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SERMON XLV.

GALATIANS iii. 24.

Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.

THE tenth and last commandment is our present subject, Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his man-servant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is thy neighbour's. For settling the true sense of which words, it will be needful to remark,

First. That in the nine former commandments there has been direction given for every inward and outward act of duty owing to God or man, and all the sinful conduct contrary thereto has been prohibited and condemned. In the commandments of the first table, all those dispositions of mind towards God which are called godliness, as love, fear, trust, and every outward expression of them to God's honour, are enjoined. And in the five first commandments of the second table, all relative duties in our special calling, as well as a right temper and conduct to our neighbour respecting his life, chastity, goods, and name, have been particularly required of us. So that if the tenth commandment be, as no doubt it is, a law distinct from every one of the rest, as are the others; and has a meaning proper to itself, as to be sure it must; then its design cannot be to prohibit any particular sin, whether against God or man. Especially as to the sin of covetousness, to which the word covet seems at first sight to direct; it is to be observed that the sin of covetousness, that is, discontented carking carefulness, is already prohibited by the eighth commandment, and therefore cannot be intended here; and coveting our neighbour's wife, which is here distinctly expressed, cannot in any sense fall under

the notion of such covetousness. sides,

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Secondly. That the design of the whole law being evidently to make sin fully known, that design would not be answered by it, if there had not been a particular commandment in it which should condemn those sinful desires of our nature, which are the principles of all sinful acts whatever. For if all sinful habits in the mind and all sinful actions without had been condemned, and yet the source of them all in the natural desires of our depraved nature been passed by without mention, the great sin of all, and the one source of all, had remained undiscovered and uncondemned, and the design of the law to bring us to Christ for deliverance from the guilt and power of all sin, by discovering it to us, and showing us the curse threatened against us for it, had not been answered. Accordingly, in the seventh chapter to the Romans, St. Paul does most plainly interpret this tenth commandment as condemning the natural desires of our depraved hearts. This depraved desire of his heart he speaks directly of from the seventh verse to the end of that chapter, styles it sin by way of eminence, sin that dwells in him, and the law of sin in his members; and by these descriptions makes it plain enough what he means by it. Yet this sin, this law of his members, he tells us, verse the seventh, he had not known; that is, he had not known it to have been in him, or not known it to have been sinful, and that there was guilt chargeable upon him for it, but for the tenth commandment, which he says made al this plain to him; I had not known lust (or, as it is in the margin, concupiscence) except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet; the corrupt desires, longings, or lustings of his heart, as different from sinful habits of the mind or actions of the body, he had not known to be sin, unless the tenth commandment had said, Thou shalt not covet. So we need go no further for the meaning of the word covet, nor for the design of this commandment; which manifestly appears to be this, to restrain, by condemning them, all irregular desires after anything that is our neighbour's; that is (after anything forbidden in the second table), before they are formed into determined purposes and projects of accomplishment.

And lest it should be wondered that no other desires are here

mentioned than those which refer to the second table, the reason is, that all the sinful desires of our nature are only after the things prohibited in the second table. The sin of our nature against the first table is to have no desire after God; and therefore, there being in our nature no desire after God, that desire only that is in our nature can be condemned; namely, desire after earthly and sensual things, both which are expressly mentioned in this commandment, coveting our neighbour's house being an earthly desire, and coveting his wife a sensual one.

But yet, that all desires after the things and enjoyments of this present time might not seem to be disallowed and sinful, the commandment also gives us to understand how we shall make a distinction between those desires after present things, which spring from our corrupted nature, and are in themselves sinful, and such as are innocent, and indeed in our present circumstances necessary. Thou shalt not desire anything that is thy neighbour's; for to desire what is another's, for thy convenience or gratification, issues directly from the carnality and worldliness of thy nature, and plainly proves an inclination for present things which is neither consistent with love to God or man. It cannot be properly said that such a desire after present things is inordinate, as if the whole fault in it were that it is excessive; it is sinful from the foundation, rising from the corrupt principle within us, and betraying the carnal earthly nature. It is one thing to desire the things of this world for necessity; if the soul of an angel were dwelling in your body or mine, instead of that soul now dwelling in it, he could not do otherwise; but it is quite another thing to desire the things of this world for indulgence of pride or lust; this is sensual and earthly. I said just now that a difference is to be made between these desires and such as are inordinate. To desire carnally what is another man's is sinful in itself, as it arises from an earthly or sensual principle: to desire upon necessity is lawful; but it is not so to desire necessary things inordinately; for when necessary things are desired beyond the measure of God's word and providence, and with impatience and anxiety, then, though the desire in itself be not bad, yet the manner of desiring has sin in it. The whole I have been saying may be made plain and illustrated this way;

