the Old Testament is expressed by this Name John 12. 34. The People answered him We have heard out of the Law that Christ abideth for ever and how saist thou The Son of Man must be lift up Who is this Son of Man Where not the Decalogue or Levitical Book of Statutes is intended but the Doctrine concerning the Redeemer to come as appears from those Texts in Psal 110. 4 5. Isa 9. 6. to which John 12. 34. hath a manifest regard It is then plain from this Place of the Evangelist that among the Jewish People when our Saviour lived on Earth not only Exodus and Leviticus but the Instructions which they had concerning their so much desir'd and expected Messiah and Salvation by him in any of the Books of the Old Testament were call'd and known by the Name of a Law And to this common Notion of the People according to which they nam'd the whole Doctrine reveal'd by God whether it were Precepts or Promises a Law the Apostle Paul accommodates his way of writing in stiling the Gospel a Law in Rom. 3. 27. which I shall afterwards more fully vindicate from my Reverend Brother 's imposed meaning and in Gal. 2. 19. which I now shall consider These are the Apostle's Words Gal. 2. 19. For I through the Law am dead to the Law that I might live unto God He writes to the Galatians among whom it was a prevailing Opinion that tho Christ had abated the too rigorous observation of the Law of Works yet Justification was to be obtain'd by some lower degrees of Obedience To shew them how opposite this Doctrine was to the Gospel preach'd by him the Apostle tells them what were the Experiences of his own Soul I am dead says he to the Law of Works and have not the least Heart to seek Justification by it And how was he thus mortified to the Law of Works What by a new Law of Works lower'd to more moderate Conditions No for such an one would rather have cherished and encouraged the Life of his Hopes in his own Obedience By the Law then that is by the pure Doctrine of Grace in the Gospel revealing Christ's Righteousness as that alone by which a Sinner can be justified the Apostle is quite deaden'd as to any hopes of Justification by his own Righteousness and hath not the least motion in his Soul to seek it in that manner What very much weighs with me is That Luther who so excellently hath wrote on this Epistle and who successfully prevailed against the Errors of Antichrist about Merit of Works by subverting the great Foundation of them which is this Assertion of the Gospel's being a milder Law of Works interprets the Apostle to mean by that Law which had such a mortifying Efficacy upon him the pure Doctrine of Grace in the Gospel The Law of the Decalogue says he did bind me against it I have now another Law viz. of Grace which is not a Law to me neither binds me but frees me But it is a Law against the damning LAW THIS it binds that it may no longer bind me If Luther thus calls the Gospel a Law signifying no more by that Name than a pure Doctrine of Grace it is no wonder that others of the Reformed Religion cited by my Reverend Brother call it so too tho not in his Sense but designing Luther's Meaning who ruin'd the greatest Strength of Popery by denying the Gospel to be a new Law of Works and by asserting it on all Occasions to be meerly a Doctrine of Grace But it is not the Authority of this Great Man which solely prevails with me the Design and Scope of the Apostle in this second Chapter of his Epistle to the Galatians hath the greatest Force to perswade me that by the Law which made him dead to the Law of Works he intends the sincere and unmuddied Doctrine of free Justification by Christ's Righteousness alone His Design is plainly to refute an Error prevailing among the Galatians who tho professing the Gospel and to be justified by Faith in Christ yet would make this Gospel to be a new Law exacting Works as necessary to Justification He answerably disclaims every Law of Works whether the old Jewish or that new Evangelical One so lately invented among these Christians and made to look with the polish'd and smooth Face of the Gospel He excludes the Observances of any Duties or any Act of Obedience from having an Interest in our Justification assigning the whole Business of it to Faith alone ver 16. Knowing that a Man is not justified by the Works of the Law but by the Faith of Jesus Christ even we have believed in Jesus Christ that we might be justified by the Faith of Christ and not by the Works of the Law for by the Works of the Law shall no Flesh be justified It is thus he demonstrates this Proposition That we are not justified by the Works of any Law That they who were Jews to whom the Law was more especially given yet they having been instructed by the Doctrine of Grace that they could not be justified by Obedience to the Law and having by the Gospel which brings in a better Righteousness been convinc'd of the Defects of their own and therefore knowing that God had not appointed any Law whereby he would justify a Sinner they answerably had believed on Christ that so according to the Doctrine of the Gospel they might be justified by his Righteousness alone This is undoubted that we must be justified by some Righteousness or other not by our own for then