For being thus in distress,
and terrified, seeing that by no other means he can avoid the
condemnation of the law, he prays to the Father for grace; he
acknowledges his frailty, he confesses his sin, he ceases to trust in
works, and humbles himself, perceiving that between him and a manifest
sinner there is no difference at all except of works, that he hath a
wicked heart, even as every other sinner hath. The condition of man's
nature is such that it is able to give to the law works only, and not
the heart; an unequal division, truly, to dedicate the heart, which,
incomparably excels all other things, to sin, and the hand to the law:
which is offering chaff to the law, and the wheat to sin; the shell to
God, and the kernel to Satan; whose ungodliness if one reprove, they
become enraged, and would even take the life of innocent Abel, and
persecute all those that follow the truth.
Those that trust in works seem to defend them to obtain righteousness;
they promise to themselves a great reward for this, by persecuting
heretics and blasphemers, as they say, who seduce with error, and entice
many from good works. But those that God hath chosen, learn by the law
how unwilling the heart is to conform to the works of the law; they fall
from their arrogancy, and are by this knowledge of themselves brought to
see their own unworthiness.
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