are Evangelically wrought to glorifie Christ all manner of wayes that shall be revealed there is an instinct a preparednesse in their faith to make Christ their All in all as any particular comes to be revealed to them wherein they ought to exalt him in their hearts and so this being once revealed to be one way whereby they are to honour him if they have gone on afore in a confidence on their own graces henceforth they doe so no more yea they humble themselves as much for so robbing Christ of glory or neglecting of him in not having had that distinct recourse to him as for any other sin And 4. though haply after all this yet still their union with him is not cleared to them and so their communion with him herein as must needs doth still remain dark also they therefore neither discern that they have any true communion with his person nor can say how strength comes from him yet having bin thus taught to fetch all from him as was formerly explained they do in a continuall renunciation of their own strength deny all offers of assistance from any other strength as namely that which their gifts and parts would make even as they deny unlawfull lusts or by-ends and they still have their eyes upon Christ to work in them both the will and the deed and so by a faith of Recumbencie or casting themselves on him for strength in all such as they exercise towards him for justification Gal. 2. 16. they live by faith on the Son of God and have thereby such a kind of faith a continuall recourse unto him Upon which acts of true faith being exercised by them towards him He as he is pleased to dispence it moves them and works and acts all in them although still not so sensibly unto their apprehensions as that they should discern the connexion between the cause and the effect nor can they hang them together that is to say know how or that this vertue doth come from Christ because their union with him is as yet doubtfull to them and also because the power that worketh in Beleevers is secret and like that of the heavens upon our bodies which is as strong as that of physick c. yet so sweet and so secretly insinuating it selfe with the principles of nature that as for the conveyance of it it is insensible and hardly differenced from the other workings of the principles of nature in us and therefore the Apostle prayeth for the Ephsians That their eyes may be enlightned to see the power that wrought in them Eph. 1. 18. 19. Yet so as 5. their soules walk all this while by these two principles firmly rooted in them both 1 That all good that is to be done must and doth come from Christ and him alone and 2 That if any good be done by them it is wrought by him alone which doe set their souls a breathing after nothing more then to know Christ in the power of his resurrection And having walkt thus in a selfe-emptines and dependance upon Christ by way of a dark recumbencie when once their union with him comes to be cleared up unto them they then acknowledg as they Es 26. That he alone hath wrought all their workes in them that they are nothing and have done nothing and though before this revelation of Christ as Christ said to Peter What I doe now thou knowest not but thou shalt know so they knew not then that Christ had wrought all in them yet then they know it and when they doe know and discern it they acknowledge it with the greatest exaltation of him they having reserved even during all that former time of their emptinesse the glory for him alone staying as Joab did for David till Christ come more sensibly into their hearts to set the crown of all upon his head This I thought good to adde to clear this point lest any poor souls should be stumbled Doct. 4. In the most fruitfull branches there remain corruptions unpurged out The 4. Doct. is That in the most fruitfull branches there remain corruptions that still need purging out This is taken but as supposed in the text and not so directly laid down and I shall handle it but so far as it makes way for what doth follow What shall I need to quote much Scripture for the proof of it Turn but to your own hearts the best will find proofs enough of it Reasons That God might thereby the more set forth and clear unto us his justifying grace by Christs righteousnesse and clear the truth of it to all our hearts When the Apostle long after his first conversion was in the midst of that great and famous battail chronicled in that 7. Rom. wherein he was led captive to a Law and an army of sinne within him warring against the law of his minde presently upon that wofull exclamation and outcry there mentioned Oh miserable man that I am c. he falls admiring the grace of justification through Christ they are his first words after the battail ended Now sayes he there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Mark that word Now that now after such bloudy wounds and gashes there should yet be no condemnation this exceedingly exalts this grace for if ever thought he I was in danger of condemnation it was upon the rising and rebelling of these my corruptions which when they had carried me captive I might well have expected the sentence of condemnation to have followed but I finde sayes he that God still pardons me and accepts me as much as ever upon my returning to him and therefore I doe proclaim with wonder to all the world that Gods justifying grace in Christ is exceeding large and rich And though there be many corruptions in those that are in Christ yet there is no condemnation to those who are in Christ that walk after the Spirit though flesh be in them And this at once both clears our justification by Christs righteousnesse alone and also magnifies and extols it It clears it therefore how doth this