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neither vice nor virtue, righteousness nor wickedness for thefe are nothing else but the violation or obfervation of the law of God; or habits and states refulting from the one or the other. But this is not all: two things more must be remarked, to render this definition, which the apostle gives us of fin, clear and full. First, The law must be fufficiently revealed. Secondly, The tranfgreffion of it must be truly voluntary.

1. By fufficient revelation of a divine law, every one understands, that the law must be fo publifhed to the man who is to be governed by it, that the authority and fenfe of it may be, if it be not his own fault, rendered evident to him. If the divine authority of any rule or pre· cept be doubtful and uncertain, the obligation of it will be fo too: and it is as necellary that the fenfe of the law should be evident, as its authority. The law, that is penned in dark and ambiguous terms, is, properly fpeaking, no law at all; fince the mind of the Lawgiver is not fufficiently made known by it. Whatever is neceffarily to be forborn or done by us, must be fully and clearly prescribed in the law of God; and if it be not, it can never be neceffary. Men through weakness or defign may enact laws that are but a heap of letters, a croud of dubious Delphick

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fentences: but God can never do so, because this is repugnant both to his wisdom and goodness, and to the very end of a law too, which is to be a rule, not a fnare ; 'tis to give understanding to the fimple; to be a light to our feet, and a lamp to our paths; not like an Ignis fatuus, to betray us into brakes and precipices, and ruin, and death.

2. The tranfgreffion must be a voluntary one. And this imports two things: 1. A knowledge of the law. 2. Confent to the breach of it. First, As to the knowledge of the law. All that I have to say here in a few words, is, that ignorance of the law excufes a tranfgreffion, when it is it felf excufable; but if the ignorance it felf be criminal, the effect of it must be fo too. We must never think of excufing our fins, by alledging an ignorance into which, not our own incapacity, or any other reasonable cause, but neglect or contempt of the truth, or fome other vicious luft or paffion, has betrayed us. Secondly, As to the confent of the will; this is neceffary to demonstrate any action finful or virtutuous; without this the mind will be no partner in the fin, and by confequence cannot be involved in the guilt of it. Whatever we cannot help, is our misfortune, not our fault; actions merely natural, or merely forced, can neither be good

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nor evil. The concurrence of reafon and choice is indifpenfably neceffary to the morality of an action. All this is plainly taught us by St. James į, 14, 15. But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own luft, and enticed. Then when lift bath conceived, it bringeth forth fin; and fin when it is finished, bringeth forth death. Which words do certainly imply, that the fpring and principle of fin is within our felves; that 'tis our natural corruption that entices and allures us; and 'tis our confent to its enticements that gives being to fin, and defiles us with guilt.

From all this now put together 'tis easy to conclude what fort of a defcription we are to form of mortal fin: 'tis fuch a tranfgreffion of the law of God, as is vicious in its original, deliberate in its commiffion, and mischievous in its tendencies or effects the heart is corrupted and mifled by fome luft or other, and fo confents to the breach of the moral law of God, a law of eternal and immutable goodnefs; or if the fin confifts in the breach of any pofitive law, it must yet imply in it fome moral obliquity in the will, or it the tendency of the action, or both. So that prefumptuous, or mortal fin, call in by what name we will, is a deliberate tranfgreffion of a known law of God, tending to the dishonour of God, the inju

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ry of our neighbour, or the depravation of our nature. Such are thofe fins which the prophet Ifaiah exhorts those who will repent, to ceafe from. And fuch are thofe we have a catalogue of, Eph. v. Gal. v. and elsewhere: Now the works of the fleft are manifeft, which are thefe, adultery, for nication, uncleanness, lafcivioufness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, frife, feditions, berefies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and fuck like. Thefe are the fins, of which, as of fo many members, the body of fin confifts; these constitute the old man: these are fometimes called, the filthiness of the flesh and spirit, ungodliness, wickedness, iniquity, the lufts of the flesh, worldly lufts, and fuch like. These and the like fins have, as I faid, in them very apparent fymptoms of malignity and mortality: they are al ways the effect of fome carnal and worldly lufts, prevailing over the law of the mind; and they "imply a contempt of God, injuftice to our neighbour, and fome kind of defilement and pollution of our nature. And that these are the plain indications of fuch a guilt as excludes a man from heaven and the favour of God, is very plain from the account which the fcripture gives us both of the origin and influence of fin; from the care it takes to fortify the heart against all infection

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from the conftant representations it makes us of the fhamefulness and the mischief of fin, even in reference to this world as well as the other. I cannot fee any thing further neceffary to the explication of deliberate or prefumptuous fin, unless it be here fit to add, that it is mortal, though it proceed no further than the heart: there is no need at all that it should be brought forth into action, to render it fatal and damnable. This is evident, not only from the nature of divine worship, which must be entire, fincere, and fpiritual; and therefore can no more be reconciled to the wickedness of our hearts, than of our actions; but also from the exprefs words of our Saviour, Out of the heart proceed fornication, adultery, theft, &c. And elfewhere he pronounces the adultery of the heart damnable, as well as that of the body, Mat. v. 28. But I fay unto you, that whofoever looketh upon a woman to luft after her, bath committed adultery already with her in his heart.

§. 2. I am next to give fome account of the liberty of the perfect man, in reference to the fin I have been difcourfing of. I shall not need to ftop at any general or preliminary obfervations; as, that abftinence from fin regards all the commandments of God alike; and to do otherwife,

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