among all Nations to whom it comes and is most strictly enjoined and commanded by it And so the Apostle might most elegantly say Boasting is excluded By what Law of Works viz. The Law as it Commands Works Nay by the Law as it Commands Faith or the Receiving Christ as a Saviour and his Righteousness by meer Gift and of Grace in which Righteousness hath so great Honour and full Satisfaction paid to it that it cannot but accept and charge upon All that hear of it the Acceptation of it But because thus Faith will stand as a Work though as I may call it a Post-Work or a Work after Sin I rather understand the Apostle using here the Word Law of Faith in a Lax and Allusive Sense as any Doctrin or Divine Manifestation may be called a Law 2. The Law hereupon cannot but enlarge its Promises according to this Divine Constitution For if God have declared that He will give Eternal Life to all that Believe in Christ and savingly Turn from Iniquity by Repentanâ—â— and doth accept the Righteousness of Christ imputed to Believers instead of unsinning Obedience the Law must needs join Issue with these Declarations of God and with what Infinite Truth and Grace have said and Confirm with its own Sanctions all these Promises as earnestly to be desired and laid hold of yet still this belongs to the Law as Law and enterferes not with Gospel as Free Grace For as all the Commands of the Law are grounded upon the Sovereignty and Righteousness of God So are its Promises grounded upon the Power Truth Goodness and Unchangeableness of God If then the Gospel declares a Righteousness of God a Righteousness of God by Faith in Jesus Christ accepted of God beyond any Righteousness by Works of the Law The very Law it self opens and enlarges all its Promises to that Righteous Person by the Righteousness of Christ and as this Righteousness on which such a Person is Justified is exceeding unto Him and upon Him as the Apostle speaks that is every way over flows him and so beyond all other Righteousnesses So does the Law extend its Promises to the utmost in Relation to it and therefore God is said as in Triumph to declare herein and at that very time his Righteousness that he might be Just and the Justifier of him that Believes in Jesus Rom. 3. And the Apostle John saith If we Confess our Sins that is acknowledge our Absolute Necessity of such a Righteousness by Christ and receive it He is Faithful and Just Even according to the Eternal Law of Righteousness to forgive us our Sins and to Cleanse us from All Unrighteousness So they who receive abundance of Grace and of the Gift of Righteousness shall Reign in Life by Jesus Christ Not only Live as the Law saith to the Man who doth its Works but Reign in Life the Promises of the Law being stretched out and accumulated upon such a Person so Justified by the Transcendent Righteousness of Christ 3. The Law opens wide its Threatnings in the Cause of and on Injury done to the Gospel and the Grace of God Revealed in it for Seeing It is Essential to the Law of Righteousness to Condemn Sinners It is also Essential to it to Condemn and Adjudge to its Punishments according to the Degrees of Sin and Guilt For saith the Apostle He that Transgressed Moses Law died without Mercy under two or three Witnesses and every Transgression Received a just Recompence of Reward that is according to the degree of Guilt and Demerit Of how much sorer Punishment suppose ye shall he be thought Worthy who hath trod under Foot the Son God and Counted the Blood of the Covenant a Common Thing and done despite to the Spirit of Grace This is plainly according to the Law of Righteousness according to which also Christ said It shall be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrha Thus we may see how far the Law must needs attend the Gospel with all its Authority I will now shew how the Gospel takes in the Law and makes use of it for its own great Ends and Purposes Upon Account of which the Apostle says Do we make void the Law nay we Establish it The Law stands fair in the Gospel and in its Full Perfection of breadth and length that it may shew the Glory of the Righteousness and Obedience of Jesus Christ and also It stands with all its Penalty Severity Curse and Condemnation that it may shew the Deep of the Sufferings of our Great Mediator and Interpret to us the Agony wherein he Sweat drops of Blood and the Meaning of that loud Cry My God my God Why hast thou Forsaken me For said Christ Thus in every Iota of the Revealed Will of God It be came Him to fulfil All Righteousness 2. That it may shew to all the Glory from which they are Fallen and from which they daily fall lower and lower the Deformity of their own State the Dread and Horror of that Ruin and Condemnation of Hell and Death that is so justly come upon Sinners fallen short of that Glory of God For this Holy Righteous and good Law of such Purity and Cleanness a Fiery Law a Royal Law a Law of Liberty Shewes all the Hatefulness of Sin and Justice of Punishment and Condemnation And All This is in order to Humiliation Sight and Sense of Sin Conversion from it and especially to shew the great Necessity of Christ's Redemption Grace the Free Gift of Righteousness and Justification by him For thus by the Law is the Knowledge of Sin