Chapter 2. Of the Saints' Strength, Where It Lies, and Therefore Laid Up in God

THe second Branch of the words follows, which contains a cautionary direction. Having exhorted the Saints at Ephesus, and in them all believers to a holy resolution and courage in their warfare; lest this should be mistaken, and beget in them an opinion of their own strength for the battel, the Apostle leads them out of themselves for this strength, even to the Lord; Be strong in the Lord. From whence observe,

That the Christians strength lies in the Lord, not in himself. The strength of the General in other hostes lies in his troops; he fles, as a great Commander once said to his souldiers, upon their wings; if their feathers be clipt, their power broken, he is lost; but in the Army of Saints, the strength of every Saint, yea, of the whole hoste of Saints lies in the Lord of hostes. God can overcome his enemies without their hands, but they cannot so much as defend themselves without his arme. It is one of Gods names, The strength of Israel, 1 Samuel 15:19. He was the strength of Davids heart, without him this valiant Worthy (that could, when held up in his armes, defie him that defied an whole Army) behaves himself strangely for feare, at a word or two that drop't from the Philistines mouth. He was the strength of his hands, He taught his fingers to fight, and so he is the strength of all his Saints in their war against sin and Satan. Some propound a question, whether there be a sin committed in the world, in which Satan has not a part? but if the question were, whether there be any holy action performed without the special assistance of God concurring? that is resolved, John. 15.5. Without me you can do nothing. Thinking strength of God, 2 Corinthians 3:5. Not that we are sufficient of our selves, to think any thing as of our selves, but our sufficiency is of God. We Apostles, we Saints that have habitual grace, yet this lies like water at the bottome of a Well, which will not ascend with all our pumping, till God pour in his exciting grace, and then it comes. To will is more than to think, to exert our will into action, more than both; these are of God, Philippians 2:13. It is God that works in you to will, and to do of his good pleasure. He makes the heart new, and having made it fit for heavenly motion, setting every wheele (as it were) in its right place, then he windes it up by his actuating grace, and sets it on going, the thoughts to stir, the will to move, and make towards the holy object presented; yet here the chariot is set, and cannot ascend the hill of action, till God puts his shoulder to the wheele, Rom. 7. To will is present with me, but how to performe that which is good I finde not. God is at the bottome of the ladder, and at the top also, the Author and Finisher, yea, helping and lifting the soul at every round, in his ascent to any holy action. Well, now the Christian is set on work, how long will he keep close to it? Alas, poor soul, no longer than he is held up by the same hand, that impowered him at first. He has soon wrought out the strength received, and therefore to maintain the tenure of a holy course. there must be renewing strength from heaven every moment, which David knew, and therefore when his heart was in as holy a frame as ever he felt it, and his people by their free-will-offering declared the same: yet even then he prayes, that God would keep this for ever in the imagination of the thoughts of the heart of his people, and establish their hearts to him, 1 Chronicles 29:18. He adored the mercy that made them willing, and then he implores his further grace to strengthen them, and tie a knot, that these precious pearles newly strung on their hearts, might not slip off. The Christian, when fullest of divine communications, is bu a glasse without a foot, he cannot stand, or hold what he has received any longer, then God holds him in his strong hand. Therefore Christ, when bound for heaven, and ready to take his leave of his children, bespeaks his Fathers care of them in his absence; Father, keep them; as if he had said, they must not be left alone, they are poor shiftlesse children, that can neither stand nor go without help; they will lose the grace I have given them, and fall into those temptations, which I kept them from while I was with them, if they be out of your eye or armes but one moment; and therefore, Father, keep them.