remaining of corruptions afford to our Divines that great demonstration against the Papists that we are not justified by works nor are those workes perfect which they so impudently affirme against their own experience even because corruption stains the best and our best righteousnesse is but as a menstruous cloth And as it clears it so likewise it extols it For how is Grace magnified when as not only all the sins and debts a man brought to Christ to pardon at first conversion are pardoned but after many relapses of us and provings bankrupt we are yet still set up againe by free grace with a new stock and though we still run upon new scores every day yet that these should still be paid and there should be riches of love enough and stock enough that is merit enough to hold out to pardon us though we remained in this mixt condition of sinning to eternity this
Zach. 1. it is said that God opens a fountaine to the house of David for sinne and for uncleannesse that is for the guilt of sinne and the power of sinne Now by that opening is not meant the promise of sending his Sonne into the world to be crucified but the discovery of him to beleevers after his being crucified For Chap. 12. 10. he is supposed to be crucified already for they there see him whom they have pierced therefore that opening there is meant the discovery of him to his people and him to be the great ordinance of cleansing them Now the more distinctly a man understands Christ and how to make use of him who is already made Sanctification to us the more easily he gets his lusts purged such an one that trades immediately with Christ will doe more in a day then another in a yeare for seeing that the power of purging us lies immediately in him and that he is the purging drug which mingles it selfe with the Word and all meanes else and sets them all aworke therefore the more of him we have and the more immediate application we have of him to us and of his power the more recourse our hearts have to him the more our lusts are purged as it is in drugs or minerals if the infusion and steeping of them in liquors will worke how much more if the substance of them be taken downe inwardly and immediately now this comes to passe as God doth goe on to open our faith to see him and know him and to be acquainted with him for so the Apostle expresseth it Phil. 3. That I may know him and the power of his resurrection The more we look upon all means else in the use of them as ineffectuall without him the more power we shall find from him Fiftly by assuring the soule of his love and shedding it abroad in the heart and by working spirituall joy in the heart doth God also purge his people And to work all these is in Gods power immediately and solely I am Crucified with Christ Gal. 2. 20. And how by beleeving that Christ gave himselfe for me and loved me This deads a man to the world makes a man crucifie that which Christ was crucified for and this makes a man hate sinne the more he loves Christ or apprehends his love And it doth this in a double relation or respect not onely because sin so displeaseth him nor onely as it is contrary to his will but because it did afflict him so much once and because to take sinne away was the intent he came into the world for so 1 John 3. ver 4. although a beleever is said to mortifie sinne upon this consideration indeed that it is the transgression of the Law yet much more upon this other because Christ was manifest to take sinnes away and the more assurance I have of another life and a better and of being like Christ hereafter the more a man purgeth himselfe to be fit for that condition He that hath this hope in him purgeth himselfe as he is pure so in the 2. ver of that 3. of John The more joy a man hath in Christ the more deaded he must needs be to the world the one eats up the other for the ground of all sinne is but the love of pleasure now if I find it in God and Christ it deads me for seeking it in the world For Omnis vita gustu ducitur All life is maintained by a taste of some sweetnesse Now when the sweetnesse of sin the relish of it is spoiled by the taste of a greater it must needs die and abate and though that sweetnesse from God doth not alwayes remaine in the present taste and relish of it yet it leaves such an impression behind it that whatever a man tasts after it hath no relish with him in comparison still he sayes the old is better and though the taste of one sinfull pleasure may take us off from another yet none but a contrary pleasure doth kill the sinne and the pleasure in it CHAP. III. The tryall of Mortification and that first by Negative signes or such as argue much corruption yet remaining unpurged out I Will now come to that third thing which was propounded namely Helps whereby you may discerne what progresse hath been made in this work And as I said at first that my purpose was not so much to handle Mortification in the common place of it as onely growth therein So those things I shall now deliver about discerning the measure of it I intend them not so much for Signes of mortification as Rules whereby we may judge how this worke goes forward in us and how far we are still short in it And first I will handle it negatively and give you such symptomes as argue much corruption a great deale of humours yet remaining to be purged out Such as argue little proficiency in this worke though such as withall true grace may be supposed to be in the heart 1. When a man doth magnifie and sets a high price upon worldly and carnall excellencies and pleasures is much taken with outward things and carryed away with them Or when though we restrain our selves from the eager pursuit after them yet if in your eyes and opinions