the Vine with this addition Ye are the branches Implying hereby that as he is the true Vine so that these onely were the true branches the other he calls but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as a branch ver 6. Hee is cast forth as a branch giving them the name of branches thereby the better to expresse his Fathers dealing with such that as they that are dressers of a Vineyard use to doe with such branches so my Father with them but they themselves are but Tanquams Quasi palmites As branches not really and in truth such That expression which seems most to make for it is that in the second verse when he sayes Every branch in me that beareth not fruit but those words in me may as well yea rather be understood to have reference to their not bringing forth fruit in him then to their being properly branches in him so as the meaning should be they are branches that bring not forth fruit in me Though they doe some good yet it is not fruit if so not in me though from mee and from my assistance And so his meaning is not so much to declare tha◠they are branches in him as that they bring not for fruit in him Which indeed is one of the characteristicall differences between true and unsound branches and one maine scope of the parable and this the Syriack translation makes for also and confirms it Omnem palmitem qui in me non fert fructum Every branch which in me bringeth not forth fruit And there is this reason that this should be his meaning that He never reckoned them at all true branches Because that is the difference God puts betweene these and those other that Those that bring forth fruit his Father purgeth that they may bring forth more fruit He lets them not run so far out into sin as to become altogether unfruitfull But these he takes away So as true branches were never unfruitfull The Use is to stir up all that professe themselves to be in Christ to examine whether they be true genuine branches of this true Vine or no. Here in this Kingdome Christ is spread forth into a faire and pleasant Vine in shew as this earth affords But if we Ministers were able with this Husbandman here to turne up the leaves of formall profession and looke with his eyes we should discerne that there are but a few true branches indeed to be found in flourishing Congregations as Isaiah foretold there should be in Israel Isa 17. 5 6. Like the gleaning grapes two or three in the top of the uppermost bough foure or five in the outmost fruitfull branches Now for a generall help to discerne whether you be true branches consider that union with Christ is it that makes men branches that is men are accounted branches of Christ in regard of some union with him and such as their union is such also is their communion with him and accordingly such branches are they and such their fruit 1. Some and indeed the most are united to him but by the externall tye of the outward Ordinances such as their obligation made in Baptisme and are knit to him thereby no otherwise then many graffs are that do not take or thrive in their stocks onely stand there as bound about by a thread and sutable is their communion with him even wholly externall they continuing to partake of the outward ordinances but without any sap or inward influence derived without any inward work of the Spirit or stirring of affection And answerable also is their fruit when no other are found on them but such as you shall finde grow in the waste of the wildernesse among Heathens which ingenuity and modesty and naturall honesty and naturall conscience do bring forth but not any such as an inward sap from Christ useth to produce Civill men are not true branches for look on Christ the root and see what fruits abounded in him most as fruits of holinesse did and therefore if such were true branches the same would abound in them likewise for every tree brings forth according to its kind 2. You have some they living in the Church Christ begins to shoot some sap of his Spirit into their hearts quickning them with many good motions and stirring up some juicenesse of affections in the administration of the Word and Sacraments which causes them to bud forth into good inward purposes and outward good beginnings but this being not the communication of the Spirit as sanctifying and changing the branch into the same nature with the root therefore it comes to passe they are still nipt in the bud as the stony ground was and the sap stricken in again like rath ripe fruit which looking forth upon a February Sun are nipt againe with an April frost Many when young and their affections are green and tender are wrought upon and bud but the scoffes of men nip them and their lusts draw the sap another way as hopes of preferment and the pleasures of sinne and so these buds wither and fall off and the Spirit withdrawes himself wholly in the root againe Againe 3. some there are as the thorny ground in whom this inward sap communicated to them though not spiritually changing and renewing them yet being communicated in a further degree abides in them longer shoots up farther and these prove exceeding green branches and are owned for true even by the people of God themselves as Judas was by the Apostles and therefore are outwardly like unto them for how else are they said to be cast out ver 16. who therefore had once some fruit to commend them for which they were accounted of by the people of God and received amongst them who judge of trees by the fruit Neither are their fruits meerly outward like Solomons apples of gold in pictures of silver meerly painted but they have a sap that puts a greennesse into what they doe and by reason of which they bear and bring forth for how else are they said to wither also ver 6. which is a decay of inward moisture and outward greennesse and these also have some kind of union with Christ as with a Lord 2 Pet. 2. 1. he ascending to bestow gifts even upon the rebellious also Psal 68. 18. so far to enable them to doe him some service in his Vineyard They are not united unto Christ as unto an Head Neither is it the spirit of adoption which they doe receive from him and such a branch was Judas who was not onely owned by the Disciples who knew him not to be false but who surely at the first had inward sap of gifts derived from Christ to fit him for the Ministery he being sent out as an Apostle to preach whom therefore Christ here aimed at in this place Now for a more particular differencing of these branches and their fruites it is not my scope to ingraffe a large common place head of all the differences between temporaries and true
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
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
