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
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
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
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