The saints daily exercise A treatise concerning the whole duty of prayer. Delivered in…The saints daily exercise A treatise concerning the whole dutie of prayer. Delivered in…

But now you will say this to me, (that may be ¹objected) why? but may not any carnal man say as much, he sins against God, and comes and asks mercy, he comes, and cries for forgiveness, and saith, he will sin no more; and yet he sins again the next day, and adds drunkenness to thirst; that is, his sin and his repentance, they run in a circle, as drunkenness, and thirst? how shall we distinguish then between these two, that purifying disposition in the Saints, and those vanishing purposes, that carnal men may have, that never had experience of the work of grace, of that purity of heart, that we speak of.

But now you will say this to me, (that may be ¹obiected) why? but may not any carnall man say as much, hee sinnes against God, and comes and askes mercie, he comes, and cries for forgiuenes, and saith, he will sin no more; and yet he sinnes againe the next day, and addes drunkennesse to thirst; that is, his sinne and his repentance, they runne in a circle, as drunkennes, and thirst? how shall wee distinguish then betweene these two, that purifying disposition in the Saints, and those vanishing purposes, that carnall men may haue, that never had experience of the worke of grace, of that purity of heart, that wee speake of.

1. 1Object.Obiect.

To this I answer briefly, you shall know the ⟨p. 132⟩¹difference by this, […] godly man, when he falls ²into sin, and is defiled with it, he washeth himself from day to day; you shall find always this, that he gets ground of the sin, of the lust, that manifests it self in any actual transgression, still it looseth by it, it gathers not strength, but looseth strength: in a carnal man it is quite contrary, his sin still increaseth, and intends the habit, and the lust grows stronger and stronger, it gets ground of him, and those good things that he hath, they are more and more worn out, and so they grow worse and worse from day to day, and that is the property of an evil man, of unregeneracy wheresoever, it is apt to grow worse and worse, and the more fals they have, the more sin gets ground, and the more they lose; but it is not so wth a holy man, the more he falls, the more strength he gathers, he is the more holy by it, the more wary and watchful, and the more he is emptied of himself, and draws nearer to the Lord, and is the more inflamed with love to him, he is strengthened in faith, and repentance, and in every grace: so that here the rule now hold not true, that acts increase habits, but the contrary, acts lessen the habits, which is a paradox i philosophy, but here it is so.