The fourth device that Satan hath to keep souls in a sad, doubting, and questioning condition is,
Device (4). By suggesting to them that their graces are not true, but counterfeit. Saith Satan, All is not gold that glitters, all is not free grace that you count grace, that you call grace. That which you call faith 1s but a fancy, and that which you call zeal, is but a natural heat and passion; and that light you have, it is but common, it is short, to what many have attained to that are now in hell, &e. Satan doth not labour more mightily to persuade hypocrites that their graces are true when they are counterfeit, than he doth to persuade precious souls that their graces are counterfeit, when indeed they are true, and such as will abide the touchstone of Christ, &c.
Now the remedies against this device are these:
Remedy (1). The first remedy against this device of Satan is, seriously to consider, That grace is taken two ways.
[1.] It is taken for the gracious good-will and favour of God, whereby he is pleased of his own free love to accept of some in Christ for his own. This, some call the first grace, because 1t is the fountain of all other graces, and the spring from whence they flow, and it is therefore called grace, because 1t makes a man gracious with God, but this is only in God.
[2.] Grace is taken for the gifts of grace, and they are of two sorts, common or special.
Some are common to believers and hypocrites, as a gift of knowledge, a gift of prayer, &c.
Some are special graces, and they are proper and peculiar to the saints, as faith, humility, meekness, love, patience, &ec.,, Gal. v, 22, 23.
Remedy (2). The second remedy against this device of Satan is, wisely to consider, T’he differences betwixt renewing grace and restraining grace, betwixt sanctifying grace und temporary grace; and this I will shew you in these ten particulars.
[1.] True grace makes all glorious within and without: The King’s 1 Orosius, speaking of Valentinian, saith: He that for Christ’s name’s sake had lost a tribuneship, within a while after succeeded his persecutor in the empire.
Yet it must be granted that many a fair flower may grow out of a stinking root, and many sweet dispositions and fair actions may be where there is only the corrupt root of nature.
daughter is all glorious within; her raiment is of wrought gold,” Ps. xlv. 13. True grace makes the understanding glorious, the affections glorious. It casts a general glory upon all the noble parts of the soul: “The King’s daughter is all glorious within.” And as it makes the inside glorious, so it makes the outside glorious: “Her clothing is of wrought gold” It makes men look gloriously, and speak gloriously, and walk and act gloriously, so that vain souls shall be forced to say that these are they that have seen Jesus! As grace 1s a fire to burn up and consume the dross and filth of the soul, so 1t 1s an ornament to beautify and adorn the soul. True grace makes all new, the inside new and the outside new: If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature,” 2 Cor. v. 17,2 but temporary grace doth not this. True grace changes the very nature of a man. Moral virtue doth only restrain or chain up the outward man, it doth not change the whole man. A lion in a grate is a lion still; he is restrained, but not changed, for he retains his lion-like nature still. So temporary graces restrain many men from this and that wickedness, but it doth not change and turn their hearts from wickedness. But now {rue grace, that turns a lion into a lamb, as you may see in Paul, Acts ix, and a notorious strumpet into a blessed and glorious penitent, as you may see in Mary Magdalene, &e., &e., Luke vii?
[2.] The objects of true grace are supernatural. True grace is conversant about the choicest and the highest objects, about the most soulennobling and soul-greatening objects, as God, Christ, precious promises that arc more worth than a world, and a kingdom that shakes not, a crown of glory that withers not, and heavenly treasures that rust not. The objects of temporary grace are low and poor, and always within the compass of reason’s reach.
[3.] True grace enables a Christian, when le is hiwsely, to do spiritual actions with veal pleasure and delight, To souls truly gracious, Christ’s yoke is easy, and his burden is light; “his commandments are not grievous, but joyous.” ‘I delight in the law of God after the inward man,’ saith Paul. The blessed man 1s desertbed by this, that he “delights in the law of the Lord, Ps. 1. 2. “It is joy to the just to do judgment,’ saith Solomon, Prov. xxi, 15. To a gracious soul, All the ways of the Lord are pleasantness, and his paths are peace, Prov. i. 17; but to souls that have but temporary grace, but moral virtues, religious services are a toil, not a pleasure; a burden, and not a delight. “Wherefore have we fasted, say they, and thou seest not 2 Wherefore Lave we aftlicted our souls, and thou takest no knowledge? Isa. viii. 3, &e. “Ye have said, say those in Malachi, It is vain to serve God; and what profit 1s it that we have kept his ordinances, and that we have walked mournfully before the Lord of hosts Mal. iii. 14. When will the new moon be gone,” say those in Amos, that we may sell corn, and the Sabbath, that we may set forth wheat, making the ephah small, 5 Mat. xi. 30; 1 John v. 3; Rom. vii. 22. God brings not a pair of scales to weigh our graces, but a touchstone to try our graces. Purity, preciousness, and holiness is stamped upon all saving graces, Acts xv. 9, 2 Peter iv. 1, Jude 20.
xauvy xis, a new creation: new Adam, new covenant, new paradise, new Lord, new law, new hearts, and new creatures go together.
