A practical exposition of the X. Commandments with a resolution of several momentous questions…A practical exposition of the X. Commandements with a resolution of several momentous questions…

who someway disdain and account it below them to stay a while and talk with Moses at the foot of Mount-Sinai, as if they could per saltum, or by one Falcon-slight come at the top of Mount-Zion, and there converse with and make use of Jesus Christ; whence it cometh to pass that not a f •w are lamentably ignorant of the very letter of the Law, and many more but little insighted in the spiritual meaning thereof; which ignorance is waited with many un •peakable great prejudices (that are to be considered with respect to the various states of men, as regenerate or unregenerate, and •o the several degrees of their ignorance) 1. It very much incapacitateth for self-searching and examination, a considerable piece, yean sort of spring of the exercise of Godliness; How I pray, can a person to any purpose search and try his heart and ways, being alto •ether or in •n great measure ignorant of the rule according to which the search ought to be accomplished? 2. It keepeth men much inacquainted with, and great strangers to the knowledge of themselves, of their state, frame and walk, so that they can seldom or never be in case to make a knowing distinct and feeling repress •ntation of the posture of their spiritual affairs to God. 3. It is the Mother and Nurse not of any true Devotion (as Papists ignorantly or impiously aver •) but of much carnal security an • false peace; the uninformed or ill-informed conscience of the si •ner being misconced from and sadly secured against the most just and best grounded challenges; being often ignorant when sin is committed, and when duty is omitted or unduly performed; every sin being a transgression of this Law, and every duty a piece of conformity to it; How can a man ignorant altogether, ⟨image 13⟩or in a great part, of the just extent and spiritual meaning thereof, be as he ought, challenged and ac •used by his own conscience either for the Commission of the one, or for the Omission or mis-performance of the other? 4. It notably obstructeth the exercise of humiliation, repentance and self loathing; for how can the breaches of this Law in Omissions and Commissions, be distinctly and particularly repented of and mourned for, when they are not so much as known to be breaches of the Law in general, let be of what particular command thereof?