from our souls. Nor can we even abstain from con- tracting fresh guilt : for there is imperfection in our best deeds : our very tears need to be washed, and our repentances to be repented of. Even St. Paul himself, eminent as he was, could do nothing on which he could rely for his justification before God ; and therefore " he desired to be found in Christ, not having his own righteousness, but the righteousness which was of God by faith in Christ'." A justifying righteousness must be perfect : but we can do nothing perfect : we need one to " bear the iniquity even of our holiest actions* :" and therefore we must for ever despair of establishing a righteousness of our own, and must submit simply and entirely to the righteous- ness provided for us in the Gospel".
Nor can we cleanse ourselves from our pollution. *' As well might an Ethiopian change his skin, or a leopard his spots, as we restore ourselves to the image of God in which we were at first created''." The renovation of the heart is on this very account called a new birth and a new creation y; and it can be effected by none but God himself. Let any mail put this matter to a trial : let him see whether he can mortify all the desires of the flesh, and efface from his mind the love of this world, and transform himself into the Divine image in righteousness and true holi- ness : — he may as well attempt to create a world.
As for deliverance from all spiritual bondage, that also is utterly unattainable by human efforts. St. Paul even to his dying hour was constrained to cry, " O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me^?" Hence in the truly scriptural Liturgy of our Church we are taught to acknowledge ; that " we are tied and bound with the chain of our sins," and to cry, " But do thou, O God, of the pitifulness of thy great mercy loose us."
Now all this is clearly implied in the words of our
» Phil. iii. 9. t Exod. xxviii. 38.
" Rom. X. 3, X Jer. xiii. 23.
y Jclin iii. 3. 2 Cur. v. 17. ^ Rom. vii. 24.