Apostle there prayes for increase of grace he prayes they may be sanctified wholly in body soule and spirit And every new degree though it begins at the spirit the understanding yet goes through all for so Ephes 4. 23 24. Be renewed in the spirit of your minds and put on the new man it runs therefore through the whole man having renewed the mind As the worke of grace at first so after still continually leaveneth the whole lump Whether one Grace may not grow more then another I answer first that it is certaine that when a man grows up in one grace he doth grow in all they grow and thrive together Therefore in Ephes 4. 15. we are said to grow up into him in all things Growth from Christ is generall as true growth in the body is in every part so this in every grace Therefore 2 Cor. 3. ult we are said to be changed into the same image from glory to glory Every increase stamps a farther degree of the whole Image of Christ upon the heart So the Thessalonians Their faith and their love did both overflow 2 Thes 1. 3. Yet secondly so as one grace may grow more then some other 1. Because some are more radicall graces as Faith and Love therefore of the Thessalonians Faith the Apostle sayes 2. Thes 1. 3. that it did grow exceedingly and then it follows their love did overflow 2. Some grace are more exercised and if so they abound more as though both armes doe grow yet that which a man useth is the stronger and the bigger so is it in graces In birds their wings which have beene used most are sweetest to the taste As in the body though the exercise of one member maketh the body generally more healthfull yet so as that member which is exercised will be freest from humours it selfe so it is here so tribulation worketh patience patience experience Rom. 5. Many sufferings make patience the lesse difficult and much experience many experiments make hope greater Againe thirdly that some graces are more in some then others appeares hence for what is it makes the differing gifts that are in Christians but a severall constitution of graces though all have every grace in them as now in the body every member hath all singular parts in it as flesh bones sinews veynes bloud spirits in it but yet so some members have more of flesh lesse of sinews and veynes c. whence ariseth a severall office in every member according as such or such simular parts doe more or lesse abound in a member the hand because it hath more nerves and joynts in it then another member though lesse flesh yet how strong is it and fit for many offices the foot is not so So in Christians by reason of the severall constitution of graces and the temper of them more or lesse have they severall offices in the Church and are fitted for severall employments some have more love and fit for offices of charity some more knowledge and are fit to instruct some more patience and are fitter to suffer some for self-denyall and accordingly doe grow in these more specially The third Question is Whether this increase be onely by radicating the same grace more or by a new addition I answer that by adding a new degree of grace as in making candles which is done by addition when a candle is put anew into the fat of boiled tallow every time it is put in it comes out bigger with a new addition or as a cloth dipt in the die comes out upon every new dipping in with a deeper die And this is done by a new act of creation put forth by God Therefore when David being falne prayed for increase of grace he sayes Create in me a new heart And therefore Ephes 4. 24. when the Apostle exhorts to further putting on the new man and speaketh of growth he adds which is created for every new degree is created as well as the first infusion which shews the difference between naturall growth and this In naturall growth there needs not a new creation but an ordinary concurrence but it is not so in this that God that begun the work by the same power perfects it And therefore Ephes 1. 19. he prayes that the beleeving Ephesians might see that power that continued to worke in them to be no lesse then that which raised up Christ for though naturall life may with a naturall concurrence increase it selfe because the terminus à quo the terme from whence it springs is but from a lesse degree of life to a greater yet it is otherwise in this life and our growth in this is from a greater degree of death to a further degree of life And therefore Phil. 9. the Apostle calls growing in grace a going on to attaine the resurrection from the dead And therefore the same power that raised up Christ must goe along to work it Hence also every new degree of grace is called a new conversion except ye be converted sayes Christ to his Disciples converted already because the same power that wrought to conversion goes still to this And therefore it is said that God gives the increase 1 Cor. 3. 7. and it is called the increasing of God Colos 2. 19. so Hos 14. shewing the ground why they grow so fast Thy fruit is found in me sayes God ver 7. although this is to be added by way of caution and difference that therein God doth proportion his influence to our endeavours which in conversion at first he doth not Therefore we are said to be fellow workers with him although it be he that gives the increase 1 Cor. 3. 