A30249:273
Vindiciae legis, or, A vindication of the moral law and the covenants, from the…Vindiciae legis, or, A vindication of the morall law and the covenants, from the…
Vindiciae legis, or, A vindication of the moral law and the covenants, from the errors of Papists, Arminians, Socinians, and more especially, Antinomians in XXX lectures, preached at Laurence-Jury, London / by Anthony Burgess ...Vindiciae legis, or, A vindication of the morall law and the covenants, from the errours of Papists, Arminians, Socinians, and more especially, Antinomians in XXX lectures, preached at Laurence-Jury, London / by Anthony Burgess ...
London: printed by James Young for Thomas Underhill, 1647
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
1. There are holy things that are internally and essentially so, and these we cannot do without God, John 15. Without me ye can do nothing. Austin observes the emphasis; he doth not say, No hard thing, but nothing: and he doth not say Perficere, perfect; but Facere, you cannot do it any way.
1. There are holy things that are internally and essentially so, and these we cannot doe without God, John 15. Without me ye can do nothing. Austin observes the emphasis; he doth not say, No hard thing, but nothing: and he doth not say Perficere, perfect; but Facere, you cannot doe it any way.
2. There are holy actions externally so, as to come to hear the Word preached, to read and meditate upon the Word: experience teacheth, that men have a natural power to this; witness those many Comments and learned Expositions, that men without any grace have made upon the Scripture. Now it's true, to do any of these holily is Gods act, The natural man perceiveth not the things of God: and, God opened Lydia's heart. But yet God converteth in the use of these means. He will not ordinarily change the heart of any, that doth not wait at the gates of wisdom. Therefore God doth not work upon the heart, as the Artificer useth his instrument, but he commands to read and hear; and this is the organ, or the means by which the Spirit of God will change his heart. Now indeed, when a man readeth or heareth any natural or philosophical truth, he is able by these [Greek or Hebrew], strength left in nature, to comprehend them, but he cannot in the same manner bring forth any thoughts or affections of heart suitable unto those spiritual mysteries laid open before him. But now the patrons of Nature speak otherwise; they say it is, as if a man, almost spent by a disease, should receive physic, and so that physic doth repair and increase strength, not infuse strength: Or, as a bird tied by a string, that hath a power to fly, only is outwardly hindered, so that they ⟨p. 102⟩