A severe schoolmaster
To slay the sinner is then the first use of the law; to destroy the life and strength wherein he trusts, and convince him that he is dead while he lives; not only under the sentence of death, but actually dead to God, void of all spiritual life, dead in trespasses and sins (Ephesians 2:1). The second use of it is, to bring him to life, to Christ, that he may live. It is true, in performing both these offices, it acts the part of a severe school-master. It drives us by force, rather than draws us by love. And yet love is the spring of all. It is the spirit of love, which by this painful means, tears away our confidence in the flesh, which leaves us no broken reed on which to trust, and so constrains the sinner stripped of all, to cry out in the bitterness of his soul, or groan in the depth of his heart,
1771 text
2. To slay the sinner is then the first use of the law; to destroy the life and strength wherein he trusts, and convince him that he is dead while he liveth; not only under the sentence of death, but actually dead unto God, void of all spiritual life, dead in trespasses and sins. The second use of it is, to bring him unto life, unto Christ, that he may live. ’Tis true, in performing both these offices, it acts the part of a severe school-master. It drives us by force, rather than draws us by love. And yet love is the spring of all. It is the spirit of love, which by this painful means, tears away our confidence in the flesh, which leaves us no broken reed whereon to trust, and so constrains the sinner stript of all, to cry out in the bitterness of his soul, or groan in the depth of his heart,