lxxviii. 7. Are these works all written
in the Bible? They are required to confess their fathers' sins, as well
as their own. Since the divine canon was closed, many sins have been,
and now are chargeable against professing Christians. Are these recorded
in the Scriptures? And thus the reader may ask himself of sin and duty
to any extent, in relation to God as a party.
And the same is true of the second table of the moral law. For example:
in reference to "the first commandment with promise," should the
Christian minor be asked as the Jew did his Lord, "Who is your father?"
How shall he answer? Is he warranted to appeal to God to manifest his
earthly sonship? No; but he is required by God's law to "honor his
father;" and his obedience to this command is grounded on human
testimony as to the object to whom this honor is due. Thus consistency,
reason and scripture combine, to accuse and fasten guilt--the guilt of
apostasy upon all who have renounced that fundamental principle of our
glorious covenanted reformation--_that history and argument belong to
the bond of ecclesiastical fellowship_.
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