Motive 3. The conformity of your lives to Christ, your pattern, is vour highest excellency in this world : The measure of your grace is to be estimated bv this rule. The excellency of every creature rises higher and higher, according as it approaches still nearer and nearer to its original ; the more you resemble Christ in grace, the
SERM. XXX. THE METHOD OF GRACE. 419
more illustrious and resplendent will your conversations be in true spiritual glory.
Motive 4. So far as you imitate Christ in your lives, and no far- ther, you will be beneficial in the world in which you live : so far as God helps you to follow Christ, you will be helpful to bring others to Christ, or build them up in Christ ; for all men are for- bidden by the gospel to follow you one step farther than you fol- low Christ, 1 Cor. xi. 1. and when you have finished your course in this world, the remembrance of your ways will be no further .sweet to others, than they are ways of holiness and obedience to Christ, 1 Cor. iv. 17. If you walk according to the course of this world, the world will not be the better for your walking.
Motive 5. To walk as Christ walked, is a walk only worthy of a Christian ; this is to " walk worthy of the Lord," 1 Thess. ii. 12. Col. i. 10. By worthiness * the apostle doth not mean merito- riousness, but Comeliness, or that decorum which befits a Chris- tian : as, when a man walks suitably to his place and calling in the world, we say he acts like himself; so, when you walk after Christ's pattern, you then act like yourselves, like men of your character and profession ; this is consonant to your vocation, Eph. iv. 1. "I beseech you, that you walk worthy of the vocation where- " with you are called.'" This walking suits with your obligation, 2 Cor. v. 15. for it is to live unto him who died for us. This walking only suits with your designation, Eph. ii. 10. " For you " are created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath " before ordained we should walk in them." In a word, such walking as this, and such only becomes your expectation, 2 Pet. hi. 14. " Wherefore [beloved] seeing that you look for such things, " be diligent, that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot, " and blameless."
Motive 6. How comfortable will the close of your life be at death, if you have walked after Christ's pattern and example in this world : A comfortable death is ordinarily the close of a holy life, Psal. xxxvii. 37. " Mark the perfect man, and behold the up- " right ; for the end of that man is peace." A loose, careless life puts many terrible stings into death. As worms in the body are bred of the putrefaction there, so the worm of conscience is bred of the moral putrefaction or corruption that is in our natures and conversations. O then be prevailed with by all these con- siderations to imitate Christ in the whole course and compass of your conversations.
* The word worthiness, as used in scripture, does not always denote an exact propor- tion of equality between one thing and another, but a certain suitableness and fitness which excludes inconsistency. Davenant on Coloss. p. 25,
420 THE METHOD OF GRACE. SERM. XXX.
Third use, for consolation. Lastly, I would leave a few words of support and comfort to such as sincerely study and endeavour, according to the tendency of their new nature to follow Christ's example, but being weak in grace, and meeting with strong temptations, are frequently carried aside from the holy purposes and designs of their honest, well- meaning hearts, to the great grief and discouragement of their souls. They heartily wish and aim at holiness, and say with David, Psal. cxix. 5. " O that my ways were directed to keep thy sta- " tutes." They follow after exactness in holiness as Paul did, Phil. iii. 12. " If by any means they might attain it." But find- ing how short they come in all things of the rule and pattern, they mourn as he did, Rom. vii. 24. " O wretched man that I am, who " shall deliver me from the body of this death ?" Well, if this be thy case, be not discouraged, but hearken to a few words of support and comfort, with which I shall close this point.
Support I. Such defects in obedience make no flaw in your justification : for your justification is not built upon your obedience, but upon Christ's, Rom. iii. 24. and how complete and defective soever you be in yourselves, yet at the same instant, " you are complete in him " which is the head of all principality and power," Col. ii. 10. Wo to Abraham, Moses, David, Paul, and the most eminent saints that ever lived, if their justification and acceptation with God had depended upon the perfection and completeness of their own obedience.
Support II. Your deep troubles for the defectiveness of your obedience, do not argue you to be less, but more sanctified than those who make no such complaints ; for these prove you to be better acquainted with your own hearts than others are ; to have a deeper hatred of sin than others have ; and to love God with a more fervent love than others do ; the most eminent saints have made the bitterest complaints upon this account, Psal. lxv. 3. Rom. vii. 23, 24.
Support III. The Lord makes excellent uses even of your infirmities and failings to do you good, and makes them turn to your unexpected advantage : for, by these defects he hides pride from your eyes ; he beats you off from self-dependence ; he makes you to admire the riches of free grace : he makes you to long more ardently for heaven, and entertain the sweeter thoughts of death ; and doth not the Lord then make blessed fruits to spring up to you from such a bitter root ? O the blessed chymistry of heaven, to extract such mercies out of such miseries !
SERM. XXX. THE METHOD OF GRACE. 421
Your bewailed infirmities do not break the bond of the ever- lasting covenant. The bond of the covenant holds firm, notwith- standing your defects and weaknesses, Jer. xxxii. 40. " Iniquities " prevail against me," saith David, yet in the same breath he adds, " as for our transgressions thou shalt purge them away," Psal. lxv. 3. He is still thy God, thy Father for all this.
Though the defects of your obedience are grievous to God, yet your deep sorrows for them are well-pleasing in his eyes, Psal. li. 17. " The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a " contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise." Ephraim was never a more pleasant child to his father, than when he bemoaned himself, and smote upon his thigh, as thou dost, Jer. xxxi. 20. Your sins grieve him, but your sorrows please him.