Sermon XIL
But God, who is rich in mere?/, for his great love wfarewth he loved us, even
when we were dead in sins, liath quickened us togetJier with Christ, (by
grace ye are saved ;) and liath raised us up together, and made us rit
together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. VER. 4-6.
THE scope of the Apostle in these words, as I have told you, is to magnify these three attributes in God his love, mercy, grace, towards us ; and these
as they are the causes of our salvation.
In opening of these words, I have
1. Shewn you the difference between love and mercy.
2. Shewn you why that the Apostle, when he would speak of the causes
of our salvation, contented not himself to have said that God is rich in mercy, but that he addcth for the great love wherewith he loved us.
3. Shewn you likewise that a great love, and an act of love, or a purpose of love, taken up towards us, is the foundation of his shewing mercy to us; and that act of love is especially that taken up from everlasting, which he
took up to us before we were, and therefore prevented the misery we were
fallen into ; for he had engaged himself to us by so great a love, which
stirred up Ids mercy.
The next thing I came to was this, the greatness of this love. I did pro
fess not to handle this argument in the vastncss of it, which by the grace
of God might arise to a volume, if it should be so handled, but so far forth
as the text doth give bottom to anything about it, so far I professed to handle
it, because I would explain the text.
First, therefore, we considered the subject of this love, who it is that loved
us. It is God, whose love therefore is as great as himself ; and if God will
be in love, how deep, how great will that love be ! What a love will they
possess with whom God professeth himself to be in love ! Love, it is of all
attributes the most commanding ; it commandeth all in a man, and it commandeth all in God.
Secondly, we considered that this God, though of a loving nature and
l He loved, saith the text.
disposition, yet he took up an act of love.
There are two sorts of acts of love which God hath put forth towards us :
1. That immanent act, as it is called; that is, which is in God h
only, abideth in himself, in his own heart, that first act from eternity, which
is the foundation of all ; and this the Apostle here mainly intended in this Uh verse. But
2. There are transient acts of love, which are the fruits of that first, which
in the text here, as afterwards I shall shew you, are mainly these three :
(1.) Giving Jesus Christ to be a head for us, and I-T us ; that is
couched in these words, He hath quickened us together with Christ, and
raised US up together with him ; which importeth both him to be a head
for us and him to have died for us, as a fruit of this love.
EPH. II. 4-6.] TO THE EPHESIANS. 171
(2.) The act of calling us to himself, which is expressed in these words : Even when we were dead in sins hath he quickened us.
(3.) The glorifying of us hereafter, we being already set in heavenly places in Christ, as an engagement of all that glory wo shall have hereafter. These three transient acts I must handle in their order, as I open the fifth and sixth verses ; therefore now, in this fourth verse, I shall only speak of that immanent act in God, the love wherewith he loved us. And concern
ing that, two things
1. The greatness of that love in itself. And
2. In respect of the time when this love began ; for he speaks in the tune
past, he loved us.
First, For the greatness of this act of love taken up towards us. It is so
great, as all the acts of love, all the manifestations of love, the transient acts of love, the fruits of love, that God shews and manifesteth to eternity, they are not all enough to express that love which he took up in the first act, when he began to love us, and all serve but to commend and manifest that
love. And then
Secondly, For the time. If you ask when he first began to love, which
also sets out the greatness of it, it was from everlasting. This word in the
* hath loved us, or, he loved us, reacheth to eternity ; so in Jer. XXXL 3. And then for the continuance of it ever since ; he hath continued it every moment. Though we were children of wrath, and dead in sins and trespasses, yet he all that while, since the first time he began to love us, hath con tinued to love us with the same love ; he hath reiterated the same thoughts again and again. And for this great love, wherewith he loved us from ever
text,
lasting, and wherewith he hath continued to love us ever since, from ever
lasting, as we may so speak ; for this great love, saith he, he hath quick ened us.
I also opened in the last discourse the greatness of this love from the per sons, us. Us, saith he, not others. We were children of wrath as well as others, but for the great love wherewith he loved us? and not others, for he hath not quickened all, but he quickeneth all that he loveth, he hath quickened us together with Christ/ He loved us, not ours, nor for
anything in us. He loved us, not indefinitely, that is, I will love some of mankind, but he hath loved us distinctly, pitching upon those persons he
pitched his love upon, and laying forth all the mercies and all the fruits of love upon them, eyeing their persons.
There was likewise, I told you, another thing which sets out the greatness of this love, and that is the condition of our persons, dead in sins and tres
passes, and that follows in the fifth verse. But as I said then, I going over these words in a way of exposition, and not handling them as a subject, will not insist on everything in that artificial method, as if I were to write a tract upon it.
There is but one thing more, and it is a great thing, and I confess I did not observe it a long while in the text, but still took the words to have run
thus, for the great love wherewith he loved us ; but I find it is, for his
great love wherewith he hath loved us. There is a great emphasis in that word his. He saith not simply, as he might have done, because that God
greatly loved us, or, because of a great love he bore us ; but he doubles
it, for the great love wherewith he loved us ; and not only so, but, for his
great love wherewith he loved us. My brethren, there is a love proper to God, which is a differing kind of love from that in all the creatures ; his love, as the text hath it here. As his goodness is another kind of goodness than
172 AN ttPOSmOH or Tin: ITI-TI.I: [SKUMON XII.
wh.it is in the creatures, so is his love. There is none that hath tasted of
this love of his but say that it is a tliUVrini; l\v from the love of all tinnva-
tures ; and the difference is found more by tasting and by feeling of it than it
is by setting of it forth; as it is in wines, Thy love is better than wim-, and
thy loving-kindness is better than life : both of which are better di.Htvnu-d
by taste and feeling than set out by any expression. Indeed, God doth com
pare his love to what is in the creature, to set it out to us, because wiappre hend it by such comparisons ; as when he saith, Like as a father pitieth,* or loveth,
* If
* liis children, so the Lord loveth them that fear him. And,
a mother forget her child, tc. But yet, notwithstanding, the love where with he loved us
* Be
1 is of another kind from all these. In 1 John iii. 1,
hold, saith the Apostle, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed
upon us ! he speaks in respect of one fruit of it, such a love, for the kind
of it, as no man, no creature, could bestow upon us. In Hos. xi. 9, where,
giving the reason why that he loving his people they are not destroyed, he
saith, I am God, and not man. It is spoken in respect of his love clearly, for it comes in there upon a conflict with himself; when he had been pro voked beyond the bounds and measure of pardon, yet when he comes to
* My heart is turned within me, saith he, ver. 8, my repentings are rolled together
punish, he finds his love not to be as the love of a man.
