CXLV expository sermons upon the whole 17th chapter of the Gospel according to St.…

Now you must know, There is a great difference between the Degrees or quickenings of Grace and the Essence of Grace: Christ did not so pray that his Disciples might not fall from any Degree of their Grace, Neither doth God so keep them as that they never stumble; No, we see the contrary to this, For the Disciples fled through fear when Christ was apprehended, and though Christ in particular prayed for Peter, That his Faith might not fail him, yet it did in some measure, otherwise he could not with cursing and swearing so sadly have denied the Lord Christ; Christs Prayer therefore, and Gods keeping doth infallibly extend to the Essence and Truth of Grace: They shall never lose that, but for the Degrees and Intensions they are amissible, yea, so far loseable, that to the eye of others there is no difference between a wicked man and them; As in the dead of Winter we cannot by the outward appearance tell which is a dead Tree, or a living, only there is inward sap in one which is not in another; And thus there is an inward principle of Life in one which is not in the wicked man; The Godly then notwithstanding Gods keeping and Christs praying may lose much of their grace, fall into sad ways, and run much into debt, though they do not prove Bankrupts.

Now you must know, There is a great difference between the Degrees or quickenings of Grace and the Essence of Grace: Christ did not so pray that his Disciples might not fall from any Degree of their Grace, Neither doth God so keep them as that they never stumble; No, we see the contrary to this, For the Disciples fled through fear when Christ was apprehended, and though Christ in particular praied for Peter, That his Faith might not fail him, yet it did in some measure, otherwise he could not with cursing and swearing so sadly have denied the Lord Christ; Christs Prayer therefore, and Gods keeping doth infallibly extend to the Essence and Truth of Grace: They shall never lose that, but for the Degrees and Intensions they are amissible, yea, so farre loseable, that to the eye of others there is no difference between a wicked man and them; As in the dead of Winter we cannot by the outward appearance tell which is a dead Tree, or a living, onely there is inward sap in one which is not in another; And thus there is an inward principle of Life in one which is not in the wicked man; The Godly then notwithstanding Gods keeping and Christs praying may lose much of their grace, fall into sad waies, and run much into debt, though they do not prove Bankrupts.