AND SMOKING FLAX. 61 "0 wretched man that I am, who shall deliver n1e frmn the body of this death!" Desires also put us onward still. 0 that I might serve God with 1nore liberty ! 0 that I were more free from these offensive noisome lusts ! 10. Fire worketh itself, if it bath any matter to feed on, into a larger compass, and mounteth higher and higher, and the highei' it arises the purer is the flame: so where true grace is, it groweth in measure and purity. Smoking flax will grow to a flame, and as it increaseth, so it worketh out the contrary, and refineth itself more and 1nore. Therefore it argueth a false heart to set ourselves a mea- .sure in grace; and to rest in beginnings; alleging, that Christ will not quench the smoking flax. But this merciful disposition in him is joined with perfect holiness, and is shewed in perfect hatred to sin: for rather than sin should not have its desired punislnnent~ himself became a sacrifice for sin, wherein his Father's holiness, and his own most of all, shined. And besides this, in the work of sanctification, though he favours his work in us, yet he favours not sin in us ; for he
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