: I
will not return to destroy ; for I am God, and not man. My love is of another extent, of another kind, than the love of man. And so when he
* My thoughts are not your thoughts, nei
speaks of mercy, in Isa. Iv. 8, 9,
ther are your ways my ways, saith the Lord : for as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. It is his love, so saith the text here. Now to speak a little of this, for it lies in the way in the text :
First, His love ; it is a love for nothing in us. The love that one crea
ture bears to another is still for something in them ; but the love of God, if
it be his love, a love that is proper unto him, must needs be free : and that
not only for this reason, which is usually given, and is a true one too, be
cause that his love is from everlasting, and nothing in the creature in time
can be the cause of what is in God from everlasting ; but for this reason
likewise, because that only God can be moved by what is in himself, he can
love no otherwise but from himself. The creatures love because things are
lovely, and there must be motives to draw out that love that is in them ; but when God loves, he loves as from his own heart. There is nothing in
us, no, not in Christ, that should move God to love us ; though indeed to bestow those things that God bestows upon us, so Christ is the moving cause.
* Jacob have I loved, saith he, and that before he had done any good or evil. 80 that, as no evil in him did put God off from loving him, so no good did move God to love him. In 2 Tim. L 9, there is one little particle that I
* Who hath saved us, and called us with a holy calling, not
f< mnd this upon,
according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, whirh was given us in Christ before the world began. Mark, according to his own purpose, which is the thing I pitch upon in that place ; that is, as the
Apostle explains it, Eph, L 9, which he purposed in himself, or from him
self a purpose merely taken up in or from himself. And therefore you shall find the phrase in Scripture to run, that as he loves us out of his own
purpose, so for his own sake. Not for your sakes do I this, but for my own name s sake. My brethren, there was a love \\ huh ( Jod did bear to man
in innocency, the terms of which were such U, in a way of justice betw. n
the Creator and the creature, it became God, if hmade him holy as IK did
. II. 4-G.] TO THE EPHESIANS. 173
in innocency, to bestow upon him. But because that this was a love that
.seemed to have a kind of justice in it, and something in the creature which
it was founded upon, therefore he destroys that condition, that he might make way to manifest the love that was according to his own purpose and
grace, and merely from himself. And that now is his love ; for if God do
love like God, this is the love that is his, that is proper unto him. And saith
he, not according to our works that is, it is founded upon nothing at all
in the creature. For by works there, he understands all habitual disposi tions of goodness, of what kind soever, as the Scripture usually doth ; as when it saith, he will judge every man according to his works, it is not
only meant of the outward acts, but of the inward frame of heart. He looks
to nothing in the creature, but to his own purpose. It is his love, therefore
it is free. That is the first.
Secondly, His love; it is a love that is firm and peremptory, unchangeable and invincible; and such a love it became God to bear us, if he would love
us, for that properly is his love. Put not your trust in princes, saith the
Psalmist ; they will all fail ; the men perish, and their thoughts perish ; yea, sometimes their thoughts and affections die to their greatest favourites, be
fore they die themselves. But his love is firm and peremptory, it is un
changeable and invincible, and this because it is his love. Mai. iii. 6, I am the Lord, I change not ; that is, If I be God, and whilst I am God, I
will not cease to love you, 1 will not change ; therefore it is that ye sons of
Jacob are not consumed. His love is as immutable as his being. I will
not be God, if I be not your God, and love you ; he pawns all his God head upon it. I am the Lord, saith he, I change not ; therefore ye are
not consumed. In Rom. ix. 11, speaking of the election of Jacob, he saith.
1 that the purpose of God according to election might stand : it is a great word that ; he fixed it upon such a basis as might stand for ever. It is u
true thing that all God s counsels do stand fixed and firm ; look how he pur-
poseth them, be they of what kind soever. That Adam should be holy, that
counsel did stand firm ; but how ? It stood firm for so long as he purposed it, which was till such time as he fell ; it was but for a moment in comparison. And so, that Saul should be king, he purposed it, and it stood firm so far ; but he repented that he made Saul king. But when he cometh to speak of
election, he speaks of that as of such a counsel that not only standeth as all
other his counsels do, but as that which is perpetuated to eternity. His
purpose to love Adam was a firm purpose, for so lie did ; but how ? Whilst he was in that state of innocency, and had the image of God upon him. But
his purpose according to election, as the distinction is there, that stands, and
it stands for ever. Therefore it is not of works, but, as was said before, of
his own purpose, that it might stand, that it might have a rock of eternity, for the basis of it to stand upon. It is therefore, as by way of distinction from all purposes else as it were, called the purpose according to election.
If you will have this further confirmed, take that place also, which loadeth
it with more epithets for the firmness of it, in 2 Tim. ii. 19, The foundation
of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his.
He speaks of God s purpose in election, and of the persons elected ; for he
saith it is that which hath this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his. You have here all sorts of words to make it firm
1. It is called a foundation ; The foundation of God, saith he, standeth
sure. There are two great foundations, and of the two, if we may make
comparisons, this is the greater. Jesus Christ is a foundation, but the eter
nal love of God, that is the first foundation ; it was the womb of Christ him-
-TLE [SERMON XII.
self: 1 Cor. iii. 1 foundation ,-an no man lay than tliat is laid, which is Jcstis Christ. There you see Christ is a foundation, but
higher foundation, The Lord knoweth them that are his, loved them and chose them, and so he did Christ himself.
2. It is not only called a foundation, but a sure foundation.
3. It is called the foundation of God, it is founded in him, it is founded upon him, it is as firm as himself; as he is God, he will stand to it, a fore it must needs stand.
4. It is a foundation that remaineth, it standeth, it is steady. 5. It is sealed : having this seal/ saith he ; so that it is never to be broken and altered. If the decrees of the Medes and Persians, when they had set their seals to them, were such as were not to be altered ; much more God s. His seal is in this respect more than his oath.
