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
question by Scripture and Reason since also I do not think that People are oblig'd to mispend their Time to read long Discourses to entertain themselves unprofitably with those personal Reflections with which such are usually stuff'd more than with Arguments since it doth not concern them to know whether such or such a Man be so wise and so rational as he is apprehended to be or silly and ridiculous but only what is Truth and the Danger of 〈◊〉 in the Faith which may be clear'd to them in very few words I 〈◊〉 accordingly study brevity and plainness as much as ever I can and shall reduce my following Discourse to as narrow a Compass as possible and so consider in that of the Learned Mr. Lorimer no more than what seems most to the Purpose I will not at all affect Niceties or subtile Evasions and indeed any Opinion which needs them and I know not how many perplexing Distinctions to maintain it may very well be suspected for Truth never seeks Corners to hide in nor can endure to be set in a false Light but loves to appear in its pure native Brightness And it is our Duty who by Office and Commission as Ministers of Christ are to teach the Gospel to the People that we do not scatter Mists about them as if throwing Dust in their Eyes was the way to clear their Sight that we do not amuse them with new Terms fetch'd from the Civil Law and make it necessary for them to study Justinian Bartolus and Cujacius to read the Pandects and the Codes that they may know how they are justified This instead of instructing would be to confound those whom we are to lead into the Truth by the clearest Expressions of God's Holy Word and to inform them in the plainest manner that we can What I have proposed to my self to debate in the present Discourse is Whether the Gospel be a new Law Without multiplying words which doth but obscure the clearness of Things the Question in dispute is not Whether the Gospel be a new Law if by that Word is meant a Doctrine of Grace newly reveal'd after the Covenant of Works was broken wherein God hath declared in what Order and Manner he will save guilty condemned Sinners If by a new Law no more is meant than this it is presently granted and the Controversy is at an end What is denied is this That the Gospel is a Law commanding new Precepts as Conditions of obtaining its Blessings and established with a Sanction promising Life and Happiness to the observance of them and threatning the Neglect Tho according to the Laws of a Discourse I should first urge Arguments to prove that the Gospel is not such a Law yet my first Design being to answer the Reverend Mr. Lorimer's Apology I shall first shew how little to his Purpose he eagerly catches at the word Law where-ever he can meet with it in the Scriptures or in the Writings of Men. And first I shall demonstrate that where-ever the Gospel is nam'd a Law either in the Old or New Testament only a Doctrine of Grace is to be understood by it CHAP. II. That the word Law is of a various and doubtful meaning From the original Signification of the Heb. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is proved that then the Gospel is called a Law in the Old Testament no more is intended than a Doctrine This is evinc'd and confirm'd from the Interpretation of several Scriptures Psal 1. 2. Psal 19. 7. Psal 119. 97 98 c. Jer. 31. 33. Isa 2. 3. Micha 4. 2. THE word Law is of such various Signification that it is not at all strange if we find the Gospel called by that Name both in the Scriptures and among the Antient Fathers and later Protestant Writers when yet neither the Holy Ghost nor any of those Authors meant to describe the Gospel as a new Rule of Works enacted with a milder Sanction When that stated Order of Things whereby the Actions even of inanimate Creatures are regulated according to the Appointment of the great Creator's Will when he first framed them and push'd them into Motion is called the Law of Nature we cannot apprehend it as a Precept or Rule of Duty establish'd with a Sanction to those things which being without Sense or Life know nothing of the Matter This Law is not a Precept given to such Creatures but the Power of God working in them and acting them to move according to that Order which he hath set for the Administration of all things in the Universe Who will say that the Sun doth its Duty in performing its constant laborious Course or that a Reward is due when it hath done its Work And yet it is by a Law tho not any Precept that it moves so orderly and a Law it is without any promise of Recompence for observing and keeping duly the mark'd-out Course or threatning a Penalty for deviating from it It is by the same Law of Nature that the Fire always burns the Planets perpetually move the Earth never totters from its Centre and yet they are not to be recompenc'd for such their exact Observance And if on the contrary the Fire should freeze us the Planets stop their orderly Dance or march so irregularly as to break all their Ranks and the Earth shake and fall from it s plac'd Foundation they would not be liable to undergo any Punishment And now Fire Air Earth and Water and the Heavenly Bodies are well enough said to act by a Law tho they have no Rule of Duty given them nor are obnoxious either to Rewards or Punishments Well then as the settled Order of the Universe is called a Law the Gospel may obtain the same Name in that Sense It is without doubt a most certain establish'd Order of our Salvation by Christ alone and this more unchangeable and irreversible than all the Laws of the Creation since it is more impossible to be pardon'd and justify'd in any other Method than that set by God of applying Christ's Blood and having his Righteousness imputed than for all the Heavenly Bodies to move contrary to their stated Courses In this sense the Gospel is a Law without being a Rule of Duty since it only tells us the Order God hath set of our being saved purely by his Grace And a Law it is too like that of the Medes and Persians unalterable and which will not admit of the least Change not so much as to compose the Differences of contending Parties with prejudice to any of its Truths If we take the word Law in a farther meaning as it signifies any Doctrine publish'd and made known to the People it will be easily granted that the Gospel is such a Law since there is nothing more sure than that it is a Doctrine of Grace Now every one knows that the word Law is us'd in this comprehensive Sense First For the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Torah Law it denotes any
the Thing if it be known to us or can be comprized we may be assur'd that these truly venerable Persons for Learning as well as Piety and the true Knowledg of Christ knew so well all the Arts of Reason as they would not leave out of their Definitions of the Gospel any of the Parts constituent of its Being But neither is the word Law as the Genus or the general Notion wherein all that are so agree put into the Definition nor any mention made of Works Thus those who compil'd the Confession of Faith which was subscrib'd by seven Protestant Princes of Germany and the Senates and Magistrates of two Cities and presented to Charles V. Emperor An. 1530. after having declar'd their Belief concerning Justifying Faith and how it is wrought by the Holy Ghost in those who hear the Gospel the Sum of this Gospel they give in these few words That God not for our Merits but on the account of Christ justifies those who believe that they are receiv'd into favour for Christ's sake And in the Apology for that Confession publish'd by Melancthom the Gospel is describ'd that it is properly the Promise of Pardon of Sins and of Justification on Christ's Account Luther plainly described the Gospel to be a pure Doctrine of Grace without Works And as he had before divided the whole Word of God into these two Parts of Precepts and Promises and the former he entitled purely to the Law so he then defines the Gospel to be the other Part of God's Word distinct from the Law And how Only as it is a compleat System of gracious Promises to us that we shall possess all these inestimable Blessings in Christ And he very sutably a little after says