The safety of appearing at the day of judgement, in the righteousness of Christ

Particularly 1. By giving him experience of the failing of all means: he sees no other way left, he has been trying to wring himself out of the hands of God: he has been turning every way, and refuge fails him: he sees all his carnal hopes fall flat to the ground: his carnal hopes vanish and dye away: he has been waiting for light, and behold obscurity: he has been trying all conclusions, every way he could devil and think of, turning every stone, he hoped by his prayers to make his heart better, and by his fastings and by his watchfulness: sometimes he thought if he had more terrors that would do, sometimes if he had more encouragements, then his heart would be better: he has tried the utmost ⟨p. 213⟩of his skill upon his heart; sometimes he hoped that in time his heart would grow better, sometimes if he could hear such a Minister, sometimes if he could get such a good book that others had got much good by, then his heart would mend: the sinner is like a man lost in the woods, that thinks if he steers such a course that will bring him to the path, and if that fails, he thinks if he steers such a course that will do: but at last he can contrive no longer but is utterly lost in his own sense: so the sinner has had many contrivances, but all his projects fail: upon experience he finds himself after all his pains under the reigning power of sin; and that he is spiritually dead, he thought he had made some proficiency: but now he finds by experience that the life of sin is whole within him: and that he has no power nor disposition to any thing that is good: he has no spirit to any thing that is good: he had enlargements formerly, and thought he could delight in Sabbaths, but God is pleased to withdraw those encouragements that he had, and suffers the corruption of his heart to break out, and upon that occasion, his affections wither away, that discourages him, that his heart dies within him, and he has no more strength: now he sees he cannot love God, mourn for sin, &c. and hereby all his vain hopes of mending his own heart fall to the ground, Rom. 3:9. Sin revived and I died.

Particularly 1. By giving him experience of the failing of all means: he sees no other way left, he has been trying to wring himself out of the hands of God: he has been turning every way, and refuge fails him: he sees all his carnal hopes fall flat to the ground: his carnal hopes vanish and dye away: he has been waiting for light, and behold obscurity: he has been trying all conclusions, every way he could devile and think of, turning every stone, he hoped by his prayers to make his heart better, and by his fastings and by his watchfulness: sometimes he thought if he had more terrors that would do, sometimes if he had more encouragements, then his heart would be better: he has tryed the utmost