done then the right Sense of those Texts which seem to infer to be a Condition of our Justification by this Evangelical Law will be fully clear'd the meaning of the alledg'd Scriptures will be so plain as it will appear that they do not so much as look towards the favouring that Opinion of the Gospel being a new Law for which they are produc'd That the Precepts which the Gospel employs are not any Parts of it self but borrowed from the Law will be undoubted if we consider what is their Nature and Use They are design'd as the Rule of our Actions they instruct us what to do they draw the Lines of our Duty and set the Limits of our Obedience and all this is the proper Office of the Moral Law which it compleatly discharges without calling in any Assistance It is the eternal and unalterable Rule of Manners and a Doctrine directing the whole Conduct of Humane Life There is no Defect in it which it was needful to supply by another new Law to assert that would be to impeach the Wisdom of God as deficient as not knowing at first all that was Good and Righteous and necessary to be commanded to his Creatures and to be done by them or as so short in its Foresight as not able to discern at the first all the Duties which Men were bound to perform in the Circumstances of their State but was oblig'd afterward taught by Experience to supply the Failures by a new Law or by an Addition of new Precepts suted to Man's present state of Sin Weakness and Misery If then the Moral Law did not comprehend in it all Precepts of Duties it would not be God's Law for his is perfect he is not like short-sighted Men who cannot foresee what the Consequences of a Law made by them may be within the Compass of one Age nor whether Circumstances of Affairs altering it may not prove hurtful or unnecessary and therefore all Governments find themselves oblig'd to repeal old Laws or to add some Clauses to sute them to a present Posture of Affairs or to make new Ones to repair the Defects to which all Humane Wisdom in her best Provisions is obnoxious for want of a certain Foreknowledg of the Future But who can have such a Thought of God that these Infirmities of a Man should ever befal him in making his Laws that he should be forc'd tho not to repeal what he had made so many Ages before yet to promulgate a new one with additional Precepts accommodated to the present Case of his miserable Creature Man And as it is repugnant to God's Perfections to make new Laws so it would infer that his antiquated Law was imperfect and so no Rule and this would unavoidably follow if any Duties are to be perform'd which it neither regulates nor gives any direction about them But Christ tho as Mediator he is no Law-giver yet perfectly knows the Nature of the Law given at Mount Sinai that the Law contains all Duties for he makes the Sum of it to consist in Love to God and in a due degree of Love to our selves and in loving our Neighbour Matth. 22. 35 36 37 38 39 40. Then one of them which was a Lawyer asked him a question tempting him and saying Master which is the great Commandment in the Law Jesus said unto him Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy Heart and with all thy Soul and with all thy Mind This is the first and great Commandment And the Second is like unto it Thou shalt love thy Neighbour as thy self On these two Commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets Now it will be very difficult to give an Instance of any Duty which we owe to him our Great Creator or to our selves or to Men our Fellow-Creatures which are not included in one of those two Tables or to name a Precept which may not be reduced to them The Scripture alledg'd is the more demonstrative for this Reason that our Lord Christ's Answer is to a Man enquiring concerning his Duty and then if at any time there was occasion to mention this new Law and to have told him the additional Precepts had there been any such things But Christ sends him to the Moral Law as comprehending all that Man was to do and as a perfect Rule of Duty sufficient compleatly to instruct him And indeed what more can be requir'd of Man than to love God with all the Powers and Faculties of his Soul and to love himself as he ought to do and his Neighbour in like measure When Christ also comes into the World and was made under the Law which never had before nor will ever have again so glorious a Subject it is this Law he not only explains in its spiritual and comprehensive Meaning but obeys it and therein fulfils all Righteousness Mat. 5. 17. Think not that I am come to destroy the Law or the Prophets I am not come to destroy but to fulfil Mat. 3. 