May 15

He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.—1 Corinthians 1:31.

We should glory neither in temporal nor spiritual possessions. We have no good in which we may boast for its own sake. "Every good gift, and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights." And as God is the author of all our blessings, so he should have the glory of them all.

1. Have you abundant and excellent means of grace? Have you ministers and holy ordinances, and Christian communion in the purest order? Glory in them as God's mercies and helps to higher things: but not as your felicity, or certain evidence of it. For many are first in these respects, that will be last in respect of life eternal. The greatest fall is from the highest mercies: and many that had the chiefest place in the church, will have the sorest place in hell. Abominable Sodom will escape better than many hearers of the gospel. But glory in this, that you have the spirit of the gospel, and that Christ within you that is preached in the gospel.

2. Have you much understanding in the doctrine of the gospel? and are you eminent teachers of it to others? Glory in it as an opportunity of serving the Lord, and of doing and getting good; but not as a certain evidence of a good estate. For many shall say, "Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name?"

whom Christ will not own, because they were "workers of iniquity." And "he that knoweth his Master's will, and doth it not, shall be beaten with many stripes." But if your love and obedience be answerable to your knowledge, glory rather in that.

3. Have you done many works of mercy to others? Have you given all you have to the poor? Have you converted many souls? Are you public mercies to the place where you live? Give God the glory of so great a mercy. But take heed of giving the glory to yourselves. And take not the outward works alone so much as for certain evidences of your happiness.

4. Have you extraordinary experiences of mercy, and extraordinary feelings of comfort in yourselves? Rejoice in them as God's mercy; and give him the glory. But remember that these are no certain evidences of your safe condition. Many have been wonderfully saved from death, that will not be saved from hell. And many large comforts have ended in eternal sorrows.

5. Have you a living faith, and a soul abounding in the love of God, and emptied of self in Christian humility, and exercised in holy walkings, and conflicts for Christ, and looking with hope to the joy that is set before you? What then shall I say to you? Glory in this blessed work of grace; this image of Christ; this heavenly nature and conversation; and this foretaste and earnest of everlasting life. But sure I need not bid you give not your very graces the glory due to Christ. For this were to prohibit you a contradiction. It is the nature of them all to carry you to Christ, and to cause you to deny yourselves. You can not exercise these graces, but you must do it. Do I need to desire you that you make not your own faith the matter of that righteousness which must answer the law, when faith itself is a receiving of another for our righteousness? Or need I advise you that you trust not in your love and evangelical obedience as a satisfaction to God's justice, or the matter of that righteousness which must answer the law; when that love and obedience are nothing else but a love to him, and an obedience to him that hath satisfied for us, and is become our righteousness? Do I need to persuade the humble as far as they are humble, not to be proud of their own graces and works? or the self-denying not to glory in themselves? The nature of the new creature, and the anointing that is in you, doth effectually teach you all these things; and you have already learned them.

"But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption: that, according as it is written, he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord." And believe this; as carnal glorying is childish, against our own reason and daily experience, and will shortly make all that used it ashamed; so the spiritual glorying of the mortified believer is also rational and manly, and will never make him ashamed, but end in the perfect endless glory. Fix then your resolutions with the mortified apostle: "God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified to me, and I unto the world."