Chapter Five

“Entrusted With the Rule Over Souls”: Bearing Responsibility for the Work

Section 71: Godly Leaders Must First Be Cleansed Themselves

The high qualifications and solemn duty of godly leadership is weighty and beyond human power. The judgements against ungodly warns should serve as a sober warning. To consider the responsibility of ministry work should bring one to reflect on his own salvation and sanctification, not how to occupy a position of spiritual leadership and authority. A person must be cleansed first before occupying the leadership role that leads others into their own cleansing.

71. With these thoughts I am occupied night and day: they waste my marrow, and feed upon my flesh, and will not allow me to be confident or to look up. They depress my soul, and abase my mind, and fetter my tongue, and make me consider, not the position of a prelate, or the guidance and direction of others, which is far beyond my powers; but how I myself am to escape the wrath to come, and to scrape off from myself somewhat of the rust of vice. A man must himself be cleansed, before cleansing others: himself become wise, that he may make others wise; become light, and then give light: draw near to God, and so bring others near; be hallowed, then hallow them; be possessed of hands to lead others by the hand, of wisdom to give advice.

Section 72: Do Not Be Hasty in Assuming Spiritual Leadership

We should not be hasty and impatient in pursuing and assuming spiritual leadership. It is worth the wait to make sure one is qualified and fit for the work. It is better to have short and substantive godly leadership—a wise but brief ministry station—than a long and empty tyranny of wicked leaders.

72. When will this be, say they who are swift but not sure in every thing, readily building up, readily throwing down. When will the lamp be upon its stand, and where is the talent? For so they call the grace. Those who speak thus are more fervent in friendship than in reverence. You ask me, you men of exceeding courage, when these things shall be, and what account I give of them? Not even extreme old age would be too long a limit to assign. For hoary hairs combined with prudence are better than inexperienced youth, well-reasoned hesitation than inconsiderate haste, and a brief reign than a long tyranny: just as a small portion honorably won is better than considerable possessions which are dishonorable and uncertain, a little gold than a great weight of lead, a little light than much darkness.

Section 73: It Takes Time to Mold Mature, Godly Leaders

Excessive haste in assuming spiritual leadership places immature leaders in ministry roles, and these leaders cannot withstand with godly endurance the difficulty and dangers that await. We should not appoint children to leadership roles. Maturity is not produced quickly; it takes time to mold a spiritual leadership fit for the dignity of the work.

73. But this speed, in its untrustworthiness and excessive haste, is in danger of being like the seeds which fell upon the rock, and, because they had no depth of earth, sprang up at once, but could not bear even the first heat of the sun; or like the foundation laid upon the sand, which could not even make a slight resistance to the rain and the winds. Woe to thee, O city, whose king is a child, says Solomon. Be not hasty of speech, says Solomon again, asserting that hastiness of speech is less serious than heated action. And who, in spite of all this, demands haste rather than security and utility? Who can mould, as clay-figures are modeled in a single day, the defender of the truth, who is to take his stand with Angels, and give glory with Archangels, and cause the sacrifice to ascend to the altar on high, and share the priesthood of Christ, and renew the creature, and set forth the image, and create inhabitants for the world above, aye and, greatest of all, be God, and make others to be God?

Section 74: Spiritual Leaders Are God’s Ministers

Ultimately, spiritual leaders are God’s ministers. The sinfulness of humanity and the world make it difficulty for a person to be fit to be one of God’s leaders—guiding people to God, toward the heights of heaven. Even a godly human serves in spiritual leadership with great difficulty because he is a finite creature leading people to the infinite and all-powerful God.

