Quest. How will God be as the dew to Israel ?
Alls. This is especially meant of, and perfoiTned to, the church under the New Testament, especially next unto Christ's time, when the dew of grace fell in gi'eatest abundance upon the chui'ch. The comfortable, sanctifying, fruitful grace of God is compared to dew in many respects.
Ffrst, the dew doth come from above. God sends it, it di'ops from above, and cannot be commanded by the creature. So all other gifts, and espe- cially this perfect gift, the gi'ace of God, comes from above, from the Father of lights. There is no principle of grace natui'ally within a man. It is as childish to think that gi-aee comes fi-om any principle within us, as to think that the dew which falls upon a stone is the sweat of the stone, as children think that the stone sweats, when it is the dew that has fallen upon it. Certainly our hearts, in regard of themselves, are barren and dry. "\Miere- fore, God's grace, in regard of the original, is compared to dew, which should teach us to go to God, as the church doth, here, and pray him to deal gi'aciously with us, to do good to us, for this cause laying open our souls unto him, to shed his grace into them.
Secondly, the dew doth fall iiisensibbj and invisibly. So the grace of God. We feel the comfort, sweetness, and operation of it, but it falls insensibly without observation. Inferior things here feel the sweet and comfortable influence of the heavens, but who sees the active influence upon them ? which, how it is derived from superior bodies to the inferior, is not ob- servable. As our Saviour speaks of the beginnings of gi"ace and workings of it, ' The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh or whither it goeth : so is every one that is bom of the Spirit,' John iii. 8. It works we know not
332 THE KETURNING BACKSLIDEE. [SeRMON VII
how. We feel the work, but the manner of working is unknown to us. Grace, therefore, is wrought undiscernibly. No man can see the conver- sion of another ; nay, no man almost can discern his own conversion at first. Therefore, this question should not much trouble you. Shew us the first hour, the first time of your conversion and entrance into the state of grace. Grace, to many, falls like the dew, by little and little, drop and drop, line upon line. It falls sweetly and undiscernibly upon them at the first. Therefore, it is hard to set down the first time, seeing, as our blessed Saviour speaks, grace at the first is ^Yondrous little, likened to a grain of mustard- seed ; but though it be small at fii'st, yet nothing is more glorious and beauti- fiil afterwards, for from a small seed it grows to overspread and be great, shooting out branches, Mark iv. 31, 32. And as the root of Jesse was a despised stock, and in show a dead root, yet thence Christ rose, a- branch as high as heaven ; so the beginning of a Christian is despised and little, like a dead stock, as it were ; but they grov/ upward and upward still, till they come to heaven itself, Prov. iv. 18. Thus we see there is nothing in the world more undiscernible in the beginning than the work of grace, which must make us not over-curious to examine exactly the first begin- nings thereof, because it' is as the falling of the dew, or * the blowing of the wind.'
Tliiydly, Again, as it falls undiscernibly and invisibly, so very sweetly and mildly, not violating the nature or course of anything, but rather helping and cherishing the same ; or if it make any change in anything, it doth it mildly and gently. So usually, unless it be in some extraordinary case, God works upon the soul by his grace mildly and sweetly. Grace works sweetly upon the soul, preserving its freedom ; so as man, when he begins to be good, shall be freely good, from inward principles wrought in him. His judgment shall like the course he takes, and be clean opposite to others that are contrary, from an inward principle ; as free now in altering his course, as formerly he was in following the other. There is no violence, but in regard of corruption. God works strongly and mildly : strongly, for he changeth a stone into a fleshly heart ; and j^et sweetly : he breaks not any power of nature, but advanceth it. For grace doth not take away or imprison nature, but lifts it up, and sets it at liberty. For it makes the will stronger and freer, the judgment sounder, the understanding cleaxer, the affections more orderly. It makes all things better, so that no violence is offered to nature.
Fourthly, Again, gi'ace is compared to' dew, in regard of the operations of dew. For, what effects hath dew upon the earth ?
(1.) It cools the air when it falls, and then with coolness it hath a fructi- fying virtue ; for falling especially on tender herbs and plants, it soaks into the root of them, and makes them fruitful. So it is with the grace of God's Spirit. It cools the soul, scorched with the sense of God's anger ; as indeed all our souls will be, when we have to deal with God, who is ' a consuming fire,' Heb. xii. 29, till we take that course to look upon him in Christ for the pardon of sin ; after which his grace and the sense of it cooleth, assuageth, and speaks peace to an uncomfortable, disconsolate heart. This voice, ' Son, be of good comfort, th}' sins are forgiven thee.' Oh, this hath a cooling in it ! and this also, ' This day shalt thou be with me in paradise.' Oh, how it cooled and cheered the good thief, and comforted him ! And so when God says unto the soul, ' I am thy salvation ;' Oh, when the soul feels this, how is it cooled and refreshed !