Again, Consider the Christian, as addressing himself to any duty of Gods worship, still his strength is in the Lord; Would he pray? where will he finde materials for his prayer? alas, he knows not what to pray for as he ought. Let him alone, and he will soon pray himself into some temptation or other, and cry for that which were cruelty in God to give; and therefore God puts words in our mouthes; Take words with you, and say, Hosea 14:2. Well, now he has words put into his mouth; alas, they will freeze in his very lips, if he has not some heart-heating affections to thaw the tap: and where shall this fire be had? not a spark to be found on his own hearth; except it be some strange fire of natural desires, which will not serve: whence then must the fire come to thaw the icenesse of the heart, but from heaven? The Spirit, he must stretch himself upon the soul, (as the Prophet on the child) and then the soul will come to some kindly warmth, and heavenly heat in his affections; the Spirit must groane, and then the soul will groane, he helps us to these sighs and groans, which turne the sailes of prayer. He dissolves the heart, and then it bursts out of the heart by groans, of the lips by heavenly Rhethorick, out of the eyes as from a floodgate with teares: yet further now the creature is enabled to wrestle with God in prayer; what will he get by all this? suppose he be weak in grace, is he able to pray himself strong, or corruption weak? no, this is not to be found in prayer, as an act of the creature: this drops from heaven also. In the day that I cried,you answeredst me, and gavest me strength in my soul. David received it in duty, but had it not from his duty, but from his God. He did not pray himself strong, but God strengthened him in his prayer. Well, cast your eye once more upon the Christian, as engaging in another Ordinance of hearing the Word preach't. The souls strength to heare the Word is from God,he opens the heart to attend, yea, he opens the understanding of the Saint to receive the Word, so as to conceive what it meant. It is like Samsons riddle which we cannot unfold without his Heifer: He opens the wombe of the soul to conceive by it, as the understanding to conceive of it, that the barren soul becomes a joyful mother of children. David sate for halfe a year under the publick Lectures of the Law, and the wombe of his heart shut up, till Nathan comes and God with him, and now is the time of life, he conceives presently, yea, and brings forth in the same day, falls presently into the bitter pangs of sorrow for his sins, which went not over till he had cast them forth in that sweet Psalm 51. Why should this one word work more, then all the former, but that God now struck in with his Word, which he did not before? He is therefore said to teach his people to profit; he sits in heaven that teaches hearts When Gods Spirit (who is the Head-master) shall call a soul from his Usher to himselfe, and say, Soul, you have not gone the way to thrive by hearing the Word, thus, and thus conceive of such a truth, improve such a promise, presently the eyes of his understanding open, and his heart burnes within him, while he speaks to him. Thus you see the truth of this Point, That the Christians strength is in the Lord. Now we shall give some demonstrations.

SECT. I.

Reason 1 The first Reason may be taken from the nature of the Saints and their grace, both are creatures, they and their grace also: now Inesse est de esse creaturae. 'Tis in the very nature of the creature, to depend on God its Maker, both for being and operation. Can you conceive an accident to be out of its subject, whitenesse out of the wall, or some other subject? 'tis as impossible that the creature should be, or act without strength from God: This, to be, act in and of himself, is so incommunicable a property of the Deity, that he cannot impart it to his creature: God is, and there is none besides him: when God made the world, it is said indeed he ended his work, that is, of Creation: he made no new species and kindes of creatures more; but to this day he has not ended his work of Providence; Hitherto my Father works, says Christ, John. 5.17. that is, in preserving and empowering what he has made with strength to be and act, and therefore he is said to hold our souls in life. Works of Art, which man makes, when finish't may stand some time without the Workmans help, as the house, when the Carpenter that made it is dead; but Gods works both of nature and grace are never off his hand, and therefore as the Father is said to work hitherto for the preservation of the works of nature, so the Son, to whom is committed the work of Redemption, he tells us he works also. Neither ended he his work, when he rose again, any otherways then his Father did in the work of Creation. God made an end of making, so Christ made an end of purchasing mercy, grace and glory for believers by once dying; and as God rested at the end of the Creation, so he, when he had wrought eternal Redemption, and by himself purged our sins, sate down on the right hand of the Majesty on High, Hebrews 1:3. But he ceass not to work by his intercession with God for us, and by his Spirit in us for God, whereby he upholds his Saints, their graces, and comforts in life, without which they would run to ruine. Thus we see as grace is a creature, the Christian depends on God for his strength. But further,

