Now this sense of alienation in the heart is nothing more than the echo, or reflection, of God’s testimony in the Scripture. There is a perfect harmony between conscience and the Bible. They both convey God’s testimony, written in the one case on the secrets of the heart, and in the other on the pages of the inspired word. Both acknowledge the sense of alienation. But the Bible goes the farthest, and while the heart can only deplore the fact, the Scriptures explain both its causes and its remedy. Turning, then, to the word of God, we discover that there are two causes for this uneasiness of spirit,—our own sin, and God’s judgment. We are all by nature, according to our Article, “very far gone from original righteousness;” and, according to the language of the Scriptures, “the carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be; so then they that are in the flesh cannot please God:” words clearly descriptive of an enmity on our part towards him. Then, again, that same Article teaches us that “in every person born into the world this inbred sin deserveth God’s wrath and damnation,” in exact accordance with the same Scripture, which declares, that “the wrath of God is revealed against all unrighteousness and disobedience of men;” showing that on God’s part there is a judicial wrath, and that, as a holy lawgiver, he cannot love the guilty. If any, therefore, inquire the reason of this secret uneasiness in his soul, we reply, that the cause is twofold; it is partly because his own heart is at enmity with God, and partly because God’s holiness is at enmity with him. There is the corruption of his own nature which makes him at variance with God’s will, and there is the curse of unforgiven sin, which shuts him out from all enjoyment of God’s love.