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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	apostle_n	speak_v	word_n	1,386	5	3.9429	3	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A41536	The tryall of a Christians growth in mortification, purging out corruption, or vivification, bringing forth more fruit a treatise handling this case, how to discerne our growth in grace : affording some helps rightly to judge thereof by resolving some tentations, clearing some mistakes, answering some questions, about spiritual growth : together with other observations upon the Parable of the vine, John 15. 1, 2 verses / by Tho. Goodwin.	Goodwin, Thomas, 1600-1680.	1650 (1650)	Wing G1262; ESTC R10593	96,023	122

he that is that it were not regnum in capite in your owne conceits onely and that there were indeed such reall cause to applaud your own conditions We are of the Circumcision sayes the Apostle and have no confidence in the flesh Phil. 1. 3. The more the heart is truly circumcised of which he there speakes in opposition to those who rested in outward circumcision it trusteth not nor beareth not it selfe upon outward things priviledges and endowments as riches bloud credit learning righteousnesse these when the heart is not circumcised doe puffe it up but we sayes he have no confidence in the flesh either for comfort or for justification or any thing else but we rejoyce in Christ Jesus Sixtly the more full of envyings and heart-burnings against others and of breakings forth into strife our hearts are and of strivings and contentions to get the credit or riches or victory away from others c. the more unmortified are our hearts the more need of purging These overflowings of the gall and spleen come from a fulnesse of bad humours Whereas there is among you envying and strife are ye not carnall 1 Cor. 3. 3. That is this argues you to be such for envie and strife are not onely lusts in themselves but further they are such lusts as are always the children and fruit of some other they are rooted in and spring from inordinate affections to some things which we contend for and accordingly if this fire of envie or strife prove great it argues the fuell that is the lusts after the things we envie others for to be much more For envie is but an oblique lust founded on some more direct lust these are but the outward flushings that shew the distemper to be much more within Jam. 4. 1. From whence comes wars and fightings amongst you come they not hence even of your lusts which fight in your members There is something the heart would have as it follows in the 2. ver Ye lust and have not c. A contentious spirit is an unmortifyed spirit If ye bite and devour one another Gal. 5. 15. This I say then walk in the spirit and ye shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh Mark the coherence it comes in upon biting one at another for such walke not in the spirit flesh doth prevaile in them that is his meaning Seventhly the lesse able we are to heare reproofs for the breakings forth of our lusts the more unmortifyed it argues our hearts to be it is a signe we love those much whom we cannot endure to heare spoken against therefore sayes the Apostle Be swift to heare but slow to wrath take heed of raging when you are toucht And it follows a verse after Casting away all superfluity receive the word with meeknesse for it is your lusts uncast out unpurged that cause that wrath and heart-boiling against reproofe That good King was in a great distemper of spirit when he cast the Prophet in prison that reproved him for he oppressed the people also at the same time as is said 2 Chron. 16. 10. he was then taken in the spring-tide and swelling of his lusts of covetousnesse and oppression they brake downe all that withstood and opposed the current of them and if as he in this fit at this time so we be found in such passionate tempers upon such occasions of reproof ordinarily it argues the habituall frame of our hearts to be much unmortifyed as this argued him at this time to have beene actually much distempered Eighthly the more quick and speedy the temptation is in taking the more unmortified the heart is When an object at the first presenting makes the lust to rise and passeth through at the very first presenting of it and soaks into the heart as oile into the bones and runs through all when a man is gunpowder to temptations and it is but touch and take so as there needes not much blowing but the heart is presently on fire as Prov. 7. 