The.: atúre of the Obedience,` &c: 14t: no lefs then their being But upon a fuppofition,^ of that Conftitutiòn, things have in that order, a neceffary' Relation one to another , and all of them unto. God.' Wherefore. 3.. It was a free Soveráign aEl of Gods will to create, effe& or produce fuch a Creature as man is ; that is,of a nature in-, telligent, rational, capable of moral Obedience with Re- wards and Punithments. But on fuppofition hereof.:: man fo freely made, could not be governed any other ways but by a moral Inftrnment of Law or Rule, influencing the rational, faculties of his Soul unto Obedience, and guiding him there- in. He could not in that confutation be contained under the Rule of God, by a mere Phy ical influence, as are all irra- tional or brute Creatures. To fuppofe-it, is to deny or de- ftroy, the effential faculty and - powers ivher_ewith he was created. Wherefore on the fippolition of his being; it was neceffary that a Law or Rule of Obedience fhould be pre - fcribed unto him, and be the inpmentof Gods.Government towards him. 4. This neceffary Law, fo fir forth as it was neceffary, dial immediately and unavoidably enfué upon the conftitution of our natures in Relation unto God. Suppofing the nature, being, and properties of God, with the works of Creation on t le one hand ; ánd.fuppofe the being, exiftence and the nature of , man, with his neceffary Relation unto'God; on the other, and the Law whereof we fpeak is nothing but the Rule of that Relation, which can neither be, nor be preferved without it. Hence is this Law; -eternal, indifpenfable, admit- ting of . no other variation, than doth the Relation between God and man,- which is a neceffary exurgence from.their ftin 1 natures And properties. 5. The, fubflance of .this Lan, was that manadhering unto God, abfolutely, dniverfally ,:unchangeably, uninterruptedly, in trait, love, and fear, as the chiefeft good, the.Iirft Author of
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