* Him hath the Father sealed, saith he, speaking of Christ. Now you have both his oath and his seal to this ; that is, to the invincibleness and unchangeableness of his love. You have his seal in this place, The Lord knoweth them that are his ; and his oath you have in Heb. vi. 17. And what doth this oath serve for? To shew unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel ; and the
immutability of his counsel respecting persons, and not things only, for it is an oath that God made to Abraham, when he swore concerning Isaac. And therefore the text hath it in Timothy ; it hath this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his. If you will know whence the words are taken, that I may open them a little, you must observe this, that the Apostle handleth the doctrine of election and reprobation in the New Testament out of the speeches and types of the Old : as, Esau have I hated, Jacob have I loved, in Rom.
ix. And so, I will be merciful to whom I will be merciful ; it was spoken of Moses, in Exod. xxxiii. 19. And so likewise those words in Timothy, The Lord knoweth them that are his, are spoken of Aaron and Moses in Num. xvi 3, when Korah and his company gathered themselves together against Moses and Aaron, saying, You take too much upon you, seeing all the congregation arc holy, and they may be -ill priests. No, saith he ; God hath chosen Aaron and Moses to go before his people, and to-morrow the Lord will shew who are his. So we translate it, and the Septuagint reads it, and it conies all to one ;
i The Lord knoweth who are his. Now this that was said in this respect of Moses and Aaron in a typical way, and indeed in a decree of election too, for that God singled out Moses and Aaron, it was his everlasting love, I say, these very words doth the
Apostle here apply, and pertinently too, to the same occasion ; for, speaking of divers that seemed to be holy, and yet fell away, however, saith he, the foundation of the Lord standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth who are his. And the word knoweth who are his, it is, whom he hath
pitched upon to love; it is a knowledge of approbation. Exod. TTTiii. 12, Thee have I known by name, saith God unto the same Moses, which is all one and to say, Thee have I chosen; for, ver. 19, speaking of Moses also, he saith, I will shew mercy on whom I will shew mercy, which the
Ap< quotcth in Rom. ix. as spoken of election. Now in respect of his love that
is thus firm, and firm in respect that it is his love who is God and not man, and therefore changeth not ; it is therefore said of the elect that it is im
possible that they should be deceived. As I told you thu founda
tions, so there are two impossibles made in Script MOW thciv
more, as it is impossible that God should lie, <tc., 1m: "f impossibles that relate to God s decrees. The one is, Matt xxvi 39, If it be possible, let this cup pass from me. It was not possible. Why? Because God s
EPH. II. 4-G.] TO THE EPHESI 175
eternal love to Ids saints had decreed it otherwise, and God stuck firm to it. The other impossible is hi Matt. xxiv. 24, Insomuch that, if it were possible, they should deceive the very elect; that is impossible too. And the truth
is, the reason of this firmness is because it is the love of God, and because it
is so great a love; that is the foundation of it. And, my brethren, it is well that love made God s decrees for us; no attribute else would have fixed them so unalterably upon the same persons, in themselves so changeable. Would wisdom alone have gone and obliged God to so fickle a creature as we are ? No. But love knew what it did, for it meant to manifest itself to the utter most ; therefore it pitched upon no conditions why God loved us ; and if he
requires conditions before he saveth us, love shall work those conditions in
us. Therefore out of his infinite love and wisdom, he was able to make ab solute promises to love, and to love firmly. It is love that commandeth all in God, and if love will do it, it shall be done ; for if all that is in God can keep us and preserve us, and work in us what God requires to make him love us, and continue to love us, it shall be done. It is firm love. And let me add this to it, which may illustrate it more, it is invincible love. You will say, this is the same thing with being unchangeable. I con fess it, but only with this difference, that to shew his love is unchangeable, he would have a world of difficulties to run through, which yet his love should overcome. Saith he in Cant. viii. 6, 7/ and he speaks of his love, having set us as a seal upon his arm, having this seal, The Lord knows who are his, Love is as strong as death. Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it. They are therefore called the sure mercies of David. And you know how David put them to the trial, and how he put God to it. What difficulties doth the love of God overcome 1 Do but con sider. The purposes of his secret will toward us do overcome all the difficulties of his revealed will, and those were enough. He had given a law of his re vealed will, and he had said that heaven and earth should pass away before one tittle of that should perish ; and that the soul that sinned should die ; and all had sinned and transgressed this law. But now though all were fast locked up under this, yet love breaks open all, for it is an invincible love. That secret purpose of his, I say, overcomes that revealed expression of his, which had so many bolts and bars to it, all the threatenings and curses of the law, and finds out a way to reconcile all. And the way whereby he did it, it was an infinite difficulty. For God to overcome his own heart ! Do you think it was nothing for him to put his Son to death ? When Christ came to die, what a difficulty did he overcome ! Do you think it was nothing for him to give up himself and his soul to the wrath of his Father ? Father, saith he, if it be possible, let this cup pass ; save them, if it be possible, some other way. Why, God s love overcame
it, and Christ s love overcame it ; his love would not permit hi to think of any other course ; it was an invincible love. When he comes to call us, hath he no difficulties which love overcometh ? A man hath lived twenty thirty, forty years in sin ; love overcomes it. We were dead in sins and tres
passes ; yet for the great love wherewith he loved us, he quickened us. When we have been dead, and dead forty years in the grave, that
<lo, he stinketh, then doth God come and conquer us; it is an invincible love. After our
calling, how do we provoke God ! What a world of difficulties do we run through
! Such temptations that, if it were possible, the elect should be deceived ! It is so with all Christians. No righteous man but he is scarcely saved; and yet saved he is, because the love of God is invincible, it over comes all difficulties. Still, as the Apostle saith, in Rom. viii. 3o, 37/ Who
AN EXPOSITION OF Till: BIH [SE11MON XII.
U separate uin-m the love of (!od ? shall life or death ? Are. In all those,
: he, weanmore than conquerors. There is an invineiblrness; l.ut lu>\\ .
* Through liiin that loveth us, so it follows; and mark that partieK-, it is lo
calise his love is an invincible love that doth thus make us to IKr..n,|iirrors: because that love is as strong as death, therefore neither death nor lite, it is AS strong as hell, therefore neither hell nor devil, shall be able to separate.
