thereof, by which life and juflification is to be obtained: for no new law can mend the matter; because men remain under the firength of fin, by virtue of the old law, and in that condition cannot be juftified by any law of God, being unable to perform any. Some cloud and darken the gospel, by making it a new or milder law, requiring faith, and repentance, and new obedience, inflead of the perfect obedience required in the covenant of works. The gofpel, properly fpeaking, is no law, but a promife and it might be eafily evinced, that faith, repentance, and new obedience, are fo far from being eafier or milder terms, that they are harder conditions to us, in our lapfed ftate, than perfect obedience was to Adam in a ftate of innocence. And fo the apoftle argues against any fuch new law; Gal. iii. 21. "If there had been a law given, which could have given life, verily righte oufnefs fhould have been by the law;" or, as it may be read, "Verily righteoufnefs fhould have been by a law." But there is no fuch law given to fallen man, as could give life to him; therefore, there is no righteoufnefs, juftification, to be had by a law, but by a promise; no life by any new law, but by a new promife of mercy and grace in Chrift Jefus; "By the works of the law, no flesh living can be juftified. Eternal life is the gift of God, through Christ Jefus our Lord.” 3. Hence fee, that there is no juftification before God, partly by the law, and partly by the gofpel; or 'partly by our own righteoufnefs, and partly by the righteoufnefs of Chrift: for, as this detracts from the glory, fufficiency, and perfection of Chrift's righteoufnefs; fo it renders our juftification lame and imperfect, and confequently void and null: for if the law be the strength of fin, and gives it a commanding and condemning power; then, till the law be fatisfied, with a perfonal, perfect, and everlasting righteoufnefs, the ftrength of fin remains, and fo the man under it remains under condemnation. Why, the obedience of two put together, to make up a perfect obedience, is vain: for, in that cafe, the obedience both of the one and the other is imperfect, and fo not conform to the law; therefore cannot cannot be accepted for righteoufnefs; fo that they who would be juftified before God, muft either bring to him a perfect and perfonal righteoufnefs of their own, and wholly renounce Chrift; or elfe they muft bring the perfect, perfonal righteousness of Chrift, and wholly renounce their own. It is one of the moft foul-ruining delufions among the generality of profeffors in our day, that they are guilty of fpiritual Bigamy; they think they must have two hufbands, Chrift and the law both; they fuppofe that their own duties and righteoufnefs will not do their bufinefs alone without Chrift's merit and righteousness, which they hope will make amends, and make up what is wanting, and wherein they are deficient; and fo his and theirs together is the ground of their hope this is a popery, which makes Chrift's righteoufnefs only a footftool on which felf-righteousness mounts the throne; yea, this is a Bigamy which Chrift will not relifli and put up with. If we be not married to Chrift alone, as the end of the law for righteousness, and divorced from the law, as a covenant, the ftrength of fin remains. : "The 4. Hence fee the excellency of the gofpel and the great advantage of a clear gofpel-difpenfation. Why, the law is the ftrength of fin, but the gofpel is the weapon that pulls down the ftrength thereof: for,,it is the power of God to falvation from fin; becaufe therein is revealed the righteoufnefs of God, from faith to faith, Rom. i. 16. Therefore, fays the fame apoftle, 2 Cor. x. 4, 5. weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty thro' God, to the pulling down the flrong holds, cafting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Chrift." It is the gofpel that is the revelation of divine grace; juftifying grace, to pull down the condemning ftrength of fin; fanctifying grace, to pull down the commanding ftrength of fin. It is true, the gofpel is not powerful this way, un-. lefs the Spirit of God accompany it, as a Spirit of faith, caufing us to believe the gofpel favingly but, whenever God faves a man from the flrength of fin, as it is by hearing the gofpel that faith comes; fo, it is by believing lieving the gofpel that falvation from fin comes; Rom. X. 15, 16. Mark xvi. 15, 16. "Go, preach the gospel to every creature." What is that gofpel? It is the good news of grace and falvation to finners, thro' Chrift, the Lord our righteoufnefs. Well, what will be the iffue? "He that believes this gofpel fhall be faved; he that believes not fhall be damned." O Sirs, fee then the excellency of the gofpel, which, as it is the inftrument of God's power for working faith; fo, being believed, is the power of God to falvation from the ftrength of fin, and fo from wrath and condemnation. 