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
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
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
Ages there is yet no Remedy tendred by this Law to prevent his being eternally miserable Yes for all this such a Command of Repentance in the Moral Law is not only to great purpose but absolutely necessary for to own to God with Shame and Sorrow the Injury we have done him by our Sins is a Duty which we owe to him our offended Soveraign tho he had never promis'd to forgive us nay tho he had plainly declar'd that he would never be reconcil'd It is a Duty then to which Adam after his Fall was bound by the same Law which he obey'd in his Innocency to which he was bound when amaz'd with all the Horrors of a despairing Mind looking for nothing but Vengeance and Ruin from the Anger and arm'd Power of the Almighty It is a Duty to which he was tied before any new Covenant of Grace made and before God had reveal'd any Thoughts of Favour to him or any Purposes of Grace in that first Promise of the Seed of the Woman breaking the Serpent's Head If then it was Adam's Duty to repent before he had receiv'd any Promises of Mercy there must be some Precept obliging him to it since that and Duty mutually infer one another no Precept could it be of the Gospel for that was not yet proclaim'd and therefore it must be the proper Precept of the Moral Law which was the thing to be prov'd If any one will peremptorily deny Repentance to have been Adam's Duty before God had promis'd Mercy the same Person must consequently assert that it was no Fault in him to run from God that he did very well in excusing himself in throwing the great Part of the Guilt upon God in standing upon his own Justification and that if he had continued an obdurate harden'd Wretch if he had acted as a bold desperate Rebel and instead of confessing his Crimes and expressing his Sorrow had further dar'd and out-brav'd offended Justice he had been innocent in all this and had not in the least broken any Precept of the Law nor transgress'd the Bounds of his Duty For if Repentance was not commanded before the Gospel publish'd then the worst Impenitence in Adam would have been no Sin because forbidden by no Law I know very well that Arminius boldly affirms all this That the Covenant of Works being broken the Law was abrogated too and that God no longer required Obedience from his sinful Creature till he brought in a new Law which is the Gospel commanding Faith and Repentance and that God accepts this Obedience to the Precepts of this his new Law instead of perfect Obedience to the old violated Moral Law But I know too very well that most prodigious and amazing Absurdities will be the natural Products of this monstrous Opinion It will follow that the first Sin dethron'd God not only out of Man's Heart but out of his Seat of Majesty in Heaven too until to regain his Crown and Dominion and for the recovery of his lost Sovereign Power he was forced to condescend to treat with his Rebels upon lower Terms and to propose a new and milder Law accommodated to the weaker Circumstances of their State Thus God loseth his Soveraignty by the Disobedience of his Creature and his Laws signified so little that they were all repeal'd and disannull'd when Man would observe them no longer And who can once think that the Great God should lose his Power to command when his Creatures refus'd any more to obey him and that Man by becoming a Rebel should cease to be a Subject and that therefore a new Law giving new Precepts and proposing other more moderate Conditions was absolutely needful to adjust the desperate Affair and to set all things right again Adam also by his Fall having according to the Assertion of Arminius broken all Ties and Bonds of Obedience if before the Promulgation of the Gospel or new Law to him he had blasphem'd God had sworn and forsworn had dissembled kindness to his Wife with the deepest Oaths while he had nothing in his Heart but Thoughts of Malice and Designs of Revenge against her for betraying him to ruin had most barbarously murder'd her and afterward kill'd himself he yet had not sinned in all this because before the new Law given he was oblig'd to no Duty Believe this who will for my part I cannot And now what is the Ground of this desperate Assertion Why truly only this That because the Law once broken there were no longer any Promises made to the Obedience of a Sinner therefore the Covenant between God and Man was entirely vacated and so the Sinner was no longer bound to obey till a new Law came with other Precepts of Faith and making Promises to lower degrees of Duty and then upon this new Account the Creature stands bound again Now all this is founded upon one grand Mistake which is that our Obedience to God is establish'd upon his Covenant with us and that the only Tie upon us are Promises or Threatnings Whereas