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the tenth

e tenth commandot be desirous of vainvying one another.

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ourselves, is a grief and trouble unto us.

Psalm

cxii. 9, 10, His horn shall be exalted with honour. The wicked shall see it, and be grieved: he shall gnash with his teeth, and melt away. Neh. ii. 10, When Sanballat and Tobiah heard it, it grieved them exceedingly, that there was come a man to seek the welfare of the children of Israel.

Q. 7. Why ought we to forbear envying one another? A. We ought to forbear envying one another, 1. Because this sin is very offensive unto God, reflecting great dishonour upon his goodness. Matth. xx. 15, Is thine eye evil, because I am good. 2. Because this sin is promoted by, and makes us like the devil, that envious spirit. John viii. 44, Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. 3. Because this sin of envy is heart murder, and the spring of much strife and contention, and of much evil and mischief, which we shall be ready to do unto those whom we envy. James iii. 16, Where envy and strife is, there is confusion, and every evil work. 4. Because this sin of envy is very injurious unto ourselves: 1. To our bodies; it causeth a wasting and decay, and is the foundation of many distempers and diseases, where it doth prevail. Prov. xiv. 30, Envy is the rottenness of the bones. 2. To our souls; it puts our souls out of frame, and unfits us for the duties of God's worship. 1 Pet. ii. 1, 2, Wherefore, laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies and envies, and all evil speakings, as new born babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby. 3. To both body and soul; being such a sin, as, without

repentance, and the mortification of it, will destroy both body and soul in hell.

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Q. 8. How may we be delivered from the sin of A. We may be delivered from the sin of envy, 1. By conviction of its evil, and hearty grief for it. 2. By application of the blood of Christ through faith, for the cleansing of our hearts from it. 1 John i. 7, The blood of Christ cleanseth us from all sin. 3. By cordial love and charity towards our neighbour. 1 Cor. xiii. 4, Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not. By the indwelling of the Spirit, through whom alone this sin can be mortified and subdued. Rom. viii. 13, If ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.

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Q.9. What is the third sin which the tenth commandment doth forbid ?

A. The third sin which the tenth commandment doth forbid, is all inordinate motions and affections towards any thing that is our neighbour's. Col. iii. 5, Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affections, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry.

Q. 10. What special inordinate motion and affection is forbidden in this commandment?

A. The special inordinate motion and affection, which is forbidden in this commandment, is, coveting that which is our neighbour's, either his house, or wife, or man-servant, or maid-servant, or ox, or ass, or any thing that is his.

Q. 11. Why ought we not to covet any thing which is our neighbour's?

A. We ought not to covet any thing which is our neighbour's, 1. Because God hath directly forbidden it. 2. Because it is both uncharitableness and injustice towards our neighbour, to covet any thing that is his. 3. Because we lose the comfort of that which is our own, by coveting and inordinately desiring that which is another's. Q12. Doth this tenth commandment forbid only the actual coveting that which is another's?

A. The tenth commandment doth not only forbid the actual coveting that which is another's, but also all ha

bitual inclinations hereunto, and all those inordinate motions of the spirit this way, which do precede the consent of the will, which is part of original sin, with which human nature is universally polluted and depraved.

Q. 82. Is any man able perfectly to keep the commandments of God?

A. No mere man since the fall, is able, in this life, perfectly to keep the commandments of God; but doth daily break them in thought, word and deed.

Q. 1. What is it perfectly to keep the commandments of God?

A. To keep perfectly the commandments of God, is to keep all the commandments of God, and at all times, without the least breach of them, in regard of disposition, inclination, thought, affection, word, or conversation.

Q. 2. Was ever any man able perfectly to keep the commandments of God?

A. Before the fall, the first man Adam was able perfectly to keep God's commandments, he having power given unto him in the first creation, to fulfil the condition of the first covenant of works, which required perfect obedience; but since the fall, no mere man is able to do this.

