open unto thee his good treasure, Deut. xxviii. 1. to 12. 1. This is the Blessing, wherewith Moses, the man of God, blessed the children of Israel:-And he said: The Lord came from Sinai, &c. with ten thousands of saints: from his right hand went a fiery law: yea, he loved the people.-Let Reubeu live, and not die :And of Levi he said, let thy Thummin and thy Urim [thy perfections and thy lights] be with thy Holy One.-And of Naphtali he said, O Naphtali, satisfied with favour, and full with the blessing of the Lord, possess thou the West:-Happy art thou, Israel: who is like unto thee, O people saved by the Lord, the shield of thy help?-Thine enemies shall be found liars,-and thou shalt tread upon their high places, Deut. xxxiii. 1 to 29. 1. The Lord passed by before Moses, and proclaimed, the Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin, &c. And Moses made haste, &c. and said if now I have found grace in thy sight, O Lord, &c. pardon our iniquity, and our sin, and take us for thine inheritance. And he (the Lord) said, I make a (or the) covenant. Exod. xxxiv. 6-10. I fatter myself, that if Zelotes and Honestus candidly weigh the preceding arguments and scriptures, they will reap from thence a double advantage: 1. They will no more tread the honour of Christ's moral law in the dust;-no more rob it of its chief glory, that of being a strict rule of judgment. 2. Hones SECTION VII. The doctrine of the preceding Section is weigh ed in the Scripture Scales, according to Christ's gospel; keeping the moral law in faith as a subordinate way to eternal life: And some Protestants are grossly mistaken when they make believers afraid sincerely to observe the Commandments, in order to obtain through Christ a more abundant life of grace here, and an eternal life of glory hereafter. If I have spent so much time in attempting to remove the, difficulties, with which the "doctrine of the law is clogged, it has not been without reason; for the success of my Checks in a great degree depends upon clearing up this part of my subject. If I fail here, pharisaism will not be checked, and gross antinomianism will still pass for the pure gospel, fundamental errors about the law being the 2. The Lord of that [once blessed, but now backsliding] servant will come in a day when he looketh not for him, and will cut him asunder, and will appoint him his portion with the unbelievers. And that servant who knew his Lord's will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes, Luke xii. 46. Woe unto you.-hypocrites:-ye shall receive the greater damnation:-Ye make a proselyte two-fold more a child of hell than yourselves. -Woe unto you, ye blind guides,-ye fools and blind,-ye pay tithe of mint, and have omitted judgment, mercy, and faith, &c.Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers. Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell, Mat. xxiii. 13 to 33. 2. Woe to that man by whom the offence cometh: Wherefore, if thy hand or thy foot offend thee, cut them off. It is better to enter into life maimed, rather than to be cast into everlasting fire, Mat. xviii. 7, 8.-Woe unto you, that are rich, &c. Woe unto you, that are full &c. Woe unto you that laugh now, &c. Woe unto you, when all men shall speak well of you, Luke vi. 24 to 26.--Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil;-for I was hungry and ye gave me no meat, &c. Mat. xxv. 41, 42. tus will be again benefitted by a considerable part of the Law and the Prophets, which [as our Lord himself informs us] hang on those very Commandments that the Antinomians divest of their Sanction; and the Pharisees of their Spirituality. muddy springs, whence the broken cisterns, both of the pharisees and antinomians, have their constant supplies. Honestus will have an anti-evangelical, Christless law, or at least a law without spirituality and strictness; the law, he frames to himself, being an insignificant twig, and not the Spirit's two-edged, piercing sword. And Zelotes contrives a gospel without law; or, if he admits of a law for Christ's subjects, it is such a one as has only the shadow of the law."a rule of life," as he calls it, and not a rule of judg ment. ceive the spirituality of the law, and the need That at first sight Honestus may perof Christ's gospel; and that Zelotes may discover the need of Christ's law, and see its awful impartiality, I beg leave to recapitulate the contents of the last Section; presenting them to the reader, in my Scales, as the just weights of the sanctuary exactly balan cing each other. The Weights of Faith and Free-grace. 1. When the Philippian Jailor cried out, Sirs, What must I do to be saved? Paul and Silas said, [according to the first gospel-axiom] Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be sured, Acts xvi. 31. Here Zelotes, as if he were determined to set aside the left gospel-scale, cries out, "There is no entering into life by doing, and keeping the commandments. The young ruler and the lawyer were both as great legalists as yourself, and Christ answered them according to their error; the wise man having observed, that we must sometimes answer a fool according to his folly."-I understand you, Zelotes; you suppose that some pharisaic fiend had driven the poisoned nail of legality into their breasts, and that Christ was so officious as to clinch it for him." Not so, (replies Zelotes) but I think, Christ's an. swer was ironical, like that of the prophet Michaiah, who said one 'hing to king Ahab, and meant another."