8. *Again; if the law, the immutable rule of right and wrong, depends on the nature and fitnesses of things, and on their essential relations to each other: (I do not say, their eternal relations; because the eternal relation of things existing in time, is little less than a contradiction:) if, I say, this depends on the nature and relations of things, then it must depend on God, or the will of God: because those things themselves, with all their relations, are the works of his hands. By his will, _for his pleasure_ alone, _they_ all _are and were created_.
9. And yet it may be granted (which is probably all that a considerate person would contend for) that in every particular case, God wills this or this (suppose that men should honour their parents) because it is right, agreeable to the fitness of things, to the relation wherein they stand.
10. The law then is right and just concerning all things. And it is _good_ as well as _just_. This we may easily infer from the fountain whence it flowed. For what was this, but the goodness of God? What but goodness alone inclined him to impart that divine copy of himself to the holy angels? To what else can we impute his bestowing upon man the same transcript of his own nature? And what but tender love constrained him afresh to manifest his will to fallen man? Either to _Adam_, or any of his seed, who like him were _come short of the glory of God_? Was it not mere love that moved him to publish his law, after the understandings of men were darkened? And to send his prophets to declare that law, to the blind, thoughtless children of men? Doubtless his goodness it was which raised up _Enoch_ and _Noah_, to be preachers of righteousness; which caused _Abraham_, his friend, and _Isaac_ and _Jacob_, to bear witness to his truth. It was his goodness alone, which when _darkness_ had _covered the earth, and thick darkness the people_, gave a written law to _Moses_, and through him, to the nation whom he had chosen. It was his love which explained these living oracles by _David_ and all the prophets that followed: until, when the fulness of time was come, he sent his only-begotten Son, _not to destroy the law but to fulfil_, to confirm every jot and tittle thereof, till having wrote it in the hearts of all his children, and put all his enemies under his feet, _he shall deliver up_ his mediatorial _kingdom to the Father, that God may be all in all_.
11. And this law which the goodness of God gave at first and has preserved through all ages, is, like the fountain from whence it springs, full of goodness and benignity: It is mild and kind; it is (as the Psalmist expresses it) _sweeter than honey and the honey-comb_. It is winning and amiable. It includes _whatsoever things are lovely or of good report. If there be any virtue, if there be any praise_ before God and his holy angels, they are all comprized in this: wherein are hid all the treasures of the divine wisdom and knowledge and love.
12. And it is _good_ in its effects, as well as in its nature. As the tree is, so are its fruits. The fruits of the law of God written in the heart, are _righteousness and peace and assurance for ever_. Or rather, the law itself is righteousness, filling the soul with a peace which passeth all understanding, and causing us to rejoice evermore, in the testimony of a good conscience toward God. It is not so properly a pledge, as _an earnest of our inheritance_, being a part of the purchased possession. It is God made manifest in our flesh, and bringing with him eternal life: assuring us by that pure and perfect love, that we are _sealed unto the day of redemption_: that he will _spare us as a man spareth his own son that serveth him, in the day when he maketh up his jewels_, and that there remaineth for us _a crown of glory which fadeth not away_.