22. it is said He went straight-way after her A man will find that when his heart is actually in a good temper a temptation doth not so easily take his heart is then though tinder yet as wet tinder that is more slow in taking As there is a preparednesse to good works so there is a preparednesse to evill when the heart is in a covetous humour and will be rich then a man falls into temptations and a snare 1 Tim. 6. His lusts will nibble at every bait in every thing he deales in they will take presently when the heart is thus bird-limed then it cleaves to every thing it meets with It is a signe that the heart is not awake to righteousnesse as the Apostle speaks but to sin rather when a little occasion awakeneth a lust and rouzeth it as when on the contrary if a great deale of jogging will not awaken a mans grace Ninthly the more our lusts have power to disturb us in holy duties and the more they prevaile with the heart then the more unmortified and profane the heart is as to have uncleane glances in hearing and worldly thoughts then ordinarily to possesse the heart and to take it up much They are prophane sayes God Jer. 23. 11. for in my house I have found their wickednesse If the heart be carryed away and overcome with uncleane and worldly thoughts then this argues much unmortifyednesse and that the flesh is indeed much above the spirit For why then a man is in Gods presence and that should overcome and over-awe the unregenerate part if it were not impudent and outragious and besides then the regenerate part hath the advantage for the Word and the Ordinance is a stirring of it up and provoking it to holynesse And therefore that at such a time a mans lusts should be able to tempt and seduce a mans heart it argues sinne hath a great part in the heart when it affronts God in his throne when grace is in Solio where it would be for the Disciples then to be talking who should be greatest when Christ had made so long a Sermon to them and had administred the Sacrament to them this argued much want of mortification in them even as it were a signe that the orthodox party were but a weak party in a Kingdome if whilst they are at Sermons Papists durst come in and disturb them and put them out Tenthly when the recalling former acts committed by a man prove still to be a snare to him and being suggested by Satan as a means to quicken his lust the thought thereof doth rather stir up his lust afresh it is a signe of an unmortifyed frame Thus is it laid to the charge of that Nation Ezech. 23. 21. That she multiplyed her whoredomes in calling to remembrance the dayes of her youth wherein she had played the harlot in the land of Egypt The remembrance of them was a snare to her as appeares by the 8. verse It is a signe a man is

not onely humbled by such our dependance on him but by a sense of our continuall obnoxiousnesse to him and of being in his lurch and therefore leaves corruption still that we might ever acknowledge that our necks doe even lie on the block and that he may chop them off and to see that in him we should not onely live and move as creatures but further that by him we might justly be destroyed every moment this humbles the creature indeed Ezek. 36. 31 32. 3. As thus to humble them so that they might have occasion to deny themselves Which to doe is more acceptable to God then much more service without it and therefore the great promise of having an hundred fold is made to that grace It was the great grace which of all other Christ exercised Now if we had no corruption to entice and seduce us what opportunities were there for us thus of denying our selves Christ indeed had an infinite deale of glory to lay downe not so we unlesse there be a selfe in us to solicite us and another selfe to deny those solicitations wee should have no occasions of self-denyall or the exercise of any such grace Therefore Adam was not capable of any such grace because he had no corruption to seduce him And therefore a little grace in us denying a great deale of corruption is in that respect for so much as is of it more acceptable then his obedience Though we have lesse grace yet in this respect of a higher kind in the exercises of it To be meek and charitable to those who fall into sin as knowing corruption is not fully yet purged out of thy selfe This is the Apostles admonition upon this ground Gal. 6. 1. If a man be overtaken in a fault he speaks indefinitely that any man may if it be but an overtaking not a sinning wilfully and obstinately but a falling by occasion through rashnesse suddennesse and violence of temptation c. ye which are spirituall restore such a man with the spirit of meeknesse considering thy selfe lest thou also be tempted He would have every man be meek in his censure and in his reproofe of such an one and restore him and put him in joynt againe as the word signifies for still he may be united to Christ as a bone out of joynt is to the body though for the time rendred thereby unusefull and do this sayes he with tendernesse and pity with the spirit of meeknesse which a man will not doe unlesse he be sensible of his owne frailty and subjection to corruption unlesse he reflect on himselfe and that seriously too considering saith the Apostle there as implying more then a slight thought I may chance to fall also but the seeing and weighing what matter of falling there is in thine own heart if God but leave thee to thy selfe a little then this works a spirit of meeknesse towards such an one For meeknesse and pity is most kindly when we are sensible of the like in our selves and make it our owne case And this he