him to perform it. If the obedience is performed, the same law approves, sustains and justifies; but if the subject fail in his obedience, it condemns him to punishment. The reason is obvious. The law makes the subject amenable to the law-giver, who had moral authority to bind him, and dispose of him. On this ground all men are accountable to God their supreme legislator. "For as many as have sinned in the law, shall be judged by the law." Rom. ii. 12. "The word that I have spoken, said Christ, the same shall judge him in the last day." John xii. 48.

Now the law of creation was the moral law, not any positive or ceremonial law. I call that the law of creation, with respect to man, which natively and necessarily results from the moral relation subsisting between him and his Creator. He was made after the moral image of God; whence it became morally fit that he should perform every duty arising from that re lation. Whether the moral law was concreated with Adam; or whether he was only endued with extensive mental capacities fitting him for discovering it; or whe ther the knowledge of it was communicated to him by immediate revelation, do not belong to our present enquiry. It is evident, however, that he had an extensive knowledge of it prior to the fall. A law unknown to him, could never be the rule of his obedience; but the moral law was his rule, and entered into the condition of his covenant. The ostensible part of the condition, indeed, was a positive precept, "Thou shalt not eat;" but the moral law also entered into it, not merely by appointment, as the other, but from the nature of things, and became as much the condition of enjoying life, as the positive precept. Scripture expressly asserts this. "The commandment, which was

That

ordained to life, I found to be unto death." Rom. vii. 10. More is here expressed than in the positive precept. That contained a prohibition to eat, sanctioned with a penalty in case of failure; the promise of life was only implied, not expressed. But the moral law was ordained to life." This appointment of it, as a condition of life, must have been prior to the fall, as it could not be given for that end after, without nullifying the promise of the seed of the woman. Paul meant the moral law is evident from the whole context. It is the same law to" which believers are dead by the body of Christ." ver. 4.-Which was opposed by "the motions of sin," ver. 5.-By which Paul learned to "know lust." ver. 7-From the strictness of which, "sin took occasion to work in him all manner of concupiscence." ver. 8.-The law by which he discovered the strength of sin in his heart, and by which all his legal hopes were cut off. ver. 9. The law which he calls "holy, just and good, and by which he saw sin to be exceeding sinful." ver. 12, 13. This, then, is the law which was ordained to life, and on the fulfilment of which, confirmed felicity was to be enjoyed. Paul could not mean the positive precept. He was not under that prohibition, nor did the motions of sin in him obstruct his obedience to it. It did not prohibit lust, by saying to him, "Thou shalt not covet." But it was that law which discovered to him his guilty condition, the depravity of his heart, the vanity of his legal hopes, and the beauty of holiness." The law of God in which he delighted after the inner man."

THIS is the law in our text, the works of which are excluded in justification. By it is the knowledge of sin, as we have just now seen in the case of Paul. As

this law is a transcript of God's moral perfections, it must regulate him in justifying or condemning the sons of men, unless the moral relation between him and them is dissolved. The supposition, that the moral law is not meant in the text, makes Paul contradict himself; for if it is not excluded, life is attainable by it, and it must be divinely appointed for that end; but he asserts, "That the commandment, which was cr dained to life he found to be unto death." When, therefore," the commandment came, sin revived and he died."

WHEN it is affirmed, that it is the moral law accor ding to which God will deal with all men, it is not denied that he will also deal with them according to a ny other law or dispensation, as the ceremonial, and the gospel dispensation, which they may have enjoy ed. But the moral law will be the particular rule of procedure; for as it was included in the condition of the first covenant, all men are already condemned by it; all men are also under it, in one way or other; and it is the rule of that righteousness by which God will justify sinners.

2. THAT law by which God delineates the charac ter of lapsed mankind, in general, is the law in the text. The moral character of men can be determined only by that moral standard according to which it ought to be formed. As the condition of the covenant . of works was mixed, partly moral and partly positive, so the character and state of all men before God are fixed by the violation of it. The character of the Jews was partly formed under the ceremonial law, and the same thing will hold in the case of all who have enjoy. ed the gospel. The moral law is universal, extend ing to all men, in all conditions, being the law of their

creation; and must be applied to all in determining their character. The ceremonial law cannot be applied to the Gentiles, as they were never under it, and so could not be bound to form their character ac cording to it. Neither will the gospel be applied to characterize those who never heard of it. "For as

many as have sinned without law, shall also perish with out law." By means of divine revelation, the moral law has been clearly discovered to mankind. Some natural notions of it are to be found in the minds and consciences of heathens; so that "the Gentiles, who have not the (written) law, do by nature the things contained in the (written) law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves; who show the work of the law written in their hearts!" Rom. ii. 14. 15. When we find God delineating the characters of all men, without exception, by the same features, we necessarily infer that this must be done by that universal law, which comprises all. If they were all found righ teous by perfect obedience to it, their features would be the same; and if all are found in the same corrupt and guilty condition by it, their features will still be one. In the preceding parts of this epistle, the inspired Apostle applies this moral standard in order to determine the character of both Gentiles and Jews. He charges the former with acting contrary to these natural notions of God which they had. "They became vain in their imaginations-charged the glory of the incorrup tible God into an image made like to corruptible manThey addicted themselves to the most abominable lusts, and to all manner of wickedness, forbidden in the moral law: while they knew that they who committed such things were worthy of examplary punishment. Rom. i. 21-32. He then proceeds to delineate the

character of the vain-glorious Jew; and, in doing this, he does not introduce the ceremonial, but the moral law. They magnified the enormities of the Gentiles, and severely censured them, as persons of the most flagitious lives, not considering that themselves were equally culpable, if not more so. "For wherein thou judgest another thou condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest dost the same things. Thou that preachest a man should not steal, dost thou steal? Thou that sayest a man should not commit adultery, dost thou commit adultery." Rom. ii. 1, 21, 22. Having thus characterized them, he puts the question, "What then? are we better than they? No, in no wise; for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin; as it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one." chap. iii. 9. 10. The truth of this assertion he farther substantiates in the subsequent verses to the 19. all of which contain charges of sin taken from the moral law. Having finished his proof, he gives the finishing stroke to the character, shutting every man's mouth, Jew and Gentile, by this same law, and then justly concludes, "That by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified." Should any sinner, then, presume, on the footing of the works of the law, to claim the remission of sins, the divine favour, and the heavenly inheritance, that same law will stop his mouth by telling him, that instead of fulfilling its demands, he has lived habitually in the violation of its precepts, and therefore his claim is the highest presumption and arrogance.

3. THAT law which entails condemnation on the sinner is the law in the text. The assertion, "That by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified," is a declaration that no sinner can ever obtain life by the