our Duty to God immediately results from the infinite Greatness of his Being which is therefore supream and hath an undoubted Right to command and from the unalterable Relation of a Creature to his Maker So that Adam as soon as he had Existence was presently bound to obey God in all that he would command him tho he had made no Promise to him of any Reward And if God had plac'd him in a dismal Desart instead of settling him in Paradise if he had sharpen'd his Life with Sorrows and Miseries in the room of those Blessings and Comforts which he enjoy'd yet he might have commanded him all that he pleas'd and it would have been his Duty to have paid a ready Obedience And this clears the Difficulty lying in our way that tho the Law made no Promises to Sinners as the Gospel doth yet that hinders it not from commanding and engaging them to repent for by what I have prov'd it appears that Promises do not lay the Foundation of a Duty but are only the Encouragements of it Well then tho Adam saw not any thing in the Law to renew Life to a Penitent Offender tho he could not read in it one Syllable of a Pardon yet the same Law which requir'd Obedience of him commanded after he had sinn'd to repent and return to his Duty tho he had no hopes of succeeding in it and had no assurance that a justly provoked and angry God would forgive and descry'd not the least Promise shining in Heaven to favour him And as it was Adam's Duty to repent so it is the Duty of all Men now living upon Earth A Duty to which Heathens who are not under the Dispensation of the Gospel to whom this new-stil'd Law never came who never heard a word of its pretended Precepts or real Promises are indispensably oblig'd Whence have they this binding Precept of Repentance From the Gospel How can that be when the least Sound of it never
arriv'd to their Ears It must therefore necessarily be a Precept and Command of the Moral Law to them which more or less is manifested to all even the most savage and barbarous Nations of the Earth The Design and Office of the Law doth also manifest that the Precept of Repentance doth properly belong to it For it was not only appointed as a Rule of Obedience to Adam but God certainly knowing that Man would fall into a State of Sin and Death intended the Law for the Conviction of Sinners to shew them their Sinfulness and Danger Rom. 3. 19 20. Now we know that what things soever the Law saith it saith to them who are under the Law that every Mouth may be stopped and all the World may become guilty before God Therefore by the Deeds of the Law there shall no Flesh be justified in his sight for by the Law is the Knowledg of Sin Rom. 7. 7. He design'd it to rouse and alarm the poor negligent Creatures And now if it convinceth them of Sin its malignant Nature and direful Effects it consequently tells them that it is their Duty to bewail their Miscarriages which bring all Miseries upon them and to reform their evil Courses and to turn from Sin to God This the Law preacheth to Men and these are the natural Dictates of it in their Consciences and it is impossible to perswade them till God comes with the Power of his Grace and works Faith against putting their Confidence in their Sorrow and repenting to obtain Pardon by it and against trusting to their Resolutions of living better for the future and against their fond Presumption of being justified for their endeavours of Amendment These legal Principles are natural in Men they arise not from the Gospel for that instructs us to put our whole and entire Confidence in Christ and his Righteousness alone they must then spring from the Law and consequently Repentance which this Law not only urgeth Men unto but moveth them to build their Hopes of Life upon it must be one of its Precepts The Law commands it the Gospel as a Proclamation of Grace and an Offer of Pardon only invites and encourageth it Thus it is sufficiently prov'd that Sinners were by the Moral Law oblig'd to own their Sins with the most bewailing Expressions of Grief tho that Law gave them no Encouragement and Hope and that Adam after his Fall was engag'd to this Sorrow and Contrition before any promise of Pardon and Acceptance tendred If we now consider the other and chiefest part of Repentance it will be evident that this was not only requir'd of the Father of Mankind fallen but that it was his Duty and what he practis'd in all the time of his Innocence and flourishing Condition For what is Repentance mainly but an hearty abhorrence of Sin join'd with a most careful Avoidance of it and a most firm Resolution against it Now this was as surely in Adam when continuing the same upright Creature which God had made him as it is certain that then he was holy Holiness and hatred of Sin being altogether inseparable and therefore unless we will suppose our first Father to have been unholy in his original Being we must not doubt of his daily acting of this