' IK anlyfiKTi, in a riddle. Enigma is properly obscura allrgoria, an oh.'scure allegory : it is an alle<:;ory with a mask, or it is a cloudy, knotty, intricate speech, sealed and locked up from vulgar apprehensions. That is a riddle.
* Grace is homogeneal. Every twinkling of light is light; every drop of water it water ; every spark of fire is fire ; every drop of honey is honey. So every drop of grace is grace ; and if the least drop or spark of grace be not worth acknowledging, it is worth nothing.
EpH. III. 8.] RICHES OF CHRIST. 89
your poor souls? If he deserves to he hranded, that feasts his child and starves his wife, wl)at do you deserve, that can acknowledge the least natural good that is in a child, and yet will acknowledge none of that spiritual and heavenly good that is in your souls ?
[6] Sixthly, and lastly. When you look upon your graces, look that you do not renounce and reject your graces, seen in the light of the Spirit, as a W'oJc and worthless evidence of your interest in Christ, and that happiness that conies by Christ.
I know in these days many cry up revelations and visions, yea, the visions of their own hearts, and make slight of the graces of Christ in the hearts of his people ; yea, they look upon grace as a poor weak thing. Ah, Christians ! take heed of this, else you will render null, in a very great measure, many precious scriptures, — especially the Epistles of John, — which were penned for the comfort and support of weak saints.^
But that this may stick and work, be pleased to carry home with vou these three thinofs.
(1.) First, Other precious saints that are now triumphing in heaven, have pleaded their interest in God's love, and hopes of a better life, from gract-s inherent.
I will only point at those scriptures that speak out this truth : 1 John iii. 14, ii. 3, 4 ; Job xxiii. 10-] 2 ; and the whole 31st chapter of Job ; Ps. cxix. 6 ; Isa. xxxviii. 2, 3 ; 2 Cor. i. ] 2. All these scriptures, with many others that might be produced, do with open mouth proclaim this truth. And surely to deny the fruit growing upon the tree to be an evidence that the tree is alive, is to me as unreasonable as it is absurd. Certainly, it is one thing to judge by our graces, and another thing to trust in our graces, to make a saviour of our graces. There is a great deal of difference betwixt declaring and deserving ; and if this be not granted, it will follow, that the apostle hath sent us aside to a covenant of works, when he exhorts us to 'use all diligence to make- our calling and election sure,' 2 Peter i. 5-10.^
(2.) Secondly, Carry home this with you. If justification and sancti- fication be both of them benefits of the covenant of grace, then to evidence the one by the other, is no waj's unlawful, nor no turning aside to a covenant of works :
But our justification and sanctification are both of them benefits and blef^sings of the covenant of grace. Ergo. . . .
In Jer. xxxiii. 8, ' I will pardon all their iniquity, whereby they have sinned against me,' there is your justification; ' and I will cleanse them from all their iniquity, whereby they have sinned against me, there is your sanctification. And therefore to evidence the one by the other can be no ways unlawful, nor no turning aside to a covenant of works.
(3.) Thirdly, Carry home this with you. Whatever gift of God in man brings him within the compass of God's promise of eternal mercy, that gift must be an infallible evidence of salvation and happiness.
' Grace, ?aith one, is the foundation of all our felicity, and compreliends all blessings, as manna is .-said to have done all good tastes. John's epistles are a rich treasury for Christian assurance.
• Christians may doubtless look to their graces as evidences of their part in Christ and salvation ; and the clearer and stronger they are, the greater will be their comfort; but uut as causes.
90 THE UNSEARCHABLE [EpH. III. 8.
But such are those gifts mentioned in those scriptures that prove the first head.
Therefore they are infallible evidences of our salvation and eternal happiness.
I confess a man may have many great gifts, and yet none of them bring him within the compass of God's promise of eternal mercy. But I say, whatever gift of God in man brings him within the compass of God's promise of eternal mercy, that gift must be an infallible evidence of his happiness and blessedness.^
For the further clearing of this, I will instance in a gift of waiting. Wliere this gift is, it brings a man within the compass of God's pro- mise of eternal mercy. And had a man, as in a deserted state it often falls out, nothing under heaven to shew for his happiness, but only a waiting frame, this ought to bear him up from fainting and sinking. When the soul saith. My sun is set, my day is turned into night, my light into darkness, and my rejoicing into mourning, &c., oh, I have lost the comforting presence of God ! I have lost the quickening presence of God ! 1 have lost the supporting presence of God ! I have lost the encouraging presence of God ! &c., and when I shall recover these sad losses, I know not. All that I can say is this, that God keeps me in a waiting frame, weeping and knocking at the door of mercy. Now, I say, this waiting temj)er brings the soul within the compass of the promise of eternal mercy. And certainly such a soul shall not miscarry. Take three promises for this.
In Isa. xl. 31, ' They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength ; they shall mount up with wirigs as eagles ; they shall run, and not be weary ; and tJiey shall walk, and not faint.' The mercy is the waiting man's, but the waiting man must give God leave to time his mercy for him. So in Isa. xxx. 18, ' And therefore will the Lord wait, that he may be gracious unto you ; and therefore will he be exalted, that he may have mercy upon you : for the Lord is a God of judgment ; blessed are all they that wait for him.' So in Isa. Ixiv. 4, 'For since the beginning of the world men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen, O God, besides thee, what he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him.' So in Isa. xlix. 23, 'They shall not be ashamed that wait for me.'^ Men are often ashamed, that wait upon the mountains and liills. Men high and great often frustrate the expectation of waiting souls, and then they blush, and are ashamed and confounded that tliey have waited, and been deceived ; but ' they shall not be ashamed that wait for me,' says God ; I will not deceive their expectation, and after all their waiting turn them off, and say, I have no mercy for you.^ Now, I say, where this waiting temper is, which is all that many a poor soul hath to shew for everlasting happi- ness and blessedness, that soul shall never miscarry. That God that doth maintain and uphold the soul in this heavenly waiting frame, in