Xay, where there Ls but a mention made by way of supposition, or by way of query, whether God will part with or cast off any of his people or no ; you shall find that he throws it away with the highest indignation, his love
is so great Paul doth but put the question because he knew men would put
it, in Rom. xi. 1, Hath God cast away his people? How doth the Holy Ghost answer it ? God forbid, saith he. He speaks with the highest de testation that there should be any such thought in God. Even as in another
place hi the same epistle, chap, vl 1, Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound ? Oh, God forbid ! He throws it away with all the indignation that can be ; and God may allow the one as soon as do the other. He throws
it away, I say, with the highest indignation that ever such supposition could be made, that God should have such a thought. He is so possessed with love to his people that he will hear nothing to the contrary.
* Who shall lay anything to the charge of God s elect? saith the Apostle; it is God that
justifieth, and it is their being elect that carries it. Yea, his love is so
.strong that if there be any accusation, the Apostle makes the supposition, * Who shall lay anything to their charge ? sin or devil ? that if at any time sin or devil come to accuse, it moves God to bless. His love is so violent,
it is so set, that he takes occasion to bless so much the more. In Deut.
">, when Balaam would lay sometliing to the charge of the elect people of God there, and accuse them and curse them, what saith the text ?
xxiii.
* Never
theless the Lord thy God would not hearken unto Balaam, he would not hear of it ; and, not only so, but the Lord thy God turned the curse into a blessing unto thee. And why ?
* Because the Lord thy God loved thee. His love was so strong as it overruled all the accusations Balaam could make, and all
his curses. Even as a king that loveth his favourite, if any one comes to accuse him, it provokes him his love doth so much the more not only to
pardon him, but to shew his love to him. My brethren, if that God be
angry with us for our sins, it is for our good ; and in the end they do pro voke him to bless us so much the more. This must needs be invincible love. Who shall separate us from the love of God ? who shall lay anything to the
charge of God s elect ? In all this we are more than conquerors. And so much now for the second thing which is proper to this love in God, which the Apostle calls his love, and to no creatures else in the world as it is in God, namely, to love thus invincibly and unchangeably as he doth.
Thirdly, His love is the same love wherewith fie loveth his *S o/i; yea, wherewith he loveth himself.
It is the same love wherewith lie loveth his Son. For that you have a known
place in John xvii. 23, 2G. At the 24th verse, saith Christ, Thou hast l..v 1 me before the foundation of the world, and hast therefore given me a glory, and thou hast united me unto thyself. Thou art in me, and I in thee, so
ver. 21 ; and thou hast united a company of thine so he calls them, ver. G unto me, I in them, and thou in me, so saith the 23d verse ; and then what
follows ? That the world may know that thou hast loved them, as thou ha.^t
loved me. As he is united to God, and we to him, so God loveth us with the same love wherewith he loved him.
And then again you have the like expression, ver. 26, That the love where-
EPH. II. 4-6.] TO THE EPHESIANS. 177
with thou lovcst me may be in them/ that is, towards them, set upon them, derived to them. It is a phrase of kin to that in the text ; the love where with he loved us, saith the Apostle ; the love wherewith thou lovest me, saith Christ, to note a special love : but that which I quote it for is this, 1 that the love wherewith thou lovest me may be in them, or on them, also! God loved all his creatures. He loved Adam, but not with that kind of love wherewith he loved Christ ; but he loveth his elect with the same kind of love wherewith he loved him, the same love is set and pitched on them. He loveth him as his Son, and them as daughters married to him : as a father loveth his son, and a daughter married unto him, with the same kind of love, and differing from his love to the servants, or to any else that are about him. And therefore you shall find that still this love comes in with a distinction : Rom. viii. 39, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other
creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus. Mark it, he distinguished ; there is a love indeed which men have been and are separated from, even Adam in innocency ; but, saith he, if it be a love in Christ Jesus, if God loveth us with that kind of love wherewith he loveth Christ, nothing shall separate from that. For as we are said to be chosen in Christ, so we are said to be loved in him ; for election, or the act of choosing, is expressed to us still by an act of love, it is all one, they are convertible. Now, he is said to choose in Christ, so to love in Christ ; and saith the Apostle, nothing shall separate us from the love of God in Christ. He speaks it by way of distinction from other love which men may be separated from ; but from this, saith he, there is no separation.
Yea, let me go higher. God loving us in Christ, his love is in a manner the same wherewith he loveth himself. There is a union betwixt Jesus Christ and us, and there is also a union between God and us : John xvii. 23,
1 1 in them, and thou in me. As our Lord and Saviour Christ loved his people so as that if his people be hurt, he takes it as if it were done to himself, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? so you shall find that God himself speaks as if his people and he were all one. It is not only, as in John, thine they were, and, God knoweth them that are his, and these are great words, they are deep words, and deep expressions, but you shall find that God in the Old Testament speaks in the person of his people, as weU as Christ doth in the New. Ps. Ixxxi. 5, This he ordained in Joseph, for a testimony, speaking of God, when he went out of Egypt, meaning his people. And therefore, in Exod. xi. 8, saith he to Pharaoh,
< About midnight I will go out into the midst of Egypt, and all the first-born shall die, &c. And after that I will go out, that is, my people shall go out. So that now, as the union between Christ and his people is such, and his love such, as that what was done to them, he reckons done to himself; so between God and us also. Thine they were, saith Christ,
< and thou gavest them me. They are more God s therefore than Christ s, or first God s, and then given unto Christ. Therefore, in Isa. Ixiii. 9, in all their affliction he is said to be afflicted. Yea, the salvation of his people God accounts his salvation, Isa. xlix. 6 : 1 Thou shalt be, speaking of Christ, my salvation unto the end of the earth. And though God loveth himself with a natural love, yet this his love to us is now in a manner naturalised, because he is become a father to us. He was happy in himself, and might be so without us for ever; yet now he speaks as if that the want of us would make him imperfect : Who shall separate us from the love of God ? The word implies a separation, like the rending of the soul from the body; and as the soul would be imperfect with out the body, so the love that God bears us would make him so too if there VOL. IL M
17> AN EXPOSITION OF THE EPISTLE [SERMON XII.
1 be a separation. Therefore in Zeph. iii. 17, he is said to rest in his
; if he enj \vd us not, he would never be at rest else. To these kind
of expressions, my brethren, doth the Scripture rise.
