434 OF SPIEITUAL GIFTS. [BOOK IX.
difference from all natural endowments, that even the world cannot but take notice of them, though it violently hate and persecute them, and the church is abundantly satisfied with the sense of the power of Christ in them. Moreover, the principal end of these gifts is to enable the officers of the church unto the due administration of all the laws and ordinances of Christ unto its edification. But all these laws and ordinances, these offices and officers, he gives unto the church as the Lord over his own house, as the sole sovereign law- giver and ruler thereof.
5. They differ as unto the event even in this world they may come unto, and ofttimes actually do so accordingly; for all gifts, the best of them, and that in the highest degree wherein they may be attained in this life, may be utterly lost or taken away. The law of their communication is, that he who improveth not that talent or measure of them which he hath received, it shall be taken from him; for whereas they are given for no other end but to trade withal, according to the several capacities and opportunities that men have in the church, or their families, or their own private exercise, if that be utterly ne- glected, to what end should they be left unto rust and uselessness in the minds of any? Accordingly we find it to come to pass. Some neglect them, some reject them, and from both sorts they are judici- ally taken away. Such we have amongst us. Some there are who had received considerable spiritual abilities for evangelical adminis- trations, but after a while they have fallen into an outward state of things wherein, as they suppose, they shall have no advantage by them, yea, that their exercise would turn to their disadvantage, and thereon do wholly neglect them. By this means they have insensibly decayed, until they become as devoid of spiritual abilities as if they never had experience of any assistance in that kind. They can no more either pray, or speak, or evidence the power of the Spirit of God in any thing unto the edification of the church. " Their arm is dried up, and their right eye is utterly darkened," Zech. xi 1 7. And this sometimes they come to be sensible of, yea, ashamed of, and yet cannot retrieve themselves. But, for the most part, they fall into such a state as wherein the profession and use of them become, as they suppose, inconsistent with their present interest ; and so they openly renounce all concernment in them. Neither, for the most part, do they stay here, but after they have rejected them in them- selves, and espoused lazy, profitable, outward helps in their room, they blaspheme the Author of them in others, and declare them all to be delusions, fancies, and imaginations; and if any one hath the confidence to own the assistance of the Holy Spirit in the discharge of the duties of the gospel unto the edification of the church, he becomes unto them a scorn and reproach. These are branches cut off
CHAP. II.] SPIRITUAL GIFTS DISTINGUISHED FROM SAVING GRACE. 435
from the Vine, whom men gather [for the fire], or those whose miser- able condition is described by the apostle, Heb. vi. 4-6. But one way or other these gifts may be utterly lost or taken away from them who have once received them, and that whether they be ordinary or ex- traordinary. There is no kind of them, no degree of them, that can give us any security that they shall be always continued with us, or at all beyond our diligent attendance unto their use and exer- cise. With saving grace it is not so. It is, indeed, subject unto various decays in us, and its thriving or flourishing in our souls de- pends upon and answers unto our diligent endeavour in the use of all means of holiness ordinarily, 2 Pet. i. 5-10; for besides that no man can have the least evidence of any thing of this grace in him if he be totally negligent in its exercise and improvement, so no man ought to expect that it will thrive or abound in him unless he constantly and diligently attend unto it, and give up himself in all things to its conduct; — but yet, as to the continuance of it in the souls of the elect, as to the life and being of its principle, and its principal effect in habitual conformity unto God and his will, it is secured in the co- venant of grace.
6. On whomsoever saving grace is bestowed, it is so firstly and principally for himself and his own good. It is a fruit of the espe- cial love and kindness of God unto his own soul, Jer. xxxi. 3. This both the nature and all the ends of it do declare; for it is given unto us to renew the image of God in us, to make us like unto him, to restore our nature, enable us unto obedience, and to make us meet for the inheritance of the saints in light. But yet we must take heed that we think not that grace is bestowed on any merely for them- selves; for, indeed, it is that wherein God designeth a good unto all: " Vir bonus commune bonum," — " A good man is a good to all;" Micah v. 7. And, therefore, God in the communication of saving grace unto any hath a threefold respect unto others, which it is the duty of them that receive it diligently to consider and attend unto : — (1.) He intends to give an example by it of what is his will, and what he approveth of; and, therefore, he requires of them in whom it is such fruits in holy obedience as may express the example of a holy life in the world, according to the will of God and unto his glory. Hereby doth he further the salvation of the elect, 1 Pet. iii. 1, 2; 1 Cor. vii. 16; convince the unbelieving world at present, 1 Pet. ii. 12, 15, iii. 16; and condemn it hereafter, Heb. xi. 7; and himself is glorified, Matt. v. 16. Let no man, therefore, think that because grace is firstly and principally given him for himself and his own spiritual advantage, he must not account for it also with respect unto those other designs of God ; yea, he who, in the exer- cise of what he esteems grace, hath respect only unto himself, gives