Preston - Houston-Packer Collection BX5133.P74 S2 1637

Pauls Converfion. 219 fequently, a difficult a thing it is, to make them to beare this blow of the Gofpell, and to perfw4dc them, that humiliation is a neceffary condition to faIvation,and the right receiving of Chrïif : there- fore you muff labour to rcmoove the excufes that men make for themfelves, before they will bee humbledswhichexcufes or rathetdeceits,arethere following. r.The fir(l pretence is this, We do good afwell 1. Deceit. as the bell, we ballance our firmes, we heare, we objca receive, we give acmes, we pray ; in a word, wee doe all things that Chrillians ought to doe : there- fore we are truly "humbled , what need wee more to humble our felves. To this 1 anfwer, Well, what if you doe pray, what if you doe give aimes, and heare the Word, and receive the Sacrament: though there aaions (imply in themfelves are good, yet they may bee , nothing worth unto thee, unlcffe thy heart bee right : yea unlefi'e thine heart be right , there aói- ons, as they are thine, and proceed from thee, will be found hones before God,and fo in (lead of a bleflìng may bring a curfe upon thee : viz. be caufe thou ufeft holy things in an unholy manna to a wrong end. For if thy "heart be bad, that is, e. (}ranged from God, through infidelitie and unbe- leefe,whatfoever thy heart meets withall, it makes it unrighteous, and fo puts the tincture of poyfor, upon it , becaufe it is not Gods end , that thou aymefi at,in the doing of thefe,but thy owne end : Now it is not only the anion , but the end of the action

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