48 A DISCOURSE ON T this world they may come unto, and oft-times actually do so accordingly. For all gifts, the best of them, and that in the highest degree wherein they may be attained in this life, may be utterly lost or taken away. The law of their communication is, that who improveth not that talent or measure of them which he bath received, it shall be taken from him. Forwhereas they are given for no other end, but to trade withal according to the seve- ral capacities and opportunities that men have in the church, or their families, or their own private exercise, if that be utterly neglected, to what end should they be left unto rust and uselessness in the minds of any? Ac- cordingly we find it to come to pass. Some neglect them, some reject them, and from both sorts they are judicially taken away. Such we have amongst us. Some there are who had received considerable spiritual abilities for e- vangelical administrations: but after a while they have fallen into anoutward state of things, wherein, as they suppose, they shall have no advantage by them; yea, that their exercise will turn to their disadvantage, and thereon do wholly neglect them: by this means they have insensibly decayed, until they become as devoid of spiritual abilities, as if they never had experience of any assistance in that kind. They can no more either pray, or speak, or evidence the power of the Spirit of God in any thing unto the edificationof the church. Their arm is dried up, and their right eye isutterly darkened, Zech. xi. 17. And this, sometimes, they come to be sensible of, yea, ashamed of, and yet cannot retrieve themselves. But, for the most part they fall into such a state, as wherein the professionand use of them becomes, as they suppose, inconsistent with their present interest, and so they openly renounce all concernment in them: neither, for the most part, do they stay here, but after they have rejected them in themselves, and espoused lazyprofitable outward helps in their room, they blaspheme the Author of them in others, and declare them all to be delusions, fancies, and imaginations. And ifany one bath thecon- fidence to own the assistance.of theHolySpirit in the dis- charge of theduties of the gospel unto -the edification of the church, hebecomes unto them a scorn and reproach. These are branches cut offfrom thevine, whom men ga- ther, or those whose miserable condition is described by the apostle, Heb. vi. 4, 5, 6. But one way or other these gifts may be utterly lost or taken away from them, who have once received them, and that whether they be .or- HE HOLY SPIRIT, dinary or extraordinary. There is no kind of them, no degree of them, that can give us any security, that they shall be always continued with us, or at all beyond our diligent attendanceunto their use and exercise. With sa- ving grace it is not so. It is indeed subject unto various decays in us; and its thriving or flourishing in oursouls, depends upon and answers unto our diligent endeavour in the use of all means of holiness, ordinarily, 2 Peter i. 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. For, besides that, no man can have the least evidence of any thing of this grace in him, if he be totally negligent in its exercise and im- provement ; so no man ought to expect that it will thrive or abound in him, unless he constantly and diligently at- tend unto it, and give up himself in all things to its con- duct. But yet, as to the continuance of it in thesouls of the elect, as to the life and being of its principle, and principal effect in habitual conformity unto God and his will, it is secured in the covenant of grace. 14. Sixthly, On whomsoever saving grace is bestow- ed, it is so, firstly, and principally, for himself and his own good. It is a fruit of theespecial love and kindness of God unto hisown soul, Jer. xxxi. 5. Thisboth the na- tureand all the ends of it do declare; for it is given unto unto renew the imageof God in us, to make us like unto him, to restore our nature, enableus untoobedience, and to make us meet for the inheritance of the saints in light. But yet we must take heed, that we think not thatgrace is bestowed on any merely for themselves; for indeed it is that wherein God designeth a good unto all, Vir bonus commune bonum. Agoodman is agood toall, Mi- cahv. 7. And therefore God, in the communication of saving grace unto any, bath a threefold respect unto others, which it is the duty of them that receive it, diligently to consider and attend unto: (1.) He intends togive an example by it of what is his will, and what he approveth of`. and therefore he requires of them in whom it is, such fruits in holy obedience, as may ex- press the example of an holy life in the world, accord- ing to the will of God, and unto his glory. Hereby doth he further the salvation of theelect, I Peter. iii. 1, 2. 1 Cor. vii. 16: Convince the unbelieving world at present, 1 Peter ii. 12, 15. chap. iii. 16. and condemn it .hereafter, Heb. xi. 7. and himself is glorified, Matth. v. 1.6. Let therefore no man think, that because grace is firstly and principally given him for himself, and for his own spiritual advantage, that thereforehe-must not
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