Thus the Law worketh Wrath That is it both stirs up the due Apprehension of it and if not prevented by Pardon and Justification It calls up Vengeance against the Offender wherefore the Law is our School master to bring us to Christ by the Severity and Rigor of its Justice And as such it is in the hand of the Gospel 3. That the Gospel may by the Law shew that perfect Pattern and Exemplar of Holiness and Purity of Thoughts Words and Actions to which we are to aspire that Cleansing of our selves from the Filthiness of Flesh and Spirit to perfect Holiness in the Fear of God that exceeding Broad Commandment that sets an End or bound shewing all other Perfection too short and too narrow compared with it self and so the Law may be as a Rule of Holy Life and Action to which we should follow on according to the Mark even of Perfection it self If it could be to attain the very State of that Perfection that shall be in the Resurrection of the Dead And herein there are Four great Gospel Ends Aimed at by the Gospel thus taking the Law under it self 1. That we may feel a continual Necessity of making Recourse to the Blood of Christ the Fountain set open for Sin and for Uncleanness because by this holy Law there is a discovery of daily Defilements Failings Falls Imperfections and Infirmities concerning which there can be no Attonement between
Universal Obedience and Perfected him in a Conformity to God in Love Humility Dependence Self-resignation Love and Care of his Posterity Righteousness Justice and not invading what was not his Sobriety Temperance Universal Holiness and Goodness being some way drawn up into it on which account it might justly be stiled the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. 2. The Tree of life being a Sacramental Type plainly and undoubtedly looking to Christ by the so often use of it and Application to the Eternal Wisdom Prov. 3. and in the Revelation It argues strongly The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil was a Sacrament of Adam 's Subsistence for the Preservation of his Integrity and Happiness in the Eternal Word to come in Humane Nature or the Second Adam Represented to him by the Tree of life For seeing these two Trees were coupled one to the other such as the One such was the Other If one looked to Christ so did the other Now the greatest Temptation to the Forbidden Fruit was to be as God knowing Good and Evil that is having the full Dominion over Good and Evil in himself and so securing that holy and happy State by himself and in himself and not in Christ his Head the Image of the invisible God the First Born of every Creature the Second Adam to Come the Head of every Man as the Apostle stiles him referring to the first Constitution And I have not the least doubt Jesus Christ in so many great Expressions that have no Reference to the Sin of man was proposed as the Surety of Creation and the mediator of it and not only as to men but to Angels But as I remember Zanchy on John 8. Expounds the Devil was a murderer from the Beginning and abode not in the Truth that is not in Christ the Mediator who is the Truth Before All Angelical and Humane Being By whom All were made and consist So that Confirmation of both the Angelic and humane Nature was in Him and even as the Devil Fell by not abiding in Christ so he Tempted Man deceived Them on the same Point of not abiding in the Truth that is in Christ but coveting to have All in Himself by the Delusion of the Lyar the Father of Lyes Now this I have thus far insisted upon to open so great a Truth in such a way as may most shew the Conspiring of the Law and the Gospel in the same grand Point of the Salvation of the Elect as shall be further shewn how great Influence this stating of the Original Constitution hath upon it But we must yet further consider the Relation this Command of not Eating the Forbidden Fruit or the Eating it had to the Posterity of Adam or to All in Him For it is most plain from Scripture Adam by having kept the Command of God in not Eating the Forbidden Fruit had convey'd Holiness and Happiness even Life and Glory from God and Christ the Image of God to all descending from him This may be undeniably argued from two Things 1. He could not have coveyed Sin and Death if he had not been first appointed by God to convey Holiness and Life For he was ordained by God to be a Common Head Else though the Parent of the World he could not have been so He could not be Ordained of God First a conveyer of Evil That came in by his own Sin God indeed in highest Justice as he continues the descent of Mankind from him continues the Sanction of Conveyance of what he was and had which was Righteousness and Life as he was by God Established to convey when by his Sin he had lost that both Righteousness and life as God does not cut off that Power of Propagating the World given him in that First Blessing of Fruitfulness and Multiplication So he does not reverse the Sanction of his conveying what he should make himself a Root and Original of by the special Ordination of God upon his Obedience or Disobedience in that one single Act of Eating or not Eating having then by that Act of Disobedience plunged himself in Sin and Death he conveys it with that derivation of humane Nature from him to the very End of the World Christ alone coming into the World under a peculiar law of both Generation and Holiness of Nature 2. He could not have been a Type of the Him to Come if he had not been appointed by God a Conveyor of Righteousness and Life For Christ is so alone After the Transgression Adam was a Type of Christ only in Conveyance as a Common head not as of Sin and Death For so he is an Opposite to him who conveys Righteousness and Life So therefore must Adam needs be as from God that he might be a Type the nobler part of his being a Type he lost by Sin and is now become only an opposite Type He conveys but contrary to Christ not Righteousness and Life but Sin and Death and so he Begat Seth not in the Image of God who is Christ but in his own Image Gen. 5. 