THE

TEXT

Opened and Explained.

Rev. 3. 18.1 Counsel thee to buy of Me Gold tryed in the fire, that thou majeft be Rich, &c.

HIS our Text is a Part or Paragraph of the Epifle to the Church of Laodicea (a famous City of Lydia in Afia the Lef fer near the River Lycus) the fum and fubitance whereof is a plain Manifefto of mans Miz Jery and Gods Mercy. Jefus

Chrift in the preceeding verfes from the 14, having lybelled thir Laodiceans (as he had done the rest of the Afian Churches) he exprefly tells them of the fatal Plagues they laboured under, fuggelling allo that their Condition was the more dangerous and desperate, because they were infenfible thereof, not knowing that they are miserable, blind, poor &c.V, 17. yea moreover berein is their prodigious Rupidity the more Arange, that albeit they languished under fearfull maladies, yet were they pregnant with arrogant high conceits of their imaginary perfections & opulens cy,laying, I am rieb, and bave need of nothing &c.O the profound deceitfulness of the heart of man! Othe incredible force of self-love and self-delufion! and

fee

feeing we are upon matters of wonder, let us likewife admire the ineffable fulness and freeness of the grace of God in Christ, who hath contrived and res vealed a bleffed Method, how the most desperate Gafs may be Cured, the which is proposed in our Text: Wherein we have

1. Jefus Chrift addreffing Himself to poor, milerable Sinners, in a twofold Quality,

1. In the Quality of a Friend, 1 Counfelsbee, 2. In the Quality of a Merchant, buy of me. 2. We have feveral things confiderable with res fpect to Chrift, in the Notion or Quality of a Mer chant, to illuftrate and amplify the Allufion. 1. The Terms of Art, buy of me.

2. The Parties Bargainers, or the Seller and the Buyer the Seller is Chrift verfe 14, the Buyers, or at lealt thefe to whom Chrifts Wares are offered to Sale, are the Laodiceans, ie, every poor, needy Sinner, verfe 17.

3. The Wares and Commodities that are the mat ter of this Merchandize, Gold, Rayment, Eye-falve. 4 The Condition or Quality of the Wares,

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1. Not only good and faleable, but the moft valus able and precious, Gold, yea and the best of its kind, fine tryed Gold.

2. Needfull and ufe full Wares Rayment, Eye-falve, 3. Wares not only for Neceffity, but for Orna ment, white Rayment.

4. Wares in plenty and variety exactly fuited to the feveral needs and exigencies of Buyers are they poor they may have gold; are they naked they may have rayment; are they blind or blear-eyed, they y have eyes falve. 5. The

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. The Conditions of Sale. Indeed nothing is fpoken of, and Nothing is the Price, bence fome think our Lord here alludes to Ila, 55. 1. Come & buy Without money and without price.

6. We have the grand defign of the Bargain, vi to prevent your difgrace, and to make you rich and happy every way,--So much for the Analyf of the Text. We come in the next place to explain the Words and Terms.

1 Counsel thee außxxsuw, fimul Confulo, i, e. Í Jefus Chrift Counfel thee by fpeaking and refining Together mouth to mouth, whereby we may under ftand his pathetick earneftness, that He would bave forlorn finners come into fpeaking and treating terms with bim, and to liften unto his gracious Of fers and as this word fpeaks out his earne finefs, fo Jikewife his ftupendous condefcendency in flouping to addrefs rebellious Criminals in fo familiar infenuating a manner, and it feems to run in the fame fenfe and frain with that Phraze, Ifa. 1. 18, Come now and let us reafon together, faith the Lord, &c.

Buy of me] This buying here is not to be under food Properly, but Metaphorically, no more than the Wares fpoken of in the Text, Gold &c. for there is Do price fought, neither have we a price in our hand to give for fuch invaluable precious Wares: but the meaning is come in Faith, and freely take the purchafed bleffings, which I have bought at the dear Price of my Blood, and which I freely offer to you without price, only ask and ye fhall receive: hence fays Jerem. Dyke, the way to buy from Christ is to be begging is buyings and praying is paying; and Mr

kins in loc, thinketh. that this City being a place of great Wealth, Tratfick and Merchandize: therefore Chrift fpeaketh to them in a tyle and dialect wheres with they were well acquainted: 80 that we would have you to carry along with you in our after Dif courfe, that when we may fpeak of buying Christ's Wares, our true meaning is,that by believing ye apprebend, receive and take hold of the fame,even as the Buyers takes the goods out of the band of the Seller, Chrift and his Benefits being banded to us out of Heaven from God the Father, in and by the Minis Ary of Golpel Offers and Ordinances.

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Gold tryed in the fire χρυσιον πειρωμενον ἐκ πυρο i. e. Gold taken out well fired in the fire, or double refined, there feems to be here a Pleonafin, in ads ding ἐκ πιρθ for χρυσίου πεπυρωμενον might have been enough to fignifie Gold tryed in the fire: but by Gold and the other particulars mentioned, the generality of Interpreters understand the Grace of • God (that is more precious than the fineft Gold) and all the purchased Benefits of Chrift,

White raiment We shall have occasion afterward to speak particularly of this, therefore we shall fay nothing of it here,

That the fhame of thy Nakedness do not appear i, e. That thy opprobrious, or shamefull Nakedness be not expofed to open view by a Common Hebraifm: hence the old English Translators reads it, that thy filthy Nakedneís do not appear,

And anoint with Eye [alve] και κολλυριον ἐι χρίσον, fome read ive eg plans, i. c. that thou mayeft a lot, and fo the Eye.falve comes in as a particolar

Species

fpecies of the Wares to be fold, as if it were buy Gold, buy Raiment, buy Eyesfalve: xoxλxpio is a kind of Medicament & Salve made up of a great many In gredients applicable to feveral different Ulfes, but more fpecially is teadable for curing bundea or bleared Eye, hence the Etymological import of the word, a nahuey Topsir, quod Qcutorum fluxum fistat. i.e. for ftopping or preventing the running of was Try tender Eyes: but the genuine fpiritual tente of this Phrafe is, that we come to Chrift to get our darkened mind favingly illuminated, for he only bath the Treasures of divine Light at His difpotal, being that full bright Sun of Righteoufnefs, that shineth on whom He willetb. 1 Joh, 2. 19. Ye have received an UnЯtion from the Holy one, and re know all things,

The words being thus feparately Explained, the Compound fenfe of them together feems to be, as if Our Lord did fay, Oye wretched deluded Laodiceans, ye are in a very deplorable dangerous condition and the more bopclefs your cafe is, in that you fee not, you feel not your maladies; yet if ye will bear my Counsel and follow my Directions, which out of tender Compellion to you I note offer and propofe, mof carnefly I beferch you come unto me, and I will enric you with the treas fures, blessings and merchandize of the beavenly Canaan, I will readily and liberally furnish you, wi hall that may be necessary,c«mfortable & conq niert for you, Hence we draw this Doctrine,

Dear. The way to he Rich is to trade with Chrif, or to be employed as a Spiritual Merchant, in Buying the things which He offers to Sale.

My Friends were I here to inform you of