Thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead.
I Have spoken of the life of the affections, and now I should come to the next thing, namely, to shew how far a child of God may be said to be dead; but before I handle this, there* 1.1 is another point that would be spoken to in a word or two; and that is this, Why a child of God may think himself to be dead when he is not, and think he is grown deader then ever he was, and there is no such matter; and others may think he is grown cold and negli∣gent, and yet the truth is, he is more affected, and more alive towards God then formerly; this is a very needful point, and there be several causes of false liveliness which a child of God may have, and when they go away he may seem to be deader then he was, whereas indeed he is not so.
The first is novelty of Religion and grace, when grace is yet new, and the word comes fresh to a man, and the promises of eternal life look freshly into a mans heart, they will affect him much, and not only raise his sancti∣fied affections, but his unsanctified too; for the unsanctified affections will stir at a novelty; a man that hath no grace at all, nor any life, will be stirred at a new thing; as when the Apostle preached new doctrine to the Athenians, Acts 17. 32. we will hear thee again of this matter, say they; they cared not how often they heard this, because it was news to them; so when Christ preached up and down, O what new doctrine is this! say they, never man spake as this man, Joh. 7. 46. it was a new kind of preaching, new gifts, this stirred them mightily; so it may be with a true Christian, when the word of God comes first to him, and grace comes first to him, the novelty of grace may affect him; when God first opens his eyes, how strangely will he be moved in prayer? how strangely will he carry himself at a Sermon? his very bowels yearn at a Sermon, and he will cry out, Oh the infinite mercy of God to my soul! what a beast was I before? I was an hell-hound, a child of the Divel; and now the Lord hath made me a child of God; I went on in the high way to perdition, and now God hath brought me into the right way; this is admirable; but do you think these are all good affections? there is a great deal of corruption in these; as new Beer, when it is first tunned, it hath a great deal of working then, but when it is staler, it doth not work so much, yet then is the Beer more power∣full, and hath more life; as it is with a mans first entrance into an hot bath, it doth so stir him, as if it did seald him, but after he hath been in a while, he is sensible of little or no heat; the heart is as much as it was at the first, and works upon him as much, but he feels it not so much; so a good Christian doth not seem to be so much affected afterwards as formerly; are his true affections therefore down? no, but his unsanctified ones are down; may be a man hath not lost a jot of his true, and sound, and sancti∣fied affections, but only his unsanctified ones; for when grace comes first into the soul of a new convert, there is a greater Army raised up for God