3. But thus in every Thing as the Apostle says the Scripture Foreseeing God would do All he does in Eternal Grace and Love by Jesus Christ Preached before the Gospel to Adam in that Tree the Symbol of removing him from the Thoughts of being a God to himself in the Dominion over Good and Evil Called the Knowledge of it according to the great Importancy of the word Knowing in Scripture but that he should Trust in him shadowed to him by the Tree of Life Again he Preached the Gospel to him by making him a Type of one to Come as a Second Adam by way of Appearance but he was before him For he was before All things as the Eternal Word to be made Man and by him They all consist So the first Man was to be an Adam or Universal Original of Righteousness and Life subordinate to Christ dependent upon him and to be Confirmed by him by such an Experiment given of the Obedience of Trust and not taking upon himself For so the Apostle Pourtrays Lust 1 John 2. by its First Parent Lust The Lust of the Eye The forbidden Fruit was fair to the Eye The Lust of the Flesh It was good to Tast The taking upon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Pride of Life we shall be as Gods c. Adam therefore taking upon himself and not Trusting in Christ to be sustained for ever lost himself and his Posterity excepting Redeemed by Christ as first offered a Head of Confirmation Now of Recovery And though this making Adam a Common head as it hath proved is a Scandal to proud Reason Yet it was first an Ordination of Grace and Wisdom and as I may say a Compendious Contrivance for Happiness and Blessedness to Mankind by one Man the Common Parent and Head having by Faith in Christ Represented by the Tree of Life trusted in him and not taken upon himself and saying with the Prodigal
of Grace is to Communicate it self 2. The Gospel having such a Communication of Righteousness so High so Perfect can accept a Sinner by putting upon him a Perfect Righteousness and Obedience and so blot out all his Transgressions and Imperfections by a full and free Pardon the Penalty being fully Answered and discharged by Christs Death and Sufferings even as the Righteousness is fulfilled by him who is that Image of Glory But the Law being only a Rule and no more can accept no less than the whole and Perfect Obedience For the least Offence being as they speak Solutio continui a Convulsion or Breach of the whole Frame of Righteousness the Law can pronounce nothing but Condemnation to a Sinner who hath not that Full and Perfect Righteousness of the Gospel to offer to it but sollicits and stirs up and works Wrath by the discovery of Sin and it stains all Imperfect Righteousness by declaring the Offendor in one Point guilty of all It brings to nothing all outward Righteousness by shewing the very first Desire or Coveting to be Sin 3. The inward Inherent Righteousness so absolutely Necessary to be in every Person redeemed by Christ and united to him is not only enjoin'd upon him by a Letter that Kills by Commanding and giving no Power but is conveyed to him by a Quickning Spirit changing him into the same Image from Beginning Glory to Perfect Glory as by that Lord who is that Spirit Jehovah one with that Spirit and who himself is that Image and that Spirit So every one Redeemed by Christ is the Epistle and Gospel of Christ it self written not with Ink but with the Spirit of the living God This the Law can never do it Commands and supposes the Power which was once given but the Law never considers the Loss by the Fall nor takes Compassion of it So never it can become a Gospel For the Gospel brings every good Work from the Treasury of Eternal Love and Grace from the Blood of the Everlasting Covenant by a meeting of the Spirit of the Gospel in the Heart of every Elected in Christ and from Providential Opportunities and Advantages of such holy Action and good Work according to the Will of God Heb. 13. 