contrary to and inconsistent with the moral law, 2 Theff. ii. 3.4. The Papists add canons and traditions to the moral law, as if it were in itself an imperfect rule of manners. This is taxing God's wifdom and goodness, as if he knew not how to make his own laws, or would not give a sufficient and complete rule to his creatures. This is a provoking fin in the fight of God; and a moft dangerous thing it is to add to or impair his holy law. See Rev. xxii. 18.

19.

2. Is the moral law the rule of our obedience to which we ought to conform ourselves in heart and converfation? Then what ground of reproof is there here to many among you? Are there not many who caft God's words behind their backs, and trample upon his commandments? Some fet up their carnal wisdom, as the standard and rule of their actions, and regulate themselves by the dictates of their corrupt reason. Others fubject themselves to the law of their lufts and paffions. They study to fulfil the defires of their fleshly mind, and to gratify their fenfual appetite; but have no regard to the holy law of God. They break all thefe cords, and caft all the divine commands from them. This their way is their great fin and folly, expofes them to the wrath of God, and sooner or later will bring down Heaven's vengeance on their guilty heads.

3. It is neceffary the law be preached, in order to convince men of their fin, and inability to yield perfect obedience to it, that they may betake themselves to Jesus Christ, who hath fulfilled all righteoufness for every one that will come to him for deliverance from fin and the wrath to come.

It is neceffary to be ftudied and known by all who would attain to true holiness both in heart and life, which principally lies in a fincere and upright obedience to the whole law of God, in dependence upon the grace that is in Jefus Christ. The law is a lamp to their feet, and a light to their path; and the more they study it in its fpirituality and extent, the more vigorously will they prefs after conformity to it..

4. Let us remember we are under a law in whatever cafe we be; and therefore our actions are a feed that will have a proportionable harvest. And there will be a day of judge, ment, wherein every man's works, and actions will be narrowly examined. Let us therefore ftudy to conform our

felves to the holy law of God, being holy as God is holy, and exercising ourselves to keep confciences void of offence both towards God and towards man.

THE MORAL LAW SUMMARILY COMPREHENDED IN THE TEN COMMANDMENTS.

MATTH. xix. 17.-If thou wilt enter into life keep the
commandments.

HIS is Chrift's anfwer to a felf-jufticiary, who expected life by the works of the law. Chrift, to convince him of his folly, fends him to the law, faying, If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.

There are only two things which I take notice of here for our purpose. 1. That by the commandments are understood the ten commandments, ver. 18. where feveral of them are specified. 2. That under these commandments he comprehends the whole moral law; for this refolution of the young man's question is founded on that, Gal. iii. 12. “The man that doth them fhall live in them ;" compared with ver. 10. "For as many as are of the works of the law, are under the curfe." The man had deceived himself in taking the commandments only according to the letter, and therefore thought he had kept them; but Chrift finds him out new work in thefe commandments which he had not thought of. The doctrine I obferve from the text is,

DocT. "The moral law is fummarily comprehended in the ten commandments."

In difcourfing from this fubject, I fhall fhew, I. How the commandments were given.

II. Why the law was thus given and renewed.

III. How the moral law is fummarily comprehended in the ten commands.

IV. Apply.

I. I fhall fhew how the moral law, or ten commandments, were given. There are ten commandments, not more nor fewer, as appears from Deut. x. 4. where they are expressly

called ten. And therefore the papists, who in fome fort leave out the second, fplit the tenth into two, to make up the number. They were given to the Ifraelites after they came out of their Egyptian bondage; for they that caft off Satan's yoke, muft take on the Lord's. They were given two ways.

1. By an audible voice from the Lord on mount Sinai, accompanied with great terror. Never was law given in fuch a folemn manner, with fuch dread and awful majefty, Exod. xix. Deut. iv. 5. Heb. xii. 18. The people were commanded to wash their clothes before the law was delivered to them. By this, as in a type, the Lord required the fanctifying of their ears and hearts to receive it. There were bounds and limits fet to the mount, that it might breed in the people dread and reverence to the law, and to God the holy and righteous Lawgiver. There were great thunderings and lightenings. The artillery of heaven was fhot off at that folemnity, and therefore it is called "a fiery law." The angels attended at the delivery of this law. The heavenly militia, to speak fo, were all mustered out on this important occafion. In a word, the law was promulgated with the marks of fupreme majefty; God by all this shewing how vain a thing it is for finners to expect life by the works of the law; and thereby alfo fhewing the neceffity of a Mediator.

