I ectouo fait t. preflion is , Eph. 4.2 0. learning him fo, as to put off the. old man with his corrupt lulls, and to put on the new man in true holinef?, and fo, as to be found in him, and count all drofi and dung for him : It deeply concerns all Chriftians , nay , the greateft Clerks to un- derftand this (fo) which without faith no man doth, as being void of Chrift and his fpi- rit. As to inherent grace, the believer knows it to be an excellent thing, an accident more worth then the fubftance of the foul it felt; and yet withall he knows it to be a creature, and in it felf defedible, he knows it to be an excellent thing excellent in its fupernatu- ral parentage, a thing not born of the will of the flefh, nor of the will of man , but of God, an holy thing formed by the overfhadowing of the bleffed fpirit , a beam of grace from the eternal grace in the heart of God, ex- cellent again as it is the fouls luftre, know- ledge its glafs , humility its vail , obedience its golden ear -ring, love the chain of its neck, righteoufnefs its fine linnen, every grace its inward glory and beauty, elevating natu- ral faculties above their own pitch , into a fiate congruous for communion with God, above all, excellent as it reprefents God hicn- felf; in every creature there is a print or foot - flep of God, but in grace there is his very image and refemblance : a believer can fee more of God in an holy beam,then in the great Sun, in a little of heaven , then in all the earth, 175
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