Gods husbandry

IN the last place, Use 3 let all those that do perceive themselves to be growing in fruitfulness,¹ receive much comfort herein. O well are they: growth is a most sure sign of life: a rotten branch grows not, a rotten arm grows not. Whosoever therefore perceiveth that his care of living godlily in Christ Jesus increaseth, that he is more and more desirous to obey God, and that his works are better at last, then at first, blessed be he of the Lord: let him receive this happy comfort from the mouth of God, and conclude himself infallibly to be a living branch, a sound-hearted Christian. Indeed the people of God, to whom this consolation doth most duly appertain, are not ever forward for the most part to embrace the same: yea, they are ready to deprive themselves of it by diversity of objections, and by name thus you shall have them speaking against themselves: Alas, is there not a growth of Hypocrites, as well as of the true-hearted? Doth not the blade spring up as well in the stony, and in the thorny ground, as in ⟨p. 163⟩the good ground? And how can I assure my self, but that this growth of mine is such, as may befall a dissembler? I answer, It must not be denied, that the man of a guileful spirit, the close Hypocrite hath his fullness, his period, his state, to which he may come, and to which, till he have reached, he seemeth both to himself and others, to grow.

IN the last place, Vse 3 let all those that do perceiue themselues to be growing in fruitfulnesse,