True Christian Religion (Ager) n. 511

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511. That the church is not in man until the sins in him have been put away, anyone may conclude from reason, and it may be illustrated by the following comparisons: Who can introduce sheep, and kids and lambs into fields or woods where there are all kinds of wild beasts, before he has driven out the beasts? Who can make a garden out of a piece of ground that is overgrown with thorns, briars, and nettles, before he has rooted out those noxious weeds? Who can establish a mode of administering justice according to judicial practices in a city held by hostile forces, and establish citizenship, before he has expelled those forces? It is the same with evils in man. They are like wild beasts, like thorns and briars, and like hostile forces; and the church can no more have a common abode with evils than a man can dwell in a cage where there are tigers and leopards; or sleep in a bed with poisonous herbs strewed upon it and stuffed into the pillows; or sleep at night in a church, beneath the floor of which are sepulchres containing dead bodies. Would not ghosts infest him there like furies?


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