74. I know Whose ministers we are, and where we are placed, and whither we are guides. I know the height of God, and the weakness of man, and, on the contrary, his power. Heaven is high, and the earth deep; and who of those who have been cast down by sin shall ascend? Who that is as yet surrounded by the gloom here below, and by the grossness of the flesh can purely gaze with his whole mind upon that whole mind, and amid unstable and visible things hold intercourse with the stable and invisible? For hardly may one of those who have been most specially purged, behold here even an image of the Good, as men see the sun in the water. Who hath measured the water with his hand, and the heaven with a span, and the whole earth in a measure? Who hath weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance? What is the place of his rest? and to whom shall he be likened?

Section 75: The Mystery That Knowing God Increases Sorrow

The life of faith is filled with mystery. God is the almighty Creator of all things. People are limited. We can know God but not fully comprehend him. We can draw near God but still remain at a distance. Those who attain to great spiritual realities are also filled with greater sorrow in that they recognize how much they do not fully understand. Closeness to God increases an awareness of how much we do not know about God.

75. Who is it, Who made all things by His Word, and formed man by His Wisdom, and gathered into one things scattered abroad, and mingled dust with spirit, and compounded an animal visible and invisible, temporal and immortal, earthly and heavenly, able to attain to God but not to comprehend Him, drawing near and yet afar off. I said, I will be wise, says Solomon, but she (i.e. Wisdom) was far from me beyond what is: and, Verily, he that increases knowledge increases sorrow. For the joy of what we have discovered is no greater than the pain of what escapes us; a pain, I imagine, like that felt by those who are dragged, while yet thirsty, from the water, or are unable to retain what they think they hold, or are suddenly left in the dark by a flash of lightning.

Section 76: Knowledge of God Leads to Humility and Worship

For the faithful, the mystery of the faith—knowing God with limits—produces humility. It is beyond human ability to fully express the fullness of God. We should aim to not merely expound truths about God but to worship him. At once, God is the epitome of all that is glorious, good, and pure, yet he is beyond all of these. As soon as we know something about him, the fullness of his being escapes us, drawing us to love and adore him in all his excellent beauty and exceeding glory.

76. This depressed and kept me humble, and persuaded me that it was better to hear the voice of praise than to be an expounder of truths beyond my power; the majesty, and the height, and the dignity, and the pure natures scarce able to contain the brightness of God, Whom the deep covers, Whose secret place is darkness, since He is the purest light, which most men cannot approach unto; Who is in all this universe, and again is beyond the universe; Who is all goodness, and beyond all goodness; Who enlightens the mind, and escapes the quickness and height of the mind, ever retiring as much as He is apprehended, and by His flight and stealing away when grasped, withdrawing to the things above one who is enamored of Him.

Section 77: Longing Zeal, Holy Fear, and Spiritual Fruit

Godly ministers are called to lead people to love God and enjoy intimate relationship with him, like a bride united in marriage to the bridegroom. Gregory expresses zeal for God, but his holy fervency is balanced by fear of being cast out because of his unfitness. Nevertheless, he testifies that he was drawn to God at a young age—experiencing salvation, denying worldly pleasures, loving of God’s word, seeking wisdom, and growing in godliness and demonstrated spiritual fruit in his young life that exceeded many others.

77. Such and so great is the object of our longing zeal, and such a man should he be, who prepares and conducts souls to their espousals. For myself, I feared to be cast, bound hand and foot, from the bride-chamber, for not having on a wedding-garment, and for having rashly intruded among those who there sit at meat. And yet I had been invited from my youth, if I may speak of what most men know not, and had been cast upon Him from the womb, and presented by the promise of my mother, afterwards confirmed in the hour of danger: and my longing grew up with it, and my reason agreed to it, and I gave as an offering my all to Him Who had won me and saved me, my property, my fame, my health, my very words, from which I only gained the advantage of being able to despise them, and of having something in comparison of which I preferred Christ. And the words of God were made sweet as honeycombs to me, and I cried after knowledge and lifted up my voice for wisdom. There was moreover the moderation of anger, the curbing of the tongue, the restraint of the eyes, the discipline of the belly, and the trampling under foot of the glory which clings to the earth. I speak foolishly, but it shall be said, in these pursuits I was perhaps not inferior to many.

