of hair-cloth; thus the church and particular souls are dwelling in tents, and through afflictions, persecutions, and many corruptions in this howling wilderness and weary pilgrimage, are black and unlovely to look upon; but if you could open the tent door, and see into the secret cabinet of a believer's heart, you would discover a treasure of the rarest graces, truths, experiences, and comforts, that ever mortal eyes beheld; you should behold them as glorious as the beautiful hangings about Solomon's bed, "as comely (saith the text) as the curtains of Solomon." Take but another familiar resemblance; suppose you see an earthen pot full of gold, let him that only sees the outside and knows not what is within, be asked the price thereof, possibly he will answer, not many pence, but the pot with the treasure in it may be worth many thousand pounds; a sorry canvas purse may contain a vast sum of money, nor must the whole be rated according to the poor facing, but the rich lining. A Christian hath an excellent treasure in an earthen vessel; you must not censure him before you see every part of his character fully disclosed at the great day: his life is hid at present, but when Christ who is his life appears, he shall appear with him in glory. * The saints here are as princes, walking in disguise in a strange country, and it doth not yet appear, who or what they are, but God hath his time to unveil their glory, and reveal their excellency. The pearl cannot be found, till the shell of the fish be broken; and when these vile bodies are turned to dust, then this precious treasure shall be made manifest. O the excellency of a poor child of God; it would make him holily proud to consider what he is, the honour God hath put upon him, and the treasures laid up in him. As a man is a little world, * Col. iii. 3, 4. so a Christian is a commonwealth, a church, and a heaven (as it were) within himself; he hath a monopoly of the best commodities, a rich magazine of precious things for the delight of God, profit of men, and comfort of his own soul. Though wicked men do account them not worthy to live in the world, as though this earth were too good for them; yet God saith of the saints," of whom the world was not worthy," they are too good to breathe in this foul air, and shall be translated to heaven. Here I might far exceed bounds for a close, take brave Luther's character of a saint :* "He is," saith he, "a child of God, an heir of heaven, the brother of Christ, the companion of angels, the lord of the world, and partaker of a divine nature." Be cheered, therefore, O thou trembling Christian-be provoked, O thou careless soul, to look after a large treasure. Who would not be of this number? methinks it should excite all rational and intelligent creatures to a holy covetousness, and ambition to be filled with these treasures, and to be clothed with all this glory. 2. This treasure makes the soul fit for any condition; nothing can come amiss to the Christian thus furnished, he is prepared for all dispensations, nothing can make him miserable; let Paul and Silas have their treasure with them, and they can sing in the stocks at midnight; let David be in a pilgrimage, his treasure will make him both company and melody; a Christian cannot be banished from his treasure, he may say more truly than the philosopher,† "I carry my all with me." When the proconsul told Cyprian 66 * Christianus est filius Dei, hæres regni, frater Christi, socius angelorum, dominus mundi, particeps divinæ naturæ.-Tom. 1 Lat. 106. + Omnia mea mecum porto. he would banish him, he answered, "he is no exile that hath God in his mind;" separate God from a child of God, and then you undo him; if you could rob him of his treasure, you might make him miserable, but not otherwise. He that is out of hell, and hath a heaven in his heart, hath no cause of shame or terror; when he is under sharp trials, and others condole with him, he may say, as Christ to the daughters of Jerusalem, "weep not for me, but weep for yourselves;" of himself, he can say as Paul, "I am ready, not to be bound only, but also to die at Jerusalem, for the name of the Lord Jesus." * God hath laid a treasure in his heart, and he is willing to lay it out, which way soever the Lord shall call for it. By this way of laying out, the treasure is not impaired but increased; by afflictions, truths are improved, graces exercised, experience added, and comforts wonderfully enlarged, and these advantages countervail the smart of affliction. This is a holy "merchandize," saith an ancient, "to lose some things, that we may gain greater." The believing Hebrews "took joyfully the spoiling of their goods, knowing in themselves that they had in heaven a better, and an enduring substance.-Heb. x. 34. Observe it, they know in themselves, that is, they had experience thereof in their own hearts, and now by this loss of their estates this experience was made more clear, was increased, and confirmed. Oh blessed exchange! to part with earth and get heaven, to get riches off the heart, and to get better riches into the heart. I must tell you, that one grain or degree of grace is more worth than heaps of wordly riches, and happy is that soul that endures the loss of these, to get a good share of the Acts xxi. 13. Mercatura est quædam amittere, ut majora lucreris.—Tertul. former. Read the eleventh chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews, and follow that blessed army of martyrs, that long cloud of witnesses, and fear not man, for you shall be gainers in the result of all. A treasured soul is still gathering more to himself in every dispensation from words spoken, from the rod laid on, and from every interposition in his favour. The honest heart makes a good use of, and is prepared for every event, being satisfied as well as edified, whatever the Lord doth with him. But more of this anon, only observe, that a treasured soul can pick out of a sermon worth nothing, or from a providence, that which another cannot. We read of Mr. Ignatius Jurdain,* a zealous magistrate in Exeter, that a formal man having once preached a sermon at the cathedral, about Heaven, the discourse was for the most part frothy, and beneath the dignity of such an argument: after sermon, Mr. Manton having occasion to visit Mr. Jurdain, after many good instructions, he asked Mr. Manton if he had heard the sermon that morning; he answered, yes. "And did you not," said he, "hear those wonderful things which God hath provided for them that love him?" and then readily selected all those passages that were any way subservient to use and profit. "It was wonderful to me," saith Mr. Manton, "to see a holy heart could draw comfort out of any thing: the sermon as repeated to me, was another kind of sermon, and seemed to be savoury and spiritual. I remember with what warmth and vigour he spake of it, even till this day, and hope that I shall never forget it.” Such is Mr. Manton's account. O sirs, if you had a treasure, you would hear sermons with profit, and endure troubles after another manner than you ordinarily do. 3. This divine treasure qualifies the saint for noble • Mr. Clark's Collect. in the Life of Mr. Ign. Jurd. page 481. enterprises. The people that do know their God, shall be strong and do exploits; whereas unsound persons may be corrupted by flatteries, Dan. xi. 32, or chased away by threats. The greater treasure you have, and the more singular things may you do for God; the Lord will own you to do much for him, and you shall glorify God in suffering much for him. Paul's vessel was well fraught with this treasure (and it may be for this cause he is called a chosen vessel, * and he alone is so called, though doubtless others were so also) and what mere man did more for God than blessed Paul? Who ever travelled over so much of the world to preach the gospel, as this unwearied Apostle? He preached all along from Jerusalem round about to Illyricum, or Sclavonia, in Europe, which is, saith Pareus, in a direct line, 1400 miles; but he went ¿v kúkdų in a circuit, visiting circumjacent places to preach the gospel; † yea, a good author reckons up Paul's travels in the Lord's work to be above 10,000 miles, so that he may be called, as George Eagles, that good martyr in Queen Mary's days, "Trudge-overthe-world, for he laboured more abundantly than all the rest." And whence was it that Paul was in labours more abundant? It was, because he had a large stock to expend, a well furnished head and heart, and the Lord made his labours very successful; and observe it, treasured souls are very instrumental for God. Such he calls out to be as captains in the warfare, and leaders in his field to go before others in the sharpest service and most hazardous undertakings; these he puts to the trial and brings them off victorious. It was a fine speech of Queen Elizabeth's, when she * Acts ix. 15. σkɛvoç έkλoyñç, est Hebraismus; a vessel of choice. Rom. xv. 19. See Hen. Bunting on the travels of Paul. 2 Cor. xi. 23. 1 Cor. xv. 10. |
