Riches of mercy to men in misery, or, Certain excellent treatises concerning the dignity…

As for example. Water you know is of an earthly substance, and the nature of it is to descend, yet you see by the force and strength of the sun, it is drawn upwards; first into vapours, and then congealed into ice, and snow, and rain, and then it will not rest, till it descend again. But there is another motion of things; light and spiritual clouds ascend upwards, and are not forced, but naturally do it. Even so a carnal man may do the same things that a spiritual man doth, he may keep down some lust, and he may forsake some evil: That is, he may forsake his drunkenness, and his uncleanness, and his old evil haunts, but yet he doth not forsake all, neither doth he keep out sin by the spirit, but by a natural strength: if he do a good action, it• by constraint, he is forced by something to do it, but it changeth not his heart a whit: he may take a resolution to be good, and to be better; yet to change his own nature is not in his own power, for this is the work of the holy Ghost. Thus much for this use ⟨p. 113⟩and for this point. We now come to a third point: the Apostle saith he would have them To be strengthened by the spirit in the inward man: noting thus much, that God must give them the spirit, before they could have him. The point is this,

As for example. Water you know is of an earthly substance, and the nature of it is to descend, yet you see by the force and strength of the sun, it is drawn upwards; first into vapors, and then congealed into ice, and snow, and rain, and then it will not rest, till it descend again. But there is another motion of things; light and spiritual clouds ascend upwards, and are not forced, but naturally do it. Even so a carnal man may do the same things that a spiritual man doth, he may keep down some lust, and he may forsake some evil: That is, he may forsake his drunkenness, and his uncleanness, and his old evil haunts, but yet he doth not forsake all, neither doth he keep out sin by the spirit, but by a natural strength: if he do a good action, it• by constraint, he is forced by something to do it, but it changeth not his heart a whit: he may take a resolution to be good, and to be better; yet to change his own nature is not in his own power, for this is the work of the holy Ghost. Thus much for this use ⟨p. 113⟩