This question is not only a challenge to any man in the world to prove
himself sinless, whatever he pretends, but a lamentation of the
corruption of mankind, even that which remains in the best. Alas! Who
can say, "I am sinless?" Observe, 1. Who the persons are that are
excluded from these pretensions--all, one as well as another. Here, in
this imperfect state, no person whatsoever can pretend to be without
sin. Adam could say so in innocency, and saints can say so in heaven,
but none in this life. Those that think themselves as good as they
should be cannot, nay, and those that are really good will not, dare
not, say this. 2. What the pretension is that is excluded. We cannot
say, We have made our hearts clean. Though we can say, through grace,
"We are cleaner than we have been," yet we cannot say, "We are clean
and pure from all remainders of sin." Or, though we are clean from the
gross acts of sin, yet we cannot say, "Our hearts are clean." Or,
though we are washed and cleansed, yet we cannot say, "We ourselves
made our own hearts clean;" it was the work of the Spirit. Or, though
we are pure from the sins of many others, yet we cannot say, "We are
pure from our sin, the sin that easily besets us, the body of death
which Paul complained of," Rom. vii. 24.