they seeme glorious and goodly things and oh we secretly think the enjoying such a pleasure the obtaining such an excellencie or such or such a condition of life accommodated with such and such conveniences and circumstances would be so great an addition of happinesse to us this argues a green heart much want of mortification though truth of grace be there These Apostles to whom Christ spake this Parable of the Vine and unto them especially how were they affected and transported with a trifle Even that very night that Christ was to be attached they strive for precedencie and who should be the greatest amongst them Luk. 22. who should be chiefe of that noble order And it was such a precedencie which they affected as Noblemen have in Kingdomes as appears by the following words they shewed themselves but Gentiles in it as ver 25. Christ insinuates who stand upon their blood and their outward priviledges It was not for nothing Christ tels them in this Parable they needed purging but the reason was they were but children yet and babes in Christ now in their minority and were not weaned from rattles and trifles Christ was not yet crucified not they so throughly crucified with him as they were afterwards The holy Ghost had not yet come upon them as fire to burne up their lusts and to consume this their drosse That other Apostle Paul who sayes of himselfe that he was borne out of time in comparison to them had attained to a greater measure he glorying in this as his highest title that he was the least of the Apostles This magnifying of outward things in our conceits and opinions is indeed but knowing things after the flesh as the Apostle speaks 2
deeply in love when as he falls in love with the picture when the remembrance of whence he is falne should make him repent that it should on the contrary cause him to commit the same sinne againe it is a signe flesh hath much the better To have the mind stirred with new objects and new temptations may stand with far lesse corruption and more grace then to have it stirred afresh with the remembrance of the old to find sweetnesse in a lust twice sod which we have also often steept as I may so speak in godly sorrow and hatred of it and so boiled it in sowre hearbs yet still to find sweetnesse in the remembrance of such an act this argues much corruption As the Apostle argues the sinfulnesse and strength of corrupt nature in him that the law which was holy and good should stir up his lust whilst unregenerate So may we when the thought of a sin which should stir up godly sorrow should provoke and tickle corrupt nature againe Indeed that the new scent of meat should have moved the Israelites would not have been so much but that the remembrance of their flesh-pots should doe it That speech Rom. 8. where we are commanded to mortifie the deeds of the flesh may admit among other this interpretation also that not onely the lusts but even former deeds and acts committed which may prove an occasion of sin to us and have a fresh verdure in our eye are to be mortifyed CHAP. IV. Positive signes of Growth in Mortification and Gods purging of us AND so now I come to the second sort of signes namely Positive signes of growth in Mortification and of Gods purging of us First the more insight a man hath into spirituall corruptions together with a conflict against them the more growth he hath attained unto in purging out corruptions So as that now the chiefest of his conflict is come to be with spirituall lusts not worldly lusts and grosse evils it is an evidence of his progresse in this worke These ordinarily are sure rules that whilst a mans conflict is with more outward grosse evills as uncleannesse worldly mindnesse c. so long and so much he is kept from the sight of those inward hidden close corruptions which sit nighest to the heart As also on the contrary the more a man is freed from and hath got victory over such more outward evills the more his thoughts and intentions are bent inward to the discovery of the other more spirituall wickednesses And the reason is for these spirituall lusts as pride carnall confidence in a mans owne graces self-flattery presumption and the like these corruptions lie as I may so expresse it more up in the heart of the countrey but those other of worldly lusts lye as it were in the Frontiers and skirts of it and therefore untill such time as a man hath in some good measure overcome those that encounter him at the Borders he comes not to have so through a discovery and constant conflict with those that lie higher up in the heart Let us cleanse our selves from all pollution both of flesh and spirit sayes the Apostle ◠Cor. 7. Which implyes that there are two sorts of corruptions one of the flesh or body the other of the spirit or soule for so the opposition there is to be taken for else all lusts are lusts of the flesh that is of corrupt nature Againe such corruptions cause a blindnesse that a man cannot see afar off as 2 Pet. Chap. 1. Whilst a scholar that learnes a Tongue hath not learned to escape all grosser faults in Grammaticall construction he cannot be supposed to have come to know the Elegancies of the Tongue nor see his errors therein so nor doe men come to be Critiques indeed and cunningly skilfull in the more curious Errataes of their hearts and spirits till they have attained to such a degree of mortification as to be free from grosser evils And indeed those who are grown in grace have attained ordinarily some freedome from such sinnes therefore sayes John 1 Epist 2. 