cannot stand the strict scrutiny of God's all-seeing eye. If he lay judgment for a line, and righteousness for a plummet, there is not any thing in which there will not be found some obli- quity. Such a perfect standard is the word of God : " it will discern between the good and evil that is in the most holy thought of the most perfect of men." In the hand of " the Spirit, whose sword it is'"," its power is infinite, even though it be wielded by the feeblest arm. In the hand of the prophets, it "hewed" the hypocritial Jews in pieces". In the hand of the Apostles, it pierced thousands to the heart at once". In the hand of ordinary ministers, it has still the same power, and can so detect all the secret thoughts of men's hearts, as to
evince that, it is indeed the very word of God himself p,
and through him is still, as much as ever, " mighty to the casting down of the most haughty imaginations, and to the bringing of every thought into captivity to the obedience of Chrisfi."]
But that which gives to this description its force, is,
II. The end for which it is adduced —
The Apostle means to say, that, however secret the workings of unbehef may be, they will all be detected and condemned by the word in the last day.
Now,
Unbelief is a most subtle sin —
[It has ten thousand pleas and pretexts by which it clokes its malignity, and justifies to the mind and conscience its operations. See it in the Jews, whom it deceived to their ruin. There was always some great trial, some apparently insuperable difficulty in their way. They supposed that God would make all their way easy, and that they should have nothing to try their faith and patience. Hence they construed every difficulty as a violation of God's promises, and a prelude to his final dereliction of them. Hegce also they made their appeals upon this subject with as much confidence, as if their conclusions were undeniable : and the chastisements which they received for their impiety only increased their complaints, as though, in addition to the disappointments of their legitimate expectations, they were treated with undeserved cruelty. Thus it is with us: we hide from ourselves, or rather we justify to ourselves, the workings of unbelief. Its operations all seem to us to be founded in truth and equity. If we look at God's
"» Eph. vi. 17. " Hos. vi. 5. " Acts ii. 37.
P 1 Cor. xiv. 24, 25. <i 2 Cor. x. 4, 3.