"the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot, even unto the head, there is no soundness in it: but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores." (Isaiah i. 5, 6.) Here God describes Israel, and the description is generally true of mankind, as totally corrupt. There is no soundness in it. The intellect is corrupt, for "the whole head is sick." The affections are corrupt, for "the whole heart is faint." How, then, can he that has a perverted intellect and a corrupt heart have merits? Again, if man have merits, his good deeds, whatever they be, must be such as to deserve the approbation of God; but the confession of the prophet is—
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"But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousness as filthy rags." (Isa. lxiv. 6.) Either, then, the oral law or the Bible says what is false. The Bible says that the very best of man's deeds, "all his righteousnesses," are no better in the sight of God than filthy rags: if this be true, then man has no merit whatsoever.
But again, the assertion that every man has merits and sins, is based upon a false principle. It takes for granted that God judges men by their individual acts, and not by the state of their hearts; that is, that he judges as we do. When we consider a man's conduct, we can only look at his acts, and to us some of them appear good and others bad. In our sight, therefore, he may have some merits and some demerits. But God looks at the heart, and sees whether a man loves him or not, and by the whole habit of his mind and affections judges the man's state and all his actions. We short-sighted creatures judge a man's heart by his actions; but God judges his actions by his heart, and where the heart is wrong, he is so far from counting any actions as meritorious, that he looks upon the whole conduct as one mass of abominable sin.
The next assertion of the oral law is, that "If a man's merits exceed his sins, he is righteous." This pre-supposes, first, that a man's merits may exceed his sins; and asserts, secondly, that in this case he is accounted righteous. But where is the man whose "merits exceed his sins?" Where is the man who keeps any one of God's commandments perfectly? In all our best deeds and efforts there is sin of admixture or of imperfection. Often, when by the help of God, a good thought or an honest intention is conceived in the heart, before it can be realized in action, some selfish and unworthy motive associates itself with it, and spoils the whole. And in every case the obedience is imperfect, so that all our best acts become occasions of committing sins either of infirmity or imperfection, and thus our sins are certainly as many as our good deeds, for each one of them has a sin as its associate. But how many are