2. The ten commandments were written on two tables of stone, and that by the finger of God himself. This writing them on stone might hold out the perpetuity of that law, and withal the hardness of men's hearts. There were two tables that were given to Mofes, written immediately by God himself, Exod. xxxi. ult. Thofe Mofes brake, chap. xxxii. 16. 19.; plainly holding out the entertainment they would get amongst men. Then other two tables were hewn by Mofes, yet written by the finger of God, chap. xxxiv. 1.; for by the law is the finner hewed, but by the spirit of gofpel-grace is the law written on the heart. These two tables were afterwards laid up in the ark of the covenant, in order to be fulfilled by Christ, who is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth. This writing of the law upon tables of stone is juftly fuppofed to have been the first writing in the world; and therefore this noble and useful invention was of divine origin, and the foundation of VOL. II. No. 18.

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all Mofes's after writings, which have been fo useful to the church in all ages.

II. I fhall fhew, why the law was thus given and renewed.

1. For the confirmation of the natural law. For though there was no need of fuch a confirmation of the law while man ftood, yet fuch was the darkness of the mind, the rebellion of the will, and disorder of the affections and other faculties, that there remained only fome relics of it, which that they might not alfo be loft, the ten commandments were given.

2. That the fame might be corrected in those things wherein it was corrupted by the fall, or defective. And indeed there was great need of it in this refpect. For the law of nature in man's corrupt ftate is very defective. For,

(1.) It cannot carry a man to the firft caufe of all his mifery, even Adam's first fin, and discover the evils of luft and concupifcence that lurk in his heart. Mere natural light can never teach a man to feel the weight and curfe of a fin committed fome thousands of years before he was born, or to mourn for that filthinefs which he contracted in his conception, and for thofe fproutings of fin in his nature. apostle tells us, that this cannot be learned without the law, Rom. vii. 7. "I had not known fin but by the law: for I had not known luft, except the law had faid, thou fhalt not

covet."

The

(2.) The law of nature is defective, because natural Judgement is thoroughly distorted and infatuated, fo that it is ready to reckon evil good, and good evil, light darkness and darkness light. Nature is ready to dictate into men, that they are "rich and increased with goods, and ftand in need of nothing; while in the mean time they are wretched, and miferable, and poor, and blind, and naked."

(3.) It was defective, because it doth not drive men out of themselves for a remedy. The fublimeft philosophy that ever was did never teach a man to deny himself, but always taught him to build up his house with the old ruins, and to fetch ftores and materials out of the wonted quarry. Shame, humiliation, confufion of face, felf-abhorrence, condemning of ourselves, and flying to the righteousness of another, are virtues known only in the book of God, and which the learned

philofophers would have esteemed both irrational and pufillanimous things.

4. It was defective, because by nature in particular men never knew nor had experience of a better ftate, and therefore must needs be ignorant of that full image of God in which it was created. As a man born and brought up in a dungeon is unable to conceive the state of a palace; or as the child of a nobleman ftolen away, and brought up by fome beggar, cannot conceive or fufpect the honours of his blood; fo corrupted nature is utterly unable, that has been born in a womb of ignorance, bred in a hell of uncleanness, and enthralled from the beginning to the prince of darknefs, to conceive, or convince a man of, that most holy and pure condition in which he was created.

3. To fupply what was wanting in it, being obliterated by fin. In the ages before Mofes, the Lord's extraordinary appearances and revelations were more frequent, and the lives of men were much longer, than they were afterwards. In Mofes's time they were reduced to feventy, or little more. These aged patriarchs tranfmitted the knowledge of the law and men's duty to their defcendents; and by this means it was handed down from father to fon; but by degrees men's lives were shortened, and following generations were involved in ignorance of God and his law. Therefore, to fupply this defect, and to prevent the knowledge of it from utterly perishing, was the law promulgated at Sinai.

4. To evince and convince of the neceffity of a Mediator, the people that faw not this defect. When the law was thus given anew, and men faw their utter incapacity to fulfill it, by giving that due obedience it required, they would come, through the conviction of the Holy Spirit, to fee the neceffity of a Mediator for fatisfying the law, both as to its command and penalty.

III. I fhall fhew how the law is fummarily comprehended in the ten commandments. To be fummarily comprehended in a thing, is to be fummed up in it, to be abridged and compendifed as it were. The commandment is exceeding broad, and runs through the whole Bible; but we have a fummary or short view of it in the ten commands given by the Lord on Mount Sinai. The ten commandments are the heads of all the duties of the law largely contained in the