Chapter 3: The Opening of the Charter — Things Present Are a Believer's

And now I come to that great question, what are the things contained in the Charter?

There are two words in the text that express it, things present, and things to come. I begin with the first.

1. Things present are a believer's. Among these things present, there are three specified in the text: Paul and Apollo, the world, life, etc. Here is, methinks, a row of pearl: I will take every one of these asunder, and show you their worth, then see how rich a believer is, that wears such a chain of pearl about him.

§. 1. Paul and Apollo are yours.

1. Under these words Paul and Apollo, by a figure are comprehended all the ministers of Christ, the weakest as well as the most eminent. Paul and Apollo are yours, namely, their labors are for edifying the Church. They are the helpers of your faith. The parts of a minister are not given him for himself, they are the Church's. If the people have a taint of error, the ministers of Christ must season them with wholesome words; therefore they are called the salt of the earth. If any soul be fainting under the burden of sin, it is the work of a minister to drop in comfort, therefore he is said to hold forth the breasts as a nurse. Thus Paul and Apollo are yours: all the gifts of a minister, all his graces, are not only for himself, they are the Church's. A minister must not monopolize his gifts to himself, this is to hide his talents in a napkin; such a one makes an enclosure, where God would have all common. Paul and Apollo are yours: the ministers of Christ should be as musk among linen, which casts a fragrance; or like that box of spikenard, which being broken open, filled the house with its odor: so should they do by the savor of their ointments. A minister by sending out a sweet perfume in his doctrine and life, makes the Church of God as a garden of spices. Paul and Apollo are yours: they are as a lamp or torch to light souls to heaven. Chrysostome's hearers thought they had as good be without the sun in the firmament, as Chrysostome in the pulpit. Paul and Apollo are springs that hold the water of life: as these springs must not be poisoned, so neither must they be shut up or sealed. A minister of Christ is both a granary to hold the corn, and a steward to give it out. It is little better than theft, to withhold the bread of life. The lips of Apollo must be as a honeycomb, dropping in season and out of season. The graces of the Spirit are sacred flowers, which though they cannot die, yet being apt to wither, Apollo must come with his water-pot. It is not enough that there be grace in the heart, but it must be poured into his lips. As Paul is a believer, so all things are his; but as Paul is a minister, so he is not his own, he is the Church's. There are three corollaries I shall draw from this.

Use 1. If Paul and Apollo are yours, every minister of Christ is given for the edifying of the Church; take heed that you despise not the least of these; for all are for your profit. The least star gives light, the least drop moistens. There is some use to be made even of the lowest parts of men: there are gifts differing, but all are yours. The weakest minister may help to strengthen your faith. In the law, all the Levites did not sacrifice, only the Priests, as Aaron, and his sons; but all were serviceable in the worship of God; those that did not sacrifice, yet helped to bear the Ark. As in a building, some bring stones, some timber, some perhaps bring only nails; yet these are useful, these serve to fasten the work in the building: the Church of God is a spiritual building, some ministers bring stones, are more eminent and useful; others timber, others less, they have but a nail in the work, yet all serve for the good of this building. The least nail in the ministry serves for the fastening of souls to Christ, therefore let none be contemned. Though all are not Apostles, all are not Evangelists, all have not the same dexterous abilities in their work; yet remember, all are yours, all edify. Oftentimes God crowns his labors, and sends most fish into his net, who though he may be less skillful, is more faithful; and though he has less of the brain, yet more of the heart. An ambassador may deliver his message with a trembling lip, and a stammering tongue, but he is honorable for his work's sake, he represents the King's person.

Use 2. If Paul and Apollo are yours, all Christ's ministers have a subserviency to your good, they come to make up the match between Christ and you: then love Paul and Apollo. All the labors of a minister, his prayers, his tears, the pregnancy of his parts, the torrent of his affections, all are yours; then by the law of equity, there must be some reflections of love from your hearts towards Paul and Apollo, such as are set over you in the Lord. If they seek your establishment, you must seek their encouragement; if they endeavor your salvation, you must endeavor their safety. What an unnatural thing is it, that any should strive to bring them to death, whose very calling is to bring men to life. The minister is a spiritual father, it was a brand of infamy on them (Hosea 4:4): For this people are as they that strive with their Priest. Was there none to fall out with but the Priest, even he that offered up their sacrifices for them? And what is it, think we, for men to quarrel with their spiritual fathers? Even those whom they once had a venerable opinion of, and acknowledged to be the means of their conversion? Either love your spiritual fathers or there is ground of suspicion that yours was but a false birth.