Therefore the Promises of God belong to the New Testament yes and are the New Testament it self Which is in few words to express his Sense to be That the Nature of the Gospel and Covenant of Grace strictly and properly taken consists only in Promises And the more deference is to be given to what this Great Man says here because it was a Discourse which he compos'd on purpose to clear himself of those vile Aspersions which the clamorous Monks perpetually bawl'd out to the People That he was an Enemy to Holiness disparaged good Works and by his preaching and writing the pure Doctrines of Grace encourag'd all manner of Licentiousness and Villanies To vindicate himself he compil'd and sent this Discourse to Pope Leo the Tenth Anno Dom. 1520. before there was an open Rupture Wherefore tho his Adversaries basely reproached him as a Man of a boisterous Spirit who for want of a due Temper of Mind was immoderately hurried by a fiery Zeal to speak and write he knew not what yet we may be sure that in this his little Treatise of Christian Liberty there are no Thoughts but what are calm and compos'd with mature deliberation For he would not write like an enraged Man against Popery before War was proclaim'd nor would suffer his Passion to transport him or overcloud and distemper his Judgment when he pleaded his Cause before the Pope who to be sure had no very favourable Opinion of him Philippus Melancthon contemporary with Luther and greatly assistant to him in the Reformation of Religion and whom God made a glorious Instrument to clear the Light of the Gospel from the Darkness and Corruptions of Antichrist doth as plainly describe this Gospel to be meer Doctrine of Grace Having first inferr'd that the Name of the Gospel is not a Word framed at pleasure because that the Apostle John propounds a clear distinction between the Law and Gospel John 1. 17. For the Law was given by Moses but Grace and Truth came by Jesus Christ For it is necessary says he that the Precepts and Pardon of Sin be discriminated and that a Difference be put between Precepts and Promises and also between the Promises of meer Grace and those which are not so And by these Lines he draws the Description of the opposite Natures of Law and Gospel that the first is a Doctrine of Precepts the other a Doctrine of Promises Says he a little after Our Adversaries speaking of the Papists tho they bawl out that they teach the Gospel yet because they do not instruct People concerning Reconcilation with God freely of pure Grace they leave Consciences in doubt and for the Gospel teach the Law Now in all this there is not the least hint of the Gospel's being a new Law nay so far is he from the seeming appearance of such an Assertion that he will not allow it in its true and proper Nature to contain Precepts but Promises alone In what Sense it may be said that the Gospel instructs uc concerning Repentance which Melancthon allows to it and that herein it doth not exercise its proper and peculiar Office but only employs the Ministry of the Law I shall afterward shew John Calvin to mention whose Name sufficeth without attempting to give the Charater which he deserves whenever he speaks of the Gospel forms no other Notion of it than as meerly a Doctrine of Free Grace According to the Mind of this truly Great Man if you take the Gospel in the more extensive Sense of the Word it sounds nothing but Promises tho comprehending those too which were offer'd to the Saints of the Old Testament but take the word in the strictest Sense and it signifies the clearer and fuller Discoveries of God's Infinite Mercies and Free Grace as revealed in Christ Jesus And as for investing Christ with a new Legislative Power and dignifying the Gospel with the Title of a new Law he calls it a meer Fiction They who have not apprehended says he these things viz. that Christ did not come to give new Laws but to interpret the Old and to restore it to its true spiritual Meaning of which he largely discourses before they have feigned Christ to be another Moses the maker of an Evangelical Law which should have supplied the Defect of that of Moses Beza is as well known as Calvin and tho from the Decisions of the best of Men in Matters of Faith there must always be an Appeal to the Scriptures yet by all to whom the Truths of the Gospel are dear and precious there hath ever been a great Deference paid to the Judgment of these two Learned Men in Divinity He briefly tells the comprehensive Sum of the Gospel without one Word inserted about Law or Works The Sum of the Gospel says he which is the Power of God to Salvation to every Believer is this that it teacheth us to lay hold on Christ as made to us of God Wisdom Righteousness Sanctification and Redemption In another of his Discourses demonstrating that the Papists know the use neither of Law nor Gospel For whereas says he the Gospel propounded by Moses under Legal Figures c. was therefore publish'd to the World that we may be freely
own Obstinacy which have this fatal Effect 'T is true indeed that an Unbeliever's Guilt is aggravated by his Contempt of the Gospel and by rejecting Mercy and despising the Riches of God's Grace he lays himself open to a severer Sentence brings an heavier Ruin on his Head and sharpens his own Punishment For as the Fire of Hell is the Wrath of God and the avenging Furies of Conscience those Flames will burn with more fierceness in a Soul which makes terrible Reflections how while it lived in this World it slighted that Grace and that Redeemer by which others were saved Thus a Pardon offer'd to Rebels doth not condemn them for not accepting it the Refusal only leaves them expos'd to the Severity of the Law by which the unpardon'd Offender is judg'd and condemn'd Tho indeed the Criminal recalling to mind the Pardon once offer'd him and his own obstinate Contempt of Mercy will with greater Horrors of Soul at the Place of Execution curse his own Folly and Madness as the Cause of his infamous Death There now remains nothing more than to shew that the Promises of Eternal Life made to the Believer and the Ruin denounc'd against every Unbeliever do not prove the Gospel to be a new Law and that such Expressions as these which we so often meet He who believes shall be sav'd and except you repent you shall all likewise perish do not speak Faith and Repentance to be properly commanded by the Gospel nor promises Pardon and Justification on condition these Precepts are obey'd nor threatens Death if they are neglected That it is not the Gospel but the Law which threatens Death I have already proved that the Promises of the Gospel are not made unto Men on condition of Obedience perform'd to it is evident from this that if they were so they would not differ in their Nature from the Promises of the Law and so the Covenant of Grace would be a Covenant of Works which if the Apostle Paul says true as I really believe he doth is a flat Contradiction Rom. 11. 6. And if by Grace then is it no more of Works otherwise Grace is no more Grace But if it be of Works then is it no more Grace otherwise Work is no more Work For the Promises of the Law were made to Men on condition that its Precepts were obey'd If now the Promises of the Gospel are also made to Men on condition that its Precepts are obey'd then the Promises both of the one and the other are of the same Nature and King being both made to Obedience It is but a poor shifting Evasion to say that there is a great difference because that the Law requires perfect unsinning Obedience and the Gospel insists only on lower degrees of Duty for this will not so much as prove the Obedience to be of different Kinds but only of greater or lesser Measures which as every one knows doth not alter the Species But if it should be granted that Obedience to the Law is of a various Nature from that enjoin'd by the Gospel yet the Promises made to them both must be of the same Kind for both of them are Works since to obey a Precept is to do a Work or I know not what to make of it and all the Difference then is that the Promises of the Covenant of Works were made to Obedience to the old Law and the Promises of the new Covenant of Grace were made to Obedience unto the new Law Both are Promises to the