of his days, and then conspire against him, he must die for his treason. Even so, though thou shouldest all the time of thy life live in perfect obedience to the law of God; and only at the hour of death, entertain a vain thought, or pronounce an ill word; that idle word, or vain thought, would blot out all thy former righteousness, and ruin thee; namely, in this way in which thou art seeking to recover thyself.

Now, such is the obedience thou must perform, if thou wouldest recover thyself in the way of the law. But, though thou shouldest thus obey, the law stakes thee down in the state of wrath, till another demand of it be satisfied, viz.

SECONDLY, Thou must pay what thou owest. It is undeniable thou art a sinner: and whatever thou mayest be in time to come, justice must be satisfied for thy sin already committed. The honour of the law must be maintained, by thy suffering the denounced wrath. It may be thou hast changed thy course of life, or art now resolved to do it, and to set about the keeping of the commands of God: but what hast thou done, or what wilt thou do with the old debt? Your obedience to God, though it were perfect, is a debt due to him, for the time wherein it is performed; and can no more satisfy for former sins, than a tenant's paying the current year's rent, can satisfy the master for all by-gones. Can the paying of new debts acquit a man from old accompts? Nay, deceive not yourselves, you will find these laid up in store with God, "and scaled up among his treasures," Deut. xxxii. 34. It remains then, that either thou must bear that wrath, to which for thy sin thou art liable according to the law; or else thou must acknowledge thou canst not bear it, and thereupon have recourse to the Surety, the Lord Jesus Christ. Let me now ask thee, art thou able to satisfy the Justice of God? Canst thou pay thy own debt? surely not for, seeing he is an infinite God, whom thou hast offended: the punishment, being suited to the quality of the offence, inust be infinite. But so it 15, thy punishment or sufferings for sin cannot be infi.

a finite creature: thereduration or continuance, And so all thy sufferings

nite in value, seeing thou art fore they must be infinite in that is, they must be eternal. in this world are but an earnest of what thou must suffer in the world to come.

Now, sinner, if thou canst answer these demands, thou mayest recover thyself in the way of the law. But art thou not conscious of thy inability to do any of these things; much more to do them all: yet if thou do not all, thou dost nothing. Turn then to what course of life thou wilt, thou art still in a state of wrath. Screw up thy obedience to the greatest height thou canst; suffer what God lays upon thee, yea add, if thou wilt, to the burden, and walk under all, without the least impatience: yea, all this will not satisfy the demands of the law; and therefore thou art still a ruined creature. Alas! sinner, what art thou doing, while, thou strivest to help thyself, but dost not receive, and unite with, Jesus Christ? Thou art labouring in the fire, wearying thyself for very vanity; labouring to enter into heaven by the door which Adam's sin so bolted, as neither he, nor any of his lost posterity, can ever enter by it. Dost thou not see the flaming sword of justice keeping thee off from the tree of life? Dost thou not hear the law denouncing a curse on thee, for all thou art doing; even for thy obedience, thy prayers, thy tears, thy reformation of life, &c.; because being under the law's dominion, thy best works are not so good, as it requires them to be, under the pain of the curse? Believe it, sirs, if you live and die out of Christ, without being actually united to him as the second Adam, a life-giving spirit, and without coming under the covert of his atoning blood; though ye should do the utmost that any man on earth can do, in keeping the commands of God, ye shall never see the face of God in peace. If you should, from this moment, bid an eternal farewell to this world's joys, and all the affairs thereof; and henceforth busy yourselves with nothing but the salvation of your souls: if you should go into some wilderness, live upon the grass of the field, and be companions to dragons and owls: if you

should retire to some dark cavern of the earth, and weep there for your sins, until you have wept yourselves blind, yea, weep out all the moisture of your body; if ye should confess with your tongue, until it cleave to the roof of your mouth; pray till your knees grow hard as horns; fast till your body become like a skeleton; and after all this, give it to be burnt: the word is gone out of the Lord's mouth in righteousness, and cannot return; you should perish for ever, notwithstanding of all this, as not being in Christ, John xiv. 6. "No man cometh unto the Father, but by me." Acts iv. 12. "Neither is there salvation in any other," Mark xvi. 16. "He that believeth not, shall be damned "

