Chapter III
The character of young men, or middle-aged Christians in Christ.
1 JOHN II. 14.
rs Grotius, notes out men
The word here translated young men, sa}
militaris cetatis, that have attained to the age and fitness of being soldiers, and in that semblance is here applied unto men in Christ, those that in a
special manner are drawn out into the field against Satan. And this con
dition being the middle between that of babes, new converts, and that of old age in Christ, who in nature use to be exempted from war, hence
therefore all that space between old age in Christianity and that of infancy in Christ is comprehended under the title of young men, who are in a
special manner military men. By this rule the Christian era, or account of ages in Christ, is measured here ; whereas in nature, according to our wonted division, we reckon four babes, young men, middle-aged, and old men ; whereas here but three, and upon this it is that the greater space of time is allotted to this of young men. New converts in Christ, though men
grown, are not young men in Christ presently the first hour, and there is
CHAP. III.] IN FAITH AND OBEDIENCE. 501
a middle age besides to be passed through ere they come to be fathers ; and thence all that time between those two, of babeship in Christ and old age in Christ, must be understood and meant by what is translated young men, comprising and taking also in that which answers to what in nature we call middle age, even all that time from babeship, till old age in Christianity comes, as a time of more usual conflict and fighting against lusts (which are the bloody battles) ; and it ordinarily falls out, God converting men more
generally whilst young in natural years, that that middle age in nature is coincident with this middle age in Christianity.
There are two things to be handled as touching this age. 1. That during that age or space of time Christians are most assaulted with lusts.
2.":How it is that they are said to have overcome, and that this should be attributed to them in so special a manner.
For the first.
1. The condition of a Christian is described to be a warfare : fighting against sin, Heb. xii. 4. Their interest is to fight against sin and the
tentations of it ; and that is the ground of all other quarrels with the world.
2. Satan and his angels are at the head of this battle : That wicked
one, says the text ; and Eph. vi. 12, We wrestle not against flesh and
blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
3. There are special seasons for war; so in the world, as Solomon says, Eccles. iii. 8, a time when kings go forth to battle; and so in Christianity. 4. The special time of this conflict against fleshly and worldly lusts is
this middle age of Christians in Christ. It is true that old men to the last become not wholly emeriti, are not discharged from this warfare (as Solomon s phrase is of death), for, Eph. iv. 13, the apostle speaks to them
that have fought to the last, that after you have done all, you may be
able to stand. There are therefore assaults upon old Christians to the last
to cast them down ; even those who have yet done all that good Christians
are supposed they ought to have done in the foregone part of their lives ;
yet when you have done all, says the apostle, it is well ye have grace
given to stand, and keep your posts at last. And above all their danger
lies, that the world is apt to ensnare them, and therefore the exhortation here in the 15th verse, Love not the world, &c., is made unto both the
middle-aged men and the fathers, according to their several inclinations.
Piscator hath observed this. But to take heed of errors in faith, and the way of believing, is incident to babes, and therefore that exhortation,
ver. 18, is more peculiarly made to them, vraidia, babes, &c, The Thessa-
lonians were new converts, babes, when he wrote his epistle. And what was Paul s fear of them at that age, but lest their faith had been assaulted?
1 Thes. ii. 5, For neither at any time used we flattering words, as ye know, nor a cloak of covetousness ; God is witness.
5. Yet this middle age is the eminent time of warfare unto Christians
during that age of their Christianity. Overcoming importeth a fight, a
warfare; and in that overcoming is attributed in a special manner to them,
it argues the assault to be the fiercest then, then to be the heat of the
battle with the adversary.
The reasons of this.
1. They are in a middle condition, between that lower of babes, and
that of old age ; and so they partake in a great proportion of both. The
working of corruptions doth follow men s inclinations in nature ; and mid-
502 THREE SEVERAL AGES OP CHRISTIANS [CHAP. III.
die-aged Christians, in the posture of their natural inclinations, are preci
pitant* of both ; of lusts of youth, as the apostle calls them, because of their violence and predominion, which is most in them, that flow from
fancy, heat, vigour of nature ; as mirth, jollity, frolicness of youth, as you call them. And truly I think Christ had some little reflection upon such as these, in what he said to Peter : John xxi. 18, When thou wert
young, thou girdedst thyself, and wentest whither thou wouldest. Peter had shewn a forward youthfulness in verse 7, in casting himself into the sea with his coat girt on ; it was a youthful trick, and what of folly and osten tation was in it Christ seems to reprove. Pride of parts also, and of gifts ;
* Let him not be a young novice, lest he be puffed up. Voluptuousness, in-
continency, intemperance, overmuch delight in vain company, and such lusts
as these, are not yet so abated and cooled in these middle-aged ones, but that they retain a great inclination to them. And then they partake of old men s lusts. Pride and lusts of carnal wisdom, love of the world, and honour, and riches, are already begun to grow up in them, for they come to a ripeness of temper ; cares likewise begin to enter, and to come about a man, and to grow up with the word ; their heads are full of business, intent upon things earthly. Children grow up, and call for a provision for them. And thus being in the middle of both, when it falls out as middle
age, as they are Christians, doth contemporise with a middle age in nature, as often they do ; they are then under their equinoctial, under which cli mate men s bodies are incident most unto distemper.
Babes are more obnoxious unto doubts and tentations about their estate in grace. The sun s rising is accompanied with clouds arid mists, which, as it ariseth higher, are scattered ; and Christians, in their infancy, are by the mixture of the remains of the spirit of bondage, with some davvnings of
faith, and hopes of God s favour (which they are usually yet fullyf assured
of), kept more awful of yielding to sin, and indulgence to lusts, which by John Baptist s work of humiliation had stounded them more than mortified them ; but the middle age having somewhat outgrown those fears, and attained more quietness of spirit, as to the hopes of their spiritual estate, the spirit of bondage being much worn out ; and yet perhaps those are not grown up to a full and settled assurance neither, so continually actuated in them, so as to keep lusts down. Their lusts, therefore, are apt to gather up much of their crumbs again ; and assurance not being full and spiritual enough yet in them, they walk in a greater exposedness to the rising up of
lusts, and Satan s stirring them up in them.
Then, 2, their adversary the devil, he is let loose more by God upon Christians in that age, as to the point of stirring up lusts, for so still I state it. In the parable, at the first when he is cast forth of a man, he is much restrained as to entering into a man again, when he is thrown out for a while ; and the measures and methods of his assaulting are ordered and disposed of by God ; his times are in God s hands : Satan shall cast you into prison for ten days. Now, in the parable, Mat. xii. 43, He walks a while in dry places, seeking rest, and finding none : being put out of trade and dealings with that man he is cast forth of, as he had afore ; not having power over and upon the man, as he had wont, in point of car
rying him to sin and several lusts. This confinement thus against his will, notes a restraint of him from God, that in a punishment interdicts him to
places that are dry, and as a wilderness to him ; even as it is thought that when Satan hath tempted a man to actual murder, or to perpetrate some such
* Qu. participant ? ED. f Qu. not fully ? ED.
