, and not only justly but bountifully, for bounty is justice. It is justice to give to the poor. “Withhold not good from the owners” (Prov 3:27). They have a right to what we have.

Grace, when it appears in any soul, is a teacher. It teaches us to deny all that is wicked, and it teaches us to practice all that is good. It teaches us to live holily and righteously in this present evil world. Many men like the text this far: “The grace of God bringeth salvation.” “Oh, it is a sweet text!” Yes, but what follows? What does that grace teach you? It teaches us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts. It does not teach men to follow the works of the devil and set themselves upon them, but to live soberly and justly and righteously in this present evil world.

It is said of the woman in the gospel, she loved much, because much was forgiven her (Luke 7:47). What made that blessed woman so enlarged in her affection and love to Christ? She had experience of the pardon of many sins, and having felt the love of Christ, she loved him in return. And why do those who are converted from dangerous courses of life often prove the most fruitful Christians? Because they have felt the most love and mercy. Who was more zealous than the blessed apostle St. Paul? Oh, he found rich and abundant love! How expansive he is in setting forth the mercy of God: Oh the height, and breadth, and depth! (Rom 11:33; Eph 3:18). Nothing contents him, no expressions, when he speaks of God’s mercy, because he had been a wicked man and found mercy.

Let no man be discouraged, however sinful he has been, if he comes in. The more need he has of mercy, the more abundant God is, as the apostle says here, “You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.” And those who have felt the most grace will be most worked upon to show the fruits of that grace in all good works, in duties toward God and men.

And if we do not find our hearts worked upon to this end by the consideration of the grace of Christ, grasped and known, “we turn the grace of God into wantonness” (Jude 4). It is a sign of an ill condition. Scripture speaks nothing but discomfort to those who take occasion from the free grace and infinite and boundless mercy of God to be loose and careless in their lives and conduct, who think it is a time of liberty and that we may do what we please.

Though men’s tongues do not say so, nor do they dare to for shame, yet their lives speak it. Would men otherwise live in swearing and other debauched behavior that is offensive to God and men? Do they know that there is a God, a Christ, and mercy? Do mercy and grace teach them that lesson? No. They teach us to deny such base lives and lusts, and to live holily and soberly and justly in this world. Therefore such men are atheists. Either they must not believe the Scriptures, or else they exclude themselves from any share in mercy; for those in whom the consideration of mercy and grace does not work better effects than these are not yet in the state of grace.

The gospel has as strong encouragements, and stronger, to be good and gracious, than the law. Grace enforces strictness of life more sweetly and strongly than the law. The law says, we must not take the name of God in vain (Exod 20:7); and we must be subject to our superiors, and live chastely, under a curse. Does not the grace of God teach this as well as the law, and from a higher ground? It teaches the same thing by arguments taken from love and grace. A man perishes by the law in such sins, but then there is a pardon offered, if men will come under the government of Christ and lead new lives. But if men refuse, there is an added guilt. Not only justice condemns such wretches, but mercy itself, because they refuse mercy on these terms rather than leave their sinful courses. Mercy and justice both meet to condemn such persons.

Let us beware, therefore, of abusing the mercy and love of God, for then we utterly overthrow God’s end in the gospel. For why does he convey everything to us by love and mercy and grace, except that it may work the same disposition in us toward him in return? Otherwise we overturn the end of the gospel. Let us beware of this, as we ever hope to find a share in this grace, without which we are the most miserable wretches alive. It would be better for us never to have heard of Christ and the gospel than to live in sins against conscience under the manifestation and publication of grace.

Doctrine 6: The Example of Christ

Now, together with the grace of Christ, the apostle brings the example of Christ, that both may stir them up to the duties of mercy and bounty and fruitfulness. Indeed, the grace of Christ makes his example more sweet. Men willingly look upon examples.

The examples of great and excellent persons; the example of loving and bountiful persons; the example of those who are loving and bountiful to us in particular; the example of those we have a share in, who are near and dear to us, and we to them: these four things commend examples. Now is there any greater or more excellent person than Christ? Is there anyone fuller of love and mercy and grace than he, who has made himself poor to make us rich? And all of us, if we are Christians indeed, have a share in this. Our hearts and consciences, by the Spirit of God, have some persuasion of this. And then again, he is dear and near to us. He is our head and husband; he is “all in all unto us” (1 Cor 15:28). Therefore the example of Christ, joined with his grace, is a wondrously forcible example.

Question. How shall we make this example of Christ profitable to us?

Answer. (1) Let us look often into the grace of Christ, the grace and free mercy of God in giving Christ. Consider how God has laid out all his riches in Christ, and consider how miserable we would have been without Christ, even next to the devils in misery. A man is the most miserable creature under heaven if he has no share in Christ; he is a lost creature. Let us dwell on the meditation and consideration of this until we feel our hearts warmed. If someone passes through the sunshine, it does not heat him much; but if the sun beats upon a thing, there will be a reflection of heat. So let us stay upon this consideration of the infinite love and mercy of Christ to us wretches, and this warming of the heart will transform us into the likeness of Christ, as the apostle says in 2 Corinthians 3:18: “We all as in a mirror beholding the glory of God” (he means the glory of God’s mercy in Christ), “we are transformed and changed from glory to glory,” from one degree of grace to another.

The serious consideration of the love and mercy of God in Christ is a wondrously sweet thing, and it has a transforming power with it. And that is the reason the gospel converts men, and not the law. The law never converts a man, but together with the Spirit it will cast him down. But the gospel is the proclamation of grace and mercy to penitent sinners, who confess their sins and forsake them and come under a new government of grace; and the publishing of this has the Spirit of grace with it to work conversion. Therefore it is called the ministry of the Spirit, because the Spirit goes with the doctrine of grace to change us and make us gracious, to persuade us that God loves us, and to stir us up to perform all duties in that sweet affection God requires in the gospel, the affection of love.

Therefore if we are, or ever were, converted, it is in this way. Our hearts are worked on by the consideration of the love and mercy of God in Christ, so that love begets love, and mercy begets in us a sweetness toward God in return. In the nature of the thing it cannot be otherwise. When the soul stands convinced of the sweet mercy of God in Christ, and of the sweet love of Christ, who being God became man, to take our nature and suffer the punishment that was due to us, and who is now in heaven appearing and making intercession for us, it cannot be but that the soul will be stirred up to a desire of conformity to this blessed Savior. Therefore let us let go all disputings of election concerning God’s decree, and let us do our duty and depend upon God in the use of means. Let us labor to see the love of God in Christ, and that will put all questions out of question (though in some cases we must labor to know how to vindicate the truth), but when it comes to our own personal case, let us lay other things aside, do our duty in the use of means, and think of the end of the gospel, of the end of Christ’s incarnation and death, namely, to reveal the tender depths of God’s mercy to sinners. Then we will find what all this working upon us intends: that God had an eternal purpose to save us.

(2) Again, if we would make good use of the example of Christ, we must keep company with those who have the Spirit of Christ in them, as Christ is in every good Christian, and see what lovely things the Spirit of Christ reveals in them. That will have a transforming power as well. And certainly, next to meditation on Christ and the excellencies that are in him, I know no way more effectual than holy communion with those who are led by the Spirit of Christ, when we see its sweet fruit in others. It has been a sanctified means of doing a great deal of good to many. Those who do not delight in it have never known what the likeness of Christ meant; for those who desire to be like Christ love the shining of Christ in anyone.

In these careless times, all company is alike to people. Indeed, when men’s callings thrust them upon it, they must be allowed to associate with all men. But in familiar and intimate society, those who do not choose such as find some work of grace on their hearts by the Spirit of God may well doubt their own condition; for grace will make us love what is like it. We see that creatures of the same kind love and keep company with one another, doves with doves and lambs with lambs. So it must be with the children of God, or else we do not know what the communion of saints means, which indeed is a thing little understood in the world. These times of careless ease are times of confusion. Affliction will make us know one another better.

(3) Again, if we would make use of the example of Christ, let us sometimes put it to ourselves what Christ would do or not do in such a case. I profess myself to be a member of Christ, to be one with him, and he one with me. Would Christ be cruel if he were on earth? Would he swear, and look scornfully on others? Would he undermine others, and cover it all with a pretense of justice? Oh no! It is the devil’s work to do so. If we are not members of Christ, woe to us! And if we are, do such courses suit such a nearness to Christ? Either let us be religious in earnest, or else disclaim it all; for it is a great deal better never to own religion than to own it and live graceless lives under the profession of Christ.

Now to stir us up to express Christ in our lives and conduct, let us consider that the more like Christ we are, the more he delights in us; for everyone delights in those who are like them. And what a sweet state it is for God and Christ to delight in us! God the Father will delight in us because we are like the Son of his delight. Whom does God delight in most? In his own blessed Son. And who come nearest his Son in his delight? Those who express him in their lives and conduct.

The more like Christ we are, the more like one another we shall be. If there is one statue, or picture, or effigy set as the first model, then the nearer the rest come to that, the more like they are to one another. So I say, the nearer Christians come to the first pattern of goodness, Christ himself, who is God’s masterpiece, as it were, that which he glories in, the more we come to be like one another, and to love and rejoice in one another.

What is the sweet communion that we shall have with one another forever in heaven? Is it not that the Spirit shall be all in all in everyone, and that each shall look upon another as perfect in grace and love, and so they shall solace and delight themselves, first in God and Christ, and then in one another, admiring and reverencing the graces and sweetness of one another? This is the very joy of heaven itself, and it is heaven upon earth when we can rejoice and solace ourselves in one another as we are good. Now the nearer we come to Christ, who is the image of God, the more we shall attain this.

Therefore let us labor that Christ may be all in all in us; that as the soul animates the body, so the Spirit of Christ may animate us; that Christ may speak in us, and think in us, and love in us by his Spirit; that he may dwell in us, and rejoice and hate in us by his Spirit; that we may put off ourselves, and our carnal affections, and the spirit of the world, and that we may “put on” Christ and be clothed with him; that we may say with St. Paul, “I live not, but Christ lives in me” by his Spirit.

What stirred Paul up to that? Oh, he says, “Christ loved me, and gave himself for me” (Gal 2:20). The grace of Christ stirred him up: “Christ loved me, and gave himself for me,” and by his Spirit he witnesses to my soul that he did so. Therefore the life that I live is by the Spirit of Christ; Christ lives in me.

But to come to the particular duty in which the grace and example of Christ should stir us up to be like him, that is, in kindness and mercy and bounty to the poor saints; for that is the apostle’s aim here, in this and the next chapter. “You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, who, though he was rich, he became poor.” Why does the apostle bring in all this? To move them to the duty of bounty and liberality. This duty is binding on us from the example of Christ. It is a thing that has much equity in it; and for a Christian heart that has the love of God, it is enough to put him in mind of the grace of God to him. You need not beat upon him, or press him further than this: “You know the grace of our Lord Jesus.” Remember that you are a Christian. You have felt the experience of God’s love in Christ. Everyone will judge the equity of this, that we should therefore be gracious and kind and loving to others in imitation of Christ, because he has been so to us. Where does the equity lie?

1. It may appear in this, if we consider how near a relation those who need our help have to us, and likewise to Christ.

First, what is their relation to us? Not only that they are our flesh, for so are all men; but they are heirs of the same salvation, bought with the death of the same Christ, such as Christ feeds with his own body and blood, such as he clothes with his own righteousness. They are fellow members with us, fellow heirs of heaven, and members of Christ, such as he died for, to redeem with the price of his own blood. There is an undeniable equity, if we consider their condition, their relation to Christ and to us.

2. Again, there is a marvelously binding equity in seeing the grace of God to us in particular. Christ became poor to make us rich in grace here and in glory hereafter. And shall I not, out of my riches, give something to the poor? Is that not fair? Christ came from heaven in my nature and flesh to visit me, as it is in the song of Zechariah, “The dayspring from on high hath visited us” (Luke 1:78); and shall I not visit Christ in his members? He came from heaven to earth to take notice of my wants and miseries, to do and suffer what I should have done and suffered. He feeds me with his body and blood, that is, with his satisfaction to divine justice by his death; and shall I not feed his poor members? Christ clothes me with his righteousness, and shall I not clothe Christ in his poor members? In the consideration of these things the Spirit of God will be effectual to stir us up to this strangely neglected duty of kindness and mercy to those who stand in need.

And because Christ is our pattern in this, let us labor to imitate Christ in the manner of relieving others, showing them kindness and sharing with them, so that we may do it as Christ has done.

How is that?

1. Christ anticipated us when we had never desired him, and so we should anticipate others. Sometimes the modesty of those in want is such that they will not lay open their needs. We should see it and anticipate it. He often gives too late who gives to a man who has to ask him. Therefore in this let us imitate Christ, by considering the miseries of others. He looked on and considered the miseries of mankind, and it drew him from heaven to the virgin’s womb, and from there to the cross, to the grave, even as low as hell, in his anticipating love and mercy. Therefore, when we see any need, especially if there is any worth in those who need it, of any kind, let us not wait until help is wrested from us by entreaty, for what comes that way is often dearly bought. Let us instead anticipate them in mercy, as Christ has done to us.

2. What Christ did for us, he did with marvelous cheerfulness and readiness. Oh, what a desire he had to eat his last Passover, a little before he was crucified! “With a desire have I desired to eat this passover with you” (Luke 22:15). He was cheerful in it; he had a great desire to do us good. And as he says in John 4:34, when his disciples put him in mind of eating, though he had not eaten for a long time before, it is meat and drink to me to do the will of my Father. So whatever we do for others, we should do it cheerfully and readily, as he did.

3. Again, whatever Christ did for us, he did it out of love and grace and mercy; he did it inwardly, from his very bowels of compassion. So when we do anything for others, we should not only do the deed, but do it from an inward principle of love and mercy. Therefore the Scripture phrase is, pour out thy bowels. And St. John says that if a man sees his brother in need, and claims to love God, and yet does not relieve him, how is there bowels in such a man? (1 John 3:17). So also in Micah, “He hath showed thee, O man, what is good, to love mercy” (Mic 6:8); not only to be merciful, to do works of mercy, but to love it, to do what we do out of love and affection. And pour out thy heart to thy flesh, as it is in Isaiah, that is, give the heart and affection when we do anything, or else we may give with the hand and deny with the heart.

