4 Cbriftians Growth. is quick, may foone be flirted, and in the forwardnefle of his . fpirit to anion, give a man a blow, when one given to malice will fcarce give you an ill word, whole lulls of revenge yet burne inwardly more. Gunpowder will take and fall Into a blaze fooner then Lime, yet lime bath more innate heat, and burns more within ; force have fpeedier vent. Thofe two brethren, john and yames,fònnes ofThrsnder,as Chritl calls them,how Toone was their choler up ? They had quick and hot fpirits, as Chriil tels them, re knownot what fpirit ye are of, Luke 9 5 5 Fiftly, ifwe would judge aright, what Io. afure of true morti- fication is inus, we mutt not take into the reckoning what re- firaini race doth in us, but obferve that apart, and caR that up in a fúe by it felfe. For this you mutt know, that even in the regenerate, all their abRinence from fins is not frommeere mor- tification, but retraining grace continues even after regeneration to contribute to it, and fo make mortification feeme the greater. It was not meerely and onely mortification of the lull of Anger that made Moles fo meeke ; for at another time, when he was left, what a chafe was he in, when he called them all Rebels, and faid in an heat, that he mull fetch water out of the rock for them ? It was his temper and difpofition of nature, helpt to makehim fo eminent in ruling that paffion above any other, . that he is Paid tobe the meckejl man on earth. It was not (im- ply , meetly mortification , that made that great ApoRle Paul fo eminently chalk ; but over and befides what morti- fication helpt him in it, he had apeculiar gift, as he calls it, i Cor. 7.7. he fpeaks of it as of a gift, not a grace, fuch as might be in Reprobates ; For, Cayes he there, Every one hath hù proper gift. So it was not meere mortification that made Luther never trou- bled with co'vecoufne%, but the freeneffe and generoulne[fe of his fpirit that helped him in it. Now ífall thefe would have call up what grace and mortifica- tion they had attained to, they muff have reckoned refraining grace by it felfe, (which may be obferved by what our verrues, were before convcrfron) which though now fant4ified, that is helping forward Sandification, and making the abstinence eater, yet is not to be reckoned true San&ification ; as Goldsmiths mingle in all the flyer they work fume other metals to make it N 3 more 97 S
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