The beatitudes

Excellency. 12 12. Grace hath an abiding excellency; temporal things are [Greek or Hebrew], for a season, but grace hath eternity stamped upon it, it is called durable riches, Prov. 8.18. Other riches take wings and fly from us; grace takes wings and flies with us to heaven. Some tell us of falling away from grace; I grant seeming grace may be lost; a blazing Comet will spend and evaporate; nay, saving grace may fail in the degree, it may suffer an eclipse, it may lose all its sweet fruit of joy and peace; but still there is sap in the Vine, and the seed of God remains, 1 John 3.4. Grace is a blossom of eternity^*; it is called unctio manens, 1 John 2.27. The anointing that abides; colours laid in oil are durable; those hearts which are laid in oil, and have the anointing of God, hold their colours, and endure for ever: Grace is compared to a river of the water of life, John 7.38. This River can never he dried up; for the Spirit of God is the spring that seeds it: Grace is not like a Lease which soon expires; so the Pelagians would make it; to day a believer, to morrow an unbeliever; to day justified, to morrow unjustified; this would be like a Lease soon run out; but God settles grace on the Saints as an inheritance, and he will see that the entail shall never be cut off. He who hath true grace, can no more fall away than the Angels, which are fixed stars in their heavenly orbs.

Excellency. 12 12. Grace hath anabiding excellency; temporal things are 〈non-Latin alphabet〉, for a season, but grace hath eternity stamped upon it, it is called durable riches, Prov. 8.18. Other riches take wings and flie from us; grace takes wings and flies with us to heaven. Some tell us of falling away from grace; I grant seeming grace may be lost; a blazing Comet will spend and evaporate; nay, saving grace may fail in the degree, it may suffer an eclipse, it may lose all its sweet fruit of joy and peace; but still there is sap in the Vine, and the seed of God remains,