XXVIII sermons preached at Golden Grove being for the summer half-year, beginning on Whit-Sunday, and ending on the xxv Sunday after Trinity, together with A discourse of the divine institution, necessity, sacredness, and separation of the office ministeriall / by Jer. Taylor.

[ A] Sermon. XV. [ B] Of Growth in Grace.

Part II.

[ C] 5. HE is well grown in, or towards the state of grace, who is more patient of a sharp reproof, then of a secret flattery. For a reprehension contains so much mortification to the pride and complacencies of a man; is so great an affront to an easie and undisturbed person, is so empty of plea∣sure, and so full of profit, that he must needs love vertue in a great degree, who can take in that which onely serves her end, and is displeasant to himself, and all his gayeties. A severe repre∣hender of anothers vice, comes dressed like Jacob when he went to cozen his brother of the blessing: his outside is rough and hairy, but the voice is Jacobs voice; rough hands, and a healthfull lan∣guage [ D] get the blessing, even against the will of him that shall feel it; but he that is patient, and even, not apt to excuse his fault, that is lesse apt to anger, or to scorn him that snatches him rudely from the flames of hell, he is vertues Confessor, and suffers these lesser stripes for that interest which will end in spirituall and eter∣nall benedictions.

They who are furious against their monitors are incorrigible: but it is one degree of meeknesse to suffer discipline: and a meek man cannot easily be an ill man, especially in the present instance: he appears, at least, to have a healthfull constitution▪ he hath [ E] good flesh to heal; his spirit is capable of medicine, and that man can never be despaired of, who hath a disposition so neer his health as to improve all physick, and whose nature is relieved by every good accident from without. But that which I observe is, That this is not onely a good disposition towards repentance, and restitution, but is a signe of growth in grace, according as it becomes naturall, easie, and habituall, Some men chide themselves for all their

misdemeanours, because they would be represented to the cen∣sures [ A] and opinions of other men, with a fair Character, and such as need not to be reproved: others out of inconsideration sleep in their own dark rooms, and untill the charity of a Guide, or of a friend draws the curtain and lets in a beam of light, dream on untill the graves open, and hell devours them; But if they be cal∣led upon by the grace of God, let down with a sheet of counsels and friendly precepts, they are presently inclined to be obedient to the heavenly monitions, but unlesse they be dressed with cir∣cumstances of honour and civility, with arts of entertainment, and insinuation they are rejected utterly, or received unwillingly: [ B] Therefore although upon any termes, to endure a sharp reproof be a good signe of amendment; yet the growth of grace is not properly signified by every such sufferance: For when this dispo∣sition begins, amendment also begins, and goes on in proportion to the increment of this. To endure a reproof without adding a new sin is the first step to amendments, that is, to endure it without scorn, or hatred, or indignation. 2. The next is to suf∣fer reproof without excusing our selves: For he that is apt to ex∣cuse himself is onely desirous in a civill manner to set the reproof aside, and to represent the charitable monitour to be too hasty in [ C] his judgement, and deceived in his information; and the fault to dwell there, not with himself. 3. Then he that proceeds in this instance admits the reprovers sermon, or discourse, without a pri∣vate regret: he hath no secret murmurs, or unwillingnesses to the humiliation, but is onely ashamed that he should deserve it: but for the reprehension it self, that troubles him not; but he looks on it as his own medicine, and the others charity. 4. But if to this he addes, that he voluntary confesses his own fault, and of his own accord vomits out the loads of his own intemperance, and eases his spirit of the infection, then it is certain he is not one∣ly [ D] a professed and hearty enemy against sin, but a zealous, and a prudent, and an active person against all its interest; and never counts himself at ease but while he rests upon the banks of Sion, or at the gates of the temple; never pleased but in vertue and religion: Then he knows the state of his soul, and the state of his danger, he reckons it no objection to be abased in the face of man, so he may be gracious in the eyes of God: And that's a signe of a good grace, and a holy wisdom; That man is grown in the grace of God, and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Justus in principio sermonis est accusator sui, said the Wise man, The righ∣teous [ E] accuseth himself in the beginning: that is, quickly, lest he be prevented: And certain it is, he cannot be either wise or good that had rather have a reall sin within him, then that a good man should beleeve him to be a repenting sinner; that had rather keep his crime, then lose his reputation; that is, rather to be so, then to