CHAP. III.] IN FAITH AND OBEDIENCE. 503
great villany, which cannot be known by man, God often in that case con
fines that devil that tempted him to the house or place where it was com
mitted, till by the disturbance he makes (which you call haunting the house), notice is given to some of mankind, whereby it may be known both that, and sometimes what the murder was, and where the man murdered was buried ; that being come to men s cognisance, then let man look to it
to search it out. Then the devil is released ; God having made that
promise, that by whom man s blood is shed, by man shall his blood be shed. So it is here : God for a present punishment to that devil, who had so
long borne rule over a poor sinner, whom he had taken captive at his will, and been the tempter of to so much evil, throws him out, and banisheth him ; takes away his power as to the violence of such kind of temptations, as formerly he had wont to use, namely, unto grosser evils of sinnings ;
puts him out of that employment ; lessens his trade that way with his old
customer, though he may permit him to tempt in another kind, as to
despair or presumption, but not this way ; which is the worst and most
grievous of temptations, when a man is overcome by them.
And it is as to such defilements in point of lusts that Satan is thus
restrained ; for the man had reformed greatly upon the casting out of Satan ; and there is both time and season allowed and allotted by God to do it in ; for he sweeps the house, throws out the filth and dust, and garnisheth it with the outward paintings of many new virtues and gifts ; in somuch as Peter, referring to this, says, 2d Epist. ii. 20, that he is
* clean
escaped the defilements of the world, or which the world lieth in. And
by the coincidence of the matter in both places, of Christ s here, and Peter a
there, it is evident the apostle refers to this parallel of Christ s. Compare but the apostle s words ver. 21, 22, Tor it had been better for them not
to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them. But it is hap pened unto them according to the proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit again, and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire with Christ s words in the parable; ver. 44, 45, Then he.saith, I will return unto mine house from whence I came out ; and when he is come, he
findeth it empty, swept, and garnished. Then goeth he, and taketh with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there : and the last state of that man is worse than the first. Even so shall it be also unto this wicked generation. So as they are worldly and miry lusts he assaulted them with, to turn them from the holy com mandment.
And this is for some time also, that the state of this man continues in
this freedom from Satan in these respects ; for when he hath walked his walk through dry places, vexed and melancholy at his disappointments, he, after a while, thinks thus with himself, to return to his old exercise and
* then he saith, I
employment, and makes trial (but so at first, ver. 44) ;
will return unto my house from whence I came, &c., and finding a man
yielding, he takes more and worse devils to aid him.
If the objection be, that this instance is of a man that falls away, and so not applicable to true Christians that hold out,
My answer is,
1. It is true that, in the point of falling away, these two, a true Chris
tian and this instance, agree not.
2. My assertion stands good in this, that if God restrains Satan from
tempting or prevailing over such temporary professors in grosser evils at
504 THKEE SEVERAL AGES OF CHRISTIANS [CHAP. III.
their first reforming for a time, then he doth it much more unto true and real converts of his own.
3. Satan s new invading and returning upon this man who after apostatizeth is not from this, that he knew him to be not a sincere convert, with difference from one that is sincere. No ; God reveals no such thing to him. Nor can he discern that soon ; but the one and the other are alike at first in his eye. And so he returns upon the same opinion and appre hensions that are common and alike of either, one as well as the other. He makes his assault upon the like ground, hoping to prevail upon the one as well as the other, not knowing which God will preserve and cause in the end to stand, and which not. And therefore the argument I have used from that scripture doth hold good, and the case of a sincere convert and another comes all to one in respect to Satan s renewing his assaults ; for the reason for his new assaulting the one is the same for the other, and he
is by God alike restrained from the one as he is from the other, and let loose again by God in a like manner upon either. For otherwise, if God should therein put and discover a difference, Satan would have knowledge aforehand who are sincere and who not, if any constant difference were observed by God in this particular.
^ And 4. God thus orders it in a tender, gracious dispensation towards his own, whose condition at first needs this : They fall into temptations, if need be, 1 Peter i. 6. But truly there is no need of the falling into, much less prevailing of such temptations at first ; for they would utterly put them off, and split their faith quite. God reserves them till they are
habitually grown stronger in grace, as the text here : I write to you, young men, for ye are strong. God suffers not his east wind to blow upon tender plants at their first shooting forth : Isa. xxvii. 8, In measure, when it shooteth forth, thou wilt debate with it : he stayeth his rough wind in the day of the east wind. Nor lets he out any temptation they are
notable to bear. This holds in point of sinning as well as in point of
suffering ; yea, much more.
5. This dispensation is in conformity unto Christ. When was it that Christ began to be tempted (and indeed he with all sorts of temptations by Satan at once), but when he arrived at the years of the middle age of man, at thirty years ? You read not that during his private life he was tempted afore (though we cannot affirm that he was altogether free and devoid of them), but there is an intimation that sometimes afterwards Satan did return :
< He departed from him, says the story, for a season: And to be sure that all along after his entrance into that public life he was exercised with continual temptations from Satan and the world, insomuch as himself notes that time whilst he had walked with his disciples, to have been his
special time of temptation : Luke xxii. 28, Ye are they who have continued with me in my temptations. And at or about those years of natural age, unto most converts may the account of their middle age of Christianity begin.
Thus much for their incidency unto temptation, insinuated in that there is a conflict, an overcoming, which was the first thing singled out.
But there is a second, and of greater difficulty, and that is, How and in what respect they are said more eminently to have overcome Satan ? For are they not in their conflicts apt to be overcome, and to yield to corrupt affections ? and how far they may be overcome, is not to be determined by man.
1. This as a difficulty Calvin and others have took notice of. Viciss*
CHAP. III.] IN FAITH AND OBEDIENCE.
dicit, qui adliuc sunt in ipso bellandi ; alia conditio in hoc bello, Mars enim
alms dubius, et eventus belli anceps: Nos priusquam congrediamur, jam
SMWM<
victores ;* quia caput nostrum Christus semel totum mundum wcit.
saith these have overcome, who are yet in the very act of warring ; the
case is otherwise in this war, for the battle to other warriors is doubtful,
and the event of the battle uncertain ; whereas we, before we encoun
are already conquerors, because our head Christ at once hath over
the whole world.
