Learned Brother did not appeal to other Authorities than that of the Holy Scriptures which is the greatest But since he leads me into the numerous Volumes of the Fathers I will follow him too there And if I shew that those Antient Writers of the Church who wrote in the Greek Language as for the Latin Fathers I shall afterward consider them us'd the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nomos Law to signify a Doctrine by it then the uncertainty of Citations from those Authors for his Purpose will be abundantly demonstrated Clemens Alexandrinus calls the Law the Light of our Way and the Gospel as a pure Doctrine of Grace is such beyond all dispute He also defines a Law to be a true and good Opinion of a Thing whereby any Doctrine of Truth and Goodness may be signified Eusebius who lived above an hundred Years after him having occasion to mention those Texts of the Old Testament which speak of Christ as the Great Author of the Gospel and particularly explaining that Text in Isa 2. 3. speaks in these words What Law is that going out of Zion and differing from that coming from the Desart promulgated by Moses in Mount Sinai but the Evangelical Word going forth out of Zion by the Ministry of our Saviour Jesus Christ and his Apostles and passing through all Nations For it is manifest that from Jerusalem and Mount Sion adjacent to that City where our Lord and Saviour delivered most of his Discourses and Doctrines the Law of the new Covenant beginning its Progress and going from thence to all Men shin'd with the greatest brightness Which very well agrees to the Doctrine of the Gospel that so swiftly spread and with such diffusive Beams that in a few Years after Christ's Death it illuminated the whole Earth Chrysostom also who calls the Gospel a Law very often and particularly in his Sermon on Gal. 2. 19. which I have before cited if we may think as we ought to do of the greatest Preacher in the Primitive Church that he speaks consistently with himself means no more by this Phrase than a Doctrine of Grace For when in his Sermon on Psal 49. he draws the dividing Lines between the Law of Works and the Gospel he in these Words gives his Judgment That the Law of Works was the Rudiments of Children and an Introduction and also the Ministry of Condemnation and Death But this says he speaking of the Gospel is Grace and Peace There is nothing can be more plain than his meaning that the Law requiring Works denounc'd nothing but Death to a Sinner unable to perform them but the Gospel as a Doctrine of Grace reliev'd him by proclaiming Peace To evince that among the Fathers the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nomos Law did not always signify a System of Precepts and Commands I may also introduce Origen who as a competent Judg in the Case declares that he very well knew the Psalms to be called a Law as also the Prophecy of Esa And to prove it he brings in those Texts of Scripture John 15. 25. Psal 35. 19. 1 Cor. 14. 21. And his Authority is to be the more regarded as to the Decision of the Question in present Debate because as he complains in the beginning of this his 9th Chapter cited by me of the Confusion which the ambiguousness of the Word Law did breed in Mens Minds which is the Case now too so he employs this whole Chapter to clear its various Significations But I need give no other Instances than from what Theodoret writes in his short Exposition on Isa 2. It is says he therefore very well manifest that he intends the New Testament from thence that is Sion of which the Prophet speaks delivered by the first Apostles and by the same afterward exhibited to all Nations He doth not therefore only prophesy that the Law but that the Word should go out from thence giving this Name to the preaching of the Gospel For this also blessed Luke teacheth us Luke 1. 2. Even as they delivered them unto us which from the beginning were Eye-witnesses and Ministers of the Word By the Word then in that place he doth not name God the Word but the Doctrine of God's Word For God the Word did not go out of Sion but he taught the Truth in Zion Photius who lived in the 9th Century was not more famous for his Learning than for that firm Resistance he made against the Usurpations of Antichrist who design'd and strongly endeavour'd to have spread his Wings as far over the Eastern as he had over the Western World By what this Patriarch of Constantinople writes it appears that however in the Course of so many Ages very great Corruptions had wrought for themselves an entrance into the Grecian Churches yet the Doctrine of Grace not as establishing a Law of Works but displacing it was preserv'd among them Or at least we may know