obedience, or that makes allowance for imperfection. But this is bad fenfe, as well as bad divinity. It is the greatest abfurdity imaginable; for to fay that a law does not require perfect obedience, is the fame thing as to say that it does not require what it does require : to do all that the law requires is perfect obedience : and fince it requires us to do all that it does require, it certainly does require perfect obedience; and if it does not require perfect obedience, it does not require all that it does require; which is a direct contradiction. In short, it is plain to common sense that there never was, nor ever can be any law, moral or pofitive, divine or human, that does not require perfect, abfolute obedience. Farther, Is not every fin forbidden? is not every duty enjoined? Undoubtedly it is: You are not at liberty to commit one fin, or to omit one duty, not even the leaft. Indeed the very notion of fin and duty supposes a law forbidding the one, and enjoining the other; and they are juft commenfurate with the prohibitions and injunctions of the law.This is also the voice of fcripture. That perfect obedience is required, appears from the dreadful curfe denounced upon every tranfgreffor for the least offence: Curfed is every one that continueth not in all things that are written in the book of the law to do them. Gal. iii. 10. Not fome fubjects, but every one, of every rank and character, muft not only resolve or endeayour, but muft do, not fome things, or many things, but all things, written in the law; not for a time, or for the most part, but he must always continue to do them. And if he fail in one thing, in one moment of his existence, the penalty of the law is in full force against him, and he falls under the curfe. His obedience must be univerfal, perpetual and uninterrupted. There is the fame reafon for his obeying all in all things, and at all times, as for his obeying in any thing, or at any time. And all this obedience the law requires of him in his own perfon: the law allows of no imputation of the righteousness of another; no obedience obedience by proxy or fubftitute: it is the covenant of grace alone that allows of this, and the law must be fo far difpenfed with, in order to make room for fuch a conftitution. This, my brethren, is the nature of the law, of every law that God ever made, under every difpenfation of religion, before the fall and after the fall, before the law of Mofes, under it, and under the gospel. In all ages, in all circumftances, and from all perfons it requires perfect, perpetual and perfonal obedience: to the performance of this, it promifes eternal life: but the finner, by every the leaft failure, falls under its dreadful curfe, and is cut off from all the promised bleffings. And hence it most evidently follows, V. That it is abfolutely impoffible for any of the fallen fons of men to be juftified and faved by the conftitution of the law. Take what difpenfation of the law you please, the law of innocence, the law of Mofes, or the moral part of the gofpel, it is impoffible for one of the fallen pofterity of Adam to be faved by it in any of these views; and the reafon is plain, there is not one of them but what has broken it; there is not one of them that has yielded perfect obedience to it; and therefore, there is not one of them but what is condemned by it to fuffer its dreadful penalty. This is fo extremely plain from what has been faid, that I need not infift upon the proof of it. I fhall only subjoin the repeated declaration of the apoftle, that by the deeds of the law, no flesh can be justified, Rom. iii. 20. Gal. ii. 16. and that as many as are of the works of the law, are under the curfe. Gal. iii. 10. Come, ye that defire to be under the law, do you not hear the law? Gal. iv. 2. Hark! how the thunders of Sinai roar against you as guilty finners. Can you pretend that you have always perfectly obeyed the law? that you have never committed one fin, or neglected one duty? Alas! you muft hang down the head, and cry Guilty, guilty; for in many things you have all offended. Then, be it known unto you, there is no life by the law for you, Set Set about obedience with ever fo much earnestness; repent till you fhed rivers of tears; faft, till you have reduced yourselves to skeletons; alas! all this will not do, if you expect life by your own obedience to the law for all this is not that perfect obedience which it abfolutely requires of all the fons of men; and what-ever is fhort of this is nothing, and leaves you under its curfe. You may make excufes to men, and to your own confciences, but the law will admit of none. Perfect obedience! perfect obedience! is its eternal cry, and till you can produce that, it condemns you to everlafting mifery, and all your cries, and tears, and reformation are to no purpose. Thus you are held in close cuftody by the law; you are shut up under condemnation by it. And is there no way of escape? No; there is no poffible way of escape-but one: and that fhall be the matter of the next propofition. VI. That God has made another conftitution, namely, the gospel, or the covenant of grace, by which even guilty finners, condemned by the law, may be justified and