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The Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul
Chapter 26
The Christian Assisted In Examining Into His Growth In Grace
1. The examination important.--2. False marks of growth to be
avoided.--3. True marks proposed; such as--increasing love to God.--4.
Benevolence to men.--5. Candor of disposition.--6. Meekness under injuries.--7.
Serenity amidst the uncertainties of life.--8. Humility,--especially as
expressed in evangelical exercises of mind toward Christ end the Holy
Spirit.--10. Zeal for the divine honor.--11. Habitual and cheerful willingness
to exchange worlds when ever God shall appoint.--12. Conclusion. The Christian
breathing after growth in grace.
1. IF by divine grace you have "been born again, not of corruptible seed, but
of incorruptible," (1 Pet. 1:2,3) even "by that word of God which liveth and
abideth for ever," not only in the world and the church, but in particular souls
in which it is sown; you will, "as new born babes, desire the sincere milk of
the word, that you may grow thereby." (1 Pet. 2:2) And though in the most
advanced state of religion on earth, we are but infants in comparison to what we
hope to be, when, in the heavenly world, we arrive "unto a perfect man, unto the
measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ," (Eph. 4:13) yet, as we have
some exercise of a sanctified reason, we shall be solicitous that we may be
growing and thriving. And you, my reader, "if so be you have tasted that the
Lord is gracious," (1 Pet. 2:3) will, I doubt not, feel this solicitude. I
would, therefore, endeavor to assist you in making the inquiry, whether religion
be on the advance in your soul. And here I shall warn you against some false
marks of growth, and then shall endeavor to lay down others on which you may
depend as more solid. In this view I would observe, that you are not to measure
your growth in grace only or chiefly by your advances in knowledge, or in zeal,
or any other passionate impression of the mind, no, nor by the fervor of
devotion alone; but by the habitual determination of the will for God, and by
your prevailing disposition to obey his commands, submit to his disposal, and
promote the highest welfare of his cause in the earth.
2. It must be allowed that knowledge and
affection in religion are indeed desirable. Without some degree of the former,
religion cannot be rational and it is very reasonable to believe, that without
some degree of the latter it cannot be sincere, in creatures whose natures are
constituted like ours. Yet there may be a great deal of speculative knowledge,
and a great deal of rapturous affection, where there is no true religion at all;
and still more, where religion exists, though there be no advanced state of it.
The exercise of our rational faculties, upon the evidences of divine revelation,
and upon the declaration of it as contained in Scripture, may furnish a very
wicked man with a well-digested body of orthodox divinity in his head, when not
one single doctrine of it has ever reached his heart. An eloquent description of
the sufferings of Christ, of the solemnities of judgment, of the joys of the
blessed, and the miseries of the damned, might move the breast even of a man who
did not firmly believe them; as we often find ourselves strongly moved by
well-wrought narrations or discourses, which at the same time we know to have
their foundation in fiction. Natural constitution, or such accidental causes as
are (some of them) too low to be here mentioned, may supply the eyes with a
flood of tears, which may discharge itself plenteously upon almost any occasion
that shall first arise. And a proud impatience of contradiction directly
opposite as it is to the gentle spirit of Christianity, may make a man's blood
boil when he hears the notions he has entertained, and especially those which he
has openly and vigorously espoused, disputed and opposed. This may possibly lead
him, in terms of strong indignation, to pour out his zeal and his rage before
God!, in a fond conceit, that, as the God of truth, he is the pattern of those
favorite doctrines by whose fair appearances perhaps he himself is misled. And
if these speculative refinements, or these affectionate sallies of the mind, be
consistent with a total absence of true religion, they are much more apparently
consistent with a very low state of it. I would desire to lead you, my friend,
into sublimer notions and juster marks, and refer you to other practical
writers, arid, above all, to the book of God, to prove how material they are. I
would therefore entreat you to bring your own heart to answer, as in the
presence of God, such inquiries as these:
3. Do
you find "divine love, on the whole, advancing in your soul?" Do you feel
yourself more and more sensible of the presence of God? and does that sense grow
more delightful to you than it formerly was? Can you, even when your natural
spirits are weak and low, and you are not in any frame for the ardors and
ecstacies of devotion, nevertheless find a pleasing rest, a calm repose of
heart, in the thought that God is near you, and that he sees the secret
sentiments of your soul, while you are, as it were, toward those whom an
unsanctified heart might be ready to imagine it had some just excuse for
excepting out of the list of those it loves, and from whom you are ready to feel
some secret alienation or aversion. How does your mind stand affected toward
those who differ from you in their religious sentiments and practices? I do not
say that Christian charity will require you to think every error harmless. It
argues no want of love to a friend, in some cases, to fear lest his disorder
should prove more fatal than he seems to imagine: nay, sometimes the very
tenderness of friendship may increase that apprehension. But to hate persons
because we think they are mistaken, and to aggravate every difference in
judgment or practice into a fatal and damnable error that destroys all Christian
communion and love, is a symptom generally much worse than the evil it condemns.
