overrate my own interest because it is my own. The law, of which these two commands are a summary, assumes the principle, that all the individuals composing the intelligent universe are bound to unite in seeking the promotion of a common good. Let this principle be fully adopted by every subject of moral government, and discord could find no place.

(5.) From this compendium of the moral law it appears, that God's claims on us for our obedience go to the extent of our abilities, and no further. The demand is made of every intelligent creature to do his best, to do all that of which he is any way capable. Every one is required to love God with all his heart, with all his soul, with all his mind, and with all his strength. Let it be understood, that God's claim on his creatures, to be loved by them to the extent of their ability, is not gaged at all by their moral ability, that is, their disposition to love, but by their natural ability, or capacity to love. According to the language of this command, no creature is so depraved but that he has a heart, soul, mind, and strength; and God requires the whole of each of them. Let him come up to the extent of this requirement, and sinless perfection will be the immediate consequence. God does not expect us to use corporal members which he has not given us, or mental faculties with which we are not endowed; but the use of all we have, he demands as his unalienable right. Creatures are all finite, therefore infinite perfection is required of none of them; but sinless perfection is required of every one, whether he be an inhabitant of heaven, earth, or hell.

Thus have we seen, that the preceptive part of the law is all summed up in one word, namely, love; and that the object for the exercise of this love is the whole intelligent universe, which is here all comprehended under three heads, God, my neighbor, and myself. But it is important we should remember, that it is not left to us to devise our own ways to express this love. In the decalogue, which was written with the finger of God, and in all the scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, proper ways for the manifestation of this love are pointed out. These holy writings are full of injunctions, designed to direct us in what ways we are to manifest our love to God, our fellow men, and ourselves. But as the pointing out of these ways will be the business of the third Part of this work, we shall not treat of particular duties at present, but pass on to consider,

2. That part of the law relating to rewards. Every law virtually contains a promise of favor to those who render the obedience required. The punishment threatened is always pointed at the breakers of the law; and this implies the promise of exemption from punishment to those who keep it. That the law of God contains a promise of favor to those who obey it, we can learn otherwise than by mere implication. "For Moses describeth the righteousness which is of the law," (in distinction from that which is by faith,) "That the man which doth those things shall live by them." Rom. x. 5. Obedience to the divine law, so long as it remains perfect, insures the favor of the Lawgiver. This we may learn from the tenor of the law, and also from the history of God's treatment both of angels and men.

3. A penalty, either expressed or understood, is essential to every

law. Divest it of this appendage, and it ceases to be a law, it is nothing more than advice. A penalty supposes the existence of that authority which has a right to enforce obedience. Such authority is either natural or derived. Parents have a natural right to rule over their children. Legislative assemblies derive their authority from the people who choose them for this purpose. That which belongs to God is not derived, but is, in the highest sense, an original right. His authority to enact laws and enforce them by moral sanctions, is supreme; while all authority beside his must be considered as wholly subordinate. No one can attentively read the scriptures without perceiving that their Divine Author claims the place of a Lawgiver to his creatures, and not of a mere Adviser. It is in relation to his right of threatening and executing punishment, that he very often repeats this solemn declaration, "And ye shall know that I am the LORD." "The LORD is known," saith the psalmist, "by the judgment which he executeth." "The curse of the law," which is the same as its penalty, has a conspicuous place in all the divine enactments. Such a place it had in the interdict of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. That was a

very impressive ordinance in the church of Israel, which required all the people to say Amen, when the curses of the law were read in their hearing. Deut. xxvii.

Two inquiries in relation to the penalty annexed to the divine law, demand particular attention. What is the evil threatened? By what degree of disobedience is it incurred?