-What! Zelotes, two men, at different times in the most solemn manner, propose to our Lord the most important question in the world: He shews a particular regard for them; and returns them similar answers. When one of them had described the way of obedience, an evangelist observes, that "Jesus saw he had answered discreetly," Mark xii. 34. St. Luke in forms us, that Christ commended him and said, "Thou hast answered right," Luke x. 28; and yet you intimate, that not only our Lord's answers, but his commendations were ironical. In what unfavourable light do you put our Saviour's kindness to poor sinners, who prostrate themselves at his feet, and there ask the way to heaven! If Cursed is he, that maketh the blind to wander out of their (earthly) way;" how can you, upon your principles, exculpate our Lord, for doing this with respect to the blind seekers, who enquire the way that leads to eternal Life in Heaven? But this is not all: It is evident, that although from the taunting tone of Michaiah's voice, Ahab directly understood, that the answer given him was ironical; yet, lest there should be a deception in the case, the prophet dropt the mask of irony, and told the king the naked truth before they parted. Not so Jesus Christ, if solifidianism is the gospel: For although neither the ruler nor the lawyer suspected, that his direction and approbation were ironical, he let them both depart without giving them, or his disciples who were present, the least hint, that he was sending them upon a fool's errand. Therefore, if setting sinners upon keeping the commandments in faith to go to heaven, is only shewing them the clearer way to hell, as Zelotes sometimes intimates, no body ever pointed sinners more clearly to hell, than our blessed Lord. This mistake of Zelotes is so much the more glaring, as the passages which he supposes to be ironical, agree perfectly with the Sermon on the Mount, and with Matt. xxv. two awful portions of the gospel, which I am glad the Solifidians have not yet set aside as evangelical ironies. Once more. If our Lord's direction was not true with regard to the covenant of grace, it was absolutely false with respect to the covenant of works; for as the ruler and the lawyer had undoubtedly broken the Adamic law of perfect innocence, they never could obtain life by keeping that law, should they have done it to the highest perfection for the time to come. Therefore, which way soever Zelotes turns himself, upon his scheme our Lord spoke either deceitful irony, or a flat untruth: I resume the Scales. 1. I am the Lord thy God who brought thee out of the house of bondage. 1. The righteousness of faith speaketh on this wise Say not in thine heart, Who shall ascend into heaven? &c, or, Who shall descend into the deep? &c. But what saith it ? The word is nigh thee, Rom. x. 5. &c. 2. Thou shalt have no other God but me, &c. to the end of the decalogue. 2. This commandment which I command thee this day, is not, &c. far off, It is not in heaven, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go up for us to heaven? &c. Neither is it beyond the sea, that thou shouldst say, Who shall go over the sea for us, &c. But the word is very nigh unto thee, Deut. xxx. 11, &c. Here observe, that God pre faces the decalogue by evangelically giving himself to the Jews as their God -a gracious God, who had already saved them out of the land of Egypt, Jude 5; and who had a peculiar right to their Faith, and grateful, evangelical Obedience. 1. Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the Law, being made a curse for us, Gal. iii. 13. 1. If they, that are of the [anti-evangelical] law, be heirs; faith is made void, and the promise of none effect, Rom. iv. 14. 1. I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness came by the anti-evangelical] law; [or if it came originally by any] law; then Christ is dead in vain, Gal. ii. 21. 1. I, through the law, am dead to the Law. Ye are not under the Law. Now we are delivered from the Law, [both as a cumberous burden of carnal commandments; as a heavy load of typical ceremonies; and as an anti-evangelical Christless covenant of works.] Gal. ii. 19. Rom. vi. 14; vii. 6. 1. Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth, Rom. x. 4. 1. O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Christ has been evidently set forth, crucified among you, &c. Received ye the Spirit, by the works of the law, or by the heuring of faith? 1. Stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage: [i. e. with the curse of a Christless law, or with the galling yoke of Mosaic rites.] Gal. v. 1. 1. If there had been a law given, which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law, Gal. iii. 21. N.B. No law of works can justify a sinner: He must be justified by grace, or not at all.If he is not crushed into an atom for his native sinfulness, or sent instantly to hell for his first sin; or if he has an opportunity to repent and turn, all is of grace all springs from the free-gift, which is come upon all men unto justification of life, Rom. v. 18. 2. So speak ye, and so do, as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty, James' ii. 12. 2. If ye fulfil the royal law, &c. " Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself," ye do well: For he shall have judgment without mercy, that hath shewed no mercy, James ii. 8, 13. 