And therefore the punishment of those who would not follow him, was to lose their souls, i. e. their lives, Mark viii. 35-38, as is plain, considering the occasion it was spoke on.

The better to understand the law of faith, it will be convenient, in the first place, to consider the law of works. The law of works then, in short, is that law which requires perfect obedience, without any remission or abatement; so that, by that law, a man cannot be just, or justified, without an exact performance of every tittle. Such a perfect obedience, in the New Testament, is termed dixatorún, which we translate righteousness.

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The language of this law is, "Do this and live, transgress and die." Lev. xviii. 5, "Ye shall keep "my statutes and my judgments, which if a man do, "he shall live in them." Ezek. xx. 11, "I gave "them my statutes, and showed them my judgments, "which if a man do, he shall even live in them. "Moses, says St. Paul, Rom. x. 5, describeth the righteousness, which is of the law, that the man, "which doth these things, shall live in them." Gal. iii. 12, "The law is not of faith; but that man, that "doth them, shall live in them." On the other side, transgress and die; no dispensation, no atonement. Ver10," Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do "them."

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Where this law of works was to be found, the New Testament tells us, viz. in the law delivered by Moses, John i. 17, "The law was given by Moses, but grace "and truth came by Jesus Christ." Chap. vii. 19, "Did not Moses give you the law?" says our Saviour, "and yet none of you keep the law." And this is the law, which he speaks of, where he asks the lawyer, Luke x. 26, "What is written in the law? How readest "thou? ver. 28, This do, and thou shalt live." This is that which St. Paul so often styles the law, without any other distinction, Rom. ii. 13, "Not the hearers "of the law are just before God, but the doers of the "law are justified." "Tis needless to quote any more

places; his epistles are full of it, especially this of the Romans.

"But the law given by Moses, being not given to "all mankind, how are all men sinners; since, with"out a law, there is no transgression?" To this the apostle, ver. 14, answers, "For when the gentiles, "which have not the law, do (i. e. find it reasonable "to do) by nature the things contained in the law; "these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves; "which show the work of the law written in their "hearts; their consciences also bearing witness, and "amongst themselves their thoughts accusing or ex"cusing one another." By which, and other places in the following chapter, 'tis plain, that under the law of works, is comprehended also the law of nature, knowable by reason, as well as the law given by Moses. For, says St. Paul, Rom. iii. 9, 23, "We have proved both jews and gentiles, that they are all under sin: for all "have sinned, and come short of the glory of God:" which they could not do without a law.

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Nay, whatever God requires any-where to be done, without making any allowance for faith, that is a part of the law of works: so that forbidding Adam to eat of the tree of knowledge was part of the law of works. Only we must take notice here, that some of God's positive commands, being for peculiar ends, and suited to particular circumstances of times, places, and persons; have a limited and only temporary obligation by virtue of God's positive injunction; such as was that part of Moses's law, which concerned the outward worship or political constitution of the jews; and is called the ceremonial and judicial law, in contradistinction to the moral part of it; which being conformable to the eternal law of right, is of eternal obligation; and therefore remains in force still, under the gospel; nor is abrogated by the law of faith, as St. Paul found some ready to infer, Rom. iii. 31, "Do we then make "void the law, through faith? God forbid; yea we "establish the law."

Nor can it be otherwise: for, were there no law of works, there could be no law of faith. For there could

be no need of faith, which should be counted to men for righteousness; if there were no law, to be the rule and measure of righteousness, which men failed in their obedience to. Where there is no law, there is no sin; all are righteous equally, with or without faith.

