shall we say to the last command ? If even the Apostle Paul was slain by that, who shall stand before it ? Who must not acknowledge, that, times without number, he has been under the influence of irregular and inordinate desires ? and who, under a sense of his guilt, must not put his hand on his mouth, and his mouth in the dust, crying, " Unclean, unclean f?"
Perhaps you will think that I have borne some- what hard upon your consciences ; and availed myself of the spirituality of the law to inflict, unnecessarily, a wound upon your minds. But the truth is, that I have spoken nothing yet in comparison of what I ought to speak, in order to do justice to my subject. Forgive me, then, if I proceed to put this matter in its true point of view.
To call to mind what we have done, or what we have left undone, will give us a very inadequate view of our sinfulness. If we would estimate ourselves aright, we must take the high standard of God's holy law, and see how infinitely short of our duty we have come, in every act of our lives, and in every moment of our existence. We must not inquire merely, whether we have loved God at all ; but how near we have come to what his law requires, and his perfections demand. We must trace the whole state of our souls from the beginning, and estimate it by this rule. We shall then see that our attainments have been as nothing, in comparison of our short- comings and defects ; literally, I say, as nothing. The poorest bankrupt that ever existed has paid as great a proportion of his debt as we have of our debt to God : yea, he is in a far higher state than we : for he, if he discharge nothing of his debt, adds nothing to it ; but we have been augmenting our debt every day, every hour, every moment. The very best deeds of the best of men, whilst in their unconverted state, if weighed in the balance of the sanctuary, have been lighter than vanity ; and if tried by the touch-
f Lev. xiii. 45. Lam. iii. 29. VOL. XVII. n