Part 84 HOLINESS, the Only Way to Happiness
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Part 85 HOLINESS, the Only Way to Happiness
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[4.] Fourthly, It is possible for you to attain to higher degrees and pitches in holiness than any that yet you have attained unto; witness the PRAISES and THANKSGIVINGS that have been offered up to God upon their accounts who have attained to a very great height of holiness. Take a few Scripture instances for the clearing up of this particular:
1 Cor. 1:4-5, 7, "I thank my God always on your behalf, for the grace of God which is given you by Jesus Christ; that in everything you are enriched by him, in all utterance and in all knowledge; so that you come behind in no good gift."
Eph. 1:3, 7-8, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ; who according to the riches of his grace, has abounded towards us in all wisdom and prudence." [Though injuries should be written in the dust—yet spiritual mercies should be written on marble, that our hearts may be the better provoked to thankfulness for them.] Here the apostle trumpets out the high praises of God, for that he had blessed them and enriched them, though not with grain, or oil, or wine, or with gold or silver, which is but red and white clay, that yet he had blessed them with all spiritual blessings—which are the choicest, the chief, and the sweetest of blessings. Spiritual blessings are right-handed blessings, they are peculiar blessings, they are blessings-sweetening blessings, for they sweeten all the blessings man enjoys.
And they are blessings-begetting blessings, for they beget and bring forth many other blessings, to the enriching and adorning of a Christian's soul. And they are blessings-sanctifying blessings, they are blessings that sanctify all other blessings. And they are blessings-preserving blessings, they are blessings that will preserve all our other blessings. Spiritual blessings are peculiar blessings, they are costly blessings, they are blessings that reach to the very spirit and soul of a Christian, they are blessings that raise the spirit of a Christian, and that ennoble the spirit of a Christian, and that cheer up the spirit of a Christian, and that a thousand ways betters the spirit of a Christian! Therefore it is no wonder that the apostle's heart was so affected with spiritual blessings, and that his mouth was so filled with spiritual praises, as indeed it was.
1 Tim. 1:12, 14, "And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, because the grace of our Lord was poured out on me abundantly, along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus."
And thus you see by others' thanksgivings, that it is possible for you to attain to far higher degrees of holiness than what for the present you are raised to. The stork is said to leave one of her young ones where she hatches them; and the elephant to turn up the first sprig towards heaven when he comes to feed, and both out of some instinct of gratitude; and shall not a divine instinct enable Christians to do much more in a way of gratitude, both upon the account of their own graces, and upon the account of those eminent measures of grace, which other saints are blessed and crowned with? Though Seiarus did dare to sacrifice to himself—yet a Christian must not dare to sacrifice to himself, nor to his duties, nor to his graces, etc.; the sacrifice of praise in regard of grace received, is a crown of glory which is due to none but the God of grace.
All the rivers return to the sea from whence they had their beginning. God will give you his covenant, and he will give you his ordinances, and he will give his heaven, and he will give you his Son, yes, he will give you himself; but his glory, his glory—he will not give unto another, Isaiah 42:8. Whatever he parts with, he is resolved that neither angels nor men shall share with him in the glory of his grace. I have read of a stork which cast a pearl into the bosom of a maid which had healed her of a wound. O sirs! when God comes to heal you of your spiritual wounds and diseases, and not only so—but shall also richly bespangle and adorn your souls with his precious graces, what can you do less than cast that pearl of praise into the bosom of God? as David did in that Psalm 103:1-6.
The best means to get more grace, is to be thankful for that grace which you have, for God loves to sow much where he reaps much. If your returns are answerable to your receipts, you will still be on the receiving hand. Thankfulness is God's payment for all his blessings, and those who truly and duly pays this payment, shall be sure to abound in the best of blessings. Thankfulness for one blessing always draws on another blessing, as saints by experience daily find. And thus you see, by these arguments, that it is possible for you to attain higher degrees of holiness than any yet you have reached unto. But,
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Part 85 HOLINESS, the Only Way to Happiness
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