First. What is the evil threatened? The law threatens death. "In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." "The soul that sinneth it shall die." Gen. ii. 17. Ezek. viii. 4. The death threatened does not mean annihilation; nor is it that death which is confined to the body, the pangs of which are momentary. Something inconceivably more dreadful than either of these is undoubtedly intended. The dissolution of the body is but a shadow of the death which is denounced against the breakers of God's law. As this is posterior to that, being suffered after the decease of the body, it is properly denominated "the second death." "He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death." "On such the second death hath no power.' Rev. ii. 11;

xx. 6. The second death must have been referred to by Christ, when he spoke of God's destroying both soul and body in hell. Matt. xx. 28. This death is the destruction of all the happiness which a rational and immortal creature is capable of enjoying, and the enduring of all the positive misery of which his nature is susceptible. It is "the wrath

of God revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteous. ness;" "the wrath of God which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation." Rom. i. 18. Rev. xiv. 10. It is now, and ever will be, "the wrath to come;" because the treasure of wrath, which the wicked treasure up unto themselves, will never be exhausted. Rom. ii. 5. That the wrath to come is the curse of the law, is made evident by this circumstance; believers in Christ, by virtue of their union with him, are delivered from the wrath to come, as we are taught, 1. Thess. i. 10; and yet this deliverance is nothing more than a redemption from the curse of the law; as we learn from Gal. iii. 13. The wrath to come, or future and eternal misery, is indeed the sum of the

evil which is threatened to the transgressors of the law. Concerning such as are not redeemed from its curse, it is plainly declared, "these shall go away into everlasting punishment."

Secondly. How great must be the degree of disobedience, to incur the penalty which is threatened? There is but one sort of penalty to the law, and this is connected with every transgression. To Adam it was said, "In the day thou eatest thereof, (i. e. of the forbidden fruit,) thou shalt surely die." Accordingly, the first act of rebellion incurred the penalty. There is a passage in the third chapter of the epistle to the Galatians, which is expressly designed to apply to this subject, and is so explicit as to admit of no controversy. The apostle is seeking to convince all such as are depending on the works of the law for acceptance with God, that they are still under the curse; and his argument is this: "For it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them." He took it for granted that there was no impenitent sinner who would dare to say he had not sinned in a single instance; and if this were all the concession he could obtain, he deemed it sufficient to convince him that he was under the curse of the law. The law of God, consisting of many commandments, is like a chain composed of many links. Were this chain the thing which preserved you from falling, your dependence would fail, on the breaking of a single link. So the transgression of a single command subjects the transgressor to the penalty of the law. The commandment which was ordained to life, (that is, in case of perfect obedience,) is now found to be unto death. Rom. vii. 10.

There is a beautiful harmony between these three divisions of the law, which a few moments attention will enable us to discover. The injunctions, which form the preceptive part of the law, are certainly in harmony with themselves; since they all have one common root, viz. Love. There is a perfect agreement between the command which requires me to love God supremely, and the one which requires me to love my neighbor as myself. The first of these Jesus Christ called the great commandment; but the second, he said, was like unto it. It is one and the same kind of affection which the law requires me to exercise towards God, my neighbor, and myself.

The precepts of the law require no more of us than is necessary to render us perfectly amiable, useful, and happy. All that holiness of character which they require is needed to render us amiable, not only in the sight of our Creator, but in the view of each other, and even of ourselves. Let the law of God be entirely regarded, and it would produce complete harmony through the intelligent universe. The harmony would be complete between the Creator and his creatures, and between the creatures themselves; and peace would reign in every breast, since there would be no cause for the reproaches of conscience. The law of God, which requires perfection of every moral agent, is calculated to bind the moral system together, in one great, holy, and blessed society. The goodness of God is clearly displayed in requiring of his creatures all this perfection of character. These commandments and statutes are for our good. Deut. x. 13. Had God demanded any thing less of us, than an entire obedience to his holy law, he would have given us permission to be, in some degree, at least, unlovely, mischievous, and wretched.

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There is a harmony between the preceptive part of the law and the promises which it contains. The promise of favor is connected not with disobedience to the precepts, but with obedience alone. Obedience to the law is in itself right and praiseworthy. A thing so lovely, and so entirely calculated to honor God, and fill the world he has made with happiness, must of necessity meet with his entire approbation. That he, who perfectly obeys the law of God, and consequently does all in his power to promote general good, should have a share in the good which he seeks, is most just and proper; and this constitutes a sweet harmony between the precepts and promises of the law. The law of God, however, assumes this ground; that the sinless obedience of creatures, though altogether amiable, is no more than what is due to their Creator; so that any thing less than such obedience would fall below their obligation. As creatures, we enter on life entirely indebted for our existence, and are always bound to "glorify God in our body and in our spirit, which are God's." There is no place for works of supererrogation, of which the papists talk. Even innocent creatures, who have done all those things which are commanded them, must acknowledge, in this view of the subject, that they are unprofitable servants, who have done only that which was their duty to do. Instead of an accumulated debt against their Maker, they have never gone beyond paying him their dues, or (as we more usually express it) their duties.