14. You young men are strong and have overcome that evill one they have attained so much strength as to overcome the grosser evils those evills So as to allude to what the Apostle sayes in another case they then come to conflict not so much with flesh and blood and outward evils as with spirituall wickednesses within that is with affections and dispositions contrary to the worke of grace and therein lies their chiefest exercise which is not till they have some freedome and victory over the other and so are at leasure to view these Secondly we may discerne our victory over our lusts by our ability more or lesse to deny our selves the more we grow up to a readinesse willingnesse and freenesse and cheerfulnesse of heart to deny our selves when we are called and put upon doing of it the more are lusts purged out for the reason that our hearts consult so much with carnall ends in businesses that we have so much adoe with them ere we can bring them off to part with such and such things as God and our owne consciences doe call us unto is through want of purging For all want of self-denyall is from an adhaesion to outward things Were we free and unmarried men to the world were our hearts loosned from all and were all the secreat fibrae those stings of lusts that shoot into things cut it would be nothing to us to part with them this was in that great Apostle how ready was he to lay downe his life My life is not deare to me so I may fulfill my ministration with joy and so when the time of his departure was at hand sayes he I am ready to be offered 2 Tim. 4. 6. He speaks it in the present tense 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I am offered it was done in his heart already As in like phrase of speech it is said Heb. 11. that Abraham offered up his son because in his heart he fully purposed it When men must be forced by terrors of conscience as Pharaoh with plagues to let their credits or estates goe by restitution or for God and good uses c. it is a signe of want of purging The more loosned a man is from the world and the things of it the more prepared that man is for all works of self-denyall and the more purged So when a man parts with all without sticking or higling as Abraham is said to beleeve without staggering it is a signe he hath attained to a good degree even as that argued a strong faith Rom. 3. When a man hath an open and a large heart to God as a liberall man hath an open hand to men as Abraham had when he was willing to let God have his onely sonne it was a signe he was much weaned when God can command any thing thou hast at an hours warning as we say Abraham stood not long deliberating Shall I Shall I but
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
19. that such trees as brought forth fruit fit for meat they should not destroy when they came into an enemies countrey Doth God take care of trees No it was to teach us that if we bring forth fruit he will not destroy us if it be fruit indeed fit for meat Oakes bring forth apples such as they are and acorns but they are not fit for meate such treees they might cut down So if thou bring not forth such fruit as is for Gods taste and relish wherein thou sanctifiest not God and Christ in thy heart thou maiest and wilt be cut downe but else not If thou beest betrothed to Christ and he hath begotten children on thee feare not a bill of divorce he will not lightly cast thee off And it is a good argument to use to him desire him to spare thee by all the children he hath begotten on thee Children increase love between man and wife so between Christ and us Doct. 6. That unfruitfull branches God in the end cuts off and the severall degrees whereby he cuts off professors that are unfruitfull That unfruitfull branches God in the end takes away As he did Judas who was here especially aymed at For proofe take Psal 125. It is a Psalme made of purpose to shew the different estate of the professors of Religion Those that are upright ver 4. he saith God will continue to doe them good and They shall be at mount Sion and all the gates of hell shall not be able to remove one of those mountaines But because there are many that like Planets goe the same course with the other Orbes and yet have some secret by-way besides of their owne of these he sayes Those that turne aside into crooked wayes God will lead them forth with the workers of iniquity That is in the end he will discover them to be what they are And though they goe amongst the drove of Professors like sheep yet God will detect them either in this life or in the life to come to be Goats Though they did not seeme to be workers of iniquity yet God will leade them forth with them Reasons why God dealeth thus with them First because they dishonour the Root which they professe themselves to be graffed into they professe themselves to be in Christ Now he is a fruitfull root full of sap and for any to be unfruitfull in him is a dishonour to him When you see unfruitfull branches upon a tree you blame the root for it so doth the world blame the grace of Christ the profession of Christ yea even the root it selfe for the unfruitfulnesse of the branches Therefore that they may dishonour the root no more he takes them away cuts them off from that root they seemed to stand in and then they run out into all manner of wickednesse Secondly because the Husbandman hath no profit by them Heb. 6. The ground that bringeth forth thorns and not fruit meet for him that dresseth it is nigh to cursing In the 8. of the Cant. it is said Solomon had a Vineyard and he let it out to Keepers c. He speakes this of Christ of whom Solomon was a Type and of his Church and his comparison stands thus Solomon being a King and having many Vineyards for his Royalty for the riches of antient Kings lay much in husbandry he let them out to Vine-dressers and they had some gaine by them But Solomon must have a thousand and they but two hundred the chiefe gaine was to come to Solomon So the Vineyard that God had planted here below he lets it out to men and they shall have some profit by it you shall all have wages for the work you doe yet so as the chiefe gaine must returne to God he must have a thousand for your two hundred But when men will have all the gains that is in what they doe set up their owne ends onely and the Husbandman shall have none such branches he takes away because they are not for his profit for it is made a rule of equity 1 Cor. 9. 