Reason 2 Secondly, the Christians grace is not only a creature, but a weak creature, conflicting with enemies stronger than it selfe, and therefore cannot keep the field without an auxiliary strength from Heaven. The weakest goes to the wall, if no succour comes in. Grace in this life is but weak, like a King in the Cradle, which gives advantage to Satan to carry on his plots more strongly, to the disturbance of this young Kings reigne in the soul, yea, he would soon make an end of the war in the ruine of the believers grace, did not Heaven take the Christian into protection. 'Tis true indeed, grace whereever it is, has a principle in it selfe, that makes it desire and endeavour to preserve it self according to its strength, but being over-powered must perish, except assisted by God, as fire in green wood, (which deads and damps the part kindled) will in time go out except blown up, or more fire put to that little; so will grace in the heart. God brings his grace into the heart by Conquest: now as in a conquered City, though some yield and become true subjects to the Conquerour; yet others plot how they may shake off this yoke; and therefore it requires the same power to keep, as was to win it at first. The Christian has an unregenerate part, that is discontented at this new change in the heart, and disdains as much to come under the sweet government of Christs Scepter, as the Sodomites that Lot should judge them. What, this fellow, a Stranger, controule us? And Satan heads this mutinous rout against the Christian: so that if God should not continually re-inforce this his new-planted Colony in the heart, the very natives (I mean corruptions) that are left, would come out of their dens and holes where they lie lurking, and eat up the little grace the holiest on earth has, it would be as bread to these devourers.

Reason 3 A third demonstration may be taken from the grand designe, which God propounds to himself in the Saints salvation; yea, in the transaction of it from first to last. And that is two-fold.

First, God would bring his Saints to heaven in such a way, as might be most expressive of his deare love and mercy to them.

Secondly, he would so express his mercy and love to them, as might rebound back to him, in the highest advance of his own glory possible: Now how becoming this is to both, that Saints should have all their ability for every step they take in the way to heaven, will soon appear.

First, this way of communicating strength to Saints gives a double accent to Gods love and mercy.

First, it distills a sweetnesse into all the believer has or does, when he findes any comfort in his bosome, any enlargement of heart in duty, any support under temptations: To consider whence came all these, what friend sends them in? they come not from my own cisterne, or any creatures? O 'tis my God that has been here, and left this sweet perfume of comfort behinde him in my bosome, my God, that has (unawares to me) fill'd my sailes with the gales of his Spirit, and brought me off the flats of my own deadnesse, where I lay a ground. O 'tis his sweet Spirit that held my head, stayed my heart in such an affliction and temptation, or else I had gone away in a fainting fit of unbelief. How can this choose but endear God to a gracious soul? his succours coming so immediately from heaven, which would, be lost, if the Christian had any strength to help himselfe, (though this stock of strength came at first from God) Which, think you, speaks more love and condescent; for a Prince to give a pension to a Favourite, on which he may live by his owne care, or for this Prince to take the chief care upon himself, and come from day to day to this mans house, and look into his Cupboard, and see what provision he has, what expence he is at, and so constantly to provide for the man from time to time? Possibly some proud spirit, that likes to be his own man, or loves his meanes better than his Prince, would prefer the former, but one that is ambitious to have the heart and love of his Prince, would be ravish't with the latter. Thus God does with his Saints, the great God comes and looks into their Cupboard, and sees how they are laid in, and sends in accordingly, as he findes them. Your heavenly Father knowes you have need of these things, and you shall have them. He knows you need strength to pray, hear, suffer for him, and in ipsâ horâ dabitur.

Secondly, this way of Gods dealing with his Saints, addes to the fulnesse and stability of their strength. Were the stock in our own hands, we should soon prove broken Merchants. God knows we are but leaking vessels, when fullest, we could not hold it long; and therefore to make all sure, he sets us under the streamings forth of his strength, and a leaking vessel under a cock gets what it loseth. Thus we have our leakage supplied continually. This was the provision God made for Israel in. the wilderness; He clave the rock, and the rock followed them. They had not only a draught at present, but it ran in a streame after them; so that you hear no more of their complaints for water; This rock was Christ. Every believer has Christ at his back, following him with strength as he goes, for every condition and trial. One flower with the root is worth many in a posie, which though sweet yet do not grow, but wither as we wear them in our bosomes. Gods strength, as the root keeps our grace lively, without which though as orient as Adams was, it would die.

