Sermon 9

1 John 5:12. He that has the Son, has life, and he that has not the Son, has not life.

Now we come to speak of such effects of the life of sanctification, as show themselves in the lives of Christians, by observing of which in ourselves we may know we have Christ, and life in him.

Now these effects are suitable to the effects of natural life, and they are principally five.

The first is motion, when a creature is able to move itself to the duties of its place; it is an effect of natural life, when it is able to move itself in its place, then it is said to live such or such a life; if you see a creature stirs, and moves not further than by the help of another, then you say, it lives not; but if it stir of itself, then you say, it lives: Nor is it straight away alive if it move, unless it be in its place, for you see earthly things will move downward, if they be upward, and light things will move upward; but these are out of their places, they are rather moved than themselves do move, when they are out of their place; and it is not so much from a power of moving, but rather an affection to rest, than a power to move themselves. And further, suppose they should move themselves, meet it is they should move themselves to such actions as argue this, and that life which they express; suppose a tree moves itself, and nourishes itself, and grows, and that in its place, yet it does not move itself to see, nor hear; and beasts that do move themselves to see, and hear, yet they cannot move themselves to acts of reason; and men that can move to acts of reason, yet cannot move themselves to any spiritual duty and work of grace, so that that motion which argues the life of the soul, is a power to move itself, and in its place to spiritual duties, that is the true nature of the life of sanctification. Do you therefore see a creature no further moving itself than according to its lightness? You shall sometimes have men to move themselves out of their levity, come to an eminent duty in the pride of their natures, and will lift themselves up to some duties; but this is not out of an inward principle, but out of the lightness of their spirits desire to be above, will move them to this and that duty, and rather move from here than from any inward principle of grace; and so sometimes creatures out of their heaviness, and baseness of mind, will be doing spiritual duties; but as the one does them to be seen of men, and perform the mere letter of the duty, and in the pride of his heart, not out of any inward affection to such duties; so there be others that for profit sake will move themselves basely to spiritual duties, as Christ said of his hearers, they followed him for loaves (John 6:26), so that it is one thing to move to such or such a business, or to be stirring about such duties, out of an inward affection to the duty and inclination of heart, and love of such a work, and another thing to be carried to such works out of an inward levity of nature, or because by such duties a man may excel others, and go beyond his neighbors; and it is one thing to be acting and stirring in spiritual duties, out of an inward love to them, and another to perform them, out of a base respect to the profit, and pleasure that may be found in them, in outward peace and rest. As sometimes the case so stands, that if a man do betake himself to spiritual duties, he shall perhaps find the more favor in the eyes of men, and to please authority, if it take the better side; and so from a heavy baseness of their hearts to such regards; they will have respect to spiritual duties, but these do not move but as heavy things move, downward, and light things upward; a stone will move downward, and fire upward. Absalom had a marvelous strong affection to be doing (2 Samuel 15:4), he tells them every man should have justice, if he was but made King in the land, so all Israel desired after him; but Absalom was now out of his place, but as soon as ever he got into the place he desired, the first thing he intended was to cut off his father's life, an act of the greatest rebellion that ever could be done, so that men out of their places are apt to be stirring and moving, but it is but either from the baseness or lightness of their hearts. O that I were but in my master's place, says a servant, I would have duties performed in such time and place, and when they come to be in place, and might order and command their families, then they grow as bad as their masters, and it may be worse, but this are we apt to do when we are out of our places, apt to be moving, but it is not true life, because only that which moves in its place, that only lives. And yet further: a thing may move in its place, and yet move from some kind of outward respects; as a watch, or a clock, it moves, but it is from the weight that lies and hangs upon it, and so it is rather a violent motion than a natural. So is it many times with men, the weight of the law, or the weight of the authority of governors does so carry them along in those ways they walk in, that they go through with it, and yet it is but from an outward principle, from some outward weights that hang upon them. But yet, suppose men should be doing in their places, as Jehu was; he was mighty in his place, and was very much against Baal, and destroyed the house of Ahab, and his children, and his friends; but yet notwithstanding though this was all in his calling, he had a special calling given him of God to that end; but though you should perform duties in your places, as a tree though it move in its place upward, yet it puts not forth; so many a man may do good duties in his place, and yet be wanting in the graciousness and spirituality of them. Now to make a duty spiritual, requires not only that it should be for the better, a good work, but that it should be wrought.

