SERM. Works, which the Jews held in Oppofition VII. to Faith, or those which the Jewish Con

verts held equally in Conjunction with it, but those Works only, which are infeparable from it. Otherwife St. Peter, when he talks of St. Paul's Epiftles, that there are fome Things in them hard to be underftood, which the Unlearn'd and Unstable wreft, meaning, as is fuppofed, the Doctrine of Juftification, which was mifinterpreted by fome to be by Faith without Works, would be guilty of the fame Fault, when he exhorts to add to Faith, as in fufficient of itself, Virtue, and to Virtue Knowledge, Temperance, Patience &c. and when he fays, that by Good Works, we are to make our Calling and Election fure.

And therefore the Works of the Law, as it is made a Covenant, can't be thofe Works, which accompany Faith, which belong to a Covenant establish'd upon better Promises, and is therefore call'd a better Covenant; and fo could not justify the Performers of them, and make them

that

that Seed of Abraham to whom the SERM.

Bleffing was promised.

But tho' the Law thus confider'd can't justify us, does it therefore follow that our Obligations to the Moral Law are made void thro' Faith? God forbid. To object this is to fhew an Ignorance of the Law and the Gospel too. For to fay, that because the Law, confider'd as the whole Law of Mofes, will not justify us, that therefore that Part of it, which is call'd the Moral Law, is made null and void; or else if we put it this way, to say, that because that Part of the Law of Mofes, which is call'd the Moral Law, will not justify us of itself, that therefore it is not at all neceffary towards it, is to argue very confufedly and inconfiftently: For tho' the moral Law itself is not binding as a Covenant, as I have already proved, yet it will by no means follow from thence, that it is not binding as a Rule of Life. It has ftill the Force of a Moral Rule, because there ftill remains the fame Reafon for it and is the fame in all Refpects as before, except in this one, that an exact Obe

dience

VII.

SER M. dience to it is not made a neceffary ConVII. dition of Salvation, but Repentance is accepted inftead of it.

But however, if we are ftill bound to obey the Moral Law, very likely it may be objected, how then is the Gofpel a better Covenant, or the Gofpel Difpenfation eafier, fince the Law remains in Force as much now as it did before? The anfwering this Objection rightly, I hope, will very much illuftrate the Matter, and put it in a clear Light. If we confider the Gospel, as a Moral Rule, in the fame Senfe as we do the Law, it is not at all eafier than the Law; because the fame Duties are ftill binding upon us as before, and many more, as I fhall fhew under the next Head: For the Gospel is not under a Difpenfation as a Law, or a Rule, but as a Covenant; and it is easier than the Law no otherwife, than as it is an easier Covenant; but if we confider it likewife as a Covenant, then it is

of
great Advantage to us, where the Law
as a Covenant is defective, and has a dif-
penfing Power which the Law has not,

and

and in that Senfe only can be faid to make SERM. VII. void the Law.

And indeed if the Law confider'd in this View was not made void thro' Faith, the Gofpel could not be what it is. If Righteousness come by the Law, fays the Apostle, then Chrift is dead in vain; But further that the Gofpel does not make void the Law is plain from hence; because by the fame Rule it would make void itfelf; and fo inftead of fetting up one Law upon the Ruins of another, would most effectually deftroy both; and

root out Law and Gofpel too. To make void the Law thro' Faith is to make Christianity a false Religion; for the Law, as it is a Moral Rule, in which Sense only we are now concern'd to understand it, teaches us our Duty to God and our Neighbour, and it is the Business of the Gospel to do the fame. It is not calculated to fill Men's Heads with thin metaphyfical Notions, but with true fubftantial Religion: 'Tis to make Men more knowing in what they are most of all concern'd to know; viz. the Terms of their Acceptance

with

SERM. with God. In fhort, the Gospel is cal VII. culated to teach Men to lead good Lives;

and accordingly our bleffed Saviour in the Doctrine he taught, and especially in his most admirable Sermon on the Mounts takes a great deal of Pains to fix in the Minds of his Hearers the Obligations they lay under to perform the Moral Law; and condemns the Scribes and Pharifees for tranfgreffing that Law thro' their Traditions: And when one asked him, what he should do to inherit eternal Life, he told him, if thou wilt enter into Life keep the Commandments; and is fo far from deftroying the Law, that he expressly fays, that one fot, or one Tittle fhall in no wife pass from the Law till all be fulfill'd. Our Saviour was fo far from having any Intention to destroy the Moral Law, that he did not so much as endeavour to alter even the judicial Law of the Country where he lived; but left the Civil Government as he found it, in the Poffeffion of its own Rights and Priviledges, without adding any Thing but Precepts of Obedience. For indeed Christianity

no