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being is jealous of its violation. Now every direction in holy writ is a part of that law; and we seem therefore to have a slow and difficult task before us, to extract from various detached histories, predictions, and discourses the scattered rules, which form the measure of our duty. The task however is shortened by observing, that there are some directions in the bible, which are peculiar to the people of Israel, being designed to keep them a peculiar nation, or relating to a state of things, in which the promised saviour of the world was still expected, and therefore no longer binding, when that long promised redeemer is arrived. It is yet further shortened by having been expressly reduced into summaries in the bible itself. Thus Jesus Christ says to his disciples in the text-' Did not Moses give you 'the law?'-; from which question we may infer, that the whole law of God may be substantially gathered even from the writings of Moses alone.

Accordingly

we find in the

twentieth

chapter of Exodus, which is one of the five books, written by Moses, the law of God,

delivered by himself with extraordinary solemnity amidst thunders, and lightnings, and thick darkness, and the sound of a trumpet, and afterwards written on tables of stone by the finger of God himself, to distinguish it from all temporary or national enactments, as the everlasting law, binding on all mankind. And our saviour appeals to these very commandments, as containing in them the essence of all the law of God. Thou knowest the ' commandments '-said he-" Do not commit "adultery! Do not kill! Do not steal! Do not "bear false witness! Honor thy father and thy "mother!"

But the substance of the divine law, given by Moses, has been still further reduced by our saviour, and thus brought, as it were, to a single point, which no understanding can be so feeble as not to comprehend, no memory so treacherous as not to retain and even this compendious epitome of the law of God he quotes together with its solemn introduction, as it is found in the writings of Moses. Thus he says- The 'first of all the commandments is-" Hear, "O Israel! The lord, our God, is one lord;

"and thou shalt love the lord, thy God, with "all thy heart and with all thy soul and with "all thy mind and with all thy strength." This is the first commandment: and the 'second is like, namely this. "Thou shalt "love thy neighbour, as thyself." There is none other commandment, greater than these.' -and again-On these two commandments ⚫ hang all the law and the prophets.' The first of these two commandments is found in the fourth and fifth verses of the sixth chapter of Deuteronomy, the second in the eighteenth verse of the nineteenth chapter of Leviticus, both in the writings of Moses, which thus furnish us in an extremely small compass with a concentrated view of the whole law of our maker.

Our inquiry therefore is extremely simple. Have we ourselves kept this law hitherto? and how may we hope to keep it hereafter?

It must be owned, that we set out on this inquiry with a very unfavorable intimation of its probable result. 'Did not Moses' (said the blessed Jesus to the Israelites of his day) 'give you the law? and yet none of you keep

'eth the law.' This however (it may be urged) was addressed to the people of one generation. It may even be referred in great measure to those parts of the divine law, which are now abrogated, the law of sacrifices and of ceremonial purifications. However this may be, it opens a field of inquiry, upon which it would argue great inattention to our best interests not to enter with seriousness and candour.

Let us therefore by the divine permission begin the inquiry, my brethren, this evening! The way is prepared for it, since we have found reason to believe, that the law of God is fully revealed in the bible; and since our divine instructor has extracted from that volume so short and clear an abstract of the law for our guidance. May he, who has given us a law, enable us to examine it with that carefulness, which he may justly demand, and to judge ourselves according to it with impartiality and truth!

SERMON VI.

John vii. 19.

Did not Moses give you the law? and yet none of you keepeth the law.

THE course of investigation, upon which we have entered, begins now, my brethren, to assume a fearful and serious aspect. So long as we were merely reasoning upon the speculations of philosophers, and endeavoring by means of them to determine, whether any other hypothesis than that of the eternal existence of one universal intelligent cause, endowed with infinite perfections, could solve the problem of nature, we might seem to be rather engaged in an investigation of abstract truth, than in settling a point of deep and vital moment to ourselves. Our interest in the

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