Religion & morality > Human nature in its four-fold state ... in several practical discourses

Head II. in Grace] 339
him. And therefore, after Decays, they revive again ,•
namely, When the Winter is over, and the Sun of
Kighteoufnefs returns to them with his warm Influ¬
ences. Mud thrown into a Pool may He there at
Eafe ; but if it be call into a Fountain, the Spring
will at length work it put, and run clear as for¬
merly. Secondly, Chriftians may miflake their
Growth, and that two Ways, (i.) By judging of
their Cafe according to their prefent feeling. They
obferve themfelves, and cannot perceive themfelves
to be growing: But there’s no Reafon thence to
conclude they are not growing, Mark iv. 27. if be
Seed fprings and grows up, be knoweth not how.
Should one fix his Eye never fo ftedfaflly, on the
Sun tuning his Race, or on a growing Tree • he
would not perceive the Sun moving, nof the Tree
growing: But if he compare the Tree as it now is,
with what it was, fome Years ago; and confider the
Place in the Heavens, where the Sun was in the
Morning j he’ll certainly perceive the Tree has
grown, and the Sun has moved. In like Manner
may the Chriftian know, whether he be in a grow¬
ing or declining State, by comparing his prefent,
with his former Condition. (2.) Chriftians may
miftake their Cafe, by meafuring their Growth by
the Advances of the fop only, not of the Root.
Though a Man be not growing taller, he may be
growing ftronger. If a Tree be taking with the
Ground, fixing it felf in the Earth, and fpreading
out its Roots ; ’tis certainly growing, although it
be nothing taller than formerly. So, albeit a Chri¬
ftian may want the fweet Confolations, and Flafhes
of Aflfeftion, which fometimes he has had ; yet if
he be growing in Humility, Self-denial, and Senfe
©f needy Dependence on Jefus Chrift, he is a grew-