Sermon 17: Upon Ephesians Chapter 3

7. I am made a minister of the Gospel, according to God's grace, which is given me through the working of his power. 8. This grace is given to me, who am the least of all the saints, to preach among the Gentiles the incomprehensible riches of Christ. 9. To open to all men what the communicating of the mystery is, which was hid from the beginning of all times in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ.

I have told you heretofore how Saint Paul had an eye to two things, showing that he was certainly appointed to publish the Gospel through the whole world, and specially among the Gentiles. For no man ought to go about to usurp any office in the Church, but God ought to have that authority: and according to the everlasting order which he has set down, let us look to follow the same, so as they that go about to advance themselves, may be put down, and no man take any degree upon him, but he that is called. Therefore mark it for a special point, that Saint Paul meant to excuse himself of rashness, by showing that he did not thrust himself in to be an Apostle, but had good and sure warrant that God had appointed him to it. And therewith also he meant to assure the Gentiles, to the intent they should receive the message of their salvation, as proceeding of God, and not of man. For we must always be at this point, that the forgiveness of sins is too precious a thing for us to be assured of by the authority of man. Then must we be fully resolved, that it is God which speaks, to the end we may conclude, that whatever is unbound on earth, is unbound also in heaven. And forasmuch as Saint Paul had formerly been an enemy to the Gospel, and had persecuted the Christians, and blasphemed God: it seemed that that should have impeded the receiving of him for an Apostle, and the yielding of such reputation to him as was requisite that he should have. Therefore he prevents the things that might be alleged to bereave him of all reverence, and says, that they must not have an eye to his own person, nor to his deserving, but to God's advancing of him by his grace, and by a power that is not ordinary among men. It is true that Saint Paul does always humble himself as much as may be, that men may the better know God's free bestowed goodness. And that also is the rule that we must hold, because God will have all mouths stopped, and none of us all to have anything whereof to boast. For it is certain, that we shall evermore but rob God of his honor, if we confess not that we are beholden to him for all things, and that we have not anything at all of our own. But (as I have touched already) he meant here to put away all obstacles, to the end that no man might upbraid him, that he was unworthy of so excellent and great dignity, as to be of the number of the Apostles. His intent then was, to show that God's grace surmounted all the impediments that could be in him before. First he sets down God's grace. It had been enough for him to have granted God so great a prerogative, as to hold all things of him: but he sets down two words [reconstructed: more], to exclude all that might be demanded of him. How now? (might some man have said:) such condition, and such ought to be in an Apostle: have you such virtue? And so you see why he was not contented to set down simply the gift, but also would needs add, free bestowed. And afterward he magnifies the same gift yet more, saying, that God worked therein according to the working of his power. To be short, he gives men to understand, that they ought to espy a singular and wonderful goodness of God in him, and therewith a power not ordinary among men. Those are the two points which we have to mark. Now forasmuch as in the first to Timothy he says also, that he himself both is, and ought to serve us all for a looking glass, let us learn to apply the same to us.

And first of all, whatever we ask of God, let us understand that the same must issue to us from the wellspring of his only mercy and free bounty, to the end we should forget all self-deserving. For it is the next way to shut us out of the door, when we come to God, if we imagine to bring anything of ourselves. Mark that for one point. And secondly to amend all distrust, let us hope that God will do more than all our wits can conceive. For it is not in us to measure his infinite power: and therefore whatever he has given us already, let us think ourselves beholden to his goodness for it, let us do him homage for it, and let us yield him the praise of it, as fitting we should. And so you see, that the thing which we have to gather upon Saint Paul's example, is, that we must with all humility beseech God to work so in us by his own mere grace, as his name may be glorified thereby, because there is no deserving to be found in us. Also let us be out of doubt, that his power passes all our capacity, so as we may every way give him place and entrance, and not shut him out from us through our unbelief. Do we know that once? Has God showed us his mercy and power, and made us to feel them by experience? Let us put them in use to the uttermost of our power, and let us not seek to deface his glory, under color that he has made us more excellent than others, as though we had deserved anything of ourselves, but let us yield him his due, and that which ought to be his peculiar own.