what his own Belief was from his own Words which are these He first tells Sergius in an Epistle wrote to him that the Law was not contrary to Grace as he surmis'd it was and then shews its use in subserviency to Grace That it was a Preparation and made way for the discovery of Grace and leads us to it But when Grace comes the Law says he departs as the Stars when the Sun appears or as the Night the Day shining And having illustrated it with many other Similitudes Thus says he Grace having an Existence the Law is vacated tho not perfectly dissolv'd It ceaseth but is not disannulled Christ fulfilled it not violating the least Tittle of it and performing it entirely remov'd it It is against my Inclination that I thus summon Men tho of deserved Repute to bear Witness for the Truth of the Gospel The Testimony of the Holy Ghost in his own Word is infinitely greater than ten thousand such Evidences It was therefore to him that I first appeal'd but since my Reverend Brother brings the Cause into a lower Court I am very willing that it should there also be tried The Proofs which I gave out of God's Word have as I think sufficiently demonstrated that this new Law of Works is not the Everlasting Gospel and these Testimonies from Humane Writings may evince that it is not only far distant from Eternity but neither so venerable for Age as he fancies it for it was a Doctrine unknown in the first Years of Christ's Church and had its Original only with the Birth of Antichrist and I am very well assur'd will end with the Period of that Man of Sin CHAP. V. How uncertain an Argument is fram'd from the sound of the word Law to prove the Gospel to be such evinc'd from the various significations of that Word as us'd by Roman Authors That the Latin Fathers nam'd the Gospel a Law as it is the Doctrine of Christ I Now should heartily rejoice to be excus'd from searching any other Records but
that it condemns and dooms us to Death not to seek Life by it any more and no longer to have the least Commerce with it in the Affairs of our Justification or to be dead to the Law is no more to be obnoxious to its condemning Sentence in that it cannot exact from thee its threaten'd Punishments tho indeed as a Rule of Duty it always unalterably requires Obedience To be dead to the Law is no longer to be under its Dominion and Reign as it is a Covenant of Works Thus a King hath no Authority over a Subject whom Death hath transported out of his Territories into the Regions of another World nor can the Power of the Greatest reach beyond the Confines of the Grave In all these Meanings the Apostle asserts himself to be dead to the Law And what was it made him so What! but the Law or Doctrine of Grace revealed in the Gospel which so happily instructed him in the knowledg of free and compleat Justification by Christ This Sun no sooner riseth but all those little wandering Stars which as false Lights had before so wretchedly misled him do set presently and all his natural and rooted Inclinations to seek Justification by the Works of the Law lessen and at last wholly vanish and disappear at the glorious Appearance of the Sun of Righteousness who comes with healing in his Wings All those treacherous Hopes which he repos'd before in his Obedience to the Law in the severe Observance of its Precepts and strict Performances of Duties are utterly extinguished and all the Sparks of them being quite dead do not scatter any longer the least Glimmerings in his Soul Thus the Law or Doctrine of the Gospel teaching him how that Christ his Surety being made under the Law for him hath redeem'd him from its Curse answered all its Demands and silenced every Accusation hath stopp'd its Mouth and taken away its Strength and not only so but depriv'd it of Life as well as Voice the Apostle's Mind being thus illuminated with the Light of his new Law or Heavenly Doctrine to know more than ever he did before that Christ hath slain the Law as it is a Covenant of Works as well as the Enmity which Sin had caused between God and miserable Sinners he accordingly looks on the Law as a dead Thing which can neither hurt in respect to Condemnation nor do him any good as to Salvation and Life He answerably regards it with other Eyes than before and his former Zeal and Affection he had to it for the Purposes of Justification are not only abated but extirpated out of his Heart not meerly cool'd and damp'd but perfectly quench'd and dead Now then that the Gospel is called a Law by the Apostle not in the strict Sense as importing Works of any kind but as a meer Doctrine of Grace is evident from all these Effects which it produc'd It perfectly mortified him to a Law of Works and therefore could not be one it self unless we can imagine that the Apostle became dead as to seeking Justification by the Works of any Law whatever and that no otherwise than by giving entertainment to and putting himself under the Conduct of a new Law of Works which things do not seem very well to agree And that by Law when the Gospel is so nam'd in this Gal. 2. 