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ESSAY X.

The Moral Law, or Covenant of Works.

In attending to the original character and state of mankind, we readily discover, that they were made proper subjects of moral law and government. To explain the moral law of God, which is called the covenant of works, will be the object of this Essay.

The holy law of God, which is the only rule of righteousness, equally binding on all rational creatures, requires the exercise of perfectly holy love, or good will towards all beings capable of happiness or misery. In conformity to this great standard of righteousness, we find the law which God had enjoined on mankind, and which Christ, at his coming, recognized, and even magnified and vindicated; was comprised in two great commandments, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself." This is the great principle of righteousness. This, for substance, was doubtless the law given to the angels, at their creation, as well as to our first parents. This is the law of nature, obligatory on every rational being in the universe. It is rendering to all their due. Every being is entitled to that measure of love and regard, which is in exact proportion to his dignity and importance in the scale of existence. God is infinite in dignity and importance, and is, therefore, worthy of supreme love. Mankind, generally speaking, are our equals; therefore to be loved as ourselves. This love, which, being perfectly reduced to practice, is the fulfilling of the law, is required to exist and to be cherished in the heart and to operate as an established moral temper and disposition, in all the fruits of love and obedience to God. All the actions and conduct of rational creatures, are required to be such as naturally flow from this holy principle. Such are the requirements of the law of God.

In addition to this general law, the reasonableness of which is plain and obvious to the weakest capacity; God has in his infinite wisdom, and sovereign good pleasure, delivered to mankind certain particular statutes, require

ments, and prohibitions, which belong not to the law of nature, strictly speaking; and are obligatory, only on the ground of his positive institution, and requirement. Of such a nature was the prohibition of the tree of knowledge of good and evil in the garden of Eden. The fruit in its nature, was harmless. It was apparently, perhaps really, the most precious of all the trees in Paradise. But, for infinitely wise and important reasons, it was forbidden. But this prohibition, when it was made known to Adam and Eve, became, to them, an important part of the moral law of God. Of this kind were all the ceremonial and typical rites and institutions, delivered by Moses. These laws were all of a moral nature, and binding on the Israelites, merely because God had made them so. In the eye of Omniscience, reasons of infinite importance existed for the whole ceremonial and typical system of laws and statutes. Even the ordinances of Christ, baptism and the sacramental supper, are established, not by the light of nature, but by the positive institution and authority of Jesus Christ. But where is the Christian who rejects the ordinances of the gospel, because they are not the laws of nature? All the positive precepts and prohibitions in the scriptures, are by faith in the true God and Saviour, regarded as parts of the moral law; and the attentive and candid mind does, from time to time, gain a knowledge of the ends and designs of those laws which have once ap-. peared mysterious. Types are explained by their antitypes, as prophecies are by their accomplishment. By the prohibition of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, our first parents were put on the most important and interesting probation, which can be conceived. Life and death were set before them in the most striking manner; in a manner calculated greatly to enhance their dignity and happiness, if they fulfilled the condition of life; and if they did not fulfil the condition of life, all good was forfeited for ever. 66 Dying they must die." If they refrained from the forbidden fruit, during a suitable time of probation; it is supposed, that they were to partake of the tree of life, which was a sacramental tree; and was a token of eternal life. Like the elect angels, they were to be confirmed in a state of perfect holiness and felicity for ever. In this view, we may see the reasonableness of God's positive prohibition of the tree of knowledge of

good and evil. And doubtless, in process of time, we shall see the reasonableness of all God's positive precepts and prohibitions. Be this as it may, we are bound to regard all the laws of God as holy. "I esteem all thy precepts, concerning all things, to be right; and I hate every false way.

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Having considered the nature of the divine law, which is holy, just and good; we proceed to a view of the penalty, by which it is supported and vindicated. For a law is void of force and efficacy, without a just and adequate penalty. In what then does the penalty of the law consist? The penalty of all transgressions of the law, was expressed in the threatening delivered to our first parents, "In the day thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die.' The words more strictly rendered are Dying thou shalt die.' "" These words evidently express durable and perpetual evil; and evil of the greatest magnitude. No word conveys an idea more terrible than death. Natural death is the greatest punishment inflicted by human laws. Death, in the greatest extent of its meaning, is the penalty of the divine law. Considering the infinitely evil and heinous nature of sin against God, and all that is said in the scriptures respecting the final and eternal punishment of the wicked; there remains no doubt, but that the threatening of death to all transgressors, means eternal death; or the eternal misery both of soul and body in hell. To Adam and Eve, the just desert of sin was expressed; and when, by their apostasy, they had exposed themselves to the awful penalty, they were liable, immediately to commence an eternal death. Had natural death been all that was implied in the threatening, we see not wherein their punishment would have been greater than that of the best saints. "If Christ be in you," says the Apostle, "the body is dead because of sin." But the penalty of the law was an evil infinitely greater than the death of the body. It was what is termed the second death; which is allotted to the finally impenitent at the day of judgment. The ground of reprieve, when man had sinned against God, was the immediate revelation of divine mercy, through the glorious Mediator. On this new ground, this gospel ground, man commenced a second state of probation, widely different from that under the covenant of works: for this was under what is called the covenant of grace.