6 7 8. the same you have also Rom. 8. We by the Spirit doe mortifie the deeds of the flesh We as co-workers with the Spirit FINIS A Table of the Contents of this Booke The Introduction THe summe and division of the words and the subject of this Discourse Page 1 Some Observations premised of this Parable of the Vine 1. Obser How Christ is the Vine and the onely true Vine 3 2. Obser How God the Father is the Husbandman Declared in five things 6 3. Obser Two sorts of Branches in the Vine fruitfull and unfruitfull 8 An interpretation of those words Branches in me that bring not forth fruit By three things 9 Three severall sorts of Branches that prove unfruitfull 11 Some differences betweene true Branches and Temporary Branches grounded on the Text. 12 1. Difference Temporary Beleevers bring not forth true fruit And What it is that makes a good work to be true fruit ibid. 2. Difference Temporary Branches bring not forth fruit in Christ 14 What it is to bring forth fruit in Christ explained 15 This Question Whether in every act a Christian doth all in Christ by his fetching vertue distinctly from him Resolved by 3. things 18 That every Beleever doth five things which are truly and interpretatively to bring forth fruit in Christ 19 4. Obser
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
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
they are not usefull and so he may one of much habituall grace Thirdly he acts often according to actuall preparation the habituall preparation lies in habits and is more remote as strings may be good yet out of tune and so not plaid upon Againe fourthly God may leave a Christian of more grace and growth to more stirring of corruptions in case he means yet to bring him to a higher pitch of humiliation and that by sins It is in this his dealing of leaving men to corruptions and the vigorous conflicts with them as it is in his leaving his people sometimes to those other evils of afflictions God humbleth his either by afflictions or by sins and his manner in both is sometimes alike you shall see one who hath attained to a great measure of grace already and that by affliction and yet never to be out of the fire but God still followeth him with one affliction or another whereas one of lesse growth and grace who in that regard hath more need shall have fewer afflictions in his course And what is the reason of this difference it is not that the grown Christian hath simply more need of affliction then the other but because God intends to bring him on yet to a further degree of grace As refiners of sugar taking sugars out of the same chest some thereof they melt but once and another part of it they melt and refine againe and againe not that that which they refine twice hath more drosse in it but because they would have it more refined double refined And as God deales thus in afflictions so also in leaving of his people to the stirring of corruptions which of all afflictions is the greatest to humble a holy heart And thus in experience it is found that he doth sometimes leave a grown Christian to conflict with corruptions more then a weaker Christian not that he hath more in him but because he means to bring on that grown Christian to a further degree of humiliation he is not humbled as he meanes to have him yet And whereas God humbleth some men by afflictions he humbleth others by sins and nothing humbleth more then sins for crosses doe but humble by revealing sin as the cause and nothing will humble a grown Christian more then to see such shamefull foule corruptions still stirring in him the greatest aggravation of which to him will be in this that after so long a time such lusts should be so lively in him to have such grosse faults in his exercises after he hath been so long at schoole this shames him For a growne Christian to be disguised with a corruption and when his haire is growne to have it shaven off as Davids messengers were ashamed of it so how doth it shame him and humble him Thus Hezekiah though he was much humbled by a sicknesse to death but because he was not humbled enough and so far as God meant to bring him therefore God let loose Pride on him and then he further humbleth himselfe and all Israel as it is 2 Chron. 32. 26. Upon some men God shews his free grace in keeping them from sinne upon others he spends it in pardoning them These are but two severall wayes he hath of laying it out And so sometimes he shewes his grace in keeping those of lesse grace and againe in letting those of more to struggle with their lusts and such sicknesses are not to death or to weaken them but for the glory of God and their further growth for this will be the effect and consequent of such stirrings in growne Christians that as their fits of corruptions stirring are great so their humblings will be greater Grace being much in them will shew it selfe that way great fits of sinning have intermingled with them great exercises of repentings and the growth of their grace will shew it selfe in them and appeare in them even as in men that are cheerfull naturally but sometimes oppressed with melancholy when those pressures are over they are most merry their spirits breaking forth being at liberty they shew themselves as much on the contrary in mirth so is it here when grace gets above againe As it is in the body when the spirits are not weak but onely are kept under by humours when they doe once get up they then shew their strength in causing the body to grow the more as in many young men after a sicknesse where strength of nature is and so thereby they become after often the better and more lively but if the naturall spirits be weak it is not so A second limitation is that though one of lesse growth in mortification may sometimes by watchfulnesse keep under his lusts more and act that little grace he hath more then haply he doth who hath yet radically more grace therefore sayes the