A man may give a thing so ungraciously that anyone can see it goes against his heart and will. Therefore let us labor to do what we do with our whole self, especially from our heart and affection and inmost compassion. It is said of Christ in the Gospel that when he saw the people in misery, his inmost heart yearned within him. The works of grace and mercy in Christ came from his inmost heart first. Let us work our hearts to pity and love and mercy first, so that it may come from the soul as well as from the outward man.

4. Again, Christ gave what was his own: his own body, his own life, for his sheep; and his own labor. Whatever he gave was his own. So if we will be kind to others, we must do it from our own. We must not do good with what we have gotten from others by unjust means. For the “sacrifice of the wicked,” in this kind, “is an abomination to the Lord” (Prov 15:8). Let us have a true right to what we give. Christ gave his own life, and God gave his own Son for us.

5. And as Christ gave his own self, so he gave himself seasonably, in life and death for us. He did not reserve everything for his death; but for us he was born, for us he lived, for us he died. He did not defer it all until his death. Christ did us wondrous good by his death, and men may do much good when they die. But let us endeavor to be like Christ in both, to do good while we live, and to do good when we die as well.

The common saying is that the gifts of dying men are dying, dead gifts. It is a saying that tends to disparage gifts of that kind, because in many respects they are not as acceptable as the gifts of living men. Nevertheless, let no one be discouraged from doing good even when they die. Indeed, it is most comforting to do it while they live, because:

(1) It is then an evidence that they have a spirit of faith, to depend upon the promise of God. It is no exercise of faith to give when a man can keep it no longer.

(2) Again, he who does good while he lives has the prayers of others. He is under the blessing of the poor, and that is a sweet thing. Suppose the poor are barbarous, base people, so that they do not bless a man with their words; yet their “sides bless him” (Job 31:20). Now those who defer everything until they die lack this comfort; they are not under the blessing of the poor. The rule of our religion is that we have no good from the prayers of others. I will not discuss that point now. But undoubtedly it is a sweet comfort that we have from what we do while we live, by the blessing and prayers of the poor to whom we do good.

(3) Then again, in civil respects, it is our own, and we are sure it is well bestowed. When we are dead, the ownership is gone from us. It comes into the possession of another man, and we do not know how he will dispose of it. Perhaps the one who needs your help may die before you, or you may die, or you may not have the same mind. Therefore while you have a heart and opportunity to do good, do not forget to do it at once. We need to be urged in these cold, dead times to labor that the grace of Christ may be effectual in our hearts, to do all the good we can in our lifetime, as Christ did.

6. And let us labor to do it as he did, constantly, that we may “never be weary of well-doing” (Gal 6:9). “In the morning sow thy seed, and in the evening let not thy hand rest” (Eccl 11:6). It is comfort enough that it is called seed. Who grieves to cast his seed into the ground? He knows he will have a plentiful return. So all that we give is seed. We do not see it for the present. No more do we see the seed that is sown. But “cast thy bread upon the water, and after many days thou shalt find it” (Eccl 11:1). Though we do not see this seed for the present, yet we shall have a plentiful harvest.

Only labor to do it with discretion. For men do not sow on the stones, nor on the fallow ground; they do not scatter their seed in any place. Sowing is an orderly thing. Men cast seed into ground that is prepared. Therefore there must be spiritual discretion, the wisdom of a steward in this matter: “The just man doth all things with wisdom and discretion” (Ps 112:5).

Question. But must we not be liberal and kind and bountiful to all?

Answer. Yes, in case of necessity. Then we are to look to the man’s nature, because he is a partaker of our nature. And he is such a one as may be a member of Christ, and one for whom Christ died. For all we know, he now bears the image of Christ; and he may come to the obedience of Christ, and our kindness may be effectual to bring him to goodness. Therefore, just as we, if we are in need, do not make a scruple of it, but receive kindness from wicked men, so when wicked men are in need, we must not make a scruple of it, but give to wicked men. We must do as we would be done by in such cases, in necessity.

But our kindness must be greatest toward those who are nearest God, to those of the family and “household of faith” (Gal 6:10). To those whom God loves most we must be most kind; to those to whom God has dispensed the greatest things, we should not deny the lesser.

Indeed, it is a hard matter to give wisely in these times, and not to abuse the sweet affection and grace of pity (it is an affection in all, but it is a grace in those who are good), because there are so many wretched people who live without God, without church, without commonwealth, without marriage, without baptism, like beasts. If anything is an object of pity, certainly this is: that so many who carry God’s image on them, who are God’s creatures, and, for all we know, such as Christ died for, should be allowed to live irregular, debauched, and base lives, scandalous to the church and state. And without question, if things are not better looked into, these will be instruments of much mischief by God’s just judgment, because there are good laws that are not executed. The best mercy to such people is to see them set to work and to give them correction.

But then for those who are just starting out in the world, who are poor and cannot set themselves up, and those who have the church of God in their families, who are ready to fall, and a little relief would keep them from falling into disorderly courses, it is mercy to set them up and maintain them; and also to do it by upholding those who are in the ministry. There are many ways in the church and state. A wise man can never lack objects of mercy and charity. As Christ says, “The poor you shall have always with you” (Matt 26:11). But, as I said, we must labor for a spirit of wisdom to do good as we should, and not to feed drones instead of bees.

The Spirit of God is frequent in pressing this point; but this argument in the text may melt any man’s heart and take away all objections: “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

If a man objects that the one he should give to is an unworthy person, only think: how worthy were we of the favor of Christ to us? And then again, consider that if there is any goodness in them, we give it to Christ in them. As Salvianus says well, Christ hides himself under the person of the poor. The poor man reaches out his hand indeed, but Christ receives what we give, and they are Christ’s bankers; for they take from us, and Christ rewards us with grace and increase of our substance here, and with glory hereafter. They receive it in Christ’s place, and Christ begs in the person of the poor, in all jointly and in each one particularly. Think of the grace of Christ to us, and then think that Christ comes to me in the person of this or that poor man, and it will stir us up to this duty.

Objection. But some will say, If Christ were on earth himself, I would be ready to do it for him.

Answer. You certainly would not. You know the passage: Inasmuch as you have not relieved these, you have denied it to me, says Christ (Matt 25:45). Let us not deceive ourselves; for even as we would do to Christ if he were on earth, so we will do to his poor members. He has made them his receivers.

Objection. But I will be in want myself. I have a family and children.

Answer. It is the best way to provide for your children (Ps 112:3). God provides for the descendants of the righteous, bountiful man. A man is not the poorer for discreet mercy. It is seed, as I said before. A poor man labors to have his seed sown, because it returns plentifully. Let us be sober, and cut back our superfluous expenses. Pride is a spender. And as for superfluous lusts, let us cut off from them, so that we may have something for seed. Let us labor in an honest calling, so that we may have something to give.

Oh, it is a blessed thing to give! It is a thing that must be gained by practice. Our souls must be exercised in it. And when we have gained it, let us learn an art of giving; we must exercise faith in it. And when we come to die, it will make our dying wondrously sweet. For when a man has depended by faith and trust on God’s promise that “he that gives to the poor lends to the Lord” (Prov 19:17), and on other like promises, he can say: I have practiced liberality, and now I come to give up my soul to God. I believe that God will make good the promise of life everlasting. I have believed his other promises before, and though I have cast my seed into the ground so that I did not see it, yet I have found that God has blessed me the better in a way that I do not know. And now I depend on the same gracious God in the promise of life everlasting.

We should labor to do this, so that we may die with comfort. What is it that troubles many when they come to die? Oh, they have not worked out their “salvation with fear and trembling” (Phil 2:12). They have neglected this duty and that duty; they have been careless in the works of mercy, and so on. The time will come when what we have given will comfort us more than what we have. We shall always have what we give, for that goes into the bank; many prayers are made for us. We have the comfort of it here and when we die. As for what we leave, we do not know what becomes of it.

Therefore let us labor to be discreetly large and bountiful, as we desire to die with comfort; as we would make it good that we know “the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ” with a personal share in it; and as we would make it good to our souls that the example of Christ has any power with us. Otherwise we show that we have no share in the grace of Christ, and then how miserable we are! We shall wish before long that we had part in this grace and love of Christ, that he would speak comfortably to us at the latter day, “Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit a kingdom” (Matt 25:34). Our life is short and uncertain. As we shall desire it then, so let us labor to be assured of it now; and let us be stirred up by this “grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, who, though he were rich, became poor for our sakes, that we through his poverty might be made rich.”

I will also leave in the midst of thee an afflicted and poor people, and they shall trust in the name of the Lord (Zeph 3:12).

Before the captivity in Babylon, God sent prophets to his people, such as Jeremiah, and among the rest Zephaniah as well, who lived in the time of Josiah, to forewarn and forearm them against worse times. And as the contents of all other prophecies are for the most part three things, so it is with this one. They are either expressions and prophecies that set forth the sins of the people; or, second, the judgments of God; or, third, comfort to the remnant, to God’s people. So these are the parts of this prophecy: a laying open of the sins of the time, under so good a prince as Josiah was; likewise the judgments of God denounced; and then, in this third chapter especially, comfort set down for the good people who lived then. The comfort begins at the ninth verse.

This particular verse is a branch of that comfort: however God dealt with the world, he would be sure to care for his own. “I will leave in the midst of thee an afflicted and poor people, and they shall trust in the name of the Lord.” The whole of Scripture is for consolation and comfort. When God pulls down, it is so that he may build up; when he purges, it is so that he may cure and heal. He is the Father of comfort (2 Cor 1:3). Whatever he does, it is for comfort. Therefore he takes special care, in his prophets and ministers and ambassadors, that those who belong to him may be raised up with comfort and not be overly dejected and cast down. But to come to the words.

“I will also leave in the midst of thee…”

In these words there are three general heads.

First, God’s dealings with his poor church when he comes to visit the world in judgment: “I will leave in the midst of thee.”

Second, their condition and disposition: they are “an afflicted and poor people.”

Third, their practice and conduct toward God: “They shall trust in the name of the Lord.”

From the first of these, God’s dealing with his people in the worst times, we may make this first observation.

Observation 1. There is a difference among the people, both in regard to providence in this world and in regard to that love which tends toward the world to come. For God has a more special care of some, as we will see afterward, than he has of others; and he loves some to eternal life, and not others. “I will leave in the midst of thee an afflicted and poor people,” refusing others. God will leave some. He will purge away others, as he says in the verse before: “I will take away out of the midst of thee them that rejoice in thy pride; and thou shalt no more be haughty because of my holy mountain” (Zeph 3:11). He will take them away, “but I will leave in the midst of thee…”

There is a difference. People are not all alike, as if they were the proverb’s white lines on a white stone, where no difference can be seen. It does not go alike with all, for we see a difference in this world, though not much of one here, because God’s government is veiled. It will appear at the last day; and whatever appears at the last day had its ground before. There is a difference in regard to grace and inward qualification, and in regard to the care of God. Even as there is a difference among the creatures, with precious stones and common stones, and among plants fruitful trees and barren trees, and as there is likewise a difference among the living creatures, so among men there is a difference.

The next thing is this:

Observation 2. God will have some in the worst times. He will have some in all times who are his, a remnant, as he says here: “The remnant of Israel shall do no iniquity” (Zeph 3:13); and as in the text, “I will leave in the midst of thee an afflicted and poor people.” God will always have some in the world who are his.

Reason 1. For it is an article of our faith, “We believe the holy catholic church.” There cannot be an article of faith and no object to believe. If there is faith to believe a thing, there must be something to be believed. If I believe that at all times there will be a “holy catholic church,” there must be such a church in the world as the object of my belief, or else there would be no foundation for that article of faith. Therefore there must always be a church to the end of the world, sometimes more, sometimes fewer, according as Christ is more or less revealed.

Where does the abundance of the Spirit come from? The Spirit follows the manifestation of the knowledge of Christ, who is the head of the church. The church is most glorious when the riches of Christ are more gloriously revealed. In those times when there is the most revealing of Christ, and of the mercy and love of God in him, there are more “elect” of God than in other times.

There will always be a church in the world. That is the object of our belief. What does it mean? I believe that in all times, to the end of the world, there will be a company of people spread over the world, gathered out of the rest of mankind, whom Christ has knit to himself by faith, and to one another in a holy spirit of love, and I believe myself to be one of that company. Therefore there must be such a company, or else there would be faith without an object of faith, which would be a great absurdity in theology, and in reason too.

Reason 2. Then again, the world would not stand, were it not for a company in the world who are his. For what are the others? A company of swearers and blasphemers, profane persons, belly-gods, ambitious bubbles, who care for nothing but the vanities of the world. What glory does God have by them? What tribute do they give to God? What credit to religion? They are the shame of the times. They are the kind who pull God’s vengeance down upon the times and places they live in.

Such is the evil disposition and poisonous nature of men, if they do not have the Spirit of God, that God would not endure the world to stand a moment unless there were some to withhold his wrath, to be objects of his love, and to stay his hand. And when they are all gathered, there will be an end of this wretched and sinful world. Some there must be while the world endures, and for their sakes God continues the world. Those who keep God’s wrath from the world are those who are his; and until all of those are gathered the world will stand. There will always be some.

Use 1. It is a point not altogether fruitless. It yields some comfort to know that when we are taken from here, others will stand up when we are gone. The church will not die with us. Is it not a comfort, when Christians yield their souls to God, to think, “God will still have a church and people, if not among us, then in some other part of the world”? Until he has made an end of these sinful days, he will have some who will glorify him in this world, who will adorn and beautify religion, and who will be glorified with him forever in heaven. It is some comfort, I say, that goodness will live after us, that the gospel will continue after us. There will be a posterity to the end of the world who will stand for the truth and cause of God. The world never was, and never will be, so bad but that God has had, and will have, a party in the world who will stand for him, and he for them.

Now the children of God, as they know that God has a purpose to glorify them world without end, so they have a desire that God may be glorified world without end. And from this desire comes joy, when they think that there will be a people on earth to glorify God still when they are taken from here. For it is a disposition worked by God’s particular love to wish that God may ever have his praise here in the world, while it is a world, and forever in the world to come. Therefore it is a comfort to them to think that God will always have a church.

