240 ON JUSTIFICATION.
determination must be, '' This is my righteousness whicli 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 right- eousness, 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 be- fore God. This hath been spoken unto before.
CHAPTER XI.
The nature of the obedience that God requireth of us — The eternal obligation of
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 sub- ject, 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 con- stitutions 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 out- wardly 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 suppo- sition of that constitution, things have in that order a necessary rela- tion 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.
THE OBEDIENCE REQUIRED BY GOD. 241
But on a supposition hereof, man, so freely made, could not be go- verned any other ways but by a moral instrument of latu 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 irra- tional 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 pi'operties 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 tltat 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, Avhich is a necessary exurgence from their distinct natures and pro- jierties.
5. The substance of this laiu 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, righteous- ness, 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 re- quires, and the manner of the performance of it, as unto measures and degrees, are equally necessary and unalterable, upon the supposi- tions 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