of it. Let me give a little further light into tins particular, by this similitude : A man is bound for the East Indies, and shapeth his course thitherward, but by the way is put often off by cross winds to the west- ward ; he is by contrary winds compelled to put into divers harbours, and to make some stay by the way there, either to shift off stormy weather, or to take in fresh water, or to stop a leak, or to get some fresh provisions ; and yet all this while we truly say, he is going on iu his way in his voyage, because his settled purpose and constant resolu- tion is to make to his port, his haven, whither he is bound, and all these seeming lets^ shall help forward his voyage. It is so in spiritual things ; for our very growth in grace consists much in sincere desires, in fixed resolutions, and in faithful endeavours to grow in grace. Aristotle makes it the mark of a good man, that he studieth how he may grow better than he is, not contenting himself with any degree or measure of goodness. And another heathen observes, that ' the earnest desire of what men would have, maketh them forgetful of what they have."' ' I forget what is past," saith the apostle, ' and press on to what is before,' Philip, iii. 13. Their eye is more upon what they want than upon what they have. It is with good Christians in this case as it is with rich worldlings, that, like men in a race, have their eye on those that be before them, not on those that come after them -^ they are ever eyeing those that seem to outstrip and outgo them in wealth, and think they have nothing, and that they are but poor men, so long as they come short of such and such, who are rich and great in the world. And so it is with many precious Christians ; they have still their eye fixed upon those whose examples they either read of, or whose courses and graces they are eye- witnesses of ; and hereupon they think that they have no grace, or else that they make no progress in grace, at least worth speaking of, so long as they come behind and fall short of such and such, who are very emi- nent, or most eminent, in grace and holiness ; and upon this account it is, that they make such sore complaints of their spiritual wants, and of their slow progress in grace and hoUness, and that they can hardly per- ceive but that they stand still at a stay. Now mark, these sad complaints of theirs, and their serious desires to grow in grace, is a sure and infal- lible evidence of the truth of grace in them ; yea, it is a sure argument that they love grace as it is grace, that they love grace for grace's sake, which none can do but such as have gi^ace. It is a sure sign that he was never truly good, that desireth not to be better ; Ule non est bonus qui non vult esse melior ; yea, he has very great cause to fear, that his heart is naught, very naught, if not stark naught, that desireth not to be as good as the best, to be as gracious as he that is most gracious, and to be as holy as he that is most holy. Well, sirs ! this will be found an everlasting truth, viz.. That no man can sincerely desire, and habitually endeavour after the highest pitches of grace, but he that hath true grace. [11.] Eleventhly, No man can always desire gixice, but he that has true grace. Constant desires after grace argues the reality of grace ; constant desires after grace speaks out a state of grace : Ps. cxix. 20, ' My soul brcakcth for the longing that it liath unto thy judgments at all times.' Isa. xxvi. 7-9, Cant. iii. 1--4, Ps. cvi, 3. Pliny speaks of a,
' ' Hindrances.* Cf. Sibbes, Works, vol. i, page 101, note d. — G. ^ Aristotle, Rhet. lib. i. cap. xi. ; Seneca, lib. ii. cap. xxvii.
Chap. II.] a cabinet of jewels. 371