ther; that is, if man forgives all, God will forgive all. That juftice which we practife to one another, fhall be the final measure of divine juftice to us. If we have honeftly given every man his due, our righteous judge will confer every bleffing we have a title to; a title, not, indeed, upon any other terms. than that of his own original promife; but a promife amongst men being a foundation of right, with God it is the fureft foundation: If we have injured one another, God will not, indeed, injure us; becaufe the rectitude of his nature will not allow it; but he will treat us as objects of ftrict justice, and thereby as excluded from mercy; which, in effect is equivalent to the highest injury, though it be in its nature quite different.

This treatment is evidently part of the prefent moral government of the world, and the rule of it is fully expreffed, Matth. xiii. 12. For whosoever bath, to him fhall be given, and he shall have more abundance; but whosoever bath not, from him shall bè taken away, even that he bath. Here this rule is applied, upon our Saviour's fpeaking in parables: It is again applied, in the fame fenfe, upon the parable of the talents, Matth. xxv. 29. Again, Luke viii. 18. it is joined to preaching and hearing the word, and is ufhered in, with, take heed how ye bear: But in St. Mark, it is not only applied upon the fame occafion, but is alfo joined with the general rule, measure for measure, Mark iv. 24. Take heed bow ye bear; with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you: And unto you that bear, fhall more be given; for he that bath, to him shall be given; and be that bath not, from him shall be taken, even that which he bath.

From the connection of thefe paffages, it may be inferred, that having, and meting with measure, are fynonymous: For, in the fpiritual fenfe of things, a man is faid to have, what he applies to a proper ufe; and he that applies a thing to a proper G

ufe

ufe, is, as appears from these texts, to be rewarded with an addition of more, in two refpects; not only of what is to be practifed towards others, but of what he is to receive from God upon his own account: that is, he who hears the gospel to purpofe, fhall learn more; as he who is charitable, fhall both receive a larger gift of the grace of charity, whereby he becomes more charitable to others, and alfo a larger gift of divine charity towards him, whereby he is become poffeffor of a greater degree of fpiritual happiness.

Now when it is faid, there is one moral law to all moral beings, this must be confidered, that whereas the fupreme being can only be conceived as a governor, and all other moral beings as fubjects; the duties of humility, adoration, and fuch like, can only belong to them; but he being fuperior to all, can owe no fubjection, or adoration, or obedi ence, to any thing. Yet the laws of diftributive juftice do eminently belong to him; and, fo far as he has revealed them, they are the fame to us, making this difference, that as there are powers upon earth, which owe obedience only to God, fo God owes obedience to no being: And as there are many relations, which moral beings ftand in to one another, yet not all equally in the fame; fo eve ry moral being is not subject to every moral law; but whatever is a moral law in any cafe, can not be vacated by a contrary obligation in any other moral being; one being may be bound where another is not bound at all; but one being can not be bound to the direct contradictory of what another is bound to. If the human rule of juftice be, to give all men their due; fo must it be to angels, the angelic rule of juftice, to give to all beings their due, with whom they hold any fociety, or in respect to whom they can be confidered in any degree of obligation. If men are bound to particular duties by the relati ons of father and fon, mafter and fervant, benefac

tor

tor and the perfon benefitted; yet every man is not a father, or a master, or a benefactor: &c. And if it be truly laid, that the moral duties arifing from these relations are binding upon human nature, because it is fufceptive of fuch relations; fo there is a moral law binding the whole fcale of rational beings though every individual is not bound by every law; because every individual cannot stand in every poffible relation to every other individual.

