But it may be said, that of those offences zee repent. Be it so : still our tears can never wash out the guilt we have already contracted. Even in human govern- ments, a criminal that is under sentence of death may be truly sorry that he has transgressed the laws, and may determine never to repeat his crimes any more ; but these sorrows and resolutions will not avail to rescue him from death, or to repeal the sentence that is gone forth against him : much less can any repent- ance of ours remove the curses of God's holy law, or avert the judgments which our sins have merited.
But it may be said, we rely not on our works alone, nor on our repentance alone, but on these things and Christ 's merits united. Go, then, and search the records of your life, and see what works you will briner forth in order to eke out the insufficient merits of your Saviour ; bring forth one single work ; one only out of your whole life ; one that has no defect, and that does not in any respect need the mercy of God to pardon its imperfection : then carry it to God, and say, ' Here, Lord, is a work in which thou thyself canst not find a flaw ; it is as perfect as any that my Lord and Saviour himself ever performed, and is therefore worthy to be united to his infinitely meri- torious obedience, as a joint ground of all my hopes: I am content to stand or fall by this one work : I am aware, that if it is imperfect, it stands in need of mercy for its own imperfection, and consequently can never purchase pardon for all my other offences ; but I ask no mercy for that, yea, rather, I claim on ac- count of it all the glory of heaven'^.' You who will dispute against salvation by faith only, and who wish to have something of your own to found your hopes upon, do this : bring forth some work, some one work at least, that shall stand the test of the divine law, and defy the scrutiny of the heart-searching God.
^ Let not the reader suppose that any one is exhorted to go thus to Almighty God : the whole passage is intended to shew the horrible impiety of even entertaining such a thought. The Scriptures fre- quently put such language into the lips of siiuiers, in order to shew what is the real language of their hearts. See Rom. iii. 5, 7. and ix. 19.