1. What is true holiness, such as cometh from the teachings of grace, obliging conscience to the duty of the law, inclining the heart to obey out of the sense of God's love, and encouraging us by faith, drawing strength from Christ, and looking to God for our acceptance from him. Some works of the unregenerate are materially good, but it is not the matter maketh the work good, but the principle. The works of unregenerate men are done by God's enemies, out of the strength of a corrupt will for carnal ends, without any conscience of God's will, or respect to his glory ; but exdpwv Bcopa dhapa, they are giftless gifts. But now those done by persons in a gracious state are as good fruit growing on a good tree. Grace teacheth ; he speaketh not of the external direction of the gospel, but the internal working of grace in the heart ; it worketh by faith, love, and obedience. Obedience owneth the obligation, love inclineth to discharge the duty, and faith looketh up to God for help and acceptance, that we may do it in Christ, and for Christ's sake to God's glory. There is a free loving subjection of the whole man, inward and outward, to the whole will of God, with a desire to please him.
2. That grace and corruption draw several inferences and conclu- sions from the same premises. A bee gathereth honey from whence a spider sucketh poison. Corrupt nature is out in conclusions : Prov. xxvi. 9, ' As a thorn goeth up into the hand of a drunkard, so is a parable in the mouth of fools.' Let us do evil that grace may abound, gays a corrupt heart. Let us deny ungodliness and worldly lusts, says a gracious person. God doth all, says a corrupt heart, therefore we need but lie upon the bed of ease, and expect his help. No, says a gracious soul, Phil. ii. 12, 13, 'Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling ; for it is God that worketh in you to will and to do of his good pleasure.' The epicure says. The time is short ; * Let us eat and drink, for to morrow we shall die,' 1 Cor. xv. 32. The apostle argues otherwise : 1 Cor. vii. 29, ' Brethren, I say unto you. The time is short ; it remaineth that they that have wives be as though they had none,' &c. So 2 Sam. vii. 2, ' Then the king said unto Nathan the prophet, See now, I dwell in an house of cedar, but the ark of God dwelleth within curtains ; ' compared with Hag. i. 2, ' This people say, The time is not come, the time that the Lord's house should be built.' Eli said, 1 Sam. iii. 18, 'It is of the Lord ; let him do what seemeth him good.' The king of Israel said, 2 Kings vi. 33, ' Behold, this evil is of the Lord ; why should I wait for the Lord any longer ? ' We
70 SERMONS UPON TITUS 11. 11-14. [SeR. III.
are apt to stumble in God's plainest ways. Carnal logic is one of our
greatest corruptions.
3. That it i.s the greatest wrong one can do to grace to slacken any part of our duty for grace's sake : Jude 4, ' Ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness,' fieTaridevTe^ ; they hale it besides its purpose. There is no such teacher of holiness as grace ; it teacheth and giveth a heart to learn. They know not what grace meaneth that grow wanton, vain, and sensual. To make grace sin's lackey, is a vile abuse : Kom. vi. 15, ' What then ? shall we sin, l3ecause we are not under the law, but under gi'ace ? God forbid.' You are under grace, therefore ' yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from tbe dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God,' ver, 13. As Fulvius said to his son when he slew him, I begot thee not for Cataline, but for thy country. God justified us, not that we might live to Satan, but to himself.
Use 2. Of trial. Whether we are made partakers of the graCe of God in the gospel ? Have we these teachings and arguiugs ? Many can endure to hear that grace bringeth salvation, but that it teacheth us to deny ungodliness, there they flinch. Men would have us offer salvation, and preach promises ; but when we press duty, they cry out, This is a hard saying. The cities of refuge under the law were all cities of the Levites and schools of instruction, to note that whoever taketh sanctuary at grace meeteth instruction ; it is no benefit to thee else. In the general, doth it persuade you to make a willing resigna- tion of yourselves to God? Eom. xii. 1, 'I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.' Every time you think of mercy, do ye find some constraint in this kind ? More particularly —
1. Doth it press you to deny lusts ? Ezra ix. 13, 14, ' Seeing thou hast given us such deliverance as this, should we again break thy com- mandments ? ' Doth it recoil upon you ? Gen. xxxix. 9, ' How can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God ? ' Is this your kindness to your friend ?