made the Children of God Gal. 3. 26. Ye are all the Children of God by Faith in Christ Iesus Joh. 1. 12 13. As many as received him to them gave he power to become the sons of God even to those that believe on his Name Which were born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of God Now to be born of God or which is the same to be made the Child of God is to have ones Nature restored to the likeness of God in which Man was first made and is the same thing with that wich is called Regeneration and a being born again and a new Creature Which new Creature or the nature of Man renewed by Faith is also called the new Man which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness Ephes. 4. 24. To be born again is to have the faculties of Mans Nature restored to a rectitude in their motions and operations in reference both to God and Man to be restored to their proper moral use for which they were made It is in a word that which is called a being made partakers of a Divine Nature For those which are begotten of God are begotten in or to his likeness Men can adopt those which are not their natural Children to inherit their Estates but they cannot adopt them to a participation of their Moral Endowments But God adopts his Children to a participation with him in the Inheritance by adopting them to a participation of the Moral perfections of his Nature that is to a consimilitude to him in them And this we say is done by Faith that is by Faith in God and by Faith in his Word For in order of Nature God is first believed to be a God of Truth before his Word is believed to be the Word of Truth And the creditableness of his Word depends upon the knowledge or belief of the fidelity of his Nature And this Truth of God and of his Word is the immediate Object of Faith By Faith a Man believes that to be true which God reveals or declares as his Mind and Will let the Import of it be what it will But then this Faith operates upon the Will and Affections according to the Tenour and Import of that which is revealed If it be matter of sad import it works a hatred to him that threatens it and a fear of the thing threatned if it be apprehended to proceed from an enemy And this is the effect of the Faith of Devils who believe and hate God who believe and tremble Iam. 2. 19. But if that which is revealed by God and believed by Man betoken unspeakable love good will in God to Man and matter of the greatest benefit to him as a proof of such love then it worketh love to him that expresseth such love for Faith worketh by Love Gal. 5. 6. and a longing desire after the promised benefit And as the Soul grows more and more in love with God because of his love in love with his blessed Nature and Divine Perfections such as are his Love and Goodness Truth and Faithfulness Purity and Patience Mercifulness and readiness to forgive which render him altogether lovely so it contracts a likeness to God in these upon the Soul and so changes and renews the Moral habit and constitution of the Soul and consequently of the whole Life There is an aptness and promptness in men to imitate that in others and so in God for which they love them And frequent imitating Acts beget habits Custom changing Nature And hence it is that through Faith we are made partakers of a Divine Nature We all with open face beholding as in a Glass the glory of the Lord are changed into the same Image from glory to glory as by the Spirit of the Lord 2 Cor. 3. 18. This beholding the glory of the Lord is by Faith For we walk by Faith and not by sight 2 Cor. 5. 7. and by it Moses saw him who is invisible Heb. 11. 27. And the medium by which this Prospect is taken is the Gospel by which the Lord in his lovely Perfections is now openly revealed And Faith being from time to time busied in beholding of and conversing with these Perfections it transforms the Soul into the same Image or likeness from glory to glory that is gradually as by the Spirit of the Lord that is through the co-operation of God's Spirit with Mans Faith To comprehend the breadth length depth and heighth and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge is the way to be filled with all the fulness of God by transcribing all his imitable perfections upon the Soul Ephes. 3. 18 19. And it is by virtue of their Relation to Christ and being thus begotten and born of God and made partakers of a new Nature conformable to God's that Men can with confidence call God Father This blessed effect of God's Spirit is the Spirit of Adoption by which they cry Abba Father And it is this new Nature that is the Spring and Fountain of a good Life of all Pious and Virtuous Actions As it is said of God Thou art good and dost good so it is true of all those that are born of him A good Man out of the good treasure of his heart thus renewed bringeth forth good fruit The Tree being good the Fruit will be good And as this new Creature groweth up to strength and maturity so doing of good and acting worthily will become natural and pleasant to him in whom it is To such an one the Commandments of God are not grievous but he will be able in some good measure to say I delight to do thy will O God yea thy Law is in my heart And for sin it being contrary to this new Nature there is a kind of Moral Impotency in him in whom it is to commit sin He cannot sin because he is born of God 1 Joh. 3. 