reads is new when as afterwards in his reading he meets with the same thing againe and againe and with new notions but now and then and yet he studies it may be harder and learns what he knew before more perfectly and adds new to his old A fourth Consideration to discern thy growth there must be time allowed For the time sayes the Apostle they might have been teachers Heb. 5. 12. implying they must have had time to grow up to perfection Christians doe not grow discernably till after some space The Sunne goes up higher and higher but we discerne not its progresse till after an hours motion Things most excellent have the slowest growth but rushes grow fast but they are weaker kind of plants herbs and willows and alder-trees grow fast but full of pith Oakes more slowly yet more solidly and in the end attain to a greater bulk Fifthly consider the growth it selfe there may be a great difference thereof in severall men You heard that every man hath a measure appointed to which he must grow but men are brought to this fulnesse severall wayes which makes a difference in their growth First Some have the advantages of others at first setting out God gives them a great stock of grace at first and that for these causes 1. When there is a present use of them Paul was the last of the Apostles borne out of time as himself complaines as one that was set to schoole long after the rest of the Apostles and yet came not behind any of them in grace because God was to use him presently To some God gives five talents to others but two so that he that hath five hath as much given him at first as he that had but two had with all his gains all his life time 2. When a man is converted late as he that came into the Vineyard at the eleventh hour was furnished with abilities to doe as much as the rest for they all received but a penny Secondly in the manner of their growth some have advantage of others 1. Some grow without intermission as that great Apostle and the Colossians who from the first day they heard of the Gospell brought forth fruit Col. 1. 15. Others have rubs and for some time of their lives stand at a stay And thus some doe presently after their first conversion as the Church of Ephesus who fell from her first love Others in old age as the Hebrews who when for the time they might have taught others were so far cast behind that they had need be taught againe the first principles of Religion Measure therefore not so your growth by a piece of your lives but by comparing your whole life together 2. Some die sooner and therefore God fits them for heaven sooner Dorcas dyed rich in good workes Stephen dyed full of the holy Ghost Act. 9. It is with severall Christians as with severall Planets the Moon goes her course in a moneth the Sun in a yeer the rest in many years so as often they that live shortest grow fastest CHAP. III. What it is to bring forth more fruit explicated Negatively by removing many mistakes LEt us now see what it is wherein Christians may be said to grow that so you may be able to discerne what it is to bring forth more fruit And this I will explicate two wayes First negatively what it is not to bring forth more fruit really though in appearance and in shew it be a growth in fruit which occasions many mistakes Secondly positively what it is truly to bring forth more fruit For the first First to grow is not onely or chiefly to grow in gifts or abilities as to preach and pray c. but to encrease in graces in gifts onely so Reprobates may grow yea and so true Beleevers may grow and yet not bring forth more fruit The Corinthians grew fast this way in respect of gifts they were enriched in all utterance and knowledge and came behind in no gift 1 Cor. 1. 7. and yet he tells them that they were babes and carnall Chap. 3. 2 3. And therefore in the 12. Chap. after he had spoken of gifts and endeavouring to excell therein as they did he tells them that indeed they were things to be desired and therefore exhorts them to covet the best gifts but yet sayes he I shew unto you a more excellent way in the last ver of that 12. Chapter And what was that It followes in the 13. Chap. even true grace charity love to God and love of our brethren A dram of that is sayes he worth a pound of the best fruit of gifts And so his discourse Chap. 13. doth begin ver 1. Though I speak with tongues of men and Angels yet if I have not charity c. Gifts are given for the good of others to edifie them especially 1 Cor. 12. 7. but Graces as love faith and humility these are given to save a mans own soul and therefore therein is the true growth Yet as concerning this I will propound a Caution or two Indeed growth in gifts together with growth in Sanctification running along with it will increase our account for God will crown his own gifts in us if as they come from Christ so they be used in him and for him in our intentions but otherwise they puffe up and hinder They serve indeed to set out and garnish the fruit and to help forward the exercise of graces they are good fruit dishes to set the fruit forth But if grace grow not with them we bring not forth much fruit for at best they are but blossomes not fruit Again men are indeed to indeavour to grow in these gifts of memory and instructing others and conferences c. As was said to Timothy Let thy profiting appear to all 1 Tim. 4. 