Christians strive more to honour their heavenly Father, with all the gifts and graces that he has conferred upon them?

But you will say, 'How should we honour the Lord ?" I answer, first, by a free and frequent acknowledgment, that all your graces flow from the Lord Jesus, the fountain of grace. Of his fulness have all we received and grace for grace. Every good and perfect gift cometh down from above. Thou must say, O Christian, I have nothing but what I have received. I have no light, no life, no love, no joy, no peace, but from above. The jewels that hang on my breasts, and the chains of pearl that are about my neck, and the golden crown that is upon my head, and all the sparkling diamonds in that crown, are all from above. All those princely ornaments by which I am made more beautiful and lovely than others, and all those beds of spices and sweet flowers, by which I am made more desirable and delectable, are from above. I am nothing; I have nothing of my own; all I am and all I have is from on high.' We have given thee of thine own, says David. So do thou say,' Lord, the love with which I love thee, is thine own; and the faith by which I hang upon thee, is thine own; and the fear by which I fear before thee, is thine own; and the joy with which I rejoice before thee, is thine own; and the patience with which I wait upon thee, is thine own.' And therefore say, as David did, upon the receipt of mercy, Blessed be thou, Lord God of Israel, our Father, for ever and ever. Thine, O Lord, is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty ; for all that is in the heaven and in the earth, is thine. Thine is the kingdom, O Lord, and thou art exalted as head above all. Both riches and honour come of thee, and thou reignest over all; and in thine hand is power and might; and in thine hand it is to make great, and to give strength unto all. Now therefore, our God, we thank thee, and praise thy glorious name.

Secondly; you must honour him by acknowledging the dependency of your graces upon the fountain of grace; and that your strength to stand lies not so much in your graces, as in their dependence upon the fountain of grace, as in their conjunction with the God of grace. A man by

his arm may do much, but it is mainly by reason of its union and conjunction with the head. It is so between a Christian's graces and Christ. The stream does not more depend upon the fountain, nor the branch upon the root, nor the moon upon the sun, nor the child upon the mother, nor the effect upon the cause, than our graces depend upon the fountain of grace, Psalm cxxxviii. 3; Phil. iv. 12, 13.

Now that our very graces do thus depend upon the fountain of grace, and that our strength to stand lies not so much in our graces as in Christ, is clear by this, that the graces of the saints may and do most fail them, when they have most need of them. And he said, Why are ye so fearful? How is it that ye have no faith? Mark iv. 40. When the wind was high, their faith was low; when the storm was great, their faith was little. So in Luke viii. 25; And he said unto them, Where is your faith? Are you now to seek it, when you should use it? Peter denied Christ, when he had need by faith to have confessed Christ. Moses' faith failed him, when it should have been most serviceable to him, Num. xx. 12. And David's courage failed him, when it should have been a buckler to him, 1 Sam. xxi. 13, 14. And the disciples' love failed them, when it should have been most useful to them, John xiv. 28. And Job's wisdom and patience failed him, when they should have been the greatest supporters to him. By all which it is most clear, that not only ourselves, but also our very graces must be supported by the God of grace, the fountain of grace, or else they will be to seek when we most need them. Though grace is a glorious creature, it is but a creature, and therefore must be upheld by its Creator. Though grace be a beautiful child, yet it is but a child that must be upheld by the father's arms. This, Christians, you must remember, and give glory to God.

Thirdly; you must honour him by uncrowning your graces, to crown the God of your graces; by taking the crown off from your own heads, and putting it upon his, or by laying it down at his feet, as they did their's in Rev. iv. 10; Acts iii. 12, 16; iv. 7—10. These scriptures are wells of living waters; they are bee-hives full of honey; see and taste. The Lord has often uncrowned himself, to crown his people's graces, as you may see in these follow

vii. 50.

their

ing scriptures, Mat. ix. 22; xv. 28; Mark x. 52; Luke' And why then should not his people uncrown graces, to crown him? That which others attribute to your graces, do you attribute to the God of grace. You I must say, Though our graces are precious, yet Christ is more precious; though they are sweet, yet Christ is most sweet; though they are lovely, yet Christ is altogether lovely.' Your graces are but Christ's picture, Christ's image; and therefore do not you worship his image, and in the mean while neglect his person. Make much of his picture, but make more of himself: let his picture have your eye, but let himself have your heart. Your graces

are but Christ's hands, by which he works; be you therefore careful that you do not more mind the workman's hands, than the workman himself. Your graces are but Christ's servants; therefore do not smile upon the servant, and look asquint upon the Master. Your graces are but Christ's favourites; therefore do not so stare upon them and be taken with them, as to forget the Prince on whom they wait. All I drive at is this, that not your graces, but may be all in all unto you.