[ A] be thought so, rather be without the favour of God, then of his neighbour. Diogenes once spied a young man coming out of a Tavern, or place of entertainment; who perceiving himself ob∣served by the Philosopher, with some confusion stepped back a∣gain, that he might (if possible) preserve his fame with that se∣vere person. But Diogenes told him, Quanto magis intraveris tan∣to magis eris in cauponâ: The more you go back, the longer you are in the place where you are ashamed to be seen; and he that conceals his sin, still retains that which he counts his shame, and his burden. Hippocrates was noted for an ingenious person, that [ B] he published and confessed his errour concerning the futures of the head: and all ages since Saint Austin have called him pious, for writing his book of retractations, in which he published his former ignorances and mistakes, and so set his shame off to the world, invested with a garment of modesty, and above half chan∣ged before they were seen. I did the rather insist upon this par∣ticular, because it is a consideration of huge concernment, and yet much neglected in all its instances and degrees. We neither confesse our shame, nor endure it; we are privately troubled, and [ C] publikely excuse it; we turn charity into bitternesse, and our re∣proof into contumacy and scorne; and who is there amongst us that can endure a personall charge? or is not to be taught his per∣sonall duty, by generall discoursings, by parable and apologue, by acts of insinuation and wary distances? but by this state of persons we know the estate of our own spirits.

When God sent his Prophets to the people, and they stoned them with stones, and sawed them asunder, and cast them into dun∣geons, and made them beggers, the people fell into the condition of Babylon, Quam curavimus & non est sanata; We healed her (said [ D] the Prophets) But she would not be cured: Derelinquamus eam, that's her doom; let her enjoy her sins and all the fruits of sin laid up in treasures of wrath against the day of vengeance and retri∣bution.

6. He that is grown in grace, and the knowledge of Christ esteems no sin to be little or contemptible; none fit to be cherished or indulged to. For it is not onely inconsistent with the love of God, to entertain any undecency or beginning of a crime, any thing that displeases him, but he alwayes remembers how much it cost him to arrive at the state of good things, whether the grace [ E] of God hath already brought him: He thinks of the prayers and tears, his restlesse nights, and his daily fears, his late escape, and his present danger, the ruines of his former state, and the difficult and imperfect reparations of this new; his proclivity and aptnesse to vice, and naturall aversnesse and uneasie inclinations to the strictnesse of holy living; and when these are considered truly, they naturally make a man unwilling to entertaine any begin∣nings