And with this, to continue his matter, he adds, that this grace was given to him — even to him the least of all the Saints. This serves to expound that which he had said concerning the gift of grace. Now hereupon we have to mark, that if we intend to yield God that which we owe him, we must be utterly abased in ourselves. For so long as men fall to parting of stakes with God, and will needs be somewhat of themselves: it is all one as if they would set themselves against God, and be their own carvers. To be short, God never has his full right, except we be rid quite and clean of all. Therefore a man cannot discern how Saint Paul held all things of God's mere grace and free gift, but by considering his former slenderness, that is to say, by considering what manner of one he had been, and what his estate had been before. And this is a point of great importance: for we see how men covet always to reserve somewhat to themselves. And although they grant, that God deserves to be exalted without end: yet can they not find in their hearts to forgo the whole praise of the things that he has given them, but would like to be esteemed and held in some reputation for them. Seeing that we be so much given to vainglory, and that there is not a harder thing for us to do, than to humble ourselves with such lowliness as God requires: it stands us in hand to mark this doctrine so much the more, wherein we see, that God shall never be honored as he deserves, till we be thrust down under his feet, and have not anything therefore to be esteemed, but be become like wretched creatures that have nothing in us but misery, whereby God may have occasion to show forth his mercy upon us. Lo how Saint Paul yielded the praise of all things to God's free gift without hypocrisy, by acknowledging himself to be the least of all others.

And let us mark also, that Saint Paul's so doing, was not a feigned modesty, after the manner of most men, which will commonly say, and make as it were a proverb of it, O sir, I am the meanest and least able of all men: and yet in so saying with their mouth, they cease not to have their hearts puffed up with pride. In so much that in very deed, if a man should answer them, I believe it well: they would be as hot as a toast, and would rather be found liars, than to give over their self-conceit, with which they be so full freighted. Saint Paul used no such ceremony full of untruth, but protested truly the thing as he thought it, accordingly as in another place to the Corinthians, he says, he is not worthy to be named an Apostle, because he had persecuted God's Church, and withstood his truth. And again, when he sets forth himself for an example in the first to Timothy, to the end we should not doubt but that God shows himself merciful toward us: he says, he had blasphemed the Gospel, and been full of cruelty, seeking to shed innocent blood. There then Saint Paul shows well enough, that there was no counterfeitness in his confession, and that his lowliness proceeded from his heart. For he would have chosen to have been out of esteem in the eyes of the world, and to have received all manner of reproach to himself, yes and to have been taken for a cursed wretch: rather than to have disgraced God's goodness. And just as his doctrine was to endure forever: so he meant to have his faults known in all ages and all times to the world's end, referring all things to this point, namely, that men might know how God had set him as it were upon a scaffold, to assure us that he will show himself as free-hearted toward us also at this day: and that on the other side we should not be ashamed to acknowledge our own wretchedness, to the intent that God's grace may have the greater glory in us. Therefore let us remember upon this text, that we do then offer God such sacrifice of praise, as he deserves, when we protest truly and sincerely, that all the good which is in us, comes of his grace, who has bestowed it upon us, and that we cannot challenge anything at all to ourselves: but that when we have examined all that is our own, we shall find none other things at all, than such as may cause us to cast down our eyes, and make us ashamed. After this manner, I say, must we follow the thing that Saint Paul shows us here. Indeed, and let neither spite nor vainglory hinder us to humble ourselves among our neighbors. For here Saint Paul has not only shown that he was indebted to God for all things, and that he was bound to him for all the good things that he had, because they came of his only mere goodness and free gift: but also therewith abases himself, in comparison of the rest of the Apostles. Now then, let us rid away this cursed affection which is over deeply rooted in our nature, namely, of desiring to be lifted up in such a way, as men should look at us above other men, and commend us more than others. For we see how Saint Paul, who was so excellent, did notwithstanding stoop to that lowness: therefore let us endeavor to fashion ourselves like to him. And let us think well upon this saying of our Lord Jesus Christ, that he which will be exalted of God, must be brought low in himself. So then, let us be little ones of our own accord, and then it is certain that God will reach us his hand. And although he send us neither stateliness nor dignity: yet will he give us so much thereof as shall be needful, at least if we have the true meekness of seeking nothing else but to be governed by his hand.

