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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A49244	Grace: the truth and growth and different degrees thereof. The summe and substance of XV. sermons. Preached by that faithful and painful servant of Jesus Christ, Mr. Christopher Love, late minister of Lawrence Jury, London. They being his last sermons. To which is added a funerall sermon, being the very last sermon he ever preached.	Love, Christopher, 1618-1651.; Cross, Thomas, fl. 1632-1682, engraver.	1652 (1652)	Wing L3156; ESTC R214001	127,409	242

they be placed alone in the midst of the earth that you give all diligence to adde to your faith vertue and to your vertue knowledge and to your knowledge temperance and to your temperance patience and to patience godlinesse and to godlinesse brotherly-kindnesse and to brotherly-kindnesse charity that these graces may be in you and abound that you may be neither barren nor unfruitfull in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus No Christian should content himselfe with any measures of Grace attained for he is like to make use of all the grace he hath had he a Benjamins portion The time is comming when one dram of true grace will be of more worth then all the world The comforts of grace the joy and peace of believing will be Cordials to you when you are dying and will set up such a light in the soule which the shadow of death shall neither damp nor darken But alas most men are labouring more after wealth then faith more after greatnesse in the world then true grace of whom when they die it may be said They had laid up goods for many yeers but it cannot be said In them was found some good thing towards the Lord. Men doe usually lay up riches for a deare yeere they 'l say they know not what need they may have before they come to die Be then as wise and provident for your precious souls Your temptations and trials may be such that you may have use for all your faith and patience Eate said the Angel to Elijah for the journey is long It is no short way to Heaven nor is the opposition small thou shalt meet withall in thy passage thither Oh then get thy soule well stored with spirituall provision of grace and the comforts of it It is true thy safety is in the being but thy comfort stands in the strength and activity of thy graces Weake Grace is saving but strong Grace is comfortable truth of grace shal be rewarded with heaven growth of Grace doth as it were antedate heaven The least true grace wil bring thee to Heaven but the more Grace thou hast the fitter for and surer thou wilt be of Heaven The Lord make these and all the labours of his servants profitable to his Church Ye therefore beloved seeing you know these things before beware lest ye also being led away with the errour of the wicked fall from your own stedfastnesse But grow in Grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ to him be glory both now and for ever Amen Reader we remain Ready to serve thee in thy Soul-affairs EDMUND CALAMY SIMEON ASHE JEREM. WHITAKER WILLIAM TAYLOR London February 13. 1651-52 Sermon I. At Lawrence J●y London March 9. 1650 1. 1. KINGS 14. part of the 13. verse Because in him there is found some good thing towards the Lord God of Israel in the house of Jeroboam THis Chapter conteins in it Ahijahs Prophesie foretelling what dismall judgements should befal Ieroboam and his posterity for his Idolatry in worship and defection from the Government and house of David For which sins God did destroy him and his posterity and not only the bad but the good were punished for their fathers guilt For so it is intimated in this verse out of which the Text is taken Here was a young man Ieroboam's son that should die for the fathers fault and yet here was a mitigation of the punishment that he should not die after the same manner that the rest did he shall goe to his grave in peace because in him there is found some good c. Behold the goodnesse of God! a little good in him and yet the great God takes notice of the little good in him God found as it were one pearle in a heap of pebbles one good young man in Jeroboams houshold that had some good in him towards the Lord God of Israel In the whole verse three parts I. A lamentation for the death of this son of Jeroboam It is said all Israel shall mourn for him and so they did v. 18. which argued there was goodness in him for if he had not been desired and prized while he lived he would not have been so lamented at his death II. A limitation of his punishment he only of Jeroboams family shall come to the grave the rest of his posterity that died in the City dogs should eat and him that dieth in the field should the fowles of the ayre devoure vers 11. III. The commendation of his life in him was found some good c. of this I am now to treat He is commended by the Holy Ghost for his goodnesse is set forth 1. By the quality of his goodnesse it was a good thing not a good word only or a good purpose or inclination with which too many content themselves but it was a good action 2. By the quantity of it it was but some little good thing that was found in him and yet that little good God did not despise or over-look 3. By the sincerity