II. 1. The nature of that law which was originally given to angels in heaven and man in paradise, and which God has so mercifully promised to write afresh, in the hearts of all true believers, was the second thing I proposed to shew. In order to which I would first observe, that altho’ _the law_ and _the commandment_ are sometimes differently taken, (the commandment meaning but a part of the law) yet in the text they are used as equivalent terms, implying one and the same thing. But we cannot understand here, either by one or the other, the ceremonial law. ’Tis not the ceremonial law, whereof the apostle says, in the words above recited, _I had not known sin but by the law_: this is too plain to need a proof. Neither is it the ceremonial law which saith, in the words immediately subjoined, _Thou shalt not covet_. Therefore the ceremonial law, has no place in the present question.
2. Neither can we understand by the law mentioned in the text, the _Mosaic_ dispensation. ’Tis true, the word is sometimes so understood: as when the apostle says, speaking to the _Galatians_, (c. iii. v. 17.) _The covenant which was confirmed before_ (namely with _Abraham_ the father of the faithful) _the law_, i. e. the _Mosaic_ dispensation, _which was four hundred and thirty years after, cannot disannul_. But it cannot be understood so in the text; for the apostle never bestows, so high commendations as these upon that imperfect and shadowy dispensation. He no where affirms, the _Mosaic_ to be a _spiritual_ law: or, that it is _holy and just and good_. Neither is it true, that God will _write_ that law _in the_ hearts of them whose _iniquities he remembers no more_. It remains, that _the law_, eminently so termed, is no other than the moral law.
3. Now this law is an incorruptible picture of the high and holy one that inhabiteth eternity. It is he whom in his essence no man hath seen or can see, made visible to men and angels. It is the face of God unveiled: God manifested to his creatures as they are able to bear it: manifested to give and not to destroy life; that they may see God and live. It is the heart of God disclosed to man. Yea, in some sense we may apply to this law, what the apostle says of his Son, it is ἀπαύγασμα τῆς δόξης, καὶ χαρακτὴρ τῆς ὑποστάσεως αὐτοῦ· _The streaming forth_ or out-beaming _of his glory, the express image of his person_.
4. *“If virtue, said the antient Heathen, could assume such a shape as that we could behold her with our eyes, what wonderful love would she excite in us!” If virtue could do this! It is done already. The law of God is all virtues in one, in such a shape, as to be beheld with open face, by all those whose eyes God hath enlightened. What is the law, but divine virtue and wisdom, assuming a visible form? What is it, but the original ideas of truth and good, which were lodged in the uncreated mind from eternity, now drawn forth and cloathed with such a vehicle, as to appear even to human understanding?
5. *If we survey the law of God in another point of view, it is supreme, unchangeable reason: it is unalterable rectitude: it is the everlasting fitness of all things that are or ever were created. I am sensible, what a shortness, and even impropriety there is, in these and all other human expressions, when we endeavour by these faint pictures, to shadow out the deep things of God. Nevertheless we have no better, indeed no other way, during this our infant state of existence. As _we_ now _know_ but _in part_, so _we_ are constrained to _prophesy_, i. e. speak of the things of God, _in part_ also. _We cannot order our speech by reason of darkness_, while we are in this house of clay. While I am _a child I_ must _speak as a child_. But I shall soon _put away childish things_. For _when that which is perfect is come, that which is in part shall be done away_.
6. *But to return. The law of God, (speaking after the manner of men) is a copy of the eternal mind, a transcript of the divine nature: yea it is the fairest offspring of the everlasting Father, the brightest efflux of his essential wisdom, the visible beauty of the Most High. It is the delight and wonder of Cherubim and Seraphim and all the company of heaven, and the glory and joy of every wise believer, every well-instructed child of God upon earth.
III. 1. Such is the nature of the ever blessed law of God. I am, in the third place, to shew the properties of it: not all; for that would exceed the wisdom of an angel. But those only which are mentioned in the text. These are three: _It is holy, just and good_. And first, _The law is holy_.