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

THE LAW Ot GOD. 337

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

THE LAW OF GOD. * 339

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

29 *

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.

Upon the fall of man, the law, Considered as a covenant of

A'orks, was disannulled and set a^ide ; but, considered as

noral, it continued to be a perfect rule of righteousness.

* See page 86.

N

104} CONFESSION OF FAITH. QciIAP. XIX.

That fair copy of the law which had been inscribed on the heart of the first man in his creation, was, by the fall, greatly defaced, althongh not totally obliterated. Some faint impressions of it still remain on the minds of all reasonable creatures. Its general principles, such as, that God is to be worshipped, that parents ought to be honoured, that we should do to others what we would reasonably wish that they should do to us — such general principles as these are still, in some degree, engraven on the minds of all men. — . Rom. ii. 14, 15. But the original edition of the law being greatly obliterated, God was graciously pleased to give a new and complete copy of it. He delivered it to the Israelites from INIount Sinai, with awful solemnity. In this promulgation of the law, he summed it up in ten commandments; and, therefore, it is commonly styled the Law of the Ten Commandments. These commandments were written by the finger of God himself on two tables of stone. — Exod. xxxii. 15,, 16, xxxiv. 1. The first four commandments contain our duty to God, and the other six our duty to man ; and they are summed up by our Saviour in the two great commandments, of loving God with all our hearts, and our neighbour as ourselves. — Matt. xxii. 37-40. The Church of Rome assign only three precepts to the first table, and seven to the second. They join together the first and second commandments, and that for an obvious reason. Standing separately, the second forbids the use of images in the worship of God, and plainly condemns the practice of that Church; but viewed as an appendage to the first precept, it only forbids, as they pretend, the worship of the images of false gods ; and, consequently, leaves them at liberty to worship the images which they have consecrated to the honour of the true God and his saints. Having thus turned two precepts into one, in order to make up the number of ten, they split the last precept of the decalogue into two, making " Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house," one, and the words which follow, another. This division cannot be vindicated. The two first precepts obviously relate to distinct things. The first points out the object of worship, viz., the living and true God, and no other. The second prescribes the means of worship — not by images or any other plan of human invention, but by the ordinances which are divinely appointed. The tenth precept is as clearly one and indivisible. The whole of it relates to one subject — covetousness, or unlawful desire ; and if it ought to be divided into two, because the words " Thou shalt not covet" are twice repeated, it would follow that it should be divided into as many commands

as there are different classes of objects specified ; for the words " Thou shalt not covet" must be understood as prefixed to each of these objects. The Apostle Paul plainly speaks of it as one precept, when he says : " I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet.** — Rom. vii. 7.

It may be remarked, that the law of the ten commandments was promulgated to Israel from Sinai in the form of a covenant of works. Not that it was the design of God to renew a covenant of works with Israel, or to put them upon seeking life by their own obedience to the law ; but the law was published to them as a covenant of works, to show them that without a perfect righteousness, answering to all the demands of the law, they could not be justified before God ; and that, finding themselves wholly destitute of that righteousness, they might be excited to take hold of the covenant of grace, in which a perfect righteousness for their justification is graciously provided. The Sinai transaction was a mixed dispensation. In it the covenant of grace was published, as appears from these words in the preface standing before the commandments : " I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage ;" and from the promulgation of the ceremonial law at the sametime. But the moral law, as a covenant of works, was also displayed, to convince the Israelites of their sinfulness and misery, to teach them the necessity of an atonement, and lead them to embrace by faith the blessed IVIediator, the Seed promised to Abraham, in whom all the families of the earth were to be blessed. The law, therefore, was published at Sinai as a covenant of works, in subservience to the covenant of grace. And the law is still published in subservience to the gospel, as " a schoolmaster to bring sinners to Christ, that they may be justified by faith." — Gal. iii. 24.