cannot be supposed that in every act a man hath such a distinct thought of recourse to Christ but at the beginning and entrance of greater actions he still hath such actings and exercise of faith And also often in the progresse he reneweth them and in the conclusion when he hath performed them he doth sanctifie Christ in his heart by ascribing the praise of all unto him If in the second place the question be Whether every true beleever doth from his first conversion thus distinctly and knowingly to himself fetch thus all power from Christ and doe all in him The answer is 1. That to all beleevers this principle of having recourse to Christ for acting their Sanctification may haply not presently be so distinctly revealed as it hath been to some this indeed is common and absolutely necessary to all beleevers to constitute and make them such namely that their faith should have recourse to Christ and to take him for their Salvation in the large and generall notion of it as it infolds all under it that is to be done to save them and thus many more ignorant doe when yet they have not learnt explicitely in every particular that concerneth their salvation to have frequently a distinct recourse unto him it is probable that these very Disciples of Christ who yet savingly beleeved had not this particular principle of bringing forth all their fruit of holinesse in Christ as their root untill this very time and Sermon whereby Christ enformed them in it so clearly revealed to them nor till then so clearly apprehended by them for ignorant they were of and negligent in having recourse to Christ in many other particulars and making use of him therein which are of as much concernment as this They had not so distinctly and explicitely as would seem put their prayers up in Christs name Hitherto you have asked nothing in my name John 16. 24. Neither had they so frequently exercised faith on Christ in all things as they had upon God Therefore John 14. 1. he calls upon them Ye beleeve in God beleeve also in me 2. Many sorts of principles beleevers hearts may secretly have been taught which also habitually they practice and yet they may be exceeding hidden and latent in them in respect of their own discerning them as was the case also of these Disciples John 14. 4. sayes Christ The way namely to heaven ye know and yet ver 5. Thomas sayes How can we know the way and then ver 7. Christ sayes of them againe that They knew him and the Father and yet ver 8. Philip again saith to him Lord shew us the Father speaking as if they were ignorant of him for Christ rebukes him ver 9. and tels him he had both seen him and his Father Those principles of Atheisme and unbelief as those sayings in the heart that there is no God c. of which the Scriptures speak so much they are the principles that act and work all in men that are wicked and carnall and are the encouragers and counsellers to all the sins committed by them and yet they are least of all discerned by them of all other corruptions for they are seldome or never drawn forth into distinct propositions or actually thought upon but doe lie as common principles taken for granted and so do guide men in their wayes And thus it is and may be long with some of the contrary principles of faith they may act all secretly in the heart and yet not be discerned untill called forth by the ministery of the Word or some distinct information when it comes more distinctly to clear such a practice to them Neither 3. is union with Christ presently cleared up to all beleevers which whilst it is darkly and doubtfully apprehended by them Christs communication of his grace and strength to them in every action remains doubtfull also and is not discerned by them Of these Disciples Christ sayes John 14. 20. That in that day namely when they received the Comforter more fully of the promise of whom he there speaks they should know that they were in him and he in them But not so clearly was this as yet apprehended by them and so likewise that intercourse betwixt Christ and them both for grace and comfort c. was not so clearly discerned by them though continually maintained by him in dispensing all grace and power to them And yet 4. in the mean while take the lowest and poorest beleever and he doth these five things which put together is really and interpretatively a bringing forth their fruit in Christ though not in their apprehensions 1. In that their hearts are trained up in a continuall sensiblenes of their own insufficiencie and inability for any good thought or word as of themselves for poverty of spirit to see their own nothingnesse in this respect is the first Evangell grace Mat. 5. 1. and and if the contrary would arise in them to think through habituall grace alone received they were able of themselves to doe good it is checked soone and confuted by their owne experience both of their owne weaknesse being sure to be left to themselves as Peter was when confident in his own strength as also by those various blowings of the Spirit in them as he pleaseth with which when their sailes are filled they are able to doe any thing but when withdrawn they lay wind-bound though all habits of grace be hoyst up and ready and not able to move of themselves Now this principle of self emptinesse habitually to live by it no carnall heart in the world hath it or doth live by it And 2. for this assistance they are trained likewise up from the first to have a continuall dependance from a power from above without which they find they are able to do nothing to come from God and from the Spirit of Christ with a renunciation of themselves which implicitely is the same with this immediate intercourse with Christ and is really equivalent thereunto though they hit not at first haply on the right explicite notion thereof as having not been taught it by the Ministery of the Word or other wayes in that distinct manner that others doe and yet in honouring the Spirit of Christ dwelling in them they honour Christ who sends that Spirit into their hearts even as in honouring the Sonne Christ sayes that we honour the Father also although our thoughts may sometimes more distinctly be exercised towards one of the three Persons more then to another And thirdly when they are once taught from the Word that it is the duty of a Christian and part of the life of faith to live thus in Christ and to bring forth all in him and so come distinctly to apprehend this as requisite to a right bringing forth of fruit then their hearts instantly doe use to close with the truth of it as being most suitable and agreeable to that holy frame of their own spirits which
exceedingly advanceth the abounding of this grace 2. It serves exceedingly to illustrate the grace of perseverance and the power of God therein for unto the power of God is our perseverance wholly attributed 1 Pet. 1. 5. Ye are kept as with a garrison as the word signifies through the power of God unto salvation And were there not a great and an apparent danger of miscarrying such a mighty guard needed not There is nothing which puts us into any danger but our corruptions that still remain in us which fight against the soul and endeavour to overcome and destroy us Now then to be kept maugre all these to have grace maintained a spark of grace in the midst of a sea of corruption how doth this honour the power of God in keeping us As much in regard of this our dependency on him in such a condition as hee would otherwise be by our service if it were pepfect and we wholly free from those corruptions How will the grace of God under the Gospel triumph over the grace given Adam in his innocencie when Adam having his heart full of inherent grace and nothing inwardly in his nature to seduce him and the temptation that he had being but a matter of curiosity and the pleasing his wife and yet he fell When as many poore souls under the state of grace that have but mites of grace in comparison and worlds of corruption are yet kept not onely from the unnecessary pleasures of sin in time of prosperity but hold out against all the threats all the cruelties of wicked persecutors in times of persecution which threaten to debar them of all the present good they enjoy And though Gods people are foyled often yet that there should still remaine a seed within them 1 John 3. 