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
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
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
disannull'd but of the New and Eternal Covenant of the new Law promulgated in a new manner If we go to the more Modern Doctors of the Church of Rome who liv'd in this present Age we shall find that they all write in the same Strain But the Law says Estius shewing the Difference between the two Laws accompanied with Grace such as the new Law is understood to be doth not only shew what is to be done but doth administer Spirit and Virtue by which what is given in Precept may be fulfill'd Suarez who for strength of Mind and clearness of Thought is the best of all the Schoolmen spends the whole tenth Book of his large Volume about Laws to explain the Nature of this new Evangelical Law He at the very first lays down these two Assertions 1. That Christ was not only a Redeemer but a true and proper Legislator 2. That the Law of Christ or the new Law is a true and most proper preceptive Law And then afterward assoiling that Difficulty How this his new Law can justify since it consists in Precepts as well as the Old and so could have no more justifying Virtue in it than that But to this Difficulty says he there is also a common Answer That Grace doth agree to the new Law in it self and as proper to it but it was not join'd to the old preceding Laws from their own force and Virtue and as proper to them but with respect to the Law of Grace And therefore Justification is simply attributed to the Law of Grace but not to the former Laws For this Reason therefore the Spirit of Grace is said to be proper to the new Law because this new Law was given in which the Author of Grace was now come and consummated the Redemption of Men and merited Grace for all Yes he himself is the Author both of this Law and of Grace I will name one more the Cardinal Bellarmine who as he fiercely oppos'd the Doctrine of Grace reviv'd by the first Reformers he earnestly sat himself to assert the Gospel to be a new Law And as he knew very well that he could not maintain the Merit of Works and Justification by them without this Assertion of the Gospel's being a new Law he begins his fourth Book of Justification which is concerning the Righteousness of Works with eager Endeavours to vindicate this Assertion against the Protestants Among other things too long here to relate he tells us That indeed if we speak of the Grace of the New Testament the Law is not distinguish'd from the Gospel in this that the Law requires Works but the Gospel doth not require Works But in that the Law teacheth what is to be done the Gospel affords Strength to do it So that according to him the new Law tho requiring Works is yet a Law of Grace because accompanied with Grace Thus it is evident that for many past Ages down to our own this Opinion of the Gospel's being a new Law was the constant Doctrine of the Anti-christian Church and eagerly maintain'd to support the Merit of Works The Socinians and Arminians as they join'd with the Church of Rome in denying the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness so they readily embrac'd this Figment of the new Law under the covert of which they introduc'd an Evangelical Righteousness of our own in conformity to it by which we are to be justified I shall not be large in prosecuting this Business because my Revernd and Learned Brother Mr. Stephen Lobb will do it sufficiently I will only offer two fair Evidences the one of Socinus himself the other of Episcopius Tho Christ saith Socinus hath his Law and promulgated it in the Name of God to the World yet is he not call'd simply a Law-giver since his Law was nothing else but a Complement and Perfection of the Mosaical Law nor indeed did he chiefly come into the World for that End that he might make Laws and be our Legislator but that he might save us for which End also he gave to us his Law The Remonstrants confess says Episcopius that they are delighted with that Manner of Speaking viz. that Christ is a certain new Law-giver not because it savours of this or that Author much less because they borrowed it from Socinus but because it is the Phrase of God and of Scripture and because it is the Heart and Marrow of all Religion and they believe nothing to be more necessary than that it should be believ'd that Christ is the Maker of a new Law It is plain then that this Assertion of the Gospel's being a new Law is a Popish and Socinian and Arminian Doctrine What then shall I brand my Reverend Brother with any of these hated Names No I am so far from doing it that I do not so much as think him to be on the Side of any of the three Parties tho he is so liberal in bestowing Titles of Dishonour upon those who differ from him as to call them Antinomians and so by virtue of an hard Word to name them the greatest Villains which can live upon Earth I know very well that the Papists together with asserting the Gospel to be a Law assert the Merit of Works which is disclaim'd by my Brother and yet is really included in his Hypothesis For what is Merit but when the Reward is due to some Work done And now if the Gospel be in that respect a Law that it requires Duties as Conditions of having a Claim to its Blessings and promises them to the Performance of those Conditions then to them perform'd tho of never so little Consideration the Blessings must be given not as the Fruits of meer Grace but as the Results of a just Debt However tho the Opinion is not professedly so rank as Popery and Arminianism yet in the least Nearness to those destructive Errors there is Danger and within the very Confines dwell Plagues and Death The People cannot then with too much Zeal be warned of the hazardous Approaches which lead them on to be betray'd into the Enemies Camp They understand not the Niceties of Controversy and of Errors so refin'd that they escape their discerning they are not afraid and yet all the while the Venom works more desperately for being subtiliz'd and the invisible Spirits of it mortally seize their Brains when they startled at the sight of the Poison offer'd in its grosser Bulk I hope then my Reverend Brother and all others will pardon me if my Love to the Truth hath stirr'd me with some just Indignation against the Opinions which favour those dangerous Errors concerning Justification by Works and if I have been moved to represent them in their own exact Shape and natural Colours For tho I will not avow these newly advanc'd Doctrines to be rank Popery and Arminianism yet I must say that they want but little of taking that Degree and that even in this respect they are the more hurtful For