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TI-12
,A.TRKEMI;NT ,OF
CRRIST.
,CSI;RM.
YXXiv:
can merit
soine
favours
at
the hands
of God, not
only
for
themselves,
but
for
their
,neighbours too. Strange
doctrine
indeed,
made.up.of
folly,,
pride, and
absurdity,!
Our
best
services
are
so.,inuçh
due
to
God,
that if
any
man
could practise complete ,righteousness,
and
fulfil
the
law
of God
constantly through
all
his life,
it
would
not
make amends for .one .past
offence,
nor merit any
fa-
vour
of God
for
a.crir
ìinal.
creature.
But,
alas
!
man
is
so far from being,able
to
fulfil
per-
fect righteousness
for
time.to
:come,
that
in
this
.fallen
state, he can do
nothing
that
is
truly
good
:
He broke
the
law
of
God
in days past,
and.he,goes
on
to
break
it
daily
and
hourly. His understanding
is
grown
so
dark,
his
will
so
perverse, and
his
affectiöns.and
appetites
so
cor-
rupt
and
vicious,
by
his
departure
from
God,
that
he
cannot
answer the
present demands:of duty; much
less
can
he
bring an
offering
of
righteousness to
atone
for.
past
iniquities.
"We
are
by
nature
dead in trespasses and
sins."
,PROPOSITION
V.
Neither
can this guilty,
wretched
creature
man,
make
any
satisfaction
to-
the
broken
law
of God
by
his sufferings,
any more than
by his doings.
For
the
pen,,alty
of
the
law
is
tribulation
and
anguish
of
soul and
body,
the wrath of
God
and death
:
and
how
far
this
dreadful sentence reaches, what
miseries
are
im-
plied
in,
it,
and: how
long. the
execution
of
it
must conti-
nue,
who
can
tell
?
This
we
know,
that
God
himself,
"who:
sees
the
full evil,
and complete
desert or demerit
of
sin,
bath,
in
some
places
of scripture, threatened eternal
punishment
to
sinners.
And
if
we
may
venture
to
judge concerning
the
great-
ness
of
the
guilt,
and demerit of our
offences
against
God,
-by
the
sanie rules,
by
which
reason teaches
us to
judge
,of
the
guilt and demerit
of-an offence
against our
fellow-
creatures,
we
must
say,
the
guilt
of
sin
is
infinite;
and therefore
the
punishment
due
to
a sinning
creature
is
everlasting, because
he
cannot
any
other
way
sustain
punishment equal
to
his
infinite
demerit
of
sin.
Among
men the crime
is
always
aggravated
.in
proportion
to-
the
person,
against
whom
it
is
committed
:
Therefore
any
offence
against
a
father, or
a
king,
has much more
guilt
in
it,
and
is
much more severely,
pu
nished,
than the
same
offe.ic,e
committed against.an inferior,
or
an
equal.
An
2