faved by faith, through the righteoufnefs of Jefus Christ. According to this conftitution there is encouragement for finners to repent, and use the means of grace; and all who are faved by it, are not only obliged to yield obedience to the law, but also enabled to do fo with fincerity, though not to perfection. They are effectually taught by it to deny ungodliness and worldly. lufts, and to live righteously, foberly and godly in the world; and in fhort, holiness of heart and life is as effectually fecured in this way as in any other. But then, here lies the difference; that all our obedience to the law, all our endeavours, all our repentance, prayers, and reformation; in short, all our good works, all our virtues and graces are not at all the ground of our juftification; they do not, in whole or in part, more or lefs conftitute our juftifying righteoufnefs; fo that in juftification we are confidered as guilty, law-condemned finners, entirely deftitute of all perfonal righteouf nefs; nefs; and we are pardoned and accepted, only and entirely upon account of the righteoufnefs of Jefus Chrift, imputed to us, and accepted of God for us, as though it were our own. I fay, the righteoufnefs of Jefus Chrift, or his yielding the most perfect obedience to the precept of the law, and fuffering its dreadful penalty for us, or in our ftead, is the only ground of our juftification. This is a righteousness as perfect as the law of God requires. And confequently the law is not repealed when we are juftified in this way; it is ftill in full force; and all its demands are answered by this righteousness, which is equal to the fevereft requifitions of the covenant of works; only it is difpenfed with in one particular; namely, that whereas the law properly requires perfonal obedience from every man for himself, now it accepts of the obedience of Chrift as a furety in our ftead, and it is fatisfied by his righteousness imputed to us, as though it were originally our own. But how do we obtain an intereft in this righteoufnefs? I anfwer, It is only obtained by a vigorous purfuit, and in the earneft ufe of the means of grace; but then all these endeavours of ours do not in the leaft entitle us to it, or it is not at all bestowed upon us on account of these endeavours; but the grand prerequifite, and that which has a peculiar concurrence in obtaining it, is an humble faith; that is, when a finner, deeply fenfible of his guilt, of his condemnation by the law, and of his own utter inability to do any thing at all for his own juftification; I fay, when fuch an humble finner despairing of relief from himself, renounces all his own righteousness, and trufts only and entirely in the free grace of God in Jefus Chrift, when he places all his dependance upon his righteoufnefs only, and moft earneftly defires that God would deal with him entirely upon that footing, then he believes; and then, and thus, this righteousness is made over to him, and accepted for him, and God no more views him as a law-condemned finner, but as one that has a righteoufnefs equal to all the demands of the law, and therefore therefore he deals with him accordingly: he pronounces him juft, and gives him a title to life and every bleffing, as though he deserved it upon his own account, or had a claim to it upon the footing of his own obedience to the covenant of works. My brethren, I am bold to pronounce this the gofpel-method of falvation; and, whatever fcepticism and uncertainty I feel about many other things, I have not the leaft fcruple to venture my foul, with all its guilt, and with all its immortal interefts upon this plan. If I have thoroughly fearched the fcriptures for myfelf in any one point, it is in this. And could I but lay before you all the evidence which has occurred to me in the fearch, I cannot but perfuade myself it would be fully fatisfactory to you all; but at prefent I can only point out to you a few paffages: Acts xiii. 39. By Jefus Chrift, fays St. Paul, all that believe are juftified from all things, from which they could not be justified by the law of Mofes, which was the most complete difpenfation of the law. Rom. iii. 21-28. Now the righteoufness of God without the law (that is, the righteoufnefs which does not at all confift in the works of the law, but is quite a different thing from it *) is manifefted even the righteousness of God, which is by the faith of Chrift. This, you fee is the way in which it comes unto all and upon all them that believe; for there is no difference of Jew or Gentile here; all being freely justified by his grace, through the redemption that is in Chrift. Therefore we conclude, that a man is juftified by faith, without the deeds of the law: fo Rom. iv. To him that worketh, and on that account is confidered as righteous, the reward is reckoned not of grace, but of debt: hè is not at all dealt with in the gofpel-method, which is entirely a plan of grace (ver. 4.) but to him that worketh not, with a view to his juftification, and is not confidered as entitled to it upon the account of his works, but believeth, humbly trufteth, and dependeth upon him that juftificth the ungodly, upon him who confiders the Choris nomou dikaiofune. finner, |