Twenty sermons preached at Oxford before His Majesty, and elsewhere

You see then the method of the Scripture is first to conclude all under sin, and so to fit men for the promise of Jesus Christ. Know therefore, that Law is the high-way to the Gospel, the path that leads to it, that way which must be trodden in: we are still out of our way, till we have begun our walks in this path: And if thou art not terrified by the Law, and the sight of thy sins, been at thy wits end, as it were, weary of thy condition and bondage, thou art not in the way yet. Our sowing must be in tears, Psal. 126.5. And it is said, that in the Church Triumphant all tears shall be wiped ⟨p. 35⟩away from our eyes. That's a promise: But is it possible that tears should b• wiped from our eyes before we shed them? Shall we look to go to Heaven in a way that was never yet found out? Shall it be accounted a point of preciseness to walk in this way, or a soul-torturing doctrine to preach it? This is the way that all our Fore-Fathers have both preached, and gone. This is that time of sowing spoken of in Psal. 126.5, 6. They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. It brings us joy in the end, to begin our sowing in tears. It waters that precious seed, and makes it bring forth joy unto us in abundance, yea such as no man can take from us.

So then having laid laid this point for a foundation, we now will come to the next.

That until we come to Christ, the Law lays hold of us. Till Christ come, we are shut up under the Law, kept under it. And if there were nothing else in the World to make a man weary of his condition, this were enough. Until a man hath given over himself to Christ, and renounced his own righteousness, he is subject to the Law, kept under it, not under grace. It brings a man only to the place, where grace is. Put this therefore close to your consciences, and jumble not these two together. First Nature cometh, and whilst you are under that, you are under the Law. Never think you are under the Covenant of Grace, till you believe (of which belief we shall speak more hereafter.) Whilst you are under the Law, you are held under it and by it made obnoxious to the wrath of God; Whoever is under the Law, is under the curse.