Christ’s Refining Fire of Reformation unto His Church and Nations

George Gillespie, A Sermon Preached before the Right Honourable the House of Lords, in the Abbey Church at Westminster, upon the 27th. of August. 1645 ... Whereunto Is Added a Brotherly Examination of Some Passages of Mr. Colemans Late Printed Sermon upon Job 11. 20. in Which He Hath Endeavoured to Strike at the Root of All Church-Government (R. Bostock, 1645), Pg. 10-21.

The full sermon is found here.

Sermon Text: Malachi 3:2-- But who may abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he appeareth? for he is like a refiner's fire, and like fullers' soap?

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I will now come to the particulars: Christ is to us as a refiner's fire, and as fuller's soap, three ways: in respect of, 1. Reformation; 2. Tribulation; 3. Mortification;—which make not three different senses, but three harmonious parts of one and the same sense.

I begin with reformation; concerning which I draw this doctrine from the text:—

“The right reformation of the church, which is according to the mind of Jesus Christ, is not without much molestation and displeasure to men's corrupt nature. It is a very purgatory upon earth: it is like the fire to drossy silver, and like fuller's soap to slovenly persons, who would rather keep the spots in their garments than take pains to wash them out.” (Gualther, hom. 8)

Look but upon one piece of the accomplishment of this prophecy, and by it judge of the rest. When Christ cometh to Jerusalem, “meek, and sitting upon an ass” (as the Prophet said), all the city is troubled at his coming, Matt. 21:10; when he had but cast out the buyers and sellers out of the temple, the priests and scribes begin to plot his death, Luke 19:45, 47; nay, where Christ and the gospel cometh, there is a shaking of heaven and earth, Hag. 2:6. The less wonder if I call reformation like a refiner's fire. The dross of a church is not purged away without this violence of fire.

This is the manner of reformation held forth in Scripture, and that in reference,

1. To magistrates and statesmen;

2. To ministers;

3. To a people reformed;

4. To a people not reformed.

In reference to magistrates and statesmen, reformation is a fire that purgeth away the dross: Isa. 1:25, “And I will turn my hand upon thee, and purely purge away thy dross, and take away all thy tin.” Here is the refiner's fire; and the Chaldee Paraphrase addeth the fuller's borith. Then followeth, ver. 26, “And I will restore thy judges as at the first, and thy counsellors as at the beginning: afterward thou shalt be called, The city of righteousness, The faithful city.” Interpreters note upon that place, that no effectual reformation can be looked for till rulers and magistrates be reformed; and that therefore the Lord promiseth to purge away the dross and tin of corrupt rulers and judges, and to give his people such judges and rulers as they had of old, Moses, Joshua, the judges, David, Solomon, and the like.

In reference to ministers the doctrine is most clear. The next words after my text tell you, that this refining fire is specially intended for purifying the sons of Levi. The same thing we have more largely, though more obscurely, in 1 Cor. 3:12-15. I do not say that the Apostle there meaneth only of times of reformation, but this I say, that it holdeth true, and most manifestly, too, of times of reformation; and that this is not to be excluded, but to be taken in as a principal part of the Holy Ghost's intendment in that scripture. He is speaking of the ministers of the gospel and their ministry, supposing always that they build upon Christ, and hold to that true foundation. Upon this foundation some build gold, silver, precious stones; that is, such preaching of the word, such administration of the sacraments, such a church discipline, and such a life as is according to the word, and savoureth of Christ: others build wood, hay, stubble; whereby is meant whatsoever in their ministry is unprofitable, unedifying, vain, curious, unbeseeming the gospel; for the ministers of Christ must be purified, not only from heresy, idolatry, profaneness, and the like, but even from that which is frothy and unedifying, which savoureth not of God's Spirit, but of man's. Now, saith the Apostle, “Every man's work shall be made manifest, for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire, and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is.” The church shall not always be deluded and abused with vanities that cannot profit. A time of light and reformation discovereth the unprofitableness of those things wherewith men did formerly please and satisfy themselves. There is a fire which will prove every man's work, even an accurate trial and strict examination thereof, according to the rule of Christ; a narrow inquiry into, and exact discovery of every man's work (for so do our divines [ministers] understand the fire there spoken of), whether this fiery trial be made by the searching and discovering light of the word in a time of reformation, or by afflictions, or in a man's own conscience at the hour of death. If by some or all of these trials, a minister's work be found to be what it ought to be, he shall receive a special reward and praise; but if he have built wood, hay, and stubble, he shall be like a man whose house is set on fire about his ears; that is, he shall suffer loss, and his work shall be burnt, yet himself shall escape, and get his life for a prey, “so as by fire;” that is, so that he can abide that trial and examination whereby God distinguisheth between sincere ones and hypocrites; or, so that he be found to have been otherwise a faithful minister, and to have built upon a right foundation.