15. and to the Corinthians Covet the best gift especially whilst you are young yet we are not simply thereby to take an estimate of our growth Though this let me withall adde that often by increasing in grace a man increaseth in gifts and for want of increasing in grace gifts also doe decay The Talents being used faithfully were doubled and unfaithfully were lessened And this consideration may help to answer some doubts and objections which some Christians have about their growth as because they cannot pray so well as others nor doe so much service to the Saints as some doe therefore they bring forth lesse fruit Thou mayest bring more fruit for all that if thou walkest humbly in thy calling and prayest more fervently though lesse notionally or eloqùently By how much the more we are humble prize our selves lesse by them and use them in Christ and for Christ seeing they come all from him the more we are contented to want them and not envie others that have them so much the more fruit we bring forth even in the want of such gifts Againe decay in gifts as in old age doth not alwayes hinder men
Apostle there prayes for increase of grace he prayes they may be sanctified wholly in body soule and spirit And every new degree though it begins at the spirit the understanding yet goes through all for so Ephes 4. 23 24. Be renewed in the spirit of your minds and put on the new man it runs therefore through the whole man having renewed the mind As the worke of grace at first so after still continually leaveneth the whole lump Whether one Grace may not grow more then another I answer first that it is certaine that when a man grows up in one grace he doth grow in all they grow and thrive together Therefore in Ephes 4. 15. we are said to grow up into him in all things Growth from Christ is generall as true growth in the body is in every part so this in every grace Therefore 2 Cor. 3. ult we are said to be changed into the same image from glory to glory Every increase stamps a farther degree of the whole Image of Christ upon the heart So the Thessalonians Their faith and their love did both overflow 2 Thes 1. 3. Yet secondly so as one grace may grow more then some other 1. Because some are more radicall graces as Faith and Love therefore of the Thessalonians Faith the Apostle sayes 2. Thes 1. 3. that it did grow exceedingly and then it follows their love did overflow 2. Some grace are more exercised and if so they abound more as though both armes doe grow yet that which a man useth is the stronger and the bigger so is it in graces In birds their wings which have beene used most are sweetest to the taste As in the body though the exercise of one member maketh the body generally more healthfull yet so as that member which is exercised will be freest from humours it selfe so it is here so tribulation worketh patience patience experience Rom. 5. Many sufferings make patience the lesse difficult and much experience many experiments make hope greater Againe thirdly that some graces are more in some then others appeares hence for what is it makes the differing gifts that are in Christians but a severall constitution of graces though all have every grace in them as now in the body every member hath all singular parts in it as flesh bones sinews veynes bloud spirits in it but yet so some members have more of flesh lesse of sinews and veynes c. whence ariseth a severall office in every member according as such or such simular parts doe more or lesse abound in a member the hand because it hath more nerves and joynts in it then another member though lesse flesh yet how strong is it and fit for many offices the foot is not so So in Christians by reason of the severall constitution of graces and the temper of them more or lesse have they severall offices in the Church and are fitted for severall employments some have more love and fit for offices of charity some more knowledge and are fit to instruct some more patience and are fitter to suffer some for self-denyall and accordingly doe grow in these more specially The third Question is Whether this increase be onely by radicating the same grace more or by a new addition I answer that by adding a new degree of grace as in making candles which is done by addition when a candle is put anew into the fat of boiled tallow every time it is put in it comes out bigger with a new addition or as a cloth dipt in the die comes out upon every new dipping in with a deeper die And this is done by a new act of creation put forth by God Therefore when David being falne prayed for increase of grace he sayes Create in me a new heart And therefore Ephes 4. 24. when the Apostle exhorts to further putting on the new man and speaketh of growth he adds which is created for every new degree is created as well as the first infusion which shews the difference between naturall growth and this In naturall growth there needs not a new creation but an ordinary concurrence but it is not so in this that God that begun the work by the same power perfects it And therefore Ephes 1. 