Oddparts Press

volumes, they might perhaps have withdrawn me from the solid ground of
piety, or, had I continued in that healthful frame which I had
thence imbibed, I might have thought that it might have been
obtained by the study of those books alone.

Most eagerly then did I seize that venerable writing of Thy
Spirit; and chiefly the Apostle Paul. Whereupon those difficulties
vanished away, wherein he once seemed to me to contradict himself, and
the text of his discourse not to agree with the testimonies of the Law
and the Prophets. And the face of that pure word appeared to me one
and the same; and I learned to rejoice with trembling. So I began; and
whatsoever truth I had read in those other books, I found here amid
the praise of Thy Grace; that whoso sees, may not so glory as if he
had not received, not only what he sees, but also that he sees (for
what hath he, which he hath not received?), and that he may be not
only admonished to behold Thee, who art ever the same, but also
healed, to hold Thee; and that he who cannot see afar off, may yet
walk on the way, whereby he may arrive, and behold, and hold Thee.
For, though a man be delighted with the law of God after the inner
man, what shall he do with that other law in his members which warreth
against the law of his mind, and bringeth him into captivity to the
law of sin which is in his members? For, Thou art righteous, O Lord,
but we have sinned and committed iniquity, and have done wickedly, and
Thy hand is grown heavy upon us, and we are justly delivered over unto
that ancient sinner, the king of death; because he persuaded our
will to be like his will whereby he abode not in Thy truth. What shall
wretched man do? who shall deliver him from the body of his death, but
only Thy Grace, through Jesus Christ our Lord, whom Thou hast begotten
co-eternal, and formedst in the beginning of Thy ways, in whom the
prince of this world found nothing worthy of death, yet killed he Him;
and the handwriting, which was contrary to us, was blotted out? This
those writings contain not. Those pages present not the image of
this piety, the tears of confession, Thy sacrifice, a troubled spirit,
a broken and a contrite heart, the salvation of the people, the Bridal
City, the earnest of the Holy Ghost, the Cup of our Redemption. No man