But these are only a few, called by Isaiah a remnant: “a remnant according to election,” as it is in Romans 11:5. They are a handful in comparison with the world, yet they are a world in respect of themselves, for they are a world taken out of the world. But compared with the rest of mankind, they are only as a few grapes after the vintage, as the gleanings after the harvest, one of a city, and two of a tribe (Jer 3:14). The prophets, every one of them, have special phrases to set out the fewness of those God has a special care of. He calls them in the next verse the “remnant of Israel.” God will have some continually, but those who are his are only a few. His flock is only “a little flock” (Luke 12:32).

It is a point not mainly aimed at here, but it is very useful.

Use 2. To examine whether we are of those few. Are there only a few, only a remnant, in all times? Am I one of those? What do I have to give evidence to me that I am of that little flock that is Christ’s? What do I have in me to give evidence that God has set his stamp upon me to be his, that I will not go the broad way to destruction?

This should force such questions upon our souls. When we hear of the few who will be saved, we should make the use Christ makes of that idly curious question about the fewness of those who would be saved: “Oh strive to enter in at the strait gate” (Luke 13:24). Do not dwell on whether they are many or few. Make this use of it: strive to enter in at the strait gate. Take up and practice the duties of religion that are contrary to the corruption of nature and contrary to the times. Avoid the sins and courses of the times, and then we will know and give evidence to ourselves that we are of that small number. Something must be done to show that we are not of those who go the broad way. We hear that there are few who go the other way; and indeed the very consideration that only a few will be saved will make a man look about him.

Use 3. And it will make a man wonderfully thankful. “Who am I, and what is my father’s house?” (2 Sam 7:18). What is there in me? What could God see in me to single me out from the rest, out of a great number who go the broad way to destruction, and to set his love upon me? It will inflame the heart with thankfulness to God. It will not make a man proud so as to despise others. That is pharisaical. But it will inflame the heart to be thankful to God in a particular way, and to single out God in a particular way to be our God, as he has singled us out to be his.

For he always works something in us like what he works for us. Those whom God has singled out to be his, he will give grace to single him out in return. God shall be my God, religion shall be my care, and what God respects I will respect. Since God so respects me, shall I not love and respect all that God respects? And shall I not grieve when anything goes wrong with what God cares for? Certainly it will work this disposition when we come to perceive, by well-grounded evidence, that we are of that small company, of that remnant spoken of here, whom God will always leave to trust in his name.

Observation. In the next place, though they are few, yet God has a special care of them. Why? There is good reason, for they are his in a particular way. The head of a household cares for all his cattle, but he cares for his children more. A man has some care for all the clutter and trash in his house, since he sees it as useful at some time or other, but he cares more for his jewels. If fire comes, he will be sure to carry away his jewels, whatever becomes of the clutter. God’s children are his in a particular way. Therefore he has a corresponding particular care of them in all times.

And indeed, once they are his, as he makes them have a particular care of him, so he looks upon them as those he has worked upon to be good and to witness for him, who care to stand for him and his honor, and to acknowledge him and the cause of religion; and he will have a care of them. Not that they have this from themselves, to win his love; rather, he works in them a care to witness for him; he works in them a care to stand for him and his glory in all times; and therefore he will be sure to stand for them in the worst times. He will be indebted to no one. What we have, we have from him; and then he crowns his own graces afterward. He will have a special care of those who are his.

This might be illustrated from the beginning of the world, from the infancy of the church to this present time. When he would consume the old world, Noah must come into the ark. And Lot must come out of Sodom when it was to be destroyed; the angel could do nothing else (Gen 19:22). So he had a care for Jeremiah and Baruch; he gave them their lives for a prey. He will have a care of his own in the worst times, for they are sealed; he has set his seal upon them. Things that are sealed we take special care of. Now in Revelation 7:3 there are a number who are sealed, sealed inwardly by the Spirit of God. They are marked out for God; they are a marked, sealed number, all those of whom God will have a special care. As in Ezekiel 9:4, those who were marked on the forehead were looked after and cared for before the destruction came. So in Malachi 3:17, God had jewels that he says he would gather.

When he brings a general destruction, he will be sure to gather his jewels; his first care is for them. “A book of remembrance was written for them” (Mal 3:16). He has a book of providence to write their names in. He has their limbs, all the parts of them, written down; not a hair of them can miscarry. Their tears, their steps, their days are numbered. “My times are in thy hands,” says David (Ps 31:15). All things concerning those who belong to God are numbered exactly. He has a care of them and all that is theirs, down to a hair; as our Savior Christ says, they will not lose so much as a hair of their heads. God has an exact care of his remnant at all times.

Objection. But you will say, “Sometimes it turns out otherwise.”

Answer. Indeed it does, for sometimes God’s children are taken away in common judgments, perhaps for going along too much with the sins of the times; therefore they are wrapped up in the destruction of the times. But there is still a main difference between them. Jonathan and Saul both died by the sword; Josiah and others died in the field. But there is a main difference. Jonathan was a good man. As for Saul, from all that the Scripture says of him, we have no ground to judge him charitably, but leave him to his judge. But this is sure in general: though the same things befall good and bad outwardly, yet there is a difference between Lazarus and Dives when they die. Dives goes to his place, and Lazarus to heaven.

But for the most part this is true. In regard to the body of the church (though for some few members God has hidden ways of bringing them to heaven and happiness), for the body of his church and dear children, “he will give them their lives for a prey” (Jer 21:9). He will have a special care of them and be a sanctuary to them. Indeed, he will do it to such a degree that the world will know he has a special care of them in the world. As it is in the psalm, the heathen will say, “God hath done great things for them” (Ps 126:2). People who have no religion will say, “Certainly God does great things for these people.” Though he allows them to be carried captive and to be in affliction, yet in that very affliction will be the glory of the church, in that very bondage and abasement. Was the church ever more glorious than in Babylon, when Daniel was there and the “three young men” were put into the fire? The glory of the church is often in outward abasement.

The world will see that God has a special care of them more than of others. God so magnifies himself, and is so marvelous to his church and children, in doing good to them at times, to the envy of their enemies and the admiration of all the world that takes notice of them, as at the return from the captivity; and the like will happen at the conversion of the Jews.

Use. The use of it may be to comfort us against evil times, against the time to come. Let us cast our care upon God; he will care for us (1 Pet 5:7). He will be with us and stand by us; he will never forsake us in the worst times. Indeed, his way is to deal with his children as becomes his infinite wisdom, so that they will find the most comfort and sweetest communion with him in the hardest times. Therefore let us fear nothing that may befall us with slavish fear; let us fear nothing whatever in this world, as long as we are in covenant with God, come what will. It is a great honor to God to trust him with everything for the time to come. Let us do our duty and not be afraid of this or that, as long, I say, as we have God in covenant with us, who is all-sufficient. What should we be afraid of?

“Can a mother forget her child?” says the prophet. “If she should, yet will I not forget thee; thou art written on the palms of my hands” (Isa 49:16). The things in the palms of our hands we always have in our eye. God has us in his eye. He always sets his children before him. How can he forget them? How can Christ forget his church? He carries them in his breast, as the high priest had the names of the twelve tribes on his breast in twelve precious stones when he went into the holy of holies. Christ carries our names in his heart; how can he forget us then? Let kingdoms dash one against another, and let the world tumble into heaps; let there be whatever confusion of states there will, God certainly will have a care of his jewels. “I will leave,” in spite of all the world, “in the midst of thee, an afflicted and poor people.”

Question. You will say, “When is this performed?”

Answer. “In that day,” he says in the verse before my text. You must know that it is Scripture’s way, when it says “In that day,” to take it indefinitely, not to tie it to a certain day; though there is a certain day on which there will be an accomplishment of all prophecies and a performance of all promises, that is, the last day. In the meantime there is a gradual performance of promises, and their accomplishment comes at several knots and points of time, as much as will content God’s children, yet always leading to a further and further performance.

For example, God showed mercy to these Israelites when they were in captivity. He brought them home again. They were a poor and afflicted people, and were much bettered by their abasement. There was a degree of performance then. And then there was a degree of performance in Christ’s time, when he joined the Gentiles to them, and both were made one church.

There will be a more glorious performance at the conversion of the Jews, when God will make his people “trust in the name of the Lord,” and the Gentiles will come in and join with them, and they with the Gentiles. But as for what follows in the next verse, “The remnant shall do none iniquity, nor speak lies; a deceitful tongue shall not be found in their mouth” (Zeph 3:13), these things will have their time, when the people will be more thoroughly purged than they ever were; and certainly these glorious portions of Scripture cannot have their performance except in days yet to come. But the accomplishment of all will be at the day of judgment. Indeed, in the meantime, as I say, there is a comfortable performance, leaving us in expectation of further and further still; because while we live here we are in a life of hope and expectation, and we are always under something unperformed. So much for that.

I come now to the state and condition of these people: “An afflicted and poor people.”

This is their state and condition, in which their disposition is also implied. Their state is that they are “an afflicted and poor people.” So it corresponds to the original, “an afflicted and impoverished people,” a weakened people. Although God has a special care of his church in this world, it is with the exception of some crosses and afflictions. “You shall have an hundredfold,” says Christ, “in this life,” but with tribulations and afflictions (Mark 10:30); that must come in. But yet, notwithstanding, there is a blessing in this: for though he leaves them “an afflicted and poor people,” yet he leaves them a people; and though they are a people afflicted and poor, yet they are a people who are rich in God. They will “trust in the name of the Lord,” of which I will speak afterward. From his calling them “an afflicted and poor people,” we see, in the first place, this:

Doctrine. The state of God’s church and children in this world, for the most part, is to be afflicted and poor in their outward condition.

I say, for the most part; we must not make it a general rule. It is a point meant rather to comfort us when it is so than to teach that it is always so with the church. For although they are always afflicted in some respects, and always have something to abase them, yet the times of the church are sometimes more glorious in the eyes of the world. They sometimes have the upper hand of the world. And at other times the children of God walk in the abundance of the comforts of the Holy Spirit, and increase and multiply, as it is in Acts 9:31. When Saul was converted to be Paul, the church increased and grew, and went on in the fear of the Lord, and the comforts of the Holy Ghost. There are good days and times for the church sometimes; but for the most part in this world, God’s church and children are under some cloud. I will not enter into the whole general topic of it, but only touch on it in a word or two.

Reason 1. God will have it so because it is fitting that the body should be conformed to the head. You know that our blessed Savior, when he worked our salvation, worked it in a state of abasement; and we, in working out that salvation, in going to that salvation he has worked for us, must go to it, for the most part, in a state of abasement of one kind or another. For we are chosen to be conformed to our head, and we are as much chosen to our portion in afflictions as to grace and glory. God has set us apart to bear such a share and portion of troubles in this world, to suffer as well as to do. “From my youth up,” says the church, “they have afflicted me; the plowers have plowed upon my back and make long furrows” (Ps 129:3). That is, from the infancy of the church, through all its growth, this has been the state of the church, for the most part: to be afflicted and poor.

Reason 2. And indeed, if we look to ourselves, by reason of the remainder of our corruptions, it is needful that it should be so. God in wisdom sees it fit that it should be so, that we should be afflicted and poor, because he sees that we can hardly digest any flourishing condition in this world. It is like strong liquor to a weak stomach. Even when strong liquor does not intoxicate people so as to make them drunk, it still weakens the brain. So although a good condition in the world does not altogether stupefy men, yet without a great measure of faith it weakens them. It makes them forget God, and the condition of worldly things, how empty and vain they are. It makes them forget themselves and their own mortality. And it makes them forget others, what respect is due to them, as if the world were made only for them to toss and tumble in at their pleasure, to have everything at their will, as if other men were scarcely men to them.

You see that when men are entrusted with great matters, they deal with other men as if they were not men, as if everything were made for their pleasure. This is the nature of man in great eminence. It sets up its own desire for a “god,” as if all others were beasts, and base, and nothing. It is a pitiful thing to consider what our nature is in this respect. Indeed, take the best. Hezekiah, in his prosperity, would insist on showing his treasures to the king of Babylon, a fair booty for him. You know what it cost him afterward. By nature we are drawn to outward, carnal excellence, too, too much. God knows it well enough. David would be numbering the people, so that he might flatter himself with what a goodly number he had to fight against his enemies. God punished him, you see, in that same matter. He took away the people he had made his confidence. God deals this way with his children in this world because he sees a disposition in them that cannot digest, and manage, and overcome prosperity. They cannot master it as they should, but are slaves to their own lusts, though they have a good measure of grace. We are prone to surfeit on the things of this life, and God is forced to it; as it is in Psalm 119:75, “of very faithfulness thou hast corrected me.”

God, out of very faithfulness, because he will be true to our souls and save them, is forced to put us on a diet and to keep us short of the things of this life. He must take away the material of pride and of conceit in carnal excellencies, and make us know ourselves, and him, and the world, what it is: the vanity of the world and of worldly things. You see, then, that God has some cause to do it.

Use. And we may justify God when he in any way abases us in this world. He knows what he has to do with us. Let us leave that to him, so long as he saves our souls, and sanctifies them, and delights in us, even to heaven and happiness. If it is his pleasure to put us on a diet in this world with regard to riches and greatness, so that he does not answer our desires but keeps us under hatches, let us leave it to his will. He knows what to do with us, as the physician knows better what concerns the sick than the sick do. Therefore let us take God’s wise ordering in good part.

But why does he join “afflicted and poor” together? Because poverty is affliction, and because affliction goes with poverty. Poverty brings affliction. It brings abasement with it, and it is an affliction in itself. For the poor man is trodden on at every turn. Men go over the hedge where it is lowest. It is an affliction, and it goes with affliction. Therefore the apostle St. Paul joins them together: “I have learned to want and to be abased” (Phil 4:12). Why? Because a man who is in want in the world is usually abased. Everyone scorns the man who is in want. They look down, haughty and high, on a man who has any need of them. So affliction and poverty usually go together.

Those whom God abases in this way, let them consider that it is no different with them than it has been with God’s people before. And let them labor for true riches, and take advantage of their outward estate to be rich in a better way.

In the next place, we may observe from this:

Doctrine. God sanctifies outward affliction and poverty to help inward poverty of spirit.

