The saints dignity and duty· Together with the danger of ignorance and hardness. /…The saints dignitie and dutie· Together with the danger of ignorance and hardnesse. /…

Thus you see how that the sins of Gods people are altogether unexcusable; unpardonable they are not, mercy there shall be, but yet notwithstanding they are unexcusable. All your disobediences whatsoever they are, notwithstanding all the frailty of your nature, they are without all excuse: For the ground of your disobedience is either because you are not willing to obey, or else because you are not able to believe the truth of what God hath said. Therefore learn (I beseech you) to be ashamed of your selves, and of those guilts and disobediences that lie upon you; there is great fault in your selves; for though you have no power in your selves, God having promised to make you able, you should have been able, if you were not guilty, either in want of a will to be cured, or in want of ability to believe what God hath said. Here is the Second Use.

Thus you see how that the sins of Gods people are altogether unexcusable; unpardonable they are not, mercie there shall bee, but yet notwithstanding they are unexcusable. All your disobediences whatsoever they are, notwithstanding all the frailty of your nature, they are without all excuse: For the ground of your disobedience is either because you are not willing to obey, or else because you are not able to beleeve the truth of what God hath said. Therefore learn (I beseech you) to be ashamed of your selves, and of those guilts and disobediences that lie upon you; there is great sault in your selves; for though you have no power in your selves, God having promised to make you able, you should have been able, if you were not guiltie, either in want of a will to be cured, or in want of abilitie to beleeve what God hath said. Here is the Second Use.

Again the third use of this point is to teach us what is the only and ready way to be able to obey Gods Commandments. This is a thing which all that are truly godly desire much to know, and this point teacheth us, The only way to be able to obey Gods Commandments is to believe; It ariseth thus, God hath promised to make his people able to do all that he commandeth: if God hath promised it, then they have no power but from God: it were but a slight thing for God to promise that, which they could do of themselves: God having therefore promised it, it plainly appeareth they have no power of themselves to do it: and God having promised to do it, they must have this power to do it, by laying hold upon the promise, and that is by believing. So that the only way to attain to any obedience, is by faith to lay hold upon the promise of God; In a word, all strength to obey cometh by promise, the promise is made ours by believing, there is no way therefore to obey but by believing. Hence it is, that in