9. this illustrates the grace of Christ under the Gospel For one act in Adam expelled all grace out of him when yet his heart was full of nothing else Were our hearts filled with grace perfectly at first conversion this power would not be seen The Angels are kept with much lesse care and charge and power then we because they have no bias no weights of sin as the Apostle speaks hung upon them to draw them aside and presse them downe as we have Neither 3. would the confusion of the devill in the end be so great and the victory so glorious if all sin at first conversion were expelled For by this meanes the devill hath in his assaults against us the more advantages faire play as I may so speak faire hopes of overcomming having a great faction in us as ready to sinne as he is greedy to tempt And yet God strongly carries on his owne worke begun though slowly and by degrees backeth and maintaines a small partie of grace within us to his confusion That as in Gods outward goverment towards his Church here on earth he suffers a great party and the greater still by farre to be against his Church and yet upholds it and rules amongst the midst of his enemies Psal 110. ult so doth he also in every particular beleevers heart When grace shall be in us but as a sparke and corruptions as much smoake and moisture damping it Grace but as a candle and that in the socket among huge and many winds Then to bring judgement forth to victory that is a victory indeede Lastly as God doth it to advance his owne grace and confound the devil so for holy ends that concerne the Saints themselves As 1. To keep them from spirituall pride He trusted the Angels that fell with a full and compleat stock of grace at first and they though raised up from nothing a few dayes afore fell into such an admiration of themselves that heaven could not hold them it was not a place good enough for them They left the text sayes their owne habitation and first estate Jude ver 6. Pride was the condemnation of the devill 1 Tim. 3. 6. But how much more would this have beene an occasion of pride to a soule that was full of nothing but sin the other day to be made perfect presently perfectly to justifie us the first day by the righteousnesse of another there is no danger in that for it is a righteousnesse without us and which we cannot so easily boast of vainly for that faith that apprehends it empties us first of our selves and goes out to another for it But Sanctification being a work wrought in us we are apt to dote on that as too much upon excellencie in our selues how much adoe have poore beleevers to keepe their hearts off from doting upon their owne righteousnesse and from poring on it when it is God wot a very little They must therefore have something within them to pull downe their spirits that when they look on their feathers they may looke on their feet which Christ sayes are still defiled John 13. 10. 2. However if there were no such danger of spirituall pride upon so sudden a rise as indeed it befalls not infants nor such soules as dye as soone as regenerated as that good thiefe yet however God thinkes it meet to use it as a means to humble his people this way even as God left the Canaanites in the land to vexe the Israelites and to humble them And to have beene throughly humbled for sin here will doe the Saints no hurt against they come to heaven it will keepe them Nothing for ever in their owne eyes even when they are filled brim full of grace and glory For 1. nothing humbles so as sinne This made him cry out Oh miserable man that I am He that never flinched for outward crosses never thought himselfe miserable for any of them but gloried in them 2 Cor. 12. when he came to be led captive by sinne remaining in him cryes out Oh miserable man And 2. it is not the sinnes of a fore-past unregenerate estate that will be enough to doe this throughly For they might be lookt upon as past and gone and some waies be an occasion of making the grace after conversion the more glorious but present sense humbleth most kindly most deeply because it is fresh and therefore sayes Paul Oh miserable man that I am And againe we are not able to know the depth and height of corruptions at once therefore we are to know it by degrees And therefore it is still left in us that after we have a spirituall eye given us we might experimentally gage it to the bottome and be experimentally still humbled for sinne And experimentall humbling is the most kindly as pity out of experience is And 3. God would have us humbled by seeing our dependance upon him for inherent grace And how soone are we apt to forget we have received it and that in our natures no good dwells Wee would not remember that our nature were a stepmother to grace and a naturall mother to lusts but that we see weeds still grow naturally of themselves And 4. God would have us
not onely humbled by such our dependance on him but by a sense of our continuall obnoxiousnesse to him and of being in his lurch and therefore leaves corruption still that we might ever acknowledge that our necks doe even lie on the block and that he may chop them off and to see that in him we should not onely live and move as creatures but further that by him we might justly be destroyed every moment this humbles the creature indeed Ezek. 36. 31 32. 3. As thus to humble them so that they might have occasion to deny themselves Which to doe is more acceptable to God then much more service without it and therefore the great promise of having an hundred fold is made to that grace It was the great grace which of all other Christ exercised Now if we had no corruption to entice and seduce us what opportunities were there for us thus of denying our selves Christ indeed had an infinite deale of glory to lay downe not so we unlesse there be a selfe in us to solicite us and another selfe to deny those solicitations wee should have no occasions of self-denyall or the exercise of any such grace Therefore Adam was not capable of any such grace because he had no corruption to seduce him And therefore a little grace in us denying a great deale of corruption is in that respect for so much as is of it more acceptable then his obedience Though we have lesse grace yet in this respect of a higher kind in the exercises of it To be meek and charitable to those who fall into sin as knowing corruption is not fully yet purged out of thy selfe This is the Apostles admonition upon this ground Gal. 6. 