of a state of life contrary to that which with so much dan∣ger [ A] and difficulty, through so many objections and enemies he hath attained. And the truth is, when a man hath escaped the dangers of his first state of sin, he cannot but be extreamly unwilling to return again thither, in which he can never hope for heaven: (and so it must be) for a man must not flatter himself in a small crime, and say as Lot did when he begged a reprieve for Zoar, Alas Lord, is it not a little one and my soul shall live? And it is not therefore to be entertained because it is little; for it is the more without ex∣cuse, if it be little; the temptations to it are not great; the allure∣ments not mighty; the promises not insnaring, the resistance easie; [ B] and a wise man considers, it is a greater danger to be overcome by a little sin, then by a great one; a greater danger (I say) not directly, but accidentally; not in respect of the crime, but in re∣lation to the person: for he that cannot overcome a small crime, is in the state of infirmity, so great, that he perishes infallibly, when he is arrested by the sins of a stronger temptation: But he that easily can, and yet will not; he is in love with sin, and courts his danger, that he may at least kisse the apples of Paradise, or feast himself with the parings: since he is by some displeasing instru∣ment affrighted from glutting himself with the forbidden fruit, [ C] in ruder and bigger instances: But the well-grown Christian is cu∣rious of his newly trimmed soul, and like a nice person with clean clothes, is carefull that no spot or stain fully the virgin whitenesse of his robe: whereas another whose albes of baptisme are sullied in many places with the smoak and filth of Sodom and unclean∣nesse, cares not in what paths he treads, and a shower of dirt chan∣ges not his state, who already lies wallowing in the puddles of impurity; It makes men negligent and easie, when they have an opinion or certain knowledge that they are persons extraordinary in nothing; that a little care will not mend them; that another [ D] sin cannot make them much worse: But it is as a signe of a tender conscience, and a reformed spirit, when it is sensible of every al∣teration, when an idle word is troublesom, when a wandering thought puts the whole spirit upon its guard; when too free a merriment is wiped off with a sigh and a sad thought, and a se∣vere recollection, and a holy prayer: Polycletus was wont to say, That they had work enough to do, who were to make a cu∣ruious picture of clay and dirt, when they were to take accounts for the handling of mud and morter: A mans spirit is naturally carelesse of baser and uncostly materials; but if a man be to work [ E] in gold, then he will save the filings, and his dust, and suffer not a grain to perish: And when a man hath laid his foundations in pre∣cious stones, he will not build vile matter, stubble and dirt upon it: So it is in the spirit of a man; If he have built upon the rock Christ Jesus, and is grown up to a good stature in Christ, he will

[ A] not easily dishonour his building nor lose his labours, by an incu∣rious entertainment of vanities and little instances of sin; which as they can never satisfie any lust or appetite to sin; so they are like a flie in a box of ointment, or like little follies to a wise man, they are extreamly full of dishonour and disparagement, they dis∣array a mans soul of his vertue, and dishonour him for cockle-shels and baubles, and tempt to a greater folly: which every man, who is grown in the knowledge of Christ, therefore carefully avoids, because he fears a relapse, with a fear as great as his hopes of hea∣ven are, and knowes that the entertainment of small sins do but en∣tice [ B] a mans resolutions to disband, they unravel and untwist his holy purposes, and begin in infirmities and proceed in folly, and end in death.

7. He that is grown in grace pursues vertue for its own interest, purely and simply without the mixture and allay of collateral de∣signes, and equally inclining purposes; God in the beginning of our returns to him entertains us with promises and threatnings, the ap∣prehensions of temporal advantages, with fear and shame, and with reverence of friends and secular respects, with reputation and coercion of humane laws and at first men snatch at the lesser and [ C] lower ends of vertue and such rewards are visible, and which God sometimes gives in hand to entertain our weak, and imperfect de∣sires: The young Philosophers were very forward to get the precepts of their sect, and the rules of severity, that they might dis∣course with Kings, not that they might reform their own man∣ners; and some men study to get the ears and tongues of the peo∣ple, rather then to gain their souls to God; and they obey good laws, for fear of punishment, or to preserve their own peace and some are worse they do good deeds out of spite, and preach Christ out of envy, or to lessen the authority and fame of others: some [ D] of these lessen the excellency of the act, others spoil it quite: it is in some, imperfect, in others, criminal; in some it is consistent with a beginning infant-grace, in others it is an argument of the state of sin and death: but in all cases, the well grown Christian, he that improoves or goes forward in his way to heaven, brings ver∣tue forth, not into discourses and panegyrickes, but into his life and manners; his vertue although it serves many good ends acci∣dentally, yet by his intention it onely suppresses his inordinate passions, makes him temperate and chast, casts out his devils of [ E] drunkennesse and lust, pride and rage, malice and revenge▪ it makes him useful to his brother and a servant of God; and al∣though these flowers cannot choose but please his eye, and delight his smell, yet he chooses to gather honey, and licks up the dew of heaven and feasts his spirit upon the Manna, and dwells not in the collateral usages and accidental sweetnesses which dwell at the gates of the other senses, but like a Bee loads his thighs with