Apostle Stir up the gift that is in thee To Timothy he speakes it and he exhorts Gal. 5. even young Christians to walke in the spirit that is to have the spirit kept above the flesh so as a man shall have great hand over his corruptions that they breake not forth Now I say that this exhortation doth belong unto and concerneth the youngest Christians For he speakes to all that have spirituall life begun in them ver 25. If we live in the Spirit let us sayes he walke in the Spirit and then we shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh ver 16. A weake body thouh weake yet if he useth care may keepe himselfe from distempers as much as some man who is strong but grows carelesse and neglects his health But yet though one of lesse grace be thus actually more watchfull ye he may discerne the want of growth by this First that still his lusts rise oftner and that with delight and are apter to catch fire presently although they be smothered as fast as they catch his case then is as if there were an heap of straw in a roome where fire is where sparks fly about still taking fire upon every occasion but he that keeps the straw is carefull still to put it out And secondly in this case they shall find the strength of their corruptions in privative working against grace and distracting and disturbing them deading their hearts in duties and therefore when the Apostle had exhorted such to walk in the spirit so as not to fulfill the lusts marke what follows Yet sayes he the flesh will discover it selfe in lusting against the spirit Take what care you will so as a man shall not be able to doe what he would Gal. 5. 16 17. and the more strong it is the more it will shew it selfe strong in disturbing so as Christians not growne up that are very watchfull over their hearts doe keepe as it were but negative Sabbaths and are therein like unto those watchers and keepers of good rule in great Churches where there are many sleepers they have so much to doe to watch those boyes that sleepe and are idle at
both in purging out corruptions and increase of grace and the fruit of it Therefore what ever other spreading fruitfull observations grow upon this stock and this Vine affords many wee will but shortly and as men in haste view and take notice of but as in our way to that other which I principally intend and onely so far stay upon the observation of them as the bare opening this similitude here used doth give sap and vigour to them The first Observation how Christ is a Vine and onely the true Vine First Christ he is a Vine To explaine this first Adam indeed was a Vine planted in Paradise to beare all Mankinde upon but he turned a wild one he proved not the true Vine God planted him to allude to that Jer. 2. 21. A noble Vine a holy and right seed but he degenerated and so have all engraffed on him and so bring forth nothing but grapes of Sodome as Isaiah speakes But 2. God the Father having many branches of chosen ones that grew by nature on this cursed stock of Adam whom yet as ver 16. he had ordained to bring forth fruit that is to spring and spread forth in the earth in all ages and then to be transplanted unto Heaven the Paradise appointed for them the earth being but the nurserie of them for a while Hence therefore he did appoint his own Sonne to be a new root as into whom he meant to transplant them and ordained him to be that bulk and body and chiefe branch which they all should grow out of who is therefore called The roote of David Rev. 22. and that Righteous branch Jer. 22. 6. Whom therefore 3. he planted as a roote here on earth with us and cloathed with a humane nature a weak and mean bark and body and a rind and out side such as ours is that so both roote and branches might be of the same nature and Homogeneall which nature of ours in him he likewise filled with his Spirit as with juice and sap without all measure that so he might fructifie and grow into all those branches appointed to be in him by communicating the same spirit to them And 4. although he was of himselfe the fairest Cedar that ever the earth bare yet in relation to those multitude of branches he was to bear chuseth to be a Vine which is of all trees the lowest the weakest and of the meanest bark and out-side of any other onely because of all others it is the plentifullest of branches and runs out and spreads its bulk in branches and those of all branches else of any other trees the fruitfullest it is therefore called The fruitfull Vine Psal 128. 3. and for that reason onely doth he single out this comparison as suiting with his scope shewing therein his love that as he condescended to the lowest condition for our salvation so to the meanest resemblances for our instruction yet so as withall he tells us that no Vine nor all the Vines on earth were worthy herein to be compared nor to be so much as resemblances of him For he and he alone is the true Vine that is the second Observation For take those choicest excellencies in a Vine for which the comparison here is made as more particularly that of fruitfulnesse either in boughs or fruit and it is but a shadow of that which is in him As God onely is I am that I am and all things else have but the shadow of Being so Christ alone hath onely all the excellencies in him in the true reall nature of all things to which he is compared So in like manner he is said to be Bread indeed John 6. 55. and ver 32. The true bread from heaven Manna and all other meat and all that sweetnesse which is in meat is and was but a shadow to that which he affords He excells and exceeds all things he is compared to in what they have and they are but shadowes to him Heb. 10. 