1. If a man be overtaken in a fault he speaks indefinitely that any man may if it be but an overtaking not a sinning wilfully and obstinately but a falling by occasion through rashnesse suddennesse and violence of temptation c. ye which are spirituall restore such a man with the spirit of meeknesse considering thy selfe lest thou also be tempted He would have every man be meek in his censure and in his reproofe of such an one and restore him and put him in joynt againe as the word signifies for still he may be united to Christ as a bone out of joynt is to the body though for the time rendred thereby unusefull and do this sayes he with tendernesse and pity with the spirit of meeknesse which a man will not doe unlesse he be sensible of his owne frailty and subjection to corruption unlesse he reflect on himselfe and that seriously too considering saith the Apostle there as implying more then a slight thought I may chance to fall also but the seeing and weighing what matter of falling there is in thine own heart if God but leave thee to thy selfe a little then this works a spirit of meeknesse towards such an one For meeknesse and pity is most kindly when we are sensible of the like in our selves and make it our owne case And this he speakes to the most spirituall Christians not to those who are as yet but as carnall as he speaketh of the Corinthians Christians newly converted who finding their corruptions at the first stounded with that first blow of mortification given them and though but in part killed yet wholly in a manner for a while laid asleep and having not as yet after their late conversion had a fresh experience of the dangers and temptations a man after conversion in his progresse is subject to are therefore apt to imagine they shall continue free from assaults and think not that their lusts will get up againe and so are prone to be more censorious of the falls of others But you who are more spirituall to you I speak sayes the Apostle for you are most meekned with a sense of your owne weaknesse and even you sayes he if you consider your selves and what you are in your selves have cause to think that you also may be tempted Never set thy selfe any stint or measure of mortification for still thou hast matter to purge out Thou must never be out of physick all thy life Say not Now I have grace enough and health enough but as that great Apostle Not as if I had as yet attained For indeede thou hast not Still presse forward to have more vertue from Christ If thou hast prevailed against the outward act rest not but get the rising of the lust mortified and that rowling of it in thy fancie get thy heart deaded towards it also and rest not there but get to hate it and the thought of it The body of death it must not onely be crucified with Christ but buried also and so rot Rom. 6. 4 6. it is crucified to be destroyed sayes the Apostle there that is to moulder away more and more after its first deaths wound Obser 6. That branches that have brought forth true fruit God takes them not away The 6. Doctrine is That those who are true branches and bring forth any true fruit pleasing to God though they have many corruptions in them yet God takes them not away cuts them not off The opposition implies this he speakes of Taking away the other not so of these But purgeth them It is an elegant Paranomasia 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the holy Ghost here useth For an instance to prove this wherein I will also keepe to the Metaphor here used I take that place Esay 27. where this his care of fruitfull branches with the very same difference put between his dealing with them and the unfruitfull that is here is elegantly expressed to us God professeth himselfe the Keeper of a Vineyard his Church ver 2 3. I the Lord doe keep it and ver 6. He shall cause them that come of Jacob to take root Israel shall blossome and bud and fill the earth with fruit But Israel having corruption in him which would hinder his growth he must be lopt and cut And so in the next verses God is said to deale with him but not so as to cut them off as he doth others that are both his and their enemies Hath he smitten them as he smote those that smote him No. For in measure when it shooteth forth thou wilt debate with it When Israel is but a tender plant and first shooteth forth he doth but in measure debate with it that is in such a proportion as not to destroy it or cause it to wither but that it may blossome more he measures out as it were afflictions to them but stayes his rough wind as it followes that is such afflictions as would shake that his plant too much or quite blow it downe but such a wind as shall make it fruitfull and blow away its unkindly blossomes and leaves so much and no more will He let out of his Treasury even he who holds the winds in his fists and can moderate them as he pleaseth For his scope and purpose
of men for when God casteth them out then he withdrawes his Spirit from them and then although they come to the Ordinances yet they have no breathings they come to Prayer and the Spirit of God is departed and so by degrees God withdraws sap from them till they be quite dead Thus he dealt with Saul when he had discovered himselfe by sparing the Amalekites and by persecuting David it is said The Spirit of God departed from him and he withered ever after all his gifts vanished and the spirit or frame of heart he once had departed from him So likewise they that had not gained by their talents Mat. 25. 26. their talents were taken from them even in this life and the Spirit of God which rested upon them rested upon some other that were more faithfull Thirdly lying long unfruitfull in the end it is said they are gathered Our Translation hath it Men gather them which either respects a punishment in this life that when they are cast out from the society of Gods people wicked men gather them they fall to those that are naught Popish persons or profane Atheists take them as the Pharisees did Judas when he cast himselfe out of the society of the Apostles Or else it may in a Metaphor refer to the life to come the Angels they are the Reapers they gather them in the last day and bind them in bundles for the fire So lastly it is said They are cast into the fire and they burne A man would think he needed not to have added that for being cast into the fire they must needs burne but his meaning is that of all other they make the fiercest hottest fire because they are trees most seared and fuell fully dry as the Prophet speaks You then that professe the name of Christ take heed that you be fruitfull branches indeed I say to you as the Apostle saith Rom 11. 19 20. Because of unbeliefe they were broken off Thou standest by faith be not high minded but feare Take heede that it be fruit that you bring forth doe all for GOD make him your end in all bring forth more fruit every day let your fruit be riper and more spirituall daily labour to spread and root your selves as much downward in inward holinesse as you do upward in outwardprofession and purge your selves continually lest that which is threatned here befall you which are fearfull things to be spoken and yet concerne many a soule The Apostle compares such to trees twice dead and pluckt up by the roots You were borne dead in Adam since that you have had perhaps some union with Christ by common graces if your wither againe then you are twice dead and therefore fit for nothing but to be stubbed up and cast into the fire And if any soule begin to forsake the assemblies of the Saints or be cast out from them let him looke to himselfe lest he wither in the end and be twice dead and so he never come to have life put into him againe that is repent and return againe And know this that if you being cast out by the Church and people of God break your hearts so that you mourne for your sinne as the incestuous Corinthian did it is a signe you are such branches as God will yet make fruitfull but if beingcast out you begin to wither as here the end will be burning THE TRYALL OF A CHRISTIANS GROWTH THE FIRST PART JOHN 15. 