sin-Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did CHAP. my mother conceive me."

50.

IX.

34. Jesus did not overlook it when he said, "That John is which is born of the flesh is flesh,"-And, “The vi. 44. lusts of your father ye will do."-Nor Paul when he 1 Cor. xv. said, "Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption."-Nor James, when he said, "When lust hath Jam. i 14, conceived it bringeth forth sin."

35. It is written of the Lord God, that his work is Deut. perfect; for all his ways are judgment: a God of truth, xxx. 4. and without iniquity; just and right is he.

36. And if so, will the God of perfect justice, judgment, and truth, do that which is contrary to his own nature and attributes? Will he inflict punishments without a cause? or grieve willingly the children of men? Will he count that unclean, which is not unclean? or require an offering for sin, where there is no sin? By no means.

37. Then it is certain, that where God commanded any one not to touch any thing that was counted holy, there was something offensive to his Divine nature and that wherein he required an offering for sin from any one, there certainly was sin in that case: either in the whole case, in the nature or motive to an unclean action, or in the act itself.

38. Therefore, let that which God hath counted both sinful and unclean, be both sinful and unclean; that God may be just, and every man a corrupter, until he fulfils the very spirit of the law, by loving God supremely; and till no inferior object can take possession of the highest seat in his affections.

39. Thus the true end and purpose of the law will be answered, and it will not be said in vain, The law was our school-master to bring us to Christ. And although it be a severe and mortifying school-master to the pride of fallen man, yet it is a true and faithful

one.

40. The law condemned many things as either sinful or unclean, which arose from natural causes, and were figurative of the heinous nature of sin. Such as the leprosy, which had a striking reference to the plague of sin-touching a dead body-eating unclean

IX.

Mat.v.17.

CHAP. beasts and fowls; and many such like things, which prefigured the abominations of man, and which were to be destroyed under the law of grace, by the gospel. Johni.17. 41. The law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. And Christ came not to destroy the law, but to fulfil it; not by observing its external rites and ceremonies, but by loving and serving God, as the supreme object of his affections; and by teaching the same to others.

42. Then which of these two requires the greatest purity; the ceremonial law given by Moses; or the law of grace and truth which came by Jesus Christ? Undoubtedly the latter, it must be granted.

43. Therefore, let those who disregard the law, because they imagine they are under grace, at least, be careful to examine their fruits or works by the law of grace. For faith without works is dead.And as many as sin without law shall also perish without law.

44. And further, let such as imagine they are under grace, at least regard that superior reason and dignity, by which God hath exalted man above the order of the brutes; and not defile themselves, nor gratify the inclinations of a corrupt and inferior nature, with any woman, after she hath conceived seed.

45. And besides, after nine months, according to the common time of pregnancy, let the same restriction be continued, for the space of eighty days longer, according to the time which God prescribed to Israel.

46. And finally, let such as imagine that they are free from the law, and under grace, never gratify the sensual and fleshly appetites of their corrupt animal nature, at any time or season, nor in any manner whatever, but barely for the propagation of their species, and that with the sole motive to honor and glorify God.

47. Then they will show how much grace and truth lies at the bottom! But if they fail in the attempt, then it may be understood why kings and prophets desired to see the days of the Son of Man.

48. It was not because they expected Christ to come, with some extraordinary grace, to daub over

their secret corruptions, that they might live in them with impunity; but on the contrary, they looked for a day of full redemption from that predominant nature of evil, root and branch, to which they were held in bondage.

CHAP. IX..

49. But in vain will the fatal wound of man's depravity be covered over, by the superficial ornaments of an empty profession of grace, when God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret Feel.. thing!

14.

50. In vain may souls groan for deliverence from the bondage of sin, till they drop into eternity, while, by some plausible reasonings to enjoy a momentary pleasure, they willingly conceal the very core of their Mat. xxi corruptions!

51. It was nothing short of supreme and perfect love to God, that could ever order and regulate the actions of man so as to render them well pleasing to Him; and therefore, where any action was condemned, or any atonement required, it proved that the nature from which that action proceeded, was evil.

