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SERM.
V.]
OF
THE
MORAL
LAW,
AND
THE EVIL
qv
SIN.
71
III.
This law must
be
perpetual, for
"
it
is
suited to
every
state and circumstance
of human
nature,
to
every
condition
of
the
life
of
man,
and to every dispensation
of
G
o
:
And
since
it cannot
be
changed
for
a better
law,
it
must
be
everlasting.
It
is
suited to the state
of
man in
innocence, and of man fallen
from
his
happiness
:
It
is
suited
to every
tribe and nation
of
mankind
:
All
are
required to
yield
their utmost obedience
to
the com-
mands
of
God.
It
began
in
paradise
as
soon
as
man
was
created, and it
will
never
cease to oblige in this
world or the other.
Neither
Jew nor
gentile,
neither
saint
nor sinner
on
earth,
nor Enoch, nor
Elijah,
nor the
blessed
spirits in heaven,
nor
the ghosts
of
the wicked,
under
the punishments
of
hell,
are released
from
their
obligation to this
law which
requires them
to love
and
honour
God, and
to be faithful
and
just
to man
:
For
if
any persons whatsoever were released
from
the bond
of
this
law,
they would
not
be guilty
of
sin,
nor
do
amiss
in
neglecting the practices of
virtue and godliness.
IV.
It
appears
yet
further,
that
this law
is
perpetual,
because whatsoever
other
law
God
can
prescribe
or
man can
be
bound
to obey,
it
is
built upon
the
eternal
obligation
of
this
moral
law.
Every
positive
command
of
rites and ceremonies and
sacrifices given to the
patri-
archs,
or the Jews
;
every command
of
faith
in
the
Mes-
siah,
trust
in
the blood
of Jesus,
and obedience
to him
in
his
exalted state
;
every
institution
of the
Old
Testa-
ment and
the
New,
circumcision and baptism, the
feast
of the
passover
and
of
the Lord's supper,
with all, the
forms
of
worship
and duty towards
God
and man, which
ever
were prescribed, receive
their force and obligation
from the moral
law.
It
is
this law which
requires all
men to
believe
whatsoever
God
shall
reveal
with
proper
evidence,
either
by
the exercise
of
their
own
reason,
or
by
his
divine
revelation
:
It
is
the moral
law
that requires
our,heart
and hands to
yield obedience to all
the positive
laws
God
has
given
to men
:
Some
of
those rites and ce-
remonies,
so
far
as we
can discover,
seem
not
to
be
of
any great
importance
in themselves
;
but
a
wilful
neglect
of
the
least of them
is
a disobedience
to
the
great God,
and
a
violation
of
this
law
;
and I think
we
may
say
that
if
this law
were abolished, no
other
could bind
us
:
for
it
is
one
of
Vie
first
and stron
est
requirements,
of
this
E