4. The Reward therefore and the whole procedure of Judgment is according to the Gospel of and according to meer Grace to all the Elect of God though in and with a Splendor of Holiness and Purity But whatever is done at that day so that the Law hath the Superiority even to and upon Those who enjoy the Gospel all is turned to Condemnation and Aggravation of Punishment even to and upon all those who are not the Evangelized the Children of the Gospel by Election and yet in a way of clearest Justice and Righteousness according to their Works in that Righteous Judgment as shall presently be in a particular Head of this Dscourse made out concerning that great day 5. The Gospel hath this most illustriously peculiar to it that it toucheth nothing even that is in its own Nature most severe and farthest from Grace but it by its high Dominion of Grace it Subordinates it to the Ends Purposes and Service of Grace even the Law Sin and Death that where they Abound Grace does much more Abound where Sin by the Law does Reign unto Death All who receive abundance of Grace and of the Gift of Righteousness shall much more Reign in Life by Jesus Christ and Grace it self so Reigns As therefore it hath been made out Even the Law is throughout taken into this great Service of the Gospel for the great Ends and Purposes of Grace but now the Law takes nothing under its Cognizance but so far as it comes under its Hand with Relation to Fallen Man it turns it like it self into a Killing Letter and into a Ministration of Condemnation Let us therefore consider the most different Influence of the Law in Three Dispensations that Comprehend all the Dealings or manner of Treaties God hath had with Man since the Transgression of Adam 1. That which is the most Universal Dispensation of God towards all Mankind and is generally stiled the Law or Light of Nature or as the Apostle calls it The Work of the Law written in the Heart wherein All should be doing by Nature the things contained in the Law Men being a Law to themselves And this though it be the lowest of Divine Dispensations to Men in order to recovery of the Elect in order to Humane Society for the Elects sake yet it is general to All Only in Children and Ideots it is hidden and close folded up for want of the Use of the Faculties else it is the same And it is by the Interposal of the Mediator for the Elects sake that there should be a World under the Patience and long-Suffering of God and by the same Patience and long-Suffering there was a Reserve and Reprieve from the utter Loss of the Image of God as from Christ Communicated on account of which he is said to enlighten every Man that comes into the World which Light is capable of more and more degrees of Clearness and Power if closely attended to whereby the World becomes habitable by being under the Government of that Eternal Wisdom by which Kings Reign Princes and all the Judges of the Earth decree Justice Prov. 8. 15. Now this Reserve of the Image of God in Man as it falls under the Law or the strict Rule of Holiness It serves only to Self-Accusation as to every particular Person that he hath not acted up to that Law and Light within and yet still if they did live up to the highest degrees it could not make a Recovery or Restoration of any Man without Christ For without any the least Acceptance of what is done according to it It only Aggravates what was not done to the height so that That Accusation of Thoughts the Apostle speaks of the Law hath its Power over and the Excusings or Apologies of Thoughts are from the Grace of the Gospel which does allow them in Abatement of Condemnation for any good thing found in them or done by them and therefore the Apostle says God will Judge the Secrets of all Hearts at that Day according to this Gospel by Jesus Christ shewing that with Relation to this Light given by the Mediator and for his sake God will proceed with great Gospel Equity and Mercy which may be another and greater Senâ—e of those words before given to all those who have laid together those Remainders or Reserves of the Light of Nature and the Patience and Goodness of God of which he hath given so many Witnesses So that it shall be more Tolerable for such than others who have trodden all these under Foot and run into all Excess of Riot Cruelties and all Uncleanness with Greediness But in all the Elect the Grace of the Gospel makes much a higher use of this Light for it lifts them up above it into a New-Creation
Law of all Evangelical Obedience have the benefit of a Pardon how dreadful were all our Case for if this Law allow no Pardon it is expresly assured There Remains no more Sacrifice for Sin but that of the Gospel and if that extends not to Sins against the Gospel there would rest nothing to us but a certain Fearful expectation of Judgment and Fiery Indignation If it be said there is no sin against this Law but final Unbelief Impenitency or Insincerity or an Apostacy including all these How imperfect then is the Evangelical Law that hath command only upon those final Results of our State and Case and the Subjects of it are either left to the Law of Works in all other Cases or else being under no Law there is no Transgression but those fore-named But if the Law do so ratifie and confirm the Gospel in those grand Points of Faith and Repentance by its own Authority and in all things else stand the immutable Rule of Holiness then the Grace of the new Covenant does offer Pardon and Remission by the Blood of that Everlasting Covenant and needs not be a Law but a Fountain of Pardon and Remission and of Power and Strength only as hath been Explained enabling to every Act of Obedience both of Faith and Repentance and all Holiness and making Attonement for every Disobedience and Imperfection which it does not Prevent From all which is much the fairer and clearer state of the Case in Reason and more agreeable to the Scripture duly considered and compared Add hereunto The Condemnation of every Unbeliever is according to the Law of Righteousness because He loves Darkness rather than Light in that his deeds are Evil and so he dares not come to the Light This saith Christ is the Condemnation Joh. 3. 