Poverty in outward condition helps poverty in the inward disposition. Their disposition is implied in their state and condition: poor in condition, and likewise in inward disposition, for that is implied here. The prophet does not mean that God will leave poor people who shall only be poor, for we see a world of people poor and proud. A man going along in the streets will hear a company of poor people who are the greatest rebels in the world against God, who blaspheme and swear, who rail against magistrates and governors. They are the most unbroken people in the world, the poorest and most beggarly, the refuse of mankind. As they are in condition, so they are in disposition.

The Scripture speaks here of God’s poor, not of the devil’s poor, who are poor in every way, outwardly and inwardly, who have their poverty as a just punishment for their wicked lives and continue in that wicked life, not having it sanctified to them to make them desire better riches. Does God esteem such poor? No. But there are poor and afflicted people who, together with the lowliness of their outward condition, have it sanctified to them, so that they grow low and poor in their own esteem of themselves. They grow to inward poverty of spirit, and so to seek God and to seek better riches, “to be rich in faith,” as the Scripture speaks (Jas 2:5). Especially such, and only such, are meant here.

So then, mark the point here, that God sanctifies affliction and poverty for the inward good of the souls of his children.

Reason 1. This is the reason for it: outward poverty and affliction take away the fuel that feeds pride, which is opposed to spiritual poverty and humility and to the sight of our needs. What pride feeds on is some outward thing, some outward excellency, which the flesh takes as its occasion to swell, to think too highly of itself, and to look down on everyone else. Now, when the fuel is taken away, the fire goes out. When the fodder and nourishment are taken away, those wanton steeds, you know, that grew fierce with pampering, become more tractable. So it is with the nature of man. Take away what makes him fierce, and then, when his fierce and high notions are taken away, he will be tame. Take away what feeds his carnal disposition, and he grows tractable and gentle.

Thus, then, affliction and poverty, outward in our condition, help toward inward poverty of spirit and disposition, for they take away what inflames the imagination of a carnal man. A carnal man thinks himself great and good in proportion to his possessions of the things of this life; and the devil enlarges this notion still further through the imagination, so that he thinks these things a great deal greater than they are. Afterward we come by experience to see them as nothing but vanity. But this is so in man without grace. We are prone, as I said, to surfeit on them. They are too strong for us to digest and overcome, and therefore God takes them away, that he may help the inward disposition of our souls.

Afflictions and poverty, when sanctified, have a power to bring us to God, to keep us in, and to recover us when we have fallen. They bring us in, as we see in Manasseh and in the prodigal son. Affliction and poverty brought him to know himself. They brought him home. He was not himself before. They brought him to inward poverty. When he could not be satisfied so much as with husks abroad, it was time for him to look home again. So when we are in the state of grace, it keeps us and fences us in. God hedges us in with thorns (Hos 2:6), so that we may not run out. And then, if we fall, it recovers us and fetches us in again, by making sinful courses bitter to us. We see, then, that affliction and poverty are sanctified to God’s children, to work an inward sight of their spiritual needs.

Use 1. Take notice from this of the poison and sinfulness of our corrupt nature, which defiles itself in the blessings of God, so that God cannot otherwise fit us for grace than by stripping us of things that are good in themselves. This should abase us very much. Those things that should be steps for us, to raise us up to God, that should be mirrors in which to see the love of God, our nature uses as clouds to keep God from us, and it fastens and fixes on the things themselves. So there is no other remedy but that God must strip us naked of them. This consideration should humble us.

Use 2. And let us make this use of it: let us know that when any abasement is sanctified to us, it comes from God’s love. If we find any affliction making us inwardly more humble and tractable and more pliable, certainly it comes from love and is directed to our good; and therefore it is in love, because it is directed to our good. For what is supplied in heavenly and spiritual things is well taken away in earthly ones. What if God takes away such outward honors and respects and riches, if he makes it up in graces that are eternal, that make us truly and inwardly good, which all the outward things in the world cannot do!

All the empires in the world cannot make a man an honest man. They may make him worse. They may be snares to make him forget God and himself. They may be a means of his damnation, unless there is wondrous care. What if God takes away a great deal of these things, and makes them up in favors of a higher kind! Therefore, if we find God sanctifying any outward abasement for the inward good of our souls, let us bless him for it and take it in good part as an evidence of his love; for this is how God deals with his children. He sanctifies their outward abasements for their inward good, to draw them nearer to himself.

Use 3. Therefore, those who are weak in their condition (for a man may be poor in regard to his condition, though not inwardly poor), those who are broken in their condition outwardly, may know whether it is in love or not, if they find this condition sanctified to a better disposition. For as all things in general work to the best “to them that love God” (Rom 8:28), so this is one: affliction and poverty especially work for good to those who love God. God sanctifies it to them for that end.

Therefore we should examine ourselves when we are under any cross, and see how it works on us, whether we are humbled by it or not, whether we join with God or not; for those who belong to God have the grace of the Spirit to join with him in the work. When he afflicts them, they labor to afflict themselves. When he goes to humble them outwardly, they humble themselves. When he sets about making them poor, to wean them from the love of the world, they wean themselves and join with God. We see the physician, by his art and skill, when he sees nature working away, help nature along until the cure is accomplished. In the same way God gives his Spirit to those who are his, to work with him. When God sets about taking them down, they will take themselves down too, and so they grow inwardly better, together with their outward abasement.

Those therefore who swell and storm and murmur and rage, what do they get but more stripes! They do not get out of trouble by it, but if they belong to God, they get stripes upon stripes. What does the horse get in the end by shaking off a skillful rider? More spurring and more blows. So when men are under God’s hand, afflicted in any way, and do not labor to make good use of it, but will pull the rod out of God’s hand and swell and pine, if they belong to God they get more stripes. Therefore let us kiss the rod, and the hand that holds it. God is about a good work; let him alone. Ask him to sanctify the visitation and abasement rather than to remove it. A gracious heart desires the sanctification rather than the removal.

Use 4. Again, from this we learn not to despise the brother of low degree (Jas 1:9), and that we should “not have the faith of Christ in respect of persons” (Jas 2:1). We should not take offense at the church because it is usually in a lowly condition in this world, for the church is always rich in another kind of riches. The church is rich in an inheritance yet to come. It has heaven and happiness, and the church is rich in promissory notes and promises. The church is rich in a manifest pledge that is worth all the world besides, that is, Christ. If he has given us his Son, will he not with him give us all things else? (Rom 8:32).

The church is rich in this world indeed, “for all things are yours, and you are Christ’s” (1 Cor 3:23). Christ carries riches for the church, and dispenses them to the church as occasion serves. Indeed, Christ’s riches are the church’s riches. The church cannot be poor if Christ is rich. It is only a medicinal poverty. It is God’s ordering, to fit them for better riches. He is like a wise physician who purges a foul body until he brings it almost to skin and bone. But why? So that, having made it poor, there may be a spring of better blood and spirits.

Let us therefore take no offense at God’s dealings, either toward others or ourselves, if we find him by his Holy Spirit sanctifying that outward condition to a holy inward bent and disposition of soul toward God. It is a happy affliction and poverty and abasement, whatever it is, that draws us nearer to God, in whom we have a greater supply than anything we can lack in the world. God never takes anything away from his children in this world without giving them more in better things. That is always his course. “The poor receive the gospel” (Matt 11:5). The gospel is preached to them, and they receive it: those who by their outward abasements are brought to a sight of their spiritual needs, and thereupon to hunger after Christ.

Again, since this outward poverty helps toward inward poverty of the soul, and outward afflictions help the inward disposition, we see from this likewise this truth:

Observation. Providence is serviceable to predestination and election.

God in election has a purpose to call us out of the world, to save our souls. Providence is a general government of all things in the world. Election is directed to salvation; he has chosen us to a supernatural end, and fits us for it by calling and sanctification. Now how does providence serve the decree of election? In this way: for those whom God purposes to save, to bring to an end above nature, he directs providence so that all things shall serve that end. Therefore he encourages them with outward things, or takes outward things from them in his providence, as may serve his purpose in election to save their souls.

He has a purpose to save them, and therefore providence works all things for their good (Rom 8:28). All things, by the overruling providence of God, are serviceable to a higher degree of love that God bears to his children, to serve his purpose of bringing them to heaven. From this comes the dispensing of riches or poverty, honor or abasement. He reserves his liberty in outward things concerning this life, to give or take them as they may serve the spiritual and best good of his children.

Use. Therefore God’s children, when they see that God intends their good in taking away the things of this life, in letting their blood, as it were, for their health, should bless God as well for taking as for giving, as Job did (Job 1:21). And there is as great mercy and love hidden in taking away blessings as in bestowing them.

“I will leave an afflicted and poor people.” In the original it is poor and mild and gentle. Poverty of estate and poverty of spirit, the disposition of the soul, come almost in one word, and indeed in God’s children they are joined together. For he sanctifies all his dealings and conduct toward them. When God has a purpose to save a man, everything shall help him homeward. And there is no better outward evidence to know a man’s state in grace than to see how the course of things serves God’s purpose to do good to his soul, when we ourselves are bettered in our inward man by whatever befalls us. God complains of the Jews that they were as “reprobate silver” (Jer 6:30), because he had melted them and they were never a whit the better; they were like dross consumed in the melting. God’s children are like refined gold. Those who find themselves refined and bettered have evidence that they are God’s, because there is a providence serving their spiritual good, directing all things to that end.

But from their condition we come to the disposition implied, inward and spiritual poverty.

1. Now this poverty is not a mere lack of grace. To be poor in spirit is not to be poor of that spirit, or to be of a poor spirit. To be of a poor spirit is to have no goodness, no worth at all, but to be of a dejected, base mind. God’s children are not like that. There are none more courageous than they when they are called to it. This poverty of spirit is not having no goodness at all.

But to be “poor in spirit” is a state and disposition of soul that has some goodness, in which they see a lack of further goodness. They have so much goodness and worth as to see an unworthiness in themselves, and a greater worthiness outside themselves. They are conscious of their own want, and see that they have no means of supply in themselves. They see an all-sufficiency outside themselves, in God, in Christ. They see a necessity of depending for supply on what is outside themselves, in their whole condition until they come to heaven. In a word, this poverty is a sight of our own nothingness in ourselves, and besides that, of our own inability; a sight of sufficiency outside ourselves and a desire for it; and likewise a hope of supply from there, which hope carries us on to endeavor and to wait until we have supply.

2. This will appear better if we distinguish this poverty in spirit by its two degrees. There is a poverty of spirit before we are in the state of grace, before we are in Christ, and a poverty after.

The poverty before we are in the state of grace is when God by his Spirit, together with his word and work of correction, opens the eyes of our souls to see what we are by nature, what we are in ourselves. It is a work of God’s convincing Spirit, to give us a true view into our own condition, and with the sight to work a sense of it. From a sight and sense and thorough conviction comes a wondrous abasement, and a desire to be other than we are. There is some hope in the spiritual poverty of God’s children before their conversion, which stirs them up to look to Christ and to the mercy of God in Christ. This stirs them up to beg and to use all means, and at length God is gracious and answers all the desires of their souls. This is before they are in grace; for before a Christian is a sound Christian, he must be driven out of himself. By nature we are prone to cleave to something, either outside ourselves or in ourselves, and we must be driven out by fire, by a sight and sense of the misery we are in.

We see that God has always taken this course in Scripture. This course he took with Adam. He cites him, arraigns him, condemns him. He lets him see what a miserable creature he was; no man on earth was ever so miserable, until he felt the sweetness of the promised seed. He who had been in such great happiness as he was, to have his conscience as galled as his was afterward, to feel such misery for the present as he did, must necessarily be very miserable; and indeed he was the most miserable man who has ever lived since his time. It is the greatest unhappiness for a man to have been happy, for his former happiness makes his present unhappiness more keenly felt. When God had thoroughly prepared him, then he raised him up with the promised seed.

God deals as he dealt with Elijah: first he casts him down with earthquakes and storms, and then he comes in a stiller voice. It is for that end that John the Baptist comes before Christ, to level everything, to cast down the mountains and fill up the valleys (Luke 3:5), for all must be laid flat before Christ. We must lay ourselves at his feet and be content to be disposed of by him, before we know what belongs to being in Christ. There must therefore be poverty of spirit beforehand. We see this vividly set out in the prodigal son. While he had anything in the world to content him, he never looked homeward. But when he saw such an emptiness in all things he met with, that he could not be satisfied with husks, then he began to think of going home, and that there was some hope he had a father who would receive him. I will be brief in this, because the other is what is mainly intended here.

If we would know and discern by some evidences whether we have been poor in spirit, in this preparatory poverty, or not:

1. Let us consider what we have judged of our condition by nature, whether we have ever been convinced of the evil condition we are in. For if there is no conviction of sin, there will be no conviction of righteousness, as you have it in John 16:8. There are three works of the Spirit, “to convince of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment,” that is, of spiritual government. Before the Spirit convinces us that we have the righteousness of Christ, and convinces us of the necessity of government and holy life in Christ, which is there called judgment, he convinces of sin, which is an antecedent work. Let us examine ourselves whether the Spirit has done such a work in us or not.

2. Where this conviction and poverty are, a man sees an emptiness and vanity in all things in the world whatsoever, except in Christ.

3. And there is a desire for the grace and favor of God above all things. Ask a poor man what he would have; he would have what may supply his poverty and want. Ask a man who is spiritually poor, before he is in Christ, “What would you have?” “Oh, mercy and pardon.” Offer him anything else in the world, and it does not content him. But this will content him: the sense and persuasion of God’s love and mercy in Christ Jesus.

4. Where this poverty of spirit is, there will be a wondrous earnestness after pardon and mercy, and after grace. A man will labor to be in another condition, even as for his life. If you come to a poor man who labors for his living and ask him, “Why do you labor so?” he will wonder at your idle question. “I may starve otherwise,” he will say. A man who is spiritually poor, and sees what a state he is in, labors in the use of means to have an inward sense of God’s love, to find some beginnings of the new creature, to find a change, to be other than he is. He sees he must perish otherwise. There is a prizing and estimation in him of mercy and pardon above all things in the world, and a pressing after it.