1. First therefore never any Vine so fruitfull All our fruit is found in him Hos 12. If you abide in me you shall bring forth much fruit He hath juice to supply you with every grace to fill you with all the fruits of righteousnesse which if the branches want it is for want of faith in themselves to draw from him not want of sap in him Secondly this he is at all times hath been in all ages thus flourishing this root never withers is never dry or empty of sap it is never winter with Christ Every branch saith the second verse that is every one that hath born fruit in any age beareth all its fruit in him branches in him fear no drought Jer. 17. 8. Thirdly for largenesse of spreading no such Vine as this He as the Psalmist sayes Psal 80. 11 12. sends out his boughes unto the sea and his branches to the rivers all the earth is or hath been or shall be filled with them Is to perswaded us to take Christ alone and make him our All in all because in him all excellencies are supereminently found All creatures are not enough to serve for comparisons to set him forth and when they doe in part for some particular thing that is the excellentest in them yet therein they are but shadowes Heb. 10. 1. He onely is the truth he is the true light John 1. The Baptist Moses and all lights else were but as twilight but a shadow So he is the true bread the true Vine he hath really the sweetnesse the comfort the excellencies of them all The like may be said of all those relations he hath taken on him so he onely is a true Father and Husband c. and the love and sweetnesse in all other Fathers and Husbands are but a shadow to what is in him Obser 2. How the Father is the Husbandman As CHRIST is thus a Vine so his Father is the Husbandman and as strange a Husbandman as Christ a Vine For first he is the very root of the Vine it self which no Husbandman is to any Vine therefore he that is the Vine calls the Husbandman his Father My Father is the Husbandman This Vine springs out of his bosome by eternall generation for this is the derivation of our Off-spring Chap. 14. 20. I am in my Father and you in me And Chap. 5. 26. The Father He hath life originall in himselfe and gives it to the Sonne and the Sonne to us and thence spring living fruits the fruits of righteousnesse 2. He is the ingraffer and implanter of all the branches into this Vine Esay 60. 21. he calls them his righteous people the branch of my planting the work of my hands Other Husbandmen doe but expect what branches their Vines will of themselves bring forth but God appoints who and how many shall be the branches and gives them unto and ingraffs them into his Sonne 3. He appoints what fruit and what store of fruit these branches shall bring forth and accordingly
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
the first leaps more but goes as fast afterward Fifthly it is not increasing in outward professing and a seeming forward but especially in inward and substantiall godlinesse the other is but as increasing in leaves but in growth there must be a bringing forth more fruit When the root strikes not deeper downward and farther into the earth but spreads much upward in the branches this is not a true growth though look where there is more rooting there will be more spreading also above ground Growth it lies not in this That men should thinke of me above what I am indeed 2 Cor. 12. 6. Many at first grow into so great a profession as they cannot fill up and grow up to all their dayes make bigger cloathes then they can grow to fill As they say of Elephants that the skinne is as big at first as ever after and all their life time their flesh growes but up to fill their skinne up True growth begins at the vitalls the heart the liver the bloud gets soundnesse and vigour and so the whole man outwardly this heart Godlinesse is the thing you must judge by And yet sixtly even in inward affections many be deceived even there the party for Christ in appearance may be greater then in truth So often in a young Christian there is a greater army of affections mustered but most of them but mercenaries his affections are then larger his joyes greater his sorrowes violenter then afterwards More of his heart joynes in duties at first but afterwards though lesse yet more spiritually and truly The objects being then new draw all after them not onely Spirit or that new principle of grace is stirred then but flesh also The unregenerate part becomes a Temporary Beleever for a time hath a work upon it per redundantiam as an unregenerate man hath who is a Temporary which work on the unregenerate part doth decay as in Temporaries it doth and grows lesse not onely godly sorrow is stirred to mourne for sinne but carnall sorrow being awakned by Gods wrath joynes also and so makes the streame bigger Infidelity it selfe like Simon Magus for a while beleeves Whilst the things of grace are a wonder to a man as at first they are presumption joynes and eekes out faith a great party in the heart cleaves by flattery as the phrase is in Daniel and for by-ends which after some progresse fall off and faint in the way and those lusts that over and above their true mortification were further cast into a swoune begin againe to revive All this was resembled to us by the comming of the Children of Israel out of Egypt when by those plagues in Egypt and Moses his call not onely the Israelites but even many of the Egyptians were wrought upon and began out of self-love to feare the Lord Exod. 9. 20. and so a mixed multitude it is said went out with the Israelites Exod. 20. 