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…

In the opening of the first doctrine, the first thing is to make it appear, That believers must not rest satisfied with weak measures of grace received, but must labour after more grace. And this I shall prove

In the opening of the first doctrine, the first thing is to make it appeare, That believers must not rest satisfied with weak measures of grace received, but must labour after more grace. And this I shall prove

1. By instances of two sorts. 1. That believers have grown from weak grace to strong grace, who out of weakness were made strong. ¹There are expositors who refer this place to Hezekiahs recovery, 1 Kin. 20.—but it may have a more general extent and application. The Psalmist speaking of Gods people (says he) They go from strength to strength, every one of them in Zion appears before God. ²It is true, the proper reference of these words is to the Jews going up to Jerusalem to worship, when the males went thrice a year up to Jerusalem to worship, according to the law, Exod 23. 14, 17. yet Ainsworth understands it of our growth in grace; so we are said to be changed from glory to glory, that is, from little degrees of grace to greater; grace is but glory begun, and glory is but grace perfected; true grace is still aspiring unto perfection,³ and therefore says Paul, ⁴if by any means I might attain the Resurrection of the dead, his meaning is, that I may attain that perfection of holiness which accompanies the state of the Resurrection ⟨p. 74⟩a Metonymy of the subject for the adjunct; he is still pressing forward that he might attain further degrees of grace; and for that end Paul, he forgot what was behind, and reached forth to those things that were before, ver. 13. And though Paul,