If you would preach Christ to the people

I hope it will not be counted presumption in me if I shall propound a few rules for such to observe, who are willing to preach Christ to poor souls. I will only propound three.

[1.] If you would preach Christ to the people, according to the rules last mentioned—then you must get Christ within you.

There is nothing that makes a man indeed so able to preach Christ to the people, as the getting of Christ within him; and it is very observable, that the great Rabbis and doctors who lack Christ within, they do but bungle in the work of the Lord, in the preaching of a crucified Jesus. What sad, dead, and pitiful work would they make! Yes, for lack of Christ within, how little of Christ do they understand! How little of Christ do they make known, notwithstanding all their borrowed helps! Paul was a man who had got a Christ within him: Gal. 2:20, "I live; yet not I—but Christ lives in me: and the life that I live is by faith in the Son of God," etc.

Compare this with Gal. 4:19, "My little children, of whom I travail in birth until Christ be formed in you." A Christ within, makes him travail in birth. The Greek word translated, "I travail in birth," signifies not only the travail of the woman at the birth of the child—but also the painful bearing thereof before the birth. The pains of travail breed not a greater desire to see a child born into the world—than Paul's love bred in him, until Christ were anew formed in them, 2 Cor. 11:23. No man did so much for the winning of souls to Christ as Paul, nor any man had so much of a Christ within him as Paul. Nothing will naturalise a minister's heart to his work—like Christ within; nothing will make him so wise, so painstaking, so watchful, so careful to win souls—as Christ within; nothing will make him hold out and hold on in the work of the Lord, in the face of all oppositions, persecutions, dangers, and deaths—as Christ within; nothing will make a man strive with sinners, and weep over sinners, and wait upon sinners for their return—as Christ within. [As nurses to princes' children are fed with the best fare—but not for their own sakes—but for the children's sake to whom they give nurse, so it is with many ministers, 2 Tim. 2:24-25.] Such ministers as have not Christ within them, will find no comfort, and as little success, in their preaching of Christ. Above all gettings, get Christ within—or else after all your preaching, and yourself—will be a cast-away.

[2.] Those who would preach Christ to the people, must study more Scripture truths, Scripture mysteries—than human writings.

They must study God's book more than all other books. The truth and antiquity of the book of God has no equal, either in age or authority. No writings are comparable to the writings of the scriptures, for,

1, antiquity [Moses is found more ancient than all those whom the Grecians make most ancient; as Homer, Hesiod, and Jupiter himself, whom the Greeks have seated in the top of their divinity.];

2, rarity [preciousness];

3, variety;

4, brevity;

5, perspicuity;

6, harmony;

7, verity [truth].

Gregory calls the Scripture, the heart and soul of God; for in the Scriptures, as in a mirror, we may see how the heart and soul of God stands towards his poor creatures. It was the glory of Apollos that he was mighty in the Scripture, Acts 18:24; John 5:39, "Search the Scriptures," says Christ. The Greek word signifies to search as men search for gold in mines. You must search the Scriptures, not superficially but narrowly. The Scriptures are a great depth, wherein the choicest treasures are hid; therefore you must dig deep if you will find. Col. 3:16, "Let the word of Christ dwell richly in you;" or as the Greek has it, "Let the word of Christ indwell in you, as an engrafted word, incorporated into your souls." Let the word be so ingested and digested by you, as that you turn it into a part of yourselves. You must be familiarly acquainted with the word; you must not let it pass by you as a stranger, or lodge and sojourn with you as a wayfaring man; it must continually abide with you, and dwell richly in you.

2 Tim. 3:16-17, "All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness; that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works." All books and helps are not comparable to the Bible, for the completing and perfecting of a man for the work of the ministry.

That which a papist reports of their sacrament of the mass, that there are as many mysteries in it as there are drops in the sea, dust on the earth, angels in heaven, stars in the sky, atoms in the sunbeams, or sands on the sea-shore, etc., may be truly asserted of the word of God; no study like the study of the Scripture—for profit and comfort. Count Anhalt, that princely preacher, was accustomed to say, "That the whole Scriptures were the swaddling bands of the child Jesus," he being to be found almost in every page, in every verse, in every line. [While they burned us, said Du Moulin, for reading the Scriptures, we burned with zeal to be reading of them. But where is this brave spirit now?]

Luther would often say, "That he had rather that all his books should be burned, than that they should be a means to hinder people from studying of the Scripture."

[3.] Such as would preach Christ aright to the people, had need dwell much upon the vanity of human doctrines.

The vanity of which doctrines may be thus discovered:

First, They do not discover sin in its ugliness and filthiness as the Scriptures do. They search but to the skin, they reach not to the heart; they do not do as the master did in Jonah's ship, when they were in a storm.

Secondly, Human doctrines have no humbling power in them. They may a little tickle you—but they can never humble you; they cannot cast down Satan's strongholds; they cannot melt nor break the heart of a sinner; they cannot make him cry out with the leper, "Unclean, unclean!" [These things had need be seriously minded in these days, wherein human doctrines are so much exalted and admired.]

Thirdly, Human doctrines nourish not the noble part, the soul of man. The prodigal was likely to starve before he returned to his father's house. A man may study much, and labor much, and lay out much of his time and spirits about human doctrines, and yet after all be like Pharaoh's lean kine. A man who studies human doctrines does but feed upon ashes.

Fourthly, Human doctrines cannot cure a wound in the conscience. The diseased woman spent all she had upon physicians—but was not a penny the better. The remedy is too weak for the disease. Conscience, like Prometheus' vulture, will still lie gnawing, notwithstanding all that such doctrines can do.

Fifthly, Human doctrines are so far from enriching the soul, that they usually impoverish the soul.They weaken the soul; they expose the soul to the greatest needs and to the greatest weaknesses; they play the harlot with the soul; they impoverish it, and bring it to "a morsel of bread." Who so poor in spiritual experiences and heavenly enjoyments—as such that sit under the droppings of human doctrines?

Sixthly, Human doctrines make men servants to the whims and corruptions of men; they make men-pleasers of men rather than pleasers of God; yes, they make men set up themselves and others, sometimes in the place of Christ—and sometimes above Christ.

I hope these few short hints may prevail with some to fall in with this counsel, that so they may the better preach the Lord Jesus to the people. And so much for this doctrine.