By Rev. THOMAS BOSTON, Ettrick.
ARE not believers delivered both from the commanding and condemning power of the law? How are they then bound to yield any obedience to it? Answer. Believers are certainly delivered as well from the commanding as condemning power of the law, considered only as it is the covenant of works, which requires obedience to it in order to justification; but they are by no means delivered from it as it is the law of Christ, or a rule of duty. For the moral law is the eternal rule of righteousness, a transcript of the divine perfections, which every believer is bound to copy after, and to apply to the blood of Jesus for pardon in so far as he falls short of obeying it. “For without holiness no man see the Lord.” Personal holiness is as necessary to the possession of glory, or to a state of perfect holiness and happiness, as is the morning light to the noon-day warmth and brightness, as is a reasonable soul to a wise healthy, strong and full grown man; as an antecedent is to a consequent, as a part is to the whole, and as motion is necessary to evidence life. And the ten commandments, being the substance of the law of nature, a representation of God’s image, and a beam of His holiness, behoved, for ever, unalterably to be a rule of life to mankind in all possible states, conditions and circumstances. Nothing but the utter destruction of human nature, and its ceasing to be, could divest them of that office; since, God is unchangeable in His image and holiness. Hence their being a rule of life to Adam and his posterity had no dependence on their becoming the covenant of works, but they would have been that rule, though there never had been any such covenant, yea, whatever covenant was introduced whether of works or of grace, and whatever form might be put upon them, they behoved still to remain the rule of life. No covenant, no form whatsoever, could ever prejudice this their royal dignity.