is weak, thj' patience almost spent; ply thee to the throne of grace, go with thy homer to the ordinances, and get some supplies. Now a soul conceited of his store hath another song, ' Soul, take thine ease, thou art richly laid up for many days.' Let the doiihting soid pray, thy faith is strong; let the weak lie at the breast, thou art well grown up ; nay, it is well if it goes not further to a despising of ordinances, except they have some more courtly fare than ordinary : such a pass were the Corinthians come to, 1 Cor. iv. 8 : 'Now ye are full, now ye are rich, ye reign like kings without us.' I pray observe how he lays the accent on the particle noiv ; 'now ye are rich,' as if he had said, I knew the time, if Paul had been come to town, and news spread abroad in the city that Paul was to preach, you would have flocked to hear him, and blessed God for the season ; but then ye were poor and empty; now ye are full, you have got to a higher attainment ; Paul is a plain fellow now, he may carry his cheer to a hungry people, if he will ; we are well supplied. And when once the heart is come to this, it is easy to judge what will follow.
Secondly, This trusting to the strength of grace will make the soul bold and venturous. The humble Christian is the wary Christian ; he knows his weak- ness, and this makes him afraid. I have a weak head, saith he ; I may be soon disputed into an error and heres}^, and therefore I dare not come where such stufl' is broached, lest my weak head should be intoxicated. The confident man will sip of every cuj), he fears none ; no, he is stablished in the truth, a Avhole team of heretics shall not draw him aside. I have a vain, light heart, saith the humble soul ; I dare not come among wicked, debauched company, lest I should at last bring the naughty man home with me : but the other, on trusting to the strength of his grace, dares venture into the devil's quarters. Thus Peter into the rout of Christ's enemies ; and how he came off you know; there his faith had been slain on the place, had not Christ sounded a retreat, b)' the seasonable look of love he gave him. Indeed I have read of some brag- ging philosophers, who did not think it enough to be temjierate, except they had the object for intemperance present; and therefore they would go into taverns and mix with bad company, as if they meant to beat the devil on his own ground ; but the Christian knows an enemy nearer at hand, which they were ignorant of; and that he need not go over his own threshold to challenge the devil. He hath lust in his bosom that will be hard enough for him all his diiys, without giving it the vantage of ground. Christian, I know no sin which thou mayest not be left to commit, except one. It was a bold speech of him, and yet a good man, as I have heard ; ' If Clapham die of the plague, say Clapham had no faith ;' and this made him boldly go among the infected. If a Christian, thou shalt not die of spiritual plagues, yet such may have the plague sores of gross sins running on them for a time, and is not this sad enough ? Therefore walk humbly witli thy God.
Thirdly, This high conceit of the strength of thy grace will make thee cruel and churlish to thy weak brethren in their infirmities, a sin that least becomes a saint; Gal. vi. 1 : 'If any one be overtaken, you that be spiritual restore such a one with meekness.' But how shall a soul get such a meek spirit? It follows, ' considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted.' What makes men hard to the poor ? They think they shall never be so themselves. Why are many so shai-p in their censures, but because they trust too much to their grace, as if they could never tall ? O you ai'e in the body, and the body of sin in you, therefore fear. Bernard used to say, when he heard any scandalous sin of a professor, Hodie i/li, eras mihi. He fell to-day, I may stumble to-morrow.
Section II. — The second way a soid maybe proud of his grace, is by resting on it for his acceptance with God. The Scripture galls inherent grace ' our own righteousness,' though God indeed be the efficient of it, and opposeth it to the righteousness of Christ, which alone is called the ' righteousness of God,' Rom. X. 1. Now to rest on any grace inherent, is to exalt our own righteousness above the righteousness of God; and what pride will this amount to? If this were so, then a saint, when he comes to heaven, might say. This is heaven which I have built, my grace hath purchased ; and thus the God of heaven should become tenant to his creature in heaven. No, (Jod hath cast the order of our salvation into another n)ethod of grace, but not of grace in us, but grace to us. Inherent grace hath its place and office to accompany
J 44 AGAINST SPIRITUAL WICKEDNESS.