2. If Christ maintains a conflict in thy heart against sin, that ti
seed of God yet abiding in thy heart, that doth never, can never yie.
sin, or an act of sin, although the corrupt law in the members carry tJ
to the outward act, yet this reluctancy is a keeping the field, a not laying
down the sword ; thus our apostle in his third chapter verse 9, WHoso
ever is born of God doth not commit sin, for his seed remameth in nun,
and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. And Rom. vn. 24, ^,
when you hear that outcry in your hearts, miserable man that 1 am,
who shall deliver me? As Jehoshaphat cried out, when environed wun
chariots, fighting against him : 1 Kings xxii. 32, 33, and 2 Chron. xyii-*l And it came to pass, when the captains of the chariots saw Jenosnapnat,
that they said, It is the king of Israel ; therefore they compassed about
him to fight: but Jehoshaphat cried out, and the Lord helped him
;_an< God moved them to depart from him. So that man there in Rom. vn. 24
cries out, and by faith gives thanks aforehand, in the assurance ot
victory ; I thank God, through Jesus Christ our Lord. When it comes
< have the petitions we ask
to be a confidence, God hears our cry ; we then
of him. It is our apostle s rule, though the performance be delayed, and
thou mayest still be actually overcome. Here this passage is added,
word of God abideth in you, and ye have overcome the wicked one ;
whence I gather, that if the word of God (which is that seed of trod,
chap. iii. 9, as Peter tells us, 1 Epistle i.) abideth in thee unexcussed, not
shaken out of thy heart, unchoked (as I may difference the case ot t
believers from others, the thorny ground, from Christ s word used in th
parable, in saying that in the thorny ones lusts choke the word in their
hearts), but in thee it remains rooted, and as a spring works out the mud
that stopped it, and humbles you, and reduceth you to God again, this is a
victory. Join these two together that are in the text, the word oi
<
abides in you, and you have overcome that wicked one, to this sense,
that this is an evidence you have overcome, because a seed of God E
abides in your hearts unconquerably, so as the assaults of sin and Satan
have not, cannot totally prevail against you. .
3. But you will say, These are but generals, common to" all ages of (
tianity. They all, yea, babes, in these respects may be said to have over
come, as well as young men.
4. The answer is, that this last mentioned consideration may in a moi
special respect be attributed unto middle-aged Christians, rather than babes ;
for by that time this age is come and gone, they must be supposed to have
run through much, and a long space in fighting against sin, and to have
had many bloody noses given and taken in those conflicts ; and yet that
they should be able to say after so many wounds received, I have still the
same spiritual life of Christ abiding in me, I am yet alive, I am still heartened
to fight it out, I will never lay the weapons down, this is an evidence tc
them, namely, that after so long a time, the word of God is still abiding
* Gualter ; TJti maluit preterite, propter certitudinem victories.
506 THREE SEVERAL AGES OF CHRISTIANS [CHAP. III.
* the root of the matter is in them. A single evidence it
in their souls ;
is that there is that in them that cannot sin, nor close with sin. Conscience alone will not keep the field so long, nor hold out ; at best it doth clamour
against sin, but will soon be flatted, and the edge of its resistance be taken
off. But this is a constant principle of holiness abiding in them, that
really fights against sin, which can never be stilled nor return thither. And
this is a pawn and pledge of a certain victory in the end ; and a surer
pledge thereof than that which young beginners, who have not run through so great a time in so sore and so reiterated temptations of all sorts, can have experience of, such as these middle-aged Christians have ; and there fore this honour is rather attributed unto them than unto babes, that
grace is preserved in the midst of violent assaults, tending to extinguish it ; that a drop of oil should maintain itself above water, or in the end still get uppermost, notwithstanding all the stormy surges of the sea, when they rage most to overwhelm it.
5. Take the most of Christians, and their experience will tell you that, in their conflicts against grosser evils and lusts, they oftener not yield to the act, than are overcome unto it ; for which I refer you to other writings. 6. Instead of many other answers, I will add this: that the estimate of
overcoming lies not in accounting how oft thou hast been foiled, rather than overcome by not yielding ; but in this, that if thou hast had many times in thy
life, yea, and at any time thou canst remember (for such overcomings as I shall now mention, are more rare and less seldom discerned, than in
reality they fall out and occur) that thou hadst a clear victory, out of pure motives and considerations, which are proper to true grace ; as which were drawn from the interest that God and Christ have in thy soul, and thy soul in them; as from the grace of God, union with Christ, the power of his death applied, through faith its having recourse to it, and the power thereof
brought home to thy heart thereupon ; thou that hast overcome, shalt over come. There fall out often to God s children many frustrations of tempta tions from lusts and Satan s assaults by providential occurrences and
motives, whereby God restrains his own in the nick of opportunity, as he did David by Abigail, which we are indeed to bless God for, as David there
did, 1 Sam. xxv. 3234, for they are out of grace and favour towards us, when not out of pure grace in us. And therefore David blesseth God for that of his there, and so should we. Yet these are not so evidential to us of our overcoming, or of victories on our parts ; they are ways to escape
(as 1 Cor. x. 13) rather than victories ; but such as are purely from our
having had recourse to Christ for strength against them ; and then motives that arise precisely from our converses and communion with God and
Christ, as aforesaid, with strength coming in, with downright blows to dead them, and not per modum diverticuli, by way of diverting the mind ; for so any other thoughts that get in do ; they may take off and turn aside for the
present the mind from a lust, a fancy, a strong incursion ; but such overcomings mentioned are signal, in open field, and by force of arms, spiritual arms, and may be recorded exploits of spiritual chivalry, and among the famous and wondrous works that God works in us and for us.
Use 1. The first use is an admonition to middle-aged Christians. It is an hour, or rather a long season of temptation ; and no man knows what
trials he may in temptations to sin run through, nor at what time most ; we are therefore ; called to stand upon our watch continually, and to be
sober, as in 1 Pet. v. 8, where at ver. 10, But the God of all grace, who hath called us into his eternal glory by Jesus Christ ; after that ye have
CHAP. III.] IN FAITH AND OBEDIENCE. 507
suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you. Suf
fering a while is not only or mainly in a time of persecution for Christ, whereof he had spoken chap. iv. 17, but from temptations to sins, which are the greatest sufferings ; and the devil watcheth that he may devour or drink up a man s soul (as the word is), he swallows down some professors, as we do a draught ; and so Judas was served by him. He springs a mine, and suddenly blows them up. Cities besieged stand upon their guard when an enemy is at the gates, and keep double watch and ward, and especially in the seasons, as in the nights, when the season is for onsets and assaults, and countermine their mines. This middle age is the time wherein most
temporaries fall away, as the thorny ground, in whom lusts grew up with the word, till they had choked the word ; so that there was some long time of profession passed first. Whereas the stony ground presently gave out, when the sun of persecution was up, the}
7 withdrew in the infancy of
profession, and did not stay till their middle age. These were as rath ripe fruits, and are nipped with an April frost before summer comes. Those
other, the thorny, abide longer, for their humiliation was deep ; yet not so deep but that the sense of the bitterness of sin went off and decreased, and so they proved unfruitful for some time before they died : they are withered
trees, as Jude compares them ; autumnal fruits, as his expression is. They fall as leaves in the autumn, in the declension of their years, before the winter of old age comes, and seldom or never continue till then. Use 2. Again, you middle-aged Christians, set yourselves to overcome at that season with all your might ; for as it is the special season of tempta tion, so of overcoming. Make it your glory to obtain victory during that season : The glory of young men is their strength, Prov. xx. 29, which was seen in the wrestlers and strivings at the Olympian games, where crowns upon the public charge were given unto the overcomers ; unto which the apostle alludeth, 2 Tim. ii. 5, And if a man also strive for
masteries, yet he is not crowned, except he strive lawfully. And if you will know what it is to strive lawfully, read 1 Cor. ix. 25, And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible. Therefore go on thus to fight that good fight, that you may lay hold upon eternal life, 1 Tim. vi. 12. And though you be often foiled and put to the worse, yet rise up, and to it again. And there are two motives : 1, it is a good fight, wherein you are to overcome, if you continue to fight, and faint not ; 2, lay hold on eternal life ; this is the reward, the Iravium of your eye : He that
is slow to anger, and ruleth his spirit, that is, overcomes himself, is better than he that takes a city, Prov. xvi. 32. Use 3. Beckon with thyself how many victories thou hast had, how oft you have overcome, and how often been foiled ; how many set battlss thou hast fought, wherein the archers have shot sorely at thee, but thy bow abode in its strength. These do turn greatly to thy glory at last at the day of judgment, and thy comfort now in this life. The promise that concludes all the epistles to the churches runs thus, To him that overcometh. The Indians in New England, fighting with short hand-clubs, wherewith they knock down their enemies, look how many men they have
killed in several fights, they set down at the club-ends so many notches, which they keep and shew for their glory. How often thou hast kept thy self from thine iniquity, and how often thou hast been overcome, keep an
account, to the end to humble thyself the more.