Justification would be by the Works of a Law and so our Faith in another's Righteousness would be insignificant and to little or no purpose For why should we entirely trust in another Person for that which we could so well accomplish our selves If then not our own it must be Christ's Righteousness only that can have this desir'd Effect and knowing this by the Law or Doctrine of the Gospel we have says the Apostle for this very purpose believ'd on Jesus This without any Shuffles or intricate Windings is the plain Sense of this 16th Verse And among other Causes which mortified in him and the other Believers any Inclinations to seek Justification by the Law Pareus numbers the Doctrine of the Gospel as that which had the strongest and most efficacious Influence It is now then very agreeably that the Apostle says of himself That this Law or Doctrine of Grace had made him dead to the Law of Works but alive unto God What is it to be dead to the Law To renounce it in the Matter of our Justification to be freed from its galling Yoke of Servitude and Bondage whereby it keeps guilty unbelieving Sinners perpetually under the Tortures of slavish Fears and amazing Terrors To be dead to the Law is to disclaim our Justification by Works of our own and not to trust in any Obedience which we can perform to it and being convinced
fond of any Arminian Opinions we must take the whole System of them together and assert roundly as they do without mincing the Matter what hath an inseparable Connexion with a false Proposition for there are Consequences among Errors as well as Truths and as the one are chain'd the other are link'd together We may then be certain that these Expressions in Scripture He that believeth shall be sav'd but he that believeth not shall be damn'd Mark 16. 16. And whoever believeth on Christ shall receive remission of Sins Acts 10. 43. And except you repent you shall all likewise perish Luke 13. 5. which are urg'd by my Reverend Brother do not signify that God passeth his Word to all Men by a new Law establish'd among them that if they obey it and believe and repent they shall assuredly be saved for God always speaks the Purposes of his Mind and none of his Words contradict his Heart but he never decreed either absolutely or conditionally that all Men should be eternally happy for if he had he would have taken effectual Care that they should be so since the Intents of his Mind and Will always obtain infallibly their desir'd Effect If we also understand that Expression He who believes shall be sav'd that it is promis'd to all that on the performance of this Condition they shall be thus eternally bless'd then by the same Rule we must say that eternal Death and Ruin is threaten'd to them on condition they do not believe But the Threatnings of this Wo are not denounc'd against Men for not believing but as due to them for not perfectly obeying the Law of Works and their Unbelief only leaves them in that perishing Condition wherein they were born as I have prov'd before tho as I said their Unbelief aggravates the Misery and inflames the Anguish of it But what meaning then must we apprehend these Scriptures to bear Why truly they have the same Sense as that Text in Heb. 12. 14. Follow Peace with all Men and Holiness without which no Man shall see the Lord. What! is Holiness the Condition of obtaining the Beatifical Vision No tho it doth naturally dispose the Soul and make it meet for and capable of this blissful Enjoyment No more therefore is meant than that Holiness and this Vision of God are inseparably join'd together and that no unholy Soul can possibly come to his Presence and Sight Thus it is also true that he who believes shall be sav'd which imports no more than this that all Believers are sav'd and none but they and that there is such an unchangeable Connexion between the Blessings of the Gospel that Faith Repentance and Holiness are indissolubly fasten'd with Pardon Justification and Eternal Life in the same Person or in a Word that God justifies and saves no Man but whom at his own due appointed Time he makes a Believer brings him to Repentance I speak in this of Adult Persons and sanctifies his Nature and whoever asserts this is no Antinomian nor so much as like to such an execrable Monster however invidious Names are flung about as thick as Stones in the Streets I might insist more largely on this Argument but I begin to think that the Consideration of it will more properly belong to another Discourse wherein I design with the Assistance of my Lord Jesus Christ who hath help'd me in this beyond the natural Abilities of my own Mind to him be all the Glory to prove that the Covenant of Grace doth not promise nor confer the Blessings on condition of performing Duties requir'd CHAP. VIII Those Texts of Scripture which are urg'd by the Apologist as expresly giving the Name of a New Law to the Gospel recover'd to their right Sense His Testimonies out of the Fathers and Protestant Writers evinc'd to be useless to serve his Design I Shall now examine those Texts alledg'd by my Dear Brother wherein the Gospel is call'd a Law and the Citations produc'd by him wherein the Fathers and Protestant Authors give to it the same Name I shall do it but briefly for I need not be large since any Reader who hath with any intention of Mind perus'd my poor Writing may resolve them all at first sight The first Text produc'd is that known one in Rom. 3. 