2 I o Thejixth Sign PART III. the Grace of God, that they are holier than other Saints, don't hinder their Forwardnefs to think fo highly of theirHolinefs, being a fureEvi- dence of the Pride and Vanity of their Minds. If they were under the Influence of an humble Spirit, their Attainments in Religion would not be fo apt to Thine in their own Eyes, nor would they be fo much in admiring their own Beauty. The Chriflians that are really the moll eminent Saints, and therefore have the molt excellent Ex- periences, and are greatell in the Kingdom of Heaven, humble themfelves as a little Child, Matth. 18. 4. Becaufe they look on themfelves as but little Children in Grace, and their Attainments to be but the Attainments of Babes in Chrifl, and are afloniihed at, and afhamed ,of the low Degrees of their Love, and their Thankfulnefs, and their little Knowledge of God. Motes when he had been converfing with God in the Mount, and his Face Phone fo bright in the Eyes of others, as to dazzle their Eyes, w not that his Face (hone There are fome Ferfons that go by the Name of high Profeffors, and fome will own themfelves to be high Profeffors ; but eminently humble Saints, that will fhine brightefl in Heaven, are not at all apt to profefs high. I don't believe there is an eminent Saint in the World that is a high Profefíbr. Such will be much more likely to profefs themfelves to be the leaft of all Saints, and to think that every Saint's Attainments and Experiences are higher than his. !l Luther, as his Words are cited by Rutherford, in his Difplay of the fpiritual iintichriil , 13. 143, r44. fays thus, " So is the Life " of a Chriflian, that he that has begun, feems to himfelf to 'g have nothing ; but drives and preffes forward, that he may " apprehend. WhencePaul fays, I count not myfelt to have ap- prehended. For indeed nothing is more pernicious to a Belie- " ver, than that Prefumption, that he has already apprehended, "' and has no further Need of Peeking, Hence alto many fall L' back, and pine away in fpiritual Security and Slothfulnefs. '' So Bernard lays, To Hand flill in God's Way, is to go back. " Wherefore this remains to him that has begun to be a Chrif- 64 tian, to think that he is not yet a Chriftian, but to Peek that " he may be aChi iaian, that he may glory with Paul, I am not, " but I defile to be ; a Chriftian not yet finifhed, but only in his ' Beginnings. Therefore he is not a Chriftian, that is a Chrif- " tian, that is, He that thinks himfelf a finifhed Chriftian, and " is not fenfible how he falls fhort. We reach after Heaven, ' but are not in Heaven. Woe to him that is wholly renewed " that is, that thinks himfelf to be fo. That Man, without if Doubt, has never fo much as begun to be renewed, nor did t he ever taffy what it is to be a Chriftian." Such
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=