Objection. But God is a merciful God, and. he knows we are not able to answer these demands: we hope therefore to be saved, if we do as well as we can, and keep the commands as well as we are able. Answer, (1.) Though thou art able to do many things, thou art not able to do one thing aright: thou canst do nothing acceptable to God, being out of Christ. John xv. 5. "Without me ye can do nothing." An unrenewed man, as thou art, can do nothing but sin; as we have already evinced. Thy best actions are sin, and so they increase thy debt to justice: how then can it be expected they should lessen it? (2.) If God should offer to save men, upon condition that they did all they could do in obedience to his commands, we have ground to think, that these who could betake themselves to that way should never be saved for where is the man that does as well as he can? Who sees not many false steps he has made, which he might have evited? There are so many things to be done, so many temptations to carry us out of the road of duty, and our nature is so very apt to be set on the fire of hell, that we would surely fail, even in some point that is within the compass of our natural abilities. But (3.) Though thou shouldest do all thou art able to do, in vain dost thou hope to be saved in that way. What word of God is this hope of thine founded on? It is neither founded on law nor gospel; and therefore it is but a delusion.

It is not founded on the gospel; for the gospel leads the soul out of itself, to Jesus Christ for all; and it establisheth the law, Rom. iii. 31. Whereas this hope of yours cannot be established, but on the ruins of the law, which God will magnify and make honourable. And hence it appears that it is not founded on the law neither. When God set Adam a working for happiness to himself and his posterity, perfect obedience was the condition required of him; and a curse was denounced in case of disobedience. The law being broken by him, he and his posterity was subjected to the penalty, for sin committed; and withal still bound to perfect obedience; for it is absurd to think, that man's sinning, and suffering for his sin, should free him from his duty of obedience to his Creator. When Christ came in the room of the elect, to purchase their salvation, the same were the terms. Justice had the elect under arrest; if he minds to deliver them, the terms are known. He must satisfy for their sin, by suffering the punishment due to it: he must do what they cannot do, to wit, obey the law perfectly; and so fulfil all righteousness. Accordingly, all this he did, and so became "the end of the law for righteousness, to every one that believeth," Rom. x. 4. And now dost thou think God will abate of these terms to thee, when his own Son got no abatement of them? Expect it not, though thou shouldest beg it with tears of blood; for if they prevailed, they behoved to prevail against the truth, justice, and honour of God, Gal. iii. 10. "Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things, which are written in the book of the law to do them." ver. 22. "And the law is not of faith, but the man that doth them, shall live in them." It is true, that God is mer ciful but cannot he be merciful, unless he save you in a way that is neither consistent with his law, nor gospel? Hath not his goodness and mercy sufficiently appeared, in sending the Son of his love, to do "what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh ?" He has provided help for them that cannot help themselves; but thou, insensible of thine own weakness, wilt needs

think to recover thyself by thine own works, while thou art no more able to do it, than to remove mountains of brass out of their place.

Wherefore I conclude, thou art utterly unable to recover thyself, by the way of works, or of the law. O that thou wouldest conclude the same concerning thyself!

II. Let us try next, what the sinner can do to recover himself, in the way of the gospel. It is likely thou thinkest, that howbeit thou canst not do all by thyself alone, yet Jesus Christ offering thee help, thou canst of thyself embrace it, and use it to thy recovery. But O sinner, be convinced of thine absolute need of the grace of Christ: for truly, there is help offered, but thou canst not accept of it: there is a rope cast out to hale shipwrecked sinners to land; but, alas! they have no hands to catch hold of it. They are like infants exposed in the open field, that must starve, though their food be lying by them, unless one put it in their mouths. To convince natural men of this, let it be considered,

First, That although Christ is offered in the gospel, yet they cannot believe in him. Saving faith is the faith of God's elect; the special gift of God to them, wrought in them by his Spirit. Salvation is offered to them that will believe in Christ; but how can ye believe? John v. 44. It is offered to these that will come to Christ, but "no man can come unto him except the Father draw him." It is offered to them that will look to him, as lifted up on the pole of the gospel, Isa. xlv. 22. but the natural man is spiritually blind, Rev. iii. 17. and as to the things of the Spirit of God, he cannot know them, for they are spiritually discerned, 1 Cor. ii. 14. Nay, whosoever will, he is welcome; let him come, Rev. xxii. 17. But there must be a day of power, on the sinner, before he will be willing, Psal. cx. 3.

Secondly, Man naturally has nothing, wherewithal to improve, to his recovery, the help brought in by the gospel. He is cast away in a state of wrath; but is bound hand and foot, so that he cannot lay hold on the