A49244:203
Grace: the truth and growth and different degrees thereof. The sum and substance of…Grace: the truth and growth and different degrees thereof. The summe and substance of…
Grace: the truth and growth and different degrees thereof. The sum and substance of XV. sermons. Preached by that faithful and painful servant of Jesus Christ, Mr. Christopher Love, late minister of Lawrence Jury, London. They being his last sermons. To which is added a funeral sermon, being the very last sermon he ever preached.Grace: the truth and growth and different degrees thereof. The summe and substance of XV. sermons. Preached by that faithful and painful servant of Jesus Christ, Mr. Christopher Love, late minister of Lawrence Jury, London. They being his last sermons. To which is added a funerall sermon, being the very last sermon he ever preached.
London: printed by E.G. for J. Rothwell, 1652
Title page typeset from the transcription.
Sermon 5: V. Sermon At Lawrence Jury, London. March 23. 1651.
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
2. I will also endeavour to give you the grounds hereof, and then make application.
2. I wil also endeavour to give you the grounds hereof, and then make application.
First, that God doth thus cherish the small beginnings of grace, will appear, if we consider, 1. These Scripture-instances,1 Mat. 12, 20. He will not quench the smoking flax, that is, by the figure Meiosis, (as I have shown already) he will kindle it.—He will not break the bruised reed, that is, he will strengthen it.—God regards not the flame only,2 but the smoking of grace; not the ripe fruit, but the tender buds. Christ would have accepted of green figs of the fig-tree, though the time of ripe ⟨p. 57⟩fruits was not yet come; so some expound that place, Mar. 11. 13. Christ accepts not only the honey, 3but the honey-comb too, that is, say Expositors,4 not only the excellent services, but even the meaner services of his people; God takes notice of the cries of our heart, even the desires of the humble,5 even the most inward groanings of the soul; not a good word but God takes notice of it; nay,6 God takes not only notice of the least good that is in his people, but he eyes also the common good that is in such as have no grace; thus when the young man came to Christ,—though he had no true grace, yet it is said, Jesus loved him.