ftians challenge the first place among all the mourners in the world.

Infer. 4. Is grace fo invaluably precious? How precious then ought the ordinances of God to be to our fouls, by which grace is firft communicated, and afterwards improved in our fouls! "The law of thy mouth is better unto me than thoufands of gold and filver," Pfal. cxix. 72. and good reason, whilft it imparts and improves that to which gold and filver are but drofs and dung.

None but thefe that value not grace, will ever flight the means, or defpife and injure the inftruments thereof. It is a fad fign of a graceless world, when thefe precious things fall under contempts and flights.

Infer. 5. If grace be fo precious, how watchful fhould all gracious perfons be in the days of temptation! The defign of temptation is to rob you of your treasure: When cut-purfes get into the croud, we ufe to fay, Friends, look to your puries. How many brave Chriftians have we read and heard of, that have rather chofen to part with their lives, than with their graces, who have "refifted unto blood, ftriving against fin?” Heb. xii. 4.

O, Chriflians! you live in a cheating age; many feeming Chriftians have loft all, and many real Chriftians have loft much; fo much, that they are like to fee but little comfort in this world; who are like to go mourning to the grave with that lamenta tion, Job xxix. 2, 3. "O that it were with me as in times 6619 past!"

Infer. 6. To conclude: Is there fuch precious worth in fav ing grace? Then blefs God for, and diligently use all means to increase and improve it in your fouls. It is gold for precioufnefs, and for usefulness, and must not be laid up in a napkin: That is a fin condemned by the very scope of that parable, Matth. xxv. 14, 15.

All Chriftians indeed have not the fame advantages of improvement; but all muft improve it according to the advanta ges they have, in order to an account. Referved Chriftians, who live too abftracted from the fociety and communion of others, and difperfe uot their ftreams abroad to the benefit of others, nor improve the graces of others for their own benefit, are wanting both to their own duty and comfort. See you a man rich in grace, O trade with him if you can, to improve your. felves by him; and the rather, because you know not how foon death may fnatch him from you, and with him all his flock of grace is gone from you too, except what you made your own

whilst you converfed with him: But, alas! alas! instead of holy, profitable, foul-improving communion, fome are fullenly referved; fome are negligent and lazy; fome are litigious and wrangling; more apt to draw forth the drofs, than the gold; I mean the corruptions, than graces of others. And how few there be that drive a profitable trade for increase of grace, is fad to confider.

And as grace is not improved by communion with men, so I doubt most Christians thrive but little in their communion with God: We are too feldom in our clofets, too little upon our knees; and when we are there, we gain but little; we come not off fuch gainers by duty as we might. O Chriftians! think when you are hearing and praying, I am now trading with heaven for that which is infinitely better than gold. God is rich to all that call upon him: What a treasure may I get this hour,' if the fault be not in mine own heart? And thus of the fecond obfervation.

CHA P. IV.

Wherein the third doctrine, being the main fubject of this treatife, is opened, and the method of the whole difcourfe ftated.

DOCT. I.

That only is to be accounted true grace, which is able to endure all thofe trials appointed or permitted for the discovery of it.

T

SECT I.

HE most wife God hath feen it fit to fet all his people in a state of trial in this world. First, he tries, and then he crowns them; James i. 12. "Bleffed is the man that "endureth temptation, wegμov, i. e. [probation or trial]; "for when he is tried, he thall receive the crown of life," &c. No man can fay what he is; whether his graces be true or falfe, till they be tried and examined by thofe things which are to them as fire is to gold. Thefe felf-deceivers in the text thought they had grace; yea, they thought they had been rich in grace; but it proved no better than drofs: And therefore Christ here counfels them to buy of him gold tried in the fire; i. e. true grace indeed, which appears to be fo upon the various proofs and examinations of its fincerity, which are to be made

in this world, as well as in the great folemn trial it muft come to in the world to come.

The scripture speaks of a twofold trial, viz.

A trial of mens

Opinions,

and Graces.

1. First, The opinions and judgments of men are tried as by fire; in which fense we are to understand that place, 1 Cor. iii, 12, 13. "Now if any man build upon this foundation, gold, "filver, precious ftones, wood, hay, ftubble, every man's "work fhall be made manifeft; for the day fhall declare it, "because it shall be revealed by fire, and the fire fhall try eve ry man's work, of what fort it is."

This text fpeaks of fuch perfons as hold the foundation of Christianity, but yet fuperftructed fuch doctrines and practices, as were no more able to endure the trial, than hay, wood, or ftubble, can endure the fire. Such a perfon hereby brings himself to danger; and though the apoftle will not deny the poffibility, yet he afferts the difficulty of his falvation; "He "fhall be faved, yet so as by fire +;" i, e. as a man is faved by leaping out of his house at midnight, when it is all on fire a bout his ears; for fo that phrafe imports, Amos iv. 11. and Jude 23. Glad to escape naked, and with the lofs of his goods; bleffing God he hath his life for a prey: As little regard fhall fuch have to their erroneous notions and unfcriptural opinions at laft.

