impurity, sloth, or any other evil principle in our hearts, it will gain such an ascendant over us, as at once to chastise us for our folly, and to augment our guilt ? The truth is, that the very heaviest judgment which God can inflict upon us in this world, is, to give us over to the evil of our own hearts, and to say, " He is joined to idols ; let him alone e."]
2. Pre-eminently hateful —
[If there were but the smallest appearance of the leprosy on any one, he must instantly have it examined with all pos- sible care. He must not trust to his own judgment, but must apply to those whom God had authorized to determine the point, according to the rules prescribed for them. If the dis- order existed, though in ever so low a degree, the person was instantly visited with all its painful consequences : and if only a doubt of its existence was entertained, he must be shut up, and re-examined, week after week, till the point could be determined. Surely nothing could more strongly declare its odiousness in the sight of God.
In this respect it most emphatically marks the hatefulness of sin. "Sin is that abominable thing which God hatethf." He charges us to abhor it g, and to abstain from all appearance of it h. He solemnly assures us, that, if we harbour it in our hearts, it shall not go unpunished'. He requires us to " search and try our ways ;" and to bring every thing to the touchstone of his wordk: nor would he have us satisfied with our own judgment, lest our self-love should deceive us : we must come to our great High-Priest, " whose eyes are a flame of fire ;" and beg of him to " search and try us, and to see if there be any wicked way in us1." However clear we may be in our own eyes, we must say with St. Paul, " I judge not mine own self: for I know nothing by myself ; yet am I not hereby justified ; but he that judgeth me is the Lordm."]
3. Absolutely incurable —
[There was nothing prescribed, nor indeed any thing to be attempted, for the cure of this disorder. Nothing but the hand that inflicted it, could remove it. Hence the removal of it is most generally expressed by the term cleansing ; and those who were relieved from it are said to have been cleansed™. And certain it is that none but God can deliver us from sin. No superstitious devices have ever been able to root it out, no human efforts to subdue it. The blood of Christ alone can wash away its guilt ; and the grace of Christ alone can suppress its operation.]
e Hos. iv. 17. f Jer. xliv. 4. s Rom. xii. 9. h 1 Thess. v. 22.
1 Exod. xxxiv. 7. and Prov. xi. 21. k Isai. viii. 20.
1 Ps.cxxxix. 23,24. m 1 Cor. iv. 3, 4. n Luke xvii. 14, 17.