I come now to the opening of the first character given to these young or
508 THKEE SEVERAL AGES OF CHRISTIANS [CHAP. III.
middle-aged Christians : I write to you young men, says he, because ye are strong. There is a double spiritual strength
: one that is radical in the soul itself, consisting in the strength and vigour of habitual graces ; the other assistant thereto from the Spirit, according as he is pleased to arm and fill the soul with himself, joining with it by strengthening the graces in us, which you read of Eph. iii. 16, That he would grant you, accord
ing to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man. And this latter accessory strength is here meant, as that which is granted by God, as we have need of it, which we have every moment ; but in special assaults and temptations, so as to overcome, it is a strength given to help in time of need. There is some likeness in both these in the strength of the body ; there is an inward and abiding hability in the limbs and inward parts, a sprightly vigour fit for any action whereto
strength is needful to be put forth, which others that are children or sickly want ; and this is abiding in them when asleep, as in the body of a lion or
elephant; in Job xl. 17-19, He moveth his tail like a cedar: the sinews of his stones are wrapped together. His bones are as strong pieces of brass ; his bones are like bars of iron. He is the chief of the ways of God : he that made him can make his sword to approach unto him. And there is an assistant strength which strong wine or some spiritful cordial
gives over and above the natural. The psalmist s similitude of a giant implies both: like a giant, who is stronger than other men in his natural hability, refreshed with wine, which adds thereunto, and makes him more potent to act. So there is an habitual strength in the inner man of a Christian, grown up from a child to be a man to a full age, which here the apostle hath in his eye. That as in nature babes are weak, children are weak, but middle-aged men are strong in respect of such an inward abiding strength in them ; and so it is here intended. And in respect to this habitual strength it is that in other scriptures some Christians are termed strong, others weak, as in the 14th and 15th
chapters to the Romans, and the prophet Zechariah, xii. 8, of the times of the New Testament saints : In that day shall the Lord defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem ; and he that is feeble among them at that day shall be as David ; and the house of David shall be as God, as the angel of the Lord before them. The angels they are said to excel in strength, and so the opposition runs between weak and strong Christians. But then the assistant strength of the Spirit filling that inward man, whereof, Eph. iv. 18, Be not drunk with wine in excess, but be filled with the Spirit; who filling you strengthens, cheers you as wine, and wherein is no excess, but an access of a mighty power, when he mingles with our spirits, and is as wine that flushes our natural spirits. And that is the strength that
petition Eph. iii. specially intends ; and the main strength also in respect of which these middle-aged Christians are said to be strong, and by which to overcome, for therein it is that indeed our strength now lies.
But although this habitual strength of the inward man may be intended here by John, yet we must know that the compare of our spiritual strength with that of the body, instanced in, runs upon unequal feet ; for our
spiritual strength lies principally in the supplies of the Spirit, as Phil. i.
they are styled, and not in our habitual graces ; whereas the chief of bodily strength lies in the body itself and natural spirits ; and the additional strengthened are small comparatively. I would therefore, for illustration s sake of this great point, fetch my parallel or comparison from such per sons, whose bodies, though by natural constitution strong, yet had that
CHAP. III.] IN FAITH AND OBEDIENCE. 509
strength intended and elevated by the Spirit s coming upon them, enabling them to act, and fight, and overcome, which was Samson s case ; and that indeed will serve to set forth this. Samson had no doubt a natural strength, far exceeding other men, in himself and in his limbs, such perhaps as
giants, which yet we find not that he was : but then he had superadded to that the might of the Holy Ghost, falling upon him at times, and upon occasions ; as when he pulled down the pillars of that playhouse of the
Philistines, like as it was aforesaid said of him : Judges xv. 14, And the
Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him, and the cords that were upon his arms became as flax that was burnt with fire, and his bands loosed from
off his hands. And ver. 15, He found a new jawbone of an ass, and
put forth his hand, and took it, and slew a thousand men therewith. And chap. xiii. 25, And the Spirit of the Lord came upon him at times, &c. And this assistance he sometimes had by faith and confidence in God, that he would vouchsafe; as in the story of that 13th chapter he ven
tures unarmed, yea, bound, to meet more than a thousand Philistines, that were resolved to kill him ; and the Spirit came not in him till he was
amongst them : yet he ventured it afore. This was therefore in faith
(whereof the apostle speaks, Heb. xi.) that such an assistance would come upon him : and so in the other case of the two pillars. And this extraordinary supply of strength by the Spirit, suits best to set
forth spiritual strength here ; though withal I profess not to compare such
extraordinary exploits and achievements, wherein Samson was made to
excel all other men whatever, and himself at other times, by the Spirit s
coming on him, with those ordinary overcomings here ; as if I intended
that the middle-aged should be acted by such miraculous excesses and
actions, comparatively to other Christians, [by] the Spirit s coming on them. No ; but I make use of it to this purpose, to illustrate how as Samson s
strength to do what he did lay not in his own inherent strength, but the
Spirit s assisting him with his power, hiddenly joining with his, and ele
vating of his ; and that therein it was his strength did lie. Thus so here, in the Spirit s supplies it is that these middle-aged men s strength doth
also lie, or any others in spiritual actings and overcomings ; and that it was not the habitual strength of their own graces. And the Scriptures are
express in it : 2 Tim. ii. 1, * Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the
grace that^s in Christ Jesus. It were to contradict this passage, and dis honourable to Christ our head, to narrow this grace that is in Christ Jesus, unto that habitual grace inherent in us from Christ, as if that were our
strength. No ; it is that which is in Christ Jesus his person, in his keep
* Be ye
ing, and his giving forth, as we are to act ; for when he exhorts,
strong, &c., he speaks it as in order unto doing and acting, and the increase of strength. And it would soon be ill with us, if we should be
left to that kind of strength alone, to act withal, as Adam was. No ; ours
is in the person of Christ, the power of an endless life residing in him, and
assisting us according to his strength, which by faith going to him for, he
gives forth to us. For as he is our life, Col. iii. 4, so he must be acknow
ledged our strength ; for what is strength but life in an active vigour ? And
this the apostle tells us, from his own experience, was it that enabled him
: Philip, iv. 13, I can do all things through Christ, who
to do all things
strengtheneth me. It was a strength in and for the act, that strength
eneth me ; and it was in what he was to do, I am able to do all things through Christ that strengtheneth me, in the doing. Let us walk, there
