When we hear the law
truly preached, how that we ought to love and honour God with all our
strength and might, from the low bottom of the heart: and our
neighbours (yee our enemies.) as our selves inwardly from the ground
of the heart, and to do whatsoever God biddeth, and abstain from
whatsoever God forbiddeth, with all love and meekness, with a fervent
and a burning lust, from the center of the heart, then beginneth the
conscience to rage against the law, and against God; No less (be it
never so great a tempest) is so unquiet. It is not possible for a
natural man to consent to the law, that it should be good, or that
God should be righteous, which maketh the law. Man's wit, reason, and
will, are so fast glued, yee nailed and chained unto the will of the
devil. Neither can any creature lowse the bonds, save the blood of
Christ.
(( Christ letteth us at liberty ))
This is the captivity and bondage whence Christ delivered us,
redeemed, and lowsed us. His blood, his death, his patience, in
suffering rebukes and wrongs, his prayers and fastings, his meekness
and fulfilling of the utmost point of the law, appeased the wrath of
God, brought the favor of God to us again, obtained that God should
love us first, and be our father, and that a merciful father, that
will consider our infirmities and weakness, and will give us his
spirit again (which was taken away in the fall of Adam) to rule
govern and strength us, and to break the bonds of Satan, where in we
were so strait bound.
Pages:
601
602
603
604
605
606
607
608
609
610
611
612
613
614
615
616
617
618
619
620
621
622
623
624
625