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Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2018
KYPROS PRESS
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Copyright © 2016 by Thomas Watson
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The Christian’s Charter
Chapter 1. The Porch or Entrance into the Words, together with the Proposition.
Chapter 2. The Arguments proving the Proposition.
Chapter 3. Things PRESENT are a Believer’s.
Chapter 4. The Augmentation of the Charter.
Chapter 5. Showing that things to COME are a Believer’s.
Chapter 6. The first Royal Privilege of a Christian, is DEATH.
Chapter 7. The second Royal Privilege of a Christian, is that he shall be carried up by the angels.
Chapter 8. The Third Royal Privilege of a Believer is—that he shall “be with Christ in glory.” Phil. 1:23, “I desire to be depart,” or loosen anchor—and to be with Christ! This is a privilege of the first magnitude! Surely we can be no losers, by being with Christ. A graft or scion, though it is taken out of the tree, it does not perish—but is set into a better stock. Thus it is with a Christian, while he is here, (even after conversion) there is much of the wild olive still in him; now when this scion, by death is cut off, he does not perish—but is set into a more noble stock—he is with Christ, which is far better. Well might the apostle say, “I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far!” Is not a state of perfection better than a state of imperfection?
Chapter 9. The Fourth Royal Privilege—the blessed inheritance.
Chapter 10. The Fifth Royal Privilege—our KNOWLEDGE shall be clear.
Chapter 11. The Sixth Royal Privilege—our LOVE shall be perfect.
Chapter 12. The Seventh Royal Privilege—the resurrection of our bodies.
Chapter 13. The eighth Royal Privilege—The bodies of the saints shall be enameled with glory!
Chapter 14. The Ninth Royal Privilege is—that we shall be as the angels in heaven!
Chapter 15. The Tenth Royal Privilege is—the vindication of our REPUTATIONS.
Chapter 16. The Eleventh Royal Privilege is—the sentence of ABSOLUTION.
Chapter 17. The Last Royal Privilege is—that God will make a public and honorable mention of all the good which the saints have done.
Chapter 18. The First Inference drawn from the Proposition.
Chapter 19. The Second Inference drawn from the Proposition.
Chapter 20. A Serious Scrutiny about the Believer’s Charter.
Chapter 21. The Believer’s Objections answered.
Chapter 22. Showing the DUTIES of a believer—in response to God’s astonishing mercy.
“ALL THINGS ARE YOURS: WHETHER Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or things present or things to come—all are yours, and you belong to Christ, and Christ to God.” 1 Corinthians 3:21-23
HAPPINESS IS THE MARK AND center which every man aims at. The next thing that is sought after being, is being happy. Surely, the nearer the soul comes to God, who is the fountain of life and peace, the nearer it approaches to happiness. Who is so near to God as the believer, who is mystically one with him? he must needs be the happy man. If you would survey his blessed estate, cast your eyes upon this text, which points to it, as the finger to the dial: “All things are yours.” The text may not unfitly be compared to the tree of life, which bore twelve kinds of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month; there are many precious clusters growing out of this text, and being skillfully improved, will yield much excellent fruit.
In the words we have the inventory of a Christian, “All things are yours!” A strange paradox! when a believer can call nothing his, yet he can say, all things are his. I have often thought a poor Christian who lives in a prison, or some old cottage, is like the banker, who, though he goes poor, and can hardly find himself bread, yet has thousands at his fingertips. So it is with a child of God, “as having nothing—yet possessing all things.” What once the philosopher said, “Only the wise man is the rich man.” But I say, “only the believer is the rich man!” Here is his estate summed up, “all things are his.”
Objection. Before I come to the words, there is an objection must be removed. If all things are ours, there seems to be a community; what is one man’s is another’s.
Answer. The apostle does not speak here of civil possessions. Paul was no leveler, he did not go about to destroy any man’s property; for though he says, “all things are yours”; yet he does not say, what any man has is yours.
Objection: But is it not said, They had all things common? Acts 2:44.
Answer. It is true; but this was purely voluntary; there was no precept for it, or obligation to do it.
