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more diligent and careful, and comfort ns in the use of means, Imowing that our labour shall not be in vain in the Lord, 1 Cor. xv. 58. Now, Lord, I know I shall not lose my labour in hearing, in receiving of the sacra- ment, in the communion of saints, and use of sanctified means, for thou hast made a gracious promise that ' I shall gi'ow as the lily,' and that thou wilt be ' as the dew unto me.' Therefore make thy good work begun, effec- tual unto my poor soul, that it may flourish and be refreshed as a watered garden. But there are several sorts of growth formerly touched, either
1. A growing upward ; or
2. A growing in the root ; or
3. A spreading and growing in the fruit, and sweetness.
Therefore Christians must not always look to have their growth in one and the same place, but must wisely consider of God's prudent dealing with his children in this kind, as will be further seen hereafter in the particulars.
' He shall cast forth his roots as Lebanon.'
That is, he shall cast and spread, and so put forth his roots as Lebanon. He shall grow upward and downward. In regard of firmness, he shall be more rooted. In what proportion ? Trees grow upwards, in that propor- tion they take root downwards, because otherwise they may be top-heavy and overturn, a blast of wind taking advantage of their tallness and weak- ness, to root them out the sooner. Therefore, proportionable to their spreading above, there must be a rooting in the ground. As the prophet speaks to Hezekiah of God's people, ' And the remnant that is escaped of the house of Judah shall yet again take root dowhward, and bear fruit up- ward,' 2 Kings xix. 30. There must be firmness in the root, as well as growth in the branches, for which cause God here promiseth to the church and every Christian stability and fixedness, that as he groweth upward like the lily, so he should grow downward, firm and strong.
Quent. Now, whence comes this rootedness and firm stabihty of God's children ?
Ans. Especially from this, that they are now in the covenant of grace, rooted in Christ, who is God-man, in whom they are firaily rooted. In Adam we had a root of our own, but now our root is in Christ, All grace is first poured into Christ's blessed nature, John i. IG, and then at a second hand, ' out of his fulness we all receive grace for grace.' Being rooted^in Christ we become fii-m, for there is in him an everlasting marriage and union. ' The root beareth us, we bear not the root,' Rom. xi. 18, Christ beareth us, we bear not him. So now, in the covenant of grace, all the firmness is out of us. Even as salvation itself was wrought out of us by a mediator, so it is kept by a mediator out of us. All goodness, grace, and favour of God to us is not in us, but in Christ ; but it is so out of us, as Christ and we are one. But now we only speak of the cause of our firm- ness and stability, that because we are in the state of grace we have an everlasting firmness, as we are in Christ Jesus. God now making a second covenant, he will not have it disannulled as the fu'st was, for his second works are better than his fh'st. His first covenant was, ' Do this and live,' Lev. xviii. 5 ; but his second is, ' Believe this and live,' Rom. x. 9. So as howsoever our state in grace be but little, yet it is of a blessed, growing, spreading, firm nature, so sure as what is begun in grace will end in glory. Where God gives the first fi-uits he will give tenths, yea, the full harvest and all, because by the covenant of grace we are one with Christ, who is an everlasting head that never dies. Subservient to this now we have pro- mised in the covenant of gi-ace that we shall never depart from him, and
840 THE RETURNING BACKSLIDER. [SeRMON VII.
tliat he will never depart from us to do us good. He puts an awe-band into our hearts, that we shall never depart from him. But this point being often touched, leaving it, we will come to answer some objections.
Obj. 1. It may seem that these things are not so. God's children do not always grow and spread themselves, but they are often overturned and fall.
Ans 1. This is nothing. They are moved, but not removed. They are as Mount Ziou, which cannot be removed, but abideth for ever, Ps. cxxv. 1, which, though it may be shaken with earthquakes, yet is not removed thereby. The gates of hell and sorrows of death may set sore upon them, but not prevail against them. Mat. xvi. 18. They may fall, but not fall away. They may be as a weather-beaten tree, but not as a tree pulled up by the roots. Therefore they are compared here to a tree whose root stands fast still. Thus much the church, after a sore trial and endurance of much affliction, confesseth, ' All this is come upon us, yet have we not for- gotten thee, neither have we dealt falsely in thy covenant ; oixr heart is not turned back, neither have our steps declined from th}^ way, though thou hast broken us in the place of dragons, and covered us with the shadow of death,' &c., Ps. xliv. 17, 18, 19.