Caryl - Houston-Packer Collection BS1415 .C37 v12

838 ,Chap. 42. an Expofition tapon tho Book_of J o B. Verf. 6. as their beauty : but toa repenting foul , nothing appeareth more dirty and filthy ; and whoabhors not that which is fo to him ? Secondly, A repenting foul looketh upon fin as a hurtful thing to him. We naturally turn from, and abhor that which is fo. We abhor the poyfon of a Toad, and the fling of a Serpent : To rafle the one, or to be bitten by the other, is no more deadly to the body, than fin is to the foul. Thirdly, A repenting foul is tick, verytick of his fins, theyhave burdened his conscience, as unwholfom food doth the flomack. Now, if a man abhors that whichbath made him flomackfick, much more will he abhor that which bath indeed, and not fo much from the quantity as from the qualityand nature of it, made him confcience-Gck. Fourthly, A repenting perfon hath vomited or caf+ up his fins by an humble confeflion of them alwayes toGod, and in fome cafes to men (Repentance is the fouls vomit.) Now, as any man !oaths his own vomit; fo a man truly repenting, !oaths the fin which he bath thus vomited. Uponall theft accounts a repenting foul !oaths finful felf, orfin in himfclf. Thirdly, But why doth a repenting foul abhor righteous fell ? I anfwer, Firfl, Becaufe he is convinced, that felf- righteotfnefs is a weak imperfe& thing, even in fan&ification ; and therefore he is fo far fromboaflingof it, or crating in it, that he bath a kind of abhorrence of ir. Secondly, He feeth, that as to juflification it is a filthy abomi- nable thing Ufa. 64. 6.) All our righteoufnefs are asfilthy rags,. And as heabhors it, becaufe 'tis unfit and incompetent in is felt for that ufe, fo becaufe 'cis utterly inconfiflent with the tenour of the Gofpel, wherein God bath removed all mans righreouf- nefs, how pure foever it may be, from that ufc, and directed us to look only to the righteoufnefs of Chrifl for that ufe, which theApofllecalls the rcghteoufncfsof God (Rom. Io. 3.) and that in a twofold refpe&. FirR, becaufe 'cis that which the wifdom of God the Father bath provided for us ; and, Secondly, which the worthinefs of God the Son bath wrought out and procured for us. Take two or three Inferences from the general Obfervation thus far profecuted, That

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