27. Where is boasting then It is excluded By what Law of Works Nay but by the Law of Faith Without looking on the Context we may be satisfied by what the Apostle saith in the same Verse that by the Law of Faith he means no more than that Doctrine of Grace which declares a believing Sinner to be justified by the Righteousness of Christ which by Faith he receiveth for it is such a Law of Faith that excludes all boasting Now then if it commanded Faith and promis'd Justification on condition that this its Precept was obey'd Boasting would not be excluded but rather a great Occasion would be given to promote it For why should not a Man glory in his Faith if it be an Act of Obedience to this new Law which by the Statute of it makes his Justification to depend on this his Performance He may then as well plead that he hath done what was requir'd and so he may as well claim Life and Happiness on the Account of having done all that this new Law made necessary to Salvation as Adam if continuing in his Primitive State might have form'd a Plea of his Right to Life for having discharg'd all that Duty which the Law of Works commanded and propos'd as the Condition of his being eternally Blessed If he might have boasted for having faithfully observ'd the Covenant of Works the Believer too may assume some Glory to himself for having acted his Duty punctually to the Law of Faith if the Constitution of this Law be such that it makes the promis'd Salvation dependant upon this his Obedience in believing It will signify nothing to say that the Law by which Adam was to have been justified enjoin'd Works as the Terms of his being so but that this new Law insists only on two Acts of Obedience Faith and Repentance as all that it requires for our Justification For these two are Works done by us and so we might boast that we have done something tho not arising to that height of Duty incumbent on our first Father by which according to the Tenor of this new Law we are justified By the Opposition which the Apostle makes of the Law of Faith to a Law of Works it is also manifest that by the first he intends a pure Doctrine of Grace and by the other a Law commanding something to be done For if the Law of Faith requires any Works and constituted them to be Conditions of our obtaining the Blessings make these Works as few as you will and call them by what Names you please Faith and Repentance yet this will result from it that both are Laws of Works only with this difference that the one rigorously insists on
Redeemer and Repentance do not seem to be in the least so much as hinted in any of its Commands For since the Law was given as a Rule of the Actions of Holy and Innocent Creatures who needed not a Redeemer there could be no occasion to command them to believe on One and Adam in his State of Integrity was no more oblig'd to such a Faith than the Blessed Angels are to believe on the Saviour of lost and wretched Men. And since Repentance is a Duty too which presupposeth the Person engag'd to it to be an Offender and guilty How could it be commanded to a Creature who had never sinned How could it be a Duty for him to own his Crime with Shame and Sorrow who never yet had transgressed or prevaricated in his Obedience Since therefore Faith in Christ and Repentance are Duties which suppose the Man to be a Sinner it would seem that such Precepts are not implied in a Law given to him before his Fall but are the proper Precepts of a second Remedial Law which God hath provided for the Relief and Help of this miserable Creature This I must confess looks very plausible at first sight and the Argument seems to be strongly conclusive But if we consider the Nature of Faith it will be manifest that it was not only commanded to Adam in Innocence and that it was his Duty but that it is absolutely necessary to every holy and good Creature For if we take it as an Act of the Mind assenting readily to all that God reveals as infallibly true it is that to which every Creature in the right Constitution of his Being is indispensably oblig'd It is the Duty of Angels themselves to believe that Jesus is the Son of God that he is the Saviour of Elect Men that the Pardon and Justification of a Sinner is by his Blood and Righteousness alone that God's Justice is satisfied by the Sacrifice of his Son For all these Truths being publish'd and made known by God for the Illustration of his infinite Mercy among all his rational Creatures and that the Praises of his Free Grace might resound as well in the Songs of Angels as from the Mouths of Men it is needful and required as a Duty from them both who are to honour God in the Celebration of all his Attributes that they heartily believe all these Truths of the Gospel in which alone God's Perfections of Mercy and Grace do illustriously shine forth And as for Man in Innocence though it was not in express Terms required from him to believe the Gospel not yet revealed to him or to act Faith on Christ undiscovered yet such a Command was included and