The Nature, 'Danger, and Cure had at once at their firft .Converfion utterly deftroy'd all the Seeds ·:md Remainders of Corruption in them, and ac firft made thcfn as perfcCtlv Holy as they !hall be at laf\; hereby God would not have been fo provok'd' as he is nor his Spir;~ f? gricv'd, nor rh~ J:?roil fo rejoyc'd at the daily Mifcarriagcs of the beft Chnfhans: Wherefore ts tt chat God hach perfected the Sai nts now in Glory, but that they might yietd him perfect Obedience and Service? Why, truly our Services would ~e as perfetl: and as well-pleating unto God, as theirs '-.. are, were our imperfect Natures as theirs are; and therefore God would have Wl?f God had a double Heaven, an upper and a lower Heaven, had he but deftroy'd Sin ~aves ~r. in us upon Earth; and fince.it might feem fo much to redound ro his Glory ,;~~;';~s why hath he not confummated ourSan&ification ? But ftill tcfc Thorns in ou: hU ow1i Eyes, and Goads in our fides, wirh which not only we, but he himfelfisgriev'd Children. and vex'd ; what fhould be the Reafon of this? B . Now tO anfwer this Queftion, you muft know the general and comprehen. u hZ1J// five Reafon thereof, is~is own Sovereign unaccountable Good· will and Plcafo to do. furc, imo which the Reafon of all Things is moft rationally refolv'd; and therefore, that among all Mankind, thac lay all alike in the fame Mafs of Corruption, that fame are fantlify'd, and fame are noc; chat among them char are fan&ify'd, fame are fanCl:ify'd in one degree, and fame in another, and yet none fo perfectly as to be free'd from Sin; the beft of God's Saints may refi fatisfy'd in this; it is God's good Pleafure tO give forth his Grace in fuch a meafure, to fame more, to fame lefs, as fhall only weaken, nor utrerly defiroy the Cqrruptions of his People: Therefore the Apof/Jt in Hebrews 9· 1 o. fpeaking of Chrift's coming to do the \Vill of God, by which WiU, fays he, we 11r~ Janflijj'.J: That we are fanCl:ify'd when others are not, is from the Will of God· that we are fan&tify'd in fuch a rneafure, not more nor ~efs, muft be refotv•J inco the fovercign and uncontroulable Will of God, by which Will 1ve art fanflify'J; and yet there are alfo many wife Ends and Re•fons of this Will of God, why he fhould leave f\il\ fuch finful Propenfions a[\d corrupt Inclumions, even· in the bef\ of his People. Buaufo As Firft, Hereby God maintains a Bear1ty and Harmony in the 1Vorks of Grace, a; her~hJ ~ well as in tbt Works of Nature; the Beauty and Harmony of the Univerfe confifis :;~';;;in Gradation ; whereby, as by little St~ps or Round~, we afcend from ~:me Kind in tbe of Being to another; thus God bath placed Man m the World, as tt were a Works of middle Step betwixt Brute-Crentures and Ang~!J, and therefore he partakes ComeGrace. what of the Nature of both; his SoUl and his lntelled:ual Parr, that is made like rhe Nature of Ange!J; and then there is in him a fenfitive Pa-rr, Defires and Propenfions ; and on this fide he is a Kin even to the Beafts that perifh. So is it alfo in the Works of Grace; a Chriftian is as it were a Step betwxt a wicked Man and an Angel; a wicked.Man hath no Grace, and a Holy Angel hath no Sin; now to make up this great Gap, God hath placed a Chriftian as a mid· dle Seep betwixt them, to tack and unite the moral World together. There is in him a Heavenly and Spiritual Part, and by that he is of Affinity to rhe Angels; and there ~re alfo in him finful Defires, and finful Inclinations, and by this he holds Hands with wicked Men, and is thereby joyn'd eo them; and rhus God illuftrates his admirable Wifdom, in caufing fuch an admirable Harmony and gradual Difference in the Works of Grace, bringing Men out of a Stare of mix'd Gra-ce, to a Stare of pure and compleac Grace, where at laft a Chri· ftian !hall be fully confummated, and be as the Angeh of qod: Thus from Step to Step God gradually carries on the Work of Sanctification tO Perfection; and hereby he r~1aintains an admirable Beauty and Harmony in che Works of Grace,. as well as in the Works of Nature; this fets forth the Beauty of the World, that there is fuch a Conveyance from one K.ind of Creacures to anorher1 whereby they touch one another, and are tack'd toge~hcr by fcveral Orders, as inanimate and fenfitive, chen rational as Men, then rnteJleCl:u<tl as A1rgels: So alfo it is in Grace, from a wicked Man to a Saint, parc1y Wicked, and parcly Gracious; from a Saint on Earth to a Saim in Heaven, where the imperfed Work of Grace here on Earth is fwallow'd up by perfect Grace andHolinefs. Secondly,
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