Faithful: Well, I was not so fond of his company at first, but I am as sick of it now. What
shall we do to be rid of him?
Christian: Take
my advice, and do as I bid you, and you shall find that he will soon be sick of
your company too, except God shall touch his heart, and turn it.
Faithful: What
would you have me to do?
Christian: Why,
go to him, and enter into some serious discourse about the power of religion;
and ask him plainly, (when he has approved of it, for that he will,) whether
this thing be set up in his heart, house, or conversation.
Faithful: Then
Faithful stepped forward again, and said to Talkative, Come, what cheer? How is
it now?
Talkative: Thank
you, well: I thought we should have had a great deal of talk by this time.
Faithful: Well,
if you will, we will fall to it now; and since you left it with me to state the
question, let it be this: How doth the saving grace of God discover itself when
it is in the heart of man?
Talkative: I
perceive, then, that our talk must be about the power of things. Well, it is a
very good question, and I shall be willing to answer you. And take my answer in
brief, thus: First, where the grace of God is in the heart, it causeth there a
great outcry against sin. Secondly-
Faithful: Nay,
hold; let us consider of one at once. I think you should rather say, it shows
itself by inclining the soul to abhor its sin.
Talkative: Why,
what difference is there between crying out against, and abhorring of sin?
Faithful: Oh! a
great deal. A man may cry out against sin, of policy; but he cannot abhor it
but by virtue of a godly antipathy against it. I have heard many cry out against
sin in the pulpit, who yet can abide it well enough in the heart, house, and
conversation. Joseph’s mistress cried out with a
loud voice, as if she had been very holy; but she would willingly,
notwithstanding that, have committed uncleanness with him. Some cry out against
sin, even as the mother cries out against her child in her lap, when she
calleth it slut and naughty girl, and then falls to hugging and kissing it.
Talkative: You
lie at the catch, I perceive.
Faithful: No, not
I; I am only for setting things right. But what is the second thing whereby you
would prove a discovery of a work of grace in the heart?
Talkative: Great
knowledge of gospel mysteries.
Faithful: This
sign should have been first: but, first or last, it is also false; for
knowledge, great knowledge, may be obtained in the mysteries of the Gospel, and
yet no work of grace in the soul. Yea, if a man have all knowledge, he may yet
be nothing, and so, consequently, be no child of God. When Christ said, “Do you know all
these things?” and the disciples answered, Yes, he added, “Blessed are ye if ye
do them.” He doth not lay the blessing in the knowing of them, but in the doing
of them. For there is a knowledge that is not attended with doing: “He that
knoweth his Master’s will, and doeth it not.” A man may know like an angel, and
yet be no Christian: therefore your sign of it is not true. Indeed, to know
is a thing that pleaseth talkers and boasters; but to do is that which
pleaseth God. Not that the heart can be good without knowledge, for without
that the heart is naught. There are, therefore, two sorts of knowledge,
knowledge that resteth in the bare speculation of things, and knowledge that is
accompanied with the grace of faith and love, which puts a man upon doing even
the will of God from the heart: the first of these will serve the talker; but
without the other, the true Christian is not content. “Give me understanding,
and I shall keep thy law; yea, I shall observe it with my whole heart.”
Talkative: You
lie at the catch again: this is not for edification.
Faithful: Well,
if you please, propound another sign how this work of grace discovereth itself
where it is.
Talkative: Not I,
for I see we shall not agree.
