2. Wait on all opportunities of profiting, and use the known means of grace more conscionably. These graces indeed are not acquired, but infused ; they are God's gifts. As for faith : Eph, ii. 8, ' For by grace ye are saved through faith, and that not of yourselves ; it is tlie gift of God.' So for love : 1 John iv. 7, ' Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God.' Not only recommended to us by his example, but wrought in us by his Spirit. So for hope : Eom. xv. 13, ' Now the God of hope fill ye with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost.' But God loveth to bless us by his own means, which are the word and prayer.
Use 2. Exercise these graces. Kemember they are your armour and furniture for the conflict, when your resolutions of obedience to God are most assaulted, or you are apt to bfe discouraged.
1. When any want, cross, sorrow, or tribulation overtaketh you upon earth, fetch your comforts from God, Christ, and heaven. Be sure that faith, hope, and love be at work ; so the children of God are wont to do in their deep afflictions. How calamitous soever our condition be, faith can see that there is comfort enough to be had in God, Christ, and the covenant : 1 Peter 1. 8, ' In whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable, and full of glory.' So for hope: Rom. xii. 12, 'Eejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation.' Though we are pressed with wants and miseries, yet there is a better state to come. And in the worst condition, love can rejoice in God : Hab. iii. 18, ' Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation.'
2. In some grievous temptation, whereby we are apt to wax weary in our minds, stir up these graces. Do I believe the promises, heartily love God, and hope for his salvation ? and shall his service, or my fidelity to him, be tedious to me? When some present delight inviteth us to sin, or some present bitterness to draw us off from God, in time of temptation, these graces are seasonably acted, to counter- balance things carnal with spiritual, things present with future: Heb. xi. 35, ' They were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection.'
SERMON UPON PROVERBS XIV. 14.
Tlie backslider in heart shall he filled tvith his own ivays ; and a good man shall he satisfied from himself. — Pkov. xiv. 14.
In the Proverbs we must not look for method and coherence ; for these sentences are not as golden links in a chain, hanging one to another, but as pearls in a string ; every sentence is precious, but independent of each other. In this proverb I shall take notice of —
1. The drift of the Holy Ghost.
2. The art and contrivance, so as may best suit that scope.
First, The drift of the Holy Ghost is the same with that of many other scriptures, and divers passages in the Proverbs also, which may serve for a doctrine.
Boct. That whether good or bad, every one shall reap the fruit of his own ways.
Isa. iii. 10, 11, ' Say ye to the righteous, that it shall be well with them ; for they shall eat the fruit of their own doings. Woe unto the wicked ; it shall be ill with him ; for the reward of his hands shall be given him.' To keep up the hearts of that small company of godly persons that yet remained among them, God giveth them assurance of his goodness ; they shall fare well, whatsoever befalleth others. All things that happen shall be good, or work for good, to better their hearts or hasten their glory ; for they shall enjoy the fruit of all their labours. But it is sure to go ill with the wicked, for he shall be rewarded according to what he hath wrought. Lest you should think this a particular promise to that time only, Solomon maketh it the common cordial of the saints against the prosperity of the wicked : Eccles. viii. 12, 13,' Though a sinner do evil an hundred times, and his days be prolonged, yet surely I know. that it shall be well with them that fear God, that fear before him.' But it shall not be well with the wicked, neither shall he prolong his days, which are as a shadow; because he feareth not before God/ Wicked men, though they escape long, they shall not escape always ; though punishment be delayed, it is at length executed, and generally they do not live long. Lest you think this is spoken "pro more foederis, according to the tenor of the Mosaical covenant, where long life is promised instead of eternity, and short life threatened as a curse, let us see what the gospel saith, where we have greater encouragements to quicken us to hold fast our integrity, and go on steadily in our obedience and patient waiting on God : Eom.
SERMON UPON PROVERBS XIV. 14. 465
vi. 21-23, ' What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed ? For the end of those things is death. But now, being made free from sin, and become servants to God, you have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life. For the wages of sin is death ; but the gift of God is eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord.' Where the different recompenses are asserted, and the manner how they accrue to us ; death to sin as wages, and life to obedience as the mere gift of God ; not merited by us, but bountifully bestowed by him : this is the drift of the Holy Ghost, to show that different courses have contrary ends and issues.