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SERMON What shall we fay then of those mighty

V.

Men of Reafon, who, in these latter Days, pretend to have found out a com plete Syftem of Duties, without being at all obliged to Revelation for the Discovery? who know fo dextrously how to delineate the Religion of Nature by the Sufficiency of their own Skill, and to lay a Foundation for every Virtue in fome new-invented Fitnefs and Congruity of Things: Sure, I think, we may fay, that they themselves are an Inftance of the Defect of their Schemes, by the want of at leaft one Virtue, and that is Humility; which would lead them to acknowledge the Helps they have received, and that, if they fee farther than their Forefathers, it is not owing to the greater Sharpness of their Sight, but to the Eminence of their Station: They ftand upon holy Ground, and are indebted to the Scriptures (though they are not ingenuous enough to own it) for their Elevation. But to return.

Such was the State and Condition of the World, with refpect to Religion, when it pleased Almighty God to reveal the Law by Mofes to the Children of Ifrael; to point out to them the Nature of Sin (by

V.

which they had fallen from the Love of God) SERMON and to be a Means of recovering them from this Apoftafy; for a mere external Obedience was not the End of the Law, any farther than fuch Obedience was an Expreffion and Teft of their Love of God, which our Saviour ftyles the first and great Commandment: They Matth. were to be a People confecrated to God xxii. 38. according to that very fignificant Memento, written on the Mitre of Aaron, Holi Exod. nefs to the Lord; and to have the Lord xxviii. 36. for their God meant nothing less than to have him for the fole Happiness of their Lives, and Object of their Affections, as well as for their Lawgiver and Governour. Nor is it to be doubted, that many of thofe Rites and Ordinances, which feem to have little or no Relation to a fpiritual Worship, were yet calculated for that End, by ferving as Emblems of fome divine Truth, to represent the diftempered Condition of human Nature, to separate them from the Commerce and Pollutions of the Heathens, or fome way to engage their Attention in fuch a manner as might lead them to the Love of God, or keep them from any Hindrance to it. Certain it is, that the Rite of Circumcifion, which had been in

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Rom. ii.

Ibid.

SERMON ftituted long before, is interpreted both by V Mofes and St. Paul, as a Figure of inward Deut. x. 6. Purity of Heart; and those only were 29. called true Jews by the latter, which were fuch, not outwardly, but inwardly. We know, therefore, that the Law was fpiritual, and required inward Purity, as well as outward Practice, according to that Command of the Lord by Mofes to the Children of Ifracl, Ye fhall be holy; for I, the Lord your God, am holy.

Levit.

xix. z.

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But this being the Cafe, how comes it to pafs, that Juftification was not by the Gal. ii. 16. Law; for it is written, By the Works of the Law Shall no Flesh be justified. St. Paul

3.

ib. vii. 12.

has fatisfied this Question, where he tells Rom. viii. us, that the Law was weak through the Flesh, The Commandment was indeed, bely, just, and good, and the Law a perfect Rule of Ib. x. 5. Duty, and the Man that did the things cont tained in it, fhould have lived by them: But where was the Man, the Man Christ Jesus excepted, that ever did them? The Weaknefs of the Flesh, the Impotence of fallen Nature, was fuch, that no Man ever did or could pay that perfect Obedience, which the Law required; and fo all came under the Gal. iii. Curfe of it; for it is written, Curfed is every

19.

one

SERMON

9.

V.

one that continueth not in all things which are written in the Book of the Law to do them. Herein then the Law failed, in that it gave not Strength to thofe that were under it, to pay that perfect Obedience, which it exacted; and yet paffed Sentence of Death, in Cafe of Difobedience, and fo became the Miniftration of Condemnation. But 2 Cor. iii. were not Sacrifices appointed by the Law, in Cafe of Tranfgreffions, and thereby a Cure provided for the Disease? They were indeed appointed; but, alas! they went but a little Way towards the Cure wanted; they could only fanctify outwardly to the pu- Heb. ix. rifying of the Flesh; but could not take 13away Sin, nor make the Comers thereunto lb. x. i. perfect. The Blood of Bulls and Goats could not wash inherent Corruption, and purge the Confcience from dead Works. No, it costs more to redeem a Soul from Death; and, were it to left to that, it muft Pf. xlix. 8 be let alone for ever.

7

lb. x. 4

-Thus far then the Matter feems not mended; and the Law, inftead of being Gain, has brought Lofs to the Soul; for, under this View of it, Sin is become exceeding finful; and, as the Sting of Death Cor. xv. is Sin, fo the Strength of Sin is the Law. 56.

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V.

SERMON The Light it gives, ferves to fet our Tranfgref fions before us, in full View, with aggravated Guilt; and Sin, followed by Conviction, comes home with double Force, and gives the Soul a deeper Wound. May we not then recur to the former Question, and afk, To what then ferveth the Law? The Anfwer to which is the second End affigned by St. Gal. iii. Paul to that Difpenfation: The Law was our School-mafter to bring us unto Chrift.

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Though the Law and the Gospel stand distinguished under different Titles, and as different Covenants, yet are they but two Manifeftations of the one great Scheme of the Redemption of the World by Jefus Chrift. The former, in every Part of it, points and leads to this End. The Law, in its Time and Place, was the Twilight of the Day of Grace; and the Shining of the Face of Mofes, as that of the Morning-Star, *xxiv. 35. Harbinger to that Sun of Righteoufnefs, Mal. iv. 2. which afterwards arofe with Healing in his

Exod.

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Wings. If we trace back the mighty Deliverer to the first Promife of his Coming, we shall find Christianity nearly as old as the Creation; and I make no Doubt of the Truth of this Affertion, That, from the Account of the Fall to the End of the Book

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