15. And Jesus answering said unto him Suffer it to be so now for thus it becometh us to fulfil all Righteousness Then he suffered him And what is that Law imperfect which was the Rule of the most perfect Obedience that ever was and which excell'd that of Angels Are any Precepts wanting in it how then did Christ compleat all Righteousness in the most exact observance of it Well then if the Law be perfect there is no Duty but what comes within the Verge of its Authority and what it enjoins under the severest Penalties and no Precepts were given even by Christ himself but what particularly appertain to it and not to the Gospel as a new Law It is not only our Schoolmaster to bring us to Christ but it commands to believe on him for Faith in God and Christ is so is contain'd in its first Precept it not only shews us our Sin and convinceth us of our Misery and lost State but when we have believ'd tho it be no longer a condemning vexing tormenting Law yet 't is a commanding One still It is a Rule of Gratitude it prescribes that we ought to be thankful to Christ in all Returns of Love and Duty it is the Rule of all that Holy Life of a Christian which is the Fruit of Faith and which is call'd Evangelical Obedience not because it is so to the Gospel but in respect of those Principles of Faith and Love from which it flows in respect of the Evangelical Motives which animate and encourage it It is not hurried on by legal Terrors nor prick'd forward by sharp-pointed Threatnings but is sweetly drawn and enliven'd by the Promises It is not the Fruits of Fear but the genuine Effects of the heartiest Affection to Christ and of the most earnest Desires and solicitous Cares to please him I know that it will be said That tho those Precepts in the Gospel which command and direct Moral Duties appertain to the Moral Law yet Faith in Christ the
Ages there is yet no Remedy tendred by this Law to prevent his being eternally miserable Yes for all this such a Command of Repentance in the Moral Law is not only to great purpose but absolutely necessary for to own to God with Shame and Sorrow the Injury we have done him by our Sins is a Duty which we owe to him our offended Soveraign tho he had never promis'd to forgive us nay tho he had plainly declar'd that he would never be reconcil'd It is a Duty then to which Adam after his Fall was bound by the same Law which he obey'd in his Innocency to which he was bound when amaz'd with all the Horrors of a despairing Mind looking for nothing but Vengeance and Ruin from the Anger and arm'd Power of the Almighty It is a Duty to which he was tied before any new Covenant of Grace made and before God had reveal'd any Thoughts of Favour to him or any Purposes of Grace in that first Promise of the Seed of the Woman breaking the Serpent's Head If then it was Adam's Duty to repent before he had receiv'd any Promises of Mercy there must be some Precept obliging him to it since that and Duty mutually infer one another no Precept could it be of the Gospel for that was not yet proclaim'd and therefore it must be the proper Precept of the Moral Law which was the thing to be prov'd If any one will peremptorily deny Repentance to have been Adam's Duty before God had promis'd Mercy the same Person must consequently assert that it was no Fault in him to run from God that he did very well in excusing himself in throwing the great Part of the Guilt upon God in standing upon his own Justification and that if he had continued an obdurate harden'd Wretch if he had acted as a bold desperate Rebel and instead of confessing his Crimes and expressing his Sorrow had further dar'd and out-brav'd offended Justice he had been innocent in all this and had not in the least broken any Precept of the Law nor transgress'd the Bounds of his Duty For if Repentance was not commanded before the Gospel publish'd then the worst Impenitence in Adam would have been no Sin because forbidden by no Law I know very well that Arminius boldly affirms all this That the Covenant of Works being broken the Law was abrogated too and that God no longer required Obedience from his sinful Creature till he brought in a new Law which is the Gospel commanding Faith and Repentance and that God accepts this Obedience to the Precepts of this his new Law instead of perfect Obedience to the old violated Moral Law But I know too very well that most prodigious and amazing Absurdities will be the natural Products of this monstrous Opinion It will follow that the first Sin dethron'd God not only out of Man's Heart but out of his Seat of Majesty in Heaven too until to regain his Crown and Dominion and for the recovery of his lost Sovereign Power he was forced to condescend to treat with his Rebels upon lower Terms and to propose a new and milder Law accommodated to the weaker Circumstances of their State Thus God loseth his Soveraignty by the Disobedience of his Creature and his Laws signified so little that they were all repeal'd and disannull'd when Man would observe them no longer And who can once think that the Great God should lose his Power to command when his Creatures refus'd any more to obey him and that Man by becoming a Rebel should cease to be a