implied in that general one that he should without any Doubt or Hesitancy give Credit to all that God said and that as he was to believe the Sincerity of God's Promise and the Reality of his Threatnings when the Covenant of Works was made with him and without doubt he acted such a Faith so by the same Precept he was commanded and bound to believe every word which God afterward should speak to him and without scrupulous disputing presently assent to those Truths which were to be reveal'd assoon as it appear'd to him that they were so So that indeed the Belief of the Gospel and Faith in Christ Jesus were comprehended in this general Precept of Believing in God and indeed Christ himself tells us so and useth it as an Argument why they should act Faith on him because they were oblig'd to it by the same Command which required them to believe on God John 14. 1. Let not your Heart be troubled ye believe in God believe also in me If we regard too the other Act of Faith which is a firm Reliance of the Soul upon God and heartily trusting of him and chearfully committing all our Concernments our Life our Happiness all we enjoy or hope for to his faithful Love and Care this was certainly our first Father's Duty and given in Precept to him in the Law as well as the other of assenting to all that God declared as undoubtedly true And indeed if it was Adam's Duty in his Primitive Condition to believe in God it was commanded by the Law for that only could make it become so And what can we ever wildly imagine that our first Father was not bound to act Faith on God his Creator and constant Benefactor and upon whom he was to have a perpetual Dependance or he could not live a moment What! can we think that to have rejected God's Word as of suspected Truth to have refused or but to have suspended his Assent to it when propos'd had been no fault in him That to have distrusted God to have renounced Dependance on him would not have been a Crime the greatest as could be committed by him But all this is the unavoidable Consequence of this Assertion That the Precept of Faith is not in the Law for neither would Faith have been a Duty nor Unbelief a Sin to Adam had not the Law which was the only Rule of his Obedience commanded the one and forbidden the other Were it not for this he might have been a stubborn obstinate Unbeliever without being a Sinner when on the contrary it appears from the short Relation of his Apostacy that Unbelief was his very first Sin For what is Faith but to trust in God upon his Word and Promise for all our Life and Happiness and what is Unbelief but to distrust him And was not Adam while flourishing in his State Innocence a real and sincere Believer and so long as he persisted in acting Faith did he not continue to be happy And was it not the Neglect of the due Exercise of Faith which at last plung'd him into the Depths of Misery and Despair As long as he believed God and entirely confided in him as long as he lived in constant Dependance upon the Love and Care of his Creator as long as he thankfully acknowledged that he received all the Blessings of Life as the Fruits of his Bounty as long as he trusted in God upon his Word that he would not only continue them unto him but bestow greater to come which by the Promise he had reason to hope for and expect all this time he liv'd by Faith and his Days were clear and happy and it was Unbelief made all his Glories set in a gloomy Evening It was this begun his Apostacy not exercising Faith any longer he would throw off his Dependance upon God and seek to be bless'd in some new and fond Way of his own He indulg'd a surmizing Thought that God whose solemn Promise he had so freshly heard either could not or was not willing to make him so happy as he aspir'd to be and that he refused to advance him to those degrees of Bliss of which he fancied himself capable And thus he ceas'd acting that Faith in God on which depended his Life and Blessedness he disbelieved God and believed the
Devil his greatest Enemy and sinned and died And I know not but that he deserved the Execution of the Sentence and Curse pronounced against him more by his Unbelief than by Eating the Apple And that even the Law of Works condemn'd him as much for that Sin as for the outward Act of his Disobedience Ay but it will be said All this doth not prove that Faith in Christ was commanded by the Law and required of him as his Duty No it is enough that Faith in God was so to prove that the Precept belongs to the Law For if it is sufficient to argue from the Law 's not directing this its own commanded Act to such an Object as Christ the Redeemer that therefore it gives no Precept and Command of Believing but that it is the peculiar Office of the Gospel to do so that because this particular Kind of Faith is not specified and this Way of Acting it on Christ particularly express'd that therefore the Duty of Believing comes not within the Limits of its Commands I might at this rate of Arguing prove that the Act of Eating the fatal Fruit was no Sin because not expresly forbidden by the Law for that regarded it as a thing indifferent as indeed it was before the Prohibition and yet this destroying Act of his was a Sin and forbidden by