Preston - Houston-Packer Collection BX5133.P74 S2 1637

with -hold the :Truth ¡n unrigl teor /neJe. forth fruit to any gurpofe: So though thefé things he in them, yet they arc not theirs, neither trail they be to their owne praise, and advantage. Againe,they cannot do them good; becaufe they doe not make them good ; they doe not as Divines Cay, redundare in perfenarn, they make nott any mans perfon better ; thougEtt man,not yet trucly regene- rate,have never fo many excellent things in him, yet his perfon is never the better for them. As we fay of godly and regenerate men,though they commit evil, yet their perfons are good in God's fight. God fees their evill,but He fcowres them by afildion,and He hates the evil!, but loves the perfon, which fhewes that the perfon is not accounted evil! ; for if the per- fon were evill,He mull needs hate ir. On the other fide, they that have received common Graces, though they have gone far, yet their perfons are not the better,but the fame: and there is good reafon for it, for it is not the perfon that doth the good thing : But as S. Paul fayes of fin, it is no more that do it,6ut fin that duels in me;fo they may fay,It is not I that do ir,but the good that is in me: therefore it is reafon it fhould not doe them good, when it makes not their perfons good,but leaves them the fame notwithflan- ding. So that it may bee Paid of the good things in them,as is fail of beauty in an evil woman,or as of a Pearle in a Swines fnout,the things be good and pre. cious, the Pearle is a Pearle indced,yer not withflan- ding they may be evil! women,in whom beauty;and Swine in whom the Pearle is found. So you fee the firfl, that though a man have excellent things in him before regeneration,yet they thall doe him no good. K Secondly,) 133_ SER. V. 2 rheymak e diem not good,

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