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THE

LAW UNSEALED:

OR, A PRACTICAL

EXPOSITION

OF THE

Ten Commandments;

WITH

A RESOLUTION of feveral momen-
tuous QUESTIONS and CASES
of CONSCIENCE.

By the Learned, Laborious, Faithful Servant of JESUS
CHRIST, Mr. JAMES DURHAM, late Minister of
the Gospel at Glasgow.

Thy Commandment is exceeding broad, Pfal. 119. 96.

The eighth Edition revised and corrected: To which are
prefixed the Commendatory Epiftles of two famous En-
glif Divines, Dr. Owen and Mr. Jenkin; as also, an Al-
phabetical Table of the principal Matters handled in the
whole Book.

EDINBURGH,

Printed by Thomas Lumifden and John Robertson,
and fold at their Printing-house in the Fife-market.
M. DCC. XXXV.

,,

To the Right Honourable, truly Noble, and renownedly Religious LADY, My Lady Marquis of ARGYLE.

Nobleft Madam,

HAD

AD it fo feemed good to the Sovereign, Holy, and infinitely Wife God, he might at the first moment of his peoples converfion have quite expelled all, even the very leaft remainders of indwelling corruption, and perfectly conformed them to his own image in holinefs; but he hath, in the depth of his unfearchable wisdom, otherwise difpofed,for ends best known to himself: concerning which (whatever may be, even here, our ftrongly-probable, and in a good measure quieting conjectures as to fome of them) it will be our wif dom to make a reference for full fatisfaction to the day of that great, folemn and celebrious general affembly of the firft-born, wherein all fuch references fhall be called and fatisfyingly difcuffed. And feeing he hath thought it fit that fome relicks of fin (but exauctorated of its reign and dominion) fhould indwell, and that thereby the fpiritual conftitution of fojourning faints fhould be a mixture of grace and corruption (each of thefe, notwithstanding, retaining ftill its own natural irreconcilable antipathy with the other, and lufting against the other; fo that in all their actings, both gracious and finful, they are ftill divided; and neither one, as they were before regenerating grace, nor as they fhall be in glory) it is highly congruous and fuitable to the fame infinite wifdom, that there fhould be a proportionable and correfpondent mixture in the difpenfations of his providence towards them while on this fide heaven, fome more fmiling, and fome more cross: the flesh and unregenerate part requiring croffes to whip it up, and drive it forward; and the fpirit and regenerate part calling for them alfo, to keep it awake, and on its guard against the furprifing prejudice and hurt it may fuftain from the reftlefs ill neighbour, and troublefom companion, a boRdy of death, that cleaveth clofs to them, as a girdle doth to the loins of a man, by reafon of which they have not many hours, let be days, to dwell to an end. When their conftitution cometh to be purely grace, perfectly defecate and refined from all the dreggy and droffy mixture of indwelling corruption, then will their lot be pure folace and joy, eve perfection and perpetuity of joy, without any the leaft m

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ture of forrow or trouble of whatever fort; but till then (and, bleffed eternally be God, it is not long to that, even but a moment) trouble and forrow, lefs or more, will wait on them who through much tribulation must enter into the kingdom of God: Yet on a juft reckoning there will be found no real nor well-grounded reafon of diffatisfaction with this wife dif pofal of divine providence, fince he never afflicteth, nor are they in heaviness thro' one or more, or even manifold temptations, but when there is need, and fuch need that a few ferious reflections will conftrain the patient to acknowledge it, and to fay, This fame particular crofs, fo and fo circumftantiated, could not well have been wanted without a greater prejudice: Nay, confidering the infeparable connection that God in his eternal and unalterable decree hath established betwixt the end and all the means that lead to it, whenever fuch and fuch a crofs is actually met with, there is ground to think that it is as neceffary as the falvation of the chriftian is; that cross being appointed, as one mean with others, to bring about the purpofed end, to wit, the falvation of such a perfon: which one confideration (that they are appointed thereunto, as the apoftle, writing to the Theffalonians, afferteth) well pondered, would contribute not a little to reconcile the most fadly croffed and afflicted children of God, a great deal more to their respective croffes; and would make them to be taken up and born more patiently, pleafantly, and cheerfully; and would withal make them to look out on them with a lefs formidable and more amiable aspect than ordinarily they do. And fince, in the fecond place, all their afflictions are afflictions only of this prefent time, for a feafon, and but for a moment, not protracted according to defert one minute beyond death, let be eternity's length; fince moreover the heaviest loads and greatest measures of them are but light and moderate afflictions, and his fevereft correctings of them are in measure, with judgment and difcretion; he stayeth his rough wind in the day of his eaft wind, and doth in great wisdom fuit and proportion the trials of his people to their ftrength and standing; in his faithfulness, not suffering them to be tempted above what they are able, but with the temptation making a way to escape, that they may be able to bear it: 'Tis not his manner to put new wine into old bottles, nor to few a piece of new cloth unto an old garment. He that teacheth the busbandman difcretion, about the fit time and feafon of plow

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plowing, fowing, harrowing, and reaping of every kind of feed and grain, according to its nature; and how to thresh out thefe feveral forts of feed and grain by fit means and inftruments; can, being wonderful in counsel, and excellent in working, with infinitely more wifdom, skill, judgment, difcretion, and tenderness, pitch the fitteft feafons, kinds, meafures, and durations of his peoples afflictions, according to their feveral neceffities, difpofitions, ftandings, capacities, and abilities. And fince withal, our fovereign Lord the King, the King of faints, out of the abfolutenefs of his dominion, and the fuperabundance of his richest grace, hath impofed upon every cross that his people meet with, not excepting (to fay fo) veffels of the greateft burden of affliction that fail and down the Sundt, as it were, of the troublesom fea of this world, the toll and cuftom of fome fpiritual good to be paid to them; allowing, warranting and commanding them, by his commiffion granted to them under his great feal for that effect, to demand, require and exact it from every occurring cross and affliction; and if there fhall be any demur or delay, let be feeming denial to pay this cuffom, to wait and fearch for it, and with a piece of holy peremptoriness to perfift in the exacting of it, as being moft certainly, without a poffibility of mifgiving, to be got there, for which the commiffion (more and more endeavoured to be really believed and made ufe of according to the granter's mind) should be produced; wherein he hath given the higheft fecurity that all things (having a fpecial look at all their afflictions, as the context, in the confeffion of moft, if not all judicious commentators, putteth beyond debate) ball work together for good to them that love God, and are the called according to his purpofe; where he hath, to speak fo with reverence to his Majefty, condefcended fomeway to abridge his own fovereignty and abfolute dominion, engaging himself by covenant, that tho' he may do what he will, yet he fhall will to do nothing, but what fhall be for his peoples good; fo that, in all his difpenfations towards them, his abfolute dominion and his goodwill fhall be commenfurable, and of equal extent, the one of them never to be ftretched one hair's-breadth beyond the other; and even in the most dark, involved, intricate, obftrufe, and mysterious providences, wherein they can read. and take up leaft of his mind, and wherein he (feeming to walk either in the greatest abfoluteness of his dominion, or in

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