Section 78: Learning to Submit Before Leading Others

Spiritual leadership—“to guide and govern souls”—was a duty too great for Gregory. He does not feel worthy for the work. He testifies that he should not assumed this leadership position before he learned to fully submit to his own spiritual leadership.The present times are filled with confusion, division, and conflict. It is right for one to hesitate to assume this role. especially in a day when the sacredness and substance of the minister’s role has become emptied of its significance.

78. One branch of philosophy is, however, too high for me, the commission to guide and govern souls—and before I have rightly learned to submit to a shepherd, or have had my soul duly cleansed, the charge of caring for a flock: especially in times like these, when a man, seeing everyone else rushing hither and thither in confusion, is content to flee from the melee and escape, in sheltered retirement, from the storm and gloom of the wicked one: when the members are at war with one another, and the slight remains of love, which once existed, have departed, and priest is a mere empty name, since, as it is said, contempt has been poured upon princes.

Section 79: The Devastating Lack of the Fear of God

There is a general lack of godly fear. Sacred duties dealing with the knowledge of God are irresponsibly handed to anyone. The results of this negligence are devastating: defining righteousness by judging others, profaning the holy teachings and sacred rites, encouraging spiritual infidelity, and fostering partisan division. Spiritual leadership is given to those who are skillful in evil speech rather than those who restrain their speech in the fear of the Lord.

79. Would that it were merely empty! And now may their blasphemy fall upon the head of the ungodly! All fear has been banished from souls, shamelessness has taken its place, and knowledge and the deep things of the Spirit are at the disposal of anyone who will; and we all become pious by simply condemning the impiety of others; and we claim the services of ungodly judges, and fling that which is holy to the dogs, and cast pearls before swine, by publishing divine things in the hearing of profane souls, and, wretches that we are, carefully fulfill the prayers of our enemies, and are not ashamed to go a whoring with our own inventions. Moabites and Ammonites, who were not permitted even to enter the Church of the Lord, frequent our most holy rites. We have opened to all not the gates of righteousness, but, doors of railing and partisan arrogance; and the first place among us is given, not to one who in the fear of God refrains from even an idle word, but to him who can revile his neighbor most fluently, whether explicitly, or by covert allusion; who rolls beneath his tongue mischief and iniquity, or to speak more accurately, the poison of asps.

Section 80: The General Demise of Genuine Spiritual Leadership

The widespread spiritual decline has resulted in the corruption of God’s people. People condemn the sins of others to make themselves seem more spiritual rather than trying to help them overcome it. A person’s goodness is established by the people they know rather than his personal character—their friendships reinforce their vices. Some leaders make arbitrary condemnations to increase their admiration. In the face of deteriorated spiritual leadership, glaring sin is overlooked and excused.

80. We observe each other’s sins, not to bewail them, but to make them subjects of reproach, not to heal them, but to aggravate them, and excuse our own evil deeds by the wounds of our neighbors. Bad and good men are distinguished not according to personal character, but by their disagreement or friendship with ourselves. We praise one day what we revile the next, denunciation at the hands of others is a passport to our admiration; so magnanimous are we in our viciousness, that everything is frankly forgiven to impiety.

Section 81: Confusion and Chaos in the Ministry

The landscape of ministry has become confusing and disordered, like the primordial chaos out of which God brought an ordered creation. Without a return to godly standards for Christian ministers, the current decline in spiritual leadership is like fighting a war by a faint light or fighting a sea battle on turbulent seas—we end up attacking each other because we cannot correctly discern friend from foe.

81. Everything has reverted to the original state of things before the world, with its present fair order and form, came into being. The general confusion and irregularity cry for some organizing hand and power. Or, if you will, it is like a battle at night by the faint light of the moon, when none can discern the faces of friends or foes; or like a sea fight on the surge, with the driving winds, and boiling foam, and dashing waves, and crashing vessels, with the thrusts of poles, the pipes of boatswains, the groans of the fallen, while we make our voices heard above the din, and not knowing what to do, and having, alas! no opportunity for showing our valor, assail one another, and fall by one another’s hands.