9. Or if such an one be overtaken in a fault it will work a disturbance in the Soul just as that will in the stomach which a Man hath eaten against which he hath an antipathy in Nature But as for such as perform Religious Duties and do things materially good only by the strength of Extrinsecal Motives and not froman inward Principle of this new Nature or love to the things themselves to such those actions being unnatural become grievous and burdensome and will be continued in no longer than those Motives continue in their strength Sect. 8. The last thing I proposed to consider about God's Promise to Abraham is What we are to understand by God's counting Abrahams Faith to him for righteousness And I take it to signifie thus much That God in a way of special grace or by virtue of a new Law of grace and favour which was established by God in Christ Gal. 3. 17. that is in reference to what Christ was to do suffer in time then to come did reckon his Practical
he saved us are wont to be alledged to prove that Works after conversion as well as those before are opposed to the Mercy of God in the saving of Men. But whether this be duly collected from these words will best appear by opening the Scope and meaning of the words with the Context The words in the 3 4 and 5 verses are these For we our selves also were sometimes foolish serving divers lusts and pleasures living in malice and envy hateful and hating one another But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward Man appeared Not by Works of Righteousness which we have done but according to his mercy he saved us by the washing of Regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost By their being saved here is meant their being rescued and delivered from their sinful state mentioned vers 3. In that this is said to be done not by Works of Righteousness which they had done but according to God's Mercy The plain meaning I doubt not is that this change of their condition and deliverance from their sinful state was not effected or so much as begun among them by any Reformation of their own till the Gospel came to work it which is meant by the appearing of the kindness and love of God vers 4. and is of like import with that Chap. 2. 11 12. which God of his mercy and not of their desert sent among them to that end And if this be the meaning of the words the Apostle was far from intending by Works of Righteousness in this place Works after Conversion I might rather well argue on the contrary from this place That Baptism which is an Act of Evangelical Obedience in the person Baptized Regeneration which is Evangelical Obedience in the root principle are together with the mercy of God and as subordinate to it opposed to the Works of Righteousness here mentioned in the Work of Salvation For it is probable that by the washing of Regeneration here is meant Baptism as the Figure of Regeneration and by the renewing of the Holy Ghost Regeneration it self By both which as subordinate to God's mercy therein they were said to be saved and not by the Works of Righteousness which they had done before these There is another place in 2 Tim. 2. 9. which is wont to be urged with this to Titus to the same purpose But it being of the same nature with this the same answer may serve both with a little variation 2. St. Paul in speaking against Justification by Works gives sufficient caution not to be understood thereby to speak against Evangelical Obedience in the Case When he had asserted Justification to be by Faith without the deeds of the Law and that the Gentiles might be justified by believing without ever observing Moses Law Rom. 3. 28. lest he should be understood thereby to favour Gentilism or loose living in men provided they would but turn Christians he frames and answers an Objection thus vers 31. Do we make void the Law through Faith God forbid Yea we establish the Law And how did they so certainly they did not thereby establish the Ceremonial Law in the Letter of it but in the Spirit of it they did in as much as in Preaching Justification in the Gospel-way they preached in plain Precepts the necessity of that Spiritual purity unto salvation which was but darkly and in a Figure taught by the Ceremonial Law And this they did in Preaching the necessity of Mortifiation instead of Circumcision And by the Doctrine of Justification by Faith they established the Moral Law both in the Letter and Spirit of it in teaching the necessity of Evangelical Obedience to it after a more Spiritual and forcible manner than had been taught before So again when he had charged the unbelieving Iews with a great Error in going about to establish a Righteousness of their own in opposition to God's in adhering to their Law against the Gospel Rom. 10. 3. to the end it might not be thought that he would take them off their Law that they might be lawless or less Religious he adds vers 4. that Christ is the end of the Law for Righteousness to every one that believeth For so he is in his Doctrine having therein taught that Righteousness of living which the Law it self taught but in a far more Excellent Spiritual and effectual manner than was taught by the Law So that all that he designed in taking them off from their Law was but to put them under a better conduct To make them dead to the Law that they might be married to another viz. to Christ by his Gospel that they might bring forth fruit unto God as it is Rom. 7. 