2. He purgeth it that it may bring forth more fruit Of Growth in VIVIFICATION and bringing forth more fruit CHAP. I. That all true branches in Christ doe grow GRowth in Grace is the main thing held forth unto us in these words and therefore I make in the chief subject of this Discourse Now as in the work of Sanctification at first there are two parts Mortification and Vivification so our progresse in that work hath two parts also apart to be considered and both here in the Text 1. A growth in Mortification or purging out of sinne He purgeth it 2. A positive growth in holinesse and all the fruits of it That it may bring forth more fruit And my purpose is accordingly to treat of these two distinctly and apart by themselves And although purging out of sinne is here first mentioned yet our growth in fruitfulnesse shall have the first place in the method of handling of them both because growth in positive holinesse and bringing forth more fruit is the end and perfection of the other and so chiefly intended the other but subserving unto this and is accordingly made mention of here by Christ He purgeth it That it may bring forth more fruit Now in handling this first Head I shall doe three things First in generall shew That all true branches do grow in grace and fruitfulnesse and the reasons of it Secondly propound such considerations by way of explication as may conduce to satisfie the tentations of such Christians as discern not their growth herein Thirdly explicate more largely by way of tryall what it is to bring forth more fruit thereby further to help Beleevers to discern and judge aright of it My scope in this discourse being not so much to give meanes or motives unto growth as helps to judge of and try our growth and prevent such mistakes herein as Christians are apt to fall into First in generall to demonstrate that all true beleevers doe grow more or lesse in fruitfulnesse I shall give both proofes and reasons of it For proofs out of Scripture those two places Hosea the 14. 5. compared with Psal 92. where the holy Ghost singleth out the choicest trees and flowers in the world on purpose to expresse the Saints fruitfulnesse and their growth therein As first to shew the sudden springing up of the new creature as it falls out upon some mens conversions or upon the Saints recovery again after falls he compares them to the Lillie Hos 14. 5. whose stalk though long hid in the earth when once it begins to feel the dew growes up oftentimes in a night But yet a Lilly is but a flower and soon decayes Therefore secondly so shew their perpetuity and stability together with their growth the Prophet there compares them to the Cedar whose wood rots not proverbially put to expresse immortality Digna Cedro And which is not onely most durable but of all trees the tallest and shoots up the highest But yet thirdly suppose the new creature be kept under and oppressed with tentations and oppositions yet to shew that still it will grow and flourish again therefore he further compareth them to a Palme tree which useth to grow the more weight is hung upon it and sprouts again even when it is cut downe to the roots Fourthly to shew that they grow with all kinds of growth therfore the Prophet expresseth their growth both by the spreading of their root and also of the branches and so in a growth both upward and downward He shall cast forth his
from bringing forth more fruit As although they cannot remember a Sermon so well as they had wont nor preach with that vigour and vivacity and quicknesse when they are old nor be so active stirring forward it followes not that they bring not forth more fruit David when he was old could not governe the Kingdome nor doe the Church that service he had done formerly yet true fruit he might grow in in regard of his personall carriage towards God for his own salvation A Musitian when he is young is able to sing sweetlier then when he is old or when his vigour decayes his joynts grow lame he cannot play as he had wont yet still he may grow a better Musitian and have more skill and set better Affections the quicknesse of them depends much upon bodily spirits Secondly our bringing forth more fruit it is not to be measured simply by our successe towards others in the exercise of those gifts though that be called fruit also so Jer. 17. 10. they are called the fruit of our doings there are our doings and the fruits of our doings that is the successe which our examples or gifts or graces have upon others and so the conversion of the souls of men by the Apostles is called by Christ their fruit John 15. 16. yet simply by this we are not to reckon our growth for in successe towards others in the exercise of those gifts though that be called fruit also so Jer. 17. 10. they are called the fruit of our doing there are our doings and the fruits of our doings that is the successe which our examples or gifts or graces have upon others and so the conversion of the souls of men by the Apostle is called by Christ their fruit John 15. 16. yet simply by this we are not to reckon our growth for in successe and exercise of gifts a man may decrease when he growes older and so see lesse fruit of his labours them formerly or haply he may be laid aside so sayes the Baptist of himself I must decrease John 3. 30. John when Christ came to preach had lesse commings in And in this respect old Christians and ancient Ministers may decrease and young ones increase and yet they decay not in grace for there are Gods workes in us and Gods workes with us Now Gods work with us in doing good to others may be lesse when yet his workes in us may be more for as there are diversities of gifts so of operations 1 Cor. 12. The holy Ghost may use one of lesse grace to doe more good then one of more though herein this caution is to be added that he delights usually to honour those of most sincerity with most successe as in that eminent Apostle Paul the grace of God was more in him and so wrought more with him in doing much good to others 1 Cor. 15. 10. and God also will reward according to the fruit of our doings as Jer. 17. 10. when our desires are enlarged to doe much good and we intended and aimed to doe that good which is done there it is added there in that Jer. 17. Whose heart thou knowest When he sees the heart clearly enlarged to doe much good then the fruit that is done is reckoned him as his otherwise what ever it be he doth by us he will reward but according to our workes as concurrent with his So 1 Cor. 3. 8. the Apostle upon this occasion intimates that seeing it is God that gives the increase he sayes that God will reward men according to their own labours not simply according to his workes by them as if God doth not goe forth with a Minister whose heart is much set to doe good and to convert soules to doe so much good by him as with another who is in his own spirit lesse zealous yet if his heart was large in desires and his endeavours great to doe good God will reckon more fruit to him then to another that had fewer endeavours though more successe Thirdly this growth in grace and bringing forth more fruit is not simply to be reckoned by the largenesse or smallnesse of those opportunities which men have of doing more or lesse good and so By the bringing forth of more fruit in respect of more opportunities vouchsafed Some that have more grace and better gifts have their shop-windowes shut night overtakes them and the power of darknesse as it did Christ himselfe in the end and then they cannot work Others have lesser shops to work in and yet have more grace yea the same man may have larger opportunities when young and lesser when he is old and yet growes and brings forth before God more fruit because he accepts the will for the deed So the Baptist was hindred in his latter time in prison when yet he brought forth more fruit and therefore he envied not Christ that got all his custome his hearers and Disciples but rejoyced that the work went forward though not by himself here was as much grace expressed as in many Sermons So Paul he was much of his time in prison yet then he ceased not to bring forth more fruit that should tend to his salvation for Phil. 1. 