in itself, yet it helps us to a notion considerable. They who live wickedly and loosely, yet like a religious habit very well when to go into another world. As that young gallant said to his swaggering companion, after they had visited Ambrose lying in his dying bed, and saw how comfortably he lay triumphing over death now approaching, ' O that I might live with thee, and die with Ambrose ! ' Vain Vv'ish ! wouldst thou, O man, not reap what thou sowest, and find what thou layest up with thy own hands? Dost thou sow cockle, and wouldst reap wheat? Dost thou fill thy chest with dirt, and expect to find gold when thou openest it ? Cheat and guU thyself thou may est, but thou canst not mock God, who will pay thee in the same coin, at thy death, which thou trea- surest up in thy life. There are few so horribly wicked but the thought of death awes them ; they dare not fall upon their wicked practices till they have got some distance from the thoughts of this. Christian, walk in the company of it every day by serious meditation, and tell me at the week's end whether it doth not keep worse company from thee.
Section IX. — Ninthly, Improve the covenant of grace for thy assistance in thy holy course. Moses himself had his holiness not from the law, but gospel. Those heroic acts for which he is recorded as one so eminently holy, they are all attributed to his faith : Heb. xi. 24, 25, ' By faith Moses did this,' and by faith that, to shew from whence he had his strength. Now the better to improve the covenant of grace for this purpose, consider these three particulars.
First, That God, in the covenant of grace, hath promised to furnish and en- able his children for a holy life: Ezek. xxxvi. 27, ' I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes.' This is a way that God hath by himself. The mother can take her child by the hand to lead it, but not put strength into his feeble joints to make him go. The prince can give his captains a commission to fight, but not courage to fight. There is a power goes with the promise, hence it is they are called ' exceeding great and precious promises,' because given for this very end, that by these we might be ' made partakers of the Divine nature,' 2 Pet. i. 3 ; and, thei-efore, we are not only pressed to holiness from the command, but especially from the promise, 2 Cor. vii. 1, ' Having therefore these promises," (he means to help and encourage us,) * let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.' O it is good travelling in his company that pro- miseth to pay our charges all the way ! good working for him that promiseth to ' work all our work for us,' Phil. ii. 12, 13.
Secondly, God hath laid up in Christ a rich and full treasure of grace, to supply thy wants continually : Col. i. 19, ' It pleased the father that in him should all fulness dwell.' Fulness, all fulness, all fulness dwelling; not the fulness of a land-flood, up and down, — not the fulness of a vessel, to serve his own turn only, but of a fountain that lends its streams to others without straitening or lessening its own store. Indeed it is a fulness purposely ministerial, as the sun hath not its light for itself, but for the lower world, because it is the great minister and servant to hold forth light to the world. Thus Christ is the Sun of righteousness, diffusing his grace into the bosoms of his people. Grace is said to be ' poured into his lips,' to let us know he hath it not to keep to himself, but to impart, ' that of his fulness we may receive grace for grace.'
Thirdly, Every child of God hath not only a right to this ' fulness in Clu-ist,' but an inward principle, which is faith, whereby he is, by the instinct of the new creature, taught to suck and draw grace from Christ as the child doth nourishment in the womb by the navel-string from the mother ; and, therefore, poor soul, if thou wouldst be more holy believe more, suck more, from Christ. Holy David, Psa. cxvi., affected with the thoughts of God's gracious pro- vidence in delivering him out of his deeper distress, takes up, as the best messenger he could send his thanks to heaven by, a strong resolution for a holy life : ver. 9, ' I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living;' he would spend his days now in God's service ; but lest we should think he was rash and self-confident, he adds, ver. 10, ' I believed, therefore have I spoken.' First, he acted his faith on God for strength, and then he promiseth what he will do. Indeed the Christian is a very beggarly creature considered in himself; he is not ashamed to confess it : what he promiseth to expend in any holy duty is
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upon the credit of his Saviour's purse, who, he huiubly beUeves, will bear him out in it with assisting grace.