38. to sacrifice to the Lord but ere long as Numb 11. 4. this mixt multitude began to murmur and to fall off So at a mans first setting out at his first conversion mixt carnall affections the unregenerate part through the newnesse of the objects and impression of Gods wrath and heavenly ravishments are wrought upon and goe out with the new Israel to sacrifice but after a while these fall away and then the number is lesse but the true Israelites may be encreased Hence it is that young Christians if they know their hearts complain more of hypocrysie and old Christians of deadnesse So in times of peace presumption eeks out faith and makes it seeme a great deale which in times of desertion and tryal falls off and then though the beleeving partie be lesse yet more sincere When the fire is first kindled there is more smoke even as much as fils the house but after the flame comes that contracts all into a narrow compasse and hath more heat in it So it is in young Christians their affections which Christ compares to the smoaking flax their joy in duties their sorrow for sinne their love of God is more but exceeding carnal the flame after though lesse growes purer and lesse mixt with vapours of corrupt self-love Seventhly we must not measure our bringing forth more fruit by one some kind or sort of duties but by our growth in godlinesse in the universall extent and latitude of it as it takes in and comprehendeth the duties of both callings generall and particular and all the duties of a Christian Thus it may be when grown up we are lesse in some sort of duties then we were when we were young Christians Haply we were more then in praying in fasting and reading and meditating yea spent the most if not the whole of our time in these But because now we spend lesse time in these we must not say therefore that we are fallen or decayed for there are many other duties to be done besides these which haply then we neglected but now make conscience of So that take all sorts of duties in the latitude of them and we may be growne more and do bring forth more fruit Perhaps we bring forth lesse fruit of some one kind then afore but if we be filled with all variety of fruits of the first and second table of our generall and particular callings this is to bring forth more fruit Men at their first conversion are necessitated often for to spend their whole time in such duties wherein they immediately draw nigh to God Paul then spent three whole dayes in fasting and prayer And then we allow them to doe it because their estates require it they want assurance and establishment they see grace to be that one thing necessary and therefore we give them leave to neglect all things for it they are new married to Christ and therefore they are not to be pressed to war the first yeare as I may so allude as for young marryed persons it was provided in Leviticus and parents and masters are to give allowance to such then in their travell of their new birth to lye in and not to be cruell to them in denying them more time then ordinary So also when they are in desertion which is a time of sicknesse and in sicknesse you allow your servants time from their work as the Church when she wanted her Beloved Cant. 3. 2. no wonder if she leaves all to seek him As your selves when you want a child or a servant you cry him in every street and leave all to find him as he left ninety nine to find one lost sheep And they then come new out of prison out of their naturall estate and out of the fresh apprehension of the wrath of God and therefore no wonder if they run so fast to haste out of it and salute none by the way stay to doe no businesse but when once they are gotten to the City of refuge then they fall about their businesse and callings againe Hence young Christians are
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
weaknesse it is out of inordinacie and of such a frame are young Christians hearts like new lute strings which when they are wound up high are still a falling ever and anon whereas strings setled long on an instrument will stand long and not slip downe Seventhly a man may be said to grow and bring forth more fruit when although the difficulties of doing duties become greater and his means lesse yet he continues to doe them and this though it may be he doth no more then he did before For a tree to bring forth much fruit in cold weather or standing in the shade is more then in summer or when it stands in the sun I know thy work thy labour and thy patience Rev. 2. 13. When a man though he doe fewer works yet with much labour having it may be now a body growne weake or holds out in the profession of the wayes of God with more scoffes and hazarding more in a place where Satans throne is this makes a little done for Christ a great deale So when a man thrives with a little trading with small means of grace and yet exceedeth those that have more to pray and to continue to doe so though the streame is against us and gales cease to pray and to continue to pray when we heare no answers but the contrary It is noted of Daniel that he did the Kings businesse after he had been sick Dan. 8. 27. and so he prayed you know when he ventured his life for it when we have lesse straw to make the same number of brick with lesse wages lesse encouragements and yet doe as much work with chearfulnesse 8. When a man though he doth lesse for the outward bulk yet grows more wise and faithfull to lay out all his opportunities and abilities to the best advantage this is to bring forth more fruit Thus Moses who at first began to heare himselfe all causes both small and great but in the end he gave over the lesser causes to others and reserved the hearing of the greater to himselfe Exod. 18. 