Obedience of Laws and the two Laws will be distinguished no otherwise than that the one proves to be older than the other by many Ages And thus the Gospel will be only the superannuated Law of Works reviv'd with some Abatements of its requir'd Duties And if this be not as utterly false as there is Truth in the Scriptures as I am sure there is let all unprejudic'd Men judg And yet this absurd Confusion of Law and Gospel is the unavoidable Consequence of this Annertion that the Gospel promises Justification and Eternal Life to Men on condition they perform the Obedience which it commands If also from this Proposition He that believeth shall be saved we argue that the Gospel is a new Law promising Life upon the observance of this its Precept it will follow that God in the promulgation of this new Law offers Life universally to all Men to Tartars Negroes and the Savages in America to all the Nations from Peru to Japan on condition they obey the Command of the Gospel and believe and repent For if God in giving his Moral Law to all reasonable Creatures said universally to Angels and Men Do this and you shall live by the same Rule if the Gospel is a new Law God speaks generally to all Men Believe and you shall live Now from this two amazing Absurdities will naturally spring the one is that God should by this his new Law promise Pardon and Life on condition they believe on his Son to People who have never heard that there is such a thing as the Christian Religion in the World nor such a Person as Christ and to whose Ears not so much as the sound of his Name ever arriv'd Doth this become the Wisdom of God to act so preposterously How can we think that the Depths of that Knowledg as the Apostle speaks Rom. 11. 33. hath such shallow Designs as to proclaim a Pardon to all Men on condition they believe and yet to make no Provision that the least Syllable of this gracious Proclamation should ever come to their Ears It is also as repugnant to the Wisdom and Goodness of God to promise a Pardon to all Men on condition they believe when he knows that the Performance is impossible to them all by their mere natural Powers deprav'd as they are when he knows also that without his All-conquering Grace they cannot believe and repent To promise to them all Life on condition they do so and at the same time to resolve to withhold this Grace from the greatest part of Mankind without which it is impossible for them to do it what is this but to illude Men For any one to offer Food to a Wretch who hath not a Limb whole starving in a Dungeon on condition that he would come up and receive it and yet refuse to put forth a Finger to give him the least lift what would this be but to mock him and to make a sport of his Misery To avoid these Absurdities the Arminians who do not want Wit or Reason to discern the Consequences of their Opinions as boldly own and maintain them And as they assert that God offers and promiseth Life to all on condition they perform Obedience to this new Law they speak consistently with themselves and affirm too that all Men have sufficient Means afforded them to do it and that God gives them Helps enough to enable them to believe if they will and whenever themselves please If we are then
observed in all the Churches of Christ When Cyprian also speaks of a new Law which was to be given he writing against the Jews and proving the Abolition of their Ceremonial Worship means no more by the new Law than what Justin Martyr did that is a new Doctrine and Institution of Grace And this the very words of Cyprian cited by my Learned Brother wherein he calls this new Law Another Administration and that by it the old intolerable Yoke of Ligal Observances was remov'd do evidence The next Father who is forc'd to come in to give witness to this new Law is Augustine But what he says will not at all serve the Cause For in that his Discourse of Grace and Free-will his Design is to prove against the Pelagians that Man by the best use of his natural Powers cannot obey the Precepts of the Moral Law but that the Grace of the Gospel is absolutely necessary to strengthen a Christian to that Obedience which be pays tho imperfectly to the old Law as the Rule of his Actions And that great Light of his Age makes the Difference between the new and old Law to be this that the old Law consisted wholly in Precepts and Commands and so was a killing Letter to the Sinner but the Nature of the Gospel is to promise and give Grace When it is said says he 1 Joh. 4. 7. Let us love one another this is Law when it is said Because Love is of God this is Grace He asserts that there are Precepts in the New Testament and none ever had so little Understanding as to deny it but these Precepts do not properly belong to the pure Nature of the Gospel but are only repeated and urg'd in it but it is that Grace which promises Pardon to the Sinner and that Grace which makes the Believer holy and obedient that are the native Streams which are deriv'd from this Spring And it is apparent from the Words of Augustine cited by my Reverend Brother that this Father makes the old Law to be a Doctrine of Works and so a killing Letter without Grace that is without the Gospel which as a pure Doctrine of Grace shews how the Law is satisfied by Christ and how the Sinner and the Ungodly may be justified and affords Supplies of Grace sutable to all the various Needs of the Believer The other Place cited out of Augustine proves no more than that we are freed from the Condemnation of the Law by the Law of Faith which how it is to be understood of the Doctrine of Faith I have before shewn in resouing Rom. 3. 27. from its perverted Meaning Page 59. of this Discourse Salvian's Testimony proves no more than that the Christian Law or the Doctrine of Grace was dishonour'd by some Mens abusing it to Licentiousness Bradwardine I must confess speaks plainly to my Reverend Brother's Purpose but it is no wonder for tho with incomparable Strength and Closeness of Reason he refuted the Pelagian Heresies yet he was a Papist and consequently firm to the Belief of the Roman Creed the principal Article of which is Merit He accordingly tho utterly disclaiming Works done by Nature yet asserts Works done by Grace to be meritorious To support this Assertion the Writers of the Church of Rome have taken care to lay down another as its main Foundation that the Gospel is a new Law and therefore by obeying of the Precepts of it which are made the Conditions we deservedly as they assert obtain by virtue of God's Covenant stipulated with us on such Terms the promised Rewards Bradwardine accordingly maintains the Gospel to be a new Law and that whoever shall keep this Christian Law shall receive eternal Glory So that this Man's Authority in the present Case however great and excellent he is in other Points will not reflect any Glory on this Hypothesis but rather doth disparage it since it evinceth how near this Opinion of the Gospel's being a new Law approacheth to Popery tho I cannot entertain a thought that any of my Reverend Brethren do designedly make the least advancing step to it As to the Testimony of the Leyden Professors they only mean that the Gospel in a large and improper Sense may be term'd a Law because there are Precepts Commands and Threatnings in the Books of the New Testament But those worthy Professors when they treat of the Gospel in its strict Signification they define it to be only a pure Word of Grace For says Polyander who was one of them The Gospel specially taken and restrain'd to the Exhibition of Christ first denotes the History of Christ manifested in the Flesh Mark 12. Secondly it is us'd for the joyful Doctrine and Preaching concerning the Reconciliation of Men who are Sinners with God by the free Remission of their Sins obtain'd for them by the expiatory Death of Christ indifinitely offer'd to any one reveal'd to the Poor in Spirit and Babes but singularly apply'd to the Believers for their Salvation and for the Manifestation and eternal Glory of the Divine Mercy in Conjunction with Justice 1 Cor. 9. 