[1.] First, Because grace is above the reach of nature. 1 Cor. ii. 14, ' But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him ; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.' The water riseth no higher than the springs from whence it came ; so natural men can ascend no higher than nature. Spiritual things can neither be discerned nor desired but by those that are anointed with the eye-salve of the Spirit. The natural man is dark and bhnd, and he sees no beauty nor excellency in grace, that he should desire it or be in love with it. Man in his natural estate is without, Eph. ii. J 2. There are five ivlthouts : (1.) without Christ ; (2.) with- out the church ; (3.) without the promise ; (4.) without hope ; (5.) with- out God in the world. Now, every natural man being under these five withouts, how is it possible that he should have any serious desires after grace ? Such is the corruption of our nature, that, if you propound any divine good to it. it is entertained as fire^by water, or wet wood, with hissing. Propound any evil, tlien it is like fire to straw ; it is like the foolish "satyr that made haste to kiss the fire ; it is like that unctuous matter which naturalists say sucks and snatches the fire to it with which it is consumed. The contrariety and enmity that is in every natural man's heart against God, and Christ, and grace, and hoHness, may suffi- ciently satisfy us that the natural man is a mere stranger to serious and
' Pars m-ifjaa bonilatis, est velle fieri honum. — Sell. Ep. 34.
Chap. II.] a c.\^inet of jewels, 363
sincere desires after God, or Christ, or grace, or the great things that belong to his everlasting peace, Rom. viii. 7. Such sincere and serious desires as these, Oh that Christ were mine ! oh that I were married to his person ! oh that I were clothed with his righteousness ! oh that my soul were adorned with his grace ! oh that I was filled with his Spirit ! oh that he would be my king to rule me, and my prophet to teach and instruct me, and my priest to make an atonement for me ! oh that I might eojoy choice and high communion with him ! oh that I might sin no more against him ! oh that I may do nothing unworthy of him ! oh that after death I might live for ever in the enjoyments of him! &c. I say such serious and sincere desires are not to be found in the natural man's breast.
[2.] Secondly, Because grace is contrary to nature. ' The wisdom of the flesh is enmity against God/ Horn. viii. 7. Fire cannot desire water, nor water fire, becau.se they are contrary, one expelling the other ; for either the water will quench the fire, or else the fire will lick up the water. So here, nature would have a man love himself, and seek himself, and exalt himself ; but grace will have a man love God, and seek God, and exalt God, &c. Take nature when it is most adorned, enriched, raised, elevated, &c., yet then you shall find it at enmity with God and grace. JErgo, &c.
[3.] Thirdly, Because grace is not only above nature, and contrary to nature, but it is even a hell to nature} Grace and holiness is a hell to a natural man. Look, as a glorified estate would be a hell to every wicked person (Goelum est altera gehenna damnatorum, saith one of the ancients, heaven is another hell to the damned), so would a gracious estate also. Grace puts a man to keep up the cross of Christ, to deny his natural self, his sinful self, his religious self, his relative self, and to give up a man s self to the strictest and exactest ways of God, and to crucify his lusts, and to pvdl out his right eye, and to cut off his right hand, &c. And oh ! what hard work is this, yea, what a hell is this to nature ! &c.
[4.] Fourthly, Wicked men do not nor cannot so much as truly and seriously desire saving grace : witness tJieir daily withstanding and slighting the offers of grace. Compare these scriptures, Prov. i. 20, seq., chap. viii. 1-12 ; Ezek. xxiv. 13 ; Mat. xxiii. 37 ; Luke xix. 41, 42, &c.
[5.] Fifthly, Wicked men do not nor cannot so much as truly and seriously desire saving grace : witness their coninion, ordinary, habi- tual provoking, vexing, quenching, resisting, and grieving of the Spirit of grace. Turn to these scriptures, Gen. vi. 3 ; Isa. Ixiii. 10 ; Acts vii. 55 ; Eph. iv. 30.
[6.] Sixthly, Wicked men do not nor cannot truly and seriously de- sire saving grace: witness that enmity, hatred, rage, and madness that is in them against the saints, ^vhose hearts and lives are enamelled with grace, Gen. iii. 15 ; Ps. xxxiv. 21, xliv. 10 ; Job xxxi. 29 ; Amos v. ] 0, &c. I have read of a desperate wretch, that, when he came to die, he gave good portions to all his children but one, and to him he would give but twelve pence ; and being asked the reason of it, he made answer, he was a Puritan. I have heard him say, said his wretched father, that he had a promise to live on ; let us now see whether a pro- ' See my treatise on Holiness, pages 64-66. [Vol. IV. in loc—G.]
364 A CABINET OF JEWELS. [ChAP. IT.
raise will maintain liim or no. Certainlj^, wherever there are true serious desires after grace, there is a dear love to those upon whose hearts the work of grace is past.