Subject and that therefore a new Law giving new Precepts and proposing other more moderate Conditions was absolutely needful to adjust the desperate Affair and to set all things right again Adam also by his Fall having according to the Assertion of Arminius broken all Ties and Bonds of Obedience if before the Promulgation of the Gospel or new Law to him he had blasphem'd God had sworn and forsworn had dissembled kindness to his Wife with the deepest Oaths while he had nothing in his Heart but Thoughts of Malice and Designs of Revenge against her for betraying him to ruin had most barbarously murder'd her and afterward kill'd himself he yet had not sinned in all this because before the new Law given he was oblig'd to no Duty Believe this who will for my part I cannot And now what is the Ground of this desperate Assertion Why truly only this That because the Law once broken there were no longer any Promises made to the Obedience of a Sinner therefore the Covenant between God and Man was entirely vacated and so the Sinner was no longer bound to obey till a new Law came with other Precepts of Faith and making Promises to lower degrees of Duty and then upon this new Account the Creature stands bound again Now all this is founded upon one grand Mistake which is that our Obedience to God is establish'd upon his Covenant with us and that the only Tie upon us are Promises or Threatnings Whereas our Duty to God immediately results from the infinite Greatness of his Being which is therefore supream and hath an undoubted Right to command and from the unalterable Relation of a Creature to his Maker So that Adam as soon as he had Existence was presently bound to obey God in all that he would command him tho he had made no Promise to him of any Reward And if God had plac'd him in a dismal Desart instead of settling him in Paradise if he had sharpen'd his Life with Sorrows and Miseries in the room of those Blessings and Comforts which he enjoy'd yet he might have commanded him all that he pleas'd and it would have been his Duty to have paid a ready Obedience And this clears the Difficulty lying in our way that tho the Law made no Promises to Sinners as the Gospel doth yet that hinders it not from commanding and engaging them to repent for by what I have prov'd it appears that Promises do not lay the Foundation of a Duty but are only the Encouragements of it Well then tho Adam saw not any thing in the Law to renew Life to a Penitent Offender tho he could not read in it one Syllable of a Pardon yet the same Law which requir'd Obedience of him commanded after he had sinn'd to repent and return to his Duty tho he had no hopes of succeeding in it and had no assurance that a justly provoked and angry God would forgive and descry'd not the least Promise shining in Heaven to favour him And as it was Adam's Duty to repent so it is the Duty of all Men now living upon Earth A Duty to which Heathens who are not under the Dispensation of the Gospel to whom this new-stil'd Law never came who never heard a word of its pretended Precepts or real Promises are indispensably oblig'd Whence have they this binding Precept of Repentance From the Gospel How can that be when the least Sound of it never
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
have been or as the necessary Prerequisite of Justification Well then when we meet with the word Law if we would not be impos'd on by the meer Sound of a Word we must carefully view the Text on all sides and survey and consider all its Circumstances When what is proper to the Gospel is attributed to the Law the word Law is not to be apprehended in the strict Sense as signifying a Rule of Duty and threatning Penalties to the Disobedient or as importing a Doctrine of Works but a Doctrine of Grace Thus when the Law is said to turn the Soul and to rejoice the Heart Psal 19. 8 9. since these are not the Effects of the Law as a Doctrine of Works for that rather effects a Sense of Wrath than any hope in the Heart of a guilty condemned Sinner and its Efficacy is more suted to wound him with anxious Fears or tormenting Despair rather than to comfort him Rom. 4. 15. we must by no means conceive a proper Law consisting of Precepts and Menaces to be meant but the Doctrine of the Mercies of God in Christ which only can have those Virtues and Influences And so when the Apostle too calls the Gospel a Law of Faith since he makes the Righteousness of the Law opposite to the Righteousness which is of Faith Rom. 10. 4 5 6. and Rom. 3. 