83 / 652
SEEM.
v.)
OF
THE
MORAL
LAW,
AND
THE
EVIL
OF
SIN.
73
and
holy
God
continues still to
demand a perfection
of
obedience
;
he
cannot
give
an imperfect
law,
or a
law
that requires but an imperfect obedience
to
it. His title,
as the
Creator and
the
God
of
nature, demands
the
best
service
that our natural
powers
can
.perform
:
Our
un-
derstanding
and
will,
our
heart,
and
hand,
and
tongue,
owe him
their utmost obedience.
Besides,
if
the law
did
not continue
to
require our best
and highest obedience,
we
should
not
be
guilty
of
sin
where
we
fall
short,of
perfection
;
that
is,
if
we
loved
God
in
part,
if
we
served
him
in
part, though
it
was
not
"
with,all
our
mind, with all
our
soul,
with
all
our heart,
and
with all
our strength," yet
we
should
not
be
trans-
gressors
;
but
this
I
think
is
a
very
absurd supposition.
I
answer
in
the
second
place,
answer
II.
That
the moral
law may
continue
still to
demand perfect obedience
of
all men,
though since the
fall they
cannot perfectly
fulfil
it
;
for
the grace
of
the
gospel
which
is
revealed
in
scripture, and
which
runs
Through every
dispensation
since the
fall
of
Adam, lias
not
abated
the
demands
of the
law,
though it
'
has
pro-
vided a
relief
for
us
under our
failings.
And
though
we
do
not
fulfil
what
God requires
in this
law,
yet
he con -
descends
in this
gospel
to
pardon
and to
accept
the
hum-
ble, the sincere, the
penitent
sinner, on the
account
of
the
perfect obedience and atoning sacrifice
of
his
own
Son.
It
is
granted indeed
that
all
men
who
have been
saved
in
the
way
Of
the gospel have
yielded
but
a
very
imperfect and
defective
obedience
to this
law,
yet
still
the
law
of God demands a perfection
of
holiness
according
to
our utmost
natural
powers
and
capacities;
the law
demands that
we
sin
not
at all;
bùt
the
gospel
says,
"
I
-f
we sin we
have'an Advocate
with
the
Father,
even
Jesus Christ
the
righteous,
who
is
a
propitiation
for the
sins
of
the world
;"
1
John
ii.
E.*
' There
is
also
another
objection
against this doctrine which
some
raise
from
the
words
ofscripture.
Does
not the apostle tell
Timothy
that
"
the
law
is
not
made
for
a
righteous man, but
for
the
lawless
and disobedient,
for the
ungodly
and
for
sinners
?"
&c.
I
Tint.
i.
9.
But
this
is
readily
an4
swered,
by
considering
what
is
the
apostle's meaning here.
It
is
only to
shew,
that'lisobedient
and
ungodly
men
have need
of particular
and
ex,
press laws
or precepts,
with threatenings
and terrors annexed
to
them,
in
order
to
restrain them
from
iniquity; but
the righteous
man
bath
a
saw:-
Bled
nature, and ;i} inward aversion within himself,
to
all evil
practices
»