of his goodnesse there are two notable demonstrations of this young mans goodnesse 1. It was towards the Lord God of Israel 2. It was in Jeroboams house 1. His goodnesse was towards the Lord God of Israel This argued Pauls sincerity that in his speaking writing and actions he could and did appeal to God That Religion saith the Apostle is pure and undefiled that is so before God and the Father Many Hypocrites may be good towards men who are not so towards God to be rich indeed is to be rich towards God True repentance is repentance towards God and he is unblamable indeed that is void of offence towards God as well as towards men 2. He was good in the house of Jeroboam A wicked man may seeme good in a good place but to be good in a bad place argues men to be good indeed To be good in Davids house this was not so much but for this young man to be good in the house of Jeroboam his father whom the Scripture brands for his Idolatry that he made all Jsrael to sin and yet could not make his son to sin this argued he was sincerely good as it did argue Lots sincerity to be righteous in Sodom for Job to be good in Chaldea and to be Saints in Nero's Palace and to feare God in Jeroboams family this is goodnesse indeed There is onely one difficulty in the Text viz. What was that good thing that was found in Abijah For answer to this 't is true the Scripture doth not particularly expresse what that good thing was which was found in him but Tostatus and P. Martyr affirme from the Hebrew Rabbins that when the Jews of the ten Tribes did on their appointed times repair to Ierusalem to worship according to the command of God and Jerboam commanded Souldiers to intercept them this Abijah did hinder the souldiers to kill them and gave

then be that is in the world and the weaker thou art the more advantage hath God to magnifie the glory of his power in thy weaknesse 1. Comfort your selves ye weak Christians for you have a strong God In the Lord Jehoboah is everlasting strength Your God is able to keep you from falling and to present you faultlesse before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy He is able through his Almighty power through faith to keep you unto salvation you have a strong God fear not his power will be magnified in your weakness 2. You have a strong Saviour though your grace is weak yet he is able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him Christ is the Wisdom and the power of God to those that are called Yea he is called a strong Redeemer Our Redeemer is strong the Lord of hasts is his name Satan is indeed the Prince of the power of the aire for so he is called Eph. 2. 2 but Jesus Christ is truly the great power of God who is able because stronger then the strong man arm'd to bruise Satan under the feet of his Saints 3. You lie under a strong Word which is able to carry on the work of grace which is begun in you The Word of God though it bee foolishnesse to them that perish yet it is the power of God to them that are saved yea it is an Engine mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalteth it selfe against the knowledge of God and bringeth into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ wherefore the Apostle prayes Now brethren I commend you to God and to the word of his grace which is able to build you up and to give you an inheritance amongst all them that are sanctified so that cheer up though faith be weak yet the word of God is strong it is that ingrafted Word which is able to save your soules yea in a word The Word of God is profitable for doctrine for reproofe for correction for instruction in righteousnesse that the man of God may be made perfect and throughly furnished unto all good works 4. You are weak but you stand on a sure foundation 1. It is a foundation 2. A sure foundation 3. It is a foundation of God And 4. it is the foundation of God that cannot shake but standeth firm Now the weak believer stands by the immutable decree of God which here the Apostle cals the foundation of God 5. Weak believers are assisted by a strong spirit The spirit of God is not only a spirit of grace and supplication but it is also a spirit of power And therefore let weak believers chear up themselves though they have but little grace yet that little grace is upheld and maintained by the great power of God unto salvation The truth and essence of grace is not discern'd so much by good acts as by good affections How fair is my love my sister saith Christ to the Spouse God reckons of our beauty by our love and of our perfection by the sincerity of our affections Natural abilities to which formalists and hypocrites may come up may and doe resemble good actions but they cannot come up to good affections A Painter may paint the colour of the face but his art cannot give heat unto the picture Good actions may give you the resemblance of a Christian So what Jehu did resembled a true Reformer but they are good affections that doe set out the life and heat of true grace Judge they grace therefore by thy affections and take comfort in this though thou art little and low in actions if thou art warm and working in thy affections The third and last comfort is this That little grace shall