7. That he that planteth a Vineyard should eate of the fruit of it Because of all trees a Vine is good for nothing else but to bring forth fruit as we see it expressed to us Ezek. 15. it is good for nothing but the fire when it becomes unfruitfull Other trees are good for building to make pins of but not the Vine And this similitude God chose out to shew that of all trees else Professors if unfruitfull are good for nothing their end is to be burned Now if you aske How God taketh them away The degrees he doth it by are set downe here ver 6. If a man abide not in me c. that is fall away then 1. They are cast out and 2. They wither 3. They are gathered 4. They are burned First they are cast forth that is out of the hearts of Gods people out of their company out of their prayers yea and out of their society by excommunication often and many times they cast out themselves being given up to such errors as discover them to be unsound As Hymenaeus and Philetus they were forward Professors so that their fall was like to have shaken many of the fruitfull branches in so much that the Apostle was faine to make an Apologie about their fall Neverthelesse the foundation of God remains sure 2 Tim. 2. 18. God gave them up to such opinions and heresies as discovered their hearts to be rotten and unsound So also he gives these carnall professors up to such sinnes as will discover them This was the case of Cain he brought forth some fruit for he sacrificed yet because not in sincerity he envied his brother and was given up to murther his brother upon which it is said that He was cast out of the sight of the Lord Gen. 4. 16. that is cast out of his Fathers family and from the Ordinances of God there enjoyed and made a vagabond upon the face of the whole earth which of all curses is the greatest or else as was said they of their owne accord forsake the assembly of the Saints The Apostle makes this a step to the sin against the holy Ghost Heb. 10. 25. he saith That when men forsake the assemblies and company of the people of God publique and private and love not to quicken and stir up one another or begin to be shye of those they once accompanied they are in a nigh degree to that which followes in the next verse To sin wilfully after they have received the knowledge of the truth Secondly being thus cast forth they wither that is the sap of abilities which they once had begins to decay that life in holy duties and in holy speeches begins to be withdrawn and their leaves begin to fall off they cannot pray nor speake of holy things as they were wont Thus it is said of such Professors Jude 12. That their fruit withereth even here in the eyes
apt to be more negligent in their particular callings and are all for the duties of Religion for their present distresse and estate requires it Ancienter Christians are apt to abound more in the duties of their particular calling but he that hath learnt to be conversant in both aright to be conversant in his calling so as to keep his heart up in communion with God and so attend upon God without distraction and to be conversant so in duties as to goe about his calling cheerfully and to doe with all his might what his hand therein finds to doe he is the best Christian And therefore 1 Thes 4. 10. when he had exhorted them to encrease more and more in grace he goes on ver 11. to exhort them also to doe their owne businesse and to work with their hands that they may walk honestly towards them without for to neglect our callings gives offence to them without and therefore masters stumble at young Christians but both you see by the Apostles exhortation in that Epistle may stand together increasing in holinesse of which he had spoken afore Chap. 3. 12. and Chap. 4. 1. and ver 10. with diligence in a calling of which he speaks ver 11. c. To be conversant all day in holy duties is indeed more sweet to a mans selfe and is an heaven upon earth but to be conversant in our callings is more profitable to others and so may glorifie God more And therefore as when Paul would gladly have been with Christ for that is best for me sayes he yet sayes he To abide here is more profitable for you Phil. 1. so to injoy immediate communion with God in Prayer and to meditate all the week long is more for the comfort of a mans particular but to be employed in the businesse of a mans calling the more profitable for the Church or Common-wealth or Family And therefore it is to be accounted a bringing forth of more fruit when both are joyned and wisely subordinated so as the one is not a hindrance to the other though the child out of love to his mother and the sweetnesse he hath in her company could find in his heart to stay all day at home to look on her yet it pleaseth her more for him to goe to schoole all day and at night to come home and be with her and play with her and she then kisseth him and makes much of him Children when they are young they eate often and doe little and we alllow them to doe so afterwards you set them to work and to schoole and reduce them to two good meals and they thrive as well with it CHAP. IV. What it is to bring forth more fruit explicated positively wherein