Application

USE.

Be we then exhorted not to place our hope in God, for the sake of any righteousness of our own, when we must [illegible] our best so short of what it ought to be, which needs a pardon, and therefore cannot command his favor; but let the sense of our duty, and our defect put us upon [illegible] on Christ alone, and his righteousness as the meritorious and material cause of our acquittance from the condemnation of the law, and being made the owners of a title to eternal life. Let us look here for a sure foundation to build our hope upon, to receive the reward of eternal glory; and not to any thing of our own. Let our dependence be here for the acceptance of our poor imperfect duties, acknowledging that but for this they could not but be rejected. Let us in sense of our own imperfection, be ever bewailing of it, and go to Christ to have it sprinkled with his blood. Let us press hard all our lives after more holiness, prosecuting it with utmost reachings; and let every new acquest by divine help, make us the more earnest after further degrees of it, and more vigorous in the use of all means to reach them. Nor let us tire and give in, so long as we are any whit behind those who are now totally freed from sin, and in whom grace is arrived at its full stature in glory.