They have sought for grace by their own performances; but, alas,
they have yielded them nothing but wind and confusion; not a
performance, not a duty, not an act in any part of religious
worship, but they, looking upon it in the glass of the Lord, do find
it specked and defective.
They have sought for grace by their resolutions, their vows, their
purposes, and the like; but alas, they all do as the other, discover
that they have been very imperfectly managed, and so are such as can
by no means help them to grace.
They have gone to their tears, their sorrow, and repentance, if
perhaps they might find some help there; but all has fled away like
the early dew.
They have gone to God as the great Creator, and have beheld how
wonderful his works have been; they have looked to the heavens
above, to the earth beneath, and to all their ornaments; but neither
have these, nor what is of them, yielded grace to those that had
sensible want thereof.
They have gone with these pitchers to their fountains, and have
returned empty and ashamed; they found no water, no river of water
of life.
Paul, not finding it in the law, despairs to find it in any thing
else below, but presently betakes himself to look for it where he
had not yet found it: he looked for it by Jesus Christ, who is the
throne of grace, where he found it, and rejoiced in hope of the
glory of God.
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