;. zetíouo ,cfm. Ids thefe be cart off,there can be no refignation; our Saviour is positive in it, how can ye believe which receive honour one of another ? Joh.5.44.A foul breathed into vain-glorious air,or drowned in fenfual pleafures,or laden with the thick clay of the world,cannot resign; he that will offer up himfelf to God,mufi leave the world behind his back, his affections muff be gathered in from earth,andfingel- like,afcend in the flame of faith; the vail of time muff be put by, and an entry made upon eternity. Fourthly, 'Ihere is a denial of a mans own power. Proud perfons,puft up in their fiefhly mind,vain- ly dream that their Reafon can fpan all myfte- ries,and theirWill teem out all graces,no temp- tations are too firong for them, nor duties too weighty.Alafs!thefe are fo far from refignation, that they are not come to illumination,through prodigious blindnefi they are ffrozg in their im- potency,rich in their poverty, free in their chains, and fomething in their nothingnef? And what thould they go to God for ?as yet they are not fo much as in the way thither; but let the man put off his false ornaments, and lay by his proud plumes,and fentibly feel a carnal mind,and a#ia ritual Law,a weakheart, and Jfrong corruptions let him groan and cry out of the blind eyes which cannot unfcale, the iron linewed Will which cannot bow,the falle heart which cannot go true and the fallen nature which cannot reach fo high as an holy thought. Let him be weak in his impotency, till God set up f achin and Boaz in his heart ; poor inhis.povcrty, till he have a share 77
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