When the law is in the hand of an easy pleader, though the cause
that he pleads be good, a crafty opposer may overthrow the right;
but here is the salvation of the children in debate, whether it can
stand with law and justice: the opposer of this is the devil, his
argument against it is the law; he that defends the doctrine is
Christ the advocate, who in his plea must justify the justice of
God, defend the holiness of the law, and save the sinner from all
the arguments, pleas, stops, and demurs that Satan is able to put in
against it. And this he must do fairly, righteously, simply,
pleading the voice of the self-same law for the justification of the
soul that he standeth for, which Satan leads against it; for though
it is by the new law that our salvation comes, yet by the old law is
the new law approved of, and the way of salvation thereby consented
to.
VIII. THE HOLY SPIRIT.
IT is the Spirit of God, even the Holy Ghost that convinceth us of
sin, and so of our damnable state because of sin.
Therefore the Spirit of God, when he worketh in the heart as a
spirit of bondage, doeth it by working in us by the law, for by the
law is the knowledge of sin. Rom. 6: 20. And he in this his working
is properly called a spirit of bondage; because by the law he shows
us that indeed we are in bondage to the law, the devil, and death
and danmation.
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