Preston - Houston-Packer Collection BX5133.P74 S2 1637

314 Grace , Mans pro- per excel. lency. objecrá. SrtrlEtitication to be pried Let us confider a little, What was it, thinke you,chat made c1darn happy in Paradife Was it the being in a Garden full of pleafant things e No, it was not that, but his Communion with God that made him happy, Therefore you fee wherein his mifery confined, it confined not in the loffe of Paradife, for there bee was fail', hee had all that he had before for outward things, but hee felt fhame and honour of Confcience, hee felt inward trouble and anguifh of fpirit, when he heard the voyce of G o m walking in the Garden : therefore it Bands not in that, but to be made a Nev Creature, is to bee put into the inward condition that vldam was in, and therefore you have reafon to feeke it. If any thing in the world bee worth the Peeking, it is this, to bee made a Nov Creature. All other things are not the proper excellency of a man, you know the Angels and the Saints want them, and the beans enjoy them, but the excellency of man is to bce made according to the firft Rule, to bee fquared according to the Image of God, after which hee was fiat created, and hee is never well till hee come to that. As no Creature is well till it have that excellen_ cy belonging to the kinde of it : this is an excellency peculiar to man, therefore feeke happinefl'eas long as you will in other things, ycip fhalï never finde it, but in being made Ncw Creatures, in havirng Gods Image repair e 3,in being fanaified in body,and foule, and Spi- rit, this puts you into an happy condition. But, you will fay, there are but Notions,imaginary Affertions, we flete not fuck chings,give the that man chat bath the fenfe of this,that feeles more fweetneffe in chis, than Adam did in all his outward Paradife which he had t To

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