A65285:1415
A Body of Practical Divinity
A body of practical divinity consisting of above one hundred seventy six sermons on the lesser catechism composed by the reverend assembly of divines at Westminster : with a supplement of some sermons on several texts of Scripture / by Thomas Watson ...
London: printed for Thomas Parkurst, 1692
Title page typeset from the transcription.
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.
Use. Lament we may the want of growth: Religion in many is grown only into a Form and Profession: This is to grow in Leaves, not in Fruit. Many Christians ⟨p. 217⟩are like a Body in an Atrophy, which doth not thrive; they are not nourished by the Sermons they hear; like the Angels who assumed Bodies, they did eat, but did not grow. It is very suspicious where there is no growth, there wants a Vital Principle. Some instead of growing better, grow worse; they grow more Earthly, more Profane, 2 Tim. 3.13. Evil Men proficient in Pejus, shall wax worse and worse. Many grow Hell-ward, they grow past shame, Eph. 23.5. they are like some Watered Stuffs which grow more rotten.
Use. Lament we may the want of growth: Religion in many is grown only into a Form and Profession: This is to grow in Leaves, not in Fruit. Many Christians ⟨p. 217⟩are like a Body in an Atrophy, which doth not thrive; they are not nourished by the Sermons they hear; like the Angels who assumed Bodies, they did eat, but did not grow. It is very suspicious where there is no growth, there wants a Vital Principle. Some instead of growing better, grow worse; they grow more Earthly, more Profane, 2 Tim. 3.13. Evil Men proficient in Pejus, shall wax worse and worse. Many grow Hell-ward, they grow past shame, Eph. 23.5. they are like some Watred Stuffs which grow more rotten.
Quest. 5. How shall we know whether we grow in Grace?