First in sense of our own insufficiency without Christ, and yet so, as that by and from Christ we are able to do it.

Secondly, that we have some respect to the Word of God for our warrant.

Thirdly, that in all we do, we have respect to the glory of God in all our performances, I live by the faith of the Son of God (Galatians 2:20). The just shall live by his own faith. As if he should say, he no further puts forth a work of spiritual life, further than he denies his own ability, so far he lives by his faith, and depends upon Christ for supply in every duty he goes about, whether he pray, preach, or receive Sacraments, or be diligent in his calling, or in his carriage towards any that stand in relation to him, so far as we are sensible of our own failings, and therefore do depend upon him for strength; these are not such as come from common graces, but do accompany sanctification to life. It is true, if men be invested with common gifts, they may be acted and moved to many duties in their places, and put out very sweet affections to the duty, and yet do it rather out of the power of their own strength, and rather for their own glory and applause, than from any dependance upon Christ; so that spiritual life has the Lord Jesus for its root, and the Word for its warrant, and for its rule to walk by (Psalm 119:6). Then shall I never be ashamed, when I have respect to all your commandments. All such actions will be acceptable to God, and serviceable to men; and also aim at the glory of God for the end, that is, their last end, and all such other ends as are subordinate to that, the building up of God's kingdom (Zechariah 7:5-7). When you did eat, did you do it to me, says the Lord? In fact, did you not do it to yourselves? (Hosea 7:14) They have not cried to me with their heart, when they howled upon their beds. Did you desire in your prayers to bring in any service to God, to tend to his honor and glory? And did you debase your own souls before him, that you might find help from him? Or, did you not do this to yourselves, or for your own deliverance, and redemption, and freedom from such bondage and other miseries that lay upon you, so that if God sees men go about such duties merely for themselves, they are wanting of this spiritual life. So then, do but lay these things together, do you find a man that is desirous to be doing good duties, but is it to please others, or is it out of the bonds of authority that lies upon him? Do you see them have affection to duties, but out of their place and calling, or in their calling; they do such duties but rather out of their own strength, than from the strength of Christ, and not out of a conscientious respect to all the commandments of God; or if it be from outward principles, and to wrong ends, the glory of God not sought after, nor tending to the building up themselves, nor others in grace; all these are such as men may be carried to do from outward respects; they may do something that one would think would argue life, but all the duties they do by their own strength is like a spider, that weaves a web out of her own bowels, we follow not the rule of the Word exactly, but are ever wheeling about to our own ends, and to those respects that concern ourselves rather than to the glory of God, and the churches' good; it is true, no man that has common graces, men that have gifts of preaching, and gifts of praying may love to act, and move them, or any other zealous gift; but yet notwithstanding you shall find this to be true, that till the heart be sanctified by the life of Christ, we ever detain all the graces of God in unrighteousness, as the Romans and Gentiles did, detain the truth of God in unrighteousness (Romans 1:18). So we by a spirit of hypocrisy, detain all the graces of God in unrighteousness, and in hypocrisy; whereas God has given us every grace, and the manifestation thereof to edify himself, and to glorify God withal. We wonderfully magnify ourselves withal, and make ourselves goodly in the eyes of men; we are full of ourselves, and think we have this and that in us that will serve our turn, and reach our own ends, this is not a life of grace, but is indeed a dead work all that we do; and therefore rest not in any such kind of life and motion. But if you find an inward inclination of soul to spiritual duties, and to those duties in special that are pertinent to your place, and if they be not within the compass of your calling, you dare not reach to them; and in your calling, you do them not out of desire to be seen of men, but you are doing good duties out of a sense of your own inability to reach any duty in your calling, much less of God's service, and in them all, you observe every commandment of God, and the ends you aim at are singly, that God may be glorified, and that God may see you, and not man; that good may be done by you in your places, in church, and family, and commonwealth, and that thereby others might be brought on to God, and his kingdom increased, this very motion and inclination of your hearts is an argument that you have a stirring spirit to spiritual duties, and this is spiritual life in Christ. And therefore, by how much the more God shall give you a heart to be doing your works and duties in this order, so much the more comfort you shall gather to your souls, that undoubtedly Christ has shed abroad his spirit in you, by which you are able to do that which else you could not have reached.