In the third place, you shall find reformation to be a refining fire in reference to a people or church reformed: “He that is left in Zion, and he that remaineth in Jerusalem, shall be called holy,” saith the Prophet; “when the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from the midst thereof, by the spirit of judgment, and by the spirit of burning,” Isa.4:3, 4. Where you may understand by the filth of the daughters of Zion, their former idolatries, and such like abominations against the first table (which the prophets call often by the name of filth and pollution); and by the blood of Jerusalem, the sins against the second table. These the Lord promiseth to purge away by the spirit of judgment; that is, by a spirit of reformation (according to that John 12:31, “Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out”). Which spirit of reformation is also a spirit of burning; even as the Holy Ghost is elsewhere called fire (Matt. 3:11), and did come down upon the apostles in the likeness of cloven tongues of fire (Acts 2:3). The spirit of reformation may be the rather called the spirit of burning, because ordinarily reformation is not without tribulation (as we shall hear) and by the voice of the rod doth the Spirit speak to men's consciences. When the Lord hath thus washed away the filthy spots, and burnt away the filthy dross of his church, then (Isa. 4:5) she becomes a glory or a praise in the earth; and the promise is, that “upon all the glory shall be a defence:” but, you see, she is not brought to that condition till she go through the refiner's fire. It is no easy matter to cast Satan out of a person,—how much less to cast his kingdom out of a land? Another place for the same purpose we find, Zech. 13:9: When two parts of the land are cut off, the remnant which escape, the third part which is “written to life in Jerusalem,” even they must be brought through the fire. “I will bring the third part through the fire (saith the Lord), and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried.” This is the fiery trial of affliction, but the fruit of it is a blessed reformation, to make the church as most pure refined gold: “They shall call on my name, and I will hear them;” that is, they shall no longer worship idols, but me only, and they shall offer to the Lord an offering in righteousness, which shall be accepted. And what more? “I will say It is my people; and they shall say, The Lord is my God.” Behold, a reforming people and a covenanting people. But he that hath his fire in Zion, and his furnace in Jerusalem (Isa. 31:9), doth first refine them and purify them. We are not reformed, in God's account, till the refining fire have purged away our dross; till we be refined as silver is refined, and tried as gold is tried.

Lastly, In reference to a people not reformed, hear what the Prophet saith: Jer. 6:28-30, “They are brass and iron; they are all corrupters. The bellows are burnt, the lead is consumed of the fire, the founder melteth in vain; for the wicked are not plucked away. Reprobate silver shall men call them, because the Lord hath rejected them.” The Chaldee Paraphrase expoundeth it of the prophets who laboured in vain, and spent their strength for nought, speaking to the people in the name of the Lord, to turn to the law and to the testimony; but they would not turn.

I might draw many uses from this doctrine; but I shall content myself with these few:—

