Selected quad for the lemma: earth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
earth_n	church_n	head_n	visible_a	4,516	5	9.9185	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

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

gives the increase which other Husbandmen cannot doe Paul my plant and Apollos may water but God onely gives the increase 1 Cor. 3. 7. Though Christ merited yet the Father decreed every mans measure of fruitfulnesse 4. He is the most diligent Husbandman that ever was for he knowes and daily views and takes notice of every branch and of all their fruit for sayes the Text Every branch that brings not forth fruit he takes away c. therefore knowes who beareth fruit and doth not He knowes their persons who are his and who are not 2 Tim. 2. 19. not so much as one man could come in without a wedding garment but he spies him out 5. The most carefull he is daily to purge his Vine so says the second verse And of all possessions saith Cato Nulla possessio majorem operam requirit Vineyards need as much care and more then any other The Corne when it is sowne comes up and growes alone and ripeneth and comes to perfection the Husbandman sleeping and waking he knowes not how saith Christ But Vines must be drest supported sheltred pruned well-nigh every day And of all trees God hath most care of his Vines and regards them more then all the rest in the world Is to honour the Father in all the workes tending to our salvation as much as we honour the Son If Christ be the Vine his Father meanes to be the Husbandman and indeed it may teach us to honour all the three Persons in every work that is saving for in all they bear a distinct office the Father hath not onely a hand in Election but also in Sanctification concerning which this Parable was made If Christ be the roote that affords us sap whence all fruit buds the Father is the Husbandman that watereth the Vine gives the increase purgeth the branches and is the root of that life which Christ affords to us and then the Spirit also comes in to have a work and influence herein also for he is the sap though not here mentioned yet which is implyed which lies hid in this Parable of the Vine and appeares in all the fruits that are brought forth therefore called Gal. 5. Fruits of the Spirit None of the three Persons will be left out in any relation or in any work that is for our salvation That ever three so great Persons should have a joynt care of our salvation and sanctification and we our selves neglect it That they should be so carefull we so negligent and unfruitfull If they doe all so much for us what should not we endeavour to do for our selves Be carefull of your words thoughts wayes affections desires all which are the fruits of your soules for God takes notice of all he walkes in this his garden every day and spies out how many raw unripe indigested performances as Prayers c. hang on such or such a branch what gum of pride what leaves what luxuriant sprigs what are rotten boughs and which are sound and goes up and down with his pruning knife in his hand and cuts and slashes where he sees things amisse he turnes up all your leaves sees what fruit is under and deals with men accordingly When the Church is in any distresse or misery goe to him that is the Husbandman such is the usuall condition of this his Vine spread over the face of the earth Complain as they Psal 80. 12. Why hast thou broken down her hedges so as all they which passe by doe pluck her the boare out of the wood doth waste it Complain to him that the hogs are in his Vineyard and doe much havock and spoile therein and tell him that he is the Husbandman who should take care for it So they go on to pray Returne we beseech thee O God of Hosts looke downe from heaven behold and visit this Vine and the Vineyard which thy right hand hath planted v. 14 15. 3. Obs Two sorts of branches in this Vine fruitfull and unfruitfull and the difference between temporary and true Beleevers as they are laid downe in the Text. We see this Vine hath branches of two sorts fruitfull and unfruitfull which is the third thing to be observed And herein our Saviour followeth the similitude for experience shews the like in Vines And writers of Vines observe it and accordingly distinguish the branches of Vines into Pampinarios which bring forth naught but leaves and Fructuarios which bring forth fruit The unfruitfull they are such as make profession of being in Christ to themselves and others and receive some greennesse from him but no true fruit for their profession they are branches for their emptinesse unfruitfull ones The onely question is How such as prove unfruitfull are said to be branches and to be in Christ Every branch in me c. Many comparisons there are of Christ as he stands in various relations to his Church whereof some serve to expresse one thing concerning him some another That of a Vine here presents him onely as he was to spread himselfe into a visible Church on earth in the profession of him and so considered he may have many branches that are unfruitfull That other of An head over all the family in heaven and earth which imports his relation onely to that invisible company of his Church mysticall which together make up that generall assembly spoken of in Heb. 12. which are his fulnesse Eph. 1. ult And agreeable to this meaning in comparing himselfe to a Vine in this large and common relation of a root to both sorts of Professors true and false is that other expression also whereby he sets forth his Fathers office when he calls him not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Vine-dresser or a tiller of a Vineyard in a strict sense as Luke 13. 7. but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it were at large the Husbandman As thereby denoting out not simply and alone that peculiar care that he hath to true beleevers onely that are branches of this Vine though including it but withall importing that common care and providence which he beares to others of his creatures and this because some of these branches of this Vine are to him but as others out of the Church and of no more reckoning with him The Fathers relation herein answering to and in a proportion running parallel along with that which Christ beares towards them Those that Christ is head unto those he is a Father unto Those whom Christ is but as a Vine unto Christ he is but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Husbandman unto whose office is seene as well in cutting off such branches as in pruning and dressing of those other These unfruitful ones are not in Christs account reckoned as true branches here For in the 5. verse he calls those Disciples of his that were there and then present with him when now Judas was gone forth afore as appears Chap. 13. 30. them onely The branches and therefore repeats it there again I am