14 15. This is in the same Disputation cited by my Brother And a little after the same Learned Polyander renounceth the Opinion of the Schoolmen and Monks asserting the Gospel to be a new Law and disclaims the Arminian and Socinian Doctrines which attribute to the Gospel as a new Law new Precepts that are proper and peculiar to it Whether then these Reverend Professors ever once thought the Gospel strictly and properly taken to be a Law let any one judg It is easy also to judg that Gomarus understands the Gospel in its larger Acceptation when he calls it a Law in the Place cited by my Reverend Brother for when before in the same Disputation he defines the Gospel and then to be sure he took it in its strict and proper Sense he makes not the least mention of a Law nor of Commands of Threatnings As I have before given the Instance from his own words Page 34. of this Discourse It is wearisome to follow my Learned Brother through all his Citations and particularly to consider them there is no need to do it largely and tho what he transcribes out of Dr. Twiss takes up almost three Pages yet a short Answer will take off this Testimony too and shew that it is nothing to the Purpose In a word all that can be concluded from the Words of Dr. Twiss is only this that God hath appointed a set and stated Order in our Salvation according to which he proceeds As he is not a God of Confusion he saves us regularly and bestows his Blessings in a due Series so that in a becoming Manner one may follow the other And how the Gospel is such a regular Order and Harmony of Blessings I have shewed before Page 6. of this Discourse And by this Way we may soberly and sincerely deal with a poor dying Sinner to whom my Reverend Brother
Instruction given us not only by the Precepts but the Promises of God The Root from which it is deriv'd proves this to be its genuine meaning for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jarah signifies to cast or throw Darts or any other thing and metaphorically in the Conjugation Hiphil the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Horah signifies to cast the Meaning of one's Mind or a Doctrine and Instruction into the Thoughts of the Hearers as Mercer a Critic beyond exception in this Language very well observes And what is God's teaching us effectually but the throwing the quick and powerful Darts of his Truths into our Souls and his fastning them in our Hearts not to give us any mortal Wound but only a vital piercing Sense to rouze us out of our Lethargy in pernicious Errors and Sin Whereas it is the fiery Darts of the Devil of which the Apostle speaks Eph. 6. 6. corrupt Doctrines which he is so diligent to throw into our Souls which give us our Death's Wounds This is enough to show how natural the Metaphor is that from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jarah he casts Darts in Hiphil 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Horah should signify he teacheth or scattereth any Doctrine And thus it is us'd in 2 King 12. 2. and in Ps 119. 102. And from hence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Moreh a Doctor or Teacher Job 36. 22. And from hence too is the Name of a Place 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Moriah Gen. 22. 2. Which as Mercer notes signifies the Doctrine of the Lord God which from that Hill it being situated at one side of Mount Sion where the Temple was built was to spread through the World And indeed it was at Mount Zion nay in the Temple it self that our Lord Jesus taught his Glorious Doctrine of the Gospel and there also it was preached by the Apostles before they had a particular Commission to go to the Gentiles And sutable to this is that place in Isa 2. 3. And many People shall go and say Come ye and let us go up to the Mountain of the Lord to the House of the God of Jacob and he will teach us of his Ways and we will walk in his Paths for out of Zion shall go forth the Law and the Word of the Lord from Jerusalem that is a Doctrine shewing to Sinners the Way of Justification Thus from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Horah he teacheth the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Torah used in the Old Testament for Law proceeds by a free and unforc'd derivation which is enough to evince that in its original and native Meaning it signifies no more than a Doctrine which is taught us and to confirm it I shall produce several places of Scripture where it is us'd in this Sense By this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Torah sometimes is expressed any Doctrine or Instruction which Parents give to their Children or a Man to his Friend Thus in Prov. 3. 1. Prov. 4. 2. Prov. 7. 3. Prov. 13. 14. In other places it is imploy'd to signify the whole Doctrine of Truth contained in God's Word both of the Old and New Testament Thus in Psal 1. 2. But his delight is in the Law of the Lord and in his Law doth he meditate Day and Night The Design of the Psalmist being to give the entire Character of a Person truly blessed the Description must be so comprehensive as to take in not only his delighting in the Precepts of the Moral Law which a Turk or Heathen may do and the old Philosophers really did but an inward feeling of a ravishing Pleasure in the Knowledg of the Gospel and in meditating on the admirable free Grace of God display'd in the Salvation of a Sinner And it is this pleasing Sense resulting from the Apprehension of the Doctrine of Grace which is the distinguishing Mark of that blessed Believer whom the Psalmist with such wonderful Eloquence describes So then the Law in which the Believer delights is not the old Law of Works nor a new one of a resembling Nature but it is the Doctrine of the Gospel as opening the hidden and unsearchable Riches of God's Grace and Love in Christ Jesus And thus the most Learn'd Commentators both Papists as well as those of the Reformed Religion explain the word Law in this extensive Meaning as not meerly signifying Precepts and Commands but that delightful Instruction which the Knowledg of Evangelical Truths affords the happy Believer More expresly the Doctrine of Grace in the Gospel is called a Law Psal 19. 7. The Law of the Lord is perfect converting the Soul the Testimony of the Lord is sure making wise the Simple That it is not a Law of Works but the Word of Grace is evident from Scripture which is the best interpreter of it self For the Apostle Paul who best knew the Psalmist's meaning applies the 4th Verse of this Psalm 19. to illustrate the swift spreading of the Doctrine of the Gospel and the Teaching and Instruction of it coming to all Nations Rom. 10. 17 18. So then Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God But I say Have they not heard Yes verily their Sound went into all the Earth and their Words unto the Ends of the World That as the Sun and Moon and Stars in a Day and Night's Journey look round all the Earth and tell to all the Nations the Power and Wisdom of the Creator tho they say not a Word of his Mercy and Grace So the Preaching of the Gospel shall give a Sound through the whole World not meerly to proclaim the Great Majesty and Goodness of God who made it but his Infinite Grace undiscernable by Reason and the Love of our Saviour which is above all our Thoughts Now then as the plain Intention of the Psalmist is by a Comparison to shew that as the Heavens manifest God's Adorable Perfections so his Law vers 7. hath a more excellent Sound and Instruction in the Discoveries which it makes of his Grace the Apostle's taking one part of this Comparison and applying it to the Word or Doctrine of the Gospel necessarily infers that he understood the Psalmist to intend by his Law no other than this Doctrine of Grace which as the Sun and all the other Lights of Heaven spreads so swiftly and universally If we consider too the Psalmist's Sense as expressed by himself we shall find that the Effects which he ascribes to his Law cannot be produced but by a pure Doctrine of Grace From these Effects of converting the Soul and making wise the Simple it is evident that it cannot be understood a Law of Works in any Sense for that instead of converting the Sinner would but frighten him from God and so far is it from driving the guilty Criminal to Christ that without the Gospel proclaim'd the natural Tendency of it is to hurry him into Despair It could not let into the Soul the least Glimmerings of Hope for such a Law proposeth Salvation
