expression of love to God and man. That love to God, which the divine law requires, will dispose those, who possess it, to read his word, call upon his name, remember his sabbath, attend his ordinances and employ their time, their talents, their property and influence in his service. And that love, which the divine law requires, will dispose those, who possess it, to perform every external duty, that they owe to their fellow-men. The divine law, which requires true love to God and man, virtually and necessarily requires all those external actions, which are a proper expression of true love to God and man. For the law of God does not require any external actions, but such as naturally flow from love to God and man. Christ severely and pointedly condemned those, who performed external acts of religion, without love to God. "Wo unto you, scribes and pharisees, hypocrites: for ye pay tithe of mint and annise and cummin and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy and faith these ought ye to have done and not to leave the other undone. Wo unto you, scribes and pharisees, hypocrites: for ye make clean the outside of the cup and the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess. Thou blind pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and the platter, that the outside of them may be clean also." God God approves of no external conduct towards him, but what flows from pure disinterested love to him; and he approves of no external conduct towards men, but what flows from pure disinterested love to them. So that all, that the divine law requires, may be summarily comprehended in pure, disinterested love to God and man. Having ascertained what the divine law requires, it remains to consider,

:

III. What it forbids. Every law has both a precept and prohibition. It forbids whatever is directly contrary to what it requires; and requires whatever is directly contrary to what it forbids. The law, which requires men to remember the sabbath day and keep it holy, forbids whatever is directly contrary to remembering and keeping the sabbath properly. The law, which says, "Thou shalt not kill," requires men to preserve their own lives and the lives of others. After we have ascertained what any law forbids, it is pretty easy to ascertain what it requires; and after we have ascertained what any law requires, it is pretty easy to ascertain what it forbids. It must forbid what is directly contrary to what it requires. It appears from what has been said under the last head, that the divine law requires disinterested love to God and man; and from this we may justly conclude, that it forbids whatever is directly contrary to disinterested love to God and man. And what can be more directly contrary to disinterested love, than interested love? or what can be more directly contrary to disinterested benevolence, than selfishness; The divine law, therefore, necessarily forbids all internal selfishness and all external expressions of it. Selfishness and nothing but selfishness is a transgression of the law of love. For selfishness and nothing but selfishness is sin; and nothing but sin is a transgression of the law. As disinterested love is the fulfilling of the law; so interested love is a transgression of the law. Selfishness is the only thing, that the law forbids; and therefore the transgssion of the law wholly consists in selfishness. This aprs not only from the nature of the law and the nature of selfishness, but from the general represen

tation of scripture. Paul says, " I had not known sin ---except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet."--He did not know what sin was, until he knew what was a transgression of the law; and he did not know what was a transgression of the law, until he knew that covetousness, which is selfishness, is a transgression of the law. As the law forbids selfishness, so selfishness - must be a transgression of it. Again the apostle says, "the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be." But why cannot the carnal mind be subject to the law of God? No other reason can be given for it, but that the carnal mind consists in selfishness; which is a solid reason why it cannot be subject to the law of God; for it is impossible, that selfishness should be obedience, or submission to the law that forbids it, as the divine law does. Again the apostle represents selfishness as the source of all sin and iniquity. "This know, that in the last days, perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their ownselves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God." The love of self is here represented as the fruitful source of every species of disobedience to the divine law; and it must be so, because disobedience to it cannot spring from any other source. It must be here observed, that as the law requires no external actions but what flow from disinterested love; so the law forbids no external actions, but what flow from selfishness. As love therefore, is said to be the fulfilling of the law, so selfish

i

ness may as properly be said to be the full and entire transgression of the law. It is just as certain, that the divine law forbids selfishness, as that it requires disinterested love; and it is just as certain, that sin consists in selfishness, as that holiness consists in disinterested benevolence. And it must be universally allowed, that the divine law is an infallible standard of both holiness and sin.

IMPROVEMENT.

1. If the transgression of the divine law consists in positive selfishness; then it does not consist in a mere want of conformity to it. The assembly of divines tell us, that "sin is any want of conformity to, or transgression of the law of God." The mere want of any thing is nothing. The mere want of conformity to the divine law is nothing; and nothing has no qualities, either good, or bad. There is a want of conformity to the divine law in all material objects: but no praise or blame can be ascribed to them on that account. Their want of conformity is no transgression of the law of God. There is a want of conformity to the divine law in all the lower creation; but their want of conformity to it has no qualities and is neither morally right, or wrong. And a mere want of conformity to the divine law has no qualities; and is neither sinful, nor holy. A mere want of conformity to the divine law is no transgression of it. It is not any thing that is directly contrary to the disinterested love, which the law requires. It is not any thing positive, but only negative. It is no more like selfishness, than benevolence. There is no more sin, in the want of holiness, than there is holiness in the want of sin. Nei

cause.

ther holiness, nor sin can originate from a privative cause, which is really no cause at all. Whatever exists must have a positive cause of existence. If holiness exists, it must have a positive cause; and if sin exists, it must have a positive cause. And if sin consists in selfishness, it must have as positive a cause, as holiness, which consists in benevolence. Selfishness has as real and positive existence, as holiness; and requires as positive a cause of its existence as holiness. But it is universally allowed, that holiness must have a positive cause of its existence; and it is generally allowed, that God is the direct, immediate, and efficient cause of its existence. No reason, then, can be given why so many maintain, that sin consists in a mere want of conformity to the divine law, but a fear of allowing that it must have a cause; and that God must be that To avoid the sentiment, that God is the cause of moral evil, they are driven to suppose, that moral evil has crept into the world without any cause. They suppose, that Adam's first sin consisted in a mere want of conformity to the law of God and had no positive cause. They compare all moral evil to cold, which they suppose is owing to the mere want of the warm influence of the sun and not to any positive cause. But what right they have to suppose, that cold is owing to a mere want of heat, more than that heat is owing to a mere want of cold, I know not; and I believe they cannot tell. There is not a truer, or plainer proposition in nature, than that every effect must have a cause. Sin is an effect as much as holiness; and must have a cause as much as holiness. And if we look into the bible, we shall find, that the inspired writers as often and as plainly speak of the cause of a bad heart, as