19. he prayes that the beleeving Ephesians might see that power that continued to worke in them to be no lesse then that which raised up Christ for though naturall life may with a naturall concurrence increase it selfe because the terminus à quo the terme from whence it springs is but from a lesse degree of life to a greater yet it is otherwise in this life and our growth in this is from a greater degree of death to a further degree of life And therefore Phil. 9. the Apostle calls growing in grace a going on to attaine the resurrection from the dead And therefore the same power that raised up Christ must goe along to work it Hence also every new degree of grace is called a new conversion except ye be converted sayes Christ to his Disciples converted already because the same power that wrought to conversion goes still to this And therefore it is said that God gives the increase 1 Cor. 3. 7. and it is called the increasing of God Colos 2. 19. so Hos 14. shewing the ground why they grow so fast Thy fruit is found in me sayes God ver 7. although this is to be added by way of caution and difference that therein God doth proportion his influence to our endeavours which in conversion at first he doth not Therefore we are said to be fellow workers with him although it be he that gives the increase 1 Cor. 3. 6 7 8. the same you have also Rom. 8. We by the Spirit doe mortifie the deeds of the flesh We as co-workers with the Spirit FINIS A Table of the Contents of this Booke The Introduction THe summe and division of the words and the subject of this Discourse Page 1 Some Observations premised of this Parable of the Vine 1. Obser How Christ is the Vine and the onely true Vine 3 2. Obser How God the Father is the Husbandman Declared in five things 6 3. Obser Two sorts of Branches in the Vine fruitfull and unfruitfull 8 An interpretation of those words Branches in me that bring not forth fruit By three things 9 Three severall sorts of Branches that prove unfruitfull 11 Some differences betweene true Branches and Temporary Branches grounded on the Text. 12 1. Difference Temporary Beleevers bring not forth true fruit And What it is that makes a good work to be true fruit ibid. 2. Difference Temporary Branches bring not forth fruit in Christ 14 What it is to bring forth fruit in Christ explained 15 This Question Whether in every act a Christian doth all in Christ by his fetching vertue distinctly from him Resolved by 3. things 18 That every Beleever doth five things which are truly and interpretatively to bring forth fruit in Christ 19 4. Obser
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
signe of a strong hatred when a man cannot endure to come where one he loves not is cannot endure the sight of him any thing that may put him in mind of him not so much as to parley or to speak with him Eighthly when our hearts doe not linger after such objects as may satisfie our lusts when absent but when out of sight they are out of mind this is a good degree of mortification We may find it in our selves that when objects are not presented that yet there is in our hearts oftentimes a lingring after them and this from themselves without any outward provocation that is far worse many a man when he sees meat finds he hath a stomach to it which he thought not till it was set afore him but when a man longs after meat he sees not it is a signe he is very hungry as we see against rainy weather before the raine begins to fall the stones will give as we use to say and grow danke so a man that observes his heart may find before objects are presented or actuall thoughts arise a giving of his heart to such and such a lust an inclination a darknesse a moistnesse a sympathizing with such an object that is a signe of unmortifiednesse David was as a weaned child he had no thoughts of the dug no longings after it I have no high thoughts after the Kingdome sayes he Psal 131. A child that begins to be weaned it may be at first cryes after the dug though he sees it not but afterwards though it may be when he sees it he cryes after it yet not when absent Objects present have a far greater force to draw when absent lesse therefore this is a farther degree of mortification attainable it was in Joseph when his Mistresse tempted him from day to day opportunity was ready the object present but he denyed her So in Boaz a woman lay at his feete all night So in David when he had Saul in his lurch might as easily have cut off his head as the lap of his garment and was egg'd on to doe it but he was then weaned indeed and did it not When a man can looke upon beauty and preferment and truly say they are no temptations to me It is a signe of an unsound temper when upon eating such or such meats a man is presently put into the fit of an ague a healthfull man is not so The Prophet calls them the stumbling block of their iniquity When a man is going on his way and though he did not seeke occasions of falling yet meeting with them he cannot step over them but is caught and stumbleth and falls it is a signe of unmortifiednesse CHAP. V. Some Cautions to prevent misjudging by false Rules This case resolved Whether growth in Mortification may be judged by the ordinary prevailings of corruption or actings of Grace BEsides these rules both these wayes given I will in the third place adde some cautionall considerations to prevent misjudging of our growth in Mortification by such false rules as men are apt to be deceived in judging worse or better of our selves by then the truth is or then there is cause Which considerations will also further serve as directions to us as well as the former have done First men may deceive themselves when they estimate their progresse herein by having overcome such lusts as their natures are not so prone unto the surest way is to take a judgement of it from the decay of a mans bosome sinne even as David did estimate his uprightnesse by his keeping himselfe from his iniquity Psal 18. 