Question. You say to me, may not a good Christian man have his heart so dead, that he is unfit to pray; or preach, or to instruct his family, or for the duties of his calling; fit, and good for nothing: And is a soul in such a case as this altogether void of spiritual life, and sanctification? Is there not sometimes a kind of a [reconstructed: sloth] come upon a Christian, that so benumbs his spirit, that he performs no duties at all, but if he might have his own mind, he would not pray at all, nor receive Sacraments? Is not this sometimes the case of a Christian? And will you say that such a one is a dead soul, because he is altogether listless, and dead-hearted to move to any spiritual duty?

Answer: It is true, there may fall such a deadness upon the heart of Christian men, that they are both unable and unwilling to any spiritual duty. Which commonly God leaves his servants to, when he has found them acting and moving in their own strength, and upon their detaining of the graces of God in unrighteousness, and diverting them rather to their own praise in the world, than the edifying of the people of God, or the glorifying of his own name. When God sees we are much of ourselves, and think we can do much by the strength of grace we have received, then God is wont to leave us cold and dead, so as we know not in the world what to do, nor are we willing to do anything. The very presence of a duty, and the thoughts of it, is a horror to such souls in such cases; we have been too busy in our own strength, and too mighty in the grace we have received, and rather aimed at ourselves than at him, and then no marvel if God leave us to a world of deadness.

But when God has thus by this means let us see, that all our life is in him, and that we are dead-hearted further than we have life from him, then God is wont not to fail, but to help us thus far at the least, to look with a wistful and a sad eye upon the forlornness of our estates, and to cry out of ourselves, O what dead-hearted creatures, and dull-spirited things are we, and bemoan ourselves as Paul did (Romans 7:18): I see that in me, that is, in my flesh, dwells no good thing. Sometimes I have a mind to do good duties, but I find that I have no strength to perform. Paul comes to Macedonia, and he had an open door, a fair calling to preach, but he had no heart to it, because he found not Titus his brother there. Now when this is the case of a Christian man, that he is strait, and dead-hearted, he groans under the burden of it, and he looks at it with sad countenance, and sees he is not well, but is ready to complain of it. Now this sense and complaint of deadness, and using the best means to raise himself up out of this deadness, this is an action of spiritual life.

It is an act of spiritual life for a man to be sensible of his own deadness, which in time works the soul of a Christian to a more constant dependance upon Christ for life, and makes him more observant of the Word, and more ingenuous and sincere in looking at the glory of God, and the church's good, more than his own. And by how much the more we come to this pass, and the more we have respect to the Word as our daily rule, so much the more all our stirrings in our callings is a motion of spiritual life, and argues the life of sanctification, shed abroad in our hearts.

