Polhill - Houston-Packer Collection BT770 .P7 1675

1111priouo aft . confefres, That man is carried downward, and fallen from, the happy Region, of his own motion inclined to evil, and averfe from good. In fuch paffages as there there feet to be force glim- merings and dark refemblances of Original Sin: But alas, poor Souls, they were far from a juft ferife thereof ; they did not underhand the depth and venom of this wound, but thought there was lvfedicamentnm in latere, enough in the avers x -io', the felf -power of the Soul, which nfin Martyr at his Converfion brought out of Plato's School into Chriitiani,- ty,to heal it fel£ iriJfotle makes Mans Happi -- nefs to be the Operation of the Rational Soul according to Virtue ; and that Virtue he ranks among the 7-0c ss,uév, the things in our own power. Seneca tells us, 'Tis a b olifh thing to with for a good Soul, which without lifting thy hands to Heaven, thou maift have of thy felt ; whatfooever may make thee good, tecum eft, intus eft, it k with thee, and in thee. Hierocles faith , The Will is zueia sauTñs, miffref of it fell(' and can make it felf better or worfi: Or,as he fpeaks in another place, it can make the man a beaft or a God. In a word, all the remedy they prefcribe is but that which Rpieietus faith, made Socrates to be fo virtuous as he was,Obe- dience to Reaf n. They never fo much as drea- med of any fuch thing as Regeneration, but thought they could do their own work them - felves ; neither did they underhand the bredth and length of this natural wound, they t Nought it was only in the lower fa:ultics of the 2 53

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