But here it might be demanded, how Saint Paul acknowledges himself a little one, seeing he has done more than all the rest, as he himself says in the previously cited place of the first to the Corinthians. Saint Paul was not ignorant of the gracious gifts that he had received at God's hand, nor did he mean to abase them in his mouth as hypocrites do, which say, I am nothing at all: for he knew well that God had endowed him with great [reconstructed: gifts], and it is not a point of humility to say, I have neither skill nor wit, nor any thing worthy of praise: for if we speak [reconstructed: thus], we are ungrateful to God, as they that bury his benefits wherein his glory ought to shine forth. Saint Paul then meant not here to show, that he was a man without knowledge, and without the gifts of the Holy Ghost, or that he had received less portion of them than other men had: but his calling of himself the least, was in respect of that which he had been before he was a member of the Church. For our Lord Jesus Christ had in his lifetime chosen and [reconstructed: singled out] the twelve, to whom he gave commission to publish the Gospel through the whole world. And now in the mean while what was Saint Paul? He was not only a private person, but also banished, and cut off as a rotten member from the company of the faithful. And besides that, Satan drove him forward to all cruelty, so long as God's Spirit was not in him. He had indeed a kind of zeal, but that was stark madness, for he ceased not for all that to fight against God in his own [reconstructed: unbelief]: he did it ignorantly, but yet could not that excuse him. So then we see that his terming of himself the least, was not without cause, according to which he says in another place, that he was as an untimely birth, and that it was not to be thought that ever he should have come to the spiritual life, of which he was a minister. For he was as a rotten carcass, and there was no [reconstructed: likelihood] that ever he should have come to the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, seeing he was run so far [reconstructed: astray], and had been as a tempest in thundering upon the Church, and as a [reconstructed: ravening wolf], that [reconstructed: sought] nothing else but to [reconstructed: seek] his prey. And so we see how his confessing of himself to be the least of the saints, was unfeigned, namely as in respect of his former state. But God, who not only exalts the thing that is small and low, but also makes what he pleases of nothing, vouchsafed to change him after that fashion, to the end that that miracle should amaze us as often as we think upon it, and we not only learn to magnify God's goodness in that deed, but also apply the same to our own use: and therewith every one of us bethink himself advisedly, and return to our former state, (I mean not to be such as we were in old times,) but consider well of it, [reconstructed: and] to examine ourselves thoroughly, that God's infinite grace and goodness may [reconstructed: appear] the more in us. That then is in [reconstructed: brief] that we have to remember concerning Saint Paul. And therefore as often and whenever the great treasures of God's mercy which are imparted to us in our Lord Jesus Christ, are preached to us: let us be sure that every bit thereof was warranted to us in Saint Paul's person, and that he spoke not as of things unknown, but that he had sure experience of them, and that in his person we may see still with our eyes, the thing that he uttered with his mouth.

Now let us come to the gracious gift that he speaks of, which is the publishing of the incomprehensible riches of our Lord Jesus Christ, by the Gospel. It was a great matter that Saint Paul had been received to be a sheep: but God thinking not that to be enough, did put him in office of a shepherd. The thing then which he means here, is, that whereas he had been a wolf full of cruelty, he was not only changed to become a lamb, to obey the voice of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to be quiet in his flock: but also exalted of God to a much greater and higher dignity, insomuch as he was ordained a messenger of man's salvation, and a dealer forth of all the riches of our Lord Jesus Christ, which nevertheless are incomprehensible: not that we ought not to seek them, but because the measure of them does utterly exceed our capacity. Now then we see the effect of that which Saint Paul teaches here: going forward still with the thing that he began with before, namely that we must understand that he did not thrust himself forth through foolish overboldness, to take upon him the office of an Apostle, but that he was called to it from on high, and set in that degree by God. And further let us assure ourselves, that this doctrine was not put forth into the air at random, but leveled at us by God's Holy Ghost, and by his wonderful foreordained purpose, as we shall see anon after. Therefore let us not think that Saint Paul has spoken only for those whom he presently taught, and that in the mean season the same doctrine belongs not to us: but let us rather understand how it was God's will, that Saint Paul's labor should be to our benefit at this day, and that we should receive profit by it. That is it which we have to remember concerning the process of the text.