4. It seems right to question this admittedly common mode of speaking of Mary of Magdala. It is not certain that the two were identical. —G.
2. Cor. iv. 18. Prov. xiv. A =aint hath his fect where other men’s heads are, Mat. vi, and the shekel great, and falsifying the balances by deceit, Amos viii. 5.
[4.] True grace makes a man most careful, and most fearful of lis own heart! It makes him most studious about his own heart, informing that, examining that, and watching over that; but temporary grace, moral virtues, make men more mindful and careful of others, to instruct them and counsel them, and stir up them, and watch over them, &c. Which doth with open mouth demonstrate that their graces are not saving and peculiar to saints, but that they are temporary, and no more than Judas, Demas, and the pharisees had, &e. [5.] Grace will work a man’s heart to love and cleave to the strictest and holiest ways and things of God, for their purity wid sanctity, in the face of all dangers and hardships. Thy word is very pure, therefore thy servant loveth it,” Ps. cxix. 140. Others love it, and like 1t, and follow it, for the credit, the honour, the advantage that they get by it; but 1 love it for the spiritual beauty and purity of it. So the psalmist, All this is come upon us; yet have we not forgotten thee, neither have we dealt falsely in thy covenant. Our heart is not turned back, neither have our steps declined from thy way: though thou hast sore broken us in the place of dragons, and covered us with the shadows of death,’ Ps. xliv. 17-19. But temporary grace, that will not bear up the soul against all oppositions and discouragements in the ways of God, as is clear by their apostasy in John vi. 60, 66, and by the stony grounds falling away, &c., Mat. xi. 20, 21.2
[6.] True grace will enable a man to step over the world’s crown, to take up Clrist’s cross; to prefer the cross of Christ above the glory of this world. It enabled Abraham, aud Moses, and Daniel, with those other worthies in Heb. x1., to do so.
Godfrey of Bullen [Bouillon], first king of Jerusalem, refused to be crowned with a crown of gold, saying, That it became not a Christian there to wear a crown of gold, where Christ had worn a crown of thorns.” Oh! but temporary grace cannot work the soul to prefer Christ’s cross above the world’s crown; but when these two meet, a temporary Christian steps over Christ’s cross to take up, and keep up, the world’s crown. ‘ Demas hath forsaken us to embrace this present world,” 2 Tim. iv. 10. So the young man in the Gospel had many good things in him; he bid fair for heaven, and came near to heaven; but when Christ set his cross before him, he steps over that to enjoy the world’s crown, Mat. xix. 19-22. When Christ bid him, go and sell all that he had, and give to the poor, &c., ‘ he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.” If heaven be to be had upon no other terms, Christ may keep his heaven to himself, he will have none, &ec. 3
[7.] Sanctifying crace, renewing grace, puts the soul upon spiritual duties, from spiritual and intrinsecal motives, as from the sense of divine love, that doth constrain the soul to wait on God, and to act for
God 1 and the sense of the excellency and sweetness of communion with God, and the choice and precious discoveries that the soul hath formerly had of the beauty and glory to [si] God, whilst it hath been in the service of God. The good looks, the good words, the blessed love-letters, the glorious kisses, and the sweet embraces that gracious souls have had from Christ in his service, do provoke and move them to wait upon him in holy duties. Ah! but restraining grace, temporary grace, that puts men upon religious duties only from external motives, as the carc of the creature, the eye of the creature, the rewards of the creature, and the keeping up of a name among the creatures, and a thousand such like considerations, as you may see in Saul, Jehu, Judas, Demas, and the scribes and pharisees, &c.?
The abbot in Melancthon lived strictly, and walked demurely, and looked humbly, so long as he was but a monk, but when, by his seeming extraordinary sanctity, he got to be abbot, he grew intolerable proud and insolent; and being asked the reason of 1t, confessed, That his former lowly look was but to see if he could find the keys of the abbey.’ Such poor, low, vain motives work temporary souls to all the service they do perform, &e.