5. It is always joined likewise with a wondrous abasing of himself. He thinks himself not worth the ground he walks on until God has mercy on him in Jesus Christ. This is not so keenly felt in those who are brought up in the church, or who have religious thoughts continually put into them of both kinds, both concerning their own estate by nature and also concerning grace and mercy in Christ. Therefore grace is instilled into them little by little, and the change is not so keenly felt. But where the conversion is at all sudden, from an evil course of life to a better, God works such a poverty of spirit before he brings a man to Christ.

In Matthew 5:3 it is the beginning of all happiness, the blessedness that leads to the rest: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” And indeed, those who are poor in spirit are blessed, though they do not yet have the sense of God’s love as much as they desire; for this draws on all the rest, as I shall show afterward.

To be poor in spirit, therefore, is to see that we have no good in ourselves, that we are beggars and bankrupts and have no means to pay or satisfy. And this stirs up desire and the use of means, and all the qualifications that follow there, hungering and thirsting after righteousness, mourning, and meekness. For this will follow. A man who is poor in spirit, say what you will to him, is so tractable and meek: let God do what he will with him, so long as he gives him grace; if he will cast him down, so be it. “What shall we do to be saved?” (Acts 16:30) implies a pliability to take any course. He is willing to do or to suffer anything.

And indeed there must be such a poverty of spirit before we can believe in Christ, by which we may be convinced of our debts and of our inability to pay those debts, and of our misery, that we are in danger of being cast into eternal bondage for them.

1. There must be this beforehand; for otherwise:

(1) We will never resort to Christ or to God’s mercy in him. “The full stomach despiseth an honeycomb” (Prov 27:7). We will not relish Christ or value him as we should.

(2) Then again, without this, we will not be thankful to God as we should be. Who is thankful to God but the one who sees beforehand what need he stands in of mercy and of every drop of the blood of Christ?

(3) And then we will not be fruitful; for who is so fruitful a Christian as the one who is thankful? And this depends on the other. A Christian who was never truly cast down and laid low by the spirit of bondage is a barren Christian. With the other, who has tasted the love of God in Christ, the very “love of Christ constrains him” (2 Cor 5:14), and he studies to be “abundant in the work of the Lord” (1 Cor 15:58), as St. Paul says, and in every way to “show forth the virtues of him that hath called him out of darkness into marvellous light” (1 Pet 2:9).

(4) Again, when men have not been sufficiently humbled beforehand, this is the reason that they fall away dangerously. It is the ground of apostasy, because they did not feel the smart of sin. He who has smarted for his condition before, and knows what it is to be in such a condition, will be loath ever to come into the prison again. Therefore the ground of careful walking is a sense of our unworthiness and misery. The more we are convinced of this, the more careful and watchful we will be never to come into that cursed condition again.

(5) And indeed it is, as we say, an error in the foundation which is not mended in the building, when there is an error in poverty of spirit at the first, when the work of humiliation is not rightly wrought. From this comes the defect in the whole conduct of a Christian. The foundation of God’s building lies low; he digs deep. God often lays his foundation as low as hell itself, so to speak. He brings his children to see what he means they shall never feel, to see his wrath against sin, so that he may build on this foundation.

For Christianity is an excellent structure. It is a structure for eternity, a building forever. Therefore it must have a sure foundation, which must be laid in humiliation and poverty of spirit. An error in the first digestion is not amended in the second; if that is not good, the rest are worthless. If there is not sound humiliation, nothing will be sound afterward. Therefore we should desire that God by his Spirit would help us more and more to know what we are in ourselves, that we may come to be what we are in Christ.

2. But there is a continual frame and disposition of soul, which is a poverty in spirit that accompanies God’s children all the days of their life until they are in heaven, until they enjoy those riches that are laid up there for them; and that is especially what is meant here. And indeed it is an ingredient in all the passages of salvation.

(1) For in justification there must be a poverty of spirit, to make us see that there is no righteousness in ourselves, or that can come from us, that is able to stand against the law and against the justice of God. All is defiled and spotted and unanswerable. And upon this poverty and apprehension of what is defective in ourselves, there comes an admiration of that righteousness of God in Christ (for it is of God’s devising, of God’s approving, and of God’s working, Christ being God and man), so as to force us every day to renew our right in the righteousness of Christ and to be “found in him.” There is such a poverty of spirit as to account all loss, and dross (Phil 3:8), and nothing; to be willing to part with all to be found in Christ, not having our own righteousness, but that which is of God in Christ, as Paul divinely says (Phil 3:9). So in that main stage, justification, it is necessary to be “poor in spirit”; that is, to see that our own righteousness is too defective to stand up against the justice of God, who is “a consuming fire” (Heb 12:29). It is required for our daily living by faith in justification.

(2) In the whole course of sanctification there must of necessity be poverty of spirit; that is, a sense that we have no sanctifying grace of our own, but must fetch it from the fullness of Christ, whose fullness is for us: “of his fullness we receive grace for grace” (John 1:16).

The ground of this is that now, in the covenant of grace, all is of grace, both in justification and in sanctification; all is of grace, nothing but grace. God has set himself to get the glory of his free grace and mercy now in Jesus Christ. Therefore, as our salvation is worked outside us altogether by our surety, the second Adam, Christ, so the righteousness by which we appear righteous before God is altogether outside ourselves. It is his, and it is given to us by marriage; since we are one with him, his righteousness is ours. And likewise in him we have the principle of all grace. He is the principle of our life, the root and foundation of spiritual life and sanctification: “Without me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). So in Christ we have all that concerns our spiritual life, in sanctification and justification, because it is a state of grace.

Adam had it in himself. Though God at the first clothed him with his image, even so Adam had no such necessity as we have to go to Christ for all; but now, in the second Adam, Christ, we must fetch grace for everything from him. Therefore there must be poverty in regard of our knowledge, for we have no spiritual knowledge of our own, and poverty in regard of our affections. We have no joy, no peace, no comfort of our own, no delight in good things, and no strength for them; we have all from Christ.

“By grace,” says the apostle, “I am what I am” (1 Cor 15:10), as if grace had given him his being, his form, as we say. Indeed, so it does. Grace gives a Christian his form and being, his work and his working, for all working comes from the inward being and form of things. By grace we are what we are in justification, and work what we work in sanctification. It is by what we have freely from Christ. Therefore in that respect there must be poverty of spirit.

I will say more. In every action, when we are in the state of grace and have had the beginnings of the new creature in us, there is need of poverty of spirit, because of our own inability to perform every action. For just as it is with our form, the life and soul, which is needed in every moving and stirring, so there is need of the spirit of grace, which is, as it were, the form and life and being of a Christian, for every holy action. “In him we live, and move, and have our being,” says the apostle (Acts 17:28). “In him,” that is, in God reconciled in Christ, we have not only our being, that is, our form, but in him we “live and move” to every particular act.

We are no wiser in particular things than God makes us on the spot; the wisest man will be a fool if God leaves him to his own wisdom. In every particular act that needs strength, we are no stronger than God supplies us with spiritual strength. We are no holier than the measure in which God by his Spirit shines on us and raises our souls in particular actions. So it is not only necessary that we have grace at the first to make us Christians; we must also have a perpetual government of the Spirit, from which we must have an influence for every particular act. Though we have grace, we cannot bring that grace forth to act without new grace.

Even as trees, such as the vine and others, though they are fitted to bear fruit, cannot put forth that fitness in fruit without the influence of the heavens, so, though we are fitted by the Spirit of God, we cannot put it forth in particular acts when occasion serves without the influence of heaven. That influence must promote and further that grace, and apply our spirits to every holy action by removing the impediments that would hinder it and adding new supply and strength to help grace. If the temptations are too strong, as they sometimes are, former grace will not serve without a new supply of strength. As he who can carry a lesser burden cannot carry a greater without new strength, so every temptation requires more strength than the former, and every new action requires not only a continuance of grace but a fresh supply of stronger grace.

And for want of this, the best of God’s saints have fallen foully. Though they have had grace in them, yet the Spirit left them to themselves in regard of new supply, because they were conceited; they were not poor enough in spirit. Peter, for example, was conceited of his own strength: “Though all men forsake thee, yet I will not” (Matt 26:33). This conceit moved God, in mercy as well as in justice, to leave him to himself, that by his fall he might learn to stand another time and not trust his own strength. The best of us all, I say, when there is anything to be done, need a fresh influence of grace and a fresh light to shine upon us.

It should force perpetual poverty of spirit on us, to see the want that is in ourselves and the supply that is outside ourselves, and to make use of that supply by going out of ourselves and making toward him in whom is all our supply. In all the communion we have with God, which is the happiness of our condition, this frame and disposition of soul, to be poor in spirit, is necessary in every act.

Even in our very prayers for grace we are so void of it that we lack the ability to call for what we lack. We must have that from the Spirit: not only grace, but that disposition of soul which carries us to God. A spirit fitting us to pray must also be given to us; we do not know what to call for. We of ourselves are so poor that we not only lack grace and ability for action, but have no ability even to ask. God’s Spirit must dictate our prayers, give us stirrings, and make us feel our needs; he must enable our faith to cherish those graces, and make us go out of ourselves even in our very prayers.

What a state this is, then! Do we not need to be “poor in spirit” all our lifetime, we who do not have so much as the ability to go out of ourselves for supply from another, but must have that from Christ too? St. Augustine, who was a great advancer of the grace of God and an abaser of man, and who indeed had St. Paul’s spirit, says, “We should boast and glory of nothing, because nothing is ours.” We need this poverty of spirit in the whole course of our Christian life.

Again, in the actions of this life, how pitifully we miscarry! Because we think we have wisdom and strength enough, and set about things in our own wisdom and strength, we fare accordingly and have success to match. Where the beginning is confidence, the end is shame, in any business, even of this life. What is the reason that the great and weighty business of this life so often lacks success to match? Many times it falls out so. As one said of general councils, they were seldom successful, because men came with confidence and wit for victory rather than truth. Certainly there is less success in great matters because men come with self-confidence. Therefore it is a good sign that God means to bless great undertakings when he puts it into the hearts of those who are agents in them to seek him in the affairs of this life. We must be poor in spirit to see that the carrying out and the success come from him.

Well, so it is in suffering likewise. We cannot suffer the least cross of ourselves without murmuring and repining, unless we have strength from him. When Moses came to the “waters of strife,” Moses’ spirit was exposed. He could not endure the harshness and rebellion of the people (Num 20:13). A Christian sometimes meets such opposition that his spirit is moved, and he reveals much corruption. It is so with the best men. Even Moses, a meek man, when he had such temptations and provocations, was moved by them. We must labor to get a greater spirit than our own, to have the Spirit of God work this spiritual poverty in us.

This poverty of spirit, as we call it, is a spiritual vacuum, a spiritual emptiness. You know that in philosophy there is nothing empty in the world; everything is filled either with air or with some kind of body. And to avoid the enemy of nature, emptiness, things will change their seat: heavy things will go upward, and things that are above will come below, to avoid emptiness. For emptiness is contrary to nature, the world being full of things, filled with one body or another.

So, I say, spiritual poverty is an emptying of the soul, which of necessity always brings better things in. Wherever there is this emptying of the soul, this making of ourselves poor, it rests on good ground by this course. It is always such a vacuum and emptiness of one thing as brings in another, better thing. The soul can never be altogether empty. When wind and vain stuff are out, then better things come in, which St. Paul calls “the fullness of God.” He prays and wishes that they might “be filled with the fullness of God” (Eph 3:19). Then comes fullness of knowledge and understanding, fullness of affection, and fullness of contentment and delight in the will; and the whole soul has a fullness answering to the proportion in which it has emptied itself of itself.

In the next place, let us come to discover this disposition of poverty of spirit where it is, and then show some helps to it.

1. To discover where this blessed frame of soul is: surely those who are thus poor in spirit are full of prayer. “The poor man speaks supplications,” as the wise man says (Prov 18:23); that is his dialect. The poor man is much in prayer. He who is “poor in spirit” is much in supplication, for prayers are the ambassadors of the poor soul to God, to supply it with the riches of his grace. Therefore, where there is no prayer there is no sense of poverty, but a Laodicean temper, as if they were rich enough.

There is a company of men who say they cannot pray privately; their spirits are barren. They reveal much pride of spirit, for if a man feels his needs, you do not need to supply him with words. If a poor tenant comes to a landlord and finds he has a hard bargain, trust him to tell his tale. I guarantee you he will lay open the state of his wife and children and the bad year he has had; he will be eloquent enough. Take any man who feels his needs, and you will not need to dictate words to him. There is no man with a humble and broken heart, however illiterate he may be, who will not have a large heart toward God in this way.

2. Again, there is a care of using all means. Where there is poverty, there will be a going out of ourselves to the places where God bestows any riches. Those who are poor and have no food at home will go to market rather than starve; and those who find in themselves a lack of grace and comfort will surely go out of themselves. They will go to God’s market; they will attend on the means. When a man is likely to be arrested for debt and has nothing at home, it is time for him to seek supply elsewhere. So when a man is spiritually poor, ready to be snared and caught in everything for lack of spiritual grace, he will labor for strength in the use of all means.

Therefore those of a Laodicean stamp, who think there is too much preaching and too much hearing and too much reading, and ask what need there is for all this fuss: alas, they were never humbled! They were never sensible of their state by nature, nor are they yet in the state of grace. For the soul of a true Christian is always in such a state of spiritual poverty that it relishes spiritual means and is not fed with husks. A soul that is spiritually poor will discern in the use of means: this is flourish; this is for the ear; these are clever conceits. Alas, it comes for food, for supply! A poor soul that finds a lack of grace and strength and comfort judges the means by what it finds. Where there is true poverty of spirit, there will be a use of all means, and likewise some ability to taste.

3. Again, where this inward poverty of spirit is, it will make God’s children wondrously thankful, and thankful for a little grace. A poor man who feels his poverty will be more thankful for a penny than another man who has money of his own will be for a pound. A soul that sees the lack of grace, and also sees the excellency of grace, is thankful to God that he will work anything in such a poor, defiled soul as he is; that he will work any good stirrings, any good affections, any degree of faith; that he will give him any assurance of salvation. Oh, he thinks, what a good God this is! He breaks out with the apostles Peter and Paul, who had both been sinners themselves and found grace. Oh, they were much in thankfulness! “Blessed be God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Eph 1:3; 1 Pet 1:3).

