Re: Genoeg

sin, or that God will surely never show mercy to them who
are such vipers; and are often tempted to leave off in despair. But then
perhaps by something they read or hear of the infinite mercy of God, and
all-sufficiency of Christ for the chief of sinners, they have some
encouragement and hope renewed; but think that as yet they are not fit
to come to Christ; they are so wicked that Christ will never accept
them. And then it may be they set themselves upon a new course of
fruitless endeavors, in their own strength, to make themselves better,
and still meet with new disappointments. They are earnest to inquire
what they shall do. They do not know but there is something else to be
done, in order to their obtaining converting grace, that they have never
done yet. It may be they hope that they are something better than they
were; but then the pleasing dream all vanishes again. If they are told
that they trust too much to their own strength and righteousness, they
cannot unlearn this practice all at once, and find not yet the
appearance of any good, but all looks as dark as midnight to them. Thus
they wander about from mountain to hill, seeking rest, and finding none.
When they are beat out of one refuge, they fly to another; till they are
as it were debilitated, broken, and subdued with legal humblings; in
which God gives them a conviction of their own utter helplessness and
insufficiency, and discovers the true remedy in a clearer knowledge of
Christ and His gospel.

When they begin to seek salvation, they are commonly profoundly ignorant
of themselves; they are not sensible how blind they are; and how little
they can do towards bringing themselves to see spiritual things aright,
and towards putting forth gracious exercises in their own souls. They
are not sensible how remote they are from love to God, and other holy
dispositions, and how dead they are in sin. When they see unexpected
pollution in their own hearts, they go about to wash away their own
def