confirm him in his sloth, and encourage him to cast all the blame of his condemnation upon God himself. But if we should bring before him the apparently opposite truths, and bid him arise and call upon God ; we should take the way to convince him, that the fault was utterly his own, and that his destruction would be the consecpaence, not of God's decrees, but of his own inveterate love of sin.
Let us suppose, on the other hand, that a person, having " tasted the good word of life," begin to boast, that he has made himself to differ, and that his superiority to others is the mere result of his own free-will : if, in answer to him, we should immediately descant on our freedom to good or evil, and on the powers with which God has endued us for the preservation of our souls, we should foster the pride of his heart, and encourage him, contrary to an express command, to glory before Godm : whereas, if we should remind him, that " by the grace of God we are what we are," and that all must say, " Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name be the praise," we should lower his overweening conceit of his own goodness, and lead him to acknowledge his obligations to God.
Let us illustrate the same in reference to the two other doctrines we mentioned, namely, The perseverance of the saints, and our liableness, in ourselves, to " make shipwreck of the faith." Suppose a person say, " I need not be careful about my conduct ; " for " God has begun the good work within me, and has engaged to perform it till the day of Christ : " if we were to begin extolling the covenant of grace, and setting forth the truth of God in his promises, we should countenance his error, at the very time that he was turning the grace of God into licentiousness. But if we should warn him against the danger of being given over to a reprobate mind, and of perishing under an accumulated load of guilt, we should coun- teract his sinful disposition, and stimulate him to flee from the wrath to come.
On the other hand, if a humble person should be drooping and desponding under a sense of his own corruptions, and we should spread before him all our difficulties and dangers, we
m 1 Cor. i. 29. Rom. hi. 27.
xx PREFACE.
should altogether " break the bruised reed, and quench the smoking flax :" but if we should point out to him the fulness and stability of God's covenant ; if we should enlarge upon the interest which Christ takes in his people, and his engagements that none shall ever pluck them out of his hand" ; it is obvious, that we should administer a cordial to his fainting spirit, or (as God requires of us) we should " strengthen the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees, and comfort the fearful heart."
These sentiments may perhaps receive some confirmation from the conduct of the Apostle Paul. In administering the word, he consulted the state of his auditors, and apportioned to them either " milk or strong meat," according to their ability to digest and improve it0. In reference to this we may say, that the doctrines of human liberty, and human frailty, together with the other first principles of Christianity, are as milk, which those who are yet " babes in Christ," must have set before them : but that the doctrines of grace, or " the deep things of God," are rather as strong meat, which none can digest, unless they have grown to some stature in the family of Christ, and have had their spiritual senses long exercised in discerning good and evil p : and that, as strong meat, which would nourish an adult, would destroy the life of an infant ; and milk that would nourish an infant, would be inadequate to the support of a man oppressed with hard labour ; so it is with respect to the points which we have been considering. Or, if we may be permitted a little to vary this illustration, the one sort of truths are as food proper to be administered to all ; whereas the other are rather as cordials for the support and comfort of those who need them.