And so much now for having opened this, his great love wherewith he
loved us. Hi* love, a love that is proper unto God, which therefore must
needs be thus great, as you have heard it opened to you. The greatness of
this love, in respect of his giving Christ to be our head, and carrying us to, and giving of us heaven, and the like ; that follows alter, and I shall speak to them in their season and order. I have done, you see, with that which
is the main foundation, -viz., for the great love wherewith he loved us. I
should have first handled the first clause in the verse, viz., But God, who is
rich in mercy; but you may remember, I told you that love was in this to
have the pre-eminence, because it was an act of love first taken up, and this
great love is that which guides and stirs up, manageth, and spends, and draws out all the riches of mercy that are in God towards us, when we were
dead in sins and trespasses. Now then there must be something said to
that, that he is rich in mercy.
But God, who is rich in mercy. These words, for the opening of them, may be considered two ways
1. In their relation or reference, in the Apostle s scope here.
2. Simply as they are in themselves.
1. In their relation or reference, they do, first, hold forth, that to save us
all the riches of mercy that are in God were necessary. Had not God been
thus rich in mercy, and borne so great a love to us, we had not been quickened, such was our misery, and such was our condition. They do imply, secondly, that all the riches of mercy that arc in God, and all in God, did move him
thus to be merciful and to be gracious to us. And then, thirdly, that where God doth love, there he will shew forth to the uttermost all those riches of
mercy that are in him, he will spend them all to save us, he hath engaged them all.
* God, saith he, who is rich in mercy, for his great love where
with he loved us, even when we were dead in sins and trespasses, hath quick ened us, and saved us.
2. If you take the words simply in themselves, they import two things :
(1.) That God is of a merciful nature and disposition.
( 2.) That there arc riches of mercy in that nature of his. The words imply both.
First, I say, that he is merciful in his nature and disposition ; which I
argue from two things in the text and in the context.
First, if you observe it, when he speaks of his love, he speaks of it as an
act taken up by God, though he is of a loving nature, which is the founda
tion of that act. The love wherewith he loved us, saith he. But when he
speaks of mercy, he speaks of it as of a disposition which love stirred up, which love expendeth and conimandeth, guidcth and directeth. God, s:iith
he, being in himself rich in mercy, and in his own nature, and having pitched an act of love upon us, for that great love wherewith he loved us, setting aside that nature of mercy that is in him, hath saved us, and quickened us.
Secondly, though I do not much urge the participle, c3, God being rich, which being in God is his essence ; for though that word CY is not always taken for jmrticipium essendi, yet notwithstanding, look upon the words just
before, he speaks of what we were by nature : we were by nature, saith he, and by our natural disposition, children of wrath ; and so on the contrary,
speaking of God : God, saith he,
<r>.cy<no; &*, who is in his nature, in his dis
position, merciful and ri:li in mercy, even when we were dead, <kc.
Era II. 4-6.] TO THE EPHESIANS. 179
So that, I say, the words simply considered in themselves import, first, that God is in his nature and disposition merciful, which is the foundation of our salvation. And then, that the mercy that is in him is a rich mercy; there are riches of mercy in him.
I shall speak a word or two to the first. It is his disposition thus to be merciful. You have an expression in 2 Cor. i. 3, where God is said to be the
* Father of mercies ; which imports that as he is the spring of all mercy, so it is natural to him, as it is to a father to beget children. He is not only said to be a father unto us, and like a father to be merciful to us; but he is said to be the Father of all the mercies which he doth bestow upon us, more the Father of mercies than Satan is said to be the father of sin ; yet he is said to be the father of sin, and when he sinncth, he sinneth of his own, John viii. 44. I say, it is his nature, it is his disposition. God, saith he, who is rich in mercy; it is his being. We are by nature children of wrath, he is by nature merciful.
Mercy is his delight, and therefore natural to him, as in all acts of nature you know there is a delight. Micahvii. 18, He retaiiieth not his anger for ever, because, saith he, he delighteth in mercy. The mercies of God are called in Scripture his lowels ; now there is no thing so intimate or so natural to a man as his bowels are. And they are called his bowels because they are his inwards ; and all that is within him, his whole being and nature inclines him to it. Luke i. 78, Through the tender mercy of our God ; so we translate it, look in your margins, it is the bowels of God. So in James v. 11, he is called wMe^ayywz, full of bowels. You know the bowels are the most inward and the most "natural, more than outward members. A man may lose an outward member and be a man still ; but he cannot lose his inwards, his bowels. They are said to be his bowels, because all the mercy he sheweth, he cloth it from within. Hosea ii. 1 9, I will betroth thee unto me in loving-kindness and in mer cies; iii the original it is, I will betroth thee unto me in mercy and in bowels ; yea, in the womb of mercy, as the word signifies. Now, as Sanctius well observes, he doth not only make a covenant to be a husband to us and to betroth us to himself in mercy ; but, saith he, thou shalt have my bowels, thou shalt have the womb itself that conceives them, thou shalt have the mother of mercies, as he himself is said to be the Father of mercies, be cause that mercy is his inwards, and he begets it, he conceives it; he is both the womb of mercies and the Father of mercies. All these expressions the Scripture hath, to shew how natural they are to him as himself. God who is rich in mercy, saith he. And then again; it is his nature and disposition, because when he doth shew mercy, he doth it with his whole heart. 1 Chron. xvii. 19, According to thine own heart, hast thou done all this greatness, saith David, when he speaks of God s shewing mercy; that is, thou hast shewn mercy like thyself, like the great God, according to thine own heart. My brethren, though God is just, yet his mercy may be in some respect said to be more natural to him than all acts of justice itself that God doth shew, I mean vindicative justice; in them there is a satisfaction to an attri bute, in that he meets and is even with sinners; yet notwithstanding there is a kind of violence done to himself in it, the Scripture so expresseth it; there is something in it that is contrary to him. And so many interpret that place, I will not the death of a sinner ; that is, I delight not simply in it, I will not do it animi causa, for pleasure s sake, because I delight in the thing, as those that are of the Remonstrants opinion slander the other
L80 AN EXPOSITION OF THE F.nsTI.K [SERMON XII.
party, that they make God to delight in the death of a sinner. No ; when he cxercið acts of justice, it is for a higher end, it is not simply for
the thing itself; there is always something in his heart against it But when he comes to shew mercy, to manifest that it is his nature and disposi
tion, it is said that he doth it with his whole heart ; there is nothing at all
in him that is against it, the act itself pleaseth him for itself, there is no
reluctancy in him. Therefore, in Lam. iii. 33, when he speaks of punish
ing, he saith, He doth not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men. But when he comes to speak of shewing mercy, he saith he doth do it
* with
his whole heart, and with Ins whole soul; so the expression is, Jer. xxxii
41. And therefore acts of justice, you know, are called opus alienum, his
* strange work, and his strange act, in Isa. xxviii. 21. But when he comes
to shew mercy, he rejoices over them, to do them good, with his whole heart, and with his whole soul ; as it is in that Jer. xxxii. 41.