fore, in an habitual emptiness of self-confidence, waiting on Christ for
510 THREE SEVERAL AGES OF CHRISTIANS [CHAP. III.
strength, remembering that of the apostle, that when I am weak, then I am strong ; and be in this sense weak, that the power of Christ may rest upon you. There was one king, of whom it is said, he was helped till he was strong. Peter s confidence in the present sense of his own grace, Though all men leave thee, I will not, was the ground of his fall ; he went out in his own strength
* Surely, shall one say, In the Lord have I righteousness and strength
: Isa. xlv. 24, 25,
: even to him shall men come ; and
all that are incensed against him shall be ashamed. In the Lord shall
all the seed of Israel be justified, and shall glory. We all profess that
righteousness of justification and that is meant there, as appears by verse 25, In the Lord shall all the seed of Israel be justified that is alone in Christ, the Lord our righteousness. Now the same is said of
: our strength lies in him, and as he will give it forth, we have
strength
strength ; and as he withholds, we are weak. And there is the same rea son for this as for that other, in their several proportions, wherein they may differ ; that in him we should glory, as it follows there : therefore look out to him for it, as the word is, ver. 22, And unto him shall men come. Ver. 24, Surely, shall one say, In the Lord have I righteousness and
strength : even to him shall men come. Therefore go to him, come to him for strength ; he will strengthen you. But you will say to me, If you interpret this of middle-aged Christians,
1 because you are strong, to intend chiefly the strength of the Spirit of
Christ, in respect of assistance to act ; and not so much that inward
strength, which is in themselves, wrought by Christ and the Spirit ; how could he make this to be middle-aged men s eminent property ? for this
strength, though it works in us, yet is extrinsecal to our spirits. And
again, even babes may be influenced as much with such a kind of strength as middle-aged Christians may be supposed to be ; for it is wholly what is without themselves, till sent in at the time of acting ; and babes are as
capable and receptive of this kind of strength to overcome temptations (which is the matter whereto we speak) as the middle-aged, if the Spirit of the Lord come upon them. And what can the middle promise themselves more ^thereof than babes may do ; or the apostle for them, that he should
say comparatively to babes, ye are strong ? Doth not the prophet, speaking of the Messiah s times, Isa. xxxv. 3, 4, say, Strengthen ye the weak
hands, and confirm the feeble knees. Say to them that are of a fearful
heart, Be strong, fear not ; he will come and save you ? And at verse 6, Then shall the lame man leap as the hart, even from the first hour that the power of Christ and the Spirit comes upon him ; which is spoken not of the miracles in such men s bodies only, but of spiritual strengthenings also. For those words in verse 3, Strengthen ye the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees, that precede these other, are appplied by the
apostle in the Epistle to the Hebrews unto spiritual feebleness and strength.
It is true that the dispensations of assisting grace in the acting our in ward man is depending wholly on God s good pleasure, as Philip, ii. 13, and he can and does sometimes ordain, that is, vouchsafe, strength unto babes and sucklings, Ps. viii. ; and they are often carried at first as with a spring-tide of extraordinary assistance, which yet afterwards, when
that land-flood extraordinary is run and spent, the stream is contracted to an usual channel, and falls into and becomes ebb-tides, and greatly decrease, as in my treatise of Growth in Grace I have observed. Yet for answer to
the objection.
Ans. 1. That God more ordinarily vouchsafeth adjuvant efficacious grace
CHAP. III.] IN FAITH AND OBEDIENCE. \\
to overcome temptation, according to the measure of grace habitual or inherent ; and therefore when men are grown up to more radical inward strength, he gives more effective assisting strength ; he meteth forth temp tations to the ability our inward man is furnished withal, as that we are able to bear them, as, 1 Cor. x., he declares his measure to be. And then he vouchsafes his actual supply of aiding strength, according to the pro portion of that inherent stock of ability he sees in the inward man, which, if it effectually assist us, will prevail ; and then as the conflicts grow greater, our additional aids are together therewith increased. Now, if it be thus, then the objection comes to be in a great measure solved ; for the additional is ordinarily proportioned to the inherent habitual grace, and so the measure of both comes to one. It falls out in this as it was with Samson; the Spirit assisted Samson, when grown up to the full strength of a man, far more than when. he was a child and naturally weaker; although when of younger years he at times fell on him and by fits, as we heard out^of Judges xiii. 25, yet not to perform such prodigious exploits as after he was grown elderly. The Spirit observed a decorum of his assistance, propor tioned to his years.
The grace of God works freely indeed, and will shew his freedom ; he obligeth not, nor ties himself absolutely to such rules and measures as these always, and to all persons ; but at his good pleasure takes liberty to withhold his supplies from such as have most of this inherent grace we speak of, to shew the weakness of all our grace as it is in us, without his further active influencing grace working the will and the deeds, and also that his grace is tied to none. This we see in David, when he was left to sin more foully in his middle age than in his first days (as they are called) ; and so in like manner Hezekiah, both grown up to a middle age in grace. Yet this assertion of ours concerns only what his more ordinary dispensa tions are. And truly of those I may say, that although God s grace is free, yet it delights to observe set rules in those dispensations, as to give promise that he that bringeth forth much fruit, he will purge to bring forth more fruit, John xv. 2. That is one rule with himself likewise, He that is justified, let him be justified still. Yet more and more, Rev. xxii. 11, and to him that hath, shall be given, and the like. For therein his grace is seen to give grace, that he may be moved to give more grace. A.nd thus it comes to pass that habitual grace being increased by the exer cise and using of it itself, where it is once begun by regeneration, that then the influences of active and overcoming grace from God come to abound more, as habitual grace through long exercise hath abounded. It is like God s blessing some men in their outward callings (and it is God that gives power to get wealth), the promise being, that the diligent hand makes rich. God giving a man power to be diligent, superadds riches as cast in, over and beyond that diligence, as the reward of it. This we see in some merchants, who through diligence having obtained a large stock for trade, God in his good providence vouchsafeth them special hits (as they call good
^ haps), singular overplus advantages that fall out in their way; and thus it is here. And that God increaseth the inward stock of habitual grace within us by gracious diligence in holy actings, I have long under stood to be the mind of that in Eom. vi. 22,
< If ye be servants to God, you have your fruit unto holiness. To be the servants of God is to be holy ; the fruit therefore of serving God is a communication of more holi
ness.^ Fruit imports what is of the natural growth of a tree, according to its kind. If the good tree increaseth in bulky holiness, the fruit thereof