19. the Apostle means a pure Doctrine of Grace and not a more moderated Law of Works appears from ver 21. I do not frustrate the Grace of God for if Righteousness come by the Law then Christ is dead in vain It is as if he should have said However others despise the Grace of God and think it too mean and ignoble to owe their Life to it it shall be my great Zeal to magnify it to illustrate its Glory and to pay unto it the highest Honour However others are Obstacles to its Progress and endeavour to put a stop to its Victories and Triumphs or attempt to render all its Power and Force vain and ineffectual yet for my part I will neither say nor do any thing to frustrate it and none of my Actions nor any Article of Doctrine which I teach shall in the least degree have such a Tendency I will not let fall a Word which may but seem to lessen or disparage the Favours of my blessed Redeemer who loved me and gave himself for me And can there be a greater Slight than when he hath done and suffered so much to save me not to rest satisfied with his Undertaking and Work as compleat but to be solicitously endeavouring how to supply the Deficiencies and to perfect it my self To esteem Christ as insufficient is certainly to despise him in the highest measure and he doth not suffice me if I join my own Righteousness to his or add Works done by me in Obedience to any Law unto his great Performances Nay if I should assert Righteousness to come by any Law whether New or Old I should dishonour Christ so much as to insinuate that he died very unwisely or unadvisedly For what could be more unadvised than to come and suffer all sorts of Miseries and at last to expire in Torments and that only to the Purpose of effecting what might have been done very well without such expence of his inestimable Blood For if by my Obedience to some Law I may be justified and the Works of that can be my Righteousness why should Christ die or to what purpose was he obedient since no other Ends of his Death and Obedience are assigned but the Justification of a Sinner And if this Business can be effected by this Sinner's own Works of what Nature soever the Blood and Righteousness of Christ comes in uncalled for and when there is no great or urgent need of them But far be it from me to defeat the Designs of the God of all Grace to misprize the greatest Favours which can be bestowed upon a Creature or to darken and obscure the Glory of the Grace it self and therefore I am firm to it and will unmoveably maintain it that Righteousness comes by no Law whatever nor are Sinners justified by the performance of any Conditions in obedience to it And therefore when I before ver 19. call'd the Gospel a Law you must by no means understand it to be a soften'd and milder Law of Works but a Doctrine of Grace in which Sense I also us'd the word Law in my Epistle to the Romans where I call the Gospel a Law of Faith Rom. 3. 27. Thus I have endeavour'd to give briefly the Apostle's Sense in this Text which proves his Meaning in the other where he calls the Gospel a Law that he understands only a Doctrine of Grace by that Word CHAP. IV. That the Fathers of the Primitive Church when they call'd the Gospel a Law meant only a Doctrine by it proved by a few Instances out of Clemens Alexandrinus Eusebius Theodoret Origen and Chrysostom THIS might be enough if my
the Birth of our Redeemer God the Father sends down his Messengers not only to tell us that his Son was born into the World but to assure us that he brought nothing with him but Grace and Peace and the Reconciliation of a God before angry unto lost and desperate Rebels It is thus the Angels who certainly with the greatest Exactness discharg'd their Commission without one word of Christ's being a new Legislator or coming as a second Moses to deliver a new Law from Mount Zion as he did from Sinai proclaim the Gospel to be a most solemn Declaration of God's gracious Designs and Purposes to Sinners unworthy of his Favour Luke 2. 13 14. And suddenly there was with the Angel a multitude of the Heavenly Host praising God and saying Glory to God in the Highest and on Earth Peace good Will towards Men. Thus in the first delivery of this glad Message there is no Voice but of Peace no stounding Claps of Thunder as from Sinai at the Promulgation of the Law but the Songs of Angels rejoicing in the restor'd Happiness of Elect Men their Fellow-Creatures no affrighting Flashes of Lightning but a soft and gentle Brightness shining from the Face of a reconciled God and diffusing it self through the Air without any hurtful or consuming Flame Luk. 2. 