19. And thus if the Law does ratifie and confirm the Gospel with its own proper Authority as hath been asserted every offence seemingly against the Sanction of Grace is Condemned by the Law as primarily against it self and so the Covenant of Grace is applied to for the Pardon of it and as against it self which is all Grace as a Covenant and hath nothing of Law but as sin against the Gospel it cannot but be against that Eternal Law to refuse Grace when offered by God and Christ as will fully appear by the next Argument Arg. 6. The Apostle says the Gospel or New Testament truly properly or strictly defined is a Ministration only of Righteousness of Life of the Spirit not of the Letter that Killeth but of the Spirit that giveth Life it can therefore be no Law except upon it self for if it Minister Life Righteousness Spirit only if it write not in Tables of Stone nor with Ink in Paper but in the Tables of Hearts and by the Spirit of the living God And if it is not only written in the Heart as the Apostle says The Law is written in the Hearts of all Men which may be turned by Disobedience to it into an accusing Record but gives a mighty Spirit enabling and a gracious Pardon remitting as is evident by the whole Covenant of Grace if all this be so then whatever it charges it charges upon it self that it hath not so Ministred as it takes upon is to Minister and that it hath not Ministred as such a Ministration as it asserts it self to be to all that are within it as its proper Subjects it must fault it self as the other Covenant was found fault with because they Brake it that were under it But seeing this cannot be supposed of so Glorious a Ministration The Gospel cannot be a Law Requiring and Condemning when not Obeyed but a Covenant of Grace Ministring Righteousness and Pardon and not Condemnation for what ever is against the Eternal Law on the Gospel account as well as on the Law 's account and so giving Power and enabling to whatever the Law requires on its own or the Gospel account Lastly Ministring Righteousness and Pardon in whatever it Ministers only in Degrees and not to Perfection Having thus determined upon the second Head That however the Law and the Gospel unite one with the other in several great Concernments and Interests of both yet neither can the Law pass into Gospel nor the Gospel become a Law I come therefore to the third Head to make out That the Humiliation under the sight and sense of Sin effected by the Spirit of Bondage Faith in Christ and Repentance are not Qualifications or Conditions of an Interest in Christ or Justification by his Righteousness but are effluxes from Electing Love and from Christ the Mediator and from his Righteousness and Redemption and whoever has a sense of these great Concernments of Eternity is not to wait for these as Qualifications or Conditions but to hasten to Christ to fly to him for Refuge to be found in him and look to Christ for all these great Effects and to expect them from him as such Effects for such they are to all the Elect though to the Non Elect they are Branches of the same Eternally Righteous Law upon Promulgation of the Gospel of Salvation by Christ and upon the very acknowledgment of Christ as a Saviour and the general sense of our lost State I lay in the Non-Elect also an Uniformity in the Order of first looking to Christ upon those two great Declarations of the Gospel 1. That all Men are lost and undone in themselves which rises up also from evident even Sense and Experience 2. That in Jesus Christ there is Life and Salvation for Sinners from whence also it naturally follows in Reason and true Arguing as the Apostle observes If one died for all then were all Dead so that Proposition That Christ hath died for Sinners may be in Divine Declaration as well first as the other viz. That all are lost without Christ The very Preaching of Christ infers in all true Judgment as the Apostle Reasons That all are lost in themselves I know not then why in regard of its Dignity it may not be first that Jesus Christ dyed for Sinners or why not so in most Absolute Consideration For though it is true in our State our lost State is before the offer of Salvation in Christ in time yet Grace in Christ is first in the Purpose of God before the World began and the permission of the Fall and of our lost State upon it came in after I know not therefore why that great Proposition God so loved the World that he gave his only Begotten Son that whoever Believes in him should not Perish but have Eternal Life should not be throughout the Supream and First and carry the other in it That then all were Dead And when the Proposition the Apostle gives That Christ died for the chief of Sinners is First Then the Belief and Acceptation shall follow and the abundance of Grace and the gift of Righteousness Draw Invite and Invigorate the reception of it I say therefore even to Non-Elect