15 16. when as he being in prison he heard others preached and that out of envie to him others out of good will I in prison rejoyced sayes he that Christ is preached though I cannot doe it my selfe and I know sayes he that this shall turn to my salvation ver 19. These fruits were as much and would bring him in as much glory as his preaching Indeed when a man shall prize opportunities of doing good and for them voluntarily let goe all opportunities of advancing himself and his credit or ease or carnall advantages then the more fruit he brings forth in those opportunities the more is reckoned on his score Fourthly it is not alwayes to be measured by accessary graces as joy and spirituall ravishment c. which tend to the bene esse the comfort of a Christian but it is to be estimated rather by those substantiall graces as faith humility love strong and solid affections to what is good The other may decrease when these that are more substantiall doe increase These sweet blooms may fall off when fruit comes on though the glosse wear out no matter so the stuffe be strong and substantiall Young Christians grow like new instruments they have more varnish then old but not so sweet a sound Yea often the decreasing of those superadded graces are a means of the encrease of the other want of feeling causeth more exercise of faith as taking away bladders exercise a man to swim One that hath bladders and the stream with him seemes to swim as well and as fast as one that hath learned long and hath more skill and strength but wanteth these and swims against the stream yet not so fast Spirituall withdrawings cause more humility more cleaving to God A man as the Leper cleansed haply at
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
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
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
went early in the morning even the next morning God having called for his sonne that very night as it is likely by that in the 22. Gen. 3. For the night was the time when God used to reveale himselfe by visions and the next morning he went forth early Thirdly the more constancie there is in our hearts and wayes the more eaven stable in well-doing and the more lasting durable frame and temper for holinesse we find our hearts to abide in the more we are purged for in that we finde such sudden flowings and re-flowings in our hearts that when a corruption seemes to be at a low ebbe and our hearts in a good frame within an houre or so a mighty tide comes in and we find our hearts overflowne with a sea of filth such sudden alterations from the better to the worse doe come from those vast seas of corruptions that are still within us that tumble and float up and downe in our hearts So the Apostle intimates Purge your hearts ye double minded That their hearts are of so unequall a temper sometimes in hot fits sometimes in cold and so suddenly altered this cannot be but from much corruption This double mindednesse comes from want of purging The Galatians were surely very weak and foolish as he tells them when they were so soone transported He marvails not so much that they were removed as that so soone 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so suddenly Gal. 1. 6. and brings it in as an evidence of their weaknesse that they who would have given him their eyes should now so much be altered and carryed away So much mortifiednesse so much constancie therefore in the 5. Gal. 15. 16. when in the 15. ver he had said Those that are Christs have crucified the affections with the lusts he addes in the 16. ver If we live in the spirit let us walke in the spirit the word imports a being constant in the spirit Then when lusts are crucified then the holy Spirit will rule us in our wayes and a holy frame of heart will be discovered in a constant tract of holinesse we shall walk in the spirit keep our selves long in a spirituall frame and course and not be biased aside that we step out so much is from strong lusts unmortified Fourthly the more a man comes to a spirituall taste of the spirituall Word and that which is most spirituall therein the more it is a signe that corruption is purged out when a man comes to his stomach it is a signe he is growing out of a sicknesse and that the humours are much purged out So 1 Pet. 2. 1. Laying aside all malice c. as Babes desire the Word that ye may grow thereby if so be ye have tasted therefore the more corruption is laid aside the more we taste the Word and God in it the more we taste the more we desire it the more we desire it the more we grow Fiftly when we are ashamed of former carriages and wayes as seeing and discerning those weaknesses we saw not afore as Scholars use to be of their exercises a yeare or two after so if we be ashamed of former prayers hearings c. as that great Proficient discerned in himselfe who looking back upon his first dayes of conversion sayes When I was a child I spake as a child He speaks it applying it to his growth of grace Sixtly when in ordinary times of temptation a man finds a lust not so violent and raging as it was wont but more impotent and weak Look to your fits of sinning whether they become greater or lesse for then a mans strength or weaknesse is discerned most as the bodily strength is when a man either goes about to put himself forth or is assaulted and set upon Many that are sick whilst they lie still in their beds think they have a great deale of strength but when they attempt to rise and walk they sink down againe As a mans weaknesse to good is discerned when he comes to doe and to act it Rom. 7. To doe I am not able so a mans weaknesse to sinne or strength against it is then also best discerned The weaknesse or strength of a Kingdome is best seene and discerned in time of war when aâ—l forces are mustered up Now God sometimes appoints some more frequent assaults and on purpose suffers the law in the members to warre and to muster up all their force that as it is said of Hezekiah a man might know what is in his heart now if then a man finds that the motions of sinne in his heart do every temptation after other meet with an hotter encounter then they had wont that the resistance against sin grows quicker and stronger that sinne cannot advance and carry on his army so far as formerly but is still encountred and met withall at the Frontiers and there overthrown even at the first setting out so as it cannot carry it through the camp as Zimri did his mistresse Cosbi as sometimes it had wont when as Grace stood at the Tent doore as Moses weeping yet unable to resist it and although assaults and temptations doe continue that yet there is ground kept and won upon the encroachments of a lust in so much that at least the outward forts are kept by grace that is outward acts are abstained