David was once a man of great grace, but his sin
made the grace which he had so to shrink up and dwindle away as to
make him cry out, O take not thy Spirit utterly from me!
(3.) Or, perhaps God withholds what thou wouldst have, that it may
be the more prized by thee when it comes. "Hope deferred maketh the
heart sick; but when the desire cometh, it is a tree of life."
(4.) Lastly. But dost thou think that thy more grace will exempt
thee from temptations? Alas, the more grace, the greater trials.
Thou must be, for all that, like the ship of which thou readest:
sometimes high, sometimes low; sometimes steady, sometimes
staggering; and sometimes even at the end of thy very wits: "For so
he brings us to our desired haven."
Yet grace is the gold and preciousness of the righteous man: yea,
and herein appears the uprightness of his soul, in that, though all
these things attend the grace of God in him, yet he chooseth grace
here above all, for that it makes him the more like God and his
Christ, and for that it seasons his heart best to his own content;
and also for that it capacitates him to glorify God in the world.
RELIEF IN PRAYER.
If from a sense of thy vileness thou do pour out thy heart to God,
desiring to be saved from the guilt and cleansed from the filth with
all thy heart, fear not; thy vileness will not cause the Lord to
stop his ear from hearing thee.
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