And therefore let us understand, that whenever the Gospel is preached to us, we have there inestimable riches, insomuch that when we have thoroughly set all our wits to the bolting out of the knowledge of the things that are offered us [illegible], we may well have [illegible] taste thereof, but we shall never perceive [illegible] how free [illegible] God is toward us, howbeit it is enough for us that we can after some sort perceive his goodness, and be assured [illegible]. It is true that we ought to be ravished in love with it: but yet however we fare, we shall never get past half our way, insomuch that even he that has as good as quite given over the world, and forgotten all the enticements and pleasures here beneath, and is (as you would say) led by an angelic mind to aspire to the kingdom of heaven, shall notwithstanding have comprehended but a small portion of the riches of our Lord Jesus Christ. This is a thing which ought to make us esteem the Gospel otherwise than we have done. [illegible] on the other side, it will be a horrible condemnation to our unthankfulness, if we think the things that are set forth in the Gospel to be but ordinary matters, seeing that our Lord Jesus Christ utters there the infinite treasures of his goodness. And moreover also we must understand, that when we once have our Lord Jesus Christ, we may well give over all other things as needless and superfluous.

For if we be at the point that the Papists are, who can well enough say, Jesus Christ our Redeemer, and therewith thrust him into the throng of their he-saints and she-saints, so as Christ is as it were but a little fellow shuffled in among the rest: I say, if we be at that point: surely we renounce Jesus Christ, in disguising him so through our lewdness. So much the more then does it behoove us to weigh well this text, where it is said, that his riches are incomprehensible, that we may set our whole minds thereupon, and exert ourselves even beyond our power, to know the good things that are communicated to us by Jesus Christ: for it is certain, that the measure of our faith shall never attain to the uttermost. Since it is so, let us assure ourselves (as I said before) that our Lord [illegible] Christ ought to suffice us thoroughly once for all: for we shall [illegible] in him whatever we can wish. And as soon as we swerve from him, we may well surmise we have won I know not what, but it shall be but wind, which shall fill us to no purpose. So then, let [illegible] Lord Jesus be known as he is, that is to say, with the whole [illegible] of his benefits. For it is certain, that by him we obtain [illegible] that ever we can ask at God's [illegible]; where else, it is a straying out of the way: for it is said, that he is the way, and that by him we have access to God his Father (John 14:6). In [illegible] that it is his office to guide us to God his Father, thereby he shows us that we shall be satisfied of all that ever we need, and that we shall [illegible] to our salvation, so we rest wholly upon him. And on the contrary part, that when we wander out on the one side or on the other, it is a plain renouncing of all the benefits that are offered us in his person: and therefore we be well worthy to starve when we [illegible] needs add anything at all to our Lord Jesus Christ, seeing that God has showed himself so bountiful in him, that he has not forgotten any of all the things that belong to the fullness of our felicity, joy, and glory. Also we be warned by Saint Paul's example, that the more that any of us is exalted at God's hand, the more he should humble himself, acknowledging how much he is bound to him. True it is, that even they which are furthest of all behind, have cause enough to magnify God's goodness, for his calling of them into his Church. For what a thing is it for us to be reckoned as God's children, as heirs of his kingdom, and as members of our Lord Jesus Christ, to be partakers of the glory into which he is entered (Luke 24:26)? Now the Christian that is (as you would say) an underling to all others, [illegible] in a little nook, a rascal and an idiot which has nothing but scorning in this world: is nevertheless adopted of God into the number of his children, to be of the body of our Lord Jesus Christ. So then, even the least have enough to glorify God's grace: but they that are advanced to any degree of honor, have so much the [illegible], if they honor not God for the thing which it has pleased him [illegible] to bestow upon them above other men. As for example, if a [illegible] knowledge and grace to serve the Church withal, it is certain, that he is doubly guilty, if he acknowledge not himself so much the more [illegible] to God for it. Also they that by their strength or [illegible] are able to do more than other poor men, that have no more than wherewith to govern themselves, ought also of duty to [illegible] themselves before God, and to stoop in such wise as there may be [illegible] no presumptuousness nor overweening in them, to puff them up withal. To be short, look as every man has received grace through God's goodness, so ought his mark always to be that God [illegible] honored, and to confess that we be the more beholden and [illegible] to him, for that he has [illegible] so liberally with us. That is [illegible] thing more which we have to gather upon the example of Saint Paul.

