THE CHRISTIAN ASSISTED IN EXAMINING INTO HIS GROWTH IN GRACE.
1. The examination important.--2. False marks of growth to be avoided.--3. True marks proposed; such as--increasing love to God.--4. Benevolence to men.--5. Candor of disposition.--6. Meekness under injuries.--7. Serenity amidst the uncertainties of life.--8. Humility,--especially as expressed in evangelical exercises of mind toward Christ end the Holy Spirit.--10. Zeal for the divine honor.--11. Habitual and cheerful willingness to exchange worlds when ever God shall appoint.--12. Conclusion. The Christian breathing after growth in grace.
1. IF by divine grace you have "been born again, not of corruptible seed,
but of incorruptible," (1 Pet. 1:2,3) even "by that word of God which liveth
and abideth for ever," not only in the world and the church, but in particular
souls in which it is sown; you will, "as new born babes, desire the sincere
milk of the word, that you may grow thereby." (1 Pet. 2:2) And though in the
most advanced state of religion on earth, we are but infants in comparison to
what we hope to be, when, in the heavenly world, we arrive "unto a perfect man,
unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ," (Eph. 4:13) yet, as
we have some exercise of a sanctified reason, we shall be solicitous that we
may be growing and thriving. And you, my reader, "if so be you have tasted that
the Lord is gracious," (1 Pet. 2:3) will, I doubt not, feel this solicitude. I
would, therefore, endeavor to assist you in making the inquiry, whether
religion be on the advance in your soul. And here I shall warn you against some
false marks of growth, and then shall endeavor to lay down others on which you
may depend as more solid. In this view I would observe, that you are not to
measure your growth in grace only or chiefly by your advances in knowledge, or
in zeal, or any other passionate impression of the mind, no, nor by the fervor
of devotion alone; but by the habitual determination of the will for God, and
by your prevailing disposition to obey his commands, submit to his disposal,
and promote the highest welfare of his cause in the earth.
2. It must be allowed that knowledge and
affection in religion are indeed desirable. Without some degree of the former,
religion cannot be rational and it is very reasonable to believe, that without
some degree of the latter it cannot be sincere, in creatures whose natures are
constituted like ours. Yet there may be a great deal of speculative knowledge,
and a great deal of rapturous affection, where there is no true religion at
all; and still more, where religion exists, though there be no advanced state
of it. The exercise of our rational faculties, upon the evidences of divine
revelation, and upon the declaration of it as contained in Scripture, may
furnish a very wicked man with a well-digested body of orthodox divinity in his
head, when not one single doctrine of it has ever reached his heart. An
eloquent description of the sufferings of Christ, of the solemnities of
judgment, of the joys of the blessed, and the miseries of the damned, might
move the breast even of a man who did not firmly believe them; as we often find
ourselves strongly moved by well-wrought narrations or discourses, which at the
same time we know to have their foundation in fiction. Natural constitution, or
such accidental causes as are (some of them) too low to be here mentioned, may
supply the eyes with a flood of tears, which may discharge itself plenteously
upon almost any occasion that shall first arise. And a proud impatience of
contradiction directly opposite as it is to the gentle spirit of Christianity,
may make a man's blood boil when he hears the notions he has entertained, and
especially those which he has openly and vigorously espoused, disputed and
opposed. This may possibly lead him, in terms of strong indignation, to pour
out his zeal and his rage before God!, in a fond conceit, that, as the God of
truth, he is the pattern of those favorite doctrines by whose fair appearances
perhaps he himself is misled. And if these speculative refinements, or these
affectionate sallies of the mind, be consistent with a total absence of true
religion, they are much more apparently consistent with a very low state of it.
