Such a state of mind alone could conceive the singular idea of opening an account current with the Creator,[33] and call it religion; to ask a record of our sins, and boldly claim our offsets; and to rely on the accumulated balance of our own works: to gain the prize of everlasting life from the justice and not from the mercy of the Almighty, and not to pray with David, "have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy loving kindness; according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies, _blot out my transgressions_." Footnote 33: Sermons, page 44. Such an account would indeed be a novelty: there is no difficulty in filling the debtor side of the ledger: the melancholy list of man's frailties and vices furnish ample materials; but, from whence the mighty balance reserved for the great purchase should arise is not easily to be conceived. Let us figure to ourselves a man not immured in sloth or sunk in wickedness, but one whose march through life has been in the path of propriety and virtue, arranging his account, I have lived a life of temperance, regularity and virtue. Thou hast been blessed with the enjoyment of health. I have been, through life, frugal and industrious. Thou hast acquired wealth. I have been humane and charitable to the poor and needy. I gave thee the fat of the land. I have been a good husband and a careful and tender father. Thy wife has been virtuous and faithful, and thy children a blessing to thee. And if he could add, I have gone about preaching to, and exhorting large assemblies of people in thy name. May not the answer sometimes be, And hast thou not been richly rewarded by the incense of flattery and applause which thou hast received. Here, then, is no balance; virtue is generally rewarded in this life; and, if the Christian is to look for redemption, is it not "by standing fast and holding to the traditions which we have been taught," by which we shall know that as all have sinned and fallen short, so we can only be justified by grace "through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus; whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God."[34] Footnote 34: Romans, 3d Chap.