Christ

2. The second end to which you must improve your gifts and graces, is to the good of others. Come and hear all ye that fear God, and I will declare what he hath done for my soul, Psa. lxvi. 16. O taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the man that trusteth in him, Psa. xxxiv. 8. God has given you gifts and graces to this very end, that you should improve them for others' good. It is the very nature of grace to be diffusive and communicative. Grace cannot be long concealed. The better any thing is, the more communicative it will be. Grace is as fire in the bones, as new wine in the bottles; you cannot hide it; you must give it vent. We cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard, Acts iv. 20; as Croesus' dumb son did for his father. Can the fire cease to burn all combustible matter into fire? Can the candle once thoroughly lighted, cease to spend itself for the enlightening of others? Then may the precious sons of Zion cease to give light to others by their examples, counsels, and communicating their experiences. No way to honour God, no way to win souls, and no way to increase your

own gifts and graces, but to exercise them for the good of others. Grace is not like to worldly vanities, that diminish by distribution, nor like candles which keep the same light, though a thousand are lighted by them. Grace is like the widow's oil, which multiplied by pouring out; and like those talents, which doubled by employment.

It was a good saying of one, For insensible riches those who pay their money, do diminish their substance; and they who receive, are made richer;' but these not so, but both he who numbereth, does much increase his substance, and does add much to the riches of the receiver.

Again; by how much the more we pour out of these flowing spiritual things, by so much those spreading in abundance are greater to us; for in this case it does not happen as in money, for there they who tell out to their neighbour, diminish their own substance; and by how much the more he spends, by so much the less money he possesses; but in spirituals it is quite otherwise.

No way to advance the kingdom of Christ in the world like this, of improving your gifts and graces to the advantage and profit of others. No love nor pity to the precious souls of men, like this. No way to abound in grace, to be rich in grace, like this. No way to be high in heaven, like this. Art thou, O Christian, bound to do good to others by communicating earthly things? And art thou not much more bound to do them good by communicating spiritual things? Surely thou art. Why are Christians so often in scripture compared to trees, but because of their fruitfulness and usefulness to others? And why are they called stewards of the manifold gifts of God, but to denote to us, that their gifts are not to be inclosed, but employed for the good of others? And why has Christ put a box of precious ointment into every Christian's hand, but that it should be opened for the benefit of others? Certainly he who is good, is bound to do good; for gifts and graces are given, not only to make us good and keep us good, but also to make us, yea, to provoke us to do good. We therefore learn that we may teach,' is a proverb among the rabbins. And I do therefore lay in, and lay up,' says the heathen, that I may draw forth again, and lay out for the good of many.' I think they are no good

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Christians who scorn to learn this good lesson, though of a heathen. And O that all who write themselves Christians, were so good as to imitate the good that shined in many heathens! To me it is sad, that Christians who live and act below the very heathen, should be offended to hear now and then of those excellencies that sparkled in the very heathen. I think that is a very evil spirit, which cannot endure to hear of those excellencies in others, that he wants in himself. Certainly he is a brave Christian, and has much of Christ within, who accounts nothing his own, that he does not communicate to others. The bee does store her hive out of all sorts of flowers for the common benefit, and why then in this should not every Christian be like a bee?!

Synesius speaks of some, who having a treasure of rare abilities in them, would as soon part with their hearts, as their corruptions. I think they are rather monsters, than real Christians, who are of such a spirit.

3. The third and last thing to which you are to improve your gifts and graces, is to the benefit and profit of your own souls.

Not to improve them to your own internal and eternal good, is with a high hand to cross the main end of God's conferring them upon you. Ah, Christians, you must improve them to the strengthening of you against temptations, to the supporting of you under afflictions, to the keeping under of strong corruptions, to the sweetening of all mutations, and to the preparing and fitting of you for the days of your dissolution.

I shall content myself with giving you this hint, because I have before spoken more fully to this head

And thus we have done with the doctrinal part. We shall come now to make some use and application of this point to ourselves.

If this be so, that it is the duty of Christians to improve and exercise the gifts and graces that the Lord has given them; then this looks very sourly and wishly upon all lazy, idle, negligent Christians, that do not stir up themselves to lay hold on God, that do not stir up the grace of the Lord in them. It is sad to consider how many Christians can stir up themselves to lay hold on all