I would desire to lead you, my friend, into sublimer notions and juster marks,
and refer you to other practical writers, arid, above all, to the book of God,
to prove how material they are. I would therefore entreat you to bring your own
heart to answer, as in the presence of God, such inquiries as these:
3. Do you find "divine love, on the whole,
advancing in your soul?" Do you feel yourself more and more sensible of the
presence of God? and does that sense grow more delightful to you than it
formerly was? Can you, even when your natural spirits are weak and low, and
you are not in any frame for the ardors and ecstacies of devotion, nevertheless
find a pleasing rest, a calm repose of heart, in the thought that God is near
you, and that he sees the secret sentiments of your soul, while you are, as it
were, toward those whom an unsanctified heart might be ready to imagine it had
some just excuse for excepting out of the list of those it loves, and from whom
you are ready to feel some secret alienation or aversion. How does your mind
stand affected toward those who differ from you in their religious sentiments
and practices? I do not say that Christian charity will require you to think
every error harmless. It argues no want of love to a friend, in some cases, to
fear lest his disorder should prove more fatal than he seems to imagine: nay,
sometimes the very tenderness of friendship may increase that apprehension. But
to hate persons because we think they are mistaken, and to aggravate every
difference in judgment or practice into a fatal and damnable error that
destroys all Christian communion and love, is a symptom generally much worse
than the evil it condemns. Do you love the image of Christ in a person who
thinks himself obliged in conscience to profess and worship in a manner
different from yourself? Nay, farther, can you love and honor that which is
truly amiable and excellent in those in whom much is defective; in those in
whom there is a mixture of bigotry and narrowness of spirit, which may lead
them perhaps to slight, or even to censure you? Can you love them as the
disciples and servants of Christ, who, through a mistaken zeal, may be ready to
"cast out your name as evil," (Luke 6:22) and to warn others against you as a
dangerous person? This is none of the least triumphs of charity, nor any
despicable evidence of an advance in religion.
6. And, on this head, reflect farther, "How can
you bear injuries?" There is a certain hardness of soul in this respect, which
argues a confirmed state in piety and virtue. Does every thing of this kind
hurry and ruffle you, so as to put you on contrivances how you may recompense,
or, at least, how you may disgrace and expose him who has done you the wrong?
Or can you stand the shock calmly, and easily divert your mind to other
objects, only (when you recollect these things) pitying and praying for those
who with the worst tempers and views are assaulting you? This is a Christ-like
temper indeed, and he will own it as such; will own you as one of his soldiers,
as one of his heroes; especially if it rises so far, as, instead of being
"overcome of evil, to overcome evil with good." (Rom. 12:21) Watch over your
spirit and over your tongue, when injuries are offered, and see whether you be
ready to meditate upon them, to aggravate them in your own view, to complain of
them to others, and to lay on all the load of blame that you in justice can;
or, whether you be ready to put the kindest construction upon the offence, to
excuse it as far as reason will allow, and (where, after all, it will wear a
black and odious aspect) to forgive it, heartily to forgive it, and that even
before any submission is made, or pardon asked; and in token of the sincerity
of that forgiveness, to be contriving what can be done, by some benefit or
other, toward the injurious person, to teach him a better temper.
7. Examine farther, "with regard to other evils
and calamities of life, and even with regard to its uncertainties, how you can
bear them." Do you find your soul is in this respect gathering strength? Have
you fewer foreboding fears and disquieting alarms than you once had, as to what
may happen in life? Can you trust the wisdom and goodness of God to order your
affairs for you, with more complacency and cheerfulness than formerly? Do you
find yourself able to unite your thoughts more in surveying present
circumstances, that you may collect immediate duty from them, though you know
not what God will next appoint or call you to? And when you feel the smart of
affliction, do you make a less matter of it? Can you transfer your heart more
easily to heavenly and divine objects, without an anxious solicitude whether
this or that burden be removed, so it may but be sanctified to promote your
communion with God and your ripeness for glory?
8. Examine also, "whether you advance in
humility." This is a silent but most excellent grace; and they who are most
eminent in it, are dearest to God, and most fit for the communications of his
presence to them. Do you then feel your mind more emptied of proud and haughty
imaginations, not prone so much to look back upon past services which it has
performed, as forward to those which are yet before you, and inward upon the
remaining imperfections of your heart? Do you more tenderly observe your daily
failures and miscarriages, and find yourself disposed to mourn over those
things before the Lord, that once passed with you as slight matters, though,
when you come to survey them as in the presence of God, you find they were not
wholly involuntary or free from guilt? Do you feel in your breast a deeper
apprehension of the infinite majesty of the blessed God, and of the glory of
his natural and moral perfections, so as, in consequence of these views, to
perceive yourself as it were annihilated in his presence, and to shrink into
"less than nothing, and vanity?" (Isa. 40:17) If this be your temper, God will
look upon you with peculiar favor, and will visit you more and more with the
distinguishing blessings of his grace.