9. And lo the Angel of the Lord came upon them and the Glory of the Lord shone round about them and they were sore afraid Tho they were a little astonish'd at the first appearance of so strange and unusual a Sight yet the Sense which they had that it was only an innocent lambent Fire about their Heads and the encouraging words of the Angel reassur'd them ver 10 11. It is not a Judg but a Saviour who is come into the World nor are there any Threatnings denounc'd as at the giving of a Law are necessary but they hear Promises of Mercy There is no Sentence of Death given nor Warrants issued out for the Execution of guilty Criminals but God the Father honours his Son's Birth-day with a large and very comprehensive Act of Pardon When this his Son his Solace and Delight in Eternal Ages before any Creatures made steps down from Heaven he doth not meerly declare the great Pleasure and Satisfaction he hath in this glorious God-Man but he evidenceth how dear this infinitely excellent Person is to him in the most surprizing Effects of Goodness and Grace He proclaims that for his sake only he can regard his Elect of Men with Eyes of Favour and Kindness who in their own Persons were only Objects of Detestation and Abhorrence And therefore tho he freely lov'd them from Eternity his Benevolence was never openly publish'd till now As it is only for the sake of Christ whom God infinitely loves that he can take any delight in his chosen Children of Men so 't is not till this his great and adorable Son comes upon Earth that he proclaims Peace and Good-will to Men. Thus God from Heaven and some of the best Men who ever liv'd upon Earth do plainly tell us that the Gospel is no Law but a pure Act of Grace And as God sent these Men into the World to restore his Truth to recover it out of the Darkness of Popery in which the Nations of the Earth had for so many Ages lost themselves and been wretchedly deluded by the worst of Errors dress'd up in the faint Resemblance of Truth they were answerably faithful to the performance of that Work which God had sent them to do They were careful to distinguish the Gospel from a Law and would by no means suffer Works tho insinuating themselves under never so specious pretences to invade the Prerogative of Grace They very well knew as both Chemnitius and Beza inform us that playing with the Ambiguity of the word Law confounded Law and Gospel laid the Root of the most pernicious Errors to spring up and overspread the Church with nothing but Tares or worser Weeds in the room of nourshing Corn. They were aware that the perplexed Thoughts of Law and Gospel chain'd together by the unnatural Mixture gave Birth to that monstrous Metamorphosis by which the Monks transform'd the Gospel into a Law and as they were not at all ignorant that the proper Remedy to cure these distemper'd Thoughts was exactly to distinguish between the one and the other they sutably made a good and successful use of it They would give every thing its proper Name sutable to its Nature If they spoke of Works they meant a Law prescribing them and commanding Obedience under severe Penalties but then in thus thinking speaking or writing the Gospel never came into their Minds nor was form'd in their Voice nor dropp'd from their Pens But whenever an Idea or Notion of Grace arose in their Minds then indeed the next following Thought was the Gospel of Christ By thus reducing these two Notions into due Rank and Order they baffled all the sophistical Cavils of the Monks and afterward of the more cunning Jesuits and made War against Antichrist with Success and Victory for to drive that Man of Sin out of his dark Corners and hiding-Places is indeed to conquer him In pursuing such a Conquest these fam'd Divines of the first Reformation once too much ador'd and now as much despis'd wrote and preach'd the pure sincere Grace of the Gospel to the People It was by this alone Doctrine unassisted by any humane Policy or Force that they blew up all the Forts of the dark Papal Kingdom and conquering all before them planted the glorious Ensigns of our Blessed Lord Jesus in the Room of the Roman Standards Thus Chemnitius who was a perfect Master in the Art of attaquing Antichrist in her strongest Holds since he so prosperously storm'd and demolish'd the Council of Trent shews what were the Instruments of this Spiritual Warfare us'd by him that had the greatest Force What other Light says he hath dispers'd the most thick