Chapter 19: Of the Law of God
1. God gave to Adam a law of universal obedience written in his heart,
and a particular precept of not eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge
of good and evil; by which he bound him and all his posterity to personal,
entire, exact, and perpetual obedience; promised life upon the fulfilling,
and threatened death upon the breach of it, and endued him with power and
ability to keep it.
(
Genesis 1:27;
Ecclesiastes 7:29;
Romans 10:5;
Galatians 3:10, 12
)
2. The same law that was first written in the heart of man continued
to be a perfect rule of righteousness after the fall, and was delivered
by God upon Mount Sinai, in ten commandments, and written in two tables,
the four first containing our duty towards God, and the other six, our
duty to man.
(
Romans 2:14, 15;
Deuteronomy 10:4
)
3. Besides this law, commonly called moral, God was pleased to give
to the people of Israel ceremonial laws, containing several typical
ordinances, partly of worship, prefiguring Christ, his graces, actions,
sufferings, and benefits; and partly holding forth divers instructions
of moral duties, all which ceremonial laws being appointed only to the
time of reformation, are, by Jesus Christ the true Messiah and only
law-giver, who was furnished with power from the Father for that end
abrogated and taken away.
(
Hebrews 10:1;
Colossians 2:17;
1 Corinthians 5:7;
Colossians 2:14, 16, 17;
Ephesians 2:14, 16
)
4. To them also he gave sundry judicial laws, which expired together
with the state of that people, not obliging any now by virtue of that
institution; their general equity only being of moral use.
(
1 Corinthians 9:8-10
)
5. The moral law doth for ever bind all, as well justified persons
as others, to the obedience thereof, and that not only in regard of the
matter contained in it, but also in respect of the authority of God the
Creator, who gave it; neither doth Christ in the Gospel any way dissolve,
but much strengthen this obligation.
(
Romans 13:8-10;
James 2:8, 10-12;
James 2:10, 11;
Matthew 5:17-19;
Romans 3:31
)
6. Although true believers be not under the law as a covenant of
works, to be thereby justified or condemned, yet it is of great use to
them as well as to others, in that as a rule of life, informing them of
the will of God and their duty, it directs and binds them to walk
accordingly; discovering also the sinful pollutions of their natures,
hearts, and lives, so as examining themselves thereby, they may come
to further conviction of, humiliation for, and hatred against, sin;
together with a clearer sight of the need they have of Christ and the
perfection of his obedience; it is likewise of use to the regenerate
to restrain their corruptions, in that it forbids sin; and the
threatenings of it serve to shew what even their sins deserve, and what
afflictions in this life they may expect for them, although freed
from the curse and unallayed rigour thereof. The promises of it
likewise shew them God's approbation of obedience, and what blessings
they may expect upon the performance thereof, though not as due to them
by the law as a covenant of works; so as man's doing good and refraining
from evil, because the law encourageth to the one and deterreth from
the other, is no evidence of his being under the law and not under grace.
(
Romans 6:14;
Galatians 2:16;
Romans 8:1;
Romans 10:4;
Romans 3:20;
Romans 7:7, etc;
Romans 6:12-14;
1 Peter 3:8-13
)
7. Neither are the aforementioned uses of the law contrary to the
grace of the Gospel, but do sweetly comply with it, the Spirit of
Christ subduing and enabling the will of man to do that freely and
cheerfully which the will of God, revealed in the law, requireth to
be done.
(
Galatians 3:21;
Ezekiel 36:27
)
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