Rutherford - HP BS2575 .4 R975 1743

27i 7 he Trial and 5ER· '2 1 liation is in Hope Evangelick Repentan..:e and Mortifi~ation : But as the Seed and_ t~e growing Tree d1ffer not gradually only, but m Nature & fpeci-fically . ; as a Thing without Life is not of of that fame Nature and E!fence with a Creature tha t • ha th a vegetative Life and Growth : fo the preparatory g~o_d . AffeB:_ions of Defire, Hunger, Sorrow, HnmibatiOn gomg before Converf1on, differ fpecifically from thbfc- renewed AffeCl:ions which fc)Ilow after~ The former being Acts of Grace, hut not offaving Grace, which goeth·along with the Dt>cree of Election ofGrace, and of like Latttude with it, the latter being the native and connatural Fruits of the Spirit, of which the Apoil:le fpeaketh, Gat. v. 2 2, z ~· In which Regard no Man i'> morally, and in Regard of a divine Promife fuch as this ( CZJo this, and this, and God jhatl bejlow on y ou the Grace of Con·vr:rjion ) fitter, a~d in a nearer Dii£ofition to Conver- :fion than another. 1. Becauie, we read not of any fuch Promife in· the Go(p&t. 2. Becaufe, amongft Things void ofLife, all_ are equally void of Life, and there's here no Degrees of m0re or lefs Life, r,o Intention, no Remiffion or Hacking of the Degrees of Life; for even as an Ape or an Hor[e, are as equally no Men, as Stor-es and dead Earth are no Men, though an Ape or an Horfe have Life common to them with Men, which Stones and Earth have not; yet they are equally · as deftitute of Reafon and an intelleEturJ Life, which is the only Life of a Man as a Man, as Stones and Earth are. So Saul only humbled by the Terrors of the Law, and fick' of half raw_ De- , :fires of Chrifr, is no lefs yet a Creature v~1d of the Life of God, than when he was in the h1ghdc . P~h

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