A Body of Practical Divinity

2. As the Unregenerate cannot keep the Moral Law perfectly, so neither the Regenerate. Eccles. 7.20. There is not a just Man upon the Earth that doth good and sinneth not: Nay, that sins not in doing good. There's that in the best Actions of a Righteous Man that is damnable, if God should weigh him in the Balance of Justice. Alas! How are his Duties Fly-blown. He cannot pray without wandering, nor believe without doubting. Rom. 7.18. To me to will is present, but how to perform I find not. In the Greek it is [Greek or Hebrew], How to do it thoroughly I find not. Paul, tho a Saint of the first Magnitude, was better at willing, than at performing. Mary asked where they had laid Christ: She had a mind to have carried him away, but she wanted Strength: So the Regenerate have a Will to obey God's Law perfectly, but they want Strength: Their Obedience is weak and sickly: The Mark they are to shoot at is perfection of Holiness; tho they take a right Aim, yet do what they can they shoot short. Rom. 7.19. The Good which I would I do not. A Christian, while he is serving God, is hindered. Like a Ferry-man that plies the Oar, and rows hard, but a Gust of Wind carries him back again. So saith Paul, The Good I would I do not; I am driven back by a Temptation. Now if there be any Failure in our Obedience, we cannot make a perfect Commentary upon God's Law. No Christian alive can write a Copy of Holiness without blotting. The Virgin Mary's Obedience was not perfect, she needed Christ's Blood to wash her Tears. Aaron was to make Atonement for the Altar, Exod. 29.37. to show that the most holy Offering hath Defilement in it, and needs Atonement to be made for it.

2. As the Unregenerate cannot keep the Moral Law perfectly, so neither the Regenerate. Eccles. 7.20. There is not a just Man upon the Earth that doth good and sinneth not: Nay, that sins not in doing good. There's that in the best Actions of a Righteous Man that is damnable, if God should weigh him in the Ballance of Justice. Alas! How are his Duties Fly-blown. He cannot pray without wandring, nor believe without doubting.