profession be never so glorious, let him be never so abundant in the performance of duties, let his desires after this and that good thing be never so strong, yet if his ends be wrong, all his pretensions and per- formances are but beautiful abominations. Did David pray three times a-day ? So did the pharisees. Did David and Daniel fast ? So did the pharisees,and that twice in the week. Did Cornelius givealms? So did the pharisees. Did Abraham pay tithes ? So did the pharisees ; they tithed their very mint and rue. But their ends being wrong, their time was lost, and their pains was lost, and their duties was lost, and their alms was lost, and their souls was lost, and that for ever.^ God writes a nothing upon all those services wherein men's ends are not right, Jer. xxxii. 23. But, [10.] Tenthly, No man can sincerely desire and earnestly endeavour after the highest pitches of grace, but he that has time grace. Though the weak Christian has but a little grace in his heart, yet he has the top of gi*ace, the perfection of grace in his sincere aims, in his sincere desires, and in his earnest and constant endeavours, Philip, iii. 12-16, &c ; and if the weakest saint might have his desires, his mind, his wish, his will, his choice, he would never sin more ; he would never dishonour Jesus Christ more ; he would never grieve the Spirit of grace more ; he would yield unsinning obedience ; he would obey in this lower world, as the angels, and as the ' spirits of just men made perfect,' Heb. xii. 22, 23, do obey in that upper world. The weakest Christian has his eye to the highest round in Jacob's ladder, and fain would he be at the top of it, Luke xvii. 5 ; and oh, how sweet is every providence, and every ordi- nance, and every duty, and every mercy, and every opportunity, that helps hi? soul more Christ- wards, and heaven- wards, and holiness- wai'ds I Sincere desires, and serious endeavours to grow in grace, is an infallible evidence of the truth of grace, 2 Peter iii. 18, 1 Peter ii. 2, 1 John v. 11,1 John iii. 9. Look, as a man may have grace and not know it, so a man may grow in grace and yet not discern it. As in the lopping of a tree there seems to be a kind of diminution and destruction, yet the end and issue of it is better growth ; and as the weakening of the body by physic seems to tend to death, yet it produceth better health and more strength ; and as the ball by falling downward riseth upward ; and water in pipes descends that it may ascend, so the Christian's spiritual growth, when seemingly dead and declining, and to stand at a stay, is still carried on by the hidden method of God to increase ; for every true Christian is a member of a thriving body, in which there is no atrophy, but a continual issuing of spirits from the head ; so that life, being wrought by the Spirit of life, never dieth, but is always upon the growing hand, — except in the dark winter night of desertion and temptations, — ripening and increasing even in the midst of all ordinary troubles and trials.^ The apostle tells us, that the whole body of Christ, whereof every true Christian is a limb, is so compact together in itself, and so firmly fastened with certain spiritual nerves and ligaments to the head, that from it there is by them conveyed to each part a continual supply of spiritual grace, both sufficient to furnish it, and to further the growth
' Mark xii. 40 ; Luke xviii. 12 ; Mat. vi. 2 ; Luke xi. 42 ; Mat. xxiii. 1, seq.
* 'The righteous shall flourish like the palm-tree,' Ps. xci. 12-14. The palm-tree never loseth his leaf or fruit. — Pliny. Grace grows not alike in all saints. In the parable, some brought forth thirty, some sixty, and some an hundred fold.
370 A CABINET OF JEWELS. [ChAP. IL