512 THEEE SEVEKAL AGES OF CHRISTIANS [ClIAP. III.
will be more and larger holiness. And which is strange in nature, the
tree will grow bigger in the body and sap of it by how much it bears more
fruit. The fruit it brings forth in holy actions causeth the stock to grow
more in quantity still greater. The ground I interpret that place thus is,
that in the foregone verse 19 it is said that yielding our members servants
to righteousness unto righteousness, that is, that our active righteousness
in our walkings and obedience, or righteousness acted and exercised, is
righteousness unto righteousness; that is, tends to an increase of habi
tual, iritrinsecal righteousness, which is the principle of further acting.
Whereunto I add, that God gives assisting grace in proportion to the
measure of grace acquired and gained. He crowns his graces in us with
more grace; ten cities to him that had increased his one talent to ten.
He crowns habitual strength, gotten by exercise of holiness, with more
enlarged strength. And so the apostle might well say of them who
through Ion* exercise of grace had acquired much inward grace, that ye
are strong ; and that in both these senses of a being strong, in comparison
to babes. . Nor doth that objection wholly or universally enervate this assertion,
viz., that he suffers some in their middle age much to decline and fall
away in strength; for still it often in experience proves to be in the issue,
that they are recovered to their wonted vigour again, and act more strongly
than ever; as Sampson did at last, when his hair was grown again, which
was the signal, and as a sacramental token, of his recovering the Spirit
a^ain, as it had been before the cutting of it. And it may perhaps prove
the truth, that by falls, and great and long languishrnents, and gradual
decays in actings of grace in some middle-aged Christians, it proves there
is not so much a decay of the stock itself of habitual strength, in the root
and principles of it, but in the exercises of it ; such as we see m strong-
bodied men, that fall into a consumption, or some other infirmity, that
occasions a present languishing, that they become for outward motions as
weak as children, when yet the radical strength of their constitution, and
of that which they were grown up unto, recovers again, as Samson s hair
die" in a far greater spiritual vigour than ever; as Samson at
did, and they
his death was empowered and clothed with a far more mighty strength by
the Spirit than ever he had in his whole life, after the recovering of his
hair.
Ans. 2. Middle-aged Christians have through long use and experience
learned self-emptiness in their acting holiness more, so as to make them
not to be so confident they can do this or that, in the strength of grace
inherent. And this is a lesson long a-learning, and perhaps more hard
to be learned than to go out to Christ for the righteousness of justification. And it is taught by long experience ; for as experience breeds hope in the
way and course of believing, so experience of having so often been foiled,
through going about to act from the strength of inherent grace in ourselves,
doth at last teach us the most effectually this dependence on Christ.
And truly there are divers things that concur upon and after our first
conversion, that give occasion to us, if not to think it is from the strength
of inherent grace received by regeneration that we do then act, yet so far
at least as to divert our thoughts from so attentive looking out of ourselves
for a further efficacious assistance from Christ, to work in us both the will
and the deed. As, .
1. They find in themselves, as other men, a will, which by (rod is ap
pointed to be the free principle of its own motion and of our actings.
CHAP. III.] IN FAITH AND OBEDIENCE. 513
Then, 2, upon regeneration we find a new principle of holiness wrought in us by Christ, which, as another nature, poiseth and inclineth our hearts unto what is holy $ and residing in our wills, disposeth them in some measure, though imperfectly, so to act ; there being, by reason thereof, a natural agreeableness and suitableness between our hearts and such actions as such, so far as we be regenerated.
3. Christ leaves not this his new creature to itself, but himself with his
Spirit dwelling therein cherisheth and acteth it, as the mother doth the child in her womb, and nurseth it as when she hath brought it forth ; yet this he doth unknown that it is he that doth all. He is a God that hides himself in these his actings at first, as in other things he useth to do ; whether the soul puts forth acts of faith and dependency for his special help in the acting of it, yea or no. Christ bears from the womb as well as to the hoary age, as the prophet Isaiah, under this similitude, expresseth
it; and it is said of Ephraim, when he was a child, God holding him up in his arms, taught him to go. In which case, though a child useth his own strength, else it were not a teaching him to go, yet the weakness of his limbs is such, as it is the strength of him who holds him up in the virtue of which he goes ; and yet when it is thus holden up, it takes no notice of the other s supporting of it, but is ready to ascribe it chiefly to
its own ability, and so to be confident in venturing to go alone, and then
it falls. And yet Christ bears us, and carries the lambs, and those which are with young, in his arms ; thus assisting, because he would encourage it in our weakness, and also to make a discovery of the quality and kind of this new creature acting itself in us.
And, 4, this new creature thus assisted, being a divine nature, and in
clining us, as a nature useth to do, unto good works, to walk in, although we cannot but be sensible that the infusion of that new principle itself has been wholly from the power and efficiency of Christ, and not of ourselves, the new inward frame of our hearts being in a good degree so contrary to what was formerly in the unregenerate estate we had lived in ; yet still as to the actings of that new creature, after it is wrought, we are not presently made so sensible and aware of that great power that carries it on, and so not of dependence on Christ without us, as of our Head that influenceth
all those our actings also, but are apt not to look on it further than that it
is, or as if it were, the pondus and sway of that new creature, which as a new creature carrieth on our wills and affections, as in a natural way, so far as we are regenerated ; even as in sinning we had found afore, and do
after, that our corrupt inclinations naturally carried us unto the contrary. And this new infused nature we look upon working as a contrary nature to that other of sin, as two contrary streams running cross, as indeed they are. And having been but newly brought acquainted with Christ, that
acquaintance begins at first chiefly in our seeking out our righteousness of
justification in him, and receiving from him therewith this inherent prin ciple of holiness, which is his image ; as both being absolutely necessary to that season and the condition of a new convert, who having come forth newly from a state of sinning with full career and consent of will, and made sensible of sin and damnation, and possessed with fears of hell and wrath $ the grudging fits of which we for a long time are not quite rid of; the strength and intention of the mind is swallowed up with these so
necessary things, at that present to be had from Christ, as the sole remedy to the present case. And then the Spirit secretly supplying us with that
assistance, we by faith should from the first go to him for it, but he hidVOL. VII. K k
514 THREE SEVERAL AGES OF CHRISTIANS [CHAP. III.
denly performing that in us and for us, without our minding it or looking out for it, the Spirit mingleth his power (unperceivably to us) with the
activity of our wills in the new creature. And further, we being as then
fresh-water soldiers, not trained up enough to the observations of the many
ebbings of the stream and the Sowings again thereof to be from the Spirit of Christ, we do not discern his either increasing and raising up the flood, or his withholding so to do, to be the causes of such a variation in our
actings, according to his good pleasure.
