The sound believer, or, A treatise of evangelical conversion discovering the work of Christs…The sound beleever, or, A treatise of evangelicall conversion discovering the work of Christs…

1. By discovering the secret corruptions of the soul in every duty, which it never saw before; It once thought, I shall perish for my sin, if I continue therein, without confession of them, or sorrow for them; but it also did think that this confession, sorrow, and trouble for sin will serve to save it, and make God to accept of it; but the Law (while the soul is earnestly striving against his sin) discovering that in all these there is nothing but sin, even secret sins it did never see before, hereupon it begins thus to think, Can these be the means of saving of me, which being so sinful, cannot but be the very causes of condemning of me? I know I must perish for the least sin, and now I see that in all I do, I can do nothing else but sin. What made Paul alive without the Law? You shall find, Rom. 7.7. it was because he did not know that lust, or the secret concupiscences and first risings of the soul to sin, were sin; he saw not these secret evils in all that which he did: and •ence he rested in his duties, as one alive without Christ; but the Lord by discovering this, let him see what little cause he had to lift up his hand, for any good he did: So it is here, when the soul sees that all its righteousness ⟨p. 131⟩is a menstruous cloth, polluted with sin; now those duties which like reeds it trusted to before, run into the hand, nay heart of a poor sinner; and therefore now it sees little cause of resting on them any longer: now it sees the infinite holiness of God by the exceeding spiritualness of the law, it begins to cry out, How can I stand or appear before him with such continual pollutions?

1. By discovering the secret corruptions of the soule in every duty, which it never saw before; It once thought, I shall perish for my sinne, if I continue therein, without confession of them, or sorrow for them; but it also did think that this confession, sorrow, and trouble for sinne will serve to save it, and make God to accept of it; but the Law (while the soule is earnestly striving against his sinne) discovering that in all these there is nothing but sinne, even secret sinnes it did never see before, hereupon it begins thus to think, Can these be the meanes of saving of me, which being so sinfull, cannot but be the very causes of condemning of me? I know I must perish for the least sinne, and now I see that in all I doe, I can do nothing else but sinne. What made Paul alive without the Law? You shall finde,