and insult over her mistress Sarah, Gen. xxi. The poor sons of Zebedee would sit at Christ's right hand and left, Mat. xx. 20, 21. And those that Job disdains to set with the dogs of his flock, yet contemn him in the da}'- of his sorrow, Job xxx. 1. The foot strives to be equal with the head, the servant as the master, the cobbler as the councillor, and the peasant as the prince, &c.
[9.] The ninth proposition is thi.s,
Pride is a sure fore-runner of a fall.
' Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty mind before a fall,' Prov. xvi. 18, xviii. 12. Herod fell from a throne of gold to a bed of dust. Nebuchadnezzar fell from the state of amighty king, to bea beast. Adam fell from itmocency to mortality. The angels fell from heaven to hell, from felicity to misery.
[10] The tenth and last proposition is this :
God ivill by an invincible poiver caiTy the day against proud sonls.
You that it escape,^ and ruffle it out, and carry it with a high hand, remember this, God will by an invisible power carry the day against you ; when you think not of it, he will eat you like a moth. Isa. xlvii. 10, 11, 'For thou hast trusted in thy wickedness, thou hast said, None seeth me. Thy wisdom and thy knowledge hath perverted thee. And thou hast said in thine heart, I am, and none else besides me. There- . fore shall evil come upon thee, thou shalt know not from whence it riseth ; and mischief shall fall upon thee, and thou shalt not be able to put it off. And desolation shall come upon thee suddenly, which thou shalt not know.' Impunity oftentimes causeth impudenc}', but quod differtur non aiifertur, forbearance is no acquittance. The longer the hand is lifted up, the heavier will be the blow at last. Of all metals, lead is the coldest, but being melted, it becomes the hottest. Humble souls know how to apply this, and proud souls shall sooner or later experience this.*
II. I shall now proceed to a second observation.
That all saints are not of an equal size and growth in grace and holiness.
Some are higher, and some are lower ; some are stronger and some are weaker, in spiritual graces and heavenly excellencies. ' Unto me who am less than the least,' &c.
Among true believers, some may be found to be but weak believers. This point flows as natural from the words a-s the stream does from the fountain, and no point more clear in all the Scripture than this.
In Rom. xiv. 1, you read of some that are weak in the faith ; ' Them that are weak in the faith receive,' s;nth the apostle. None are to be rejected in whom aliquid Christi, anything of Christ, is to be found. And .so Mat. xiv. 31, there is mention made of little faith.' 1 Cor. ix. 22, ' To the weak became I as weak, that I might gain the weak.' You read of babes in grace : 1 Pet. ii. 2, 3, ' As new-born babes, desire the
' Qu. ' You that think to escape'?— G.
' I'ojie Innocent tlie Fourth, na lio was walking securely in his palace, heard that sor- rowful and dreadful summons, Veni miser in judicium, come, thou wretch, receive thy juii^jment ; and soon after ho was found dead. Eccles. viii. 11.
EpH. III. 8.] RICHES OF CHRIST. 49
sincere milk of the word, that you may grow thereby, if so be that ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious.' 1 John ii. 12-14, there is men- tion made of ' little children, of young men, and of fathers.'' All are not fathers in grace, nor all are not young men in grace ; there are some children in grace. A Christian in this life hath his degrees of growth ; he is first a child in grace, and then a young man in grace, and then a father in grace.^
For the further opening of this point, I shall endeavour these four things.
I. I shall endeavour to decipher to you souls weak in grace.
II. I shall endeavour to lay down those things that may encourage, support, and comfort souls that are weak in grace.
III. I shall speak to the duties that lie upon those that are weak in grace.
IV. The duties that lie upon those that are strong in grace, towards those that are weak in grace.
Of these four we shall speak, as the Lord shall assist.
I. I shall begin with the first. To decipher souls weak in grace.
The first thing by which I shall decipher souls weak in gi'ace is this :
[1.] Weak Christians are usually carried much out after the poor loiv things of this vjorld.
They are much in carking and caring for them, and in pursuing and hunting greedily after them. That is a clear text for this: Mat. vi. 24, to the end. Christ labours by several weighty arguments to fence and fortify his disciples against those diffident, doubtful, carking cares, that divide, distract, distemper, torture, and tear the heart in a thou- sand pieces. And yet neither these arguments, nor yet the presence of him Avho was the great landlord of heaven and earth, and whose love and bowels were still yearning towards them, and whose special eye of providence was still over them, could rid their heads and hearts of these worldly cares that do but vex and perplex the souls of men. And it is very observable, that after this smart lecture that Christ had read them, they did strive three several times who should be greatest and highest in worldly enjoyments. Their hearts should have been only in heaven, and yet they strive for earth, as if there were no heaven, or as if earth were better than heaven. All which does clearly evi- dence, that their graces were very weak, and their corruptions very strong. Men that have little of the upper springs within, are carried out much after the springs below. Baruch was good, but weak in grace ; he had but some sips and tastes of the glory of that other world, and that made him, when God was a-pulling down all worldly glory, to seek for earth as if there were no heaven, Jer. xlv. 1-5. Certainly there is but little of Christ and grace within, where the heart is so strongly carried out after these things without. ^Tiere there is such strong love and workings of heart after these poor things, it speaks our soul's enjoyment of God to be but poor and low.
' It is with Christians as it is with planets : the moon goes her course in a month, the aun in a year, the rest not in many years ; yet at length they finish, VOL. III. D
50 THE UNSEAECHABLE [EPH. Ill 8.