First of all, it reproveth that contrary principle which carnal reason suggesteth: Reformation must not grieve, but please; it must not break nor bruise, but heal and bind up; it must be an acceptable thing, not displeasing; it must be “as the voice of harpers harping with their harps,” but not “as the voice of many waters,” or “as the voice of great thunders.” Thus would many heal the wound of the daughter of Zion slightly, and daub the wall with untempered mortar, and so far comply with the sinful humours and inclinations of men, as, in effect, to harden them in evil, and to strengthen their hands in their wickedness; or at least, if men be moralised, then to trouble them no farther. Saith not the Apostle, “If I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ”? Gal. 1:10; and again, “The carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be,” Rom. 8:7. So that either we must have a reformation displeasing to God, or displeasing to men. It is not the right reformation which is not displeasing to a Tobiah, to a Sanballat, to a Demetrius, to the earthly-minded, to the self-seeking politicians, to the carnal and profane; it is but the old enmity between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent (Gen. 3:15): nay, what if reformation be displeasing to good men, in so far as they are unregenerate, carnal, earthly, proud, unmortified (for “who can say, I have made my heart clean, I am pure from my sin,” Prov. 20:9)? What if a Joshua envy Eldad and Medad (Num. 11: 27-29)? What if an Aaron and a Miriam speak against Moses (Num. 12:1, 2)? What if a religious Asa be wroth with the seer (2 Chron. 16:10)? What if a David will not alter his former judgment, though very erroneous, and will not (no, not after better information) have it thought that he was in an error (2 Sam. 19:29)? What if a Jonah refuse to go to Nineveh when he is called (Jonah 1:3)? What if the disciples of Christ must be taught to be more humble (Mark 9:33-35)? What if Peter must be reproved by Paul for his dissimulation (Gal. 2:11)? What if Archippus must be admonished to attend better upon his ministry (Col. 4:17)? What if Christ must tell the angels of the churches that he hath somewhat against them (Rev. 2 & 3)? If reformation displease both evil men, and, in some respect, good men, this makes it no worse than “a refiner's fire;” and so it must be, if it be according to the mind of Christ.

My second and chief application shall be unto you, my noble lords. If you be willing to admit such a reformation as is according to the mind of Christ, as is like the “refiner's fire” and “fuller's soap,” then, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ (who will say, ere long, to every one of you, “Give an account of thy stewardship; for thou mayest be no longer steward,” Luke 16:2), I recommend these three things unto you,—I mean, that you should make use of this “refiner's fire” in reference to three sorts of dross: 1. The dross of malignancy; 2. The dross of heresy and corruption in religion; 3. The dross of profaneness.

Touching the first of these, take the wise counsel of the wise man, Prov. 25:4, 5, “Take away the dross from the silver, and there shall come forth a vessel for the finer. Take away the wicked from before the king, and his throne shall be established in righteousness.” Remember, also, the fourth article of your Solemn League and Covenant, by which you have obliged yourselves, with your hands lifted up to the most high God, to endeavour the discovery, trial, and condign punishment of all such as have been, or shall be incendiaries, malignants, or evil instruments, by hindering the reformation of religion, dividing the king from his people, or one of the kingdoms from another, or making any faction or parties among the people contrary to this covenant. There was once a compliance between the nobles of Judah and the Samaritans, which I hope you do not read of without abominating the thing: You find it, Neh. 6:17, 19, “In those days the nobles of Judah sent many letters unto Tobiah, and the letters of Tobiah came unto them. Also (saith Nehemiah) they reported his good deeds before me, and uttered my words to him.” But you have also the error of a godly man set before you as a rock to be avoided, 2 Chron. 19:2, “Shouldest thou help the ungodly, and love them that hate the Lord? therefore is wrath upon thee from before the Lord.” I am not to dwell upon this point: “I speak as to wise men, judge ye what I say.”

In the second place, think of the extirpation of heresy and of unsound dangerous doctrine, such as now springeth up apace, and subverted the faith of many. There is no heretic nor false teacher which hath not some one fair pretext or another; but bring him once to be tried by this refining fire, he is found to be “like a potsherd covered with silver dross,” Prov. 26: 23. “What is the chaff to the wheat?” saith the Lord (Jer. 23:28), and what is the dross to the silver? If this be the way of Christ which my text speaketh of, then, sure, that which now passeth under the name of “liberty of conscience” is not the way of Christ. Much hath been written of this question; for my part I shall, for the present, only offer this one argument: If liberty of conscience ought to be granted in matters of religion, it ought also to be granted in matters civil or military; but liberty of conscience ought not to be granted in matters civil or military, as is acknowledged, therefore neither ought it to be granted in matters of religion. Put the case: Now there be some well-meaning men, otherwise void of offence, who, from the erroneous persuasion of their consciences, think it utterly sinful, and contrary to the word of God, to take arms in the Parliament's service, or to contribute to this present war, or to obey any ordinance of the lords and commons, which tendeth to the resisting of the king's forces. Now compare this case with the case of a Socinian, Arminian, Antinomian, or the like: they both plead for liberty of conscience; they both say our conscience ought not to be compelled, and if we do against our conscience, we sin. I beseech you, how can you give liberty of conscience to the heretic, and yet refuse liberty of conscience to him that is the conscientious recusant in point of the war? I am sure there can be no answer given to this argument which will not be resolved into this principle: Men's consciences may be compelled for the good of the state, but not for the glory of God; we must not suffer the state to sink, but if religion sink we cannot help it. This is the plain English of it.

