Religion & morality > Human nature in its four-fold state ... in several practical discourses

194- unalle State II.
?ng the forbidden Fruit, he fell under the Curfe of
the Law. If one fhould live a dutiful Subject to his
Prince, till the clofe of his Days, and then confpire j
again ft him ; he muft die for his Treafcn. Even 1
fo, tho1 thou fhouldft all the Time of thy Life, live
in perfect Obedience to the Law of God ; and only
at the Hour of Death entertain a vain Thought, or
pronounce an idle Word: That idle Word, or
vain Thought, wmld blot out all thy former Righ-
teoufntfs, and ruin thee; namely, in this Way, in j
which thou art fee king to recover thy felf.
How fuch is the Obedience thou muft perform,
if thou wouldft recover thy Lit in the Way of the
baw. But, tho’thou fhouldft thus obey; the Law
ftakes thee down in the State of W rath, till another
Demand of it be iatished,
Secondly, Thou muft pjy what thou owejl.
’Tis undeniable, thou art a Sifiner: And whatever
thou mayft be in Time to come, Juftice muft be fa-
iisfied for thy Sin already committed. The Honour
of the Law muft be maintained, by thy Inhering
the denounced M'rath. It may be thou haft chang¬
ed thy Courfe of Life, or art now refolvcd to do it,
and to let about the keeping of the Commands of
God : But what haft thou done, cr what wilt
thou do, wdth the o/d Debt ? Your Obedience to
God, tho’ it were perfeft, is a D^bt due to him, for
the Time, ^herein it is performed ; and can no more
fatisfy for former Sins, than a Tenant’s paying the
current Years Rent, can fatisfy the Mafter for all
Bygones. Can the paying cf new Debts acquit a
Man from old Accounts ? Nay, deceive not your
felves, you will find thefe laid up in Store with God,
and fealed up among bis Treajures, Deur. xxxii. 54.
It remains then, that either thou muft bear that
Wrath,