The Spirit of Bondage and Adoption, Treatise 2 · Chapter 44
CHAP. XLIV. A Caſe, how a Saint may in the midſt of the moſt ſenſible, actuall decays know whether the Habits of grace grow or no.
Queſt. I come now to the ſecond Queſtion laſt propounded. How a man may know whether he grow in grace, notwithſtanding his preſent, ſuppoſed ſenſible Decays?
Anſw. I anſwer,
1. In ſome general rules for the managery of this examination. Thoſe are,
1. Take heed you enquire not too rigorouſly after a too ſuddain improvement. If a man caſt his grain into the ground, it were unreaſonable, he ſhould complain it is dead, becauſe it appears not above ground the next day: or if he ſhould (walking in his field) every day, complain to day that it is grown nothing ſince yeſterday, becauſe he cannot diſcerne it. Had the man patience to look on it, at convenient diſtances of time, experience would confute him: many a man compares his inward frame to day with his frame yeſterday, and if he be not ſenſibly advanced in ſpiritual growth every day; he preſently cryes, I grow not, but decay. Man, if thou wilt compare thy ſelf with what thou waſt, (to try thy growth) thou muſt not examine it, but by convenient diſtances of time. A man will be conceited, a child grows nothing, that meaſures his height every day. Grace grows pedetentim, by little and little, by ſmall and undiſcernable acceſſions. An elegant diſcourſe upon this ſubject you have, Mark 4. 26. 27. The Kingdom of God is as if a man ſhould caſt ſeed into the ground, and ſhould ſleep, and riſe night and day, to wit, to examine its growth, but it growes, he knows not how: i. e. inſenſibly. So when grace is ſown, and wrought in the heart, ſet a man compare himſelfe with what he was (allowing ſuch a competent diſtance of time as may render his growth diſcernable) he ſhall find it growes, though he know not how, that is, can give no account of every particular dayes improvement. A man would bee too ripe for earth too ſoone, if hee could ſenſibly recount his daily improvements.
2 Compare not your ſelves too much with others, no not of the ſame ſtanding in the School of Chriſt with your ſelves, except it be now and then to ſhame your ſloath, and quicken your induſtry. But if you examine your growth by that rule, you may deceive your ſelves very eaſily. Rye and Wheat are ſowne near the ſame time, yet the one is but in the blade while the other is in the ear, and (notwithſtanding) both may be ripe together. Some children ſhoot up mightily at firſt, and over-top all their contemporaries; but a while after a fit of ſickneſſe pulls them down; and they fall as much behind them, ſo that thoſe that they once outſtripped, again come to outſtrip them, and may be at full growth as ſoon or ſooner. It may be thy ſickneſſes keep thee down at preſent, whiles others out-grow thee: labour to recover them, and thou wilt quickly top them again. The truth is, [ſlow, and ſure] is a good rule in this caſe, as in divers others, praecox ingenium, an over-ripe Infancy, many times is attended with a ſottiſh old age. Slow parts, followed with induſtry, hold out longer.
Beſides, thou wouldſt want the ſpur of holy emulation to quicken thee, if none ſhould out-go thee; thy being caſt behind, may win thee the Goal. That horſe (in a long Race) that is caſt a mile behind by the hot mettal of a fiery Competitor, many times out-runs him at long running, when his mettal hath a little beaten him off his legs. Laſtly, it may be that thou haſt no leſſe grace, but thou art not caſt upon the ſame exerciſe with others. Now it is exerciſe which makes gifts, and parts, and graces alſo, to be more ready, and vigorous too.
3 Examine not your growth in winter, which is not the growing ſeaſon. The ſtate of ſpiritual darkneſſe and ſoul troubles, is a very improper condition to examine ones growth in. 'Tis enough for graſs, and corn, and trees, to keep life in their roots in an hard winter; it is growth enough that they are not dead. So whiles thy ſoul-troubles laſt, 'tis well thou maintaineſt any ſpark of ſpiritual life, that thou art not quite killed with the extremity of the ſeaſon. In ſuch a time ſpread the roots of faith about the Rock Chriſt, by acts of reliance in all Duties, and ſtand faſt, be not blown down by temptation: this is growth enough in ſuch a time. A more warm ſeaſon will come, and then the Sun will draw forth the ſap from the root into leaves and fruit too.
4 Examine not your growth or decay of graces, by the growth or decay of your Gifts. This were as if I ſhould examine a mans growth and improvement in a temporal eſtate by the fineneſſe or plainneſſe of his habit and outward garments. Gifts are but the garments of a Chriſtian. That mans purſe may bee full of gold, that goes in plain ruſſet, when another may have leſſe in his pocket then on his cloak. It is too frequently our fault, we judge our graces grow not, becauſe we cannot pray ſo fluently as we could, are ſtreightned in meditation, &c. A dram of grace is worth a pound of gifts. Many a man is like that Cardinal in the Book of Martyrs, that would needs (for ſtate) march through London, with ſo many mules loaden. But by accident one of his beaſts flung off his burthen, and diſcovered his Maſters affected pomp to be a meer pageantry, by the lumber that was ſcattered about the ſtreets. So many a man makes a great ſhew with gifts, but at laſt death comes, and knocks the trunk to pieces, and then he diſcovers, that how gawdy ſoever the out-ſide was, the inſide is as bare. A Chriſtian is like a Preacher. A young Scholar from the Ʋniverſity preacheth higher ſtraines, but afterwards ſounder Divinity.