from Now so far as the lust is not fulfilled as it had wont to be and not onely so but the inrodes of it are confined and contracted also to a narrower compasse and to have a lesser ground and space in regard of inward acts also so far it is purged more forth As for instance be it a lust of fancie when it cannot boile up to such grosse fancies as it had wont be it a lust of pride or uncleannesse or grosser acts when it falls from bringing forth fruit to bring forth but blossomes but inward burnings and from blossomes onely to bring forth leaves it is a signe then it is withering more and more When the intention of mind in the temptation which is as the fire that makes it to boile grows lesse and lesse when the inordinate thirst is not so great in the time of the fit when the inward acts are grown in their requests more modest the lustings themselves pitch upon lower and inferiour acts then it had wont when their Armies depart with lesser spoile are content with them when as before they flew at the first on-set to the highest kinds of villanies and out-rages when thus the overflowings of a mans lusts doe abate and fall short the tides lessen over-flow lesse ground over-spread lesse every day then another this is another probable signe of a growth herein Seventhly the more ability to abstain from occasions and opportunities of satisfying a mans lusts as Job a man much mortified made a covenant with his eyes not to behold a maid and kept to it Job 31. 1. When a man hates the very garment spotted with the flesh it is a
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
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
upon the heart much alter the taste but yet much of that alteration is adventitious and not wholly radicall or altering the sinfull faculty it selfe though it doth adde much that way yet not so much as they seeme to doe at that present the sense of that sweetnesse is fresh in his heart Now therefore to give an help or two to difference what is reall and true Mortification from this seeming listlesnesse and deadnesse to it First true mortification makes a man not onely listlesse to sinne but to have a quick hatred against it a hatred aiming at the destruction of it but false listlesnesse takes but the heart off it doth not set it against it how often are these yoaked together in Psal 119. I hate sinne and every false way with this Thy law doe I love the heart being quickned with love to God and to his Law is carried out against sinne and not onely taken off from it to have no mind to it but to have a mind against it to destroy it There is the same difference betweene mortification and listlesnesse that there is between true patience and senslesnesse senselesnesse is a dull sullen stupid bearing pains but patience is joyned mith a quick sense of them which ariseth from strength of spirits that being quick and vigorous are the more sensible of paine or pleasure so true mortification is joyned with an active hatred that flyes out against sin which come from livelinesse of affection to the contrary Secondly true mortification is joyned with activenesse and life in the contrary duties Rom. 6. 11. Reckon your selves dead unto sinne and alive unto God That false listlesnesse is but a dead palsey that doth take these members of sinne but true mortification is with a new life a resurrection strengthning a man to walke so much the more nimbly in the wayes of God Rom. 6. 4 5. Young Christians and such as have a false listlesnesse and deadnesse you shall find them complaine that their mortification is more then vivification they will finde they are more dead to the world then quickned to God True mortification doth not dull the spirits but sets them at liberty as purging the humours out doth it makes the body more light and nimble whereas false listlesnesse causeth a deadnesse a dulnesse to every thing else Those false causes of listlesnesse contract the mind as a bladder that is clung and dryed and hung up in the smoake as David compared his condition in terrors of conscience but mortification empties it of the sinne and fils it with grace so as the mind is as full and wide as before onely filled with grace now in stead of sinne Seventhly a man is not to judge of his growth in mortification simply by the keennesse of his affection against sinne though that is good and blessed but by his strength against it As there is a fond love which is not so strong and solid which will not doe so much for one or hold if it come to the tryall and be put to it that yet hath a more seeming edge in it so there is a keennesse of hatred that hath not so much strength A man that is angry seemes to have more keennesse of affection against him he falls out with and in his rage vows never to be reconciled and could eat him up when as yet a malicious man hates more strongly So doe young Christians their sins having lately felt the bitternesse of them and then many other inconveniences besidâ—s the contâ—arietie of them to God doe egge on and provoke their spirits against them but like as a sharpe knife that is weak the edge is soone turned and blunted so in a temptation they are for all their edge soone overcome for all those concurring inconveniences and apprehensions of their hurt by them makes their spleen indeed greater but it adds not to their strength and courage to resist them like a stomachfull boy that cryes he cannot have the victory yet is weak and easily laid on his back his stomach is more then his strength The hurt that comes by sin to us at first lately felt helps to sharpen the edge but adds no metall and so our weapons are beaten to our heads againe when we use them What an edge of spirit had Peter raised up against denying Christ he would die rather he spake then as he thought and he would have dyed in the quarrell for he draws his sword but afterwards he wanted strength to his stomach how easily was he overcome being yet but weak in grace therefore judge of your growth herein by your strength to resist Hence the Apostle prayes they may have strength in the inward man Eph. 3. and in Chap. 6. 13. he speaks of ability to stand in the evill day Although this let me adde that every man should keep up his heart in this continuall keennesse and edge of spirit against sin and whet his heart against it For that will cause a man to use his strength the more against it and to put it forth A man that keeps his heart in a revengefull vext spleenfull spirit against sin he will easier cut through a temptation and though if a Christian want metall though he hath an edge he may be foiled yet when edge and metall both meete a man walks above his lusts if either be wanting a man may be foiled THE TRYALL OF A CHRISTIANS GROWTH THE THIRD PART Resolving some Questions concerning Growth in MORTIFICATION VIVIFICATION CHAP. I. Two Questions resolved concerning Growth in Mortification I Will now conclude this Discourse about Growth in Grace with answering some Questions which may be made concerning this our growth both about Mortification and about increase in positive Graces which I did reserve to this last place that I might handle them together The first Question concerning the purging out of sinne is Whether every new degree of Mortification and purging out of sinne be alwayes universall extending it selfe to every sinne So as the meaning of this that God goes on to purge should be not onely that he goes on first to purge forth one sinne then another but that he goes on to purge out by every new degree of mortification every sinne together so as when any one sinne is more weakned all the rest in a proportion grow weak also To this I answer affirmatively that every new degree of mortification is universall First because when the Scripture speaks of our growth therein he speaks of it as extending it selfe to every sinne So Ephes 4. 22. when he exhorts the Ephesians who were mortified already to a farther progresse in it he exhorts them to put off the old man which is corrupt according to the deceitfull lusts It is not one lust that is the object of mortification and the growth of it although he mentions particular lusts afterwards but the whole man that is corrupt and all its lusts and this he there speaks of daily growth therein For
