with a Saviour, but
they love not to hear of a king to rule over them, nor of his laws to
regulate their lives by? They love an imputed holiness, as well as
righteousness. But the true seeker seeks grace within him. Though he be
justified, or freed from guilt and condemnation, and have the
righteousness of Christ to cover him, and though he should never come into
condemnation for sin, yet he seeks the death and destruction of it in his
soul, and the life of holiness implanted and perfected in his inward man.
Though he is sure of heaven, yet he would have God's image upon his
spirit, and whole man.

4thly. Whatever degree of grace he have or attain, yet he is still a
wanter, and still a seeker. He counts not himself to have attained, or to
be already perfect, but presses forward to gain the mark and prize of
God's high calling, Phil. iii. 13, 14. He stands at no pitch, but forgets
what is behind, and overlooks it, he thinks it not worthy to come in
reckoning. There is still so much before his hand, that he apprehends it
to be lost time to reckon what is passed. His aim is to perfect holiness
in the fear of God. He endeavours to be holy as God is holy, who is the
completest pattern of unspotted purity and uprightness, and to be holy in
all manner of conversation. He goes from strength to strength, till he
appear blameless before God; he seeks grace for grace, Psal. lxxxiv. 5-8.
And truly the man who seeks the exact copy or pattern, Jesus Christ, who
is gone before his people into heaven, and he who knows the spiritual
command in all its dimensions, he will not say "I have found," but will
still want more than he hath, and seek what he wants. There are some
professors who have attained some pitch and degree, as it were, the first
day, and never advance further. They have gotten a gift of prayer, some
way of discharging duties, some degree in profession, and they want no
more. Look on them some years after, and ye would say, they have sought no
more. And truly he who seeks no more shall never be able to keep what he
hath already, as a fire must soon die away if ye add not new fuel to it.
Christians are not green in old age, because they have come to a pitch in
their religion, and stand there. No, religion should not come to its
stature hereaway.(492) This is but the time of its minority. Grace should
be still on the growing hand. The grace of God is but a child here. Heaven
and eternity make up the man. Glory is the man, who