20 21 22. he must consequently mean not a Law in the strict Sense not a Doctrine of Works but of pure Grace And by this Rule we are to proceed when we find the Gospel call'd a Law we are not to understand it in the strict meaning as a Rule of Duty with a Sanction which is the proper and peculiar Nature of the Moral Law but as a revealed Instruction to us what the Mind of God is concerning our Recovery and Salvation by Christ And when we hear of the Precepts and Threatnings of the Gospel and read them in that part of the Bible which we call the New Testament whether in the Sermons of our Saviour or in the Writings of the Apostles we are not to surmise presently that these are any Parts of the Gospel properly so titled as it is a Word of Grace and the Doctrine of our Redemption by Jesus tho they are contain'd in that Book to which we commonly give that Name For this would be to perplex our Notions of Things which are entirely distinct in their Natures and Idea's and to jumble them so confusedly together that we should not be able upon sight to discern and know one from the other For by the same Method of proceeding I might frame an Imagination to my self and strive to impose it on other Men that the Moral Law is the Gospel because there are so many Declarations of God's Love to Sinners of his Mercies to pardon them and so many Promises of Grace interspers'd in the Psalms and Prophets and other Books of the Old Testament all which tho so much of the Gospel be contain'd in it is so frequently call'd the Law both by Christ and his Apostles the Primitive Fathers and Protestant Divines So that in a Word as the Promises of the Gospel spread through the Books of Moses and the Prophets is no Argument to prove the Law to be the Gospel So it is as false a Demonstration that the Gospel is a Law because there are so many Precepts and Threatnings repeated in the Evangelists and Epistles All that can be concluded is that as there are Promises in one Volume of the Bible so there are Commands and Menaces in the other But yet as it is the Gospel which promises Grace in the First so it is the Law which commands and threatens in the Second And to clear the Equation it is only needful to bring all the Precepts in both to one side and the Promises to another and then we have distinct Law and Gospel CHAP. VII The Arguments us'd by the Apologist to prove the Gospel to be a new Law examin'd That from the Precepts Commands urg'd and Threatnings denounc'd in the New Testament nothing can be concluded to this Purpose IT is now very easy to answer my Reverend Brother's Arguments and with one gentle Stroke to wipe off all his Citations since they all are establish'd meerly upon the Ambiguities of the word Law Such reasoning is very fallacious to endeavour to prove the Gospel to be a new Rule of Duty fortified with a Sanction because we find it to be nam'd a Law both in the Scriptures and Humane Writings for the Sum of the whole Demonstration amounts to no more than this a Law is a Law the Gospel is a Law therefore the Gospel is a Law which is a pretty way of arguing and without doubt unanswerable But the clearing the Sense of the Terms answers all without any more to do which I think I have done and the more largely because I would do all the Justice to a bad Cause as could reasonably be ask'd and allow to it the fullest Scope and Play possible I have therefore offer'd Arguments for it my self I have consider'd what might be alledg'd I have produced those Scriptures which with any colour may be urg'd to prove the Gospel to be a new Law omitted by my Learned Brother and yet as aware that they might be summon'd I have brought them in and endeavour'd to clear their Words from that false Meaning which might be fasten'd on them to so ill a Purpose I shall now particularly consider those which he brings and shew that they do not prove the Matter in Dispute His first set of Scriptures are such as express the Gospel to be either giving Precepts and issuing out Commands and prescribing what is our Duty or reproving the Negligent or threatning the stubborn Offenders or promising Blessings on the Condition of such Duties perform'd as are requir'd It would make this Discourse too large which is I know not how grown under my Hands to a greater Bulk than I first design'd if I should particularly examine every Text it will be enough to shew that however there are Precepts and Commands in the Books of the New Testament yet these are not properly the Gospel but parts of the Law only employ'd in its Service that the Threatnings denounc'd do not properly belong to the Covenant of Grace for what hath Love and Mercy and Favour to do with Wrath and Justice and Expressions of Vengeance but it useth the Ministry only of a violated Law whose proper Office it is to threaten the Disobedient to condemn the Unbelieving and Impenitent Sinner and to demand Justice against him If I also shew at last that those places of Scripture which look like Promises of Blessings to us on condition that we perform the commanded Duties viewed nearly prove to be no more than so many Declarations of the Connexion of the Blessings of Grace and that as Faith is the first bestow'd it goes not alone but is attended with a numerous Off-spring When all this is
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