A39680:168
Sacramental meditations upon divers select places of scripture
Sacramental meditations upon divers select places of scripture wherein believers are assisted in preparing their hearts, and exciting their affections and graces, when they draw nigh to God in that most awful and solemn ordinance of the Lords Supper / by Jo. Flavel ...
London: printed for Jacob Sampson, 1679
THE THIRD MEDITATION UPON › Doct. › Section 3 › Subsection 2
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
2.
How little reason have any of us to be proud of our best performances! 1There is not a just man upon Earth, that doth good and sinneth not, saith Solomon, Eccles. 7. 20. If there be something supernaturally good in our duties, yet there is abundance of natural evil commixed with that good; the evil is wholly ours, the good wholly Gods: we have no reason then to glory in our best performances.
- 12.
It hath been a question with some, whether some short transient act of a regenerate soul may not be free from sin; but it was never questioned whether any continued act, much less a course of actions could be without sin. Evil will be present with us in all we do, 'twill be with us in our Closets, present even in the awful presence of the holy God, in the most high and solemn duties of Religion, in the most pure and spiritual actions that pass from us; cease then as from dependence, so from Pride and Conceitedness in all you do. Whilst our natures are sanctified but in ⟨p. 51⟩part, and our principles mixed, our duties and performances can never be pure. Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Not one,