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command thereof did not ly precifely in this, viz. that man was to feek life by his own obedience: no, this was but a fecondary end, or a confequent lawfully deducible from the promife annexed to the command, but no conftitutive part of the command itself.

2. The fallacy of that fophifm appears alfo in this, that it fuppofes, as if finners, or unbelievers, not under the gofpel, were obliged, by the covenant of works, to seek life and juftification by their own works and obedience: but though they, as well as other finners, do naturally, if they feek life at all, feek it by the law, or by their own works; yet the covenant of works never faid to a finner, Seek life by your own works. Though we fhould grant, that fecking life by our perfect obedience were the proper command of the covenant of works, to man in his innocent ftate, while he was capable to yield it; yet it never commanded a finner to feek life that way, nor did it ever promife life to a finner, a breaker of that covenant, upon his feeking life by his obedience: nay, it is impoffible that ever the law fhould do fo, otherwise it would condemn itself, fhould it offer to juftify any tranfgreffor of it, by whatever after-obedience of his; for, it is the very nature of the law to condemn the leaft tranfgreffor, whatever his after-works may be: no act of obedience, no not the highest, even of faints in heaven, can expiate for the leaft breach of God's law; nor can any mortification take away the fault of fin committed, Deut. xxvii. 26. Gal. iii. 10. Rom. iii. 20. 23. Jam. ii. 10. The law requires no less than a finlefs obedience; yea the perfect obedience of a finless man; but never did, nor does require of any finner, that he should feek life by his obedience. No man, that is a finner, is capable of any obedience but what is imperfect; now, imperfect obedience is a breach of the covenant of works, which requires abfolute perfection, Gal. iii. 10. Therefore, if it fhould require any finner to feck life by his own obedience, then it would require him to feek life in a finful way, namely, by the continued breach of the law, which his best obedience would be, fo long as it is, and cannot be but imperfect. Now, to fuppofe that the law requires this of any finner, whether under the gofpel or not, is to fpeak

wickedly of the holy and perfect law of Ged. The law of the covenant of works requires no lefs than ever it, did; yea, it requires more of the finner, than it did of the finlefs man: it required only active obedience of innocent Adam, but now of the finner it requires active and paflive obedience too; though the finner be infclvent, and utterly unable to pay is debt, yet the law requires full payment of his double debt, both of obedience to the command, and fatisfaction for his fin in breaking of it.

Herein the cafe of unbelievers appears to be moft miferable, that they are under the commanding, as well as the condemning power of the covenant of works; that is, they are under an obligation to perfect obedience, and that upon pain of eternal death, under the fentence whereof they already ly; and under the continued forfeiture of eternal life, and all title thereto, by reason of their want of that obedience, and violation of that covenant. That all unbelievers are under the command of the covenant of works, is plain,

(1.) Because they are under the curfe of it. If they were not under the commanding power, they could not be under the condemning power of it; if they were not under obligation to the command of it, how could they juftly be condemned by it, for want of obedience thereto, or tranfgreffion thereof? Where no command, no tranfgreffion; where no tranfgreffion, no penalty: but under the penalty or fentence thereof they are, Gal. iii. 10. therefore they remain under the command of it, fo long as they remain out of Chrift.

(2.) That they are under the command of the covenant of works, is plain, becaufe they are under the law wherein eternal life is connected with perfect doing. That they are under the law is evident, fo long as they are not under grace, Rom. vi. 14. But it is now their mifery, that this law they are under, is a law wherein the connection ftands betwixt obedience and eternal life: though there is no connection by the law, betwixt their' obedience now, and the promife of eternal life; yet there is a ftanding connection betwixt eternal life, and

that

that perfect, perfonal obedience required by that law they are under, Rom. x. 5. The law ftill continues to fay, The man that does these things, shall live by them; and Mat. xix. 16. If thou would enter into life, keep the commandments: which plainly fays, that though they cannot yield obedience, fuch as the law requires; yet the connexion betwixt life and obedience ftands by that law they are under: it juftifies all that can and do obey it, as it doth the elect angels; and it would justify men allo, if they were in cafe, had they power, and did yield obedience to it, in the manner it requires.

