(3.) It is a sin not only foul in its nature, but severely punished by God. The saints have never so foully miscarried as by their self-confi- dence. Who would have thought that Lot who was pure and chaste in Sodom, should have committed incest in the mountain, when there was none but he and liis own daughters ? Though he avoided the filthiness of Sodom, where there was a multitude to draw him to evil, yet he fell foully when there was none but his own family. In the dreadful falls of God's children we may see that nature is l3ut a sorry undertaker. No man knows how far his heart will carry him till it comes to the trial. Who would have thought that Peter's high resolution would end in curses and blasphemy, and denying of Christ ? The man of God, that spake against the altar of Bethel, could deny the king's request, but could not deny the old prophet to turn back and eat ; 1 Kings xiii. 8. compared with the 19th ver. ; when grace had left him, then he falls. The prophet saith of Ephraim, that ' he was a cake not turned,' baked but of one side ; for a great while we may stand fast ; but when once we grow secure, we may sadly miscarry. Hezekiah knew how to be sick, but .not how to be well. The Spirit of God will not flatter us in our vain confidences ; when we proudly trust in ourselves, the Lord, to punish pride, will deny his assisting grace, and so we soon feel the disappointment of a trust misplaced. When God framed us and renewed us by grace, he doth still reserve a dominion over par- ticular acts of grace. Grace is but a creature ; if we rest in it, we may make grace an idol ; it is not an independent thing, but dependeth in, esse, conservari ei operari. There is a constant concurrence necessary to strengthen the habit as well as to produce the act, without which habits are dead and useless.
[2.] How far spiritual strength is to be denied. The question is needful, lest while we seek to establish devotion we lay a ground for laziness ; therefore I shall show it in four propositions —
(1.) That there is somewhat in a christian which we may call spiri- tual strength ;
(2) That this strength is to be maintained and supported; and
(3.) To be drawn out in constant exercise ; yet
(4.) Not to be rested in, for several reasons.
\st. There is somewhat in a christian which we may call spiritual strength. The farailists sav. That grace is Christ himself working in
Book I] a teeatise of self-denial. 227
us, and that tliere are no habits of grace ; that it is not we that repent and believe, but Christ. But certainly this is false and foolish ; there is something poured out upon a christian : Zech. xii. 10, ' I will pour out upon them a spirit of grace and supplication ; ' and there is something that remains in them, called the ' seed of God,' 1 John iii. 9, which cannot be Christ or the Spirit, because it is called the new creature and the inward man, that is created after God. And a good treasure, that a christian hath of his own, a good stock God hath be- stowed upon him : Mat. xii. 53, ' A good man out of his good treasure,' &c. There is a. stock of grace conveyed into the soul which may be increased ; therefore we are said, 2 Peter iii. 18, ' To grow in grace.' All which things are not compatible to the Spirit ; nay plainly, the fruits of the Spirit, which are the created habits of grace, are distinguished from the Spirit himself : Gal. v. 22, ' Now the fruits of the Spirit are these, love, faith, gentleness,' &c ; so 2 Tim. i. 5, ' The unfeigned faith that is in thee.' In regeneration there is introduced into the soul a stock of knowledge, a whole frame of grace, faith, and patience, and love, and hope, and these abide upon the heart. They are not transient operations of the Holy Ghost, nor the Holy Ghost himself, but such habits as abide still in the heart. Besides, if in acts of grace there were nothing but an operation of the Holy Ghost, and a man were a mere patient, then all our defects, and the faintness of our operation, were to be charged on the Spirit ; as a ship is an innocent piece of timber, therefore the splitting thereof is not charged upon the ship, but the pilot.
2d. This strength is with diligence to be maintained and supported ; we are to be very careful that we do not waste our stock, and prove bankrupts with grace received. When we embezzle our habitual trea- sure, God is exceeding angry, and then he withdraws his actual influence. By gross sins we maim and distemper the new nature, and it is a long time ere it can be set right again. It cost David much labour and travail of soul to get a right spirit within him : Ps. li, * Lord create in me a clean heart ; ' it was a creating work. It must be constantly maintained, for we may easily embezzle and weaken it in a great measure.