EPH. II. 4-G.] TO THE EPHEtiLlNS. 181
SERMON Xin.
But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wfarewith he loved us, even
when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together ivith Christ, (by grace ye are saved ;) and hath raised us up togetlier, and made us sit to-
getlier in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. VER. 4-6.
THE Apostle had handled in the verses before, and given the most exact de
scription of that wretched and deplorable estate which by nature we lie in ; dead in sins and trespasses, and children of wrath. And he ushereth in our
salvation, both in the thing and in the causes of it, with this but here : But God, who is rich in mercy, &c. Which is the greatest turn that ever
was, that men dead in sins and trespasses, guilty of death over and over, and
children of wrath by nature, he that is the just God should not have de
stroyed them. No, but, saith he, God, who is rich in mercy, or, God, being rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us. There was an ambushment of everlasting love and riches of mercy laid up in him, which that love hath disposed of
for the salvation of them he hath chosen ; and out of that mercy, and out
of that love, when we were thus dead in sins and trespasses, he hath quick ened us together with Christ. Take notice of it ; saith he, by grace ye are
saved.
His scope is to hold forth, and withal to magnify, those two great causes
of our salvation that are in God himself. The one is, that act of love where with he loved us and continued to love us, which, he saith, is a great love ;
and, secondly, those riches of mercy which are in him.
The greatness of this love I have endeavoured, so far as this text sets it
forth, to lay open to you. I shall only give you in brief the heads of what I have said concerning it, and so proceed to speak of the riches of that mercy which are in God. I told you, the reason why I spake of love first was this :
because, as here you see, it is his love, that though it is not the cause of the
mercy that is in him, yet it is that which disposeth of all the treasury of
mercy unto sinners, because he had first set his love upon them, and so great a love as he had done.
Great, first, in respect of the subject of it, which is God ; and if God will
fall in love, how great will that love be !
It is great, secondly, in respect of the kind of it ; his love. The Apostle doth not only say, for the love wherewith he loved us/ but, for his great love wherewith he loved us, such a love as the creatures bear not ; and the
love wherewith he hath loved us, not the love wherewith he did love us when he did convert us, but loved us from everlasting. With an everlast
i have I extended towards thee.
ing love have I drawn thee, or rather,
Lastly, the consideration of the persons upon whom this love is pitched argues the greatness of it, us, us distinct, us by name, and us, not others, though others were children of wrath as well as we.
* We were, saith he,
1 by nature children of wrath, even as others : but God, for the great love, &c.
AN KX POSITION OF TH1 X 1 i I.
These things I insi-
I am now to come to speak of the rirjit >s of mercy wl.i.-h ;nv in (!od, so far forth as shall serve to open this text, and shall bu p: we have in hand.
Jiut God, trAo is rich in mercy, &c. These are, my brethren,
expressions; therefore if I shall a little insist upon them, more than l ha\v done upon former things, or than I shall do for time to come, you may pardon me. Yet what belongs to this head of riches of mercy, so far as this text holds it forth, I purpose to despatch in this discourse.
The Apostle useth this high epithet, riches, when he speaks of mercy and of grace, five times in this epistle. In the 1st chapter, ver. 7, you have it : In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace. Then you have it here, in this 4th verse of the 2d chapter, God, who is rich in mercy. Then, thirdly, you have it in the 7th verse of this chapter again, and there you have it with an addition, exceeding riches of his grace. And then, fourthly, you have it in the 3d chapter, ver. 8, the unsearchable riches of Christ. And then again, lastly, you have it in the IGth verse of the 3d chapter, that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory. I shall not so speak to it therefore now but that I shall reserve matter that shall be proper unto those texts when I come to speak to them.
1 need not then stand to give you any parallel scriptures to shew that find is called rich in mercy, or that mercy in God is called rich mercy; t Wing four or five times in this epistle attributed unto mercy. I shall only name that in Rom. x. \ l, The same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him. The Apostle indeed doth not there say that he is rich in mercy, but he means it ; for he would have .said else, God is good unto all. But he thought that expression too little, and therefore he comes out with
this, he is rich unto all; that is, he is infinite, overflowing in goodness, he is good to a profuseness, he is good to the pouring forth of riches, he is good to an abundance. He speaks of mercy, for he speaks of salvation ; and he had said just before, ver. 11, but only this, and it was but a slender expres-
>ion, Whosoever belicveth on him shall not be ashamed ; but when he comes to prove it, then saith he, The same Lord over all is rich unto all that call u
>on him ; for whosoever shall call upon the name of Lord shall be saved. For the proof of it, when he comes to speak of that, he speaks of the most ; though when he speaks of the thing, he speaks of the least.
Now, riches of mercy in God, is a metaphor borrowed from other riches amongst men, and he speaks of God here after the manner of men. Or, if you will, rather other things are called riches, by way of similitude from (rod ; for as God only is good, as Christ saith, so only he is rich : 1 Chron. xxix. 1 2, Both riches and honour come of thee. He only is good, ccause he is the fountain of all goodness ; and he only is rich, because he
is the fountain of all riches. So as indeed other tilings are called riches bt-cau.se of a similitude to what is in him. But if we take it, as most do, to be spoken by a borrowed similitude from outward riches, alas ! still it doth not reach it. Why ? Because that outward riches amongst men, they are all outward things, therefore they are said to have wings and to fly away, leave the man still, for they arc but accidental to him. You have the inven tory of the riches of Tyre in Ezek. xxvii, and they are all of things without. Now the truth is, that thus God is said to be rich too, in respect of out ward things, that are outward to himself. The earth, saitli the Psalmist, ia full of his riches, Pa. civ. 24. Yet tl .11 outward things unto
.Ei Il. II. 4-G.] TO THE EPHESIAN8. ,
God, even as they are unto us, though they are his riches properly, because they all come of him. And, Dent, xxviil 12, The Lord shall open to thee his good treasure ; speaking of God s blessing his people, which is but the
blessings of the earth, and the dews of heaven. But, alas ! these are not the riches he valueth; but, my brethren, the riches that he valueth are the riches that are in Ids own nature. Let not the rich man glory in his riches, Jer. ix. 23. God himself glories not in these riches, though the whole earth
is his, but that he cxerciseth loving-kindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth (ver. 24), that he is merciful and gracious. In these respects lie is said to be rich, and rich in mercy.
