4. Grace is wronged by turning it into wantonness. It is a heavy charge, and a black note is set on them : Jude 4, ' Ungodly men, turn- ing the grace of God into lasciviousness ; ' when men sin freely that God may pardon freely ; when they presume upon grace, as if that should bear all, and use it as a dung-cart to carry away all their filth ; or, like riotous children who have a rich father, therefore spend freely ; their father's estate shall pay for all. It is a mighty wrong to grace when we make it pliable to such a vile purpose. You dishonour God and disparage grace when you would make it to father the bastards of your own carnal hearts. You are vile and sinful, and you are so under the encouragements of grace, and the rather because of the abundance of grace ; and, like the spider, suck poison out of the flower, and turn it into the nourishment of your lust ; or as the salt sea turns the sweet rivers and dews of heaven, and all that falls into it, into salt water ; so carnal hearts do assimilate all that they meet with, and turn it into fuel for their lusts. Men would fain sin securely and cum pi'ivilegio, with licence from heaven ; and therefore they take liberty even from the grace of God. This is a vile abuse ; a quite contrary way the grace of God teacheth us, ' to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts ; ' and not to be more secure and careless because they have so much grace. But they hail it, and wrest it from its natural end and purpose, and sin freely, because God pardons freely. Grace giveth no such liberty to sin. This is done grievously by the Antinomians, who say grace gives them freedom from the moral law. It is true, grace makes us free, but to duty, not to sin. There is a sad expression, Rom. vi. 20, ' When ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness ; ' it is a description of the carnal state ; duty hath no awe upon his heart. When men think themselves free from the law rather than sin, and when they expect comfort though they walk in the way of their own
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heart, they hare abused grace, and taken hold of the devil's covenant, and not of God's. There is never any creature freed from the law ; God never made a creature to be absolutely sui juris, at his own dis- posal. The angels themselves, though they have many immunities and privileges above us, as being exempted from troubles, diseases, and death, and from the clog of flesh which we carry about us, yet they are not exempted from duty or from a law : ' They do his commandments, and hearken to the voice of his word,' Ps. ciii, 20. Earthly kings may free some of their subjects from their homage ; as Saul made a pro- clamation, He that doth thus and thus, 'his father's house shall be free in Israel,' 1 Sam. xvii. 25. But God never made any creature to be absolutely freed from a law. But if a man be right in doctrine, though he hold the obligation of the moral law on a believer, yet he may be an Antinomian in practice, and abuse and wrong grace ; as thus, if a man slacken any part of his duty for grace's sake, or lets loose the reins of vile affections with more freedom, and saith, God will not be so rigor- ous, he wrongeth grace. If men be not so watchful and so strict, if men grow more careless, secure and negligent, if they be not so constant in duty, if they lessen aught of their humiliation for sin, or strictness and watchfulness in their conversation, they are as a spider that sucks poison out of grace. A man hath never the more carnal liberty for being acquainted with the gospel. This is the great thing which puts us upon duty and watchfulness, and melts the heart for sin, and awes it, and disposeth it to obedience.
5. Grace is wronged by slighting it after a taste, as carnal professors do : 1 Peter 2. 3, ' If so be you have tasted that the Lord is gracious.' A man hath at first a taste, that he may have trial how sweet the ways of God are. Now, if after trial, you are not satisfied, but make choice of the world again, it is a mighty wrong and contempt you put upon grace ; for you do as it were declare and pronounce that you have made trial, and upon experience have found the pleasures and profits of the world are better than all the comforts that flowed from the grace of God. The whole aim of the word is to persuade men to make trial of the sweetness of grace : Ps. xxxiv. 8, ' 0 taste and see that the Lord is good,' and that his grace is good. But now your experience is a flat negative and contradiction to the word, and you do as it were say, I have made trial, and I find no such sweetness in it. None wrong grace so much as they that have tasted of grace, and yet have turned aside to the profits and pleasures of the world again, and grow weary after some strictness of profession.