5. Hence fee, that fin, under the gofpel, is ftrangely aggravated. They that are not only under the law, as all are by nature, but alfo under the want of gofpellight, no wonder that fin reign there; they cannot but live in fin, and in the perpetual violation of the law as a rule, who hear of no deliverance from the law, as a covenant but for thefe who live under the gospel, which is the only antidote against the strength of fin, their fin is dreadfully aggravated; their living in fin, and remaining under the ftrength of fin, is an evidence of their unbelief, whereby they reject the gofpel, and fo keep themselves under the curfe of the law, of which curfe the ftrength of fin is a leading part. The breach of the law, as a rule of obedience, is egregiously aggravated, where freedom from the law, as a covenant, is proclaimed through Chrift. The fum of the moral law is love, the fum of difobedience is enmity; but, alas! how is enmity against God heightened, when God manifefts fuch love, grace, and good-will towards finners! Enmity against God, under the gofpel, is enmity indeed it is rendering him enmity for love. Oh! how do the offers of mercy heighten our malignity! And, what a dreadful and dangerous thing is it to live in fin, under the difpenfation of grace! An evil heart of unbelief, neglecting the gospel, and fo the great falvation tendered therein, is the fpring of apoftacy, and departing from the living God. You will fay, Ah! I have a wicked heart, a wandering heart, a vain heart, a loofe heart, a black heart; yea, but the worst thing about it is, that it is an unbelieving heart: for your unbelief keeps keeps you under the curfe of the law, and the law-curfe keeps you under fin's power. Then 6. Is the law of works the ftrength of fin? fee the neceflity of union to Chrift, as the end of the law for righteoufnels, in order to freedom from the ftrength of fin. If Chrift be the righteoufnefs of any, he is their trength alfo; and, becaufe he is their righteoufnefs, he is their ftrength, and both in a way of union to him: Surely fall one fay, In the Lord have I righteousness and ftrength, Ifa. xiv. 24. See alfo, 1 Cor. i. 30. Of bim are ye in Chrift Jefus, who of God is made unto us righteoufnefs and fanctification. It is the character of believers in Chrift, that they walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit, Rom. viii. 1. 4. Now, how comes this fanctification of heart and way, and freedom from the ftrength of fin to take place? Why, the root of it is, the righteoufnefs of the law is fulfilled in them, by virtue of their union with Chrift. The weakeft faint in Chrift hath perfectly fatisfied every demand of the law; he hath completely paid every penny of debt that he owed to the law. Why, being united to Chrift, they are like man and wife; as man and wife are one flefh, fo Chrift and believers are one Spirit: and as man and wife are one perfon in law; fo, Chrift having perfectly fulfilled the law, the believer hath perfectly fulfilled it in him. And fo the righteoufnels of the law being fulfilled in the believer, the commanding and condemning ftrength of fin, derived from the law, is broken; and confequently he is in cafe to walk spiritually, and to evidence his freedom from the law, as a covenant, and his being a perfect fulfiller of it, by his walking not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. 7. Hence fee, That juftification is the root of fanctification, and juftifying faith the root of a holy life, and is neceffary, in order of nature, before it; feeing, as there is no conformity to the law, as a rule of holiness, till once the perfon get freedom from the law, as a covenant, which, to the tranfgreffor, is the ftrength of fin; fo, in juftification, the believer being no more reputed a breaker, or tranfgreffor, but a perfect fulfiller of of the law of works, it ceafes to be any more the strength of fin unto him: whereupon the removal of the ftrength of fin lays a foundation for a life of holinefs, both habitual and actual; habitual, confifting in the immediate principles of action, in contradiftinction from the remote principle infufed in regeneration; and actual fanctification whether privately, in the mortifying or killing of fin; or pofitively, in the quickening of the foul to a newness of life; and that both internal, in the exercife of grace; and external, in the performance of duty. And hence, as juftifying faith is faid to have a purifying virtue, Acts xv. 9.; fo the whole life of the believer is faid to be by faith in the juftifying righteousness of God, revealed in the gofpel, Rom. i. 17. On which account, the gospel is faid to be the power of God to falvation, to the Jew firft, and alfo to the Greek; for therein is the righteoufnefs of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The juft fhall live by faith; that is, faith in this righteoufnefs of God. No man, therefore, can live a holy life, or walk abroad in the duties of the law, as a rule, in a courfe of fanctification, till once his feet be loofed from the fetters, and his foul liberated from the prifon of the law, as a covenant, through juftification by faith; and then, and not till then, is he in cafe to live a holy life by faith: yea, were he never fo juft and righteous, in respect of perfonal imparted righteousness; yet he cannot live, but by the faith of this imputed righteoufnefs of God: renewed acts of faith thereupon tend to quicken his foul from time to time. The juft, even the juft, fhall live by this faith; for, without it, all his own juftnefs, righteoufnefs, and perfonal holinefs would languifh, and die, and give up the ghoft. What makes the obedience of a multitude of profeffors vain and unacceptable; yea, and all their duties finful and hurtful? Why,' they begin to yield obedience to the precepts of the law, by doing and working out a righteoufnefs of their own, before they be delivered from the curfe of the law, by believing and laying hold on the righteoufnefs of Chrift; and hence, the ftrength of fin being a grand part of the curfe of the law, and they not being delivered from that curfe, all they can do is curfed of Gcd, |