2. The penalty it inflicts : ' Cursed is every one.' How cursed ? Cursed in all that he hath, Deut. xxviii. 15-18. All his enjoyments become a snare, and temporal comforts do but harden him, and pre- pare him for a greater misery. Cursed in all that he doeth : his prayer is turned into sin ; his hearing, the ' savour of death unto death ; ' all his toil and labour in outward service is to no purpose : ' The sacrifice of the wicked is abomination : how much more when he bringeth it with a wicked mind ? ' Prov. xxi. 27. At the best it is but an ' abomination.' Cod will not accept an offering at his hands ; much more when it is polluted with sinful and evil aims. But this is not all ; he is cursed for evermore : the law bindeth him over, body and soul, to everlasting torments ; and in time he shall hear that dreadful sentence, ' Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels,' Mat. xxv. 41. There is but the slender thread of a frail life that hinders the execution of this sentence upon him : a sinner stands upon the very brink of hell, and ever and anon is ready to be cast in ; where he shall eternally lie under the wrath of God. So that here we are ' without strength,' because we cannot satisfy the justice of God for one sin, but are always satisfying, and can never be said to have satisfied ; like a poor man that pays a debt of a thousand pounds by a farthing a week.
3. Consider how this works with him. An exaction of duty under so severe a penalty doth either terrify or stupefy the conscience ; he that escapeth the one suftereth the other ; or else, thirdly, doth irritate corruption ; or, fourthly, obtrude us upon a sottish despair, so as to give over all endeavours and hope of salvation.
First, Sometimes it terrifieth. That is easily. done ; the conscience of a sinner is a sore place ; they are ' all their lifetime subject to bondage,' Heb. ii. 15. There is a hidden fear in the heart of a wicked man, not always felt, but soon awakened, either by a sound conviction from the word, or some sore judgment, or by the agonies of death, or serious thoughts of the world to come. Felix trembled when Paul did but mention God's 'judgment,' Acts xxi v. 25; the prisoner makes the judge tremble. A sinner is afraid to think of his condition, if God do but a little break in upon his heart : do what he can, he lies under the bondage of a wounded spirit, and wherever he goes, like the devils, he carrieth his own hell about with him.
Secondly, If it terrifieth not the conscience, it stupefieth the con- science, that they grow senseless of their misery, ' past feeling,' Eph. iv. 19. And that is a dangerous crisis and estate of soul, when
478 man's impotency to help himself [Rom. Y. 6.
once a man comes to that, and goeth like a fool to the correction of the stocks.
Thirdhj, It irritateth their inbred corruption : ' The commandment came/ that is, in full conviction and power, and ' sin revived, and I died,' Eom. vii. 9. The more we understand of the necessity of our subjection to God, the more opposite is the soul to him ; as a dam makes a river or strong stream the more violent, or as a bullock at the first yoking becometh the more unruly. Or,
Fourthly, It breedeth a sottish despair : ' There is no hope ; there- fore we will walk after our own devices, and do every one according to the evil imaginations of our own heart,' Jer. xviii. 12. It is to no purpose to speak to us, or strive further about us ; as if they had said. There is no hope ; and therefore we will live as we list, without any further care of turning to God. This is the worst kind of despair, when a man is given up to his ' own heart's lust,^ Ps. Ixxxi. 12, and runneth headlong in the way of destruction, without hope of returning. There is more hope of them that are under despairing fears or a terrified conscience than there is of those who are under despairing resolutions or a stupid and sottish obstinacy. Thus as to the law, man is helpless.
Secondly, Consider man as to terms of grace offered in the gospel. He is still ' without strength ; ' not only in a damnable condition by the law, but, without grace, unable to accept the gospel. This will appear by two considerations : —
1. By those emphatical terms of scripture by which the case and cure of man are set forth.
2. By those positive assertions whereby all power is denied to man to convert himself to God, or to do anything that is spiritually good,
1. Those emphatical expressions which represent his case and his cure.
[1.] His case. The scripture sets forth man's condition thus : that he is born in sin, Ps. li. 5 ; and things natural are not easily altered. Greedy of sin: 'He drinketh in iniquity like water,' Job xv. 16; it noteth a vehement propension, as greedy to sin as a thirsty man to drink. Thirst is the most implacable appetite ; hunger is far better borne. But this, you will say, is but now and then, in a great temp- tation or vehement passion. No ; ' Every imagination of the thoughts of his heart is ' evil, ' only evil,' and that ' continually,' Gen. vi. 5. By how many aggravating and increasing circumstances is man's sin there set forth \ There is in him a mint always at work : his mind coining evil thoughts, his heart evil desires, and carnal motions ; and his memory is the closet and stoi-ehouse wherein they are kept. But may not a man be reclaimed ? is not this his bondage and trouble ? No ; his heart is a heart of stone, Ezek. xxxvi. 26 ; that is, inflexible, insensible. When God useth the word, some common motions of his Spirit, some rousing providences, yet all is in vain ; for man's ' heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked,' Jer. xvii. 9 ; inventing shifts and excuses to avoid God, and to cheat itself of its own happiness. But is not the New Testament more favourable than the Old ? or is not man grown better, since there was so much grace discovered ? I answer — No ; there is a