These Sections teach the follov^^ing propositions : 1st. That God, as the supreme moral Governor of the universe, introduced the human race into existence as an order of moral creatures, under inalienable and perpetual subjection to an all- perfect moral law, which in all the elements thereof binds man's conscience and requires perfect obedience.

2d. That God, as the Guardian of the human race, entered into a special covenant with Adam, as the natural head of the race, constituting him also the federal head of all mankind, and requiring from him, during a period of probation, perfect obedience to the law above

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named, promising to him and to his descendants in him confirmation in holiness and eternal felicity as the reward of obedience, and threatening both his wrath and cnrse as the punishment of disobedience.

3d. This law after the fall, and the introduction of the dispensation of salvation through the Messiah, while it ceased to offer salvation on the ground of obedience, nevertheless continued to be the revealed expression of God's will, binding all human consciences as the rule of life.

4th. That this moral law has for our instruction been summarily comprehended, as to its general principles, in their application to the main relations men sustain to God and to each other, in the Ten Commandments, " which were delivered by the voice of God upon Mount Sinai, and written by him on two tables of stone ; and are recorded in the twentieth chapter of Exodus. The first four Commandments containing our duty to God, and the other six our duty to man." L. Cat., Q. 98.

1st. God introduced man at his creation as a moral agent under inalienable and perpetual subjection to an all-perfect moral law, which binds his conscience and requires perfect obedience. This follows self-evidently and necessarily from the very nature of God as a moral Governor, and from the nature of man as a moral agent.

Of this law we remark — (1) that it has its ground in the all-perfect and unchangeable moral nature of God. When we affirm that God is holy, we do not mean that he makes right to be right by simply willing it, but that he wills it because it is right. There must therefore be some absolute standard of righteousness. This absolute standard of righteousness is the divine nature.

The infallible judge of righteousness is the divine intelligence. The all-perfect executor and rule of righteousness among the creatures is the divine will. The form of our duties springs from our various relations to God and to man. But the invariable principle upon which all duty is grounded, and which gives it its binding moral obligation, is rooted in the changeless nature of God, of which his will is the outward expression. All the divine laws belong to one or other of four classes. They are either —

(a.) Such as are grounded directly in the perfections of the divine nature, and are hence absolutely immutable and irrepealable even by God himself. These are such as the duty of love and obedience to God, and of love and truth in our relations to our fellow-creatures.

(6.) Such as have their immediate ground in the permanent nature and relations of men, as, for instance, the laws which protect the rights of property and regulate the relation of the sexes. These continue unchanged as long as the present constitution of nature continues, and are of universal binding obligation, alike because of their natural propriety as because of the will of God by which they are enforced; although God, who is the Author of nature, may in special instances waive the application of the law at his pleasure, as he did in the case of polygamy among the ancient Jews.

(c.) Such as have their immediate ground in the changing relations of individuals and communities. Of this class is the great mass of the civil and judicial laws of the ancient Jews, which express the will of God for them in their peculiar circumst<mces, and which of course are intended to be binding only so long as

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the special conditions to which they are appropriate exist.

(d.) Such as depend altogether for their binding obli- ^•ation upon the positive command of God, which are neither universal nor perpetual, but bind those persons only to whom God has addressed them, and only so long as the positive enactment endures. This class includes all rites and ceremonies, etc.

(2.) We remark in the second place that this moral law, at least in its essential principles, and as far as was necessary for the guidance of men in a state of innocency, was revealed in the very constitution of man's nature; and although it has been greatly obscured by sin, it remains sufficiently clear to render even the heathen without excuse. This is certain (a) because it is asserted and argued by Paul (Rom. i. 10, 20; ii. 14, 15), (6) from the fact that all heathen do possess and act upon such an innate sense of right and of moral accountability, although they may in various degrees be ignorant of specific moral duties. This moral law written upon the heart was part of Adam's original endowment when he was created, as we saw under Chapter iv., § 2.

(3.) We remark that the revelation of this moral law of God made in the human constitution, however sufficient it may have been for the guidance of man before he fell in the natural relations hp sustained to his Creator, is under his present circumstances altogether insufficient, as we saw under Chapter i., § 1. Hence God has been pleased to make a more full and explicit revelation of his law to man in the inspired Scriptures taken as a whole, which is the only and the all-sufficient rule of faith and practice, as we saw under Chajiter i.

340 . CONFESSION OF FAITH.

(4.^ We remark in the fourth place that the Scriptures being the only and a complete rule of faith and practice, whatever is revealed therein as the will of God is part of the moral law for Christian men, and whatever is not revealed therein as his will, either directly or by necessary implication, is no part of our moral obligation at all. See Chapter xvi., §§ 1 and 2.

2d. That God introduced Adam, as the head and representative of the whole human family, at his creation, into a covenant relation to the law, making perfect obedience to it for a probationary period the condition of his character and destiny for ever, we have already discussed. Chapter vii., §§ 1 and 2. After the fall of Adam, both he and all his race became incapable of satisfying that covenant themselves, and it pleased God to send forth his Son, made under the law, being born of a woman, to fulfil as the second Adam all the requirements of the legal covenant in behalf of his elect, and to secure for them all its benefits, as we saw under Chapter viii.