2. God sending his own Son, &c, for sin, condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in [or by] us, who walk not after the flesh, &c. Rom. viii. 3, 4. 2. Do we make void the Law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the Law.-Whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all, James ii. 10.-Think not that I am come to destroy the Law, &c. Verily I say unto you, &c. one jot or title shall in no wise pass from the [moral] law till all be fulfilled: Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, &c. shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven, Matt. v. 17. 2. Ye are his servants whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness, Rom. vi. 16. 2. We are not without law to God, but under the law to Christ, 1 Cor. ix. 21.-Let brotherly love continue. He that loveth another hath fulfilled the law. Love is the fulfilling of the law.-Fulfil the law of Christ, Heb. xiii. 1. Rom. xiii. 10. Gal. vi. 2. 2. Why call ye me Lord, Lord, and do not do the things which I say? Those mine enemies, who would not that I should reign over them [or who would not receive and keep my law] bring hither and slay them before me, Luke vi. 46.-xix. 27. 2. Awake to righteousness, and sin not, 1 Cor. xv. 34.-Except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the Scribes, &c. ye shall in no case enter into the king. dom of heaven, Matt. v. 20.-As it is written, He hath dispersed abroad; he hath given to the poor : His righteousness remaineth for ever. Now he that ministereth seed to the sower, multiply your seed sown, and increase the fruits of your righteousness, 2 Cor. ix. 9, 10. And it shall be our righteousness, + if we observe to do all these commandments, Deut. vi. 25. Thus Apostates [by breaking one of the ten commandments, and not repenting according to the privilege, which the law of liberty allows in the day of salvation] are last, though they once were first. I say Apostates: because our Lord, St. Paul, and St. James, evidently speaks of Believers: i. e. of persons already in the Kingdom of Heaven, or in the Christian dispensation. All The reader will be glad to see what judicious Calvinists make of this passage. Diodati, one of Calvin's famous successors, comments thus upon it: "God, out of his fatherly benignity and clemency, shall accept from us, his children, this endeavour and study to keep his law, instead of a perfect righteousness, &c. this discourse, ought to be referred to the new obedience, &c. which is the plainer, because most of these statues were concessions, remedies and expiations for sin." Diod- in loc.-Mr. Henry is exactly of the same sentiment. "Could we perfectly fulfil but that one command of loving God with all our heart, &c. and could we say we had never done otherwise, that would be our righteousness, so as to entitle us to the benefits of the covenant of innocency, &c. But that we cannot pretend to: therefore our sincere obedience shall be accepted through a Mediator, to denominate us (as Noah was righteous before God."-Henry in loc. 2 1. By the works of the law, [when it is opposed to Christ, or abstracted from the promise] shall no flesh living be justified [at any time.] Gal, ii. 16. 1. When you have done all that is com. manded you, say, We are unprofitable servants, Luke xvii. 10. If I am not mistaken, the balance of these Scriptures shows, that, although we are not under the moral law without Christ, yet we are under it to Christ, both as a rule of life, and a rule of judgment: Or, to speak more plainly, although we shall not be judged by the law of innocence, i. e. the moral law abstracted from gospel-promises, yet we shall 2. In the day of judgment,-by thy words thou shalt be justified.-The doers of the law [of liberty-the law connected with the gospel promises] shall be justified, Matt. xii, 37, Rom. ii. 13. 2. Cast the unprofitable servant into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, Matt. xxv. 30. be judged by the law of liberty, i. e. the moral law connected with the promise of the gospel; an evangelical law this, under which the merciful God, for Christ's sake, put mankind in our first parents, when he graciously promised them the Seed of the woman, the atoning Mediator, the Royal Priest after the order of Melchisedec. SECTION VIII. Shewing what is God's work, and what is our own; how Christ saves us, and how we work out our own Salvation. SECOND SCALE. Containing the Weights of Free-will. 2. Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light, Eph. v. 14. 2. Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, &c. ye have no life in you, John vi. 53. 2. Ye will not come unto me, that ye might have life, John v. 40. 2. Thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead &c. Strengthen the things that remain, that are ready to die, Rev. iii. 1, 2. 2. Every one that loveth-every one that does righteousness is born of God, 1 John iv. 7.-ii. 29. 2. Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you.--For God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble, 1 Pet. v. 5, 6. 2. Wherefore, &c, lay apart all filthiness, &c, † receive &c, the engrafted word, James i. 19, 21.-Whosoever believeth, &c, is born of God according to his dispensation,] 1John v. 1. As many as received him to them, [af his own gracious will] gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name, John i. 12.