Inward worth, or inward excellency of any kind, is called riches ; as in James ii. 5, men are said to be rich in faith ; and in 1 Cor. i. 5, enriched in all utterance, and in all knowledge. It is there a metaphor borrowed from what is outward, yet applied to what is inward ; and so here in the text riches are applied to mercy in God. Now then to open both the thing and the phrase to you
: I shall chalk out to you how I mean to handle this thing, in such a way as is most proper to the scope of the Apostle here, and I will not go out of it. There is a double way of handling the riches of this mercy that
is in God : The first is, to shew forth the eminent properties and excellencies that are in the mercies of God, which may be called the riches of this mercy, and the richness of that grace that is in him.
Or, secondly, by shewing that there is abundance of these riches in God. These are two distinct things; and the one will serve and fit the 7th
verse, for which I will reserve it, but the other fittctli this verse : therefore I shall speak properly and punctually to what the Apostle here expresseth.
Riches is attributed both to th inys and to persons, and in a differing respect. Richness, or riches, is attributed to things, and then it importeth the
excellency of them. As, rich apparel, Ezek. xxvii. 24 ; or whatsoever else you will apply it unto. Yea, it is applied to the excellency in creatures that do not make men rich; as wine is called rich wine, that is, that which
is full of strength and pleasantness. It notes out, I say, the excellency of the thing.
But then there are riches ascribed to the persons that possess them, in
respect of having an abundance of what is most excellent.
Now, mark it, riches attributed to the thing; that is, unto mercy itself; that you have in the 7th verse, though the other will come in there too, yet more properly that, that he might shew forth the exceeding riches of his
grace. There is the riches of the thing, the riches of the grace itself. And GO also all those excellent properties that are in grace, in mercy
: the freeness, the worth, the value, the price, the tenderness, the sweetness, or what you
will, for the inward worth or excellency of anything is called, in use of
speech, the richness of it, as a rich wine, a rich cordial, whatsoever is pleasant or excellent, riches are attributed to all the properties of it. Now I shall not here handle the rich properties that are in mercy, which God shews
forth in saving us ; I shall cut off all those, and reserve them for the 7th
verse. I shall now only speak to the second, namely, riches attributed to the person or subject that hath this mercy; for you see the phrase here is, that God is rich in mercy; and so I shall speak of that treasury that is in
him, and is an abundance to flowing over. A man may have wine that is
rich, and yet not be rich himself; but God is rich in mercy, and hath riches of mercy in him.
184 AN EXPOSITION OF THE EPISTLE [SERMON XIIL
Now in handling the ru-hes of mercy that are in God, it may be done two ways
First, To handle them as they are the cause and origin in ( ;,,d of our
salvation, as they do move him thereunto, and as they are the .-[-ring or mine of all the mercies we receive. Or
Secondly, To handle them by way of outward demonstration, in the effects, which may argue and evidence the greatness of these riches.
Now ver. 4 and ver. 7 share these two between them. The 7th verse runs most upon the demonstration, or holding forth a manifestation of all the mercies that God had vouchsafed. For so he endeth in the close of that verae j that in the ages to come, saith he,
* he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace, in his kindness towards us through Christ Jesus. But these words in ver. 4 come in casually, they come in as they are the motive in God which moved him to quicken us. And therefore that of the demon stration of the riches of mercy in the effects, that shall conic in at ver. 7, for there it is most proper.
Here are three things which I shall handle in these words for the opening of them :
1. That mercy is a peculiar excellency in God, and he is therefore said to be rich in mercy. This I shall speak to in general, and you shall see it will naturally arise from the phrase in the text.
2. I shall open the abundance of tlie, riches of mercy that are in God sub
jectively.
3. I shall shew you what riches of mercy, as tlie came of our salvation, are in God, and do lie by him.
* God, who is rich in mercy, saith he,
l for his
great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us, &c. And to handle them thus it is proper; all this is natural, it is not to go out of the text, it is but to open it ; for we must not fetch in
all tbat can be said of mercy when we come to expound scriptures, which is the work we have now in hand.