The harmony is no less apparent between the precept and the penalty. While it is obedience which obtains the promised reward, there is no. thing but disobedience which exposes us to the penalty. The law requires that the glory of God, or (what amounts to the same) the general good should be sought above that which is private. Now it is in strict accordance with such a requisition, that the individual is menaced with the loss of his own happiness, who shall dare to seek this inferior good at the expense of that which infinitely surpasses it in value. If the preceptive part of the law were to allow every subject of divine government to make his own happiness the ultimate end of his actions, the penal part, to be in harmony with it, must contain no more punishment than would be for the good of the individual who is punished; of course, the punishment threatened could not be endless. Had not the precept of the law required us to place a higher value on the interests of the universe than on the happiness of an individual, it would not have harmonized with a penalty which threatens the transgressor with the loss of all good forever. But since it does require this, it is in perfect harmony with such a precept, that the penalty should be such as to forewarn every subject of moral government, that the least transgression of the law will expose him to be forever deprived of the blessedness which is connected with obedience. With great propriety are the involuntary sufferings of the transgressor made use of, to give stability to that holy kingdom, the interests of which he was capable of promoting by a voluntary obedience; but which he sacrificed at the shrine of selfishness.

To some it may appear strange, that God should threaten every transgressor of his law with the same punishment. It is evident from the scriptures, that, in the government which he has established over

his intelligent creatures, he designs to proportion punishment to the degree of criminality. See Matt. xi. 23, 24. Luke xii. 47, 48. Though the punishment threatened to every transgressor is endless, yet the increase of light and the repetition of transgression expose to an augmentation of misery. The punishment denounced against all who shall rebel against the government of God, may be the same in duration, and yet differ in the degree of misery to be endured.

The endless punishment, with which God has threatened the breach of his law, is a strong expression of his abhorrence of sin. Does it not imply, that in his view sin is an infinite evil? Every sin is not committed with equal strength, for the capabilities of creatures are different; and none is committed with infinite strength, for all creatures are finite. But if there were not something of such a vile nature attached to sin, as to render it proper to denominate it an infinite evil, would every degree of it have been threatened (as it is) with a never-ending punishment? All sin is a transgression of the same law-is a contempt of the same infinite authority-and is calculated to spread disorder and wretchedness through a dominion immense in its extent, and eternal in its duration.

Perhaps some will say, if it be so, that sin is an infinite evil, deserving endless punishment, holiness must be infinitely meritorious, and deserve an eternal reward; since it loves the same great object which sin hates, and has a tendency to diffuse happiness as widely as sin would diffuse misery. In the world of nature it would seem to manifest (to speak figuratively) no great condescension in an atom to consent to make the globe its centre of attraction; but what unbounded arrogance would be manifested, should it take state to itself, and claim to be acknowledged as the centre of the material system. Would the consent of such an atom to be attracted by a body immensely larger than itself, be a virtue as great, as would be its arrogance in claiming to be the centre of attraction? Would the humility displayed in its taking the atom's place (though lovely) be as wonderfully great, as would be its pride, should it wish the positions and motions of all the planetary world, and of all the material universe, to undergo an entire change for its own accommodation? The unbounded natural and moral perfections of Jehovah render him, in the intellectual system, an infinitely attractive object. When intelligent creatures, moral atoms, give evidence of their being strongly attracted to him as their centre, it shows them to possess that character which is excellent. Yet it would be very arrogant indeed, were they to imagine this to be some great thing almost exceeding the bounds of obligation. To love such a worthy object, and submit to such a Sovereign, surely is the least they can think of doing; while to hate his lovely character, and rebel against his rightful authority, is the vilest thing imaginable. The same infinite worthiness which increases the obligation to love and obey, increases the obligation to avoid hating and disobeying. It ought, on the one hand, to make it easy to love and obey, and, on the other, difficult to hate and disobey.* To love and obey this infinitely worthy and rightful Sovereign, deserves nothing more than his present

"Does not the merit of obedience sink, and the demerit of disobedience rise, according to the excellency of the object?"

FULLER