Precious faith considered in its nature, working, and growth

Thirdly, There is a denial of a mans carnal affections. These are the camels which cannot go thorough the needles eye, the weights and plummets which press down the soul from God; unless ⟨p. 77⟩these be cast off, there can be no resignation; our Saviour is positive in it, how can ye believe which receive honour one of another? Joh. 5.44. A soul breathed into vain-glorious air, or drowned in sensual pleasures, or laden with the thick clay of the world, cannot resign; he that will offer up himself to God, must leave the world behind his back, his affections must be gathered in from earth, and Angel-like, ascend in the flame of faith; the veil of time must be put by, and an entry made upon eternity.

Thirdly, There is a denial of a mans carnal affections. These are the camels which cannot go thorough the needles eye, the weights and plummets which press down the soul from God; unless ⟨p. 77⟩these be cast off, there can be no resignation; our Saviour is positive in it, how can ye believe which receive honour one of another? Joh. 5.44. A soul breathed into vain-glorious air, or drowned in sensual pleasures, or laden with the thick clay of the world, cannot resign; he that will offer up himself to God, must leave the world behind his back, his affections must be gathered in from earth, and Angel-like, ascend in the flame of faith; the vail of time must be put by, and an entry made upon eternity.

Fourthly, There is a denial of a mans own power. Proud persons, puffed up in their fleshly mind, vainly dream that their Reason can span all mysteries, and their Will teem out all graces, no temptations are too strong for them, nor duties too weighty. Alas! these are so far from resignation, that they are not come to illumination, through prodigious blindness they are strong in their impotency, rich in their poverty, free in their chains, and something in their nothingness. And what should they go to God for? as yet they are not so much as in the way thither; but let the man put off his false ornaments, and lay by his proud plumes, and sensibly feel a carnal mind, and a spiritual Law, a weak heart, and strong corruptions; let him groan and cry out of the blind eyes which cannot unscale, the iron sinewed Will which cannot bow, the false heart which cannot go true, and the fallen nature, which cannot reach so high as an holy thought. Let him be weak in his impotency, till God set up Jachin and Boaz in his heart; poor in his poverty, till he have a