Use 3. If Paul and Apollo are yours, they are for the building you up in your faith. Then endeavor to get good by the labors of Paul and Apollo, I mean such as labor in the word and doctrine. Let them not plow upon the rock: answer God's end in sending them among you. Oh, labor to profit: you may get some knowledge by the word, such as is discursive and polemical, and yet not profit.

What is it to profit?

The Apostle tells us (Hebrews 4:2), when we mingle the word with faith, that is, when we so hear that we believe, and so believe that we are transformed into the image of the word: "You have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine into which you were delivered." It is one thing for the truth to be delivered to us, and another thing for us to be delivered into the truth: the words are a metaphor taken from lead and silver cast into a mold. This is to profit — when our hearts are cast into the mold of the word preached: as the seed is spiritual, so the heart is spiritual. We should do as the bee, when she has sucked sweetness from the flower, she works it in her own hive, and so turns it to honey: thus when we have sucked any precious truth, we should by holy meditation work it in the hive of our hearts, and then it would turn to honey — we should profit by it. Oh, let the labors of Paul and Apollo have an influence upon us. A good hearer should labor to go out from the ministry of the word as Naaman out of Jordan — his leprous flesh was healed and became as the other: so though we came to the word proud, we should go home humble; though we came to the word earthly, we should go home heavenly: our leprosy should be healed. Ambrose observes of the woman of Samaria that came to Jacob's well: she came peccatrix, she went away praedicatrix; she came a sinner, she went away a prophetess. Such a metamorphosis should the word of God make. Let not the ministers of Christ say upon their death-beds: the bellows are burnt and the lead consumed; they have spent their lungs and exhausted their strength; but know not whether they have done anything, unless preached men to hell. Oh, labor to grow: some grow not at all, others grow worse for hearing; "Evil men shall grow worse and worse" — as Pliny speaks of some fish that swim backward: they grow dead-hearted in religion, they grow covetous, they grow apostates. It were far easier to write a book of apostates in this age than a book of martyrs; men grow riper for hell every day. Oh, labor to thrive under the spiritual dew that falls upon you. Let not the ministers of Christ be as those which beat the air. Is it not sad, when the spiritual clouds shall drop their rain upon a barren heath? When the minister's tongue is as the pen of a ready writer, and the people's heart is like paper when it is oiled — that will take no impression. Oh, improve in grace: if you have a barren piece of ground, you do all you can to improve it, and will you not improve a barren heart? It is a great honor to the ministry when people thrive under it; need we, as some others, epistles of commendation? Paul esteemed the Corinthians his glory and his crown; hence, says he, though other ministers have need of letters of commendation, yet he needed none; for when men should hear of the faith of these Corinthians, which was wrought in them by Paul's preaching, this was sufficient certificate for him that God had blessed his labors — there should need no other epistle; they themselves were walking certificates, they were his letters testimonial. This was a high tribute; what an honor is it to a minister, when it shall be said of him as once of Octavius, when he came into Rome he found the walls of brick, but he left them walls of marble: so when the minister came among the people, he found hearts of stone, but he left hearts of flesh. On the other side, it is a dishonor to a minister when his people are like Laban's lambs, or Pharaoh's kine. There are some diseases which they call opprobria Medicorum, the reproaches of physicians; and there are some people who may be called opprobria Ministrorum, the reproaches of ministers: what greater dishonor to a minister, than when it shall be said of him, he has lived so many years in a parish, he found them an ignorant people, and they are so still; he found them a dull, slothful people (as if they went to the temple, as some use to go to the apothecary's shop, to take a recipe to make them sleep) and they are so still; he found them a profane people, and so they are still. Surely there is some fault, or God does not go forth with his labors; such a people are not a minister's crown, but his heart-breaking. Oh, let your profiting appear to all. God sends Paul and Apollo as blessings among a people — they are to be helpers of your faith; if they toil all night and take nothing, it is to be feared that Satan caught the fish before they came at their net.

