CHAPTER I: That all true branches in Christ do grow, proved by Scriptures and reasons
PART I
OF GROWTH IN VIVIFICATION, AND
BRINGING FORTH MORE FRUIT.
He purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.—JOHN 15:2.
CHAPTER I
That all true branches in Christ do grow.
GROWTH in grace is the main thing held forth unto us in these words; and therefore I make it the chief subject of this discourse.
Now as in the work of sanctification at first there are two parts, mortification and vivification, so our progress in that work hath two parts also apart to be considered, and both here in the text:—
1. A growth in mortification, or purging out of sin: 'He purgeth it.'
2. A positive growth in holiness, and all the fruits of it: 'That it may bring forth more fruit.'
And my purpose is accordingly to treat of these two distinctly and apart by themselves. And although purging out of sin is here first mentioned, yet our growth in fruitfulness shall have the first place in the method of handling of them; both because growth in positive holiness, and bringing forth more fruit, is the end and perfection of the other, and so chiefly intended; the other but subserving unto this, and is accordingly made mention of here by Christ, 'He purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.'
Now, in handling this first head, I shall do three things:— First, In general, shew that all true branches do grow in grace and fruitfulness, and the reasons of it.
Secondly, Propound such considerations by way of explication as may conduce to satisfy the tentations of such Christians as discern not their growth herein.
Thirdly, Explicate more largely, by way of trial, what it is to bring forth more fruit, thereby further to help believers to discern and judge aright of it.
My scope in this discourse being not so much to give means or motives unto growth as helps to judge of and try our growth, and prevent such mistakes herein as Christians are apt to fall into.
First, In general, to demonstrate that all true believers do grow more or less in fruitfulness. I shall give both proofs and reasons of it.
For proofs out of Scripture, those two places, Hos. 14:5 compared with Psalm 92, where the Holy Ghost singleth out the choicest trees and flowers in the world on purpose to express the saints' fruitfulness, and their growth therein, will suffice.
As, first, to shew the sudden springing up of the new creature, as it falls out upon some men's conversions, or upon the saints' recovery again after falls, he compares them to the lily, Hos. 14:5, whose stalk, though long hid in the earth, when once it begins to feel the dew, grows up oftentimes in a night. But yet a lily is but a flower, and soon decays.
Therefore, secondly, to shew their perpetuity and stability, together with their growth, the prophet there compares them to the cedar, whose wood rots not, proverbially put to express immortality—Digna
Cedro—and which is not only most durable, but of all trees the tallest, and shoots up the highest.
But yet, thirdly, suppose the new creature be kept under and oppressed with tentations and oppositions, yet to shew that still it will grow and flourish again, therefore he further compareth them to a palm-tree, which useth to grow the more weight is hung upon it, and sprouts again even when it is cut down to the roots.
Fourthly, to shew that they grow with all kinds of growth, therefore the prophet expresseth their growth both by the spreading of their root and also of the branches, and so in a growth both upward and downward, 'He shall cast forth his roots as Lebanon,'—that is, grow inwardly in habitual grace in the heart, and then outwardly 'spread forth their branches,' and so grow in the outward profession of God's ways and truth, and external holiness in their lives.
Neither, fifthly, is it a growth merely in bulk, but also in fruitfulness, and therefore he compares them to the olive and the vine, (so in that place of Hosea,) which are of all trees the fruitfulest and most useful to God and man, Judges 9:9, 13.
But yet, sixthly, trees have a flourishing time of it but for some while, during which, although they may be thus green and fruitful, yet in their age they wither and rot, and their leaves fall off, and their fruit decays. The Holy Ghost therefore, as preventing this exception to fall out in the saints' growth, he adds, Ps. 92, 'They bring forth fruit still in their old age.' When nature begins to decay, yet grace renews its strength; which if it be wondered at, and how grace should grow and multiply, the soil of our hearts being a stepmother to it, 'From me,' says Christ, 'is thy fruit found,' ver. 8 of that 14th of Hosea. 'It is God that gives this increase, and I will be as the dew to Israel,' ver. 5.
The reasons why Christians do thus grow are drawn— 1. From Christ's being our head, and we his members. Now although clothes, though never so gorgeous, grow not, yet members do. This similitude the apostle useth in two places, to express the growth of the saints, Eph. 4:15, 16, and Col. 2:19, where he saith, Christ is a
head, 'from whom the whole body grows up to him in all things.' Now the consequence of this reason will many ways appear:—
(1.) If no more but that there might be a conformity of the head and members, it was meet we the members should grow; 'for we are predestinated to be conformable to the image of his Son,' Rom. 8.
Now Christ 'did grow in wisdom,' Luke 2:40, 42; and therefore so must we. But— (2.) As he is our head, he hath received all fulness, to that very end that we might grow even to 'fill all in all,' Eph. 1:23.
Now we are empty creatures at his first taking of us. John 10:10, 'I came,' says Christ, 'that they might have life;' and not only so much as will keep body and soul together, as we say, but 'that they might have it more abundantly.' Why is grace called life, and of lives the most excellent, but because it containeth all the essential properties of life in it? Now the main properties of life are to move and grow.
The stars they have a moving life, but they grow not; the sun increaseth not, for all its tumbling up and down, as snow-balls do; plants they have a growing life, but they move not out of their place: but in grace there is both. It is an active thing, and it is a growing thing also; and because the more it is acted the more it grows, therefore its growth is expressed by its motion, Yea—
(3.) As his fulness is for our growth, so our growth makes up his fulness, even the fulness of Christ mystical, though Christ personal is full without us. Therefore the stature that every Christian grows up to is called, Eph. 4:13, 'the stature of the fulness of Christ.' In like speech to this, Eph. 1:23, it is said that 'his body is his fulness;' and,
Eph. 4:13, the growth of these members is said to be 'the fulness of Christ.' So that as Christ should be a head without a body if he had no members, and his body a lame body if he wanted any of those his members; so it would be found a disproportioned body, as it were, if any of these members should not grow to that stature God hath appointed them. So that as there will be plenitudo partium, a fulness
of parts, no member lacking, so also plenitudo graduum, no degree of growth wanting in any part; that so Christ, who filleth all in all, may be fully full. And as there would be a deformity if any one should not grow,—as to have a withered member were a dishonour to the head,—so to have any one grow in immensum, to too great a stature, would breed as great a deformity on the other side; therefore be adds, that 'every member hath its measure.' The hand grows according to the proportion of a hand, and so the rest; and so in the 13th verse he hath it, that there is a 'measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ' that every one attains to.
2. The second reason is taken from God the Father— (1.) Who first hath appointed, as who shall be members, so also what growth each of these members shall attain to; therefore it is called
'an increasing with the increase of God,' Col. 2:19. Other parents appoint not what stature their children shall attain to, but the Lord doth, that when they meet in heaven there may be a proportion in the body; as all Christ's 'members were written in God's book,' so the growth of them also.
(2.) He hath promised that they shall grow; therefore it is said, Ps.
92, 'They shall bring forth fruit in their age, to shew the Lord is faithful,' which respecteth his promise; for faithfulness is the fulfilling a promise.
(3.) God the Father hath accordingly appointed means to that end, principally that they might grow. As— [1.] Eph. 4, it is said he hath 'given gifts unto men,' not that they may be converted only, but also to 'build them up for the edifying of the body of Christ.' He speaks as if that were one main end. Therefore the word is not only compared to seed, that begets men, but to milk also, that so babes may grow, and to strong meat, that men may grow, and thus that all sorts of Christians may grow. So also sacraments, their principal end is growth, and not to convert, but to