By THOMAS BOSTON.
V.
(Continued from p. 339.)
Secondly, Christ designed His Father’s glory in the work. It was not honour, applause, and credit from men that He sought, but purely the Father’s glory. This all actions are to level at: it is that which in all things should be designed as the ultimate end. Whether, therefore, ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God. Thou seest, then, that thou, O my soul, must follow Christ in this, if thou wouldst be a fisher of men. Lift up thy heart to this noble end, and in all, especially in thy preaching of the gospel, keep this before thine eyes. Beware of seeking thy own glory by preaching. Look not after popular applause; if thou do, thou hast thy reward, Matt. vi. 2; look for no more. O my soul, invert not the order. Cant. viii. 12, “Thou, O Solomon, must have a thousand, and those that keep the fruit thereof two hundred.” Have a care of taking a thousand to thyself, and giving God only two hundred. Let his honour be before thine eyes; trample on thy own credit and reputation, and sacrifice it, if need be, to God’s honour. And to help thee to this, consider, 1. That all thou hast is given thee of God. What hast thou that thou hast not received? What an unreasonable thing is it then, not to use for his glory what he gives thee; yea, what ingratitude is it? and dost thou not hate the character of an ungrateful person? 2. Consider that what thou hast is a talent given thee by thy great Master to improve till He come again. If thou improve it for Him, then thou shalt get thy reward. If thou wilt make thy own gain thereby, and what thou shouldst improve for Him thou improve for thyself, what canst thou look for then, but that God shall take thy talent from thee, and command to cast thee, as an unprofitable and unfaithful servant, into utter darkness, where shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth? God has given some great talents; if they improve them for vainglory to themselves to gain the popular applause, or the hosannas of the learned, and so sacrifice all to their own net, what a sad meeting will such have at the great day with Christ? What master would endure that servant, to whom he has given money wherewith to buy a suit of good clothes to his master, if he should take that money, and buy therewith a suit to himself, which his master should have had? How can it be thought that God will suffer to go unpunished such a preacher as he has given a talent of gifts to, if he shall use these merely to gain a stipend or applause to himself therewith, not respecting the glory of his Master? Wo to thee, O my soul, if thou take this path, wherein destroyers of men’s souls, and of their own, go. 3. Consider that the applause of the world is nothing worth. It is hard to be gotten; for readily the applause of the unlearned is given to him whom the learned despise, and the learned applaud him whom the common people care not for. And when it is got, what have you? A vain empty puff of wind. They think much of thee, thou thinkest much of thyself, and, in the meantime, God thinks nothing of thee. Remember, O my soul, what Christ said to the Pharisees, Luke xvi. 15, “Ye are they which justify yourselves before men, but God knoweth your hearts. For that which is highly esteemed among men, is an abomination in the sight of God.” Let this scare thee from seeking thyself. 4. Consider, that seeking thy own glory is a dreadful and abominable thing. (1.) In that thou then puttest thyself in God’s room. His glory should be that which thou shouldst aim at, but then thy base self must be sacrificed too. O tremble at this, O my soul, and split not on this rock, otherwise thou shalt be dashed in pieces. (2.) In that it is the most gross dissembling with God that can be. Thou pretendest to preach Christ to a people; but, seeking thy own glory, thou preachest thyself, and not Him. Thou pretendest to be commending Christ and the ways of God to souls, and yet in the meantime thou commendest thyself. Will Christ sit with such a mocking of him? O my soul, beware of it; look not for it, but for His glory. Christ will be avenged on self-preaching ministers. (3.) In that it is base treachery and cruelty to the souls of hearers, when a man seeks to please their fancy more than to gain their souls, to get people to approve him more than to get them to approve themselves to God. This is a soul-murdering way, and it is dear bought applause that is won by the blood of souls. O my soul, beware of this. Let them call thee what they will; but seek thou God’s glory and their good. 5. Consider that so to do is a shrewd sign of a graceless, Christless, and faithless heart, John v. 44. How can ye believe, that receive honour one of another, and seek not the honour that cometh from God only? A grain of faith will cure this lightness of the head and heart. 6. Consider, O my soul, thy own vileness? What art thou but a poor lump of clay, as to thy body, that will soon return to the dust, and be a sweet morsel for the worms that now thou tramplest upon! But what art thou as to thy heart, but a vile, base and ugly thing, so many filthy-idols to be found there, like a swarm of the worst of vermin? Art thou not as a cage full of unclean birds! What baseness of every kind? And what day goes over thee, but thou seest still something in thee to humble thee? And what wast thou that God has employed in this work? Those that were sometime thy fellows are mean and despised; and wilt thou for all this seek thy own glory? Wo unto thee, if thou dost so. 7. Consider, That “him that honoureth God, God will honour; but he that despiseth Him shall be lightly esteemed.” Have respect, O my soul, with Moses, to the recompense of reward, and beware of preferring thy own to the interest of Christ, lest thou be classed among those that seek their own and not the things of Christ. 8. Lastly, Consider what Christ has done for thee. Forget not his goodness, his undeserved goodness to such a base wretch as thou art. Remember him from the land of the Hermonites, and from Mizar-hill; and let love to him predominate in thee, and thou shalt then be helped to sacrifice all to His glory.
(To be continued.)