[8.] Saving grace, renewing grace, will cause a man to follow the Lovd fully in the desertion of all sin, and in the observation of all God’s precepts. Joshua and Caleb followed the Lord fully, Num. xiv. 24; Zacharias and Elizabeth were righteous before God, and walked in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless, Luke 1. 5, 6. The saints in the Revelation are described by this, that ‘ they follow the Lamb whithersoever he goes,” Rev. xiv. 4; but restraining grace, temporary grace, cannot enable a man to follow the Lord fully. All that temporary grace can enable a man to do, is to follow the Lord partially, unevenly, and haltingly. as you may see in Jehu, Herod, Judas, and the scribes and pharisees, who paid tithe of mint, and anise, and cummin, but omitted the weighty matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith,’ &e., Mat. xxiii. 23.
True grace works the heart to the hatred of all sin, and to the love of all truth; it works a man to the hatred of those sins that for his blood he cannot conquer, and to loathe those sins that he would give all the world to overcome, Ps. cxix. 104, 128% So that a soul truly gracious can say, Though there be no one sin mortified and subdued in me, as it should, and as I would, yet every sin is hated and loathed by me. So a soul truly gracious can say, Though I do not obey any one command as I should, and as I would, yet every word is sweet, every command of God is precious, Ps. cxix. 6,119, 127, 167. I dearly prize and greatly love those commands that I cannot obey; though there be
many commands that I cannot in a strict sense fulfil, yet there is no command I would not fulfil, that I do not exceedingly love. love thy commandments above gold, above fine gold My soul hath kept thy testimonies, and I love them exceedingly,’ Ps. cxix. 117, and xcix. 7. [9.] True grace leads the soul to vest in Christ, as wn lis summum bonum, chiefest good. It works the soul to centre in Christ, as in his highest and ultimate end. Whither should we go? thou hast the words of eternal life,” John vi. 68. My beloved is white and ruddy, the chiefest of ten thousand; I found him whom my soul loved, I held him and would not let him go,” Cant. v. 10, iii. 4. That wisdom a believer hath from Christ, it leads him to centre in the wisdom of Christ, 1 Cori 30; and that love the soul hath from Christ, it leads the soul to centre in the love of Christ; and that righteousness the soul hath from Christ, it leads the soul to rest and centre in the righteousness of Christ, Philip. iii. 9.! True grace is a beam of Christ, and where it is, it will naturally lead the soul to rest in Christ. The stream doth not more naturally lead to the fountain, nor the effect to the cause, than true grace leads the soul to Christ. But restraining grace, temporary grace, works the soul to centre and rest in things below Christ. Sometimes it works the soul to centre in the praises of the creature; sometimes to rest in the rewards of the creature: ‘ Verily they have their reward,’ saith Christ, Mat. vi. 1, 2: and so in an hundred other things. &ec., Zech. vii. 3, 6.
and vexing, raging and madding,! as if there were no God, no heaven, no lell, nor no Christ to make up all such outward wants to souls. That a soul truly gracious can say, in having nothing I have all things, because I have Christ; having therefore all things in him, 1 seek no other reward, for he is the universal reward. Such a soul can say, Nothing is sweet to me without the enjoyment of Christ in it; honours, nor riches, nor the smiles of creatures, arc not sweet to me no farther than I see Christ, and taste Christ in them? The confluence of all outward good cannot make a heaven of glory in my soul, it Christ, who is the top of my glory, be absent; as Absalom said, What 1s all this to me so long as [ cannot see the king’s face 2 Sam. xiv. 32. So saith the soul, why do you tell me of this and that outward comfort, when 1 cannot see his face whom my soul loves? Why, my honour is not my Christ, nor riches is not Christ, nor the favour of the creature is not Christ; let me have him, and let the men of this world take the world, and divide it amongst themselves; I prize my Christ above all, I would enjoy my Christ above all other things in the world; his presence will make up the absence of all other comforts, and his absence will darken and embitter all my comforts; so that my comforts will neither taste like eomtorts, nor look like comforts, nor warm like comforts, when he that should comfort my soul stands afar off, &c., Lam. 1. 16. Christ 1s all and in all to souls truly gracious, Col. 111. 11. We have all things in Christ, and Christ is all things to a Christian. If we be sick, he 1s a physician; if we thirst, he is a fountain; if our sins trouble us, he is righteousness; if we stand in need of help, he 1s mighty to save; if we fear death, he is life; if we be in darkness, he is light; 1f we be weak, he is strength; if we be in poverty, he 1s plenty; if we desire heaven, he is the way. The soul cannot say, this I would have, and that I would have; but saith Christ, it is in me, it is in me eminently, perfectly, eternally.