ection of a delicate
spiritual organisation worthy the creative energy of a Being of spotless
infinite holiness, was in perfect sympathy with the awards of that
perfection of judgment which, from eternity to eternity, is unchanged.
And his will, the mighty gift, emblem of the volition of the Giver,
approved what He decreed. With such capacities, accompanied with
corresponding knowledge of the external world and the internal man, and
with a perfect acquaintance with the nature and demands of God's law,
the favoured creature man could not but acquiesce in it. To the claims
of its glorious Author, put forth by it, he was led by the most sure,
and yet most gentle and delightful constraints, to give his
acquiescence. What it demanded as duty to God, and duty to man, as if
bound, yet free, he joyously proffered and endeavoured to give. What it
forbade, he, in the same spirit, desired not to attain to, but resolved
to reject. That law required, in its first command, the avouchment of
God as a God in Covenant; in its second, it demanded the same, in
anticipation of whatever evil--such as the inroads of satan, might tempt
to lead from him; in its third, it claimed the fulfilment of the duty of
solemn appeal to the I Am by oath; in its ninth, it required the
speaking of truth to man, and consequently, the public avouchment of God
as a God in Covenant before others; and in entering into Covenant with
him, the favoured creature man, to all these and the other statutes of
that law, from his holy nature, gave his adherence. In his nature, as a
living personification of finite excellence, designed to transact with
God, and rendered fit to adhere to his engagements, and true to the
constitutional character of his existence, in the presence of his
glorious Lord he stood a being in Covenant with him. Had there even not
been a representative phase of character provided for Adam, he had,
therefore, necessarily, from his very constitution, been in Covenant
with God. A law was made known to him by the great Creator and Ruler; a
willingness to accept of it as a guide to duty, manifested by receiving
it, was given to him. To the formation of a covenant, though any other
condition that God should propose might be added, nothing more was
necessary. The covenant due to this was embodied in that which, as we
shall presently see was, at his creation, in sovereignty made with him.

Secondly. This appears from the fact, that the law of God to man in