I. For convincing a man of sin by the law, consider

Jer. xvii. 9, 10.
The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately/ wicked ; who can know it ? I the Lord search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.
Here the Lord teacheth these two things : 1. That the fountain of all our miscarriage, and actual sin- ning against God, is in the hearty which comprehendeth the
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mind, will, affections, and all the powers of the soul, as tliey are corrupted and defiled with ori not only ignorant and incapable of saving truth, but also full of error and enmity against God; and the will and affections being obstinately disobedient unto all God's directions, and bent toward that only which is evil: " The heart (saith he) ' is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked ;" yea, and unsearchably wicked, so that no man can know it ; md Gen. vi. 5. " Every imagination of the thoughts of * man's heart is only evil continually ,'' saith the Lord, whose testimony we must trust in this and all other mat- ters ; and experience also may teach us, that, till God make us deny ourselves, we never look to God in any thing, but fleshly self-interest alone doth rule us, and move all the wheels of our actions.
2. That the Lord bringeth our original sin, or wicked in- clination, with all the actual fruits thereof, unto reckon- ing before his judgraent-seat ; '* For he searclieth the " heart, and trietb the reins^ to give every man according " to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings."
Hence let every man reason thus :
** What God and my guilty conscience beareth witnes!! " of, I am convinced that it is true :
'' But God and my guilty conscience beareth witness, ** that my heart is deceitful above all things, and despe- " rately wicked; and that all the imao;inations of mj ** heart, by nature, are only evil continually :
" Therefore I am convinced that this is true.***
Thus a man may be convinced of sin by the law.