2065.] First Use Of The Law. 105

moment that you ever lived : Are all the powers of your soul called forth in these acts, so that there is no more defect in you than in Adam before the fall ? If this be not the case, you are guilty ; and these your most exalted virtues, instead of being merito- rious in the sight of God, stand in need of his pardon on account of their defects. The same must be said of the best moment that you ever passed in reference to your fellow-creatures : Did your actions carry with them the whole soul in love to God, and to man for God's sake ? And were they so perfect, that there was not in them the smallest blemish or defect ? If not, you stand in need of pardon for your defects ; and, consequently, can claim nothing on the score of merit.' Now, if the law is so rigorous in its demands as this, and admits of no deviation, no weariness, no defect even for a moment, under any circumstances, to the very end of life, what must it, of necessity, be considered as saying unto us ? ' Think not of ob- taining life by the covenant of works : you see its demands : you see how impossible it is that they should ever be relaxed : you see how inexorably it denounces its curse against the least transgression : you see, it makes no abatement on account of your weakness : it offers no assistance for the performance of any one duty : it knows nothing of repentance or reformation : it exacts perfect obedience from first to last : and that not paid, even though the failure be only once, and in the smallest point, it does nothing but denounce its curses against you. And will you seek life by such a covenant as this ? Oh ! flee from it ; and dread lest you continue under it one hour longer. The terrors of Mount Sinai did but faintly represent the fearfulness of your state. And the strict injunctions relative to the touching of the mount did but faintly mark the impossibility of your ever gaining access to God by that covenant : and, verily, if Moses himself said on that occasion, " I exceedingly fear and quake," much more may you in the contemplation of the danger to which you are exposed, and of the judgments that await you.'