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the commandment says, Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house.' Now, suppose I have an house which is suited to my convenience, but, because my neighbour's is more magnificent, I desire to have his, such desire arises plainly from pride, and is altogether sinful. But suppose I have no house at all, or that which I live in is not suited to my convenience, may I not desire my neighbour's? Yes, so it be ordinately; that is, without desiring it to his hurt, and endeavouring to procure it only in honest ways: otherwise my desire of his house, though lawful in itself, becomes sinful and inordinate. Ahab would have Naboth's vineyard now, grant it would have been convenient for him, yet he desired it inordinately; he must have it, right or wrong; and, since there was but one way to it, innocent Naboth shall rather be iniquitously put to death as a traitor, and so the vineyard come to the king by forfeiture, than he will go without it.

One further thing should also be observed, that as it is difficult for us to desire necessary things ordinately, so also that desires in themselves sinful will be apt to mix with those that arise from necessity. Ahab, we will say, wanted Naboth's vineyard for a garden of herbs; but, had there not been some desire of pomp or pleasure accompanying it, he could not be in such want of a garden of herbs as to take Naboth's refusal so much to heart as he did.

Nay, and many times the really sinful desire will be clothing itself under the guise of necessity, and pretend necessity where there is really none. Can we suppose King Ahab was in real want of a garden of herbs? Is it not more probable that some scheme of indulgence or pomp made him conceit he wanted Naboth's vineyard; and that, for any matter of necessity in the thing, he could as well have done without it?

But you will say Ahab was a king, and many things are necessary to the state of a king that are not so to others. This is true. But pride and indulgence are just as much sinful principles in the great as in others. And necessity in their station is just no other than necessity in any other station. So that their station shall never justify desires either sinful in themselves, or sinful in the inordinacy of them.

To collect now all that has been said, we see there are two

kinds of desires one of real necessity, which are not sinful unless inordinate; and the other issuing from corrupt nature, and always sinful. The sin of inordinate desire after necessary things falls under the seventh and eighth commandments; the business of the seventh commandment being to regulate our bodily desires, as that of the eighth is to direct our desires in respect of worldly possessions. So that the precise sense of the tenth commandment is now fixed down, according to the interpretation St. Paul has given of it, to such covetings or desires as are in themselves sinful, and therefore charge us with guilt, although they be not formed into determined purposes of accomplishment, nor brought into outward act.

Now

Should I attempt to enumerate all those various lustings and desires, that pass through our hearts without being permitted to make a settlement there, and yet are forbidden by this commandment, the undertaking would be endiess. Yet it will be needful to give some sort of account of them. And the commandment itself must be the rule for me to go by. It says, Thou shalt not covet anything that is thy neighbour's. to follow the order of the foregoing commandments of the second table, to which it was shown above this concupiscence could have only respect immediately; I say my neighbour's dignity is his, his soul and body are his, his wife is his, his goods are his, his good name is his; and the covetings or lustings of our hearts after any of these things which are his are here forbidden. A short word upon each of these will be sufficient, and the whole together will, I think, take in the whole scope of the law of sin, which is in our members, in all its sudden, secret, and most abominable workings.

First.-Thou shalt not covet or have any sinful desires in thy heart after thy neighbour's dignity. And here all those sudden risings of heart against the authority of God, in the persons of those he has set over us, come in and are condemned. We have been from our youth up, and still are, in one degree or other in a state of subjection; and if all stubborn, impatient, self-willed, angry suggestions of the heart, against our governors, are so many covetings of his dignity, and therefore sins against this tenth commandment; (and that they are really covetings of

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