The harmony of the divine attributes in the contrivance and accomplishment of man's redemption…

1. They enjoin a real and absolute separation, from all filthiness of the Flesh and Spirit. ¹The outward and inward Man must be cleansed not only from Pollutions of a deeper dye, but from all Carnality and Hypocrisy. The Grace of God that brings Salvation hath appeared to all Men, ²teaching them to deny ungodliness, and worldly Lusts. All those irregular and impetuous desires which are raised by worldly Objects, Honours, Riches, and Pleasures,³ and reign in worldly Men, Pride, Covetousness and Voluptuousness. The Gospel is most clear, full, and vehement, for the true and inward Mortification of the whole body of corruption, of every particular darling sin. It commands us to pluck out the right eye, ⁴and to cut off the right hand: That is, to part with every grateful and gainful lust.⁵ It obliges us to crucify the Flesh, with the affections and lusts. Humane Laws regard External actions as prejudicial to Societies: but thoughts and resolutions that break not forth into act, are not within the Jurisdiction of the Magistrate. But the Law of Christ reforms the powers of the Soul, and all the most secret and inward motions that depend upon them. It forbids the first irregular desires of the carnal appetite. We must hate sin in all its degrees, strangle it in the birth, destroy it in the conception. We are enjoined to fly the appearances and accesses of evil; what ever is of a suspicious nature, and not fully consistent with the purity of the Gospel, and what ever invites to sin and exposes us to the power of it, becomes vicious and must be avoided. That glorious purity, that shall adorn the Church when our Redeemer presents it without spot or wrinkle, or any such thing, ⁶every ⟨p. 316⟩Christian must aspire to in this Life. In short, the Gospel commands us to be Holy as God is Holy,