10. yet still he continued to doe more and laid himselfe out to the greater advantage His former course would in the end have killed him Thou wilt wear away like a leafe saith Jethro to him So the Apostle who strived to preach the Gospell where Christ had not been knowne Rom. 15. 20. When a man forbeares lesser things to lay out all for the Churches advantage lesse ventures himselfe in a smaller course unlesse particularly called to it not out of fearfulnesse but faithfulnesse and will lay all the stock on it in a greater Young Christians are as young Fencers they strike hand over head downe right blowes whereas if they would consider their brother or a wicked man whom they would reprove as skilfull fencers do and at an advantage hit them a good blow is it not much better when a man watcheth in all things as he exhorts Timothy 2 Tim. 4. 5. and serves the season as some reade it Rom. 12. 11. that is waits for the best advantages of doing good both which may stand with fervencie of spirit and enduring afflictions for so the next words are in both those places A man is no lesse liberall that studies how to lay out his money to most charitable uses though he gives lesse to fewer particulars We live in a wicked world and godly men cannot do what they would as wicked men also cannot When therefore a man looks about him and studies to improve himselfe to the utmost advantage for God in his place to lay out his credit his parts and all for God as a faithfull Factor in the best wares though he deales in fewer particulars he may notwithstanding bring forth more fruit And thus much for matter of Tryall about the first thing positive growth in fruitfulnesse THE TRYALL OF A CHRISTIANS GROWTH THE SECOND PART Of Growth in MORTIFICATION or Gods purging out Corruption He purgeth it that it may bring forth more fruit CHAP. I. The Observation out of the Text propounded That God goes on to purge corruptions out of true branches Bounds set to this discourse about it according to the scope of the Text The reasons of the point I Come now to the Tryall of our Growth in that other part of Sanctification namely the Mortification of lusts and purging out of corruptions which the Text also cals for Christ here saying not onely that they bring forth more fruit but that God purgeth them that they may bring forth more fruit The Observation from which words is clearly this That God chuseth true branches to grow in a purging out of their corruptions as in true fruitfulnesse In the handling of this point I shall doe these foure things First set the bounds and limits of this Discourse about it according to Christs intendment as here he speaks of it Secondly give some reasons of the point Thirdly shew the wayes which God useth to carry on the progresse in this work Fourthly give some helps of Tryall about it Now for the first the explication and limiting this point unto Christs intendment here that so I may onely so far handle it as the scope of the words will beare I premise these three things about it 1. That purging here intended which is indeed all one with Mortification and emptying out sin out of our hearts and lives is to be restrained here to the progresse of a Christian in that work and not as taking in with it that first work of mortification wrought at a mans first conversion so as I intend not now to lay open to you the nature of mortification and what it is by way of Common place but onely intend to speak of Growth in it for of that Christ speaks because it is such a purging as is after bringing forth some fruit and whereof the end is to bring forth more fruit Neither 2. are we so much to speak of it here as it is a duty to be done by us though it be so but as it is a work of God upon us which he takes care to goe through with and perfect in all those who are fruitfull for he speaks here of it rather as an act of Gods He purgeth then as it is to be an act of ours that we ought to purge our selves though both doe goe together as in that speech Rom. 8. We by the Spirit doe mortifie the deeds of the flesh so as that which is proper to the point in hand for the explication of it as here in this place it is laid downe is not so much to give you motives or meanes of purging your selves as to shew you the wayes and courses God takes still one way or other to purge his children by that they may be more fruitfull And yet 3. in this work of Mortification considered thus in the progresse of it we are not meer passives as at that finall perfecting and finishing of it and carrying away all sin at death
we are and are at that first habituall beginning of it at conversion but therein we are workers together with God We being purged from sinne as the body is by physick from humours though the physick work yet nature joynes with the physick being quickned and helped by it to cast out the humours For give a dead man physick and it carryes not any humours away So as those meanes whereby God purgeth us are not to be imagined to doe it as meer physicall agents like as the pruning hook cuts off branches from a tree or as when a Surgeon cuts out dead flesh but these meanes doe it by stirring up our graces and quickning them and by setting our thoughts and faith and affections awork and so God assisting with the power of Christs death he doth purge us daily by making his word afflictions and the like to set our thoughts awork against sinne and so to cast it forth It is certaine that unlesse our thoughts work upon the meanes as well as the meanes work upon us and so doe mingle themselves with those meanes that unlesse faith and Christs death be mingled in the heart it purgeth not And therefore it is said as well that we purge our selves So 2 Tim. 2. 