Section 82: Pious People at War Against Evil Priests

In the current degradation of the ministry, there is no difference between the common people and those called to ministry—no difference in the spiritual condition of the populace and the pastorate. Those who occupy positions of spiritual leadership are moved by the influences that affect the majority of people. In fact, the people war against ministers, demonstrating piety and godliness to support their claims. It is better for there to be conflict for the sake of the truth than the false pretense of peace that ultimately separates people from God.

82. Nor indeed is there any distinction between the state of the people and that of the priesthood: but it seems to me to be a simple fulfillment of the ancient curse, “As with the people so with the priest.” Nor again are the great and eminent men affected otherwise than the majority; nay, they are openly at war with the priests, and their piety is an aid to their powers of persuasion. And indeed, provided that it be on behalf of the faith, and of the highest and most important questions, let them be thus disposed, and I blame them not; nay, to say the truth, I go so far as to praise and congratulate them. Yea! would that I were one of those who contend and incur hatred for the truth’s sake: or rather, I can boast of being one of them. For better is a laudable war than a peace which severs a man from God: and therefore it is that the Spirit arms the gentle warrior, as one who is able to wage war in a good cause.

Section 83: Faith as a Pretext for Quarrels and Divisions

Even though conflict for the truth is admirable, not all conflict is godly. Some make the faith a pretext for quarrels and controversies about small matters and personal opinions. This reviles the reputation of the Christian faith, causing unbelievers to reproach the gospel and believers to be scandalized.

83. But at the present time there are some who go to war even about small matters and to no purpose, and, with great ignorance and audacity, accept, as an associate in their ill-doing, anyone whoever he may be. Then everyone makes the faith his pretext, and this venerable name is dragged into their private quarrels. Consequently, as was probable, we are hated, even among the Gentiles, and, what is harder still, we cannot say that this is without just cause. Nay, even the best of our own people are scandalized, while this result is not surprising in the case of the multitude, who are ill-disposed to accept anything that is good.

Section 84: The Faith Has Become a Shameful Spectacle

Evil flourishes by Christian division—sinners plot against God’s people using their own devices. Christian disunity is one of the enemy’s great weapons against the faith. Because of Christian division, Christians have become a shameful spectacle in the world. Even in entertainment, the most wicked scoff at the faith with comedic ridicule and demean Christianity by deriding a mere a caricature of the faith.

84. Sinners are planning upon our backs; and what we devise against each other, they turn against us all: and we have become a new spectacle, not to angels and men, as says Paul, that bravest of athletes, in his contest with principalities and powers, but to almost all wicked men, and at every time and place, in the public squares, at carousals, at festivities, and times of sorrow. Nay, we have already—I can scarcely speak of it without tears—been represented on the stage, amid the laughter of the most licentious, and the most popular of all dialogues and scenes is the caricature of a Christian.

Section 85: Christian Leaders Must Display Christlike Character

The internal conflict with the church—“our intestine warfare”—reveals the unfitness of many ministers of the gospel. Like a wrestler, spiritual leaders must compete according to the rules. While Christians must contend for the truth, they must not use the Christian faith as a cover for evil divisions against other believers. Character must match competence. No matter how much skill a person has, they will be disqualified if they lack Christlike character.

85. These are the results of our intestine warfare, and our extreme readiness to strive about goodness and gentleness, and our inexpedient excess of love for God. Wrestling, or any other athletic contest, is only permitted according to fixed laws, and the man will be shouted down and disgraced, and lose the victory, who breaks the laws of wrestling, or acts unfairly in any other contest, contrary to the rules laid down for the contest, however able and skillful he may be; and shall anyone contend for Christ in an un-Christlike manner, and yet be pleasing to peace for having fought unlawfully in her name.