But forasmuch as he had spoken of the riches of Jesus Christ, he tells us, that those riches were then uttered, when God's mysteries were published to such as had been blind wretches before. And I have already expounded to you this word Mystery, Secret, or privacy, according to Saint Paul's applying of it in this text. I said in effect, that all God's works being well considered, have with which to draw us to wonderment. And why? Because they proceed of his righteousness, justice, goodness, and wisdom, which are all of them things infinite. When we speak of God's wisdom, power, or justice, they are not things that we can define as though we had full knowledge of them, as we can do of the things that we see here below. You see then how that all God's works, when we come to the considering of them from where they proceed, are wonderful to us. Well then. And are not all the things that we see in the order of nature, God's works too? Yes: but we partly see what they are, and partly our minds come short of them. As for example, if it is demanded by what means the earth brings forth fruits, we know it does so, because it is common among us. But if the cause thereof is demanded, surely there all our minds vanish away. For is the earth able of herself to yield forth corn? Is it able to make the things to live again, which were as good as dead? From where come the leaves and blossoms of trees, and all such like things, after that winter has put all out of fashion? Again, how can fruits, corn, and wine nourish men, seeing they have no life of themselves? Then if we fall to seeking out the ground of God's works, it is (as I said) a bottomless pit, and we are constrained to confess, that God has in himself an infinite wisdom, to which we cannot attain. However, God's [illegible] now and then [illegible] more wonderful to us, when we find the cause of them [illegible] to our natural wit and understanding. As for example, whereas it is said, that it was God's will that the Gospel should be preached upon the sudden through the whole world: it was (to see to) a very mad kind of dealing, if we judge of it after our own imagination. For some man will demand why God bethought him [illegible] to the hope of salvation, since he had shut them out from [illegible]. Behold, the world which had continued so long time before, was renewed again at the flood. And we see how God suffers the heathen folk to walk in destruction. When all manner of wickedness was come to its full height, and overflowed the world as a horrible flood, then suddenly God showed himself. And is not that a secret to astonish men withal? Now like as the wicked, and all such as despise God, and all worldlings are dazzled at these things, and so far out of regard with the strangeness of them, that they could find in their hearts to go to law with God: so the faithful are taught to know, that God's wisdom is incomprehensible.

Again, Saint Paul speaking hereof in the fourth chapter of the second to the Corinthians, sends us back to the creation of the world, saying, that if we think it strange that God should enlighten blind wretches, and that such as were but wandering beasts before, should be brought into the way of salvation by the doctrine of the Gospel: we should consider how the light was created at the beginning. What was there in the confused lump, of which it is said, that God created the heaven and the earth? There was neither beauty, nor order, nor aught else; darkness covered all, as it is said in Moses. But God commanded that light should be made, and so he drew light out of darkness. Therefore (says Saint Paul) although the world was in irksome darkness, and that the Gentiles had their eyes as good as stopped up, so as there was not any knowledge of salvation at all: yet God at the coming of his only Son, showed how his promising by his prophets that he would gather the world to him, was not for nothing. And so you see, how he brings light out of darkness new again. However the case stands, we must always come back to this point, that the drawing of the Gentiles to the hope of salvation by the doctrine of the Gospel, was a secret of God. And he speaks of the communicating of it to them, because God had kept it secret to himself, and therefore he adds, that it had been unknown in all times and all ages. And how so? For God kept it secret to himself.

