Goodwin - BV4500 G66 1650

98 The Tryall of more malleable ; fo are thofe common graces mingled with true in this life, where Sanc`1ification is imperfeci, which doe help them and eeke them our. Grace fet i la good :nature, feemes a great deale more, and goes farther then in a bad. Wine that is of it felfe fomewhat pleafant, a little fugar will make it fweeter to the task, then a great deale offagar will doe fowre wine. There- fore let every one confider , what naturali ingenuity, and mo- defly, and education did in him before converfion ; and let him know, that now he bath true grace ; thefe help him (}ill, and ftand him in flcad as much as ever,although he hash a further new principle ofgrace in him, beyond thefe. Grace in this life, and whiff} imp°rfed, takes r,,..t away fuch commongifts, but faneai_ fieth and ufc'th them as the reafonable foule doth a qufancie or memory, which are fenfitive faculties, and doe make his abili- ty to abflaine from Each and fuch fins more eafie : indeed all fuch d fifes will be fwallowed up in glory : And therefore many who have leffe grace, yet feeme in many carriages more mortified. then thofe who have more grace ; they will be leffe impatient in a croffe, lefle stirred and provoked with an injurie. A man who hath beene lefi'e helps by reftraining grace before converfion, andhad his tufts more outragions, if he hath them now under, it is a figue he bath much more mortification in him then one whowas naturally civill.And I appeal to everygodly mans con- fcicnce, it is not only (imply mortification that makes him always to abltaine from fins, but flume, modefly, terrors of confcience fhrike in at a pinch, when flrength of mortification had failed him elfe ; and many accidentali things, ordered by Gods pro vidence, hinder and keepe Gods people from finning : and as Davidwas faine to make ufe of (joliahi fword, and take in dif contented perfons that had dot the fame ends that he had to ftrengthen himfelfe againfi Saul; fo is grace faine to take in flefhly diflikes and difcontents againfl fin, to help it in a pinch, till it hath got the vitiory. For inflance, it was not 7udahs grace fo rne.ch kept him from killing 7ofeph, for then he would not have contented to fell him but nature wrought in him, and, made him abhor the killing him : Ir it not our brother, and our flefh, andwhat profit is it to kill him ? Gen. 37. 26. So God pre- vented David in his murthering Nabab family by an externall meanes,

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