A80611:315
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.
And if he grow not here, he is either no living Christian in truth, or no healthful Christian; and if a man see this, and not bewail his not growing in these, he hath no life at all in him; a man that grows harsh, and unsavoury and doth not take a course to repent of it, its a thousand to one there is no life at all in him, but if a man grow, though but in amiableness, and self-denial, and more firmly in Christ, and more assured of Gods grace and mercy, and more depend upon Christ for what he doth, and can do nothing without Christ, and he knows it by experience, that unless a man so grow, there is no life in him.
And if he grow not here, he is either no living Christian in truth, or no healthfull Christian; and if a man see this, and not bewaile his not growing in these, he hath no life at all in him; a man that growes harsh, and unsavoury and doth not take a course to repent of it, its a thousand to one there is no life at all in him, but if a man grow, though but in amiablenesse, and selfe-denial, and more firmly in Christ, and more assured of Gods grace and mercy, and more depend upon Christ for what he doth, and can do nothing without Christ, and he knowes it by experience, that unlesse a man so grow, there is no life in him.
Fourthly,1 another effect of the life of sanctification is ⟨p. 141⟩this, life is such a thing as hath an expulsive power to expel, and drive out of the body that which is noisome and hurtful to it, and will cast and sweat it out; Nature cannot endure to be clogged with superfluity, out it must one way or other, Nature will ease it self, it cannot long subsist; pain and sickness is grievous, and painful to Nature; if any thing trouble the stomach, or the body, out it must by vomit, or purge, it cannot stay if the man be living; so if grace be but living in the soul, there is an expulsive power in the soul, that will purge away that which is contrary to it, it cannot endure superfluity, but away it must go, there it cannot stay, nothing will he keep, but that which is convenient for him: A Christian, look whatsoever it be that a Christian finds superfluous, and finds contrary to the life of Christ in his soul, either too much, or contrary to his spirit, that he abandons it more or less by degrees, measure after measure, and time after time; so the Apostle exhorts,