2. Secondly, The graces of men are brought to the test, as well as their opinions. Trial will be made of their hearts, as well as their heads; and upon this trial the everlasting safety and happiness of the perfon depends. If a man's opinions be fome of them found hay or stubble, yet fo long as he holds the head, and is right in the foundation, he may be faved; but if a man's fuppofed graces be found fo, all the world cannot fave him There is no way of efcape, if he finally deceive himself herein. And of this trial of graces my text fpeaks: Sincere grace is gold tried by fire.

:

There is a twofold trial of grace; active and paffive.

First, An active trial of it, in which we try it ourselves, 2 Cor. xiii. 5." Examine yourselves; prove yourselves;" i. e. measure your hearts, duties and graces, by the rule of the word;

* Upon a thorough trial they ranish into smoke.

From which judgment he fhall escape just as one does naked, or with his bare life, out of the midst of flames. Chryfoftome.

fee how they answer to that rule: Bring your hearts and the word together by folemn felf-examination; confer with your reins, and commune with your own hearts.

Secondly, A paffive trial of it: whether we try it or no, God will try it, he will bring our gold to the touchstone, and to the fire. "Thou, O Lord, knoweft me; thou haft feen "me, and tried mine heart towards thee," faith the prophet, Jer. xii. 3.

And fo

Thefe

Sometimes he tries the ftrength and ability of his fervants graces; and thus he tried Abraham, Heb. xi. 17. And fometimes he tries the foundness and fincerity of our graces; fo the Ephefian angel was tried, and found drofs, Rev. ii. 2. Job was tried, and found true gold, Job xxiii. 10. trials are not made by God for his own information; for he knows what is in man; his eyes pierce his heart and reins; but for our information; which is the true fenfe of Deut. viii. 2. "Thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God "led thee thefe forty years in the wilderness to humble thee, "and to prove thee, to know what was in thy heart;" i. e. to make thee know it, by giving thee fuch experiments and trials of it in those wilderness ftraits and difficulties.

And these are the trials of grace I am here to speak of, 'not excluding the active trials made by ourselves; no, no, all these trials made by God upon us, are defigned to put us upon the trial of ourselves: When God tries, we fhould try too.

Now the method into which I fhall caft this discourse, fhall be to fhew you,

1. First, What those things are which try the fincerity of our graces, as fire tries gold.

2. Secondly, For what ends doth God put the graces of his people upon fuch trials in this world.

3. Thirdly, That fuch grace only is fincere as can endure these trials.

4. Fourthly, and lastly, To apply the whole, in the main uses of it.

. First,

SECT. II.

Hat those things are which try the fincerity of grace, as fire tries gold.

Before I enter into particulars, it will be needful to acquaint you, that the fubject before me is full of difficulties. There is need, as one fpeaks, of much cautious respect to the various fizes and degrees of growth among Chriftians, and the viciffi

tudes of their inward cale; elfe we may darken and perplex the way, inftead of clearing it.

The portraiture of a Christian is fuch as none can draw to one model, but with refpect to the infancy of fome, as well as the age and ftrength of others.

Great heed ought alfo to be had in the application of marks and figns; we should first try them, before we try ourselves or others by them. Marks and figns are by some distinguished into exclufive, inclufive, and pofitive: Exclufive marks ferve to fhut out bold pretenders, by fhewing them how far they come fhort of a faving work of grace; and they are commonly taken from fome neceffary common duty, as hearing, praying, &c. He that doth not thele things, cannot have any work of grace in him; and yet if he do them, he cannot from thence conclude his estate to be gracious: He that so concludes, deceives himself.

Inclufive marks rather difcover the degrees than the truth of grace, and are rather intended for comfort than for conviction : If we find them in ourselves, we do not only find fincerity, but eminency of grace: They being taken from fome raised degree. and eminent acts of grace in confirmed and grown Christians.

Betwixt the two former there is a middle fort of marks, which are called pofitive marks, and they are fuch as are always, and only found, in regenerate fouls: The hypocrite hath them not; the grown Chriftian hath them, and that in an eminent degree: The poorest Christian hath them in a lower, but faving degree : Great care must be taken in the application of them. And it is paft, doubt, that many weak and injudicious Christians have been greatly prejudiced by finding the experiences of eminent Chriftians propofed as rules to measure their fincerity by. Alas! these no more fit their fouls, than Saul's armour did David's body.

These things being premised, and a due care carried along with us through this difcourfe, I fhall next come to the particulars, and fhew you what those things are which discover the state and tempers of our fouls. And though it be true, that there is no condition we arc in, no providence that befals us, but it takes fome proof, and makes fome difcovery of our hearts; yet, to limit this difcourfe, and fall into particulars as soon as we can, I fhall fhew what trials are made of our graces in this world, by our profperity, and our adverfity; by our corruptions, and our duties; and, lafly, by our fufferings upon the fcore and account of religion.