be lasting grace Adam had perfection but had not perserverance and thou poor soul hast imperfection of grace but hast perserverance in grace The most violent and impetuous flood of corruption shall not quench the least measure the least spark of true grace the most boysterous blast of temptation shall not extinguish this poor smoaking flax not one drop of his divine oyntment shall be spilt as water upon the ground Comets may blaze a while and then they fall to shew that it was a Comet and not a Star True Stars doe not cannot fall Oh then blesse God who though in his anger he breaks the Nations like a Potters vessel with an iron mace yet such is his tendernesse over weak believers he will not break the bruised reed and though he put out the candle of the wicked yet he will not quench the smoaking flax The seeming graces of hypocrites shall perish and come to nothing when true grace shall hold out The painted face decayes soon but the naturall complexion lasts A child of God may be tossed by reason of corruption and temptation in a troublesome sea but that ship shall never be shipwrackt whereof Christ is the Pilot the Scriptures the Compasse the Promises the Tacklings Hope the Anchor Faith the Cable the holy Ghost the winds and holy affections the Sailes which are filled thus with the gales of the Spirit c. Fear not therefore little flock for it is your fathers pleasure to give you a Kingdome V. Sermon At Lawrence Jury London March 23. 1651. 1. KINGS 14. part of the 13. verse Because in him there is found some good thing towards the Lord God of Israel in the house of Jeroboam HAving finished the former part of the doctrine about little measures of grace I come now to the second part which is this That God doth exactly take notice tenderly cherish and graciously reward the least beginnings and the smallest measures of grace in the hearts of his people In the prosecution of which point I shall proceed in this method 1. I shall prove the truth of it 2. I wil also endeavour to give you the grounds hereof and then make application First that God doth thus cherish the smal beginnings of grace wil appear if we consider 1. These Scripture-instances Mat. 12 20. He wil not quenh the smoking flax that is by the figure Meiosis as I have shewn already he wil kindle it He wil not break the bruised reed that is he wil strengthen it God regards not the flame only but the smoking of grace not the ripe fruit but the tender buds Christ would have accepted of green sigs of the fig-tree though the time of ripe fruits was not yet come so some expound that place Mar. 11. 13. Christ accepts not only the honey but the honey-comb too that is say Expositors not only the excellent services but even the meaner services of his people God takes notice of the cries of our heart even the desires of the humble even the most inward groanings of

Epistle of John saies he I write unto you yong men because ye are strong and the Word of God abideth in you and ye have overcome the wicked one But when he writes to children he sayes I write to you because your sins are forgiven for his names sake intimating that though weak grace be sufficient to evidence to us the pardon of sin yet it is strong grace which is able to overcome the temptations of the devil The devil shall not overcome the weakest measure of grace but the stronger our grace is the more able we are to rest and overcome that enemy of our salvation The divel is called a roaring lyon whom we must resist stedfast in the faith it is not weak faith which is able to grapple with the devil therefore ought we to be grown and strong Christians 2. If we consider the strong opposition we are like to meet with from the world we may be put upon it as Paul to fight with beasts such manner of unreasonable men we may meet withall and therefore we are commanded to watch and to stand fast in the faith to quit our selves like men and be strong and the reason is given v. 9. There are many Adversaries we are like to meet with and therefore we had need to pray with the Psalmist to be strengthned and saved by the right hand of the Lord. Weak faith it is not fit to be in a crowd of opposition and therefore we should labour to grow strong in the grace of God 3. We have many strong corruptions in our hearts which weak grace wil never be able to mortifie strong passions strong lusts and how shall weak grace be able to grapple with and have a conquest over these If thy graces are weak when thy corruptions are strong thou wilt be miserably foiled by thy corruptions therefore pray for strengthning and assisting grace whereby thou mayst be able not only to resist but to subdue and mortifie the strongest lusts and passions in thy heart Another ground of the doctrine is taken from the danger if you grow not strong in grace● As 1. Others that made profession of Religion after you in time wil goe before you in measures and degrees of grace so it is said That many that are first shall be last and the last shall be first Those who were first in the profession of the Gospel shall be last in the degrees and measures of grace because they have not improved grace to a further increase of it 2. If thou dost not grow strong in grace thou