Lord alluded to the verse that immediately follows and completes his quotations from Isaiah
. I, Jehovah, will come and do this. That he implicitly declared himself the Jehovah, the Word,—this was the offence.
Chap. XLIX. p. 443.
God wills, may one say, that we should serve him freewillingly, but he that serveth God out of fear of punishment of hell, or out of a hope and love of recompence, the same serveth and honoreth God not freely; therefore such a one serveth God not uprightly nor truly.
Answer. This argument (said Luther) is Stoical, &c.
A truly wise paragraph. Pity it was not expounded. God will accept our imperfections, where their face is turned toward him, on the road to the glorious liberty of the Gospel.
Chap. L. p. 446.