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For to thee doth it appertain, for as much as there is none like unto thee: And upon his creation of all things, The Lord is a great king above all gods, the fea is his and he made it, Pfal. xcv. 3, 5.0. Jacob and Ifrael, thou art my fervant, I have formed thee, thou art my fervant, O Ifrael, Ifa. xliv. 21. In fine, his prefervation of all things, and the manifold benefits he loads his creatures with, do give him the noblest title to abfolute dominion; and his glorious perfections of wisdom, power, holiness and juftice, do not only fit him for it, but make his sway defirable to all who underftand their own interest.

2. Take this propofition, God the abfolute fovereign of the world has prefcribed laws to all his creatures, by which he governs them. Not to speak of these laws which he has given to the inanimate part of the creation, he has prescribed men their work, he has given them his laws, whereby they are indifpenfably obliged to live. There is one law-giver, who is able to fave and to deftroy, Jam. i. 12. The Lord is judge, king, and law-giver, Ifa. xxxiii. 22. We are not in any thing left altogether arbitrary. He who has faid to the fea, Hitherto fhalt thou come, and no further, has dealt fo likewife with man; he has limited him on every hand by his holy laws, the incontestable statutes of heaven. We are obliged to eat, drink, fleep, converfe, and do every thing by rule; God has fet us our bounds as to all thefe things, and thither fhould we come and no further. Indeed these limits God has fet us are not fuch as he fets to the waves of the tumultuous fea: No, he deals with us in a way fuited to our nature; he has fet fuch limits as none can país, till they act in direct contradiction to their very na

tures,

tures, till they abandon a due confideration of that wherein their greatest concern and chiefeft intereft lies, as will appear plain enough from that which we offer in the

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3d Place, for clearing the way, That the great law-giver of the world has annexed rewards and punishments to thefe laws he has made. The authority of God is a tender point indeed. He has faid, he will not give his glory to another, and therefore, he has taken care to guard the laws he has made by fuitable rewards and punishments. God indeed is not obliged to give man any further reward for his obedience, than what flows from the obedience itself, which is fufficient to be a reward to itself, for in keeping God's commands there is great reward. Pfal, xix. 11. But fuch is his matchlefs and unbounded goodness that he propofed no lefs reward of obedience than eternal life, a reward fuitable, not to man's obedience, which deferves no fuch thing, but to the bounty of the giver. On the other hand, again, he has annexed a dreadful penalty to his laws; break them we may if we will; for God has not made it impoffible we fhould; but if we do, then the heavy curfe of God will follow us. Curfed is every one that continueth not in all things written in the book of the law to do them. The fame mouth that pronounced the law, pronounces the curfe, Gal. iii. 10. And we know, whom he curfes they are cui fed, and whom he bleffeth they are blessed indeed.

4. Thefe laws, which God hath given us to walk by, have a fourfold property mentioned by the apoftle, Rom. vii. 12, 14. Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, juft and good. And ver. 14. We know that the law is fpiritual, but I am carnal, and fold under fin.

(1.) We fay it is holy; the law of God is the exact transcript of the holy will of God. There is nothing in it difagreeable to, or unworthy of the holy God, who always acts like himself, and is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity, or look upon

fin.

(2.) It is juft. It is the very measure of all juftice amongst men, it is a law that gives God his due and man⚫his: nay, man has no right or property in, or title to any thing but from this law. What this makes his, is fo, and no more can justly be claimed.

(3.). It is good. It is not a law made to gratify the lufts of an earth-worm, it is not a law made without regard to the advantage of these who live under it but God in framing his law, has exactly confidered what might be for man's good, both in time and in eternity; and has in matchlefs goodnefs and infinite wifdom, ordered the matter fo, That duty and interest go ever together, and a man can never act against his duty but he wrongs his real intereft, even abstracting from the confideration of future rewards or punishments in another life.

(4.) The law is fpiritual. It is not fuch a law as is prefcribed by man, which only reaches the outward man; no, it is spiritual, reaching to the foul and all its inward actings. It prescribes bounds to the fpirits of men, obliging them to inward obedience and conformity to it in their motions, inclinations and affections; not a thought, nay, nor the circumstance of a thought, but falls under this fpiritual and extenfive law, which made the Pfalmift fay, I have feen an end of all perfection, but thy commandment is exceeding broad, Pfal. cxix.

96. The way being thus cleared, we shall now, in the

Second place, fhew you what fin is. Sin which is here charged upon all, properly and formally imports,

1. A want of conformity to the law, of which we have been difcourfing. The law requires and enjoins duty. It obliges us not only to actions fo and fo qualified, but to have a right principle of action; it not only enjoins holy thoughts, holy words, and holy actions, but moreover it requires that the very frame and temper of our hearts be holy; and when we fall fhort of this, then we fin. That the law obliges us as to the frame of our heart is plain, fince it requires that the tree be good as well as the fruit, that the worship and fervice we perform to God, be with the whole ftrength, foul and heart.

2. Sin imports a tranfgreffion of the law, for fin is a tranfgreffion of the law, 1 John iii. 4. Indeed when tranfgreffion is taken in a large fenfe, it comprehends all fin; but it may be, and is frequently restricted to actual fins, and fins of com. miffion, as the former branch of the defcription is to original fin, and fins of omiffion. Sin is an oppofition to the law of God. God bids do, arise, work: man tranfgreffes, breaks the command, and fits ftill idle. God forbids fuch and fuch finful actions, man does them in oppofition to the command of God, which flows from a contempt of God's authority; fo that we may fay,

3. That every fin implies in its formal nature contempt of God, as that which is its fource. Sin flows from a fecret enmity of heart against the Al'mighty, and therefore carries in it a high contempt of him. It may be men are fo blind that

they

they cannot difcern any fuch thing in it, but God makes breaking the law, and defpifing or contemning of the law, to be all one, Amos ii. 4. Thus faith the Lord, For three tranfgreffions of Judah, and for four I will not turn away the punihment thereof, because they have defpifed the law of the Lord, and have not kept his commandments, and their lies caufed them to err, after the which their fathers have walked. Sin in most mens eyes is a harmless thing; but how far otherwife would it be if its nature were feen in a juft light by the eye of faith; if we faw it trampling upon God's authority, goodness, and holiness, and even endeavouring as it were to ungod him. But that ye may further understand what fin is, we fhall, in the Third place, mention a twofold infeparable property or adjunct of fin, with which it is ever attended. And,

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1. Sin is the defilement of the foul; fin is a filthy thing. The beauty, the glory of man, confifts in his conformity to the holy and pure law of God, and in as far as he deviates from that, in fo far is he defiled and polluted. Every fin has a ftain in it, and robs the foul of its beauty, occafions a fort of lothfomnefs, whereby in the eyes of God, and even of itfelf, it becomes ugly and abominable; it is the abominable thing which God hates. Oh do not that abominable thing that I hate, faith the Lord, Jer. xliv. 4. The natural ftate of man is upon the account of this filthiness, compared to a wretched infant that is caft out in all its natural pollutions, Ezek. xvi. and to every thing elfe that is filthy, to puddle, mire, and dirt, and to a menftrous cloth; but yet all of them are not fufficient to give a juft idea of its filthinefs.

2. Sin as it is attended with nlth, fo it is at

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