Do you love the image of Christ in a person who thinks himself obliged in
conscience to profess and worship in a manner different from yourself? Nay,
farther, can you love and honor that which is truly amiable and excellent in
those in whom much is defective; in those in whom there is a mixture of bigotry
and narrowness of spirit, which may lead them perhaps to slight, or even to
censure you? Can you love them as the disciples and servants of Christ, who,
through a mistaken zeal, may be ready to "cast out your name as evil," (Luke
6:22) and to warn others against you as a dangerous person? This is none of the
least triumphs of charity, nor any despicable evidence of an advance in
religion.
6. And, on this head, reflect
farther, "How can you bear injuries?" There is a certain hardness of soul in
this respect, which argues a confirmed state in piety and virtue. Does every
thing of this kind hurry and ruffle you, so as to put you on contrivances how
you may recompense, or, at least, how you may disgrace and expose him who has
done you the wrong? Or can you stand the shock calmly, and easily divert your
mind to other objects, only (when you recollect these things) pitying and
praying for those who with the worst tempers and views are assaulting you? This
is a Christ-like temper indeed, and he will own it as such; will own you as one
of his soldiers, as one of his heroes; especially if it rises so far, as,
instead of being "overcome of evil, to overcome evil with good." (Rom. 12:21)
Watch over your spirit and over your tongue, when injuries are offered, and see
whether you be ready to meditate upon them, to aggravate them in your own view,
to complain of them to others, and to lay on all the load of blame that you in
justice can; or, whether you be ready to put the kindest construction upon the
offence, to excuse it as far as reason will allow, and (where, after all, it
will wear a black and odious aspect) to forgive it, heartily to forgive it, and
that even before any submission is made, or pardon asked; and in token of the
sincerity of that forgiveness, to be contriving what can be done, by some
benefit or other, toward the injurious person, to teach him a better temper.
7. Examine farther, "with regard to other
evils and calamities of life, and even with regard to its uncertainties, how you
can bear them." Do you find your soul is in this respect gathering strength?
Have you fewer foreboding fears and disquieting alarms than you once had, as to
what may happen in life? Can you trust the wisdom and goodness of God to order
your affairs for you, with more complacency and cheerfulness than formerly? Do
you find yourself able to unite your thoughts more in surveying present
circumstances, that you may collect immediate duty from them, though you know
not what God will next appoint or call you to? And when you feel the smart of
affliction, do you make a less matter of it? Can you transfer your heart more
easily to heavenly and divine objects, without an anxious solicitude whether
this or that burden be removed, so it may but be sanctified to promote your
communion with God and your ripeness for glory?
8. Examine also, "whether you advance in
humility." This is a silent but most excellent grace; and they who are most
eminent in it, are dearest to God, and most fit for the communications of his
presence to them. Do you then feel your mind more emptied of proud and haughty
imaginations, not prone so much to look back upon past services which it has
performed, as forward to those which are yet before you, and inward upon the
remaining imperfections of your heart? Do you more tenderly observe your daily
failures and miscarriages, and find yourself disposed to mourn over those things
before the Lord, that once passed with you as slight matters, though, when you
come to survey them as in the presence of God, you find they were not wholly
involuntary or free from guilt? Do you feel in your breast a deeper apprehension
of the infinite majesty of the blessed God, and of the glory of his natural and
moral perfections, so as, in consequence of these views, to perceive yourself as
it were annihilated in his presence, and to shrink into "less than nothing, and
vanity?" (Isa. 40:17) If this be your temper, God will look upon you with
peculiar favor, and will visit you more and more with the distinguishing
blessings of his grace.
9. But there is
another great branch and effect of Christian humility, which it would be an
unpardonable negligence to omit. Let me therefore farther inquire, are you more
frequently renewing your application, your sincere, steady, determined
application, to the righteousness and blood of Christ, as being sensible how
unworthy you are to appear before God otherwise than in him? And do the
remaining corruptions of your heart humble you before him, though the disorders
of your life are in a great measure cured? Are you more earnest to obtain the
quickening influences of the Holy Spirit? And have you such a sense of your own
weakness as to engage you to depend, in all the duties you perform, upon the
communications of his grace to "help your infirmities?" (Rom. 8:26) Can you, at
the close of your most religious, exemplary, and useful days, blush before God
for the deficiencies of them, while others perhaps may he ready to admire and
extol your conduct? And while you give the glory of all that has been right to
him from whom the strength and grace has been derived, are you coming to the
blood of sprinkling, to free you from the guilt which mingles itself even with
the best of your services? Do you learn to receive the bounties of Providence,
not only with thankfulness, as coming from God, but with a mixture of shame and
confusion too, under a consciousness that you do not deserve them, and are
continually forfeiting them? And do you justify Providence in your afflictions
and disappointments, even while many are flourishing around you full in the
bloom of prosperity, whose offences have been more visible at least, and more
notorious than yours?
