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fore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's, 1 Cor. vi. 2. And this may be considered, not only as our duty, but our highest wisdom; as it is said, The fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, and to depart from evil, is understanding, Job xxviii. 28. hereby, in some measure, we answer the end for which we came into the world. And it is our interest, inasmuch as it is conducive to, and inseparably connected with our present and future blessedness: Nevertheless we are to be very sensible that this is out of our own power, as our Saviour says, Without me ye can do nothing, John xv. 5. Therefore we should exercise a constant dependence on him, who works in his people both to will and to do, of his own good pleasure. We might here consider the nature and properties of that duty and obedience which we owe to God.

1. If it be such as we hope God will accept or approve of, it must proceed from a renewed nature, and as a consequence thereof, from a principle of love to God, as a reconciled Father; not from a slavish fear and dread of his wrath, as a sin-revenging Judge. Thus the Psalmist says, There is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared, Psal. cxxx. 4.

2. It ought to be without the least reserve, as containing a ready compliance with whatever he commands; and hereby we ought to approve ourselves to him, as our sovereign Lord and Law-giver, and consider that we are under his all-seeing eye; and accordingly his glory is to be assigned as the highest end of all we do.

3. It ought to be performed with constancy; and therefore it doth not consist barely in a sudden fit of devotion, arising from the dictates of an awakened conscience, or the dread we have of his wrath, when under some distressing providence ; but it ought to be the constant work and business of life. And, 4. When we have done or suffered most for God, we are not only to consider ourselves as unprofitable servants, Luke xvii. 10. as our Saviour expresses it; but we must lament our imperfections, and be deeply humbled for the iniquities that attend our holy things; inasmuch as there is not a just man upon earth that doth good, and sinneth not, Eccles. vii. 20.

II. In order to our yielding obedience, it is necessary that God should signify to us, in what instances he will be obeyed, and the manner how it is to be performed; otherwise it would rather be a fulfilling our own will than his. None but those who are authorized hereto, and receive what they impart to us by divine inspiration, can, without the boldest presumption, assume this prerogative to themselves, so as to prescribe to us a rule of duty to God; and therefore it follows, that this obedience must be to his revealed will. The secret purposes of God are the rule and measure of his own actings; but his revealed

will is the rule of our obedience. Secret things belong unto the Lord our God; but those things which are revealed, belong unto us and to our children, Deut. xxix. 29.

III. The will of God, as thus made known to us, is called a Law: Which, that we may farther understand, let us consider, that a law is the decree or revealed will of a sovereign, designed to direct and govern the actions of his subjects, and thereby to secure his own honour and their welfare. And if this be applied to the law of God, we must consider him as our Lord and Sovereign, whose will is the rule of our actions; and he being infinitely wise and good, is able and inclined to direct us in those things that are conducive to his own honour and our safety and happiness; and this he has been pleased to do, and accordingly has given us a law as the rule of life.

The laws of God are either such as take their rise from his holy nature, and accordingly our obligation to yield obedience thereto, proceeds not only or principally from the command of God, but from their being agreeable to his divine perfections, which must be assigned as the reason of his prescribing them as matter of duty. These are all reducible to what we call, in general, the law of nature; which, because it is agreeable to the dictates of reason, it is called, by way of eminency, The moral law. Thus when we consider ourselves as creatures, we are led to confess that we are subject to God, and therefore bound to obey him; and when we think of him as a God of infinite perfection, this obedience must be agreeable thereunto; and because he is a Spirit, it must be performed in a spiritual manner; and as he is a holy God, he is to be worshipped with reverence and holy fear. Thus far we are induced to yield obedience by the law of nature.

But, on the other hand, there are many laws relating to the circumstances or manner in which God will be worshipped, which are founded in his sovereign will; and these we call positive laws. Of this kind was that law given to our first parents, not to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil; and, doubtless, there were many other laws given to them relating to their conduct of life, and mode of worship, though they are not particularly mentioned in that short history we have of the state of man before the fail. As for the moral law, it is said, in one of the answers we are explaining, to have been revealed to Adam in his state of innocency, and to all mankind in him. Its being revealed to man, must be supposed to be a less proper way of speaking; inasmuch as that method of discovery is more especially applicable to positive laws; and therefore I would rather chuse to express it as it is in a foregoing answer*, by God's writing his laws in the hearts of our

See Quest. xvii

first parents, or impressing the commands of the moral law on their nature; so that by the power of reasoning, with which they were endowed, they might attain to the knowledge thereof. So that man, by the light of nature, knew all things contained in the moral law.

As to what is farther said in this answer, that the moral law was given to man in innocency; that has been considered elsewhere. And as all mankind were represented by him, so we are to understand those words, that it was given to all mankind in him. But these things have been insisted on in another place, as also what relates to his being prohibited from eating the tree of knowledge of good and evil, I shall pass it over, and proceed to speak more particularly concerning the moral law, together with the use thereof to all sorts of men.

QUEST. XCIII. What is the moral law?

