What They Said

"He suffered men, indeed, to make trial of other ways; and when their insufficiency for the ends men proposed to themselves was manifested, it pleased him to reveal His way. And what are we, that we should contend about it with Him? God's rejection of the way of personal righteousness, and choosing the way of grace and forgiveness, he reveals, Jeremiah 31:31-34: 'Behold the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah; not according to the covenant which I made with their fathers,' (in which administration of the covenant, as far as it had respect to typical mercies, much depended on their personal obedience,) 'but this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord: I will put my law in their hearts, and will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more.' Let, then, this way stand, and the way of man's wisdom and self-righteousness perish forever." 

John Owen