love God, and at the same time disobey his commandments; or, love our fellow-creatures, and live without God. If, as I maintain, the love which is the fulfilling of the law is in every case the same affection of mind-the same in relation to God, and in relation to man, and different in no other way than that the objects in regard to which it is exercised are different, it follows as a necessary consequence, that there can be no true virtue where there is not an aiming at universal obedience. If the bias of the heart be in any measure opposed to this single affection or state of mind, to this principle which is inclusive of all law, and from which all true obedience proceeds, the whole man is wanting in the same proportion in holiness or real virtue. This universal obedience has its foundation in religion, is directed by the will of God, and animated by the hope of his favour; while that which proceeds from other principles, is only the semblance of virtue,-it is vanity, or pride, or interest, or a generosity of disposition. The pleasures of true virtue are, like itself, divine, both in their original, and in their issue; they begin and end in God. They are derivative and dependent, and like the light which loses its lustre, and its very being, when separated from the glorious fountain that feeds it, they decline and die when it is attempted to enjoy them without God.

In affirming that the will or law of God is the measure and rule of virtue, I am not to be understood as maintaining that the distinctions between right and wrong, between virtue and vice, are created by mere will or law, or enactment *. These distinctions are

See the Chapter on this subject in the preceding Book.

eternal and immutable, founded in the eternity and immutability of the divine nature, and form the ground on which law and will, in order to be obligatory, must rest. It is they, and not the mere possession of supreme power, that give to the Deity the right to command the love and obedience of his creatures; a right which exists anterior to every enactment, and the existence of which is attested by the consciences of the beings to whom the law is addressed.

The law of God is the explicit announcement of the nature and extent of those obligations devolving upon men, which had previously existed, and would have existed though no such announcement had been made. Its authority is not at all affected by the way in which it is made known to us,-that being the same, whether it is ascertained from a survey of the established order of the universe, an analysis of the powers of our moral constitution, or by divine revelation. If we are only satisfied that the voice which speaks is a voice from heaven, we are bound to listen and obey, whatever be the medium through which it reaches us.

"It is not an uncertain or mutable thing; it doth not depend upon my thinking or not thinking of it. Whether I think, or think not, whether I sleep or wake, if God is, and I am, such obligations must lie upon me necessarily and unalterably; that is, such really is the state of things between God and me, that I cannot but be under such obligations. It is vain, therefore, to suppose that the law in these respects is an arbitrary and changeable thing. It is no

more changeable than the essential references must be between God and me, while he exists, and I exist; so that I cannot make these obligations to be by my thinking of them, nor can I unthink them into nothing.

"When we therefore read of the law of nature as a law written in us, as the Apostle's expression is, it supposes it to have been in existence before it was written. Those mutual references between God and us had a pre-existence, whether there be any such impression upon me or no; if it remain, or if it be blotted out, that doth not nullify the obligations between me and my Maker. Cicero calls it, Non scripta sed nata lex, a law born with us; which results from the very existence of such a creature, of such a nature, related to the Supreme Being as his offspring, or that hath immediately been raised up out of nothing by him*"

The law of God, then, is the expression of His will who is infinitely holy and wise, just and good ;-it is nothing else than the measure and rule of that obedience which the nature of God and man make necessary from the one to the other. The obligation to render this obedience arises from the relations necessarily subsisting between a created and dependent moral agent, and the great Creator and self-existent Lord. The law which he gives to his creatures is the standard and directory, as to the nature and extent of that love and service which were previously and necessarily due. This, which is termed the moral law, was originally written on the heart of man, as well as announced to him in Paradise. It was after

* Howe's Works, vol. v. p. 391, 392.

wards issued by the Sovereign Ruler from Sinai, and there written on two tables of stone. Though immediately given to the Jews, it was not more binding on them than on the whole human race: for it is in its nature and principles fixed, unalterable, and eternal.

Different from this was the law which was given at the same time to Israel, which was partly ceremonial, and partly judicial, which was partly typical and designed to point to the good things to come, and partly related to them as a nation. This consisted of a multitude of arbitrary enactments, or what the Apostle terms, the law of commandments contained in ordinances. They were positive institutions, and, apart from the authority that enjoined them, indifferent. But they, in virtue of this authority, instantly changed their nature; and their observance or non-observance, became moral or immoral, in consequence of their being appointed by Him, who is infinitely good, and wise, and powerful, and to whose laws, wise and good as they must always be, we owe a perfect and an unceasing obedience. They were, however, in force only during the good pleasure of him that enjoined them, and were abrogated with the destruction of the Jewish polity. Under that economy they served most important ends, both as to the faith and the obedience of the worshippers, to which it is unnecessary in this place to make any more specific allusion.

But the moral law is, like the nature of God, and as the expression of those obligations which arise out of the relations subsisting between God and man, fixed and unchangeable. It was announced, explained, and enforced, at sundry times and in dif

ferent ways; but the duties which it enjoins were always and necessarily obligatory. This law is a perfect rule of the spiritual and moral obedience which God is entitled to receive, and which he requires from man, and to the divine excellency of which the sacred writer beautifully refers, when he says, "The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple." This, because its authority is universal, is impressed on the heart and conscience, is known in some measure by the light of nature, and the works of which, if a man do, he shall live in them.

This law, issuing as it does, from the God of infinite perfection, must itself be perfect. It must be an infallible measure and rule of virtue, and admirably adapted to answer the ends of a directory and standard of moral obligation. Its perfection appears,

I. From considering it as the very image or transcript of the moral character of God. The laws of any government will always afford some discovery of the spirit by which it is characterized, and of the wisdom and benevolence of the governor. The laws of God, we are entitled to presume, will indicate his character, as they will of course enjoin that which he loves, that which infinite wisdom and holiness approve, and prohibit that which he hates. Whatever his nature is, as to purity, and wisdom, and goodness, that also his law must be in regard to the same qualities; since it is obviously impossible that he can command his creatures to do what is opposed to himself, what is repugnant to his wishes and his will.

But the character of God is the perfection of all