4. And likewise in ver 6. he saith We are delivered from the Law but not to be lawless but that we might serve in newness of Spirit and not in the oldness of the Letter that is according to the Spirit Scope and Design of the Law now expressed in plain Precepts and not in the oldness of the Letter and Ceremony And so he saith of himself Gal. 2. 19. I through the Law am dead to the Law i. e. he through a better understanding of God's Design in the Law became dead as to all his former expectations of Justification by it But then if he were dead to the Law it was as he saith that he might live unto God live a life in the flesh through the Faith in his Son through believing his Gospel in its Precepts and Promises the one directing and the other quickning unto a most excellent life ver 20. And if St. Paul were thus careful in denying Justification by Works to assert the necessity of Evangelical Obedience we may well conclude that he never intended under the notion of Works of the Law to exclude Evangelical Obedience from having any hand sooner or later in Justification 3. Regeneration or the new Creature as including Evangelical Obedience is opposed to Works of the Law in the business of Man's Justification as well as Faith is and as well as the Grace of God it self is Gal. 6. 15. For in Christ Iesus neither Circumcision availeth any thing nor uncircumcision but a new Creature Circumcision is here as elsewhere by a Synecdoche put for the Works of the Law in general For there were none that were for circumcising but who were also for keeping the Law of Moses Only Circumcision is mentioned frequently instead of all the rest because they held it to be not only a part of the Law but more and because they laid the greatest stress upon it as I shewed before Chap. 5. Now in that which the Apostle deniâ—s Circumcision and the Works of the Law to avail a Man in that he affirms the becoming a new Creature will avail him and that was in the business of Justification and Salvation For in that sense the unbelieving Iews and Iudaizers held Circumcision and other Works of the Law available And this new Creature
because they ask God forgiveness and perform some acts of Religion Our Saviour saith Many will say unto me in that day Lord Lord open unto us Have we not prophesied in thy Name and in thy Name have cast out Devils and done many wonderful works We have eaten and drunk in thy presence and thou hast taught in our streets To whom he will say for all that Depart from me ye workers of iniquity Matth. 7. 22 23. Luke 13. 25 26. These had some kind of Faith in Christ by which they propheâ—ied in his Name and cast out Devils and did many wonderful works They were such as were hearers of his Word and Preachers of it too and had eaten and drunken in his presence And because of this Faith and these Works they had a Hope and Confidence that Christ would open unto them and receive them into his Kingdom and would not be easily beaten off from this confidence But the true reason why their Faith will stand them in no stead nor their Religious performances neither is because for all that they were workers of iniquity they never heartily consented to the terms of the Promise of Salvation by Christ in repenting They did not first heartily resolve and after sincerely endeavour to turn from every known sin unto every known duty And in this very thing doth the defect of that Faith lye which is short of saving Which will yet further appear in that St. Iames when he would state the difference between that Faith which is saving and that which is not fixeth it here The dead Faith is denominated such by him from its being alone without Works Iam. 2. 17. Even so Faith if it hath not Works is dead being alone or by it self And again vers 20. But wilt thou know O vain Man that Faith without Works is dead And again ver 26. For as the body without the Spirit is dead so Faith without Works is dead also Meaning by its being dead that it avails a Man no more to his Justification and Salvation than a dead Corps avails to the produceing the useful and serviceable effects of a living Man or than a Tree that is dead avails to the bringing forth fruit or than a few good words Depart in peace be ye filled and warmed will avail poor people when nothing is given which is needful to the body ver 15 16 17. In all this I do not deny but that there may be in such as do not savingly believe some consent of the Will to do something towards performing the Condition of the Promise in repenting and obeying Such Men may consent and resolve to forsake some sins and to do some yea many duties who yet never savingly consent because they do not heartily consent and resolve to forsake all known sin and to do all known duties in which the sincerity of Repentance and Obedience doth consist to which the Promise is made Such men may not be far from the Kingdom of God but yet must go farther if ever they would have any good ground of hope to enter into it But of this more afterwards III. Whence this defect doth proceed I have shewed before that there is the Faith of assent in the Understanding unto the truth of God's Testimony in some unregenerate men as well as in the regenerate And in whomsoever the Faith of Consent in the Will to perform the Condition of the Promise is found it always proceeds from the Faith of Assent in the Understanding A Man always in order of nature at least believes that the promised benefits shall be made good to him in case he perform the Condition before he consents to perform it and doth consent to perform the Condition in hope and confidence of obtaining the promised benefits Now then the