23. He takes up duty in point of performance, and lays it down in point of dependance
Another singular action of a sanctified Christian, is, To take up every duty in point of performance, and lay it down in point of dependance.
When the purest duties have been performed, the purest mercies should be implored. Many have passed the rocks of gross sins, who have suffered shipwreck upon the sands of self-righteousness.
Some people live more upon their customs, than they do upon Christ; more upon the prayers they make to God, than upon the God to whom they make their prayers. This is, for the redeemed captive to reverence the sword, instead of the hand which wrought his rescue.
The Name of God with a sling and a stone, will do more than Goliab with all his armour.
Duties are but dry pits, though never so curiously wrought, till Christ fill them. Reader, I would neither have you be idle in the means, nor make an idol of the means. Though it be the mariner's duty to weigh his anchor, and spread his sails; yet he cannot make his voyage until the winds blow.
The pipes will yield no conveyance, unless the springs yield their concurrence.
What is hearing without Christ, but like a cabinet without a jewel? or what is receiving without Christ, but like a glass without a cordial? We can only ascend to heaven upon that ladder which was let down from heaven. The most diligent saint has been the most self-diffident saint. And be found in him, not having on my own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ; the righteousness which is of God by faith. If you be found in your own righteousness, you will be lost by your own righteousness. That garment which was worn to shreds on Adam's back, will never make a complete covering for mine. Duties may be good crutches to go upon, but they are bad Christs to lean upon. When Agustus Caesar desired the senate to join some person with him in the consulship, they replied, 'They held it as a great dishonour to him to have any one joined with him, who was so capable himself.' It is the greatest disparagement that Christians can offer to Christ, to put their services in equipage with his sufferings. The beggarly rags of the first Adam, must never be put on with the princely robe of the second Adam. Man is a creature too much inclined to warm himself by the sparks of his own fire, though he lie down in eternal flames for kindling them. Though Noah's dove made use of her wings, yet she found no rest but in the ark. Duties can never have too much of our diligence, or too little of our confidence. For he that is entered into rest, hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his. A believer doth not perform good works to live, but he lives to perform good works.
It was an haughty saying of one, Cælum gratis non accipiam: 'I will not accept of heaven gratis.' But he shall have hell as a debt, who will not take heaven as a gift. For we are the circumcision, who worship God in the Spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh. A true Christian stands at a great distance from trusting in the best of his services, as in the worst of his sins. He knows that the greatest part of his holiness will not make the least part of his justifying righteousness. He has unreservedly subscribed to that sentiment, 'That when we have done all, we are unprofitable servants.' When we have kept all the commandments, there is one commandment above all to be kept; that is, To trust not in an arm of flesh. In most of our works we are abominable sinners, and in the best of our works we are unprofitable servants. Our doings are not like the crystal streams of a living fountain, but like the impure overflowings of an unruly torrent. I will go in the strength of the Lord God; I will make mention of thy righteousness, even of thine only. You see, beloved, the righteousness of Christ is to be magnified, when the righteousness of a Christian is not to be mentioned. It is hard for us to be nothing in ourselves, amidst all our watchfulness; and to be all things in Christ, amidst all our weakness. To undertake every duty, and yet to overlook every duty, is a lesson which none can learn, but Christ's scholars.
Our obedience, at best, is like good wine, which relishes of a bad cask. The law of God will not take ninety-nine for an hundred. It will not accept the coin of our obedience, either short in quantity, or base in quality. The duty it exacts, is as impossible to be performed in this our fallen state, as the penalty it inflicts is intolerable to be endured in our eternal state.
We do not sail to glory in the salt sea of our own tears, but in the red sea of a Redeemer's blood. Crux Christi est clavis paradisi. 'The cross of Christ is the key of paradise.' We owe the life of our souls to the death of our Saviour. It was his going into the furnace which keeps us from the flames. Man lives by death; his natural life is preserved by the death of the creature, and his spiritual life by the death of the Redeemer. Moses must lead the children of Israel through the wilderness, but Joshua must conduct them into Canaan. While we are in the wilderness of this world, we walk under the guidance of Moses; but when we enter the spiritual Canaan, it must be under the leadings of Jesus. The same hand which shut the doors of hell, to keep us out of perdition; has opened the gates of heaven, to admit us to its eternal fruition.
Those who carry the vessel of hope to the puddle of their own merit, will never draw the water of comfort from the fountain of God's mercy. Luther compares the law and gospel to earth and heaven; we should walk in the earth of the law, in point of obeying, and in the heaven of the gospel, in point of believing. It was the saying of one, 'That he would swim through a sea of brimstone, so he might but arrive safe at heaven.' Ah, how would natural men sing, if they could but soar to heaven upon the pinions of their own merit!