These things considered, it is no wonder if we be more strangers, for a
while at the first, unto this great point in our Christianity (and all of
Christ is not learned at once), of this continual dependence on Christ for
acting, than we were of his power in regenerating us. For at regenera tion we were convinced of that total contrary corruption that had invaded,
possessed, and filled our souls, so that we saw no one spiritual good to have been in us ; but now the activity of our will being thus furnished anew with that new stock of habitual grace so set up withal, and so
vigorously assisted (though insensibly to us) by the aids of the Spirit, we
are prone to think that we have a spring of good within ourselves, that
bubbles up continually what is good ; and so our thoughts are far removed from the sense that we are not able to think one good thought within our
selves, but that all our sufficiency is of God. And although it may be
supposed we might more easily be brought to receive the doctrine of this our emptiness and insufficiency to act, yet practically to discern it, so as
to set our spirits a-work upon it, and inure our hearts to the exercise of
it, it is no wonder if (considering what hath been said to be our case) we be in the course of our spirits apt and inclinable to put much of that hidden assistance the Spirit supplies us with upon the natural tendency and activity of the new creature, as a divine nature in us ; ascribing the
power and force of the wind we see not, that carries on and drives the
stream, unto the natural pondus and propenseness of the stream itself to run that way; till we come to have had the experience of such interchanges,
ebbings, and flowings mentioned, and thereby come to see and judge what
little strength we of ourselves have, with all our inherent graces, and when
left never so little by the Spirit, and his ceasing to act us, and what differ
ence there is when we are enlarged by Christ and his strength, to run the
ways of his commandments.
But, 5, there is yet a further thing at the bottom of this matter, and is
the ground of our aptness to be misled in this point ; which is, that we are
prone to it by nature, both that corrupt nature by the fall, yea, and pure nature also, as it was in Adam s first state by creation ; for in that pure estate he, and we his posterity, if he had stood, had been under the cove nant of works, in all its differences from the tenor of the covenant of grace ; whereof this was one part, to work and act from what is in ourselves. And though by conversion we are brought into the covenant of grace, yet the principles of the covenant of works do mightily abide in us, and the
secret unperceived influences thereof greatly prevail in us, and at least
obstruct us, and keep back our hearts from the clear knowledge, at least
practice and exercise, of gospel principles. Although they be by conviction
entertained by our judgments, yet the principles of the covenant of works
cleave as the skin to our flesh ; for they are the law of nature. This needs
not to be largely insisted on.
It is evident enough that corrupt nature in men unregenerate, but en
lightened and endowed with excellent spiritual gifts, gratis given them,
CHAP. III.] IN FAITH AND OBEDIENCE. 515
together with some supernatural assistances vouchsafed in, and for the
exercise of them in holy duties, doth convert them all, both gifts and assist
ance, to its own selfish ends predominantly, and from the strength of such ends moving and acting them, they perform what they do in holy things. I need not insist on this neither. But I carry up my demonstration higher, and deduce it from that of pure nature in Adam afore the fall.
1. Now Adam had first a will, that was to be the free inward mover and author of its own motion, and of those imperate acts his will should com mand to be put forth by him.
2. He had a full and perfect stock of holiness, and of love to God, con-
created with and residing in his will, poising it only unto what was holy. 3. He had a concourse (as they speak) or concurrency (which we better
understand) of an aid and strength from God, giving sufficient power to
will and act what was holy and good ; a posse si vellet, a power if he would
act holily.
And these he had from God, as due by creation, or, which is all one, by the law of pure nature, which it was meet God should furnish him withal.
If he would create such a creature reasonable, it was meet that then God
should, at and by virtue of his first creating him, fiirnish him with all
these ; especially giving withal promises of life and threatenings of death
according to his holy actings, or the contrary. And if we suppose him not
sufficiently furnished with all these, his fall or deficiency had not been im-
putable as sin to him.
Now he that hath those two first principles of a will 1, its being the mover of itself from within itself; and, 2, a complete holiness swaying that will only to what is holy ; 8, joined with a power of assistance from God as shall excite the will, and give his will sufficient power to act, if he
will, he may and must be said to act and will from himself when he acts or wills; for the will is his own, the holiness he acts from and with is his own due, and in that respect natural to him by creation-law ; and the con
current assistance from God, that is, so much and so far as to have power to act and to will, is no less his creation-due likewise. And God, in vouch
safing such an assistance requisite to enable him to will, did therein no more for him in his kind that is, according to the natural law and due of a free-will agent, which was to be its own mover from within itself unto the
act than he did in his concourse with each and every one of his creatures
in their actings in their kind, who keep his ordinances to this day, through that concourse God gives them. But man, through his free-will, not using that power, fell by what was purely his own. But my scope in this recital of these three principles, which may be
styled Adam s own strength, due to him oy the law of nature, is to shew that these principles of acting from ourselves, naturally sticking in us, aa
xoivat hvoiat, common principles of nature use to do, are so prevalent, even after we have been entered into the estate of grace, and received the
knowledge of Christ, that we are exceeding apt and obnoxious to those
principles still, and to be misled and misguided by them in the actings of
grace, and to go their way in seeking of salvation ; and that, therefore, it
is no wonder if new converts do so, when they find they have a will that must still be the immediate mover within itself of its own action now when