3d. While the law in its relation of a covenant of works has been fulfilled by our Surety, so that they who are under grace are no more under the law in that capacity (Rom. vi. 14), nevertheless the law as a rule of action and standard of character is immutable, unrelaxable and inalienable in its personal relations. Christ fulfilled the law for us vicariously as the condition of salvation, and on that basis we are justified. But no one can be vicariously conformed to the law for us as a rule of conduct or of moral character. Therefore while Christ fulfilled the law for us, the Holy Spirit fulfils the law in us, by sanctifying us into complete conformity

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to it. And in obedience to this law the believer brings forth those good works which are the fruits though not the ground of our salvation.

4th. That this moral law has been summarily comprehended in the two tables of the law, called the Ten Commandments, is a fact not disputed. By this it is not meant that every duty which God now requires of Christian men may be directly derived from the decalogue, but that the general principles of the infinite law of moral perfection, as adjusted to the general relations sustained by men to God and to one another, may be found there. This is certain, because —

(1.) The two tables of the law were placed under the mercy-seat, which was God's throne, and were called the testimonies of God against the sins of the people ; and over them, upon the "covering'' or mercy-seat, the high priest sprinkled the blood of the sin-offering. Ex. xxx. 6 ; xxxi. 18 ; Lev. xvi. 14, 15. They therefore represented that all-perfect law of righteousness which is the foundation of God's throne, and which is the testimony of God against human sin, and which is propitiated by the atoning sacrifice of Christ.

(2.) The Ten Commandments teach love to God and to man, and on these, the Saviour said, hang all the law and the prophets. Matt. xxii. 37-40.

(3.) Christ said, that if a man keep this law he shall live. Luke x. 25-28.

(4.) Every specific duty taught in any portion of the Scriptures may more or less directly be referred to one or other of the general precepts taught in the Decalogue.

These commandments were originally written by the finger of God himself on two tables of stone. The first

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342 • CONFESSION OF FAITH.

four relate to the duties man owes to God, and the remaining six relate to the duties we owe to our fellowmen. The Romish Church assigns only three comiliandments to the first table and seven to the second. She unites the First and Second Commandments together, in order to make it appear that only the worship of false gods and images of tliem are forbidden, while the images of the true God and of saints are not excluded from the instruments of worship; and in order to keep up the number, she divides the Tenth into two — making the first clause the Ninth Commandment, and the remaining clauses the Tenth.

The great rule for interpreting the Decalogue is to keep constantly in mind that it is the law of God and not the law of man — that it respects and requires the conformity of the governing affections and dispositions of the heart as well as the outward actions. Every commandment involves a general moral principle, applicable to a wide variety of particular conditions, respecting the motives and ends of action, as well as action itself. The rules of interpretation laid down in the L. Cat., Q. 99, are in substance as follows :

(1.) The law is perfect, requiring perfect obedience, and condemning the least shortcoming as sin.

(2.) It is spiritual, respecting thoughts, feelings, motives and inward states of hearts, as well as actions.

(3.) That every command implies a corresponding prohibition, and every prohibition a corresponding command; and every promise a corresponding threatening, and every threatening a corresponding promise.

(4.) That under one sin or duty all of the same kind are forbidden or commanded, together with all that

directly or indirectly, are the causes or occasions of them.

(5.) That we are not only bound to fulfil the law ourselves, but also to help others to do so as far as we can.

God having formed man an intelligent creature, and a subject of moral government, he gave him a law for the rule of his conduct. This law was founded in the infinitely righteous nature of God, and the moral relations necessarily subsisting between him and man. It was originally written on the heart of man, as he was endowed with such a perfect knowledge of his Maker's will as was sufficient to inform him concerning the whole extent of his duty, in the circumstances in which he was placed, and was also furnished with power and ability to yield all that obedience which was required of him. This is included in the moral image of God, after which man was created. — Gen. i. 27. The law, as thus inscribed on the heart of the first man, is often styled the law of creation, because it was the will of the sovereign Creator, revealed to the reasonable creature, by impressing it upon his mind and heart at his creation. It is also called the moral law, because it was a revelation of the will of God, as his moral governor, and was the standard and rule of man's moral actions. Adam was originally placed under this law in its natural form, as merely directing and obliging him to perfect obedience. He was

brought under it in a covenant form^ -when an express threat ening of death, and a gracious promise of life, was annexed to it ; and then a positive precept was added, enjoining him not to eat of the fruit of the tree of knowledge, as the test of his obedience to the whole law. — Gen. ii. 16, 17. That this coveniint was made with the first man, not as a single person, hut as the federal representative of all his natural posterity, has been formerly shown.* The law, as invested with a covenant form, is called, by the Apostle Paul, " The law of works" (Rom. iii. 27) ; that is, the law as a covenant of works. In this form, the law is to be viewed as not only Iprescribing duty, but as promisiug life as the reward of obedience, and denouncing death as the punishment of transgression. This law " which was ordained to life," is now become " weak through the flesh," or through the corrupItion of our fallen nature. It prescribes terms which we are incapable of performing ; and instead of being encouraged to seek life by our own obedience to the law as a covenant, we are required to renounce all hopes of salvation in that way, and to seek it by faith in Christ. But all men are naturally under the law as a broken covenant, obnoxious to its penalty, and bound to yield obedience to its commands. The covenant being made with Adam, not only for himself, but also for all his posterity, when he violated it, he left them all under it as a broken covenant. Most miserable, therefore, the condition of all men by nature ; for " as many as are of the works of the law are imder the curse." — Gal. iii. 10. Truly infatuated are they who seek for righteousness by the works of the law ; for " by the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified in the sight of God." — Rom. iii. 20.