If it be objected, that this was set down as an example to imitate;
1. I answer—Examples in scripture are not always precepts. The prophet Elijah called for fire from heaven, to consume the captains and their fifties; but it does not therefore follow, that when one Christian is angry with another, he may call for fire from heaven. Thus the primitive saints, out of prudence and charity, had all things common; it will not therefore follow, that in every age and century of the church, there should be a common stock, and everyone have a share.
2. I answer—Though the disciples had all things common—yet still they held their ownership, as is clear by Peter’s speech to Ananias, “While it remained, was it not your own? and after it was sold, was it not in your own power?” It is true in one sense, what the primitive church had, was not their own; so much as could be spared, was for the relief of the saints; thus all things were common. But still they kept a part of their estate in their own hand. There is a double right to an estate, a right of Ownership, and a right of Charity. The right of charity belongs to the poor—but the right of ownership belongs to the owner. For instance, God made a law, that a man must not put his sickle into his neighbor’s grain. We read that the disciples being hungry when they went through the fields on the Sabbath, did pluck the ears of corn—there was Charity; but they must not put the sickle into the corn—here was ownership. This I the rather speak, because there are some, that when God has made a gift to one, would make all common. The Lord has set the eighth commandment as a fence about a man’s estate; and he who breaks this hedge, a serpent shall bite him. Thus having taken that objection out of the way, I come now to the next.
The text falls into three parts.
1. The inventory, “all things,”
2. The proprietors, “all things are yours.”
3. The tenure, “You are Christ’s.”
Which three branches will make up this one proposition.
Doctrine. That all things in heaven and earth are the portion and privilege of a believer. “He who overcomes shall inherit all things.” A large inventory! “All things!” We cannot have more than all; and the apostle doubles it, to take away all hesitancy and doubting from faith.
THERE ARE TWO REASONS WHICH will serve to illustrate and confirm the proposition, “All things are a believer’s.”
Reason 1. All things are a believer’s, because the covenant of grace is his. The covenant is our Great Charter, by virtue of which God settles all things in heaven and earth upon us. By sin we had forfeited all; therefore if all things are ours, the title comes in by a covenant: until then we had nothing of our own. This covenant is the and plan and outcome of God’s love; it is the legacy of free-grace. This covenant is enriched with mercy, it is embroidered with promises: you may read the Charter, “I will be their God.” And there is a parallel to it, “I am God, even your God.” This is a sufficient dowry. If God is ours, then all things are ours.
1. God is eminently good. One diamond does virtually contain many lesser pearls: the excellencies in the creature are single, and lack their adjuncts. Learning has not always noble parentage; honor has not always virtue. No individual can be the receptacle of all perfections. Those excellencies which lie scattered in the creature, are all united and concentrated in God—as the beams in the sun, or the drops in the ocean.
2. God is superlatively good. Whatever is in the creature, is to be found in God after a most transcendent manner. A man may be said to be wise—but God is infinitely so. A man may be said to be powerful—but God is eternally so. A man may be said to be faithful—but God is unchangeably so. Now in the covenant of grace, God passes himself over to us to be our God, “I am God, your God!” Psalm 50:7
This expression, “I am your God,” imports three things:
1. Pacification. You shall find grace in my sight, I will cast a favorable aspect upon you. I will take off my armor, I will take down my standard, I no more will be enemy.
2. Donation. God makes himself over to us by a deed of gift, and gives away himself to us. He says to the believer, as the king of Israel said to the king of Syria, “I am yours—and all that I have!” This is a hive of divine comfort! All that is in God is ours! His wisdom is ours to teach us; his love is ours to pity us; his Spirit is ours to comfort us; his mercy is ours to save us. When God says to the soul, “I am yours,"—He cannot say no more!
3. Duration. I will be your God—as long as I am a God. “For this God is our God for ever and ever; he will be our guide even to the end.” Psalm 48:14.
