If one sinless man existed in this world, he could not fail to be justified by the works of the law; for the law itself says: "_He that doeth these things_"--that is, the things required in the law--"_shall live by them_." As, therefore, no flesh--no child of Adam--shall be justified by the works of the law, it follows conclusively that every one is sinful. The necessity of the new birth, as taught by our Savior to Nicodemus, is founded on this doctrine: "Except a man be born again he can not see the kingdom of God." The only use or effect of the new birth is, that in it holiness is implanted in the mind. But if any man were sinless he could not need regeneration, nor be regenerated. He would already possess that holiness which is communicated in regeneration, and, of course, would see the kingdom of God as certainly and easily, at least, as sinners who had been born again. In 2 Cor. v, 14, Paul says: "We thus judge, that if one died for all then were all dead;" that is, in sins. What the Scriptures thus clearly assert is fully borne out by observation and experience. Men, every-where, are sinful. It is not an incident of climate, or education, or surroundings; it is as universal as humanity. Human laws are made to repress and restrain sin. They exist in every country, and are enforced upon men by an iron necessity. The penalties by which they attempt to restrain and punish sin are various and dreadful. And although the most efficacious that human experience and ingenuity can devise, yet they always fall short of their purpose. The propensity to evil in the human heart has defied all their force and terror, and boldly ventured on the forbidden perpetration in the face of all their threatenings. No ingenuity on the one hand, and no suffering on the other, has, in any country, or in any age, been sufficient to overcome this propensity. The conclusion is therefore irresistible, that human nature is universally sinful, and in the language of the creed, that "man is very far gone from original righteousness, and of his own nature inclined to evil." CHAPTER I. MAN'S PRIMEVAL STATE. 1. MADE UNDER LAW. GEN. II, 16. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: 17. But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. DEUT. VI, 5. And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. DEUT. X, 12. And now, Israel, what doth the Lord thy God require of thee, but to fear the Lord thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul. MARK XII, 30. And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. ROM. VII, 12. Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good.