The second design God has in his Saints happiness is, that he may so express his mercy and love to them, as may rebound back to him in the highest advance of his own glory therein, Ephesians 1:4, 12. which is fully attained in this way of empowering Saints, by a strength not of their own, but of their God his sending, as they are put to expence. Had God given his Saints a stock of grace to have set up with, and left them to the improvement of it, he had been magnified indeed, because it was more than God did owe the creature, but he had not been omnified as now, when not only the Christians first strength to close with Christ is from God, but he is beholden still to God for the exercise of that strength, in every action of his Christian course. As a child that travels in his fathers company, all is paid for, but his father carries the purse, not himself: so the Christians shot is discharged in every condition; but he cannot say this I did, or that I suffered, but God wrought all in me and for me. The very combe of pride is cut here, no room for any self exalting thoughts. The Christian cannot say, that I am a Saint is mercy, but being a Saint that my faith is strong, this is the child of my own care and watchfulnesse. Alas, poor Christian! who kept yours eye waking, and stirr'd up your care? was not this the off-spring of God as well as your faith at first? No Saint shall say of Heaven when he comes there, This is Heaven which I have built by the power of my might. No, Jerusalem above is a City, whose builder and maker is God, Every grace, yea, degree of grace is a stone in that building, the topstone whereof is laid in glory, where Saints shall more plainly see, how God was not only Founder to begin, but Benefactour also to finish the same. The glory of the work shall not be crumbled, and piece-meal'd out, some to God, and some to the creature, but all entirely paid in to God, and he acknowledged all in all.

SECTION. 2.

Use 1 Is the Christians strength in the Lord, not in himself, Surely then the Christlesse person must needs be a poor impotent creature, void of all strength and ability of doing any thing of it self towards its own salvation. If the ship launch't, rigg'd, and with her sails spread cannot stir, till the winde come faire and fills them, much lesse can the timber that lies in the Carpenters yard, hew and frame it self into a ship. If the living tree cannot grow, except the root communicate its sap, much lesse can a dead rotten stake in the hedge, which has no root, live of its own accord. In a word, if a Christian, that has this spiritual life of grace, cannot exercise this life, without strength from above; then surely, one void of this new life, dead in sins and trespasses, can never be able to beget this in himselfe, or concur to the production of it. The state of unregeneracy is a state of impotency, When we were without strength in due time Christ died for the ungodly, Romans 5:6. And as Christ found the lump of mankinde covered with the ruines of their lapsed estate, (no more able to raise themselves from under the weight of Gods wrath which lay upon them, then one buried under the rubbish of a fallen house, is to free himselfe of that weight without help) so the Spirit findes sinners in as helpless a condition, as unable to repent, or believe on Christ for salvation, as they were of themselves to purchase it. Confounded therefore for ever be the language of those sons of pride, who cry up the power of nature, as if man with his own brick and slime of natural abilities were able to reare up such a building, whose top may reach heaven it selfe. It is not of him that wills or runns,but God that shows mercy. God himself has scattered such Babel-builders in the imaginations of their hearts, who raiss this spiritual Temple in the souls of men, not by might, nor by a power of their own, but by his Spirit, that so grace, grace, might be proclaimed before it for ever. And therefore if any yet in their natural estate would become wise to salvation, let them first become fooles in their own eyes, and renounce their carnal wisdom, which perceives not the things of God, and beg wisdom of God, who gives and upbraids not. If any man would have strength to believe, let them become weak, and die to their own, for by strength shall no man prevaile, 1 Samuel 2:9.

