Do this [thou finless man] and live: The [innocent] man that does these things, fhall live by them, Rom. x. 5. That is, "If thou [who art now a guiltlefs, holy and "perfect creature] yieldeft a conftant, univerfal, and

perfect obedience to the moral law," now fummed

up

it is, that God will give some, namely impenitent murderers, blood to drink, for they are worthy, they PROPERLY deferve it; while others, namely, penitent believers, shall walk with Chrift in white, for they are worthy, they IMPROPERLY merit it. Rev. xvi. 6. and iii. 4.

An illuftration taken from a leaden pipe full of water, may fhow how it is poffible, that unworthy man fhould become worthy, thro' the righteousness which Chrift fupplies believers with. Strictly fpeaking, water does not belong to a pipe, any more than merit or worthiness to a believer: for a pipe is only a number of dry fheets of lead foldered together: But if that dry, leaden pipe really receives fome of the water, which a river fupplies; I make myself ridiculous by afferting, that the man who hints, there is water in the pipe, confounds the elements, feeks to dry up the river, and is guilty of a dreadful philofophical herefy.

However, if our prepoffeffed brethren feel an invincible averfion to our Lord's word [atos] meriting, we are willing to become all things to them for his fake. If it may be a means of restoring tranquillity to their minds, we chearfully confent to use only the word of our tranflators worthy; and here I give full leave to my readers, whenever they meet the noun merit or the verb to merit in my Checks, to read worthiness inftead of the one, and to be worthy instead of the other. It may indeed puzzle unbiaffed perfons to find a difference bezween thole expreffions; but no matter. If others will expose their prejudice, we ought not only to maintain the truth, but to show our condefcenfion. The word Merit is abfolutely nothing to Mr. Wefley and me; but the doctrine of faithful obedience in Chrift, and of the gracious rewards with which it shall be crowned for his fake, contains all our duty on earth, and draws after it all our blifs in heaven. Therefore, only grant us truly the fecond gofpel-axiom :grant us, that God has not appointed his creatures to endless punishments and heavenly rewards out of mere caprice :-grant us, that, while the wicked fhall PROPERLY and LEGALLY DESERVE their own (and not Adam's) place in hell, the righteous fhall improperly and evangelically BE WORTHY TO OBTAIN THAT WORLD, where they shall be equal to the angels, Luke xx. 35:- grant us that man is in a state of probation, and shall be recompenfed for, and according to what he has done in the body, whether it be good or bad: In a word, grant us the capital doctrine of a day of retribution, in which God fhall judge the world in wisdom and righteousness, not in folemn folly or fatanical hypocrify; and we afk no more. - This note is a key to all the doctrines, which we maintain in the Minutes, and explain in the Checks.

up in the ten commandments, "thou shalt be reward"ed with glory and heaven. But if thou faileft in

any one particular, whether it be in thought, word, "or deed, thou shalt furely die, Gen. ii. 17, for the foul "that finneth it fhall die, Ez. xviii. 4. The wages of fin is death, Rom. vi. 23. And curfed is every one, "that continueth not in ALL things, written in the book "of the law to do them," Gal. iii. 10.

Nor does this covenant make any allowance for deficiencies, or pafs by one tranfgreffion great or little, without pronouncing the threatened curfe; [for it made no provifion for repentance, neither did it offer finners the help of a facrificing prieft, or interceding mediator.] Whether therefore the fin be murder and adultery, or only eating fome forbidden fruit, its language is, † Whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all, James ii. 10. That is, All the curfes denounced against thofe, who break the covenant of works, hang upon his guilty head, [and will fall upon him in a degree proportionable to the aggravations of his fin.]

This first covenant we have all broken in our first parents, for [in Adam all die] — By one man fin entered into the world, and death by fin; and fo death passed upon all men, for that all have finned, Rom. v, 12. We are then all born [or conceived] in fin; Pfalm li. 5; and` confequently we are by nature children of wrath, Eph. ii. 3. But this is not all: this root of original fin, produces in every man many actual iniquities, whereby, as we imitate Adam's rebellion, fo we make the guilt of it our own, and faften the curfe attending that guilt upon our own fouls. Rom. vii. 24.

Therefore, while we remain in our natural fate, [or, to fpeak more intelligibly, while we continue in fin,

(6) + Whoever reads the fcriptures without prejudice, will be of Mr. Burgefs's mind concerning this awful text. [fee IVth Check, P. 42.] It was evidently spoken with reference to Chrift's law of liberty, as well as fome of the paffages quoted in the preceding paragraph and if they guard even that law; how much more the law of innocence, which, tho' it cannot be holier in its precepts, is yet much more peremptory in its curfes !

fin, guilt, and total impenitency; we not only trample the covenant of grace under foot, but] we ftand upon the [broken] covenant of works; and confequently lie under the dreadful curfe, which is already denounced against every tranfgreffor of the law, Gal. 3, 10, [as well as against every defpifer of the gospel, Heb. x. 27.]

Hence it is that, by the deeds of the law, i. e. by the [unfprinkled] good works commanded in the law [of innocence; or by the ceremonies prefcribed in the law of Mofes,] fhall no flesh living [no finner] be juftified: for as many as are of the works of the law, [as it stands oppofed to the gofpel; yea, as many alfo as reft, like the impenitent pharifees, in the letter of the Mofaic law,] are under the curfe; the Scripture having concluded all under fin, [i. e. teftified that all are finners by conception and practice] and confequently under the curfe [of the first covenant,] that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty [i. e. may humbly confefs their fallen and loft eftate] before God, [and gladly accept his offers of mercy in the fecond covenant.] Rom. 3, 19, 20.