Question is whence is it ' and what is the reason that the Faith of assent in the Understanding doth not always produce the same consent in the Will in one as well as in another and as it always doth when it becomes effectual to Justification and Salvation Why doth this Faith remain alone in some when as it is accompanied with Works in others I shall offer what I conceive to be the reason of this First in general and then more particularly The difference sometimes may procâ—ed from the different measures and degrees of the evidence upon which the same Truth is believed One man may have a clearer discerning of the evidence than another which causeth a stronger assent in the discerning faculty and that stronger assent in the Understanding may well cause a stronger consent in the Will and a firm and lasting resolution As on the contrary a weak and partial consent and resolution in the Will to the Condition sometimes proceds from a weak assent in the Mind to the Truth of God's Testimony or Promise and that from the weakness of the faculty in the discerning the evidence of that Truth which is the Object of Faith But the reason most commonly why the assent in the Understanding unto the Truth of God's Testimony doth not work a consent in the Will to the Condition of the Promise is to be taken I conceive from the opposition which the lower faculties of the Soul the Will Affections assisted and influenced by the sensual Appetites make against the superiour Faculty the Mind or Understanding so that they do not hearken to its Notices nor obey its Dictates The Will which is the Spring of Action is a middle Faculty between the Understanding and the sensitive Affections or Appetites and is sollicited by both As the Understanding calls upon it to obey its rational Dictates in chusing the means which tend to the best end both which the Understanding represents to it from the Word of God so on the other hand the sensitive Affections sollicite it to be on their side and to be active in making provision for the flesh in chusing such things as tend to satisfie its cravings and lusts And because the Will hath usually been pre-ingaged to the flesh and had a share in its gratifications it 's not without much difficulty prevailed with to be coÌ„senting to active in the crucifixion of those affections and lusts Which until the Will do and herein obey the enlightned Understanding the Faith of assent in the Understanding abideth alone The Will 's obstinate adherence then to Mens fleshly lusts and carnal interests in opposition to that belief in the Understanding which puts it upon destroying them as absolutely necessary to the Man's Salvation as believing God touching the necessity of this as a means as well as it doth believe him touching the blessedness of the end this obstinate opposition in the Will I say is the true reason why the Faith which is in some men is but a dead Faith How can ye believe saith our Saviour which seek honour one of another and seek not the honour that cometh from God only Joh. 5. 44. Yes some of them could and did
Innocency and the Law of Grace and in it the Promise made to Adam and Noah and that to Abraham and the peculiar Mosaical Law and Covenant and the perfecter Edition of the Law or Covenant of Grace by Christ Incarnate a true Student of Theology may easily discern Wherein I hope the Reader will find that among the many late Treatises on this Subject the Authour here hath done considerable service to the Church of God Of which Subject I have written long ago so much my self and am attempting to make it yet more plain that I need not here tell you what is my judgment only lest any who know not how to stop in Mediocrity should be tempted by Socinians or Papists to think that we countenance any of their Errors or that our Differences in the Point of Justification by Faith or Works are greater than indeed they are and lest any weak Opiniative persons should clamour unpeaceably against their Brethren and think to raise a name to themselves for their differing Notions I shall here give the Reader such evidences of our real Concord as shall silence that Calumny Though some few Lutherans did upon peevish suspiciousness against George Major long ago assert that good Works are not necessary to Salvation And though some few good men whose zeal without judgment doth better serve their own turn than the Churches are jealous lest all the good that is ascribed to Man be a dishonour to God and therefore speak as if God were honoured most by saying the worst words of our selves and many have uncomely and irregular Notions about these matters and though some that are addicted to sidings do take it to be their godly zeal to censure and reproach the more understanding Sort when they most grosly erre themselves And though too many of the people are carried about through injudiciousness and temptations to false Doctrines and evil lives yet is the Argument of Protestants thus manifested 1. They all affirm that Christ's Sacrifice with his Holiness and perfect Obedience are the Meritorious Cause of the forgiving Covenants and of our Pardon and Iustification thereby and of our right to Life Eternal which it giveth us And that this price was not paid or given in it self immediately to us but to God for us and so that our foresaid benefits are its effects 2. They agree that Christ's Person and ours were not really the same and therefore that the same Righteousness which is an Accident of one cannot