Polhill - Houston-Packer Collection BT770 .P7 1675

101ctfouo fact!). between moral virtues and fpiritual graces: the feeds of moral virtues are found in lapfed na- ture, but of fpiritual graces there are none at all in it , nothing but a . naked capacity. Moral virtues do from thòfe natural feeds bud and fpring forth into being under the common in- fluence of the fpirit, but fpiritual graces, not being feeded in nature, are meer infufìons or creations ; the feed of God mull drop down from heaven into the heart, or elfe thefe can- not exill:hence the Apòflle in contradiflintion to the virtues of men calls them the virtues of God, a Pet.2.9. fuch a thing is faith, of a no- bler extra ion then all the moral virtues in the world. thirdly, This precious Faith advances both our natural faculties and our moral virtues. It advances our natural faculties, and fo (news it Pelf what it is : grace is nature elevated above it felf, a reafon with an heavenly light in it, a will with an holy law in it, and affections as it were upon the wings of Angels, (oaring into the upper world. After fuch fort doth faith elevate the humane faculties:when faith comes, God fhines into the heart, and then the Rea - fon, which before had a cloud on it, fparkles out as a pearl in the Sun -beams ; the day -liar is up in the heart, and whileft others live by candlelight, the believer bath the Sun ; then the will which lay in its lulls as a llave in its chains, is fet upon. the wheel and made free indeed , then the affe Iions, which convened among the tombs of the creatures, are no lon- ger

RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=