[1.] Because of the indisposition of the subject, our waywardness and
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mutability. We are blind, and wander out of the way ; God needeth to reduce us by his word, Spirit, and providence : Ps. cxix. 176, ' I have gone astray like a lost sheep ; ' ver. 57, ' Before I was afflicted I went astray.' And we do not only err in our minds, but in our hearts : Jer. xiv. 10, ' They have loved to wandsr.' Nothing more fickle and changeable than man, soon weary of a holy and heavenly frame ; and except God did warn and guide us continually, how soon shall we mis- take our way ! Isa. xxx. 21, ' Thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk in it, when ye turn to the right hand or to the left.' "Unless God diu give continual direction by his word and Spirit, we should never walk evenly nor uprightly in the way that leadeth to heaven and happiness. We are apt to languish and loiter, as well as to step aside and turn out of the way ; and therefore we need that God should excite us and quicken us by his repeated calls. Certainly they never were acquainted with calling who despise further calling. So much of our old enmity remaineth as to beget at last a slowness and backwardness of heart to heavenly things. The spouse needeth to beg a new drawing, Cant. i. 4, and further grace to overcome our sluggishness.
[2.] The opposition and temptations to draw us off from the duties of this holy and heavenly calling, which we meet with from the devil, the world, and the flesh.
To begin with the flesh. The back-bias of corruption draweth us another way : James i. 14, ' Every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lusts.' If we consider how averse the nature of man is from a strict course of holiness, and how addicted to carnal vanities, and that this nature is but in part broken in the best, how apt we are still to indulge the laziness of the flesh. You will find the best too backward and slothful, and need a renewed drawing.
So for the devil. How cunning he is, how assiduous in his tempta- tions, that he may draw us back from the liberty which we have by Christ into our old slavery ; how many cheats he puts upon the soul, that we may distinguish ourselves out of our duty, or live in a sin without remorse, by turning our liberty into an occasion unto the flesh!
Lastly, what lets and hindrances, what baits and snares, we shall find in the world ; how much these hinder at least our growth in godliness and heavenly-mindedness ! Surely we need more grace, that we may not be flattered by a vain tempting world, but may learn to live as heirs of glory.
3. That we may obtain the reward of our heavenly calling. It is God that must count us worthy to the very last ; when we have done and suffered all, mercy alone counteth us worthy. This will sooner appear —
[1.] If we consider the infinite disproportion between our best ser- vices and greatest sufferings and the promised glory : Kom. viii, 18, ' I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.' As they should not be worthy in our reckoning, to weaken our resolution, so they are not in God's reckoning, to deserve our reward. There is no equality between the eternal enjoyment of the infinite God, and that
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little that we do and suffer here in the world ; therefore the same God that took us with all our faults, and accounted us worthy of the first grace, doth still account us worthy of glory.
[2.] The imperfection and pollution of our best obedience : Isa. lxiv. 6, ' We are all as an unclean thing, and our righteousnesses are as filthy rags.' We deserve rather to be sequestered from his sight, as unclean persons were shut out from the camp, than to be admitted into his glorious presence. Our best actions are not free from some default and defilement, as might render them odious to God, if he should look narrowly into them, and according to the exact tenor and rigour of his law. If you suppose that spoken as of the body of that people, yet the same truth is represented in other scriptures ; as Ps. cxliii. 2, ' Enter not into judgment with thy servant.' Not with his enemies, but his servant. So Job ix. 2, 3, ' How should man be just with God ? If he should contend with him, he cannot answer him one of a thousand.' Alas ! how impossible is it for us to bring out or plead any righteousness of our own by way of merit before God ! We do not see the thousandth part of what may be alleged against us. Again, Job xxx. 31, ' If I wash myself with snow-water, and make my hands never so clean ; yet shalt thou plunge me in the ditch, and mine own clothes shall abhor me.' As if his own justification of himself would foul him the more, and render him impure in God's sight and his own.