Section 2. Showing that the world is a believer's.

2. The next thing is, the world is yours.

1. The lawful use of the world is a believer's. 2. The special use of the world is a believer's.

1. The lawful use of the world is yours. The gospel does somewhat enlarge our charter. We are not in all things so tied up as the Jews were; there were several sorts of meat that were prohibited them — they might eat of those beasts only that did chew the cud and part the hoof; they might not eat of the swine, because though it did divide the hoof, yet it did not chew the cud; nor of the hare, because though it did chew the cud, yet it did not divide the hoof — it was unclean. But to Christians that live under the gospel, there is not this prohibition. The world is yours — the lawful use of it is yours; every creature being sanctified by the word and prayer, is good, and we may eat, asking no question for conscience sake. The world is a garden; God has given us leave to pick of any flower. It is a paradise — we may eat of any tree that grows in it, but the forbidden, that is sin. And they that use this world, as not abusing it. We are apt to offend most in lawful things. The world is yours to traffic in; only let them that buy, be as if they bought not: take heed that you do not drive such a trade in the world that you are likely to break in your trading for heaven.

2. The special use of the world is yours.

1. The world was made for your sake.

2. All things that fall out in the world are for your good.

1. The world was made for your sake. God has raised this great fabric chiefly for a believer. The saints are God's jewels (Malachi 3:17). The world is the shrine or cabinet where God locks up these jewels for a time. The world is yours — it was made for you. The creation is but a theatre, to act the great work of redemption upon. The world is the field, the saints are the corn, the ordinances are the showers, the mercies of God are the sunshine that ripens this corn, death is the sickle that cuts it down, the angels are the harvesters that carry it into the barn. The world is yours; God would never have made this field, were it not for the corn growing in it. What use then is there of the wicked? They are as a hedge to keep the corn from foreign invasions, though often they are a thorn-hedge.

Quest. But, alas, a child of God has often the least share in the world — how then is the world his?

Answ. If you are a believer, that little you have, though it be but a handful of the world, it is blessed to you. If there be any consecrated ground in the world, that is a believer's. The world is yours; Esau had the venison, but Jacob got the blessing: a little blessed is sweet. A little of the world with a great deal of peace is better than the revenues of unrighteousness. Every mercy a child of God has swims to him in Christ's blood, and this sauce makes it relish the sweeter. Whatever he tastes is seasoned with God's love; he has not only the mercy, but the blessing: so that the world is a believer's. An unbeliever, who has the world at will, yet the world is not his — he does not taste the quintessence of it. Thorns and thistles does the ground bring forth to him. He feeds upon the fruit of the curse — "I will curse your blessings" — he eats with bitter herbs: so that properly the world is a believer's. He only has a Scripture-tenure, and that little he has turns to cream. Every mercy is a present sent him from heaven.

2. All things that fall out in the world are for your good.

- 1. The want of the world — all is for your good. - 2. The hatred of the world — all is for your good.

1. The want of the world is for your good. By wanting the honors and revenues of the world, you want the temptations that others have. Physicians observe that men die sooner by the abundance of blood than the scarcity; it is hard to say which kills most, the sword or surfeit: a glutton with his teeth digs his own grave. The world is a silken net — the prosperity of fools shall destroy them. "Him whom I shall kiss," says Judas, "take him": so, whom the world kisses, it often betrays. The want of the world is a mercy.

2. The hatred of the world is for your good. Wicked men are instruments in God's hand for good (albeit they mean not so); they are flails to thresh off our husks, files to brighten our graces, leeches to suck out the noxious blood. Out of the most poisonous drug, God distills his glory and our salvation. A child of God is beholden even to his enemies — "The ploughers ploughed upon my back" — if they did not plough and harrow us, we should bear but a very thin crop. After a man has planted a tree, he prunes and dresses it. Persecutors are God's pruning-hook, to cut off the excrescences of sin; and evermore the bleeding vine is most fruitful: the envy and malice of the wicked shall do us good. God stirred up the people of Egypt to hate the Israelites, and that was a means to usher in their deliverance. The frowns of the wicked make us the more ambitious of God's smile; their incensed rage, as it shall carry on God's decree (for while they sit backward to his command, they shall row forward to his decree), so it shall have a subserviency to our good. Every crosswind of providence shall blow a believer nearer to the port of glory. What a blessed condition is a child of God in — kill him, or save him alive, it is all one. The opposition of the world is for his good. The world is yours.