wax and his bag with honey; that is, with the useful parts of ver∣tue [ A] in order to holinesse and felicity. Of which the best signes and notices we can take will be if we as earnestly pursue vertues which are acted in private, as those whose scene lies in publick, If we pray in private, under the onely eye of God and his ministring angels as in Churches; if we give our almes in secret rather then in publick; if we take more pleasure in the just satisfaction of our consciences, and securing our reputation; if we rather pursue in∣nocence then seek an excuse; if we desire to please God, though we lose our fame with men; if we be just to the poorest servant as to the greatest prince, if we choose to be among the jewels of [ B] God though we be the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 the off-scouring of the world; if when we are secure from witnesses and accusers and not obnoxi∣ous to the notices of the law, we think our selves obliged by con∣science, and practise, and live accordingly; then our services and intentions in vertue are right▪ then we are past the twilights of con∣version, and the umbrages of the world, and walk in the light of God, of his word, and of his spirit, of grace and reason, as be∣cometh not babes, but men in christ Jesus. In this progresse of grace I have not yet expressed, that perfect persons should serve God [ C] out of mere love of God and the divine excellencies, without the considerations of either heaven or hell; such a thing as that is tal∣ked of in mystical Theology. And I doubt not but many good per∣sons come to that growth of Charity that the goodnesse and excel∣lency of God are more incumbent and actually pressing upon their spirit then any considerations of reward: But then I shall adde this; that when persons come to that hight of grace (or contempla∣tion rather) and they love God for himself and do their duties in order to the fruition of him and his pleasure; all that, is but heaven in another sense, and under another name; just as the mystical The∣ologie [ D] is the highest duty and the choicest parts of obedience un∣der a new method: but in order to the present, that which I call a signification of our growth in grace, is a pursuance of vertue up∣on such reasons as are propounded to us, as motives in Christiani∣ty (such as are to glorifie God, and to enjoy his promises in the way, and in our country, to avoid the displeasure of God, and to be united to his glories) and then to exercise vertue in such parts and to such purposes as are useful to good life, and profitable to our neighbours; not to such onely where they serve reputation, or secular ends. For though the great Physitian of our souls hath [ E] mingled profits and pleasures with vertue to make its chalice sweet and apt to be drank off, yet he that takes out the sweet ingredi∣ent and feasts his palate with the lesse wholsome part, because it is delicious, serves a low end of sense or interest, but serves not God at all; and as little does benefit to the soul: such a person is like Homers bird, deplumes himselfe to feather all the naked callows

[ A] that he sees, and holds a taper that may light others to heaven, while he burns his own fingers: but a well grown person, out of habit and choice out of love of vertue and just intention goes on his jour∣ney in straight wayes to heaven, even when the bridle and coercion of laws or the spurs of interest or reputation are laid aside and desires witnesses of his actions, not that he may advance his fame, but for reverence and fear, and to make it still more necessary to do holy things.

8. Some men there are in the beginning of their holy walking with God, and while they are babes in Christ, who are presently [ B] busied in delights of prayers, and rejoyce in publick communion, and count all solemn assemblies, festival; but as they are pleased with them, so they can easily be without them; It is a signe of a common and vulgar love onely to be pleased with the company of a friend, and to be as well with out him, amoris at morsum qui verè senserit, he that ha's felt the stings of a sharp and very dear affection is impatient in the absence of his beloved object, the soul that is sick and swallowed up with holy fire loves nothing else; all pleasures else seem unsavory, company is troublesome, visitors are tedious, homilies of comfort are flat and uselesse. The plea∣sures [ C] of vertue to a good and perfect man are not like the per∣fumes of Nard Pistick, which is very delightful when the box is newly broken, but the want of it is no trouble; we are well e∣nough without it; but vertue is like hunger and thirst it must be satisfied or we die; and when we feel great longings af∣ter religion and faintings for want of holy nutriment, when a fa∣mine of the word and sacraments is more intolerable; and we think our selves really most miserable, when the Church doors are shut against us, or like the Christians in the persecution of the Vandals, who thought it worse then death, that there Bishops were [ D] taken from them; If we understand excommunication, or Church censures (abating the disreputation and secular appendages) in the sense of the spirit to be a misery next to hell it self, then we have made a good progresse in the Charity and grace of God; till then we are but pretenders, or infants, or imperfect, in the same de∣gree in which our affections are cold, and our desires remisse; For a constant and prudent zeal is the best testimony of our mascu∣line and vigorous heats, and an houre of fervour is more plea∣sing to God then a moneth of luke-warmnesse, and indif∣ferency.

