But, on the other hand, law is equally exact and inflexible, in case the work has not been performed.  It will not give eternal life to a soul that has sinned ten years, and then perfectly obeyed ten years,—­supposing that there is any such soul.  The obedience, as we have remarked, must run parallel with the entire existence, in order to be a ground, of justification.  Infancy, childhood, youth, manhood, old age, and then the whole immortality that succeeds, must all be unintermittently sinless and holy, in order to make eternal life a matter of debt.  Justice is as exact and punctilious upon this side, as it is upon the other.  We have seen, that when a perfect obedience has been rendered, justice will not palm off the wages that are due as if they were some gracious gift; and on the other hand, when a perfect obedience has not been rendered, it will not be cajoled into the bestowment of wages as if they had been earned.  There is no principle that is so intelligent, so upright, and so exact, as justice; and no creature can expect either to warp it, or to circumvent it.

In the light of these remarks, it is evident that it is too late for a sinner to avail himself of the method of salvation by works.  For, that method requires that sinless obedience begin at the beginning of his existence, and never be interrupted.  But no man thus begins, and no man thus continues.  “The wicked are estranged from the womb; they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies” (Ps. lviii. 3).  Man comes into the world a sinful and alienated creature.  He is by nature a child of wrath (Eph. ii. 3).  Instead of beginning life with holiness, he begins it with sin.  His heart at birth is apostate and corrupt; and his conduct from the very first is contrary to law.  Such is the teaching of Scripture, such is the statement of the Creeds, and such is the testimony of consciousness, respecting the character which man brings into the world with him.  The very dawn of human life is clouded with depravity; is marked by the carnal mind which is at enmity with the law of God, and is not subject to that law, neither indeed can be.  How is it possible, then, for man to attain eternal life by a method that supposes, and requires, that the very dawn of his being be holy like that of Christ’s, and that every thought, feeling, purpose, and act be conformed to law through the entire existence?  Is it not too late for such a creature as man now is to adopt the method of salvation by the works of the law?

But we will not crowd you, with the doctrine of native depravity and the sin in Adam.  We have no doubt that it is the scriptural and true doctrine concerning human nature; and have no fears that it will be contradicted by either a profound self-knowledge, or a profound metaphysics.  But perhaps you are one who doubts it; and therefore, for the sake of argument, we will let you set the commencement of sin where you please.  If you tell us that it begins in the second, or the