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But behold, the sinner now, at the sight and sense of his own nothingness, falleth into a kind of despair; for although he hath it in him to presume of salvation, through the delusiveness of his own good opinion of himself, yet he hath it not in himself to have a good opinion of the grace of God in the righteousness of Christ; wherefore he concludeth, that if salvation be alone of the grace of God, through the righteousness of Christ, and that all of a man's own is utterly rejected, as to the justification of his person with God, then he is cast away.
Now, if ignorance and unbelief prevail, he concludeth that he is a reprobate, made to be taken and destroyed. Now also he feeleth in him a readiness to fall in with every temptation a readiness, I say, continually present. Romans 7:21. This throws all down.
Sect. 6. This much being said for the binding power of that oath of the church of Scotland, let us now consider what shifts our opposites use to elude our argument which we draw from the same; where, first, there occurreth to us one ground which the Bishop of Edinburgh doth everywhere beat upon in the trace of this argument, taken out of the 21st article of the Confession of Faith, wherein we find these words: “Not that we think that any policy and an order in ceremonies can be appointed for all ages, times, and places; for as ceremonies, such as men have devised, are but temporal, so may and ought they to be changed when they foster rather superstition than that they edify the kirk using the same: ‘whereupon the Bishop concludeth, that none who sware the aforesaid article could, without breach of this oath, swear that the ceremony of sitting at the receiving of the sacrament could be appointed for all ages, times, and places.’ ”
The apostle, therefore, doth implicitly, though to expressly, challenge sin, yea, sin by all its advantages; and then glorieth in the love of God in Christ Jesus, from which he concludeth it shall never separate the justified. Besides, it would now have been needless to have expressly here put in sin by itself, seeing before, he had argued that those he speaks of were freely justified therefrom.
Sinners, you, I mean, that are not wounded with guilt, and oppressed with the burden of sin, you cannot I will say it again you cannot know, in this senseless condition of yours, what it is to be saved. Again; this word "saved," as I said, concludeth deliverance from the wrath of God. How, then, can he tell what it is to be saved that hath not felt the burden of the wrath of God?
By this sentence Paul concludeth that Jesus Christ was justly hanged, because sin worthy of death was upon him; sin, not of his own, but ours.
It is but a shallow haste which concludeth insincerity from what outsiders call inconsistency putting a dead mechanism of "ifs" and "therefores" for the living myriad of hidden suckers whereby the belief and the conduct are wrought into mutual sustainment. Mr.
A tree it is, without fruit, but as long as it so abideth, there is ministered occasion to doubt what manner of tree it is. A professor is a professor, though he hath no good works; but that, as such, he is truly godly, he is foolish that so concludeth. Not that faith needeth good works as an help to justification before God.
Now, then, since he concludeth any coming HIM; it must be concluded, that he can save to the uttermost sin, any coming HIM. Do you think, I say, that the Lord Jesus did not think before he spake?
It also suggesteth that many will be the difficulties that professors will meet with, before they get to heaven. It also concludeth that only the labouring Christian, man or woman, will get in thither. "Strive," &c. Three questions I will propound upon the word, an answer to which may give us light into the meaning of it: I. What doth this word strive import? 4 II. How should we strive?
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