Use 2 Secondly, does the Christians strength lie in God, not in himselfe? this may for ever keep the Christian humble, when most enlarged in duty, most assisted in his Christian course. Remember, Christian, when you have your best suit on, who made it, who paid for it: Your grace, your comfort is neither the work of your own hands, nor the price of your own desert, be not for shame proud of anothers cost. That assistance will not long stay, which becomes a nurse to your pride; you are not Lord of that assistance you have. Your Father is wise, who when he allows you most for your spiritual maintenance, even then keeps the Law in his own hands, and can soon curb you, if you growest wanton with his grace. Walk humbly therefore before your God, and husband well that strength you have, remembring that it is borrowed strength. Nemo prodiget quod mendicat. Who will waste what he begs? or who will give that beggar that spends idly his almes? when you have most you can not be long from your God his door. And how can you look him on the face for more, who have imbezell'd what you have received?

The second part of the text follows, which contains a qualifying direction. Having urged the saints at Ephesus — and through them all believers — to holy resolution and courage in their warfare, the apostle takes care lest this exhortation be misunderstood and lead them to rely on their own strength for the battle. He therefore directs them away from themselves and to the Lord: "Be strong in the Lord." From this, observe the following.

The Christian's strength lies in the Lord, not in himself. In other armies, a general's strength lies in his troops — he rises, as one great commander once told his soldiers, on their wings. If their feathers are clipped and their power is broken, he is lost. But in the army of the saints, the strength of every saint — indeed of the entire host — lies in the Lord of hosts. God can defeat His enemies without their hands, but they cannot so much as defend themselves without His arm. One of God's names is "the Strength of Israel" (1 Samuel 15:29). He was the strength of David's heart — without Him, this valiant warrior, who when upheld in God's arms could defy one who defied a whole army, behaved strangely with fear at a word or two that dropped from a Philistine's mouth. God was the strength of David's hands: "He trains my hands for battle" — and so He is the strength of all His saints in their war against sin and Satan. Some raise the question of whether there is any sin committed in the world in which Satan has no part. But the question of whether there is any holy action performed without God's special assistance alongside it is already settled: "Apart from Me you can do nothing" (John 15:5). "Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God" (2 Corinthians 3:5). We — apostles, saints with habitual grace — yet this grace lies like water at the bottom of a well, which will not rise no matter how much we pump, until God pours in His activating grace, and then it flows. To think is something; to will is more than to think; to put our will into action is more than both. Yet all of these are from God: "It is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure" (Philippians 2:13). He makes the heart new, and having made it fit for heavenly motion — setting every wheel, so to speak, in its right place — He winds it up with His energizing grace and sets it going: the thoughts to stir, the will to move and reach toward the holy object set before it. Yet even then the whole mechanism can stall and cannot climb the hill of action until God puts His shoulder to the wheel. As Romans 7 says: "To will is present with me, but how to do good I do not find." God is at the bottom of the ladder and at the top as well — the Author and Finisher, helping and lifting the soul at every rung as it ascends toward any holy action. Now the Christian is set to work — but how long will he keep at it? Alas, poor soul — no longer than the same hand that first empowered him holds him up. He quickly expends the strength he has received, and therefore to sustain a holy course, there must be renewed strength from heaven at every moment. David knew this, and so even when his heart was in as holy a frame as he had ever felt it, and his people by their freewill offerings showed the same, he still prayed that God would "keep this forever in the intentions of the thoughts of the heart of Your people, and direct their heart to You" (1 Chronicles 29:18). He thanked God for the mercy that had made them willing, and then implored His further grace to strengthen them and fasten the knot, so that these precious pearls newly strung on their hearts might not slip off. The Christian, when fullest of divine supply, is like a glass without a foot — he cannot stand or hold what he has received any longer than God holds him in His strong hand. Therefore, when Christ was on His way to heaven and about to take leave of His children, He committed them to His Father's care in His absence: "Father, keep them" — as if He said, they cannot be left alone; they are poor helpless children who can neither stand nor walk without help. They will lose the grace I have given them and fall into those temptations which I kept them from while I was with them, if they are out of Your sight or Your arms for even a moment. Therefore, Father, keep them.