wilt be sure to decay and to grow weaker for not to go forward in grace is to go backward Grace may be lost in some degree and to its exercise and comfort though not to its being and therefore sayes the Apostle If these things be in you and abound they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitfull Intimating that you will be barren if you doe not adde grace to grace Weake things if they be not watched over and strengthned will be ready to die 3. Though thou canst not lose the being of thy grace yet thou wilt lose the comfort of it and thou mayest be in as much trouble and perplexity as if thou hadst no grace at all It s true weak grace will bring thy soul to heaven but it s onely strong grace which will bring heaven into thy soule Little grace is like a little mote which is not seen because it is little Little grace is as it were no grace as that man in the Gospel he cals his faith unbeliefe Lord sayes he help my unbeliefe Weaknesse of grace makes mens perswasions of Gods love to be presumption their zeale to be lukewarmnesse their grace to be but gifts and as here their faith to be but unbeliefe It is strong grace which gives gladnesse of heart and hope in God therefore saies Jeremy My strength and my hope is perished from the Lord. When strength in grace decayes there hope comfort decayes also It is the Apostles prayer in the Inscription of many of his Epistles that grace and peace may be multiplied If therefore you doe not increase your graces you wil neither increase nor keep your comforts He that lacketh these things is blind sayes the Apostle Peter and he cannot see afar off it is not meant of a total lack of grace as hath been shewn for as after is expressed he is purged from his old sins though he forgets it having lost the sense of pardon for want of adding grace to grace 4. Weak grace under great trials wil expose a man to doubts and falls as if he had no grace at all little grace wil keep a man in small trials but not in greater Little grace as to the strait a man may be in may be as good as no grace and therefore when the disciples were at sea and a great tempest arose in so much that they were afraid that which in Matthew is said to be little in Mark is said to be no faith Intimating that as to that particular exigency and strait they were in their little faith did stand them in no more stead then if they had had no faith at all So Peter Christ cals him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Because though he began to walk upon the waves but 〈◊〉 When the wind grew boysterous he was 〈◊〉 began to sink Peter did not sink into the sea before his faith began to sink in his soul He that faints in the day of adversity it argues his strength is small so saith Solomon I should now proceed to a second particular and that is to give some Scripture-notes of that man who is grown in grace b●● let me shut up this Sermon with a sharp and just reproofe of many professors in our time who go from one ordinance to another and yet make little progresse or increase in Religion They may be fitly compared to a company of Ants who are very busie about a mole-hill and run to and fro but never grow great Even so we have many Christians they run from one Church to another from one Preacher to another and it may be from one opinion to another but never grow up in the true grace and in the true knowledge of Jesus Christ But I shall meet with such people hereafter in this discourse VII Sermon at Lawrence Jury London March 30. 1651. 2 TIM 2. 1. My son be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus HAving in the former Chapter observed from this Apostolicall injunction to Timothy which is obligatory to all Christians That it is the duty of all believers not to rest satisfied in weak measures of grace which they have received but they are to endeavour to attain unto greater strength of grace This point we have proved both by Scripture-instances as also by severall reasons Now I proceed to answer this

full of grace and truth but this fulnesse is in order to the filling of his members As in the natural body there are some special parts that do stand as officers unto all the rest the stomack receives much meat not for it self but that it might communicate it to all the members the head hath the senses seated in it not for it self but for the whole body So it is in the mystical body whereof Christ is the head the abundance of grace which is treasured up in Christ is in order to supply every member with grace For their sakes saith Christ himself of his elect I sanctifie my selfe that they also might be sanctified through the truth Some do refer this to Christ being set apart to the office of Mediatour that it was not for his own sake but for the sake of his members and though there be grace enough in Christ to qualifie his person yet also there is grace enough in him to justifie our persons too and sanctifie our natures 2. This also reproves the errour pride and folly of the Pelagians Papists and Arminians who derogate from God and arrogate to themselves These people like Sampson have lost their spiritual strength but do not will not know that it is departed from them They are poor and yet are proud