Darkness of the Papal Kingdom but this chiefly the true Difference of the Law and Gospel before demonstrated And this Difference he had stated that the Law consists purely of Works and the Gospel of all Grace This might be sufficient to inform us in what Sense we are to apprehend the Expressions of any of the Reformed Divines when they give the Name of a Law to the Gospel for since this signifies no more among them than the joyful News of God's Mercy and Love and his being reconciled to Sinners in the Blood of his Son the meaning of the Word Law when attributed to this Gospel that it may be sutable and consistent with such a Notion of it must design nothing more than a Doctrine of Grace and Peace But if I now bring Instances that they tell us in so many express words that when they call the Gospel a Law they intend the Word in no other Sense than this alledg'd it will clear the puzzled Cause and leave no remaining Doubt
arriv'd to their Ears It must therefore necessarily be a Precept and Command of the Moral Law to them which more or less is manifested to all even the most savage and barbarous Nations of the Earth The Design and Office of the Law doth also manifest that the Precept of Repentance doth properly belong to it For it was not only appointed as a Rule of Obedience to Adam but God certainly knowing that Man would fall into a State of Sin and Death intended the Law for the Conviction of Sinners to shew them their Sinfulness and Danger Rom. 3. 19 20. Now we know that what things soever the Law saith it saith to them who are under the Law that every Mouth may be stopped and all the World may become guilty before God Therefore by the Deeds of the Law there shall no Flesh be justified in his sight for by the Law is the Knowledg of Sin Rom. 7. 7. He design'd it to rouse and alarm the poor negligent Creatures And now if it convinceth them of Sin its malignant Nature and direful Effects it consequently tells them that it is their Duty to bewail their Miscarriages which bring all Miseries upon them and to reform their evil Courses and to turn from Sin to God This the Law preacheth to Men and these are the natural Dictates of it in their Consciences and it is impossible to perswade them till God comes with the Power of his Grace and works Faith against putting their Confidence in their Sorrow and repenting to obtain Pardon by it and against trusting to their Resolutions of living better for the future and against their fond Presumption of being justified for their endeavours of Amendment These legal Principles are natural in Men they arise not from the Gospel for that instructs us to put our whole and entire Confidence in Christ and his Righteousness alone they must then spring from the Law and consequently Repentance which this Law not only urgeth Men unto but moveth them to build their Hopes of Life upon it must be one of its Precepts The Law commands it the Gospel as a Proclamation of Grace and an Offer of Pardon only invites and encourageth it Thus it is sufficiently prov'd that Sinners were by the Moral Law oblig'd to own their Sins with the most bewailing Expressions of Grief tho that Law gave them no Encouragement and Hope and that Adam after his Fall was engag'd to this Sorrow and Contrition before any promise of Pardon and Acceptance tendred If we now consider the other and chiefest part of Repentance it will be evident that this was not only requir'd of the Father of Mankind fallen but that it was his Duty and what he practis'd in all the time of his Innocence and flourishing Condition For what is Repentance mainly but an hearty abhorrence of Sin join'd with a most careful Avoidance of it and a most firm Resolution against it Now this was as surely in Adam when continuing the same upright Creature which God had made him as it is certain that then he was holy Holiness and hatred of Sin being altogether inseparable and therefore unless we will suppose our first Father to have been unholy in his original Being we must not doubt of his daily acting of this principal and most considerable part of Repentance I call it so because it is that which to bring forth the other is appointed for we are not commanded to mourn and to bewail our Follies and Miscarriages meerly for the sake of vexing and tormenting our selves or as if by the inward Anguish of our Souls we were to do Penance to pacify a displeased God but all this trouble of Mind for Sin is intended and requir'd to imbitter it to us and to render us vile in our own Eyes and to throw us humbled before the Throne of Grace For tho we are Sinners and poor and miserable yet we are naturally proud and therefore a Sense of our Sin and Misery is requisite to bring