Consider also the Christian as he comes to any duty of worship — still his strength is in the Lord. If he would pray, where will he find material for his prayer? He does not know what to pray for as he ought. Left to himself, he will soon pray himself into some temptation or other and ask for what it would be cruelty in God to grant. Therefore God puts words in our mouths: "Take words with you and return to the Lord" (Hosea 14:2). But now that he has words put in his mouth, they will freeze on his very lips unless some heart-warming affection thaws the tap. Where will this fire come from? There is not a spark to be found on his own hearth — only some strange fire of natural emotion, which will not do. Where then must the fire come from to thaw the iciness of the heart, if not from heaven? The Spirit must stretch Himself over the soul, as the prophet stretched himself over the child, and then the soul comes to some genuine warmth and heavenly heat in its affections. The Spirit must groan, and then the soul will groan — He helps us to these sighs and groans that turn the sails of prayer. He melts the heart, and then it bursts out of the heart in groans, from the lips in heavenly eloquence, and from the eyes like water through a floodgate in tears. And yet, even now that the soul is enabled to wrestle with God in prayer — what will it gain by all this? Suppose the Christian is weak in grace: can he pray himself strong or pray his corruptions weak? No — that is not found in prayer as an act of the creature. That too drops from heaven: "On the day I called, You answered me; You made me bold with strength in my soul." David received strength in the act of prayer, but he did not get it from his prayer — he got it from his God. He did not pray himself strong; God strengthened him while he was praying. Now cast your eye on the Christian engaged in another ordinance — hearing the Word preached. His strength to hear the Word is from God. God opens the heart to pay attention; He opens the understanding of the saint to receive the Word in such a way as to grasp what it means. It is like Samson's riddle, which we cannot unravel without his heifer. He opens the womb of the soul to conceive by the Word — as the understanding conceives of it — so that the barren soul becomes a joyful mother of children. David sat under the public preaching of the law for half a year, with the womb of his heart shut up, until Nathan came and God came with him. Then the time of new life arrived — David conceived instantly, brought forth that same day, and fell at once into the bitter pangs of sorrow for his sin, which did not pass until he had cast them forth in that beautiful Psalm 51. Why did that one word work more than all the previous preaching? Simply because God now spoke alongside His Word in a way He had not before. He is therefore said to "teach His people to profit" — the Head Teacher who sits in heaven sometimes calls a soul from His assistant and draws the student directly to Himself, saying: "You have not been approaching the hearing of the Word in the right way. Understand this truth this way; make use of this promise like that" — and at once the eyes of the understanding open and the heart burns within him while God speaks. So we see the truth of this point: the Christian's strength is in the Lord. We now turn to some demonstrations of this.

Section I.

First reason: The first reason may be drawn from the nature of the saints and of their grace — both are creatures. It is in the very nature of the creature to depend on God its Maker, both for its being and its operation. Can you imagine an accident to exist outside of its subject — whiteness apart from a wall or some other surface? It is just as impossible for a creature to exist or act without strength from God. To exist, act, and move from within oneself alone is so exclusively a property of God that He cannot share it with any creature. God simply is, and there is none beside Him. When God made the world, He is said to have finished His work — that is, He created no new species or kinds of creatures beyond that point. But to this day He has not finished His work of Providence. "My Father is working until now," says Christ (John 5:17) — that is, preserving and empowering what He has made with strength to exist and act. This is why He is said to "hold our souls in life." Works of human craftsmanship, once finished, may stand for a time without the craftsman's help — a house stands after the carpenter who built it is dead. But God's works, both in nature and in grace, are never off His hands. Therefore, as the Father is said to work continually in preserving the works of nature, so the Son, to whom the work of redemption is committed, tells us He works as well. Nor did He finish His work when He rose again, any more than His Father finished His work at creation. God made an end of creating; Christ made an end of purchasing mercy, grace, and glory for believers by His once-for-all death. And as God rested at the end of creation, so Christ, when He had accomplished eternal redemption and by Himself purged our sins, "sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high" (Hebrews 1:3). But He has not ceased to work — by His intercession with God for us, and by His Spirit in us for God, He upholds His saints, their graces, and their comforts in this life. Without that, they would all collapse into ruin. So we see that as grace is a creature, the Christian depends on God for his strength. But there is more.