[ E] 9 But as some are active onely in the presence of a good object, but remisse and carelesse for the want of it, so on the other side an infant grace is safe in the absence of a temptation, but falls easily, when it is in presence: He therefore that would understand if he be grown in grace, may consider if his safety consists onely in peace, or in the strength of the spirit. It is good that we will not seek out

opportunities to sin; but are not we too apprehensive of it, when [ A] it is presented? or do we not sink under when it presses us? can we hold our tapers neer the flames and not suck it in greedily like Naphtha or prepared Nitre? or can we like the children of the cap∣tivity walk in the midst of slames and not be scorched or consu∣med,? Many men will (not like Judah) go into high wayes and untie the girdles of harlots; But can you reject the importunity of a beautious and an imperious Lady, as Joseph did we had need pray that we be not led into temptation; that is, not onely into the pos∣session, but not into the allurements and neighbour-hood of it, least by little and little our strongest resolutions be untwist, and crack [ B] in sunder like an easie cord severed into single threds: but if we by the necessity of our lives, and manner of living, dwell where a temptation will assault us, then to resist, is the signe of a great grace; but such a signe, that without it, the grace turns into wantonnesse, and the man into a beast, and an angel into a Devil. R. Moses will not allow a man to be a true penitent untill he hath left all his sin, and in all the like circumstances refuses those temptations un∣der which formerly he sinned and died: and indeed it may hap∣pen that such a trial onely can secure our judgement concerning [ C] our selves: and although to be tried in all the same accidents be not safe, nor alwayes contingent, and in such cases it is sufficient to resist all the temptations we have, and avoid the rest and decree against all, yet if it please God we are tempted, as David was by his eyes, or the Martyrs by tortures, or Joseph by his wanton Mistris, then to stand sure and to ride upon the temptation like a ship upon a wave, or to stand like a rock in an impetuous storm, thats the signe of a great grace and of a well-grown Chri∣stian.

10. No man is grown in grace but he that is ready for every [ D] work, that chooses not his employment, that refuses no imposi∣tion from God or his superiour; a ready hand, an obedient heart, and a willing cheerful soul in all the work of God and in every office of religion is a great index of a good proficient in the wayes of Godlinesse. The heart of a man is like a wounded hand or arme, which if it be so cured that it can onely move one way and cannot turn to all postures and natural uses it is but imperfect, and still half in health, and half wounded: so is our spirit; if it be apt for prayer and close fisted in almes, if it be sound in faith and dead in charity, if it be religious to God and unjust to our neigh∣bour, [ E] there wants some integral part, or there is a lamenesse; and the deficiency in any one duty implyes the guilt of all (said Saint James) and bonum ex integrâ causâ malum exquâlibet particulari, e∣very fault spoils a grace. But one grace alone cannot make a good man. But as to be universal in our obedience is necessary to the being in the state of grace: so readily to change imployment from

[ A] the better to the worse, from the honourable to the poor, from use∣full to seemingly unprofitable, is a good Character of a well grown Christian, if he takes the worst part with indifferency and a spi∣rit equally choosing all the events of the divine providence. Can you be content to descend from ruling of a province to the keeping of a herd: from the work of an Apostle to be confined into a pri∣son, from disputing before Princes to a conversation with Shep∣herds? can you be willing to all that God is willing, and suffer all that he chooses as willingly as if you had chosen your own for∣tune? In the same degree, in which you can conform to God, in [ B] the same you have approached towards that perfection whe∣ther we must by degrees arrive in our journey towards heaven.