regenerate ; and that by regeneration they have a new principle also of
holiness, the very same for the bulk and matter of it that Adam was created
in after the image of God, Col. iii. 10, and find that principle to be fitted,
suited, and disposed agreeably to every good and holy work ; and though
516 THREE SEVERAL AGES OF CHRISTIANS [CHAP. III.
when they act, and have efficacious assistance, that works the will and the deed in them, they have it all from Christ living in them, effectually work
ing in their hearts, beyond giving them a bare posse, power to act holily. Yet this exceeding greatness of his power they discover not, and therefore, Eph. i., the apostle prays that the eyes of their minds may be more and more enlightened, to know the exceeding greatness of his power that works in them whilst they act holily and spiritually, and yet conveying its in fluences so hiddenly, that they are apt to think it the efficacy of a new nature. For they finding they are, though supernaturally, yet secretly assisted by the Spirit in holy ways, so as to think and to find that it is as a nature in them, that they do it naturally with delight, &c., such is the suitableness between their hearts and the duties of holiness, when they are drawn out to them, I say it is the less wonder that their hearts should think they act in that manner that Adam did from this strength as if it were their own (though, indeed, wholly received), and from themselves ; or that they should attempt to act from those principles within them, and
put so much confidence therein, so as to omit to look out for a continual renewed assistance from Christ, their new constituted head. We see the like ensnarement lies in the point of justification. Men find they have good works, perform holy duties, &c., and the Scriptures term it a righteous ness, and the principle of pure nature in Adam having been, that he was
justified by that righteousness of and in himself, how doth this principle, because it is the law of nature, adhere and cleave to men s souls, and caused Paul to be afraid of his own righteousness, lest he should be found in it ; so that it is a long time that believers stick in those weeds clinging about them, and obstructing them in their way of believing on Christ s righteous ness alone. But so it falls out, that when they have, through long and often renunciation of their own, and wonted endeared embracements of Christ s righteousness alone, got free of that entanglement, they yet remain
longer encumbered and obstructed in this other I treat of, of acting in their own strength. And as in a tree that is to be pulled up by the roots, after that some greater roots, whereby it was naturally fastened in the earth, are loosened and cut, yet it will stick still by some other lesser fibres, smaller
strings that have no less holdfast than those other had, even so it is here. And till all whereby we cleave to old Adam s state be broke, which is long a-doing by degrees, we are not grown up into that completeness in Christ which we ought to have, and which union with Christ affordeth. And
although I dare not say the Holy Ghost may not secretly act them effica
ciously beyond these principles, whilst they discern it not, and so help them to overcome ; and that the acts of holiness which the Holy Ghost draws forth of them, according to these principles, may not be acceptable to God, being in reality and truth from the image of Christ wrought in them by Christ ; and Christ effectually working in them, though they have not the
cognizance of it, nor recourse to him for it, as hath been the case of many true professors ; yet still there is this wanting to make them strong indeed, to act steadily and constantly.
And this hath been the case of many true professors at first for some
time, and was of the apostle Peter, till by the woeful experience of so dreadful a fall he saw his own utter dependency on Christ, as without him he could do nothing, and therefore was to abide in him ; as Christ in his
last sermons a little before had instructed him, which he then understood not. And his sin lay not in this, that he had not a true and real resolution at that present time never to forsake his master (yea, to me it seems
CHAP. III.] IN FAITH AND OBEDIENCE. 517
certain that it was a resolution sprung from out of true grace, and cleaving to Christ at that time, and drawn forth by the Spirit, and it was not feigned ; and take that purpose of his abstractedly considered, and it was acceptable so far) ; but his sin lay
: 1. In that he discerned not that it was Christ and his Spirit who was the author thereof at that present, and was to be the maintainer of it and finisher of it in him, and ought to have, in the
sense of his own insufficiency, prayed as David for the people
: 1 Chron.
xxix. 18, Keep, Lord, this purpose in the heart of thy servants.
2. His sin lay in the confidence he had for the future, or time to come, that he should ever retain that Spirit, whereas a man is no further holy than at
the instant God makes him so to be. 3. In vain boasting of his present
strength comparatively to all others : If all men forsake thee, yet not I ; and for this cause Christ let him fall, with this reserve, praying his faith
might not fail, that he might learn, what Paul did in another case, not to
trust in himself, but in Christ to strengthen him. And in like manner thus
it is and hath been with many professors, till in the end, through experience of their own inability, they come to see and know what it is to have Christ a supernatural head to them as members, for motion, and a spiritual root
to them as branches ; and thus as branches to bring forth fruit in and by him, Philip. A i., and^in him all their fruit is to be found, and therefore juice, and sap, and strength to bring forth, is to be fetched from him. And
that therefore they in spiritual actings are to walk in an habitual seli-
emptiness, and a daily renunciation of this active power of their wills, as
strengthened by inherent grace alone, though wrought in them by Christ, and still to be saying within themselves that which Isaiah prophesied of, One shall say, In the Lord have I strength, Isa. xlv. 24, and sensibly to
acknowledge that that power that is in Christ as their head united to them must give their effectual casting stroke in holy actings, and carry on the
will to them with power. And this is the strength the apostle Paul,
Philip, iv., and John here speaks of, which Christians, till grown and beaten out of self-confidence in their wills and inherent grace, do not learn suffi
ciently, and for want of this they come so much to fall, as Peter did, God
having pronounced that in his own strength no man shall prevail. Now
the experience of the saints failings, through the want of these things, as
also, on the contrary, the experience positive, that when they are weak in
respect of their own strength, Christ s power doth rest upon them ; these two experiments, besides other lessons given by Christ in time, cause
middle-aged Christians to live in a greater dependence upon Christ s
strength to be communicated, as without whom they find they can do
nothing, and that all their fruit is found in him. And this, I say, caused the apostle here in both respects, whether of habitual grace or assisting efficacious acting grace, to say of them, Ye are strong.
For it is a certain truth, that the more we walk in a constant sense of our own weakness, and dependence and waiting for Christ s strength to be
put forth in us, the more strong we are ; not in ourselves, but as the coneys are in their rock, as Solomon says. And this justly and deservedly is to be said in comparison of babes, who, like young boys in fighting with their
fellows, have more eagerness and stomach, but find themselves weak, and
easily overcome ; whereas to say in our hearts, as David did against Goliah, I come against thee in the name of^ the Lord of hosts, confirms our
strength.
Ans. 3. God vouchsafes occasional helps and assistances, according as our temptations do grow and increase, according to the rule of Paul the
518 THREE SEVERAL AGES OF CHRISTIANS. [CHAP. III.
apostle, that as his distresses abounded, so his consolations abounded also. And this proves true in temptations to sin, our greatest sufferings, as well as in any other. Now God having (as the doctrine was) allotted tempta tions greater to middle-aged Christians than unto babes, hence he is
graciously pleased in the end and issue to afford strength to overcome ; and in the view of this the apostle might deservedly say of them rather,
< Ye are strong.
MAN S RESTORATION BY GRACE,
[ORIGINAL TITLE/
MAN S
Eestauration by Grace.
A DISCOURSE
OF The several parts which the Three Persons of
the Godhead, bear in the accomplishment of our Salvation.
SHEWING That they have taken on them several works appropriated to them therein, and the distribution of our Salvation into three Parts according to the number of the three Persons, and the part which each of them have taken therein, viz. The Father in Election, the Son in Piedemption and Justification, the Holy Ghost in Sanctification and Application.
By TUO. GOODWIN, D. D.
LONDO-N, Printed by Thomas Snowden for Thomas Goodwin.
M D C X C 1 1.
MAN S RESTORATION BY GRACE,
A discourse of the several parts which the three persons of the Godhead bear
in the accomplishment of our salvation, and that they have taken on them
several works appropriate to them therein. And the distribution of our
salvation into three parts, according to the number of the three persons, and
the part which each, of them have taken therein, viz., the Father in election, the Son in redemption and justification, the Holif Ghost in sanctiftcation and application.