our weakness and averfion to duty. And there can be no injustice in God to require what is impoffible for us to perform, when the impoffibility folely arifes from our own fault. It is not God, but we ourselves that have made the perfect obfervation of his laws impoffible; and though we have wafted our ftock, and are become bankrupts, yet he may in righteousness exact from us that debt of obedi ence which we juftly owe him.

Object. But are not believers delivered both from the commanding and condemning power of the law? and how are they then bound to yield any obedience to it?

dalai Anf. Believers are certainly delivered as well from the commanding as condemning power of the law, confidered only as it is the covenant of works, which requires obedience to it in order to juftification; but they are by no means delivered from it as it is the law of Chrift, or a rule of duty. For the moral law is the eternal rule of righteoufnefs, a tranfcript of the divine perfections, which every believer is bound to copy after, and to apply to the blood of Jefus for pardon in fo far as he falls fhort of obeying it. For without holiness, no man fhall fee the Lord. Perfonal holiness is as neceffary to the poffeffion of glory, or to a state of perfect holiness and happiness, as is the morning light to the noon day warmth and brightnefs; as is a reasonable foul to a wife, healthy, ftrong, and full-grown man; as an antecedent is to a confequent; as a part is to the whole; and as motion is neceffary to evidence life. And the ten com. mandments, being the fubftance of the law of nature, a reprefentation of God's image, and a beam of his holinefs, behoved, for ever, unalterably to be a rule of life to in all poffible conmankind

ditions, and circumftances. Nothing but th

utter

deftruction of human nature, and its ceafing to be, could diveft them of that office; fince God is unchangeable in his image and holiness. Hence their

being a rule of life to Adam and his pofterity, had no dependence on their becoming the covenant of works: but they would have been that rule, though there never had been any fuch covenant: yea, whatever covenant was introduced, whether of works. or of grace; and whatever form might be put upon them; they behoved ftill to remain the rule of life. No covenant, no forin whatfoever, could ever prejudice this their royal dignity.

V. I fhall give the reafon of this difpenfation. God could make the faints perfect in the moment of converfion. He does it not. So it feems good in his fight. Many things are faid to account for this; but what is moft fatisfying is, That it doth exalt the freedom of grace and the power of it moft, Eph. ii. 4. 7. But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us-That in the ages to come he might fhew the exceeding riches of his grace, in his kindness towards us through Christ Jesus. The more fins are pardoned to a finner, he is the deeper in Chrift's debt. The fafter the root of fin appears neme nature, the more appears the power of grace in rooting it up. It is furely the glory of our great Pilot, that he brings the broken hip to land, through fo many hazards.

in one's

Caution. Abufe not this doctrine, to think light br of fin because of it. It is the worst of difeafes which molt men die in, and no man is perfectly cured of until death. Make not your way to hell the eafier, becaufe of the difficulties in the way to heaven: for they that ftrive towards perfection here will get it at death, when ye fitting ftill at your eafe will be Carried down the ftream to deftruction.

Keep not ye fome particular luft, because none are perfect for all the faints are perfect in parts, though not in degrees; fo far perfect, as to hate every known fin, Pial. cxix. 128.

Inf. 1. There is no juftification, favour, and

peace

with God by our own works, Pfal. cxliii. 2. In thy fight fhall no man living be juftified. Far lefs can there be works of fupererogation. We must be juftified by the righteousness of Chrift received by faith, or not at all.

2. Whatever your attainments be, be not proud of them; your wants and defects may always keep you humble. The barren branches are towering ones, while the fruitful boughs hang down their heads.

3. Inexpreffibly miferable is the cafe of unbelievers. They are without Chrift; they must stand or fall by the law, and it is quite beyond their power to keep it.

4. Bear one another's burdens; for every man offends. We are in a hofpital, where moft are dy ing of their difcafe, and the beft but in the way of

recovery.

Laftly, Let the ftruggling faints long for heaven, for there the perfection they would fain be at shall be attained, and not till then. And this may comfort them under all their failures, which they mourn over, that in the other world they fhall arrive at full, perfection in holiness.

Of Sin in its Aggravations,

EZEKIEL viii. 15,

XXX

Turn thee yet again, and thou shalt fee greater abomi nations than these.

F we look on fin abfolutely, and in itfelf, as it is a tranfgreflion of the divine law, no fin is finall, but a great evil, greater than any evil of fuffering, which men can be expofed to: but if we look on fin comparatively, one fin compared with another, all are not alike, but fome greater than others, as we fee from these words. Wherein may be obferved,

1. Great fins which the prophet had feen, thewn to him in vifion by the Lord himself, who knows the fins of all men, with their nature and qualities, ver. 5. 11. 14.

2. Greater fins he was yet to fee. He had feen the image of jealoufy, namely, the image of Baal, fet up at the gate of the altar, ver. 5.; the chambers of imagery in fome of the courts, and the ancients of Ifrael at their idolatrous fervice, ver. 10. 11.; the women weeping for Tammuz in the court of the women, or of the priests, by which the Lord's courts were turned into ftews. Thefe were great abominations, and yet greater than any of thefe was their worshipping of the fun, ver. 16 and that in God's account; for it was done in a more facred place, at the very door of the temple; it was more public, and had greater contempt of God in it than the rest o

The text affords this doctrine dobro,

DocT. All fins are not alike; but fome fins in "themfelves, and by reafon of feveral aggravations, " are fight of God than o Phainous int "thers."

In difcourfing from this doctrine, I fhall fhew, T. What is understood by the hainoufness of fin. II In what refpects fome fins are more hainous than others.

III. Apply.

I. I am to fhew what is underftood by the haipoufness of fin. Its great offenfiveness is hereby understood. Sin, may be offenfive unto men; but we confider it here as fin, and offenfive to God. So for fin to be hainous in the fight of God, implies,

1. That it is offenfive to God, difpleafing to him, and grieving to his Spirit, Jer. xliv. 4. Ob, do not this abominable thing that I hate. He cannot away with it, he cannot endure it before his eyes, but

fhews his indignation against it. It is an abomina. ble thing before the Lord; hence it is called filthinefs, uncleannefs, vomit, &c. all which provoke loathing; fo Rev. iii. 16. it is faid, I will fpue thee out of my mouth. It is contrary to his nature and will, and gives him difpleafure and offence; and, if it were poffible, it would difturb his repofe, as fmoke doth to the eyes, If. lxv. 5. Thefe are a fmoke in my nofe, a fire that burneth all the day.

2. It is greatly offenfive to God; for that alfo is implied in the notion of hainoufnefs; every fault is offenfive, but fome faults are hainous offences. Such an offence is fin to God. It gives him great offence, Pfal. v. 4. 5. Thou art not a God that hath pleafure in wickedness: neither shall evil dwell with thee. The foolifh fhall not stand in thy fight; thou hateft all workers of iniquity. Hab. i. 13. Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity. There is no fin that God is indifferent about, none that he can pafs without a mark of his indignation on it: He will by no means clear the guilty, Exod. xxxiv. 7.

Now here mark well two things.

1. That all fin is hainous in the fight of God, viz. greatly offenfive. There are no fmall fins before God, though fome are greater than others; but the least of them is great in itself, and great in his fight, Hab. i. 13. forecited. This is plainly implied, while it is faid, "Some fins are more hainous than others."

2. That there are degrees of hainoufnefs. Though the fin which the blinded foul accounts but a mote, is a mountain in the eyes of God and of an enlightened confcience, yet all are not alike for all that; but as fome mountains, fo fome fins, are greater than others.

II. I fhall fhew in what refpects fome fins are more hainous than others.

Firft, Some fins are in themfelves, and in their