Section 86: Bringing Public Shame That Encourages Blasphemy

Human sinfulness will never lessen Jesus’ power. In spite of the public shame Christians bring upon Christ, the demons still tremble at his name. Nevertheless, the lack of Christian character can cause Christianity to endure public scorn, encouraging unbelievers to blaspheme God.

86. Yea, even now, when Christ is invoked, the devils tremble, and not even by our ill-doing has the power of this Name been extinguished, while we are not ashamed to insult a cause and name so venerable; shouting it, and having it shouted in return, almost in public, and every day; for My Name is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.

Section 87: Facing Death for the Glory of Christ

While God’s people suffer from internal division, the church also faces war with external foes who oppose the faith—persecution and martyrdom. Despite threat from spiritual enemies, spiritual leaders will victoriously face death when they suffer and die for the glory of Christ.

87. Of external warfare I am not afraid, nor of that wild beast, and fulness of evil, who has now arisen against the churches, though he may threaten fire, sword, wild beasts, precipices, chasms; though he may show himself more inhuman than all previous madmen, and discover fresh tortures of greater severity. I have one remedy for them all, one road to victory; I will glory in Christ namely, death for Christ’s sake.

Section 88: Arming Ourselves Against the Wicked One

Gregory expresses his difficulty in knowing how to arm himself against wicked foes. He needs a rescuer typified and prefigured by biblical saints: a deliverer like Moses, a commander like Joshua, a warrior like David, a priest like Samuel, a lamenting prophet like Jeremiah.

88. For my own warfare, however, I am at a loss what course to pursue, what alliance, what word of wisdom, what grace to devise, with what panoply to arm myself, against the wiles of the wicked one. What Moses is to conquer him by stretching out his hands upon the mount, in order that the cross, thus typified and prefigured, may prevail? What Joshua, as his successor, arrayed alongside the Captain of the Lord’s hosts? What David, either by harping, or fighting with his sling, and girded by God with strength unto the battle, and with his fingers trained to war? What Samuel, praying and sacrificing for the people, and anointing as king one who can gain the victory? What Jeremiah, by writing lamentations for Israel, is fitly to lament these things?

Section 89: Gaining Slight Respite from Warfare

In the face of opposition which threatens God’s people, we need a mediating intercessor for God’s people, typified by biblical figures like Noah, Job, and Daniel. Only God can mend the relationship between believers and heal internal divisions, sparing his people and rescuing them from being a reproach to the nations.

89. Who will cry aloud, Spare Thy People, O Lord, and give not Thine heritage to reproach, that the nations should rule over them? What Noah, and Job, and Daniel, who are reckoned together as men of prayer, will pray for us, that we may have a slight respite from warfare, and recover ourselves, and recognize one another for a while, and no longer, instead of united Israel, be Judah and Israel, Rehoboam and Jeroboam, Jerusalem and Samaria, in turn delivered up because of our sins, and in turn lamented.

Section 90: Daring Courage to Enter into the Warfare

Gregory admits that he is too weak and sorrowful for the warfare and this caused him to retreat into solitude and silence. The times are evil—God’s people are violently attacked, believers backslide, and the beauty of the church is reproached. Ministry in these times requires great courage.

90. For I own that I am too weak for this warfare, and therefore turned my back, hiding my face in the rout, and sat solitary, because I was filled with bitterness and sought to be silent, understanding that it is an evil time, that the beloved had kicked, that we were become backsliding children, who are the luxuriant vine, the true vine, all fruitful, all beautiful, springing up splendidly with showers from on high. For the diadem of beauty, the signet of glory, the crown of magnificence has been changed for me into shame; and if anyone, in face of these things, is daring and courageous, he has my blessing on his daring and courage.

