Sibbes - Houston-Packer Collection BX9318.S45 L5 1638

q.:a41§s. Chrifl lieleerved on in the World. I S 3 raife the heart to apprehend it, and make ufeof it; CO leffe power will doe it. Let us (I fay) have great conceitsofthis excellent grace of Faith ; illmen have not Faith: it is a raregrace , a rare jewel!. WhenCbriflcomes, Pall'hefind Faith in theworld ? Certainely, it is a Myaerie, for a man to beleeve in Chrifl 5 fora naturali man to be brought to rely upon Chrifl ; To you it irgiven to beleeve fayth the Apoflle :he might well fay, it is given, i t is aoordinarie gift neyther. There- fore let us pray with the Difciples, Lord increafe our Faith; andwith the poore man in the Gofpel, Lord, I beleeve, helpe my unbeleefe. The nest thing I will touch,fhallbethis;That Faith is futhere for all graces. Here,in thefe fix Claufes of this great MyfierieofGodlinefe, there is onely thisone that is within us ; God man:feff in the fde[h, juflifted in the Spirit, feene of Angels, preachedto the Gentiles, received up inglory ; thefe are all without us : but this one, beleeved on in the world, that is onely within us, and it is fet downe in (lead ofall, and indeed fo it is ; for it drawes all other graces after it, it enlivens and quickens the foule, it is the fpring of fpirituall life in us, it is the fYrfl grace of all : There are force degrees ofthe Spirit ( perhaps ) before it, but all graces havetheir quickening fromFaith; it infufeth fupernaturall vigour intoall theparts and powers of the foule and into all graces whatfoever. Where Chrifl is beleeved on in the world, all followes, love and patience, and coup I rage, and fortitude, whatfoever; as we fee in M Heb., Faith put for all graces.

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