3 Few are of Jerome's mind, that had rather have St Paul's coat with his heavenly graces, than the purple of kings with their kingdoms. The king of Navarre told Beza, that in the cause of religion he would launch no further into their sea, than he might be sure to return safe to the haven. [Henry IV., afterwards the Apostate from Protestant- ism.— G.]
102 PRECIOUS REMEDIES [2 COR. II. it.
God ;x and the sense of the excellency and sweetness of communion with God, and the choice and precious discoveries that the soul hath for- merly had of the beauty and glory to [sic] God, whilst it hath been in the Bervice of God. The good looks, the good words, the blessed love-let- ters, the glorious kisses, and the sweet embraces that gracious souls have had from ( Ihrist in his service, do provoke and move them to wait upon him in holy duties. Ah ! hut restraining grace, temporary grace, that puts men upon religious duties only from external motives, as the care of the creature, the eye of the creature, the rewards of the creature, and the keeping up of a name among the creatures, and a thousand such like considerations, as you may see in Saul, Jehu, Judas, Demas, and the scribes and pharisees, &c.2
The abbot in Melancthon lived strictly, and walked demurely, and looked humbly, so long as he was but a monk, but when, by his seeming extraordinary sanctity, he got to be abbot, he grew intolerable proud and insolent ; and being asked the reason of it, confessed, ' That his former lowly look was but to see if he could find the keys of the abbey.' Such poor, low, vain motives work temporary souls to all the service they do perform, &c.
[8.] Saving grace, renewing grace, will cause a man to follow the Lord fully in the desertion of all sin, and in the observation of all God's precepts. Joshua and Caleb followed the Lord fully,3 Num. xiv. 24 ; Zacharias and Elizabeth were righteous before God, and walked in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blame- less, Luke i. 5, 6. The saints in the Revelation are described by this, that ' they follow the Lamb whithersoever he goes/ Rev. xiv. 4 ; but restraining grace, temporary grace, cannot enable a man to follow the Lord fully. All that temporary grace can enable a man to do, is to follow the Lord partially, unevenly, and haltingly, as you may see in Jehu, Herod, Judas, and the scribes and pharisees, who paid tithe of ' mint, and anise, and cummin, but omitted the weighty matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith,' &c, Mat. xxiii. 23.
True grace works the heart to the hatred of all sin, and to the love of all truth ; it works a man to the hatred of those sins that for his blood he cannot conquer, and to loathe those sins that he would give all the world to overcome, Ps. cxix. 104, 128.4 So that a soul truly gracious can say, Though there be no one sin mortified and subdued in me, as it should, and as I would, yet every sin is hated and loathed by me. So a soul truly gracious can say, Though I do not obey any one command as I should, and as I would, yet every word is sweet, every command of God is precious, Ps. cxix. 6, 119, 127, 167- I dearly prize and greatly love those commands that I cannot obey ; though there be
1 As what I have, if offered to thee, pleaseth not thee. 0 Lord, without myself, so the good things we have from thee, though they may refresh us, yet they satisy us not with- out thyself. — J3ern[<ird].
* It is an excellent speech of Bernard, Bonus es Domine animw qucerenti ; quid in- venienti ? Good art thou, O Lord, to the- soul that seeks thee, what art thou then to the soul that finds thee?
3 n6du> bath fulfilled after me. A metaphor taken from a ship under sail, that is strongly carried with the wind, as fearing neither rocks nor sands.
* I had rather go to hell pure from sin, than to heaven polluted with that filth, saith Anselm. Da quod juhes et juke quod vis, Give what thou commaudest, and command what thuu wilt. [Augustine — GJ.
2 Cor. II. 11.] against satan's devices. 10.3
many commands that I cannot in a strict sense fulfil, yet there is no command I would not fulfil, that I do not exceedingly love. ' I love thy commandments above gold, above fine gold :' ' My soul hath kept thy testimonies, and I love them exceedingly,' Ps. cxix. 1 17, and xcix. 7.
[9.] True grace leads the soul to rest in Christ, as in his summum bonum, chief est good. It works the soul to centre in Christ, as in his highest and ultimate end. ' Whither should we go ? thou hast the words of eternal life,' John vi. 68. ' My beloved is white and ruddy, the chiefest of ten thousand ; I found him whom my soul loved, I held him and would not let him go,' Cant. v. 10, iii. 4. That wisdom a believer hath from Christ, it leads him to centre in the wisdom of Christ, 1 Cor. i. 30 ; and that love the soul hath from Christ, it leads the soul to centre in the love of Christ ; and that righteousness the soul hath from Christ, it leads the soul to rest and centre in the righteousness of Christ, Philip, iii. 9.1 True grace is a beam of Christ, and where it is, it will naturally lead the soul to rest in Christ. The stream doth not more naturally lead to the fountain, nor the effect to the cause, than true grace leads the soul to Christ. But restraining grace, temporary grace, works the soul to centre and rest in things below Christ. Some- times it works the soul to centre in the praises of the creature ; some- times to rest in the rewards of the creature : ' Verily they have their reward,' saith Christ, Mat. vi. 1, 2 : and so in an hundred other things. &c, Zech. vii. 5, 6.