Section 91: Fierce Battle with Passions, Body, and Spirit

Believers also face an internal warfare within themselves. God’s people endure a fierce and incessant battle against their passions. Inner desires toss and heave people every which way and are fueled by bodily senses and worldly pleasure. The internal battle of sin—a battle between flesh, spirit, and God’s law—strives to ruin the noble image of God in humanity. Until a man gains purity of mind, he is unfit for spiritual leadership—dangerous to mediate God and man.

91. I have said nothing yet of the internal warfare within ourselves, and in our passions, in which we are engaged night and day against the body of our humiliation, either secretly or openly, and against the tide which tosses and whirls us hither and thither, by the aid of our senses and other sources of the pleasures of this life; and against the miry clay in which we have been fixed; and against the law of sin, which wars against the law of the spirit, and strives to destroy the royal image in us, and all the divine emanation which has been bestowed upon us; so that it is difficult for anyone, either by a long course of philosophical training, and gradual separation of the noble and enlightened part of the soul from that which is debased and yoked with darkness, or by the mercy of God, or by both together, and by a constant practice of looking upward, to overcome the depressing power of matter. And before a man has, as far as possible, gained this superiority, and sufficiently purified his mind, and far surpassed his fellows in nearness to God, I do not think it safe for him to be entrusted with the rule over souls, or the office of mediator (for such, I take it, a priest is) between God and man.

Section 92: A Needful Fear That Is Commendable and Wise

When considering the ministry, godly fear is commendable and necessary. It is a sign of foresight. Moses teaches us that not anyone can draw near to God as a representative and intermediary between God and his people. Moses ascended Mount Sinai to meet with God and receive God’s word; the people worshipped from afar. It was a great privilege for the people to hear God’s voice after purification. It is a weighty duty for God’s leaders to represent God to the people and minister the spirit of the word to the people.

92. What is it that has induced this fear in me, that, instead of supposing me to be needlessly afraid, you may highly commend my foresight? I hear from Moses himself, when God spake to him, that, although many were bidden to come to the mount, one of whom was even Aaron, with his two sons who were priests, and seventy elders of the senate, the rest were ordered to worship afar off, and Moses alone to draw near, and the people were not to go up with him. For it is not everyone who may draw near to God, but only one who, like Moses, can bear the glory of God. Moreover, before this, when the law was first given, the trumpet-blasts, and lightnings, and thunders, and darkness, and the smoke of the whole mountain, and the terrible threats that if even a beast touched the mountain it should be stoned, and other like alarms, kept back the rest of the people, for whom it was a great privilege, after careful purification, merely to hear the voice of God. But Moses actually went up and entered into the cloud, and was charged with the law, and received the tables, which belong, for the multitude, to the letter, but, for those who are above the multitude, to the spirit.

Section 93: Warning Against Reckless Impiety Before God

Nadab and Abihu also commend a holy fear of God in ministry service. They offered strange fire and were judged for their impious error. Eli and Uzzah also highlight this warning: impiety before God is reckless and will incite God’s judgment.

93. I hear again that Nadab and Abihu, for having merely offered incense with strange fire, were with strange fire destroyed, the instrument of their impiety being used for their punishment, and their destruction following at the very time and place of their sacrilege; and not even their father Aaron, who was next to Moses in the favor of God, could save them. I know also of Eli the priest, and a little later of Uzzah, the former made to pay the penalty for his sons’ transgression, in daring to violate the sacrifices by an untimely exaction of the first fruits of the cauldrons, although he did not condone their impiety, but frequently rebuked them; the other, because he only touched the ark, which was being thrown off the cart by the ox, and though he saved it, was himself destroyed, in God’s jealousy for the reverence due to the ark.

Section 94: Beware of Presumptuous Access to God

The high standards of the priestly system reinforce the need for holy fear and reverence for God’s ministers. Neither priest nor sacrifice could have blemish. The sacrifices had to be offered at the right time by the right people. Complete purity—holiness of body and soul—was necessary to enter the temple. Only one man could enter the Holy of Holies once a year. These commands are a warning against presumptuous access to God.

