afked, Luke x. 25. What he should do to inherit eternal life? Do this," i. e. what is required by the law, " and thou fhalt live."

On the other fide, it seems the unalterable purpose of the divine justice, that no unrighteous perfon, no one that is guilty of any breach of the law, fhould be in paradife but that the wages of fin fhould be to every man, as it was to Adam, an exclufion of him out of that happy ftate of immortality, and bring death upon him. And this is fo conformable to the eternal and established law of right and wrong, that it is spoken of too, as if it could not be otherwife. St. James fays, chap. i. 15, "Sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth

death," as it were, by a natural and neceffary production. "Sin entered into the world, and death by "fin," fays St. Paul, Rom. v. 12: and vi. 23, "The

II.

wages of fin is death." Death is the purchase of any, of every fin. Gal. iii. re. "Curfed is every one, "who continueth not in all things, which are written "in the book of the law to do them." And of this St. James gives a reafon, chap. ii. 10, 11. "Whosoever "fhall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all: for he that faid, Do not "commit adultery, faid alfo, Do not kill:" i. e. he that offends in any one point, fins against the authority which eftablished the law.

Here then we have the ftanding and fixed measures of life and death. Immortality and bliss belong to the righteous; those who have lived in an exact conformity to the law of God, are out of the reach of death; but an exclufion from paradife and lofs of immortality is the portion of finners; of all thofe, who have any way broke that law, and failed of a complete obedience to it, by the guilt of any one tranfgreffion. And thus mankind by the law, are put upon the iffues of life or death, as they are righteous or unrighteous, juft or unjust, i. e. exact performers or tranfgreffors of the law.

But yet, all having finned," Rom. iii, 23. "And come short of the glory of God," i. e. the kingdom "of God in heaven, (which is often called his glory) "both Jews and Gentiles;" ver. 22. fo that, "by the "deeds

"deeds of the law," no one could be justified, ver. 20. it follows, that no one could then have eternal life and blifs.

Perhaps, it will be demanded,

Why did God give "fo hard a law to mankind, that to the apostle's time, no one of Adam's iffue had kept it? As appears by "Rom. iii. and Gal. iii. 21, 22."

Anfw. It was fuch a law as the purity of God's nature required, and must be the law of fuch a creature as man; unless God would have made him a rational creature, and not required him to have lived by the law of reafon; but would have countenanced in him irregularity and disobedience to that light which he had, and that rule which was fuitable to his nature; which would have been to have authorised disorder, confufion, and wickednefs in his creatures: for that this law was the law of reason, or, as it is called, of nature; we shall fee by and by: and if rational creatures will not live up to the rule of their reason, who shall excuse them? If you will admit them to forfake reason in one point, why not in another? Where will you stop? To disobey God in any part of his commands, (and 'tis he that commands what reafon does) is direct rebellion; which, if dispensed with in any point, government and order are at an end; and there can be no bounds fet to the lawless exorbitancy of unconfined man. The law therefore was, as St. Paul tells us, Rom. vii. 12, holy, juft, and good," and such as it ought, and could not otherwife be.

This then being the cafe, that whoever is guilty of any fin fhould certainly die, and cease to be; the benefit of life, restored by Christ at the resurrection, would have been no great advantage, (for as much as, here again, death must have seized upon all mankind, becaufe all had finned; for the wages of fin is every where death, as well after as before the refurrection) if God had not found out a way to justify fome, i. e. so many as obeyed another law, which God gave; which in the New Testament is called "the law of faith," Rom. iii. 27. and is opposed to "the law of works." And therefore the punishment of thofe, who would not fol

low

low him, was to lofe their fouls, i. e. their lives, Mark viii. 35-38. as is plain, confidering the occafion it was spoke on.

The better to understand the law of faith, it will be convenient, in the first place, to confider the law of works. The law of works then, in fhort, is that law which requires perfect obedience, without any remiffion or abatement; fo that, by that law, a man cannot be juft, or juftified, without an exact performance of every tittle. Such a perfect obedience, in the New Teftament, is termed dinatoσúvn, which we tranflate righteousness.