We are warned new again in this text, to reverence God's incomprehensible ordinance, when we hear speaking of our salvation, and to consider that it is a work which passes all our capacity, and that if we mean to have such knowledge of it, as is good and profitable to glorify God withal: we must be as it were at our [illegible] end, to say, it is a thing that I cannot understand aright. True it is, that we ought to set our whole study thereupon: and it behooves us to exercise ourselves in it all the time of our life, as we see in the other text. But however we deal, yet must the final knitting up of it always be, that God has not compassed the work of our salvation, according to our slender capacity and weakness, but meant to humble us, to the end we should be abashed in ourselves. And when we have reverenced his everlasting ordinance, which is hidden from us, let us employ all the power and ability which we have, to the praising of his holy name. This is the thing that we have to bear in mind: and look what is spoken to all men generally, that must every one of us apply particularly to himself. For Saint Paul treats here of the coming of the Gospel, to us which come of the race of the Gentiles, and says, that the same is a secret of God. Now if every one of us looks into himself, and demands this question of himself, how comes it to pass, that I am made partaker of the Gospel? How have I been brought into the Church? I say, if we consider well these things, we shall all of us from the greatest to the least confess, that our Lord has worked after an unaccustomed fashion. For it is not of the order of nature, that God has so reformed us and created us the second time, to the end we should be his children, and bear his image: but it is a very miracle which ought to ravish us and amaze us, as I have said already. Let that serve for one point.

And besides that, forasmuch as I must be compelled to reserve that which follows, till another time: let us note for a conclusion, that when there is any speaking of God's secrets, it is good reason that we should be sober, and suffer ourselves to be ignorant in the things that God has not revealed to us. That is the thing which we have to consider upon the word Communicate, for even very experience shows what the end of them is, which give heed to their own curiosity, and will needs know all things, and search out all God's secrets piece by piece. They that mount up into such overweening, shall in the end be confounded. And the higher that they climb, the more horrible shall their fall be, and God must needs cast them down utterly. Therefore let us learn to know no more than God discloses to us: for it is fitting for him to show us so much of his power and purpose, as he thinks good. When it pleases him to open to us the things that were strange before, then let us learn them of him, and not say, this is too dark: but let us pray him to give us such understanding by his Holy Spirit, as we may perceive whatever he shows us by his word. You see then how we ought to be diligent and heedful in receiving the things that God has vouchsafed to teach us in his holy Scripture, and the things that are preached to us in his name. But therewith let us also wait till he imparts to us what he thinks good, and let us not thrust ourselves in at all adventure to know more than is lawful for us, but let us be contented with that which God shows us, assuring ourselves that it is not for any envy that he suffers us to know no more, but for that he has regard for what is expedient and beneficial for us, and therefore gives us such light as he thinks fitting, in measure and proportion. Thus you see in effect, how Saint Paul meant that the Gospel was communicated to him: and also that the Gentiles received their part of it by his means, insomuch that all men knew the things that were as good as buried from them before, till God brought them forth to light. Likewise let us at this day understand, that whenever it pleases God to raise up men of skill which have the gift to teach us, it is a sure token that he has pitied us beforehand, and is minded to call us to the inheritance of salvation. And therefore let us be teachable, let us suffer ourselves to be taught by the word that is preached to us, and let us covet no further, but let us rest upon that which God shows us. For the only means to satisfy us, is to be contented with the free goodness which he has uttered towards us, which (as I said before) is infinite, because the treasures of his mercy which he has poured out upon us, do pass all man's capacity, insomuch that our unthankfulness shall be too inexcusable, if our own desires and likings lead us to know more than is revealed to us.

Now let us fall down before the majesty of our good God, with acknowledgment of our faults, praying him to forgive them, and to blot out the remembrance of them, and to give us the grace to frame our lives to his holy will and commandments, so as we may show by our deeds, that forasmuch as he has adopted us to be his children, we also do honor him as our father. And therefore let us all say, Almighty God, heavenly father, etc.