This is not to be expected of beginners; for they must be enticed with apt imployments; and it may be, their office and work so fits their spirits, that it makes them first in love with it, and then with God for giving it; and many a man goes to heaven in the dayes of peace, whose faith, and hopes, and patience would have been dashed in pieces, if he had fallen into a storm or persecuti∣on. Oppression will make a wise man mad (saith Solomon): there are [ C] some usages that will put a sober person out of all patience, such which are besides the customes of this life, and contrary to all his hopes, and unworthy of a person of his quality: and when Nero durst not die, yet when his servants told him that the Senators had condemned him to be put to death more Majorum, that is, by scourg∣ing like a slave, he was forced into a preternatural confidence, and fel upon his own sword; but when God so changes thy estate that thou art fallen into accidents to which thou art no otherwise di∣sposed, but by grace and a holy spirit, and yet thou canst passe through them with quietnesse, and do the work of suffering as well [ D] as the works of a prosperous imployment; this is an argument of a great grace and an extraordinary spirit. For many persons in a change of fortune perish, who if they had still been prosperous had gone to heaven; being tempted in a persecution to perjuries and Apostacy and unhandsome complicances, and hypocricy, and irreligion: and many men are brought to vertue, and to God, and to felicity by being persecuted and made unprosperous: and these are effects of a more absolute and irrespective predestinati∣on; but when the grace of God is great and prudent, and mascu∣line, [ E] and well grown, it is unalter'd in all changes, save onely that every accident that is new and violent brings him neerer to God, and makes him with greater caution and severity to dwell in vertue.

11. Lastly, some there are who are firme in all great and fore∣seen changes and have laid up in the store-houses of the spirit (reason and religion) arguments and discourses enough to defend

them against all violencies and stand at watch so much, that [ A] they are safe where they can consider, and deliberate; but there may be something wanting yet; and in the direct line, in the strait progresse to heaven, I call that an infallible signe of a great grace, and indeed the greatest degree of a great grace, when a man is pre∣pared against sudden invasions of the spirit, surreptions and ex∣temporary assaults: Many a valiant person dares sight a battle who yet will be timorous and surprised in a mid-night alarme; or if he falls into a river; And how many discreet persons are there, who, if you offer them a sin, and give them time to consider, and tell them of it before hand, will rather die then be perjured, or tell [ B] a deliberate lie, or break a promise; who (it may be tell many sudden lies, and excuse themselves, and break their promises, and yet think themselves safe enough; and sleep without either affrightments, or any apprehension of dishonour done to their per∣sons or their religion. Every man is not armed for all sudden ar∣rests of passions: few men have cast such fetters upon their lusts and have their passions in so strict confinement, that they may not be over run with a midnight flood or an unlooked for inundation; He that does not start when he is smitten suddenly, is a constant person: and that is it which I intend in this instance; that he is [ C] a perfect man and well grown in grace, who hath so habitual a resolution and so unhasty and wary a spirit, as that he decrees up∣on no act before he hath considered maturely, and changed the sudden occasion into a sober counsel David by chance spied Pathsheba washing her self, and being surprised, gave his heart away before he could consider, and when it was once gone, it was hard to recover it; and sometimes a man is betrayed by a sudden opportunity and all things fitted for his sin ready at the door; the act stands in all its dresse, and will not stay for an an∣swear; and inconsideration is the defence and guard of the sin, [ D] and makes that his conscience can the more easily swallow it what shall the man do then? unlesse he be strong by his old strengths, by a great grace, by an habitual vertue, and a sober unmoved spirit, he falls and dies in the death and hath no new strengths; but such as are to be imployed for his recovery; none for his present guard; unlesse upon the old stock, and if he be a well grown Christian.

These are the parts, acts, and offices of our growing in grace, and yet I have sometimes called them signes; but they are signes, as eating and drinking are signes of life, they are signes so as also [ E] they are parts of life; and these are parts of our growth in grace, so that a man can grow in grace to no other purpose but to these or the like improvements.

