reatures who should be called to give obedience, was
wholly due to the will of God, but in perfect harmony with the spirit of
his commands. Moral creatures having been formed, the law of God speaks
one language to all of them. They, possessed of different characteristic
attributes, alike recognise its appeals. Angels have a constitution
which distinguishes them from man, yet with him they apprehend the
authority of the one moral law. Over a range, therefore, of infinite
extent, the principles of eternal rectitude are maintained. Man, in
innocence, recognised them. Man, redeemed, cleaves to them according to
his attainments in grace. Angels, possessed of a nature different from
that of man, acknowledge their obligation upon them. And God himself,
distant from his highest moral offspring by a difference that is
infinite, exhibits them as a manifestation of his holiness, and the
principles according to which he acts towards his creatures. Much,
therefore, in common belongs to the constitution of the moral natures of
angels and men, and necessarily proceeds from and accords with the
nature of God. His law, we have seen, inculcates the duty of
Covenanting. From what has been said, we would, therefore, conclude that
the constitution of man was fitted to that exercise. That it was so
appears, moreover, from other considerations now to be adduced.

Covenanting was adapted to the moral constitution of man in innocence.

First. From the Scripture account of that constitution this appears. In
this manner he is there represented--"God created man in his own image,
in the image of God created he him."[456] "God hath made man
upright."[457] These declarations imply that man was created at least
"in knowledge, righteousness, and holiness," and accordingly, in
conformity with the will of God, as to his intellect, his affections,
his conscience, and will. When brought into existence, his intellectual
and moral powers were full grown, and his knowledge was suited to the
state of a creature fitted to hold communion with God. His intellect was
fitted completely to survey, according to its capacity, the whole scene
of natural and moral existence presented before it, from the lowest
stage of dependent being to what it was competent to him to know of God.
His affections, in a flame alike pure and ardent, glowed at the prospect
of moral excellence which appeared in the works of God, and above all,
in Himself. His conscience, tender as the perf