possibly be an Accident of the other 3. They all detest the conceit that God should aver and repute a Man to have done that which he never did 4. They all agree that Christ's Sacrifice and Merits are really so effectual to procure our Pardon Justification Adoption and right to the sealing gift of the Holy Ghost and to Glory upon our Faith and Repentance that God giveth us all these benefits of the New Covenant as certainly for the sake of Christ and his Righteousness as if we had satisfied him and merited them our selves And that thus far Christ's Righteousness is ours in its effects and imputed to us in that we are thus used for it and shall be judged accordingly 5. They all agree that we are Justified by none but a Practical or working Faith 6. And that this Faith is the Condition of the Promise or Gift of Justification and Adoption 7. And that Repentance is a Condition also though as it is not the same with Faith as Repentance of unbelief is on another aptitudinal account even as a willingness to be cured and a willingness to take one for my Physitian and to trust him in the use of his Remedies are on several accounts the Conditions on which that Physitian will undertake the Cure or as willingness to return to subjection thankful acceptance of a purchased parden and of the Purchasers love and future Authority are the Conditions of a Rebels pardon 8. And they all agree that in the first instant of a Mans Conversion or Believing he is entered into a state of Justification before he hath done any outward works And that so it is true that good Works follow the justified and go not before his initial Iustification As also in the sense that Austin spake it who took Justification for that which we call Sanctification or Conversion 9. And they all agree that justifying Faith is such a receiving affiance as is both in the Intellect and the Will and therefore as in the Will participateth of some kind of love to the justifying Object as well as to Justification 10. And that no Man can choose or use Christ as a means so called in respect to his own intention to bring him to God the Father who hath not so much love to God as to take him for his Endâ—n the use of that means 11. And they agree that we shall be all judged according to our Works by the Rule of the Covenant of Grace though not for our Works by way of Commutative or Legal proper Merit And Iudging is the Genus whose Species is Iustifying and Condemning And to be judged according to our Works is nothing but to be Iustified or Condemned according to them 12. They all agree that no Man can possibly merit of God in point of Commutative Iustice nor yet in point of Distributive or Governing Iustice according to the Law of Nature or Innocency as Adam might have done nor by the Works of the Mosaical Law 13. They all agree that no Works of Mans are to be trusted in or pleaded but all excluded and the conceit of them abhorred 1. As they are feigned to be against or in stead of the free Mercy of God 2. As they are against or feigned instead of the Sacrifice Obedience Merit or Intercession of Christ. 3. Or as supposed to be done of our selves without the Grace of the Holy Ghost 4. Or as supposed falsly to be perfect 5. Or as supposed to have any of the aforedisclaimed merit 6. Or as materially consisting in Mosaical observances 7. Much more in any Superstitious Inventions 8. Or in any evil mistaken to be good 9. Or as any way inconsistent with the tenor of the freely pardoning Covenant In all these senses Justification by Works is disclaimed by all Protestants at least 14. Yet all agree that we are Created to good Works in Christ Jesus which God hath ordained that we should walk therein and that he that nameth the Name of Christ must depart from iniquity or else he hath not the Seal of God and that he that is born of God sinneth not that is predominantly And that all Christ's Members are holy purified zealous of good Works cleansing themselves from all filthiness of flesh and Spirit that they might perfect holyness in God's fear doing good to all Men as loving their Neighbours as themselves And that if any Man have not the Sanctifying Spirit of Christ he is none of his nor without holiness can see God 15. They all
judge reverently and charitably of the Antients that used the word Merit of good Works because they meant but a moral aptitude for the promised Reward according to the Law of Grace through Christ. 16. They confess the thing thus described themselves however they like not the name of Merit lest it should countenance proud and carnal conceits 17. They judge no Man to be Heretical for the bare use of that word who agreeth with them in the sense 18. In this sense they agree that our Gospel-obedience is such a necessary aptitude to our Glorification as that glory though a free gift is yet truly a Reward of this Obedience 19. And they agree that our final Justification by sentence at the day of Judgment doth pass upon the same Causes Reasons and Conditions as our Glorification doth 20. They all agree that all faithful Ministers must bend the labour of their Ministry in publick and private for promoting of Holiness and good Works and that they must diifference by discipline between the obedient and the disobedient And O! that the Papists would as zealously promote Holiness and good Works in the World as the true serious Protestants do whom they factiously and peevishly accuse as enemies to them and that the Opinion Disputing and name