many direct tryalls of Growth are given THus I have shewne you negatively what this growth is not to be measured by and so by way of intimation wherein it consists I will secondly do it more positively and directly and affirmatively First we grow when we are led on to execise new graces and so to adde one grace to another as the Apostle Peter exhorts as when in our knowledge we are led into new truths and have answerable affections running along with those discoveries towards the things revealed At first a Christian doth not exercise all graces though all are radically in him But as a man lives first the life of a plant then of sense then of reason so is it in Graces There are many formes Christians go through as scholars at schoole doe wherein their thoughts are in a more especiall manner taken up about divine objects of an higher or inferiour nature The first forme is to teach them to know their sinfulnesse of heart and life more and so they goe to schoole to the Law and are set to study it even oftentimes a good while after conversion and faith begun and then after they have learned that lesson throughly they are led up higher to have their faith drawn out and to be exercised about free grace more and towards Christ his person union with him and about the art and way of drawing vertue from him and doing all in him And herein it falls out with particular Christians as with the Church in generall that as although the most infant dayes of the Church from Adams time in the old world had the knowledge of all Fundamentals necessary to salvation yet God went over 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 piecemeale Heb. 1. 1. Age after Age to instruct his Church in a larger knowledge of those Fundamentals So is it in Gods dealing with particular Christians though a Beleever in his conversion hath the substance of all these taught him yet he goes over them by piecemeale againe throughout his whole life and hath often such a distinct apprehension renewed of them as if he had not knowne or minded them afore And sometimes his thoughts doe dwell more about the emptynesse of his owne righteousnesse sometimes about that fulnesse is in Christ sometimes more about the spirituall strictnesse he ought to walk in And because some are apt to give up the old work when they have new hence that which is indeed but growth in grace in them many account to be but their first conversion though every such eminent addition be to be accounted as a conversion as Christ speaks to his Disciples Except ye be converted yet they were converted afore Now the purpose I speak this for is an help to discerne our growth for when God thus is leading us with farther light and affection to a larger apprehension of spirituall things or to the trying new graces so long we grow Therefore Cant. 7. ult the Church is said to lay up for her beloved fruits new and old And Rom. 5. from patience a man is led to experience from experience to hope As wicked men are led on from one sinne to another and so grow worse and worse so godly men from one grace to another and when it is so with us then we encrease Secondly when a man finds new degrees of the same grace added and the fruits of them grow bigger and more plentifull as when a mans love grows more fervent as 1 Pet. 4. 8. when faith from mans casting it selfe on Christ comes to find sweetnesse in Christ which is to eate his flesh and drink his blood and then from that growes further up to an assurance of faith which is an addition to it When any thing that was lacking in faith as the Apostle speaks 1 Thes 3. 10. is added So when a man grows up to more strength of faith in temptations and is lesse moved and shaken in them more rooted in faith as the Apostle speaks Thus in godly sorrow when from mourning for sin as contrary to Gods holinesse we goe on to mourn for it as contrary to him who loves us which followes upon assurance as they mourned over him which once they had pierced not onely that we mourne that we should offend
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
us the lesse morrified he will account us as he will judge of faith by the works so of mortification by the fruits and therefore it is observeable that he bids us mortifie the deeds of the body as well as the body of sinne Rom. 8. 13. for God will judge of the one by the other Therefore the objects of mortification are the deeds of the body as well as the inward principle of corruption because the mortification of the inward principle will be seene and appeare in the deeds But it may be objected that Grace is acted or lusts doe stir accordingly as the Spirit of Christ who is a voluntary Agent doth act Grace or will leave a man so that if he be pleased to stir that little grace in a weak Christian he shall act it more and if he leave a strong Christian to himselfe he shall fall more But to this it is answered First that though the holy Ghost be a voluntary Agent and blowes when and where he pleaseth for his times of working yet ordinarily he acteth grace in us take our whole course according to the proportion of grace given us so as he that hath more habituall grace shall be more assisted and enlivened which falls out according to that rule which in this case will hold Habenti dabitur Mat. 25. 