A thankful soul is a poor soul, and a poor soul is always a thankful soul. He who is poor knows he has little and deserves little; therefore, knowing that he deserves nothing, he is thankful for and content with anything. A humble man is always thankful, and that is the reason God may have his glory from him. God is sometimes forced to humble and abase him; otherwise God would have no sacrifice from him. A proud man, a conceited man, so dotes on his own worth that he forgets the giver and makes himself an idol to himself.

Therefore such people are usurpers of what they have. They take possession of God’s blessings without considering from whom they have them or for what end they have them. They deny God his tribute of thankfulness because they are proud. But a man who is poor in spirit takes possession of all by title of gift, and receives all from God in the manner of a poor man. Therefore, whatever he has, he returns thanks for it again. An unthankful soul, therefore, is a proud soul. A thankful soul is always a humble, abased soul; and the more humble and empty the soul is, the more thankful it is for every degree of grace and comfort.

4. Again, a soul thus disposed, a soul that is poor in spirit, is willing to resign itself to Christ’s government, with self-denial of anything it is able to do of itself. It is ready to say, “Lord, I have neither wisdom of my own to govern myself, nor any strength and ability of my own; therefore I put myself under your government. I desire to follow your light and to go on in your strength.” There is always a resignation to Christ’s government, and that in fear and trembling; for surely we will take care not to displease those to whom we resign ourselves. A dependent life is always a life full of awe. For when a man has resigned himself to the government of another, and knows he must depend on him, he will take care not to displease such a one. He thinks, “If I displease him, he will withdraw his maintenance and his favor from me, and then what am I?”

So the soul that thinks it has all from God, and from the Spirit of Christ, resigns itself to the Spirit of Christ, and at the same time it is wondrously fearful of grieving and displeasing the Spirit. For he thinks to himself, “My life is only a dependent life, and my graces are only dependent. Let God but withdraw the beams of his Spirit and I sink. Let him withdraw his comfort and his strength, and what am I? Nothing but darkness and deadness and confusion.”

Those, therefore, who do not give themselves up to Christ’s government, but are governed by rules of policy and by the example of others, and who have a base dependence on others, do not know what spiritual poverty is. They see a sufficiency in themselves to rule and govern themselves, as if Christ’s wisdom were not sufficient. They are not so disposed as the apostle requires; they do not work out their salvation with fear and trembling, because God gives the will and the deed (Phil 2:12).

The meaning is this: we should work out our salvation with a holy fear and trembling, a watchful fear, a son-like fear, lest we displease God. Why? He gives both the will and the deed (Phil 2:13). He gives the will to do good, and when he has done that, he gives the ability for the deed itself. We cannot do anything; therefore we need to walk in a state of awe and not displease him in anything, lest he withdraw the assistance of his Spirit and leave us to ourselves. Then we will fall, to his dishonor, to the discredit of religion, to the wasting of our own comfort, and to the advantage of Satan. This is the temper of a man who is poor in spirit. He gives himself up to Christ’s government and depends on it, and so he is wondrously fearful of displeasing him in anything.

There is a company of people who do not know what belongs to this, who hope to be saved by Christ and yet will grieve the Spirit. They will venture into any place, on any sight, into any company. But if they had ever been acquainted with the government of Christ’s Spirit, they would know what it was to grieve the Spirit, and the Spirit would grieve them too. It is a sign they do not have the Spirit of God, because he does not check them when they have done it. Therefore these bold, careless people, who are indifferent about all things, all companies and places, and who do not watch over themselves and their words and conduct, do not have this poverty of spirit. For then they would know what it is to displease God in anything, to walk and to speak loosely, because by this they grieve the Spirit; and they would immediately find a lack either in grace or in comfort. Not one of many is acquainted with the nature of this spiritual communion with God, and therefore they do not enjoy the happiness of those who are thus qualified, who are “poor in spirit.”

5. Again, a man who is poor in spirit is very tractable, as it is in Isaiah: “A child shall lead them.” “The lamb and the lion shall feed together… and a child shall lead them” (Isa 11:6). That is, you can lead such a one with any counsel, however humble the person giving it may be. Because he has smarted for his sins and for his own counsel and ways, “a child shall lead him”; that is, anyone may lead and move him to what is good. He does not stand on terms.

6. And always he who is poor in spirit is no upbraider of other men’s shortcomings. He feels his own more than those he sees in other men. He is not prone to upbraid them and hold their shortcomings and conditions against them, he is so taken up with the sense of his own.

7. And lastly, he who is poor in spirit is humbled in himself for spiritual needs, not so much for outward things. He is humbled because he does not have a large heart toward God, because he finds impatience, because he does not find that heavenly-mindedness and strength to go through the duties God requires, because his flesh is so backward. These things abase him and bring him to his knees, not so much outward things; and accordingly he looks for spiritual supply. When a man is humble and poor in spirit, he is not abased by any outward thing; what he would have is mercy and grace. When the apostle would pray for all happiness for the churches, he prays for grace, mercy, and peace; for as they are more sensible of their spiritual needs, so they are carried in their desires after what may give them satisfaction in that way.

Use. Let us labor to bring our souls to this blessed temper, to be poor in spirit, the happy temper with which our Savior began his preaching. The first thing he falls on is, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matt 5:3). But before I come to any directions for getting this spiritual poverty, we must know and lay down this caution: we must not be so “poor in spirit” as to deny the work of grace in our hearts. It is one thing to be “poor in spirit” and to see our needs; it is another thing to be unthankful and unkind, to deny the work of grace and so to gratify Satan. We must not give false witness against ourselves and so deny the work of God’s Spirit in us. That is not poverty but darkness of spirit. We are not acquainted with the grace with which God has enriched us.

Therefore, where the soul is in a right temper, there is a double eye. There is an eye to see the defects and the stains of the graces we have: to see how far we fall short of what we should be, and to see how our graces are stained and how our corruptions are mingled with them. Viewing with the one eye that we have any grace should make us cheerful and thankful and help us go on in comfort, considering that there are some beginnings that God will perfect; for he never repents of his beginnings. And then the sight of the lack, and of the stains of those graces with which we mingle our corruptions, works this poverty of spirit again, so that we go on still out of ourselves, desiring grace and purging and cleansing ourselves more and more.

Therefore, I beg you, let us remember this, that we do not unthankfully deny the work of grace and think that to be poverty of spirit. Some do this out of covetousness: because they do not have what they would have, they think they have nothing at all. That is a spiritual covetousness. But let us be wise to discern what God has worked in our hearts, what he has done for and in our souls. You will find a holy man much in mourning and complaining, but it is of himself, not of God, as if God were failing him. You will find a holy man in a perpetual kind of despair, but it is in himself; he hopes in God still. Remember this caution: as we complain, let us be sure it is of ourselves. Always justify God in his mercy; and if we despair, let us despair of ourselves, because we can do nothing of ourselves. But let us be sure to maintain, with all we can, the hope of God’s rich mercy in Christ.

Now, having given this caution, I say that the way to come to spiritual poverty, among many others, is this. 1. We must bring ourselves into the presence of God, into the presence of greater lights than our own. Men may think themselves somebody when they are alone; yet when they consider that God sees them, whose eyes are a thousand times brighter than the sun, then they learn to abhor themselves in “dust and ashes.” We see Job do this when God talked with him, when he saw God (Job 42:6). And Abraham, when he talked with God, counted himself dust and ashes (Gen 18:27).

Let us bring ourselves into the presence of God; let us consider his holiness, his justice. And along with this, let us bring ourselves to greater lights than our own; that is, let us often come into the company of those who have greater grace than ourselves. The stars give no light when the sun is up. The stars are somebody in the night, but they are nothing in the day. And those who are conceited about their own excellencies, when they come into the presence and company of those who are better than themselves, and converse with them, find that their spirits fall; they are brought low.

It is a good course, therefore, not to love always being the best in the company, which is some men’s vanity, because they are determined to be conceited about their own worth. It is a good course rather to present ourselves before God in his ordinances, and to present ourselves in communion and fellowship with others who are greater and richer in grace than ourselves, and so we may see what we ourselves lack. This is one direction for getting spiritual poverty.

2. Again, that we may come to be poor in spirit, let us consider what we are: that we are creatures. The point from which creation begins is exactly nothing. It is so with the creatures in the world: God made all things from nothing. And is it not so much more with the new creature? Therefore, if I insist on being anything in myself, as from myself, surely I must not expect to be any creature of God’s making. For grace is God’s creature, and therefore it must rise from nothing. There must be a sight of our own nothingness.

Indeed, a Christian in himself is nothing, even now in the state of grace. Whatever he is in grace or glory, it comes from outside himself. He has nothing in himself as from himself; all that he has, he has from Christ. He is poor in himself, but he has riches enough in Christ, if he sees his own poverty. He is a sinner in himself, but he has righteousness enough in Christ, if he sees his sins.

Let us understand that this is a qualification that gives us an interest in the good that is in Christ. We renew our right in Christ in no other way than as we renew the sense of our own poverty and need. Would we see everything in Christ, that we have riches, and wisdom, and happiness, and favor, and life, and all in him? Then with the same spiritual eye of the soul, let us see that we have nothing in ourselves. For I can renew the right and interest I have in Christ in no other way but by renewing this sight. We shine altogether in the beams of our husband.

The consideration of this will be a means of working in us care and effort toward it: that we are creatures, “new creatures,” and therefore we must rise from nothing in ourselves, and must be maintained and supported by the new Adam, “the second Adam,” and have fresh grace from him continually. “We move and live in him,” as I said before.

3. Again, that we may be poor in spirit, let us help ourselves by presenting to ourselves abasing, emptying considerations. What are they? Among the rest, let us turn our minds back to what we were before God showed mercy to us: how unprofitably we spent our days, and what a great deal of good we left undone that we might have done. For the present, let us consider the imperfections that hang upon us, by which we defile even the best performances that come from us. Let us have our special corruptions for the present set before the eye of our soul.

For the time to come, let us set before our souls what will become of us before long. As for outward things, which nature is prone to be highly conceited about, they shall lie in the dust. These bodies of ours must lie low in the dust. All other things must be taken from us, and we from them, we do not know how soon. Let us often think about and consider the vanity of all things, what all things will be before long. They must all come to nothing. The fire will consume all that is glorious in the world. There will be no excellency but the excellency of Christ, and of his church and children.

And let us think of the day of judgment. What will pass as good coin then? Let us think of the time of our dissolution, how we shall appear before Christ, and what we have in us that will give us confidence at that day and time to look upon him with comfort, so that those thoughts of the time to come, of death and judgment and eternity, may not be frightful to us. The consideration of these things will make us look about us, and make us indeed “poor in spirit.”

Especially let us consider what our profession of faith requires of us; not by the law, let that go, but what we should be in the covenant of grace, and are not. It will shame the best of us. Alas! How much good might we have done that we have not done! How have we failed in bringing honor and credit to our profession! How barren have we been in good works! How unwatchful over our thoughts and speeches, by which we have stained our religion and our consciences, and grieved the Spirit of God!

Let us consider how far short we are of what we might have been. This will bring inward shame and confusion of spirit, and from these comes this temper of poverty of spirit. Consider these things, and enlarge on them in your own meditations. There is no more fruitful spending of our thoughts, next to the consideration of Christ and the riches we have in him, than to consider what we are in ourselves, so that we may be in a perpetual disposition of soul fit to receive the good that is to be had in Christ.

Two graces are the main graces that must go along with us all the days of our lives: this grace, to go out of ourselves, and another grace, to go to another who is better than ourselves, in whom our happiness lies. That we may go out of ourselves and out of created things, and all that is in them, poverty of spirit is necessary, to see that there is nothing in ourselves that will yield a foundation of comfort. And poverty of spirit sees that there is nothing we possess in created things that will hold out.

A created thing is a particular good, for a particular case, to supply a particular need, and only for a time; it is fading and outward. But the comfort we must have must be spiritual and universal, to give contentment to the soul. The consideration of these things, this poverty of spirit, that we do not have enough to make us happy, will force us to go out of ourselves.

The heathen, by the use of discretion and knowledge, had enough to see that there is nothing in the world to make man happy; the negative part they knew well enough. But there must be another grace to carry us to a positive happiness, to where that lies, and that is the grace of trust that follows. “I will leave in the midst of thee an afflicted and poor people,” people who shall be disposed and prepared by their outward poverty for inward spiritual poverty, to go out of themselves to Christ, to trust in him.

“And they shall trust in the name of the Lord.”

This is the conduct of these poor and afflicted people. “They shall trust in the name of the Lord.”

God has no delight in afflicting his children; he joys and delights in the prosperity of his children. It is our sinful nature that forces him to afflict us, that he may wean us from the world, because we are prone to surfeit on things here below. All that God does is so that we may trust in him, which we would never do unless he afflicted us and made us “poor in spirit.” But when we are afflicted and poor in spirit, and have nothing at home, we will go abroad for it, as people in necessity will do. Supply must be had, either at home or from outside. And when the soul is beaten and driven out of itself, which takes a great deal of doing, then we are fit for this blessed act spoken of here, to “trust in the name of the Lord.” And the one is evidence of the other. How shall we know that we are sufficiently humbled and made poor in spirit? When we trust in the name of the Lord.

In unfolding these words, take these as grounds, which I will only name.

First, that by nature every man will have a trust, either in himself or outside himself.

Second, that God is the trust of the poor man; what he lacks in himself he has in God. God is the rock or the castle to which he retires. He has his supply in him.

The third is this.

Observation. God is trusted as he is known. They shall “trust in the name of the Lord.” For God can be trusted no otherwise than as he has made his will known. It is presumptuous boldness to claim anything from God that we have no promise for, or to attribute to him what he is not. God is therefore trusted as he has made himself known to us by some name. He has made himself known by his attributes, by his nature and essence, Jehovah, and by his word and the promises in his word. For his word is one of the best and sweetest names by which he has made himself known.

The name of God is glorious in all the world, in the creation, and every creature has a tongue to show forth the power, and wisdom, and goodness of God. But what is this to us, if we do not know the will of God toward us? There the name of God is revealed: what he is in himself, something of his power and wisdom, and so on. But what he is to us, gracious and merciful and sweet, we must gather from the disclosure of his own heart. He must come out of that “light that none can attain unto” (1 Tim 6:16) and reveal himself, as he has done in his word. And by this name of God, his word, we come to make use of his other names.