(3.) That unbelievers are under the command of the covenant of works, is plain, because it is "only "the privilege of believers, that they are not under the "moral law, as a covenant of works, to be thereby "either juftified or condemned," as in our Confeffion of Faith; which plainly fays, not only the moral law was turned into the form of a covenant of works, by its being made a covenant of life and juftification upon doing, and of death and condemnation upon not doing; but also, as it is the privilege only of believers in Christ, that they are neither under the command of the covenant of works, to be juftified by their obedience, nor under the curfe thereof, to be condemned for their dif obedience thereto: which evidently fhows, that it is the mifery of unbelievers, that they are not only under the condemning power of that covenant, wherein difobedience and eternal death are connected; but also the commanding power of that law, wherein perfect obedience and eternal life are connected. This connexion betwixt life and perfonal obedience does not fland with respect to the believer, because he is not under the law, Rom. vi. 14. Hence, though the believers in Christ had a perfonal righteoufnefs of their own in perfection, as they will have in heaven; yet there is no connexion betwixt it and their juftification, or eternal life, which is now to them the gift of God through Jefus Chrift; they being brought under another covenant, which makes their title to life to ftand upon another foundation, namely, Chrift's perfect obedience, active and paffive, in their room and ftead. But as for unbelievers, that

are

are under the law, the ftanding connection betwixt life and obedience by that law, renders them as miferable, in regard that it confirms their forfeiture of eternal life; as the ftanding connection betwixt death and difobedience, by that fame law, renders them miferable, in regard that it continues them under the fentence of eternal death.

(4.) That unbelievers are under the command of the covenant of works, is plain, because they are, by the gofpel-difpenfation, obliged to feek life by the obedience of another; which is fo far from proving them not to be under the command of the covenant of works, that it plainly proves them to be under it. Our Lord Jefus Chrift, as Surety, came to fulfil the righteoufnefs of the law, only as it is a covenant of works: and this he did, both by his active obedience, fulfilling the precept of the law; and by his paffive obedience, fatisfying the threatening, and enduring the penalty, of the law. Now, if unbelievers were only under the condemning power of the law, then they would need only to feek freedom from death, through Chrift's fuffering, or paffive obedience, in their room; but if they were not under obligation to the command of the covenant of works, then there is no need they would have of Chrift's active obedience, or doing in their room. They were never obliged, as I cleared before, to feek life by their obedience; but if they were not obliged, by the command of the covenant of works, to yield that perfect obedience, to which life was promifed therein, then they would have no need to feek life by the obedience of another. What need they to feek that in the perfon of another, which they are not obliged to have in their own perfon? Who will fee a need for feeking that which he is not obliged to have or yield? The unbeliever's obligation, therefore, to feek life by the obedience of another, namely, of Chrift, is a plain argument to prove that he is under obligation to the command of the covenant of works.

See then the danger of that doctrine which afferts, that unbelievers are not under the command of the covenant of works: it croffes one of the great ends of the gofpel, which is to hold out Chrift in his complete righte

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nefs, both of doing and fuffering, that finners may come and take the whole benefit thereof, in order to their being intitled to eternal life, and fecured from eternal death, according to the method of the covenant of grace; for, while they remain out of Chrift, they are wholly and altogether under a covenant of works, both in its commanding and condemning power.

[2.] Another doctrine that ftands in oppofition to this truth that we are treating of, is that which afferts, That believers by their new fins, come under a liableness, or obligation, to the penal fan&tion of the law, and threatening of eternal death. I have elfewhere endeavoured to refute this error; therefore, at prefent, I fhall not enlarge upon it, but only repel it with the weapons that the text here affords me, namely, The Strength of fin is the la ; but thanks be to God, fays the apostle in the name of all believers, that giveth us the victory through our Lord Jefus Chrift. Where it is plain, that all believers in Christ are delivered, by virtue of their union to him as the Lord their righteoufnefs, from the law and the curfe thereof; and confequently from the ftrength of fin, as it is a part of the cuffe of the law. See alfo Gal. ii. 13. Rom. viii. 1. 34. vi. 14. and vii. 6. But now, if believers are, after their union to Chrift, brought, by their new fins, under a liablenefs to the penal fanction of the law; that is, to eternal death, and vindictive wrath; then they are brought under the curfe of the law again : and if fo, then they are brought under the ftrength of fin, which is the leading branch of that curfe. If they that affert this doctrine, attempt to prove it from this, that every fin deferves God's wrath and curfe; and argue from the believer's fins deferving it, that therefore believers are liable to it, which is a very wide argument; then, by the fame argument, I can prove, that becaufe there is no moment of a believer's life, wherein he is perfectly free of fin, fo long as want of perfect conformity to the law, either in nature, heart, or way, is fin; therefore there is not a moment of the believer's life, wherein he is not both under the curfe of the law and the

* See, in particular for this, the Author's difcourfe, on Gal. iv. 28. intitled, The Pregnant Promife, Vol. IV. p. 309. 400.

ftrength

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