and while they are setting up the praeise of nature they do prove themselves the enemies of grace Alas while they boast of a liberum arbitrium they have cause to bewail a servum arbitrium a● Luther calls it It is true man by the fall did not lose the faculty it self but he hath lost the rectitude of it And yet proud man will be like the spider spinning out a thread of his own and thinking to climbe up to heaven by threads spun out of his own bowels but let such who rejoyce in this Mihi soli debeo take heed at last that his hope be not cut off and that his trust become like a spiders web Alas poor proud wretch who made thee to differ Grevincovius the Arminian makes this proud answer to the Apostles question I my self made my self to differ This is Divinity much like that of the Heathens Seneca said That we live this is of God but that we live well that 's of our selves And Cicero hath also this saying and he tells us it is the judgment of all men That prosperity and sccesse is from God and must be sought of God but wisdom that is gotten by our selves which gave Augustine occasion to passe this censure upon him ●icero in endeavouring to make men free he made them sacrilegious But let us take heed of this proud leaven of Arminianisme and learn from hence to be convinced of the emptinesse and insufficiency of our nature to any supernaturall good For alas We are not sufficient of our selves to think any thing as of our selves but our sufficiency is of God We have no grace but what we receive from Christ And grace is no way grace unlesse it be every way free We have little reason to boast of the freedome of our will to any thing that is spiritually good because our wil is not free til it be by grace made free We have no power to become the sons of God till it be given us to believe on his name and such are born not of the flesh nor of the will of man but of God XV. Sermon At Lawrence Jury London April 27. 1651. This was the last Sermon that ever Mr. Love preached 2 TIM 2. 1. My son be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus FRom the last clause in this text viz. Grace that is in Christ Jesus we have gathered this observation that All those measures of grace whereof beli●vers are partakers they doe receive them in and from Jesus Christ That this is so we have proved not onely by the types of the Old Testament but also by the expresse testimony of the New Testament and have also given the grounds and reasons of this point with some Application by way of reproofe and confutation of the Arminian and Socinian errours It remains we make some further Application of this point and so conclude the whole discourse 2. Vse is by way of exhortation unto these duties following 1. Dost thou receive all thy grace from Jesus Christ then labour to be humble in the acknowledgement of this Let the consideration and conscientious application of this doctrine quell all boasting in us of any excellency received Our wisdom righteousnesse and sanctification and redemption are all from Christ and therefore he that gloryeth let him glory in the Lord. Consider who maketh thee to differ from another and what hast thou that thou didst not receive now if thou didst receive it why didst thou glory as if thou hadst not received it Who but a proud foole would magnifie himselfe in that which either another giveth him or another hath done for him We count it an odious pride and folly in a man to boast himselfe of that which another hath done And therefore the Apostle professeth that he did not carry himselfe as those false teachers had done who were crept into the Church of Corinth saith the Apostle We doe not boast of things beyond our measure that is of other mens labours nor boast in another mans line of things made ready to our hand Now all grace is made ready to our hands and is onely the worke of Jesus Christ in us who worketh all our works for us Ammianus Marcellinus tels us of one Lampadius a great person in Rome who in all parts of the City where other men had bestowed cost in building he would set up his own name not as a Repairer of the work but as the chiefe Builder Such folly are they guilty of who wil set their owne names before Gods over the work of grace in their own souls Oh remember that boasting is excluded by the law of faith Faith is that grace which emptieth the creature of all its conceited excellencies and faith is that grace which wil give God the praise of the glory of all his grace Shall the groom of the stable boast of his masters horses and the Stage-player of his borrowed robes shall the mud wall be proud that the Sun-shines upon it We must say of all the good that is in us as the young man said to the Prophet of his hatchet Alas Master it was borrowed The Church of God is compared to the Moon Now all the light which the Moon giveth to the world she doth but distribute what is lent her all our graces and the shining of them whereby our light is seen before men is but a borrowed light from the Sun of righteousnesse David sets us an excellent pattern when he makes that humble acknowledgement Blessed be the Lord God of Israel our Father for ever and ever Thin● Oh Lord is the greatness and the power and the glory