5 Judg not of your growth or decay in grace, by your frequent and ſtrong temptations, the aſſaults of ſtrong corruptions, or your ſometimes falling under them.
I put theſe together, becauſe they are handled more at large in an excellent practical piece of a late early ripe labourer, who knew how to judg of growth by his own experience, being ſo exceeding tall at ſo young an age, Mr. Chriſtopher Love of Grace and its different degrees.as makes many of his reverend Fathers aemulate him. You have (if you will needs judg by this rule) more ground to conclude your graces ſtrong and thriving; Becauſe God doth not uſe to lay great burthens upon weak ſhoulders, nor call forth a Pigmee to encounter with a Gyant.
6 Judge not of your growth and decayes in grace by your ability or diſability to preſent ſervice. Nay, though you find it ſhort of what it was formerly. For preſent abilities many times run low in the moſt highflowne Saints that are. The men of might (ſaith David) could not find their hands, Pſa. 76 5. A Saint may be unable to find his hands when he is put upon a work; not that he wants them, but that he is by diſtemper diſabled from uſing them. A man of one and twenty years old, in ſickneſſe and diſtemper, may not be able to do what he could at thirteen, and yet is growne for all that.
2 In ſpecial, I anſwer
1 A growth of ſelf-denyal and humility, diſcovers an univerſal growth. Doſt not thou dayly grow more and more out of conceit with thy own righteouſneſſe? Art not thou daily more and more aſhamed of thy ſelf in the preſence of God? Doſt not thou ſee daily more and more vileneſſe and ſelfe-abhorrency in thy ſelf? The neareſt approaches to God uſe to breed this frame. Iſai. 6. 5. The more a man improves in knowledge, the more he ſees that he doth not know. And ſo the more any one growes in grace, the more grace hee ſees he wants.
2 A growth of alienation of the heart from ſin. How do thy old garments fit thee? Doſt thou more and more grow out of love with ſin, and more and more put it off (at leaſt in the love of it?) This growth the Apoſtle ſaw, when he could ſee none elſe, Rom 7. 20. This is moſt diſcernable in the combats between the heart and Original ſin; when a man clubs it down in its firſt motions, 'tis a good token of growth.
A moral man may forbeare thoſe ſins in act, which a godly man may fall into: but a Saint labours more at the root of ſin, when moral men pare off the branches.
3 A growth of heavenly mindedneſſe. Theſe toyes and trifles of the world, how do they take with thee? That which the Apoſtle ſaith of childiſh knowledg. &c. I may ſay of childiſh deſires, 1 Cor. 13. 11. A Saint then growes a man, when he throwes away childiſh things. Doſt thou grow more liberal and open hearted? The more a mans heart is looſed from the earth, the nearer it growes to heaven. Grace here is glory in the cradle; and it daily growes heavenward.
4. A growth of aimes and deſires. What doſt thou purpoſe to thy ſelfe? Will not ſmall things content thee? then thy appetite is growne. The more manly we grow, the more manly our aimes are. See how the Apoſtle calls this growth of aimes, perfection, Phil. 3. 15.
So that thy trouble that thou groweſt not, and thy aimes at farther improvement, diſcover that thou art improving.
Ʋſe 3.This Theſis (alſo) is three waies for Conſolation to Saints, For
1. This confirms us in the Doctrine of the Perſeverance of the Saints. For if a true Saint might fall away from grace, the Spirit might juſtly again become a Spirit of Bondage to him. For he that falls from grace, falls under the Law: and he that falls under the Law, is liable to all its terrors as his proper portion. For all that the Law ſpeaks, it ſpeaks to them that are under the Law, Rom. 3. 19. If a child of God to day might prove a child of the Divel to morrow, ſurely, the Spirit might ſafely tell him ſo.
2 This ſcatters and diſpells the greateſt venom that imbitters Saints ſecond troubles. When a man looks on God as leading him into temptation, it is far more bitter then when a man falls into it by his own neglect or Satans malice. When a man apprehends the Spirit of God, whom he expects as a Comforter, to become his Tormentor, this is a double torment. Now againſt this, the Lord gives us this cordial aſſurance, once for all, that to a Saint no ſuch thing ever can be the work of the Spirit.
3 This ſhewes Saints a ground upon which (if it be not their own fault) they may live in conſtant peace; to wit, by maintaining continual correſpondence, and un-interrupted amity with the Spirit of Adoption.
Surely, he that never ſpeaks Bondage after he hath ſpoken peace, may be heard ſpeaking peace alwayes, were it not our own fault: Did wee heed what hee ſayes, and acquaint our ſelves more with his voice, we ſhould find him a Comforter ſtill. But we are apt to give more eare to our owne carnal reaſon, and Satans tentations, then to his gracious and comfortable tidings. Few Saints, ſhould they put their ſouls to Davids queſtion. Pſalm 42. were able to anſwer it ſatisfactorily, except there be reaſon why men ſhould trouble and diſtract their owne ſpirits, whether God will or no.
And thus much ſhall ſuffice for this third point.