for the c~ventJnt. . ~s, the report of the law concerneth-himfelf in particu– lar; his heavy and forrowful heart, by this £1ith, e• choing to the voice of the law, guilty, guilty I Rom. i'ii. 19. The which faith refis not ·ol1 the tefiimony of man, whether fpoken or written; but is a divine faith, fGunded 'Upon' the tefiimony of God, in his holy law, demonfinited by the Spirit of bondage, to be the voice of the eternal God, and the voice ofthat God to him in particular. And thus he believes, ( 1.) That his life and converfation is finful, difpleafing– and hateful in the fight of a holy God, according to the diyine tell:imoriy,Rom. iii. 12•. 'They areall gone OQt ofthe way, they are tog,ether become unprofita• ble, there is none that cloth good, no not one.' He · is convinced, that he is gone out of the way ofGod, · and walking.in the wayofdell:ruB:ion ; that the nu m:. bet ofhis errors of omiffion and commi.ffion he cannot nnderfiand,; and that all his righteoufneffes, as well a~ unrighteoufneffes, are as filthy rags before the Lord. - (2.) That his he_art is full of mifchief and iniquity, according to the divine tefiimony, Jer. ·xvii. 9· 'Th~ heart is deceitful above all things" and defperately wicked.' .The law ihining iRto the heart, difcover~ divers lufis there, which he ~little noticed before ; and preffing the unhply heart; irritates them : and thus f'uch a my fiery ofiniquity •within h.is breafl: opens to his view, as he could never before believe to have been there. Rom. vi'ii. 9· ' I was alive without the law once : but when the commandment came, fin revived, ~ and l died.' ( 3.) That his nature is quite corrupted, as,one dead in trefpa.ffes and fins, aecord· ing to the Divine tefiimony, Eph. ii. I. To the ver– diCt of the law, Who can bring a clean .out ofan un....· clean? Job xiv. 4· his foul, by this fa~th, echoes back, unclean, u1tclea-n! ' I was fua·pen in iniquity~ and in fin did my mother conceive me.' He is ·con· vinced his difeafe is hereditary and nafural ; and tha~ therefore his nature mufl: be ren~we~-: t·hat otherT 2 wif~., ' .,
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