From this right of creation God asserts his universal dominion: 56 I have made the earth, and created man upon it, even my hands have stretched out the heavens, and all their hosts have I commanded,” Isa. 45. 12. And the psalmist tells us, Psal. 100. 3. “ Know ye that the Lord he is God, it is he that made us, and not we ourselves ; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.” His jurisdiction is grounded on his propriety in man; and that arises from his giving being to him. Isa. 44. 21. “ Remember, O Israel, for thou art my servant, I have formed thee.” From hence he hath a supreme right to impose any law, for the performance of which man had an original power. Universal obedience is the just consequent of our obligations to the divine goodness.

Suppose that man were not the work of God's hands, yet the infinite excellency of his nature gives him a better title to command

us,
than man hath

upon

the account of his reason to govern those creatures that are inferior to him. Or suppose that God had not created the matter of which the body is composed, but only inspired it with a living soul, yet his right over us had been unquestionable. * The civil law determines, that when an artificer works on rich materials, and the engraving be not of extraordinary value, that the whole belongs to him who is the owner of the materials : but if the matter be mean, and the workmanship excellent, in which the price wholly lies; as if a painter should draw an admirable picture on a piece of canvass, the picture of right belongs to him that drew it, instit. Justin. So, if according to the error of some philosophers, (Plato) the matter of which the world was made had been eternal, yet God having infused a reasonable soul into a piece of clay, which is the principle of its life, and gives it a transcendent value above all other beings which were made of the same element, it is most just he should have a property in him, and dominion over him.

The law of nature, to which man was subject upon his creation, contains those moral principles concerning good and evil, which have an essential equity in them, and are the measures of his duty to God, to himself, and to his fellow-creatures. This was published by the voice of reason, and is “holy, just and

“

a

1

a

good.” Rom. 7. 12. Holy, as it enjoins those things wherein there is a conformity to those attributes and actions of God which are the pattern of our imitation: so the general rule is, “ be holy, as God is holy, in all manner of conversation,” i Pet. 1. 15. And this is most honourable to the human nature. It is just, that is exactly agreeable to the frame of man's faculties, and most suitable to his condition in the world. And good, that is, beneficial to the observer of it ; “ in keeping of it, there is great reward.” Psal. 19. 11. And the obligation to it is eternal; it being the unchangeable will of God, grounded on the natural and unvariable relations between God and man, and between man and the creatures.

Besides the particular directions of the law of nature, this general principle was planted in the reasonable soul, to obey God in any instance wherein he did prescribe his pleasure.

Moreover, God was pleased to enter into a covenant with Adam, and with all his posterity naturally descending from him. And this was the effect,

1. Of admirable goodness: for by his supremacy over man, he might have signified his will merely by the way of empire, and required obedience; but he was pleased to condescend so far as to deal with man in a sweeter manner, as with a creature capable of his love, and to work upon him by rewards and punishments congruously to the reasonable nature.

2. Of wisdom, to secure man's obedience: for the covenant being a mutual engagement between God and man, as it gave him infallible assurance of the reward to strengthen his faith, so it was the surest bond to preserve his fidelity. It is true, the precept alone binds, by virtue of the authority that imposes it, but the consent of the creature increases the obligation; it twists the cords of the law, and binds more strongly to obedience. Thus Adam was God's servant, as by the condition of his nature, so by his choice, accepting the covenant, from which he could not recede without the guilt and infamy of the worst perfidiousness.

The terms of the covenant were becoming the parties concerned, God and man; it established an inseparable connexion between duty and felicity. This appears by the sanction, Gen. 2. 17. “In the day thou eatest of the forbidden fruit, thou shalt die:” in that particular species of sin the whole genus is in

cluded; according to the apostle's exposition, Gal. 3. 10. “ Cursed is every one that doth not continue in all the works of the law to do them.” The threatening of death was expressed, it being more difficult to be conceived: the promise of life upon his obedience was implied, and easily suggested itself to the rational mind. These were the most proper and powerful motives to excite his reason, and affect his will. For death primarily signifies the dissolution of the vital union between the soul and body, and consequently all the preparatory dispositions thereunto, diseases, pains, and all the affections of mortality, which terminate in death as their centre. This is the extremest of temporal evils, which innocent nature shrunk from, it being a deprivation of that excellent state which man enjoyed. But principally it signified the separation of the soul from God's reviving presence, who is the only fountain of felicity. Thus the law is interpreted by the Lawgiver, “ the soul that sins shall die,” Ezek. 18. 4. Briefly, death in the threatening is comprehensive of all kinds and degrees of evils, from the least pain to the completeness of damnation. Now, it is an inviolable principle deeply set in the human nature, to preserve its being and blessedness; so that nothing could be a more powerful restraint from sin, than the fear of death, which is destructive to both.

This constitution of the covenant was founded not only in the will of God, but in the nature of things themselves; and this appears by considering,

1. That holiness is more excellent in itself, and separately considered, than the reward that attends it. It is the peculiar glory of the divine nature, “ God is glorious in holiness.” And as he prefers the infinite purity of his nature, before the immortal felicity of his state; so he values in the reasonable creature the virtues by which they represent his holiness, more than their perfect contentment by which they are like him in blessedness. Now God is the most just esteemer of things, his judgment is the infallible measure of their real worth ; it is therefore, according to natural order, that the happiness of man should depend upon his integrity, and the reward be the fruit of his obedience.

And though it is impossible that a mere creature in what state soever, should obtain any thing from God by any other title but his voluntary promise, the effect of his goodness, yet it was such

B

goodness as God was invited to exercise by the consideration of man's obedience. And as the neglect of his duty had discharged the obligation on God's part, so the performance gave him a claim by right of the promise to everlasting life.

2. As the first part of the alliance was most reasonable, so was the second, that death should be the wages of sin. It is not conceivable that God should continue his favour to man, if he turned rebel against him : for this were to disarm the law, and expose the authority of the lawgiver to contempt, and would reflect upon the wisdom of God. Besides, if the reasonable creature violates the law, it necessarily contracts an obligation to punishment. So that if the sinner who deserves death, should enjoy life, without satisfaction for the offence, or repentance to qualify him for pardon, (both which were without the compass of the first covenant) this would infringe the unchangeable rights of justice, and disparage the divine purity.

In the first covenant there was a special clause, which respected man as the inhabitant of paradise, that he should not eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil" upon pain of death, Gen. 2. 17. And this prohibition was upon the most wise and just reasons.

different, became unlawful merely by the will of God, and when the command had no other excellency but to make his authority more sacred; this was a confining of man's liberty, and to ahstain was pure obedience.

Besides, the restraint was from that which was very grateful, an alluring to both the parts of man's compounded nature. The sensitive appetite is strongly excited by the lust of the eye; and this fruit being beautiful to the sight, (Gen. 3. 6.) the forbearance was an excellent exercise of virtue in keeping the lower appetite in obedience. Again, the desire of knowledge is extremely quick and earnest, and, in appearance, most worthy of the rational nature; nullus animo suavior cibus. Lactant. It is the most high and luscious food of the soul. Now the tree of knowledge was forbidden; so that the observance of the law was the more eminent, in keeping the intellectual appetite in mediocrity. In short, God required obedience as a sacrifice. For the prohibition being in a matter of natural pleasure, * and a curb to curiosity, which is the lust and concupiscence of the mind after things concealed; by a reverend regard to it, man presented his soul and body to God as a living sacrifice, which was his reasonable service. Rom. 12. l.