those of the Bible if my Learned Brother did not bring me from Greek to Latin Authors whom he musters in greater multitudes To rescue them therefore from his Abuse in fastning on them a Meaning of which they never had a thought it will be needful to state the Sense of the word Law in the Roman Language as well as I have done it in the Hebrew and Greek That Lex or Law may signify any Doctrine as well as a Precept appears from the Derivation of it given by Isidore à Legendo from Reading which agrees very well to a Doctrine And among the Romans their Laws were inscrib'd on Brass Tables and publickly hung up that they might be read by the People and I wish the Doctrine of the Gospel was more commonly read and known The same Word is also sometimes imploy'd to signify the Rules of any Science or Art which are purely instructive but not obliging by the Force of any Sanction Thus Juvenal Sat. 6. v. 450 451 452. Odi Hanc ego quae repetit volvitque Palemonis Artem Servatâ semper Lege ratione loquendi And speaking of himself that he seem'd to transgress the Rules of Satyr by inserting such affrighting Instances of Vice which were fitter for a Tragedy he says Sat. 6. v. 634 335. Scilicet finem egressi Legemque priorum Grande Sophocleo carmen bacchamur hiatu Montibus ignotum Rutulis coeloque Latino And yet I am confident the Poet was not apprehensive of his having violated any enacted Law or of being obnoxious to a Penalty did not at all fear the Roman Axes or Fasces tho his Verses did a little deviate from the generally approv'd Doctrine of Satyr Another Roman Poet by the same Word expresseth the due disposition or orderly placing of things Vitta coercebat positos sine Lege Capillos Ovid. Metamorph. lib. 1. v. 477. Innumerable Examples might be given but a few may suffice to shew how little stress is to be laid upon the uncertain sound of a Word which in all these Languages is so variously us'd and to direct us that wherever we find the Gospel nam'd a Law in the Hebrew of the Old Testament or in the Greek of the New or in the Greek and Latin Fathers or Protestant Divines we must not unless we would suffer our selves to be easily impos'd on by an ambiguous Phrase presently imagine it to mean a new Rule of Duty enacted with a Sanction I shall only add that Cicero when he defines a Law in the general Notion of it as comprehending the Law of Nature as well as others makes no mention of a Sanction but describes it only to be the highest Reason implanted in Nature which commands what is to be done and forbids the contrary Thus also the Roman Lawyers of whose vast Volumes lost by the Injuries of Time we have a Breviate in the Pandects define a Law without mentioning a Sanction The Law says Papinian is a common Instruction the Decree of prudent Men. By which no more can be understood than a Doctrine which teacheth us what is best for us to do if we will be taught by the Counsel of those who are wiser than our selves And in this Sense I will easily grant the Gospel to be a Law for it is the Instruction of God whose Wisdom is beyond all denial infinitely superiour to ours to our perishing Souls and thrice blessed is that Person whom his enlightning Grace hath made so wise as to follow it It is too the Decree of God's Eternal Counsel that we shall not be justified by any Righteousness but that of Christ alone Thus also the publish'd Will of the Soveraign may be call'd a Law tho the Sanction is wanting And the Decrees of the Roman Senate might be stil'd by that Name before the Consent of the People obtain'd which was necessary to enact them Nay a Statute is a Law tho no Duty be prescrib'd but only Benefits conferr'd and some Privileges ratified And when the Emperors had the absolute unlimited Power those Edicts which declared a Donative or which gave and confirm'd any Privileges to the People were as well call'd Laws as those which were all Commands and fill'd with Threats against Disobedience Now these are the properest Judges to decide the Signification of a Word in that Language wherein they not only wrote but it was their native Tongue which their Mothers taught them as soon as they were able to form a Voice There then nothing more remains needful to remove my Learned Brother 's multiplied Citations out of the Latin Fathers and Protestant Writers which he thinks to be very much to his Purpose but to shew that they frequently by the word Law mean no more than a Doctrine and when I shall have by some few Instances done this all his Authorities will be easily answer'd Cyprian whom he summons as a Witness for his Cause and the mistaken Evidence we shall afterward examine means no more by the Evangelical Law than the Doctrine which Christ hath given us For having before express'd how Christ had by his Example and Word taught us the manner of administring the Lord's Supper this our Instruction from our Saviour he calls the Evangelical Law And concerning this thing also says he we may send our Epistles to our Brethren that the Evangelical Law and the declar'd Doctrine of our Lord may be observed and that they may not depart from what Christ hath taught and practis'd Augustine the next Testimony who is call'd tells us That by the word Law we may apprehend not meerly a Statute but any other Doctrine since he stiles not only the five Books of Moses but the Prophets in whose Writings there are so many gracious Promises of the Gospel by that Name CHAP. VI. That the Divines of the Reformed Religion assert the Gospel to be a pure Doctrine of Grace When they call it a Law they intend the Word in that Sense I Will now prove that when the Reformed Divines call the Gospel a new Law they mean no more than a fresher and clearer Discovery of God's Mercy and Grace I shall produce Testimonies from their own Words of two forts first To manifest that when they professedly define or describe the Gospel they bring nothing into their Definition but that it is a Revelation of our Salvation and free Justification by Christ and then I shall bring plain Instances that when they sometimes call the Gospel a new Law they tell us also at the same time in express words they mean by it only a Doctrine of Grace First Then if nothing but Grace is express'd in their Definitions of the Gospel it is but reasonable to require that it should be granted me that they never thought the Gospel to be a Law in the strict Sense as including Works in it and being establish'd with Sanction For since it is one of the Rules of a Definition that it should contain the whole Nature of
justified and sanctified in Christ apprehended by Faith as we have in its proper place copiously demonstrated They viz. the Papists on the contrary think the Evangelical Doctrine to be nothing else but a certain Law more perfect than that of Moses Thus this Pious and Learned Man when he gives the Summary of the Gospel makes not the least Figure to denote Law or Works so that according to his reckoning they belong not to the Sum since he leaves them out in his Account And in the other Instance he with some Indignation rejects the Notion of the Gospel's being a Law as an Article of the Popish Faith The same Worthy Author writing against Sebastianus Castalio for he had not only the perplexing Trouble to refute the Reasons of the Papists but to answer the Cavils of the Semi-Pelagians makes the distinguishing Mark of the Gospel from the Law to be this that the Gospel is no other than the Doctrine of the Free Grace of God For proving that there are two Parts of God's Will reveal'd one which concerns meerly our Duty which is the Law and the other which contains nothing but the joyful discovery of God's gracious Purposes to save us by Christ the Redeemer There is yet no mention says he of this Benefit in the Law For the Declaration of this Will belongs to the other Part of the Divine Word which is called the Gospel This Truth is so rooted in the Hearts of true Christians that it will grow tho in various Climates and Soils where they have different Habitations Tho separated by Seas and vast Lakes and unpassable Mountains all who love Jesus Christ agree in asserting the pure Doctrine of his Grace Henricus Bullingerus one of the known