exceedingly advanceth the abounding of this grace 2. It serves exceedingly to illustrate the grace of perseverance and the power of God therein for unto the power of God is our perseverance wholly attributed 1 Pet. 1. 5. Ye are kept as with a garrison as the word signifies through the power of God unto salvation And were there not a great and an apparent danger of miscarrying such a mighty guard needed not There is nothing which puts us into any danger but our corruptions that still remain in us which fight against the soul and endeavour to overcome and destroy us Now then to be kept maugre all these to have grace maintained a spark of grace in the midst of a sea of corruption how doth this honour the power of God in keeping us As much in regard of this our dependency on him in such a condition as hee would otherwise be by our service if it were pepfect and we wholly free from those corruptions How will the grace of God under the Gospel triumph over the grace given Adam in his innocencie when Adam having his heart full of inherent grace and nothing inwardly in his nature to seduce him and the temptation that he had being but a matter of curiosity and the pleasing his wife and yet he fell When as many poore souls under the state of grace that have but mites of grace in comparison and worlds of corruption are yet kept not onely from the unnecessary pleasures of sin in time of prosperity but hold out against all the threats all the cruelties of wicked persecutors in times of persecution which threaten to debar them of all the present good they enjoy And though Gods people are foyled often yet that there should still remaine a seed within them 1 John 3. 9. this illustrates the grace of Christ under the Gospel For one act in Adam expelled all grace out of him when yet his heart was full of nothing else Were our hearts filled with grace perfectly at first conversion this power would not be seen The Angels are kept with much lesse care and charge and power then we because they have no bias no weights of sin as the Apostle speaks hung upon them to draw them aside and presse them downe as we have Neither 3. would the confusion of the devill in the end be so great and the victory so glorious if all sin at first conversion were expelled For by this meanes the devill hath in his assaults against us the more advantages faire play as I may so speak faire hopes of overcomming having a great faction in us as ready to sinne as he is greedy to tempt And yet God strongly carries on his owne worke begun though slowly and by degrees backeth and maintaines a small partie of grace within us to his confusion That as in Gods outward goverment towards his Church here on earth he suffers a great party and the greater still by farre to be against his Church and yet upholds it and rules amongst the midst of his enemies Psal 110. ult so doth he also in every particular beleevers heart When grace shall be in us but as a sparke and corruptions as much smoake and moisture damping it Grace but as a candle and that in the socket among huge and many winds Then to bring judgement forth to victory that is a victory indeede Lastly as God doth it to advance his owne grace and confound the devil so for holy ends that concerne the Saints themselves As 1. To keep them from spirituall pride He trusted the Angels that fell with a full and compleat stock of grace at first and they though raised up from nothing a few dayes afore fell into such an admiration of themselves that heaven could not hold them it was not a place good enough for them They left the text sayes their owne habitation and first estate Jude ver 6. Pride was the condemnation of the devill 1 Tim. 3. 6. But how much more would this have beene an occasion of pride to a soule that was full of nothing but sin the other day to be made perfect presently perfectly to justifie us the first day by the righteousnesse of another there is no danger in that for it is a righteousnesse without us and which we cannot so easily boast of vainly for that faith that apprehends it empties us first of our selves and goes out to another for it But Sanctification being a work wrought in us we are apt to dote on that as too much upon excellencie in our selues how much adoe have poore beleevers to keepe their hearts off from doting upon their owne righteousnesse and from poring on it when it is God wot a very little They must therefore have something within them to pull downe their spirits that when they look on their feathers they may looke on their feet which Christ sayes are still defiled John 13. 10. 2. However if there were no such danger of spirituall pride upon so sudden a rise as indeed it befalls not infants nor such soules as dye as soone as regenerated as that good thiefe yet however God thinkes it meet to use it as a means to humble his people this way even as God left the Canaanites in the land to vexe the Israelites and to humble them And to have beene throughly humbled for sin here will doe the Saints no hurt against they come to heaven it will keepe them Nothing for ever in their owne eyes even when they are filled brim full of grace and glory For 1. nothing humbles so as sinne This made him cry out Oh miserable man that I am He that never flinched for outward crosses never thought himselfe miserable for any of them but gloried in them 2 Cor. 12. when he came to be led captive by sinne remaining in him cryes out Oh miserable man And 2. it is not the sinnes of a fore-past unregenerate estate that will be enough to doe this throughly For they might be lookt upon as past and gone and some waies be an occasion of making the grace after conversion the more glorious but present sense humbleth most kindly most deeply because it is fresh and therefore sayes Paul Oh miserable man that I am And againe we are not able to know the depth and height of corruptions at once therefore we are to know it by degrees And therefore it is still left in us that after we have a spirituall eye given us we might experimentally gage it to the bottome and be experimentally still humbled for sinne And experimentall humbling is the most kindly as pity out of experience is And 3. God would have us humbled by seeing our dependance upon him for inherent grace And how soone are we apt to forget we have received it and that in our natures no good dwells Wee would not remember that our nature were a stepmother to grace and a naturall mother to lusts but that we see weeds still grow naturally of themselves And 4. God would have us

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