down our haughty Spirits tho we also daily feel the dismal Mischiefs of Sin yet our deprav'd Natures render us too prone and readily inclin'd unto it and therefore a piercing Sorrow is necessary to bring us to that true Repentance of which I am speaking which consists in hating Sin and turning from it It is but needful that an aking Wound make us sensible of the malignant Mischief of Sin to render it the Object of our highest Aversion Well then it is hatred of Sin and an hearty resistance of it which is the last and chiefest Act of Repentance since our Sorrow is design'd only to produce this Effect and so after all to hate Sin and most carefully to avoid it is most truly to repent of it And this Repentance our first Father even in his Innocence acted to a higher degree than we do since his detestation of Sin was greater and till the sad Moments of his Fall he opposed it more firmly and successfully But it will be objected Repentance supposeth the Person to have sinn'd and therefore a Precept of it to Adam in his Uprightness was altogether needless No not at all for a Precept to oblige Man to what is due and just is necessary for him in every Condition and nothing can be more due than to acknowledg a Wrong done And what is Repentance but an hearty owning and lamenting the highest Injury offer'd to God by our Sins And besides God in making a Law gave such a perfect Rule as was sufficient to bind Man to his Duty in all Circumstances of his Case and therefore it was not only modell'd to oblige him to perfect Obedience but to ingage him to repent when he had fail'd of his Duty Well but some may argue against what I before said concerning Faith's being a Precept of the Original Law given to Adam that tho it is true that Faith in God is required in the first Commandment yet there is no Faith in a Redeemer express'd What then It is yet plainly implied since this our Redeemer is God and therefore a general Command to trust on God at all Times and according to the various Necessities of our State must include a Precept to believe on Christ the Redeemer when the sad State of our Case doth require it Ay but the Law will they object was given to Man in Innocence and therefore only tied him to such Acts of Obedience as were proper to that Condition and therefore such Duties which result from Man's being a Sinner such as Faith and Repentance were not inclos'd within the compass of this Law Yes but they were and that for the same Reason as such Duties which arise from the present Relations which Men bear to one another which are the Consequents of Adam's Fall are comprehended in the Precepts of the Moral Law By this a Slave is obliged to perform Service to his Master and yet if Man had not sinned there had been no such thing as Slavery By this also Judges are bound
to do Justice in punishing Malefactors and yet in Man's Primitive State of Integrity there were no Rogues and Villains nor any need of Judges or Sheriffs This is strange indeed it will be said to deny the Gospel to be a Law commanding Faith and Repentance when nothing is more frequently inculcated and earnestly urg'd in the Sermons of Christ and the Writings of the Apostles than that Sinners should repent and should believe on him 'T is readily confess'd but yet from what hath been argued it must be own'd that these are Precepts of the Law made use of by the Gospel and encourag'd by its Promises We are not presently to fasten every thing on the Gospel strictly taken as it is the Word of Salvation which we find in the Books of the New Testament and because Christ and his Apostles give us Rules of Holiness immediately name the Gospel a New Law For after this rate of Reasoning we may infer too that it is a Book of Lives because the Life and Death of our Saviour and the Acts of the Apostles are recorded in it that it is the Levitical Law because the Apostle Paul in his Epistle to the Hebrews insists on so many Particulars of it That it is the Ceremonial Law because the said Apostle circumcis'd Timothy Act. 16. 