52. And, until that which was the spring or cause of the evil was removed, the same evil action would be repeated for the effect is like its cause, and the same cause must continue to produce the same effect.

53. And hence came those perpetual offerings and burnt offerings for sin, in which God had no pleasure; but they were added that the offence of sin might abound, until the cause should be removed, by Christ the true seed, in whom only, the promise of final redemption was made.

54. Therefore, the design of the ceremonial law, was not to fulfil the real law of God, but to point out the way in which it should be fulfilled: first, by discovering that object which stands in competition with God, and engrosses the highest affections of man; and then to have that object taken out of the way. And until that was done, the soul could never be free from bondage and captivity to sin.

55. In every respect, the law given by Moses, went to search out the root of man's depravity. Many things pertaining to the same nature, besides those

27.

Heb. x. $,

IX.

CHAP. that were actual, were counted either as sinful, or unclean, or both; and were to be purged away according to the statutes of the law.

56. Such was the uncleanness of man, that chanced him by night, his seed going from him, and the like carnal and fleshly things, which polluted every thing they touched, and required divers washings to atone.

57. The voluntary, and unnatural crime of self pollution, was ever an abomination in the sight of God: and so was also that of defiling themselves with mankind.

58. Even things that were necessary to life, and as conducive to health as animal food to the body, were not excepted: Such as the uncleanness of a woman's natural courses, which occasioned a separation of seven days.

59. So that the strictest ceremonies of the law, were nothing more nor less, than to show, that the very root and fountain of man's nature, in his fallen state, was corrupt before God, and offensive to his pure nature.

60. Thus the law, not only distinguished between good and evil actions, but searched out the cause, and the different motives, from which actions proceeded. And it discovered the root of all evil to be in the very nature, in which man was begotten.

61. For while the spirit of the law required perfect love to the invisible God, as the only justifying motive in the soul of man; it immediately excluded that inferior instinct, which led Sodom and Egypt, and the inhabitants of Canaan to the perpetration of the most horrid and unnatural crimes, through lust, merely for the sake of its own gratification, or the momentary pleasure which it afforded.

62. Moses plainly demonstrated, that this instinct, by which man was begotten in his fallen state, was inconsistent with perfect love to God, from its motions and actions, being lawless, under no government, and subject to no controul.

63. This passionate and lawless instinct was blind to the law of God, and the law of nature, and regardless of the objects of its choice or refusal: so that it moved, with equal freedom, to any object that could

afford it the gratification of its own agreeable and CORRUPT SELF; whether that object was animate or inanimate, brutal or human!

CHAP.

IX.

64. All this is most strikingly evident from the law of Moses, as well as from the prophets. And after Lev.xvi. Moses had given a numerous list of the abominations, **. which all sprang from one and the same source of human corruption, he adds, For all these abomina- xvii. tions have the men of the land done!

chap.

65. And to show that the natural seed of Abraham, had the same corrupt inclinations of other nations, it is again added, And ye shall not walk in the manners of the nations which I cast out before you for they Deut. ix committed all these things, and therefore I abhorred 45, 6. them.

66. Then, if that propensity of the natural man, was so blind and lawless, that it would move toward a neighbour's wife, a sister, a father's wife, a mother, a daughter, a fellow man, a four-footed beast, a dumb idol, a lifeless stock, or a stone; could any thing produced by it, be any better than itself?

67. Here again, we may see, that the true design of the law, was to discover the distinction of objects, and the chief motive from which actions proceeded.

68. As every external object upon which man placed his affections, was more or less offensive to God, and merited punishment according to the degree of the offence; so the whole law went pointedly to discover that no motive, or affection, fixed upon any external object whatever, could satisfy the real spirit of the law and that nothing could do it, short of perfect love to God, as the supreme object of man's affections.

69. And therefore, until the reigning power of that lawless corruption was taken out of the way, how could the soul love God supremely, and his neighbour as himself? For on these two hang all the law and the prophets.

70. Christ Jesus was the first that ever fulfilled the spirit of the law; and thereby, he put an end to all those external rites and ceremonies, meats and drinks, and divers washings, and carnal ordinances; and set the example for others to do the same. Nothing

xx. 23.