A self-righteous man, a man of the law, takes grace and mercy for
his greatest enemy.
The best of things that are of this world are some way hurtful.
Honey is hurtful, wine is hurtful, silver and gold are hurtful; but
grace is not hurtful. Never did man yet catch harm by the enjoyment
and fulness of the grace of God. There is no fear of excess or
surfeiting here. Grace makes no man proud, no man wanton, no man
haughty, no man careless or negligent as to his duty that is
incumbent upon him, towards either God or man. No; grace keeps a man
low in his own eyes, humble, self-denying, penitent, watchful,
savory in good things, charitable: and makes him kindly affectioned
to the brethren, pitiful and courteous to all men.
True, there are men in the world that abuse the grace of God, as
some are said to turn it into wantonness and into lasciviousness.
But this is not because grace has any such tendency, but because
such men are themselves empty of grace, and have only done as death
and hell have done with wisdom, "heard the fame thereof with their
ears."
Some receive the rain of God and the droppings of his clouds,
because they continually sit under the means of grace. But alas,
they receive it as stones receive showers, or as dunghills receive
the rain: they either abide as hard as stones still, or else return
nothing to heaven for his mercy, hut as dunghills do, a company of
stinking fumes.
To slight grace, to do despite to the Spirit of grace, to prefer our
own works, thus derogating from grace---what is it but to contemn
God? to contemn him when he is on the throne, when he is on the
throne of his glory? I say again, it is to spit in his face, even
then when he commands thee to how before him, to be subject unto
him, and to glorify the grace of his glory, that proceeds from the
throne of his glory. If men in old time were damned because they
glorified him not as God, shall not they be more than damned, if
more than damned can he, who glorify him not for his grace? And, to
he sure, none glorify him for his grace but those that close in
therewith, and submit themselves thereto. Talkers of grace are but
mockers of God, but flatterers of God. Grace God has exalted; has
set it upon the throne, and so made it a king, and given it
authority to reign; and thou goest by and nearest thereof, but wilt
not submit thyself thereto, neither thy soul, nor thy life. Why,
what is this more than to flatter God with thy lips, and than to lie
unto him with thy tongue? What is this but to count him less wise
than thyself, while he seeks glory by that by which thou wilt not
glorify him---while he displays his grace before thee in the world
from the throne, and as thou goest by, with a nod thou callest it a
fine thing, but followest that which leadeth therefrom? Tremble,
tremble, ye sinners, that have despised the riches of his goodness.
The day is coming when ye shall behold and wonder and perish, if
grace prevaileth not with you to be content to be saved by it to the
praise of its glory, and to the glory of him who hath set it upon
the throne. Acts 13: 38-41.
There is a spring that yields water good and clear, but the channels
through which this water comes to us are muddy, foul, or dirty; now
of the channels the waters receive a disadvantage, and so come to us
as savoring of what came not with them from the fountain, hut from
the channels.
This is the cause of the coolness, and of the weakness, and of the
flatness, and of the many extravagances that attend some of our
desires: they come warm from the Spirit and grace of God in us; hut
as hot water running through cold pipes, or as clear water running
through dirty convey ances, so our desires gather soil.