The language of this law is, "Do this and live, "tranfgrefs and die." Lev. xviii. 5. "Ye fhall keep my statutes and my judgments, which if a man do, "he fhall live in them." Ezek. xx. II. "I gave "them my ftatutes, and fhowed them my judgments, "which if a man do, he fhall even live in them. "Mofes, fays St. Paul, Rom. x. 5, defcribeth the

righteousness, which is of the law, that the man, "which doth thofe things, fhall live in them." Gal. iii. 12. "The law is not of faith; but that man, that "doth them, fhall live in them." On the other fide, tranfgrefs and die; no difpenfation, no atonement. ver. 10. "Curfed is every one that continueth not in "all things, which are written in the book of the law "to do them."

Where this law of works was to be found, the New Teftament tells us, viz. in the law delivered by Mofes. John i. 17. "The law was given by Mofes, but grace "and truth came by Jefus Chrift." Chap. vii. 19. "Did not Mofes give you the law?" fays 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 readeft "thou? ver. 28. This do, and thou shalt live." This is that which St. Paul so often styles the law, without any other diftinction, 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;

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

"But the law given by Mofes, being not given to "all mankind, how are all men finners; fince, with"out a law, there is no tranfgreffion?" To this the apostle, ver. 14, anfwers, " 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; "thefe, having not the law, are a law unto themselves: " which fhow the work of the law written in their "hearts; their confciences alfo bearing witness, and

amongst themselves their thoughts accufing or excufing one another." By which, and other places in the following chapter, 'tis plain, that under the law of works, is comprehended alfo the law of nature, knowable by reason, as well as the law given by Moses. For, fays St. Paul, Rom. iii. 9, 23. "We have proved "both jews and gentiles, that they are all under fin : "For all have finned, and come short of the glory of "God:" which they could not do without a law.

Nay, whatever God requires any where to be done, without making any allowance for faith, that is a part of the law of works: fo 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 pofitive commands, being for peculiar ends, and fuited to particular circumftances of times, places, and perfons; have a limited and only temporary obligation, by virtue of God's pofitive injunction; fuch as was that part of Mofes's law, which concerned the outward worship, or political conftitution of the jews; and is called the ceremonial and judicial law, in contradiftinction to the moral part of it; which being conformable to the eternal law of right, is of eternal obligation; and therefore remains in force ftill, under the gofpel;, nor is abrogated by the law of faith, as St. Paul' found fome ready to infer, Rom. iii. 31. "Do we then "make void the law, through faith? God forbid; yea, "we eftablish the law."

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

could

could be no need of faith, which fhould be counted to men for righteoufnefs; 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 fin; all are righteous equally, with or without faith.

The rule, therefore, of right, is the fame that ever it was; the obligation to obferve 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 occafion. Thofe that

obey are righteous; thofe that in any part disobey, are unrighteous, and must not expect life, the reward of righteoufnefs. But, by the law of faith, faith is allowed to fupply 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 fays, that the gospel establishes the law, he means the moral part of the law of Mofes; 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 fays, That the gentiles do, by nature, the things contained in the law, their confciences bearing witness. For the gentiles neither did, nor thought of, the judicial or ceremonial inftitutions of Mofes; 'twas only the moral part their confciences were concerned in. As for the reft, 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 himfelf, in his gofpel fermon on the mount, tells them, Matt. v. 17. That, whatever they might think, he was not come to diffolve the law, but to make it more full and ftrict: for that that is meant by wanpwoai is evident from the following part of that chapter, where he gives the precepts in a ricter fenfe, than they were received in before. But But they are all precepts of the moral law, which he re-inforces. What fhould become of the ritual law, he tells the woman of Samaria, in these words, John iv. 21, 23. " The hour cometh, when you fhall, neither in this mountain,

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