captivity; into the which we were cast, through the envy of the devil, by breaking of God's commandment in our first parent Adam. We are all become unclean: but we are not able to cleanse ourselves, nor to make one another of us clean." "Neither may we rejoice in any works that we do, all which are so imperfect and impure, that they are not able to stand before the righteous judgmentseat of God." Such, my brethren, is the humiliating description of human nature, as given in the standard doctrines of our church; as confirmed by the word of God, and by universal observation. Oh! that these salutary doctrines were more prominently and frequently introduced than they are! We might then hope to see men's minds prepared to receive Christ as a full and welcomed Saviour. We should then not hear as we now hear, human nature so frequently extolled, not only by the votaries of vain philosophy, but by too many who profess to teach the word of God, and to lead their fellowsinners to Christ.

Though all have sinned or fallen from the state of perfect holiness or conformity with the law of God, that law has not lost its obligation over the human race. It is still the true standard of moral rectitude or righteousness. By it we shall be judged and by it we shall be condemned, if by it we seek to be justified.

It may be objected, why doth God try and condemn us by the law, when we cannot keep or obey that law? Does he not unjustly exact from us what we cannot do, and threaten to punish us for that which we cannot help?

To this objection it may be replied, that man's inability to keep the law of God, is not of God, but of himself. Besides, this inability of man to serve his Creator, fully and perfectly, as the law requires, is voluntary on man's part. He has no inclination to perform such a service. God created man altogether righteous, and gave him power to continue righteous. He, moreover, warned Adam of his danger of falling,3 and of the consequence of falling. He created man with a free will to stand or to fall; and endowed him with sufficient strength to stand the trial, and to continue in his perfect righteousness. Had he stood, confirmation in righteousness and eternal life would, perhaps, have been the happy consequence. Indeed, the term of the covenant seems to imply this. The threatening of death as the penalty for transgression, implies a promise of life as a reward for continual obedience. If "thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die," seems equivalent to, If thou eatest not thereof, thou shalt surely live.

With man's inability to keep the law of God, 3 Gen. ii. 16, 17.

and his consequent condemnation, we must not charge God. Adam wilfully fell by transgression; and in his fall and its awful consequences, he involved his posterity." "By one man's disobedience many were made sinners." And Adam's posterity, by willingly continuing disobedient, confirm, as far as they can, Adam's transgression, and justify their righteous condemnation.

We may, perhaps, illustrate this by an hypothesis. Suppose one of you, as a father, were to commit to his son a certain portion of goods to be carefully preserved and improved for his own advantage and that of his descendants. Suppose, also, that the said son had been qualified to conserve and improve what you commit to him; at the same time warned of his danger, and of the consequence of failing. Now, if, after all this, he should disregard the warning, neglect his duty, dissipate the property, and thus bring ruin and misery on himself and all his posterity, who would be chargeable with that ruin and misery? Not the father who had committed to his son the property, and had endowed him with ability to preserve and improve it; but the son himself, who had lost the property; and, to aggravate the guilt of his negligence, upon him would be charged the

4 Rom. v. 19.

misery and ruin of his children and children's children.

Thus has our first parent, our federal and natural head, plunged his posterity into sin, guilt, ruin, and helplessness. We are unable to obey the law, or obtain righteousness by the deeds of the law, while our obligation to that law is by no means relaxed; and our condemnation under it, as a covenant of works, is by no means removed. "For as

many as are of the works of the law are under the curse. "5

Our obligation to keep the law perfectly as a covenant of works, or to suffer its full penalty for the least failure, is the tenor of that covenant. That covenant knows but one of these alternatives: "Do this and live: fail only in one point and die." But as no one can perfectly keep the law, so to be under it as a covenant, is to be under its condemnation. Nor is this condemnation removed or mitigated by a partial or imperfect obedience to the law. "For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all." 6 Again; "Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them." Here, you perceive, the least failure in a perpetual, perfect, and universal obe6 James, ii. 10.

5 Gal. iii. 10.

7 Gal. iii. 10.

dience, places you under the curse of the broken law.

You will, perhaps, reply, this is a hard doctrine, who can bear it? And, if it be true, who can be saved? We answer, that by the deeds of the law no one can be saved. This way of salvation is for ever barred against every one. You may inquire, of what use is the law, or why do you preach the law, since the law cannot save us? We remark, that the law serveth not to justify but to condemn us; it is the ministration of death through the sinfulness of our nature; and, by condemning us, to drive us to seek justification and salvation in some other way, the only way, by Christ. For

II. THE USE OF THE LAW IS to convince us of sin: "By the law is the knowledge of sin." That which convicteth of sin, cannot remove sin. A straight line may exhibit the obliquity of another line, but does not make it straight. God's holy law is that right rule or true standard to which men's deeds, words, and thoughts are to be brought, and by which they are to be measured. If you bring your daily habits, your hourly deeds, words, and thoughts to this unerring rule of eternal and uncompromising rectitude, the rule or law will show you how perverse, how imperfect, how selfish they are, and how far short you