-For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.-Faith cometh by hearing [which is How mistaken were the divines that composed the Synod of Dort, when speaking of Regeneration, they said, without any distinction [Illam Deus in nobis fine nobis operatur]" God works it in us without us." Just as if God believed in us without us! Just as if we received the word without our receiving it. Just as if the sower and the sun produced corn without the field that bears it! What led them into this mistake was, no doubt, a commendable desire to maintain the honour of free-grace. However, if by regeneration they meant the first communication of that fructifying saving grace which has appeared to all men,"-the first visit, or the first implanting of that light which enlightens every man that cometh into the world," they spoke a precious truth.For God bestows this free-gift upon us, absolutely without us:" Nor could we ever do what he requires of us in the scale of free will, if he had not first given us a talent of grace, and if he did not continually help us to use it aright, when we have a good will, 1. Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us. 1 Cor. v. 7. 1. The blood of Christ cleanseth us from all sin, 1 John i. 7. 1. By one offering he hath perfected for ever [in atoning merits] them that are sanctified, Heb. x. 14. 1. He by himself purged our sins:-Of the people there was none with him, Heb. i. 3. Isa. Ixiii. 3. [Here the incommunicable glory of making a proper atonement for sin, is secured to our Lord.] 1. He put away sin, by the sacrifice of himself, Heb. ix. 26. 1. Ye are sinctified, &c, in the rame of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God, 1 Cor. vi. 11. 1. Surely, one shall say, in [or through] the Lord have I righteousness and strength, Is. xlv, 24. 1. I will make mention of thy righteousness even of thine only, &c. My mouth shall shew forth thy righteousness, and thy salvation all the day, Ps. lxxi. 15, 16. 1. My righteousness is near, my salvation is gone forth, Isa. li. 5. 1. I bring near my righteousness, it shall not be far off; and my salvation shall not tarry, Isa. xlvi. 13. in our work,] Gal. iii. 26. Rom. x. 17.-The Bereans] received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the Scriptures daily whether those things were so; therefore many of them believed; [i. e received the engrafted word, and by that means were born again according to the Christian dispensation.] Acts xvii. 11, 12. 2. Purge out the old leaven [of wickedness] that ye may be a new lump. Ibid. 2. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double-minded, James iv. 8. 1. Let us go on unto Perfection.-This one thing I do, &c, I press towards the mark, Heb. vi. 1. Phil. iii, 13, 14. 2. Ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth.-Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocency. [The word in vain refers only to a temptation of David, when he saw the prosperity of the wicked.] 1 Pet. i. 22. Ps. Ixxiii. 13. 2. Put away the evil of your doing from before mine eyes, Is. i. 16. 2. If a man purge himself from these he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified and meet for the master's use, 2 Tim. ii. 21. 2. In every nation he that worketh righteousness is accepted of him, Acts. x. 35. 2. Then [when thou dealest thy bread to the hungry, bringest the poor to thy house, &c.] Then shall thy righteousness go before thee and the glory of the Lord shall be thy rereward, Is. lviii. 8. 2. Whosoever does not righteousness is not of God, 1 John iii. 10. 2. The Lord rewarded me [David] according to my righteousness, according to the cleanness of my hands, 2 Sam. xxii. 21. 1. God sent his Son Jesus to bless you, 2. I thought on my ways, and turned my turning, &c. you from your iniquities, Acts feet unto thy testimonies. I made haste, and iii. 26. 1. Him [Christ] hath God exalted to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins, Acts v. 31. 1. Be it known unto you, that through this man [Christ] is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins, Acts x ii. 38. 1. Not by works of righteousness, which we have done; but of his mercy he saved us, Tit. iii. 5. 1. And this is the name whereby he shall be called, The Lord our Righteousness, Jer. xxxiii. 16. 1. Them that have obtained like precious faith with us, through the righteousness of God, and our Saviour Jesus Christ, 2 Peter i. 1. 1. Christ is made unto us of God, &c, righteousness, I Cor. i. 30. 1. Even for mine own sake will I do it, Isa. xlviii. 11. delayed not to keep thy commandments, Ps. cxix. 59, 60. 2. Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, Acts iii. 19. 2. Arise; Why tarriest thou? Wash away thy sins; calling upon the name of the Lord, Acts xxii. 16. 2. Except your righteousness exceed the righteousness of the scribes, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven, Matt. v. 20. 2. He that does righteousness is righteous, even as he [Christ] is righteous, 1 John iii. 7. 2. Though Noah, Daniel, and Job were in it, [the place about to be destroyed] they should deliver but their own souls by their righteousness, Ez. xiv. 14. 2. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, Ez. xviii. 20. 2. I will for this be enquired of, &c, to do it for them, Ez. xxxvi. 37. |