1. Trust not in any gifts that you have received for the performance of any duty, for it is not the strongest Christian that is able to put forth a good thought, 2 Corinthians 3:5, But our sufficiency is of God. He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much, fruit: for without me ye can do nothing, John 15:5. And the Apostle Paul cannot only not do any great matter by his own strength and grace, but nothing at all without Jesus Christ; and therefore he giveth us to understand, that it is God that worketh in us both to will and to do, Philippians 2:12, if therefore we have any new work to do, look to the Lord Jesus Christ afresh by Faith, that he may carry an end our works in us, and for us; otherwise it is not any strength or grace in us, that can produce any good work, word, or thought: And therefore (mind you) the Apostle maketh it a Principle of Christian Religion, that The just man liveth by his Faith; and he often mentioneth it, Galatians 2:20, The life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God; where he putteth it into his own experience: why? did he not live by Love, and Patience, and Zeal? Gc.
Yes truly, they were lively in him, if ever in any man, besides our blessed Saviour; and yet notwithstanding, he never attributed life to any of these gifts of his; but if he speak of his Life, he maketh this his Universal Life, I live by the Faith of the Son of God, and I am able to do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me, Philippians 4:13. This is the true saviour of a Christian spirit, that when gifts are at the highest, the heart is then at the lowest: 1 Corinthians 15:9,10. The Apostle Paul there acknowledgeth himself to be as one born out of due time; for (saith he) I am less than the least of the Apostles, not meet to be called an Apostle, because I persecuted the Church of God; I, but by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain, but I laboured more abundantly then they all, yet not I, but the grace of God in me. This is truly spiritual sanctification, that when the soul is full of the Holy Ghost, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, yet he is like a man in great penury, as having nothing of himself: This is a marvellous spiritual poverty, and you shall ever find (and I desire the Lord would open the hearts of his people to know what I speak) that if Christians have fallen, their greatest falls have been in their most exemplary gifts. If you shall mark the sins of all the servants of God, they have been chiefly found in the very exercise of their best gifts. Let us take a little taste of them, that we may learn to use our gifts in the strength of Jesus Christ.
Abraham, a man full of faith, none went beyond him in Old or new Testament: yet if you read of any failing in him, it is in want of the acting of faith. What made him afraid not once, but the second time, that his wife would be taken away from him by Pharaoh? Genesis 12:12, by Abimelech? chapter 20, had not the Lord promised that he would bless him wheresoever he came? Genesis 12:2. He had so much of the knowledge and grace of God shining in him, that Sarah needed not have dissembled; and Abimelech (a poor Heathen), could say as much, chapter 20:16. Behold, thy husband is a covering of the eyes to all that are with thee, and with all other; thus she was reproved: as if he should say, Thou needest no shifts and lies for thy protections, and to be a vail unto thee: this a poor Heathen can discern, that such a man as hath God with him, needeth no other shifts nor covering to defend and shelter him.
Thus we see that these great failings of Abraham, were proper acts of unbelief. Moses, a meek man, none like him for meekness on the face of the earth; there is, but one sin storied of him after he was called to the Government of that State, and this was his failing; Hear now you rebels, Must we fetch you water out of this rock? So he lift up his hand, and with his rod he smote the rock twice, Numbers 20:10,11, they provoked Moses as meek as he was: sometimes, when Aaron and Miriam dealt as peremptorily with him, he was not moved from the meekness of his spirit: but now he falleth into Passion, and this was the very sin, for which the Lord excluded him out of Canaan, Numbers 27:12,13,14. It was the breach of his royal grace, chapter 20:12.
Because ye believed me not, to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this congregation into the Land which have given them: which words show us the reason of his failing in the grace wherein he so much abounded, because ye believed me not. The Lord will have him know, that he must live by his faith in his meekness. If any man think himself to be a meek man, and nothing shall over- wrastle him there, if you believe not in God but in your meekness, your confidence will soon fail you. Peter, a man full of courage; and you read of two of his principal failings, and both in point of courage; he failed in the high Priest’s Hall at the voice of a Damsel, and in the porch at the speech of another Maid? and the third time, at the voice of one that stood by, Matthew 26:69 Gc. whereas afterward when he lived by faith, he became undaunted. Another failing of his in point of courage we read of, Galatians 2:12. He feared those of the circumcision; and whereas before he did eat with the Gentiles, when certain of the Circumcision came from James, he withdrew, and separated himself and so dissembled, and others likewise with him, insomuch, that Barnabas also was carried away, with their dissimulation. Thus the Apostle Peter’s most eminent gifts did not bring forth their fruits.
Know therefore, that the best of all your gifts, faith, meekness, courage, wisdom, love to your brethren, will fail, if you trust in them; and you will be most apt to fail there wherein you do most excel. If a man be wise, he shall fail in that point, and it may be in nothing so much, as in that, even in those things wherein he thinketh he walketh most wisely: and such an one will find most trials in point of his wisdom; and the like will be found in all other graces, and all to this end, to teach the Israel of God to know, that no man liveth by his wisdom, nor by any thing in himself, but by faith in Jesus Christ, whom God hath given unto his people; and who is only able to give new supplies of his Spirit unto his servants to act every gift which he hath given them.
I might have mentioned the example of Sarah, a meek and a quiet godly spirited woman, subject and obedient to her Husband, and called him Lord; whose daughter you are while you do well, 1 Peter 3:6, and yet you know one of her greatest failings, was in point of Reverence to her husband, Genesis 16:5, When she saw that she was despised in the eyes of her maid, whom she had given unto her husband, she said to Abraham, My wrong be upon thee, and the Lord judge between me and thee. Where is the reverence of Sarah now? Will you have the daughters of Sarah to imitate her herein?
What had her Husband done? There was no fault in him in this matter; she had no reason to tax him upon this point: it was her own counsel, verse 2, that he should go in to her maid, that I may obtain children by her: therefore there was no colour of any just complaint on her part: yet see, this meek-spirited woman failed in the point of her meekness herein, and did express no greater failing all her life long, that we read of: she was weak in faith once, but there was great reason, for that her womb was dead, and her Lord (as she called him) was old also; nor doth the Angel so much blame her about it: but that action wherein she most failed, was against that grace wherein she most abounded. And though every grace of the Spirit be of great force, when the Lord doth act and move it, yet let a man go forth in the strength of his greatest gifts, and if ever his heart fail him, it will be in them.
Think not when you have done all you can, that you are worthy of any thing, but say, that you are unprofitable servants: for though Sanctification be the way wherein the Lord will pour out all his blessings upon his servants, yet he doth require them to boast in none of their excellencies, but look at them all as freely given them of God: and consider that the right unto all springeth from fellowship with Jesus Christ, that so not only the gift itself is grace, but the blessing that followeth upon it is grace also. And suppose that we have attained all that we pray for, shall we then exalt our own gifts? No, but let us say with Jacob, Genesis 32:10, I am less then the least of all the mercies and truth which thou hast shewed unto thy servant.