ANSW. The moral law is the declaration of the will of God to mankind, directing and binding every one to personal, perfect, and perpetual conformity and obedience thereunto, in the frame and disposition of the whole man, soul and body, and in performance of all those duties of holiness and righteousness which he oweth to God and man; promising life upon the fulfilling, and threatening death upon the breach of

it.

QUEST. XCIV. Is there any use of the moral law to man, since the fall?

ANSW. Although no man, since the fall, can attain to righteousness and life by the moral law; yet there is great use thereof, as well common to all men, as peculiar, either to the unregenerate, or the regenerate.

QUEST. XCV. Of what use is the moral law to all men?

ANSW. The moral law is of use to all men, to inform them of the holy nature and will of God, and of their duty, binding them to walk accordingly; to convince them of their disability to keep it, and of the sinful pollution of their nature, hearts, and lives; to humble them in a sense of their sin and misery, and thereby help them to a clearer sight of the need they have of Christ, and of the perfection of his obedi-"

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QUEST. XCVI. What particular use is there of the moral law to unregenerate men?

ANSW. The moral law is of use to unregenerate men, to awaken their consciences to fly from wrath to come, and to drive them to Christ; or, upon their continuance in the estate and way of sin, to leave them inexcusable, and under the curse thereof.

QUEST. XCVII. What special use is there of the moral law to the regenerate?

ANSW. Although they that are regenerate, and believe in Christ, be delivered from the moral law as a covenant of works, so as thereby they are neither justified, nor condemned; yet beside the general uses thereof common to them with all men, it is of special use to shew them how much they are bound to Christ for his fulfilling it, and enduring the curse thereof in their stead, and for their good; and thereby to provoke them to more thankfulness, and to express the same in their greater care, to conform themselves thereunto, as the rule of their obedience.

IN

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I. A description of the moral law, in which we may observe,

1. That it is a declaration of the will of God to mankind, that so we may not be destitute of a rule to guide and regulate our behaviour, both towards God and man. This is the first idea contained in a law; and there is another, which respects the obligation which we are laid under hereby, arising from our being creatures, and consequently subject to God, who, as the supreme governor, has an undoubted right to demand obedience from us to every thing that he prescribes and reveals to us, as a rule for our direction therein. Moreover, that which God requires of us in this law, is, personal, perfect, and perpetual conformity and obedience thereunto.

(1.) It must be personal, as denoting that it is not to be performed by proxy; so that whatever services we may expect from men, we must not conclude that they can perform obedience for us to God, and thereby fulfil the obligation we are personally laid under. Yea, we may proceed farther, and assert, that what Christ has performed for us, does not exempt us from an obligation to yield perfect obedience; though it is not to be performed by us with the same view with which he performed it, as will be farther considered under a following

head, where we shall shew, that though it is not to be obeyed by us as a covenant of works; nevertheless we are obliged to 1 obey it as a rule of life.

(2.) Our obedience to the law of God must be perfect. The same obligation that man was under at first, to yield perfect obedience, remains still in force, though we are not able to perform it. The insolvency of man by the fall, did not cancel or disannul this debt *. And how much soever God may own and approve of the sincerity of his people, which is all the perfection which fallen man can arrive to in this world; yet we must not suppose, that hereby we fulfil the obligation which God, as a law-giver, has laid us under. This I the rather take notice of, that there may not be the least ground to suppose that we make void the law, but rather establish it, and thereby assert the right which God has to that perfection of obedience, which is due from us, though unable to perform it.

(3.) It must be perpetual, without backsliding from God, or the least remissness in our duty to him; and therefore there is no abatement or dispensation allowed of, that may give countenance to the least defect of this obedience. Thus the Psalmist says, I will never forget thy precepts, Psal. cxix. 93. and, Every day will I bless thee, and I will praise thy name for ever and ever, Psal. cxlv. 2. Moreover, we may observe, that this obedience is to be performed with the whole man, and in particular, by the soul, with the utmost intenseness, in all the powers and faculties thereof. Accordingly our understandings are to be rightly instructed, as to what respects the matter and manner of performing it; our wills to be entirely subjected to the will of God, and our affections engaged therein, as being sanctified and excited by the Spirit, to the end, that duty may be performed with delight, arising from the love which we bear to him, whose servants we are.

It is also to be performed with our bodies. The former, includes in it that obedience more especially which is internal; this, that which is external. This is what is styled a lower sort of obedience; and if we rest here, it is so far from being acceptable, as the apostle says, that Bodily exercise profiteth little, 1 Tim. iv. 8. Nevertheless, as the body is an instrument of the soul in acting, that service which is performed therein, is absolutely necessary; and therefore all religious worship is to be engaged in with a becoming reverence that is external, as well as that which is internal; without which the soul cannot be said to engage in any religious duties, in a becoming manner. It is farther observed, that this obedience includes in it holiness and righteousness. The former of these respects more It is a known maxim in the civil law, Cescante capacitate subditi non cessat obligatio.

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