a Christians Growth. difcerned. The weakneffe or ftrength o f a Kingdomc is be'ft feene and difcerned in time o f wars when a'I forces are muttered up. Now God form times appoints feme more frequent affaulrs, and on purpofe Suffers the lav? in the members to wane, and to mutter up all their force, chat (as it is faid of Hez,ekjab) a m-n might know V?hat is in his heart; now if then a ""man finds that the motions of finne in his heart do every temptation after other meet with an hotter encounter then they had wo n t ; that the refiftance sgaintt fin grows quicker, and flronger; that finne cannot advance and carry on Iiis army fo far as formerly, but is' ttill encountred and pact withal! at the Frontiers, and there overthrown even at the firfl letting o u t , foas it cannot carry i t through the camp, (as Zimri did his miftreffe Cosbi) as fome- times it had wont, when as Grace ftood at the Tent doore, as Mofes weeping, yet unable to refill i t ; and although affkults and temptations doe continue, that yet there is ground kept and won upon therencroachments of a lutt, in fo much that at leaft the out– ward forts are kept by grace, that is, outward acts areabftained from ; Now foTar as the lutt is not fulfilled as it had wont to be, and not onely fo, but the inrodes o f it are confined and contract– ed alfo to a narrower compaffe, and to have a leffer ground and fpace in regard o f inward acts; alfofofar it is purged more f o r t h : As for inftance, be it a lutt o f fancie, when i t cannot boile up to fuch groffe fancies as it had wo n t ; be it a lutt of pride, or uncleanneffe, or groffer acts, when it falls from bringing forth fruit, to bring forth but bloffomes, but inward burnings, and from bloffomes onely to bring forth leaves, it is a figne then i t is withering more and more. When the intention of mind in the temptation (which is as the fire that makes it to boile) grows leflfe and leffe ; when the inordinate thirft is not fo great in the time o f the fit; when the inward acts are grown in their re- quetts more modeft, the luttings themfelves pitch upon lower and inferiour a&s then it had wo n t ; when their Armies depart with leffer fpoile, are content with them, when as before they flew at the firft on-fet, tothehigheft kinds of villanies and outrages; when thus the overflowings of-a mans luffs doe abate, and fall fhort, the tides leffen, over-flow leffe ground, over.fpread leffe every day then another,this is another probable figne o f a growth herein. Seventhly,
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