The next thing I will speak of is making use of God when he is known: to trust in him, to pitch our trust and confidence upon him. “They shall trust in the name of the Lord.”

Observation. For there must be an application of the soul to God. We must lay our souls upon God. Though he is a rock, yet we must lay our souls upon him; and though he is a foundation, yet we must build upon him and his revealed truth. There is in God and in the Scriptures a comfort adequate to all our necessities whatsoever, and superabundant too. It transcends them all. There is more in the spring than we ourselves need. Yet even so there must be grace in the soul to go to God. There must be a hand, an empty beggar’s hand, such as faith is, to reach the help that God gives. There must be a wing to fly to our tower. The wing of the soul is this trust and faith.

And when these two meet, faith or trust, and God, what a sweet meeting there is! For when emptiness and fullness, poverty and riches, weakness and strength meet together, they will clasp each other sweetly. For the excellency and all-sufficiency of the one, and the necessity of the other, meeting together, breed a sweet agreement. We must “trust,” therefore, in the name of the Lord. That is the way to put to use whatever is in God for our good.

As for faith, its nature is, after it has applied itself to the grounds of comfort, to draw power and strength from God. Of itself it is the most beggarly grace of all. Love is a rich grace. But in the covenant of grace, in which grace and mercy must have the glory, God has established such a grace to rule there as ascribes everything to what is outside itself, and is an empty grace of itself, making use of the riches that are outside itself. Therefore God has made choice of this trusting instead of all other graces, as indeed leading to all other graces whatsoever.

God brings us home by a way contrary to the way we fell from him. How did we fall at the first from God, who was our rock, our defense, and our trust? We fell from him by distrust, by holding him under suspicion, as if he aimed more at himself than at our good. So the devil persuaded our first parents. The most direct way to come back to God, therefore, must be to have a good opinion of God, not to hold him under suspicion, but to be convinced in our souls that he loves us better than we can love ourselves, in spite of the devil and all his temptations. So to trust God is to rely on him in life and death. Therefore God has appointed this grace, as he says here, “They shall trust in the name of the Lord.”

Now, because we all claim to trust in the name of the Lord, we will first examine our trust. Let us test our trust a little, that we may see whether it is true trust or not. And then, on that basis, we will give some directions for how to come to this blessed condition, to trust “in the name of the Lord.”

For the first: I do not take trust here to mean the first faith, which is the grace of union by which we receive Christ, but the exercise of faith afterward in a Christian’s life. So we speak of it rather as a fruit that comes from faith. And we may know our trust in the name of the Lord, the Lord now being conceived as a gracious Father in Christ, clothed with the relation of a father. For so we must trust him; not God absolutely, for there is no comfort in an absolute God, apart from his relations. But when we apprehend him in relation, as a sweet Father in Christ, in that name, then the nature of God is lovely to us, though there was an infinite distance between him and us before.

Now Christ, being Immanuel, God with us, has brought God and us together on terms of alliance. Now our nature is lovely to God in Christ, because it is taken into the unity of his person; and God’s nature is lovely to us, since he has made himself a Father in Christ his beloved Son. Therefore, when we speak of God, our thoughts must run on God as so conceived, as clothing himself with the sweet term of Father, our God in covenant. We must apprehend him in this way.

1. Now one evidence of this trust in this our God is a care to please him in all things. When we depend on any men, we have a care to please them. A tenant who fears being thrust out will strive to please his landlord. We who hold everything on this tenure, on faith and trust in God, should fear to displease him.

2. And there will likewise be a use of all means to serve God’s providence and care of us, if we trust in him; otherwise it is a tempting of God and not a trusting. No men are more careful in the use of means than those who are surest of a good issue and conclusion, for the one stirs up diligence in the other. Assurance of the end stirs up diligence in the means. For the soul of a believing Christian knows that God has decreed both; both fall under the same decree. When God purposed to do such a thing, he purposed to do it by such and such means. Trust, therefore, goes with diligence in the use of all the means God has ordained. He who trusts a physician’s skill will be very careful to observe what was prescribed, and will omit nothing. It is only presumption, and not trust, where there is no care in the use of means; as we see many claim to trust in God and sever the means from the end, and they are regardless of the means of salvation.

3. Again, those who trust in God are quiet when they have used the means. Faith has a quieting power. It has a power to still the soul, to settle the quarrels and murmuring and grudgings that are there, and to set the soul down quiet, because it sets before the soul greater grounds of comfort than the soul can see any cause of discomfort. The soul, being reasonable, yields to the strength of the reason. Now when faith sets forth grand comforts against all discouragements whatsoever, comforts that overcome them, that are greater in the way of comfort than other things are in the way of discouragement, the soul is quiet. It hopes comfort will be had. The soul is silent and at rest.

We see in Psalm 42:11 that when there was a mutiny in David’s soul, because of the perplexed state he was in, he falls to chiding his soul outright: “Why art thou disquieted, O my soul! and why art thou troubled?” But how does he settle the quarrel? “Trust in God, he is thy God.” So wherever there is faith, there is a quiet soul, first or last.

There will be stirring at first; the waters of the soul will not be quiet at once. As in a pair of balances there will be a little stirring when the weight is put in, until it comes to a poise, so in the soul there will be some stirring and moving. It does not come to a quiet, settled state until there is some victory of faith, with some conflict, until at length it rests and stays the soul. Faith has this power to quiet the soul because it gives the soul so strong a bottom. There is reason for it: it sets the soul upon God and upon his promises. Therefore he that trusts in God is as mount Sion (Ps 125:1). You may stir him sometimes and move him, but you cannot remove him. The soul is quiet because it is pitched upon a quiet object.

Therefore, where disturbance in the soul is cherished, and doubts are cherished, there is no faith, or very little faith; because it is the property of faith to silence the soul and to make quiet wherever it comes. This is one evidence and sign of true faith. And this is discerned especially in times of great trouble, for then the soul of the righteous is not disquieted, as you have it in Psalm 112:7-8: “His heart is fixed, therefore he is not afraid of ill tidings.”

4. And therefore add this evidence to the rest: that faith, as it has a quieting power, so it has a power to free the soul from all base fears, from the tyranny of base fear. Some fear will arise. We carry flesh about us, and flesh will always be full of objections and will trouble our peace. But even so, this trusting in God will free the soul from the tyranny and dominion of base fears. If any news or tidings come of any great, hard matter, I ask you, who has his soul best composed at that time? A sound Christian, who has made his peace with God, who has his trust in God, who knows what it is to make use of God, to go to him.

But as for another man, in the time of extremity and trouble he runs here and there. He has no tower to go to; he has no place of refuge to run to. Therefore he is worse off than the poor simple creatures. There is not a creature but has a place to retire to. The poor rabbits have the rocks to go to, and the birds have their nests, and every creature, when night or danger approaches, has its hiding place. Only a wicked, careless man who has not acquainted himself with God has, when troubles come, no hiding place and no abiding place, but lies open to the storm of God’s displeasure. Therefore he is surprised by fears and cares, and pulled to pieces by distractions.

He is like a meteor that hangs in the clouds; he cannot tell which way to fall. But a Christian is no such meteor. He falls square whichever way he falls; cast him which way you will. For his soul is fixed; he has laid his soul upon his God. We see the difference in this between Saul and David. When David was in trouble, he trusted in the Lord his God, when he was ready to be stoned. What does Saul do when he is in trouble? He goes to the witch, and from there to the sword’s point.

5. Again, where there is this excellent grace of trusting in God, and the soul is calmed by the Spirit of God to rely on God in covenant as a Father in Christ, it will rely on God without means and when all things seem contrary. In this way the Spirit of God will distinguish a Christian from a natural man, who will go as far as his brain can reach. If he can see how things can be brought about, he will trust God, as if God had no larger understanding than he has. Where he sees no way or means to contrive a deliverance, and no means to satisfy his desire, there the soul of a natural man sinks and falls down. A shrewd schemer will go as far as reason can carry him. But a Christian, when he sees no means, knows that God can make means.

Now when all things are opposed, if he has a word from God, he will trust God even against the present state and face of things, as Job says, “Though he kill me, yet will I trust in him” (Job 13:15). Therefore in the sense of sin, because there is a promise to sinners that if they confess their sins God will pardon them, he will believe the forgiveness of sins, though he feels the guilt of sin. And in misery he will believe in a way out and an escape, and that God will support him in it, because God has so promised. And in darkness, when he sees no light, as it is in Isaiah 50:10, in such a state he will trust in God.

As a child in the dark clasps hold of his father, so a child of God in darkness, when he sees no light, will clasp hold of his God, and break through the clouds that are between God and his soul. For indeed faith has a piercing eye. It pulls the mask off God’s face. Though God seems angry, yet the believer will believe that God is in covenant with him and is a Father. Therefore, though God shows himself offended in his dealings, yet the believer argues, “God may be offended with me, but he cannot hate me; there is hope.” Faith, where it is in any strength, will believe in the midst of contraries. In death, when a man is turned to rottenness and dust, faith apprehends life and resurrection and glory to come. It will trust in God’s means, or no means, if it has a promise.

6. Again, he who trusts in God truly will trust him for all things, and at all times. For all things, because faith never chooses and singles out its object, to believe this and not that, for all comes from the same God. Therefore he who trusts God for one thing will trust him for all things. If I will trust a man for many pounds, surely I will trust him for a shilling.

He who claims that he will trust God (“God will save me, God is merciful”) and yet will not trust him for common things is deceiving himself with a delusion and flattering his own soul in vain. There is no such trust in him, because he who trusts God for the main thing will trust him for the lesser. Therefore true trust is for all things. He who trusts God for forgiveness of sins, which is the main thing, and has wrestled with God for the forgiveness of sins and found peace with God there, will easily wrestle in other, baser and lesser temptations. As God says to Jacob, “Thou art Israel, thou hast prevailed with God, and shalt prevail over men” (Gen 32:28), so it is with a true Christian. When his conscience is surprised with the fear of God’s wrath, and in that grand point of forgiveness of sins he has gained assurance of the pardon of his sins, then when he has to set upon other, lesser temptations, he overcomes them easily.

(1) Therefore a Christian will trust God with his good name, as he does for forgiveness of sins and life everlasting. “Oh,” someone will say, “you will be talked about in this way and that.” He does not care. He knows the cause is just. He will trust his good name with God, who will bring a man’s righteousness forth clear as the noonday, as David says (Ps 37:6). He who will not trust God with his good name is of a base spirit, and the fear of disgrace keeps many men from many just actions.

(2) He who truly trusts God will trust him with the righting of his cause. He will not pull God’s office out of his hands. He will not revenge himself, but he will trust God: “God will certainly right me, first or last.” He will use only the legal means, and those quietly. But a man who is not acquainted with the Spirit of God is immediately moved to revenge, and has not learned to overcome himself in this conflict. A man has indeed gone very far in religion who can conquer himself in this conflict, who can trust his cause with God when he is wronged and overcome by might, and the like.

So our Savior Christ committed his cause to him “that was able to judge righteously” (1 Pet 2:23). Every true Christian has the spirit of Christ. He, “when he was reviled, retorted not again, but committed the cause to him that was able to judge righteously.” Shall I be able to commit my soul to God in the hour of death, and shall I not be able, in a case of revenge, to commit my case to God when I have done what I may peaceably do? Then I may suspect that I am as yet only a hypocrite, and have no true trust in God.

(3) Again, he who has learned truly to trust God for the grand main matters will likewise trust him with his posterity, with his children, without using indirect means to make them rich, as if they could not be blessed unless they have such and such a portion put into their hand when we die, as if God did not have stock enough for them: “for the earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof” (Ps 24:1). And he is the God of the faithful, and of their seed (Gen 17:7). Is he so? Then let us labor to leave our children in covenant, to leave them in a gracious frame and state of soul, so that they may be God’s children. Then we leave them rich, for we leave them “God all-sufficient” to be their portion.

Therefore those who plead, “I do this only for my posterity and children,” when they are unjust and unscrupulous in their getting, are making this a defense for their unbelief. If they had true faith, they would trust God with their children and posterity, just as they trust him with their souls, or at least claim to.

(4) Again, he who trusts God truly will trust God with his gifts, with the distribution of his alms, with parting with what he has for the present, when he sees it to be like seed cast upon the water. When seed is cast upon the water, we are likely never to see it again. “Oh, but,” says the wise man, “cast thy bread upon the water, and thou shalt see it after a certain time” (Eccl 11:1). He who has learned to trust God will believe this. Though he casts away his bounty, yet he has cast it upon God and Christ, who will return it again; he knows he is only lending to the Lord.

Therefore those who think their bounty and alms and good deeds are lost, because they see no present return, no present crop from that seed, do not have a spirit of trust in God. For he who has it will endeavor to be “rich in good works” (1 Tim 6:18). Indeed, he will count it a special favor, a greater favor, to have a heart to do good than to have means. A reprobate may have means, abundance to do good; but only a child of God has a heart to do good, and when he has gained a large and gracious heart to do good, it pleases him. Then he sees he has evidence that he is the child of God. He knows he shall not lose a cup of cold water, not the least thing that he does in the name of Christ. The understanding of this should make us more fruitful, and “abound in the work of the Lord” (1 Cor 15:58). It is for lack of trust and faith that we are as barren as we are in good works.

(5) Again, he who will trust God with the greatest matters will trust God with his ways for direction. He will not trust his own wit and wisdom, but God. God shall be wise for him. He will follow God’s directions, and whatever is contrary to God’s direction he will not do. He will acknowledge God in all his ways: “Acknowledge God in all thy ways” (Prov 3:6). Acknowledge him to be your guide, your defender, your light to direct you; acknowledge him to be able and willing to give you success; acknowledge God in all your ways and deliberations. And especially when we have any great matters in hand, oh, I beseech you, let us learn to acknowledge God. What is it to acknowledge him? It is to go to him for direction and protection in doing our duty, and to seek him for strength and for success; this is to acknowledge God in our ways.