Secondly, another action of life is feeding; the creature that feeds itself is able to live (John 6:35): Except you eat my flesh, and drink my blood, you have no life in you. He does not speak of the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper there, for it was not then instituted; but yet it is true of that, as well as of any other ordinance of God, the body and blood of Christ, fed upon in Word and Sacrament. And Christian communion, in hearing and reading the Word; and if Christ had ordained more ordinances than he has, yet when he has ordained any spiritual ordinance, the feeding upon Christ in that ordinance, had been an argument of spiritual life. Except you eat his flesh, and drink his blood, you have no life in you. This is an argument of spiritual life, when a man in every duty that he takes in hand, and is sensible in them all in some measure, though not always easy to be discerned at first. But if in every duty of Christianity that you perform, and in every ordinance of God you feed upon Christ, then you have life in Christ, so that let a man observe it. You hear the Word, and you receive Sacraments, and you partake in Christian company; do you eat the flesh of Christ there? And drink his blood there? If so, then it is well; when you hear the Word, is the blood of Christ, or is the flesh of Christ there? Or is either of both there to feed upon? Or in prayer, or in any other duty that you take in hand, do you feed upon Christ in it? If you feed upon him there, you have life, and he that feeds not, lives not; if a man forbear his meat he cannot long subsist. It is true, a man may live for a while and find no relish in anything, but in time he must find relish in them, else he cannot be preserved.

Question: But how shall I know that I do feed upon Christ in every ordinance?

Answer: First, whether do you find an inward longing desire in your souls after the Lord Jesus Christ in the duties you go about? Do you come with a desire to find Christ in his ordinance, hungering and thirsting, and not satisfied unless you find Christ? That is the nature of hungering and thirsting, and so is the case here. This desire and thirst is such an unquenchable desire, as that without Christ it is by no means satisfied. Do you therefore find an inward longing to find and meet with the Lord Jesus, in the Word that you read or hear, in the Sacraments that you receive, and such a longing desire, as that if you find not Christ there, you go away poor and dead? And finding your hearts unsatisfied is an evident sign of life, for you came to an ordinance, and desired to find Christ there, and there he was not. What then (Song of Solomon 3:1-3)? To the bed of the ordinances, the church goes to seek and to find Christ; by night I sought him, that was in a time of calamity, that she could plainly discern she found him not, and she sought him in every other ordinance, but found him not, or sign of life. She hungers, and sought out after him, but could not find him, and when she missed him was not satisfied.

If a man come to an ordinance and find nothing there, and yet when he is gone, he is satisfied, he is well enough; that soul has either no life at all, or life in a swoon, or cold without stirring and motion. There is not a hungering desire after him, when you can come and go away unsatisfied, and yet be well contented too.

Secondly, feeding has another work — the former is but a preparation, or supposition of feeding — but a man also then feeds when he finds some sweetness and relish in the meat that he eats, that does ever accompany feeding, and is a sign that a man does feed; the stomach does well affect the meat it feeds on. Have you then found some sweet relish in the ordinances? The gospel is a sweet savor to them that are saved (2 Corinthians 2:15-16), and as a sweet savor to the smell, so also as a sweet savor to the taste. Do you therefore find some kind of sweetness, a spiritual sweetness in the word you hear, or read, or sacraments you receive, or prayers that you make? Are they such a comfort or sweetness to you, that you find in this or that promise, or commandment, or doctrine, any word of life? Do you find strength and sweetness in it? It is an evident sign of life, because you find sweetness in it; it is a sign of health to relish a sweetness in our meat. For a sick man, it may be, eats and drinks, but he finds no sweetness in it, and that is a part of his complaint that he cannot relish his meat. And it is true, it may be a man that has some life in him feels no relish, no savor in any ordinance; but then he sees he is sick, and he complains of it to God. But yet notwithstanding, if a man does find sweetness and relish there, it is an evident argument not of life only, but of health, and such as will maintain spiritual life. But if a man find no sweetness in it he cannot live, for were there life, it would find sweetness.

Thirdly, in all feeding there is a taking of the meat down, and not spitting it out, but we receive it down, and there it lies in our stomachs, and we chew upon it, and there it rests. But if we cast it up again, then we feed not; it is an ill sign when we cast it away as soon as we receive it. If God's word abide with us, and in us, that we do not reject it, but hide it in our hearts, that so we might not sin against God (Psalm 119:11), and receive it by a wise applying of it to our own souls, receive it into the inward man, and apply ourselves to every duty commanded us, so far as concerns our callings, and our estates, and takes notice of every threatening, that we had need look to it, so far as we might sin against God — if we thus take the word of God down into our hearts, and make it our own case, and therefore keep it within ourselves, and give up ourselves in some measure to be bowed by it, and hide it in our hearts, and let it sit next our hearts — then truly we do feed upon it, and it secretly conveys strength into us, though sometimes we less discern it.

