How the brancheJ are taken .out State III. Lord a corrupt thing, Mal. i. q, 14. And -thus be · be– 'comes fa far broke off, that he fees he is not able to fatif– fy the demands of the law. Seventhly, Hence, like a broken man, wko finds he is not. a~le to pay all his debts, he goes about to compazmd with his creditor. And being in purfuit of eafe and comfort, he does what he can to fulfil the law; and wherein he fails, be looks that God will accept the rllJi/1 for the deed Thus doing his duty, and having a will to do better, he cheats him– felfin a perfuafion. of the·goodnefs of his fiate : and here– by thoufands are ruined . But the eleCt get another firoke, which loofeth their hold in this cafe The doctrine of the · hw is born in on their confciences; demonihating· to them, th.at, exa§l and perfeCt: . obedience i,s . requir ed by it, und.er painof the curfe; and that i~ is doing, and not w~fhing to do, which wilJ avail. Wijhing .to do bet ter will not anfwer the Jaw's demands; and therefore the curft romfds again, Curftd ·tJ every one ·that continue!/? not--to n o ·them ; that is, aCtually to do them. In vain is wif'ning then. Eighthly, Being broken off f1om hopes of .compounding with the law, he tails a borrowing. He fees ihat all he can do to ob~y the law, and all his defires to he, and to .do bet – ter will not fave his fo~l: therefore he goes ro Chrifl:, in-. • treating, t,hat his righteoufne~s may make up what is want– ing in his own ~ and cover all the .defetl:s of his doings and fufferipgs; that fo God,. for Chrift's fake, may accept them , and thereupon be reconciled. Thus qoing what he can to fulfil the law, and looking to Chrifi to make up al~ his de~ fcBr, he comes at length again to · fleep in a fo und ikin. Many perfons are ruined this way. This was the ,en-or of tlje:GalatianJ, which Paul, in his epifl:le to them, difputes ·. ag;:tin.fi. But the Spirit of God breaks. cff the finoer .from · this bold alfo; by bearing in on his confcience that great truth, .Gal. iii , I 2· Thrda.w h not~( FA 1T H ; but the man that .vo T H thc.m jhalllive ·in th(m. The\e is no mixing of tpe ,Jaw and faith in \his bufinefs : the finner mufi hold·by one of tbem, and let the other _go. The way of the law, , and the way of faith, ai:e fo far different, that it is not·poffi – ble for a:finner .to .;walk in the one, but ,he muft come off from the other : and ifhe be for do,ing, .he muft do all .alone; Cluifi: will not do a part for him, ifhe do not all. A-garment
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