164 ¡Nakao SAO. of the pardon- office. I, I am he that blot teth out thy tranfgreffions for mine own fake, faith God, Ifa.4.3.25. Would you have fan - ?ifying graces ? thine own Will cannot teem them out,thine own power cannot form them. Albertus Magmas the Philofopher, fpent fifty years in making the Statue of a man fo,as that with Engines it could fpeak articulately, but when all was done, it was but a poor dead thing. Shouldeft thou live the age of Methu- Jèlah, and all the while in the artifice of thy reafon, and power of thy will, labour to forge out true holinefs, it would be at lati but an umbra, a dead thadow of grace, though it might fpeak fairly in the way of notions and gifts, yet it would be without the heavenly life and vitality ; thou mutt therefore yield up thy felf to Jeffs Chrift, that his fpirit may come upon thee, and form the new - creature in thee ; the fan of all is this, put off thy or- naments, that God may know what to do unto thee, yield,'refign, be in the loweJ* pofture of a creature, that all the Evangelical graces may be thine own. Secondly, 'This doth highly exalt God,and that in fcveral refpets. Firft, It exalts the mercy of God. Now it appears that mercy in its propofals, of falvation comes down to the very lowed terms ; it will adopt, juftifie, and fandifìe an yielding firmer , and how can it polbly go lower ? fhould he adopt filch as will not Puffer him to draw his piecure upon their hearts ? when 2bomas
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