94. I know also that not even bodily blemishes in either priests or victims passed without notice, but that it was required by the law that perfect sacrifices must be offered by perfect men—a symbol, I take it, of integrity of soul. It was not lawful for everyone to touch the priestly vesture, or any of the holy vessels; nor might the sacrifices themselves be consumed except by the proper persons, and at the proper time and place; nor might the anointing oil nor the compounded incense be imitated; nor might anyone enter the temple who was not in the most minute particular pure in both soul and body; so far was the Holy of holies removed from presumptuous access, that it might be entered by one man only once a year; so far were the veil, and the mercy-seat, and the ark, and the Cherubim, from the general gaze and touch.

Section 95: Minsters of God Must First Offer Themselves to God

No one is worthy of God unless they offer themselves as a living, holy sacrifice in worship and contrition. No one can minister the rites of the church without first making this sacrifice. In fact, not one can serve in spiritual leadership who has not first established their own relationship with the Lord in repentance, wisdom, obedience, worship, and submission to God. Devotion to God requires complete consecration of one’s whole being to the Lord.

95. Since then I knew these things, and that no one is worthy of the mightiness of God, and the sacrifice, and priesthood, who has not first presented himself to God, a living, holy sacrifice, and set forth the reasonable, well-pleasing service, and sacrificed to God the sacrifice of praise and the contrite spirit, which is the only sacrifice required of us by the Giver of all; how could I dare to offer to Him the external sacrifice, the antitype of the great mysteries, or clothe myself with the garb and name of priest, before my hands had been consecrated by holy works; before my eyes had been accustomed to gaze safely upon created things, with wonder only for the Creator, and without injury to the creature; before my ear had been sufficiently opened to the instruction of the Lord, and He had opened mine ear to hear without heaviness, and had set a golden earring with precious sardius, that is, a wise man’s word in an obedient ear; before my mouth had been opened to draw in the Spirit, and opened wide to be filled with the spirit of speaking mysteries and doctrines; and my lips bound, to use the words of wisdom, by divine knowledge, and, as I would add, loosed in due season: before my tongue had been filled with exultation, and become an instrument of Divine melody, awaking with glory, awaking right early, and laboring till it cleave to my jaws: before my feet had been set upon the rock, made like hart’s feet, and my footsteps directed in a godly fashion so that they should not well-nigh slip, nor slip at all; before all my members had become instruments of righteousness, and all mortality had been put off, and swallowed up of life, and had yielded to the Spirit?

Section 96: Gazing Upon Riches of God’s Word to Enrich Others

Those who want to minister spiritual things to others must understand spiritual things for themselves. To most men, many treasures of the faith remain hidden. Godly leaders must have the mind of Christ, formed by embracing the pure words of God. They must gaze on the riches of God’s word in order to enrich others in the truth.

96. Who is the man, whose heart has never been made to burn, as the Scriptures have been opened to him, with the pure words of God which have been tried in a furnace; who has not, by a triple inscription of them upon the breadth of his heart, attained the mind of Christ; nor been admitted to the treasures which to most men remain hidden, secret, and dark, to gaze upon the riches therein? and become able to enrich others, comparing spiritual things with spiritual.

Section 97: Becoming a Dwelling Place of God

Those fit for spiritual leadership must behold God’s beauty and become a habitation for God. Such a leader must distinguish between figures and realities, the letter and the spirit, and law and grace. They will be able to guide people to the fulfillment of spiritual realities that will come to fruition at the end of one’s life.

97. Who is the man who has never beheld, as our duty is to behold it, the fair beauty of the Lord, nor has visited His temple, or rather, become the temple of God, and the habitation of Christ in the Spirit? Who is the man who has never recognized the correlation and distinction between figures and the truth, so that by withdrawing from the former and cleaving to the latter, and by thus escaping from the oldness of the letter and serving the newness of the spirit, he may clean pass over to grace from the law, which finds its spiritual fulfillment in the dissolution of the body.

