tS6 cfL 'Declaration of the Glorious 1\4 Y ST E bath refpeft Unto the perfon of Chrift, as one God with the Father and holy fpirit; blet1ed for ever. 3.) There is apeculiar refpeftunto him in all moral obedienceas mediator. (r. In that by the fupreme authorityover the church wherewith he was vetted, he hath confirmed all the commands of the moral law, giving them new enforcements, whence he calls them His commands. This faith he, is mycommandment, thatyou love one another, whichyet was the old com- mandment of the moral law; thou fbalt love thy neighbour as thy fell. Hence the apoftle calls it an old and new commandment, a Johnii. 7, 8, The law was given unto the church under the Old Teftament in the hand of a mediator, that is, of Mofes, Gal. iii. 19. It had an original power ofobliging all mankind unto obedience from its firft inftitution or prefcrip- tion in our creation; which it never loft not abated in. Howbeit the- church was obliged to bave a refpeft unto it, as it was given unto them, ordained by angels in the band of a mediator. See Mal. iv. 4. hereon many things hard and difficult did enfue, which we are now freed from. We are not obliged unto the obfervance of the moral law it felf, as given in the handof that mediator, which gave it the formal reafonof a covenant unto that people, and had other ftatutes and judgments infeparable from it. But the fame law continueth Rill in its original authority and power, which it had from the beginning to oblige all indifpenfibly unto obedience. Howbeit as thechurch ofIfrael as fuels was not obliged untoobedience unto the moral law abfolutely confidered, but as it was given unto them pecu- liarly in the handof a mediator, that is, ofMofes; no more is the evangelical church as fuch, obligedby the original authority of that law, but as it is confirmedunto us in the hand ofour mediator. This renders all our moral obedience, evangelical. For there is no duty of it, but we are obliged to perform it in faith throughChrift; on the motives of the love of God in him of t(te benefits of his mediation, and the grace we receive by him , what- ever is otherwife doneby us is not acceptableunto God. They do there- fore for themolt part but deceive themfelves and others who talk fo loudly about moralduties. I know of none that are acceptable unto God, which are not only materially, but formally fo, and no more. If theobligation they own unto them, be Only theoriginal power of the moral law or the law ofour creation,and theyare performed in the ftrengthof that law unto the end of it, they are no way accepted of God. But if they intend the duties, which the moral law requireth, proceeding from, and performed by faith in Chr, upon the grounds of the love ofGod in him, and grace received from him, then arethey duties.purely evangelical. And although the law bath never loft,, nor ever can lofe its original power of Obliging us unto univerfal obedience as we are reafonable creatures, yet is our obedi- once unto it as chriftians, as believers, immediately influenced by its con- firmationunto the evangelicalchurch in the ]land ofour mediator. For, -(2. God hath given unto the Lord Chrift all power in his name to re- quire this obedience from all that receive the gofpel. Others are left under the original authority of the law either as implanted in our natures at their firft creation; as are the Gentiles, or as delivered by Mofes, and written in tables of ftone, as it was with the Jews, Rom. i. ma, 13, a¢. But as to them that are called unto the faith- of the gofpel, the authority ofChriflBoth immediatelyaffecttheir mindsand confciences. Hefeedsor rules his people in thefirengtb ofthe Lord, in the majefly of' the name of the Lord his God, Mic. v.4. All the authority andmajefty ofGod, is in him and with him; fo ofold as tjte great angel ofGod's, profeticohe was in the church in the wildernefs witha delegated power, Exod. xxii. 20, 2t, 22. Behold I fendan angel
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