determination must be, "This is my righteousness which I present unto God that I may be justified," and they will find difficulty in arriving at it, if I be not much mistaken.

3. None of the holy men of old, whose faith and experience are recorded in the Scripture, did ever plead their own personal righteousness, under any notion of it, either as to the merit of their works or as unto their complete performance of what was required of them as the condition of the covenant, in order unto their justification before God. This hath been spoken unto before.

CHAPTER XI.

-The eternal obligation of

The nature of the obedience that God requireth of us-'

the law thereunto.

OUR second argument shall be taken from the nature of that obedience or righteousness which God requireth of us that we may be accepted of him, and approved by him. This being a large subject, if fully to be handled, I shall reduce what is of our present con⚫cernment in it unto some special heads or observations:—

1. God being a most perfect, and therefore a most free agent, all his actings towards mankind, all his dealings with them, all his constitutions and laws concerning them, are to be resolved into his own sovereign will and pleasure. No other reason can be given of the original of the whole system of them. This the Scripture testifieth unto, Ps. cxv. 3, cxxxv. 6; Prov. xvi. 4; Eph. i. 9, 11; Rev. iv. 11. The being, existence, and natural circumstances of all creatures being an effect of the free counsel and pleasure of God, all that belongs unto them must be ultimately resolved thereinto.

2. Upon a supposition of some free acts of the will of God, and the execution of them, constituting an order in the things that outwardly are of him, and their mutual respect unto one another, some things may become necessary in this relative state, whose being was not absolutely necessary in its own nature. The order of all things, and their mutual respect unto one another, depend on God's free constitution no less than their being absolutely. But upon a supposition of that constitution, things have in that order a necessary relation one to another, and all of them unto God. Wherefore,—

3. It was a free, sovereign act of God's will, to create, effect, or produce such a creature as man is; that is, of a nature intelligent, rational, capable of moral obedience, with rewards and punishments.

But on a supposition hereof, man, so freely made, could not be governed any other ways but by a moral instrument of law or rule, influencing the rational faculties of his soul unto obedience, and guiding him therein. He could not in that constitution be contained under the rule of God by a mere physical influence, as are all irrational or brute creatures. To suppose it, is to deny or destroy the essential faculty and powers wherewith he was created. Wherefore, on the supposition of his being, it was necessary that a law or rule of obedience should be prescribed unto him, and be the instrument of God's government towards him.

4. This necessary law, so far forth as it was necessary, did imme diately and unavoidably ensue upon the constitution of our nature in relation unto God. Supposing the nature, being, and properties of God, with the works of creation, on the one hand; and suppose the being, existence, and the nature of man, with his necessary relation unto God, on the other; and the law whereof we speak is nothing but the rule of that relation, which can neither be nor be preserved without it. Hence is this law eternal, indispensable, admitting of no other variation than doth the relation between God and man, which is a necessary exurgence from their distinct natures and properties.

5. The substance of this law was, that man, adhering unto God absolutely, universally, unchangeably, uninterruptedly, in trust, love, and fear, as the chiefest good, the first author of his being, of all the present and future advantages whereof it was capable, should yield obedience unto him, with respect unto his infinite wisdom, righteousness, and almighty power to protect, reward, and punish, in all things known to be his will and pleasure, either by the light of his own mind or especial revelation made unto him. And it is evident that no more is required unto the constitution and establishment of this law but that God be God, and man be man, with the necessary relation that must thereon ensue between them. Wherefore,

6. This law doth eternally and unchangeably oblige all men unto obedience to God,-even that obedience which it requires, and in the manner wherein it requires it; for both the substance of what it requires, and the manner of the performance of it, as unto measures and degrees, are equally necessary and unalterable, upon the suppositions laid down. For God cannot deny himself, nor is the nature of man changed as unto the essence of it, whereunto alone respect is had in this law, by any thing that can fall out. And although God might superadd unto the original obligations of this law what arbitrary commands he pleased, such as did not necessarily proceed or arise from the relation between him and us, which might be, and be continued without them; yet would they be resolved into that 16

VOL. V.

principle of this law, that God in all things was absolutely to be trusted and obeyed.

7. "Known unto God are all his works from the foundation of the world." In the constitution of this order of things he made it possible, and foresaw it would be future, that man would rebel against the preceptive power of this law, and disturb that order of things wherein he was placed under his moral rule. This gave occasion unto that effect of infinite divine righteousness, in constituting the punishment that man should fall under, upon his transgression of this law. Neither was this an effect of arbitrary will and pleasure, any more than the law itself was. Upon the supposition of the creation of man, the law mentioned was necessary, from all the divine properties of the nature of God; and upon a supposition that man would transgress the law, God being now considered as his ruler and governor, the constitution of the punishment due unto his sin and transgression of it was a necessary effect of divine righteousness. This it would not have been had the law itself been arbitrary; but that being necessary, so was the penalty of its transgression. Wherefore, the constitution of this penalty is liable to no more change, alteration, or abrogation than the law itself, without an alteration in the state and relation between God and man.