Concerning which I have a caution or two to interpose. 1. The growth of grace is to be estimated as other morall things are, not

[ A] according to the growth of things naturall: Grace does not grow by observation, and a continuall efflux, and a constant proportion; and a man cannot call himself to the account for the growth of every day, or week, or moneth; but in the greater portions of our life, in which we have had many occasions and instances to exercise and improve our vertues, we may call our selves to ac∣count; but it is a snare to our consciences to be examined in the growth of grace in every short resolution of solemn duty, as against every Communion, or great Festivall. 2. Growth in grace is not alwayes to be discerned either in single instances, or in single gra∣ces. [ B] Not in single instances; for every time we are to exercise a vertue, we are not in the same naturall dispositions, nor do we meet with the same circumstances, and it is not alwayes necessary that the next act should be more earnest and intence then the former; all single acts are to be done after the manner of men, and there∣fore are not alwayes capable of increasing; and they have their termes beyond which easily they cannot swell: and therefore if it be a good act and zealous, it may proceed from a well grown grace, and yet a younger and weaker person may do some acts as great and as religious as it; But neither do single graces alwayes [ C] affoord a regular and certain judgement in this affair; for some persons at the first, had rather die then be unchast, or perjured: and greater love then this no man hath, that he lay down his life for God: he cannot easily grow in the substance of that act; and if other persons, or himself, in processe of time do it more cheerful∣ly, or with fewer fears, it is not alwayes a signe of a greater grace, but sometimes of greater collaterall assistances, or a better habit of body, or more fortunate circumstances: for he that goes to the block tremblingly for Christ; and yet endures his death certainly, and endures his trembling too, and runs through all his infirmi∣ties [ D] and the bigger temptations; looks not so well many times in the eyes of men, but suffers more for God, then those confident Martyrs that courted death in the primitive Church; and therefore may be much dearer in the eyes of God: But that which I say in this particular, is that a smallnesse in one, is not an argument of [ E] the imperfection of the whole estate: Because God does not al∣wayes give to every man occasions to exercise, and therefore not to improve every grace; and the passive vertues of a Christian are not to be expected to grow so fast in prosperous, as in suffering Christians: but in this case we are to take accounts of our selves by the improvement of those graces which God makes to happen of∣ten in our lives; such as are charity and temperance in young men, liberality and religion in aged persons, ingenuity and humility in schollers, justice in merchants and artificers, forgivenesse of inju∣ries in great men, and persons tempted by law-suits; for since ver∣tues grow like other morall habits, by use, diligence, and assiduity,

there where God hath appointed our work and in our instances, [ A] there we must consider concerning our growth in grace, in other things we are but beginners: But it is not likely that God will trie us concerning degrees hereafter, in such things of which in this world he was sparing to give us opportunities.

3. Be carefull to observe that these rules are not all to be under∣stood negatively, but positively, and affirmatively, that is, that a man may conclude that he is grown in grace if he observes these characters in himself, which I have here discoursed of; but he must not conclude negatively, that he is not grown in grace, if he cannot observe such signall testimonies: for sometimes God covers the [ B] graces of his servants, and hides the beauty of his tabernacle with goats hair, and the skins of beasts, that he may rather suffer them to want present comfort, then the grace of humility; for it is not necessary to preserve the gayeties and their spirituall pleasures; but if their humility fails, (which may easily do under the sunshine of conspicuous and illustrious graces) their vertues and themselves perish in a sad declension. But sometimes men have not skill to make a judgement; and all this discourse seems too artificiall to be tried by, in the hearty purposes of religion. Sometimes they let passe much of their life, even of their better dayes, without ob∣servance [ C] of particulars; sometimes their cases of conscience are in∣tricate, or allayed with unavoydable infirmities; sometimes they are so uninstructed in the more secret parts of religion, and there are so many illusions and accidentall miscariages, that if we shall conclude negatively in the present Question, we may produce scru∣ples infinite, but understand nothing more of our estate, and do much lesse of our duty.

