vidences aud fiery trials, as shall put them to a full improvenieut of that blessed stock of grace that he has intrusted them with. The fii-e that came from heaven was to be kept continually burning that it might never go out, Lev, vi. 13. God loves to see the graces of his children in continual exercise. Neglect of our graces is the ground of their decrease and decay. Wells are the sweeter for drawing, and grace is the stronger for acting ; we get nothing by dead and useless habits. Talents hid in a napkin gather rust ; tlie noblest faculties are imbased when not improved in exercise : 2 Tim. i. G, ' Stir up the gift of God which is in thee.' It is an allusion to the fire in the temple, which was always to be kept burning. All the praise that God has from us in this life is from the actings of grace. It was Abraham's acting of taitli that set the crown of glory upon tlie Lord's head. 0 sirs ! look narrowly to it, that you fail not in the activity and lively vigour of your graces. Look to it that your graces be still acted, exercised, and blown up, that so they may be still flaming and shining. The more you exercise grace, the more you strengthen it, the more you increase it. Eepeated acts strengthen habits ; it is so in sin, and it is so in grace also. The more the little child goes, the more strong it grows by going. The more a man plays upon an instrument, the more dexterous he grows. Money is not increased by lying in a chest, but by trading. Mat. xxv. 27. The more any member is used, the stronger it is. As the right hand is most used, so it is commonly strongest. ' The diligent hand makes rich,' Prov. X. 4. A little stock well husbanded will daily increase, when a greater stock neglected shall decay and come to nothing. The exercise of grace will best testify both the truth and the life of your graces. Grace is never more evident than when it is in exercise. When I see a man rise, and walk, and work, and exercise his arms, I know he is a real man, a Uving man. The more the fire is blown up the sooner it is seen to be fire. There are many precious Christians, who are full of fears and doubts that they have no love to God, no faith in God, no hope of glory, &c., but the best way under heaven to put an end to these fears and doubts is to be fervent in exerting acts of love, of faith, of hope, &c. The non-exercise of grace cast Adam out of paradise ; it shut ]\Ioses and Aaron out of Canaan, Num. xx. 12 ; it brought Jacob into fourteen years' hard service and bondage ; for had he exer- cised faith, hope, patience, &c., as he should have done, he would never have got the blessing by indirect means as he did ; it provoked the Lord to strike Zacharias dumb, Luke i. 18-20 ; it sluit tliousands of the Jews out of the land of Canaan, Heb. iii. 17, 18. I dare not be so harsh, so rash, and so uncharitable, as to think that none of those that died in the wilderness had the habits of faith, the seeds of grace in their souls ; but it was their non-acting of faith that kept them out of the Holy Land, as it did Moses and Aaron, according to wliat I hinted but now. Beloved, by these instances, among many others that might be produced, you see lliat God hath dealt very smartly and severely with his choicest servants for their not exercising of their graces as they ought to have done. And thougli I dare not, upon many accounts, say that for the saints' not exercising and improving their graces, God has turned London into a heap of ashes ;
ISA. XLII. 24, 25.] THE LATE FIERY DISPENSATION. 4^
yet I dare say that this neglect of theirs may be one thing that added fuel to that fire.i Well, sirs, you had not long since many outward comforts to live upon, but the Lord has now burnt them up, that so he might lead you forth to live in a daily exercise of grace upon himself, upon his power, upon his all-sufficiency, his goodness, his faithfulness, his fulness, his graciousness, his unchangeableness, his promises. And if this fiery dispensation shall be so sanctified to us as to work us to a further activity of grace, and to a further growth and increase of grace, we shall be happy citizens though we are burnt citizens. But,
[3.] Thirdly, By severe providences and by fiery trials God designs the groiuth of his people in grace. Usually the graces of the saints thrive best when they are under a smarting rod, Grace usually is in the greatest flourish when the saints are under the sorest trials, Kom. V. 3, 4 ; 2 Cor, i. 3-6. The snuffiing of the candle makes it burn the brighter. God beats and bruises his links 2 to make them burn the brighter ; he bruises his spices to make them send forth the greater aromatical savour. Fiery trials are like the tazel, which, though it be sharp and scratching, it is to make the cloth more pure and fine. God would not rub so hard, were it not to fetch out the dirt and spots that be in his people. The Jews were always best when they were in their lowest condition. Well-waters arising from deep springs are hotter in the winter than they are in the summer. Stars shine brightest in the darkest nights ; and so do the graces of the saints shine brightest in the darkest nights of afiliction and tribu- lation. God will sometimes more carry on the growth of grace by a cross than by an ordinance ; yea, the Lord will, first or last, more or less, turn all fiery trials into ordinances for the helping on the growth of grace in his people's souls, Heb. xii, 10; James i. 3, 4; 1 Pet. i. 6, 7. Look, 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 as water in pipes descends that it may ascend : so the saints' spiritual growth in grace is carried on by such divine methods and in such ways as might seem to deaden grace, and weaken it, rather than anywise to augment and increase it. We know that winter is as necessary to bring on harvest as the spring ; and so fiery trials are as necessary to bring on the harvest of grace as the spring of mercy is. Though fiery trials are grievous, yet they shall make us more gracious. Though for the present we cannot see but that such and such severe providences and fiery trials as the loss of house, estate, trade, friends, will redound much to our prejudice and damage, yet in the issue we shall find that God will turn them to the internal and eternal advantage of our precious souls, Heb. xii. 11. We may in a pang of passion say, as Jacob, ' Joseph is not, and Simeon is not !' Gen, xlii. 36.^ 'All these are against me' — children are not,
^ Austin writ upon that day wlierein he shewed no acts of grace, Diem perdidi, I have lost a day. Oh how many days have we lost then for which God miffht iustlv visit us '
2 ' Torches.'— G. & J J