A cabinet of choice jewels, or, A box of precious ointment being a plain…A cabinet of choice jevvels, or, A box of precious ointment being a plain…

Ninthly, No man can sincerely and seriously desire grace for gracious ends and purposes, but he that has true grace in his soul.¹ No man can truly desire grace, that he may enjoy communion and fellowship with the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, and that he may be made conformable to Christ, and that he may be serviceable and useful to the interest of Christ, and that he may walk even as Christ walked,² in the exercise of every grace, and that he may be rid of his sins, yea all his sins, especially his special sins; and that he may run the ways of God's commands more easily, more readily, more delightfully, more resolutely, more patiently, more unweariedly, and more zealously; and that he may be made victorious over the world, the flesh, and the devil; and that he may so live, as to be a praise, a name, an honour, and a glory to Christ; and that after all, and by all, he may be prepared and fitted for an eternal fruition and enjoyment of Christ, ⟨p. 183⟩but he that has true grace in his soul. Now, every weak believer is able to appeal to God, that he desires grace for gracious ends and purposes, as for the ends last cited, and others of the like nature with them. Wicked men may in a fit desire grace,³ as Simon Magus did desire the holy Ghost to get money by it, or when they are under some pangs of conscience, they may desire grace to be rid of their horrors and terrors, or when they are upon a dying bed they may desire so much grace as may keep them out of hell, and bring them to heaven; but in all this they look no further than self, they are far from desiring of grace for gracious ends and purposes. There is nothing in all the world that the great God so much regards as man; All these things have my hands made, but to this man will I look, Isa. 66.2. Nothing in man so much as the heart; My son, give me thy heart. That is the Mount Zion which God loveth above all the dwellings of Jacob, and nothing in the heart, so much as the aim and end of it. Let a mans profession be never so glorious, let him be never so abundant in the performance of duties, let his desires after this and that good thing be never so strong, yet if his ends be wrong, all his pretensions and performances are but beautiful abominations. Did David pray three times a day?