and fam'd Reformers of Religion in Switzerland joins his Testimony to that of Beza in asserting the Gospel to be a pure Doctrine of Grace unmingled with Law or Works The Gospel says he is defin'd almost by all in this manner The Gospel is a good and sweet Word and a most certain Testimony of the Divine Favour towards us in Christ exhibited to Relievers Or The Gospel is the most clear Sentence of the Eternal God brought down to us from Heaven absolving all Believers from their Sins and that freely for Christ's Sake alone and promising Eternal Life Hieronymus Zanchius was an Italian who left his Country with Peter Martyr for the Sake of the Gospel in whose Writings as the Truths for which he suffer'd the loss of all things are nobly vindicated so a Vivacity of Spirit which is so natural to that Nation shines in them And it is a Wonder in him as well as Calvin that a Man who wrote so much should write so well He gives us his Suffrage also for the same Truth and in every Page almost of his three large Volumes he asserts the Gospel to be a sincere Doctrine of Grace without any Mixture And on all Occasions doth clear the distinct Nature of Law and Gospel from that Confusion in which by some in his Time they were involv'd Having first divided the whole Word of God into two Parts Law and Gospel and not to confound the Natures of Things so distinct having describ'd the Law in its Being Properties and Office that 't is peculiar to it to instruct us what Duties to perform what Sins to avoid that it points to us what is a Crime and shews what it deserves and accuseth Sinners and reveals the Wrath of God and threatens the merited Punishment Having thus clearly and distinctly stated the Nature of the Law of which the Gospel partakes not in the least and having assign'd its several Offices with which the Gospel intermeddles not at all nor crowds it self into them he then as distinctly explains the Nature of this Gospel But the Gospel says he which is the other essential Part of the Holy Scripture is a Doctrine or Scripture which declares free Salvation in Christ by Faith And a little after The Office of this is to proclaim that Salvation is to be had freely in Christ through Faith alone And in another Discourse he ascends higher and tells us That the Gospel is the joyful Preaching of that Eternal and free Love of God this is Eternal Election toward us in his beloved Son Christ To these I might add a Cloud of other Witnesses to evince that it was the Faith which universally obtain'd among all the Reformed Churches in several Nations and was earnestly maintain'd by all the Protestant Writers against the Papissts that the Gospel in the peculiar Nature of it is no other than a System of Promises a Disvoery of God's Mercy and Grace in Christ and a Proclamation of Free Pardon and Justification Lambertus Danaeus Martinus Chemnitius Osualdus Myconius David Pareus Daniel Chamier Joannes Gerrardus Antonius Waleus Altingius Andreas Rivetus with innumerable others write harmoniously in the same strain I will yet add the Testimony of our own Whitaker Since the Gospel says he is nothing else but the Narrative and Declaration of the Grace and Mercy of God which Christ merited for us by his Death it cannot be denied that principally to be the Evangelical Doctrine which most fully expounds this Benefit and joyful Message and for that Reason the Gospel to be most copiously and clearly taught in Paul's Epistles and Paul to be the best Evangelist He scruples not to attribute the Title of Gospel more to the Epistles of that Apostle than to the Sermon on the Mount tho preach'd by the Saviour of Men and that on this Account because in these more abundantly are display'd the Mysteries of our Redemption when the Import of that was to explain and urge Precepts which belong properly to the Law But it will be needful to produce one Evidence more who is the more material because it is the same Person whom my Reverend Brother brings as a Witness for the Cause which he maintains of the Gospel's bring a Law It is Gomarus himself who gives this Definition of it The Gospel is a Divine Doctrine in which the secret Covenant of God concerning Salvation out of pure Free Grace by Christ is declar'd to Men fallen into Sin and with the Elect it is begun and preserv'd to their Salvation and the Glory of God the Saviour Here he speaks nothing of the Gospel but that it is meerly a Declaration of Grace and the manifestation of the secret Purposes of it which were before hid in God's Heart when therefore a little after he calls the Gospel a Law in the Place cited by my Reverend Brother he must necessarily understand the word Gospel in the large extensive Sense as it signifies all the second Part of the Bible not in the strict and properest Sense as it implies only God's Covenant of Grace discovered to Man But what need was there that I should mention the Testimonies of Men when Witness offers it self from Heaven At
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
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
Redeemer and Repentance do not seem to be in the least so much as hinted in any of its Commands For since the Law was given as a Rule of the Actions of Holy and Innocent Creatures who needed not a Redeemer there could be no occasion to command them to believe on One and Adam in his State of Integrity was no more oblig'd to such a Faith than the Blessed Angels are to believe on the Saviour of lost and wretched Men. And since Repentance is a Duty too which presupposeth the Person engag'd to it to be an Offender and guilty How could it be commanded to a Creature who had never sinned How could it be a Duty for him to own his Crime with Shame and Sorrow who never yet had transgressed or prevaricated in his Obedience Since therefore Faith in Christ and Repentance are Duties which suppose the Man to be a Sinner it would seem that such Precepts are not implied in a Law given to him before his Fall but are the proper Precepts of a second Remedial Law which God hath provided for the Relief and Help of this miserable Creature This I must confess looks very plausible at first sight and the Argument seems to be strongly conclusive But if we consider the Nature of Faith it will be manifest that it was not only commanded to Adam in Innocence and that it was his Duty but that it is absolutely necessary to every holy and good Creature For if we take it as an Act of the Mind assenting readily to all that God reveals as infallibly true it is that to which every Creature in the right Constitution of his Being is indispensably oblig'd It is the Duty of Angels themselves to believe that Jesus is the Son of God that he is the Saviour of Elect Men that the Pardon and Justification of a Sinner is by his Blood and Righteousness alone that God's Justice is satisfied by the Sacrifice of his Son For all these Truths being publish'd and made known by God for the Illustration of his infinite Mercy among all his rational Creatures and that the Praises of his Free Grace might resound as well in the Songs of Angels as from the Mouths of Men it is needful and required as a Duty from them both who are to honour God in the Celebration of all his Attributes that they heartily believe all these Truths of the Gospel in which alone God's Perfections of Mercy and Grace do illustriously shine forth And as for Man in Innocence though it was not in express Terms required from him to believe the Gospel not yet revealed to him or to act Faith on Christ undiscovered yet such a Command was included and implied in that general one that he should without any Doubt or Hesitancy give Credit to all that God said and that as he was to believe the Sincerity of God's Promise and the Reality of his Threatnings when the Covenant of Works was made with him and without doubt he acted such a Faith so by the same Precept he was commanded and bound to believe every word which God afterward should speak to him and without scrupulous disputing presently assent to those Truths which were to be reveal'd assoon as it appear'd to him that they were so So that indeed the Belief of the Gospel and Faith in Christ Jesus were comprehended in this general Precept of Believing in God and indeed Christ himself tells us so and useth it as an Argument why they should act Faith on him because they were oblig'd to it by the same Command which required them to believe on God John 14. 