20. and also 1 John 3. 3. and Rom. 8. that we by the Spirit mortifie the deeds of the flesh as it is said that God purgeth us which is the thing affirmed here because God still in going on to purge us doth it by stirring up our graces and useth therein acts of our faith and love and many motives and considerations to stir up our graces so to effect it Now 2. for the reasons that move God thus to goe on to purge corruptions out of his children First because Jesus Christ hath purchased an eternall divorce betweene corruption and our hearts He hath bought off all our corruptions and redeemed us from all iniquitie Titus 2. 14. He gave himselfe for us that he might redeeme us from all iniquitie and purifie unto himselfe a peculiar people and God will have the price of Christs bloud â—ut Secondly because God desires more and more to have delight in us and to draw nigh to us and therefore he more and more goes on to purge us For though he loves us at first when full of corruptions yet he cannot so much delight in us as he would nor have that communion with us no more then a Husband can with a wife who hath an unsavoury breath or a loathsome disease They must therefore be purified for his bed as Hester was for Ahasuerus Draw nigh to God sayes James and I will draw nigh to you James 4. 8 9. but then you must Cleanse your hands and purifie your hearts as it follows there God else hath no delight to draw nigh to you Thirdly he daily purgeth his that they may be fit for use and service for unlesse he purged them he could not use them in honourable imployments such as to suffer or to stand for him in what concernes his glory they would be unfit for such uses as a vessel is that is unscoured Therefore 2 Tim. 2. 21. If a man purge himselfe from these he shall be a vessell unto honour that is he shall be used in honourable employments and not laid aside and he shall be meet for his masters use as vessells kept cleane when on the sudden the master hath occasion to use them and to have them served in Fourthly that as our persons so that our services may be more and more acceptable that our prayers and such performances may savour lesse of gifts and pride and selfe-love and carnall desires So Mal. 3. 3 4. it is said He shall sit as a purifier of silver and he shall purifie the sonnes of Levi as gold is purified from their drosse that they may offer to the Lord an offering in righteousnesse and then shall their offerings be pleasant to the Lord. The more the heart and life is purged the more acceptable your prayers are and your obedience and all you doe CHAP. II. The wayes God useth to purge out our corruptions and meanes whereby he causeth us to grow therein NOw in the third place for the wayes whereby God goes on to purge us there are many and divers he blesseth all sorts of meanes and dealings of his to accomplish it First he useth occasionall meanes to doe it and blesseth them as even falling into sins Thus it was with David when he fell thereby God set him anew upon this work as by his prayer appears Psal 51. Oh purge me make me cleane Secondly by casting them into afflictions So Dan. 11. 35. They shall fall to purge them and make them white What the Word doth not purge out nor mercies that afflictions must These Vines must be cut till they bleed Summer purgeth out the outward humours that lie in the skin by sweating but winter concocteth the inward by driving in the heart and so purgeth away the humours that lye in the inward parts and so what by the one what by the other the body is kept in health Thus mercies prevaile against some sins and afflictions against others Moses neglected to circumcise his child as we doe our hearts it is such a bloody work till God met him and would have killed him and in like manner God sometimes puts us in the feare or danger of losing our lives casts us into sicknesses and the like making as if he meant to kill us and all to bring us off to this work of purging to circumcise our hearts As these occasionall so also instrumentall instituted helps as his Word So Eph. 5. 26. Christ is said to cleanse his Church with the washing of water by the Word by the Word spoken either in preaching or in conference So in the very next words to my text Now ye are cleane through the words I have spoken unto you they had then received the Sacraments and had heard a good Sermon The Word at once discovers the sin and sets the hearts against it It was ignorant till I went into the Sanctuary There goes a light with it to see sin after another manner although a man did know it afore and then the Word sets out the vilenesse of a sinne and to heare a sinne declaimed against and reproved sets an exasperation upon the mind against it and so a man goes home and sets upon it to kill it and destroy it Or else by the Word meditated upon as by keeping some truth or other fresh and sweet in the mind which the mind cheweth on God fastens the mind upon some new promise or new discovered signe of a mans estate and these cleanse him 2 Cor. 7. 1. or upon some Attribute of his and that quickens the inward man and overcomes the outward some consideration or other every day God doth make familiar to a mans spirit to talk with him as the phrase is Pro. 6. and to keep
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