Still there is a diversity of opinion respecting the penalty of the law. By some it is thought to consist, chiefly, if not wholly, in what is called spiritual death, which is, strictly speaking, sin itself. It consists, as they suppose, in being dead in trespasses and sins. On this construction of the death which was threatened, the law would read thus ; "In the day that thou sinnest, thou shalt become a sinner altogether. Sinning thou shalt sin. And thou shalt never cease from sin." This view of the penalty of the divine law appears, however, to be altogether unsatisfactory. If the punishment of the transgressor consists in sin itself, or in additional transgression; what is the distinction between crime and punishment? WHAT punishment could it be, to one already dead in trespasses and sins, to one who daily cherishes his carnal mind, which is enmity against God, to one who rejoices in iniquity; to have his sin increased? This would be, to a proud and selfish heart, no punishment at all. In short, this idea of the penalty of the law utterly confounds and blends sin and punishment together, making them one and the same thing.

If so,

Again; Others suppose, that the penalty of the law consists altogether in what is called eternal death. whence come all other natural evils, which are equally the subject matter of divine threatenings; and as distinctly so, as eternal damnation? God has always threatened corrupt and idolatrous nations, and in many instances, he has threatened individuals for their transgressions, with great worldly calamities; and with untimely, painful and disgraceful deaths. The human race, in their fallen state, are plunged in a deluge of evils, which terminate in death. "The whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together." Death is said to be "by sin, and death has passed upon all men, for that all have sinned. Let it be admitted, that, to the saints, death is no curse; but is a happy release from a world of trouble. But would it not be happier still, like Enoch and Elijah, and like the generation of the saints at the last day, to be changed in a moment, and to escape all the pains of a lingering dissolution? On the whole, it is evident, that punishment.consists in natural evils; and that without sin no natural evils would have taken place, under the holy government of God. Why may we not then consider every pain and sorrow as a threatened consequence of the fall of man, and

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as a part of the curse of the divine law? Eternal death is indeed, infinitely the greatest part, and swallows up the whole of the punishment of transgressors. All other evils, are as light afflictions for a moment, compared with eternal death, which is the consummation of the penalty of the divine law.* To me it appears, that the events of divine providence, since the apostasy of man, explain the curse of the law. The immediate consequences of the fall were, that our first parents were filled with shame and remorse, terror and amazement. They sought to hide themselves from the presence of the Lord. God then arraigned them before him, and denounced on them many temporal evils, terminating in natural death. "Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return." All these natural evils were manifestly included in the penalty of the law. Even the afflictions of the saints, as well as all other evils, are the fruits of the apostasy; though, like all other things, afflictions work together for their good. Still they are evils, in themselves considered; and like all other

*Do any query, with respect to the view which is here given of the penalty of the law, as implying natural death, whether the soul of man, only, would have existed to endure eternal punishment, had the penalty been inflicted? the answer is decidedly in the negative. As the souls and bodies of the finally impenitent are to be destroyed in hell for ever, after the resurrection and final judgment; so the souls and bodies of Adam and Eve, would have been destroyed in hell, from the day of their apostasy, had the penalty been inflicted.

It is not to be supposed, however, that the natural, material and mortal bodies of fallen men would, or could have been the subjects of eternal punishment. Their mortal part must have undergone a dissolution, and must have put on immortality. But, "There is a spiritual body," which is, in its nature, incorruptible and immortal; and made capable of enduring eternal punishment. To possess this body, sinners are all doomed to die a natural death. Such is the divine constitution, that although a part of the saints, such as Enoch and Elijah, and the generation that shall be alive and remain at the coming of Christ to judgment, shall be changed in a moment, and never taste of death; yet all sinners must die accursed; and their resurrection must be to shame and everlasting contempt.

Truly, the bodies of sinners, in a state of resurrection, will exist for ever; and, together with their souls, will suffer the penalty of the law, which is called the second death. Natural and eternal death, and all the natural evils which terminate in these, are subjects of divine threatenings, and are expressions of divine wrath and vengeance. All therefore belong to the penalty of the law.

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