132. The Saints Spiritual; flrength. Ghoft, you will never obtaine grace or fan%ifica - Lion. The Spirit is unto the meanes of grace, as raine is unto the plants ; raine makes plants to thrive and grow, fo the fpirit makes the inward man to grow in holinefTe : therefore it is the pro - mife that God makes unto his Church in the Scripture , that bee will pozvre water upon the dry ground. The heart that before was barren in grace and holineffe, (hall now fpring up in holinef c,and grow thong in the inward man, and this lhall be when I (hall powre my Spirit upon them , there- fore you fee how the Spirit doth flrengchen grace in the foule, by building and Petting up the buil- ding of grace in the foule, and then by furnithing the roomes with new habits, and qualities of grace, and then by giving power unto the foule to ufe thofe habits to good , and then by giving a bleffing unto all the meanes of grace. rte. The ufe of this !lands thus; If the Spirit be the onely meanes to flrengthen the inward man, then it will follow that whofoever hath not the holy Ghoft hath not this ftrength, and whafoever ftrength a man may feeme to have unto himfelfe, if it proceed not from the Spirit , is is no true Itrength,but a falle and counter &it ftrength : for a man may thus argue, from the caufe unto the eff*,:t : the true caufe of ftrength mutt needs bring forth thong efftéty, and on the contrary that which is not the caufe of flrength , cannot bring forth the eff;_éés of (trengch : fo f may reafon, that no naturali ftrennth can bring forth the ft rem b
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