This I speak of
the sinner, the salvation of whose soul is graciously intended and
contrived of God; for he shall by gospel light be wearied out of
all; he shall be made to see the vanity of all, and that the
personal righteousness of Jesus Christ, and that only, is it which
of God is ordained to save the sinner from the due reward of his
sins. 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 all of a man's own is
utterly rejected as to the justification of his person with God,
then he is cast away.
Now, the reason of this sinking of heart is the sight that God has
given him--a sight of the uncleanness of his best performance. The
former sight of his immoralities did somewhat distress him, and make
him betake himself to his own good deeds to ease his conscience;
wherefore this was his prop, his stay. But behold, now God has taken
this from under him, and now he falls.
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