1. That it is a Sacred Chronicle and the Annals of the Church because it contains the History of the Beginnings and first Progress of Christianity Thus if we frame Arguments by these Measures we may make the Gospel any thing that we please or would fancy it to be I have thus as I think clear'd the Difficulty which ariseth from our finding the Precepts of Faith and Repentance so frequently enjoin'd in the New Testament and have demonstrated that all such Instances will not serve the Purpose of evincing the Gospel to be a new Law The next Rank of Arguments to be broken is this that it is alledg'd that the Gospel denounceth Threatnings against unbelieving and impenitent Sinners and makes general Promises that every one who believes and repents in obedience to its Command shall certainly be sav'd If I now then prove that these Threatnings are not of the Gospel but that it only leaves the Sinner who by Faith hath no Interest in Christ to the condemning Sentence of the Law without any Defence or Plea or the least Excuse for himself And if I also prove that the Gospel makes no such universal Promises of Eternal Life to all Men on condition they believe I shall then clear the Way through my Reverend Brother's first thick Set of Arguments form'd from twenty Texts of Scripture enumerated by him One plain Text of Scripture evinceth that the Gospel judgeth and condemneth no Man but leaves the unbelieving Sinner to a fair Trial at Law and to make the best of it that he can 'T is what Christ who came to save Sinners and perfectly knew his own Design and Work tells us John 3. 17. For God sent not his Son into the World to condemn the World but that the World through him might be saved What could he have said more to assure us that in the Declaration of the Gospel he did not threaten Death but promise Salvation to Sinners whom the Law menac'd and who were condemn'd by its Sentence that he came not as a new Legislator to give new Laws and to pronounce a fatal Doom against those that disobey'd them but to rescue poor sentenc'd Criminals from the rigorous Judgment of the Law and to assure them of a Pardon He came not to condemn the World but to save all those whom God had appointed to Life and consequently to believe on him But if Christ had brought in a new Law with Precepts and Threatnings then one Design of his coming had been to condemn the Disobedient Our Blessed Redeemer took an effectual Care that we should not have such a Thought of him and therefore he repeats the same Assertion John 12. 47. And if any Man hear my Words and believe not I judg him not for I came not to judg the World but to save the World He doth not threaten much less judg and condemn an Unbeliever He knew that Salvation of Sinners was the Work which he came into the World to perform and that the Office of a Judg did not belong to a Mediator He accordingly disowns it and leaves to the Law its proper Duty which is to pass Sentence of Death on every Sinner who cannot plead the Blood and Righteousness of Christ for his Discharge and this all Unbelievers dying in that woful Condition are uncapable to do Thus the Gospel condemns no Man but it is the Law and those who believe not shall be judg'd by it for violating its just and righteous Commands and are expos'd defensless and liable to Justice Those who believe not on Christ are presently condemned by the old Law in force against them who have in the least Instance disobey'd it and there is no need that any Sentence of a new Law should be pass'd against them to this Effect If any should deny the Argument I am yet confident they will have a regard to the express Words of Christ himself which are to the same Pupose John 3. 18. He that believeth on him is not condemned but he that believeth not is condemned already because he hath not believed in the Name of the only begotten Son of God What is this but to say that he introduced no new Law to condemn the wretched and desperately lost Sinner for not believing on him since he was before condemned for the Offences committed against the Moral Law But it will be urg'd What is more frequently pronounc'd by Christ and his Apostles against all Unbelievers than an unavoidable Ruin and Damnation such Threatnings are almost as thickly scatter'd in the New Testament as the Promises of Grace What then will it thence follow that the Gospel which is a Doctrine of Grace is also a dreadful threatning Law No certainly for these two are altogether inconsistent All then which can be concluded is only this that the Gospel repeats the Threatnings of the Law to shew Sinners their Danger if they do not believe This Gospel only tells them what severe Measure they will have from a violated Law if they are not inclos'd within the compass of the Mediator's Favour and Blessings It plainly and sincerely declares to them that they can expect nothing but certain Death from a Law which kills the Sinner if they refuse the only healing Remedy which Christ offers Thus it is told to a Patient That he will certainly die if he takes not the prescrib'd Physick And yet who will say that this Threatning is any part of the Medicine Thus the Physician pronounceth Death to a Man who when mortally Sick wilfully refuseth to observe his Directions And how absurd is it from this to imagine that he who came to cure design'd to murder him when it is only the Disease and his