A30241:2207
CXLV expository sermons upon the whole 17th chapter of the Gospel according to St.…
CXLV expository sermons upon the whole 17th chapter of the Gospel according to St. John, or, Christs prayer before his passion explicated, and both practically and polemically improved by Anthony Burgess ...
London: printed by Abraham Miller for Thomas Underhill, 1656
Title page typeset from the transcription.
Sermon 90: The Contraries to Growth in Grace. A Comfortable Advertisement to such as mourn under t…
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.
2. Know these humiliations and bewailings are a kind of further Sanctification in thee, For to grow in Grace is to discern more and more our Imperfections, to be acquainted with all the need and wants that we are in; As he that groweth in Learning seeth how much he is ignorant of, and thus he that groweth in holiness, he seeth himself more unholy then ever, he thinketh he hath less Grace then ever, because he is more tender and discerning then he was before; As a man recovering out of a disease is more sensible of pain and his weakness then he was in the height of his sickness.
2. Know these humiliations and bewailings are a kinde of further Sanctification in thee, For to grow in Grace is to discern more and more our Imperfections, to be acquainted with all the need and wants that we are in; As he that groweth in Learning seeth how much he is ignorant of, and thus he that groweth in holinesse, he seeth himself more unholy then ever, he thinketh he hath lesse Grace then ever, because he is more tender and discerning then he was before; As a man recovering out of a disease is more sensible of pain and his weaknesse then he was in the height of his sicknesse.
3. There may be a growing in gifts and parts, and a growing in Grace; This distinction is greatly to be marked, for a Christian through bodily distempers ⟨p. 466⟩and old Age may decay in parts, not have the memory, nor the activity, or the hot affections he had once, and yet be a more mortified and solid Christian, for Grace will not cure a man of bodily Diseases or of Old Age, and because the Soul doth work dependently upon the body, as the body it's Instrument doth decay, so are the Souls Operations impaired thereby; But be not discouraged, this is not a decay in Grace, it's only in parts and gifts, or a bodily constitution, which though comfortable mercies, yet are not Essentials to grace; On the other side there are too many that increase in Knowledge, that are enlarged in parts, but decay in grace, yea, their corruptions and lusts grow with them.