Fourthly, all feeding contains in it a conversion of the meat into the thing nourished, so as that which we feed upon, it becomes ourselves — it is all one with ourselves. In time it is so digested, and turned into our nature, that every part has sucked in its own nourishment; every part has received something of that which was inwardly received. This has been anciently observed; this is somewhat more than receiving Christ by faith, for when we apply every word to ourselves, and make Christ ours, that is receiving him to be ours. Yet it is a further work to be conformable to the Lord Jesus Christ in everything, to be confirmed and established in the promises, and to be quickened by them, to be terrified by threats, and to stand in awe of every word of God, and to be bowed to an inward subjection to Christ, day by day, by the word we receive; this is a further mighty work of grace.

If therefore he be a Christian, that by the Word and ordinances he receives, he is fashioned and made conformable to Christ; meek, and righteous, and lowly, and holy as he is, and willing to do any good office for the Church of God, and go up and down doing good, and needs no further motion this way, but as Christ moves him, it is a sign that he feeds upon Christ. Christ is turned into his nature, or which is more, his nature, is rather turned into the nature of Christ; the nourishment being so strong makes us become such as he is in this world. Now when we are conformable to the Lord Jesus Christ by the ordinances that we partake in, it is an evident sign that we there feed upon him: And therefore try yourselves by this sign of sanctification, if you live, you feed on Christ, and except you so do, you have no life in you, so then consider, do I feed upon the flesh of Christ, and drink his blood, and do I find a spiritual appetite to the Lord Jesus raised up in my soul? And do I find any spiritual refreshment and strength by that which I do partake in? And that which I so find sweetness in, I apply it to my own estate, and convey it into the inward part of my heart, that I may be able to drink it up as my lot and portion: And do I by this strength of grace grow like to Christ? And do I more adorn the Gospel of Christ? This is an evident sign you live, for you feed upon spiritual food, which is an argument of spiritual life; no man can feed upon spiritual food, but he that lives, and such a life as he lives in Christ: Let a man come to the Word without an appetite to it, and when he comes find no nourishment nor refreshment in it, and applies nothing as is said to him; but let such and such look to it, he never hears profitably, that does not particularly apply that which he hears; and if he apply it, he rather storms at it, it is an evident argument that such a man has no life in him at all. Not that you should here look at the natural body and blood of Christ, for that were a Cannibal eating and drinking. That which the Church of Rome puts upon the Church of God at this day; but our Savior tells you the meaning of this place, It is the spirit that quickens, the flesh profits nothing; had a company of Roman soldiers fallen upon Christ, and either out of wrath against him, or love to themselves, had pulled him in pieces and eaten him, goblet by goblet, it had profited them nothing; had men eaten the real body of Christ and drunk up his blood, and joined with others in so doing, and left none of him, all this had profited them nothing, nay, it profits nothing, for the Capernaites ask the question, How can this man give us his flesh to eat? It is a hard saying, they thought it incredible (verse 52), they would think it a savage brutishness to fall upon him in that manner, and therefore our Savior so confesses, that it is no part of his meaning, that they should eat and drink his real body and blood: but he means the breathing of the spirit in the ordinances, if you can relish, and feed upon that; and grow to be such as Christ was in this world, that was the meat and drink of his soul, if you grow humble and meek, and be transformed into the spirit of Christ, if you see your spirits conformable to the will of Christ, it is a sign of the life of holiness in your souls, which God has given you through Christ.