Section 98: Holding Communion With Christ

A qualified leader understands the true character of Christ through his appellations. In fact, a godly leader contemplates this reality and communes with Jesus in spiritual participation through his faithful meditation and actual experience of these truths.

98. Who is the man who has never, by experience and contemplation, traversed the entire series of the titles and powers of Christ, both those more lofty ones which originally were His, and those more lowly ones which He later assumed for our sake—viz.: God, the Son, the Image, the Word, the Wisdom, the Truth, the Light, the Life, the Power, the Vapor, the Emanation, the Effulgence, the Maker, the King, the Head, the Law, the Way, the Door, the Foundation, the Rock, the Pearl, the Peace, the Righteousness, the Sanctification, the Redemption, the Man, the Servant, the Shepherd, the Lamb, the High Priest, the Victim, the Firstborn before creation, the Firstborn from the dead, the Resurrection: who is the man who hearkens, but pays no heed, to these names so pregnant with reality, and has never yet held communion with, nor been made partaker of, the Word, in any of the real relations signified by each of these names which He bears?

Section 99: Accepting One’s Appointment as Head

Godly leaders learn the hidden wisdom and mystery of God. He moves on from milk to solid food, takes up the cross of Christ, and embraces his appointment as a leader of God’s people. Of all things, taking up spiritual leadership is to be most feared because of the dangers that surround the work, the magnitude and dignity of the duty, and the ruin that comes from failure.

99. Who, in fine, is the man who, although he has never applied himself to, nor learnt to speak, the hidden wisdom of God in a mystery, although he is still a babe, still fed with milk, still of those who are not numbered in Israel, nor enrolled in the army of God, although he is not yet able to take up the Cross of Christ like a man, although he is possibly not yet one of the more honorable members, yet will joyfully and eagerly accept his appointment as head of the fulness of Christ? No one, if he will listen to my judgment and accept my advice! This is of all things most to be feared, this is the extremest of dangers in the eyes of everyone who understands the magnitude of success, the utter ruin of failure.

Section 100: Preferring to Stay Ashore in a Pleasant Furrow

Some risk their lives to travel on the stormy seas to sell merchandise. Others look on these risky endeavors with respect as they stand on the safe, pleasant, and calm coastlines. Gregory says that he would prefer to stay out of the dangerous waters—not taking on the burden and risk of ministry responsibility—and live a life of safety and solace among the common people.

100. Let others sail for merchandise, I used to say, and cross the wide oceans, and constantly contend with winds and waves, to gain great wealth, if so it should chance, and run great risks in their eagerness for sailing and merchandise; but, for my part, I greatly prefer to stay ashore and plough a short but pleasant furrow, saluting at a respectful distance the sea and its gains, to live as best I can upon a poor and scanty store of barley-bread, and drag my life along in safety and calm, rather than expose myself to so long and great a risk for the sake of great gains.

Section 101: Building a Tower Intent to Finish It

If a leader does not progress in virtue, his contentment in meager fruit invites punishment on himself. A person who lives a humble life without great ambitions for spiritual leadership escapes the risk of greater divine judgment because they did not assume the responsibility of ministry. A man should count the cost and make sure he enters into ministry with sufficient means to complete his assignment.

101. For one in high estate, if he fail to make further progress and to disseminate virtue still more widely, and contents himself with slight results, incurs punishment, as having spent a great light upon the illumination of a little house, or girt round the limbs of a boy the full armor of a man. On the contrary, a man of low estate may with safety assume a light burden, and escape the risk of the ridicule and increased danger which would attend him if he attempted a task beyond his powers. For, as we have heard, it is not seemly for a man to build a tower, unless he has sufficient to finish it.

Reflection Questions