Twenty sermons preached at Oxford before His Majesty, and elsewhere

Now God hath not only given this great means of his Word and Commandment, but great grace too. Where understand that there is not only final grace, but degrees of grace: else the Apostle would not have said, receive not the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ in vain. 2 Cor. 6.1. Consider then how much grace thou hast received in vain. How many motions to good hast thou rejected? Perhaps thy heart is touched at this Sermon, though it is ⟨p. 39⟩not my tongue, nor the tongue of the most elegant in the world, that can touch the heart, but the Spirit that comes along with his Word. Now when thou findst with the Word a Spirit to go with it, it is a grace. If thy conscience be enlightened, and thy duty revealed to thee, so that it tells thee what thou art, what thou oughtest to do, and not to do, it is a grace. Now if for all this, thou blindly runnest through, and art never the better, but obstinately settest thy self against God, and dost many things which others that have not received the same grace would not have done, know then that thou receivest this grace in vain, and thy case is lamentable.

Now God hath not only given this great means of his Word and Commandment, but great grace too. Where understand that there is not only final grace, but degrees of grace: else the Apostle would not have said, receive not the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ in vain. 2 Cor. 6.1. Consider then how much grace thou hast received in vain. How many motions to good hast thou rejected? Perhaps thy heart is touched at this Sermon, though it is ⟨p. 39⟩not my tongue, nor the tongue of the most elegant in the world, that can touch the heart, but the Spirit that comes along with his Word. Now when thou findst with the Word a Spirit to go with it, it is a grace. If thy conscience be enlightned, and thy duty revealed to thee, so that it tells thee what thou art, what thou oughtest to do, and not to do, it is a grace. Now if for all this, thou blindly runnest through, and art never the better, but obstinately settest thy self against God, and dost many things which others that have not received the same grace would not have done, know then that thou receivest this grace in vain, and thy case is lamentable.