29. To him that hath shall be given if it be a true talent Hence therefore he that had five talents gained more then he that had but two for he gained his five more unto his two the other but two more to his former two though he that had but one is said to have gained none because indeed it was not a true talent for he seemed but to have it the Text sayes And the reason hereof is because those habits of grace which God hath infused are his owne worke and are ordained by him to be acted and he delights still to crowne his owne works in us with more And as he proportions glory to works so he promiseth to act according to the principles of grace infused which else would be in vaine they being ordained to that end As the Apostle sayes of gifts that they are given to profit withall so are graces to work and therefore ordinarily God draws them out where he hath bestowed them as he doth gifts also according to their proportion and thus è contra it is for leaving a man to sin the more corruption a man hath the more ordinarily he lets it vent and discover it selfe that so men that have many corruptions in them might know what is in their hearts and so when God doth mortifie them in them to thanke him the more the grace of which else would be to them lost if God should mortifie their lusts in them without their seeing and bewailing them and crying to him Oh miserable man that I am and ordinarily see and discerne them men would not unlesse left to them As in case of humbling a man though God sometimes doth humble a man that hath lesse sinnes more then one that hath greater to shew that he can give a spirituall light to see more sinne in a little then others in much yet ordinarily those are most humbled that have beene greatest sinners as Manasses humbled himselfe greatly and Mary Magdalen loved much and the Apostle thought himselfe the greatest of sinners And thus it is in acting grace or letting forth corruptions it is according to their principles within And secondly that very acting grace doth increase habits so as the increase of habits and inward mortification is proportioned according to the acting of grace by the holy Ghost for every abstinence doth mortifie as was said and every act of grace doth through the blessing of the Spirit further sanctifie and increase the habit Rom. 6. You have your fruit in holinesse When they doe any duty it makes the heart more inwardly holy so as indeed the one cannot be without the other but the more a man doth abstaine out of right principles by the assistance of the Spirit the more he grows so as in the end all comes to one he whose holinesse is acted most hath in the end most habituall grace and thereby often it comes to passe that he that is first comes to be last and he that is last first Yet there are two limitations to be put in about this First I grant for some times of mens lives that God doth act some mens graces more who have yet lesse grace and leave those to sinnes who have more grace So he left Peter who in all appearance had more grace then any of the twelve yet God left him to deny Christ more foulely and falsly then any of the other But then let the ends of God be considered why he doth it First in case of too much confidence upon inherent grace and the strength of it When we trust to habituall grace received then Christ to shew that it is a new grace to assist that grace and to the end that it may be acknowledged that he that gives one grace is not bound to give another may in this case leave one that hath indeed more grace to the prevailing of corruptions more It falls out sometimes that when men are young Christians and new borne God adds much assistance and this for their encouragement and as you carry young children in your armes and so they are kept from falls more then some more elderly that are let goe alone Thus Hos 11. 3. God takes them by the armes when a child ver 1. but then they acknowledge it not as it follows there and are apt to think that that strength and life they have is from themselves and so God afterwards leaves them when grown men more elderly Those Christians who walk most sensibly of their owne weaknesse and observe God his keeping them from sin and attribute this to him such God delights to help though for the present they have lesse habituall grace And so those Christians that sooner come to the knowledge of that way of dependance upon Christ some come to see it the first day and make use of it others not so clearely a long while they shall be more assisted then another To many that way so soone is not so clearly opened Again secondly sometimes God will magnifie this his acting grace as I may call it more in one man then in another seeing it is a grace That one Apostle of the Gentiles Paul did more then all the Apostles shall we thereby infallibly conclude he had more inherent grace then they all but that he had more assistance As God sometimes useth men of weaker gifts to doe more then men of greater so men of weaker graces and lesse growth to shame the other As there are diversities of gifts so of operations and exercise of those gifts 1 Cor. 12. 6. the Spirit dividing as he will ver 11. God casts aside one of eminent gifts into a place or condition wherein
of that he had spoken in the former verses from the 12. verse and goes on to speak of it and exhort to it Thus in like manner Gal. 5. 