speakes to the most spirituall Christians not to those who are as yet but as carnall as he speaketh of the Corinthians Christians newly converted who finding their corruptions at the first stounded with that first blow of mortification given them and though but in part killed yet wholly in a manner for a while laid asleep and having not as yet after their late conversion had a fresh experience of the dangers and temptations a man after conversion in his progresse is subject to are therefore apt to imagine they shall continue free from assaults and think not that their lusts will get up againe and so are prone to be more censorious of the falls of others But you who are more spirituall to you I speak sayes the Apostle for you are most meekned with a sense of your owne weaknesse and even you sayes he if you consider your selves and what you are in your selves have cause to think that you also may be tempted Never set thy selfe any stint or measure of mortification for still thou hast matter to purge out Thou must never be out of physick all thy life Say not Now I have grace enough and health enough but as that great Apostle Not as if I had as yet attained For indeede thou hast not Still presse forward to have more vertue from Christ If thou hast prevailed against the outward act rest not but get the rising of the lust mortified and that rowling of it in thy fancie get thy heart deaded towards it also and rest not there but get to hate it and the thought of it The body of death it must not onely be crucified with Christ but buried also and so rot Rom. 6. 4 6. it is crucified to be destroyed sayes the Apostle there that is to moulder away more and more after its first deaths wound Obser 6. That branches that have brought forth true fruit God takes them not away The 6. Doctrine is That those who are true branches and bring forth any true fruit pleasing to God though they have many corruptions in them yet God takes them not away cuts them not off The opposition implies this he speakes of Taking away the other not so of these But purgeth them It is an elegant Paranomasia 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the holy Ghost here useth For an instance to prove this wherein I will also keepe to the Metaphor here used I take that place Esay 27. where this his care of fruitfull branches with the very same difference put between his dealing with them and the unfruitfull that is here is elegantly expressed to us God professeth himselfe the Keeper of a Vineyard his Church ver 2 3. I the Lord doe keep it and ver 6. He shall cause them that come of Jacob to take root Israel shall blossome and bud and fill the earth with fruit But Israel having corruption in him which would hinder his growth he must be lopt and cut And so in the next verses God is said to deale with him but not so as to cut them off as he doth others that are both his and their enemies Hath he smitten them as he smote those that smote him No. For in measure when it shooteth forth thou wilt debate with it When Israel is but a tender plant and first shooteth forth he doth but in measure debate with it that is in such a proportion as not to destroy it or cause it to wither but that it may blossome more he measures out as it were afflictions to them but stayes his rough wind as it followes that is such afflictions as would shake that his plant too much or quite blow it downe but such a wind as shall make it fruitfull and blow away its unkindly blossomes and leaves so much and no more will He let out of his Treasury even he who holds the winds in his fists and can moderate them as he pleaseth For his scope and purpose

a God hath so much mercy in him but out of a sense of it to us which many cannot finde so when our motives to hate sinne grow more raised more spirituall these are additions of the same degree So in Prayer when we finde our prayers to grow more spirituall as in that part of Prayer Confession when more spirituall corruptions are put into our confessions and so in like manner stronger grounds of faith put into deprecation and petitions for pardon more enlargednesse to thankfulnesse more zeale to pray for the Churches when we go on to pray with all prayer more as the Apostle speaks Ephes 6. 18. Or in obedience when we abound more and more in the work of the Lord as Rev. 2. 9. it is said of that Church that their last works were more then the first so as the boughes are laden and we are filled with the fruits of righteousnesse Phil. 1. Thirdly when the fruits and duties we performe grow more ripe more spirituall though lesse juycie that is lesse affectionate and though they grow not in bignesse nor in number that is we pray not more nor longer yet they grow more savoury more spirituall more compact and solid It is not simply the multitude of performances argue growth When one is sick and his body is decayed he may be lesse in duties but it is the spiritualnesse the holinesse of them One short Prayer put up in faith with a broken heart is in Gods eye more fruit then a long one or a whole day spent in fasting even in the same sense that the widows mite is said to be more then they all cast in Luk. 21. 