Page:The works of the Rev. John Wesley, M.A., late fellow of Lincoln-College, Oxford (IA worksofrevjohnwe3wesl).pdf/62

 ing it out wherever it is. ''I had not known sin but by the law. I had not known lust'', evil desire to be sin, ''except the law had said, thou shalt not covet'', ver. 7. After opening this farther into the four following verses, he subjoins this general conclusion, with regard more especially to the moral law, from which the preceding instance was taken: ''Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good''.

4. In order to explain and inforce these deep words, so little regarded, because so little understood, I shall endeavour to shew, first, the original of this law, secondly, the nature thereof; thirdly, the properties, that it is ''holy and just and good'', and fourthly, the uses of it.

I. 1. I shall, first, endeavour to shew the original of the moral law, often called the law, by way of eminence. Now this is not, as some may possibly have imagined, of so late an institution as the time of Moses. Noah declared it to men long before that time, and Enoch before him. But we may trace its original higher still, even beyond the foundation of the world, to that period, unknown indeed to men, but doubtless inrolled in the annals of eternity, when ''the morning stars first sang together'', being newly called into existence. * It pleased the great Creator to make these his first born sons, intelligent beings, that they might know him that created them. For this end he endued them with un