Baxter - Houston-Packer Collection BT770 .B39 1670

The Life ofFaith. IOt weary mind ; but like children with delight and quietncts And our work and way may be to us a foretafle of our reward and end. 5. And yet howmeet was it, that while we live in fuch a dark material world, in a bodyof corruptible flcfh, among enemies and fnares, our duty thould have fomcwhat of cau- tion andvigilancy, and thereforeof fear and godly forrow to teach us to rellith grace the more : And that our condition thould have in it much-of necetfìty and trouble, to drive us homeward co God, who is our refl. And how aptly Both the very permitfìon offin it fell, fubfcrve this end ? 6. How wifely is it thus contrived,that Glory at lafl fhould be better rellithed, and that man who hath the joy fhould give God the Glory; and be bound to this by a double obliga- tion. 7. How aptly is this remedying defign, and all the work of mans Redemption, and all the Precepts of the Gofpel, built upon, or planted into the Law of natural perfeaion; Faith being but the means to recover Love; and Grace being to Nature, but as Medicine is to the Body ; and being to Glo- ry, as Medicine is to Health e- So that as a man that was never taught to beak,, or to go, or to do any work, or to know any fcience, or trade, or bufinefi, which mull beknown acquifitively, is a miferable man, as wanting all that which thcwlld help him to ufe his natural powers to their proper ends ; fo it is much more with him that hath Naturewithout Grace, whichmuti heal it, and ufc it to its proper ends. 8. So that it appeareth, that as the Love of Perfection is fitly called the Law of Nature, becaufe it is agreeable to man in his Mineralfiate of Innocency ; fo the Law of Grace may be now called, the Law ofdepraved Nature, becaufe it is as fuir- able to lapfed man. And when our pravity is undeniable, how credible thould it be, that we have fuch a Law ? 9. And there is nothing in the Gofpel, either unfuitable to the fill. Law ofNature, or contradictory to it, or yet of any alien nature ; but only that which hath the moll excellent ap- titudeto fubferve it : Giving the Glory to God in the hightif, by relating Peace anto the Earth , and Coodnefs towards noto. 0 3 o.. And:

RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=