23. so a man of his growth in uprightnesse When Physitians would judge of a consumption of the whole they doe it not by the falling away of any part what ever as of the flesh in the face alone or any the like such a particular abatement of flesh in some one part may come from some other cause but they use to judge by the falling away of the brawne of the hands or armes and thighes c. for these are the more solid parts the like judgments doe Physitians make upon other diseases and of the abatement of them from the decrease in such symptomes as are Pathognomicall and proper and peculiar to them In like manner also the estimate of the progresse of the victories of a Conquerour in an enemies Kingdome is not taken from the taking or burning of a few villages or dorps but by taking in the Forts and strongest Holds and by what ground he hath won upon the chiefe strength and by what forces he hath cut off of the maine Army Doe the like in the decrease of and victory over your lusts Secondly you must not judge of your Mortification by extraordinary assistances or temptations As you doe not judge of the strength of a Kingdome by auxiliary forraigne forces that are at extraordinary times called in A young Christian shall for his encouragement even in the heat of the battaile when he is ready to be overcome and carryed away captive find the holy Ghost breaking in and rescuing of him as Jehoshaphat was to allude to it when he cryed to the Lord when as a Christian of much standing is left to fight it out hand to hand Now it doth not follow that the other because thus freed hath the more strength Againe on the other side a man is not to judge of himselfe by his weaknesse in some one extraordinary temptation A man that is very sick and nigh unto death and dissolution may through much heat and stirring up of all his spirits have the strength of five men in him and much greater then when he was in health And so a godly man whose corruptions are weak and more neere to dissolution yet in a fit may have all the corruption that is within him mustered up and blowne up by Satan and so it may for the present appeare to have more strength then ever in all his life and yet he may be much mortified Even as Sarah may by an extraordinary means have pleasure in her old age and bring forth a child when she had left child-bearing long and yet her womb was dead Rom. 4. 19. And as it may be true that one of small grace may have that little grace drawne out and wound up to a higher straine for one fit brunt and exercise all the strings wound up to a higher note for some one lesson then one haply of more grace ever felt to higher acts of love to God and of rejoycing in God and purer strains of selfe-denyall yet take the constant strains of ones spirit that hath more grace and the strings will ordinarily endure to stand higher and continue so So on the contrary one of much mortification may have his lusts spurred on faster and boild up higher by Satans fires then one of lesse The estimate of our growth must not therefore be taken by a step or two but by a constant course for
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
are Evangelically wrought to glorifie Christ all manner of wayes that shall be revealed there is an instinct a preparednesse in their faith to make Christ their All in all as any particular comes to be revealed to them wherein they ought to exalt him in their hearts and so this being once revealed to be one way whereby they are to honour him if they have gone on afore in a confidence on their own graces henceforth they doe so no more yea they humble themselves as much for so robbing Christ of glory or neglecting of him in not having had that distinct recourse to him as for any other sin And 4. though haply after all this yet still their union with him is not cleared to them and so their communion with him herein as must needs doth still remain dark also they therefore neither discern that they have any true communion with his person nor can say how strength comes from him yet having bin thus taught to fetch all from him as was formerly explained they do in a continuall renunciation of their own strength deny all offers of assistance from any other strength as namely that which their gifts and parts would make even as they deny unlawfull lusts or by-ends and they still have their eyes upon Christ to work in them both the will and the deed and so by a faith of Recumbencie or casting themselves on him for strength in all such as they exercise towards him for justification Gal. 2. 