therefore, before we can heartily close with Christ and accept of him,
we must be put from those refuges of lies, and see that there is nothing
but a disappointment written on them all, that all our prayers,
fastings, cries, duties, reformations, sufferings, good wishes, good
deeds, &c. are nothing in his eyes, but so many provocations to the eyes
of his jealousy, and so, further causes of our misery.

4. There must be a rational, deliberate, and resolute relinquishing of
all those things in ourselves, on which our heart is ready to dote. The
man being convinced of the vanity of all things by which he hath been
hoping for salvation, must now purpose to lose his grips of them, to
turn his back upon them, to quit them with purpose of heart, and to say
to them, get you hence, as Isa. xxx. 22. This is to deny ourselves,
which we must do ere we become his disciples, Matt. xvi. 24. This is to
forsake our father's house, Psalm xlv. 10, and to pluck out our right
eye, and to cut off our right arm, Matth. v. 29, 30. This abandoning of
all our false propes and subterfuges must be resolute, over the belly of
much opposition within, from the carnal and natural inclinations of the
heart; and of much opposition without, from Satan's ensnaring
suggestions and deceitful temptations: It must be a real, rational act
of the soul, upon solid and thorough conviction of their
unprofitableness, yea, of their dangerousness and destructiveness.

5. There must be some knowledge of the nature of the gospel covenant,
and of the way which now God hath chosen whereby to glorify his grace in
the salvation of poor sinners. That God, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost
thought good, for the glory of free grace and wisdom, in a way of
justice and mercy, to send Jesus Christ to assume man's nature, and so
become God and man in two distinct natures, and one person, for ever;
and to become under the law, to undergo the curse thereof, and to die