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SO
OP THE MORAL LAW,
AND
THE
EVTL OP
Sil.
[sERM.. V.
It
is
time
now to
conclude
this.discourse
with
some
few
reflections.
Reflection I.
Is
the
law
of God
in
perpetual
force,
and
is
every transgression
of
it
so
heinous an
evil
;
then
let
"
us
take
a
survey how
wretched and deplorable
is
the state of mankind
by
nature.
'We
have all broken
the
law
of
our
God,
which we
have been all
bound
to
obey
;
we
are
still
bound
to obey
it and are
still
breakers
of
it.
Our
daily thoughts,
our
words and
our deeds
suf-
ficiently shew us
that
we
are transgressors, and there
is
in
our nature a perpetual
propensity
to transgress.
Where
is
the mortal
that
has lived
according
to the
purity
and
perfection of
this
law
?
"
There
is
none righteous
;
no,
not
one."
Rona.,
iii.
10,
12.
Where
is
the
son
or
daughter of
Adam,
that
is
not pronounced
guilty and
condemned
by
it?
" Every mouth
is
stopped, and
all
the
world
is
guilty before
God."
What
a miserable
region
is
this
earth, overspread
with sinful
inhabitants,
criminal creatures,
who
are
all
transgressors
against
the
law of the
God
that
made
them,
and
by
the sentence
of
that
law
stand condemned
to
death, considered
in
their
natural
state?
Reflection
II.
Is
the
moral
law
of such constant obli-
gation, and
is
death the due recompence of
every
trans-
gression
of
it;
"
Then it
is
necessary for ministers to
preach
this
law,
and it
is
necessary for
hearers to
learn
it."
We
should all know
our duty and
our
danger.
Not
the best
of
christians are arrived
at
á
dispensation above
_the
knowledge
and the practice
Of
this
law.
There
is
no
honour
dine
to the
gospel
by
explaining
it
in such
a
manner
as
to
release
us
from
the duties
of
the moral
law
;
for
it
is
one
great
design
of
the gospel to restore
us again to a chearful
and regular obedience
to
it.
To
in
it,
so
much
further pain
or
anguish
does
it deserve
in
body,
or in
mind,
or in
both,
that
is,
it
requires
so
much
further continuance
in life and
being,
as
to
sustain
that
degree of anguish' and
sorrow
which
is
due
to the
sinner:
And therefore the
life
of
a
wicked
soul
is
continued
in
sorroks,
in
the other
world
after the death of the body
as a
punishment
for sip
;
and therefore
also
at the last day shall
be
raised
again,
that
all
wilful
and
impenitent
sinners
may sustain punishments according
to
the
various
dis-
pensations of God
under
which
they
hive
lived, and
the
several aggrava-
tions of
their
sins;
and
all
these things shall be perfectly adjusted by
the
wisdom and righteousness
of God,
"
who is
the
Judge of the
whale
earth,
and
always
does What
is
right;'
Gen.
xviii.
25.