principal and most considerable part of Repentance I call it so because it is that which to bring forth the other is appointed for we are not commanded to mourn and to bewail our Follies and Miscarriages meerly for the sake of vexing and tormenting our selves or as if by the inward Anguish of our Souls we were to do Penance to pacify a displeased God but all this trouble of Mind for Sin is intended and requir'd to imbitter it to us and to render us vile in our own Eyes and to throw us humbled before the Throne of Grace For tho we are Sinners and poor and miserable yet we are naturally proud and therefore a Sense of our Sin and Misery is requisite to bring down our haughty Spirits tho we also daily feel the dismal Mischiefs of Sin yet our deprav'd Natures render us too prone and readily inclin'd unto it and therefore a piercing Sorrow is necessary to bring us to that true Repentance of which I am speaking which consists in hating Sin and turning from it It is but needful that an aking Wound make us sensible of the malignant Mischief of Sin to render it the Object of our highest Aversion Well then it is hatred of Sin and an hearty resistance of it which is the last and chiefest Act of Repentance since our Sorrow is design'd only to produce this Effect and so after all to hate Sin and most carefully to avoid it is most truly to repent of it And this Repentance our first Father even in his Innocence acted to a higher degree than we do since his detestation of Sin was greater and till the sad Moments of his Fall he opposed it more firmly and successfully But it will be objected Repentance supposeth the Person to have sinn'd and therefore a Precept of it to Adam in his Uprightness was altogether needless No not at all for a Precept to oblige Man to what is due and just is necessary for him in every Condition and nothing can be more due than to acknowledg a Wrong done And what is Repentance but an hearty owning and lamenting the highest Injury offer'd to God by our Sins And besides God in making a Law gave such a perfect Rule as was sufficient to bind Man to his Duty in all Circumstances of his Case and therefore it was not only modell'd to oblige him to perfect Obedience but to ingage him to repent when he had fail'd of his Duty Well but some may argue against what I before said concerning Faith's being a Precept of the Original Law given to Adam that tho it is true that Faith in God is required in the first Commandment yet there is no Faith in a Redeemer express'd What then It is yet plainly implied since this our Redeemer is God and therefore a general Command to trust on God at all Times and according to the various Necessities of our State must include a Precept to believe on Christ the Redeemer when the sad State of our Case doth require it Ay but the Law will they object was given to Man in Innocence and therefore only tied him to such Acts of Obedience as were proper to that Condition and therefore such Duties which result from Man's being a Sinner such as Faith and Repentance were not inclos'd within the compass of this Law Yes but they were and that for the same Reason as such Duties which arise from the present Relations which Men bear to one another which are the Consequents of Adam's Fall are comprehended in the Precepts of the Moral Law By this a Slave is obliged to perform Service to his Master and yet if Man had not sinned there had been no such thing as Slavery By this also Judges are bound
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
upon the Condition of Obedience to it and yet at the same time convinceth the poor wretched Sinner of his own utter Disability to perform it It is then the pure Doctrine of Grace encouraging the Soul to trust and hope in Christ by directing him to that perfect Saviour for Pardon and Righteousness and Life which is in the properest Sense the converting Law And this Virtue and Efficacy our Lord Christ appropriates to his Gospel John 17. 17. Sanctify them through thy Truth thy Word is Truth By Truth there is more emphatically meant the Doctrine of Free Grace which Christ was sent into the World to teach unto Men and this and this only is the effectual Means which God useth to turn Sinners to himself and really to sanctify them And in other places where David the Man after God's own Heart because of that Evangelical Spirit which was in him speaks of the Delight which he took in God's Law and the inconceivable Pleasure which sprung up in his Soul when his Thoughts were employ'd in meditating on it by the word Law he understands the Gospel and that not as a new Law of Works but a Doctrine of Grace For as such it reveals those astonishing Mysteries concerning the Redeemer and makes those surprising Discoveries of Grace which only are capable of giving that pleasing entertainment of Mind which the Psalmist so much magnifies as having enjoy'd it in his own Thus in Psal 119. 