A80611:312
Christ the fountain of lifeChrist the fountaine of life
Christ the fountain of life: or, Sundry choice sermons on part of the fifth chapter of the first Epistle of St. John. Preached by that learned judicious divine, and faithful minister of Jesus Christ, Mr. John Cotton B.D. now preacher at Boston in New-England. Published according to Order.Christ the fountaine of life: or, Sundry choyce sermons on part of the fift chapter of the first Epistle of St. John. Preached by that learned judicious divine, and faithfull minister of Jesus Christ, Mr. John Cotton B.D. now preacher at Boston in New-England. Published according to Order.
London: printed by Robert Ibbitson, 1651
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.
Quest. But doth not many a Christian stand at a stay, and sometimes grow backward, and fall from their first love, fall from the fruitfulness and goodness, and rootedness in Christ, though not wholly cut off, yet falling from the firmness in grace, and the power of grace, and from fruitfulness, and the abundance of the work of righteousness.
Quest. But doth not many a Christian stand at a stay, and sometimes grow backward, and fall from their first love, fall from the fruitfullnesse and goodnesse, and rootednesse in Christ, though not wholly cut off, yet falling from the firmenesse in grace, and the power of grace, and from fruitfullnesse, and the abundance of the worke of righteousnesse.
Answ. It is true, many a soul doth so for a while, but if so be, that God do give a Christian man, not to grow, we must not say therefore he doth not live, not but that a man for a time, may be weak; as a living man in sickness may be very weak, his spirit fail, and his strength fail, and his work and employment fails him, and he can do nothing, neither eat, nor drink, no not so much as lean upon a staff, but may lye bed-rid, but yet such a man feels a sensible distemper of his body, and he ceaseth not to use the best means he can, and so in the end he comes to grow and recovers his first love again in some measure; some also there are, that by sinful lusts waste, instead of growing, as a thief in a candle wastes it, but if there be a thief in the heart, a lurking lust in the soul; a living soul is not well till it be removed, by some good means or other, that so it may recover it self. It is sometimes the case of a Christian, as David speaks, Psal. 39. ult. Oh spare a little that I may recover any strength; so a Christian man if he find himself in a decay, that he is dead and heartless in every spiritual performance, oh then spare a little, that I may recover my strength: Now he is afraid to dye in such a case, but he would now have some time, that he may recover his first love and his first fruits, and that his faith might not vanish away in ashes and smoke, if he see that his spirit decays, he considers then, whence he is fallen,