A29689:143
A golden key to open hidden treasures, or, Several great points that refer to…
A golden key to open hidden treasures, or, Several great points that refer to the saints present blessedness and their future happiness, with the resolution of several important questions here you have also the active and passive obedience of Christ vindicated and improved ... : you have farther eleven serious singular pleas, that all sincere Christians may safely and groundedly make to those ten Scriptures in the Old and New Testament, that speak of the general judgment, and of that particular judgment, that must certainly pass upon them all immediately after death ... / by Tho. Brooks ...
London: printed for Dorman Newman, 1675
Serious and Weighty QUESTIONS, CLEARLY And Satisfactorily Answered.
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
First, It will abate the degrees of our Graces, and so make them more undiscernible. Now grace rather in its degrees, than in its sincerity, or simple being only, is that which gives the clearest evidence of a gracious estate, or of a mans interest in Christ. Sin, lived in, is like a Vermin to the Tree, which destroys the fruit; Grace cannot thrive in a sinful heart: In some soil, Plants will not grow: The cherishing of Sin, is the withering of Grace: The casting of a favourable eye on any one special Sin, hinders the growth of Grace: If a man has a choice Plant or Flower in his Garden, and it withers and shrivels, and is dying, he opens the ground, and looks at the root, and there finds a Worm gnawing the root; and this is the cause of the Flowers fading: the Application is easy.
First, It will abate the degrees of our Graces, and so make them more undiscernable. Now grace rather in its degrees, than in its sincerity, or simple being only, is that which gives the clearest evidence of a gracious estate, or of a mans interest in Christ. Sin, lived in, is like a Vermin to the Tree, which destroys the fruit; Grace cannot thrive in a sinful heart: In some soyl, Plants will not grow: The cherrishing of Sin, is the withering of Grace: The casting of a favourable eye on any one special Sin, hinders the growth of Grace: If a man has a choyce Plant or Flower in his Garden, and it withers and shrevils, and is dying, he opens the ground, and looks at the root, and there finds a Worm gnawing the root; and this is the cause of the Flowers fading: the Application is easie.
Secondly: The cherishing of any special peculiar §2Sin, or the keeping up of any known transgression against the Lord, and against the light of a mans own Conscience, will hinder the lively actings and exercise of grace, it will keep Grace at an under, so that it will hardly be seen to stir or act; yea, it will keep Grace so down, that it will hardly be heard to speak. When a special, or peculiar Sin is entertained, it will exceedingly mar the vigorous exercises of those graces which are the evidences ⟨p. 30⟩