The rule, therefore, of right, is the same that ever it was; the obligation to observe it is also the same: the difference between the law of works, and the law of faith, is only this: that the law of works makes no allowance for failing on any occasion. Those that obey are righteous; those that in any part disobey, are unrighteous, and must not expect life, the reward of righteousness. But, by the law of faith, faith is allowed to supply the defect of full obedience: and so the believers are admitted to life and immortality, as if they were righteous. Only here we must take notice, that when St. Paul says, that the gospel establishes the law, he means the moral part of the law of Moses; for that he could not mean the ceremonial, or political part of it, is evident, by what I quoted out of him just now, where he says, That the gentiles do, by nature, the things contained in the law, their consciences bearing witness. For the gentiles neither did, nor thought of, the judicial or ceremonial institutions of Moses; 'twas only the moral part their consciences were concerned in. As for the rest, St. Paul tells the Galatians, chap. iv. they are not under that part of the law, which ver. 3, he calls elements of the world; and ver. 9, weak and beggarly elements. And our Saviour himself, in this gospel sermon on the mount, tells them, Matt. v. 17, That, whatever they might think, he was not come to dissolve the law, but to make it more full and strict: for that which is meant byλnpras is evident from the following part of that chapter, where he gives the precepts in a stricter sense, than they were received in before. But they are all precepts of the moral law, which he re-inforces. What should become of the ritual law, he tells the woman of Samaria, in these words, John iv. 21, 23, "The hour cometh, when you shall, neither in "this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the "Father. But the true worshippers shall worship the

"Father in spirit and in truth; for the Father seeketh "such to worship him."

Thus then, as to the law, in short: the civil and ritual part of the law, delivered by Moses, obliges not christians, though, to the jews, it were a part of the law of works; it being a part of the law of nature, that man ought to obey every positive law of God, whenever he shall please to make any such addition to the law of his nature. But the moral part of Moses's law, or the moral law, (which is every-where the same, the eternal rule of right,) obliges christians, and all men, every-where, and is to all men the standing law of works. But christian believers have the privilege to be under the law of faith too; which is that law, whereby God justifies a man for believing, though by his works he be not just or righteous, i. e. though he come short.. of perfect obedience to the law of works. God alone does or can justify, or make just, those who by their works are not so: which he doth, by counting their faith for righteousness, i. e. for a complete performance of the law. Rom. iv. 3, "Abraham believed God, and "it was counted to him for righteousness." Ver. 5, "To him that believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness." Ver. 6, "Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputeth righteousness without "works;" i. e. without a full measure of works, which is exact obedience. Ver. 7, Saying, "Blessed are they "whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are co"vered." Ver. 8, "Blessed is the man, to whom the "Lord will not impute sin."

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This faith, for which God justified Abraham, what was it? It was the believing God, when he engaged his promise in the covenant he made with him. This will be plain to any one, who considers these places together, Gen. xv. 6, "He believed in the Lord, or be"lieved the Lord." For that the Hebrew phrase,

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believing in," signifies no more but believing, is plain from St. Paul's citation of this place, Rom. iv. 3, where he repeats it thus: "Abraham believed God,"

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which he thus explains, ver. 18-22, "Who against "hope believed in hope, that he might become the fa"ther of many nations: according to that which was spoken, So shall thy seed be. And, being not weak "in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, "when he was about an hundred years old, nor yet the deadness of Sarah's womb. He staggered not at the promise of God, through unbelief; but was strong " in faith giving glory to God. And being fully per"suaded, that what he had promised he was also able to

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perform. And therefore it was imputed to him for " righteousness." By which it is clear, that the faith which God counted to Abraham for righteousness, was nothing but a firm belief of what God declared to him ; and a steadfast relying on him, for the accomplishment of what he had promised.

"Now this," says St. Paul, ver. 23, 24, “was not "writ for his [Abraham's] sake alone, but for us also ;" teaching us, that as Abraham was justified for his faith, so also ours shall be accounted to us for righteousness, if we believe God, as Abraham believed him. Whereby it is plain is meant the firmness of our faith, without staggering, and not the believing the same propositions that Abraham believed; viz. that though he and Sarah were old, and past the time and hopes of children, yet he should have a son by her, and by him become the father of a great people, which should possess the land of Canaan. This was what Abraham believed, and was counted to him for righteousness. But nobody, I think, will say, that any one's believing this now, shall be imputed to him for righteousness. The law of faith then, in short, is for every one to believe what God requires him to believe, as a condition of the covenant he makes with him and not to doubt of the performance of his promises. This the apostle intimates in the close here, ver. 24, "But for us also, to whom it shall be

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imputed, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead." We must, therefore, examine and see what God requires us to believe now, under the revelation of the gospel; for the belief of one