Why The Christian Should Not Rest On Any Inherent Work of Grace

First. Thy grace cannot thrive so long as thou thus restest upon it.  A legal spirit is no friend to grace; nay, is a bitter enemy against it, as appeared by the Pharisees in Christ's time.  Grace comes not by the law, but by Christ; thou mayest stand long enough by it, before thou gettest any life of grace into thy soul, or further life into thy grace.  If thou wouldst have this, thou must set thyself under Christ’s wings by faith.  From his Spirit in the gospel alone comes this kindly natural heat to hatch thy soul to the life of holiness, and increase what thou hast; and thou canst not come under Christ’s wings, till thou comest from under the shadow of the other, by renouncing all expectation from thy own works and services.  You know Reuben’s curse—that he should not excel, because he went up into his father's bed. When other tribes increased, he stood at a little num­ber.  By trusting in thy own works thou dost worse by Christ, and shalt thou excel in grace?  Perhaps some of you have been long professors, and yet [have] come to little growth in love to God, humility, heavenly-mindedness, mortification; and it is worth the digging to see what lies at the root of your profession —whether there be not a legal principle that hath too much acted you.  Have you not thought to carry all with God from your duties and services, and too much laid up your hopes in your own actings?  Alas! this is as so much dead earth, which must be thrown out, and gospel principles laid in the room thereof. Try but this course, and see whether the spring of thy grace will not come on apace.  David gives an account how he came to stand and flourish, when some that were rich and mighty, on a sudden withered and came to nothing.  ‘Lo,’ saith he, ‘this is the man that made not God his strength, but trusted in the abundance of his riches.’  ‘But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God; I trust in the mercy of God for ever and ever,’ Ps. 52:7-8.  While others trust in the riches of their own righteousness and services, and make not Christ their strength, do thou renounce all, and trust in the mercy of God in Christ, and thou shalt be like a green olive when they fade and wither.

Second. Christian, you will not thrive in true comfort so long as you rest in any inherent work of grace, and do not stand clear of your own actings and righteousness.  Gospel-comfort springs from a gospel-root, which is Christ.  ‘We are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh,’ Php. 3:3. Now a soul that rests on any holiness in himself, he grafts his comfort upon himself, not upon Christ; he sucks his own breast, not Christ’s, and so makes Christ a dry nurse; and what comfort can grow on that dry tree?  The Spirit is our comforter as well as our teacher and counsellor.  Now as the Spirit, when he teacheth, comes not with any new or strange truth, but takes of Christ's own—what he finds in the Word; so where he comforts, he takes of Christ’s own —his righteousness, not our own.  Christ is the mat­ter and ground of his comfort.  All cordials are but Christ distilled, and made up in several promises; his acting, not ours; his suffering, not ours; his holi­ness, not ours.  He doth not say, ‘Soul, rejoice! thou art holy,’ but ‘Soul, triumph!  Christ is righteous, and is the Lord thy righteousness;’ not, ‘Soul, thou pray­est sweetly, fear not;’ but, ‘Thou hast an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous;’ so that the first step to the receiving of comfort from the Spirit, is to send away all comforts of our own. 

As in learn­ing of the Spirit, he that will be taught by him, must first become a fool—that is, no way lean to his own understanding; so he that would be comforted, must first be emptied of all self-supports, must not lean on his own comforts.  As a physician first bids his patient cast off all others he hath tampered with, asks what physic he hath had from them, takes off their plas­ters, throws away their physic, and goes about the work de novo—anew; so the Spirit, when he comes to comfort a poor soul, first persuades the soul to send away all its old physicians.  O, saith the soul, I have been in the hand of such a duty, such a course of obedience, and have thought sure now I shall be well, and have comfort, now I do this duty, set upon such a holy course.  Well, saith the Spirit, if you will have me do anything, these must all be dis­missed in point of confidence.  Now, and not till now, is the soul a subject fit to receive the Spirit’s comforts.  And there­fore, friends, as you love your inward peace, beware what vessel you draw your comfort from.  Grace is finite, and so cannot afford much. It is leaking, and so cannot hold long; thou drinkest in a riven dish, that hast thy comfort from thy grace. It is mixed, and so weak; and weak grace cannot give strong consola­tion—and such thou needest, especially in strong conflicts.  Nay, lastly, thy comfort which thou drawest from it, is stolen—thou dost not come honestly by it; and stolen comforts will not thrive with thee.  O, what folly is it for the child to play the thief, for that which he may have freely and more fully from his father, who gives and reproacheth not!  That comfort which thou wouldst filch out of thy own righteous­ness and duties, behold it is laid up for thee in Christ, from whose fulness thou mayest carry as much as thy faith can hold, and [there is] none to check thee, yea, the more thou improvest Christ for thy comfort, the more heartily welcome. We are bid to open our mouth wide, and he will fill it.