(2.) Again, a man may have grace, and yet want assurance, and that may arise in the second place from the exceeding littleness and weakness of his grace} A little candle yields but a little light, and a little grace yields but a little evidence.^ Great measures of grace carries with them great and clear evidences, but little measures carries with them but little evidence. Some stars are so small that they are scarce discernible ; so some saints' graces are so small, that they can hardly see their graces to be graces. A little fire will yield but a little heat ; a little grace will yield but a little comfort, a little evidence ; a little grace will yield a man a heaven hereafter, but it is a great deal of grace that must yield us a heaven here ; a little stock will bring in but a little profit ; a little grace will bring in but a little peace ; a little jewel yields but a little lustre, a little glory ; no more doth a little grace, and therefore it is that Christians that have but a little grace, have but a little of the shine and lustre of assurance, they have but little joy and comfort in this world. Yet that the spirits of weak Christians may not utterly faint, let me give them this hint, viz., that the weakest Christian is as much justified, as much pardoned, as much adopted, and as much united to Christ as the strongest, and hath as much interest and propriety in Christ as the highest and noblest Christian that breathes, though he cannot make so much advantage and improvement of his interest and propriety as the strong Christian, who hath a greater degree of grace.^
Hierom [Jerome] observes upon the beatitudes, that there are many of the promises made to weak grace : Mat. v. 3, 4, 6, ' Blessed are the poor in spirit : blessed are they that mourn : blessed are they that hunger and thirst.' Weak saints, remember this: the promise is a ring of gold, and Christ is the precious tried stone in that ring ; and upon that stone must you rest, as you would have grace to thrive, and your souls to be safe and happy. Weak souls, remember this : as Joseph sent chariots to bring his father and his brethren to him. Gen. xlv. 80 God would have your weak graces to be as chariots to bring you to himself, who is the cherisher, strengthener, and increaser of grace. He that makes his graces to be servants and handmaids to convey him to Christ, the fountain of grace, he shall find the greatest sweetness in grace, and the greatest increase of grace.
(3.) Thirdly, A man may have true grace, and yet want assurance, and this may arise from the resurrection of old sins. Ah ! when those sins which were long since committed, and long since lamented, and long since loathed, and long since crucified ; when those old sins, which
' Mat. xiv. 30, 81 ; Mark ix. 24.
* Pythagoras saith, that mustard seed hath the pre- eminence among those things whose power is to ascend upward. Pliny, in his Nat. Hist., lib. ii. cap. 22, speaks more- of this grain. [Rather lib. xix. c. 54, 57. — G.]
' The babe in the arms hath as much propriety in the father as he that is grown up to ripe years, though he cannot make such improvement of it as the other. A child's hand may receive a pearl as well as the hand of a giant ; so may a weak faith a Christ as well as a strong.
Rom. VIII. 32-34.] heaven on earth. 339
hath cost a soul many prayers and many tears, and many sighs, and many groans, and many complaints, when those sins that have been long buried shall be again revived, and meet the soul, and stare upon the soul, and say to the soul. We are thine, and we will follow thee ; we are thine, and we will haunt thee ; ^ ah, how will this cause a man's countenance to be changed, his thoughts to be troubled, his joints to be loosed, and his heart to be amazed. David and Job meet- ing with the sins of their youth, long after they were lamented and pardoned, makes their hearts startle and tremble, Ps. xxv. 7, Job xiii. 26. Upon the new risings of old sins, the soul begins to question all, and thus to expostulate the case : Surely my estate is not good, my pardon is not sealed ; if it be, how comes these sins to be revived, to be remembered? Hath not God engaged himself in the promises of grace, that those sins that are pardoned, shall never be remembered ? Isa. xliii. 25, Jer. xxxi. 34, and surely if these sins be not pardoned, I have reason to fear that others be not pardoned ; and if my sins be not pardoned, how shall I escape being destroyed ? Surely my repentance was not sound, my sorrow was not sincere, the blow, the wound I gave sin, was not mortal; if it had, how comes it to pass that it now meets me like an armed enemy? Thus, these new risings of old sins keeps many a man's soul and assurance asunder.
(4.) Fourthly, A man may have grace and yet want assurance, and this may arise from his falling short of that 'perfection that the word requires, and that other saints have attained to} Ah ! says such a soul, surely I have no grace ! Oh how short do I fall of such and such righteous rules, and of such and such precious Christians ! Ah ! how clear are they in their light ! How strong are they in their love ! How high are they in their attainments ! How are their hearts filled with grace, and their lives with holiness! All their motions towards God, and towards man, speak out grace, grace; they pray indeed like saints, and live indeed like angels. Now many poor souls, comparing them- selves with the perfect rule of righteousness, and with those that are in the highest forms in Christ's school, and that are the noblest and choicest patterns for purity and sanctity, and finding such a vast dis- proportion between their hearts and the rule, between their actions and lives, and the actions and lives of others, they are apt to sit down sadded and discouraged.'
Suetonius reports of Julius Caesar, that seeing Alexander's statue, he fetched a deep sigh, because he at that age had done so little.* So many precious souls sit do\\Ti sighing and weeping, that they have lived so long, and done so little for God, and for their own internal and eternal good. This wounds and sinks their spirits, that they are so
* It woiiW very much discomfort us and terrify us to see one haunt us that was long since laid in the grave, whose resurrection we did neither fear nor repent,* till the sound- ing of the last trumpet. — * Qu. ' expect'? — Ed.
* Perfection is desirable on earth, but shall be only enjoyed in heaven.
' It was a sweet saying of one, In libra ttio tcribunUtr omnes qui qnod possunt faciunt, ti quod debent non possiint. They are surely written all in God's book that do what they can, though they cannot but underdo. Remember this, though your consolation depends upon degrees of grace, yet your salvation depends upon the truth of grace. [Cf. Purnell, • TheiWay step by step to a Sound and Saving Conversion,' p. 99— which firooks here anticipates. — G.]
* A commonplace in the Lives of Ctesar, early and modem. — G.