Pag. s Z C H A P. IV. Jufification is fo contrived , in the G..ofpei, as man may be abafed , & have no ground of boa {ling. , THirdly , w-e come to fpeak to the third thing mentioned above , to wit , That jultification is fo contrived , begun & carried on , that man bath no real , or apparent ground of glorying before men , or of boafling in himfelf. A few particulars will fuffictently cleare this. I. The Lord's ordinary & ufual Method , in bringing His Chofen ones into a luflified State , is firfl to convince them of their Sin and Mifery , by letting home the Law , & wakening their Confciences ; as Paul doth Doc- trinally follow this method when he is about to cleare -up , & explaine the truth , about Gofpel- juflification , in his Epiftle to the [,omans ; whe- re in the fira place , he couvinceth all of Sin, both jewes:& Gentiles Chap. Leg 2. & 3. concluding vert 23. That all have finned, ill' come fhort of theglory of God, d5 vers 9. he giveth an account of his foregoing Difcourfe,laying, we'have before proved both jewel. & Gentiles ; that they are all under fin. And againe veri 19. that every mouth may be flopped , ¿r all the world may become guilty before God. Now this work ofConviélion layette the ¡inner low before God ; for thereby the Man is difcovered to himfelt, to be undone in him- felf, to be under Sin & Wrath , under the Sentence ofthe Law, having his mouth flopped, & having nothing to plead for himfelf , neither by way of Extenuation , nor of Apology; & having nothing in himfelf, whe- rewith he can come before the Lord , to make Atonement for his Tranf- greffions, & to make S.aciffaaion to juaice : And thus the man is made to defpare in himfelf, as being irremediably gone & undone, if free grace prevent him not. II. Whereupon the man is made to renounce all his former grounds of Hope, & Confidence , all his former Duties , good works, civility, Ne- gative Holinefs , & what elfe he placed his Confidence in formerly ; Yea all his Righteoufneffes are as filthy rags, & accounted as lots & dung. So that he bath nothing within himfelf, as a Righteoufnefs, that. he can ex- pe to be juftified by, before God; but on the contrary , hefindeth him- felf under the Curfe , & that what he thought before to be his Righreouf- nefs , is now, by the light of the Law, & the difcovery he bath of his na- tural condition, fóunde to be fin & iniquity before God ; & therefore to be fo far from bringing any reliefe unto him, that thereby his anxiety is made greater, & his cafe more defperar. III. The way of Gofpel- juflification is fo contrived, & the wakened man (whom God is about to jutlifie) is now convinced of it , that Man muff be abafed; for he is now made to fee, that he is empty & poor, & bath nothing to eorrimend him to God, no Righteoufnefs of his own ro produce;
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