1. Let not your Heart be troubled ye believe in God believe also in me If we regard too the other Act of Faith which is a firm Reliance of the Soul upon God and heartily trusting of him and chearfully committing all our Concernments our Life our Happiness all we enjoy or hope for to his faithful Love and Care this was certainly our first Father's Duty and given in Precept to him in the Law as well as the other of assenting to all that God declared as undoubtedly true And indeed if it was Adam's Duty in his Primitive Condition to believe in God it was commanded by the Law for that only could make it become so And what can we ever wildly imagine that our first Father was not bound to act Faith on God his Creator and constant Benefactor and upon whom he was to have a perpetual Dependance or he could not live a moment What! can we think that to have rejected God's Word as of suspected Truth to have refused or but to have suspended his Assent to it when propos'd had been no fault in him That to have distrusted God to have renounced Dependance on him would not have been a Crime the greatest as could be committed by him But all this is the unavoidable Consequence of this Assertion That the Precept of Faith is not in the Law for neither would Faith have been a Duty nor Unbelief a Sin to Adam had not the Law which was the only Rule of his Obedience commanded the one and forbidden the other Were it not for this he might have been a stubborn obstinate Unbeliever without being a Sinner when on the contrary it appears from the short Relation of his Apostacy that Unbelief was his very first Sin For what is Faith but to trust in God upon his Word and Promise for all our Life and Happiness and what is Unbelief but to distrust him And was not Adam while flourishing in his State Innocence a real and sincere Believer and so long as he persisted in acting Faith did he not continue to be happy And was it not the Neglect of the due Exercise of Faith which at last plung'd him into the Depths of Misery and Despair As long as he believed God and entirely confided in him as long as he lived in constant Dependance upon the Love and Care of his Creator as long as he thankfully acknowledged that he received all the Blessings of Life as the Fruits of his Bounty as long as he trusted in God upon his Word that he would not only continue them unto him but bestow greater to come which by the Promise he had reason to hope for and expect all this time he liv'd by Faith and his Days were clear and happy and it was Unbelief made all his Glories set in a gloomy Evening It was this begun his Apostacy not exercising Faith any longer he would throw off his Dependance upon God and seek to be bless'd in some new and fond Way of his own He indulg'd a surmizing Thought that God whose solemn Promise he had so freshly heard either could not or was not willing to make him so happy as he aspir'd to be and that he refused to advance him to those degrees of Bliss of which he fancied himself capable And thus he ceas'd acting that Faith in God on which depended his Life and Blessedness he disbelieved God and believed the
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
till he have set Judgment in the Earth and the Isles shall wait for his Law That by his Law is meant a Declaration of Free Grace is apparent from the genuine Sense of the Hebrew word which in our English Bibles is translated they shall wait for his Law the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies they shall hope with earnest Desires expect it And thus Piscator who had an unquestionable Skill in that Language renders it We may then by a necessary Consequence conclude that by Law here is meant a publication of Free Grace by Christ since the poor Sinners of the Gentiles could not desire or hope for any other But without any Criticisms on the Hebrew Language the foregoing Verse of the Prophet Isaiah instructs us to a right understanding of the following Isa 42. 3. A bruised Reed shall he not break and the smoking Flax shall he not quench he shall bring forth Judgment unto Truth Now if Christ had brought in a new Law with Precepts superadded to the old One this would have been to break the bruis'd Soul with repeated Strokes in greater strength and fierceness There is another Scripture produc'd by my Learned Brother to be examin'd which he urgeth to prove That the Gospel as a new Law promiseth Blessings to the Performers of its Precepts and threatens to punish all those who neglect them Luke 19. 27. But those mine Enemies which would not that I should reign over them bring hither and slay them before me Now as I think who am very willing to be better inform'd our blessed Lord Jesus asserts only his Right as Universal Monarch of the World which we are so far from denying that we heartily pray that his Kingdom may come in all the Shine of its Glory as we are sure it will at the determin'd Time Well but to soften the harsh word Law he adds the more allaying one of Grace But this will not do the Business for a Law prescribing Works is no Covenant of Grace if it be true what the Apostle says Rom. 11. 6. And if by Grace then is it no more of Works otherwise Grace is no more Grace But if it be of Works then is it no more Grace otherwise Work is no more Work Therefore his no angry Brethren are in no Passion to hear the Voice of the Law if the old Moral One as a continuing Rule to Believers is meant and they are very glad of the joyful Sound of Grace they only gaze and admire at the strange Prodigy of those two unnaturally join'd together to compound a Covenant of Grace And tho with the greatest rejoicing we most thankfully accept God's new Covenant of Grace yet we cannot own a new Law of his making till we hear it more clearly proclaim'd by God himself I must confess I was a little surpriz'd at what I next read in my Reverend Brother's Learned Discourse The Law of Grace we speak of says he is both New and Old in different respects It is New in respect of the Covenant of Works made with Adam in his State of Innocency What! is it a new Law of a fresher Date that the old One being useless God saw it needful to promulgate another lower'd to lesser degrees of Duty and so suted to the present Estate of Sinners I am confident my Learned Brother will not assert this tho it unhappily falls out that his Words seem to imply it There remains nothing more than to examine his Humane Authorities which I will do tho there is the greatest uncertainty in the Citation of Authors to abet an Opinion when Men only take care and labour to wrack and torture them to a forced Confession of their own Sense For if the Words of the Holy Ghost himself who deliver'd his Meaning most distinctly and with the greatest exactness are yet wrested and perverted to contrary Purposes all Humane Writings are much more liable to be disfigur'd by wrong Interpretations I will yet consider in order the several Authorities alledg'd and first as to that of Justin Martyr Any one who distinctly regards the Design of that Father's Writing will see that however he makes use of the word Law by which to name the Gospel yet by Law he means no more than a new Doctrine or Dispensation of Grace For his Design is to prove against a Jew who was a great Admirer of his own Law and its august Ceremonies and Worship That all that solemn Pomp was excelled by the plain Evangelical Doctrine that this new Discovery of the Blessings of Grace in the real and solid Substance was infinitely preferable to all the old Representations and Shadows of those good Things And therefore by this new Law or this new Instruction of Grace coming those old Rudiments go off as useless to teach us any longer The Gospel as a new Doctrine of Grace appearing the old Institutions of Sacrifices and External Rites civilly are to withdraw to give place to a superiour and better Instructor To prove this is the Design of that Father's Dialogue against the Jew and all that can be gather'd from his calling the Gospel a New Law is only this that it is a fuller and clearer Revelation of the Grace of God in Christ as is evident from what follows a little after those Words cited by my Learned Brother where Justin Martyr expresseth his Meaning about the Gospel's being a New Law that it is so as it is a new and clearer Dispensation of Grace for having cited that Place in Isa 55. 