9 6 PleCtOttgi, Stab. nation is à meliore parte) denominate men righ- teous, but they are but inchoate and imperfect, and therefore are íhort of that perfect and ab- folute righteoufnefs requifite to ¡unification. They denominate men righteous,but they do it but in their own weak degree, and not in full proportion to the holy Law ;. a gracious man is not all grace, there is flefh as well as fpirit,drofs as well as gold, water as well as wine in him; his mind is not all Light,his will is not all love, his affections are not all harmony ; what of grace he hath is but in part, and if this be his righteoufnefs,he can be ¡unified but in part, or rather not at all. Neither can our good works, no not thofe which flow from grace,ever be our righteoufnefs in ¡unification. Thofe are good as they flow from the pure fountain of the fpirit, but as they proceed from us (in whom there is much of the old Adam) they fmell of the cask and foil in the channel,and contract a great deal of drofs from the indwelling fin: Hence they are fo far from ¡unifying us,that they themfelves need a ¡unification. Hence holyNehemiah prays that his good works may be remembred,with a fp are me 0 Lord, according to the greatne(l of thy mercy,Neh,13.22. Neither will it fufTiceto ¡uni- fication, if our good works are more then our evil. The Papiíis fable that Henry the fecond .Jmperour was weighed in the ballante, to fee whether he were worthy of heaven or hell; his good works were put into one fcale,his evil in -. to the other, and thefe were like to outweigh and fink him to hell, but that St. Lawrence put in
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