Let us then bring our hearts to holy resolutions, and set ourselves upon that which is good, and against that which is ill, in ourselves or others, ac- cording to our callings, upon this encouragement, that Christ's grace and power shall go along with us. What had become of that great work o^' reformation of religion in the latter-spring of the gospel, if men had not been armed with invincible courage to outstride all lets, upon this faith, that the cause was Christ's, and that he would not be wanting to his own cause. Luther ingenuously confessed, that he carried matters often inconsiderately, and with mixture of passion ; but upon acknowledgment, God took not advantage of his errors, but the cause being God's, and his aims being hol}^, to promote the truth, and being a mighty man in prayer, and strong m faith, God by him kindled that fire which all the world shall never be able to quench. According to our faith, so is our encouragement to all duties, therefore let us strengthen faith, that it may strengthen all other graces. This very belief, that faith shall be victorious, is a means to make it so indeed. Believe it, therefore, that though it be often as smok- ing flax, yet it shall prevail. If it prevail with God himself in trials, shall it not prevail over all other opposition ? ' Let us wait a while, and we shall see the salvation of the Lord,' Exod. iv. 13.
The Lord reveal himself more and more unto us in the face of his Son Jesus Christ, and magnify the power of his grace in cherishing those be- ginnings of gi-ace in the midst of our corruptions, and sanctify the conside- ration of our own infirmities to humble us, and of his tender mercy to encourage us ; and persuade us, that since he hath taken us into the covenant of grace, he will not cast us off" for those corruptions ; which as they grieve his Spirit, so they make us vile in om- own eyes. And because Satan labours to obscure the glory of his mercy, and hinder our comfort by discouragements, the Lord add this to the rest of his mercies, that, since he is so gracious to those that yield to his government, we may make the right use of this grace, and not lose any portion of comfort that is laid up for us in Christ. And [may] he vouchsafe to let the prevailing power of his Spirit hi us be an evidence of the truth of grace begun, and a pledge of final victory, at that time when he will be all in all, in all his, for aU eternity. Amen. Finis.*
* Added hero to G is the following couplet : —
Quassala (Lector) quid arundiuo viliua, aut to ?
A t 11011 frangeris, si pius, Unctus ait — G. J.
It may bo thus rendered :
Thau shaken rood what can mnro worthless 'he? Reader, just such tluui art :
But Jiast tliou faith ? Tlion take good heart; The Anointed saitli, Nor it nor tliou by liim sliall broken be. The initials aro probably those of John Goodwin reverspd. G.
AND SMOKING FLAX. 101
NOTES.
(a) P. 49. — ' Stooped so far ... . as to suffer him to tlirust his hand into his side.' It is questionable if Thomas really did this. His early faith recovered itself in pre- sence of the Lord, and the narrative seems rather to indicate that he did not avail himself of the tenderly-forgiving offer of his Master. See Archbishop Whately's lecture on the apostle Thomas in his Lectures on the Apostles, (2d ed. 1853).
(b) P. 53. — ' Strain not things too high, making those general and necessary evi- dences of grace which agree not,' &c. This characteristically gentle warning reminds us of an anecdote of the excellent Ebenezer Erskine, one of the founders of what is now the United Presbyterian Church. He had been delivering a course of sermons on ^ Marks of Grace,' and had spent much time in shewing how many things men might possess and nevertheless be ' hypocrites.' Chancing some time after to be on a visit to a very saintly but lowly ' aged ' believer, who was apparently dying, the good man was startled by an exclamation, ' Oh ! Mr Erskine, if I were just as good as one of
your hypocrites, I would be happy.' The words struck home, and Erskine was
wont to tell it, and to add that the remark opened his eyes to the danger by over-high ' marks ' of causing God's own dearest children to ' write bitter things against them- selves ' without cause. This anecdote, related by one whose grandfather attended Mr Erskine at Stirling, strikingly enforces Sibbes's counsel.
(c) P. 55 ' Kill a fly on the forehead with a beetle.' ' Beetle ' = mallet. In
the margin opposite the passage in A, B, and E, is ' As Parisien.' Query, Peter Lombard ?
(d) P. 67. — ' Let ' [= hinder]. Few words present such a curious example of uttei reversal of meaning as this. Formerly to let was to ' hinder,' now it means to 'permit.' It occurs in the former sense both in 0. T. and N. T., e. g., Isa. xliii. 13, and Eom. i. 13 ; 2 Thess. ii. 7. It is here referred to once for all.