In this deplorable ftate of guilt and danger, we [generally] remain careless and infenfible, [when we have once taken to the ways of vanity] making what we call "the mercy of God" a pack-horse [if I may use fo coarse an expreffion] to carry us and our fins to heaven, upon the filthy rags † of our own [pharifaic] righteousness. Here we continue, till divine grace awakens us, by the preaching of the gofpel, or by fome other means. Eph. v. 14. Being then roused to a ferious confideration of our fallen ftate in Adam, and to a fenfibility of the curfe which we lie under, thro' our numerous breaches of [the fecond, as well as of] the first covenant; after many fruitlefs attempts to remove that curfe, by fulfilling the law [of innocence;] after many [faithlefs] endeavours to fave ourfelves by our own [anti-evangelical] works, and righteoufnefs, we despair at laft of getting to hea

E

(7) Here that expreffion is ufed in the fcriptural fense,

ven,

ven, by building a babel with the untempered mortar of our own [fancied] fincerity, and the bricks of our wretched good works, [or rather of our fplendid fins.] And leaving the impaffable road of the covenant of works, we begin to feek [as condemned criminals] the way, which God's free mercy has opened for loft finners in Jefus Chrift. A&ts ii. 37. Phil. iii. 6. &c.

This new and living way [for I may call it by the name which the apoftle emphatically gives to the last difpenfation of the gofpel] Heb. x. 19, 20, is the new covenant, the covenant of grace [in its various editions or difpenfations. For, if the Chriftian edition is called new in oppofition to the Jewish, all the editions. together may well be] called new, in oppofition to the old covenant, the covenant of works [made with Adam before the fall.] It is alfo termed gospel, that is, glad tidings, becaufe [+ with different degrees of evidence] it brings comfortable news of free falvation in Christ, to all that fee they are undone in themselves.

The

(8)†This, and the preceding clauses are added, to guard the doctrine of the gospel-difpenfations, of which I had but very confused views eleven years ago. See third Check, p. 10, &c. Leaning then too much towards Calvinifm, I fancied, at times at least, that the gofpel was confined within the narrow channel of its laft difpenfation; which was as abfurd as if I had conceited, that the fwell of our rivers at high water, is all the ocean. But turning to my bible, and "re» viewing the whole affair," I clearly fee, that the Jewish and Christian gofpel are not the everlasting gofpel, but only two of its brightest difpenfations. Should the reader afk me what I mean by the everlafting gofpel, when I confider it in its full latitude: I answer, that I mean with St. Paul, The riches of God's goodness, forbearance, and long Juffering, leading men to repentance for Chrift's fake, who in all ages is the Saviour of the world. Yea, and the fevere strokes of his gra, cious providence driving them to it. dare not infinuate, that Jonah, one of the most fuccefstul preachers in the world, was not a gospelpreacher, when he ftirred up all the people of Niniveh to repentance, by the fear of impending deftruction; and that St. John the divine was a ftranger to true divinity, when he gave us the following account of the manner, in which a celestial Evangelift preached the everlasting gofpel. I farv an other angel having the EVERLASTING GOSPEL to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and

kindred

The fecond covenant then, or the gofpel, is a difpenfation of free grace and mercy [not only to little children, of whom is the kingdom of heaven, but alfo] to poor, loft, helpless finners, who, feeing and feeling themselves condemned by the law [of inno cence,] and utterly unable to obtain juftification upon the terms of the FIRST Covenant, come to [a merciful God thro'] Jefus Chrift [the light of men, according to the helps afforded them in the difpenfation, which they are under,] to feek in him [and from him thofe merits and] that righteoufnefs, which they have not in themselves. For the Son of God, being both God and man in one perfon; and by the invaluable facrifice of himself upon the cross, having fuffered the punishment due to all our breaches of the law [of works;] and by his most holy life having anfwered all the demands of the + FIRST covenant, God can be

kindred, and tongue, and people, [Here is free grace 1] faying with a loud voice: Fear God, and give glory to bim, for the bour of his judg ment, as well as of his mercy, is come: and worship him that made beaven and earth, and the fea, and the fountains of waters. Here is, if I am not mistaken, the gofpel according to which many fhall come from the east and from the weft, and fhall fit down at the heavenly feast with the Father of the faithful, when the unloving Pharifees fhall be thruft out, notwithstanding their great ado about abfolute election. This note will probably touch the apple of my reader's eye, if he is a rigid predeftinarian. But if he is offended, I intreat him to confider, whether his love does not bear fome refemblance to the charity of thofe ftrong predeftinarians of old, thofe monopolizers of God's election, who defpifed poor finners of the Gentiles. How violent was their prejudice! They vaftly admired our Lord's fermon at Nazareth, till he touched the fore that feftered in their ftrait-laced breast. But no fooner did he infinuate, that their election was not yet made fure, and that the poor Pagan widow of Sarepta, and Naaman the Syrian were not abfolute reprobates; than they were filled with wrath, and rofe up, and thrust him out of the city, and led him to the brow of the bill, that they might caft bim down headlong. He had touched their great Diana, and therefore, to be fute, he had committed the unpardonable fin; he had spoken treafon, herefy, blafphemy. See Luke iv. 28.

(9) † Altho' there were fome very unguarded paffages in my original fermon, yet, what was unguarded in one place, was in a great degree guarded in another. Thus even in this paragraph, which is the first that Mr. Hill produces in his extract, by faying that Chrift

bas