330 THE RETURNING BACKSLIDER. [SeRMON YII.
home. Therefore, let such an use be made of it generally, as God, and not other foreign helps, may especially be trusted in : for it is the only way to destruction, to let God alone, and to trust to this body and that body. For in this case, many times, God makes those we trust in our destruction, as the Assyrians and Babylonians were the ruin of the ten tribes. But begin always first in heaven : set that great wheel a- working, and he will make all things comfortable, especially for our souls. Then we shall not only find him to make good this promise, ' I wUl be as the dew unto Israel ;' but the residue which follow after.
' He shall grow as the lily,' &c.
Those unto whom God is dew, [he gives] a double blessing. He will make them grow, and so grow as they shall grow up as the lily. Thistles, and nettles, and ill weeds grow apace also, but not as hlies. But God's children are lilies, and then they grow as lilies.
Quest. How do Chi-istians grow like lilies ?
Ans. First, for beauty and glory. There is such a kind of gloiy and beauty in that plant, that it is said by our Saviour, that Solomon ' in all his royalty was not aiTayed like one of these,' Mat. vi. 29. Because his was a borrowed glory fi'om the creature, but the hly hath a native beauty of its own.
2. Again, the lily hath a siveet and fragrant smell. So have Christians a sweetness and shining expressed in their conversation ; as we have it a little after, ' His smell shall be as Lebanon,' &c.
8. And then again, in regard of jntrity and tchiteness. So, Christians are pure and unspotted in their conversation, and their aim is purity and un- spottedness. Whiteness betokens an unstained conversation. So the people and children of God, they are lilies, beautiful and glorious in the eyes of God, and of all those who have spiritual eyes, to discern what spi- ritual excellency is ; howsoever in regard of the world, their life be hidden. Their excellency is veiled with infirmities, afflictions, and disgraces by the malignant church ; yet in God's esteem, and in the esteem of his childi'en, they are lilies. All the dirt in the world cast upon a pearl cannot alter the nature of it. So, though the world go about to besmear these lilies with false imputations, yet they are lilies still, and have a glory upon them. For they have a better spirit and natm-e than the world hath. And they are sweeter in their conversation than the world ; for when they have be- gun to be Christians, they sweeten their speeches and discourses. There is no Christian who is not of a sweet conversation. So far as grace hath altered him, he is beautiful, lovely, and sweet, and hath the whiteness of sincerity.
4. Now as God's children are liHes, and then grow as lilies for sweet- ness, glory, and beauty ; so they are like lilies, especially in regard of sudden growth. When God gives a blessing, there is a strange growth on a sudden, as it is observed of this plant, that it grows very much in a night. So God's children, when his blessing is upon them, they thrive marvellously in a short space. To make this clear. When the dew of grace fell in our Saviour's time upon the Christian world, what a world of hlies grew sud- denly ! Three thousand in one day, at one sermon, converted by Peter, Acts ii. 41, The kingdom of heaven suffered violence in John Baptist's time, that is, the people thronged after the means of grace, and offered a holy violence to the things of God, Mat, xi, 12, So when this dew of grace fell, it was prophesied of it, ' The youth of thy womb,' saith he, 'shall be as the morning dew,' Ps. ex, 3. The dew comes out of the womb
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of the morning, for the morning begets it : ' Thy youth shall be as the dew of the morning,' that is, they shall come in gi'cat abundance, as we see it fell out in the first spring of the gospel. In the space of forty years, by the preaching of the apostles, what a deal of good was done through a great part of the world ! How did the gospel then break out like lightning, by means of that blessed apostle Paul, who himself earned it through a great part of the world !
And now, in the second spring of the gospel, when Luther began to preach, in the period of a few years, how many countries were converted and turned to the gospel ! England, Scotland, Swethland,* Denmark, the Palatinate, a great part of France, Bohemia, and of the Netherlands. How many Ulies gi'ew up here on a sudden ! Sudden growths are suspected, and weU they may be. But when God will bless, in a short space a great deal of work shall be done. For God is not tied to length of time. He makes water to be wine every year in tract of time ; for he turns the water of heaven into the juice of the grape. So there is water turned into wine ; that done in tract of time, which he can do in a shorter time, as he did in the gospel, John ii. 1, &c. Where is the difference ? That he did that miraculously in a short time, which he usually effects in continuance of time. So now many times he doth great matters in a short time, that his power may be known and seen the more, as we see now in these wars of Germany ([/) how quickly God hath turned his hand to help his church, and hiss for a despised, forgotten nation to trample down the insulting, afflicting, menacing power of the proud enemy. And he can do so still, if our sins hinder him not. Surely if we stand still and behold the salvation of the Lord, we shall see great matters effected in a little time. ' They shall grow as the lily.' The accomplishment of this promise is not wholly yet come, for there be blessed times approaching, wherein, when the Jews are converted, ' they shall grow as the lily ' in those glorious times there spoken of, at the conversion of the Jews and ' fulness of the Gentiles ' coming in, Rom. xi. 12, the accomplishment whereof we expect, to the re- joicing of our hearts, that they should at length prove indeed with us the true children of Abraham.