Goodwin - BV4500 G66 1650

a Chrif.tians Growth. 10 thereof, that all the fpirits retire to thehear tt4 relieve it, and to encourage it to feeke out for pardon ; and fo finne is left in a fwoune, and it feemes suite dead: bur by degrees men come out ofthat fwoune, and finne revives, and then men think they decay in mortification. Againe, young Chriflians fometimes, and o- thers afterwards for force horsy- moones of their lives, are enter- tained with raptures, and ravifhme:lts, joy unfpeakable and glo- rious, and then they feerne in a manner wholly dead to fin, and walk fo, but as the other are in a fwoune, fo they are in an f x- taGe ; but when they are out of it, then finne comes to it fife againe: Thofe joycs whilff they hit, make a mans aariall pre- fent deadneffe to fin kern more then habitually and radically it is indeed : As a man that hath tailed Tome fwe:t thing, whila the impreffion upon his palate lafteth, he bath no reiifh of meat ; fo whiiff the impreffions of fpirituall_ joy : but when their mouthes are tvaíht once, and their fence of that fweetnef3e gone, they find their wonted reliffk of them. Thus fpirituall ¡oyes doe, for the time they are upon the heart, much alter the tatte ; but yet much of that alteration is adventitious and not wholly ra- dicall,or altering the finfull faculty it felfe (though it doth adde much that way) yet not fo much as they feerne to doe at that pre- fent, the fenfe of that_fweetne,ffeis frefh in his heart. Now therefore to give an help or two to difference what is reali and true Mortification, from this feeming lifilefneffe and deadneffe to it. Frill, true mortification makes a man not onely lifileffe to finne, but to have a quick hatred against ir, a hatred aiming at the deftru6fionofit; but falfe lifflefneffe takes but the heart it, doth not fet it againft it ; howoften are thefe yoaked toge- ther in Pfl. I19.1hate finne, and every f"l e my, with this, Thy !a* doe I ? the heart being quickned with love to God, and to his Law, is carried out againfl finne, and not onely taken off from it to have no mind to it, but to have a mind .gainf it, ro dettroy it. There is the fame difference betweene mortification and liflefeffe,that there is between truepatience aridfenflefnefie; fenfelefnefe is a dull, fallen, ftupid bearing pains, but patience is joyned mith a quick fenfe of them,which arifeth from llrength of fpirits, that being quick and vigorous, are the more fenfible of paine Two differen- ces betweene Mortification, and a feeming deadneffe or 4ilefncífe to ß ine.

RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=