97 98. O how love I thy Law it is my Meditation all the Day Thou through thy Commandments hast made me wiser than mine Enemies for they are ever with me Where it is evident that he speaks of a Doctrine by the Knowledg of which he had arrived to a higher Degree of the most excellent Wisdom than any who lived in the same Age and Nation with him a Wisdom which he pursued with the most eager and inquisitive Search and the discovery of one Mystery did but animate him to an impatient enquiry after more and make him earnest in his Petitions that God would reveal to him higher Measures of that admirable and most useful Knowledg Psal 119. 18. Open thou mine Eyes that I may behold wondrous Things out of thy Law By which especially is meant as Mr. Clark very well remarks the Mysteries of the Gospel Here then we have the Gospel called a Law not as a System of Precepts or a Statute-Book of a new Edition but as it at once instructs and amazes us in the Wonders of our Redemption and affects our Hearts with the thoughts of the Redeemer's Love When the Psalmist also expresses those refreshing Comforts which slow'd into his Soul from the inexhaustible Spring of God's tender Mercies he useth the same word Law and consequently means by it not a Doctrine of Works which can in no sense give any Solace to a guilty Mind but a Doctrine of Grace such as the Gospel which display'd those Riches of Grace to the Psalmist's Sight and in which he so chearfully hop'd and rejoic'd Psal 119. 77. Let thy tender Mercies come unto me that I may live for thy Law is my Delight i. e. Let me experience thy tender Mercies let me feel my own Part and Interest in them that I may live joyfully for my most fervent Desire O Lord is to search into the Depths of thy Mercy and Love and therefore my whole Delight is in that Word of Truth which contains these inestimable Treasures of thy Mercy and exposeth them all open to the view of my Faith Thus again the Gospel is called a Law but no otherwise than as it is a comfortable Instruction to poor convinc'd Sinners what Riches of Mercy there are in store and as it teacheth them how they may trust and hope in the God of all Grace In another place we read the Psalmist informing us what supported his Spirit under inward Troubles and outward Afflictions which oppress'd him And what was it but the Law of God not the Precepts or Commands for how could they have sustain'd his sinking Spirit since they only tell us our Duty but offer us no help in the sad Circumstances of our Case They shew us indeed what God would have us to do but declare nothing what he will do for us and so discover not any support to our languid Spirits fainting under a Calamity This is the Nature and the proper and peculiar Office of the Promises and the Gospel consequently as a Body of them is called by the Psalmist a Law in which he delighted because it thus sustained him under his Afflictions Psal 119. 92. Vnless thy Law had been my Delights I should then have perished in mine Affliction A Law that is as the before-mentioned judicious Annotator observes the whole Word of God chiefly the Promises of Support and Deliverance If we consider those Places which are more expresly urg'd to prove the Gospel to be a new Law it will appear that they only evince it to be a new Doctrine of Grace As 1. That clear Place in the Prophet Esa where by Law is expressed solely the Doctrine of Grace in the Gospel 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 It is manifestly the Design of the Prophet in the first and second Verses to shew how large a Church not straiten'd within the narrow Confines of Judea but spreading through all Nations of the Universe should be gathered and established Then he tells us by what Way and Means such a great and wonderful Work should be accomplished Christ doth not raise Armies to subdue the Earth to himself nor come to give new Laws to the conquered People but he sends his Apostles to preach the glad Tidings of Salvation by him And the Light of this glorious Doctrine of Grace breaks forth from Zion with such Swiftness and Violence as suddenly to illuminate all Parts of the Earth and with a ravishing Sweetness irresistibly to draw every Mind and Heart whom God hath appointed to Salvation to assent to it and embrace it ver 3. It is the Doctrine of Grace alone and not any new Precepts or Commands or any new Sanction of a Law which carries in it so admirable Force able to produce these astonishing Effects This is the Law which goes forth out of Zion so succesfully It is the Doctrine of Grace which is thus victorious and invincibly prevails when the Doctrine of Works in the Experience of many Ages could not subject one stubborn Sinner to God's Kingdom nor make one stiff and hardened Heart to bow to his Scepter of Righteousness And that by the Law out of Zion he means this effectual Doctrine of the Gospel the next words And the Word of the Lord from Jerusalem