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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Concerning Christian Liberty by Martin Luther: For example, "Thou shalt not covet," is a precept by which we are
all convicted of sin, since no man can help coveting, whatever
efforts to the contrary he may make. In order therefore that he
may fulfil the precept, and not covet, he is constrained to
despair of himself and to seek elsewhere and through another the
help which he cannot find in himself; as it is said, "O Israel,
thou hast destroyed thyself; but in Me is thine help" (Hosea
xiii. 9). Now what is done by this one precept is done by all;
for all are equally impossible of fulfilment by us.
Now when a man has through the precepts been taught his own
impotence, and become anxious by what means he may satisfy the
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