10. Do you also advance
"in zeal and activity" for the service of God and the happiness of mankind? Does
your love show itself solid and sincere, by a continual flow of good works from
it? Can you view the sorrows of others with tender compassion, and with projects
and contrivances what you may do to relieve them? Do you feel in your breast
that you are more frequently "devising liberal things," (Isa. 32:8) and ready to
waive your own advantage or pleasure that you may accomplish them ? Do you find
your imagination teeming, as it were, with conceptions and schemes for the
advancement of the cause and interest of Christ in the world, for the
propagation of his Gospel, and for the happiness of your fellow-creatures ? And
do you not only pray, but act for it act in such a manner as to show that you
pray in earnest, and feel a readiness to do what little you can in this cause,
even though others, who might, if they pleased, very conveniently do a vast deal
more, will do nothing?
11. And, not to enlarge
upon this copious head, reflect once more, "how your affections stand with
regard to this world and another." Are you more deeply and practically convinced
of the vanity of these "things which are seen, and are temporal?" (2 Cor. 4:18)
Do you perceive your expectations from them, and your attachments to them to
diminish? You are willing to stay in this world as long as your Father pleases;
and it is right and well; but do you find your bonds so loosened to it; that you
are willing, heartily willing, to leave it at the shortest warning; so that if
God should see fit to summon you away on a sudden, though it should be in the
midst of your enjoyments, pursuits, expectations, and hopes, you would cordially
consent to that remove without saying, "Lord, let me stay a little while longer,
to enjoy this or that agreeable entertainment, to finish this or that scheme?"
Can you think, with an habitual calmness and hearty approbation, if such be the
divine pleasure, of waking no more when you lie down on your bed, of returning
home no more when you go out of your house? And yet on the other hand, how great
soever the burdens of life are, do you find a willingness to bear them, in
submission to the will of your heavenly Father, though it should be to many
future years, and though they should be years of far greater affliction than you
have ever yet seen? Can you say calmly and steadily, if not with such
overflowings of tender affection as you could desire, "Behold, `thy servant,'
thy child is `in thine hand, do with me as seemeth good in thy sight!' (2 Sam.
15:26) My will is melted into thine; to be lifted up or laid down, to be carried
out or brought in, to be here or there, in this or that circumstance, just as
thou pleasest, and as shall best suit with thy great extensive plan, which it is
impossible that I, or all the angels in heaven, should
mend."
12. These, if I understand matters
aright, are some of the most substantial evidences of growth and establishment
in religion. Search after them: bless God for them, so for as you discover them
in yourself, and study to advance in them daily, under the influences of divine
grace; to which I heartily recommend you, and to which I entreat you frequently
to recommend yourself.
The Christian breathing earnestly after growth in Grace.
"O thou ever-blessed Fountain of
natural and spiritual life! I thank thee that I live, and know the exercises and
pleasures of a religious life. I bless thee that thou hast infused into me thine
own vital breath, though I was once `dead in trespasses and sins,' (Eph. 2:1) so
that I am become, in a sense peculiar to thine own children, `a living soul.'
(Gen. 2:7) But it is my earnest desire that I may not only live but grow, `grow
in grace, and in the knowledge of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,' (2 Pet.
3:18) upon an acquaintance with whom my progress in it so evidently depends. In
this view, I humbly entreat thee that thou wilt form my mind to right notions in
religion, that I may not judge of grace by any wrong conceptions of it, nor
measure my advances in it by those things which are merely the effects of
nature, and possibly its corrupt effects!
"May
I be seeking after an increase of divine love to thee, my God and Father in
Christ, of unreserved resignation to thy wise and holy will, and of extensive
benevolence to my fellow-creatures! May I grow in patience and fortitude of
soul, in humility and zeal, in spirituality and a heavenly disposition of mind,
and in a concern, `that, whether present or absent, I may be accepted of the
Lord,' (2 Cor. 5:9) that whether I live or die, it may be for thy glory. In a
word, as thou knowest I hunger and thirst after righteousness, make me whatever
thou wouldst delight to see me! Draw on my soul, by the gentle influences of thy
gracious Spirit, every trace, and every feature, which thine eye, O Heavenly
Father, may survey with pleasure, and which thou mayest acknowledge as thine own
image.
"I am sensible, O Lord, I have not as
yet attained, yea, my soul is utterly confounded to think how far I am from
being already perfect; but this one thing (after thy great example of thine
apostle) I would endeavor to do: `forgetting the things which are behind, I
would press forward to those which are before.' (Phil. 3:12,13) O that thou
wouldst feed my soul by thy word and Spirit! Having been, as I humbly hope and
trust, regenerated by it, `being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of
incorruptible, even by thy word, which liveth and abideth for ever;' (1 Pet.
1:23) `as a new-born babe, I desire the sincere milk of the word, that I may
grow thereby.' (1 Pet. 2:2) And may `my profiting appear unto all men,' (1 Tim.
4:15) till at length `I come unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature
of the fullness of Christ,' (Eph. 4:13) and after having enjoyed the pleasure of
those that flourish eminently in thy courts below, be fixed in the paradise
above! I ask and hope it through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ; `to him be
glory, both now and for ever' (2 Pet. 3:18) Amen"
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