8. This is that law which our Lord Jesus Christ came "not to destroy, but to fulfil," that he might be "the end of it for righteousness unto them that do believe." This law he abrogated not, nor could do so without a destruction of the relation that is between God and man, arising from, or ensuing necessarily on, their distinct. beings and properties; but as this cannot be destroyed, so the Lord Christ came unto a contrary end,—namely, to repair and restore it where it was weakened. Wherefore,

9. This law, the law of sinless, perfect, obedience, with its sentence of the punishment of death on all transgressors, doth and must abide in force for ever in this world; for there is no more required hereunto but that God be God, and man be man. Yet shall this be farther proved:

(1.) There is nothing, not one word, in the Scripture intimating any alteration in or abrogation of this law; so as that any thing should not be duty which it makes to be duty, or any thing not be sin which it makes to be sin, either as unto matter or degrees, or that the thing which it makes to be sin, or which is sin by the rule of it, should not merit and deserve that punishment which is declared in the sanction of it, or threatened by it: "The wages of sin is death." If any testimony of Scripture can be produced unto either of these purposes, namely, that either any thing is not sin, in the way of omission or commission, in the matter or manner of its performance,

which is made to be so by this law, or that any such sin, or any thing that would have been sin by this law, is exempted from the punishment threatened by it, as unto merit or desert,-it shall be attended unto. It is, therefore, in universal force towards all mankind. There is no relief in this case, but "Behold the Lamb of God."

In exception hereunto it is pleaded, that when it was first given unto Adam, it was the rule and instrument of a covenant between God and man,-a covenant of works and perfect obedience; but upon the entrance of sin, it ceased to have the nature of a covenant unto any. And it is so ceased, that on an impossible supposition that any man should fulfil the perfect righteousness of it, yet should he not be justified, or obtain the benefit of the covenant thereby. It is not, therefore, only become ineffectual unto us as a covenant by reason of our weakness and disability to perform it, but it is ceased in its own nature so to be; but these things, as they are not unto our present purpose, so are they wholly unproved. For,

[1] Our discourse is not about the federal adjunct of the law, but about its moral nature only. It is enough that, as a law, it continueth to oblige all mankind unto perfect obedience, under its original penalty. For hence it will unavoidably follow, that unless the commands of it be complied withal and fulfilled, the penalty will fall on all that transgress it. And those who grant that this law is still in force as unto its being a rule of obedience, or as unto its requiring duties of us, do grant all that we desire. For it requires no obedience but what it did in its original constitution, that is, sinless and perfect; and it requires no duty, nor prohibits any sin, but under the penalty of death upon disobedience.

[2.] It is true, that he who is once a sinner, if he should afterward yield all that perfect obedience unto God that the law requires, could not thereby obtain the benefit of the promise of the covenant. But the sole reason of it is, because he is antecedently a sinner, and so obnoxious unto the curse of the law; and no man can be obnoxious unto its curse and have a right unto its promise at the same time. But so to lay the supposition, that the same person is by any means free from the curse due unto sin, and then to deny that, upon the performance of that perfect, sinless obedience which the law requires, he should have right unto the promise of life thereby, is to deny the truth of God, and to reflect the highest dishonour upon his justice. Jesus Christ himself was justified by this law; and it is immutably true, that he who doth the things of it shall live therein.

[3.] It is granted that man continued not in the observation of this law, as it was the rule of the covenant between God and him. The covenant it was not, but the rule of it; which, that it should be,

was superadded unto its being as a law. For the covenant comprised things that were not any part of a result from the necessary relation of God and man. Wherefore man, by his sin as unto demerit, may be said to break this covenant, and as unto any benefit unto himself, to disannul it. It is also true, that God did never formally and absolutely renew or give again this law as a covenant a second time. Nor was there any need that so he should do, unless it were declaratively only, for so it was renewed at Sinai; for the whole of it being an emanation of eternal right and truth, it abides, and must abide, in full force for ever. Wherefore, it is only thus far broken as a covenant, that all mankind having sinned against the commands of it, and so, by guilt, with the impotency unto obedience which ensued thereon, defeated themselves of any interest in its promise, and possibility of attaining any such interest, they cannot have any benefit by it. But as unto its power to oblige all mankind unto obedience, and the unchangeable truth of its promises and threatenings, it abideth the same as it was from the beginning.

(2.) Take away this law, and there is left no standard of righteousness unto mankind, no certain boundaries of good and evil, but those pillars whereon God hath fixed the earth are left to move and float up and down like the isle of Delos in the sea. Some say, the rule of good and evil unto men is not this law in its original constitution, but the light of nature and the dictates of reason. If they mean that light which was primigenial and concreated with our natures, and those dictates of right and wrong which reason originally suggested and improved, they only say, in other words, that this law is still the unalterable rule of obedience unto all mankind. But if they intend the remaining light of nature that continues in every individual in this depraved state thereof, and that under such additional depravations as traditions, customs, prejudices, and lusts of all sorts, have affixed unto the most, there is nothing more irrational; and it is that which is charged with no less inconvenience than that it leaves no certain boundaries of good and evil. That which is good unto one, will, on this ground, be in its own nature evil unto another, and so on the contrary; and all the idolaters that ever were in the world might on this pretence be excused.

(3.) Conscience bears witness hereunto. There is no good nor evil required or forbidden by this law, that, upon the discovery of it, any man in the world can persuade or bribe his conscience not to comply with it in judgment, as unto his concernment therein. It will accuse and excuse, condemn and free him, according to the sentence of this law, let him do what he can to the contrary.

In brief, it is acknowledged that God, by virtue of his supreme dominion over all, may, in some instances, change the nature and order