16. they live by faith on the Son of God and have thereby such a kind of faith a continuall recourse unto him Upon which acts of true faith being exercised by them towards him He as he is pleased to dispence it moves them and works and acts all in them although still not so sensibly unto their apprehensions as that they should discern the connexion between the cause and the effect nor can they hang them together that is to say know how or that this vertue doth come from Christ because their union with him is as yet doubtfull to them and also because the power that worketh in Beleevers is secret and like that of the heavens upon our bodies which is as strong as that of physick c. yet so sweet and so secretly insinuating it selfe with the principles of nature that as for the conveyance of it it is insensible and hardly differenced from the other workings of the principles of nature in us and therefore the Apostle prayeth for the Ephsians That their eyes may be enlightned to see the power that wrought in them Eph. 1. 18. 19. Yet so as 5. their soules walk all this while by these two principles firmly rooted in them both 1 That all good that is to be done must and doth come from Christ and him alone and 2 That if any good be done by them it is wrought by him alone which doe set their souls a breathing after nothing more then to know Christ in the power of his resurrection And having walkt thus in a selfe-emptines and dependance upon Christ by way of a dark recumbencie when once their union with him comes to be cleared up unto them they then acknowledg as they Es 26. That he alone hath wrought all their workes in them that they are nothing and have done nothing and though before this revelation of Christ as Christ said to Peter What I doe now thou knowest not but thou shalt know so they knew not then that Christ had wrought all in them yet then they know it and when they doe know and discern it they acknowledge it with the greatest exaltation of him they having reserved even during all that former time of their emptinesse the glory for him alone staying as Joab did for David till Christ come more sensibly into their hearts to set the crown of all upon his head This I thought good to adde to clear this point lest any poor souls should be stumbled Doct. 4. In the most fruitfull branches there remain corruptions unpurged out The 4. Doct. is That in the most fruitfull branches there remain corruptions that still need purging out This is taken but as supposed in the text and not so directly laid down and I shall handle it but so far as it makes way for what doth follow What shall I need to quote much Scripture for the proof of it Turn but to your own hearts the best will find proofs enough of it Reasons That God might thereby the more set forth and clear unto us his justifying grace by Christs righteousnesse and clear the truth of it to all our hearts When the Apostle long after his first conversion was in the midst of that great and famous battail chronicled in that 7. Rom. wherein he was led captive to a Law and an army of sinne within him warring against the law of his minde presently upon that wofull exclamation and outcry there mentioned Oh miserable man that I am c. he falls admiring the grace of justification through Christ they are his first words after the battail ended Now sayes he there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Mark that word Now that now after such bloudy wounds and gashes there should yet be no condemnation this exceedingly exalts this grace for if ever thought he I was in danger of condemnation it was upon the rising and rebelling of these my corruptions which when they had carried me captive I might well have expected the sentence of condemnation to have followed but I finde sayes he that God still pardons me and accepts me as much as ever upon my returning to him and therefore I doe proclaim with wonder to all the world that Gods justifying grace in Christ is exceeding large and rich And though there be many corruptions in those that are in Christ yet there is no condemnation to those who are in Christ that walk after the Spirit though flesh be in them And this at once both clears our justification by Christs righteousnesse alone and also magnifies and extols it It clears it therefore how doth this remaining of corruptions afford to our Divines that great demonstration against the Papists that we are not justified by works nor are those workes perfect which they so impudently affirme against their own experience even because corruption stains the best and our best righteousnesse is but as a menstruous cloth And as it clears it so likewise it extols it For how is Grace magnified when as not only all the sins and debts a man brought to Christ to pardon at first conversion are pardoned but after many relapses of us and provings bankrupt we are yet still set up againe by free grace with a new stock and though we still run upon new scores every day yet that these should still be paid and there should be riches of love enough and stock enough that is merit enough to hold out to pardon us though we remained in this mixt condition of sinning to eternity this
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