Three treatises of the vanity of the creature. The sinfulness of sin. The life…Three treatises of the vanity of the creature. The sinfulnesse of sinne. The life…

But can an unclean thing cleanse it self? Can that which is intrinsically, naturally, inherently unclear purify it self? It may pollute any thing which toucheth ⟨p. 335⟩it, but how can it cease from that which belongs to its nature, or wipe out that which hath eaten in, and is marked in its very substance? It is true of our selves we cannot cleanse our selves, It is Christs Office to Sanctify¹ his Church, and it is His comeliness with which we are adorned, without him we can do nothing; but yet having ²him we must wash our selves. For God worketh not upon men as a carver upon a stone when he would induce the shape and proportions of a man, but yet leaves it a stone still and no more; but as himself did work upon Earth in Paradise when he breathed into it the Soul of man, and so made it a Living Creature. It is true a natural man is as dead to grace as a stone is to natural life, and therefore if only man should work upon him he would continue as dead still; but he who of dead Earth made a living man, is able of stones to raise up children unto Abraham, and the work of conversion is a work of vivification. Now then being quickened, we must walk ³and work our selves. I will take away, saith the Lord, the sto•ie heart out of their flesh, and I will give them an heart of flesh, that they may walk in my statutes, &c. So then God commands us to cleanse our selves when yet it is his own work. First, to teach us that what he doth is not out of duty or debt, but of Grace and Favour for when he doth that which he commands, it is manifest that ours was the duty, and therefore his the greater mercy, to give us money wherewith to pay him the debt we owed. Thou workest all our works for us, saith the Prophet. The⁴ work as it is a duty is ours, but as it is a performance it is thine. Secondly, He doth it to show that though he be the Author and finisher of our Faith, though he who⁵ beginneth our good works doth also perform them until the day of Christ, yet he will not have us abide always under his hand as dead stones, but, being quickened, and healed by his Spirit, and having our impotencies removed, we likewise must cooperate and move to