9. But there is another great branch and effect
of Christian humility, which it would be an unpardonable negligence to omit.
Let me therefore farther inquire, are you more frequently renewing your
application, your sincere, steady, determined application, to the righteousness
and blood of Christ, as being sensible how unworthy you are to appear before
God otherwise than in him? And do the remaining corruptions of your heart
humble you before him, though the disorders of your life are in a great measure
cured? Are you more earnest to obtain the quickening influences of the Holy
Spirit? And have you such a sense of your own weakness as to engage you to
depend, in all the duties you perform, upon the communications of his grace to
"help your infirmities?" (Rom. 8:26) Can you, at the close of your most
religious, exemplary, and useful days, blush before God for the deficiencies of
them, while others perhaps may he ready to admire and extol your conduct? And
while you give the glory of all that has been right to him from whom the
strength and grace has been derived, are you coming to the blood of sprinkling,
to free you from the guilt which mingles itself even with the best of your
services? Do you learn to receive the bounties of Providence, not only with
thankfulness, as coming from God, but with a mixture of shame and confusion
too, under a consciousness that you do not deserve them, and are continually
forfeiting them? And do you justify Providence in your afflictions and
disappointments, even while many are flourishing around you full in the bloom
of prosperity, whose offences have been more visible at least, and more
notorious than yours?
10. Do you also advance "in zeal and activity"
for the service of God and the happiness of mankind? Does your love show itself
solid and sincere, by a continual flow of good works from it? Can you view the
sorrows of others with tender compassion, and with projects and contrivances
what you may do to relieve them? Do you feel in your breast that you are more
frequently "devising liberal things," (Isa. 32:8) and ready to waive your own
advantage or pleasure that you may accomplish them ? Do you find your
imagination teeming, as it were, with conceptions and schemes for the
advancement of the cause and interest of Christ in the world, for the
propagation of his Gospel, and for the happiness of your fellow-creatures ? And
do you not only pray, but act for it act in such a manner as to show that you
pray in earnest, and feel a readiness to do what little you can in this cause,
even though others, who might, if they pleased, very conveniently do a vast
deal more, will do nothing?
11. And, not to enlarge upon this copious head,
reflect once more, "how your affections stand with regard to this world and
another." Are you more deeply and practically convinced of the vanity of these
"things which are seen, and are temporal?" (2 Cor. 4:18) Do you perceive your
expectations from them, and your attachments to them to diminish? You are
willing to stay in this world as long as your Father pleases; and it is right
and well; but do you find your bonds so loosened to it; that you are willing,
heartily willing, to leave it at the shortest warning; so that if God should
see fit to summon you away on a sudden, though it should be in the midst of
your enjoyments, pursuits, expectations, and hopes, you would cordially consent
to that remove without saying, "Lord, let me stay a little while longer, to
enjoy this or that agreeable entertainment, to finish this or that scheme?" Can
you think, with an habitual calmness and hearty approbation, if such be the
divine pleasure, of waking no more when you lie down on your bed, of returning
home no more when you go out of your house? And yet on the other hand, how
great soever the burdens of life are, do you find a willingness to bear them,
in submission to the will of your heavenly Father, though it should be to many
future years, and though they should be years of far greater affliction than
you have ever yet seen? Can you say calmly and steadily, if not with such
overflowings of tender affection as you could desire, "Behold, `thy servant,'
thy child is `in thine hand, do with me as seemeth good in thy sight!' (2 Sam.
15:26) My will is melted into thine; to be lifted up or laid down, to be
carried out or brought in, to be here or there, in this or that circumstance,
just as thou pleasest, and as shall best suit with thy great extensive plan,
which it is impossible that I, or all the angels in heaven, should mend."
12. These, if I understand matters aright, are
some of the most substantial evidences of growth and establishment in religion.
Search after them: bless God for them, so for as you discover them in yourself,
and study to advance in them daily, under the influences of divine grace; to
which I heartily recommend you, and to which I entreat you frequently to
recommend yourself.
The Christian breathing earnestly after growth in Grace.