Second reason: The Christian's grace is not only a creature, but a weak creature in conflict with enemies stronger than itself — and therefore it cannot hold the field without help from heaven. When no support comes in, the weakest goes to the wall. Grace in this life is only weak — like a king in the cradle — which gives Satan an advantage to press his schemes more effectively against this young king's reign in the soul. Indeed, Satan would quickly end the war by destroying the believer's grace if heaven did not take the Christian under its protection. True, grace wherever it is found has a principle within itself that makes it desire and strive to preserve itself according to its strength. But when it is overpowered it will perish unless God assists it — like fire in green wood, which dampens and suppresses what has been kindled and will in time go out unless it is blown up or more fire is added. So it is with grace in the heart. God brings His grace into the heart by conquest. In a conquered city, some yield and become true subjects to the conqueror, but others plot how they may throw off this yoke. It therefore takes the same power to hold the city that it took to win it. The Christian has an unregenerate part that is discontented with this new change in the heart and resists the sweet government of Christ's scepter just as the people of Sodom resisted Lot's authority over them: "This fellow, a stranger, controls us?" And Satan leads this mutinous mob against the Christian. So if God did not continually reinforce His newly planted colony in the heart, the very natives — I mean the remaining corruptions lurking in their dens and holes — would come out and devour the little grace the holiest person on earth possesses. To them it would be bread.

Third reason: A third demonstration may be drawn from the great design God pursues in the salvation of His saints — indeed, in the entire transaction of it from first to last. This design has two parts.

First, God would bring His saints to heaven in a way that most fully expresses His deep love and mercy toward them.

Second, He would express His mercy and love to them in a way that rebounds back to Him in the greatest possible advance of His own glory. How perfectly this is served by having the saints receive all their strength for every step they take toward heaven will soon become clear.

First, this way of giving strength to the saints lends double weight to God's love and mercy.

First, it pours sweetness into everything the believer has or does. When he finds comfort in his heart, enlargement of heart in duty, support in the face of temptation — to consider where all of this comes from, what friend has sent it in. It does not come from my own supply or from any creature. Oh — it is my God who has been here and left this sweet fragrance of comfort behind Him in my heart. My God, who unnoticed by me has filled my sails with the breezes of His Spirit and carried me off the shallows of my own deadness, where I had run aground. It is His sweet Spirit who held my head and steadied my heart in that affliction and temptation, or else I would have passed out in a faint of unbelief. How can this fail to endear God to a gracious soul? His supplies come so directly from heaven, and they would be lost if the Christian had any reserve of his own to draw on. Consider which speaks more love: a prince who gives his favorite a pension and lets him manage on his own, or a prince who takes the chief care upon himself, comes to this man's house every day, looks into his pantry, sees what provisions he has and what he is spending, and so steadily provides for him from time to time? Perhaps some proud spirit who likes to be independent, or who values the money more than the prince's company, would prefer the first. But one who longs for the heart and love of his prince would be overwhelmed with joy at the second. This is how God deals with His saints. The great God comes and looks into their pantry, sees how they are supplied, and provides accordingly as He finds them. "Your heavenly Father knows that you have need of all these things" — and you shall have them. He knows you need strength to pray, to hear, to suffer for Him — and in that very hour it will be given.

Second, this way of God's dealing with His saints adds to the fullness and stability of their strength. If the stock were in our own hands, we would soon prove to be broken merchants. God knows we are leaking vessels — even when fullest, we could not hold it long. Therefore, to secure everything, He keeps us positioned under the outflow of His strength — and a leaking vessel kept under a running tap is supplied as fast as it leaks. So our leakage is continually replenished. This was God's provision for Israel in the wilderness: He split the rock, and the rock followed them. They had not only a drink in the moment — the water ran in a stream behind them, so that you hear no more of their complaints about thirst. That rock was Christ. Every believer has Christ at his back, following him with strength as he goes, for every condition and trial. One flower with its root still attached is worth more than many cut ones in a bouquet — which, however fragrant, are no longer growing but are withering even as you wear them. God's strength, as the root, keeps our grace alive; without it, that grace would die, however beautiful it once was.