Reason 2. All things are a believer’s, because CHRIST is his. Jesus Christ is the pillar and hinge upon which the covenant of grace turns. Without Christ, we have nothing to do with a covenant. The covenant is founded upon Christ, and is sealed in his blood. We read of the mercy-seat, Exod. 25:17, which was a divine emblem, typifying Jesus Christ. “There will I meet you, and I will commune with you from above the mercy-seat,” verse 22, to show that in Christ, God is propitious. From above this mercy-seat he communes with us, and enters into covenant. Therefore it is observable, when the Apostle had said, “All things are yours,” he presently adds, “You are Christ’s.” Belong to Christ, gives us the title to all things. This golden chain, “Things present, and things to come,” are linked to us, by virtue of our being linked to Christ. By faith we have a saving interest in Christ; having an interest in Christ, we have an interest in God; having an interest in God, we have a title to all things.
QUESTION. AND NOW I COME to that great question, What are the things contained in the Charter?
Answer. 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 Apollos, the world, life, etc. Here is, methinks, a chain of pearls! I will take every one of these pearls asunder, and show you their worth; then see how rich a believer is, who wears such a chain of pearl about him.
Section 1. Paul and Apollos are yours.
1. Under these words, “Paul and Apollos,” by a figure are comprehended all the ministers of Christ, the weakest as well as the most eminent. “Paul and Apollos are yours,” namely, their labors are for edifying the church. They are the helpers of your faith; the abilities of a minister are not given 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 is 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 breast as a nursing mother.
In this way, Paul and Apollos 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.” “Paul and Apollos are yours.” The ministers of Christ should be as musk among linen, which casts a fragrancy; or like that box of spikenard, which being broken open, filled the house with its fragrance. So should they do by the fragrance 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 Apollos are yours,” that is, they are as a lamp or torch to light souls to heaven. Chrysostom’s hearers thought they had better be without the sun in the sky, than Chrysostom in the pulpit. Paul and Apollos are springs which 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 Apollos 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, Apollos must come with his water-pot. It is not enough that there is grace in the believer’s 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 Apollos 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, the least minister is no less than an angel. There is some use to be made even of the lowest abilities 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 who did not sacrifice—yet they helped to carry the ark.
As in a building, some bring stones, some timber, some perhaps bring only nails; yet all these are useful, these all 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 no true minster be despised. 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 brain—yet he has more 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 Apollos 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 Apollos. All the labors of a minister, his prayers, his tears, the usefulness of his abilities, 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 Apollos, such as are “set over you in the Lord.”
1. Show your love, by honoring them. Manoah would know the angel’s name, that he might honor him. And the apostle calls for this, “We beseech you, brethren, know those who labor among you, and are over you in the Lord, and esteem them very highly.” They are co-workers with God. God and his ministers (to speak with reverence) drive one and the same trade; and “they labor among you,” therefore esteem them very highly. Next to sending out Christ and the Spirit, God never honored the world more than in sending out his Pauls and Apolloses. Kings may be your fathers to nurse you up in peace—but ministers are your fathers to beget you to Christ. The earthly father is an instrument of conveying nature, the spiritual father of conveying grace. Therefore Chrysostom thinks that the ministers should not only more reverenced than kings and judges—but more than our natural parents as well. What shall we say then to those who make no more reckoning of their ministers, than the Egyptians did of their shepherds! “Every shepherd was an abomination to the Egyptians.”
“Know those who labor among you”; many can be content “to know them” in the baseness of their parentage; “Is not this the carpenter’s son?” Or to know them in their infirmities—but not to know them in the apostle’s sense, so as to give them double honor. Surely, were it not for the ministry, you would not be a vineyard—but a wilderness! Were it not for the ministry, you would be destitute of the two seals of the covenant, baptism and the Lord’s supper; you would be infidels, for “faith comes by hearing.” “How shall they hear without someone preaching to them?” O therefore honor Paul and Apollos; though they may be lowly—yet their office is honorable.