What makes men so unfortunate and unsuccessful in their deliberations? It is because they are so faithless. They do not acknowledge God in their ways, but trust too much to seeming things and the appearance of things; they are carried away too much by that. However well things seem to go, let nothing make us give up acknowledging God. Indeed, when things are ever so bad, let us acknowledge God, for God can set all straight and right again.

Alas! What a small matter it is for him who rules heaven and earth, and turns this great wheel of all things, to turn the lesser wheels, to order lesser business, and to bring it to a happy outcome and conclusion! It is only a little matter for his command, seeing he rules all things. It is only a matter of trusting in him and praying to him, and then using the means with dependence upon him. Let us therefore acknowledge God in this way, by committing our ways and affairs to him. We need knowledge and strength, and a comfortable outcome for all that is necessary in our affairs; let us acknowledge God, and fetch all these from him.

(6) Well, the last thing we have any use of trusting God with is this: when we are dying, to trust our souls, to commit them to God, and yield them up to him, our deposit, to lay it with him. He who has accustomed himself to trust God all his life, and to live by faith, will be able at length to die by faith with some comfort. He who has trusted God all his life with all the things God has entrusted to him can easily trust God with his soul. And he who has not accustomed himself to trust God in this life will undoubtedly never trust God with his soul when he dies. It is only a forced trust.

Thus you see that in all the passages of our lives we must learn to trust God and to make use of God, for God is so abundant that he is never drawn dry. He rejoices when he is made use of. It is an honor to him. Let us test ourselves by what I have said, whether we truly trust God or not. Let us not deceive our own souls, but labor to trust God for all things. Let it be our daily practice in the use of means. Look to the course he prescribes for us, and then look up to him for strength and blessing and success.

This ought to be the life of a Christian: “The eye to heaven,” as they say of the helmsman of a ship. He has his hand on the helm and his eye on the polestar, to be directed by that. So it is with the life of a Christian. He must have his hand on the helm, he must be doing what God prescribes for him, and he must have his eye on the star, to be guided in his course by God’s direction. He who does not have this does not know what it is to trust in God.

How shall we bring our souls to this duty that is so necessary? Indeed, it is a very hard matter. We know what it is to live by our wits, by our wealth, by our lands; but what it is to live by faith in depending upon God, few souls are acquainted with that.

Therefore, in the first place, learn to know God. You see here that we must trust in his name. We know men by their names. God and his name are all one. His name is himself, and himself is his name. Therefore, let us learn to know God as he has revealed himself: know him in his works, but especially in his word; know him by that word, as he has revealed himself in his word.

Let us know his promises and have them in store for all undertakings whatsoever: promises for grace and for direction in this world. God will not “fail us, nor forsake us” (Josh 1:5). He will be with us in all extremities, “in the fire and in the water” (Isa 43:2). Then there are the promises of the outcome: “All things shall work for good to them that love God” (Rom 8:28). And there is the promise of his Spirit: “He will give his Holy Spirit to them that ask him” (Luke 11:13). Besides these, there are particular promises, a world of them in Scripture. Let us know God in these promises; they are our inheritance, our portion.

And if we should go to God without being acquainted with these, he will ask us on what ground we come. How shall we be able to go to God? But when we have his promise, we may say boldly with the psalmist, “Lord, remember thy promise, wherein thou hast caused thy servant to trust” (Ps 119:49). We may put God in remembrance. It is not that he forgets, but he will have us mindful of what he promises, and will have us put him in mind. And it is an evidence to our souls that he will grant anything, when we have faith to put him in mind of his promise: “Lord, remember thy promise, wherein thou hast caused thy servant to trust.” Lord, you cannot deny your word, and your truth, and yourself, and your promise, and your name by which you have made yourself known.

Thus we should know God in his word, as it is in Psalm 9:10: “They that know thy name will trust in thee, O Lord.” We never trust a man until we know him; and of those who are not good, we say they are better known than trusted. But the more we know God, the more we shall trust him.

And besides the promises, know him in his special attributes that the word sets him forth in, so that we may know he is able to make good all these promises; and then we shall trust him. What are those attributes? He has made himself known to be all-sufficient. What a world of comfort is in that! He says to Abraham, “I am God all-sufficient: walk before me, and be perfect” (Gen 17:1). Take no thought for anything else: “I am God all-sufficient.” There is in him whatever may serve as an object of trust.

He is all-sufficient. He has power. “Our trust is in the name of the Lord, that made heaven and earth” (Ps 124:8). There is a consideration to strengthen faith: there is power enough. We believe in a God who made heaven and earth. And there is will to help us: he is our God. And there is skill to help us, as St. Peter says: “He knows how to deliver” (2 Pet 2:9). It is his practice. He has used it from the beginning of the church, and will to the end. He knows how to deliver them, to protect and stand by them; he has power, and will, and skill to do it.

And then again, he is everywhere. He is such a castle, and tower, and defense. We have him near us at all times: he is “a present help in trouble,” as it is in Psalm 46:1. What an object of trust is here, if only we had faith to make use of it! Let us therefore know God in his word, in his attributes, and this will be a means to strengthen trust, as it is in Psalm 36:7: “How sweet is thy goodness; therefore shall the sons of men trust under the shadow of thy wings.” Why do we come under the shadow of God’s wing? Because his goodness is sweet: he is a fit object for trust. The things of this world, the more we know them, the less we trust them, for they are only vain. But there is such infiniteness in God that the more we know him, the more we shall trust him. Therefore, let us grow in the knowledge of God’s word and truth.

And add experiential knowledge. It helps trust marvelously: the experience of others, and our own experience. We see that God has helped his church in all times, especially when they have sought him by fasting and prayer: “Our fathers trusted in thee, and were not confounded” (Ps 22:4-5). Therefore, if we trust in you, we shall not be confounded. So also for our own experience: “Thou hast been my God from my mother’s womb; I have depended upon thee from my mother’s breast: forsake me not in mine old years, in my gray hairs, when my strength faileth me” (Ps 71:18).

Thus, from former experience, we may reason with God that he will not forsake us now, because we have had experience of his kindness in former times. He has been my God from my childhood; therefore he will be now. This is a good argument, because God is as he was. He is the same; he is never drawn dry: “Where he loves, he loves to the end” (John 13:1). Where he begins, he will end. Therefore this should strengthen our faith, to gather experience from former things. Thus David cites the lion and the bear; and so St. Paul: “He hath delivered me, therefore he will deliver me” (2 Tim 4:17-18). It is ordinary with the saints of God.

Again, if we would trust in God, labor every day to be acquainted with God in daily prayer, in hearing, and reading, and meditation. We trust friends with whom we are much acquainted. But as for those who are not acquainted with God in that communion which belongs to Christians, who do not often talk with God by prayer and meditation, when they go to God in extremity, what will God say to them? “On what acquaintance? You are strangers to me, and I will be a stranger to you.” And Wisdom itself will laugh at their destruction (Prov 1:26), when they force acquaintance upon God once they have use for him, and never care for him in the time of peace.

Therefore, if we would trust God and go to God boldly (and who is there here now who will not have need of him? We have need of him continually, but sometimes more than others), then, I say, let us be acquainted with him, so that we may afterward trust him. Those who do not take care to be acquainted with God either have no heart to go to God, or if they have, they get only a cold answer. But indeed, for the most part, they have no heart to go to God, for their hearts misgive them and tell them they have been careless of God, they have neglected God. Therefore God will not regard them: “Go to the gods ye have trusted,” as it is in Judges 10:14. Our comfort when we are in trouble, beloved, will answer to our care in the time of peace.

Therefore I beseech you, let us remember this as one means to strengthen our trust: our daily acquaintance with God. And let us so acquaint ourselves with him as to keep him our friend and not to offend him, for if we offend him, we shall not trust him. A galled conscience is afraid of God, as a sore eye is of light. A comfortable confidence comes from a conscientious care to please God. This is our boldness and confidence, says Paul (2 Cor 1:12), that we have labored to “keep a good conscience” (Heb 13:18), that we may have him as our friend.

Again, let us labor to exercise our trust upon all occasions, for things that are exercised are the brighter and the stronger. Let us accustom ourselves to trust in God for all things, and to trust him with all things: with our bodies, with our souls, with our estates, with our children, with our ways, with our good name, with our credit and reputation, with all, as I said before in the signs of trust. Faith grows in the exercise, as we see in Psalm 62, a psalm expressing David’s trust in God and the conflict with his soul in trusting. He begins, “Yet my soul waits upon the Lord”; and in Psalm 62:2, “I shall not be greatly moved,” he says. But when he had gone on and exercised his faith further, then he says in Psalm 62:6, “He is my rock, and my Savior, and defense; I shall not be moved.” He who at the beginning says, “I shall not greatly be moved,” afterward, working upon his heart and soul and exercising his faith, says, “I shall not be moved; he is my rock, my Savior and defense.”

Faith is the engine by which we do all, by which we prevail with God and overcome the world and all the snares on the right hand and on the left; it is that by which we do all. Therefore we need to keep it in exercise, and to train it, so that we may have it to manage and use upon all occasions. It is not enough to have faith in us, but we must live by it. It must not only live in us, but we must live by it. This is another way to strengthen this faith and assurance and trusting in God.

The next is to practice what I spoke of this morning, to grow “poor in spirit,” “for they shall trust in the name of the Lord” (Zeph 3:12). Let us labor more and more to see our own need. A Christian should have a double eye: one to look to himself and his own need, to be humbled; another eye to God’s promise, to God’s nature, to trust in God. And thus we should pass our days. The more we can empty ourselves, the more we shall be filled with God. We see here in the text the way to trust in God, to be “poor in spirit.” The reason is in nature. Whoever is not poor in himself and does not see a necessity will never go out of himself, for he has some other supply.

Therefore, if we would learn to trust in God, we must learn to empty ourselves of all self-confidence, by observing our weakness and need, by taking notice not so much of our graces as of what we lack. When Moses came from the mount, his face shone, and he did not know it. All the world about him knew it except himself, but he did not observe it, says the Scripture (Exod 34:29). So when a Christian considers, especially in temptations to pride, not what he has but what he lacks (how little good he has done, how many evil thoughts and actions have passed from him, how short he is in fruitfulness and thankfulness to God), this is the way to trust in God, for then we will keep close to God, when we do see our own weakness.

And let us labor to have a spirit of sanctification, to have our souls more and more renewed to trust in God, or else all other courses are nothing. For when it comes to particulars, if the soul is not sanctified, there is no correspondence and harmony between it and God. How can an unsanctified soul close with a holy God? Therefore we must labor to be good and to do good, as the apostle Peter says, “to commit our souls to God in doing good” (1 Pet 4:19). Let us labor to be good, to get grace, and then there will be a harmony, a natural kinship, between a holy God and a holy soul; and then we shall trust and rely upon him easily. Where there is no grace in the heart subduing corruptions, when it comes to particulars, whether to trust in God or man, then the soul will rebel, and scorn, as it were, trusting in God. It will go to wits, to friends, to favors, and other helps.

Let a man be ever so great a scholar, of ever so great abilities; when he comes to any strait, if he does not have grace in him, he will disdain out of pride of spirit (for every man is naturally deeply proud) to rely upon conscience, and upon the truth and promises of the word, and upon such terms. “These are weak things.” No, he will rather stir hell and earth and all means. He counts it greatness that he can do so. It is only the holy man who will cleave fast to God, and to his truth and word, for he relishes it. The Spirit who penned the Scriptures and the promises rules in his heart, and therefore he relishes them. Oh, these promises are sweet! And as he can trust the promises, so he can trust God, because, as I said before, he is acquainted with them. Where there is not a gracious heart, there will never be a believing, trusting heart.

There is in God an infiniteness of ways of supply. Let us labor therefore for a prudent heart, to learn the skill of fetching out of God for all necessities. As our need is, so let us fetch supply from some attribute of God and some promise that answers to it. This is the wisdom of the saints of God. Are we in extremity? Then say with Jehoshaphat, “We know not, Lord, what to do: but our eyes are toward thee” (2 Chr 20:12). Are we perplexed because we lack wisdom? Then go to God, who is infinitely wise. Consider him so, for he is fit for the soul; indeed, he exceeds all the maladies and needs of the soul. There is not only abundance in God, but redundance and overflowing abundance. Therefore nothing is lacking but skill to make use of what is in him for our need.

Are we wronged? Go to God, who “judgeth righteously” (Jer 11:20); consider him in that relation, as a God “to whom vengeance belongeth” (Ps 94:1). Are we overpowered? Go to God, “that made heaven and earth” (Ps 115:15), to the Almighty God. Are we troubled with the sense of sin? Go to God, who is “the Father of all mercy, and God of all comfort” (2 Cor 1:3). Are we cast down, and no man regards us? Go to God, who styles himself “the comforter of the abject” (2 Cor 7:6).

This is the skill that faith learns: not only to think of God in general, but to think of God in a way that answers to all occasions, as indeed there is something in God to satisfy the soul in all extremities whatsoever. I beseech you, let us learn to do this. What a happy condition he is in who has learned to train his soul to trust in God for the removal of all ill and for the obtaining of all good! He is sure of all. “For God is a sun and a shield” (Ps 84:11): a sun for all that is good, and a shield to defend us from all ill. He is so to all who trust in him. He is a “buckler, and an exceeding great reward” (Ps 18:30; Gen 15:1). He is a buckler to ward off and shield ill from us, and an exceeding great reward for all that is good.

Therefore in how happy a condition is the soul that is acquainted with this blessed exercise of trusting and believing in God! It is a state in which we shall be kept from all ill. I mean from the ill of ills: not from the ill that we feel, but from the ill of ills, and from the poison of all ill. Whatever ill we endure, there shall be comfort mixed with it; and it is better to have it than the comfort. What a comfort this is! “They that trust in the Lord shall want nothing that is good” (Ps 34:10). “He that trusts in the Lord is as a tree planted by the river side” (Jer 17:7-8). He shall always have his leaf flourishing and bear fruit, because he is at the wellhead.

He who has the spring can never lack water, and he who is in the sun can never lack light. He who is at the great feast can never lack provision. He who has learned to trust in God, and can make use of what is in him, what can he lack? Oh, it is the scarcity of our faith that makes us lack comfort! As our faith is, so is our comfort; and if we could bring a thousand times larger faith to grasp the promises, we should carry away larger comfort and strength.