First, I say, mercy is a peculiar excellency in God. He reckons this of all other excellencies the highest and greatest You shall find this amongst men, though they possess many excellencies, yet they are said to be rich only in what is eminently excellent; they are said to be rich only in respect of some
thing they possess in a more peculiar manner, whether riches be applied to in ward excellencies of the mind or to outward. If to inward excellencies, let a man have never so much wisdom, yet his riches lie in faith ;
* rich in faith, saith the Apostle. It doth not He in his human prudence or wisdom, but in his faith, for faith is the superior and supreme excellency in him, in respect of which he is said to be rich, and which makes a man differ from other men, even as reason makes a man differ from a beast. If you attribute riches to outward things, a man is said to be rich only in that which is most eminently excellent ; as Abraham, Gen. xiii. 2, is said to be rich in silver and in gold. Therefore you know gold and silver and precious stones are in an eminent manner counted riches, or that which will procure them. Money, saith Solo mon, answereth all things, Eccles. x. 19. And in Eccles. ii 8, speaking of himself as being a king, saith he, I gathered me silver and gold, and the
peculiar treasure of kings. It was the manner of kings then, and so is now ; and if you travel into foreign parts you shall see it used more than with us ; they have all the rarities of what kind soever, which they reserve in a trea
sury, in a closet or study, groat pearls and precious stones, and other rarities
these are the peculiar treasure of kings. So it is here. God, though he hath other excellencies in him, and all excellencies and perfections, yet" not-
EPH. II. 4-6.] TO THE EPHESIANS. 185
withstanding, he is pleased to style himself rich in a peculiar manner in respect of mercy; this is the peculiar treasure of the King of kings. As Solomon gathered him silver and gold and the peculiar treasure of kings, so, though God hath justice and power, and all these things in him, yet that which he peculiarly accounteth the treasure of God himself is his mercy ; * God, who is rich in mercy/ saith the text. You shall not read in all the Scripture, that I know of, that God is said to be rich in wrath, or rich in justice, or rich in power, though all these are inward perfections in him. Indeed you shall find this, that what is the ob ject of his wrath he reckons a treasury for him too, but it is not ascribed to
< Is not this laid up in store with me, and sealed up among my treasures? But what speaks he of? He speaks of men s sins, as in the verses before : Their vine is the vine of Sodom, and of the fields of Gomorrah : their grapes are grapes of gall, their clusters are bitter : their wine is the poison of dragons, and the cruel venom of asps. Is not this/ saith he,
the attribute itself: Deut. xxxii. 33, 34,
l laid up in store with me V &c. He speaks of these but as of outward riches to him, which will indeed one day bring in a revenue of glory to his justice. Therefore you see he useth those phrases that belongto external things ; laid up in store with me/ saith he, and sealed up among my treasures. So that indeed the sinner is rather said to treasure up wrath than God : Horn, ii 5, After thy hardness and impenitent heart thou treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath/ that is, the treasury pf wrath in him, though God reckons it also his, because it is a prey for his justice to feed upon, and to fetch a world of glory out of it. But now you shall find still that riches is applied unto mercy, and if it be not only, yet this I am sure of, that it is most frequently, and I think indeed it may be said only. The Scripture speaks of riches of glory, Eph. ill 16, That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory. Yet eminently mercy is there in tended ; for it is that which God bestows, and which the Apostle there prayeth for. And he calls his mercy there his glory, as elsewhere he cloth, as being the most eminent excellency in God. Saith he, in Jer. ix. 24, Let him that
glorieth glory in this, that he understancleth and knoweth me, that I am the Lord which exercise loving-kindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth.
Now, to what doth the Apostle apply this in 1 Cor. i. 30, 31 ? Unto God s giving of Jesus Christ, out of his abundant mercy, to be righteousness and redemption and all things for us. So that indeed here lies that which God would have us to glory in, and which he himself glories in, that we know him which exerciseth loving-kindness, and makes Christ our right eousness. You know Solomon saith, Prov. xix. 1 1, that it is the glory of a man to pass over a transgression ; herein lies the glory of God. That in Rom. ix. 22, 23, compared, is observable. In ver. 22, where he speaks of God s making known the power of his wrath, saith he, God, willing to shew his wrath, and make his power known. But in ver. 23, when he comes to speak of mercy, he saith, that he might make known the riches of his
glory; there riches come in. And what glory doth he mean ? Certainly he means the glory of his grace in a more eminent manner, as appeareth by the denomination of the subject; upon the vessels of mercy/ saith he. And so in Rom. x. 12, where he is said to be rich unto all that call upon him. By riches there the meaning is, he is rich in goodness; he is, as I said, good to a richness, good to a profuseness, unto all that call upon him. So that
indeed, my brethren, it is that peculiar attribute of mercy that riches is ascribed unto. There is one place, and it is in Bom. xi. 33, where riches is
x OK THK UPIXIII.
applied to the \vis . V.iowK-d^o of Ood. But believe it, the Apostle speaks thereof electing knowledge and wis.lin, that c< HM-IW f<>r
us, as the very words before shew, and as the conclusion of all his discourse
in the next chapter, ver. 1, makes apparent, whore, having ended his dis course concerning God s having mercy upon Jew and Gentile, lie saith,
* I beseech you by the mercies of God. So that indeed mercy carries a\vu\ name of these riches, at leastwise most frequently in the New Testament.
Now, do but think with yourselves, that I may quicken your
h<
little. There is nothing could be more comfortable to us than this, that God should account mercy, of all things else, to be his riches, and himself to be rich in a more special manner in mercy. You may see the difference be tween God and men in their riches. Whilst kings and great men account
their riches in other things, God accounts his riches in being merciful. My brethren, mercy, if you consider it, what is it? Why, it is that which God himself hath no need of; and therefore, when we say he is merciful, it wholly
respects the creature and the good of the creature, and to deliver the creature out of misery. If he had said,
* God is rich in love, that is unto himself, for he loves himself ; but merciful he is not to himself, neither is he capable of mercy from himself. Therefore, when he saith he is rich in mercy, what can be more comfortable unto us than that that which God accounteth his
only, or at least his chiefest riches, is that which tcnclcth to our good and sal
vation ? He himself, indeed, hath a glory out of it; therefore it is called
riches of glory, chap. L 18. But yet take it as mercy, and it is that which
peculiarly concerns us and our good.
If his riches lay in anything else, we might not have so much hope and
comfort, for he would employ those riches for the good of himself, as we see
rich men in the world do. llicli men, though they give away crumbs from
their table, as the expression is in the parable, yet the chief of their riches
is all employed for themselves and their children. But if any one s riches should lie only in mercy and in grace, and himself were in himself perfectly happy, so that he himself hath no need of all those riches, surely this must be
all for poor creatures who are capable of mercy, and arc the objects of mercy, and sinners ; they have the chiefest share in it. It is an observable thing that in Horn. x. 12, where God is said to be rich unto all, not rich in him
self, but rich unto us ; so the phrase runs. If there were a man that were
rich in all tilings that the world accounts riches, and that man should account
it his chiefest riches to give all this away, how would all the world come to him ! My brethren, thus it is with God. He is rich in that attribute that
gives all away, for he is said to be rich in mercy. I shall speak a little more
to this in the close of all, by way of use ; therefore I urge it now no more.
I come to the second tiling, viz., To open to you the abundance of these
riches of mercy that are in God.
This phrase in the text, God, who is rich in mercy, take it simply, and it
imports
First, A fulness and an abundance of mercy in God, even to superfluity and to flowing over. Any one that is said to be rich in anything hath an abundance of it, or else he cannot be said to be rich. Now ye are full, saith the Apostle, and ye are rich, in 1 Cor. iv. 8. If there be not a ful