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the unalterable word of the living God, two things which thou must do for thyself. And if thou canst do them, it must be yielded, that thou art able to recover thyself; but if not, then thou canst do nothing this way for thy recovery.

FIRST, If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments, Mat. xix. 17. That is, if thou wilt, by doing, enter into life, then perfectly keep the ten commands. For the

scope of these words is, to beat down the pride of man's heart and to let him see the absolute need of a Saviour, from the impossibility of keeping the law. The answer is given, suitable to the address. Our Lord checks him for his compliment, Good master, ver. 16. telling him, There is none good but one, that is God, ver. 17. As if he had said, You think yourself a good man, and me another? But where goodness is spoken of, men and angels may veil their faces before the good God. And as to his question, wherein he discovereth his legal disposition, Christ does not answer him, saying, Believe and thou shalt be saved; that would not have been so seasonable, in the case of one who thought he could do well enough for himself, if he but knew what good things he should do; but, suitable to the humour the man was in, he bid him keep the commandments: keep them nicely and accurately, as those that watch malefactors in prison, lest any of them escape, and their life go for theirs. See then, O unregenerate man, what canst thou do in this matter; for if thou wilt recover thyself in this way, thou must perfectly keep the commandments of God.

And, (1.) Thy obedience must be perfect, in respect of the principle of it; that is, thy soul, the principle of action, must be perfectly pure, and altogether without sin. For the law quires all moral perfection; not only actual, but habitual, and so condemns original sin; impurity of nature, as well as of actions. Now, if thou canst bring this to pass, thou shalt be able to answer that question of Solomon's so as never one of Adam's posterity could yet answer it, Prov. xx. 9. Who can say, I have made my heart clean? But if thou canst not, the very want of this perfec tion is a sin; and so lays thee open to the curse, and cuts thee off from life. Yea, it makes all thine actions, even thy best actions sinful; "For who can bring a clean

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And dost thou

thing out of an unclean?" Job xiv. 4. think, by sin, to help thyself out of sin and misery? (2.) Thy obedience must also be perfect in parts. It must be as broad as the whole law of God if thou lackest one thing, thou art undone; for the law denounceth the curse on him that continueth not in every thing written therein, Gal. iii. 10. Thou must give internal and external obedience to the whole law; keep all the commands, in heart and life. If thou breakest any one of them, that will insure thy ruin. A vain thought, or idle word, will still shut thee up under the curse. (3.) It must be perfect in respect of degrees, as was the obedience of Adam, while he stood in his innocence. This the law requires, and will accept of no less, Mat. xxii. 37. "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind." If one degree of that love, required by the law, be wanting; if each part of thy obedience be not screwed up to the greatest height commanded; that want is a breach of the law, and so leaves thee still under the curse. One may bring as many buckets of water, to a house that is on fire, as he is able to carry, and yet it may be consumed; and will be so, if he bring not as many as will quench the fire. Even so, although thou shouldst do what thou art able, in keeping the commands; if thou fail in the least degree of obedience which the law enjoins, thou art certainly ruined for ever; unless thou take hold of Christ, renouncing all thy righteousness as filthy rags. See Rom. x. 5. Gal. iii. 10.-Lastly, It must be perpetual, as the man Christ's obedience was, who always did the things that pleased the Father; for the tenor of the law is, "Cursed is he that continueth not in all things written in the law, to do them." Hence, though Adam's obedience was for a while absolutely perfect; yet, because at length he tripped in one point, viz. in eating the forbidden fruit, he fell under the curse of the law. If one should live a dutiful subject to his prince, till the close of his days, and then conspire against him, he must die for his treason. Even so, though thou shouldst, 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 idle 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 wouldst recover thyself in the way of the law. But though thou shouldst 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 alrea dy 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 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 bygones. Can the paying of new debts acquit a man from old accounts? Nay, deceive not yourselves, you will find these laid up in store with God, and sealed 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, must be infinite. But so it is, thy punishment or sufferings for sin cannot be infinite in value, seeing thou art a finite creature; therefore, they must be infinite in duration or continuance; that is, they must be eternal. And so all thy sufferings 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 wilts

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; yet 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 tear, 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 farewel to this world's joy, 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, wept 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."

Object. But God is a merciful God, and he knows we are not able to answer his 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. Ans. (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 would 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 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 shouldst 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 ruin 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 were 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 underarrest; if he minds to deliver them, the terms are known.

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