Dire&VII. Of S'ranEi f cation. t 21 " fins, covered all over with putrifying fares, not " at all clofed, bound up, or cleanfed; much more, " when they endeavour to receive the Mott Holy One, into fuch an abominable ftinking kennel, as If a finner's heart is, before it be at all reformed. " The parable concerning the man that was to be " bound hand and foot, and calf intoutter darknefs, If for coming to the royal wedding without a wed.. ding garment, feemeth to be intended as a warn- " ing againft all fuch prefumption," Matth. xxii. i r, z3. Many that beheld, with terror, the abominable filth of their own hearts, are kept off from coming immediately to Chrift, by fuch imaginations, which Satan ftrongly maintaineth and increafeth in them. by his fuggeftions : fo that they can by no means be perfuaded out of them, until God teacheth them in- wardly, by the powerful illumination of his Spirit. They delay the faring at of faith, becaufe they think they are not yet duly prepared and qualified for it. On the fame account many weak believers delaycom- ing to the Lord's Supper for many years together, e- ven as long as they live in this world; and would be as likely to delay their baptifmn, if they had not been baptized in infancy. Againft all fuch imaginations, I thall propofe the following conuderations. Firft,This error is pernicious to thepraftice ofho. linefs, and to our whole falvation, in the fame man- ner with that treated of in the foregoing direftion, and may be confuted by the fame arguments which are there produced. Whether holinefs be made a procuring condition of our falvation throughChrift, or only a condition neceffáry to qualify us for the re- ception of Chrift, we are equally brought under thofe legal terms, of doing firft the duties required in the law, that fo we may live. Therefore, we are equal- ly bereaved of the affiftance of thofe means of holm.. nefs mentioned in the foregoing direftions, as union and fellowfhip with Chrift, and the enjoyment of all s fanftifying endowments by faith, which thould
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=