SERMON XLIX. 87 require obedience to it for ever." Wheresoever the reason- ing powers of man are diligent and sincerely attentive to his most. important concerns, he must acknowledge the great God demands our best obedience, our honour and our love, and he de- servesit : Every conscience actingon reasonable principles must confess that truth and honesty ought to be practised towards our neighbour, and temperance andsobriety with regard to ourselves; that we are bound to restrain our vicious appetites and passions withinthe rules of reason and our better powers ; that we must not be savage or cruel to others, nor must we abuse our under- standing and our senses which God has given us for better pur- poses, and by drowning them in wine and strong liquors, or by any intemperance behave like the brutes that perish. As longas man is man, and reason isreason, so long will this law be a rule to mankind. III. This lawmust be perpetual, for " it is suited to every state andcircumstanceof human nature, to every condition of the life of man, and to every dispensation of God :" And since it cannot bechanged for a better law, it must be everlasting. It is suited to the state of man in innocence, and of manfallen from his happiness :.It is suited to every tribe and nation of mankind All are required to yield their utmost obedience to the commands 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 justto man : For if any per- sons whatsoever were released from the bond of this law, they would not be guilty ofsin,. nor do amiss inneglecting the practises ofvirtue and godliness. IV. It appears yet further that this law isperpetual, because whatsoever other law God can prescribe, or man can be bound to obey, it isbuilt upon the eternal obligation of this moral law. Every possitive command of rites and ceremoniesand sacrifices given to the patriarchs, or the Jews ; every commandof faith in the Messiah, trust in the blood of Jesus and obedience to him in his exalted state ; every institution of the Old Testament and the New, circumcision andbaptism, 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 re- quires all men to believe whatsoever God shall reveal with pro- per evidence, either by the exercise of their own reason, or by his divine revelation : It is the moral law that requires ou *carts,
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