the Law tho not in a particular Precept yet as involv'd in that great One which commanded him to obey God in whatever he should require It doth not therefore by any consequence follow that the Gospel is a new Law because it commands Faith as a Duty and threatens Unbelief since the old Law had done the same before and the Gospel only imploys its Precepts and applies them to its own Design and Use To say that we are enjoin'd in the Gospel to believe on Christ as the Redeemer to deliver us from Sin and Death will not weaken the Force of the Argument urg'd for the Act even of this Faith is commanded by the Law and is its proper Precept That which belongs to the Gospel is to direct this Act to an Object suted and proportioned to help us in the Misery of our present sinful State Adam was by the Law commanded to believe and trust in God for the Preservation and Continuance of him in Happiness And we are commanded to trust in the same God for the Restoring this lost Happiness and our Recovery of it again The Act and Object of Faith is the same Christ being God and all the Difference is only made by that which is the Circumstance tho a deplorable one of our own Persons But this will not alter the Nature of the Faith it-self for if so then according to the Variety of these sad Cases and Exigences wherein we trust on Christ our Faith would alter to a different Nature Since then the Faith of Adam which the Moral Law commanded him to act on God was a Trust in him that he would preserve his innocent Creature in all the Blessedness of his primitive Condition and the Faith of a Sinner coming to Christ for Life is a Trust in the same God he being the second Person of the Divinity that he will restore his wretched Creature to its lost Happiness the Faith is the same in both Instances as to the Nature of it tho the Circumstances of the Persons are different and therefore if our first Father was by the Moral Law commanded to believe on God the same Precept requires and obligeth Sinners to believe on the eternal Son of God I know that with a scornful Smile it will be said that it is an absurd Assertion to affirm the Precept of Faith to belong to the Law when the Command of believing on Christ is perpetually repeated in the Gospel which only discovers this Saviour of Sinners It is granted that we meet with this Precept in all the Books of the New Testament but then the Objectors must also grant that we find there too the Precepts of loving Christ of abandoning all things and denying our selves for his Sake of loving our Enemies of the Obedience due from Children to their Parents of the sincere Service which Servants owe to their Masters and now if the Gospel is not a New Law in requiring these Duties which were all commanded by the old one it will no more be a new Law for commanding us to believe since this hath been demonstrated to be a Precept of the old Law as well as any of the other All therefore which can be inferr'd is that the Gospel borrows these Precepts from the old Moral Law and then they are not properly its own Commands and employs them in its Service and for the Interests of our Salvation or to speak briefly and clearly in the Words of the Holy Ghost himself Gal. 3. 19. the Moral Law is in the hands of Christ our Mediator and made by him to subserve his gracious Designs The other pretended peculiar Precept of this new Law is Repentance and if I then prove that by virtue of the old Law which was a perfect Rule of Duty this also was enjoin'd and Sinners oblig'd to it this will evince that neither this is the proper Command of the Gospel It cannot be denied that all which is justly due from one Person to another is required in the Moral Law for it is a compleat Rule of Righteousness It can as little be disputed that an hearty Acknowledgment of the Wrong with Shame and Sorrow from a Man who hath injur'd another is due to the offended Party and common Reason and Justice doth engage Men to this tho no other Reparations can be made The owning then of our Offences with the most inward Mourning and deepest Detestation of them is much more due to God our Sovereign and Supream Lord tho we are incapable by all this of making him the least Satisfaction To confess a Fault and to express a real Trouble for having done it is indeed among Men a making some amends to the wronged Person for it is some Security that he shall not be hurt by a second Injury But all our Sorrow and Confession of Sins with Tears cannot in any degree satisfy nor repair the Dishonour and Indignity offer'd unto God It is yet our Duty to throw our selves at his Feet to express an Abhorrence of our hainous Rebellion against him and it is a Duty to which we are bound as Creatures to our Maker and Subjects to our Soveraign who is Lord over all God blessed for ever But what it will be said doth the Law require Repentance when it made no Proposals of Pardon for the Crime Doth it require a sorrowful Acknowledgment of the Fault and yet the whole Design of it is that all this shall do the Offender no good since it provides not the least Relief for the penitent Sinner To what purpose is such a Command when tho the Sinner sheds floods of Tears and mourns out a Life lasting to Eternity of