4. In considering concerning our growth in grace, let us take more care to consider matters that concern justice, and charity, then that concern the vertue of religion; because in this there may [ D] be much, in the other there cannot easily be any illusion, and cose∣nage. That is a good religion that beleeves, and trusts, and hopes in God through Jesus Christ, and for his sake does all justice, and all charity, that he can; and our Blessed Lord gives no other descripti∣on of love to God, but obedience and keeping his commande∣ment: Justice and charity are like the matter, religion is the form of Christianity; but although the form be more noble and the principle of life, yet it is lesse discernable, lesse materiall, and lesse sensible; and we judge concerning the form by the matter, and by materiall accidents, and by actions: and so we must of our reli∣gion, [ E] that is, of our love to God, and of the efficacy of our prayers, and the usefulnesse of our fastings; we must make our judgements by the more materiall parts of our duty, that is, by sobriety, and by justice, and by charity.

I am much prevented in my intention for the perfecting of

[ A] this so very materiall consideration: I shall therefore onely tell you, that to these parts and actions of good life, or of our growth in grace, some have added some accidentall considerati∣ons, which are rather signes then parts of it: Such are. 1. To praise all good things, and to study to imitate what we praise, 2. To be impatient that any man should excell us; not out of envy to the person, but of noble emulation to the excellency; For so Themistocles could not sleep after the great victory at Marathon purchased by Miltiades; till he had made himself il∣lustrious by equall services to his countrey. 3. The bearing of [ B] sicknesse patiently, and ever with improvement, and the ad∣dition of some excellent principle, and the firm pursuing it. 4. Great devotion, and much delight in our prayers. 5. Fre∣quent inspirations, and often whispers of the Spirit of God prom∣pting us to devotion, and obedience, especially if we adde to this, a constant and ready obedience to all those holy invitations. 6. Offering peace to them that have injured me, and the aba∣ting of the circumstances of honour, or of right, when either justice, or charity, is concerned in it. 7. Love to the brethren. [ C] 8 To behold our companions, or our inferiours full of honour and fortune; and if we sit still at home and murmur not, or if we can rejoyce both in their honour, and our own quiet, that's a fair work of a good man; And now 9. After all this, I will not trouble you with reckoning a freedom from being tempted, not onely from being overcome, but from being tried: for though that be a rare felicity, and hath in it much safety, yet it hath lesse honour and fewer instances of vertue, unlesse it proceed from a confirmed and heroicall grace; which is indeed a little image of heaven, and of a celestiall charity; and never happens signally [ D] to any, but to old and very eminent persons. 10. But some also adde an excellent habit of body and materiall passions, such as are chast and vertuous dreams, and suppose that as a disease abuses the fancy, and a vice does prejudice it; so may an ex∣cellent vertue of the soul smooth and Calcine the body, and make it serve perfectly, and without rebellious indispositions. 11. Others are in love with Mary Magdalens tears, and fancy the hard knees of Saint James, and the fore eyes of Saint Peter, and the very recreations of Saint John. Proh! quam virtute praeditos omnia de∣cent! thinking all things becomes a good man; even his gestures [ E] and little incuriosities: And though this may proceed from a great love of vertue, yet because some men do thus much and no more, and this is to be attributed to the lustre of vertue, which shines a little thorow a mans eye-lids, though he perversely winks against the light; yet as the former of these two is too Metaphysi∣call; so is the later too Phantasticall: he that by the fore-going materiall parts and proper significations of a growing grace does

not understand his own condition, must be content to work on [ A] still super totam materiam, without considerations of Particulars; he must pray earnestly, and watch diligently, and consult with prudent Guides, and ask of God great measures of his Spirit, and hunger and thirst after righteousnesse: for he that does so, shall certainly be satisfied: and if he understands not his present good condition, yet if he be not wanting in the down right endeavours of piety, and in hearty purposes, he shall then finde that he is grown in grace when he springs up in the resurrection of the just, and shall be ingrafted upon a tree of Paradise, which beareth fruit for ever, Glory to God, rejoycing to Saints and Angels, and eternall [ B] felicity to his own pious, though undiscerning soul.

Prima sequentem, honestum est in secundis aut tertijs consistere. Cicero. [ C] [ D] [ E]

Notes

• SER. XV.