3. Showing, That life is a believer's.

3. The next thing is, life is yours. Jerome understands it of the life of Christ. It is true, Christ's life is ours — the life which he lived on earth, and the life which he now lives in heaven; his satisfaction and his intercession both are ours, and they are of unspeakable comfort to us. But I conceive by life in the text is meant natural life, that which is contradistinguished to death: so Ambrose. But how is life a believer's? Two ways.

- 1. The privilege of life is his. - 2. The comfort of life is his.

1. The privilege of life is a believer's: that is, life to a child of God is an advantage for heaven: this life is given him to make provision for a better life. Life is the porch of eternity; here the believer dresses himself, that he may be fit to enter in with the bridegroom. We cannot say of a wicked man (unless catachrestically) that life is his. Though he lives, yet life is not his — he is dead while he lives. He does not improve the life of nature to get the life of grace; he is like a man that takes the lease of a farm and makes no benefit of it. As Seneca speaks, he has been so long in the world, but he has not lived. He was born in the reign of such a king, his father left him such an estate, he was of such an age, and then he died; there's an end of him — his life was not worth a prayer, nor his death worth a tear. But life is yours; it is a privilege to a believer — while he has natural life, he lays hold on eternal life. How does he work out his salvation? What a stir is there to get his evidences sealed? What weeping, what wrestling? How does he even take heaven by storm? So that life is yours: it is to a child of God a season of grace, the seed-time for eternity; the longer he lives, the riper he grows for heaven. The life of a believer spends as a lamp — he does good to himself and others; the life of a sinner runs out as the sand, it does little good. The life of the one is as a figure engraved in marble; the life of the other as letters written in dust.

2. The [reconstructed: comfort] of life is a believer's. As sorrowful, yet always rejoicing — take a child of God at the greatest disadvantage, let his life be overcast with clouds, yet if there be any comfort in life, the believer has it. Our life is often imbecile and weak, but the spiritual life does administer comfort to the natural. Homo componitur ex mortali & rationali, Man (says Augustine) is compounded of the mortal part and the rational part; the rational serves to comfort the mortal. So, I may say, a Christian consists of a natural life, and a spiritual, the spiritual revives the natural. Observe how the spiritual life distills sweetness into the natural, in three cases.

1. In case of poverty. This often eclipses the comfort of life. But what though poverty has clipped the wings? Poor in the world, yet rich in faith (James 2:5). The one humbles, the other revives.

2. In case of reproach. This is a heart-breaking thing (Psalm 69:20): "Reproach has broken my heart." Yet a Christian has his cordial by him (2 Corinthians 1:12): [in non-Latin alphabet]: "For this is our rejoicing, the testimony of our conscience." Who would desire a better jury to acquit him than God, and his own conscience?

3. In case of losses. It is in itself sad, to have an interposition between us, and our dear relations. A limb, as it were pulled from our body, and sometimes our estates strangely melted away; yet a believer has some gleanings of comfort left, and such gleanings as are better than the world's vintage. "You took joyfully the spoiling of your goods, [in non-Latin alphabet], knowing in yourselves that you have in heaven a better and an enduring substance" (Hebrews 10:34). They had lost their estate, but not their God. Here is, you see, the dry rod blossoming. The spiritual life distills comfort into the natural. Take the sourest part of a Christian's life, and there is comfort in it. When you hear him sighing bitterly, it is for sin; and such a sigh, though it may break the heart, yet it revives it. The tears of the godly are sweeter than the triumph of the wicked. The comfort that a wicked man has is only imaginary, it is but a pleasant fancy; as rejoicing, yet always sorrowing: he has that within which spoils his music. But life is yours. When a believer's life is at the lowest ebb, yet he has a springtide of comfort.