24. it is called crucifying the flesh with the lusts not one lust but the flesh the whole bundle the cluster of them all and in that it is called crucifying it implys it also for of all deaths that did work upon every part it did stretch every nerve sinew and veyn and put all the parts to paine and this going on to mortifie sinne is called Rom. 6. The destroying of the body of sinne of the whole body It is not the consumption of one member of the lungs or liver c. but it is is consumptio totius a consumption of the whole body of sinne so as every new degree of mortification is the consuming of the whole And therefore also Colos 3. where in like manner he exhorts to his growth therein he exhorts to mortifie earthly members every member And the reasons hereof are because First true mortification strikes at the root and so causeth every branch to wither For all sinfull dispositions are rooted in one namely in love of pleasure more then of God and all true imortification deads a man to the pleasure of sinne by bringing the heart more into communion and into love with God and therefore the deading to any sinne must needs be generall and universall to every sinne It is as the dying of the heart which causeth all the members to die with it for that is the difference betweene restraining Grace which cuts off but branches and so lops the tree but true mortification strikes every blow at the root Secondly every new degree of true mortification purgeth out a sinne as it is sinne and works against it under that consideration and if against it as sinne then the same power that works out any sinne works against every sinne in the heart also Now that every new degree works against a sinne as it is sinne is plain by this because if it be purged out upon any other respect it is not mortification Thirdly the Spirit and the virtue that comes from Christ which are the efficient causes of this purging out a sinne doe also work against every sinne when they work against any one and they have a contrarietie to every lust they search into every veyne and draw from all parts Physitians may give elective purges as they call them which will purge out one humour and not another but Christs physick works generally it takes away all sorts of distempers And whereas the Objection against this may be that then all lusts will come to be equally mortified I answer No for all lusts were never equally alive in a man some are stronger some weaker by custome through disposition of body and spirit and therefore though mortification extends it selfe to all yet there being an inequality in the life and growth of these sinnes in us hence some remaine still more some lesse mortified as when a floud of water is left to flow into a field where many hils are of differing height though the water overflows all equally yet some are more above water then others because they were higher before of themselves And hence it is that some sinnes when the power of grace comes may be in a manner wholly subdued namely those which proceed out of the abundance of naughtinesse in the heart as swearing malice against the truth and these the children of God are usually wholly freed from and they seeme wholly dead being as the excrements of other members and being as the nailes and the haire they are wholly pared off as was the manner to a Proselyte woman the power of Grace takes them away though other members continue vigorous And therefore of swearing Christ sayes What is more then Yea yea and Nay nay is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 out of a profarie heart As when a man is a dying some members are stiffe and cold and cleane dead long afore as the feet whilst others continue to have some life and heat in them so in the mortification of a Christian some lusts that are more remote are wholly stiffe and starke when others retaine much life in them The second Question is Whether when I apply Christ and the Promise with the vertue of Christ for the mortification of some one particular lust or other and doe use those right means as Prayer Fasting c. for the speciall mortification of some one lust Whether that lust thereby doth not become more mortified then other lusts doe I answer Yes yet so as in a proportion this work of mortification it runs through all the rest for as in washing out the great stains of a cloth the lesser stains are washt out also with the same labour so it is here Therefore the Apostle in all his exhortations to mortification both Eph. 4. and Gal. 5. and Col. 3. though he exhorts to the putting off the old man the whole body of sinne yet instances in particular sins because a man is particularly to endeavour the mortification of particulars as it were apart and yet because in getting them mortified the whole body of sinne is destroyed therefore he mentions both the whole body and particular members thereof apart as the object of mortification And to that end also doth God exercise his children first with one lust then with another that they may make tryall of the vertue of Christs death upon every one And therefore Christ bids us to pull out an eye and cut off an hand if they offend us for mortification is to be by us directed against particular members yet so as withall in a proportion all the rest receive a farther degree of destruction For as a particular act of sin be it uncleannnesse or the like when committed doth increase a disposition to every sinne yet so as it leaves a present greater disposition to that particular sin then any other and increaseth it most in potentia proxima though all the rest in potentia remota so in every act of mortification though the common stock be increased yet the particular lust we aimed at hath a greater share in the mortification endeavoured as in ministring physick to cure the head the whole body is often purged yet so as the head the party affected is yet chiefly purged and more then the rest CHAP. II. Three Questions resolved concerning Positive Growth OTher Questions there are concerning that other part of our growth namely in positive graces and the fruits thereof As first whether every new degree of grace runs through all the faculties I answer Yes For as every new degree of light in the ayre runnes through the whole Hemisphere when the Sunne shines clearer and clearer to the perfect day which is Solomons comparison in the Proverbs so every new degree of grace runs through and is diffused through the whole man And therefore also 1 Thes 5. 23. when the