In the most fruitfull Branches there remaine corruptions to be purged out The reasons of it 22 5. Obser That yet for their corruptions God takes not such away 28 6. Obser Vnfruitfull Branches God in the end cuts off Foure degrees of Gods cutting them off founded on the Text. 34 The Tryall of a Christians Growth PART I. Of GROVVTH in bringing forth more fruit CHAP. I. That all true Branches in Christ doe grow Proved 1. By Scriptures Reasons 38 1. Reas From Christs relation to us as an Head and we his members And herein 1. From our conformity to him 39 2. From his having received all fulnesse to fill us 40 3. From our growth making up his fulnesse as he is mystically considered one with us ibid. 2. Reas From God the Father who 1. Hath appointed every one their measure 41 2. Hath promised it ibid. 3. Hath appointed means for it ibid. 3. Reas From the Saints themselves who cannot be saved unlesse they grow ibid. CHAP. II. An explication how the Saints doe grow Many considerations to satisfie the tentations of those that discern not their growth 42 1. Consid more generall shewing what sort of Christians this tentation doth usually befall ibid. 2. Consid more particular As 1. That growing in grace is a Mysterie rather to be apprehended by faith then by sense 44 2. The eager desire which many have to grow and attaine to more grace hinders them from discerning their growth ibid. 3. The progresse is not in many so discernable as the change at their first conversion is or as their first growth The reasons of it ibid. 4. To discern of growth there must be time allowed 45 5. There are severall wayes by which men are brought to that measure appointed them in which some have the advantage of others ibid. 1. Some have a greater stock of grace given them at first which is done in two cases 46 2. In the manner of growing God puts much difference 1. Some grow without intermission 2. Some God sooner ripens for heaven ibid. CHAP. III. What it is to bring forth more fruit explicated negatively by removing many mistakes 46 1. It is not to grow onely or chiefly in gifts as abilities to pray and preach or in knowledge but in graces 47 Three cautions herein ibid. 2. Our bringing forth more fruit is not to be measured by the successe of our gifts the fruits of our doings but by the Doings themselves 48 3. It is not simply to be estimated by the largenesse or smalnesse of our opportunities of doing good which may vary but by an heart to doe good 50 4. It is not alwayes to be measured by accessary graces as joy spirituall ravishments c. ibid. 5. It is not be measured by encreasing in profession and seeming forwardnesse but by inward and substantiall godlinesse 51 6. How in the largnesse of the affections to good there may be a decrease And how young Christians may have more large affections which yet are not so genuine and spirituall ibid. 7. We must not measure our growth by our growing in some kind or sort of duties but in the universall extent of godlinesse and in duties both of our generall and particular callings 53 How young Christians abound more often in holy duties for a time and the necessity of this for their condition ibid. CHAP. IV. What it is to bring forth more fruit explicated positively Wherein many direct tryals of such a growth are given 55 1. Tryall If we goe on to the exercise of new graves ibid. 2. Tryall If we find new degrees of the same grace added 56 3. Tryall If fruits and duties grow more ripe and spirituall though not more in bulk 57 What it is that gives a spirituall relish to this fruit 4. Tryall If the heart grows more rooted into Christ 58 5. Tryall If we learne more to bring forth fruit in reason 59 6. Tryall If we grow more constant and eaven in a holy course ibid. 7. Tryall If though our difficulties and oppositions be more and means lesse yet we continue to bring forth as well as when our meanes were more and difficulties lesse ibid. 8. Tryall If though we doe lesse yet we grow more wise and faithfull to lay out our abilities and improve our opportunities to the greater advantages for Gods glory and the good of others 60 The Tryall of a Christians Growth PART II. Of Growth in purging our corruption CHAP. I. The Observation out of the Text propounded that God goes on to purge out our corruptions Bounds set to the Discourse about it The reasons of the point 64 CHAP. II. The wayes God useth to purge out corruption out of his children with the means by which he causeth them to grow to a further measure therein 65 1. Occasionall ibid. 2. Instrumentall 66 3. Examples 67 4. Inward workings which consists in five things ibid. CAAP. III. The Tryall of Growth in Mortification 1. By negative signes or such as argue much corruption remaining unpurged out As 71 1. If a man doth magnifie and set a high price upon worldly and carnall excellencies and pleasures ibid. 2. If our minds be carryed out to superfluities and more than needs and are discontented with our owne condition 73 3. If our minds be so glewed to any thing that we know not how to part with it ibid. 4. If our hearts be distempered under variety of conditions and are very inordinate in them all whether they be prosperous or adverse 74 5. The more carnall confidence we have in the creatures and our spirits being up held by them 75 6. The more full of envyings and heart-burnings against others as to get the credit from them c. ibid. 7. The lesse able we are to bear reproofs for the breaking forth of our lusts 76 8. The more quick and speedy the tentation is in prevailing upon the heart 77 9. The more power our lusts have to disturb us in holy duties ibid. 10. If the bare recalling former sins committed prove a new snare to entice the heart 87 CHAP. IV. 2. The Tryall of Mortification by positive signes which argue a good degree of that work in the heart As 1. The more insight a man hath into spirituall corruptions ioyned with a conflict against them 79 2. The more we grow up to a readinesse willingnesse freenesse and cheerfulnesse of heart to deny our selves 80 3. The more stable â—eaven and constant we are in well doing and the more durable an holy frame of heart in us is 81 4. The mnre spirituall taste and relish of the spirituall part of the Word we have 82 5. The more ashamed we grow of former carriages and sensible of former weaknesses ibid. 6. The weaker we find our lusts to be in the time of tentation ibid. 7. The more ability we have to abstaine from occasions and opportunities of satisfying our lusts 84 8. If we linger not after the objects of our lusts when they are absent but are weaned