3. Young Christians performe more duties at first and oftner then after as young stomachs eate more and oftner As in nothing Sermons so in performing duties some will note more words but not more matter because with lesse understanding young Christians performe more duties and withall spoile more duties young Carpenters make many chips But the more spirituall your performances grow the more fruit there is to be esteemed that there is in them It is not the bignesse of the fruit or juycinesse of them for then crabs were better then apples but the relish it is that gives the commendation And it is the end you have therein that puts this relish into them when your ends are raised more to aime at God and to sanctifie him more and to debase your selves in a sense of your owne vilenesse and emptinesse and unability and when your obedience proceeds more out of thankfulnesse and lesse out of the constraint of conscience As the greatest growth of wicked men is in spirituall wickednesse in which the Pharisees grew and sinners against the holy Ghost doe grow when yet it may be they leave more grosse evils so the greatest growth of grace is in spirituall holinesse in sanctifying God much in the heart and worshipping him in spirit and truth Fourthly when a man grows more rooted into Christ that is the true growth and that which makes the fruit to be more in Gods sight and esteeme therefore Eph. 4. 15. we are said to grow up in him that is to live the life we lead more out of our selves and in Christ as when for the acceptation of our persons we are emptied of our owne righteousnesse so for strength to performe duties we are emptied of our abilities seeing without him we can doe nothing So when for acceptation of our performances when we have done them our hearts have learnt habitually to say more and more with the Apostle Not I but Christ in me when we interest Christ more and more in all we doe as the efficient and also the finall cause And therefore I observe when growth of grace is mentioned it is still expressed by growing in the knowledge of Christ So 2 Pet. 3. 17. Grow in grace and in the knowledge of Christ as if to grow in grace without him were nothing as indeed it is not So in the Ephesians we are said both to grow up in him and for him Philosophers did grow in morall vertues but not in Christ so doe Civill men and others Temporaries doe duties from him but yet as in themselves as the Ivie that hath sap from the Oake but concocts it in its owne roote and so brings forth as from it selfe To doe one duty sanctifying Christ and free grace in the heart is more then a thousand young Christians it may be doe more works but not as works of grace and the more men think by duties to get Christ and Gods favour the more in duties they trust and so they become as works of the Law but the more dead a man grows to the Law and to live to Christ and Christ in him and the more free grace is acknowledged in all trusted in above all the more Evangelicall our works are and the more to God for that is the end of the Gospell to honour Christ and free grace the more we grow We are of the Circumcision sayes the Apostle who rejoyce in the Lord Jesus worship God in the spirit and have no confidence in the flesh Phil. 4. As these are the surest signs of true grace so of true Growth Fifthly the more we learne to bring forth fruits in season the more fruit we may be said to bring forth For the seasonable performance of them makes them more All the fruits in their season how acceptable are they which out of season they are not In the first Psalme a righteous man is said to bring forth his fruits in due season and in the Proverbs Words in season are as apples of gold and pictures of silver In Ezek. 41. they are said to bring forth pleasant fruits in their moneths as in reproving he is not so much to reprove as to reprove in season to have our senses exercised to know fit seasons and to consider one another to provoke to love as it is Heb. 10. Young Christians doe more but more out of season and the devill abuseth them putting them upon duties when they would be at their refreshings at their callings he deceiving them with this that holy duties in themselves as alone simply compared are better then to doe any thing else when as the season adds the goodnesse to our actions Thus to recreate thy self at some seasons is better then to be a praying A righteous man orders his conversation aright Psal 50. and order gives a rectitude a goodnesse to things Sixthly when we grow more constant in performances and more even in a godly course and setled in spirituall affections without intermission it is a signe we grow It argues that our inward man is more renewed day by day when we can walke closely with God a long while together A righteous man is compared to the Palme tree whose leafe never fades Psal 1. whereas other trees bring forth by fits And by fits to be much in duties is not a signe of growth but