When I speak against liberty of conscience, it is far from my meaning to advise any rigorous or violent course against such as, being sound in the faith, and holy in life, and not of a turbulent or factious carriage, do differ in smaller matters from the common rule. “Let that day be darkness; let not God regard it from above, neither let the light shine upon it” (Job. 3:4), in which it shall be said that the children of God in Britain are enemies and persecutors of each other. He is no good Christian who will not say Amen to the prayer of Jesus Christ (John 17:21), that all who are his may be one in him. If this be heartily wished, let it be effectually endeavoured; and let those who will choose a dividing way rather than a uniting way bear the blame.

The third part of my application shall be to stir you up, right honourable, to a willing condescending to the settling of church-government, in such a manner, as that neither ignorant nor scandalous persons may be admitted to the holy table of the Lord. Let there be, in the house of God, fuller's soap, to take off those who are “spots in your feasts,” and a refining fire to take away the dross from the silver. Psal. 119:119, “Thou puttest away all the wicked of the earth like dross,” saith David. Take away, therefore, the wicked from before the King of glory, for they shall not stand before him who hateth “all workers of iniquity,” Psal. 5:5. You see God puts all profane ones in one category, and so should you. There is a like reason against seven, and against seventy scandals; or, if you please to make a catalogue of seven, you may, provided it be such as God himself makes in the fifth verse of this chapter, where seven sorts are reckoned forth, as some interpreters compute; but the last of the seven is general and comprehensive, καὶ τοὺς φοβουμένους με, as the Septuagint have it,—“and those that fear not me”,—those, saith one, who are called in the New Testament ἀσεβείς,—ungodly. Jerome noteth upon the place,(Grotius, Annot. in Mal. iii.) that though men shall not be guilty of the aforementioned particulars, yet God makes this crime enough, that they are ungodly. Nay, I dare undertake to draw out of Erastus himself, the great adversary, a catalogue of seven sorts of persons to be kept off from the Lord's table, and such a catalogue as godly ministers can be content with. But of this elsewhere. Most horribly hath the Lord's table been profaned formerly in this kingdom, by the admission of scandalous persons. God will wink at it no longer,—now is the opportunity of reformation. The Parliament of England, if any state in the world, oweth much to Jesus Christ; and he will take it very ill at your hands, if ye do him not right in this. I say do him right; for, alas! what is it to ministers? It were more for their ease, and for pleasing of the people, to admit all; but a necessity is laid upon us, that we dare not do it; and woe unto us if we do it. And for your part, should you not establish such a rule as may put a difference between the precious and the vile, the clean and the unclean, you shall in so far make the churches of Christ in a worse condition, and more disabled to keep themselves pure, than either they were of old under pagan emperors, or now are under popish princes, you shall also strengthen, instead of silencing, the objections both of Separatists and Socinians, who have, with more than a colour of advantage, opened their mouths wide against some reformed churches, for their not exercising of discipline against scandalous and profane persons, and particularly for not suspending them from the sacrament of the Lord's supper. Nay, which is yet more, if you should refuse that which I speak of, you shall come short of that which heathens themselves, in their way, did make conscience of, for they did interdict and keep off from their holy things all such as they esteemed profane and scandalous, whom therefore they called ἐναγεῖς, that is, accused or delated persons. In this manner was Alchibades excommunicate at Athens, and Virginia at Rome, the former recorded by Plutarch, the latter by Livius. I trust God shall never so far desert this Parliament as that, in this particular, pagan and popish princes, Separatists, Socinians and heathens shall rise up in judgment against you. I am persuaded better things of you, and things that accompany salvation; and, namely, that you will not suffer the name and truth of God to be, through you, blasphemed and reproached. Do ye not remember the sad sentence against Eli and his house, “Because his sons made themselves vile, and he restrained them not,” 1 Sam. 3:13. The Apostle tells us, that the judgment of God abideth not only on those that commit sin, but those also who consent with them, Rom. 1:32. Aquinas upon that place saith, We may consent to the sins of others two ways: 1. Directly, by counselling, approving, &c.; 2. Indirectly, by not hindering when we can. And so did Eli consent to the vileness of his sons, because, though he reproved them, he did not restrain them.