A third effect of the life of sanctification, is growth, for that which lives, grows till it come to its full perfection, so in all natural, vegetative, or sensitive life; if it live, it grows, till it come to its full maturity, when it comes to its full vigor and strength, it may decay and stand at a stay; but a Christian's life never comes to that, till it come to the life of glory, to the full measure of the stature of Christ: In this life we cannot come to that, but therefore it is that we grow to the end of our days, and then are forthwith translated to immortality, you desire the sincere milk of the word, that you may grow thereby (1 Peter 2:2), and (2 Peter 3:18) grow in grace: and God has given us ministers to teach and instruct us, till we all grow to be perfect in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 4:11-13), (Colossians 2:19), Increase with the increasings of God, with divine and enlarged and spiritual increasing, so does the body of Christ grow, and all the members of it: they grow in grace, and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.

So that this is a third effect of life, if a man can find his heart to grow.

Question: But does not many a Christian stand at a stay, and sometimes grow backward, and fall from their first love, fall from the fruitfulness and goodness, and rootedness in Christ, though not wholly cut off, yet falling from the firmness in grace, and the power of grace, and from fruitfulness, and the abundance of the work of righteousness.

Answ. It is true, many a soul does so for a while, but if so be, that God does give a Christian man, not to grow, we must not say therefore he does not live, not but that a man for a time, may be weak; as a living man in sickness may be very weak, his spirit fail, and his strength fail, and his work and employment fails him, and he can do nothing, neither eat, nor drink, no not so much as lean upon a staff, but may lie bed-rid, but yet such a man feels a sensible distemper of his body, and he ceases not to use the best means he can, and so in the end he comes to grow and recovers his first love again in some measure. Some also there are, that by sinful lusts waste, instead of growing, as a thief in a candle wastes it, but if there be a thief in the heart, a lurking lust in the soul; a living soul is not well till it be removed, by some good means or other, that so it may recover itself. It is sometimes the case of a Christian, as David speaks (Psalm 39, last verse), Oh spare a little that I may recover any strength; so a Christian man if he find himself in a decay, that he is dead and heartless in every spiritual performance, oh then spare a little, that I may recover my strength. Now he is afraid to die in such a case, but he would now have some time, that he may recover his first love and his first fruits, and that his faith might not vanish away in ashes and smoke, if he see that his spirit decays, he considers then, from where he is fallen (Revelation 2:4-5) and repents, and does his first works. This is the nature of repentance, it purges out; it purges out the noisome humors that brought the body into languish and decay. Repentance is the chief purge, and so then we do our first works, and attain to our first love, and grow more at the last than at the first (Revelation 2:19) and therefore this is to be considered of, a Christian man is a growing man, if not always in the bulk, which is easy to be discerned, as to grow in strength and rootedness, etc. Yet surely he grows to more sweetness of spirit. An apple is sometimes grown to full growth upon a tree, yet grows not sweet till a good time after, but in time it will. So a Christian, though it may be he shall never get more knowledge than he has, or more ability, but though the case so stand, that you are like to grow no further; yet you may grow to more sweetness, and mellowness, to more love to your brethren, and be more ready to deny yourselves of that arrogance of spirit, and pride he is now addicted to. And so a Christian grows in sweetness, and grows in rootedness of spirit, and sees his more want of Christ, and gets faster hold on Christ. And though he cannot grow more tall in his outward expression, nor more painful; yet in these two no Christian that grows, but if he be living and healthful, he grows in firmness and rootedness in Christ, and in great dependence upon him, from day to day in his ways. And he grows in more sweetness, aims more at God's glory, and is more in love to his brethren, and more denies himself in his own matters.

And if he grow not here, he is either no living Christian in truth, or no healthful Christian; and if a man see this, and not bewail his not growing in these, he has no life at all in him. A man that grows harsh, and unsavory and does not take a course to repent of it, it is a thousand to one there is no life at all in him, but if a man grow, though but in amiableness, and self-denial, and more firmly in Christ, and more assured of God's grace and mercy, and more depend upon Christ for what he does, and can do nothing without Christ, and he knows it by experience, that unless a man so grow, there is no life in him.