An angel, perhaps, cannot be confidered pro perly as a father; and therefore paternal authority, and filial duty, do not belong to that clafs of beings, in respect to one another: But as there must be fome fociety amongst them, and that probably much more excellent than ours, and alfo between them and us, though not clearly comprehended by us; they are under the obligation of many laws a rifing from focial ties, fome fimilar, and perhaps fome different from ours; yet in no cafe fo different, as that, if it be a human duty to adore God as a Cre ator, it should not alfo be an angelic duty to adore the fame Creator; or that, if it be binding on the human nature, to do all acts of benevolence, it fhould not be binding on the angelic to do the fame : Their morality is fo like ours, that we are taught, in our revelation, to pray to our common parent, that bis will may be done on earth, as it is by the angels in Heaven. For we are here in a ftate of pupil-age, trial and probation, in order to become fit per fons to affociate with angels hereafter: Cur Savi our fays, after once paling to that other more glorious ftate, we cannot die any more. For we are equal unto the Angels, and are the children of God. being the children of the refurrection.

In like manner, if men and angels may ftand in the relation of governors and fubjects, and it be the duty of a governor to protect his fubjects, to chaftife the difobedient, to reward the obedient; fo

must it be the duty (if fuch language may be allow ed, when we speak concerning the fupreme Being) of the moral governor of the world, to do all the offices belonging to fuch a relation.

There is, therefore, one eternal moral law, for all beings that are fubjects of justice, and judges of right and wrong; and by this there is a fociety fupported, and a harmony of behaviour between the fupreme intelligent BEING, and the feveral orders of Angels; to Men, the lowest of his moral fubjects.

According to this moral law Angels lived: But fome tranfgreffed it, and fell from their ftation. It was fully revealed to Adam; was corrupted by his fall: was revealed again to Noah; again to Abrabam; again to the Jews; but covered with fymbolical inftitutions: At laft it was fully revealed and practifed by JESUS CHRIST: By this the world muft live; by this mankind fhall be judged; and the fentence fhall then appear fo righteous, that even the Mouths of the wicked themfelves fhall be Stopped: For the fon of GOD fhall judge mankind by that law, according to which he himself lived.

This we learn from the laft revelation of the will of GOD to men, in the perfon of JESUS CHRIST; who, though the fon of GoD, upon account of this one eternal rule of morality being fuitable to the natures of all moral beings, was pleased to fubmit to it, becoming man, and performing perfect obedience to it; which probably could not have been done, if the moral law of men was not the fame with that of angels, was not the fame with that of GOD himself.

This perfect obedience of CHRIST to the moral Jaw was the next thing to be confidered.

But the hiftory of the incarnation of the son of GOD, his education, preaching, actions, and fufferings amongst men, being well known in a chriftian Country, lefs may be faid upon this part of

the

the defign, than would otherwise be neceffary. One testimony, therefore, that of GOD himself, who has declared it upon feveral occafions, may fuffice.

When JESUS was baptized by John the baptift, Lo! a voice from Heaven, faying, this is my belov ed fon, in whom I am well pleafed. Again, when he was transfigured, in company with Peter, and James, and John, behold a voice out of the cloud, which faid, this is my beloved fon, in whom I am well pleafed. But if JESUS had been a finner, or a tranfgreffor of the moral law, it was impoffible, that GOD could be well pleafed with him; who gave further proof of it, in raising him the third day after his death. In this last act, God the Father hath fully proved the perfect unfinning obedience of his fon, for his whole life, according to the prophecy, thou wilt not leave my foul in bell, neither wilt thou fuffer thine holy one to fee corruption. JESUS CHRIST was therefore boly, that is, without fin, fince GoD actually raised him from the ftate of death; and, confequently, the obedience of JESUS CHRIST, during his whole life, being more than thirty years, was perfect and unfinning; for GOD himself has declared it.

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Having thus proved, that there is one moral law to all moral beings, to GoD, Angels, and buman creatures; and that JESUS CHRIST, in a course of actions under a human form, for more than thirty years, paid perfect obedience to it; fome remarks fhall be made upon these doctrines.

F

IRST, it may be put as a queftion by fome, what is the foundation of this law, which is not only a rule to free creatures, but to the fupreme being himself? The answer is, The relations of things.

Although GoD made the world, yet the making of it was not fo entirely arbitrary, as that the form of it was not in fome meafure determined by the relations of things, as the Logicians fay, in fieri, or which were not actually in being, but in the poffibility

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