Leviticus 18

REFLECTIONS UPON CHAP. XVIII.—What a sink of shocking pollution is our world! Sinful and dangerous is conformity to the men of it; and yet is it little avoided, nay, often much studied, by many professors of the true religion! With infinite wisdom has God framed his rules of marriage for avoiding uncleanness, and for spreading of love and friendship among mankind; and yet sinners debase themselves, and violate the dictates of nature, in order to fulfil their filthy and furious lusts, arising from the abominable source of a desperately wicked heart. What need to distrust ourselves, and abstain from every, even the smallest appearance of evil; for filthy lusts and absurd idolatries ripen, not only individuals, but nations, for ruin; and to observe the judgments inflicted on others would tend to deter us from their sins. As God seldom leaves men to the rage of their lusts till they forsake him and his institutions, let me, conscious of my own inward readiness to commit the worst of crimes, and in the firm faith of God’s infinite excellency, high dignity and authority over me, of his new covenant grant of himself, and delightful relation to me, as the Lord my God, cleave closely to his commandments, as an effectual preservative from them. And, while I live solely on Jesus’ perfect fulfilment of the law, in gratitude for his goodness, let me always abound in the work of the Lord. 4