VOL. V. 16
242 ON JUSTIFICATION.
principle of this law, tliat God in all things was absolutely to he 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 occa- sion imto 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 crea- tion 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 transgi'ession 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. Where- fore, 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 tliat law which our Lord Jesus Christ came " not to destroy, but to fulfil," that he might be "the end of it for righteous- ness 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 rejDair 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 here- unto 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 he duty which it makes to he duty, or any thing not he sin which it makes to he 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 ifc, 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,
THE OBEDIENCE REQUIRED BY GOD. 243
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 punish- ment 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 v/as first given unto Adam, it Avas 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 jjurpose, so are they wholly unproved. For, —
[1.] Our discourse is not about the federal adjunct of the law, but about its inoral nature only. It is enough that, as a law, it con- tinueth to oblige all mankind unto perfect obedience, under its ori- ginal 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 obedi- ence but Avhat it did in its original constitution, — that is, sinless and perfect ; and it requhes 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 after- ward yield all that perfect obedience unto God that the law requires, could not thereby obtain the benefit of the promise of the cove- nant. But the sole reason of it is, because he is antecedently a sin- ner, 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.