2. Show your love to the ministers, by pleading their cause, when they are unjustly traduced and calumniated. It is counted by some, a piece of their religion—to defame a minister. Others who would be thought more modest, though they do not raise a report—yet they can receive it as a welcome present. This is contrary to that apostolical rule, “against an elder” (or minister) “receive not an accusation—but before two or three witnesses.” Constantine was a great honorer of the ministry; it is reported of him, that he would not read the envious accusations brought in against them—but burned them. O, if you love Paul and Apollos, stand up in their defense, become their advocates! It was a law the Egyptians made, that if a man found another in the hands of thieves, and did not deliver him when it was in his power, he was condemned to die. Just so, when your ministers fall among thieves who would rob them of their good name—you must seek to deliver them. We have too many who labor to clip the credit of God’s ministers, to make them weigh lighter. O, you must put some grains into the scales! Do they open their mouths to God for you, and will not you open your mouths in their behalf? Certainly if they labor to save your souls, you ought to save their reputation.
3. Show your love to your ministers, by encouraging them, and by being a screen to keep off injuries from them. If they seek your establishment, you must seek their encouragement. If they endeavor your salvation, you must endeavor their safety. The very name of an ambassador, has been a protection from wrongs. 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, “For this people are as those who strive with their priest.” Was there none to strive with, but the priest, even he who offered up their sacrifices for them! Is is right 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 Apollos are yours,” they are for the building you up in your faith; then endeavor to get good by the labors of Paul and Apollos, I mean such as labor in the word and doctrine. Let them not plough upon the rock; answer God’s end in sending them among you. “Labor to profit;” you may get some knowledge by the word, such as is discursive and polemical, and yet not profit.
Question. What is it to profit?
Answer. The apostle tells us, “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. These words are a metaphor taken from lead or 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. So 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. Then we would profit by it.
O, let the labors of Paul and Apollos 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! 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, who came to Jacob’s well—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 deathbeds, that they have spent their lungs and exhausted their strength; but know not whether they have done anything, unless they preached men to hell.
It is Augustine’s note upon those words of the apostle, “That they may give up their accounts with joy.” “When” (says he) “does a minister give up his account with joy—but when he has been working in the vineyard and sees fruit appear?” Brethren, this will be his joy, and your joy also in the day of the Lord. O, labor to grow; some grow not at all, others grow worse for hearing. “Evil men shall wax worse and worse,” as Pliny speaks of some fish which swim backward: they grow dead-hearted under preaching; 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!
O, 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 desert! —when the minister’s tongue “is as the pen of a ready writer,” and the peoples’ heart is like oiled paper that will take no impression. O, 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!
Iit is a great compliment and 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 testimonial letters. This was a high commendation; what an honor is it to a minister, when it shall be said of him, as once of Octavius when he came to 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 sickly lambs, or Pharaoh’s lean cows. There are some diseases which they call the reproach of physicians—as they cannot be healed. And there are some people who may be called the reproach of ministers—as they will not be mended. 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! That he found them a dull slothful people, (as if they went to the church as some use to go to the apothecary’s shop—to take a medicine to make them sleep) and they are so still! That he found them a profane people—and so they are still. Such a people are not a minister’s crown—but his heart-breaking. Beloved, when God’s stars shine in the sky of the church, will you still walk in the dark! when for the work of Christ they are “near unto death,” will you be as near unto hell as ever? when these golden bells of Aaron sound, shall you not chime in with Christ? I beseech you, “let your profiting appear to all.” God sends Paul and Apollos as blessings among a people, they are to be helpers of your faith; if they “toil all night and catch nothing,” it is to be feared that Satan caught the fish, before the ministers threw their net.
Section 2. Showing, that the WORLD is a Believer’s.
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 kinds of meat which were prohibited to them; they might eat of those beasts only, which chewed the cud, and parted the hoof. They might not eat of the swine, because though it divided the hoof—yet it did not chew the cud; it was unclean. But to Christians who live under the gospel, there is not this prohibition. “The world is yours,” that is—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 permission to pick off any flower. The world is a paradise; we may eat of any tree that grows in it—but the forbidden tree—that is, sin. Yet even in things lawful, beware of excess. We are apt to offend in lawful things. The world is yours to use; only let those who 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 which happen in the world, are for your good.
1. The world “was made for your sake.”