A55752:574
Riches of mercy to men in misery, or, Certain excellent treatises concerning the dignity…
Riches of mercy to men in misery, or, Certain excellent treatises concerning the dignity and duty of Gods children by the late Reverend and Faithful Minister of Jesus Christ, John Preston ...Riches of mercy to men in misery, or, Certain excellent treatises concerning the dignity and duty of Gods children by the late Reverend and Faithfull Minister of Jesus Christ, John Preston ...
London: printed by J.T., 1658
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.
But it may be objected, I but grace though it do 1strengthen thus, yet it is but a creature: for though it be a quality that is wrought by the holy Ghost in the heart, if it be so, yet it is but a creature; therefore seeing every creature is subject to weakness, how doth grace strengthen a man thus?
- 1Object.
To this I answer, First that grace is a quality of that nature, 1that it empties a man of himself, it is an emptying quality. It is not as other endowments, other qualities, and other habits put into the soul, but it is an emptying quality that takes a man off from his own bottom, it cuts him off from his own root, and engrafts him into another, it teacheth him to depend upon God. For if you look upon faith which is the main grace, and gift, (as it were) the root and foundation to all other graces, is ⟨p. 188⟩it not an emptying Grace? what is faith but to teach a man to trust in God? Now no man trusts in another fully but he distrusts himself fully; it makes a man nothing in himself, and wholly dependant upon the Lord. Even such is grace, it takes a man quite off from any root of his own, and makes him as ivy that hangs upon and clasps about the tree, receives its being, and sustenance from it. So grace it annihilates the creature as it were, it takes a man off from that sufficiency that every man seeks to have in his own sphere, in his own nature, it teacheth a man to know that he is not able to think a good thought, nor to do a good work of himself.
To this I answer, First that grace is a quality of that nature, 1that it empties a man of himself, it is an emptying quality. It is not as other indowments, other qualities, and other habits put into the soul, but it is an emptying quality that takes a man off from his own bottom, it cuts him off from his own root, and ingrafts him into another, it teacheth him to depend upon God. For if you look upon faith which is the main grace, and gift, (as it were) the root and foundation to all other graces, is