Fourthly, another effect of the life of sanctification is this, life is such a thing as has an expulsive power to expel, and drive out of the body that which is noisome and hurtful to it, and will cast and sweat it out. Nature cannot endure to be clogged with superfluity, out it must one way or other, Nature will ease itself, it cannot long subsist; pain and sickness is grievous, and painful to Nature; if anything trouble the stomach, or the body, out it must by vomit, or purge, it cannot stay if the man be living. So if grace be but living in the soul, there is an expulsive power in the soul, that will purge away that which is contrary to it, it cannot endure superfluity, but away it must go, there it cannot stay, nothing will he keep, but that which is convenient for him. A Christian, look whatever it be that a Christian finds superfluous, and finds contrary to the life of Christ in his soul, either too much, or contrary to his spirit, that he abandons it more or less by degrees, measure after measure, and time after time. So the Apostle exhorts (James 1:21), Lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, etc. If there be anything which is superfluous, or filthy, away with it, let it not rest there; and if it be for no good purpose, let it have no rest in you.

There are many parts of knowledge that are not contrary to the life of sanctification, but are more than we shall have use of in our callings, and though they may be such things as others may make use of, yet they are superfluous when they are of no use to us in our callings, then put them away unless they be of use either for necessity, or expediency, then nature will cast them away, especially if they be naughty things; they are more than superfluous, then they are noisome and hurtful; and therefore a Christian man principally casts away that which is noisome, and corrupt. Both doubting and presumption is contrary to the life of faith, and therefore must be cast out, cast out all fears, and all self-confidence. Perfect love casts out fear (1 John 4:18). Faith strives against fear, and love strives against malice, and patience strives against frowardness, modesty against pride, and so [reconstructed: every grace] of God; wonder to see how it will by degrees either sweat them out, or else set themselves by some serious duties of humiliation, and so cleanse themselves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit (2 Corinthians 7:1), that he may grow to perfect holiness in the fear of God. He is weary of it, and that life of grace casts out all the life of sin; he looks at the life of this world as something in it that is good, yet so much of the world as he sees he cannot well manage, but with encumbrance to the Spirit of grace, he lays it aside, and meddles not with it, he studies no more than to use in a practical life; he would live as David in Saul's armor, when he sees it troubles him he lays it aside. So shall you find it with a Christian, these things are unprofitable for him; keep them out of your souls lest they prove a snare to you, and whatever is superfluity cast it out, and whatever distracts you, and clogs you with cares, out with it; whatever is a burden to the life of grace, cast out all such things.

Fifthly, the last act of the life of sanctification is the begetting of the like, and propagating according to their kind; it is the nature both of spiritual and natural life, it propagates its kind, though at the first it may be weak, yet it grows to that temper by which it may propagate, and the life of grace is most strong in this regard, it no sooner moves and feeds, or grows in any measure, or begins to expel any ill matter, but it will have a mind to be fruitful begetting its kind, and that is above natural life; a Christian is most apt and ready to draw on others to be like himself. As soon as ever the woman of Samaria saw that Jesus was indeed the Messiah, and found true sweetness in him, the very same hour she runs into the town, and tells her neighbors, Come see a man that has told me all that ever I did (John 4:29). Is not he the Christ? And when they came and saw it they said, We believe, not because of your word, but because we have heard him ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Christ. This is the proper nature of true life, as soon as they are truly begotten, they beget others of their own kind, not but that sometimes a Christian soul hides himself long, before he be well settled, but when he truly discerns that he lives, and is conscious to himself that God will be gracious to his soul, then he desires to propagate the like grace to others (John 1:41-46). When one had found Christ, they call others to come and see (Psalm 51:10), then shall I teach transgressors your ways, and sinners shall be converted to you; to show you, that if God will but work a clean heart in David, and renew a right spirit within him; and his broken bones may be recovered, and if God shall be pleased to establish him with his free spirit, and he may be once again assured of the pardon of his sins; then will he teach others the ways of God: if he be once converted himself, he will draw on as many others as he can. Thus you have five signs of spiritual life.