There is a law, Exod. 21:29, “But if the ox were wont to push with his horn in time past, and it hath been testified to his owner, and he hath not kept him in, but that he hath killed a man or woman; the ox shall be stoned, and his owner also shall be put to death.” It could be no excuse to say, I intended no such thing, and it is a grief of heart to me that such mischief is done. That which I aim at is this: The Directory which you have lately established saith, “The ignorant and the scandalous are not fit to receive this sacrament of the Lord's supper;” (Directory of Public Worship Pg.26) and therefore ministers are appointed to warn all such in the name of Christ, that they presume not to come to that holy table. It is now desired that this, which you have already acknowledged to be according to the word of God and nature of that holy ordinance, may be made effectual, and, for that end, that the power of discipline be added to the power of doctrine, otherwise you are guilty, in God's sight, of not restraining those that make themselves vile.

In the third and last place, I shall apply my doctrine to the sons of Levi (minsters), and that in a twofold consideration:

1. Actively;

2. Passively.

Actively, because, if we be like our Master, even followers of Jesus Christ, or partakers of his unction, then our ministry will have not only light, but fire in it,—we must be burning as well as shining lights (John 5:35), not only shining with the light of knowledge, and of the doctrine which is according to godliness, but burning also with zeal for reforming abuses, and purging of the church from the dross thereof. Which made Augustine to apply propologically to ministers, that which is said of the angels of heaven, Psal. 104:4, “Who maketh his angels spirits; his ministers a flaming fire.” Satan hath many incendiaries against the kingdom of Christ. O that we were Christ's incendiaries against the kingdom of Satan! If we will indeed appear zealous for the Lord, let it not seem strange if the adversaries of reformation say of us, as they said of the apostles themselves, “These that have turned the world upside down are come hither also,” Acts 17:6. Yet it shall be no grief of heart to us afterward, but peace and joy unspeakable, that we have endeavoured to do our duty faithfully.

Passively also the application must be made, because the sons of Levi must, in the first place, go through this refining fire themselves, and they, most of all other men, have need to be, and must be, refined from their dross. I find in Scripture that these three things had a beginning among the priests and prophets: 1. Sin, error, and scandal, beginneth at them, Jer. 1:6, “Their shepherds have caused them to go astray;” Jer. 23:15, “From the prophets of Jerusalem is profaneness gone forth into all the land.” 2. Judgment begins at them, Ezek. 9:6, “Slay utterly old and young,—and begin at my sanctuary.” 3. The refining work of reformation beginneth, or ought to begin, at the purging and refining of the sons of Levi; so you have it in the next words after my text, and where Hezekiah beginneth his reformation at the sanctifying of the priests and Levites, 2 Chron. 29:4, 5, &c. But as it was then in Judah, it is now in England, some of the sons of Levi are more upright to sanctify themselves than others. The fire that I spake of before will prove every man and his work.

I am sorry I have occasion to add a third application. But come on, and I will show you greater things than these. What will you say, if any be found among the sons of Levi, that will neither be active nor passive in the establishing of the church-refining and sin-censuring government of Jesus Christ, but will needs appear upon the stage against it. This was done in a late sermon now come abroad, which hath given no small scandal and offence. I am confident every other godly minister will say, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth before I do the like.