a Chrflians Growth. his lu('s fpurred on fafler, and boild up higher by Satans fires, then one of leffe. The eflimate ofour growth mutt not there- fore be taken by a flep or two, but by a conflant courfe ; for as a mans fincerity is to be meafured, fo is his growth : even as a mans health is to be meafured by the conflant tenor of his temper. Onely, I will adde three things to give further directioncon. cerning fuch extraordinary cafes oftemptation. Firft, that it is certaine, that fo much corruption as at fuch a time and in fuch a fit a man felt a ftirring in him, fo much indeed andin ttuth there is of corruption in his heart; for the devill can put none in, but onely ads, and doth improve what is there already : for as that fpeech of Chrift implyes, Satan can work but according to the matter he findeth in us : (He commeth and findethno matter in me) the wind adds no water to the fea, onely can make the waves to rife, and furge ; the fire adds nothing to thewater, when k is fer upon it, but attenuates it onely, and caufeth it to boile. And fo in Hezek ah when he was calf into that fit of pride, the Text fayes, That it was that he might know all that mu in hie heart, 2 Chron. 3 2. 31. It was in his heart be- fore. Secondly, I adde,that yet hence it cannot be infallibly inferred, that a man hathcomparatively either to himfelfe more corrup- tion in him then he had twenty yeeres afore, becaufe more is ftir- redup ; or that comparatively to others he hath more corrup- tion then they, becaufe more is now for a fit drawne forth : So that it follows not fromhence, that others which are kept free from fuch a temptation, that they have lef a mortification, be- caufe they were never cart into fo hot and burning a fit. One whofe body is leffe full of humours, and naturally of a more moderate temper for heat, may yet through fome accident or other, or difeafe, fuppofe the Plague, be cart into hotter fits ofa burning Feaver, then one whofe temper is more fiery, and hu- mours more abounding in him. To have recourfe to the for- mer inflance. Hezehiáh finely had more corruption twenty yeeres before his recovery out ofhis fickneffe, then at that time, and yet it wrought not fo, that we readeof, as it did then; not that the barrell was then fuller, but that now it was broached M 2 lower, This Caution explicated by three things. I. 2.
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