The second design God has in the happiness of His saints is that He might express His mercy and love to them in a way that rebounds back to Him in the highest possible advance of His own glory (Ephesians 1:4, 12). This is fully achieved by empowering the saints with a strength that is not their own but comes from their God as they need it. If God had given His saints a stock of grace to start with and left them to manage it on their own, He would certainly have been magnified — since it would have been more than He owed any creature. But He would not have been fully glorified as He is now, when not only the Christian's first strength to come to Christ is from God, but he remains indebted to God for the exercise of that strength in every action throughout his Christian life. It is like a child traveling in his father's company — all the expenses are paid, but the father carries the money, not the child. So the Christian's way is covered at every point, but he cannot say "I did this" or "I endured that" — only "God worked all of it in me and for me." The very comb of pride is cut here; there is no room for any self-exalting thought. The Christian cannot say: "That I am a saint is mercy — but that my faith is strong, that is the fruit of my own care and watchfulness." Poor Christian! Who kept your eyes open and stirred your care? Was that not the offspring of God just as much as your faith was at the beginning? No saint will say of heaven when he arrives there: "This is heaven that I built by the power of my might." No — the new Jerusalem above is a city whose builder and maker is God. Every grace, and every degree of grace, is a stone in that building — the capstone of which is laid in glory, where the saints will see more plainly how God was not only the one who laid the foundation but also the one who finished the work. The glory of that work will not be divided and parceled out, some to God and some to the creature. It will all be fully returned to God, and He will be acknowledged as all in all.

Section 2.

First application: If the Christian's strength is in the Lord and not in himself, then surely the person without Christ must be a poor, helpless creature — with no ability of his own to do anything toward his own salvation. If a ship fully launched, rigged, and with sails spread cannot move until a favorable wind fills them, how much less can the timber lying in the carpenter's yard shape and frame itself into a ship. If a living tree cannot grow unless the root sends up its sap, how much less can a dead, rotting stake in the hedge — which has no root — come to life on its own. In short, if a Christian who possesses the spiritual life of grace cannot exercise that life without strength from above, then surely one who lacks this new life, who is dead in sins and trespasses, can never beget it in himself or contribute to producing it. The state of being unregenerate is a state of powerlessness. "While we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly" (Romans 5:6). Just as Christ found the whole mass of humanity buried under the ruins of their fallen condition — no more able to lift themselves from beneath the weight of God's wrath than a man buried under the rubble of a collapsed house is able to free himself unaided — so the Spirit finds sinners in an equally helpless condition, as unable to repent or believe in Christ for salvation as they were to purchase it on their own. Let the proud who celebrate the power of human nature be put to shame forever — as if a man with the bricks and mortar of natural ability could build a tower whose top reaches heaven itself. "It does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy" (Romans 9:16). God Himself has scattered such builders of Babel in the thoughts of their hearts. He raises this spiritual temple in the souls of people not by might or by any power of their own, but by His Spirit — so that grace, grace alone, may be proclaimed over it forever. Therefore, if anyone still in their natural state would become wise for salvation, let them first become fools in their own eyes. Let them renounce the carnal wisdom that does not perceive the things of God, and ask God for wisdom — He gives generously and without reproach. If anyone would have strength to believe, let him become weak and die to his own strength, for "by strength no man shall prevail" (1 Samuel 2:9).

Second application: If the Christian's strength lies in God and not in himself, this should keep the Christian humble — even when most enlarged in duty and most assisted in his Christian course. Remember, Christian, when you have your best outfit on — who made it, who paid for it. Your grace and your comfort are neither the work of your own hands nor the reward of your own merit. Do not, for shame, be proud of another's expense. That assistance will not stay long if it becomes a nurse to your pride; you are not the master of the strength you have been given. Your Father is wise — even when He allows you the most for your spiritual maintenance, He keeps the resources in His own hands and can quickly restrain you if you grow reckless with His grace. Walk humbly before your God, and make good use of the strength you have, remembering that it is borrowed. No one wastes what he has to beg for. Who gives alms to a beggar who spends it carelessly? Even when you have the most, you cannot go long without returning to your God's door. And how can you face Him for more when you have squandered what you already received?