Human nature in its fourfold state ... In several practical discourses

Now, to give you a view of your misery, in this respect, consider these following things, (1.) Hereby ye are bound over to death, in virtue of the threatening of death in that covenant, Gen. ii. 17. The condition being broken, ye fall under the penalty. So it concludes you under wrath. (2) There is no salvation for you under this covenant, but on a condition impossible to be performed by you. The justice of God must be satisfied for the wrong you have done already. God hath written this truth in characters of the blood of his own Son. Yea, and you must perfectly obey the law for the time to come. So saith the law, Gal. iii. 12. The man that doth them, shall live in them. Come then, O sinner, see if thou canst make a ladder, whereby thou mayst reach the throne of God; stretch forth thine arms, and try, if thou canst fly on the wings of the wind, catch hold of the clouds, and pierce through these visible heavens; and then either climb over, or break through the jasper walls of the city above. These things shalt thou do, as soon as thou shalt reach heaven in thy natural state, or under this covenant. (3.) There is no pardon under this covenant. Pardon is the benefit of another covenant, with which thou hast nothing to do, Acts xiii. 9. And by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses. As for thee, thou art in the hand of a merciless creditor, which will take thee by the throat, saying, Pay what thou owest; and cast thee into prison, there to remain, till thou hast paid the utmost farthing: unless thou beest so wise as to get a cautioner in time, who is able to answer for all thy debt, and get up thy discharge. This Jesus Christ alone can do. Thou abidest under this covenant, and pleadest mercy: but what is thy plea founded on? There is not one promise of mercy or pardon in that covenant. Dost thou plead mercy, for mercy's sake? Justice will step in betwixt it and thee; and plead God's covenant threatening, which he cannot deny. (4) There's no place for repentance in this covenant so as the sinner can be helped by it. For as soon as ever thou sinnest, the law lays its curse on thee, which is a dead weight ⟨p. 111⟩thou canst by no means throw off; no, not tho' thine head were waters, and thine eyes a fountain of tears, to weep day and night for thy sin.