be " dead in trespasses and sins :" for till we be indeed weary and heavy laden with a sense of sin, we never shall, nor ever can, come unto Christ for rest.
To conclude —
If, while we have been surveying the duties of the first table, we have called to mind our low esteem for God, together with the unnumbered instances wherein we have neglected his worship, misemployed his sab- baths, and profaned his name ; if in examining the duties of the second table, we have remembered our several violations of them, both generally, by mis- conduct in the different relations of life, and ■particu- larly, by anger and intemperance, by actual or mental impurity, by dishonesty or want of liberality, by wilful and allowed falsehood, by discontent with our own lot, or coveting of another's, surely we shall confess with the Psalmist, that " our iniquities are grown up unto heaven, they are a sore burthen too heavy for us to bear." We shall see also with how great pro- priety the compilers of our Liturgy have directed us to cry after every commandment, " Lord, have mercy upon us, and incline our hearts to keep this law."
To make us thus cry out for mercy is the proper use of the law; for the Apostle says, " The law is our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ." And if we once obtain this view of the law, and by it the know- ledge of our sins, we shall then have the best pre- servative against errors : for instead of making the divinity of Christ and his atonement a matter of mere speculative inquiry, we shall see that we have no safety but in his blood, no acceptance but in his righteousness. We shall then " count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ," and shall each of us be like-minded with that great Apostle who said, " I desire to be found in Christ, not having mine own righteousness which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith."
1832. J X11E believer's righteousness. 75