Q. 3. Was not the Lord Jesus Christ able perfectly to keep the comman #nents of God?

A. The Lord Jesus Christ was both able, and also did perfectly keep the commandments of God, but he was not a mere man, being both God and man in one person. Heb. iv. 15, He was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Rom. ix. 5, Whose are the fathers, and of whom, as concerning the flesh, Christ came, who is over all, God blessed forever.

Q. 4. Shall ever any mere man be able perfectly to keep God's commandments ?

A. The saints, who are mere men, though not in this life, yet hereafter in heaven, shall be made perfect themselves, and be enabled perfectly to obey God in whatso ever it is that he shall require of them. Heb. xii. 22, 23, We are come to Mount Sion, to the heavenly Jerusa

lem, to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the first-born, and to the spirits of just men made perfect.

Q. 5. Do not the saints on earth keep the commandments of God?

A. The saints on earth do keep the commandments of God sincerely, but not perfectly. 2 Cor. i. 12, For our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in godly sincerity we have had our conversation in this world. Psal. cxxx. 3, If thou, Lord, shouldst mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand.

Q. 6. Do no saints attain perfection here in this life? A. 1. All saints ought to endeavour after perfection, and that they may attain higher and higher degrees thereof. Matth. v. 48, Be ye therefore perfect as your Father which is in heaven is perfect. 2. No saints on earth ever did attain absolute perfection, so as to obey God in all things, at all times, without any sin.

Q. 7. How do you prove that no saints ever did attain perfection in this life?

A. That no saints did ever attain perfection in this life, may be proved, 1. Because the best of saints, in this life, are renewed but in part, and have remainders of flesh and corruption, which do rebel and war against the Spir it, and renewed part in them. Gal. v. 17, For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. 2. Because the scripture telleth us expressly, that none are without sin; and that such are deceivers of themselves, and make God a liar, that affirm the contrary. Eccl. vii. 20, For there is not a just man upon earth, that doth good, and sinneth 1 Kings viii. 46, For there is no man that sinneth James iii. 2, For in many things we offend all. 1 John i. 8, 10, If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. 3. Because the scripture hath recorded the sins of the most holy that ever lived: Abraham's dissimulation concerning his wife. Gen. xx. 2, And Abrahanı said of Sarah his wife, She is my sister. The like dis

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simulation of Isaac. Gen. xxvi. 7, And he said, She is my sister; for he feared to say she is my wife. Jacob's lie to his father. Gen. xxvii. 24, And he said, Art thou my very son Esau? And he said, I am. Joseph's swearing by the life of Pharaoh. Gen. xlii. 15, By the life of Pharaoh, ye shall not go hence, except your youngest brother come hither. Moses' unadvised speech. Psal. cvi. 33, They provoked his spirit so that he spake unad visedly with his lips. The scripture recordeth Noah's drunkenness; Lot's incest; David's murder and adultery; Job's and Jeremiah's impatience, and cursing their birth day; Peter's denial of his master with oaths and curses, and dissimulation afterwards before the Jews; Paul and Barnabas's contention. And if such persons as these, who were filled with the Holy Ghost, and had as great a measure of grace as any whom we read of, either in the scriptures or any history, were not perfect without sin, we may safely conclude, that no saints in this life have ever attained unto absolute perfection.

Q. 8. Doth not the scripture tell us, 1 John iii. 9, Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God: And if the saints are without sin in their life, are they not perfect?

A. 1. If the sense of this place should be, that such as are born of God do not commit sin at all, then no re generate persons which are born of God, would ever be found committing sin: but the scripture doth record the sins of many regenerate persons, as hath been shown ; and experience doth evidence the same, that such as are born of God commit sin, and therefore that cannot be the meaning of the place, that such as are born of God do not commit sin at all. 2. Such as are born of God do not commit sin; that is, 1. They do not commit sin with the full consent of their will, which is in part renewed; and which so far as it is renewed, doth oppose sin, though sometimes it may be overpowered by the strength and violence of temptation. 2. They do not live in a course of sin, as the unregenerate do. sin unto death, as 1 John v. 17, 18, All unrighteousness 3. They do not commit

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