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74
OF
THE
MORAL LAW, AND
THE
EVIL
OF
SIN. [SEAM.
V.
Having proved
the
perpetual
obligation
of
the moral
law, I
proceed to the third
part of
my discourse,
and
that
is, briefly
to
represent
the
evil
nature
of
sin.
Our text
informs
us
wherein
it
consists.
"
Sin
is
the transgression
of, the
l,.w."
When
a
creature
transgresses any command
that
God bath
given, he commits
sin; but
this chiefly
refers
to
the
moral
law,
because
it
is
this law upon which
all
others are founded, and
which gives
force
and autho-
rity
to
them
all.
Now
there
is
a
heinous
evil
contained
in
the
nature of
sin,
if
we
consider the
following
charac-
ters of
it.
I.
"
It
is
an affront to
the
authority and government
of
a
wise
and holy
God,
a
God
who has sovereign
right
to
make
laws for
his
creatures, and has formed
all
his
commands and
prohibitions according
to infinite wisdom.
Every act of
wilful sin
does as
it
were
deny the sove-
reignty of God
over
us
and the property
that God
has
in
us,
according
to
the expression of profane sinners
;
Ps.
xii. 4.
"
Our
lips
are our
own,
who is
Lord
over us."
Wilful
sin
against
God
renounces
his
right to govern
us
and
therefore though
his conscience
acknowledge
him
to
be
under
the
commands
of
this law,
yet
he
does
not
so
much need
the
express and
pub-
lic proclamation of it
in
order
to
secure
him
in
the practice
of
duty.
It
has
beep
objected again,
that
St.
Paul
confirms
the christians and
encourages them to
holiness
by telling
them they
"
are become dead to
the
law, and
they are delivered
from
the
law,
that
being dead,
wherein
they
were
held
;" Rom.
vii.
4,
6.
To
this I
answer,
that
the
apostle
allows
that
christians are delivered
also
from
the
law
as
to
its
cursing and
con-
demning power by
their
pardon and justification
in
Christ
Jesus
;
they
are
delivered
also from
the unhappy
effect
which the
law may sometimes have
upon
the
hearts of
sinners to
irritate,
awaken,
and
provoke
sin
in
them,
by
lusting
for
things
forbidden; but
he does
not
allow
even
himself
or
the
best
of
christians
to
be delivered
or
released from
the
commands of
the
law;
for
in
this very place, he
is
persuading christians
to holiness or
obedience
to the
precepts of the
law
;
and
in
1
Cor.
ix. 21. he declares he
is
"
not
without
law
to
God,
hut
he
is
under the
law,
as
it
is
in
the
hands of
Christ." Not
an
apostle nor an
angel
from
heaven can release creatures
from
the
demands of
duty
to
their Creator,
for
while
we
are
the
work
of
the
hand
of God, and continue
to be
creatures, this law never
ceases to
command perfect obedience
to
the
God
that
made
us, viz.
"
that
we must
love
him
with all
our soul,
and
with all our
strength."
Nor
do all
the lessening
expressions which
the
apostle
uses
in
his
epistle
to
the
Hebrews against the law, give
us a
release
from
the
moral law,
for
his design
is
only
to shew
the
weakness
and unprofitableness of the Jewish
law or covenant
of
Sinai
tin
comparison of
the
glorious
state
of the
gospel,
and the
new covenant, when
the
moral law shall be written on
the
hearts
of
men.
lieb.
viii.
8.
and
viii.
10, 13.
This
is
the law
that
must
stand,
for
ever, when
the
Jewish
covenant vanishes and
is
abolisd.