72 QF THE MORAL LAW, AND THE EVII. OF SIN. [SEEM. V. law, that a, creature must obey his Maker in all things. And for this reason it was that our blessed Saviour, who had no need tobe washed from sin, yet submitted to bap-, tism under the ministry' of John his forerunner, even when John seemed to dissuade him from it ; Mat. iii. 15. " Suffer it to be.so now said he, for thus it becomes us to fulfil ail righteousness, that is, to obey whatever God. commands." V. I would add in the last place, that scripture asserts the perpetuity and everlasting obligation of the moral law ; Luke xvi. 17- " It is easier for heaven and earth to pass away, than for the least tittle of the law to fail;'' and our blessed Saviour declares ; Mat. v. 17. that " he carne not to destroy the law, but to fulfil it ;" by which he cannot mean the Jewish ritual which was soon abo- lished, but he means eminently the moral law, for it is the precepts of that law he proceeds to explain. And it is in conformity to this doctrine, the apostle Paul makes use of this law-to convince Jew and gentile, and all man-, kind in all ages, that they are sinners and guilty before God, in the second and third chapters to the Romans,' By the law is the knowledge of sin," whether the -na- tural law of the heathens, or the written law of the Jews All have broken this moral law of God, " every mouth is stopped and all the world lies guilty before God." . I know that there are some contraryopinions rising up in the heart of man against this doctrine. Some have Objected here, that since the fail of Adam no mere man is able perfectly to comply with the demands of it, for it requires universal obedience in thought, word and ac- tion, and a perfect abstinence horn every sin but since no man is able to yield this obedience, it can never be supposed that -a righteous and agracious God can conti, flue to require it To this I answer, first, Answer I. That man has not lost his natural powers to obey this law; he is bound then as far as his natural pgwers will reach : I own his faculties are greatly cor-, rupted by vicious inclinations or sinful propensities, which has been happily calledby our divines a moral ina- bility to fulfil the law, rather than a natural impossibility of it. But though the powers of man be vitiated, and his inclinations to evil are so strong, that they will never .14e effectually subdued without divine grace34yet thegreat
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