deal of wit to be a Christian' (/), it requires a. great deal of wit and study to hold a man on in Christianity.
And for a man to be strong against temptations and the world, whether it frown or fown, that he cares for neither, but holds his own, is not this a glorious thing ? When a man shall carry himself as a lion, break through oppositions in ill times, and fall square, cast him as you will, in all condi- tions,— here is a glorious Christian. Therefore through grace be glory, that must not content us, but we must labour to have such a measure of glory as that we may be glorious in our own rank. Is it not a glorious thing when a man can break through doubts and fears that trouble other folk too much ? As the sun is said to be in glory when he is gotten on high ; there are many clouds in the morning, but when the sun is gotten to his height at noon-day, ho scatters all. So a Christian is in his glory and exaltation when he can scatter doubts, and fears, and terrors that trouble other weak beginning Christians. Therefore when we are troubled with scruples, with this and that, we should labour to get out of them, that grace may be glorious ; to shew that we have gotten such a light and such a convincing knowledge, and that we are so rooted in faith and grace, that the Spirit of Christ in us hath broken through all these clouds and mists, and made us glorious.
' From glory to glory.'
Our glory it is not like a torrent that runs amain for a time, and after is dried up for ever. Grace it is a continuing and an increasing thing. It continues still. As the stream that it is fed with is an ever-living spring, so is grace. It is fed with the grace in Christ, and he is a never-dying spring, a fountain. For that grace in him is fed with his divinity. There- fore there must be a perpetual spring in Christ. So where Christ hath opened a spring in the heart, he will feed that grace perpetually.
Use 2. Let none be discouraf/ed that have grace begun in them. God will go on with his own grace. When he hath begun a good work, 'he will finish it to the day of the Lord,' 1 Cor. i. 8. Though grace be little at the first, yet it shall not stay there. It grows up we know not how ; but at last it is glorious indeed. For till grace be grown, it is little discerned from other things : as between weeds and herbs there is little difierence when they be green, till they be grown, Grace is little at the first, as a grain of mustard-seed, Mat. xiii. 31. Jerusalem is not built in a day, as we say of Rome. You have some that are a weaker sort of Christians, that are good, they would fain be in Canaan, as soon as ever they are out of Egypt, and I cannot blame them. But hereupon they are discomforted. As soon as ever they have grace in them, they would have their pitch presently, out of spiritual covetousness. Oh that I had more knowledge and more victory ! &c. These desires are good ; for God puts not in vain desires into the hearts of his children, but they must be content to be led from glory to glory, from one degree of grace to another. Christ himself grew more in favour with God and man. As that little stone grew to a mountain, Dan. ii, 34, so we must be content to grow from grace to grace. There is a gradual proceeding in the new creature. We must not be presently in Canaan. God will lead us through the wilderness, through temptations and crosses, before we come to heaven. Many because they see they are far short of others that are stronger Christians, therefore they think they have no grace at all.
Therefore let those that are on the growing hand, though they be short of many that are before them, let them not be discouraged with their over- little beginnings. For it is God's ordinance and course in this world, to
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bring his cliildren by little and little through many stations. As they were led in the wilderness from standing to standing, and from place to place, so God brings his children by many standings to heaven. And it is one part of a Christian's meekness to [be] subject to God's wisdom in this kind, and not to murmur that they are not so perfect as they would be, or as they shall be ; but rather to magnify the mercy of God that there is any change in such defiled and polluted souls ; that he hath vouchsafed any spiritual light of understanding, any love of good things ; that the bent of their afi'ectious are turned to a contrary course than they were before ; that God hath vouchsafed any beginnings. Rather magnify his mercy than quarrel with his dispensation, that he doth not this all at once ; and, indeed, if we enter into our own hearts, it is our fault that we are not more perfect. But let us labour to be meek, and say, Lord, since thou hast ordained that I shall grow from glory to glory, from one degree of grace to another, let me have grace to magnify thy mercy, that thou hast given me any goodness, rather than to murmur that I have no more. And be content in the use of means, and endeavour to grow further, though we have not so much as others have. Nay, we may not be discouraged, because of the weakness of grace, but we may not be discouraged with a seeming interruption in our spiritual growth. God sometimes works by contraries. He makes men grow by their puttings back, and to stand by their falls. Sometimes, when God will have a man grow, he will suffer him to fall, that by his fall he may grow in a deeper hatred of sin, and in jealous}^ over his own heart, and a nearer watchfulness over his own ways ; that he ma}' grow more in love with God for pardoifing of him, and grow more strong in his resolution for the time to come ;that he may grow more in humility. None grow so much as those that have their growth stopped for a time. Let none be discouraged when they find a stop, but consider that God is working grace in another kind. The Spii-it appears in one grace when it doth not in another. It grows in one grace when it doth not in another. Sometime the Spirit will have us grow in humility ; as the juice of the herbs runs to the root in the winter, it is in the leaves in the spring, it is in the seed in the autumn; as the life sometime appears in the plant in one part and sometime in another ; so the Spirit of God appears sometime in humilit}', sometime in joy, sometime in spiritual strength and courage. Let none be discouraged overmuch when they find a stop ; for there is no interruption of Spirit altogether, and this little interruption is like a sickness that will make them grow and shoot up more afterwards. It spends the humours that hinders growth. There is such a mystery in the carrying of men from glory to glory, that it makes men more glorious sometimes by base sins. I would have no man discouraged there- fore. Indeed, God will work so, that he shall wish he had not given him occasion to shew his strength in his weakness, his glory in his shame ; but God, where he hath begun he will go through with the work, and will tui'n all to good.