v0 O.CIPEi;ESS OF SIIY. case only, but it is so with all mankindevery one who is partaker of flesh and blood, whether their guilt an- swer that which I am oppressed with or not ; guilty are they all, and all must perish. How much more must that be my condition, who have contracted such guilt as I have done. Here, then, he brings a great argument against himself. If none, not the holiest, the humblest, the most believing soul, can abide the trial, howmuch less can I, who am the chief of sinners, the least of saints, who come unspeakably behind them inholiness, and have equally gone beyond them in sin g This is the sense and import of the words. Let us now consider how they are expressive of the actings of the soul whose state is here represented, and what direc- tions they afford for them who are fallen into this state. We may here observe that, in God's marking sin ac- cording to the tenor of the law, the case is the same with all classes ofsinners, whether before conversion, or in relapses and entanglements after conversion. There is a likeness between conversionand recoveries. They are both wrought by the same means, and have the same effects upon the souls of sinners, although in sundry things theydiffer. The considerations we now present may be applied both to those who are yet unconverted, and to those who are really delivered from their natural state; but especially to those who know not which state they are in, that is, to all guilty souls. The law will put in its claim upon all. It will condemn the sin, and try what it can do against the sinner. There is no shak- ing it off; it must be fairly answered, or it will prevail. The law issues an arrest for the debt ; and it is to no purpose to bid the Officer begone, or to entreat him to spare. If payment be not made, and an acquittance pro- duced, the soul must be sent to prison. I am going to God, saith the soul; he is great and terrible, a marker of sin, and what shall I say unto him i This makes him
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