3 4. expressing the Nature of the Gospel and upbraiding the Jew for his Confidence in old Legal Performances in Circumcision in eating unleavened Bread in washing in the Laver of Water in the Blood of Sheep and Goats and the Ashes of an Heifer It is not by these says he that Sinners are purified but by the Blood of Christ and his Death who died for that very Purpose as Esa himself hath spoketh it And then he largely recites the six last Verses of the 52d Chapter and Chap. 53. entire and the six first Verses of the 54th Chapter of that Prophet which contain the most clear and full Discovery of the Doctrine of Grace as is in all the old Testament So that all which the Father intends by the Name of a new Law given to the Gospel is that it is a Doctrine of Grace newly revealed And in this Sense I am very willing to call it so too But let us see if Cyprian gives his Vote for my Learned Brother It is true that he speaks frequently in his 11th Epistle of the Law of the Gospel but it is certain that as he wrote this Epistle to complain of and to rectify the Relaxation of Discipline in the Churches that those who had fallen into great and notorious Sins were yet re-admitted into Communion before they had given any Testimony of their Repentance so by the Law of the Gospel he means only that due Discipline which ought to be
next brings me without encouraging his Presumption in the general Notions which even wicked Men have of God's being merciful and Christ's dying for Sinners or throwing him into the Convulsions of Despair If I should tell him just dying of a new Law which must be obey'd by him before he can entertain any hopes that this new Law requires Obedience from him and till he hath done it he must look for nothing but Condemnation from its severe Sentence If I tell him that one Condition of this Law is that he reform the Course of a Life of which he is come within a point of the Period and that unless he live better he cannot be saved when he hath but a few Moments longer to live He would certainly look very ghastly upon me and think that I made his Mittimus to Hell But if I tell him that the Blessings of the Covenant are inseparable and where God gives one they are followed with all the other That where God confers his Favour he plants Grace too and works Faith in the Heart of those whom he hath decreed to save That this Faith if true is accompanied with Love and the natural Product of that is a sincere Resolution to please Christ and obey him and if he can lay his Hand on his Heart and find these Blessings there he may be assured of his Interest in the other and that believing he is justified by the Obedience of Christ to the Law performed for him This Declaration of the Gospel to a startled Sinner who hath not one Minute longer to promise to his affrighted Spirit may God making it the Power of God unto Salvation revive and give new Life unto-him in the Agonies of Death But to amaze him with a Discourse of new Laws and Commands and Threatnings would be to stab him to the Soul and to murder him more cruelly than his Disease CHAP. IX That this Opinion of the Gospel's being a New Law too much agrees with the Popish and Arminian Doctrines proved by several Instances out of their Authors SINCE Popery and Arminianism under various Names and in pursuit of different Ends make the same stated Opposition to the Design of the Gospel every Opinion which agrees with their Errors deserves to be suspiciously regarded and is unworthy of any favourable reception If it then doth appear that this Doctrine of the Gospel's being a new Law hath been strongly maintain'd by the Romish Church in several Ages as that which lays the surest Foundation for that dear Article of their Faith the Merit of Works and hath all been zealously espoused by the Arminians and Socinians as a most effectual Engine to overthrow Justification by the imputed Righteousness of Christ Then all who love Jesus the Redeemer or are careful of their own Salvation by him will be very wary of giving a welcome Entertainment to this new Law That the Doctors of the Romish Church have all along asserted the Gospel to be a new Law will be evident from a few Instances Petrus Lombardus the Master of the Sentences who flourish'd An. Dom. 1141. explaining the Difference between the Old Law and the New Law the Gospel The Precepts of them says he are different as to Ceremonials For as to Morals they are the same but are more fully contain'd in the Gospel Alexander Alensis who liv'd Anno Dom. 1230. resolving that Question Whether the Observance of the Old or New Law be the most burdensome says That the Precepts of the Gospel simply and absolutely are more difficult and of a greater Burden than the Precepts of the Mosaical Law Gulielmus Altissiodorensis who flourish'd Anno Dom. 1240. resolves the same Question with this Distinction The Difficulty or Weight is twofold one Carnal the other Spiritual As to the Carnal Burdensomness the old Law was heavier than the Gospel but as to the Spiritual Difficulty the new Law is more difficult Albertus Magnus who lived Anno Dom. 1260. clearing how tho the Letter of the Law kills yet the Spirit makes alive The Spirit says he is the Grace of the Spirit in which the Holy Ghost is given and this is given in the making of the new Law not in that of the Old Thomas Aquinas who lived Anno Dom. 1265. in resolving that Question Whether the new Law can justify a Man positively affirms That the Evangelical Law since it is the Grace it self of the Holy Spirit doth necessarily justify a Man Joannes Dunscotus who flourish'd Anno Dom. 1300. explaining how the new Law is easier to be obey'd than the old One tho it hath all the Moral Precepts of that with the superaddition of new Ones But says he on the Part of the new Law the Multitude and Efficacy of the Aids doth more alleviate the Difficulty of its Moral Precepts Raynerius de Pisis who also flourish'd Anno Dom. 1300. discourseth largely about this new Law and its Excellence and eminent Prerogative above the old One Which new Law says he hath four notable and excellent Conditions for it is a Law of Charity of Liberty Facility and Necessity and with a tedious prolixness he insists on all those Particulars The Cardinal Petrus Aureolus who flourish'd Anno Dom. 1317. gives eight Differences between the new Law and the Old and among the rest assigns this That the old Law commanded but afforded no Aid it was intent on the Letter which kills but the New gives Spirit and Grace which quickens That the new Law frees us from the Burdens of the old Law is true says Durandus à S. Porciano who liv'd Anno Dom. 1320. both because it imposeth on us fewer Burdens and also lighter and which belong to the Cure of the Disease of Sin and to the preservation of Spiritual Health There are two Parts of the Divine Law both the Old and the New says Dionysius Carthusianus who lived Anno Dom. 1450. viz. Testimonies and Precepts Testimonies concern things to be believ'd Precepts those which are to be done Dominicus Soto who was Father Confessor to the French King Francis I. Anno Dom. 1535. disputes largely about the New Law or the Evangelical Law and among other things he tells us That it is a Law proper to Christians when the Moral Law written on the Hearts of Men belongs to all Nations That this Law is the Gospel it self And then determining that Question Whether this new Evangelical Law hath the Virtue of justifying a Man he decides it in these two Propositions 1. The Evangelical Law if its pure Instructions and Commands and Substance of its Works be considered doth no more in it self justify than the old Law or the Law of Nature it self 2. The Evangelical Law if its internal Virtue is consider'd justifies a Man Albertus Pighius who lived at the same Time speaking of the Cup in the Sacrament This is the Cup says he not of that old Testament which was then presently to be
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