of good Works did not cheat many wicked persons into self-flattery and perdition while they are void of that which they dispute for Then would not the Mahometans and Heathens be deterred from Christianity by the wickedness of these nominal Christians that are near them Nor would the serious practice of that Christianity which themselves in general profess be hated scorned and persecuted by so many both Protestants and Papists nor would so many contend that they are of the true Religion while they are really of no Religion at all any further than the Hypocrites Picture and Carkass may be called Religion Were Men but resolved to be serious Learners serious Lovers and serious Practisers according to their knowledge and did not live like mockers of God and such as look towards the life to come in jest or unbelief God would vouchsafe them better acquaintance with the true Religion than most Men have Having prefaced this much for the rest I refer thee to the perusal of this Treatise which will give thee much light into the nature of the Gospel and especially help thee to the right understanding of the meaning of the Apostle Paul in all his Epistles about the Law the Gospel and the Justification of a sinner O pray and labour for A CONFIRMED PRACTICAL FAITH as daily doth Your fellow Disciple Ri. Baxter Iune 4th 1672. The chief Heads of Discourse 1. THe nature of the Promise to Abraham 2. Why the Law was added to the Promise 3. How those under the Law were saved 4. The nature of the Legal Covenant 5. The mistakes of Iews about the Law and Promise and how St. Paul counter-argues those mistakes 6. How St. Paul's Doctrine of Iustification by Faith and not by Works was then mistaken by some 7. That the Doctrine of St. Paul and of St. James about Faith and Works do not differ 8. With an APPENDIX touching the difference and the reason of the difference between saving and ineffectual Faith A DISCOURSE Of the Nature Ends and Difference OF THE TWO COVENANTS THe mistake of the unbelieving Iews about the true import of Gods Promise to Abraham and of the Law of Moses was a principal cause of their rejecting Christ and his Gospel and their own salvation thereby To rectifie which mistake the Apostle St. Paul used various reasonings according to the various Errors contained in it In which reasonings of his there being some things hard to be understood there were others again which probably mistaking the Apostles reasonings against the Jew-Jewish Notion of Justification by Works ran into a contrary extream thinking they might be saved by Faith without Works as on the contrary the incredulous Iews thought they might be saved by Works without Faith And if many in our dayes had not run into somewhat alike extream through a misunderstanding also of the Apostles writings labour and pains would not have been so necessary as now they are to rectify their mistake and to prevent it in others To the end therefore that the plain Truth may the better appear touching Gods promise to Abraham touching the Law of Moses and the Apostles arguings about these I shall very briefly endeavour these seven things 1. To open the Nature and Design of Gods promise to Abraham And to shew 2. For what ends the Law was added to the promise 3. By what Faith and Practice the Iews under the Law were saved 4. That the Law contained a Covenant different from that with Abraham 5. The grand mistakes of the unbelieving Jews and St. Paul's counter arguings touching both the Law and the Promise 6. The mistake of some pretended Christians in the Apostles days touching the Doctrine of Iustification by Faith without Works 7. That the Doctrine of St. Paul and St James about Faith and Works in reference to Iustification do not differ I shall begin with the first of these CHAP. I. The Nature and Design of Gods Promise to Abraham I Shall endeavour to open the Nature and Design of Gods Promise to Abraham Which Promise is also called the Covenant Act. 3. 25. Gal. 3. 17. In doing of which these eight things will come under consideration 1. What the nature of this Promise is in general 2. What the design of it is 3. What are the special benefits promised 4. What the extent of it is 5. The security given by God for the performance of it 6. That this Promise was conditional 7. What the condition of it was 8. What we are to understand by Gods accounting Abrahams Faith to him for Righteousness Sect. 1. Of the nature of it in general This Promise I take to be of the same nature with that which in the Gospel is called the New Covenant It 's true indeed they greatly differ in the Administration the one being but general implicite and obscure and the other more particular express and perspicuous But though in this they differ yet in their general nature they agree in one and are the same For 1. This Covenant as delivered to Abraham was confirmed in Christ as well as the Gospel afterwards Gal. 3. 17. and that 's a Character of the New Covenant Mat. 26. 28. 2. The Gospel is said to have been preached to Abraham in the Promise that was made him Gal. 3. 8. 3. He was justified by Faith which he could not have been but by vertue of a New Covenant And it was by Faith in the Promise made to him by God by which he was justified Which two things supposed it necessarily follows that that Promise was of the nature of the New Covenant 4. St. Paul argues against the erroneous Iews in his Epistles to the Romans and Galatians the necessity of Evangelical Faith unto justification